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ROGER2. Ruggieri degli Ubaldini was archbishop of Pisa and a member of the Ghibelline party in the years 1278-1295. Count Ugolino della Gherardesca betrayed the Guelphs to him, and he betrayed Ugolino, who was imprisoned with his sons in the Tower of Famine, where they starved to death. Dante places Ruggieri and Ugolino in Antenora among traitors, in the second division of the Ninth Circle of Hell, where Ugolino gnaws on Ruggieri's head (Inf XXXIII.1-90).

The Monk tells the story, MkT 2407-2462. Chaucer omits the cannibalism of Dante's version. [Hugelyn]

Roger, the English variant of Italian Ruggieri, appears in medial position, MkT 2416.

Dante, The Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. C.S. Singleton, I, 1: 348-355; D.K. Fry, "The Ending of The Monk's Tale." JEGP 71 (1972): 355-368; T.H. Spencer, "The Story of Ugolino in Dante and Chaucer." Speculum 9 (1934): 295-301.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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