Stories of blood, ghosts and faith: the incredible life of Veronica Cybo

A tragic and violent event, as many others in that gloomy seventeenth century. The character is her, Veronica, got married, as the used in that times, with an arranged marriage, to a certain Jacopo Salviati, descendant from a prestigious Florentine family, strictly near to the Medici's and himself counsellor fo Ferdinando II, Grand duke of Tuscany. A man with a great glamour, good-mannered and that owned a magnificient palace that still exists today, in the very central Via del Corso. Her, on the contrary, came from one of the most powerful and dreaded families in the north-west Tuscany, the Cybo-Malaspina's, lords of the Lunigiana. A name that still made everybody shudder to listen to it.

We do not know if the new accomodation in the bourgeois Florence was appreciated by Veronica, that came from valleys strewn with dark castles. Surely, she was not satisfied in getting knowledge of her husband's soft spot for women. in those days a lot of marriages were celebrated only for the interest of the families. And the other women considered as normal the behaviour of an husband that had some other love affair, trying, in case, to find a young lover for their own.

But no, she, was not able to accept this. Even if, as people said, she was not a beautiful woman and, in addition, ill-natured. Did not helped her the fact that she was reluctant to bestow her favours on her young and hot-blooded husband. No, she had never accepted a rival in love. However, Jacopo Salviati was successful in conquering, without excessive efforts, the heart of a blond and very young Caterina Brogi, daughter of a dyer of the Casentino and married to a rich Florentine seventy-year-old man, in addition ugly-looking and foul-smelling. We do not know how long the affair lasted. But something was aknowledged by the careful Veronica. That did not waste time.

In the church of San Piero Maggio, now disappeared, during the celebration of the Mass, Veronica approached her rival, whispering her a few words that nobody listened to, but sufficients to upset the beautiful Caterina Jacopo Salviati, immediately informed, and fearing an ill-considered action from his wife, put two faithful friends to keep guard over his lover's home. But the devilish and determined Veronica had already called from the native Lunigiana a couple of hired killers paid at a very high price and agreed with Caterina's stepsons, very pleased to eliminate their hate mother-in-low.

The night of New Year's day of 1634, the four men had no difficulties in getting rid of Salviati's friends that, to save their lives, tried in a cowardly way to find shelter in a near brothel and from the window attended the evnts. Thanks to the complicity of her stepsons, the killers teared literally to shreds Caterina and her young maid. The shreds of flesh of the two wretches were scattered through the town, in part they ended up in the sewer an in a well. Only the head was kept.

In Florence there was the tradition that, the first day of the new year, the wifes gives their husbands a basket with a present, as a well wishing sign. So made Veronica, too. She sent her servant to her consort, with a basket in which she put an embroidered shirt. It is not difficult to imagin the horrified and surprised expression of Jacopo Salviati when she discovered, under the white garment, his lover's cut head.

The occurrence caused a great sensation in Florence and, for a long time, it was the only argument of discussion. The Grand duke arrested immediately the stepsons of the the victim and put them to the torture. The elder of the two, Bartolomeo, was executed. A tratment that spare Veronica, a daughter of a duke.The authorities just exiled her in in her villa of San Cerbone, that still today, became the Spedale Serristori (an hospital), overlooks the fortified wall and the towers of Figline Valdarno. A memorial tablet in the entrance of the elegant fifteenth-century cloister, recall the event.

We do not know exactly how was the behaviour of the Salviati towards his extremely jeaulous wife. Somebody tells that he, one step at a time, became reconcilied with Veronica and lived again with her. Somebody, on the contrary, tells that, fearing to be killed himself, he prefered to leave Florence for a long period. For sure, during her exile in the Valdarno valley, the unemotional Veronica had the possibility to reflect upon her vicissitudes and to take comfort from the faith. So that, in spite of the awful crime committed, she became celebrated because of her religious and pious life. Insomuch as, when he died at the oge of eighty-six, her grave in the cathedral of Massa became a well-patronized prayer site.

Veronica Cybo's life was really extraordinary and full of contrasts. a faithful mirror of the society of the age. A life that we could consider concluded centuries ago. But, as it seems, that is not true. There are many people, in fact, that even in the last years, that say they have seen her in the villa of San Cerbone, in Figline Valdarno, among that walls that sow her meditate upon her life and, perhaps, convert her deep-down. A presence that, however, does not frighten and that speaks with pleasure with people unaware that were inside of the hospital. Somebody tells, for example, that a strange personage with a long white and very old coat had reassured a father about the result of his son's operation. Or that had pulled a doctor's jacket. It may happen, more simply, that samebody senses a strange presence, maybe a sudden gust of wind, that hears a little noise in the dark, or that smells an unusual scent. But who has seen her (and they are several) tells that she is an absolutely benevolent spiritual being. A personage, in definitive, that has became almost familiar in the hospital structure.

And, sometimes, able to make us smile, as when a whitewasher found the impressions of her shoes on the walls just whitened of a room that, he swore, he had surely locked up.

The Spedale Serristori actually is an hospital. It is situated close to the centre of Figline Valdarno on a hill.