# Romola — Character guide

> Key figures in Romola by George Eliot.

- [Romola de' Bardi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/romola.md): 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, Savona
- [Tito Melema](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/tito_melema.md): 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:
- [Baldassarre Calvo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/baldassarre.md): 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 lu
- [Tessa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/tessa.md): 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 
- [Girolamo Savonarola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/girolamo_savonarola.md): 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 w
- [Nello](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/nello.md): 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 every
- [Bardo de' Bardi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/bardo_de_bardi.md): 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 
- [Piero di Cosimo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/piero_di_cosimo.md): 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'
- [Bernardo del Nero](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/bernardo_del_nero.md): 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 receiv
- [Bratti Ferravecchi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/bratti.md): 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 qua
- [Monna Brigida](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/brigida.md): 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 
- [Dolfo Spini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/dolfo_spini.md): 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 
- [Niccolò Machiavelli](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/niccolo_machiavelli.md): 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 infamo
- [Monna Lisa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/monna_lisa.md): Nello's deaf, elderly wife who assists in the barber shop.
- [Lillo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/lillo.md): Tessa and Tito's young son, who appears in the later parts of the novel.
- [Bernardo Rucellai](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/bernardo_rucellai.md): 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
- [Fra Domenico of San Marco](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/fra_domenico.md): 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 volun
- [Lorenzo Tornabuoni](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/lorenzo_tornabuoni.md): A young Florentine nobleman and friend of Tito, later executed for conspiracy.
- [Bartolommeo Scala](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/bartolommeo_scala.md): Chancellor of Florence and a patron of learning, appears in scholarly debates.
- [Francesco Cei](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/francesco_cei.md): A poet and critic who argues with Savonarola's followers.
- [Domenico Cennini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/domenico_cennini.md): A practical Florentine businessman and scholar.
- [Piero de' Medici](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/piero_de_medici.md): The exiled head of the Medici family, whose return is plotted.
- [Messer Naldo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/messer_naldo.md): A minor character mentioned in the context of Florentine politics.
- [Maso](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/maso.md): An old servant in the Bardi household.
- [Dino](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/dino.md): Romola's brother who became a Dominican friar and died young.
- [Lorenzo de' Medici](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/lorenzo_de_medici.md): The late Magnificent ruler of Florence, mentioned as a past figure.
- [Ser Ceccone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/ser_ceccone.md): A notary or clerk involved in legal matters.
- [Francesco Valori](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/francesco_valori.md): A prominent supporter of Savonarola in the Florentine government.
- [Camilla Rucellai](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/camilla_rucellai.md): A member of the Rucellai family, present at the garden supper.
- [Niccolò Ridolfi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/niccolo_ridolfi.md): A Florentine nobleman involved in political affairs.
- [Ninna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/ninna.md): Tessa and Tito's young daughter.
- [Fra Salvestro Maruffi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/fra_salvestro.md): A Dominican friar associated with Savonarola.
- [Cronaca](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/cronaca.md): An architect and follower of Savonarola.
- [Maestro Vaiano](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/maestro_vaiano.md): A minor character, possibly a craftsman or official.
- [Domenico Mazzinghi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/domenico_mazzinghi.md): A Florentine citizen, possibly a lawyer or official.
- [Pietro Cennini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/pietro_cennini.md): A member of the Cennini family, possibly a printer or scholar.
- [Pagolantonio Soderini](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/pagolantonio_soderini.md): A Florentine politician, possibly a Gonfaloniere.
- [Niccolò Caparra](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/niccolo_caparra.md): A minor character, possibly a craftsman or worker.
- [Jacopo di Nola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters/jacopo_di_nola.md): A man who made a strange accusation against Tito.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/romola_se/characters