Beatrice d'Este (1268–1334)
Beatrice d’Este (Ferrara, 1268 - Milan, 15 September 1334) was an Italian noblewoman, now primarily known for Dante Alighieri's allusion to her in Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divine Comedy.
She was married off at a very young age to a man from Pisa named Nino Visconti, who was a judge in the district of Gallura in northeast Sardinia.
Because she was a widow who only had a daughter and no male heir, she was placed in the responsibility and authority of her brother Azzo, who had a reputation for being unkind.
This engagement was arranged by Azzo to use her sister’s status as a young widow to form a favorable alliance with a different family.
After returning to the city, in 1313, the emperor, Henry VII of Luxembourg, appointed Galeazzo the imperial vicar or Piacenza.
Beatrice d’Este died on 15 September 1334 in Milan, and was buried in the church of San Francesco Grande, which was demolished in 1806.
In Purgatorio, the second canticle of the poem, Dante and Virgil meet Nino Visconti in Ante-Purgatory, or the area outside St. Peter’s gate, which is reserved for people who neglected their spiritual and religious undertakings for the sake of their country.
I do not think her motherstill loves me: she gave up her white veils—surely,poor woman, she will wish them back again.Through her, one understands so easilyhow brief, in woman, is love’s fire—when notrekindled frequently by eye or touch.The serpent that assigns the Milanesetheir camping place will not provide for hera tomb as fair as would Gallura’s rooster.Nino tells Dante that his widow, Beatrice, who remains unnamed in the canto, remarried into a different branch of the Visconti in Milan.
Remarriage was common in the Middle Ages, and Dante is aware that remarriages are acceptable socially, as shown in Paradiso xv, 103-105: No daughter’s birth brought fear unto her father, for age and dowry then did not imbalance—to this side and to that—the proper measure.However, Dante disagreed with these social standards as he considered them debased, and instead judged Beatrice according to his own moral standard.
Bernardino of Siena had said that widows should live a chaste life, and Augustine had argued that people, after having already enjoyed marital carnal pleasures, should then turn to spirituality and refrain from remarrying.
[6] That brow with hair so black is Ezzelino;that other there, the blonde one, is Obizzoof Este, he who was indeed undone, within the world above, by his fierce son.Here, Dante accuses Azzo VII of killing his own father to ensure his position as the marquisate of Ferrara.
[8] Alfonso Lazzari points out that Dante was a relative of a noble Ferrarese family who had descended from the Aldighieri, and that the Fontanesi had even supported the Estensi in the past.
[2] Benvenuto says that there was no reason for Beatrice to not remarry, as the church allows remarriage, and as she was young and had no male heirs, she had to follow her brother’s demands.
Benevenuto disagrees with Dante in saying that Beatrice remarried because she desired to do so—he says she had no choice in the matter to oppose her brother’s wishes.
Christiane Klapisch-Zuber adds that this sort of remarriage is not unique, given that young widows tended to be “the target of a whole set of forces struggling fiercely for control of their bodies and their fortunes.”[10]
