| has gloss | eng: The Carraresi (or da Carrara) were an important family of northern Italy in the period 12th-15th centuries. As signori of Padua, their overwhelming power and patronage placed them in an isolated position far outshining any other single family. Their extensive land holdings in the Paduan contado were supplemented by extensive property within the comune itself, and their political prominence made them comparable to the Scaligeri of contemporary Verona, or the Visconti of Milan. Margaret Plant has examined how "in its period of domination in Padua from 1337 to 1405 the house of Carrara sustained a singular chapter in the history of patronage". Francesco il Vecchio, son of Giacomo, a close friend of Petrarch in his early years, was a noted patron of Petrarch himself and commissioned frescoes (destroyed) illustrating Petrarchs De viris illustribus in the palazzo, ca 1367-79, employing Guariento and others; Petrarchs retirement years were spent at Arquà, a Carrara fief, and he bequeathed to Francesco his picture of the Virgin by Giotto. |