The Tragic Life & Death of Beatrice Cenci

Via di Monserrato

Plaque to Beatrice Cenci, Via di Monserrato

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On September 11th 1599, Beatrice Cenci (b. 1577), a young Roman noblewoman, was executed for the murder of her tyrannical and abusive father, Count Francesco Cenci. 

She was beheaded after a lurid trial, which gave rise to her enduring legend. Her tragic life and death has inspired numerous writers, including Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1821), who composed a verse drama The Cenci: A Tragedy in Five Acts, while he was living in Rome. 

Beatrice Cenci was interred in the church of San Pietro in Montorio. 

Four hundred years after her death, a plaque was erected in Via di Monserrato at the site of the prison (long since demolished), where Beatrice was incarcerated. The plaque reads (in translation): From here, where once stood the prison of the Corte Savella, on September 11th 1599, Beatrice Cenci was taken to the scaffold, an exemplary victim of unjust justice.

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