Toynbee "Ugolino, Conte"

After leaving Bocca degli Abati, as they pass on their way through Antenora, D. and Virgil see two sinners frozen one above the other in the same hole, the upper one of whom (Ugolino) is gnawing the head of the lower (Ruggieri) ([Inf. xxxii. 124-132]); D. asks the former the reason of this, and who he and his victim are ([Inf. xxxii. 133-139]); thereupon Ugolino, lifting his mouth from Ruggieri's head, on the hair of which he wipes his lips, proceeds to answer D.'s questions, explaining that he does so in order to bring infamy in the world above upon the traitor whom he is gnawing ([Inf. xxxiii. 1-9]); he then names himself and the archbishop and, after referring to his betrayal by the latter, goes on to describe the circumstances of his death ([Inf. xxxiii. 10-21]); how, after he and his four sons (see below) had been imprisoned for several months (reading più lune, [Inf. xxxiii. 26]) in the tower, which from his fate had come to be called the Tower of Famine, he one night had a dream in which he and his sons figured as a wolf and cubs who were hunted on Monte San Giuliano by the archbishop with his friends as hounds, and in a short time run down and torn to pieces ([Inf. xxxiii. 22-36]); how the next day, at the hour when their food used to be brought, he heard the door below being nailed up ([Inf. xxxiii. 37-54]); how on the second day, being struck with despair at the sight of his sons' faces, he gnawed his hands in agony and his sons, thinking he did it for hunger, offered themselves to him for food ([Inf. xxxiii. 55-64]); how they spent the third day in mute despair ([Inf. xxxiii. 65-66]); how on the fourth day his son Gaddo died, and the other three on the two following days ([Inf. xxxiii. 67-72]); and how he himself, after dragging on for two more days, at last succumbed on the eighth day ([Inf. xxxiii. 73-75]); Ugolino then, after finishing his narrative, once more sets his teeth into the archbishop's skull ([Inf. xxxiii. 76-78]).

Some commentators have thought that by the last line of Ugolino's narrative, Poscia, più che il dolor, pote 'l digiuno ([Inf. xxxiii. 75]), D. meant to imply that the count, in the extremity of starvation, did actually attempt to prolong his life by feeding upon the bodies of his sons, as they had prayed him to do while they were yet alive ([Inf. xxxiii. 61-63]), a suggestion to which Ugolino's occupation in Hell lends some colour, but if any such incident had occurred it must have been known at the time, and some mention of it would have been made by contemporary writers, whereas, as a matter of fact, there is no hint of such a thing in the contemporary records. The Pisan Buti, for instance, who gives a circumstantial account of the removal and burial of the bodies, says nothing whatever as to their having been in any way mutilated; he comments:

Poscia, più che il dolor, poteo il digiuno: cioè poscia il digiuno finì la vita mia, la quale conservava il dolore; e così rende ragione come potee tanto vivere, e dice che ne fu cagione il dolore. E questo finge l'autore perchè dopo li otto dì ne furono cavati e portati inviluppati nelle stuoie al luogo de' Frati minori a san Francesco e sotterrati nel monimento che è allato alli scaloni a montare in chiesa alla porta del chiostro, coi ferri in gamba; li quali feni vid'io, cavato del detto monimento.

The count's imprisonment lasted for eight months, from the end of July 1288 to the middle of March 1288/9. According to Villani the decision to starve the prisoners to death was coincident with the election of the Ghibelline Count Guido da Montefeltro as captain of Pisa; he says:

E giunto il detto conte Guido in Pisa [nel detto anno 1288] del detto mese di Marzo, i Pisani, i quali aveano messo in pregione il conte Ugolino e due suoi figliuoli e due figliuoli del conte Guelfo suo figliuolo, in una torre in sulla piazza degli anziani, feciono chiavare la porta della detta torre, e le chiavi gittare in Arno, e vietare a' detti pregioni ogni vivanda, gli quali in pochi giorni vi morirono di fame. Ma prima domandando con grida il detto conte penitenzia, non gli concedettono frate o prete che 'l confessasse. E tratti tutti e cinque morti insieme della torre, vilmente furono sotterrati, e d'allora innanzi la detta carcere fu chiamata la torre della fame, e sarà sempre. Di questa crudeltà furono i Pisani per lo universo mondo, ove si seppe, forte biasimati, non tanto per lo conte, che per gli suoi difetti e tradimenti era per avventura degno di sì fatta morte, ma per gli figliuoli e nipoti, ch'erano giovani garzoni e innocenti. ({Villani. vii. 128})

The 'Torre della Fame', which previous to this time had been known as the Torre dei Gualandi alle Sette Vie, stood in what is now the Piazza dei Cavalieri (formerly the Piazza degli Anziani), close to where the modern clocktower stands; it was in ruins at the beginning of cent. xvi (as appears from an old drawing reproduced in Vernon's Readings on the Inferno), and was finally destroyed in 1655.

Of the four 'sons' of Ugolino, mentioned by D. as sharing his imprisonment and death, only two were actually his sons, viz. Gaddo, his fourth, and Uguccione, his fifth son; the other two, Anselmuccio and Nino il Brigata, were his grandsons, the sons of his eldest son Guelfo; all of them, except Anselmuccio, were grown men at the time. [Anselmuccio: Brigata, il: Gaddo: Uguccione_1: Table XXX.]

Villani's account of the intrigue of Ugolino with the Ghibellines, and of his subsequent betrayal by the Archbishop Ruggieri, is as follows:

Negli anni di Cristo 1288, del mese di Luglio, essendo creata in Pisa grande divisione e sette per cagione della signoria, che dell'una era capo il giudice Nino di Gallura de' Visconti con certi guelfi, e l'altro era il conte Ugolino de' Gherardeschi coll'altra parte de' guelfi, e l'altro era l'arcivescovo Ruggeri degli Ubaldini co' Lanfranchi, e Gualandi, e Sismondi, con altre case ghibelline: il detto conte Ugolino per esser signore s'accosto coll'arcivescovo e sua parte, e tradì il giudice Nino, non guardando che fosse suo nipote figliuolo della figliuola, e ordinarono che fosse cacciato di Pisa co' suoi seguaci, o preso in persona. Giudice Nino sentendo ciò, e non veggendosi forte al riparo, si partì della terra, e andossene a Calci suo castello, e allegossi co' Fiorentini e Lucchesi per fare guerra a' Pisani. Il conte Ugolino innanzi che il giudice Nino si partisse, per coprire meglio suo tradimento, ordinata la cacciata di giudice, se n'ando fuori di Pisa a uno suo maniero che si chiamava Settimo. Come seppe la partita di giudice Nino, tornò in Pisa con grande allegrezza, e da' Pisani fu fatto signore con grande allegrezza e festa; ma poco stette in sulla signoria, che la fortuna gli si rivolse al contrario. . . .E certo l'ira di Dio tosto gli sopravvenne, come piacque a Dio, per gli suoi tradimenti e peccati: che come era conceputo per l'arcivescovo di Pisa e' suoi seguaci di cacgiare di Pisa giudice Nino e' suoi col tradimento e trattato del conte Ugolino, scemata la forza de' guelfi, l'arcivescovo ordinò di tradire il conte Ugolino, e subitamente a furore di popolo il fece assalire e combattere al palagio, faccendo intendere al popolo ch'egli avea tradito Pisa, e rendute le loro castella a' Fiorentini e a' Lucchesi, e sanza nullo riparo rivoltoglisi il popolo addosso, s'arrendeo preso, e al detto assalto fu morto uno suo figliuolo bastardo e uno suo nipote, e preso il conte Ugolino, e due suoi figliuoli, e tre nipoti figliuoli del figliuolo, e misergli in pregione, e cacciarono di Pisa la sua famiglia e suoi seguaci, e Visconti, e Ubizinghi Guatani, e tutte l'altre case guelfe. E così fu il traditore dal traditore tradito. ({Villani. vii. 121}.)

Villani's account and estimate of the treachery for which Ugolino is condemned to D.'s Antenora wonlel appear, in the light of modern scholarship, to be substantially correct. A careful scrutiny of the available documents and chronicles of the time [see esp. U. Dorini, 'Il tradimento del conte Ugolino', SD, xii (1927), 31-64] suggests the following line of events, which led to the final downfall of the count.

After her disastrous defeat by Genoa in the great naval Battle of Meloria (Aug. 6, 1284), Pisa, traditional Ghibelline city par excellence, found herself threatened on all sides by powerful Guelph forces, Genoa immediately joining with Florence, Lucca, Siena, and Pistoia in league against her; and it was in such a time of crisis and grave emergency that Count Ugolino was elected podestà of the city for a period of ten years, being chosen for such high office not only for the competence which he had already shown in public affairs, but also as one who could, now being himself a Guelph (although of a family which was Ghibelline by tradition), best negotiate with the hostile Guelph powers which now threatened the city.

The so-called 'tradimento delle castella' with which Ugolino was later charged took place in the spring and summer of 1285, the castles of Ripafratta and Viareggio being ceded to Lucca and Pontedera, among others, to the Guelph party of Florence, and later, officially, to the city. But, given the time of crisis in which Pisa found herself, obliged as she was to propitiate the hostile Guelph powers surrounding her, the ceding by Count Ugolino of these castles was entirely in line with the new policy of conciliation and in no sense an act of treachery or betrayal. Such negotiations had, of course, to be shrouded in the greatest secrecy, for sundry and obvious reasons -- a fact which could later be used in pointing to it as an act of treason on the part of the count.

Meanwhile Ugolino's grandson and namesake, Nino Visconti, who had now reached the age of 20, emerged upon the scene as a young man who clearly aspired to replace his late father Giovanni as leader of the Guelph party of Pisa, which he soon gave every promise of doing when, towards the end of that same year (1285), he was called to share with his grandfather the high offices of podestdà and capitano del popolo. But personal ambitions on the part of both grandfather and grandson soon led to dissension and open armed strife between them and their respective factions, until they were finally persuaded, for the good of the city, to relinquish their office. They continued to clash, however, until in March 1288, taking advantage of riots deliberately provoked by the count, they came to a temporary accord and, storming the palazzo del governo by armed force, seized control of the city.

Meanwhile the Ghibellines throughout Tuscany and the peninsula generally were enjoying better fortunes, owing to some important military victories, and their party was accordingly showing new strength in Pisa herself, and in June 1288, after the victory of Ghibelline Arezzo over Guelph Siena in the Battle of the Pieve del Toppo, Count Ugolino, aware that the Ghibelline party of Pisa might gain control of the city once more, fell to conniving with their faction, headed by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, in this way aspiring to better his own political fortunes and rid himself of further interference from his grandson and political rival, Nino.

It would appear that the count came to secret terms with Archbishop Ruggieri and other prominent leaders of traditionally Ghibelline families, such as are named in D.'s verses (Gualandi, Lanfranchi, Sismondi), agreeing among other things that Nino was to be driven from the city; whereupon the count deliberately withdrew to an estate of his in the country that this plan might be carried out in his absence. Nino, sensing the threat, turned to his grandfather for assistance, but, when he got none, fled the city.

Being now acclaimed podestà, the archbishop took over and sent word to the count that he might return; on June 30, 1288, the count did return, trusting in the archbishop (fidandomi di lui, as D. has him say); but he came to the city gates with some 1,000 armed men, such a large force that he was not allowed to enter until he agreed to come in with only a few of them. Outraged that the archbishop should have seized the office and power that he himself had aspired to gain by betraying his party and his grandson, the count managed, on the following day, to bring all his forces into the city, despite the archbishop; whereupon the latter and the Ghibellines in league with him stirred up the people against the count and his guard, causing them to shout throughout the city the charge of his 'treachery of the castles'. Afterwards, having taken refuge in the palazzo del popolo, the count and his sons and grandsons were taken captive and imprisoned for more than a fortnight, when they were removed to the tower in which they were to die.

This was a complete triumph for the Ghibellines of Pisa. Within a few months the archbishop resigned the office of podestà in favour of another, who in turn yielded to Guido da Montefeltro who, being called as podestà, entered the city in March 1289, perhaps, as Villani suggests, in the very days in which the tower was nailed shut and the count and his children endured death by starvation.

Thus, the deed of treachery for which Count Ugolino is condemned to D.'s Antenora is, when seen in this light, at once his betrayal of his own Guelph party, the party which had first entrusted him with the rule of the city, and his own Guelph grandson Nino Visconti, and it is not, therefore, for the 'tradimento delle castella' with which he was later falsely charged by the archbishop and his faction, nor, as another view would have it, for any act of treason against his native city in the earlier disastrous defeat of Pisa at Meloria.

[See U. Dorini, loc. cit.; I. Del Lungo, DtD, pp. 271-371 and G. Del Noce, II Conte Ugolino (Città di Castello, 1894).]