Gualdrada Berti dei Ravignani (
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, c. 1168 -
Poppi
Poppi () is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about east of Florence and about northwest of Arezzo.
Poppi borders the following municipalities: Bibbiena, Castel Focognano, Castel San N ...
, 1226) was a member of the
Ghibelline
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...
nobility of twelfth-century Florence,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. A descendant of the
Ravignani family and daughter of the powerful
Bellincione Berti, Gualdrada later married into the
Conti Guido family. Her character as a pure and virtuous Florentine woman is called upon by many late medieval Italian authors, including
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
,
Giovanni Boccaccio, and
Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani (; 1276 or 1280 – 1348)Bartlett (1992), 35. was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the ''Nuova Cronica'' (''New Chronicles'') on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of ...
.
Biography
Gualdrada was born around 1168 in Florence, Italy.
Her father, Bellincion Berti, was the powerful
Ghibelline
The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...
head of the Ravingnani family.
Around 1180, Gualdrada became the second wife of Count
Guido Guerra III "il Vecchio," an important general of the
Guelph
Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...
party (the rival political party to her father's). This marriage was politically advantageous for Florence, as it stopped the ongoing hostile relationship between the Conti Guido family and the city.
Gualdrada continued to work as a mediator between the Conti Guido and Florence, with records showing her acting as a head of her family to free a monastery owned by the Guidi from an armed Florentine threat.
The four of her sons that lived into adulthood established the four branches in which the Conti Guido family split.
["Ravignani, Gualdrada dei in "Enciclopedia Dantesca"". ''www.treccani.it'' (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-03-30.] Gualdrada lived longer than her husband and died in 1226 in the
Poppi Castle, a medieval castle in Poppi, Tuscany, which was owned by one of her sons.
A Symbol of Virtue
Gualdrada's status as a famous Florentine woman and symbol of virtue was cemented by an episode first recounted in ''
Nuova Cronica
The ''Nuova Cronica'' (also: ''Nova Cronica'') or '' New Chronicles'' is a 14th-century history of Florence created in a year-by-year linear format and written by the Italian banker and official Giovanni Villani (c. 1276 or 1280–1348). T ...
'' by mid-fourteenth-century Florentine historian
Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani (; 1276 or 1280 – 1348)Bartlett (1992), 35. was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the ''Nuova Cronica'' (''New Chronicles'') on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of ...
. The historical reliability of this story, however, has been contested by scholars, as it is said to take place in 1209, a time where there is evidence of Gualdrada's sons already being adults.
Despite these inconsistencies, Gualdrada's legacy as a symbol of virtue is heavily entwined with this story reported by Villani.
In this role, Gualdrada is one of four women of her time to be written about in
Giovanni Boccaccio's ''
De mulieribus claris
''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...
(On Famous Women)'', a collection of biographies of notable women ranging from the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
and
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
to Boccaccio's contemporaries. In his biography of Gualdrada, Boccaccio calls upon Villani's episode: during a festival in a Florentine cathedral, the
Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV spotted Gualdrada from his seat and was impressed with her beauty. He admired her youthful innocence, the way she dressed, and her personality. He asked who she was to the man beside him, describing her as having a "beautiful face that ... surpasses all the others in dignity." The emperor did not know that the man he was asking coincidentally was Gualdrada's father, Bellincione Berti. He responded to the emperor stating that if he wished, he could get Gualdrada to kiss him. Gualdrada overheard this exchange and bravely objected, stating that "no living man would ever kiss her except her husband," solidifying her character as one of womanly virtue and purity.
The emperor was both stunned and impressed by Gualdrada's response. Learning that he was speaking to her father, he praised her in an eloquent speech addressed to everyone present and celebrated her virtue. As he was leaving the festival, he summoned one of his barons, called Guido, and promoted him to a count. He then presented to Gualdrada a large dowry consisting of
Casentino and a part of the territory of
Romagna. Gualdrada was then given to Guido in marriage.
Although this specific event most likely did not happen, Gualdrada was still married to Count Guido and was still a Florentine figure worthy of admiration for her mediation between the Conti Guido family and Florence.
In the sixteenth century, a room in
Palazzo Vecchio of Florence was dedicated to Gualdrada as a personification of virtue.
The so-called Room of Gualdrada (''Sala di Gualdrada'') was located in the quarters of
Eleanor of Toledo
Eleanor of Toledo (Italian: ''Eleonora di Toledo'', 11 January 1522 – 17 December 1562), born Doña Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, was a Spanish noblewoman and Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen businessw ...
, wife of
Cosimo I de' Medici
Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death.
Life
Rise to power
Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...
, and it features a painted ceiling of the episode recounted by Villani and Boccaccio painted by the Flemish artist
Stradanus
Stradanus, Johannes Stradanus, Jan van der Straet or Giovanni StradanoMore name variations: Johannes Stradanus, Giovanni della Strada, Johannes della Strada, Giovanni Stradano, Johannes Stradano, Giovanni Stradanus, Johannes Stradanus, Jan van St ...
, also known as Giovanni Stradano, surrounded by detailed scenes of sixteenth-century Florence and allegories of virtue.
In Dante's ''Divine Comedy''
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
mentions Gualdrada in his ''
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...
''. Her name appears in Canto XVI, line 37 of
''Inferno'', when Dante meets the Florentine man,
Guido Guerra V, in the ring of the Seventh Circle of
Hell reserved for the sodomites. Dante describes Guerra as the "grandson of the good Gualdrada," giving him the honor of coming from an admirable family and using Gualdrada's image of a virtuous and good woman to do so.
Dante himself was not only a Florentine, but a (White) Guelph, so the marriage between Gualdrada, a member of a notable Ghibelline clan, to Guido Guerra III, a Guelph leader, which ended hostilities between the two factions in the city of Florence, is an event that would be understandably important to him and worthy of praise and admiration.
[MANDELBAUM, ALLEN, et al., editors. ''Lectura Dantis: Inferno: A Canto-by-Canto Commentary''. 1st ed., University of California Press, 1998. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp55s. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.] This is especially likely since Dante started writing ''Inferno'' soon after he had been exiled from Florence for his political alignment as a White Guelph.
Dante's respect for Gualdrada extends beyond her to her family as well. Her father, Bellincion Berti, is mentioned in Canto XV, lines 112-113 and Canto XVI, line 99 of
''Paradiso'' XV as a model citizen and a symbol of the virtue of old Florence.
[Dante, Alighieri, Robert Hollander, and Jean Hollander. ''Paradiso''. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Print.]
References
{{Divine Comedy navbox
12th-century Italian women
12th-century Italian nobility
13th-century Italian women
Virtue ethics
Florence in fiction
Characters in the Divine Comedy
1160s births
1226 deaths
Year of birth uncertain