Bonaparte, Or Buonaparte, the name of the family which has given to modern France its imperial dynasty. Its early origin is obscure. The name occurs in Corsica as early as the middle of the 10th century, being that of a messire who figured as witness to a public document. It disappears, however, in that island, not to reappear until the 16th century. In the mediaeval history of Italy a number of Bonapartes are mentioned, but criticism has as yet failed fully to establish or to disprove the pretended connections between their families. We find Bonapartes at Treviso, Florence, Parma, Padua, Ascoli, Bologna, San Miniato, and Sarzana, many of them noblemen of note and ability. A Trevigian Bonaparte, Giovanni, who held a command in the army of the Lombard league against the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, is designated as consul et rector. Those of Florence were originally Ghibellines, but subsequently espoused the popular cause. A Nicold Bonaparte served as papal envoy to various courts about the middle of-the 15th century.

Jacopo Bonaparte, of Tuscany, is the reputed author of a history of the sack of Rome by the army of the constable de Bourbon (Ragguaglio storico di tutto Voccorso, giorno per giorno, net sacco di Roma del anno 1527), of which a French translation by the ex-king Louis of Holland was published at Florence in 1830. The modern Corsican Bonapartes seem to be chiefly connected with those of Sarzana. They figure among the patricians of Ajaccio in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the middle of the 18th, three male members of that branch were living, one of whom, Carlo, became the father of the founder of the French imperial dynasty, sketches of all the historical members of which are given in the following notices - first of the father and mother of Napoleon, with their daughters, then of their sons in alphabetical order, each followed by the noteworthy members of his family.