Character guide

Fabrizio del Dongo

major

Also known as Fabrizio, young Fabrizio, Fabrizio Volterra, del Dongo, Signor Fabrizio del Dongo

Fabrizio del Dongo arrives in the world of Parma and Milan with more passion than judgment, chasing the romance of Napoleon's battles and the thrill of forbidden attachments. His sincerity is genuine but dangerously unguarded: he kneels in a church weeping over a narrow escape, then plunges straight into the next intrigue. His reckless charm and capacity for self-deception make him the engine of the novel's early and middle crises, as his fortunes rise and fall on impulses he can scarcely control.

Clelia Conti

major

Also known as little Clelia, Clelia, Signorina, young Clelia Conti, Signorina Clelia Conti

Clelia Conti, daughter of the citadel's commander, moves through Parma's rigid society with a modesty that makes her almost invisible, yet her inner life is a battlefield. She has sworn to the Madonna never to look upon Fabrizio again, and the vow costs her years of youth and peace; when she finally breaks it, she does so trembling, convinced she is damning herself. Her struggle between religious duty and love gives the novel its most tender and agonizing thread, and her choices shape Fabrizio's fate as much as any political intrigue.

Conte Mosca

major

Also known as Mosca, Conte, Conte Mosca della Rovere Sorezana, the Conte

Conte Mosca governs Parma with cynical skill, reading men and courts the way others read weather, yet his composure dissolves where the Duchessa Sanseverina is concerned. He is capable of cold calculation and startling generosity, sometimes in the same breath, and his love for her makes him both vulnerable and unexpectedly heroic. As the novel's political center of gravity, he shapes Fabrizio's career and fortunes while quietly enduring the humiliations of a heart that will not obey reason.

Duchessa Sanseverina

major

Also known as the Duchessa, Signora Sanseverina, Signora Duchessa, the Duchessa Sanseverina

The Duchessa Sanseverina rules Parma's drawing rooms through charm, intelligence, and an absolute refusal to be intimidated, whether by princes, ministers, or would-be lovers. Her devotion to Fabrizio is fierce and unapologetic, driving her to schemes that would ruin a less audacious woman, and her generosity to a fugitive poet hiding in her palace walls reveals a reckless streak beneath the elegance. She is the novel's true strategist, and her ambitions for Fabrizio set the plot's machinery in motion.

Gina del Dongo

major

Also known as Poor Gina, Gina

Gina del Dongo first appears as a lively girl who can barely suppress her laughter at a French officer's shabby coat, already showing the quick wit and warmth that will define her. Her early marriage to the doomed Conte Pietranera teaches her both love and loss, and her resilience in the face of fortune's reversals becomes the foundation of everything she later becomes. As Fabrizio's closest ally and the woman who will one day rule Parma's salons, she is the emotional and political hinge of the family's destiny.

Contessa Pietranera

supporting

Also known as the Contessa, Contessa Pietranera, Signora Pietranera, the charming Contessa Pietranera

The Contessa Pietranera moves through Milanese society with a grace that conceals an iron will, as when she procures post-horses to ride to Vienna and shame the men who imprisoned her husband. Her marriage to the brave but improvident Conte Pietranera is a partnership of equals in courage, and her refusal to bend to Austrian authority marks her as dangerous in the eyes of the powerful. This earlier incarnation of Gina del Dongo shows the reader the making of the Duchessa Sanseverina: a woman who has already learned that charm and audacity are her best weapons.

Giletti

supporting

Also known as the terrible Giletti, Signor Giletti, the unfortunate Giletti

Giletti is a travelling player whose temper and possessiveness make him a menace the moment Fabrizio crosses his path. His jealousy over a woman becomes a combustible rivalry, and Stendhal lets the threat simmer with almost comic menace before it erupts. He matters because he forces Fabrizio to discover what it costs to defend himself in a world where the law is someone else's instrument.

Lodovico

supporting

Also known as the good Lodovico, Lodovico San Micheli

Lodovico San Micheli is the practical intelligence behind Fabrizio's escapades, arranging lodgings, managing police declarations, and knowing exactly whose wife to befriend. Where Fabrizio acts on impulse, Lodovico calculates, and his loyalty is offered with a dry, unsentimental humour. He anchors the novel's early-middle arc by making Fabrizio's reckless life survivable, one forged passport at a time.

Rassi

supporting

Also known as the Grand Fiscal Rassi, Fiscal General Rassi, Fiscal Rassi, the Fiscal General Rassi

Rassi is the legal machinery of the court at its most venal, a man so despised that his own son is driven from cafés for bearing his name. He hungers for a title, an estate, respectability, and will sell his skills to whoever pays. His willingness to bargain with Mosca over Fabrizio's fate makes him the pivot on which the novel's political intrigue turns.

General Fabio Conti

supporting

Also known as General Conti, Fabio Conti, Conti

General Fabio Conti commands the fortress where Parma's enemies disappear, and he wears his authority with the brittle pride of a man who has never quite been trusted. His ambition is matched only by his fear of disgrace, which makes him capable of poison when the court hints it would be convenient. He matters because the tower he governs becomes the stage on which the novel's central drama of love and captivity unfolds.

Marchese del Dongo

supporting

Also known as the Marchese del Dongo, the timorous Marchese, the sullen Marchese, Signor del Dongo

The Marchese del Dongo is a man of cautious allegiances and small tyrannies, more at home with the Hapsburg order than with the Napoleonic enthusiasms of his son. His disapproval of Fabrizio is both political and personal, and it shapes the boy's decision to leave home in search of a larger life. He stands for the stifling provincial world the novel's young hero must escape.

Marchesa del Dongo

supporting

Also known as the Marchesa, the good Marchesa, Marchesa del Dongo

The Marchesa del Dongo adores Fabrizio with a tenderness that her husband's coldness only intensifies, yet she lacks the force of will to shield him from the family's disapproval. Her helpless affection is one of the novel's quiet griefs, a maternal love that can weep but not act. She gives the early chapters their emotional warmth and makes Fabrizio's departure feel like a genuine loss.

Ferrante Palla

supporting

Also known as Ferrante, the famous Ferrante Palla, Poor Ferrante, Signor Ferrante Palla, Palla

Ferrante Palla lives as an outlaw in the forests outside Parma, a man whose verses the Duchessa judges equal to the finest written in Italy in two centuries, and whose republican fury the authorities would happily hang. He refuses every valuable gift for his children yet cannot govern his passion for the Duchessa, who eventually forbids him to speak to her; he obeys with perfect docility. His genius and his volatility make him both a weapon and a liability in the Duchessa's schemes, and his hidden chamber in the Palazzo Sanseverina becomes a secret that ties his fate to Fabrizio's.

Marchese Crescenzi

supporting

Also known as the Marchese Crescenzi, the new Marchese, the casa Crescenzi

The Marchese Crescenzi embodies everything Parma's court considers admirable: rank, riches, and an unblemished name. He represents the safe, sanctioned future that Clelia's father and the social order press upon her, standing in quiet opposition to the reckless passion Fabrizio inspires. His presence sharpens the central conflict between duty and desire, and his marriage to Clelia forces her to choose between the world's approval and her own heart.

Signora Marchesa Crescenzi

supporting

Also known as the Marchesa Crescenzi, the Marchesa, Marchesa

As the Marchesa Crescenzi, Clelia occupies the position society always intended for her, yet her marriage is a cage built around a promise she made to save Fabrizio's life. She moves through Parma's drawing rooms with the composure of a woman who has renounced her own happiness, and the tension between her religious oath and her enduring attachment gives the novel its most painful restraint. Her choices in the middle arc test whether honour can be kept without destroying the person who keeps it.

Don Cesare

supporting

Also known as the excellent Priore Don Cesare, the good Don Cesare, the worthy Don Cesare

Don Cesare serves as chaplain and custodian within the Farnese Tower, a man whose natural goodness sits uneasily beside the grim machinery of his brother General Fabio Conti's prison. He becomes the quiet channel through which Clelia and Fabrizio communicate, risking his own position out of compassion rather than conviction. His presence humanises the citadel and shows how even within an instrument of tyranny, decency can survive and quietly undermine it.

Priore Blanès

supporting

Also known as the Priore Blanès, the Priore, Blanès

Priore Blanès is the elderly cleric who taught Fabrizio to study the heavens and to trust that human destinies are written there, a conviction the boy carries into every reckless adventure. His blend of sincere faith and unorthodox astrology makes him an odd but beloved mentor, and his predictions hover over Fabrizio's choices like a half-believed prophecy. He matters because he gives the novel its recurring question: whether Fabrizio's life is shaped by will or by a fate already charted in the stars.

Marchesa Raversi

supporting

Also known as the Marchesa Raversi, Signora Raversi, the Raversi, the Signora Marchesa Raversi

The Marchesa Raversi is the centre of Parma's opposition salon, a woman whose wit and malice make her the natural rival of the Duchessa. She cultivates the Prince's suspicions, spreads damaging rumours, and treats court politics as a blood sport in which she intends to win. Her machinations give the early and middle chapters their atmosphere of intrigue, and she represents the petty, venomous side of absolutist court life that the Duchessa must outmanoeuvre at every turn.

Signor Gonzo

minor

Also known as Gonzo, poor Gonzo

Bumbling constable who assists in Fabrizio's arrest and escape.

Little Marietta

minor

Also known as Marietta, the pretty Marietta, little Marietta

Young actress and Giletti's lover, briefly involved with Fabrizio.

Annetta Marini

minor

Also known as this Annetta Marini, Annetta, little Annetta Marini, the little Marini

Young woman from Grianta who has a brief flirtation with Fabrizio.

Barbone

minor

Servant of the Marchesa del Dongo, assists Fabrizio in his youth.

General Fontana

minor

Also known as Fontana, Poor General Fontana

Minor court figure and friend of the Contessa Pietranera.

Conte Zurla-Contarini

minor

Also known as Conte Zurla, Zurla, the Conte

Minister of the Interior in Parma, a pompous bureaucrat.

Monsignor Landriani

minor

Also known as Landriani, the venerable Archbishop Landriani, Archbishop Landriani

Archbishop of Parma, initially supports Fabrizio's clerical career.

Prince Ranuccio

supporting

Also known as The Prince, Prince

Ranuccio sits at the head of a small Italian court where his authority is real but his judgment is not, surrounded by ministers and favorites who manage him more deftly than they obey him. His weakness is not cruelty but fear: he suspects plots in every reunion of clever people, and his suspicion makes him a tool for whoever reaches him last. Because Fabrizio's whole career in Parma depends on the Prince's whim, Ranuccio's instability is the weather that the Duchessa and Conte Mosca must constantly read and outmaneuver.

Cavaliere Foscarini

minor

Also known as the Cavaliere Foscarini

Venetian nobleman and friend of the Duchessa, a minor diplomat.

Sandrino

minor

Fabrizio and Clelia's secret son, who dies in infancy.

Gina del Dongo

major

Also known as Gina

Gina del Dongo first appears as the lively sister whose quick tears and quicker wit disarm a starving French lieutenant at her family's table, and she carries that same warmth and nerve into her marriage to the doomed Contessa Pietranera. Widowed and brilliant, she becomes the Duchessa Sanseverina, a woman whose gaiety in prosperity and serenity in misfortune make her both irresistible and formidable at court. Her fierce devotion to her nephew Fabrizio drives the novel's central intrigues, and her willingness to love, scheme, and if necessary destroy for his sake gives the book its most electric presence.

Conte Pietranera

minor

Also known as Pietranera, the excellent Conte Pietranera, poor Pietranera

Gina's first husband, a brave but reckless French officer killed in a duel.

Fausta F⸺

minor

Also known as Fausta, F⸺

Beautiful but capricious actress who captivates Fabrizio for a time.

Duca Sanseverina-Taxis

minor

Also known as the Duca Sanseverina, Sanseverina, the Duca, Taxis

Wealthy old nobleman who marries Gina, giving her a title.

Bruno

minor

Also known as the faithful Bruno, the astonished Bruno

Loyal servant of the Duchessa Sanseverina, aids in intrigues.

Cavaliere Riscara

minor

Also known as Riscara

Spy and informant for the Parma court, hostile to Fabrizio.

Barone Binder

minor

Also known as the Barone, Barone, Binder

Chief of police in Parma, efficient and loyal to the prince.

Marchesino del Dongo

minor

Also known as the young Marchesino del Dongo, young del Dongo

Fabrizio's older brother, a dull and conventional nobleman.

Cecchina

minor

Also known as little Cecchina

Clelia's maid and confidante, helps arrange secret meetings.

Bettina

minor

Also known as little Bettina

Servant girl at the inn where Fabrizio stays, briefly infatuated with him.

Limercati

minor

Also known as Whereupon Limercati

Milanese nobleman who courts Gina after Pietranera's death.

Vespasiano del Dongo

minor

Fabrizio's younger brother, a minor character in the family.

Conte Nani

minor

Also known as Nani, the Conte

Austrian diplomat and friend of the Marchese del Dongo.

Peppe

minor

Servant to Fabrizio, assists during his imprisonment.

General Pietranera

minor

Also known as the gallant General Pietranera, the charming General Pietranera

Gina's first husband, a dashing French officer killed in a duel.

Giuseppe Bossi

minor

Also known as Signor Giuseppe Bossi

Painter and friend of Fabrizio, involved in the Giletti affair.

Ascanio del Dongo

minor

Also known as Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, the Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, Ascanio

Historical ancestor of Fabrizio, a former Archbishop of Parma.

Boulot

minor

Also known as Trooper Boulot

French soldier who helps Fabrizio during the Waterloo campaign.

Conte Palanza

minor

Also known as the Conte

Minor nobleman at the Parma court, a friend of Mosca.

Barone Riva

minor

Also known as Barone

Milanese nobleman who hosts Fabrizio after his return from France.

Monsignore del Dongo

minor

Also known as Monsignore

Fabrizio's uncle, a church dignitary who aids his career.

Fabrizio Valserra

minor

Also known as Fabrizio

Alternate name for Fabrizio del Dongo, used in some contexts.

Marchesino Ascanio

minor

Also known as Ascanio

Younger brother of Fabrizio, a minor family member.

Captain Teulier

minor

Also known as Teulier

French officer who commands Fabrizio during the Waterloo campaign.

La Rose

minor

Innkeeper's wife who shelters Fabrizio after his flight from Waterloo.

Princess Isotta

minor

Also known as the Princess Isotta, the elderly Princess Isotta

Elderly princess of the Parma court, a gossipy figure.

Conte Prina

minor

Also known as Prina

Milanese minister, mentioned as a victim of political violence.

Conte Rusca

minor

Also known as the Conte

Minor nobleman at the Parma court, a friend of Mosca.

Isotta Valserra del Dongo

minor

Also known as the young Valserra, Isotta

Fabrizio's sister, a minor family member mentioned briefly.