Simone Boccanegra

The first doge of Genoa. A merchant elected by the common people in 1339, he barred the Guelphs from public office and the aristocracy from the dogate. For this he was opposed by the aristocracy and exiled in 1344. He regained power in 1356 but was poisoned seven years later.

For the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, see Simon Boccanegra.

Simone Boccanegra (died 1363) was the first of the doges of Genoa.

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.

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.

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 .