Name: Farinata degli Uberti
Death Date: 1264
Description: Head of the Ghibelline faction in Florence and one of the larger-than-life figures of Dante's time, Farinata was expelled from the city in 1258 but then took revenge upon Florence in 1260 at the battle of Montaperti where the Florentine Guelfs were routed in a bloody battle by the Ghibelline-Sienese army. The Florentine army in 1260 was approximately 16,000. In 1283 nineteen years after his death the Franciscan Inquisition condemned Farinata as an adherent of Catharism, a religious sect which rejected all things material, including the body.