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Ugolino della Gherardesca (c. 1220-1289), count of Donoratico, was the head of the powerful family of Gherardesca, the chief Ghibelline house of Pisa.
He is best known from Dante's fictional depiction of him in Inferno. Alleged to have betrayed his native city of Pisa to its enemies in Genoa, he was betrayed by his co-conspirator the Archbishop Ruggieri and imprisoned, along with his two sons and two grandsons.
Historical Personage
His alliance with the Visconti, the leaders of the Guelph faction, through the marriage of his sister with Giovanni Visconti, judge of Gallura, aroused the suspicions of his party, and the Ghibellines being then predominant in Pisa, the disorders in the city caused by Ugolino and Visconti in 1271-1274 led to the arrest of the former and the banishment of the latter. Visconti died soon afterwards, and Ugolino, no longer regarded as dangerous, was liberated and banished. But he immediately began to intrigue with the Guelph towns opposed to Pisa, and with the help of Charles I of Anjou attacked his native city and forced it to make peace on humiliating terms, pardoning him and all the other Guelph exiles.
He lived quietly in Pisa for some years, although working all the time to extend his influence. War having broken out between Pisa and Genoa in 1284, Count Ugolino was given the command of a division of the Pisan fleet. It was by his flight - usually attributed to treachery - that the fortunes of the day were decided and the Pisans totally defeated at La Meloria (August 1284). But the political ability which he afterwards displayed led to his being appointed podesta for a year and capitano del popolo for ten years.
Florence and Lucca took advantage of the Pisan defeat to attack the republic, but Ugolino succeeded in pacifying them by ceding certain castles. He was however less anxious to make peace with Genoa, for the return of the Pisan prisoners, including most of the leading Ghibellines, would have diminished his power. He was now the most influential man in Pisa, and was preparing to establish his absolute sovereignty, when for some reason not clearly understood he was forced to share his power with his nephew Nino Visconti, son of Giovanni. The duumvirate did not last, and the count and Nino soon quarrelled. Then Ugolino tried to consolidate his position by entering into negotiations with the archbishop, Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, the leader of the Ghibellines. But that party having revived once more, the archbishop obliged both Nino and Ugolino to leave the city, and had himself elected podesta and capitano del popolo.
However, he allowed Ugolino to return soon afterwards, and was even ready to divide the government of the city with him, although he refused to admit his armed followers. The count, determined to be sole master, attempted to get his followers into the city by way of the Arno, and Ruggieri, realizing the danger, aroused the citizens, accusing Ugolino of treachery for having ceded the castles, and after a days street fighting (July q, 1288), Gherardesca was captured and immured together with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and his grandsons Nino (surnamed il Brigata) and Anselmuccio, in the Muda, a tower belonging to the Gualandi family; here they were detained for nine months, and then starved to death.
The corpses were buried in the St. Francis church of Pisa.
The Legend
The historic details of the episode are still involved in some obscurity, and although mentioned by Villani and other writers, it owes its fame entirely to Dante, who placed Ugolino and Ruggieri in the ice of the second ring (Antenora) of the lowest circle of the Inferno (canto xxxii. 124-140 and xxxiii. 1-90). This terrible but magnificent passage, which, according to Landor, includes thirty lines unequalled by any other thirty lines in the whole dominion of poetry, has been paraphrased by Chaucer in the Monk's Tale of the Canterbury Tales, and by Shelley. But the reason why Dante placed Ugolino among the traitors is not by any means clear, as the flight from La Meloria was not regarded as treachery by any writer earlier than the 16th century, although G. del Noce, in Il Conte U. della Gherardesca (Città di Castello, 1894), states that that was the only motive; Bartoli, in vol. vi. of his Storia della Letteratura italidna, suggests Ugolino's alliance with the Ghibellines as the motive. The cession of the castles was not treachery but an act of necessity, owing to the desperate conditions of Pisa.
According to Dante, the prisoners were slowly starved to death and before dying Ugolino's children begged Ugolino to eat their bodies. In the end, Ugolini states that hunger overpowered grief. This ambiguous line has been interpreted in two ways: Either Ugolini devoured his offspring's corpses after being driven mad with hunger, or hunger, but not grief, had the power to kill him. The first and more ghastly of these interpretations has been the most popular and resonant. For this reason Ugolino is known as the "Cannibal" Count and is often depicted biting his own fingers ("eating of his own flesh", a reference to his horrible sin) in consternation, as in the sculpture The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, Ugolino and his Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and other artwork. Ugolino appears trapped beneath the ice of the Ninth ring in the Inferno as both a damned soul and a punishing demon who gnaws vengefully at the skull of the evil Ruggieri.
Scientific analysis
In 2002, Italian archaeologist Francesco Mallegni found what he believes are the remains of Ugolino and his children. DNA analysis agrees with the remains being a father, his sons, and his grandsons. Additional comparison to DNA from modern day members of the Gherardesca family leave Mallegni about 98 percent sure that he has identified the remains correctly. Forensic analysis discredits the cannibalism story. Analysis of the rib bones of the putative Ugolino skeleton reveals traces of magnesium, but no zinc, implying he had consumed no meat in the weeks before his death; apparently the starvation part of the story is at least partly correct. Ugolino also had few remaining teeth and is believed to have been in his 70s or 80s when he was imprisoned, making it further unlikely that he could have outlived and eaten his descendants in captivity, as the cannibalism account requires.
Additionally, Mallegni notes that the putative Ugolino skull was damaged; perhaps he did not ultimately die of starvation, although malnourishment is evident. In 2003 Mallegni was to publish an Italian language book about his study of the Ugolino remains.
References
- Paolo Tronci, Annali Pisani (2 vols., Pisa, 1868-1871)
- S. de Sismondi, Histoire des republiques italiennes (Brussels, 1838)
- Annotated editions of Dante, especially William Warren Vernon's Readings from the Inferno, vol. ii. (2nd ed, London, 1905).
"Ugolino della Gherardesca"