Ghino di Tacco
Ghino di Tacco He was born in the second half of the 13th century in La Fratta, at the time under the control of the Castle of Torrita, today in the municipality of Sinalunga. Son of the Ghibelline count Tacco di Ugolino and of a Tolomei and brother of Turino, he was a scion of the noble family Cacciaconti branch Guardavalle from which the Gagnoni di Guardavalle family known as the Guardavalli derives, noble patricians of Siena and Montepulciano and together with his father, and he committed thefts and robberies from his homonymous uncle, despite the hunt that was given to him by the Republic of Siena. Once captured, the adult members of the gang were executed in the Piazza del Campo in Siena, while Ghino and his brother were saved thanks to their minor age.
Taking refuge in Radicofani, a fortress on the Via Cassia, on the border between the Republic of Siena and the Papal State, Ghino continued his career as a bandit, but in the form of a "gentleman", always leaving the unfortunate with something to live on. Boccaccio, in fact, depicts him as a good brigand in his Decameron speaking of the kidnapping of the abbot of Cluny, in the second novella of the X day.
Dante, on the other hand, grants him a place among the characters mentioned in the sixth canto of Purgatorio of his Divine Comedy, when he speaks of the jurist Benincasa da Laterina , jurisconsult in Bologna, then judge of the podestà of Siena, killed by the ferocious arms of Ghino di Tacco.
Ghino's exact date of birth is uncertain, but it is certainly placed in the second half of the 13th century, given the evidence that we have about the raids of the Gang of Four made up of his father Tacco di Ugolino, his uncle Ghino di Ugolino and the two little brothers, Ghino himself who was the firstborn and Turino, the younger. From an early age, in fact, Ghino accompanied his father and uncle on raids around his birthplace, the small castle-farm of La Fratta, in the Sienese Val di Chiana which was then part of the Torrita area. The reason for the activity of brigands is probably to be found in the rent, i.e. the withdrawal of land wealth exercised by the Sienese Church in favor of the Pontifical State, a tax considered excessive by the Ghibelline noblemen of the Fratta dei Cacciaconti. At that time the castles in the area, Asinalonga, Scrofiano, Rigomagno, Farnetella, Bettolle, Serre di Rapolano, Torrita di Siena, were all owned by one of the members of the powerful Sienese family Cacciaconti Tolomei. This guaranteed him a sort of impunity towards the central government of Siena.
However, this condition ceased in July 1279, when Tacco occupied the castle of Torrita di Siena, then setting it on fire. In the ensuing battle, Tacco seriously wounded Jacopino da Guardavalle. For this reason, and on the initiative of the Counts of Santa Fiora, Tacco and the rest of the Gang of Four were condemned by the court of the municipality of Siena, which hunted them down for many more years, until they were all captured in 1285. After being tortured, his uncle Ghino di Ugolino and his father Tacco di Ugolino were executed in Piazza del Campo in Siena in 1286. The sentence was issued by the famous judge Benincasa da Laterina, who, among other things, after a few years was named senator and auditor at the court of the Papal State. Ghino and his brother Turino escaped death only because they were still minors, and they remained out of the scene for two or three years.
In 1290 Ghino di Tacco resumed, so to speak, officially the "remunerative" activity of his father: we know in fact that he was sentenced to an administrative fine of 1000 soldi for his robbery carried out near San Quirico d'Orcia. In the meantime Ghino expressed his intention to occupy a fortress near Sinalunga, without the authorization of the Municipality of Siena. This was not tolerated by the central authority of Siena, which banned Ghino himself from the territory of the republic. Ghino fled, occupying the fortress of Radicofani, still in Sienese territory but on the border with the Papal State. Here, in fact, Ghino took part in the struggle for possession of the fortress, which he then conquered, making it his own hideout. From the hill of Radicofani, Ghino continued his raids, concentrating on the wayfarers who passed on the via Francigena below, a fundamental communication route used by pilgrims on their way to Rome. Ghino ambushed the travellers, inquired about their real possessions, then robbed them almost completely, however leaving them with enough to survive and offering them a banquet. For this reason, and because he left both the poor and the students free to continue, Ghino di Tacco was considered a gentleman thief.
Proud of his fame, he felt the duty to avenge his father and brother. For this he went to Rome in search of Benincasa da Laterina, who had by now become an important judge of the court of the Papal State. At the command of four hundred men and armed with a pike, he entered the papal tribunal in the Campidoglio and beheaded Judge Benincasa, then thrusting his head onto the pike which he carried to the fortress of Radicofani, where for a long time he exposed his scalp hanging from the tower. It was precisely this real example of retaliation, on the verge between a coup and a chivalrous feat that Dante Alighieri quoted in the aforementioned verses 13-14 of the VI canto of the Purgatorio of the Divine Comedy, describing the Second shelf of Purgatory, the one where the Careless.
Having accomplished this macabre but theatrical gesture, Ghino went on raids in Val d'Orcia, continuing to nurture around him a legendary aura of proud and unbeatable warrior. It is in this period that the other fact that brought Ghino back to the literary limelight takes place. Boccaccio, in the second novella of the tenth day of the Decameron, speaks of the treatment that Ghino di Tacco reserved for the abbot of Cluny. On his return journey from Rome after having brought Pope Boniface VIII the fruit of the collection of credits from the French Church, he decided to cure his liver and stomach pain with the thermal waters of San Casciano dei Bagni, already a well-known spa at the time .
Ghino, having learned of the arrival of the important and wealthy abbot, organized the ambush and kidnapped him, without causing him any harm. Ghino locked up the abbot in his tower of the Radicofani fortress, feeding him only on bread, dried beans and Vernaccia di Corniglia. This diet "miraculously" made the abbot's stomach ache go away, who convinced Pope Boniface VIII to pardon Ghino di Tacco for the murder of Judge Benincasa, even naming him Knight of San Giovanni and Friere of the Santo Spirito hospital, also making him well liked by Siena.
A similar episode is narrated in a fifteenth-century novel by Saint Bernardino of Siena. Ghinasso meets " a fat fat abbot ", on his way to Bagno di Petriuolo in order to lose weight and recover from stomach ache. After taking him into custody, he keeps him locked up for a few days, giving him only broad beans and fresh water for the first three days. Then increase the ration with dry bread. After the cure, the abbot is cured: Ghinasso questions him about the amount he would have spent at the baths and asks the religious for the sum. The abbot, having arrived in Rome, recommended Ghinasso to all those who had a problem similar to his.
Some historians believe that Ghino died in Rome. According to others, however, following the papal and Sienese pardons, Ghino di Tacco no longer had to hide and go into hiding but, as a "gentleman" as he was, he dedicated himself to others, so much so that, in the second twenty years of the fourteenth century, he died assassinated trying to quell a fight between infantrymen and peasants that broke out in Asinalonga, just two kilometers from his birthplace. Among those who believe that Ghino died in Sinalunga there is Benvenuto da Imola.
Taking refuge in Radicofani, a fortress on the Via Cassia, on the border between the Republic of Siena and the Papal State, Ghino continued his career as a bandit, but in the form of a "gentleman", always leaving the unfortunate with something to live on. Boccaccio, in fact, depicts him as a good brigand in his Decameron speaking of the kidnapping of the abbot of Cluny, in the second novella of the X day.
Dante, on the other hand, grants him a place among the characters mentioned in the sixth canto of Purgatorio of his Divine Comedy, when he speaks of the jurist Benincasa da Laterina , jurisconsult in Bologna, then judge of the podestà of Siena, killed by the ferocious arms of Ghino di Tacco.
Ghino's exact date of birth is uncertain, but it is certainly placed in the second half of the 13th century, given the evidence that we have about the raids of the Gang of Four made up of his father Tacco di Ugolino, his uncle Ghino di Ugolino and the two little brothers, Ghino himself who was the firstborn and Turino, the younger. From an early age, in fact, Ghino accompanied his father and uncle on raids around his birthplace, the small castle-farm of La Fratta, in the Sienese Val di Chiana which was then part of the Torrita area. The reason for the activity of brigands is probably to be found in the rent, i.e. the withdrawal of land wealth exercised by the Sienese Church in favor of the Pontifical State, a tax considered excessive by the Ghibelline noblemen of the Fratta dei Cacciaconti. At that time the castles in the area, Asinalonga, Scrofiano, Rigomagno, Farnetella, Bettolle, Serre di Rapolano, Torrita di Siena, were all owned by one of the members of the powerful Sienese family Cacciaconti Tolomei. This guaranteed him a sort of impunity towards the central government of Siena.
However, this condition ceased in July 1279, when Tacco occupied the castle of Torrita di Siena, then setting it on fire. In the ensuing battle, Tacco seriously wounded Jacopino da Guardavalle. For this reason, and on the initiative of the Counts of Santa Fiora, Tacco and the rest of the Gang of Four were condemned by the court of the municipality of Siena, which hunted them down for many more years, until they were all captured in 1285. After being tortured, his uncle Ghino di Ugolino and his father Tacco di Ugolino were executed in Piazza del Campo in Siena in 1286. The sentence was issued by the famous judge Benincasa da Laterina, who, among other things, after a few years was named senator and auditor at the court of the Papal State. Ghino and his brother Turino escaped death only because they were still minors, and they remained out of the scene for two or three years.
In 1290 Ghino di Tacco resumed, so to speak, officially the "remunerative" activity of his father: we know in fact that he was sentenced to an administrative fine of 1000 soldi for his robbery carried out near San Quirico d'Orcia. In the meantime Ghino expressed his intention to occupy a fortress near Sinalunga, without the authorization of the Municipality of Siena. This was not tolerated by the central authority of Siena, which banned Ghino himself from the territory of the republic. Ghino fled, occupying the fortress of Radicofani, still in Sienese territory but on the border with the Papal State. Here, in fact, Ghino took part in the struggle for possession of the fortress, which he then conquered, making it his own hideout. From the hill of Radicofani, Ghino continued his raids, concentrating on the wayfarers who passed on the via Francigena below, a fundamental communication route used by pilgrims on their way to Rome. Ghino ambushed the travellers, inquired about their real possessions, then robbed them almost completely, however leaving them with enough to survive and offering them a banquet. For this reason, and because he left both the poor and the students free to continue, Ghino di Tacco was considered a gentleman thief.
Proud of his fame, he felt the duty to avenge his father and brother. For this he went to Rome in search of Benincasa da Laterina, who had by now become an important judge of the court of the Papal State. At the command of four hundred men and armed with a pike, he entered the papal tribunal in the Campidoglio and beheaded Judge Benincasa, then thrusting his head onto the pike which he carried to the fortress of Radicofani, where for a long time he exposed his scalp hanging from the tower. It was precisely this real example of retaliation, on the verge between a coup and a chivalrous feat that Dante Alighieri quoted in the aforementioned verses 13-14 of the VI canto of the Purgatorio of the Divine Comedy, describing the Second shelf of Purgatory, the one where the Careless.
Having accomplished this macabre but theatrical gesture, Ghino went on raids in Val d'Orcia, continuing to nurture around him a legendary aura of proud and unbeatable warrior. It is in this period that the other fact that brought Ghino back to the literary limelight takes place. Boccaccio, in the second novella of the tenth day of the Decameron, speaks of the treatment that Ghino di Tacco reserved for the abbot of Cluny. On his return journey from Rome after having brought Pope Boniface VIII the fruit of the collection of credits from the French Church, he decided to cure his liver and stomach pain with the thermal waters of San Casciano dei Bagni, already a well-known spa at the time .
Ghino, having learned of the arrival of the important and wealthy abbot, organized the ambush and kidnapped him, without causing him any harm. Ghino locked up the abbot in his tower of the Radicofani fortress, feeding him only on bread, dried beans and Vernaccia di Corniglia. This diet "miraculously" made the abbot's stomach ache go away, who convinced Pope Boniface VIII to pardon Ghino di Tacco for the murder of Judge Benincasa, even naming him Knight of San Giovanni and Friere of the Santo Spirito hospital, also making him well liked by Siena.
A similar episode is narrated in a fifteenth-century novel by Saint Bernardino of Siena. Ghinasso meets " a fat fat abbot ", on his way to Bagno di Petriuolo in order to lose weight and recover from stomach ache. After taking him into custody, he keeps him locked up for a few days, giving him only broad beans and fresh water for the first three days. Then increase the ration with dry bread. After the cure, the abbot is cured: Ghinasso questions him about the amount he would have spent at the baths and asks the religious for the sum. The abbot, having arrived in Rome, recommended Ghinasso to all those who had a problem similar to his.
Some historians believe that Ghino died in Rome. According to others, however, following the papal and Sienese pardons, Ghino di Tacco no longer had to hide and go into hiding but, as a "gentleman" as he was, he dedicated himself to others, so much so that, in the second twenty years of the fourteenth century, he died assassinated trying to quell a fight between infantrymen and peasants that broke out in Asinalonga, just two kilometers from his birthplace. Among those who believe that Ghino died in Sinalunga there is Benvenuto da Imola.
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