Cante de' Gabrielli

Cante dei Gabrielli di Gubbio (c. 1260 – c. 1335) was an Italian nobleman and condottiero.

Cante was born in Gubbio to a powerful Guelph feudal family. He held several high offices as Podestà in a number of cities in Tuscany and Umbria (Florence, Pistoia, Siena, Lucca, Orvieto) and was lord of Gubbio, Cantiano and other castles. In 1317 he was appointed by Pope John XXII as Commander-in-Chief of the Church's army, at the head of which he defeated the Ghibellines at Assisi and Urbino, thus re-establishing the Pope's supremacy in central Italy.

He is mostly famous for having exiled from Florence Dante Alighieri, the famous poet, while serving as Podestà of that city (1301–1302). Dante took vengeance on him by giving Cante's disguised name to Rubicante, one of the Malebranche demons the poet encounters in the bolgia of barratry, as described in his masterwork the Divine Comedy.

Frederic Leighton was reportedly inspired by Cante dei Gabrielli's life when he painted his Condottiere (1871-1872), today at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

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