DELLA SCALA, FAMIGLIA

The DELLA SCALA family held the lordship of Verona from 1259 (officially from 1277) until 1387 and died out in Germany in the 16th century. Its origins are obscure; however, it seems certain that it was not of German nationality, as some late scholars claimed.

The family is recorded as early as the 11th century and appears in the events of the early comune (a Balduino was consul in 1147), but it did not stand out among the great communal families of Verona. From the 12th century onward, it held lands in the Valpolicella region as a fief from the monastery of S. Maria in Organo, and in the following century it sided with the Monticelli and Quattrovinti factions against the counts of Verona and in favor of Ezzelino da Romano. This did not prevent Ezzelino from executing some members of the house—Ongarello and Bonaventura in 1246, Federico and Bonifacio in 1257—as traitors. Nevertheless, a certain Lonardino, called Mastino, a descendant of another branch of the family that traced its origins to a Jacopino, vassal of S. Zeno for lands at Castelrotto (1216) and father of Mastino, Alberto, and Federico called Bocca, continued to enjoy Ezzelino’s favor. Mastino was elected podestà of Verona by Ezzelino in 1259. Upon the tyrant’s fall (27 September 1259), as leader of the popular faction that had emerged during Ezzelino’s rule against the noble party of the counts, he was elected podestà of the people, organized into the *Mestieri*; yet in the same year a Venetian, Andrea Zeno, is found holding the office. From 1261, however, Mastino served as podestà of the *Domus Mercatorum* and thus of all the *Mestieri* (1261–1269). In 1262 he was named captain of the people. He was not yet officially lord of Verona, but he was its arbiter. His government tended toward the Ghibelline side; he therefore favored Conradin of Swabia’s enterprise against Charles of Anjou, drawing the excommunication of Clement IV (18 November 1267) upon his house and upon Verona. When Mastino was made podestà of Verona, the office of podestà of the *Domus Mercatorum* passed to his brother Alberto (1269–1277), who, on 12 November 1276, with the help of Bishop Timbido, captured Sirmione, a nest of Patarenes. As many as 166 were taken and brought to Verona, though Mastino contented himself with imprisoning them. He was assassinated on 26 October 1277, and his brother Alberto was elected *Capitaneus et Rector gastaldionum misteriorum et focis populi*, thus legally becoming head of the guilds and simultaneously political head of the commune (1277–1301). Thus the secret lordship was officially established. One of Alberto’s first acts was the trial of the Sirmione heretics, many of whom were burned in the arena on 13 February 1278. Nicholas III therefore absolved him from the excommunication incurred by his house ten years earlier and granted him the castle of Illasi. Verona itself was absolved from the interdict, which Nicholas III had confirmed the previous year. Alberto was praised by a contemporary chronicler as “sublime in spirit, excellent in morals, provident in counsel, pious, merciful, and prudent.” His successor, Bartolomeo I, his eldest son (perhaps associated with him from 1291), is likewise praised because during his brief captaincy of the people (3 September 1301–8 March 1304) “he always sought to govern his people in perpetual peace.” He may be the “great Lombard” who hosted Dante (Par., XVII, 70–75), though Dante speaks quite differently (Conv., IV, 16) of the brother and successor Alboino (3 March 1304–29 November 1311). In 1308 Alboino associated his brother Cangrande with him in power; that same year Cangrande married Giovanna of Swabia, daughter of Conrad of Antioch. Henry VII appointed them his vicars (7 March 1311). Upon Alboino’s death, Cangrande remained sole lord and vicar (29 November 1311–22 July 1329). In the interests of his house he consistently pursued the Ghibelline cause, ever at war with the Guelphs of northern Italy, especially the Paduans. He took Vicenza from them and was made imperial vicar there in February 1312. On 16 December 1318 at Soncino the Ghibelline assembly elected him captain-general of the Ghibelline league. Defeated beneath the walls of Padua (23 August 1320) and simultaneously excommunicated by John XXII for refusing to relinquish the title of imperial vicar, he did not lose heart. He seized Feltre and Belluno (1321), Padua (10 September 1328), and the following year Treviso (18 July 1329). At the height of his power, he died a few days later (22 July 1329). Dante admired his genius and his works (Par., XVII, 76–93). Undoubtedly he is the most eminent figure among the Ghibelline leaders of his age. He encircled Verona with new walls and built, by vow, S. Maria della Scala. Since he had no legitimate children, he was succeeded by his nephews Alberto II and Mastino II, sons of Alboino.

In truth, it was Mastino II who actually wielded power (23 July 1329–3 June 1351): he took Brescia from John of Bohemia (1332), Parma, and Lucca (1335). Alarmed, Venice and Florence formed a coalition against him (21 June 1336). The following year the Visconti, the Este, the Gonzaga, Charles of Bohemia, and others joined the league. It was then that the suspicious Mastino stabbed his cousin Bartolomeo, bishop of Verona, to death with his own hand (27 August 1338); struck by excommunication, he was absolved only after prolonged negotiations and heavy penance. The long war (1336–39) proved disastrous for the Scaliger lordship, which was reduced to the possession of Verona, Vicenza, Parma, and Lucca (1339), then only Verona and Vicenza (1342). The house’s fortunes declined irretrievably, despite the marriage of Beatrice (d. 1384), Mastino’s eldest daughter, to Barnabò Visconti (27 October 1350), and that of his son Cangrande to Elisabeth, daughter of Louis of Bavaria. Upon Mastino II’s death on 3 June 1351, he was succeeded by his sons Cangrande II, Cansignorio, and Paolo Alboino, though in reality only Cangrande II (3 June 1351–14 December 1359) was capable of governing. He did so with such cruelty and extravagance that a contemporary dubbed him “rabid dog.” His natural brother Fregnano was able, during one of his absences, to stir the city to revolt against him (14 February 1354); for the moment Cangrande II saved his life and power, which he lost five years later when his brother Cansignorio slew him with his own hand and succeeded him in the lordship (14 December 1359–19 October 1375). Of Cangrande II’s sons, all illegitimate, Tebaldo died in prison; Guglielmo, the liberator, fled to Venice, where Fregnano had also taken refuge. Cansignorio preferred the glories of the builder to those of the condottiere, works that earned Verona the name of “marble city.” But the heavy expenses forced him to mortgage much of the church’s property and tithes. Incurring ecclesiastical censures thereby, he was absolved only after his death, in a strange ceremony, by the bishops of Padua and Verona (1376). Yet they could not erase another stain—that of

Paolo Alboino, the brother of Cangrande II, was assassinated on his deathbed (October 1375) with the aim of securing the succession for two illegitimate sons, Bartolomeo and Antonio. Cansignorio died a few days later at the age of only 36 (19 October 1375). He entrusted the regency for the two minors to Guglielmo Bevilacqua, who restored the Church’s confiscated goods to the clergy. The assassination of Bartolomeo (12 July 1381) and the marriage to the prodigal Samaritana da Polenta, who surrounded herself with retainers from Ravenna, alienated Antonio from the Veronese populace. Antonio hastened the end of the Signoria by allying with Venice against Padua, which was in turn allied with Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The latter, aided by friends within the city, occupied Verona on 19 October 1387. Antonio fled to Venice and died the following year, leaving his family in such poverty that Venice had to provide them with financial support. Pietro, Bishop of Verona, was transferred to Lodi (1388) and was compelled to surrender the last Scaligeri possessions to the Visconti. An attempt, backed by the Carraresi, to restore the Scaligeri Signoria with Can Francesco, son of Antonio, failed (23 August 1390). After his death, the only remaining member of the Della Scala was Guglielmo, a natural son of Cangrande II. With the help of Francesco Novello da Carrara and the Marquis of Este, he seized Verona on the night of 8 April 1404. His rule lasted only a short time, for he died just ten days later (18 April). Before his elder sons, Brunoro and Antonio, could be proclaimed lords, the Carraresi arrested them on charges of treason and took them to Padua. From a Paolo, a third son of Guglielmo, there descended the Bavarian branch of the Scaligers, the last to become extinct.

The splendor of the Della Scala house and its Signoria in Verona is attested by the manuscripts of the statutes of the time of Mastino and Alberto I, and by those of Cangrande I (still unpublished), as well as by the statutes of the Guilds (1319); by the merloned castle (Castelvecchio) and the three-arched bridge over the Adige (destroyed in the Second World War), and, in front of Santa Maria Antica, the Scaliger cemetery with its sarcophagi, the finest of which are those of Cangrande I, Mastino II, and Cansignorio. The last was carved by Bonino da Campione. - Vedi tav. LXXXVIII.