Nella Donati (possibly also known as Giovanna or Giovannella) was a medieval noblewoman from Florence, Italy. [1] She is primarily known because of Dante Alighieri's treatment of her relationship to her husband, Forese Donati, in the Divine Comedy and in a series of poems Dante exchanged with Forese.
Nella is associated with the Frescobaldi family. She was married to Forese Donati and they had one daughter named Ghita. [1] In 1296, Forese died in Florence, and Nella became a widow. She has been described to be young at Forese's death. She is not known to have ever remarried. [2] Nella is also associated with the Ghibellines, according to Dante's writings. [3]
A key to understanding the literary reception of Nella Donati is through Dante's tenzone with Forese. This tenzone is composed of sonnets that Dante used to comment on Forese. In this tenzone, Dante uses a negative tone to address Forese and Nella. [4] Interpretations focus on the importance of the fact that most of his tenzone poems were written in Florence, which emphasizes how much he connects Nella and her husband to the city. [5] Dante describes Nella by her unattractive and loud cough. He represents her as a cold and harsh woman, no matter the weather. [4] He insults Nella but attributes her poor behavior to Forese's effects on her. [6]
The underlying message in his tenzone is that Forese's sexual inadequacies have left Nella lonely and frigid. According to Dante, Forese cannot sexually please Nella or provide her more than one child. [2] Not only does Forese have trouble properly satisfying his wife, but Dante also critiques him for his self-serving economic motives. [2] His gluttony furthers Nella's critical appearance here as she cannot afford proper care for herself, so she is prone to sickness. [7] Dante hints at this by mentioning her insufficient bedsheets (copertoio in Italian). [5] Her agonizing cough is a product of their lacking sex life as well as the money that Forese has wasted. [3]
Dante also uses Nella to emphasize Forese's immoral bloodline. [8] One line includes an exclamation from Nella's mother in which she laments the disgust she has for Forese. [4] Here we find that Forese not only squandered his own money but that he has also spent all of Nella's dowry. [9] In Dante's sonnet, Nella's mother is upset at his rash behavior and exclaims that Nella could have been married off to a rivaling political faction. [5] According to her mother, Nella almost married a member of the Guidi family, an ancient and prominent Florentine clan, which her family turned down for Forese. [4] Her regret relays to Dante's audience how despicably Forese handles his money and uses it to shame his class status. Dante even mentions that the Donati family was so notorious for stealing money that Florentines feared using money around them. This heavy emphasis on Nella's unfulfilling marriage highlights that Forese's title is deteriorating further. [8]
The tenzone is acknowledged to paint a picture of an ever-cold wife who is both luckless and possibly unfaithful. Some interpret the description of bedsheets as an accusation of Nella being an adulteress. [9] Dante also points out her Ghibelline ties and makes this yet another point for Forese to distrust her. [7] However, interpretations do not see these comments as attacks on Nella, instead, they are seen as indirect critiques of Forese. [3]
Some interpretations draw from the similarities of Dante's opinion on Nella and his overarching view of Florence. To Dante, both are neglected female entities who fall to the greed of others. In this evaluation, Dante uses Nella to expand his commentary on Florence at the time of upheaval. [10] The tenzone itself is seen as a masculine charged attempt for superiority over Florence, in which Dante uses Nella to insult Forese's authority on the subject [3] .
Nella appears in a conversation between Dante and Forese Donati in Canto 23 of Purgatorio in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy . She is mentioned after Dante learns that his gluttonous friend Forese has somehow advanced very far in Purgatory. Dante is surprised at this and asks how he could be so high up in Purgatory, as he has only recently died. Forese explains to him that he was only able to get so far because of his righteous wife, Nella. Here we learn that she has been weeping and praying for Forese, and that these good works helped him move through Purgatory much more quickly than he could have alone. Since she has kept his name alive on earth, and prayed to God for him so often, he has spent less than four years in the lower levels of Purgatory. Now he is at the Terrace of Gluttony. [11]
In contrast to her depiction in tenzone, Dante portrays Nella in a much different manner in Purgatorio. In Purgatorio, Nella's prayers accentuate her extreme level of devotion to God. She is the perfect representation of the widow that Dante imagines God desires, in her pure devotion to Him. Dante also underlines the importance of her not remarrying after becoming a widow. She is not the defiant woman seen in tenzone, but instead a righteous woman of God, helping her husband reach salvation. [2] Nella becomes a go-between with God through her prayers. She is the opposite of the distrustful wife who was represented in the tenzone. Dante no longer believes Forese should be suspicious of her but that he should respect her. Nella is often compared to Forese's sister, Piccarda Donati, because Dante represents them both as good and virtuous women. [7] In fact, Piccarda is so virtuous that she is explained to be in Heaven, which emphasizes the extent to which Nella is complimented throughout Dante and Forese's conversation. [3]
In their relationship to each other, Forese and Nella symbolize a couple with true love for each other. Forese speaks sweetly of her and exclaims that he has always loved her. He spends much of the canto praising Nella for her goodness and underscoring his love for her. [11] Their reciprocity as a couple is shown in how Nella makes sure he is never forgotten on earth, through her prayers. [2] Nella and Forese show the example of what marriages under God should be, according to Dante. Nella is a perfect widow to Forese: she cries for him, prays and is utterly devoted to him even after his death. [3] Unlike the standards of the time, Nella does not follow the path of other widows in her culture, she doesn't remarry and become unfaithful. [2] Dante views this as the ideal behavior for widows, and Forese applauds Nella for her exemplary conduct as a wife. He explicitly says that she is someone special and deserving of God's love, which she in turn receives for her good deeds. [4]
Several interpreters see Dante's evolving opinion on Nella as an apology of sorts. They see his kindness toward Nella in Purgatorio as a way for him to make up for his negative view of her in his tenzone. They also explain that it is not likely that Forese himself had such a change in heart, but rather Dante's perspective that changed. [1] This depiction of her is often understood as Dante being forgiving, not Forese being overly affectionate to Nella. [6]
Nella is also used as a mode for Dante to critique the morality of Florentine women. In Purgatorio, Dante and Forese reference the women they know in Florence in negative terms. They shun the women for showing their bodies off with little care for social standards. [2] Forese also shares a prophecy in which he tells Dante that these women will face punishment for their promiscuity. [11] This is seen as a glimpse into the medieval values of the time: particularly that of open feminine sexuality. Since Dante includes these women in the same instance that he mentions Nella, he associates the Florentine women with heightened immorality in comparison to Nella's perfected behavior. [2] While Dante and Forese discuss that both the humans on earth and God above disapproves of the "more sexual" women in Florence, they treat Nella with admiration. Sara Díaz writes that when Dante contrasts her to the women in Florence, the lack of appreciation these women show to God is evident. Diaz also sees the way Dante speaks of these women as being misogyny toward both these women and Nella. [2]
Some commentaries find that Dante's focus on Nella in Purgatorio and the tenzone with Forese has been incorporated into later works by influential poets and authors. [5]
Fourteenth-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio seems to have incorporated Dante's treatment of Nella Donati in the Decameron. [12] In one of the Decameron's tales, Boccaccio features a marriage relationship that bears strong similarities with Forese and Nella's relationship as depicted by Dante in his tenzone with Forese. In the seventh tale of the Tenth Day of the Decameron, Mazzeo's wife is sexually unhappy. She is described as being "cold" and empty due to her husband's incompetence. Dante scholar Fabian Alfie focuses on the similarities between Dante's depiction of Nella in his tenzone, and the adulterous woman in the Decameron. He believes that Boccaccio drew from the description of Forese and Nella in Dante's tenzone to blame the Mazzeo for his inabilities as a husband. Rather than leave the "coldness" up to interpretation, like Dante does, Boccaccio explicitly attributes it to Mazzeo's inadequacies. Mazzeo's wife is not punished for their failed marriage. Boccaccio often quotes Dante throughout his writing, sometimes to disagree with Dante's conclusions about politics or cultural standards. [5]
Boccaccio also borrows from Dante's poetry in the eighth tale of the Seventh Day. In this story, a gentlewoman named Sismonda cheats on her merchant husband, Arriguccio. She almost ends up caught, but then successfully hides her infidelity from her family. Her mother, upset that her daughter was accused of cheating on Arriguccio, criticizes her sons for treating Sismonda so. She further attacks Arriguccio for his status and downgrades him by comparing his attitude to that of a peasant. Sismonda's mother's attack on Arriguccio mirrors Nella's mother's comments in the tenzone. Alfie finds this a copy of Dante's words but with a focus on class differences, rather than on political issues. He believes that by using Dante's work as a basis, Boccaccio expands on his feelings against the merchant class. According to relevant commentary, by not reprimanding Sismonda for her bad behavior, Boccaccio's writing is connected to Dante's depiction of Nella in Purgatorio 23. [5] Both are not blamed for their issues but are instead used to point out their husbands' incompetence socially, politically, and sexually.
Fabian Alfie also compares Nella to characters in Machiavelli's works. He sees Machiavelli as rooting his play Mandragola on the commentary Boccaccio makes in the Decameron. Machiavelli's character Callimaco makes similar descriptions of a woman's coldness that both Boccaccio and Dante utilize. Although Alfie believes that Machiavelli was more directly influenced by Boccaccio, he still concludes that this style of description originated in Dante's tenzone. [5]
Dante Alighieri, most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the fourteenth century. Some scholars define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism.
This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.
Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari was an Italian woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also identified with the Beatrice who acts as his guide in the last book of his narrative poem the Divine Comedy, Paradiso, and during the conclusion of the preceding Purgatorio. In the Comedy, Beatrice symbolises divine grace and theology.
Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil—except for the last four cantos, at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide. Allegorically, Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem posits the theory that all sins arise from love – either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.
Belacqua is a minor character in Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio, Canto IV. He is considered the epitome of indolence and laziness, but he is nonetheless saved from the punishment of Hell in Inferno and often viewed as a comic element in the poem for his wit. The relevance of Belacqua is also driven by Samuel Beckett's strong interest in this character.
Ugolino Visconti, better known as Nino, was the Giudice of Gallura from 1275 or 1276 to his death. He was a son of Giovanni Visconti and grandson of Ugolino della Gherardesca. He was the first husband of Beatrice d'Este, daughter of Obizzo II d'Este. His symbol was a cock.
Corso Donati was a leader of the Black Guelph faction in 13th- and early 14th- century Florence.
Piccarda Donati was a medieval noblewoman and a religious woman from Florence, Italy. She appears as a character in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
Forese Donati was an Italian nobleman born in Florence, associated with the Guelphs. He was the son of Simone di Forese and Tessa, and the brother of Corso and Piccarda Donati. He was married to Nella Donati, and had one daughter, Ghita, with her. He was known as a childhood friend of Dante Alighieri. He died in 1296, in Firenze.
Bonagiunta Orbicciani, also called Bonaggiunta and Urbicciani, was an Italian poet of the Tuscan School, which drew on the work of the Sicilian School. His main occupation was as a judge and notary. Fewer than forty of his poems survive.
Pia de' Tolomei was an Italian noblewoman from Siena identified as "la Pia," a minor character in Dante's Divine Comedy who was murdered by her husband. Her brief presence in the poem has inspired many works in art, music, literature, and cinema. Her character in the Divine Comedy is noted for her compassion and serves a greater program among the characters in her canto, as well as the female characters in the entire poem.
Corrado Malaspina, was an Italian nobleman and landowner.
Gemma Di Manetto Donati, commonly shortened to Gemma Donati, was the wife of Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
Alagia Fieschi, also known as Alagia di Nicolò Fieschi and Alagia di Fieschi, was the daughter of Count Nicolò Fieschi and niece of Pope Adrian V. Alagia married Moroello Malaspina in the 1280s and they had five children. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Alagia is remembered by Adrian V at the end of his conversation with Dante as the only virtuous woman in his family whom he wishes to pray on his behalf. Alagia’s mention as the only virtuous person in her family reflects Dante’s view about Alagia's family's actions involving the Malaspina family. In addition, Alagia is celebrated by Dante through his portrayal of her as a virtuous woman whose prayer can contribute to Adrian V's journey of salvation.
Bonconte I da Montefeltro was an Italian Ghibelline general. He led Ghibelline forces in several engagements until his battlefield death. Dante Alighieri featured Montefeltro as a character in the Divine Comedy.
Giovanna da Montefeltro was a thirteenth-century Italian noblewoman and the wife of Bonconte I da Montefeltro. She is referenced by Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy for not remembering her late husband in her prayers.
Sapia Salvani was a Sienese noblewoman. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, she is placed among the envious souls of Purgatory for having rejoiced when her fellow Sienese townspeople, led by her nephew Provenzano Salvani, lost to the Florentine Guelphs at the Battle of Colle Val d'Elsa.
Beatrice d’Este was an Italian noblewoman, now primarily known for Dante Alighieri's allusion to her in Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divine Comedy. Through her first marriage to Nino Visconti, she was judge (giudichessa) of Gallura, and through her second marriage to Galeazzo I Visconti, following Nino’s death, lady of Milan.
