I have always loved the stories that the City of Cagli holds in the Archives of the Episcopal Curia, in the criminal acts section. Events of love, violence or passion that make Cagli itself even more fascinating. Among these is the love between Lucia and Vincenzo.
It was January 22 of 1826 when a young doctor named Vincenzo Piccinini entered Cagli by crossing the arch of Porta Massara on his horse.
Right from the start the beauty of the city, its narrow streets, its churches and above all the Renaissance tower, the true symbol of the city, impressed him favorably, to the point of perceiving in the air a sort of charm whose origin he did not yet understand. .
His romantic imagination led him to think that Cagli is endowed with two natures: one, external, sweet and graceful, which refers to the idea of a tradition related to religious ethics, the other, cryptic and sensual, almost recalling a transgressive and passionate soul.
After a few months Vincenzo had already earned himself a good reputation.
On 22 October he was called to Palazzo Ugolinucci to visit the noble Signor Nicola, the rich owner of the palace. During the visit, the fateful meeting took place between Vincenzo and Lucia, the daughter of the nobleman.
Lucia was not only beautiful, but from her gaze, from her gestures, and from all her gait, a strong and determined personality emerged that combined respect for tradition with self-respect. And a will to fulfill oneself according to one's desire.
Vincenzo loved her as soon as he saw her, and this was reciprocated by Lucia who immediately became inflamed for the young doctor.
But after a fiery first kiss, unusual for the ethics of the time, Lucia told him to forget her, because she has promised to marry a colleague of Vincenzo, a certain Francesco Leonardi.
Vincenzo, mad with love, asked her to come the next day to the Lapis Chapel inside the Cathedral, where he would tell her what he would have come up with during the night to resolve the matter and make them both happy.
In the meantime, Vincenzo was convinced that the only way to get around the obstacle of Lucia's engagement was to put everyone in front of a fait accompli through the so-called "clandestine marriage", that is, that declaration expressed in front of two witnesses and the unwitting curate and taken by surprise, that they would be mutually husband and wife.
Vincenzo confided his plan to Lucia, and, seeing her strongly upset, tried to convince her that this was the only way to resolve the issue. Lucia was so in love that she ended up accepting and gave herself up to fate, hoping it wasn't too malicious.
On the evening of 15 December 1826, Vincenzo and Lucia, in the company of two witnesses, Giuseppe Patrizi and Battista Fabbri, went to the parish house of the parish priest of the church of San Bartolomeo, Don Gaspare Carpineti.
They knocked on the door and, with the excuse that Vincenzo must confer with the Curate for matters of the utmost importance, they let themselves be brought into the Curate's room where he was in bed. The four immediately surround the Curate's bed and Vincenzo, turning to him and to the witnesses, says:
“This is my wife”, and Lucia said: “This is my husband”.
Everything happened in a moment and Don Gaspare didn't have time to say anything. Then, after the surprise, Don Gaspare turned to the two witnesses saying:
"Be witnesses for me too, since I do not approve of this marriage, but rather I note that it is clandestine, and prohibited by the Church".
So with a serious and grave tone he accused Vincenzo and Lucia of having committed an action "unworthy, full of sacreligion, and infamy, and ordered the first to be sent to prison and the other not to leave the house, because she had to be placed in a safe place ".
The next day, December 16, the parish priest of San Bartolomeo di Cagli went to see "His Illustrious Lordship, and Most Reverend Bishop of Cagli" and officially reported the incident.
By order of the bishop, Dr. Vincenzo was arrested, and while the carabinieri were handcuffing him, Lucia threw herself around his neck in despair. Vincenzo looked at her smiling, a deep and restorative calm had fallen over his soul.
In a short time all of Cagli sang the song of Vincenzo and Lucia.
A song of two meanings, like Cagli's two faces, the traditional one and the transgressive one. There are those who blame the two young people, hoping for a harsh punishment for them, and there are those who instead lower their voices to sweeter notes, to the song of the heart, to the terrain of poetry and the miracle of love.
But this is precisely the spirit of this city.
The bishop's sentence was tempered by the souls of the two people and therefore was not too severe:
“… Decreed that Noble Donna Lucia was to be kept in the House of Nobleman Carlo Ugolinucci, her cousin, in which she was well guarded and kept, from which she could not leave without an express order from the vicar.
He ordered that the Witnesses, throughout the time of the Sung Mass on a feast day in the cathedral, should be kneeling in the middle of the church, one on each side with a lighted candle in their hand, in order to repair the scandal given to the whole city, etc. ...
He ordered Doctor Vincenzo Piccinini to retire to this Convent of Sant’Andrea de 'Padri Riformati in Cagli to do the Holy Spiritual Exercises until released, and fined him 100 scudi, not including arrest costs etc. process etc. and anything else that could be considered by these Ministers of the Episcopal Curia ... "
After serving their sentence, the two lovers, as Vincenzo had foreseen, got married in a regular rite, and lived their life happily thereafter in Cagli.
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