Forlì

Situated at a strategic point on the via Emilia, Forlì became a commune in the twelfth century and in 1241 was granted the right to adopt the Hohenstaufen Eagle on account of support shown to Frederick II. It thus became the main Ghibelline stronghold in the Romagna area. At the end of the thirteenth century, under the Ordelaffi, it became part of the Papal State, but continued to provide a safe refuge for Ghibelline exiles and those belonging to the moderate Guelf faction. It was thus subjected to frequent sieges by the papal troops whose task it was to avert and retaliate against any attacks attempted by the exiles who had taken refuge there. A chronicle written by Forlì Chancellor Pellegrino Calvi and reported by Flavio Biondo, the humanist historian from Forlì, enables us to infer that in February-March 1303, along with other White exiles, the recently exiled Dante also stayed there and was sheltered by Scarpetta Ordelaffi, becoming capitaneus partis Alborum extrinsecorum civitatis Florentiae in preparation for war against the Blacks and to seek military support from Bartolomeo della Scala, the ruler of Verona. A second visit to Forlì, in 1310, seems less likely, although Flavio Biondo claims that during this second visit Dante wrote a letter to Cangrande, in the name of the White Party of Florence, reproaching the Florentines for their behaviour upon Henry VII’s descent into Italy. Dante was later to recall Forlì and the Ordelaffi in Inf., XXVII 43-45, when speaking about the condition of the Romagna with Guido da Montefeltro.