Schicchi (died February 1280) was a medieval knight of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

in the thirteenth century. His life, including his crime of fraud by being a talented imposter, is detailed by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

in the '' Inferno'', which inspired a

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

and a later play. Dante's depiction of Schicchi's eternal punishment with insanity in hell inspired a painting by

Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

Dante's portrayal

There is not much historical information about him, but taking

's reference to him as a starting point, commentators have portrayed a biography of him that largely follows the passage of the '' Inferno'' – (Canto trentesimo, vv. 32-33 and 42-45). In the

forger Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdict ...

's edict, he is condemned for "personal falsification", that is for having cheated others by taking the place of .

Other views

The question widely debated by the

glossators The scholars of the 11th- and 12th-century legal schools in Italy, France and Germany are identified as glossators in a specific sense. They studied Roman law based on the ''Digest (Roman law), Digesta'', the ''Codex Justinianus, Codex'' of Justin ...

, albeit with some differences but substantially the same, is that this Schicchi was famous for the imitations of people and that when the rich widower and childless Buoso died, he, at the request of his friend Simone Donati, Buoso's nephew, sneaked into the bed of the deceased shortly after his death and called a notary and dictated a will in favor of Simone, which was promptly ratified. For himself, it seems that he was entitled only one

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equidae, equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more th ...

(quoted by Dante) which is an indication of the burlesque and ''novella'' character of what happened.

Works inspired by Schicchi

* Gianni Schicchi is depicted fighting Capocchio in William Bougereau's painting ''

Dante and Virgil ''Dante and Virgil in Hell'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, from 1850. It is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting depicts a scene from Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', which narrates a ...

''. * Starting from this story, and with much lighter and more pleasant stylistic characters,

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

composed the comic opera ''

Gianni Schicchi () is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. The work is the third and final part of Puccin ...

'', performed in 1918. Another famous play is the comedy ''Gianni Schicchi'' by Gildo Passini, which made its successful debut in Milan in 1922 at the Olympia theatre, staged by the Compagnia Talli-Melato-Betrone.

Bibliography

* , ''Inferno'', Rizzoli editions 2001. *

Umberto Bosco Umberto Bosco (2 October 1900, in Catanzaro – 24 March 1987, in Rome) was an Italian literary historian and literary critic. A graduate of the Sapienza University of Rome, he served as editor-in-chief of the '' Treccani encyclopaedia'', and was ...

and Giovanni Reggio, ''La Divina Commedia – Inferno'', Le Monnier 1988. * Fabrizio Scheggi, ''Il Mugello nel libro di Montaperti'', Borgo San Lorenzo 2016,

References

External links

Gianni Schicchi
{{Divine Comedy navbox Medieval Italian knights Italian male criminals Forgers Characters in the Divine Comedy 13th-century Italian people