Caetani

Caetani, or Gaetani, is the name of an Italian noble family which played a great part in the history of Pisa and of Rome, principally via their close links to the papacy.

Origins

The Caetani, or Gaetani family has Roman and Gothic origins. According to family tradition they were descendants of the Dukes of Gaeta, and traced their maternal ancestry to the Roman gens Anicia through the Counts of Tusculum. The founder of the house was Marinus I, Duke of Fondi, son of Docibilis II of Gaeta, from which the family gets its name. His successor was Constantine, who took the name Cagetanus and ruled in the latter half of the 10th century. In the late eleventh century, a descendant of his, Crescentius, was duke. This Crescentius was the father of two illustrious people: his successor, Marinus, and his son John (called Gaetanus or Coniulo) from Pisa, who was Pope Gelasius II. Marinus was succeeded by his son Crescentius, who defended his uncle the pope resolutely from imperialist attacks.

Nevertheless, the family had no more great importance in Rome until the election of Benedetto Caetani to the papacy as Pope Boniface VIII in 1294, when they at once became the most notable in the city. The pope conferred on them the fiefs of Sermoneta, Bassiano, Ninfa and San Donato (1297, 300), and the marquisate of Ancona in 1300, while Charles II of Anjou created the pope's brother count of Caserta.