Gemma Donati, Dante’s wife

Gemma Donati was born in Florence, probably around 1265, to Messer Manetto Donati, and was betrothed at a young age to Dante, in 1277, the year in which the dowry deed was drawn up, on 9 February, by the notary Oberto Baldovini. Her marriage to the poet must have taken place some years later, probably between 1283 and 1285, if one takes as legitimate their first son, Giovanni, mentioned in a Lucca document dating from 1308. After Giovanni there were two more sons, Pietro and Iacopo, and a daughter, Antonia, who entered the convent of Santo Stefano degli Ulivi in Ravenna at a young age, taking the name of sister Beatrice. According to a somewhat over-romaticized account by Vittorio Imbriani, Gemma was not a good choice of wife for Dante. According to Boccaccio, the relationship between husband and wife deteriorated irretrievably with the poet’s exile. It seems that from this point on, the couple never wished to see each other again. In the documents that follow Dante’s death, the name Gemma appears in a number of petitions to the judge requesting that a sum equal to the amount of her dowry be refunded to her from her husband’s patrimony, which the municipality had confiscated after he had been sentenced. After moving from San Martino del Vescovo – the part of the city to which Dante also belonged – to San Benedetto, Gemma died towards the end of 1342 or early in 1343: in a deed from 9 January 1343, Iacopo Alighieri declares himself to be his mother’s heir.