Toynbee "Malatesta"
powerful family of Romagna, who in cent. xiii became lords of Rimini. Benvenuto says they came originally from Pennabilli near Montefeltro. They descended from a branch of the counts of Carpegna, from whom also descended the lords of Montefeltro, dukes of Urbino.

In 1216, the town of Rimini, being worsted in a contest with its neighbour Cesena, granted citizenship to two members of the Malatesta family, Giovanni and Malatesta, for the sake of their powerful assistance. This was the beginning of the Malatesta influence in Rimini. In 1237 Giovanni was appointed podestà, the tenure of which office led eventually to the acquisition of the lordship of the city by the Malatesta family. Giovanni Malatesta died in 1247, leaving two sons, Guido, who died young, and Malatesta da Verrucchio (so called from a castle of that name, about l0 miles from Rimini, which had been presented to the Malatesta in return for their services to the city), who succeeded him. Malatesta, called by D. il mastin vecchio ([Inf. xxvii. 46]), was born in 1212, and lived to be 100 years old. He married three times and had four sons, of whom the eldest and youngest alone survived him; by his first wife he had Malatestino, il [mastin] nuovo ([Inf. xxvii. 46]); by the second, Giovanni (Gianciotto), husband of Francesca da Rimini, and Paolo, her lover; by the third, Pandolfo. [Table XXVII.]

In 1275, Malatesta was elected captain of the Guelphs of Rimini but in 1288, the Ghibellines having got the upper hand, he was expelled from the city, while his son, Malatestino, who held the castle of Monte Scotolo, was besieged and taken prisoner. In 1289 Stefano Colonna, who had been appointed count of Romagna by Nicholas IV, restored peace in Rimini, sending Malatesta and his son into exile for a time. In the same year, however, Malatesta, taking advantage of the disturbed state of Romagna, entered Rimini expelled the podestà appointed by Colonna and, proclaiming himself lord of the city, proceeded, with the lords of Faenza and Ravenna also to occupy Forlì. In 1295, a disturbance having arisen in Rimini, Montagna de' Parcitati, head of the Ghibelline party in that city, sent to Guido da Montefeltro for assistance; but Malatesta persuaded him to recall his messenger, saying that the best way of pacifying the tumult would be to dismiss the mercenaries of both sides from the city. To this Montagna agreed, but Malatesta treacherously concealed some of his men in houses in the city, and sent the rest to his castle of Verrucchio, with orders to return in the night. In the middle of the night the people were aroused by shouts of 'Long live Malatesta and the Guelphs! Death to the Parcitati and the Ghibellines!' The Parcitati, taken by surprise, were overpowered and driven out of the city, Montagna himself being taken prisoner and handed over by Malatesta to the charge of his son Malatestino by whom he was murdered [Montagna]. Maltesta remained lord of Rimini till his death, at the age of 100, in 1312. He was succeeded by his son, Malatestino, who in 1314 assumed also the lordship of Cesena. Malatestino died in 1317, and was succeeded by his brother, Pandolfo, to the exclusion of Ferrantino, the son of the former. Ferrantino, however, succeeded to the lordship on the death of his uncle in 1326.

©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