A Gonfaloniere is a government post in medieval and renaissance Florence. He is one of the nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months, which forms the government, the Signoria. He is the temporary standard-bearer of the Republic of Florence and custodian of the city's banner. To distinguish him from his other eight colleagues, his crimson coat, lined with ermine, is further embroidered with golden stars.
The Tre Maggiori, the highest executive offices of the Florentine Republic, consisted of the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia and Priors (assisted by a notary) and two advisory councils: the Buonuomini and the Gonfalonieri di Compagnia.
A seventh prior appeared as the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia ("vexillifer justitiae"--"Standard-bearer of Justice") who was to execute judicial sentences pronounced by the Podestà (the chief judicial official--always a foreigner) and to assume leadership of the guild militia.
Selection of the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia rotated by quarter in successive elections and the quarter of the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia determined the quarter from which the two priors from the Arti Minori were selected.
The Gonfaloniere was a highly prestigious communal post in medieval and Renaissance Italy, notably in Florence.
In Florence, he was one of the nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months, who form the government, the Signoria.
A century later, when Artemisia Gentileschi painted a portrait of Pietro Gentile as a gonfaloniere of Bologna in 1622, with the gonfalon in the background, the appointment was a shadow formality.
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