Parisina Malatesta

Edward Gibbon acquainted English readers with the story in 1796, after which Lord Byron wrote the poem Parisina, which was followed by operas of the same name by Donizetti and Mascagni.

According to some sources, during a trip in 1424[6] to visit her family, Parisina was accompanied, according to her husband's wishes, by Ugo d'Este, illegitimate son of Niccolò by his lover, Stella de' Tolomei.

[4] Other sources report that to escape the plague of 1423 she took refuge in the castello di Fossadalbero accompanied by her stepson, and it was there that relationship started.

Edward Gibbon briefly told the story in his Miscellaneous Works in 1796:By the testimony of a maid, and his own observation, the Marquis of Este discovered the incestuous love of his wife Parisina, and Hugo his bastard son, a beautiful and valiant youth.

Pietro Mascagni composed a tragic opera Parisina based on the lyric tragedy written by Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1912 as another adaptation of Byron's poem.

The story has been the subject of paintings by Girolamo Domenichini, Thomas Jones Barker, Ford Madox Brown (a lost work), Giuseppe Bertini, Gaetano Previati, Bartolomeo Giuliano, Domenico Morelli, Maria Orsola Castelnuovo, and Achille Funi.