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.
According to a tradition recorded by early commentators of the Divine Comedy, Pia de' Tolomei is identified as "la Pia" in Canto V of Purgatorio. In this canto, Dante and Virgil encounter souls who repented at the time of their violent deaths and now reside in the second division of Ante-Purgatory, which is at the base of the mountain of Purgatory. [1] La Pia's tale follows the violent stories of Buonconte da Montefeltro and Jacopo del Cassero where she briefly says:
Please remember me, who am La Pia.
Siena made me, in Maremma I was undone.
He knows how, the one who, to marry me,
first gave the ring that held his stone. [lower-alpha 1]
Pia tells Dante that she came from Siena and implies that her husband killed her in Maremma. She also asks Dante, once he has rested from his journey, to remember her in his prayers when he returns to Earth (because prayers can shorten her time in Purgatory) since she knows no one else on Earth will pray for her. La Pia additionally stresses the importance of Dante's prayer by using the imperative form of remember. [2] Prayer is a joint activity in turning to God that strengthens human bonds, which has been likened to a city; the city of Siena has been argued to be seen as a purgatorial city where its population is on the journey to salvation. [2] Siena is further seen as a place where human ties are formed, whereas Maremma is where ties are broken. [2]
Pia's calm symmetry in verse 134 (which translates as "Siena made me, unmade me Maremma") places her on a higher plane of understanding than her two predecessors. [3] This line also echoes Virgil's epitaph ("Mantua gave me birth, Calabria took me off") [4] which highlights the cyclic nature of Pia’s life while simultaneously emphasizing the brevity of her life on Earth. [5]
Furthermore, Pia's remarkable capacity for forgiveness is demonstrated in her replacement of her husband with Maremma as the grammatical subject of her murder. [6] This compassion juxtaposes the allusion to her violent death, concluding the canto with a sense of absolution. [6] Moreover, in her last line, Pia recalls her marriage [3] by her wedding ring's gem, which is gemma in Italian, possibly referring to Dante’s wife Gemma Donati. This posits the hopeful notion that Gemma may forgive Dante for leaving her due to his political exile from Florence. [7] This sweeping absolution contributes to the overarching compassion that characterizes this canto. [7] Despite Pia's seeming fragility it has been argued that she is ultimately victorious over her husband via love by forgiving him. [6]
Pia’s story echoes that of the penitent thief who, in Christian belief, was crucified with Christ. [5] He repents and makes a similarly modest request to Christ to be remembered by him in Heaven, thus acquiring eternal salvation after his violent death. [5]
In the context of Canto V, the narratives of the three souls encountered are similarly structured: They start with captatio benevolentiae , followed by a remembrance of Earth and a request for prayers, then they explain the circumstances of their death, and finally, they tell Dante about their violent death. [4] It has also been noted that the souls' deaths in this canto are all conveyed by a visual disunion of the soul and the body; in Pia's case, this is shown by her "unmade" body. [6]
It has been argued that this canto has a transitory theme in many ways: The souls' accounts highlight the fluid transition between bodily death and spiritual life [1] and explore temporal identity in the corporeal body at the time of death. [3] A transition can further be construed between the delicate nature of the body and the body-ego, more specifically from a gendered perspective as the narrative progresses from male egoism to feminine humility. [3] Unlike her predecessors, Pia forsakes the first-person pronoun for a third-person one by inserting the feminine definite article before her name; Pia detaches from her earthly being since she understands her corporeal body as a temporal object. [3] Moreover, every character in this canto is the subject of the gerund except la Pia, who operates as its object in the last verse where instead her husband is the subject, demonstrating Pia as the object of male constructs. [3] Additionally, all three souls in this canto die at borders of the earth and water; Pia dies in swampland, thus returning to Mother Earth. [3] Pia relocates us from Siena to Maremma, contrasting the respective city and swamp. The ending image of the swamp acts as the maternal sea that ultimately absorbs all egos, as the volatility of water can be construed as the volatility inherent to humans. [3] Furthermore, Maremma evokes sea (mare), the seas (maria), as well as the Virgin mother (Maria, madre, mamma), thus cementing its maternal nature. [3] Hence, it is argued that la Pia has the greatest grasp of the three souls in this canto on the ultimate return of all physical, linguistic, and rational beings through water to Mother Earth and thus the spiritual afterlife. [3]
Pia's account also stands out from her two predecessors: Jacopo’s intense tone is followed by Buonconte’s turbulent one ending in Pia's tone of lament, forming a sonata of sorts. [6] Her narrative is also uniquely unspecific but still makes an accusation, albeit a less hostile one. [6] Her modest request for prayer is also unique as she first wishes Dante to rest after he returns to Earth before asking for his prayer, [6] and she also doesn't ask Dante to tell her story on Earth unlike most souls in Purgatory. [1] Moreover, Jacopo and Buonconte confess their sins, but Pia does not, leaving the cause for her state in Purgatory unknown. [5] It has been suggested that Pia still dwells upon her husband's betrayal, which is why she is still in Purgatory. [5] Additionally, Pia’s death is the result of a personal relationship unlike her predecessors whose narratives revolve around political circumstances. [5] Ultimately, Pia's pious speech is argued to humbly conclude a graphic canto. [6]
Pia joins Francesca da Rimini and Piccarda Donati as a victim of domestic abuse whose encounter with Dante is characterized by compassion. It has been argued that together they chart a progression to salvation: from Francesca’s passionate narrative to Pia’s concentration on her ultimate redemption, ending in Piccarda’s submission to God's will. [6] Comparisons have been made between la Pia and Francesca as they both courteously tell Dante of their violent deaths by their husbands. [5] It has been argued that Francesca, however, grieves because her death terminated her affair, not because of her damned state, which is shown by her lengthy narration of her first meeting with her lover. [5] On the other hand, la Pia’s account demonstrates Francesca’s error of failing to turn to God; Pia’s repentance freed her from her marriage which earned her salvation, the privilege Francesca does not have. [5] All three narrations are thus argued to demonstrate degrees of understanding of love in the course to God. [5]
Orthodox views find Pia to be a virtuous victim killed at the hands of her malicious husband, a flirtatious woman who pushed her husband to the edge, or a woman murdered by her husband for a specific offense. [5] These views find that la Pia’s gentle narrative recovers a sense of propriety after the graphic accounts of her two predecessors. [5] However, revisionist views claim these contribute to sentimentalized understandings of Pia and argue that Pia’s account is powerful in the spiritual understanding she has come to, whereby she contrasts her short-lived life on Earth to the immortal link between her soul and God. [5] This view also claims that her account emphasizes the importance of prayers for souls in Purgatory to ascend and that her name is related to piety, both of which reinforce her spiritual understanding of divine grace. [5]
The identification of "la Pia" with Pia de' Tolomei is almost universally accepted, although conclusive documentary proof is yet to be found. Early commentators of the Divine Comedy noted that she was identified as a woman of the Tolomei family from Siena, the unnamed first wife of Nello dei Pannocchieschi. There is also a surviving record of Nello's second marriage to Margherita Aldobrandeschi, countess of Sovana and Pitigliano. It is theorized that Nello murdered Pia at his Castel di Pietra in 1297 either after she found out he was having an affair with Margherita or to clear the way for his second marriage. It is uncertain whether Margherita contributed to Pia’s death since there is evidence of a papal plot that forced her into marrying Nello. [5]
Against this identification, it has been argued that the Tolomei family had no daughters or nieces named Pia in Nello's time. However, another theory posits that Pia was born a Malavoti and entered the Tolomei family by her marriage to Baldo d'Aldobrandino de' Tolomei. According to this version of the events, Pia was accused of adultery by Baldo, then was kidnapped by Nello and taken to Maremma, where she died. An alternate theory is that Pia married Nello after Baldo's death. [5] However, this has been challenged by evidence that she never remarried and Nello’s will having no mention of Pia. [5] Another theory is that she was the wife of Tollo di Prata and was in Nello’s custody after Tollo's death, but there is not enough evidence to support this theory. [5]
It has been theorized that Pia was killed by being thrown out of a window, so her crash into the earth would make her words Maremma "unmade" her literal. [4] An alternate theory suggests Pia was a neglected bride who perished from malaria. [5] Among the early commentators, Jacopo della Lana, the Ottimo Commento, and Francesco da Buti claim that she may have been killed for some crime, while Benvenuto da Imola and the so-called "Anonimo Fiorentino" (an anonymous Florentine commentary from c. 1400) assert that her death was due to her husband's jealousy. The only consensus on Pia's death is its secrecy, which is why la Pia says that only her husband knows how she died. [2]
The Divine Comedy is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
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.
Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Italian troubadour. His life and work have inspired several authors including Dante Alighieri, Robert Browning, and Samuel Beckett.
Pia de' Tolomei is a tragedia lirica in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Bartolomeo Sestini's verse novella Pia de' Tolomei, which was based on Canto V, vv. 130–136 from Dante's narrative poem The Divine Comedy part 2: Purgatorio. It premiered on 18 February 1837 at the Teatro Apollo in Venice.
Eunoe is a feature of Dante's Divine Comedy created by Dante as the fifth river of the dead. In the Purgatorio, the second cantica of Dante's poem, penitents reaching the Garden of Eden at the top of Mount Purgatory are first washed in the waters of the river Lethe in order to forget the memories of their mortal sins. They then pass through Eunoe to have the memories of their good deeds in life strengthened.
Gavorrano is a mountain-side comune (municipality) in the Province of Grosseto in the western Italian region of Tuscany, located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Florence and about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Grosseto. Gavorrano borders the municipalities of Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, Massa Marittima, Roccastrada and Scarlino.
Joannaof Gallura, also known as Giovanna Visconti, was the last titular Judge (giudicessa) of Gallura. Joanna claimed her rights in Sardinia to no avail and eventually sold them to her relatives, the Visconti of Milan, who later sold them to the Crown of Aragon. She is mentioned passingly by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy. Her father, a friend of Dante's, but consigned to Purgatory with the other negligent rulers, asks her to be reminded of him.
Inferno is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".
Pia de' Tolomei is an oil painting on canvas by English artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painted around 1868 and now in the Spencer Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
Casella was an Italian composer and singer, none of whose works have survived.
The Palazzo Tolomei is an imposing, Gothic style urban palace, located on Via Banchi di Sopra in the present contrada of Civetta, Terzo di Camollia of the city of Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy.
Matelda, anglicized as Matilda in some translations, is a minor character in Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divine Comedy. She is present in the final six cantos of the canticle, but is unnamed until Canto XXXIII. While Dante makes Matelda's function as a baptizer in the Earthly Paradise clear, commentators have disagreed about what historical figure she is intended to represent, if any.
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.
Nella Donati was a medieval noblewoman from Florence, Italy. 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.
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.
Jacopo del Cassero was a magistrate and condottiero from late medieval Italy. He appears as a character in Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
