446 Epilogue
the process against her. Since she was Rosafiore’s heir, the suspicion that
this entire affair was engineered to seize the family’s property soon began to
circulate.^174
On the morning of 13 May, the attitude in the city was sullen. Police of
the inquisition and commune were in evidence, and most people guarded
their lips more carefully than on the day before. Only half as many people
would later admit to protesting on the day of the executions as confessed to
protesting on the day of the condemnations. Nevertheless, the bitter and
threatening talk of the night before had brought out a couple of hotheads.
When a communal jailer, Francesco di Marco, arrived in the Piazza del
Mercato for the completion of the scaffolding, he found Giacobino di Riccio
de’ Colombi and Pietro Madiane throwing rocks at the scaffold, cursing at
the jailers, and shouting against the inquisition and in favor of Bompietro.^175
When Francesco tried to stop them, Giacobino pulled out his sword.
Francesco drew his knife, and Giacobino backed off and fled.^176 Considering
popular feelings, it is surprising that this was the only recorded attempt to
stop the execution.
On the morning of the execution, the inquisitor would have delivered a
sermon in the piazza. He was no doubt well guarded after that morning’s
incident. Fra Guido would have imposed any other lesser penances and
again announced the execution of the tworelapsiand the burning of Rosafi-
ore’s bones. Then he would have departed. The execution of the condemned
was a secular matter. We have no description of the execution. Giuliano
certainly died defiant. No one speaks of any repentance, and no deposition
indicates the least sympathy for him. But the unshriven Bompietro, perhaps
invoking Christ and the saints, went to the stake calling forth the murmured
sympathy of most of those present. As much as Bompietro, Rosafiore’s bones
generated bitter comment. Two women spoke aloud. Mina, a butcher’s wife
from San Giuseppe, cried out, ‘‘O Donna Rosafiore, none of this can hurt
you!’’^177 Bompietro’s neighbor Donna Bitina cursed the inquisitor more col-
loquially, ‘‘O gli nascha’l vermo cane!’’^178 The words would cost her £ 10
bon.^179 The crowd at the execution seems to have been a more feminine one
than at the condemnation, perhaps more pitiful and less defiant as well.^180
- Indeed, it was against canon law to seize a wife’s property merely because of her husband’s
heresy:Liber Sextus 5. 2. 14.
175 .ASOB,no. 220 , 1 : 185 – 86. - Ibid., no. 271 , 1 : 203 – 4 ; Giacobino was later cited, ibid., no. 330 , 1 : 221 , but nothing else remains
from his process, if there was one. - Ibid., no. 444 , 1 : 262 , ‘‘O domina Rosaflore, nichil nocet vobis.’’
- Which might be translated, ‘‘May he give birth to a worm dog!’’ Or perhaps, ‘‘May a dog-worm
grow in him!’’ It does lose something in translation.
179 .ASOB,no. 163 , 1 : 169. - Of those at the 12 May condemnations, seventeen out of twenty-one were men. Of the thirteen
(or eleven, if we omit the two morning rock throwers) at the site of the execution on 13 May, ten were
women. See Dupre ́-Theseider, ‘‘Eresia a Bologna,’’ 278 – 79 , and Paolini,Eresia, 57 , for an attempt at a
socioeconomic analysis of the crowd.