Francesca da rimini rachmaninov biography

Francesca da Polenta, the daughter of Guido I, has the distinction of being both a famous real-life character associated with Rimini, and at the same time a character in works ranging from Dante through to Rachmaninov and D’Annunzio.

The young Francesca, at the age of 15 or 16, was offered in marriage by her father, the ruling lord of Ravenna, to Giovanni Malatesta of Rimini to cement a strategic alliance.

Both the Malatesta and Da Polenta families had profitted from the Guelf Ghibelline conflict to drive out rivals and assume power in Rimini and Ravenna respectively (between 1265 and 1275, at a time when the conflict between Empire and Papacy fuelled conflict throughout Italy).

What happened after her marriage to Giovanni remains shrouded in mystery.

We know that the couple had a child, Concordia (named after Giovanni’s mother), and that almost certainly Francesca was murdered around 1285 along with her brother-in-law Paolo Malatesta, at the hands of her jealous hus Francesca Da Rimini - Encyclopedia.com MUJO