Toynbee "Bello, Geri del"
Geri (i.e. Ruggieri) del Bello degli Alighieri, grandson of Alighiero I, and first cousin of D.'s father, Alighiero II; his name appears as 'Geri quondam Dom. Belli Alaghieri' in a document dated 1269, containing a list of the compensations granted to Guelph families in Florence for the losses inflicted by the Ghibellines after the Battle of Montaperti in 1260; he had three brothers, viz. Gualfreduccio, who in 1237 was enrolled in the Arte di Calimala, Cenni (i.e. Bencivenni), who died in 1277, and Cione (i.e. Uguccione), who was cavaliere a spron d'oro. [Bello: Table XXII.]

D. places Geri among the seminator di scandalo e di scisma ([Inf. xxviii. 35]), in Bolgia 9 of Circle VIII of Hell (Malebolge), [Inf. xxix. 27]; un spirto del mio sangue, [Inf. xxix. 20]; ello, [Inf. xxix. 23]; ei, [Inf. xxix. 24]; lui, [Inf. xxix. 25]; li, [Inf. xxix. 32]; lui, [Inf. xxix. 34]; el, [Inf. xxix. 34]; sè, [Inf. xxix. 36]. [Scismatici.]

Virgil, having noticed that D. was gazing earnestly into the ninth Bolgia, asks him the reason, to which D. replies that he was looking for a spirit of his own race who should have been there, [Inf. xxix. 3-21]; V. then tells D. that he had seen this spirit, whose name was Geri del Bello, point threateningly at D., and then, since D. was intent on Bertran de Born and did not notice him, go his way in silence ([Inf. xxix. 22-30]); D. explains that Geri had died a violent death, and had not yet been avenged by any of his kin, and that that was doubtless the reason why he was indignant with himself and did not stop to speak, wherefore he felt all the more pity for him ([Inf. xxix. 31-36]).

The old commentators differ as to the details of Geri's story; Lana, Buti, and the Anonimo Fiorentino say that he killed one of the Gerini or Geremei, and was in retaliation slain by one of them; the Ottimo, Benvenuto and others give the name of the family as Sacchetti. Lana says of Geri:

. . . fu sagacissima persona, piacevole e conversevole: dilettossi di commettere male tra le persone, e sapealo fare sì acconciamente, che pochi se ne poteano guardare da lui.

According to Buti, Geri's father had been killed by one of the Gerini, and in revenge he treacherously murdered one of the latter. The story is that he disguised himself as a leper and went to beg at the house of the Gerini; when the master of the house appeared Geri, pretending that the podestà was coming, advised him to put away his arms, and then, when he was defenceless, fell upon him, and killed him. For this deed he was banished to Fucecchio where subsequently he was slain by Geremia de' Gerini, whose uncle had been appointed to the office of podestà in that town.

Benvenuto, who describes Geri as a turbulent and quarrelsome person, says that he sowed discord among the Sacchetti, one of whom retaliated by killing him; and he states that it was not until thirty years afterwards that Geri's death was avenged by the sons of Cione, who killed one of the Sacchetti in his own house:

. . . Gerius iste vir nobilis fuit frater domini Cioni del Bello de Aldigheriis, qui homo molestus et scismaticus fuit interfectus ab uno de Sacchettis nobilibus de Florentia . . . quia seminaverat discordiam inter quosdam, cuius mors non fuit vindicata per spatium triginta annorum. Finaliter filii domini Cioni et nepotes praefati Gerii fecerunt vindictam quia interfecerunt unum de Sacchettis in ostio suo.

There can be little doubt that the Sacchetti were the family with whom Geri was at feud, for not only does Pietro di Dante in his commentary (according to the Ashburnham MS.) give the name of Geri's murderer as one of the Sacchetti ('occiso olim per quemdam Brodarium de Sacchettis de Florentia'), but he also like Benvenuto, states that the vengeance was accomplished by the murder of one of this family by the nephews of Geri ('nepotes dicti Gerii in ejus ultione quemdam de dictis Sacchettis occiderunt'). Further, the existence of a blood-feud between the Alighieri and the Sacchetti is attested by the fact that in 1342 an act of reconciliation was entered into between these two families at the instance of the duke of Athens, the guarantor on the part of the Alighieri being Dante's half-brother, Francesco, who appeared on behalf of himself and his two nephews, the poet's sons, Pietro and Jacopo, and the rest of the family:

Franciscus quondam Allegherii . . . pro se ipso et suo nomine. . . obligando ac etiam pro et vice et nomine Domini Petri et Jacobi filiorum quondam Dantis Allegherii . . . consortum suorum absentium, et pro et vice et nomine omnium et singulorum aliorum eorum et cujusque ipsorum consortum filiorum fratrum descendentium et adscendentium et consanguineorum in quocunque gradu, tam natorum, quam nasciturorum.

[See M. Barbi, BSDI, ii (1895), 65-70; see also BSDI, iii (1895), 29-30. For further documents concerning Geri and the feuding families, see I. Del Lungo, 'Una vendetta in Firenze', in SPD, pp. 108 ff.; M. Barbi, PCD, i, pp. 275-276, and CD, pp. 2324; and R. Piattoli, 'Geri e Cione del Bello a Prato nel 1280', SD, xvi (1932), 127-132.] E. Lotti, Medio Evo in un castello fiorentino, (Firenze, 1936).

©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