CHIGI

Let us now consider the extremely prominent Chigi family. The family’s hereditary home was Siena and they were primarily bankers and merchants. The visuals attached to the family are six mounds piled up in a pyramidal shape and crowned by a multi-pointed star. The Chigi mountain made up of six mounds can be found on every major building project in Siena and its environs.  

Agostino Chigi, ‘Il Magnifico,’ a wealthy banker established himself in Rome by building a private family villa — the Villa Farnesina (1508–1511). Interestingly, one does not find the family stemma displayed on the exterior, but on the interior the coffered and painted ceilings show off the Chigi mounds and multi-pointed star. Because Agostino Chigi was not a cardinal nor a pope, one does not find his branch of the family with the tassels of a cardinal nor the mitered hat and keys of a pope. The miter and the keys come in the 17th century with Fabio Chigi, a descendant of Agostino Chigi, being elected as Pope Alessandro VII Chigi in 1655. It is here, however, that the coded language gets mildly complicated. With his elevation to Pope, the family stemma of six mounds and a star has changed its coding and the family seal appears not only with the six mounds and star, but it is quartered with the oak tree of the della Rovere family, a family of cardinals and popes.