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Once upon a time in Florence – according to the chroniclers, on Easter Sunday, 10th of April 1216[1] – the knight Buondelmonte of the Buondelmonte family was riding his horse towards Ponte Vecchio, the city’s oldest bridge.
He reached the Amidei Tower just before, under the statue of Mars, the ancient Roman god of war, when other knights appeared. Among them, there were Schiatta of the Uberti family and Oddo Arrighi of the Fifanti. As the knights crossed paths, insults were made. Now, was Buondelmonte the one who began taunting, or were the others? His thoughts remain unknown; what is known are the consequences.
The Tegrimi banquet
The precise chain of events that led to that fateful Easter is mostly lost to history. Fragments remain, and an anonymous place the onset in January 1216, during the lavish banquet hosted by Mazzingo Tegrimi of the Mazzinghi family to celebrate his investiture as a knight. There, Buondelomonte was sharing a plate with his friend Uberto of the Infangati, when a jester thought it was a good moment to play a prank. He took the plate from them, but Uberto didn’t laugh. Oddo Arrighi mocked him, Uberto answered rudely, and the first threw a meat tray in his face.
Tensions arose during the rest of the banquet: when the tables were cleared, Buondelmonte took a knife and slashed Otto’s arm. Blood was shed, and it couldn’t be forgotten without tarnishing Oddo’s honour. Advised by friends and family, he proposed to ease the tension through marriage: Buondelmonte would have married Oddo’s nephew on the 10th of February. Unfortunately, the bride waited in vain for the groom.
On the wedding day, the hot-headed Buondelmonte went instead to the house of the Donati family, where he vowed to marry the beautiful daughter of Forese the Elder and Gualdrada Donati. The insult was too much for the bride’s family, and they demanded a vendetta, a bloody vengeance. They called for a meeting in the Santa Maria Sopra Porta church, a building you can still admire if you ever happen to visit Florence. Some proposed a light vengeance in the form of a beating, or even to disfigure Buondelmonte to console the bride’s father, only to find that he was inconsolable. Mosca of the Lamberti stood up, and added that “if you beat or disfigure him, mind to find a place to hide […] cosa fatta cappa à“. Only things done to the end are done well, and that meant only one thing: Buondelmonte had to die.
A bloody Easter
On Easter Sunday 1216, the day chosen for the wedding between him and the daughter of Gualdrada degli Uberti, Buondelmonte reached the tower of the Amidei, close friends of Otto Arrighi. He was dressed at his best for the ceremony: on a horse with a white palfrey, in white clothes, and a garland of flowers on his head. Schiatta degli Uberti “rode towards him, hit with a mace on the head, and unhorsed him[2]“.
Oddo Arrighi reached for the crawling Buondelmonte, and being the dishonoured party, had the honour of the final blow, and “with a knife, he cut his veins“. The young Buondelmonte bled to death under the watchful eye of Mars.
The murder drove a wedge between the most eminent Florentine families. On one side were the Uberti, Lamberti, and Amidei families; on the other, the Buondelmonti, the Pazzi, and the Donati. Due to the strong loyalty of the Uberti to the Holy Roman Emperor, the rivalry soon exacerbated the ongoing city disputes. If one side supported the Empire, even just vaguely, then the other must be against it, and support the Papacy.
Although historically dubious, this fateful event was used by later historians to mark the beginning of the civil war that would drench Florence in the blood of its citizens for the next one hundred years: the feud between Guelphs and Ghibellines.
Bibliography
- Faini, E. (2006). Il convito del 1216. La vendetta all’origine del fazionalismo fiorentino. Annali di Storia di Firenze, 1, 7–36. Università degli Studi di Firenze.
- Villani, G. (1991). Nuova Cronica (G. Porta, Ed.). Fondazione Pietro Bembo/Guanda.
- Salvemini, G. (1974). Magnati e popolani in Firenze dal 1280 al 1295. Feltrinelli.
- Cardini, F. (2007). Breve storia di Firenze. Pacini.
[1] “[…] rispose messer Moscca di Lamberti, e disse: ‘Se tu batti o ffiedi, pensa prima di fare la fossa, dove tue ricoveri: […] ché cosa fatta cappa à'”
“[…] Messer Mosca dei Lamberti answered, and said: ‘if you beat or disfigure him, mind to find a place to hide […] only things done to the end are done well'”
(Pseudo-Brunetto Latini, Cronica, as cited in Faini, 2006, p. 11)
[2] “Bondelmonte vestito nobilemente di nuovo di roba tutta bianca, e in su uno palafreno bianco, giugnendo a piè del ponte Vecchio dal lato di qua, apunto a piè del pilastro ov’era la ‘nsegna di Mars, il detto messer Bondelmonte fue atterrato del cavallo per lo Schiatta degli Uberti, e per lo Mosca Lamberti e Lambertuccio degli Amidei assalito e fedito, e per Oderigo Fifanti gli furono segate le vene e tratto affine; e ebbevi colloro uno de’ conti da Gangalandi.”
(Villani, 1991, Book VI, Chapter 38)
“Bondelmonte, nobly dressed in new all-white attire, and on a white palfrey, arrived at Ponte Vecchio from this side, right at the base of the pillar where the statue of Mars stood. There, the aforementioned Messer Bondelmonte was knocked from his horse by Schiatta degli Uberti, and attacked and stabbed by Mosca Lamberti and Lambertuccio degli Amidei, while Oderigo Fifanti slit his veins and murdered him; one of the Gangalandi counts was also involved with them in this deed.”
