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| Toynbee "Ubaldini" |
powerful Ghibelline family of Tuscany, whose headquarters were in
the Mugello (the upper valley of the Sieve) to the N. of Florence.
The Florentines appear to have found them troublesome neighbours,
and in 1251, as Villani records
({Villani. vi. 47}), sent an expedition against them, and reduced
them for the time being. He mentions them among those who were in
favour of razing Florence to the ground after the Battle of
Montaperti in 1260
({Villani. vi. 81}). Dino Compagni records
({Villani. ii. 29}) that in the summer of 1302 they and the
Pisans helped the exiled Ghibellines and Bianchi from Florence in an
attack upon Florentine territory, in the Mugello, on account of
which the Florentines sent a second expedition to chastise them.
According to Villani
({Villani. viii. 53}) this was immediately after the capture by
the Florentines (through the treachery of Carlino de' Pazzi) of the
stronghold of Piantrevigne in Valdarno.
[Carlino.]
On June 8, 1302, D. was present at a meeting of the exiles from
Florence at the church of San Godenzo in the Tuscan Apennines,
about 20 miles from Florence; here, a convention took place with
the Ubaldini. [See R. Piattoli, CDD, pp. 109�
110.]
Several members of this family are mentioned by D., viz. the
famous Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini
([Inf. x. 120])
[Cardinale il]; his elder brother, Ubaldino de la
Pila
([Purg. xxiv. 29])
[Pila, Ubaldin de la]; and his two nephews,
the Archbishop Ruggieri of Pisa
([Inf. xxxiii. 14])
[Ruggieri, Arcivescovo] and Ugolino
d'Azzo
([Purg. xiv. 105])
[Azzo, Ugolin d':
Table XXIX.]
©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