Fembio Special: Famous Italian Women
Beatrice Cenci
born on February 6, 1577 in Rome
died (beheaded) on September 11, 1599 in Rome
Roman patrician and patricide
425th anniversary of death on September 11, 2024
Biography
The tragic fate of the beautiful Beatrice Cenci – executed at the age of 22 together with her brother Giacomo and stepmother Lucrezia for the murder of her father Francesco Cenci – made her into a legend already during her long trial. To this day she has remained in the national consciousness of Italians, and she has been the source of artistic inspiration. Shelley, Artaud and Moravia wrote plays about Beatrice; several operas, most recently Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci in 1971, have focused on her life.
Francesco Cenci, scion of one of Rome's most prestigious families and heir to a huge fortune, was a brutal, licentious monster. From an early age, he lived only by his passions and desires, which were mainly of a sexual nature. No one, whether boy, girl or woman, was safe from him. His wife Ersilia, whom he had married at the age of 14, bore 12 children in 21 years before she died in childbirth. Seven children survived, including Beatrice, the third youngest.
His violent acts brought Francesco into constant conflict with the law. Yet corruption was rife in the papal jurisdiction, and he was thus always able to bribe his way out with large sums of money.
In April 1595, Francesco left Rome with his second wife Lucrezia and with Beatrice to set up residence in his castle La Petrella in Abruzzo. He did not want Beatrice to marry, but to be at his service (and will?). He had always left the administrative tasks to her.
Francesco had gout and suffered from a disgusting skin disease. Beatrice had to tend to him every evening and scrape the pustules from his abdomen and legs. In May 1595, Francesco travelled to Rome to have his illness treated. He returned in April 1596, and locked Beatrice and Lucrezia together with two servants in the upper chambers, presumably in a fit of jealousy. He then disappeared again, leaving the women to live in semi-darkness much like prisoners.
Olimpio, the bailiff of the castle, fell “madly in love” with Beatrice. Beatrice began an affair with him and became pregnant.
Beatrice had long been looking for ways to escape her father. The pregnancy put her in a panic and under time pressure. She feared that her father would beat her to death if he found out. Together with Olimpio, Lucrezia and other family members, a murder plan was hatched and carried out. But the execution of the crime was so amateurish that rumors soon began to spread. In the end, a commission of inquiry was set up.
During the interrogations, Beatrice denied everything. Her stepmother Lucrezia also denied, but less convincingly.
However, all the denials were to no avail; the crime was soon solved and the guilty parties were brought to justice. On the morning of September 11, the whole town accompanied the condemned in a procession to the place of execution. The circumstances of the execution were extremely cruel, especially for Giacomo. But he and his sister remained proud and recalcitrant. Historical records emphasize the beauty of the young Beatrice. People thought she was innocent - after all, she had acted in self-defense. After all, her own father had raped her. Whether this is true or part of the legend cannot be determined. In any case, Beatrice never mentioned anything of the sort in her defense. And this may be because victims of incest - then as now - are often “ashamed to death” and in extreme cases could even prefer execution to “unbearable public shame.”
(Text from 1998; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.
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