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= Guido Cavalcanti = Cavalcanti was the son of Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph whom Dante condemns to torment in the sixth circle of his Inferno, where the heretics are punished. Unlike Dante, Guido was an atheist. As Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron, VI, 9) wrote during the generation after Cavalcanti's death, "Si diceva tralla gente volgare che queste sue speculazioni erano solo in cercare se trovar si potesse che Iddio non-fosse" (People commonly said his speculations were only in trying to find that God did not exist).

During his lifetime, Florence was politically torn by the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. Although the struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had originally arisen with the Investiture Conflict of the 11th century, it was subsequently fed by a desire of either the Papacy or Holy Roman Emperor either to share in or to control the economic boom that was taking place in the leading cities of northern Italy during this time.

The division between Guelphs and Ghibellines was especially important in Florence, although the two sides frequently rebelled against each other and took power in many of the other northern Italian cities as well. Essentially the two sides were now fighting either against German influence (in the case of the Guelphs), or against the temporal power of the Pope (in the case of the Ghibellines). In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers, while the Ghibellines tended to be noblemen.

Towards the end of the 13th century, the Guelphs had secured their control of Florence through their multiple victories over the Ghibellines, including the battle at Benevento in 1266, and at Campaldino and Caprona in 1289. In 1267, as part of a political reconciliation, Guido married Beatrice, the daughter of Ghibelline party leader Farinata degli Uberti. Their marriage union proved unsuccessful, as the feuds between Guelph and Ghibelline families persisted.

By 1293, a rebellion of middle-class Florentine merchants toppled both sides of noble families. Nobles were then forbidden to claim public office, until 1295, when they were offered eligibility to join Florence's guilds. As a member of the Cavalcanti family, Guido had claimed ancestry dating back to the German barons of Charlemagne's court. He refused to occupy a position as a merchant, as he felt it offensive to his station and his heritage.

By this time, the Guelphs began to fight among themselves. Guido Cavalcanti allied himself to the Cerchi, and outwardly expressed his disdain for his rival, Corso Donati. In 1300, Florence was divided into the Black Guelphs and the White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal influence.

In June 1300, the Florentines had become tired of brawling between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. A counsel of judges, Dante Alighieri amongst them, exiled the leaders of both factions and their accomplices, including Cavalcanti. He was sent to Sarzana, where, after only a few months he decided to try to return to Florence. Guido Cavalcanti died of fever (probably malaria) in August of the same year on his journey home.

Guido's marriage to Beatrice degli Uberti should not be seen in the context of modern relationships where people marry each other for love, but rather in the context of his own age, when marriage was often motivated by business and/or political interests. As such, Guido's poetry, which dwells on love, should be seen as a philosophical exploration of love and not as that of a husband bound into and seeking satisfaction outside a marriage made for political purposes.

Mentions in Dante's Divine Comedy

Guido Cavalcanti indirectly appears twice in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The first occurs in Inferno X, where Dante encounters the souls of heretics. They are condemned in the sixth circle of Hell, trapped inside burning tombs. Guido’s father, Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, is among these heretics, and proceeds to ask Dante about his son. Dante refers to Guido in the past tense, thus leading Cavalcante to believe that Guido is dead. Dante, later feeling guilty, asks Farinata degli Uberti, another heretic, to inform Cavalcante that Guido remains alive.

Guido’s name arrives once more in Purgatory XI, mentioned by Oderisi da Gubbio to Dante on the terrace of pride. The former employs the fame of Guido Guinizelli, soon overpowered by that of Guido Cavalcanti, to justify the fleeting nature of fame in their larger discussion of vanity. Through Oderisi’s words, Dante further asserts himself, as a poet, to be the next in line, replacing Guido in terms of public interest.

·It has been suggested that Guido Cavalcanti’s presence in Dante’s Divine Comedy permeates further than Dante’s two mentions of him by name. His cynical beliefs towards the subject of desire, demonstrated in Donna me prega with images of wrath and death, have been proposed as inspiration for Dante’s contrapasso observed in Inferno V, where the carnal sinners are tossed uncontrollably by the winds of a never-ending storm. The difference between the two literary works, in their contexts, is in their treatment of love, since Guido believed that all love led to a loss of rationale. Dante, opposed to this belief, used Guido's definition for a perverted love instead, within the circle of lust.

= Cunizza da Romano (notes) =

Source: https://ladivinecomedie.com/la-divine-comedie/index/cunizza-da-romano

 * Cunizza born around 1198 into a Germanic family, aka recent settlers in Italy (around the turn of the 10th to 11th century).
 * Youngest daughter of the Ghibelline Ezzelino II da Romano il Monaco (the Monk).
 * Mother was Adelaide di Mangona, of the Tuscan Alberti di Mangona family. Adelaide was Ezzelino II’s third wife.
 * 1222: Cunizza married Count Rizzardo di San Bonifacio (lord of Verona, and a Guelph) for political reasons between the San Bonifacio and da Romano families.
 * Her brother, Ezzelino III, married Rizzardo’s sister Zilia/Giglia. Both unities meant that the two families’ competition to rule Verona would be quelled.
 * Sordello arrives shortly after; he was a medieval lyric poet (troubadour) from Goito.
 * “attractive, good singer/troubadour, great lover, but very ugly and disloyal with regard to women and barons its protectors” (Sordel’s Vida).
 * He falls in love with Cunizza, Cunizza falls in love with him (Vita e poesie di Sordello di Goito, Cesare de Lollis, Halle p.148 circa 1896).
 * Two versions of what went down with Cunizza’s family’s involvement:
 * Rolandino da Padua’s Cronica (1262) states that Cunizza’s father sent Sordello to abduct her and bring her back.
 * Gerardo Maurisio’s version: Ezzelino III was compelled to reassert his power in Verona and sent Sordello to kidnap Cunizza to remind his followers that he wasn’t “weakened” by any marriage unions with the Guelphs –the objective remained the same.
 * Whichever Ezzelino did it, Cunizza’s family (brother and father) wanted to reclaim Cunizza with Sordello’s help because they were angry with Count Rizzardo and felt Cunizza was becoming a hostage.


 * Cunizza left her and Rizzardo’s son Leisio, a common practice so that the child remained in the line with the father (Diana Silverman, Marriage and Political Violence in the Chronicles of the Medieval Veneto).
 * Leisio, as the new count, would later defend the San Bonifacio castle against Ezzelino III.


 * When Cunizza left, she first found refuge at Treviso with her brother Alberico’s court in order to get away from the scandal (which was famous at the time and used by many troubadours).
 * Piere Guilhem (of Luserna) mentioning of Cunizza: “He who attacks Lady Cunizza, out of arrogance or jealously, is doing great folly, for her beauty shines and her high merit triumphs.” (I Trovatori d’Italia by Guilio Bertoni, pp.27-7).
 * Uc de Saint-Cric of Thégra’s response (recall Tenzone=rap battle): “I know that she has done so much this year that she has lost her eternal life, as a result of which she must ever again live without emotion; and when a lady leaves the right path or swerves such that everyone scoffs at her, she no longer needs to be examined by a doctor in Salerno –understand; she is lost” (Poésies de Uc de Saint-Circ, 1913).


 * To get away, Cunizza took refuge in her father’s court and Sordello went back to explore 😐.
 * Rolandino’s Cronica mentions her relationship to Bonio di Treviso (a knight) as well.
 * “Bonio di Treviso loved the lady and secretly detached her from her father’s court; and, very much in love with him, she traveled to many parts of the world with him…”
 * “both returned to Alberico da Romano, the lady’s brother, who at the time ruled Treviso, against Ezzelino [III’s] will.” à it is likely this occurred in 1239, the “only period of her life when she lived with a man she loved” (from the article).
 * “Bonio was living with Cunizza –despite the fact that his first wife was still alive and residing in Treviso –he was cut down with a sword on Holy Saturday, as Ezzelino besieged Treviso, confronting his brother [Alberico].” à Bonio was killed defending Treviso during one of Ezzelino’s sieges (1241-2).


 * Cunizza goes back to her brother (continuation of Cronica source):
 * She returned to Ezzelino III and made up with him.
 * After Count Rizzardo died in 1252, Ezzelino married her off to Naimerio of the Poncii Comte de Breganze family (close to the da Romano), a family which Ezzelino later annihilated after Naimerio sold his own family out (babe you are going right to Caina).
 * Naimerio took off and Cunizza was then briefly married to a nobleman of Verona (who lost his title).
 * According to Paget Toynbee, she then married Ezzelino’s astrologer Salione Buzzacarini of Padua (1259). She was around 60.


 * 1260: her family is erased.
 * Ezzelino dies while trying to conquer Milan, and Alberico (and family) is assassinated inside the castle of San Zenone which is captured by his political enemies.
 * She then leaves to find refuge with the Alberti di Mangona family from mother’s side:
 * April 1, 1265: Cunizza signed a legal document giving freedom to the slaves to belonged to the da Romano “to ensure the salvation of the soul of her brothers and parents [excluding anyone who betrayed Alberico]” where the signature is in the house of Cavalcante Cavalcanti.
 * 1279: Cunizza’s 80th birthday and drafting of her will occurs at the castle of La Cerbaia, where Ezzelino II had met Adelaide.


 * Dispute over her place in Heaven:
 * Dante’s most available resources for him to research were those from the Cavalcanti household, since Cunizza stayed with the father of Dante’s first friend Guido.
 * When Dante stayed in Verona, he occupied a seat at the court of the degli Scagligeri, who had close ties to Ezzelino III since they succeeded Ezzelino both in Verona and as the leaders of the Ghibellines.

Source: Marriage and Political Violence in the Chronicles of the Medieval Veneto https://www.jstor.org/stable/41408938

 * Cronica in factis et circ facta Marchie Trivixane (1262) by Rolandino da Padova.1 He was a professor of rhetoric at the University of Padua.8
 * Her brother was Ezzelino III, who controlled all of Veneto in the Middle ages. Manipulated Cunizza’s marriages to instigate war and conflict.
 * This was a common tradition in the families of elite status, where misconduct in marriage contracts would provide a segue into violence between factions and fight for powers.
 * Diana Silverman argues that Dante’s choice to put Cunizza in Paradiso is another tool used to condemn this practice of political violence ties to marriage, becoming another vocalist about the issue in addition to Rolandino.
 * Cangrande della Scala, was the imperial vicar of Verona, and since he was Dante’s chief patron Dante would thus investigate the political dynamics of the Veneto.
 * Gerardo Maurisio (pro-Ezze)4
 * Liber regiminum Padue5
 * Chronicon Marchiae Tarvisinae et Lombardiae6


 * Rolandino argues that Ezze’s comrades only acted under pressure from him.
 * Details Ezze’s reign from start to finish and expands on his control in Treviso, Verona, Vicenza, and Padua.
 * He formed an alliance with Emperor Frederick II.
 * He sought “strategic partners” and dismantled marriage unions that would prove rival to him, in order to distribute his own family members into powerful marriage alliances.
 * They used marriage to “foment” factional discord, by either dividing marriages when they were seen as threats, and uniting new couples to keep their power intact.
 * Violated marriage standards of the social period.


 * Role of marital alliances in factional fighting in medieval Veneto.
 * Note: the original polemic contains myth as well14 thus may not be totally accurate.


 * Marriage and Coercion during this time:
 * Ezze and other elite families would use dowry money to build their war finances, and each marriage shifted factional alliances of the time depending on which families united.
 * Gerard Rippe’s history of medieval Padua: 13th century landholders in Padua had lost a great deal of their wealth because of the da Romano’s widespread power, thus they would instigate war to acquire land with valuable resources.18 there was a cyclical nature to this pattern, since these same families, in order to pay off the costs of their war, would wage war once again.19
 * Fraterna: each son could not rely on the full amount of his father’s wealth (“partible inheritance”) thus stressing the importance of dowries more so.
 * Ezze III received a fraterna between himself and his brother Alberico in 122320.
 * Ezze thus saw that marriage dowries facilitated warfare and expansion, and family alliances were important to public approval.
 * Cunizza lived when fraterna was quite common, and only her brother inherited Ezze II’s property. For Cunizza, who received none of her father’s holding, she was only allotted a portion of the dowry funds once the husband she had married passed away.


 * Women at this time, many who lived the rest of their lives never receiving the dowry money, lacked the influence to partake in arranging marriages.
 * Traditional law required the “uncoerced consent of both the bride and groom in order to form a legitimate marriage,” even if it were the fathers/brothers who chose *who* they’d marry. What was most important was the father’s approval.
 * Amicitia and caritas: alliances and courtly love.


 * Modern Scholarship on Medieval Marriage in Tuscany
 * In the 14th century, any breaking of marriage vows was enough risk to instigate civil war.
 * Bullying a woman into marriage was common enough during the 13th and 14th centuries that women would use “abstemious” religious practices such as “professing chastity, donating food from their family to the poor, fasting, or self-mutilating” to avoid marriage.


 * Violence toward Women in Medieval Literature
 * Women were not only coerced, but also abandoned and deprived of family resources.
 * Cites Euripides’ Trojan Women where Hecuba mourns her daughter’s forced prostitution and Ovid’s Heroides where Dido writes to Aeneas that his abandoning her left her exposed to military force.44
 * Men in rhetoric classes had to recite lyric of women mourning/resisting rape because Augustinian standards saw rape as both a war crime and a violation of bodily boundaries. Rape had been declared illegal and a form of theft in the Middle Ages.
 * Pastorella was a genre of literature treated rape as playful and fun.
 * Rolandino’s approach to the risk was more centered on the men with their relations to wives/mothers/daughters/sisters. Raptus was a term used for abduction/rape; stuprum was a word used for the latter term.
 * Rape was also viewed as an economic loss once a women who was eligible for marriage had been violated.
 * Cronica depicts rape as the ultimate horror of war/disruption of property rights/severing of alliances.


 * Chroniclers’ Polemics on Marriage as a Factor in Politics
 * The root of factional violence: Tisolino da Camposampiero of Padua.
 * His oldest son Gerardo was engaged to Cecilia, an Abano noblewoman.
 * He asked his father-in-law Ezze I for advice, to which the latter took the opportunity to marry his own son Ezze II to Cecilia instead (Cunizza was born by Ezze II’s third wife).
 * Gerardo da Camposampiero had sex with Cecilia while she was on a trip as revenge for the marriage alliance theft.
 * Economic and political risk because there would be inquiries about the paternity of Cecilia’s child, and Ezze made an economic sacrifice by discarding her (and thus Abano wealth).
 * Ezze II rejected Cecilia as his wife afterwards, and thus erupted struggles between the da Romano and da Camposampiero families.51
 * Here, both parties are fighting to acquire the Abano wealth, including control over her property, for their own parties AND to keep it from their enemies.
 * Note: this story may not even be real, but it’s Rolandino’s explanation.
 * When Ezzelino II was living with Adelaide, a third wife, he took on Maria di Campreto as a lover (who was related to the Camposampiero family). Maria later left him and her daughter Adelassia, which gave Ezze II the opportunity to use his daughter’s right to the castle at Campreto as a means to take that property from the Camposampiero.
 * Families with common interests/enemies would unite and thus familial fights became faction fights (tied to pope and emperor) as well.
 * Side notes on Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti:
 * Buondelmonte was called to marry a relative of Oddo Arrighi but violated the contract by marrying a Donati woman instead.
 * The families allied with Oddo Arrighi killed Buondelmonte (while he was dressed for his wedding) at the Ponte Vecchio.
 * Supposed origin of the Guelph and Ghibelline rivalry in Florence.
 * Ezze III’s marital contracts: 4 marriages and 1 bastard.

§ 1246: imprisons Pietro di Bonici for conspiracy, but his mother Gisla claims Pietro was Ezze III’s bastard from their hookup years earlier.

§ Gerardo Maurisio’s claim: he married Zilia di Sanbonifacio (Count Rizzardo’s sister) in 1222. Not 4 years passed before both families became hostile.

§ Parisio da Cerea reports Ezze III to have married Selvaggia, the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Frederick II, in 1238.

§ Rolandino: Frederick gave Galvano Lancia (the sister of the podesta of Padua) to Ezze II in 1244, but Ezze imprisoned her because he forced Cunizza to reveal an annulment Galvano had drafted (and the judge who approved it, the bishop of Padua’s nephew, was imprisoned as well). She had to pay him money supposedly stolen from the commune.

§ Rolandino: 1249 Ezze III marries Beatrice di Castelnovo. His disgusted tone is expressed when he describes Ezze’s campaign to wage war in Verona on the same night as his wedding (right after).

§ In a standard political marriage, the groom honors the bride’s family with an allegiance by expressing vocal respect for the bride. The groom also dedicates a portion of time for the bride for intimacy. Ezze III ignored this custom.

§ Ezze later imprisoned Bontraverso, Beatrice’s father, in 1256 and starved him to death. Violation of social standards.

o  Ezze’s Violations

§ Often spent time dividing other marriages and forcing the broken unions to unite with other partners to his benefit.

§ 1249: Ezze imprisons 3 brothers of the dei Dalesmanini family (alleged closest allies to him): Gumberto, Artusino, and Ubertello. He executed the 3 for arranging a secret marriage between their sister to Rizzardo da Sanbonifacio (Ezze’s opposer), something Ezzelino viewed as a declaration of war (that union would threaten his tyranny).

§ The murders were a justification for another marriage split. His nephew Ansedisio dei Guidotti (podesta of Padua) who had ordered the execution, also ordered the annulment of Guglielmo da Camposampiero and his wife, Mabilia dei Dalesmanini (because she was related to the brothers). Rolandino claims Ezze wanted to weaken Guglielmo’s power as well and imprisoned him (despite his being a faithful ally) because he didn’t immediately repudiate his wife (he found the concept of repudiation to be “disturbing”). Guglielmo was executed in 1250.

o  Medieval Literary expressions/models

§ Women’s mourning, both as widows, virgins, and noblewomen as victims of theft, including starvation/injury/imprisonment and losses of family members/friends/loved ones/neighbors was a popular literary tradition that Dante borrows in Cunizza’s speech as well.

o  The depictions of Ezze III draw from older models such as Speronella dei Dalesmanini (noblewoman).

§ Abducted by Count Pagano (vicar of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa). His goal was to acquire her wealth by using her as ransom. The chronicle treats this act as a theft of revenue/economic loss as well as development for Speronella, who once supported the Emperor and later abandoned it.

§ Dalesmanino waged war against every imperial vicar in the Veneto.

§ Pagano was expelled, and Speronella married Pietro da Celsano (who aided her brother in the revolt). Example of military alliance sealed by marriage.

§ She left to marry Ezze II, aided by her brother in exchange for him to acquire some of her own wealth. Ezze had wealth and influence.

§ Her half-brother Dalesmanino was once married to Cecilia d’Abano, and Cecilia married Ezze II after Ezze had been with Speronella.

§ She was married 6 times, receiving wealth/property from each marriage which she then had control over. Verci states that her wealth was a tool she used in marriage alliances.

·      Demanded funds from family members of Campopremarino.

·      Ordered nose and breasts to be cut off a sorceress100.

·      Giambatista Verci’s account (1216) of a dispute over which property belongs to Speronella’s son Jacopo da Sant’Andrea, since all 6 husbands had been involved in a previous case regarding the property.

§ Chronicle changes tone to describe Speronella’s next marriage, one spurred out of love for Olderico da Fontana of Monselice.

·      Ezzelino II described Olderico’s virility and “large manly p***s” –caudam virilem grandem that he saw in the bath. The tone he carried in his description of Olderico had little regard for the emotion of women, making Speronella fall in unstable affection without him noticing.

·      She left Ezze II and eloped with Olderico; she and Dalesmanino acquired property in Monselice as a result.

·      Ezze II got mad since it was an economic loss.

·      Could be suggested that the chronicle uses Speronella’s love from afar/feminine desire to soften her nature as a “political expansionist.”

o  Livy’s Lucretia suffered suicide after being raped by the Sextus, the son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (tyrant), which led to military revolt.

§ There was a contest to determine who’s wife was the most virtuous. Lucretia, the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, wins when Sextus Tarquinius violates her in her home.

§ Tarquin’s son gained access to where Lucretia lived by pretending to be a “good friend”98.

o  Both are examples of a political revolt against a tyrant after a woman’s suffering. The rape in these contexts asserts the absolute dictatorship, disregard of property/canon law/cooperation of government thus instigating a fight for justice.

·      Cunizza as a Paradigm (of medieval complaints of marriage abuse in factional conflict).

o  Speronella’s era did NOT have the fraterna concept, and she had more autonomy in decisions/bargains/alliances. Rolandino details 3 of Cunizza’s husbands and 2 of her lovers.

o  Rizzardo di Sanbonifacio, Count of Verona

§ Married in 1222, when Guglielmo Amato was podesta of Vicenza.

§ Gerardo Maurisio suggests that this union was a truce between Ezze II and his former opposer.

§ Cunizza and Rizzardo had a son, Leoisio, who she left when Sordello came for her. This mother to child abandonment was custom since the son was meant to be associated with the father’s lineage (thus a widow would leave her children when she remarried)110.

§ Leoisio inherited the title of count, becoming responsible for defending his father’s legacy from his maternal uncle.

·      Assisted Rizzardo in protecting the castle of Sanbonifacio against Ezze II’s invasion (1237).

·      Ezze lay siege to it again in 1243, when Leoisio was strictly protecting it, leading to a personal conflict in Ezze between his tyranny and familial ties. He sent personnel mutual to both sides to bring Leoisio out of the castle, and then destroyed it once Leoisio had been coaxed out.

·      It was a “show of affection” followed by instant betrayal, but Rolandino also suggested that Ezze, out of respect for his nephew, offered compensation if he left the castle peacefully.

§ Their split was official by June 1226, when Ezze III became podesta of Verona and banished Rizzardo (Gerardo’s account of this is because Rizzardo’s Brescian troops blocked him from crossing one of Rizzardo’s properties).

§ Rolandino believes Ezze II’s banishment of Rizzardo was because of their political alliance to the d’Este family, one of Ezze II’s rivals.

§ Because of this growing tension between the da Romano and Sanbonifacio again, the da Romano felt compelled to “save Cunizza from danger” if she were to be held hostage –as well as recover any lost wealth from her marriage.

§ Rizzardo remained allies with the d’Este, which got him imprisoned by Ezze II in 1230-1 until a brief truce in 1233.

§ Rizzardo still was exiled from Verona, and Ezze II took control with Emperor Frederick II’s backing.

o  Sordello

§ Ezze II sent him to “kidnap” Cunizza and bring her back in secret102.

§ Gerardo Maurisio accounts Ezze needing to reassure his followers in Verona that his commitment as a Ghibelline didn’t change just because of Cunizza’s marriage to a Guelph.

§ Sordello was expelled from the da Romano house after the reveal of their affair. He came from a lower social class and thus his love with Cunizza could have been suggested as an “infiltration” of the court.

o  Bonio di Treviso

§ Cunizza strategized to avoid being married off again in political union.

§ 1239: both went to live with Alberico da Romano in Treviso, he was podesta much to Ezze’s chagrin. Suggests that Cunizza agreed to oppose her brother’s reign and because of her love for Bonio, the army for the pope gained a knight to fight Ezze backed by the emperor.

§ She donated her and Bonio’s wealth to rally the campaign against Ezze.

§ “very much in love with him, she traveled through many parts of the world with him, taking great comfort and incurring the greatest expenses”115. The world “solacium” meaning “comfort” was a traditional word used in courtly love poetry.

§ Ezze meanwhile organized to take back Treviso (1242 when he rallied soldiers from Padua/Vicenza/Verona and battled on May 25 one month after Easter Sunday, a social shock considered the sacredness of the day.

§ Rolandino uses Cunizza’s loss to instill emotion in his readers, as Cunizza’s love for Bonio is the polar opposite to Ezzelino murdering him.

o  Naimerio da Breganze, a Vicentina nobleman.

§ After facing “opprobrium” from Ezze, she returned to his side and he married her off to Naimerio, who, according to Rolandino, died while allied with Ezze despite the latter killing his family.

§ Naimerio’s family had sworn allegiance to Ezze when Frederick II entered Italy in 1250, but Ezze killed Naimerio’s parents. 15th century account by Battista Pagliarini reports some members of the family fled Vicenza in 1256 (for Padua, once Ezze had lost control of the city125) when Ezze took over.

§ One manuscript (15th century) even notes Ezze killing Naimerio himself122 while Smereglo suggests Naimerio died fighting at Longare in 1256.

o  Salione Buzzacarini is not mentioned in Rolandino’s Cronica.

o  The fifth husband is not identified by name.

§ Cunizza married him in Verona in 1259 after her brother died.

§ No other evidence supports this statement.

o  Cunizza is not portrayed as a “passive victim” in Rolandino’s Cronica rather that she had autonomy in her life and could assume the role of rebel and complier interchangeably.

o  Took refuge with the Alberti da Mangona and signed a document (1265) to free her family’s slaves to “secure the salvation of the souls of her brothers and parents”129 which is a commonly used statement in medieval declarations of emancipation. The text does not include the emancipation of slaves who betrayed Alberico at the castle of San Zeno, rather the text “damn[s] them to hell”132.

o  By 1279 Cunizza had acquired a vast amount of wealth/property; cemented an “inter vivos gift” to her cousin Count Alessandro degli Alberti da Mangona (Tuscan who was in Caina in Inferno). The document also stated her rights to the castle at Mussa, but that became Treviso government property following the vast reclamations of property that Ezze had seized.

o  There is no evidence of whether Cunizza reacquired her dowry funds after her last husband died. Ezzelino II had left 3,000 lire to her and her 3 sisters in his (1223) will, not stated explicitly as dowry but with language insinuating the money was to be used in that manner.

o  Cunizza’s marriages were exploited by her brother to further his tyrannical agenda and sow further factional discord.

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, 60 years after Rolandino’s Cronica, his choice to place Cunizza with the amorous in Par.9 –while Inf.12 sees her brother residing in hell with his political enemy Obizzo d’Este– is Dante condemning Ezze’s exploits from a theological perspective.