took part in the fights between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines and subsequently between the White and Black Guelphs; they were with the "White" faction and were opposed to the transformations which led to the birth of the Signoria. Some of the leading figures of the family during that period include: Gherarduccio Gherardini (whose tombstone in the Church of Sant'Appiano is the oldest knightly tomb in Tuscany), Noldo Gherardini, Cece Gherardini, Vanne and Bernardino Gherardini, Lotteringo Gherardini, Cione Gherardini known as "il Pelliccia" and Andrea Gherardini "lo Scacciaguelfi" (the Shoo Away the Guelphs). This era of war between the factions supporting the Pope and the ones supporting the Holy Roman Emperor was later immortalized in Florentine Histories, a book written by Niccolò Machiavelli and commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, later known as Pope Clement VII, of the House of Medici, in which the Gherardinis are featured on many occasions. More recent university studies have confirmed both the central role played by this family in Florence's medieval history and its members' reputation as inflexible as shown by the statistics on penalties and sentences which afflicted some families in that period. According to Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, a French historian, the Gherardinis from Montagliari were "instigators of disorders", "with little desire to participate in public life". They were also a "bellicose and rude" family. This deeply independent character must have been at the basis of the family's decision not to abide by the new rules of the rising Commune of Florence such as the Ordinances of Justice of 1296 which aimed at forcing aristocracy to give up their names of origin and privileges. Unless they did so, there were very high taxes and penalties for them. Their opposition explains the passion with which Florence fought them, destroying, where possible, their assets. Civil War and Exile Following many years of civil war, the Gherardinis were exiled in 1302 because they were accused of having forged an alliance with the neighbouring city of Siena. According to historians (and contemporaries of the time), the accusation was based on false documents and invented by Cante Gabrielli, the Podestà, to stamp out this family and its allies once and for all. Following this accusation, Florence attacked the Gherardinis. The land they owned or controlled went from the first sighting centres near the southern walls of Florence, and from Marignolle up to Impruneta. It then went on up to