Ruggeri Ubaldini, son of Ubaldino Della Pila, was born in the golden age of the dynasty and followed in the footsteps of his uncle Ottaviano in the city of Bologna, where he became archdeacon. In 1278 he became archbishop of Pisa, where he came into contact with the ruling class of the city, ruled by the Ghibelline Ugolino Della Gherardesca and the Guelph Nino Visconti.
Witness of the decline of Pisa after the defeat of the Battle of Meloria (1284), after getting rid of both, he assumed power and sentenced Count Ugolino Della Gherardesca to death by having him locked up in the “Torre Della Fame” together with two children and two grandchildren.

One of the most famous passages of the Comedy is dedicated to this episode.
However, “[….] All the light of Dante’s verses is projected on Ugolino; Ruggieri is inert: only a skull to gnaw on, some hair with which to “wipe” his mouth as with a rag “(from Enciclopedia Dantesca, 1970).

Ubaldino della Pila, older brother of Cardinal Ottaviano, is met by Dante among the gluttons in Purgatory. The fame of a good fork, spread by his contemporary Dante and who knows him directly, extends over time, and perhaps he is credited with the invention of the “Ubaldine” fritters described with many variations in a cookbook of the fourteenth century, including others “complicated and refined delicacies”. In Sacchetti’s novels Ubaldino is described in a bizarre and jovial mood (Nov. CCV); in politics he was Podestà of Borgo San Lorenzo (1238, 1239, 1281) and of Lucca in 1265. Influential Ghibelline leader, after the battle of Montaperti in 1260, he was among those who proposed to destroy Florence, defended by Farinata degli Uberti (Inf X 92; Villani VI 81). In agreement with his brother Ottaviano, in the summer of 1273 he hosted Pope Gregory X and his entire court at the Castle of Montaccianico for a few months, where archaeological excavations have brought to light a seal.

Photo credits: Cavaliere degli Ubaldini_MuFiS – Museo del Figurino Storico di Calenzano (FI)

Ugolino di Azzo, perhaps identifiable with Ugolino son of Azzo da Montaccianico, is also remembered in the Purgatory by Guido del Duca, on which there is only one documentary testimony in 1220 (therefore he would be a contemporary of Guido da Prata), but not enough to insert it in the Romagna environment. Or it could be Ugolino da Senni, son of Azzo della Pila, brother of Cardinal Ottaviano, who married Beatrice of Galvano Lancia and died in 1293.

Photo credits: Cavaliere degli Ubaldini_MuFiS – Museo del Figurino Storico di Calenzano (FI)

The “Cardinal” Octavian (1213-1272), son of Ugolino di Albizo, is the best-known character of the family, nominated by Farinata degli Uberti among the epicureans and soul deniers, together with the emperor Frederick II. Initiated to an ecclesiastical career in Bologna, he became archdeacon of the cathedral in 1234 and cardinal in 1244 by the will of Innocent IV. Apostolic legate in Lombardy, he shows an ambiguous and unusual attitude for an openly Ghibelline prelate in deference to the family tradition, he had him attributed by the ancient commentators the phrase: “si anima est, ego perdidi ipsam millies pro Gibellinis”. The unscrupulous attitudes and the suspected epicureanism obscure his memory and provoke the condemnation of Dante.
Cardinal Ottaviano was buried near Scarperia, inside the Pieve di Santa Maria a Fagna, dating back to 1018.

Photo credits: Cavaliere degli Ubaldini_MuFiS – Museo del Figurino Storico di Calenzano (FI)