Toynbee "Azzolino_1"

D. places him among the Tyrants in Round I of Circle VII of Hell, where he is pointed out by Nessus, who draws attention to his black hair, [Inf. xii 109-110] [Tiranni]; he is alluded to by his sister Cunizza (in the Heaven of Venus) as a firebrand (facella) which desolated the March of Treviso, and described as being from Romano and of the same 'root' as herself, [Par. ix. 28-31] [Cunizza: Romano_4].

D. here alludes to the common belief, recorded by Pietro di Dante, that before Ezzelino's birth his mother dreamed that she brought forth a firebrand:

Mater Azzolini, dum partui ejus esset vicina, somniabat quod parturiebat unam facem igneam, quae comburebat totam Marchiam Trevisanam; et ita fecit sua horribili tyrarmide. Et tangit hoc autor dum dicit de facella.

Ezzelino, whose lordship over the March of Treviso lasted for more than thirty years, was a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant, and was guilty of the most inhuman atrocities. Villani says of him:

Questo Azzolino fu il più crudele e ridottato tiranno che mai fosse tra' cristiani, e signoreggiò per sua forza e tirannia (essendo di sua nazione della casa di Romano gentile uomo) grande tempo tutta la Marca di Trevigi e la città di Padova e gran parte di Lombardia; e' cittadini di Padova molta gran parte consumò, e acceconne pur de' migliori e de' più nobili in grande quantità, e togliendo le loro possessioni e mandogli mendicando per lo mondo, e molti altri per diversi martirii e tormenti fece morire, e a un'ora undicimila Padovani fece ardere . . . e sotto l'ombra di una rudda e scellerata giustizia fece molti mali, e fu uno grande flagello al suo tempo nella Marca Trevigiana e in Lombardia. ({Villani vi. 72.})

His contemporary Salimbene of Parma says of him in his chronicle:

[Icilinus] vere fuit menbrum diaboli et filius iniquitatis. . . .Peior enim homo fuit de mundo. Non credo revera quod, ab initio mundi usque ad dies nostros, fuerit ita malus homo. Nam ita tremebant eum omnes, sicut tremit iunccus in aqua, et hoc non sine causa erat. Qui enim erat hodie, de crastina vita securus non erat. Pater petebat filium ad interficiendum, et filius patrem vel aliquem sibi propinquum, ut Icilino placeret. Omnes maiores et meliores et potentiores et ditiores et nobiliores delevit de marchia Trivisina, et mulieres castrabat et cum filiis et filiabus in carceribus includebat, et ibi fame et miseria peribant. Multos religiosos interfecit et in carceribus diu habuit, tam ex Ordine fratrum Minorum et Predicatorum quam ex ordinibus aliis. . . .Nec Nero nec Decius nec Dioclitianus nec Maximianus in malicia fuerunt similes sibi sed neque Herodes neque Antiochus, qui pessimi homines de mundo fuerunt. [F. Bernini ed. (Bari, 1942) p. 531.]

In 1255 Pope Alexander IV proclaimed a crusade against Ezzelino, styling him 'a son of perdition, a man of blood, the most inhuman of the children of men, who, by his infamous torture of the nobles and massacre of the people, has broken every bond of human society, and violated every law of Christian liberty'. After a war of three years' duration, in the course of which he committed the most terrible atrocities, Ezzelino was finally defeated (Sept. 16, 1259) by the marquis of Este at Cassano, where he was desperately wounded and taken prisoner. Eleven days after, having torn open his wounds, he died in his prison at Soncino, at the age of 64, after a reign of thirty-four years. Benvenuto states that he is said to have been short of stature, hairy and swarthy ([Inf. xii. 109]), and that he had a long hair upon his nose, which stood upright when he was in a passion to the terror of all beholders. Several stories are told of him in the Cento novelle antiche (Nov. xlii, cxxi, Biagi ed.), in one of which it is stated that he killed himself by striking his head against the pole of the tent in which he was confined:

. . . fue Messere Azolino preso in bataglia in uno luogho che si chiama Chasciano et percosse tanto il capo suo al feristo del padiglione ov'egli era legato, che s'uccise egli medesimo. (Nov. cxxi.)