Sigismondo Malatesta
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (
1417 –
1468), popularly known as
the wolf of Rimini, was lord of
Rimini,
Fano, and
Cesena from
1432. He was widely considered by his contemporaries as one of the most daring military leaders in
Italy and commanded the
Venetian forces in the
1465 campaign against the
Ottoman Empire. He was also a
poet and patron of the arts.
He was not a religious man, and his
Tempio Malatestiano, also known as San Francesco, built in Rimini, by
Leon Battista Alberti and decorated by artists including
Piero della Francesca and
Agostino di Duccio, was essentially a monument to
Isotta degli Atti, his lover and third wife. It was a landmark
Renaissance building, being the first church to use the Roman
triumphal arch as part of its structure.
Sigismondo's conflicts with the
Roman Catholic Church led to the loss of most of his lands at hands of Pope
Pius II, who considered him guilty of treachery towards
Siena arising from his long-running feud with
Federico da Montefeltro duke of
Urbino. Pius actually declared Sigismondo canonised in Hell at one point. In an attempt to reverse this situation, Sigismondo appears to have intended to murder Pius' successor, Pope
Paul II (who had continued Pius' policy), in
1468, but lost his nerve and returned to Rimini, where he died a few months later.
Malatesta's reputation (albeit minor) was largely based on
Pius II's perception of him. Beginning in 1922, however, with
A Draft of XXX Cantos,
Ezra Pound sought to reconsider Malatesta's contributions to history in a more positive light.
It is said he delved in "rape, adultery, and incest".¹
*
House of Malatesta*
- Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta¹ "Erotic Love through the ages[
1]", Sardi. Pg. 119.
