Galigaio

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In Canto XVI of Paradiso, Cacciaguida recalls with regret that the Ravignani family, once very powerful and linked to the lineage of the Conti Guidi, saw its dwellings pass into the hands of newcomers. The note to the passage specifies that the ancient houses of the Ravignani, located near Porta San Piero, became the property of the Conti Guidi and subsequently of the Cerchi, the White faction protagonists of the Florentine civil struggles. Galigaio is cited as one of these new occupants who, with their reckless conduct, weigh upon the 'ship' of Florence until they make it sink. The note therefore associates him with that savage part that Dante also condemns in Inferno VI, without the name of Galigaio appearing explicitly in that place. Galigaio thus represents, in Cacciaguida's denunciation, the tangible sign of the social upheaval that has struck ancient and chivalric Florence.