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Appendix A: Selective Chronology of Historical Events APPENDIX A: SELECTIVE CHRONOLOGY OF HIsTORICaL EVENTs 1190 Piero della Vigna born in Capua. 1212 Manente (“Farinata”) degli Uberti born in Florence. 1215 The Buondelmonte (Guelf) and Amidei (Ghibelline) feud begins in Florence. It lasts thirty-three years and stirs parti- san political conflict in Florence for decades thereafter. 1220 Brunetto Latini born in Florence. Piero della Vigna named notary and scribe in the court of Frederick II. 1222 Pisa and Florence wage their first war. 1223 Guido da Montefeltro born in San Leo. 1225 Piero appointed Judex Magnae Curia, judge of the great court of Frederick. 1227 Emperor Frederick II appoints Ezzelino da Romano as commander of forces against the Guelfs in the March of Verona. 1228 Pisa defeats the forces of Florence and Lucca at Barga. 1231 Piero completes the Liber Augustalis, a new legal code for the Kingdom of Sicily. 1233 The cities of the Veronese March, a frontier district of The Holy Roman Empire, transact the peace of Paquara, which lasts only a few days. © The Author(s) 2020 249 R. A. Belliotti, Dante’s Inferno, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40771-1 250 AppeNDiX A: Selective ChrONOlOgY Of HistOrical EveNts 1234 Pisa renews war against Genoa. 1235 Frederick announces his design for a Holy Roman Empire at a general assembly at Piacenza. 1236 Frederick assumes command against the Lombard League (originally including Padua, Vicenza, Venice, Crema, Cremona, Mantua, Piacenza, Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Vercelli, Lodi, Parma, Ferrara, and a few others). Ezzelino da Romano controls Verona, Vicenza, and Padua. 1237 Frederick defeats the Milanese and their allies at Cortenuova. 1238 Pope Gregory IX joins forces with Venice and Genoa against Frederick, who establishes Ghibelline supremacy in Turin, Asti, Novara, and Alessandria. His siege at Brescia is unsuccessful, however. 1239 Piero serves as codirector of Fredrick’s imperial bureau- cracy and judiciary. The Milanese recapture Ferrara. 1239 The pope excommunicates Frederick. On behalf of Guelfs, the Venetians and Bolognese forces seize control in Ravenna. 1239 Farinata is recognized as the leader of Florentine Ghibellines and the Uberti family. 1240 Frederick recovers Ravenna. 1244 Florentine Ghibellines invite the leaders of the seven major guilds to join the city councils. This overture is innovative in that the rival political parties had previously consisted only of nobles and aristocrats. But the pilot program was soon abandoned, having sown the seeds of popular political involvement. 1247 Piero named Protonotary (Chief Clerk and Jurist) of the Imperial Court and Logothetes (Chancellor) of Sicily. 1247 Parma revolts against Frederick II. 1248 Revolution in Florence places the city in control of Ghibellines. Farinata, fueled by the connivance and military support of Frederick II, defeats the Guelfs and drives them into exile. Frederick also besieges Parma, but loses his trea- sury as Vittoria is captured by the Milanese and the Lombard League. AppeNDiX A: Selective ChrONOlOgY Of HistOrical EveNts 251 1249 Piero is removed from office, arrested, imprisoned, and blinded. While a prisoner, Piero della Vigna commits suicide. 1250 At battle of Figline, by exploiting aristocratic feuds, the common people seize control of Florence. The Primo Populo excludes the propertied nobility from holding politi- cal office in Florence. Only those with trades and skills may attain governmental positions. Meanwhile, Frederick II dies. Farinata is exiled from Florence and seeks refuge in Siena. 1251 The Florentines recall Guelf exiles and wage wars on neigh- boring cities. 1254 The Florentine “Year of Victories” over several Ghibelline cities in Tuscany. 1254 Brunetto Latini composes the peace treaty and helps broker the peace pact between Siena (Ghibelline) and Florence (Guelf). He also serves as scribe and letter-writer (ditta- tore), and notary of the Anziani (twelve man senate of Florence). Brunetto has extensive contact with officials in Volterra, Genoa, and other Tuscan municipalities. Also, he crafts a peace treaty between Florence and the Guelfs of Arezzo. 1257 Brunetto composes and helps broker a peace pact with Faenza. He is also involved with preparations for military action in Apulia against Manfred of Sicily on behalf of Pope Alexander IV. 1258 Florence exiles Ghibelline political leaders. A group of vigi- lantes torture and behead Tesauro dei Beccheria of Pavia, papal legate to Alexander IV in Tuscany and the Abbot of Vallombrosa, suspecting that he had betrayed Florence to a faction of exiled Ghibellines. (Dante places the abbot in the second ring of the ninth circle of hell: I 32.119-120.) Brunetto composes a letter to the Ghibellines in Pavia in an ornate, sarcastic style, complete with Biblical allusions, that is reminiscent of the epistolary of Piero della Vigna. 1259 Omberto Aldobrandesco, count of Santafiore, killed in bat- tle by the Sienese at Campagnatico. 1260 Brunetto serves as judge and notary for Montevarchi. Florence appoints Brunetto to secure the aid of Alfonso X 252 AppeNDiX A: Selective ChrONOlOgY Of HistOrical EveNts of Castile in repelling the diplomatic and military advances of the imperialist Ghibellines. 1260 In September, however, Manfred of Sicily, an illegitimate offspring of Emperor Frederick II, along with Sienese and Florentine Ghibellines, led by Farinata degli Uberti, defeat the Florentine Guelfs at the Battle of Montaperti. Commentators cite the murder of Tesauro as significant contributing cause for the Pope to continue his censure against Florence and for the Sienese Ghibellines to claim their military cause was just. Farinata, famously, refuses to permit the razing of Florence. One of the prominent Ghibelline leaders who unsuccessfully opposes Farinata’s mercy is Provenzano Salvani, lord of Siena. 1260 Brunetto learns of his exile from Florence from a Bolognese student in the Pass of Roncesvalles as Brunetto returns from Spain. 1260–1266 Brunetto resides mainly in France and composes his most renowned literary works. He also pens several letters, politi- cal and financial documents, to various foreign officials encouraging the connivances of Charles of Anjou and Pope Clement IV against Manfred of Sicily. Brunetto is part of a government in exile, dealing with Tuscan bankers and churches in foreign lands to secure funds for a war against Manfred. 1264 Farinata degli Uberti dies. 1265 Dante Alighieri born in Florence. 1266 The popular Florentine guilds and the Guelfs rise up against the Ghibellines. Charles of Anjou defeats and kills Manfred of Sicily in the Battle of Benevento. Brunetto returns to Florence. Ghibellines are ousted. Charles assumes the duties of podestà (chief magistrate) of Florence for twelve years. During his reign, Charles marginalizes the populo. The Guelfs take control of Florence and usher in a peace enduring almost three decades. However, despite the deba- cle at Benevento, the Ghibellines remain formidable, espe- cially in Siena and Pisa, traditional rivals of Florence. 1268 Guido da Montefeltro serves in Rome as vicar of Corradino, grandson of Frederick II. 1269–1271 Brunetto serves as protonotary for Charles of Anjou. AppeNDiX A: Selective ChrONOlOgY Of HistOrical EveNts 253 1269 Charles summons a general assembly of all Lombard cities at Cremona. Some bestow the title signoria (“lord” or “de facto sovereign”) on him; the others offer him an alliance. Charles anoints himself “imperial vicar.” The Church is not amused. 1269 Regolino Tolomei kills and beheads Provenzano Salvani, a Sienese Ghibelline military leader, at the battle of Colle di Val d’Elsa where the Florentine Guelfs prevail. Provenzano’s severed head is affixed to a lance and paraded about the battlefield. His invidious and spiteful aunt, Sapia, rejoices. 1272–1274 Brunetto serves as Chancellor of Florence and Notary to the Councils and Chancellor of the Commune (“notarius consiliorum communis Fiorentini”). 1274 Guido da Montefeltro takes charge of the Ghibellines of Romagna. 1275 Guido defeats Guelf forces under Malatestino da Rimini at Ponte San Procolo. Later that year, at Raversano he defeats the Malatesta from Casena. 1275 Brunetto is counsel of the Guild of Judges and Notaries. 1276 Guido da Montefeltro holds all antipapal authority in Romagna. 1276 Among numerous others, Rinieri da Calboli, a leading political and military figure in Tuscany for almost three decades, participates with the Florentines in an attack on Forli. After some early successes, he is outmaneuvered by Guido da Montefeltro and forced to surrender. Guido spares Rinieri’s life but burns down his castle. Rinieri soon reemerges as a Guelf political and military force in Tuscany. 1277 Pope Nicholas III convinces Charles to relinquish the title of imperial vicar. The Visconti family seizes power in Milan. 1280 Annoyed by French power brokers, Pope Nicholas III sends his nephew, Cardinal Malabranca to Florence. (In the nineteenth canto of Inferno, Dante condemns Nicholas with the other simonists to the eighth circle of hell.) 1280 Brunetto acts as a guarantor of the Peace of Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini, nephew of Pope Nicholas III. The pact ensures that Ghibellines who had emigrated or had been exiled could return to Florence with political guarantees. (The Uberti family is excluded from this political accom- 254 AppeNDiX A: Selective ChrONOlOgY Of HistOrical EveNts modation.) On the surface, Florence embodies a coalition government, although Guelfs remain the majority party. 1282
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