Poppi and Counts Guidi
“Pupium agri Clusentini caput.”
(Vasari.)

Poppi lies on a steep hill which rises abruptly from the valley of the Arno, forming a vantage ground, as it were, in regard to the upper part of the Casentino. The castle, its most notable feature, occupies the highest part of this hill looking south. This is the ancient stronghold, as it was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, curiously like the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, but more commanding in appearance owing to the height on which it stands.

Poppi already in the tenth century was a centre of influence of the Guidi, one of the most powerful families of Tuscany during the Middle Ages. The property they owned extended far north and south of the Apennines, and the Casentino bristled with their strongholds. Romena, Porciano, Battifolle, Soci, all recall episodes in their history. With the exception of Poppi, all these castles lie in ruins; their walls stand desolate and their towers are open to wind and rain. Alone at Poppi the palace with{91}
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CASTLE OF POPPI

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its soaring tower stands unbroken, a lasting monument of the power to which the Guidi attained.

The annals of this family have engrossed the attention of historians partly because the Guidi to some extent influenced the course of Florentine history, partly because Dante repeatedly referred to them in the Divine Comedy and was in personal relation to several members of the family. Their history goes back to the ninth century; in the thirteenth the climax of their influence was reached. But in Dante’s time the members of the family were still numerous, and in the remoteness of the Casentino their power continued unimpaired.

Poppi nowadays is a town of some importance. A steep, paved path and a driving road in wide zig-zags lead up into the town from Ponte di Poppi, a suburb which has grown up on the Arno at the foot of the hill. The paved path enters the town near the church, which lies on the point of the ridge farthest away from the castle, and from the church one walks up the main street with arcades and shops on either hand. And on either hand, whenever a gap occurs between the houses, or a shop is thrown open and a window appears in its depth, one looks right away across the dip of the hill and the plains below into the green distance of the mountains.

The place is first mentioned in the tenth{94} century in connection with Count Tegrimo Bevisangue, who, with his wife Gisla, founded the abbey of Strumi in close proximity to the stronghold. The Guidi were of Langobard descent. They were one of the noble families who had come into Italy as part of a barbarian invasion, and who, in the course of time, came to rank among the great feudatories of the Empire. A legendary colouring is given to the opening chapter of their history, but its essentials are corroborated by contemporary references. Count Tegrimo is the first member of the family who figures in the annals of the Casentino. At the time he was the sole surviving member of the family. His father, Count Guido, married Engelrada, the daughter of Duke Martino of Ravenna. This gave him a place of authority at Ravenna. But a dispute arose between him and the archbishop; he caused the archbishop to be imprisoned. There was a popular rising, and Count Guido and all his family were put to death—all excepting Tegrimo, who was saved by his nurse. The name Bevisangue afterwards attached to him either because of the revenge he took on his father’s murderers, or else because he had contracted a habit of licking his sword after he had spilt blood.

At the time when Tegrimo founded Strumi—the original site of which is said to be marked by a church which is seen from Poppi lying{95} in the midst of dark cypresses—the family already owned strongholds near Pistoja and Florence and the stronghold of Modigliana above Faenza, which is identical with the Castrum Mutilum mentioned by Livy. One by one the strongholds with which the counts fortified their possessions, or which they snatched from their neighbours, appear in the annals of the family. Tegrimo’s son Guido dated a charter from Porciano, which is situated at the uppermost end of the Casentino, a proof that here also a stronghold on a commanding site was in their possession.

Historians of a later date—Malespini and Villani, the contemporary of Dante—state that the ancestor of the Guidi came into Italy with the Saxon Emperor Otto I. and from him received the castle of Modigliana. Also that Otto IV. on his passage through Florence saw Gualdrada, the daughter of the rich citizen Berti, and that his follower, one of the Guidi, married her and received the Casentino in dower. As the Guidi owned Modigliana before Otto I. came to Italy, and held extensive property in the Casentino long before the days of Gualdrada, these stories in themselves are untrue, but a true estimation of facts underlies them. The Saxon emperors, in order to strengthen their authority over the greater barons of Italy, favoured the lesser, and among them they favoured the Guidi. The{96} Count Guido who married Gualdrada was on good terms both with Florence and Otto IV.

After the time of Bevisangue we find the Guidi steadily increasing in power, fighting against other lords and against rising communes, sometimes on their own account, sometimes in support of the Imperial policy. True representatives of the rural nobility, they were at once turbulent and prosperous, and they made their influence felt in ecclesiastical as well as in other matters. It was owing to protection given him by a lady member of the Guidi family that Giovanni Gualberto became the founder of Vallombrosa, and in three different generations a member of the family was bishop of Pistoja. At the close of the eleventh century a father and a son Guido were in frequent attendance on Countess Matilda, the daughter and heir of the last margrave of Tuscany, whose strenuous opposition to the Imperial policy and support of the claims of Tuscany secured her lasting popularity. Probably to secure the father’s interest she adopted the son, to whom the surname il Marchese attached in consequence. This Count Guido in his youth joined the first crusade, and was imprisoned by Saladin. Property was mortgaged with the canons of Pistoja to pay for his ransom. After his father’s death he bestowed land on the faithful follower who had shared his hardships.{97}

Count Guido il Marchese favoured various schemes conducive to his vassals’ welfare. He helped to carry out the plan of building the aqueduct by which Pistoja is provided with water from the hills; he became the founder of the city of Empoli; he built a leprosy near Poppi. About the year 1106 the “Great” Countess Matilda gave up the plan of constituting him her heir and bestowed her extensive property on the Church. Matilda enjoyed such popularity throughout Tuscany, that songs in praise of her were long sung in the churches of Florence according to Boccaccio. In the Divine Comedy she is described as guardian of the earthly Paradise, in which she led the way to the triumph of the Church. In remembrance of her the name Contessa or Tessa continues frequent to this day. The reader will recall the sweet contadina of Romola. In the Casentino Matilda is popularly credited with building a number of churches which are remarkable for the sculpture which adorns them.

One of these churches, that of San Martino di Vado, is about an hour’s walk from Poppi up the valley of the Solano; another flanks the hill of Romena; a third is at Stia, and another is at Montemignajo, high up a side valley. The column capitals inside these churches deserve attention for the place they claim in the history of early Tuscan sculpture. Not two of them are alike,{98} and the way the foliage and figures on them is treated is always quaint and often beautiful. I have sometimes thought what a gain it would be if some of the numerous amateur photographers one meets would combine and systematically go over separate districts, issuing a list of the views taken by them. In the Casentino only a few general views were obtainable, and we in vain sought to procure photographs of interesting remains; I ignore if any have been taken. In this case one longed for photographs of these capitals to compare them with the early sculptures of Pistoja and Arezzo. One of the columns in the church of Romena bore the date 1152—the earliest sculptures at Pistoja are dated 1166—and the erection of the parish church at Arezzo belongs to the same period. As a direct connection existed between these places at the time owing to the rights of overlordship held by the Guidi, it may be owing to their influence that a style of sculpture which has so much of the Langobard spirit came to be introduced into the different parts of Tuscany.

The Count Guido, to whose lifetime the erection of these churches belongs, was the son of Guido il Marchese, and was known himself as Guidoguerra. In him the influence of the family reached its climax. The vastness of his possessions was such that Sanzanome, the earliest historian of Florence, spoke of them as{99}
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COURTYARD OF CASTLE, POPPI (CASENTINO)

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constituting a state or province in themselves. Moreover, he was a shining representative of knighthood. His contemporary, the Bishop Otto of Freysing, described him as the most powerful lord of Tuscany, and Tolosanus, the chronicler of Faenza, who knew him, spoke of him as holding the foremost place in honour and courtesy. “All Italy wept at his death and especially Faenza,” he tells us, for the city of Faenza had appealed to him for help on account of the encroachments made on its territory by the city of Forli, and had found in him a powerful protector. The acts of Count Guidoguerra argue in favour of his mental horizon being wide. He joined the crusade of 1147, he stood in high esteem with the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and the enterprises he led in Italy were invariably successful. It was only by taking advantage of his temporary absence that the citizens of Florence succeeded in destroying Montedicroce, a most important stronghold of his which had therefore become an object of hatred to Florence.

For the city of Florence, as it increased in importance, was bent on improving the conditions of its trade. Florence is surrounded by hills, and these hills in the twelfth century bristled with the strongholds of nobles, who were ready to swoop down and plunder the trains of passing traders{102} on the slightest provocation. In the interest of its further development the city was prompted to make war on the surrounding nobility, attacks which went hand-in-hand with a policy that was productive of important and unexpected changes.

The first attempts of the Florentines to subdue their troublesome neighbours belonged to the lifetime of Guido il Marchese. Emboldened by success, and encouraged by the inactivity of the margraves, they attacked Fiesole, the ancient Etruscan city which towered high above Florentine territory, for here, as Villani related, the rural nobles, whom he designated as cattani, collected and harboured outlaws who did damage to the trade and the territory of Florence. The undertaking proved successful in the campaigns of 1123-1125, and large parts of Fiesole were razed to the ground. Its “destruction” was followed by attacks on Montegrifone, which belonged to the Ormanni, and on Monteboni, which belonged to the Buondelmonti. A special significance attached to the latter event. For the Florentines, intent on securing friendly relations with their neighbours, made it a condition of peace that the nobles they defeated should reside inside Florence during a stated part of the year. The first to a............