Luchetto Gattilusio

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Luchetto Gattilusio

Luchetto Gattilusio (fl. 1248 – 1307) was a Genoese

Republic of Genoa

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa was an independent state in Liguria on the northwestern Italy coast from the 11th century to 1797, when it was invaded by armies of First French Republic under Napoleon I of France....
statesman, diplomat, and man of letters. As a Guelph

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were Political factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries....
he played an important role in wider Lombard

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region....
politics and as a troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages .The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece....
in the Occitan language he composed three poetic descriptions of his time.

earliest written references to Luchetto are in a series of notarial

Civil law notary

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Luchetto Gattilusio (fl. 1248 – 1307) was a Genoese

Republic of Genoa

Guelphs and Ghibellines

Lombardy

Troubadour

Poetry

The earliest written references to Luchetto are in a series of notarial

Civil law notary

Civil-law notaries are specialized lawyers acting as public officers with jurisdiction over voluntary, i.e., non-contentious, private law. Unlike a notary public, their common-law counterparts, they are able to provide legal advice and prepare instruments with legal effect....
instruments dating to 1248, 1251, 1252, 1267, and 1287. His earliest activity, however, was probably his literary work. The only complete work which can be surely assigned to his authorship is D'un sirventes m'es granz volontatz preza, a sirventes
Sirventes

The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan language it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type....
dated to between 1262 and 1264. It is preserved in a famous chansonnier

Chansonnier

A chansonnier is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and Monophony settings of chansons. The most important chansonniers contain lyrics, poems and songs of the trouv?res or troubadours of the Middle Ages....
compiled by Bernart Amoros. It was written while Charles of Anjou was in Italy preparing to make good on his Papally-sanctioned claim to the Kingdom of Sicily

Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. The Kingdom of Sicily covered not only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy and, until 1530, the islands of Malta and Gozo....
. Luchetto was a staunch supporter of Charles of Anjou and his sirventes encourages the would-be king to follow the example of his namesake:

E pois lo noms de Carle en liu es

Sega.ls seus faitz q'estiers a tort seria

Per sel clamatz qe valc, s'el non valia.

And because he has the name of Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was List of Frankish kings from 768 to his death. He expanded the Franks kingdoms into a Carolingian Empire that incorporated much of Western Europe and Central Europe....

He therefore follows him in deeds rather than

Be called wrong for not being worthy of it.

Asides from his above work there is another sirventes, Cora q'eu fos marritz ni conziros, directed at fellow Italian troubadour Sordello
Sordello

Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Lombardy troubadour, born in the municipality of Goito in the province of Mantua. He is perhaps best remembered for the praise heaped on him by other poets: he is praised by Dante Alighieri in the De vulgari eloquentia, and in the Purgatorio of The Divine Comedy is mad...
, which only survives in fragments and which is sometimes assigned to Luchetto, sometimes to fellow Genoese Lanfranc Cigala
Lanfranc Cigala

Lanfranc Cigala or Cicala was a Genoa nobleman, knight, judge, and man of letters of the mid thirteenth century. He remains one of the most famous Occitan troubadours of Lombardy....
. Another work by Luchetto, Luchetz, se.us platz mais amar finamen, a tenso

Tenso

A tenso, tenson, or ten?o is a style of Occitan song favoured by the troubadours. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position on a topic relating to love or ethics....
with another Genoese troubadour, Bonifaci Calvo
Bonifaci Calvo

Bonifaci, Bonifatz, or Bonifacio Calvo was a Genoese troubadour of the late thirteenth century. The only biographical account of his life is found in the Vida of Bertolome Zorzi....
, which must have been written after Calvo's return to Genoa in 1266, exists incompletely. In the various manuscripts in which are preserved these works, Luchetto's name appears Occitanised as Luchetz, Luqetz, or Luquet and Gateluz or Gatelus.

Diplomat and statesman
Luchetto's first diplomatic activity occurred in 1266, when he acted as an ambassador from Genoa to Pope Clement IV
Pope Clement IV

Pope Clement IV , born Gui Faucoi called in later life le Gros , was elected Pope February 5, 1265, in a Papal conclave held at Perugia that took four months, while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France , to carry on the papal war against the last of the house of Hohe...
and Charles of Anjou. In 1270 he was assigned by the Angevins
Capetian House of Anjou

The Capetian dynasty House of Anjou, sometimes known as the House of Anjou-Sicily was an important European royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet....
to "examine" the government of the podestà
Podestà

Podest? is the name given to certain high officials in many Italy cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor....
Orlando Putagio in Parma
Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its architecture and the fine countryside around it. It is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
. His first major political assignment is related in the Chronicon of Pietro Cantinelli under the year 1272: Dominus Luchittus de Cataluxiis de Janua fuit potestas Bononiae ("Lord Luchetto Gattilusio of Genoa made podestà of Bologna
Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
"). Luchetto was still acting as Guelph podestà of Bologna on 6 March 1277, when Enzo of Sardinia, son of the Emperor Frederick II and long languishing in a Bolognese prison, dictated his testament in the presence of nobili viro Luchitto de Gatalusiis cive januensi Bonon. Praetore ("nobleman Luchetto Gattilusio, citizen of Genoa, praetor
Praetor

Praetor was a Title#Titles_for_heads_of_state granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected Magistratus assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period....
of Bologna," praetor being synonymous with podestà at that time). The next year (1273), however, he was also capitano del popolo of Lucca
Lucca

Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca....
under Charles. He was still at Lucca in 1277.

In 1282 Luchetto served a term as podestà of Milan
Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
. Then, on 13 October 1284 he was a member of the Genoese delegation which reconfirmed the alliance between Genoa, Lucca, and Florence against Pisa
Republic of Pisa

The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Central Italy city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries....
. In 1295 he again acted as Genoese ambassador to the pope, this time Boniface VIII, and helped seal a peace with Venice
Republic of Venice

The Most Serene Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice . It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century AD until the year 1797....
. On that mission he also received a papal bull
Papal bull

A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
for a church he had built at Priano in Sestri Ponente
Sestri Ponente

Sestri Ponente is an industrial suburb of Genoa in northwest Italy. It is part of the Medio Ponente municipio of Genoa....
. His last position of state was in Cremona
Cremona

Cremona is a city in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left shore of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments....
, where he served as podestà in 1301. He appears in documents for the last time in 1307.

Private life
Through his long and varied career Luchetto had acquired interests in property in Sardinia
Sardinia

Sardinia is the Mediterranean islands#By area island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The island is surrounded by the France island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia and the Balearic Islands....
, and he appeared in documents of Nino Visconti
Nino Visconti

Ugolino Visconti , better known as Nino, was the Giudice of Gallura from 1275 or 1276 to his death. He was a son of Giovanni Visconti and nephew of Ugolino della Gherardesca....
, Judge of Gallura, and Ugolino della Gherardesca
Ugolino della Gherardesca

Ugolino della Gherardesca , count of Donoratico, was an Italy nobility, politician and naval commander. He was frequently accused of treason and features prominently in Dante's Divine Comedy....
, capitano del popolo of Pisa. His literary interests may have taken him into contact with Brunetto Latini
Brunetto Latini

Brunetto Latini was an Italian philosopher, scholar and statesman....
. Economically he exercised power over the market in Bologna for many years. Though his marital and familial relations are unknown, he did have a brother named Gattino and a daughter named Ilisina. He is not to be confused, however, with another podestà of the same name who ruled in Savona
Savona

File:Savona-IMG 1526.JPGSavona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italy region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
in 1301.

Sources

Bertoni, Giulio. I Trovatori d'Italia: Biografie, testi, tradizioni, note. Rome: Società Multigrafica Editrice Somu, 1967 [1915].