Iacopo Rusticucci

Florentine politician (13th century)
Iacopo Rusticucci (around 1200 sometimes anglicized as Jacopo Rusticucci) was a Guelph politician and accomplished orator who lived and worked in Florence, Italy in the 13th century. Rusticucci is realized historically primarily in relation to the Adimari family, who wielded much power and prestige in thirteenth century Florence, and to whom it is thought Rusticucci was a close companion, representative, and perhaps lawyer. Despite his association with men born into high political and social rank, Rusticucci was not born into nobility, and nothing is known of his ancestors or predecessors. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown.

Iacopo Rusticucci's role as a Guelph politician is indicated by documents which mention his part in important political moments and which consistently align him with prominent Guelphs, and by Dante Alighieri in his depiction of Rusticucci in the Divine Comedy. In thirteenth century central Italy, the Guelphs and their rival counterpart, the Ghibellines, were political factions aligned with the papacy and the Roman Empire, respectively. Thirteenth century documents indicate that Rusticucci received payment from the city of Florence for his leadership in a political military endeavour (involving the strife between Guelphs and the Ghibellines). He also received payment on behalf of a member of the Adimari family, a transaction indicative of the kind of role—lawyer, representative—Rusticucci likely assumed in his relations with the family. Also, and despite not knowing his origins or what became of his estate posthumously, Rusticucci is mentioned in a document which records a list of the destruction inflicted upon Guelph property during Ghibelline domination in Florence. This list reveals that Rusticucci was a property owner. Before the reader meets Rusticucci, he is alluded to in Canto VI of Inferno in a conversation between Dante and a sinner named Ciacco – thought by some to be the Florentine poet Ciacco dell' Anguillaia and by others to be a sinner with no real world counterpart. or in her refusal to have sex with him. Either way, Rusticucci explains his presence in this, at the time deemed disgraceful, circle of hell as not being entirely his fault. Rusticucci's role as speaker for the group is thought to be a nod to his success as an orator in when he was alive.