September 16, 2025 • 24 mins
In Dante's Inferno, Dante meets two lovers, Paolo and Francesca. Francesca was married to Paolo's brother, but the two had a secret affair, until they were discovered and things took a deadly turn. But theirs is just one of the many murders and betrayals in the Malatesta family tree...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised the feast
was going to be extravagant. The year was thirteen twenty four,
and cousins Ramberto and Ferrantino and their uncle Pandolfo Malitesta
(00:21):
were making the final preparations for the meal at Romberto's estate,
a castle nestled in the rolling hills of what is
now the region of Emilia Romagna in Italy, then simply
called Romagna. Their sole invitee to this party their other
cousin slash nephew, Uberto, and he was making his way
(00:44):
toward the castle, blissfully unaware that he was riding to
his death. The three hosts had planned the murder of
their kinsmen perfectly, a theatrical assassination disguised as a friendly
family dinner which would serve as revenge for Sin's spanning
(01:05):
a generation. Uberto Maltesta's death at the hands of his
family members is a dramatic episode in a particularly bloody
era of Italian history, but not actually the topic of
today's episode. A few decades prior to that fateful family banquet,
(01:26):
Ramberto's father, a man named Jianchoto, actually killed Uberto's father. Remember,
Ramberto and Uberto were cousins, their fathers were brothers, and
Gianchoto discovered his brother having an affair.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
With his wife. After catching them red handed, he killed
them both. The adulterous affair and subsequent murder of Jianchoto's
brother Paulo and his wife Francesca would go on to
be immortalized by the Italian writer Dante Aligiari as two
of the damned characters he meets during his visit to Hell.
(02:05):
But what Dante failed to record in his Inferno were
the numerous intra familial murders, political assassinations, revenge killings, and
even an attempted mass family murder that plagued the Maltesta
family for nearly fifty years after Paolo and Francesca's stories end.
(02:27):
So let's start from the beginning. I'm Dana Schwartz, and
this is noble blood. Paulo and Jianchoto Maltesta were meant
to carry on a great legacy. Theirs was a family
new to nobility, but their father's explosive rise to power
(02:50):
had quickly carried the brothers to prominence. Maltesta de Verruchio
was a powerful condottieri, or commander of a mercy and company.
Many condottieri became the sort of military princes who served
a pope or other ruler, but often had sovereignty of
their own as dukes or counts. Malitesta da Verrucchio had
(03:16):
come into his power ruthlessly. Northern Italy during this period
was embroiled in the after effects of the Investiture Controversy,
which resulted in conflicts between Pope supporting Gwelths and Holy
Roman Emperor supporting Ghibelines. Maltesta was the leader of the
(03:36):
Guelphs in Romagna and became podesta, or chief magistrate of
Rmany in twelve thirty nine. In twelve ninety five, he
would go on to kill or expel the leading members
of the Gibeline faction in Rumany, making himself the city's
undisputed and unchecked ruler. Between two marriages, he had seven children,
(04:02):
each of whom he would use to expand his power,
either through warfare or marriage. For our purposes, we'll focus
on his four sons, Mala, Testino, Jianchoto, and Paolo from
his first wife and Pandulfo from his second wife, Mala.
Testino and Pandulfo will be important in next week's episode,
(04:25):
but for now, all you really need to know about
them is that they would go on to inherit in
succession their father's lordship of Remedy. But for now we're
focused on the brothers, Paolo and Jianchoto. If anything in
their early lives pointed to the roots of Paolo and
Jianchoto's storied and eventually deadly rivalry, it would probably be
(04:49):
the fact that Paulo was known throughout his life as
Ilbello Paolo the Handsome. The name Jianchoto was actually a
diminutive of Giovanni, an emasculating nickname that Jianchoto still might
well have preferred to his other nickname, Los Gancato or
(05:10):
the Lame. Sources, many of which were written long after
the fact, describe Jianchoto variously as disabled, disfigured, or simply
visually unappealing, in any case, a stark contrast to his strapping,
handsome younger brother. The lives of the sons of Condotieri
(05:32):
were often defined by war and political intrigue, and Paolo
and Jianchoto were no exception. Apparently not content to rest
on his handsome laurels, Paolo showed himself to be an
astute politician, and he became an experienced military leader at
just nineteen years old. In twelve sixty five, he followed
(05:56):
his father in fighting the Gibelines, aiding in seven viveral
decisive battles. Johnchoto, too, proved to be an asset to
his father in war, becoming known as much for his
bravery as for his unsavory appearance. By around twelve seventy five,
John Choto also proved a useful political chess piece when
(06:19):
his father promised him in marriage to Francesca da Polenta.
Francesca was a young noblewoman from nearby Ravenna, the daughter
of one of its two lords, Guido the First da Polenta.
Wido shared power with his relative Wuido Riccio da Polenta
over Ravenna. Their balance of power was uneasy to begin with,
(06:43):
but they both also had to contend with the powerful
Traversari family opposing them within the city, as well as
various threats from without, most especially the Lord of Urbino.
Guido again, I'm sorry, another Guido the First da Montrefelto
Guido da Montefeltro had recently vested Maltesta de Verrucchio in battle.
(07:09):
Although Ravenna and Riminy had themselves been at war, Mala
Testa and Guido di Polenta were united by this common enemy,
and so Guido di Polenta's daughter Francesca became at once
a reward for Maltesta's support and a means of consolidating
power which would allow Guido de Polenta not only the
(07:32):
ability to fend off his enemies, but also to seize
sole control of Ravenna. Decades later, the humanist writer Giovanni
Boccaccio would write that Mala Testa de Verrocchio used Paulo
to trick Francesca into her marriage to Giancoto. By this time,
(07:54):
Paulo had actually already been married for some six years
and a political match of his own. It was not
uncommon in this period for noble marriages to be executed
by proxy, with someone else standing in for one or
both of the marrying parties during the ceremony. Paulo, as
the married brother of the groom, would have been a
(08:16):
perfect candidate to stand in and marry Francesca by proxy.
Boccaccio wrote that Mala Testa deliberately misled Francesca about this arrangement,
and that when she walked down the aisle and laid
her eyes on a handsome, charming man waiting at the
end of it, she thought it was Paolo that she
(08:38):
was going to marry. Of course, she was wrong. Boccaccio
reasoned that Malatesta worried that she or her father would
have refused the marriage had she known that her betrothed
was the uglier brother. As dramatic a tidbit, that is,
there is no hard evidence that this is how Paolo
(08:59):
and Francesca affair began. It's quite likely that Francesca already
knew who Paolo and Jianchoto were and knew that Paolo
was married as well, given her family's close and long
running dealings with the Malatesta family. But however, the marriage began,
and whatever Paolo's role in its beginnings were, before long,
(09:23):
Francesca and Paolo would find themselves entangled and an affair
that would rock the Malatesta family and define its legacy
for centuries. The poet Dante Aligari spent the final five
years of his life living in Revenna. Famously exiled from
(09:43):
his native Florence in thirteen oh two, he had spent
over a decade living in various parts of northern Italy,
hosted by sympathetic friends and supporters. In thirteen sixteen, he
was invited to stay in Revenna by its recently crowned lawy,
Guido the second da Polenta. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so
(10:05):
many Guidos. This Guido was the nephew of the now
decades dead Francesco dot Polenta. We're fast forwarding here. Scholars
believe it was during this visit to Ravenna that Dante
learned of the tragic tale of Paolo and Francesca's love affair,
before he would cement it in one of the most
(10:27):
celebrated works of literature in Italian history, The Divine Comedy,
completed shortly before the author's death in thirteen twenty one.
It's only because of Dante that we know any of
the details of what happened next in Paolo and Francesca's story.
Knowing that he likely learned the story from a family
(10:49):
member of Francesca's offers his version some credibility. However, remember
this was written decades later, and there is no independent
history record confirming any of it, so we will never
know exactly whether or where Dante took liberties. We find
(11:10):
Paolo and Francesca in Dante's Inferno as a pair of souls,
damned to hell for their illicit romance. As Dante and
his imagined guide, the Roman poet Virgil, entered the second
circle of Hell, the one reserved for those who fell
prey to their lust, they find the two lovers spirits
(11:32):
flying aimlessly through the air, blown about in an infernal storm,
yet remaining inseparably entangled with one another as if they
were one single spirit. Dante calls to them as they
float by, and it's Francesca who regales the visitors with
their tail as her beloved Paolo weeps and wails alongside
(11:56):
her as she tells it. Francesca's life love story with
her husband's brother started out innocently enough. They spent time
together in a friendly way, a pleasant outcome to her
essentially political marriage. Things took a turn rather suddenly, however,
when one day the pair were reading the story of
(12:18):
Lancelot and his forbidden love with Gwenevere, the story of
Lancelot's brother in arms, King Arthur, describing a scene that
seems to predict the modern rom com. Francesca's spirit tells
Dante how as they read, their eyes kept meeting, sparks
(12:38):
flying between them, before they looked away, blushing. Finally, as
the story they were reading came to its own climax,
the tension between the readers was too much to bear.
As Francesca put it, when of that smile we read
the wish to smile rapturously kissed by one so deep
in love than he who ne'er for me shall separate
(13:01):
at once, my lips, all trembling, kissed the book and
writer both were love's purveyors in its leaves. That day
we read no more. It's certainly possible that this is
actually how the affair began, although it definitely seems a
little too perfectly literary to be entirely true. We don't
(13:22):
even really know quite when it began, although it seems
to have been not long after Francesca's marriage to Gianchoto.
We also don't know the circumstances that preceded the affair.
Much has been said about Jianchoto's unsavory appearance, but did
Francesca feel that way about him. Was their marriage pleasant
(13:45):
but passionless? Or was he a brute? And what of
Paolo and his wife? Both couples had children. Of course,
we could question the paternity of Francesca's children, but certainly
Paolo at least fulfilled his marital duties to his wife.
We may never know these things, but however it happened.
(14:06):
Once the affair began, It seems that Paulo and Francesca,
much like their spirits in Dante's story, could hardly be
separated from one another. The affair carried on seemingly unbeknownst
to everyone, or at least unbeknownst to Jianchoto, for years,
(14:26):
some scholars estimate over a decade, although it's impossible to
know for sure. We can imagine Janchoto carrying on in
his duties, perhaps leaving for long stretches to fight on
his father's behalf, leaving his wife at home and free
to rendezvous with his more handsome brother. For his part,
(14:47):
Paulo balanced his own duties, including keeping up appearances with
his own wife, with his and Francesca's passionate affair. However,
they managed it. It worked for them for a while,
but Francesca's and Paolo's days together were numbered. Eventually, Jianchoto
would discover the dual betrayal that had been going on
(15:11):
for years right under his nose. We don't really know
how Janchoto found out. Most retellings agree that he stumbled
upon his brothers and his wife's affair some time between
twelve eighty three and twelve eighty six. Some even say
he caught them in the act. Dante doesn't offer us
(15:34):
any details here. Again, the juiciest version of the story,
and the one we can't confirm, is offered by Boccaccio.
As he told it, Jianchoto suspected nothing until one day,
while he was away on business for his father, one
of his servants came to him with a confession. The servant,
(15:55):
apparently moved by pity for his cucoldooed employer and emboldened
by distance from the rest of the household, told Janchoto
that he knew his wife and brother were having an affair.
Determined to get at the truth of the matter, Jianchoto
insisted upon seeing for himself, and the servant promised he
(16:15):
would help catch them in the act. The pair returned
to rhyminy in secret. Perhaps Jianchoto hoped he would find nothing.
Perhaps he spent the ride home imagining how silly he
would feel when he arrived to find his faithful wife
waiting for him. But any hopes he may have harbored
about his wife's fidelity were dashed when he got home
(16:38):
and sneaking into his own palazzo, observed Paolo entering Francesca's bedchamber.
The affair was all but confirmed. Jianchoto was enraged. His
loyal servant led him to the door of the bedchamber,
only to find it suspiciously locked from the inside. Janchoto's
(17:01):
fever hit a fever pitch. He pounded on the door,
calling out to his wife, maybe calling to his brother too.
On the other side of the door. Chaos and panic erupted.
Francesca and Paolo knew they had been found out, but
they were scrambling to find some way to cover up
their affair. Suddenly, Paolo had an idea. There was a
(17:22):
narrow passage with a ladder leading from the bed chamber
down to another room below. If he squeezed down it,
he might be able to get away before anyone noticed.
He told Francesca to let her husband in. He would
escape through the passage and Jianchoto would be none the wiser. Unfortunately,
as Francesco went to open the door and Paolo went
(17:46):
to hide his clothes, got caught on an iron bar
sticking out of one of the wooden beams at the
top of the passage. He got stuck in plain sight
just as Janchoto burst into the room. Blinded by rage
at the sight of his brother, Johanchoto immediately went for
the kill. Francesca moved to stop her husband, unable to
(18:10):
bear the thought of losing her love, but it was
too late. Right as she stood between them, Johanchoto thrust
his sword forward, stabbing her in the chest instead of Paulo.
Francesca sank to the floor, dying for a moment. John
Choto stood frozen, disturbed at what he had done. Then
he saw Paulo, still caught on the iron bar, crying
(18:34):
out in grief for Francesca, for his wife. He saw
how deeply his own brother had loved Francesca, and it
quelled any thought he might have had of regret or
of mercy. Jianchoto pulled the sword from his dying wife's
body and struck out again, this time landing a blow
(18:55):
squarely on his brother's head. His vengeance complete, he fled,
sneaking out of the city quietly as he had arrived.
The lovers' bodies were discovered the next day, and Boccaccio
tells us buried in a shared tomb, united eternally in
both their love and their betrayal. Is that how it happened?
(19:21):
Boccaccio's version of the story certainly has a theatrical air
to it, though we can find many verified stories of
affairs gone wrong throughout history that have all of this
drama and then some. Dante gives us the basic contours
of the story and points to Jianchoto's guilt in the inferno.
(19:42):
Jianchoto was said to be condemned to the ninth Circle
of Hell, the lowest circle reserved for traders. Given his
access to the family, we can reasonably expect the basic
facts of Dante's version to be true. Discovered them, Jianchoto
killed them, but for the rest were left to fill
(20:05):
in the blanks. However it happened. The bloody murder of
Paolo and Francesca did little to soothe the growing rivalries
among the members of the Maltesta family. Maltesta de Verruchio
had many children, who themselves had many children, and when
(20:25):
he died in thirteen twelve, they were all left with
the fractured inheritance of the lands and titles that their
patriarch had once held as his own. And as the
children of Paolo Jianchoto and their brothers grew up and
realized that only one of them would eventually rule Remedy,
(20:46):
it wouldn't be long before the kinsmen turned on each
other again. That's the end of the story of the
first and most famous of the many murders plaguing the
Malato family. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break
to hear about the long legacy of Paolo and Francesca's story.
(21:15):
For Dante, the story of Paolo and Francesca was a
cautionary tale. He lived in a world where adultery was
a crime punishable by death, and where desire was seen
by many as the first step to damnation. As he
imagined his journey through hell, he found Francesca and Paolo's
story a powerful warning to his readers about the dangers
(21:39):
of giving in to one's passions, even as he sympathized
with their love. As with any story that endures over time, however,
Paolo and Francesca's story has continued to resonate, but not
necessarily for the reasons that Dante intended. Particularly in the
nineteenth century, Francesca and her lover became a focus for
(22:04):
the imaginations of Romantic writers and artists. As historian John
Paul Hyle puts it, where in Dante's era it was
important to control one's passions, the Romantics believed that quote
subsuming reason to the passions was the goal of a
life well lived. They began to reimagine Dante's encounter with
(22:28):
Paolo and Francesca in Hell no longer as symbols of
the danger of succumbing to one's passions, but rather the
tragedy of star crossed lovers. Some interpretations even changed the
endings of their story. In one opera, Ambrose Thomas's eighteen
eighty two Francois de Rimini, the lovers are pitied by
(22:52):
God and their spirits allowed to ascend to Heaven, triumphing
over the punishment needed out to them in Hell and
in our world by Dante. In the twentieth century, Francesca
in particular, became a symbol for yet something else female
agency as a character who not only made her own
(23:15):
choices in life, disastrous as the outcome may have been,
but also took control of her own story in death.
She presents a striking and complex lens through which authors
and artists have wrestled with memory, pain, betrayal, and yes love.
(23:40):
Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,
Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Melaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima
(24:02):
Il Kayali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and
Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised the feast
was going to be extravagant. The year was thirteen twenty four,
and cousins Ramberto and Ferrantino and their uncle Pandolfo Malitesta
(00:21):
were making the final preparations for the meal at Romberto's estate,
a castle nestled in the rolling hills of what is
now the region of Emilia Romagna in Italy, then simply
called Romagna. Their sole invitee to this party their other
cousin slash nephew, Uberto, and he was making his way
(00:44):
toward the castle, blissfully unaware that he was riding to
his death. The three hosts had planned the murder of
their kinsmen perfectly, a theatrical assassination disguised as a friendly
family dinner which would serve as revenge for Sin's spanning
(01:05):
a generation. Uberto Maltesta's death at the hands of his
family members is a dramatic episode in a particularly bloody
era of Italian history, but not actually the topic of
today's episode. A few decades prior to that fateful family banquet,
(01:26):
Ramberto's father, a man named Jianchoto, actually killed Uberto's father. Remember,
Ramberto and Uberto were cousins, their fathers were brothers, and
Gianchoto discovered his brother having an affair.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
With his wife. After catching them red handed, he killed
them both. The adulterous affair and subsequent murder of Jianchoto's
brother Paulo and his wife Francesca would go on to
be immortalized by the Italian writer Dante Aligiari as two
of the damned characters he meets during his visit to Hell.
(02:05):
But what Dante failed to record in his Inferno were
the numerous intra familial murders, political assassinations, revenge killings, and
even an attempted mass family murder that plagued the Maltesta
family for nearly fifty years after Paolo and Francesca's stories end.
(02:27):
So let's start from the beginning. I'm Dana Schwartz, and
this is noble blood. Paulo and Jianchoto Maltesta were meant
to carry on a great legacy. Theirs was a family
new to nobility, but their father's explosive rise to power
(02:50):
had quickly carried the brothers to prominence. Maltesta de Verruchio
was a powerful condottieri, or commander of a mercy and company.
Many condottieri became the sort of military princes who served
a pope or other ruler, but often had sovereignty of
their own as dukes or counts. Malitesta da Verrucchio had
(03:16):
come into his power ruthlessly. Northern Italy during this period
was embroiled in the after effects of the Investiture Controversy,
which resulted in conflicts between Pope supporting Gwelths and Holy
Roman Emperor supporting Ghibelines. Maltesta was the leader of the
(03:36):
Guelphs in Romagna and became podesta, or chief magistrate of
Rmany in twelve thirty nine. In twelve ninety five, he
would go on to kill or expel the leading members
of the Gibeline faction in Rumany, making himself the city's
undisputed and unchecked ruler. Between two marriages, he had seven children,
(04:02):
each of whom he would use to expand his power,
either through warfare or marriage. For our purposes, we'll focus
on his four sons, Mala, Testino, Jianchoto, and Paolo from
his first wife and Pandulfo from his second wife, Mala.
Testino and Pandulfo will be important in next week's episode,
(04:25):
but for now, all you really need to know about
them is that they would go on to inherit in
succession their father's lordship of Remedy. But for now we're
focused on the brothers, Paolo and Jianchoto. If anything in
their early lives pointed to the roots of Paolo and
Jianchoto's storied and eventually deadly rivalry, it would probably be
(04:49):
the fact that Paulo was known throughout his life as
Ilbello Paolo the Handsome. The name Jianchoto was actually a
diminutive of Giovanni, an emasculating nickname that Jianchoto still might
well have preferred to his other nickname, Los Gancato or
(05:10):
the Lame. Sources, many of which were written long after
the fact, describe Jianchoto variously as disabled, disfigured, or simply
visually unappealing, in any case, a stark contrast to his strapping,
handsome younger brother. The lives of the sons of Condotieri
(05:32):
were often defined by war and political intrigue, and Paolo
and Jianchoto were no exception. Apparently not content to rest
on his handsome laurels, Paolo showed himself to be an
astute politician, and he became an experienced military leader at
just nineteen years old. In twelve sixty five, he followed
(05:56):
his father in fighting the Gibelines, aiding in seven viveral
decisive battles. Johnchoto, too, proved to be an asset to
his father in war, becoming known as much for his
bravery as for his unsavory appearance. By around twelve seventy five,
John Choto also proved a useful political chess piece when
(06:19):
his father promised him in marriage to Francesca da Polenta.
Francesca was a young noblewoman from nearby Ravenna, the daughter
of one of its two lords, Guido the First da Polenta.
Wido shared power with his relative Wuido Riccio da Polenta
over Ravenna. Their balance of power was uneasy to begin with,
(06:43):
but they both also had to contend with the powerful
Traversari family opposing them within the city, as well as
various threats from without, most especially the Lord of Urbino.
Guido again, I'm sorry, another Guido the First da Montrefelto
Guido da Montefeltro had recently vested Maltesta de Verrucchio in battle.
(07:09):
Although Ravenna and Riminy had themselves been at war, Mala
Testa and Guido di Polenta were united by this common enemy,
and so Guido di Polenta's daughter Francesca became at once
a reward for Maltesta's support and a means of consolidating
power which would allow Guido de Polenta not only the
(07:32):
ability to fend off his enemies, but also to seize
sole control of Ravenna. Decades later, the humanist writer Giovanni
Boccaccio would write that Mala Testa de Verrocchio used Paulo
to trick Francesca into her marriage to Giancoto. By this time,
(07:54):
Paulo had actually already been married for some six years
and a political match of his own. It was not
uncommon in this period for noble marriages to be executed
by proxy, with someone else standing in for one or
both of the marrying parties during the ceremony. Paulo, as
the married brother of the groom, would have been a
(08:16):
perfect candidate to stand in and marry Francesca by proxy.
Boccaccio wrote that Mala Testa deliberately misled Francesca about this arrangement,
and that when she walked down the aisle and laid
her eyes on a handsome, charming man waiting at the
end of it, she thought it was Paolo that she
(08:38):
was going to marry. Of course, she was wrong. Boccaccio
reasoned that Malatesta worried that she or her father would
have refused the marriage had she known that her betrothed
was the uglier brother. As dramatic a tidbit, that is,
there is no hard evidence that this is how Paolo
(08:59):
and Francesca affair began. It's quite likely that Francesca already
knew who Paolo and Jianchoto were and knew that Paolo
was married as well, given her family's close and long
running dealings with the Malatesta family. But however, the marriage began,
and whatever Paolo's role in its beginnings were, before long,
(09:23):
Francesca and Paolo would find themselves entangled and an affair
that would rock the Malatesta family and define its legacy
for centuries. The poet Dante Aligari spent the final five
years of his life living in Revenna. Famously exiled from
(09:43):
his native Florence in thirteen oh two, he had spent
over a decade living in various parts of northern Italy,
hosted by sympathetic friends and supporters. In thirteen sixteen, he
was invited to stay in Revenna by its recently crowned lawy,
Guido the second da Polenta. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so
(10:05):
many Guidos. This Guido was the nephew of the now
decades dead Francesco dot Polenta. We're fast forwarding here. Scholars
believe it was during this visit to Ravenna that Dante
learned of the tragic tale of Paolo and Francesca's love affair,
before he would cement it in one of the most
(10:27):
celebrated works of literature in Italian history, The Divine Comedy,
completed shortly before the author's death in thirteen twenty one.
It's only because of Dante that we know any of
the details of what happened next in Paolo and Francesca's story.
Knowing that he likely learned the story from a family
(10:49):
member of Francesca's offers his version some credibility. However, remember
this was written decades later, and there is no independent
history record confirming any of it, so we will never
know exactly whether or where Dante took liberties. We find
(11:10):
Paolo and Francesca in Dante's Inferno as a pair of souls,
damned to hell for their illicit romance. As Dante and
his imagined guide, the Roman poet Virgil, entered the second
circle of Hell, the one reserved for those who fell
prey to their lust, they find the two lovers spirits
(11:32):
flying aimlessly through the air, blown about in an infernal storm,
yet remaining inseparably entangled with one another as if they
were one single spirit. Dante calls to them as they
float by, and it's Francesca who regales the visitors with
their tail as her beloved Paolo weeps and wails alongside
(11:56):
her as she tells it. Francesca's life love story with
her husband's brother started out innocently enough. They spent time
together in a friendly way, a pleasant outcome to her
essentially political marriage. Things took a turn rather suddenly, however,
when one day the pair were reading the story of
(12:18):
Lancelot and his forbidden love with Gwenevere, the story of
Lancelot's brother in arms, King Arthur, describing a scene that
seems to predict the modern rom com. Francesca's spirit tells
Dante how as they read, their eyes kept meeting, sparks
(12:38):
flying between them, before they looked away, blushing. Finally, as
the story they were reading came to its own climax,
the tension between the readers was too much to bear.
As Francesca put it, when of that smile we read
the wish to smile rapturously kissed by one so deep
in love than he who ne'er for me shall separate
(13:01):
at once, my lips, all trembling, kissed the book and
writer both were love's purveyors in its leaves. That day
we read no more. It's certainly possible that this is
actually how the affair began, although it definitely seems a
little too perfectly literary to be entirely true. We don't
(13:22):
even really know quite when it began, although it seems
to have been not long after Francesca's marriage to Gianchoto.
We also don't know the circumstances that preceded the affair.
Much has been said about Jianchoto's unsavory appearance, but did
Francesca feel that way about him. Was their marriage pleasant
(13:45):
but passionless? Or was he a brute? And what of
Paolo and his wife? Both couples had children. Of course,
we could question the paternity of Francesca's children, but certainly
Paolo at least fulfilled his marital duties to his wife.
We may never know these things, but however it happened.
(14:06):
Once the affair began, It seems that Paulo and Francesca,
much like their spirits in Dante's story, could hardly be
separated from one another. The affair carried on seemingly unbeknownst
to everyone, or at least unbeknownst to Jianchoto, for years,
(14:26):
some scholars estimate over a decade, although it's impossible to
know for sure. We can imagine Janchoto carrying on in
his duties, perhaps leaving for long stretches to fight on
his father's behalf, leaving his wife at home and free
to rendezvous with his more handsome brother. For his part,
(14:47):
Paulo balanced his own duties, including keeping up appearances with
his own wife, with his and Francesca's passionate affair. However,
they managed it. It worked for them for a while,
but Francesca's and Paolo's days together were numbered. Eventually, Jianchoto
would discover the dual betrayal that had been going on
(15:11):
for years right under his nose. We don't really know
how Janchoto found out. Most retellings agree that he stumbled
upon his brothers and his wife's affair some time between
twelve eighty three and twelve eighty six. Some even say
he caught them in the act. Dante doesn't offer us
(15:34):
any details here. Again, the juiciest version of the story,
and the one we can't confirm, is offered by Boccaccio.
As he told it, Jianchoto suspected nothing until one day,
while he was away on business for his father, one
of his servants came to him with a confession. The servant,
(15:55):
apparently moved by pity for his cucoldooed employer and emboldened
by distance from the rest of the household, told Janchoto
that he knew his wife and brother were having an affair.
Determined to get at the truth of the matter, Jianchoto
insisted upon seeing for himself, and the servant promised he
(16:15):
would help catch them in the act. The pair returned
to rhyminy in secret. Perhaps Jianchoto hoped he would find nothing.
Perhaps he spent the ride home imagining how silly he
would feel when he arrived to find his faithful wife
waiting for him. But any hopes he may have harbored
about his wife's fidelity were dashed when he got home
(16:38):
and sneaking into his own palazzo, observed Paolo entering Francesca's bedchamber.
The affair was all but confirmed. Jianchoto was enraged. His
loyal servant led him to the door of the bedchamber,
only to find it suspiciously locked from the inside. Janchoto's
(17:01):
fever hit a fever pitch. He pounded on the door,
calling out to his wife, maybe calling to his brother too.
On the other side of the door. Chaos and panic erupted.
Francesca and Paolo knew they had been found out, but
they were scrambling to find some way to cover up
their affair. Suddenly, Paolo had an idea. There was a
(17:22):
narrow passage with a ladder leading from the bed chamber
down to another room below. If he squeezed down it,
he might be able to get away before anyone noticed.
He told Francesca to let her husband in. He would
escape through the passage and Jianchoto would be none the wiser. Unfortunately,
as Francesco went to open the door and Paolo went
(17:46):
to hide his clothes, got caught on an iron bar
sticking out of one of the wooden beams at the
top of the passage. He got stuck in plain sight
just as Janchoto burst into the room. Blinded by rage
at the sight of his brother, Johanchoto immediately went for
the kill. Francesca moved to stop her husband, unable to
(18:10):
bear the thought of losing her love, but it was
too late. Right as she stood between them, Johanchoto thrust
his sword forward, stabbing her in the chest instead of Paulo.
Francesca sank to the floor, dying for a moment. John
Choto stood frozen, disturbed at what he had done. Then
he saw Paulo, still caught on the iron bar, crying
(18:34):
out in grief for Francesca, for his wife. He saw
how deeply his own brother had loved Francesca, and it
quelled any thought he might have had of regret or
of mercy. Jianchoto pulled the sword from his dying wife's
body and struck out again, this time landing a blow
(18:55):
squarely on his brother's head. His vengeance complete, he fled,
sneaking out of the city quietly as he had arrived.
The lovers' bodies were discovered the next day, and Boccaccio
tells us buried in a shared tomb, united eternally in
both their love and their betrayal. Is that how it happened?
(19:21):
Boccaccio's version of the story certainly has a theatrical air
to it, though we can find many verified stories of
affairs gone wrong throughout history that have all of this
drama and then some. Dante gives us the basic contours
of the story and points to Jianchoto's guilt in the inferno.
(19:42):
Jianchoto was said to be condemned to the ninth Circle
of Hell, the lowest circle reserved for traders. Given his
access to the family, we can reasonably expect the basic
facts of Dante's version to be true. Discovered them, Jianchoto
killed them, but for the rest were left to fill
(20:05):
in the blanks. However it happened. The bloody murder of
Paolo and Francesca did little to soothe the growing rivalries
among the members of the Maltesta family. Maltesta de Verruchio
had many children, who themselves had many children, and when
(20:25):
he died in thirteen twelve, they were all left with
the fractured inheritance of the lands and titles that their
patriarch had once held as his own. And as the
children of Paolo Jianchoto and their brothers grew up and
realized that only one of them would eventually rule Remedy,
(20:46):
it wouldn't be long before the kinsmen turned on each
other again. That's the end of the story of the
first and most famous of the many murders plaguing the
Malato family. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break
to hear about the long legacy of Paolo and Francesca's story.
(21:15):
For Dante, the story of Paolo and Francesca was a
cautionary tale. He lived in a world where adultery was
a crime punishable by death, and where desire was seen
by many as the first step to damnation. As he
imagined his journey through hell, he found Francesca and Paolo's
story a powerful warning to his readers about the dangers
(21:39):
of giving in to one's passions, even as he sympathized
with their love. As with any story that endures over time, however,
Paolo and Francesca's story has continued to resonate, but not
necessarily for the reasons that Dante intended. Particularly in the
nineteenth century, Francesca and her lover became a focus for
(22:04):
the imaginations of Romantic writers and artists. As historian John
Paul Hyle puts it, where in Dante's era it was
important to control one's passions, the Romantics believed that quote
subsuming reason to the passions was the goal of a
life well lived. They began to reimagine Dante's encounter with
(22:28):
Paolo and Francesca in Hell no longer as symbols of
the danger of succumbing to one's passions, but rather the
tragedy of star crossed lovers. Some interpretations even changed the
endings of their story. In one opera, Ambrose Thomas's eighteen
eighty two Francois de Rimini, the lovers are pitied by
(22:52):
God and their spirits allowed to ascend to Heaven, triumphing
over the punishment needed out to them in Hell and
in our world by Dante. In the twentieth century, Francesca
in particular, became a symbol for yet something else female
agency as a character who not only made her own
(23:15):
choices in life, disastrous as the outcome may have been,
but also took control of her own story in death.
She presents a striking and complex lens through which authors
and artists have wrestled with memory, pain, betrayal, and yes love.
(23:40):
Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,
Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Melaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima
(24:02):
Il Kayali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and
Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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