Toynbee "Anastagi"
noble Ghibelline family of Ravenna, next in importance to the Polentani and Traversari ([Purg. xiv. 107]), with the latter of whom, as well as with the counts of Bagnacavallo ([Purg. xiv. 115]), they were in close alliance. Guido del Duca (in Circle II of Purgatory) mentions them among the ancient worthy families of Romagna and speaks of them and of the Traversari as being without heirs and consequently on the eve of extinction, [Purg. xiv. 107-108.] [Traversara, Casa.]

The Anastagi for a time played an important part in the politics of Romagna. In 1249, while Alberto Caccianemico of Bologna was podestà of Ravenna, the Anastagi and their friends rose upon the Polentani and their Guelph adherents and expelled them from the city after deposing the podestà, who was the nominee of the Church. Soon after, however, the exiled Guelphs returned to Ravenna, replaced the podestà in his office, and in their turn expelled the Ghibellines, who were, moreover, threatened with excommunication by the famous Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini ([Inf. x. 120]), unless within a given time they submitted themselves to the Church. Eight or nine years later, the Anastagi made peace with their adversaries and were allowed to return to Ravenna, probably through the mediation of their allies, the counts of Bagnacavallo, one of whom was at this time (1258) podestà of Ravenna. From about this period the family of the Anastagi appears to have fallen rapidly into decay, and by the year 1300, the date of the Journey, hardly a trace of them remained in Ravenna. [See T. Casini, 'Dante e la Romagna', GD, i (1894), 113, 122-124, 303-304; see also C. Ricci, L'ultimo rifugio di Dante Alighieri (Milano 1891), pp. 121-122: 'Molti cronisti parlano dei Traversari che pretendevano risalire al secolo v, famiglia principesca che sposò sue donne a sovrani; molte storie e novellieri ricordano Pietro, e diversi poeti provenzali cantano le lodi d'Imilia sua moglie; molte storie e novellieri ricordano infine gli Anastagi, che appaiono nel secolo XII. Quando Dante andò a Ravenna, la famiglia Anastagi era spenta da buon tempo e di quella dei Traversari non rimanevano più che alcune femmine.']

According to the Ottimo Commento, both the Anastagi and the Traversari were expelled from Ravenna by the Guelph Polentani:

. . . perocchè per loro cortesia [i Traversari] erano molto amati da' gentili e dal popolo, quelli da Polenta occupatori della repubblica, come sospetti e buoni li cacciarono fuori . . .Li Anastagi. . . furono antichissimi uomini di Ravenna, ed ebbero grandi parentadi con quelli da Polenta, ma, perocchè discordavano in vita ed in costumi, li Polentesi, come lupi cacciarono costoro come agnelli, dicendo che avevano; loro intorbidata l'acqua.

Benvenuto mentions that one of the gates of Ravenna (the present Porta Serrata) was in his day named after the Anastagi:

. . .isti fuerunt magni nobiles et potentes, a quibus una porta in Ravenna usque hodie denominatur porta Anastasia. De ista domo fuit nobilis miles dominus Guido de Anastasiis, qui mortuus est per impatientiam amoris cuiusdam honestissimae dominae, quam num quam potuit flectere ad eius amorem.

Benvenuto alludes to the story (adapted by Dryden as Theodote and Honoria) told by Boccaccio, 'curiosus inquisitor omnium delectabilium historiarum', in the {Decameron v. 8}), of how a youth named Nastagio degli Honesti fell in love with the daughter of Messer Paolo Traversaro and of how he encountered the ghost of Messer Guido degli Anastagi.

©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