Giovanni De Matociis’s Historiae imperiales. Fazio
often revised his poem in order to refl ect developments
in science; this would explain the gaps in the poem and
the fact that it was unfi nished at the time of the author’s
death. Although it is aesthetically uneven, Dittamondo
is an accomplished poem in the passages that evoke the
passion and spirit of Fazio’s lyric poetry; an example is
the representation of the Florentine and Italian landscape
in Book 3.
Having come of age in the second quarter of the
Trecento, Fazio saw the rise of humanism, and he shared
the humanists’ enthusiasm for the classical world. At the
same time, however, he typifi ed the Ghibelline intellec-
tual during the downward spiral of imperial politics.
See also Brunetto Latini; Dante Alighieri
Further Reading
Editions
Corsi, Giuseppe, ed. Il Dittamondo e le rime, 2 vols. Bari: Lat-
erza, 1952.
——, ed. “Fazio degli Uberti.” In Rimatori del Trecento. Turin:
UTET, 1969, pp. 224–318.
Renier, Rodolfo, ed. Liriche edite ed inedite di Fazio degli Uberti.
Florence: Sansoni, 1883.
Critical Studies
Berisso, Marco. “Testo e contesto della frottola O tu che leggi
di Fazio degli Uberti.” Studi di Filologia Italians, 51, 1993,
pp. 53–88.
Casali, Marino. La lirica di Fazio degli Uberti. Domodossola:
Antonioli, 1949.
Croce, Benedelto. Poesia popolare e poesia d’arte: Studi sulla
poesia italiana dal Tre al Cinquecento. Bari: Laterza, 1933,
pp. 107–132.
Pellizzari, Achille. Il Dittamondo e la Divina commedia: Saggio
sulle fonti del “Dittamondo” e sulla imitazione dantesca nel
secolo XIV. Pisa: Mariotti, 1905.
Tartaro, Achille. “L’esperienza poetica di Fazio degli Uberti.” In
Il Trecento, Vol. 2(1). Bari: Laterza, 1971, pp. 487–511.
Dario Del Puppo
FERNANDO I, KING OF LEÓN
(1016/8-1065)
The second son of Sancho III Garcés (el Mayor), king
of Navarre (r. 1000–1035), and the sister of Count Gar-
cía Sánchez of Castile, Fernando was installed as the
count of Castile when García Sánchez was murdered in
- Subsequently he was married to Sancha, sister of
Vermudo III of León. After his father’s death Fernando
defeated and killed his father-in-law at Tamarón on 4
September 1037. Vermudo had no direct heirs, so Fer-
nando and Sancha were recognized as the monarchs of
León-Castile.
The royal couple seems to have faced no serious in-
ternal challenge to their rule. They began the reform of
the church of the realm with a council held at Coyanza
(modern Valencia de Don Juan) in 1055, although the
acts of that meeting show that reform was largely lim-
ited to a new policy of enforcing the traditional canon
law. However, at some point in the ten years following,
Fernando and Sancha entered into a close relationship
with the great Burgundian reform monastery of Cluny,
which would endure and grow under their heirs and suc-
cessors. In return for Cluny’s prayers for the well-being
of their persons and dynasty, the Leonese monarchs
began an annual subsidy of 1,000 gold dinars, which
would do much to support the construction of a new,
third monastic church structure at Cluny.
The royal couple also exerted themselves to enrich
and endow the cathedrals and monasteries of their own
realm. In 1063 an expedition to the Muslim t.ˉa’ifa (king-
dom) of Seville secured the surrender of the relics of
St. Isidore of Seville. These were transported to León
and installed there in what would later become a major
shrine. At the same time other relics were reclaimed
from the ruins of Ávila and redistributed among the
churches of the north. From what can be determined,
Fernando and Sancha were comparatively modest in
their patronage of Santiago de Compostela, even though
the devotion and pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James
was growing substantially during their reign. They were
also generous to one of the favorite royal residences, the
monastery of Sahagún, which was more central to the
kingdom as it was then developing than was Santiago
de Compostela. Despite all of this religious activity,
relations between the churches of León-Castile and the
papacy at Rome were minimal.
In the Christian north of the peninsula, Fernando
asserted the hegemony of the new León-Castile that his
victory in 1037 had established. During the reign of his
father, lands in the Castilian northeast had been detached
from that county and added to the kingdom of Navarre.
That kingdom had been the portion of his older brother,
García IV Sánchez (r. 1035–1054). Following the death
of their father, relations between the brothers gradually
worsened. On 15 September 1054, the two met in battle
at Atapuerca, and García Sánchez was defeated and
killed. The district of the Bureba, northeast of Burgos,
was reclaimed for León-Castile, and the kingdom of
Navarre became a tributary under Fernando’s nephew,
Sancho García IV (r. 1054–1076).
With the leadership of León-Castille secure in the
Christian north, Fernando embarked on an ambitious
series of campaigns against the Muslim .tˉa’ifa kingdoms
of the Iberian Peninsula. Perhaps as early as 1055 he
launched his offensive against the Portuguese territories
of Muslim Badajoz. On 29 November 1057 his forces
took the town of Lamego, one hundred kilometers up-
river from Christian Oporto. With that victory the val-
ley of the Douro (Duero) River was secured for León.
The next objective was the hill city of Viseu, on theFAZIO DEGLI UBERTI