Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (19 June 1417 – 7 October 1468), popularly known as the Wolf of Rimini, was an Italian condottiero and nobleman, a member of the House of Malatesta and lord of Rimini, Fano and Cesena from 1432. He was widely considered by his contemporaries as one of the most daring military leaders in Italy and commanded the Venetian forces in the 1465 campaign against the Ottoman Empire. He was also a poet and patron of the arts.
Biography[]
Sigismondo Pandolfo was born in Brescia, northern Italy, the eldest of the two illegitimate sons of Pandolfo III Malatesta and Antonia da Barignani. His younger brother, Domenico Novello Malatesta, was born also in Brescia on 5 August 1418. Also, he had an eldest (and also illegitimate) half-brother, Galeotto Roberto Malatesta, born in 1411 from the relationship of their father Pandolfo III with Allegra de' Mori.
Following the family's tradition, he debuted as man-at-arms at the age of 13 against his relative Carlo II Malatesta, lord of Pesaro and Pope Martin V's ally, who aimed to annex Rimini, Cesena and Fano to his territories. After his victory Sigismondo obtained, together with his brothers Galeotto Roberto and Domenico, the title of Papal vicar for those cities. In 1431, albeit with inferior forces, he repelled another invasion by the Malatestas of Pesaro. When his elder brother soon abdicated, he became lord of Rimini, at the age of only 15.
In 1432 he accepted the command of a Papal corps, defeating the Spanish condottiero Sante Cirillo and thwarting Antonio I Ordelaffi's attempt to capture Forlì (1435-36). However, the following year Sigismondo occupied the Papal city of Cervia and was excommunicated; he was soon pardoned and created commander of the Papal Army. Later he fought in Romagna and the Marche alongside Francesco Sforza. In the meantime he married his niece Ginevra d'Este, Niccolò III's legitimate daughter by his second wife Parisina Malatesta, first cousin of Sigismondo. On 12 October 1440 she died, and rumours were that she had been poisoned by Sigismondo.[1] Two years later he married Polissena Sforza, Francesco I's illegitimate daughter; they had two children: a son, Galeotto, born in 1442 and who only lived a few months, and a daughter, Giovanna, born in 1444 and later Duchess of Camerino by marriage. In this period he scored a noteworthy victory against Niccolò Piccinino, managing to obtain some territories of Pesaro.
In his restless attitude he betrayed Sforza twice, but he also betrayed his momentary ally against him, Niccolò Piccinino. Enmity against Sforza turned into true hatred when his father-in-law bought the seignory of Pesaro from Carlo Malatesta. Therefore, Sigismondo allied with Pope Eugene IV and the duke of Milan. Later, he was hired by King Alfonso V of Naples, but soon after received the money for the condotta passed at the service of Florence against the former. In 1445 he forced the Neapolitans to leave the siege of Piombino in Tuscany. In 1449 his second wife Polissena died under mysterious circumstances. Francesco Sforza claimed Sigismondo had her drowned by one of his servants, but this has remained unconfirmed. During his two marriages, he had also numerous mistresses, but only two were the most famous: Vannetta dei Toschi, who bore him a son, Roberto, in 1441, and Isotta degli Atti, who bore him four children: Giovanni (who died in infancy), Margherita -later wife of Carlo di Fortebraccio-, Sallustio and Antonia (also called Anna) -later the first wife of Rodolfo Gonzaga, Lord of Castiglione delle Stiviere, who beheaded her in 1483 when she was discovered in adultery-.
After 1449 Malatesta was variously under Venice, Florence, Siena, Naples and Sforza himself. The Peace of Lodi (1454), from which he was excluded, pushed the major Italian powers against him. His territories were repeatedly invaded by Aragonese, Venetian and Papal troops. In 1456 Sigismondo married Isotta degli Atti, her long-time mistress and legitimized their three surviving children; the only son, Sallustio, was declared his heir. On 25 December 1460, a famous process in absentia was held in Rome against Sigismondo. Pope Pius II, who considered him guilty of treachery towards Siena arising from his long-running feud with Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, excommunicated him, declaring him a heretic and attributing to Sigismondo a series of sins (incest, sodomy against his son Roberto and others) which smeared his reputation for centuries.
A true crusade was then launched against Malatesta. The first contingent of Papal troops was defeated in the July 1461, but he was severely crushed on 12 August 1462 by Federico da Urbino near Senigallia. The war ended in 1463 with the loss of all Sigismondo's territories apart from Rimini and a territory of five miles around it: both however were to return to the Papal States after his death. He then sought more fortune as general for Venice in its war against the Ottomans, as a field commander in the Peloponnesus (1464-1466).
In an attempt to reverse this situation, Sigismondo appears to have intended to murder Pius' successor, Pope Paul II (who had asked him to exchange Rimini for Spoleto and Camerino), in 1468, but lost his nerve and returned to Rimini. He died in his residence of Castel Sismondo a few months later.
He was succeeded by his legitimated son and heir Sallustio, under the regency of his mother Isotta; but one year later (1469) his illegitimate son Roberto, also a skilled condottiero, managed briefly to maintain control over Rimini.
Patron of art and reputation[]
Sigismondo's valour and skill as general were widely recognized by his contemporaries. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:[2]
From his childhood he was a skilful and daring soldier, and throughout his life was regarded as almost the first captain in Italy
He was not a religious man, and his Tempio Malatestiano, also known as San Francesco, built in Rimini, by Leon Battista Alberti and decorated by artists including Piero della Francesca and Agostino di Duccio, was essentially a lay monument to Isotta degli Atti, his lover and third wife. It was a landmark Renaissance building, being the first church to use the Roman triumphal arch as part of its structure. Sigismondo also built a notable series of fortifications in his Romagna possessions, including the Rocche ("Castles") of Rimini and Fano.
Malatesta's reputation (albeit minor) was largely based on Pius II's perception of him, although numerous contemporary chronicles described him as a tyrant and a womanizer: he delved in "rape, adultery, and incest".[3] Italian Renaissance historian Francesco Guicciardini defined him "enemy of every peace and well-living".[4] His deeds and political manoeuvers were characterized by all the typical play of violence, intrigues and subtleties typical of Renaissance Italy; however, Sigismondo was well aware of his sins, and tried to justify them in a series of love sonnets dedicated to Isotta.
In 1906, Edward Hutton published the historical novel Sigismondo Malatesta, mostly sympathetic to its hero. It was slightly revised and reprinted under the title The Mastiff of Rimini in 1926.
Hutton's novel and Charles Emile Yriarte's Un condottiere au XV Siècle (1882) were among the main sources of American poet Ezra Pound's Malatesta Cantos (Cantos 8-11), first published in 1923. These are an admiring howbeit fragmentary account of Malatesta's career as warrior, lover and patron.
Largely influenced by Pound, as well as by C. G. Jung, the critic Adrian Stokes devoted a study, The Stones of Rimini (1934), to the art created at Sigismondo's court.
Notes[]
Sources[]
- Rendina, Claudio (1994). I capitani di ventura. Newton Compton.
External links[]
- Commune di Rimini (translated)
"House of Malatesta". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/House_of_Malatesta.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. |