Palazzo Gambacorti

This guide to Palazzo Gambacorti in Pisa starts with one shield easy to miss among dozens lining the marriage hall: the crest of the Gambacorti family, who ruled Pisa from this building for twenty-three years under Pietro Gambacorti. It introduces Jacopo Appiani, the protege Pietro trusted above all others, backed quietly by the Visconti of Milan. The guide follows what happened here on the twenty-first of October, thirteen ninety-two, when that trust was tested inside Pietro's own house. Look along the wall of the Sala degli Stemmi for the shields of every ruler who came after him, still hanging beside his.