Francesca da Rimini(1259 — 1285)
Francesca da Rimini
8 min read
A 13th-century Italian noblewoman, Francesca da Polenta was married to Giovanni Malatesta and then murdered alongside her brother-in-law Paolo, with whom she was in love. Her tragic story was immortalized by Dante in the Divine Comedy.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born around 1255 in Ravenna, daughter of Guido da Polenta
- Married to Giovanni Malatesta (known as 'lo Sciancato') to seal a political alliance
- Murdered around 1285 by her husband along with her brother-in-law Paolo Malatesta
- Immortalized by Dante Alighieri in Canto V of the Inferno (Divine Comedy, c. 1307–1321)
- Become one of the most iconic figures of tragic courtly love in Western literature
Works & Achievements
The first and most celebrated literary account of Francesca. Dante places her in the second circle of Hell alongside Paolo, among the lustful, yet grants her a long and moving speech that has resonated through the centuries.
Boccaccio's public commentary on the Divine Comedy, in which he expands on Francesca's biography and passes down the legend of the ruse used during the betrothal — the principal source for later tradition.
A Italian Romantic tragedy that reignited interest in Francesca in the nineteenth century and helped establish her as a symbol of sacrificed love and political oppression in Risorgimento Italy.
A major verismo opera inspired by D'Annunzio's tragedy (1901), representing the dramatic and musical culmination of the Francesca legend. It is still regularly performed in major opera houses.
An orchestral work inspired by Canto V of Dante's Inferno, musically depicting the infernal storm and the passion of Francesca and Paolo. One of the best-known orchestral pieces of the nineteenth century.
Anecdotes
According to the tradition reported by Boccaccio
Francesca was allegedly deceived at the time of her betrothal: her future husband Giovanni Malatesta
nicknamed Gianciotto (
the lame one
)
supposedly sent his brother Paolo — younger and more handsome — to meet her in his place. Francesca is said to have believed she was marrying Paolo
only discovering the substitution at the moment of the ceremony. According to contemporaries
this story explains how her love for Paolo came to be.
In Canto V of the Inferno, Dante has Francesca recount the decisive moment of her passion: while reading with Paolo the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, they were consumed by desire at the passage where Lancelot kisses the queen. "A Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it
says Francesca — comparing the book to the go-between Gallehault from the Arthurian romance. This scene is one of the most celebrated in all of medieval literature.
Giovanni Malatesta discovered the two lovers and killed them both on the spot, around 1283–1285. Under medieval Italian law, a deceived husband had the right to kill his adulterous wife and her accomplice caught in the act: Giovanni was never prosecuted for the double murder. He continued to wield political power in Rimini until his death.
Dante knew the Malatesta family personally and was himself received in Ravenna, at the home of Francesca's family's heirs, in the final years of his life (1318–1321). It was in this city that he completed the Divine Comedy and died in 1321. The fact that he places Francesca in Hell, yet with profound compassion, remains one of the most moving and most debated passages in the entire work.
Francesca's marriage to Giovanni Malatesta was above all a political alliance: her father, Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, was seeking military support against his Guelph and Ghibelline enemies. The Malatesta family, rising to prominence in Rimini, also found it in their interest. Francesca had no say in the matter, as was customary for noble daughters in the thirteenth century.
Primary Sources
«Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende, / prese costui de la bella persona / che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende. / Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona, / mi prese del costui piacer sì forte, / che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona.»
«Fu adunque questa Francesca figliuola di messer Guido Vecchio da Polenta... e fu data per moglie a messer Giovanni figliuolo di messer Malatesta da Verucchio... La qual cosa avvedutasi Francesca, e già avendo preso amore con Paolo...»
«Malatesta de Verucchio dominus Arimini genuit filios... Iohannes qui claudus vocatur occidit uxorem suam et Paulum fratrem propter adulterium.»
«Francisca fuit nobilis domina de Polenta de Ravenna, filia Guidonis Senioris... quae nupsit Joanni Malatestae claudo, et postea tractavit amores cum Paulo fratre suo...»
Key Places
Birthplace of Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. It was from this city that her father arranged her political marriage into the Malatesta family of Rimini.
City of the Malatesta, Francesca's husband's family. It was at the palace of Rimini — or, according to some sources, at the castle of Gradara — that the tragedy unfolded: the discovery of the affair and the double murder.
A medieval fortress on the border of the Marche and Romagna regions, long identified by local tradition as the precise location where Francesca and Paolo were murdered by Giovanni Malatesta.
Birthplace of Dante, who immortalized Francesca in the *Divine Comedy*. The literary culture of the *Dolce Stil Novo* in Florence, of which Dante was the foremost representative, celebrated precisely the courtly love that Francesca lived out so tragically.
