The Alighieri family origins

Dante’s lineage is traceable through a limited number of available documents, collected in Renato Piattoli’s helpful Codice diplomatico dantesco (Florence, 1950), and through Dante’s frequent references to his origins throughout his major poem, although these references may well be imbued with a certain amount of idealization. The claim to an ancient and illustrious noble family is made against the spectacular setting of the heaven of Mars by his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida. This ancestor lived between 1091 or 1101 and 1147 or 1148, and is recalled by the poet as having been knighted by Emperor Conrad III, in whose army he died a martyr in the Holy Land during the second Crusade. There is, however, no documentary confirmation of this reconstruction, and, as Umberto Carpi has recently reiterated[1], its connection with reality has been surmised exclusively from poetic inventio. Indeed, the modest social standing of all Cacciaguida’s descendants, for the most part campsores, namely money exchangers, would appear to negate any claim of nobility. From Cacciaguida’s marriage to a woman described only as donna…di val di Pado (“a woman… of the Po Valley”), two sons were born, Preitenitto and Alighiero, Dante’s great-grandfather. The commentary by Pietro Alighieri tells us that Alighiero I married a daughter of the nobleman Bellincione Berti de’ Ravignani, and they had two sons: Bello, father of the Geri mentioned by Dante in Inf., XXIX 18-36, and Bellincione. The latter, born at the end of the 12th century and still alive in 1269, was an enterprising moneylender, working mainly in Prato, and played a marginal role in Florentine political life. All that is known is that in 1251 he took part in the Council that approved the alliance among Florence, Lucca and Genoa. He and his wife, about whom nothing is known, had at least six sons, who were also engaged in financial activities. Among these sons was Alighiero II, Dante’s father. Even if one accepts Dante’s claims concerning his noble lineage as historically true, it seems clear that through the years there was a definite shift in the social standing of the Alighieri family.

[1] U. Carpi, La nobiltà di Dante, Firenze, Polistampa, 2004.