What is done is done
"What is done is done"
"COSA FATTA CAPO HA" the Italian saying is related to a fact happened in 1216 during a party among the aristocratic Florentine families. Buondelmonte Buondelmonti was a smart, beautiful, noble man: a jealous servant, certainly supported by other guests attacked him. During the scuffle Buondelmonte wounded Oddo Arrighi, the man who supported him during the fight. The feast finished but Buondelmonte had to pay for what he did.
So, the Arrighi family gathered inside the church of "S. Stefano al Ponte" next to Ponte Vecchio together with the members of the families they were allied with: Amidei, Lamberti, Uberti, Alberti.
They decided the punishment for Buondelmonte: he had to marry Oddo's nephew, a simple ugly girl; she wasn't aristocratic. This was a very cruel revenge! Buondelmonte accepted but the day of the wedding he abandoned her for another woman belonging to the Donati family. The new girlfriend paid a very high penalty because Buondelmonte had already signed the wedding contract with Oddo's nephew. The allied families gathered another time inside the old church of "Santa Maria Sopra Porta" to decide the new penalty. During the meeting Mosca Lamberti pronounced: "Cosa fatta capo ha", that means "what is done is done", Buondelmonte will pay with his life!
So, Mosca Lamberti killed Buondelmonte at his passage on Ponte Vecchio on Easter 1216.
Florentine aristocratic families divided into two parts after this private revenge: Alberti, Uberti, Lamberti claimed the help pf the Emperor Federico II to escape from the republican government and they became "ghibelline"; on the contrary Buondelmonti family and its supporters - Pazzi, Donati - were "guelphs". This killing was the beginning of the civil florentine war between the aristocratic families factions of the city: Guelphs against ghibellines.
Even Dante mentions Mosca Lamberti in the Hell: the man was the source of the quarrel. When he was alive he spreaded injustice and he separated families, now a devil breaks him into pieces with a sword!
So, the Arrighi family gathered inside the church of "S. Stefano al Ponte" next to Ponte Vecchio together with the members of the families they were allied with: Amidei, Lamberti, Uberti, Alberti.
They decided the punishment for Buondelmonte: he had to marry Oddo's nephew, a simple ugly girl; she wasn't aristocratic. This was a very cruel revenge! Buondelmonte accepted but the day of the wedding he abandoned her for another woman belonging to the Donati family. The new girlfriend paid a very high penalty because Buondelmonte had already signed the wedding contract with Oddo's nephew. The allied families gathered another time inside the old church of "Santa Maria Sopra Porta" to decide the new penalty. During the meeting Mosca Lamberti pronounced: "Cosa fatta capo ha", that means "what is done is done", Buondelmonte will pay with his life!
So, Mosca Lamberti killed Buondelmonte at his passage on Ponte Vecchio on Easter 1216.
Florentine aristocratic families divided into two parts after this private revenge: Alberti, Uberti, Lamberti claimed the help pf the Emperor Federico II to escape from the republican government and they became "ghibelline"; on the contrary Buondelmonti family and its supporters - Pazzi, Donati - were "guelphs". This killing was the beginning of the civil florentine war between the aristocratic families factions of the city: Guelphs against ghibellines.
Even Dante mentions Mosca Lamberti in the Hell: the man was the source of the quarrel. When he was alive he spreaded injustice and he separated families, now a devil breaks him into pieces with a sword!
The painting on the left represents the funeral of Buondelmonte. The procession passes on Ponte Vecchio where, according to the Medieval historian Giovanni Villani,
a statue of the god Mars was situated until 1333 when the terrible flood brought it away.
a statue of the god Mars was situated until 1333 when the terrible flood brought it away.
The old tower-house belonged to Buondelmonte and his family in Via delle Terme in Florence.
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