Malatesta

Malatesta

Malatesta (mälätĕˈstä), Italian family, ruling Rimini and nearby cities for almost 300 years from the 13th to 16th cent. Malatesta da Verucchio (d. 1312), a powerful Guelph leader, became (1239) podestà, or chief magistrate, of Rimini and used this position to entrench his family's position in the area. His hunchback son Gianciotto was married to Francesca da Rimini. With the expulsion of the family's Ghibelline rivals in 1295 the Malatesta rule in Rimini became well established, but papal investiture was made only in the following century. Branches of the family came to rule also Pesaro, Cesena, and Fano. In the 14th and 15th cent. several members of the family were noted condottieri in the service of various Italian states. The most famous was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–68), a typical lord of the Italian Renaissance. A patron of arts and letters, he had the church of San Francesco in Rimini transformed into the Tempio Malatestiano [the temple of the Malatesta]. A despot excommunicated for numerous crimes, he engaged in a bitter conflict with the papacy over territorial claims, but he finally lost (1463) all his possessions except Rimini. His brother Novello, lord of Cesena, built there the fine Malatesta library. Sigismondo's son and grandson held the little state with difficulty, eventually losing it in 1500 to Cesare Borgia. Although the Malatesta family returned for brief intervals in the early 16th cent., Rimini passed definitively to the Holy See in 1528.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Malatesta

 

an Italian feudal family that from the late 13th to the early 16th centuries ruled in Rimini and extended its domination over part of Romagna and over Ancona of the Marches. The fierce struggle for power within the Malatesta family was accompanied by many perfidious assassinations; the tragic story of Francesca, the wife of one Malatesta in the early 14th century, has been immortalized by Dante in the Divine Comedy.

The most famous of the Malatestas, Sigismondo Pandolfo I (1417-68), surrounded himself with philosophers and scholars and collected a marvelous library. He also fought in many wars and served successively as condottiere of the pope, the rulers of Florence, and Alfonso of Aragon; in these wars he lost most of his possessions and entered the service of Venice. The Malatestas lost Rimini once and for all in 1528.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Malatesta

schemes outwit miser; enable young lovers to wed. [Ital. Opera: Donizetti, Don Pasquale, Westerman, 123–124]

See: Trickery

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Malatesta

an Italian family that ruled Rimini from the 13th to the 16th century

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005