Gran Tavola of Siena collapses

1314

The Bonsignori company, Siena's greatest bank and once the pope's principal financier, failed after overextension in royal loans across Europe. Siena's financial primacy passed to Florentine houses - the Bardi, Peruzzi, and Acciaiuoli - who had learned from Sienese mistakes but would repeat them. The Bonsignori failure was an early case of a theme that would recur: kings' wars destroying the banks that funded them.