Ghino di Tacco

Who is Ghino di Tacco?

Ghinotto di Tacco, called Ghino, was an outlaw and a popular hero in thirteenth century Italy. He was born in the latter half of the thirteenth century in La Fratta, which is now part of Sinalunga in the Province of Siena. Born the son of a Ghibelline nobleman Tacco di Ugolino and brother of Turino, he was a scion of the Cacciaconti Monacheschi Tolomei family.

Along with his father and brother, he made a career of robbery and plunder while being hunted by the Siennese Republic. After they were caught, his father was executed in Siena’s Piazza del Campo, while Ghino managed to escape and sought refuge in Radicofani, a fortified city on the Via Cassia on the border between the Siennese Republic and the Papal States. There Ghino continued his career as a bandit, but in the manner of a gentleman, always leaving his victims with something to live on. Boccaccio depicts him as a good brigand in the Decameron, when relating his kidnapping of the Abbot of Cluny, in the second story of the tenth day:

Ghino di Tacco piglia l'abate di Clignì e medicalo del male dello stomaco e poi il lascia quale, tornato in corte di Roma, lui riconcilia con Bonifazio papa e fallo friere dello Spedale.