Historical figure Bertrando de' Rossi

Born in: 1336  - Died in: 1396
Bertrando de 'Rossi, in Latin Rubeis; son of Bertrando Rossi, sometimes distinguished from his father by calling him Bertrando di Bertrando Rossi, he was an Italian nobleman and diplomat of the Rossi di Parma family.

Bertrando and his cousin Rolando exerted leadership over the family, especially after the two daughters of Ugolino Rossi (last exponent of the branch descending from Ugolino of the Rossi family) and Alessia di Buonaccorso Ruggeri, Caracosa and Eleonora, married Giacomo and Bertrando di Bertrando, belonging to the other branch of the Rossi family, and after his death in 1337 of Ugolino, great-uncle of Bertrando and bishop of Parma. Felino belonged to Bertrando while San Secondo di Rolando. Rolando died without male descendants in 1389, leaving property and rights to his cousin Bertrando.

The Rossiana book collection commissions with Bertrando, which is due to the two book-books of hours and the codes of classic subject made by one of the most prestigious Parisian shops, also active for Gian Galeazzo, the atelier of the Ravanelle Master. In the two book-books of hours Bertrando will be portrayed in two different ways: in one version he is shown in red (color of his house), with jewels and court dresses, kneeling, in profile, alone in front of the Virgin, while in the other it is a little more "sober", without jewels and accompanied by saints, in front of the Madonna; in the miniature on the book of hours conserved at the Bibliothéque Nationale de France we find also the Visconti race. The son Pietro (1373-1438), perhaps due to the continuous vicissitudes of arms in which he participates, will worry less about the commission of manuscripts: a book of hours known with the name of Smith Losouëf 22 is left unfinished and some codes ordered by his father they are not sent to Parma, thus ending up in various European libraries. Followed in the footsteps of Bertrando the nephew Pietro Maria, son of Peter, who will complete the Smith Losouëf 22 after 1468 by inserting a miniature very similar to that of his grandfather with his wife, Bianca Pellegrini.

Bertrando died in 1396 leaving the accumulated assets and rights (his originals, those of the Ugolino branch and those of his cousin Rolando who disappeared shortly before) to his three legitimate sons, Giacomo (or Jacopo), Pietro and Giovanni; Giovanni died shortly after, in 1402, Giacomo, as we have seen, had embarked on an ecclesiastical career, and then the family assets were confiscated by Peter and later by his son Pietro Maria; in this way it was possible to concentrate the family patrimony in one person again. Bertrando was buried, as desired in his will, in the Rossi chapel inside the church of the Franciscan Order of San Francesco del Prato in Parma; the chapel belonged to the family since 1377. The order however sued the Rossi family in 1422 because Peter refused to pay the 32 florins for prayers in honor of his father. On his epitaph it is read "noverunt Itali, novit bona Parma tropheis plena suis".
After the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and the division between his sons of the Visconti territory, the Rossi family was distant from that of the Visconti family; on November 7, 1425, however, Filippo Maria Visconti issued a patent letter with which he returned to Pietro all the immunities, jurisdictions and exemptions his family had enjoyed in the time of Gian Galeazzo; this document differs from others similar for its solemnity, the continuous references to Bertrando and Gian Galeazzo and the desire to sanction the restoration of an ancient and fruitful relationship of collaboration.

Bertrando de' Rossi Visited places

Rocca dei Rossi di San Secondo

 Piazza Mazzini, 10 - 43017 San Secondo Parmense - Parma
Castle/Fortress/Tower

First medieval fortress, then a magnificent noble residence, the Rocca de 'Rossi hosted one of the most famous families of Parma, the Rossi, who during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was the... see

Offered services

Museum / Monument

Time period
Middle Ages

Where
Italy, Parma