A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Selvaggia, Ricciarda
SELVAGGIA, RICCIARDA,
Was of a noble family of Pistoia, and beloved by Cino, a famous scholar and poet of the fourteenth century. The parents of Ricciarda were haughty, and though she returned the love of the young poet, it was unknown to her family. At length her father, who belonged to the faction of the Bianchi, was banished, with his family, from Pistoia, by the faction of the Neri. They took refuge in a little fortress among the Appenines, where they suffered severe privations. Cino hastened to comfort them, and the parents now received him gladly; but Ricciarda drooped under the pressure of anxiety and want, and died in a few months. Her parents and her lover buried her in a nook among the mountains; and many years afterwards, when Cino had been crowned with wreaths and honours, he made a pilgrimage to her tomb. Ricciarda, or Selvaggia, as she is usually called, possessed poetical talents which were then considered of a high order. Some of her "MadrigaIs" are now extant; but her chief fame rests on her being the beloved of Cino. In the history of Italian poetry, Selvaggia is distinguished as the "bel numero una," the fair number one of the four celebrated women of the fourteenth century. The others were Dante's Beatrice, Petrarch's Laura, and Boccaccio's Fiammetta.