Piccarda Donati (
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 ...
, mid-thirteenth century – Florence, end of the thirteenth century) was a medieval noblewoman and a religious woman from
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 ...
,
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 ...
. She appears as a character in
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: '' ...
's ''
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 ...
''.
Biography
![Raffaello Sorbi - Piccarda Donati fatta rapire dal convento di Santa Chiara dal fratello Corso](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Raffaello_Sorbi_-_Piccarda_Donati_fatta_rapire_dal_convento_di_Santa_Chiara_dal_fratello_Corso.jpg)
Piccarda was born into the
Donati family, the prominent Florentine family leading the
Black Guelph faction. She was the sister of
Corso Donati Corso Donati was a leader of the Black Guelph faction in 13th- and early 14th- century Florence.
Bologna and Pistoia
In the late thirteenth century, power in Florence and the other Tuscan cities was divided between the Podestà, an outsider who se ...
, leader of the Black Guelphs, and
Forese Donati Forese Donati was an Italian nobleman born in Florence, associated with the Guelphs. He was the son of Simone di Forese and Tessa, and the brother of Corso and Piccarda Donati.Cellerino, L. (1992). Donati, Forese In "Dizionario Biografico". Retrie ...
, known for his friendship with Dante. It is also likely that Dante and Piccarda knew each other well.
At a young age, Piccarda fled her home in order to become a nun. She joined the
Order of Saint Clare
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...
(also known as the "Poor Clares") in the convent of Santa Maria di Monticelli, located in the vicinities of Florence.
About a year later, Piccarda was forcibly removed from the monastery by Corso Donati, who forced her to marry
Rossellino della Tosa for political interests, namely, to strengthen the alliance of the Donati with the
Della Tosa family.
Some sources claim that she died of a sudden illness akin to
leprosy
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...
before the consummation of her marriage, but this claim is now widely considered to be a legend.
In Dante's ''Divine Comedy''
''Purgatorio''
![Philipp Veit 004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Philipp_Veit_004.jpg)
In Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', we first learn about Piccarda during Dante's encounter with her brother, Forese Donati in ''
Purgatorio
''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the '' Inferno'' and preceding the '' Paradiso''. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of D ...
'' 23. Here, Dante asks Forese in what realm of the Christian afterlife Piccarda can be found, and Forese promptly replies that Piccarda is in
Heaven. In this exchange, both characters praise Piccarda as a paragon of beauty and virtue.
''Paradiso''
Piccarda is the first character Dante encounters in
Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...
together with
Constance of Hauteville, the mother of Emperor
Frederick II, who was believed to have been similarly forced out of a convent to marry Emperor
Henry VI of Hohenstaufen. This encounter takes place in ''
Paradiso'' 3, in the Heaven of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, the lowest sphere of Heaven that houses souls that were inconstant and not firm in their vocation. Here, Piccarda explains to Dante that her placement is due to "vows neglected and, in part, no longer valid." In her acquiescence to Corso's wishes for her to marry, though forced, Piccarda is shown as having neglected her
vows to God.
Through Dante's encounter with Piccarda, readers of ''Paradiso'' first begin to learn about the nature of Heaven. For example, we learn that
souls
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
in Heaven become much more beautiful than they were on Earth; in fact, it takes Dante a while to actually recognize Piccarda as the woman he knew. In higher spheres, souls become so beautiful they cease to resemble their earthly selves. Piccarda is the only person Dante will recognize, unaided, in Heaven.
Dante asks Piccarda if she does not long to be placed higher in Heaven. Her answer (she does not wish to be higher) highlights another important point: according to Piccarda, blessed souls long only for what they have, and so their wills are entirely in agreement with that of God. If they desired to be higher in heaven, then their wish would differ from God's will, which is an impossibility. Though they know there are others in higher spheres of Heaven, they rejoice in their placement.
Interpretations of Dante's Piccarda
As with other prominent female characters in the ''Divine Comedy'' such as
Francesca da Rimini and
Pia de' Tolomei, Piccarda is a woman whose life, freedom, and personal choices were affected by the political interests of their close family members, whether by kin or marriage. Piccarda's life and placement in Paradise plays an important role when discussing freedom, specifically in the context of civic versus spiritual responsibility.
This is best displayed by
Beatrice's explanation which essentially states that when force or forceful actions affects a person's physical body, it also affects their will by extension.
When asked by Dante about the logic behind Piccarda's lesser state of beatitude, Beatrice makes a distinction between "absolute will" and "contaminated will."
Piccarda is an example of absolute will. Her will to keep her vow to God was so intense that it can be described as an "innermost will". This means that, internally, she remained pure. Another way to look at Piccarda's representation in ''Paradiso'' is that her vow was transferred from her head to her heart, thus actually preserving its purity. According to Dante, she serves as a case study to illustrate the strength it takes to ensure that a person's will is not contaminated by outside interferences and the importance of choosing God above all.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Donati, Piccarda
Year of birth missing
Year of death unknown
Characters in the Divine Comedy
13th-century people of the Republic of Florence
Donati
13th-century Italian women