The Scanderbeide is an epic poem of twenty-three cantos written in Italian by Margherita Sarrocchi, first published in a shorter, clearly unfinished version in 1606 and in its final form posthumously in 1623. It recounts the Albanian wars of resistance (1443-1468) against the Ottoman empire under the direction of the historical figure of George (Gjergi) Kastrioti (1405-1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, a name derived from a Turkish phrase meaning “Lord Alexander,” an honorific title linking him to Alexander the Great. Rinaldina Russell points out in the introduction to her partial prose translation of the poem that, although numerous Italian histories of Kastrioti’s life were circulating at the time, it is evident that Sarrocchi relied on the version “established” in the Latin chronicle of Marinus Barletius (1460-1512),Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi, published around 1506 or 1508, which served as the foundation for subsequent Italian treatments of the subject (Russell 24). Sarrocchi’s principal literary model is Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (1581), even though—as discussed below—she departs from it in significant ways.

The 1606 version contained only the first nine cantos, summaries of the tenth and eleventh, the full twelfth, and part of the fourteenth. The shift from this early version to the final 1623 edition entails changes that go well beyond mere expansion, however. Russell notes that Sarrocchi was very concerned with tightening the poem’s structure, pointing out that many scenes were removed from the 1606 version. Moral considerations also played an important role in the revision. Russell observes that tales and hints of “illicit love,” such as the “adulterous story of Serrano and Calidora” and “the homosexual bond tying Pallante’s father to his friend Saladin,” were omitted (Russell 25-26). Virginia Cox, too, calls attention to the poet’s moral concerns, adding that Sarrocchi wanted to increase “the poem’s moral clarity by increasing the ethical distance between Christians and pagans” (Cox 172). Cox writes that Sarrocchi “softens” significantly the way in which Skanderbeg treats a Turkish official when he regains control of Krujë (“Croia” in Italian). Rather than having him executed, he puts him in prison, thus increasing the admirability of her hero (Cox 172).

The final version of the poem can be divided into several main sections, beginning with the rejection by Kastrioti (called “Alessandro” [Alexander], or simply, “il re” [the king]) of the Turkish emperor’s plan to subjugate the people of Belgrade and seize the daughter of the general defending the city, as well as his conversion back to Christianity, recounted by a messenger at the Neapolitan court, followed by the arrival of Neapolitan troops in Croia to aid Alexander (Cantos 1-2). The ensuing skirmishes between the emperor’s forces and those of Alexander outside the city walls culminate in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the conflict by means of a duel (Cantos 3-9). The traitor Mauro then makes a deal with the emperor to help attack Croia, leading to another battle outside the city walls (Cantos 10-12). The large section in the second half of the poem is unified by the actions of the emperor’s daughter Rosmonda (a literary invention of Sarrocchi), who encounters the solitary warrioress Silveria and recruits her into the Ottoman army and then imprisons the Christian Vaconte who falls in love with her (Canto 13). Alexander attempts to free Vaconte and receives divine aid in the figure of the Italian Marcello Benci (Canto 14). After arriving in Croia, Marcello proposes a duel for the release of Vaconte (Canto 16). Rosmonda ultimately reciprocates Vaconte’s love, and they depart together—along with Silveria, who escapes the emperor’s lechery—from the Ottoman camp to Croia (Canto 17). In the final stage of the poem, Persian troops arrive by sea to assist the emperor in attacking Croia (Canto 18), but Italian allies, also arriving by sea, win a naval battle against the Persians (Cantos 19-20). When, after a council with his advisors, the emperor decides to fight on land (Canto 21), Alexander and his men defeat his forces and he dies (Cantos 22-23).

Interwoven with the accounts of war are memorable stories of love, such as those of Arioden and Sofia (Canto 4), Flora and Pallante (Canto 7), and Glicera and Erifilio, the future King of Persia (Canto 18). The most significant of these is the relationship between the Muslim Rosmonda and the Christian Vaconte, which begins with Vaconte’s imprisonment in Canto 13, as noted above, and reaches its climax with Rosmonda’s conversion to Christianity in Canto 18. Although Rosmonda’s deep sense of honor and loyalty to the emperor, her father, makes her slow to return Vaconte’s love, ultimately she not only frees him from the emperor’s prison (17.98-100) but abandons her father as well, taking refuge with Vaconte in Croia (17.100-103). Pezzini argues that whereas Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata treats women and the sensuality associated with them as obstacles to the pious enterprises of the heroes, the Scanderbeide presents women as defined by their virtuous actions in both war and love. Rosmonda, for example, is an active, virtuous woman and warrior as a Muslim, and she remains so after her conversion to Christianity and her marriage to Vaconte.

In addition to the innovative treatment of the main female characters, there is an experimental dimension to the poem in which Sarrocchi seems to exercise her wit and skill as she probes the expectations of the epic genre. One particularly noticeable feature is her play with rhyme, especially in the final couplet of the octave. She also makes extensive use of epic similes—Canto 17 alone contains at least eleven. One of Sarrocchi’s most salient and unusual stylistic traits is her paratactic style, in which she favors commas over conjunctions such as “and” or “or.” This technique, which recurs frequently, gives the poem a vitality and energy that are difficult to reproduce in a translation.

One also sees Sarrocchi stretching the expectations of the genre, especially in her exploration of the gruesome and the ugliness of war—a prominent feature of the epic genre, but one that extends beyond the norm in the Scanderbeide. Perhaps the most significant example of this tendency in Sarrocchi’s poem occurs when the dead body of Ferrante, a Muslim warrior, is flayed on the emperor’s orders in order to make it appear to the Christians the body of Alexander (5.80-83). Russell maintains that this episode may derive from the real-life torture of an Italian shortly before the battle of Lepanto (Russell 157-158, note 29). The interest in the horrors of war occasionally approaches a nearly comic tone, as when Sarrocchi describes the fear of one warrior that his head may have been cut off (23.52.5-8).

Sarrocchi’s experimentalism is further evident in her detailed accounts of the poem’s action. While the Scanderbeidelacks the extended descriptions characteristic of Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone, Sarrocchi’s style nevertheless reveals an interest in amplifying the account of an action beyond the norm. One of the most striking examples occurs in Canto 20, in the lengthy narration of the preparations for the sea battle between the newly arrived forces of the Italians—Alexander’s allies—and the Persians, who have come to support the emperor. This description, extending from stanza 24 to stanza 56, is clearly modeled on Tasso’s account of the preparations for a land battle in Gerusalemme liberate 20.8-31, which likewise presents parallel depictions of the battle arrangements of both sides, paired speeches by the respective leaders to their troops, and a description of the two armies, all before the fighting begins. Yet Sarrocchi’s version is not only the more detailed of the two, but it also presents the Christian and Muslim forces in a more even-handed way.

Sarrocchi’s literary achievement emerges in her pushing the limits of epic conventions, her stylistic innovation, her concern for full, balanced accounts of events, and her desire to create female characters that are admirable for their virtue and agency. Critical studies like those of Russell, Cox, and Pezzini have shed light on the ways in which Sarrocchi’s poem differs from the Tassian model and from those of her male counterparts, but much more scholarly work needs to be done on the Scanderbeide, particularly on Sarrocchi’s stylistic experimentalism and innovation as well as her use of historical sources.

An expanded version of this introduction is forthcoming in The Literary Encyclopedia (https://www.litencyc.com).