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| Toynbee "Aldobrandi, Tegghiàio" |
Florentine Guelph of the powerful
Adimari family, at one time (in 1256)
podestà of Arezzo
[Adimari].
Villani describes him
as 'cavaliere savio e prode e di
grande autoritade' ({Vilanni vi. 77}).
He is
mentioned (as il Tegghiaio)
together with Farinata degli Uberti
(with whom he is coupled), and Jacopo
Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca de' Lamberti,
[Inf. vi. 79];
he is one of those ch'a ben far puoser
li 'ngegni
([Inf. vi. 81]),
of whom D. asks Ciacco for news, the
reply being: Ei son tra l'anime più
nere
([Inf. vi. 85]), [Ciacco]. Tegghiaio is one
of
the three Florentines (the other two being
Guido Guerra and Jacopo Rusticucci) seen by
D. afterwards among the Sodomites in Round
3 of Circle VII of Hell,
[Inf. xvi. 41]; ombra,
[Inf. xvi. 4]; l'altro,
[Inf. xvi. 40]
[Sodomiti]; his spirit is
pointed out to D. by Jacopo Rusticucci, who
alludes
([Inf. xvi. 41-42]) to the fact of his
having attempted to dissuade the
Florentines from undertaking the disastrous
expedition against Siena in 1260, which
resulted in the crushing defeat at
Montaperti and the ruin of the Guelph party
in Florence. Villani narrates ({Villani vi. 77})
that, on the occasion referred to, T. acted
as the spokesman of the Guelph nobles, at
whose head was Guido Guerra; they, knowing
more of the conditions of warfare and being
aware that the banished Ghibellines and
their Sienese allies had been reinforced by
a body of German mercenaries, looked upon
the undertaking with grave misgivings, and
counselled delay until the Germans, who had
been engaged for only three months, half of
which term had already expired, should be
disbanded. In response to this appeal, T.
was taunted with cowardice, to which he
replied by challenging the speaker to
adventure himself on the day of battle
wherever he should go
[Montaperti]. According to
Villani ({Villani vi. 81}), T. survived the battle
and took refuge with the rest of the Tuscan
Guelphs at Lucca.
[See M. Barbi, BSDI, vi
(1899), 205: 'Nella spedizione che finì
colla disfatta di Montaperti figura tra i
capitani dell'esercito per il sesto di
Porta S. Piero (Il Libro di
Montaperti pubbl. per cura di C.
Paoli, p. 369). Ebbe dopo quella disfatta
distrutta in Firenze la casa, e nel 1267
era
già morto, come resulta dall'Estimo de'
danni patiti dai Guelfi nel sessennio
ghibellino prima di Benevento: "Item
invenerunt unam domum domini Teglarii
Aldebrandi fuisse destructam, dicto
tempore, in populo Sancti Michelis in
Palchetto, cui j via, ij Iacobi
Rusticuccii, iij filiorurn Bonizzi, iiij
filiorum Adimari . . .--unam domum fuisse
destructam, dicto tempore, in dicto populo,
Iacobi Rusticuccii et nepotum; cui j
heredes domini Teglarii Aldobrandi, ij et
iij vie, iiij heredes dicti domini
Aldebrandii"'
(Del Lungo, Dal secolo e dal poema
di Dante, p. 71). See also
P. Santini, 'Sui fiorentini "che fur
sì degni"', SD, (vi (1923),
25-44.]
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press