Simone Boccanegra

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For the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, see Simon Boccanegra.

Simone Boccanegra (died 1363) was the first of the doges of Genoa. His name was popularized by Giuseppe Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra.

Elected in September 24, 1339, as doge for life, the candidate of the "popular" Ghibelline faction, Boccanegra was opposed by the aristocratic Guelf faction of the old mercantile patriciate, which his first actions excluded from public life. With the old patriciate excluded from control, a new class of mercantile houses began their rise from this revolutionary turn of events: Adorno, Guarco, Fregoso, Montaldo [1].

During his dogate, Genoese control was extended the length of both Rivieras, with the exception of the Grimaldi holdings in Monaco and Ventimiglia, and Genoese galleys went to the aid of Alfonso XI of Castile in his struggles against the Saracens.

The constant conspiracies and attempts against his life from the outset— the first conspirator's head rolled December 20— led to the assignment of a bodyguard of 103 mounted guards, which, for Boccanegra's security were drawn from Pisa, the inveterate enemy of Genoa,, where, however, Simon's brother Niccolò was 'captain of the people", their mother having been a Pisan aristocrat.

Simon Boccanegra was driven to lay down his regalia at a public meeting he had called, December 23, 1344. In his absence, Giovanni Valente took the chief magistrate's position, until Boccanegra returned to resume power in 1356. He was fatally poisoned in 1363.

Two letters written by Petrarch to Simon Boccanegra, and to the doge of Venice, in which the humanist appealed to them to end their fratricidal wars and find a common aim, were among Verdi's inspirations for his opera.

Simon Boccanegra's funeral sculpture, sculpted as if lying in state with extraordinary realism in his features, from his tomb in the church of San Francesco in Castelletto, is now in the museum of Sant'Agostino [2].