Introduction

Summary

Even the most casual stroll through the streets of Florence may lead to the Ponte Vecchio, where today, at the northern entrance, one finds a plaque (Figure I.1) inscribed with these verses from Dante’s Comedy (Paradiso, 16.145–147): “… conveniasi a quella pietra scema/ che guarda il ponte, che Fiorenza fesse/ vittima nella sua pace postrema” (“it was fitting that Florence, in her last peace, should offer a victim to that mutilated stone which guards the bridge”).¹ The quotation illustrates that when history intersects with physical space it imbues the place with collective memory.² In this instance, the events occurred in 1215: the Florentine knight Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti broke a marriage covenant with the Amidei family.³ His decision to marry instead a woman from the more noble Donati family brought great dishonor not just to the immediate family but to the entire powerful clan to which the Amidei belonged. The violence that ensued marked the starting point for the long-standing hostility between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, factions that represented, respectively, the Buondelmonti and the Amidei. Buondelmonte was murdered at the head of the Ponte Vecchio, near the column bearing an equestrian statue.