Bald Mountain
Bald Mountain (Monte Rubello, later known as Monte Rebello) is the fortified hilltop in the Novara region where Fra Dolcino and his Apostolic Brethren made their last stand during the winter of 1305–1307. It is the place where the ideal of evangelical poverty curdled into armed rebellion, siege, starvation, and massacre, and it haunts the novel as the emblematic site where the Spiritual Franciscans' dream of a purified church degenerated into a bloody, doomed insurrection. The mountain's name—"Rebello" meaning "rebel"—encapsulates the trajectory from holy poverty to open war against the ecclesiastical and feudal order.
Location and Fortification
Bald Mountain was a hill near Novara, in the region where Dolcino had been born and where he returned after being driven from Trent. The site was chosen for its defensibility: Dolcino and his followers, who numbered about three thousand at their peak, built hovels and fortifications on the summit, creating a makeshift stronghold from which they could raid the villages in the valley below. The mountain's position allowed them to control the surrounding territory and to resist the forces sent against them by the Bishop of Vercelli. The name "Monte Rebello" was given after the rebellion, marking the place as a fortress of rebels against the church.
The Siege and Suffering
The winter of 1305 was one of the harshest in recent decades, and the mountain became a place of extreme deprivation. Dolcino's followers, cut off from supplies, were reduced to eating the flesh of horses and other animals, and boiling hay to survive. Many died of hardship, and the dead were thrown to the birds and wild animals on the slopes. The siege was conducted by a crusade called by Pope Clement V, with a plenary indulgence granted to anyone who took part. The Bishop of Vercelli was the supreme commander, and forces came from Savoy, Provence, France, and elsewhere. Despite the impregnability of the fortifications, the constant clashes and the lack of food gradually wore down the defenders.
The Fall and Aftermath
Toward the end of 1305, Dolcino was forced to abandon Bald Mountain, leaving behind the wounded and ill. He moved his remaining followers to the territory of Trivero, where he entrenched himself on another mountain, Zubello, which later became known as Rubello or Rebello. The final capture came in March 1307, on Holy Saturday, when Dolcino, Margaret of Trent, and Longinus of Bergamo were taken in the castle of Bugello. The cellarer Remigio of Varagine, who had been with Dolcino's band, later betrayed the fortifications to the Bishop of Vercelli's men in exchange for a safe-conduct, a fact that haunts him throughout the novel. Dolcino and Margaret were executed in July 1307 in Vercelli, their bodies torn with red-hot pincers and then burned.
Narrative Significance
Bald Mountain serves as the dark mirror of the abbey itself. Both are enclosed communities governed by a single, absolute rule; both are sites of intense ideological commitment; both end in fire and destruction. The mountain is the place where the Spiritual Franciscans' call to poverty—which Ubertino of Casale and others preached in orthodox form—was literalized into armed revolt, sexual license, and murder. The cellarer Remigio and Salvatore, both former Dolcinians, carry the memory of Bald Mountain into the abbey, and their past is the lever Bernard Gui uses to destroy the Franciscan cause at the meeting. The mountain thus represents the catastrophic potential of a truth pursued without doubt or restraint, a theme that culminates in Jorge of Burgos's own fanatical defense of the library's secrets.
