head of the family. Culture Azzo's court was a cultural centre in northern Italy, drawing poets and artists from afar. He played host and patron to the troubadours Aimeric de Peguilhan, Peire Raimon de Tolosa, and Rambertino Buvalelli. Rambertino celebrated Azzo's daughter Beatrice in all of his love songs, an overtly political act in the climate of the times. In a contemporary vernacular vita of his daughter, the biography sums up Azzo's character and reputation: "he was beautiful of form, almost more than all other men. A prudent yet daring man, valiant in feats of arms and of perspicacious learning: a wise and marvellous conversationalist." Azzo is also mentioned in the third canto of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, where the sorceress is telling Bradamant of his illustrious descendants: References Sources External links Modena/Ferrara, Marchesi d'Este at Medieval Lands Project |- 1170 births 1212 deaths Azzo 6 13th-century condottieri 12th-century Italian nobility 13th-century Italian nobility