Character guide

Romola de' Bardi

major

Also known as Romola, Madonna Romola, Poor Romola, The Romola, Romola de ' Bardi

Romola de' Bardi moves through Florence as daughter, wife, and reluctant Madonna to the poor, her loyalty pulled between duty to others and the demands of her own soul. When she tries to flee the city in disguise, Savonarola's rebuke — 'who is so base as the debtor that thinks himself free?' — fixes the tension that will define her: she cannot abandon a pledge, even one that wounds her. Her early arc turns on whether integrity can survive inside a bond she has begun to regret.

Tito Melema

major

Also known as Tito, Messer Tito, Messer Tito Melema, Melema

Tito arrives in Florence with looks, learning, and an instinct for making himself useful to the powerful, and quickly becomes the kind of man everyone is glad to see. Yet his ease conceals a growing dread of displeasure: he cannot bear Romola's anger, cannot face Baldassarre, and cannot stop spinning a web around Tessa that he tells himself is kindness. His early choices — the library, the secret household, the small evasions — quietly set the terms of the tragedy that will close around him.

Baldassarre Calvo

major

Also known as Baldassarre, Presently Baldassarre

Once a learned man who raised Tito as a son, Baldassarre survives captivity and shipwreck only to find himself unrecognized by the boy he saved. His mind flickers between blankness and a terrible clarity, and in those lucid moments he fixes on the one purpose that remains: to make Tito answer for what he did. His presence haunts the middle of the book as a living reproach, the past that Tito's charm cannot talk away.

Tessa

major

Also known as pretty Tessa, little Tessa, Pretty little Tessa, poor little Tessa, Poor little Tessa, L Tessa, the little Tessa

Tessa is a contadina of simple joy and simpler trust, given a ring and a promise in a mock ceremony she believes is real, and hidden away with Monna Lisa so that Tito's Florentine life can continue undisturbed. Her love is unguarded and her ignorance is the very thing Tito works to preserve, because her charm depends on her never learning the truth. She matters because she is the cost of his charm — the small field-flower he keeps from ever knowing what world she lives in.

Girolamo Savonarola

major

Also known as Fra Girolamo, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, Savonarola, the overmastering Fra Girolamo, Girolamo, the Frate, The Frate, Frate

Fra Girolamo commands Florence from the pulpit, claiming a divine warrant to reform the city's morals and politics, and his authority reaches even into Romola's private flight. His face is not beautiful but strong, and what moves her is the sense of being cared for apart from any personal feeling — a gaze she has never met before. He matters because he gives the book its central question: whether a woman may choose her duties, or whether duty chooses her.

Nello

supporting

Also known as Nello, the Greek

Nello keeps a shop where citizens gather to trade news, opinions, and insults, and he is the city's unofficial chronicler of who is rising and who is falling. He is fond of Tito, proud of his own wit, and useful to everyone who needs to know what Florence is saying before Florence says it. He matters because the early book needs a voice for the city itself — its vanity, its curiosity, and its appetite for a good story about its neighbors.

Bardo de' Bardi

supporting

Also known as Bardo Bardi, de ' Bardi, the Bardi, Messer Bardo

Bardo de' Bardi is a proud, blind humanist whose life's ambition — a great commentary on the New Platonists — keeps him chained to his daughter's patience and his son-in-law's eroding goodwill. He measures love in hours of transcription and grows petulant when Tito's attentions drift toward politics and pleasure. His slow, exacting decline is the quiet engine of Romola's early sacrifice, teaching her both devotion and the first taste of resentment.

Piero di Cosimo

supporting

Also known as Piero, Piero mio

Piero di Cosimo moves through Florence's studios and piazzas as an odd, half-wild observer whose fancies are as unsettling as his portraits. He befriends Tito early, drawn by the Greek's beauty and ease, yet his painter's instinct keeps registering small wrongnesses others miss. His sidelong judgments give the reader a second pair of eyes on Tito's charm, and his loyalty to Romola quietly matters when the city's certainties start to crack.

Bernardo del Nero

supporting

Also known as Messer Bernardo del Nero, Bernardo, Messer Bernardo, del Nero, Nero

Bernardo del Nero is Romola's godfather, a veteran of Florentine politics whose loyalty to the Medici is a matter of honour rather than intrigue. When Romola comes to him with warnings she cannot fully explain, he receives her with tenderness but will not be moved from his course. His stubborn integrity — 'I never forsake my colours' — becomes the moral counterweight to Tito's flexibility, and his fate forces Romola to weigh faithfulness against survival.

Bratti Ferravecchi

supporting

Also known as Bratti, the cautious Bratti

Bratti Ferravecchi trades in cast-off goods and useful gossip, and his chance rescue of the shipwrecked Tito sets the whole plot in motion. He is pious in the bargaining way, hawking indulgences and blessings at four quattrini apiece while keeping a careful eye on his own margin. His running commentary — half superstition, half street-wisdom — gives the early chapters their texture of ordinary Florentine life, and his paths keep crossing the characters he first salvaged.

Monna Brigida

supporting

Also known as Brigida, Monna

Monna Brigida is the surviving thread of Romola's family, a vain but warm-hearted woman who fusses over her complexion and her soul in equal measure. Under Savonarola's Florence she wavers between Piagnone austerity and her old love of finery, and Romola's gentle teasing about her good-natured face lands where flattery never could. Her small vanities and real affection keep Romola tethered to ordinary human tenderness as the city turns severe.

Dolfo Spini

supporting

Also known as Messer Dolfo Spini, Messer Dolfo, Spini, the thickheaded Dolfo Spini, Dolfo

Dolfo Spini leads the Compagnacci, the young aristocratic rowdies who drink, brawl, and plot against the Frate's moral regime. He is brave in the way of a man who has never had to think, and his vanity and violence make him easy for subtler schemers to point at a target. As the city's factions harden, Spini embodies the brute force waiting beneath Florence's pious surface — a threat Romola and Tito both learn to reckon with.

Niccolò Machiavelli

supporting

Also known as Niccolò, our young Niccolò Macchiavelli, Niccolò Macchiavelli, young Niccolò Macchiavelli, Macchiavelli

In the cultivated debates of Bernardo Rucellai's gardens, this two-and-twenty-year-old observer listens more sharply than he speaks, already thinking in the cold arithmetic of power that will one day make his name infamous. He belongs to the world of Florentine statecraft that Eliot renders with such exactness — the world of embassies, factions, and calculated advantage — and his presence quietly frames the novel's question of what a city is worth when its citizens are small-souled. He matters because he gives the early intellectual scenes their edge: a mind that treats virtue as a variable, set against Romola's belief that faithfulness and love are substantial goods.

Monna Lisa

minor

Also known as Lisa, old deaf Lisa

Nello's deaf, elderly wife who assists in the barber shop.

Lillo

minor

Tessa and Tito's young son, who appears in the later parts of the novel.

Bernardo Rucellai

supporting

Also known as Bernardo, Messer Bernardo, Rucellai, the Rucellai, Messer Bernardo Rucellai, poor Bernardo, Bernardo Ruccellai

Messer Bernardo Rucellai stands near the top of Florence's social order, a man whose hospitality gathers the city's best talkers into one green enclosure where politics, philosophy, and poetry braid together. His gardens are the novel's early salon — the place where Tito's charm first shines and where the moral weather of Florence can be read in a single afternoon. He matters because he embodies the older, humanist Florence that Savonarola's fire and the French wars will soon press against, and because the fate of men like him becomes the measure of what the city is willing to sacrifice.

Fra Domenico of San Marco

supporting

Also known as San Marco, Fra Domenico, Honest Fra Domenico

Fra Domenico belongs to the inner circle of San Marco, one of those followers whose devotion to Fra Girolamo is so complete that it becomes a kind of second self. Where Savonarola calculates and withdraws, Domenico volunteers — stepping forward for the ordeal by fire when no one else will, exposing the gap between the prophet's caution and his disciple's zeal. He matters because his willingness to die for a contested truth throws the whole question of faith and fraud into the open, and because his fate shadows the novel's turn from reformist hope to public degradation.

Lorenzo Tornabuoni

minor

Also known as Tornabuoni, Lorenzo

A young Florentine nobleman and friend of Tito, later executed for conspiracy.

Bartolommeo Scala

minor

Also known as Scala, Bartolommeo Scala, Messer Bartolommeo Scala, Messer Bartolommeo

Chancellor of Florence and a patron of learning, appears in scholarly debates.

Francesco Cei

minor

Also known as Francesco, Cei, Messer Francesco Cei, Messer Francesco

A poet and critic who argues with Savonarola's followers.

Domenico Cennini

minor

Also known as Messer Domenico Cennini, Domenico the practical, Cennini, Domenico Cennini, Messer Domenico

A practical Florentine businessman and scholar.

Piero de' Medici

minor

Also known as Piero, clever Medici, the Medici

The exiled head of the Medici family, whose return is plotted.

Messer Naldo

minor

Also known as Naldo

A minor character mentioned in the context of Florentine politics.

Maso

minor

Also known as old Maso

An old servant in the Bardi household.

Dino

minor

Also known as poor Dino

Romola's brother who became a Dominican friar and died young.

Lorenzo de' Medici

minor

Also known as Lorenzo, the lamented Lorenzo, Lorenzo the magnificent and subtle, Lorenzo the Magnificent

The late Magnificent ruler of Florence, mentioned as a past figure.

Ser Ceccone

minor

Also known as Ceccone, Now Ser Ceccone

A notary or clerk involved in legal matters.

Francesco Valori

minor

Also known as Messer Francesco Valori the archangel Michael, Valori, Messer Francesco Valori

A prominent supporter of Savonarola in the Florentine government.

Camilla Rucellai

minor

Also known as Camilla

A member of the Rucellai family, present at the garden supper.

Niccolò Ridolfi

minor

Also known as Niccolò, Ridolfi

A Florentine nobleman involved in political affairs.

Ninna

minor

Tessa and Tito's young daughter.

Fra Salvestro Maruffi

minor

Also known as Fra Salvestro

A Dominican friar associated with Savonarola.

Cronaca

minor

An architect and follower of Savonarola.

Maestro Vaiano

minor

Also known as Maestro, Meanwhile Vaiano, Vaiano

A minor character, possibly a craftsman or official.

Domenico Mazzinghi

minor

Also known as Messer Domenico, Domenico, Messer, Messer Domenico Mazzinghi

A Florentine citizen, possibly a lawyer or official.

Pietro Cennini

minor

Also known as Pietro, the Cennini, Cennini

A member of the Cennini family, possibly a printer or scholar.

Pagolantonio Soderini

minor

Also known as Pagolantonio, Soderini, Messer Pagolantonio Soderini

A Florentine politician, possibly a Gonfaloniere.

Niccolò Caparra

minor

Also known as Caparra, Niccolò

A minor character, possibly a craftsman or worker.

Jacopo di Nola

minor

Also known as Jacopo

A man who made a strange accusation against Tito.

Messer Luca Pitti

minor

Also known as Messer Luca

A historical Florentine figure mentioned in passing.

Giannozzo Pucci

minor

Also known as Pucci, old Pucci, Giannozzo

A Florentine citizen involved in political events.

Goro

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or worker.

Politian

minor

Also known as Angelo Poliziano, Angelo, Poliziano

A famous humanist poet, mentioned in scholarly circles.

Fra Luca

minor

Also known as Fra Luca—had

Another name for Dino, Romola's brother, as a friar.

Luigi Pulci

minor

Also known as Messer Luigi Pulci, Messer Luigi, Luigi, Pulci

A poet, mentioned in literary discussions.

Monna Ghita

minor

Also known as Monna

A minor female character, possibly a neighbor or acquaintance.

Maestro Tacco

minor

Also known as Maestro

A doctor or healer mentioned in the story.

Lollo

minor

A minor character, possibly a peasant or servant.

Cecco d'Ascoli

minor

Also known as Cecco

A historical figure mentioned in passing.

Piero Capponi

minor

Also known as Capponi, Piero

A Florentine statesman and military leader.

Messer Greco

minor

A minor character, possibly a Greek scholar or merchant.

Nofri

minor

Also known as stepfather Nofri, father Nofri

A minor character, possibly a stepfather to someone in the story.

Sandro

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or artist.

Ser Cioni

minor

A notary or clerk.

Fra Francesco

minor

A friar, possibly a follower of Savonarola.

Marullo

minor

Also known as the accomplished Marullo

A Greek scholar married to Alessandra Scala.

Alessandra Scala

minor

Also known as Alessandra

The learned daughter of Bartolommeo Scala, married to Marullo.

Demetrio Calcondila

minor

Also known as the venerable Demetrio Calcondila, Calcondila

A Greek scholar in Florence.

Menico Cennini

minor

Also known as Cennini

Another member of the Cennini family.

Monna Berta

minor

A minor female character.

Giovanni de' Medici

minor

Also known as the Cardinal Giovanni de ' Medici, the Cardinal Giovanni, the Medici

The young Cardinal, later Pope Leo X, mentioned in political contexts.

Luca Corsini

minor

Also known as Messer Luca Corsini

A Florentine nobleman.

Antonio Pollajuolo

minor

Also known as Antonio

A painter and sculptor, mentioned in artistic circles.

Leonardo da Vinci

minor

Also known as Leonardo, Leonardo Bruno, Leonardo da

The famous artist and inventor, mentioned in passing.

Marsilio Ficino

minor

Also known as Ficino

A Neoplatonic philosopher, mentioned in scholarly contexts.

Fra Benedetto

minor

Also known as Benedetto, the little Benedetto

A young friar, possibly a follower of Savonarola.

Bernardo Dovizi

minor

Also known as a certain young Bernardo Dovizi of Bibbiena, Young Bernardo Dovizi, Dovizi

A witty young man from Bibbiena, later a cardinal.

Gian Fantoni

minor

A minor character, possibly a friend of Tito.

Taddeo

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or worker.

Guccio

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Messer Angelo

minor

A minor character, possibly a government official.

Aldo Manuzio

minor

The famous Venetian printer, mentioned in scholarly contexts.

Gaddi

minor

A minor character, possibly an artist or craftsman.

Lamberto dell' Antella

minor

A minor character, possibly involved in politics.

Giovan Battista Ridolfi

minor

Also known as Battista Ridolfi, Ridolfi

A member of the Ridolfi family, possibly involved in politics.