character is based on an actual woman, Marianna de Leyva. Griso is one of Don Rodrigo's henchmen, a silent and treacherous man. Dr. Azzeccagarbugli ("Quibbleweaver") is a corrupt lawyer. Count Attilio is Don Rodrigo's malevolent cousin. Nibbio (Kite - the bird) is the Innominato's right-hand man, who precedes and then happily follows his master's way of redemption. Don Ferrante is a phony intellectual and erudite scholar who believes the plague is caused by astrological forces. Donna Prassede is Don Ferrante's wife, who is willing to help Lucia but is also an opinionated busybody. Significance The novel is commonly described as "the most widely read work in the Italian language." It became a model for subsequent Italian literary fiction. Scholar Sergio Pacifici states that no other Italian literary work, with the exception of the Divine Comedy, "has been the object of more intense scrutiny or more intense scholarship." Many Italians believe that the novel is not fully appreciated abroad. In Italy the novel is considered a true masterpiece of world literature and a basis for the modern Italian language, and as such is widely studied in Italian secondary schools (usually in the second year, when students are 15). Many expressions, quotes and names from the novel are still commonly used in Italian, such as Perpetua (meaning a priest's house worker) or Questo matrimonio non s'ha da fare ("This marriage is not to be performed", used ironically). The novel is not only about love and power: the great questions about evil, about innocents suffering, are the underlying theme of the book. The chapters 31–34, about the famine and the plague, are a powerful picture of material and moral devastation. Manzoni does not offer simple answers but leaves those questions open for the reader to meditate on. The main idea, proposed throughout the novel, is that, against the many injustices that they suffer in their life, the poor can only hope, at best, in a small anticipation of the divine justice, which can be expected in its entirety only in the afterlife: therefore life should be lived with faith and endurance, in the expectation of a reward in the afterlife. The Betrothed has similarities with Walter Scott's historic novel Ivanhoe, although evidently distinct. I promessi sposi was made into an opera of the same name by Amilcare Ponchielli in 1856 and by Errico Petrella in 1869. There have been many film versions of