Montecchi

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The Montecchi are recalled by Sordello da Goito in the Purgatorio as an emblematic example of the factions that rent asunder the Lombard communes. Together with the Cappelletti of Cremona, their name evokes the clash between the imperial and the anti-imperial sides that involved a large part of the region, encompassing in their meaning also the other great Ghibelline and Guelph houses that fuelled that contest. The juxtaposition with the Monaldi and the Filippeschi of Orvieto, indicated almost as a sample of central Italy, extends Sordello's denunciation to the entire peninsula, prefiguring the misfortunes that will strike the cities entrusted to an emperor apparently deaf to their woes. The mention occurs in the Earthly Paradise, during the conversation with Sordello, on the cornice dedicated to the negligent princes.