Died 1307. Leader of a peasant and plebeian uprising in northwestern Italy (1304-07). Disciple and follower of G. Segarelli, the founder of the sect of the Apostolic Brethren.

According to the sermons of Dolcino, a kingdom of social justice (with universal equality and common holding of property) would be established on earth as a result of the violent overthrow of all authorities and the extermination of the pope, cardinals, priests, and monks. In early 1304, Dolcino led an uprising of local peasants directed against feudal obligations and the authorities of the city to which the peasants in the area around the city of Vercelli (northwestern Lombardy) were subordinate. He proposed to seize the valley of the Sesia River and establish a peasant commune there (apparently to be based on the periodic equalized redistribution of the land). Pope Clement V proclaimed a crusade against Dolcino in 1305. The insurgents were driven back into the mountains at the border of Savoy, Novara, and Vercelli. In March 1307 the troops of the feudal lords smashed the insurgents. Dolcino was captured and executed. Dolcino’s uprising was one of the first in a series of major uprisings in the states of Western Europe in the 14th century.