Coat of arms of the Spino Secco branch of the family.

Corrado Malaspina (called “il Giovane”, “The Young,” as opposed to his grandfather Corrado Malaspina “il Vecchio”, “The Old”), was an Italian nobleman and landowner.

He was born in the first decades of the 13th century, the illegitimate son of Frederic I Malaspina, and died sometime between September 1294 and 1300. He is best remembered as a character in the poetry of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio.

Biography

Conrad Malaspina was born sometime in the first two decades of the 13th century. Natural son of Frederic I, Marquess of Villafranca in Lunigiana and of Virgoletta, he was raised by his grandfather Conrad the old, the forefather of the Spino Secco branch of the Malaspina, lords of Lunigiana since the 11th century.

Wedding

The first documents attributed to him date back to 1234 and are about his wedding, which took place two years before to a woman named Urica, the biological daughter of Marianus II of Torres, a judge from Sardinia.

Other documents from 1281 to 1305 talk about a certain Orietta as Conrad's wife, who may be tied to the Genoese families of the Zanche or the Spinola, but it is also possible that it is the same woman, with her name translated from the Sardinian dialect.

He didn't have any legitimate heirs, but there was an illegitimate son nicknamed Figliastro (Stepson), and Boccaccio talks about a daughter called Spina. It is plausible, however, that she was just invented for the tale.[1] If she existed, she would have been born around 1264.

Wars and management of the family's wealth

The wedding between Conrad and the daughter of the judge of Torres brought an expansion of the Malaspina family interests also in Sardinia; however, in 1266 the wealth acquired there was divided into three parts between Conrad and his uncles Moroello and Manfredi because Conrad didn't have a legitimate male heir.

In 1278, on the initiative of the uncle Moroello, the Malaspina occupied the town of Chiavari causing a war with Genoa to which Conrad only participated marginally, to the point that he was absent for the peace oath, being in his overseas lands of Sardinia.

The management of the territory in the following years proved fruitful for the bonds with Genoese families that were strengthened by weddings and both political and financial joint ventures.

The collaboration with the Genoese families was linked to the war between Genoa and Pisa. The Malaspina family supported Genoa's faction by funding the expeditions (with maneuvers like the acquisition by Conrad of the localities of Casteldoria and the curatorìa (judgedom) of Anglona from Brancaleone Doria, for 9,300 lire, that were immediately handed back) and militarily by participating on the first line in the expedition that culminated in the battle of Meloria (1284) and the Pisan defeat.

Concerning the heirloom of his grandfather in 1266 the possessions in Lunigiana and on the Apennines were divided amongst the heirs, i.e., Conrad and his two brothers Tommaso and Opizzino and his three uncles Manfredi, Alberto, and Moroello. (Majorat was not yet enforced)

Conrad and his brothers earned the Lunigianese settlements with Villafranca as the most important of them and other assets in Val Trebbia and Val Staffora (in the Oltrepò Pavese), plus the Sardinian belongings.

In 1281 there was yet another division of the Spino Secco possessions, most likely due to conflicts between the Malaspina and the bishop of Luni. Also this time Conrad's contribution seems minimal.

The last information about Conrad is his testament, written in September 1294 in Mulazzo, in which he recognized his brothers Tommaso and Opizzino as universal heirs. Because there is no trace of him afterward, it is believed that he died later the same year.

In literature

Conrad distinguished himself in the Spino Secco branch because of vast interest in traditions and conscience of the history and standing of the family.[2] His figure has become that of the virtuous noble that represents the courteous ideals of chivalry. It has inspired two of the major authors of the fourteenth century: Dante Alighieri and Boccaccio.

Dante's Purgatorio

Dante, in the eighth canto of the Purgatorio, presents his encounter with Conrad in the Valley of Rulers where he stands out because of his values of love and family. He starts with a captatio benevolentiae, wishing that Dante will have the strength to reach the Empyrean, using a "literary and graceful language" that shows the "moral and material decorum" of the character.[3] He then presents himself by stating his name and surname, a rare happening in the Divine Comedy and immediately completes the identification by including his parentage to another well-known member of the family. He is not boasting, but talking with dignity. He concludes by saying that his love for his family is why he has to wait in the Ante-Purgatory[4]

Then starts Dante's homage to the family, whose hospitality is legendary not only in Italy but in Europe. It is a tribute to those who welcomed him when he was in exile, but also an example that is set for others to follow.[5]

Boccaccio's Decameron

Conrad appears in Boccacio's Decameron, in the sixth novella of the second day, the one dedicated to stories of people that after a great misfortune are able to turn the tables with the help of luck and end up in a better situation than at the beginning. In Boccaccio, he embodies the ideal of the generous lord and, just like in Dante his family is characterized by hospitality. In the end after finding out the true story of Giuffredi he helps him reunite with his mother, his father and his brother and lets him marry his daughter.

References

  1. ↑ She is present in the sixth novella of the second day, like her father, however, in the Decameron by Vittore Branca, published by Mondadori, footnote 45 of the novella 2;6 says: "Personaggio probabilmente immaginario, il cui nome fu naturalmente suggerito dal cognome"-"Probably an invented character, whose name was naturally suggested by the surname"
  2. ↑ Salvatore S. Nigro in his commentary on the eighth canto, p.135 of the Purgatorio by Umberto Bosco e Giovanni Reggio, writes:"La menzione dell'antico non è certo fatta per chiarire l'omonimia, ma per segnare una linea genealogica a cui egli tiene sopra ogni cosa" translated: "the mention of the antico was obviously not aimed at clearing the doubt of the omonimy, rather to define a genealogical line he (Conrad) held dear over everything else."
  3. ↑ Synthesis of Bianca Garavelli's comment on the verses 112 to 114 of the eighth canto of purgatory, page 121 of "La Commedia-Purgatorio" by Bianca Garavelli, supervised by Maria Corti.
  4. ↑ synthesis of Bianca Garavelli's comment on the verses 118 to 120 of the eighth canto of purgatory, page 121 of "La Commedia-Purgatorio" by Bianca Garavelli, supervised by Maria Corti.
  5. ↑ Salvatore S. Nigro in his commentary on the eighth canto, p.135/136 of the Purgatorio by Umberto Bosco e Giovanni Reggio, also talks about him as a symbol of old values that Dante remembers with nostalgia as if they are the last family to practice them.

Notes

1. ^ not the one mentioned above.

Bibliography

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