Berti

   Bellincion Berti vid’ io andar cinto
di cuoio e d’osso, e venir dallo specchio
la donna sua senza il viso dipinto.

(Paradiso XV.112-14)

   I saw Bellincion Berti clad
in leather and bone, and his wife
put down her mirror with an unpainted face.

Containing more verses taken from Cacciaguida’s memories of ancient Florence, this plaque commemorates the lofty family values of the good ol’ days when noblemen (and women) were unaffected by the lure of luxurious clothes and makeup. This is the area of the city where the houses of the Ravignani stood.

This branch of the Berti family belonged to the Guelph party, but the most famous part of their family’s history is without doubt the story of Berti’s daughter, Gualdrada.

“Bellincione Berti [was] a nobleman and powerful citizen of the Ravignani family, who were once great but have since disappeared,” Villani writes. “His daughter was the Countess Gualdrada. When she married the first Count Guido, her houses passed by inheritance to the Counts Guidi, her descendants, when they became citizens of Florence. These properties were later sold to the Cerchi.” (Nuova cronica 4.2)

Above: Giorgio Vasari and Giovanni Stradano, oil on wood. On the ceiling of the so-called Sala di Gualdrada in Palazzo Vecchio Gualdrada refuses to kiss the emperor Otto IV above the allegorical personification of Florence.

Boccaccio recounts the story of Gualdrada as follows:

“This Gualdrada [...] was the daughter of messer Bellincione Berti of the Ravignani family, who were noble fellow citizens of ours. Once, when Emperor Otto IV chanced to be in Florence, [...] he attended a celebration in the baptistry of San Giovanni. It so happened that the wife of this messer Berto came to the church in the company of other women of the city, as is our custom, and brought along this daughter of hers called Gualdrada, who was still a young lady. After they had seated themselves off to one side with the other women, her exceptional beauty (in both stature and proportion) caused almost all the people nearby to turn to admire her. Among those who looked at her was the emperor, who, having copiously praised her for her beauty and demeanor, asked messer Berto (who was sitting in front of him) who she was. Messer Berto responded with a smile, ‘Considering who her father is, I should be very glad to have you kiss her, if you would so desire.’ Upon hearing these words (for she was very close to the one who spoke them), the girl became so dismayed that her father would announce his belief that she would allow herself to be indecently kissed by anyone whenever he requested it, that she rose to her feet. She looked at her father and then, with an expression slightly altered by pudicity, said, ‘Father of mine, do not be so generous in promising away my modesty, for, unless force is used, I shan’t be kissed by anyone other than the man you give me as a husband.’ The emperor, who understood her meaning very well, marvelously praised both the affirmation and the girl herself, as he realized that such words could only come from a most honest and chaste heart. He therefore immediately thought to have her married. He summoned before himself a young nobleman called Guido Bevisangue (later known as Count Guido the Elder) who did not have a wife. He persuaded Guido and ordered that they be married. As a dowry, the emperor gave him vast lands in the Casentino and in the Alps, establishing him as their count.” (Expositions on Dante’s Comedy XVI.lit.16-19)

It’s interesting to note that Bellincione, accidentally successful in marrying off the Good Gualdrada, married another daughter (whose name doesn’t survive) to Alaghiero, Dante’s great-grandfather. Dante’s grandfather was in turn named Bellincione and his father Alaghiero.

Coat of arms of Bellincione Berti