daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, whose tragic love affair with Paolo Malatesta is renowned in literature and art. Married to Gianciotto Malatesta (called “the Lame”) for reasons of state, she was murdered by him when he discovered her in adultery with his brother Paolo (called “the Fair”), whom he also killed.

Dante was the first to make a literary reference to the tragedy; in Canto V of the Inferno he encounters the lovers Francesca and Paolo on the second circle. Their love and death have also been celebrated in plays by Silvio Pellico and Gabriele D'Annunzio, in operas by Hermann Götz and Sergey Rachmaninoff, and by many other writers, painters, and composers.