avenna 
 
 'V.'.-.T','^'.','.'/
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ti
 
 i'
 
 DANTE AT RA VENN A .
 
 J
 
 UANTE ALIGHIERI. 
 
 Frontispiece.
 
 DANTE AT RAVENNA 
 
 B stu^P 
 
 BY 
 
 CATHERINE MARY PHILLIMORE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'studies in ITALIAN LITERATURE,' ' THE WARRIOR MEDICI,' ' FRA ANGELICO," 
 
 'selections FROM THE SERMONS OF PADRE ACOSTINO DA 
 
 MONTEFELTRO,' ETC., ETC. 
 
 i 
 
 LONDON 
 ELUOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 
 
 1898.
 
 > • • « 
 
 I • • • 
 
 • • • • • 
 
 
 • • • 
 
 * • ft • « I
 
 
 M. F. S. H., 
 
 WHO ACCOMPANIED THE WRITER 
 THREE TIMES TO RAVENNA, 
 
 THE COMPANION OF MANY STUDIES, RESEARCHES AND TRAVELS, 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
 ' E quasi amici dipartirsi pigri.' 
 
 Purg., xxxiii. 114. 
 
 49338G
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE following brief study of the closing years 
 of the life of Dante is offered as a humble 
 contribution to the mass of literature and 
 research which centres in that great name. 
 
 Yet in his quiet exile at Ravenna Dante is 
 perhaps not so well known to the student of his 
 life and works as when a citizen of Florence in 
 the early and more stirring periods of his life. 
 But many a passage, both in the ' Divina Com- 
 media ' and in his minor works, tends to show 
 how much his mind was influenced by the place 
 of his latest sojourn upon earth. 
 
 Frequent visits to the Romagna and Ravenna 
 have enabled the writer, while following in his 
 footsteps, to form some idea of the charm which 
 that part of Italy, and the ancient city itself, must 
 have held for the poet.
 
 viii Preface 
 
 Upon the last great Italian work, * L' Ultimo 
 Rifugio di Dante Alighieri,'^ which leaves no part 
 of the topography or history connected with that 
 period unexplained or unexplored, the following 
 study relies mainly for its facts, A similar ac- 
 knowledgment is due to another work, of equal 
 importance, though not so recent, * Dante e il 
 suo Secolo.' 
 
 The study of these works has been supplemented 
 by research among such original sources of in- 
 formation as are to be found in the manuscripts 
 contained in the libraries of Ravenna and Paris, 
 the Bodleian, and the British Museum. 
 
 The writer, aware that many points still under 
 dispute have come within the sphere of her labours, 
 is prepared to await, with others, the resifting of 
 all the documents relative to the life and family 
 of Dante in the * Codice Diplomatico Dantesco,' 
 compiled by the Italian literary authorities, and 
 which last year began to issue in parts from the 
 Italian press. In view of either the ready accept- 
 ance of tradition or the negative spirit of modern 
 criticism, the object of this work is to lay a 
 foundation upon which the biography of Dante 
 may securely rest. 
 
 ' ' L' Ultimo Rifugio di Dante Alighieri.' Corrado Ricci, 1891.
 
 Preface 
 
 IX 
 
 ' It is time ' (such is the prelude of the compilers of the 
 work) ' that under the escort of approved teachers, and 
 following in their steps, the student of Dante should be 
 set in a way from which there is no turning back nor 
 divergence — on the one hand into vague affirmation, on 
 the other into systematic doubt. Such a safe path can 
 only be secured by a careful restatement of facts, and 
 this course of study may be reached from three starting- 
 points : 
 
 ' I. Renewed attention to the references scattered 
 throughout the works of the poet himself. 
 
 * 2. The re-investigation of the traditional information 
 supplied by the most reliable of the ancient biographers. 
 
 '3. The re-examination of the original documents 
 with which history has from time to time been enriched. 
 A comparison of these last with those cited by the early 
 biographers will show how much is still extant of the 
 original sources of their information. When such docu- 
 ments are lacking, the testimonies of the various early 
 writers will be quoted, and criticism will determine their 
 respective merit according as they can be proved to have 
 written independently of each other. '^ 
 
 Such labours as these can hardly miss their 
 mark, and although, in his greatness, Dante may 
 
 ' ' Codice Diplomatico Dantesco : I Documenti della Vita e 
 dclla Famiglia di Dante Alighieri, riprodotti in facsimile, descritti 
 e illu.strati con Monumenti d' Arte, e F'igure da Guido Biagi e da 
 G. L. I'asserini con gli auspici della Sociela Dantesca Ilaliana.'
 
 X Preface 
 
 be looked upon as a citizen of the world, all 
 nations will naturally turn to the land of his birth 
 for the final verdict upon all matters connected 
 with his life and works. 
 
 Catherine Mary Phillimore. 
 
 London, 
 
 February, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ----- i 
 
 I. RAVENNA - - - - - 13 
 
 II. THE EAGLE OF POLENTA, THE TYRANTS OF 
 THE ROMAGNA, AND THE POPES CONTEM- 
 PORARY WITH DANTE - - "19 
 III. DANTE A TEACHER OF RHETORIC IN RAVENNA, 
 
 AND ' IL VOLGARE ELOQUIO ' - "41 
 
 IV. LIFE AND PUPILS AT RAVENNA - - 83 
 
 V. CLOSING YEARS OF THE LIFE OF DANTE AT 
 
 RAVENNA - - - - - 121 
 
 VI. THE PINETA — EMBASSY TO VENICE — DEATH 
 
 AND BURIAL - - - - "147 
 
 VII. THE TOMB OF DANTE, AND THE DISCOVERY 
 
 OF HIS REMAINS - - - - 167
 
 INTRODUCTION.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' Avvegna ch'io mi senta 
 Ben tetragono ai colpi di ventura.' 
 
 Par., xvii. 24. 
 
 ' Though L feel me on all sides 
 Well squared to fortune's blows.' 
 
 IT is probable that the close and persistent 
 study of Dante will be hereafter recognised 
 as one of the prominent features of the nine- 
 teenth century, whether it is viewed as an anomaly 
 when set side by side with the prevailing charac- 
 teristics of the age, or whether it is recognised as 
 a natural reaction from the purely material aims 
 of the latest developments of science. From such 
 aims as these, with all the respect due to the 
 marvellous results which have been achieved, it 
 is yet conceivable that the mind, restless with 
 some unsatisfied instinct, should cast a backward 
 glance over those forgotten paths of learning 
 which converge and centre in their great exponent, 
 Dante, and were reduced by him into the one 
 simple instruction, 
 
 ' Come I'uom s'eterna. 
 
 I — 2
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 In reality, these three words contain at once 
 the subject of Dante's great work and the object 
 for which it was written. The subject, * the con- 
 dition of the soul after death'; the object, 'to 
 rescue men from passing their lives in a state 
 of misery, and to direct them in the way of happi- 
 ness.' 
 
 It would almost seem as if in this statement, 
 brief to simplicity, lay the clue to the marvellous 
 influence which the ' Divina Commedia,' ever since 
 it was first penned, has exercised upon the human 
 mind. A little more reflection and the marvel is 
 dispelled, or, rather, resolved into the natural 
 sequence of cause and effect. 
 
 Dante was no egotist. Doubtless there floated 
 ever before his mind, throughout his solitary 
 wanderings, the hope that an ungrateful but still 
 ever-loved country would at last recognise his 
 merit, and * at the font of his baptism '^ place the 
 coveted laurels upon his head ; but this was not 
 the primary motive of his work, nor was that 
 work confined to his own country or to his own 
 time. 
 
 Nothing less than the benefit of all who should 
 ever live upon this earth was the design of the 
 writer ; therefore, in all countries, without respect 
 to nationality, and, we may now add, in either 
 hemisphere, each succeeding age has claimed a 
 
 ^ ' In sul fonte 
 Del mio Battesimo prendero '1 cappello.' 
 
 Far., XXV. lO.
 
 Introduction 
 
 share in the great inheritance, each has vied with 
 the other in the appreciation of a work which, 
 while it remains the glory of Itaty, was not destined 
 to be her inheritance alone ; each in turn has paid 
 its own tribute to the master-mind which compre- 
 hended them all, till six centuries have raised a 
 trophy of homage, rarely equalled in the annals of 
 literature, to his name. 
 
 From the earliest moment of the existence of 
 the ' Divina Commedia,' when Giotto, under the 
 direct guidance of the author, gave to art the first 
 rendering of the scheme of the poem on the west 
 wall of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, the student 
 has been able to trace with more or less accuracy 
 the remarkable journey through those imagined 
 spheres which, on account of the splendour of their 
 conception and their precision of detail, have un- 
 consciously supplied for all time a description of 
 the unseen world. 
 
 But the study of the present century, not con- 
 tent with soaring after him in spirit, has concen- 
 trated itself upon tracing every footstep which he 
 made 'in the body in which I cast a shade. '^ 
 
 The great talent of Mr. Gladstone has mar- 
 shalled the evidence in favour of Dante's visit to 
 Oxford," and another fruit of diligent research has 
 appeared in a map of Italy-^ which indicates every 
 
 ^ ' r corpo, dentro al quale io facev' ombra.' 
 
 Purg., iii. 26. 
 '■^ Nineteenth Century, June, 1892. 
 
 ' Dante map, by Mary Ilensman. Published by Messrs. Nutt, 
 270, Strand, London, W.C.
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 spot visited by Dante during his nineteen years of 
 wanderings, till at last he reached the goal of his 
 earthly pilgrimage in Ravenna. 
 
 Nowhere could the last footprints of that most 
 remarkable race of life have been more fitly placed 
 than in Ravenna, where the old Roman Empire 
 and the new kingdom of Christianity met, not in 
 opposition, but in harmony. At Ravenna, more, 
 perhaps, than any other spot in the vast world of 
 Rome, the Empire remains indelibly stamped with 
 the sign of Constantine, in the unique glory of 
 basilicas, where the shimmering mosaics, almost 
 as changeless as the stars of heaven, remain as 
 silent witnesses to the fact that there at least the 
 Empire brought with no grudging hand riches and 
 honour to the foot of that Cross in whose might 
 alone, at one crisis of her existence, she had con- 
 quered. 
 
 To whom could the task of an exponent of the 
 process which had blended into one the two forces 
 of the world be more fitly entrusted than to Dante, 
 and where could he find a grander setting for the 
 completion of the scheme which had occupied his 
 great soul than in Ravenna ? 
 
 Contemporary history, corroborated by recent 
 research, fixes the epoch of his arrival in Ravenna 
 within a few years of the death of Henry of 
 Luxemburg, in the month of August, 13x3. It 
 will be remembered that the sudden death of the 
 Emperor, midway in his career of the conquest of 
 Italy, was likewise the death-blow of the Ghibel-
 
 Introduction 
 
 7 
 
 line hopes, then within an ace of their culmina- 
 tion. Some idea of what that blow must have 
 been to Dante, the prime mover of the Ghibelline 
 party, who had strained every power of his intel- 
 lect to secure the triumph of the Emperor, may 
 be gathered from the impassioned eloquence of his 
 previous appeal : 
 
 'To all and singular — Princes of Italy, Senators of 
 the Holy City, to every Duke, Marquis, Count, and all 
 the people — I, the humble Italian Dante Alighieri, a 
 Florentine unjustly exiled, send greeting. Behold now 
 is the accepted time, when the signs of consolation and 
 peace are becoming manifest. . . . 
 
 ' Rejoice, O Italy, once fit to be the scorn and pity 
 of the Saracens, but now shortly to become the most 
 envied of all nations for thy Bridegroom, who is the light 
 and joy of his century and the glory of thy people, the 
 most gracious Henry — Imperial Caesar and Augustus 
 hastens to make thee his spouse. 
 
 ' Dry thy tears, O beautiful Italy ! Cast away every 
 vestige of grief because he is at hand who will deliver 
 thee from the bonds of thy tormentors, who will strike 
 those murderers, and, destroying them with the edge of 
 the sword, will let out this vineyard to other husbandmen 
 who will render to him the just fruit in due season,' 
 etc.i 
 
 In a similar strain another letter was addressed 
 to the Emperor himself, written in the actual 
 neighbourhood of Florence, which the hungering 
 
 * Opere Minori (Epist. v. Fraticelli), vol. iii., p. 441.
 
 8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 exile, stimulated by the hope that the end of his 
 banishment was near, had also approached. 
 
 In proportion to such high hopes must have 
 been the depth of disappointment in which Dante 
 was obliged to turn away from the 'fair sheep- 
 fold,'^ and renew his wandering till at last he took 
 refuge in Ravenna, there to find his chief solace in 
 preparing a throne for the dead Emperor in his 
 ' Paradiso,' before which all earthly splendour 
 would fade into insignificance.^ 
 
 Many and fruitless have been the disputes and 
 discussions as to the exact year which, taking the 
 death of the Emperor in 1313 as a starting-point, 
 witnessed the arrival of Dante in Ravenna. It is 
 not surprising, if we consider the many wander- 
 ings of his exiled footsteps, some traced with 
 tolerable certainty, some more faintly indicated 
 by tradition, that almost a literature should centre 
 round this question among the eager biographers 
 of the poet. But that he came there at the 
 request of Guide Novello, as his invited guest, 
 all are agreed. That being the case, he could 
 not arrive there before Guido came into power, 
 the more so as the immediate predecessors of 
 Guido, Bernardino and Lamberto, were earnest 
 Guelphs, striving for the Papal as opposed to the 
 Imperial cause ; Bernardino, by whose side Dante 
 had fought at Campaldino, being at that time the 
 
 ^ 'Del bello ovile, ov'io dormic agnello.' 
 
 Par.^ XXV. 5, 
 
 * 'Par.,' XXX. 133-139.
 
 Introduction 
 
 Podesta of Florence, urging the Florentines to 
 resist to the last, and dying in office while the 
 Emperor was at Pisa waiting his opportunity to 
 enter Florence. From this it may safely be 
 assumed that Dante would not select the Court of 
 Bernardino as his refuge in exile. But Guido 
 Novello was still in his first youth, and although 
 his name appears in the early chronicles of 
 Ravenna as the defender of mercantile rights of 
 the city in various disputes with Venice, Chioggia, 
 and Comacchio, he had hitherto kept himself 
 aloof from the great conflict of the age. His 
 disposition was gentle and peaceful, his mind 
 wholly given to study. What little record exists 
 of his life coincides exactly with the portrait left 
 to us by Boccaccio. 
 
 ' In those days there reigned over Ravenna, a 
 famous and ancient city of the Romagna, a noble knight 
 called Guido da Polenta, who was instructed in all 
 the liberal arts, who was wont greatly to honour all 
 learned men, especially those who surpassed all others in 
 science. 
 
 ' It having reached his ears that Dante (with whose 
 fame he had long been accjuainted) was, in this his 
 moment of utmost despair, now in Romagna, he at once 
 prepared to receive and honour him ; nor did he wait to 
 be asked to do so, but with true liberality taking into 
 consideration how hardly a high soul will stoop to ask, 
 he implored him to come to him, asking himself as a 
 special favour, what he knew Dante desired to be asked, 
 whether it would please him to be his guest. The two
 
 lo Dante at Ravenna 
 
 wills, that of the host and the guest, thus tending to one 
 issue,^ and Dante pleased at once with the unqualified 
 liberality of the offer on the one hand, and pressed hard 
 by his own necessities on the other, waiting for no second 
 invitation, betook himself to Ravenna, where Guido 
 received him with every honour, revived his fallen hopes, 
 gave him in abundance all that he needed, and kept him 
 with him in that city for many years, even to the last of 
 his life.'2 
 
 From this passage we may safely conclude that 
 Dante's arrival in Ravenna cannot have taken 
 place before the accession of Guido Novello to 
 power, and that since his predecessor Lamberto 
 died in June, 1316, and Guido was not elected 
 till October of the same year, Dante would hardly 
 begin his sojourn in Ravenna before the year 1317, 
 an interval of four years having elapsed between 
 the death of the German Emperor and the event 
 in question. That the date cannot be placed later 
 is proved by a curious piece of contemporary 
 evidence. Pietro di Dante, son of Dante, accom- 
 panied his father to Ravenna, and there held the 
 two benefices of S. Maria di Zenzanigola and of 
 S. Simone di Muro, the gift of Caterina, wife of 
 Guido Novello. There is a document extant 
 which records the sentence of Pope John XXII. 
 
 ^ 'Che del fare e del chieder tra voi due 
 
 Fia primo quel, che tra gli altii e piu tardo ' 
 (i.e. ' The granting shall forerun the asking '). 
 
 Par., xvii. 74, 75. 
 And the compliment by which Dante has immortalized the courte^y 
 (A his first host is due in equal measure to his last. 
 - Boccaccio, 'Vita di Dante,' p. 30.
 
 Introduction 1 1 
 
 against Pietro di Dante and others for not 
 having paid the fees due to the Papal Legate, 
 Bertrando del Poggetto, in right of the benefices 
 which they held. Evidently, from this docu- 
 ment, Pietro di Dante, together with the other 
 defaulters, had enjoyed the unshorn revenues 
 of these two benefices some little time before 
 the discovery was made, and the fees so long 
 due were replaced by a fine imposed by the angry 
 Legate.^ 
 
 We have another testimony which points to the 
 fact of Dante having resided several years at 
 Ravenna in the dates of the poetical correspond- 
 ence between himself and Giovanni di Virgilio, 
 Cecco d'Ascoli, and others. Various episodes 
 in this correspondence suggest the idea that 
 Ravenna was his permanent residence, that 
 he made excursions from it, but always returned 
 to it. 
 
 * Torno a Ravenna, e di li non parto,' is a line 
 which appears in one of the Eclogues, but these 
 will be referred to at length later on. 
 
 So far, then, as it is possible to judge at this 
 distance of time, we may conclude that the exiled 
 life, which found the well-known ' first refuge '^ 
 at Verona in 131 1, had about four years yet to 
 run when it gently glided into the port of the 
 ' ultimo rifugio ' at Ravenna. 
 
 ' ' Ultimo Rifugio," app., p. 415, doc. ix. 
 ' ' Par.,' xvii. 70.
 
 12 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' In quella parte 
 Di mia etk dove ciascun dovrebbe 
 Calar le vele e raccoglier le sarte.'^ 
 
 * As to that part 
 Of life I found me come, when each behoves 
 To lower sails and gather in the lines.' 
 
 Gary, Trans. 
 
 I < 
 
 Inf.,' xxvii. 77, 80; also ' Convito Tratt.,' IV. xxviii.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RA VENN A.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RAVENNA. 
 
 'Ravenna sta come stata e moll' anni.' 
 
 Inf., xxvii. 40. 
 
 •Ravenna stands as many years she stood.' 
 
 BY this single line Dante seems to recall all 
 the glory of the past, and to reinvest the 
 city with the Imperial robe. 
 For when he entered Ravenna, there, as ever, 
 stood the vast walls on their solid Roman founda- 
 tion, which, when they ceased to be the last 
 shelter of the failing Empire, had become the 
 chosen centre of the Gothic rule. Many a 
 glorious edifice still remained in untouched 
 splendour to witness to a gigantic past welded 
 out of the ancient power of Rome, supplemented 
 even in the moment of decline by the rude 
 strength of the Romanized Barbarian. 
 
 Such were the rich sculptures of the Porta 
 Aurea ; the glittering splendour of the Basilica 
 Ursiana, with its five aisles ; S. Andrea de' Goti, 
 said to be a climax of Barbarian effort ; the 
 churches built by the Empress Galla Placidia,
 
 I 6 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Santa Croce and S. Giovanni Evangelista, her 
 votive offerings to the saint whose aid she had 
 invoked in the midst of the raging storm on the 
 treacherous Hadrian Sea. Still the river Padenna 
 tlovi'ed through the city, fagades of churches 
 adorned with rich porticos, hke those of Venice, 
 arose on either side of its course, and beside them 
 stood hke some guardian sentinel the round Bell 
 Tower, that characteristic feature of Ravenna. 
 
 In the adjoining cemeteries lay the great sarco- 
 phagi of the illustrious dead Emperor or Arch- 
 bishop in the last solemn repose, adorned with 
 those varied emblems of early Christian art which 
 symbolize the Christian's hope. From their midst 
 there rose the sombre majesty of the cypress or 
 the brilliant verdure of the acacia, to break the 
 long lines of slumbering mortality, and, pointing 
 ever towards heaven, suggest to the living citizens 
 the life of the world to come. 
 
 Neither tide of river nor of population now 
 animates the silent, grass-grown streets, and some 
 of the great relics of the past have either yielded 
 to the slow decay of centuries or have been 
 rudely swept away b}- the desolation of civil 
 warfare. 
 
 But yet those which remain suffice to give some 
 idea of a past which could never be derived from 
 the pen of the historian alone. 
 
 If the bed of a torrent was considered by the 
 warriors of Alaric the Goth to be the only resting- 
 place in Italy worthy of their leader, at Ravenna
 
 Ravenna 
 
 17 
 
 one huge rock, raised by the filial piety of Ama- 
 lassunta, remains to mark the grave of the great 
 Theodoric. 
 
 If the Church of S. Andrea de' Goti has perished, 
 yet still the tomb of Galla Placidia in its vicinity 
 preserves the memor}' of the foundress, and the 
 dark vault of her resting-place is illuminated by a 
 mosaic in such rare preservation as to suggest the 
 glory of the whole design. 
 
 If the sea has receded from the port where 
 once the galleys of the Caesars rode in triumph, 
 still there in the lone waste of the marsh S. Ap- 
 pollinare in Classe remains in solitary splendour 
 on the site of the Roman temple. Columns of 
 shining marble, which once adorned the pagan 
 shrine, have now raised for thirteen centuries the 
 vault where glitters in undimmed splendour the 
 mosaic of the Cross of Christ. 
 
 Ever throughout the venerable city, either 
 within or without the walls, in the ancient baptis- 
 tery, in the twin S. Appollinare, called Nuovo 
 in the fourth century, Santa Maria in Porto, or 
 San Vitale, beautiful as some Eastern dream, 
 church after church repeats the same story, in 
 the same mysterious characters, the same scarcely 
 changing hues. 
 
 Now by symbol, now by direct portraiture, they 
 tell of the Good Shepherd, with the sheep of His 
 pasture, of the long row of white-robed martyrs 
 who sealed their faith with their blood, or, pouring 
 his gifts before the altar, of the Emperor whose 
 
 2
 
 1 8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 effigy from the midst of all the accumulated 
 splendour of marble, alabaster, and mosaic, looks 
 out century after century with the same motion- 
 less gaze which probably inspired the lines : 
 
 * Cesare fui e son Giustiniano ; 
 Che per volar del primo amor ch' io sento, 
 D' entro alle leggi trasse 11 troppo e '1 vano.' 
 
 Par., vi. IO-I2. 
 
 ' . . . Caesar I was, 
 And am Justinian ; destined by the will 
 Of that prime love, whose influence I feel. 
 From vain excess to clear the incumber'd laws.' 
 
 Carv, Trans. 
 
 Thus Ravenna stood at the close of the tradi- 
 tions of the Empire ; even the last vestige of Im- 
 perial power was being merged in the dawning 
 sovereignty of the Popes when Dante the exile 
 arrived before her gates. 
 
 Ravenna threw them open to her illustrious 
 guest, and by this act of hospitality coupled her 
 name with his, taking her place by his side on the 
 threshold of the future of Italy.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EAGLE OF POLENTA, THE TYRANTS OF THE 
 ROMAGNA AND THE POPES CONTEMPORARY WITH 
 DANTE. 
 
 2 — 2
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EAGLE OF POLENTA, THE TYRANTS OF THE 
 ROMAGNA, AND THE POPES CONTEMPORARY 
 WITH DANTE. 
 
 ' L' Aquila da Polenta la si cova 
 Si che Cervia ricuopre coi suoi Vanni.' 
 
 Inf., xxvii. 41, 43. 
 
 • There Polenta's eagle broods, 
 And in his broad circumference of plume 
 O'ershadows Cervia.' 
 
 Gary, Trans. 
 
 IL GRAX LOMBARDO ' is the name by 
 which Dante has transmitted to posterity 
 the courtesy of Can Grande della Scala, 
 his first host in exile. Still preserving the refer- 
 ence to place which forms such a marked feature 
 in all Italian records, he confers upon Guido 
 Novello the proud title of L' Aquila da Polenta 
 (The Eagle of Polenta), under whose widespread 
 wings he sought and found a last refuge. The 
 well-known cognizance of the eagle — the ' Santo 
 Uccello ' of the Emperor, often conceded as a 
 quartering to those who held high office under 
 the Empire — was borne, according to the heraldic 
 historian,' with many a variation by the different 
 branches of the Polentani. 
 
 ' ' I'asserini Coniinuazionc Litia Kaitiiglie Celebri,' i. 461.
 
 2 2 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Its wings are displayed now on a silver and 
 now on a golden field, but in the shield of Guido 
 Novello the eagle is red and the field gold. The 
 family title was derived from the Castle of Polenta, 
 which stood some thirty miles inland south of 
 Ravenna, and of which only a small fragment 
 remains standing. It would just have been en- 
 closed in the sweep of the eagle's pinion which, 
 including Cesena, covered the port of Cervia, 
 
 Following the heraldic imagery, in which the 
 rulers of the Romagna are presented to us in the 
 ' Divina Commedia,' the adjoining city of Forli, 
 having made a gallant stand against the Pope and 
 his allies, lay then under the talons of the green 
 lion of the Ordelaffi. 
 
 ' La terra che fe gia la lunga pruova, 
 E di Franceschi sanguinoso mucchio 
 Sotto le branche verdi si ritruova.' 
 
 Inf., xxvii. 33-44- 
 
 ' The green talons grasp 
 The land that stood erewhile the proof so long, 
 And piled in bloody heap the host of France.' 
 
 Carv, Trans. 
 
 At Rimini the vindictive tyranny of the Mala- 
 testa is characterized by the ferocity of a mastiff. 
 
 ' E '1 Mastin vecchio e '1 nuovo da Verrucchio, 
 Che fecer di Montagna il mal governo 
 La dove soglion, fan de' denti succhio.' 
 
 Ibid.. 45, 46.
 
 The Tyrants of the Romagna 23 
 
 ' The old Mastiff of Verrucchio and the young 
 That tore Montagna in their wrath still make 
 Where they are wont an auger of their fangs.' 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 They were Guelphs, and for that reason had 
 murdered Montagna de' Parcisati, a Riminese 
 noble, for no other reason than that he was a 
 Ghibelline. But the lion's cub, Mainardo Pagani, 
 who governs the two cities which are watered by 
 the Lamone and the Santermo, i.e., Imola and 
 Forli, is a Guelph at one season of the year, a 
 Ghibelline at another, 
 
 ' Le citta di Lamone e di Santerno 
 Conduce il Leoncel del nido bianco, 
 Che muta parte dalla state al verno.' 
 
 Ibid., 47, 48. 
 
 * Lamone's city and Santerno's range 
 Under the lion of the snowy lair, 
 Inconstant partisan that changeth sides 
 Or ever summer yields to winter's frost.' 
 
 And thus they live for ever in the ' Divina 
 Commedia,' these mediaeval tyrants of the 
 Romagna, for even the boast of their heraldry 
 has been rescued by Dante from the grave. 
 
 Like the grim towers which crowned at intervals 
 the embattled walls of the Italian city of those 
 times and protected the citadel, they seem to 
 stand around the nascent temporal power of the 
 Papacy. 
 
 For the sovereignty of the triple crown no
 
 24 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 longer remained in the lifeless grasp of the puppet 
 which Charlemagne had invested with a semblance 
 of authority to represent the Western Empire 
 and take the place of the discredited government 
 of the Byzantine Court. 
 
 Little by little the effigy had come to life, and, 
 as Villemain rhetorically observes, ' wanted to 
 reign.' 
 
 Nor would it be satisfied with vague, high- 
 sounding words or phantom dominions. 
 
 In the year 1278 all former treaties and con- 
 cessions which had from time to time been wrested 
 from the Empire were secured by an irrevocable 
 deed. Nicholas III., the Orsini Pope, playing 
 upon the religious fears of Rudolph of Hapsburg, 
 wrung from him the final cession of the exarchate 
 of Ravenna and the fortresses of the Pentapolis, 
 as the price to be paid for the redemption of the 
 Emperor's unfulfilled vow. 
 
 It was in vain that Caesar struggled to retain 
 the 'garden of the Empire,'^ to which Dante a 
 few years later pathetically recalled him. 
 
 The Pope would not let slip the opportunity, 
 and two Acts were signed by the Imperial Am- 
 bassador. By the one the Empire renounced all 
 further claim to the fealty of the Romagna; by 
 the other the confines of the States of the Church 
 were defined, and all the cities comprised in them 
 were named one by one, and made over to the 
 Papal authority. 
 
 ^ ' Che '1 giardin dell' imperio sia diserto.' 
 
 Pzirg., vi. 105.
 
 The Popes contemporary with Dante 25 
 
 Thus it may be seen how the awakened 
 puppet of Charlemagne developed into a living 
 power, which became eventually a giant figure in 
 the scheme of European politics, thundering for 
 no less than five centuries decrees ' Urbi et Orbi,' 
 till at last, within the recollection of the present 
 generation, it has, amid a storm of dispute as to 
 its origin and utility, disappeared from the scene. 
 Dante was many centuries before his time when 
 he condemned this same Orsini Pope, and all the 
 * miserable followers '^ of Simon Alagus who 
 should succeed him, to lie to all eternity in close 
 proximity to that earth on which they had fixed 
 the gaze which should have been turned towards 
 heaven. 
 
 'If — these are the words he puts into the 
 mouth of Nicholas III. — 'thou carest so much to 
 know who I am . . , know that I was vested in 
 the great mantle (of the Papacy), and truly was 
 a son of the she-bear (one of the Orsini), so 
 greedy to advance the bear-cubs that above (in 
 the world) I stowed wealth, and here (in hell) 
 myself in this pouch.- 
 
 Then follow prophecies of the yet more atro- 
 cious guilt of his successors, Boniface VIII. and 
 Clement V., to which Dante replies with the 
 famous question which strikes at the root of the 
 temporal power : 
 
 ' Deh or mi di', cjuanto tesoro voile 
 Nostro Signore in prima da san Pietro, 
 
 ' ' Inf.,' xix. I. - Ibid., 70-73.
 
 26 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Che gli ponesse le chiavi in balia ? 
 Certo non chiese se non i Viemmi retro 
 Ne Pier ne gli altri tolsero a Mattia 
 Oro od argento, quando fu sortito 
 Al loco che perd^ I'anima ria.' 
 
 ' Pray tell me, now, how much treasure did our Lord 
 require from St. Peter before He put the keys into his 
 charge? He certainly made no further demand upon 
 him than. " Follow thou Me." Nor did Peter nor the 
 other Apostles extort from Matthias gold or silver, when 
 he was appointed by lot to the post which the guilty soul 
 Judas Iscariot had forfeited.'^ 
 
 ' Fatto v'avete Dio d'oro e d'argento ; 
 E che altro e da voi agl' idolatre 
 Se non ch'egH uno, e voi n'orate cento ?' 
 
 ' Ye have made for yourselves a god of gold and silver, 
 and what other distinction is there between you and the 
 idolaters, except that they adore one thing, and you a 
 hundred of them P'^ 
 
 To Nicholas, whose simoniacal conduct gave rise 
 to this burst of righteous indignation, succeeded 
 Martin IV., the Frenchman of Tours, and who 
 does penance in the ' Purgatorio ' for his glutton's 
 death,=^ whose fierce hatred of the Ghibellines was 
 only foiled at Forli by the craft of Guido da 
 
 1 Vernon's ' Readings on the Inferno,' xix., p. 95. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 100. 
 
 3 ' Purg.,' xxiv. 21-24 : 
 
 ' Ebhe la santa chiesa in le sue braccia 
 Del Torso fu ; e purga per digiuno 
 L'An^uille di Bolsena e la vernaccia.'
 
 The Popes contemporary with Dante 27 
 
 Montefeltro, to return a second time with terrible 
 vengeance upon the luckless city. 
 
 The short pontificates of Honorius IV. (1285- 
 1287) and Nicholas IV. (1288-1292), which had 
 promised better things, were succeeded by that of 
 Celestine V., whose cowardly desertion of his post 
 has been handed down to posterity in the single 
 line: 
 
 ' Che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto.' 
 
 Inf., iii. 60. 
 
 ' Who, to base fear yielding, abjured his high estate.' 
 
 We must admit, however, that, as a matter of 
 history, the anchorite virtues of Pope Celestine V. 
 compare favourably with the opposite vices of his 
 predecessors and successors in the Papal chair. 
 
 But the cause of the fierce indignation of Dante, 
 which prompted one of the finest passages in the 
 ' Inferno,' as he assigns to Celestine V. a place 
 among the ' wretches who ne'er lived/^ is not far 
 to seek. 
 
 The abdication of Celestine was brought about 
 by the combined threats and artifices of his 
 haughty rival, Cardinal Caetani. In abject terror 
 Celestine vacated the Papal throne, thereby 
 making the vacancy so eagerly desired by the 
 ambitious Cardinal, who was forthwith elected to 
 it, and, under the name of Boniface VIII., has 
 left no uncertain record of himself upon the page 
 of history. He claims our attention first as one 
 of the central figures of the * Divina Commedia ' — 
 
 ' ' Inf.,' iii. 64.
 
 28 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 a central figure because of the circumstances 
 which brought him into such close connection 
 with the author as to inlluence his whole life and 
 work. 
 
 But for the embassy from Florence to Boni- 
 face VIII., we may reasonably suppose there 
 would have been no exile for Dante, and then, 
 probably, no ' Divina Commedia.' 
 
 When selected as the chief of the legation to 
 Rome, to deliberate with the Pope whether or not 
 it would be advisable to invoke the aid of the 
 French arms to settle the quarrels of the opposing 
 factions, Dante was in the prime of his manhood, 
 at the zenith of his reputation. 
 
 Boccaccio gives us some idea of the estimation 
 in which he was held in Florence : 
 
 ' In him was centred the public faith, on him were 
 fastened the people's hopes ; in short, he was held to be 
 the only counsellor in all things human and Divine' 
 (Boccaccio, ' Vita di Dante,' pp. 30-32). 
 
 * Nor did he,' Boccaccio naively adds, 'think it 
 necessary to set a lower value on his own merits 
 than that universally accorded to him by his con- 
 temporaries, as we may judge from his memor- 
 able answer (when elected as chief ambassador), 
 " If I go, who remains ? If I remain, who 
 goes ?" ' 
 
 When these proud words were uttered, how 
 little did Dante think that he would never again 
 re-enter Florence.
 
 The Popes contemporary with Dante 29 
 
 But such was the result of the Embassy. 
 Hardly had the Ambassadors arrived in Rome, 
 than the Pope sent for them into his room to 
 remonstrate with them on their objections to his 
 scheme of summoning Charles of Valois and the 
 French arms to pacify the internal dissensions of 
 Florence. 
 
 * Why are you so obstinate ?' exclaimed the 
 angry Pope. ' Humble yourselves before me. I 
 tell you truly, I have no other intention but to 
 provide for your peace and welfare. Return two 
 of you to Florence, and my blessing will go with 
 you if you cause my will to be obeyed.' 
 
 The two colleagues of Dante — Maso Miner- 
 betti and Corazza, a bitter Guelph — returned to 
 Florence ; but Dante, who had always opposed 
 the intervention of the French arms, remained in 
 Rome. 
 
 The revolution in Florence which brought in 
 Charles of Valois resulted, not unnaturally, in a 
 severe condemnation of those who had opposed 
 the policy. Dante was not only included in the 
 condemnation of April, 1302, but, on account of 
 his importance to the Republic and his promi- 
 nent position as a citizen, he had been previously 
 singled out for two special condemnations. In 
 the preceding January of the same year he was 
 prohibited from re-entering Florence under pain 
 of being burnt alive. 
 
 These events, the revolution of Charles of 
 Valois, and his own exile, are commented upon in
 
 30 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 various passages of the * Divina Commedia'; but 
 can we wonder that at this period the pen of 
 Dante is dipped in fire as he writes of Boniface, 
 the author not only of his own ruin, but also of 
 that of his country ? 
 
 Guido da Montefeltro, betrayed by Boniface, is 
 made to describe him as * II Principe de' nuovi 
 Farisei' ('Inf.,' xxvii. 83), and St. Peter to 
 anathematize, * Quegli ch' usurpa in terra il luogo 
 mio ' (' Par.,' xxvii. 21), while condemning point 
 by point the errors of the Papal Government : 
 (i) the fomenting of civil discord — 
 
 ' Non fu nostra intenzion, ch 'a destra mano, 
 De' nostri successor parte sedesse, 
 Parte dall' altra, del popol cristiano.' 
 
 Par., xxvii. 46, 48. 
 
 ' No purpose was of ours 
 That on the right hand of our successors 
 Part of the Christian people should be set, 
 And part upon their left.' 
 
 (2) the misuse of the keys — 
 
 ' Ne che le chiavi, che mi fur concesse, 
 Divenisser, segnacolo in vessillo 
 Che contra i battezzati combattesse.' 
 
 ' Nor that the keys, 
 Which were vouchsafed me, should for ensigns 
 
 serve 
 Unto the banners, that do levy war 
 On the baptized.'
 
 The Popes contemporary with Dante 31 
 
 (3) and of Peter's pence — 
 
 ' Ne' ch' io fosse figura di sigillo 
 A privilegii venduti e mendaci, 
 Ond' io sovente arrosso e disfavillo.' 
 
 ' Nor I, for sigil-mark 
 Set upon sold and lying privileges : 
 Which makes me oft to flicker and turn red.' 
 
 Gary, Trajis. 
 
 Yet in spite of this vehement attack, when this 
 same Pope is made prisoner in Anagni, Dante, in 
 strong condemnation of the deed, does not 
 hesitate to use the comparison of Pilate as he 
 describes the insult to the office filled by the 
 vicegerent of our Saviour upon earth. 
 
 Boniface VIII. may be taken as the type of the 
 mediaeval Pope, and, with all his faults, a certain 
 grandeur can never be dissociated from the figure 
 of the lonely old man who, deserted by all, sat on 
 his throne fully vested in his pontifical robes, with 
 the triple crown on his head, his trembling hands 
 still grasping the golden cross and the keys, 
 emblematic of his office. It was no wonder if, for 
 the moment, even the audacity of the emissaries 
 of Philip of France and the fierceness of the 
 Roman barons were overawed by so exact and 
 living an embodiment of all the current traditions 
 of the Papal power. But for this incident in the 
 records of the time, and the way in which it is 
 handled by Dante, we might never have arrived 
 at the clue to the vexed question how Dante,
 
 32 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 being a loyal son of the Church, could allow him- 
 self to hand down to posterity branded with infamy 
 six of the Popes who succeeded each other in the 
 chair of St. Peter during his lifetime.^ Yet one 
 more example is furnished by the forty-days 
 pontificate of Adrian V., who expiates his sin of 
 avarice in the * Purgatorio,' where he describes how 
 by proof he learnt, 
 
 ' Come 
 Pesa il gran nianto a chi dal fango '1 guarda ; 
 Che piuma sembran tutte I'altre some.'^ 
 
 * With what a weight that robe of sovereignty 
 Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire 
 Would guard it ; that each other fardel seems 
 But feathers in the balance.' 
 
 But although, as we gather from these lines, 
 Dante could form a true estimate of the weight 
 of the Papal mantle of responsibility, he did not 
 believe it to be an impossible feat to keep it un- 
 sullied from worldly stain. Instead of being 
 contaminated by the world, his lofty ideal of the 
 Papacy contemplated, on the contrary, a purifying 
 influence, which would be exercised over Christen- 
 
 ' Niccolo III., 1277-12S0 {' Inf.,' xix. 31). 
 
 Martino IV., 1281-1285 ('Inf.,' xix. 31). 
 
 Celestino V., 1294- 1294 ('Inf.,' iii, 59, 60). 
 
 Bonifazio VIII., 1294-1303 (' Inf.,' xix. 53 ; xxvii. 70 ; xxxiii. 44. 
 ' Purg.,' XX. 87; xxxii. 149; xxxiii. 44. 'Par.,' ix. 132; xii. 90; 
 xvii.49; xxvii. 22; XXX. 148). 
 
 Clemente V., 1305-1314 ('Inf-.' -^ix. 82. 'Purg.,' xxxii. 15 
 ' Par.,' xvii. 82 ; xxvii. 59 ; xxx. I42). 
 
 Giovanni XXII., 1316-1334 ('Par.,' xxvii. 58). 
 
 - ' Purg.,' xix. 99, seq.
 
 The Popes Contemporary with Dante 33 
 
 dom at large — a government whose motive should 
 be as lofty as its position was supreme, a sun 
 whose pure and brilliant rays should illuminate 
 the darkness of a dark age, and point the way to 
 eternity. 
 
 Could there be a more painful contrast than 
 that presented by the reality ? — a reality, moreover, 
 which, instead of improving, only went from bad 
 to worse. For in the succeeding pontificates of 
 Benedict XI., Clement V., and John XXII., it 
 was the lot of Dante to see the Papacy enter upon 
 a yet more degrading phase of its existence, when 
 the Popes, having made themselves the abject 
 slaves of the King of France, were for seventy 
 years his willing captives in Avignon, and to fore- 
 tell accurately, though under the form of a some- 
 what gross allegory,^ the results which Petrarch 
 records in his memorable pictures drawn from life 
 in the modern Babylon. 
 
 But to return to the thirteenth century. 
 
 The first step of the new suzerain was to claim 
 the homage of his subjects, and, admonished by 
 Papal ambassadors, the Polenta of Ravenna, the 
 Malatesta of Rimini, and Guido da Montefeltro, 
 swore fealty to the Pope instead of to the 
 Emperor, and Papal legates were dispersed 
 throughout the province thereafter designated as 
 the Romagna. 
 
 Dante describes its limits : 
 
 ' Tra '1 Po, el monte, e la marina e '1 Reno,'- 
 
 ' Purg., x.xxii. 156. - Ibid., xiv. 93. 
 
 3
 
 34 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 boundaries which were only probably too familiar 
 to him as he crossed and recrossed the country in 
 his frequent wanderings, till there was hardly a 
 castle or city of any importance that was not 
 known to him, to be recorded each in its turn in 
 the 'Divina Commedia.' Taking into account the 
 natural features of the country and the character- 
 istics of the rulers, no territory, with the exception 
 of Tuscany, has contributed so many episodes to 
 the Poem as the Romagna. 
 
 The description of the tyrants forms part of the 
 famous episode of Guido da Montefeltro, and is 
 the answer to the inquiry : 
 
 ' Dimmi se i Romagnuoli han pace oguerra ;'^ 
 
 ' Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell 
 Have peace or war,' 
 
 at last formulated by the restless, leaping tongue 
 of the flame by which he expiates his fraudulent 
 counsel in the Inferno. 
 
 In the Purgatorio, Guido del Duca of Bret- 
 tinoro and Riniero da Calboli of ForH, cUnging 
 together in their blindness, and making the dreary 
 circuit assigned to the envious, enlarge upon the 
 same theme, as they contrast the venomous plants 
 {venenosi sterpi) which have now taken root in 
 the Romagna with the noble scions of former 
 generations. * Always,' to quote Benvenuto da 
 Imola, ' at feud with one another, and, just as 
 bad weeds extirpated by the plough swarm up 
 
 ^ Inf., xxvii. 28.
 
 Francesca da Rimini 35 
 
 again like the heads of the Hydra, so in the 
 Romagna no amount of good government and 
 legislation would suffice to root out the flagrant 
 abuses that prevailed there. '^ 
 
 It is to the Romagna also that we owe the 
 greatest of all the episodes of the ' Divina 
 Commedia ' : 
 
 ' Siede la terra, dove nata fui, 
 Su la marina dove '1 Po discende 
 Per aver pace co' seguaci sui ;' 
 
 ' The land that gave me birth 
 Is situate on the coast where Po descends 
 To rest in ocean with his sequent streams,' 
 
 is the prelude to the immortal narrative of Fran- 
 cesca da Rimini. 
 
 Nor, as we have seen, is the origin of the 
 tragedy on which it is founded far to seek in the 
 cruel, unscrupulous rivalry of the potentates so 
 justly stigmatized by Dante as tyrants. 
 
 The favour of the Popes to whom they paid 
 homage gave colour to their pretensions to power, 
 and the sometimes empty title of Vicars of the 
 Archbishops, which gave them importance in the 
 eyes of the people, often led to their being elected 
 podesta, or magistrate, of the city. Then some 
 fortunate conquest would extend the municipal or 
 increase the territorial rights of the State, and the 
 crafty ruler would avail himself of the popular 
 
 ' Vernon's ' Readings on the Purgalorio,' \). 46. 
 ' Inf., V. 97. 
 
 3—2
 
 36 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 enthusiasm of the moment to lay the foundation 
 of absolute, and even hereditary, power. 
 
 Step by step this process may be traced in the 
 history of the Polenta family. They are first 
 heard of in the history of Ravenna as Vicars of 
 the Archbishops in the year 1167, next as fulfilling 
 the office of podesta, or magistrate. In the twelfth 
 century the government of Ravenna consisted of 
 a podesta and two consuls ; each consul ruled for 
 fifteen days, and was then succeeded by the other 
 consul. At the end of another fifteen days the 
 first consul returned to office.^ In all these forms 
 of popular government the Polenta took part till 
 they gradually gathered the reins of power into 
 their hands. 
 
 In the year 1275 Guido il Vecchio was Podesta 
 of Ravenna, and he won himself great favour in 
 the eyes of the citizens by the acquisition of 
 Cervia from the Papal nominee Stefaneschi, thus 
 considerably extending the territorial influence of 
 Ravenna. 
 
 But in order further to strengthen his own 
 position and to subdue completely the people, he 
 invoked the aid of the Malatesta at Rimini. 
 
 The tyrants, who had long been at war with 
 each other, united in a common cause against the 
 people. The Malatesta lent a powerful support, 
 and Guido il Vecchio remained firmly fixed in his 
 
 ^ The little Republic of San Marino still preserves this elective 
 form of government. Twice every year, on April i and October I, 
 two Captains of the Republic are chosen and invested with six 
 months' authority.
 
 Francesca da Rimini 37 
 
 saddle. His daughter, the beautiful Francesca, 
 was destined to reward the valour of his allies. 
 The old Malatesta had two sons. The eldest, 
 Giovanni or Gianciotto, so called because he was 
 deformed and ugly; the youngest, Paolo, endowed 
 with every fascination. But the political ends of 
 Guido il Vecchio and Malatesta da Verrucchio 
 could only be secured by an intermarriage with 
 the eldest son. It was not likely that Francesca, 
 in the prime of her youth and beauty, would con- 
 sent to this arrangement. So Paolo was sent for 
 to Ravenna, ostensibly to stand proxy for his 
 brother at the marriage, but to the unfortunate 
 bride he was made to appear as her affianced 
 husband. Of the sequel, as Dante was the first 
 narrator so let him be the last, for no one has ever 
 yet succeeded in adding a touch to the unrivalled 
 pathos of her stor}-.^ 
 
 Guido il Vecchio, who died in 1310, was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Lamberto, in whose person were 
 combined the offices of Podesta and Consul of 
 Ravenna, thus constituting a position of absolute 
 sovereignty. At the death of Lamberto, Guido 
 Novello, at that time Consul of Cesena, nephew 
 of Guido il Vecchio, son of Osta^io da Polenta, 
 was elected to succeed his uncle, and Cesena 
 became included in the sweep of the w'ing of the 
 Eagle of Polenta. 
 
 * Inf., V. 70, et ii'j/. Tradition inclic.ilcs the portrait of Fran- 
 cesca da Rimini to be in the Church of Sia. Maria in I'orto fuori al 
 Kaveriiia, but as there is no proof to support the theory, it fnly rests 
 on the probabilities sugtjested l)y tiie place, the j'crioii of the work, 
 and the extreme beauty of the fresco.
 
 38 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 It is a pleasing change to turn from the violence 
 of faction, the struggle for dominion beginning 
 with the two great Powers of the civihzed world 
 arrayed against each other in open opposition, 
 thence spreading through every State and city, 
 and marked by vindictive tyranny in every hateful 
 form, to contemplate the brief reign of Guido 
 Novello. His lordship over Ravenna is marked 
 by an open preference for peace and the arts of 
 peace. Early in life he had shown that when 
 necessity arose, and when the welfare of the State 
 was in jeopardy, he could fight as determinedly 
 as any of the tyrants of the Romagna, however 
 much he preferred the cultured society of learned 
 men and the exercise of his own natural gift for 
 poetry. In this light he appears to us as one of 
 the precursors of those lords of the Renaissance 
 who even in the midst of the din of constant 
 warfare could plan the construction of palaces 
 and churches, discuss points of rhetoric or art, 
 and at times could even lay down the sword 
 and take up the pen to write ballads and 
 sonnets. 
 
 Such were Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence and 
 Guidobaldo at Urbino in the fifteenth century, 
 but Guido Novello was before his age when he 
 built himself a palace at Ravenna, and invited 
 Dante to be not only his guest, but also his 
 instructor in the arts of rhetoric and poetry. 
 
 Of the Camera a Coronis, as the palace is 
 described in the ancient topography of Ravenna,
 
 Camera a Coronis 39 
 
 only the outer wall remains standing, facing the 
 tomb of Dante, and bearing the inscription : 
 
 ' Questa Casa 
 fu in tempo dei Polentani 
 
 che ebbero la gloria 
 Di accogliere ospitalmente 
 
 Dante Alighieri.'^ 
 
 ' This house existed in the time of the Polentani, who had the 
 glorious privilege of receiving as their guest Dante Alighieri. — Trans.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DANTE A TEACHER OF RHETORIC IN RAVENNA, 
 AND 'IL VOLGARE ELOQUIO.'
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DANTE A TEACHER OF RHETORIC IN RAVENNA, 
 AND ' IL VOLGARE ELOQUIO.' 
 
 ' Qui comincio a leggere Dante in pria 
 Retorica Vulgare e molti aperti 
 Fece cli sua Poetica armonia.' 
 
 Saviozzo da Siena: Rime di M. Cino da 
 Pistoia e di altri del Secolo, xiv., p. 575. 
 
 ALTHOUGH in the first instance Dante was 
 the invited and honoured guest of Guide 
 Novello, there is sufficient reason to 
 beheve that he did not depend for his mainte- 
 nance upon the hospitahty of his patron during 
 the whole of his sojourn at Ravenna — whether or 
 no he actually filled the chair of the Professor of 
 Rhetoric in that city. The probabilities to which 
 the red academical gown of his portraits gives 
 colour in more senses than one are in favour of 
 this honour having been conferred upon him, but 
 the actual historical statement which would make 
 the fact certain is unfortunately lacking. Schools 
 of grammar and rhetoric since the reign of 
 Theodosius are known to have existed in Ravenna. 
 The first authentic notice of such schools being
 
 44 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 extant dates from the sixth century, and rests on 
 the testimony of Procopius, the historian of 
 Justinian, with reference to Vincenzo Fortunato, 
 at that time a celebrated rhetorician. 
 
 There, under the shadow of the great Emperor 
 Justinian, civil jurisprudence was digested for the 
 use of all succeeding generations in the immortal 
 works of the 'Code,' the 'Pandects,' and the 
 * Institutes.' 
 
 Long before the University of Bologna received 
 her title of Mater Studiorum, the great traditions 
 of the Emperor and his famous code were handed 
 down in the schools of Ravenna from rhetorician 
 to rhetorician, as from time to time they shed the 
 light of their learning upon the dense horizon of 
 the Dark Ages. 
 
 These schools, which had received the support 
 of the Eastern Empire, continued to flourish 
 under the Exarchate, the Longobardi, and the 
 Ravennese Bishops who represented the Papal 
 power. 
 
 The record of those who held the office of 
 public lecturer appears to date from 1268, when 
 Pasio della Noce was summoned by the Senate 
 to give lectures on jurisprudence in Ravenna. In 
 1298, when Dante was reaching the zenith of his 
 power in Florence, Ugo di Riccio was juris civilis 
 professis in Ravenna. 
 
 Six years afterwards, 1304 (Dante had by that 
 time been three years in exile), there is another 
 record of one Leone da Verona, who received a
 
 A Teacher of Rhetoric 45 
 
 salary of 25 lire Ravegnane to teach grammar 
 and logic to the Ravennese youth. 
 
 The next notice, bearing date 1333, twelve 
 years after the death of Dante, is of one Giovanni 
 Giacomo del Bando, who went from Cesena to 
 Ravenna to teach logic, medicine, philosophy, and 
 astronomy. There is no actual historical record 
 that, in the interval, when no other name is men- 
 tioned, Dante occupied the rhetoric chair during 
 the four years of his sojourn at Ravenna, and this 
 throws us back upon the probabilities in favour 
 of his having done so. We have gathered from 
 the historical notices that such a chair was in 
 existence, and that the Ravennese had been at 
 some pains to have it worthily filled. What is 
 more likely than that Guido Novello, himself 
 a scholar, and with a profound admiration for 
 Dante, should have seized the opportunity to 
 procure both for himself and his city the advan- 
 tage of so unrivalled an instructor ? 
 
 These probabilities must, of course, be taken at 
 their own value, but there is also contemporary 
 testimony which adds weight to the supposition. 
 
 Boccaccio notes that Dante in Ravenna had 
 many scholars in poetry, and particularly nella 
 volgare. Saviozzo da Siena follows and amplifies 
 Boccaccio's statement. 
 
 ' Qui comincio a leggcre Dante in pria 
 Ketorica Vulgare e molti aperti 
 Fece di sua Poetica armonia.'^ 
 
 ' ' Rime di M. Cino da I'istoia c di altri del Sec.,' xiv., p. 575 
 (date 1 396- 1459)-
 
 46 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Manetti, one of the early biographers of Dante, 
 supports the theory; but the most conclusive 
 evidence rests on a codex in the Laurentian library, 
 cited by Bandini, which states : 
 
 * It is commonly reported that Dante, being studying 
 in Ravenna, and giving lectures as a Doctor to his pupils 
 upon various works, the schools became the resort of many 
 learned men.'^ 
 
 This would coincide with the statement by 
 Boccaccio, that many doctors of science attended 
 the funeral of Dante. 
 
 One of his minor works, entitled *I1 Volgare 
 Eloquio,' is supposed to have formed the subject 
 of his lectures to his pupils at Ravenna. 
 
 It seems that up to the fifteenth century the 
 ' Volgare Eloquio ' had never been read in Italy. 
 The first edition we owe to Gian Giorgio Trissino, 
 who made a faithful translation from the original 
 Latin into Italian, and under the pseudonym of 
 Giovan Battista Doria dedicated it to the Cardinal 
 Ippolito de' Medici. For a long time, even up to 
 the present day, it was supposed that Trissino 
 had himself fabricated the treatise, and passed it 
 under the name of Dante ; but the discovery of 
 fourteenth-century MSS., notably that of Grenoble, 
 which has been recently reproduced (1892), has 
 put an end to any such supposition, even if the 
 evidence of contemporary history, to say nothing 
 
 I { 
 
 Ult. Rif.,' p. 83.
 
 ' II Volgare Eloquio ' 47 
 
 of the internal evidence, did not suffice to assign 
 the work to Dante himself. 
 
 Some have tried to determine the date of the 
 book by internal evidence with reference to his- 
 torical personages^ who are referred to as still 
 living when the book was composed, and have 
 therefore fixed its completion in 1306, making it 
 antecedent to the ' Divina Commedia.' Boccaccio 
 and Villani, on the other hand, will be seen rather 
 to lean to the idea that it was one of the poet's 
 later compositions. But in either case there is 
 nothing to militate against the supposition that 
 it formed the substance of his lectures at 
 Ravenna. 
 
 That Dante had the intention of writing such 
 a book we have on his own authority : * Upon 
 this matter {i.e., the different dialects of Italy) I 
 propose to treat at greater length in a book which, 
 God willing, I intend to write upon the Vulgar 
 Tongue. '■- 
 
 Boccaccio, his contemporar}', and Villani, a few 
 years later on, testify to the fulfilment of his 
 promise : 
 
 ' Moreover, Dante wrote a book which he entitled 
 " De Vulgare Eloquio," which he proposed to divide 
 into four parts, but only two are extant (perhaps on 
 account of his sudden death), in the which in masterly 
 and polished Latin he reproves all the vulgar dialects of 
 Italy.'3 
 
 ' Azzo d' Este, Marchese, lib. i., c. xii. ; lib. ii., c. vi. 
 ' ' Convilo Tratt.,' I., c. v., p. 73. 
 '* Boccaccio, 'Vita di Danle. '
 
 4B Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' And about this time, already within a few years of his 
 death, Dante composed a book in Latin prose, which he 
 entitled " De Vulgare Eloquentia," and, as it is set forth 
 in this book,^ his intention was to divide it into four 
 distinct parts. 
 
 ' Either because his labours were cut short by death, 
 or because two of the books have been lost, only two are 
 still extant.' 
 
 If, as most of the earliest biographers maintain, 
 the loss of the two last books is due to the sudden 
 death of the author, we may indulge ourselves 
 in the belief that the two which remain consti- 
 tute the lectures which, either in the public chair 
 of rhetoric or in his private house, Dante gave 
 to his pupils at Ravenna. 
 
 The design of the book was to construct out of 
 the fourteen ancient dialects of Italy an idiom 
 which, for beauty and sweetness and efficacy, 
 should equal the ancient Latin, and should be 
 universally employed throughout Italy as the 
 organ of the expression of Italian thought. Dante 
 was the first to whom such an idea occurred. 
 
 ' Being unable to find,' so the book opens, 'that any- 
 one has ever before attempted a treatise on the vulgar 
 tongue, and perceiving that the knowledge of this vulgar 
 tongue is indispensable to all, as not only men, but 
 women and children, so far as they are able, try to avail 
 themselves of it, and wishing to enlighten the judgment 
 of those who, like the blind, grope about the streets, and 
 many times misplace the order of things, supposing that 
 
 1 Villani, lib. ix., c. cxxxvi.
 
 ' II Volgare Eloquio ' 49 
 
 which is behind to be in front. 'With that help which 
 God sends to us from above, we propose to facilitate the 
 speech of the common people. Nor will we merely 
 draw from the sources of our own intellect the water 
 wherewith to slake our thirst, but, further, taking from 
 other sources the best of their kind, we will mix the two 
 together in order to produce a decoction of the sweetest 
 Hydromel.'^ 
 
 The use of the plural in this opening sentence, 
 and on many occasions throughout the book, 
 rather suggests that the original form of this 
 treatise must have been a lecture in which the 
 lecturer invokes the assistance of his hearers to 
 elucidate his subject, as Dante describes with his 
 usual felicitous touch in the ' Paradiso ': 
 
 ' Come discente, ch' a dottor seconda 
 Pronto e libente in quello ch' egli e sperto 
 Perche la sua bonta si disasconda.' 
 
 Par., XXV. 64-66. 
 
 ' Like to the scholar, practised in his task. 
 Who willing to give proof of diligence 
 Seconds his teacher gladly.' 
 
 The origin of language occupies the first five 
 chapters of the book. The sixth chapter enters 
 upon a quaint dissertation as to the language of 
 mankind before the building of the Tower of 
 Babel, i.e. : 
 
 ' 'II Volgare Kloquio,' lib. i., c. i. 
 
 4
 
 50 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' The form of speech used by the man who was born 
 without a mother was never nourished with his mother's 
 milk, and never saw childhood nor youth.^ 
 
 ' Should anyone exist so prejudiced in judgment as to 
 imagine that his own country is the most favoured spot 
 in the world, to him it must by a necessary consequence 
 appear that his own mother-tongue must be superior to any 
 other language, and thence he would infer that his mother- 
 tongue must have been the language used by Adam. . . . 
 
 ' But to us to whom the world is our country, as the 
 sea is to the fishes, although we have drunk the waters 
 of the Arno before ever we cut our teeth, and who love 
 Florence so much that because of our love for her we 
 are now suffering an unjust exile — nevertheless our judg- 
 ment shall lean rather upon reason than upon the affec- 
 tions ; and therefore, although for our own preference 
 and to satisfy our own longings there is no spot on earth 
 more delightful than Florence, yet, on turning over the 
 volume of the Poets and other writers by whom the world 
 both in general and in particular is described, and taking 
 into consideration the various parts of the world, and the 
 different manners and customs between the two Poles 
 and the Equator, we believe and understand that there 
 are many regions and cities more noble and more delight- 
 ful than Tuscany and Florence, where I was born, of 
 which I am a citizen, and many nations and many people 
 use a more agreeable and more useful form of language 
 than the Italians. Returning, therefore, to my premise, 
 I maintain that a certain form of speech was created by 
 God together with the creation of the first soul. When 
 I say form, I mean with regard to a vocabulary of words, 
 
 ' Compare 'Par.,' vii. 26 : 
 
 'Qaeir uom che non nacque.'
 
 * II Volgare Eloquio ' 5 r 
 
 the construction of the vocabulary, and the order of the 
 construction, the which form was used by everybody who 
 could speak . . . that with this form Adam spoke, and 
 all his posterity, up to the time of the Tower of Babel, 
 which may be interpreted the tower of confusion. This 
 form of speech was inherited by the sons of Heber — 
 called after him Hebrews — to whom their language re- 
 mained intact after the general confusion, in order that 
 our Redeemer, who was to be born of that nation, might, 
 when He spoke, according to His manhood employ the 
 language of grace, and not of confusion. 
 
 ' It was the Hebrew idiom which was uttered by the 
 lips of the first man who ever spoke in this world.'^ 
 
 This idea was afterwards relinquished by Dante, 
 as in the ' Paradise ' he puts these words into the 
 mouth of Adam : 
 
 ' La lingua ch' io parlai fu tutta spenta 
 Innanzi che all' ovra inconsumabile 
 Fosse la gente di Nembrotte attenta.' 
 
 Par., xxvi. 124-126. 
 
 ' The language I did use 
 Was worn away or ever Nimrod's race 
 Their unaccomplishable work began.' 
 
 But the misconception was, as we know, held 
 by many generations, and supported by scholarly 
 and religious minds of the highest order. Although 
 it has been since corrected by philological dis- 
 coveries which have established the relationship 
 between Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and other ancient 
 
 ^ ' II Volgare Eloquio,' lib. i., c. vi., pp. 154, 155. 
 
 4—2
 
 52 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 tongues, the oldest form of human speech still 
 remains lost in the darkness of antiquity. But 
 ever since the time of Dante the effort to recover 
 it has been made again and again, for, as it has 
 been truly said by one of the most modern writers 
 upon the subject : 
 
 ' Humanity turns with a natural tenderness and rever- 
 ence towards any details respecting the first Parents of 
 Mankind, therefore it is not surprising to find that many 
 attempts have been made to discover which of the ancient 
 tongues was the one original speech of Adam and Eve. 
 All such philological efforts have been necessarily futile, 
 for the account given in Genesis of the calamity at Babel 
 shows that it took the shape of a supernatural seizure, 
 which immediately destroyed the common language and 
 permanently dislocated the articulation of the people by 
 confusing its normal action and dispersing its unity, like 
 the sudden volcanic disturbance of a river-bed, resulting 
 in a separation and a scattering of one mighty stream 
 into new and innumerable channels.'^ 
 
 Chapter vii., with many a characteristic touch, 
 describes the building of the Tower of Babel, 
 and leads up to the climax in the confounding 
 for ever of the human speech. Dante follows 
 Josephus- when he interprets the word ' Babel ' 
 to mean confusion, and in attributing the sug- 
 gestion of the tower which was to reach to 
 heaven to Nimrod. 
 
 ' 'The Speech of Man and Holy Writ,' p. 58. 
 - ' Antiq. Jud.,' lib. i., c. iv.
 
 The Tower of Babel 53 
 
 ' Per lo cui mal coto, 
 Pur un linguaggio nel mondo non usa,' 
 
 Inf., xxxi. 77, 78. 
 
 ' Through whose ill-counsel in the world no more 
 One tongue prevails.' 
 
 The semi-Scriptural, semi-mythological, gigantic 
 personality of Nimrod is well known to all readers 
 of the ' Inferno ': 
 
 ' La faccia sua mi parea lunga e grossa 
 Come la pina di San Pietro a Roma ; 
 Ed a sua proporzione eran 1' altre ossa.' 
 
 Ibid., 58-60. 
 
 ' His visage seemed 
 In length and bulk as doth the pine that tops 
 Saint Peter's Roman fane.' 
 
 The jargon which he shouts forth as Dante 
 and Virgil approach is meant to furnish a travesty 
 of each one of the three languages of Southern 
 Europe — Italian, French, and Spanish : 
 
 Raphel mai 
 
 amech 
 
 zabi almi. 
 
 or 
 
 Re fello mai 
 
 aimoyt 
 
 sabias almas, 
 
 (Italian) 
 
 (French) 
 
 (Spanish) 
 
 A bad king never loves wise men, or sages, 
 sages being the term always applied by Dante to 
 the poets. 
 
 These three great groups of language, distin-
 
 54 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 guished by their affirmatives of * oc,' * oil,' and 
 
 * si,' are derived, Dante supposes, from one 
 common source, because in the description of 
 certain things the three nations employ the same 
 vocabulary, as, for example, in the words ' Dio,' 
 
 * cielo,' * amore,' * mare,' ' terra,' ' vive,' ' muore,' 
 ' amare,' and many others. Here we find resolved 
 into a nutshell the great achievement of modern 
 science, so that Dante may be looked upon as 
 the father of the comparative philology which 
 rests on this principle. 
 
 We find this theory pursued more closely in 
 chapter ix., where, taking the single example of 
 the word * amor,' he cites from three selected 
 masters in each of the languages of * oc,' * oil,' 
 and ' si,' Gerardo di Borneil, the King of Navarre, 
 and Guido Guinicelli, to prove the use of the 
 word. 
 
 ' Let us investigate,* Dante continues, ' how the 
 variations may principally be classed under three heads, 
 and why each of these variations is also variable — why, 
 for example, the right side of Italy has a different form 
 of speech to the left, why the Paduans should speak 
 differently to the Pisans, and why, moreover, those who 
 live in close neighbourhood, like the Milanese and the 
 inhabitants of Verona, the Romans and the Florentines; 
 why, again, should the form of speech vary between 
 those who belong to the same race, like the Neapolitans 
 and the Gaetani, the Ravennesc and the inhabitants of 
 Faenza ; and, what is perhaps the most marvellous of all, 
 why those who dwell in the same city cannot agree upon
 
 The Tower of Babel 55 
 
 the same form of speech — as, for example, the Bolognese 
 of Borgo San Felice and the Bolognese of the City. All 
 these differences and varieties of speech can be attributed 
 to one cause.'^ 
 
 The cause is traced back with some elabora- 
 tion to his original idea of the confusion of the 
 Tower of Babel, and the oblivion of the first 
 form of speech, which afterwards became altered 
 and corrupt. 
 
 * And man being ever unstable and variable, his form 
 of speech could never continue settled and fixed, but, 
 like everything else, was subject to the changes of time 
 and place, till at last there appeared the inventors of the 
 art of grammar, which is nothing less than an unalter- 
 able conformity of speech at different times and in 
 different places. '- 
 
 The grammarians having decided to take * si ' 
 for an adverb of affirmation, Dante concludes 
 from this that the Italian language derives a 
 certain authority over the other two languages, 
 although it is very difficult to decide between 
 the three, as all are supported by a great weight 
 of testimony. 
 
 It may be urged, he argues in favour of the 
 language of * oil,' that on account of the facility 
 and sweetness of its dialect it contains all the 
 translations that have been either found or ren- 
 dered into the vulgar tongue, such as the books 
 containing the accounts of the Trojans and 
 
 ' Lib. i., c. ix., p. 163. - Ibid., p. 165.
 
 56 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 the Romans,^ the beautiful romance of King 
 Arthur, and many other legends and books of 
 learning. 
 
 The language of * oc,' on the other hand, has 
 to rest its claim for distinction upon the fact 
 that it was the language employed by the most 
 eloquent writers in the vulgar tongue for their 
 first poems, such as Piero di Avernia, and many 
 other ancient writers, as the most perfect and 
 the sweetest form of language. 
 
 The third, that is, the Italian language, claims 
 the superiority on two grounds : The first, that 
 those who have written the most graceful, polished 
 poetry were familiar and intimate with it. Such 
 were Cino da Pistoja and ' his friend.'- The 
 second reason, that it keeps the closest to the 
 grammar which is common to all. 
 
 Leaving the decision of this knotty point to 
 others, Dante returns to his treatise on the lingua 
 volgare, discussing the variations which occur in 
 it, and comparing them one with another. 
 
 First of all he states that Italy is divided into 
 two parts: the right hand and the left hand. 
 
 'Should anyone ask what is the line of division, I 
 briefly reply, the yoke of the Apennines'' — on the right 
 
 ^ In Trissino's translation the Latin original has been wrongly 
 rendered, ' Biblia cum Trojanorum Romanumque gestihus' being 
 translated 'La Bibbia, I fatti dei Troiani e Romani,' whereas it 
 signifies ' i libri che contengono i fatti de' Trojani e de' Romani.' 
 
 - By whom Dante means himself (ex., p. 167). 
 When Dante speaks of the yoke of the Apennines, he includes 
 the whole chain of the Alps, following the terminology of Lucan in
 
 The * Pharsalia ' of Lucan ^y 
 
 hand lie the regions of La Puglia (but not all of it), 
 Rome, the Duchy (Urbino), Tuscany, and the Marches 
 
 his ' Pharsalia.'* It will be remembered that Lucan was the last of 
 the four great shades of the poets who advanced to greet him and 
 Virgil when they made their entrance into Limbo : 
 ' L' ultimo e Lucano.' 
 
 /«/, iv., p. 90. 
 
 * Lucan, ' Pharsalia,' book ii. : 
 
 ' Retreating Pompey with his trembling band 
 At Trojan walls of Capua took his stand, 
 His chosen seat of war. Here he intends 
 'Gainst the great foe to range his scattered friends. 
 Where Apennine through wooded hills her peaks 
 Ridge upon ridge uplifts, and closer seeks 
 The heights of heaven, midmost Italian crest. 
 High swelling o'er all foreign heights confessed, 
 A chain which stretches 'twixt our twofold main. 
 Lower and higher. Pisa doth contain 
 Those Western hills, the Tuscan waters' shore ; 
 Ancon the East, where waves Dalmatian roar. 
 Here bounteous springs give birth to rivers vast 
 Which towards either sea dividing haste. 
 Left fall the Lakes, Crustumium fierce, Metaurus, 
 Senna, Isapis, joined to Isaurus, 
 And Orfidus, which smites th' Hadrian Sea, 
 And that Eridanus, than which there be 
 No greater earth despoiler, melting soils, 
 Sucking lands dry, bearing off forest spoils. 
 First said to crown his banks with poplar shade. 
 When Phaethon, from western course once strayed 
 Kindled the air with red-hot scorching rein ; 
 And all the fountains fiom burnt eartli were ta'en ; 
 This flood alone had waves which could the fire restrain. 
 Not less than Nile. But Nile through Afric's sand 
 Expands o'er Egypt's flat and sluggish sand. 
 Not less than Danube. If his devious course 
 Half through the world withdrew not from each source 
 Waters that help him feed the sea with foreign force 
 The rainfall forms, as slopes the right-hand side, 
 Tiber and hollow Kutuba ; thence glide 
 Volturn the swift ; Sarnus, the night fog's cause ; 
 Lyris, whose wooded bed the stream withdraws 
 From Vestines to Marica. Siler's way 
 Which bounds Salurnum. Macra, on whom stay 
 No carvels, till she stretch to Luna's neighU'ring bay. 
 Longer the chain than country ; for her spine
 
 58 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 of Genoa ; on the left hand He La Pugha (the rest of it), 
 La Marca d' Ancona, La Romagna, La Lombardia, La 
 Marca Trivigiana, and Venice. In truth, II FriuU and 
 Istria cannot but belong to the left side of Italy, just as 
 the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea — that is to say, Sicily 
 and Sardinia, including Corsica — must be included in the 
 right side. On either side, and in all these parts which 
 are thus included, and even in each city, as we have 
 already said, we find some variation of speech ; so that 
 if we care to calculate the first and the second and all 
 the subdivisions of the vulgar tongue in Italy, we find 
 that in that small corner of the world alone there may 
 be even more than a thousand or more variations of 
 speech.' 
 
 Many of these Dante proceeds to show in the 
 next chapter are discordant and bad, and that, 
 like trees which have fallen across the road, or 
 thorns which obstruct the path, they must be cast 
 out of the author's way as he patiently plods 
 along the difficult path of investigation. Such 
 are the Roman dialect, which, to our surprise, we 
 learn was then ' il piu brutto di tutto,' also those 
 of Ancona and Spoleto. 
 
 Next, those of Milano and Bergamo are passed 
 
 Rises to Gallic fields, where Alps incline. 
 
 Fruitful to Umbrian, Marsian, Sabine field, 
 
 Well tilled, embracing as with pinous shield 
 
 The earth-born Latin tribes. Nor yet it leaves 
 
 Italian bounds, till closed with vScylla's caves, 
 
 Or western rocks, Lacinian Juno's fane. 
 
 Longer than Italy, until the main 
 
 Loosen'd its bond with blows and floods rolled back again. 
 
 But since the double sea the land o'ercame 
 
 Its last cliffs to Pelorus yield their name." 
 
 Walter G. F. Phillimore.
 
 La * Crusca' 59 
 
 through the sieve, the harsh accents of the 
 Aquilejan and the Istrian, and all the patois of 
 the mountains and villages which offend the ears 
 of the citizen. Such, for example, are the Casen- 
 tini and the Pratesi. The Sardinians, who do 
 not really belong to Italy, but have only been 
 included in the category, are next cast to the 
 winds. 
 
 What, then, remains for comparison after this 
 vigorous sifting of the dialects of Italy ? Which 
 of those, asks Dante, that now remain in the 
 sieve^ is the most to be esteemed ? Be it under- 
 stood then that, to the shame of the other princes 
 of Italy, the palm of minstrelsy belongs to Sicily 
 and to her illustrious heroes, such as 
 
 ^ Evidently following in the footsteps of Dante, a sieve — or, 
 strictly speaking, a bolting-cloth, because used for separating the 
 wheat from the bran — became the device of the Accademia della 
 Crusca, and its motto 'II piii bel fior ne coglie ' (' It gathers the 
 finest flour'). The metaphor was kept up by the names of the 
 members, as, for example, Tasso's critical and literary assailants, 
 Leonardo Salviati and Bastiano de' Rossi, were called Lo Infari- 
 nato (Mealy) and Lo Inferigno (Brown Bread). These entitled 
 their first criticism 'a sifting,' and it opened as follows: 'Our 
 Academy, which has taken, as we know, the title of the Bolting- 
 Cloth, because it bolts the flour presented to it from time to time, 
 that it may separate off the bran, being assembled in full conclave 
 according to custom at their dwelling ; and having learned from 
 their steward that a little bag of flour had just been left to be passed 
 through the sieve, gave orders that it should be brought before them 
 by their bailiff's servants. Having read in the ticket slitcned upon 
 it the name of Cammillo Peliegrino, they had the mouth of the bag 
 untied, and when the judges had examined it, they ordered their 
 factor immediately to take the measure and the weight, and to 
 register both, together with the ticket, on their book of accounts. 
 No sooner said than done ; and by order of the Arch-Consul (this 
 was the title of the President of the Academy) the flour was sjieedily 
 sifted through tiie boulter, and the bran separated from it.' — .Milman's 
 ' Life of Tasso,' vol. ii., pp. 69, 70.
 
 6o Dante at Ravenna 
 
 'Imperial Frederick and Manfred, his well-nurtured son,^ 
 who, while fortune favoured them, followed the higher 
 path, and disdained to copy the examples of bestial 
 tyranny around thcni. Therefore those who were of 
 lofty soul and gifted with every grace attached them- 
 selves to these great princes in their majesty, so that in 
 that time poetical compositions of the best writers in 
 Italy first appeared in their Court. And because their 
 regal Court was held in Sicily, it fell out that all which 
 our predecessors composed in the vulgar tongue was 
 called Sicilian : this we maintain, and it can never be 
 altered by our posterity." 
 
 ' Yet,' he adds, ' as this is not the language of the 
 majority of the people, but only of the cultivated writers 
 of the Court, it cannot be said that the Sicilian or 
 the Puglian is the most beautiful of the Italian dialects.' 
 
 Chapter xiii. addresses itself to the Tuscans, 
 who arrogantly boast that theirs is the volgare 
 ilhistre of Italy, and are unhesitatingly con- 
 demned, together with the Pisans, Lucchesi, 
 Sienesi, and Aretini, as obstinate in their ugly 
 dialect, and therefore not amongst them can the 
 vulgar tongue be found in its excellence, although 
 the Tuscan writers, Guido, Lapo, and one other 
 Florentine besides, Cino da Pistoja, are fully 
 cognisant of how to render it in its excellence. 
 
 As to the Genoese, they are dismissed with the 
 ironical remark that if by chance they forget to 
 pronounce the letter z, they may as well give up 
 the point of speech altogether, as the z constitutes 
 
 1 ' Purg.,' iii. 105. ■■' V. E., xii. 175.
 
 Dialects of the Romagna 6i 
 
 the main element of their speech, a letter which 
 can never be pronounced without an ugly aspirate.^ 
 
 Passing over the wooded sides of the Apennines, 
 which suggest the beautiful oak glades of the old 
 forest of the Marziana, Dante begins the investi- 
 gation of the dialect of the Romagna, with which 
 his long residence in the country made him fully 
 acquainted. There, indeed, he finds two distinct 
 forms of dialect, the one essentially feminine 
 from the softness of the vowels and the pronuncia- 
 tion, especially in Forli and the neighbourhood ; 
 the other form harsh and rough in its vowels and 
 accent, which, on account of its asperity if used 
 by a woman, would be so unnatural to her that it 
 would make you wonder if it was not a man who 
 was speaking. Such are all who make use of the 
 word ' magara,' Bresciani, Veronesi, Nicentini, 
 and even the Paduans, who render the participles 
 in ' tus ' and denominatives in ' tas ' with an 
 ugly syncope as ' marco ' and 'corti.' To this group 
 belong the Trevisani, who, after the fashion of the 
 Bresciani and the neighbourhood, exchange the/ 
 for a V, removing the last syllable, as, for example, 
 ' nov ' for * nove,' * vif ' for ' vivo,' which is in truth 
 most barbarous. 
 
 As for the Venetians, they are dismissed as 
 unworthy even of the honour of investigation. 
 
 Chapter xiv. is devoted to the discussion of the 
 Bolognese dialect, and they are not far wrong, the 
 author tells us, who have pronounced in its 
 
 ' V. E., xiii. iSi.
 
 62 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 favour, although the Bolognese have borrowed 
 something from Imola, Ferrara, and Modena, and 
 have thus added to their own dialect ; but this, as 
 we have seen, is not an uncommon proceeding, as 
 Sordello tells us of his Mantua, which is bounded 
 by Cremona, Brescia, and Verona. This man 
 was so eloquent that not only in his poems, but 
 even in his ordinary method of speech, he dis- 
 carded the simple use of his mother-tongue.^ 
 
 In the same way the Bolognese citizens have 
 borrowed a sweetness from Imola, and from 
 Ferrara and Modena a certain loquacity which is 
 proper to the Lombard. This characteristic has 
 remained with them, owing to the mixture of the 
 Longobardian foreigners, and this is the reason 
 why neither Ferrara (Ariosto was yet to be born), 
 Modena, nor Reggio have supplied a poet — 
 because, infatuated with their own loquacity, 
 they could never attain without a certain asperity 
 of diction to the cultivated volgare of the Court. 
 
 As, then, the Bolognese have borrowed from this 
 side and from that, it is a natural result that their 
 language should remain tempered by a mixture 
 of opposite characteristics with a praiseworthy 
 sweetness. But yet, if it had been a perfect 
 dialect, neither Guido Guinicelli, Guido Ghislero, 
 Fabrizio, and Onesto, nor the other poets, would 
 have departed from it, for they are illustrious in 
 learning, and with a perfect knowledge of the 
 vulgar dialects. 
 
 ^ See ' Purg.,' vi. 74.
 
 11 Volgare Italiano Illustre 63 
 
 The result of all these researches and elaborate 
 descriptions is to prove that, as not one among 
 all the Italian dialects is worthy to be exalted 
 sufficiently above the others to give it a claim to 
 be that one noble Italian language in which all the 
 learned and cultivated people of Italy should con- 
 verse and unite, it remains that a language should 
 be constructed worthy of the Court and of the 
 Senate, which should appertain to all the cities of 
 Italy, and not to one alone. ^ This language, this 
 vulgar tongue, in its perfection should have four 
 characteristic qualities. It should be noble 
 {illustre), cardinal {cardinale), stately (aulico), of 
 the Court, and cortigiano, which means judicial 
 or forensic, belonging to the courts of law. 
 Noble or illustrious, because both illuminated and 
 illuminating, it should shine. 
 
 Why, he argues, are men called illustrious? 
 Because, illuminated with power, they are wont 
 with justice and charity to illuminate others ; or, 
 again, excellently instructed, they can in their 
 turn excellently instruct. Such were Seneca and 
 Numa Pompilius. The vulgar tongue of which we 
 speak, being exalted with learning and power, 
 should exalt those who use it to honour and 
 
 glory- 
 That it is exalted by learning we can perceive 
 
 for ourselves, when, freed from so many rough 
 
 ^ Chapter xvi. : 
 
 •Dello eccellente parlar 
 Volgare il quale c comune a lutli gli Italiani.'
 
 64 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 dialects, so many perplexities of construction, so 
 many deficiencies of pronunciation, so much 
 village jargon, it can become perfect and elegant 
 when employed by such poets as Cino da Pistoja 
 and ' his friend.' 
 
 That it becomes exalted with power is easy to 
 prove ; for 
 
 ' What is a greater power than that which can turn a 
 man's heart so as to make him wish who did not wish, 
 and he who willed not to will, as this language in its 
 noble form has done and does ? That it raises to honour 
 those who are gifted with it is very evident. Do not its 
 disciples surpass in fame all the great ones of the earth, 
 King, Marquis, or Count ? Of that there is no need of 
 proof; and that it makes its followers glorious we our- 
 selves have experienced, as on account of this glory we 
 are able to cast our exile behind us. Then, certainly it 
 deserves to be called illustrious.^ 
 
 ' Not without reason do we bestow the second epithet 
 of " cardinal " upon it, because, as the door follows the 
 hinge whether it turns inside or outside, so do all the 
 multitude of dialects of the cities turn and return, 
 move and remain still, in accordance with the volgare 
 ilbistre; or courtly {auIico\ or of the Court, because, 
 if the Italians had a Court, the language would reign 
 there as County Palatine, it being of necessity that all 
 who reside in a Court should speak the volgare illustre, 
 or language of the Court. Having no Court, it has 
 ensued that our volgare illustre seeks refuge as a 
 wanderer, now in this lonely dwelling and now in that, 
 having no abode worthy of it. 
 
 ^ Chapter xvii., p. 191.
 
 II Volgare Italiano Illustre 65 
 
 ' Finally, it is called forensic or judicial, because it 
 serves as a measured rule for the things which have to 
 be done ; and as the accurate measure is only to be 
 found in the most excellent court (of justice), it happens 
 that all that which is well weighed in our actions and 
 conformable to the law may be termed forensic, or 
 judicial. 
 
 ' This language, then, which should be at once illus- 
 trious, cardinal, stately and judicial, we declare to be the 
 volgare Italiano.''^ 
 
 Here ends the first book, perhaps the most 
 important of the two, because it lays before us, 
 down to every quaint detail, the dialects of 
 Italy in the untutored rudeness of the Middle 
 Age. 
 
 In the second book we find the great master of 
 the language, pen in hand,^ diligently at work 
 upon his elaborate and self-imposed task. That 
 ' II Volgare Italiano illustre' is adapted alike for 
 verse and prose is his first axiom. But as those 
 who write in prose are wont to model their lan- 
 guage upon that employed by the troubadours, it 
 is well to examine whether all who write in verse 
 are entitled to the use of this polished style. It 
 is only properly employed by men of science and 
 intellect, because it should be reserved for the ex- 
 pression of noble ideas and noble themes, of which 
 such men alone can be the originating source. It 
 does not belong to the rough and common herd 
 
 ' Chapter xix., lib. i. 
 
 - ' Kilornando al calamo della utile opera,' lib. ii., c. i.
 
 66 Dilute at Ravenna 
 
 of versifiers, of whom there are many, who make 
 verses without either science or intellect. And as 
 without science or intellect the mind must be 
 barren of noble themes for verse, so, Dante 
 argues, this stately style is not for them. 
 
 * And when it is argued that each poet should adorn 
 his verse as much as possible, we admit that to be true, 
 but, at the same time, if we saw an ox in a saddle with 
 housings ,or a pig girt with a sash, we should not think either 
 of them adorned ,; but, on the contrary, that their ugliness 
 was only further enhanced, ornament being nothing else 
 than the addition of something befitting the object to be 
 adorned. Again, to those who urge that the combining 
 of the inferior with the superior will produce perfection, 
 I reply that is also true when the two commingle and do 
 not remain separate. As, for example, if gold and silver 
 were blended together, but if the two parts remain sepa- 
 rate, then the inferior, by comparison with the superior 
 element, only appears more vile. Therefore, if the theme 
 for versification does not lend itself to the words, instead 
 of being enhanced by an ornate style, its unworthiness 
 is only the more accentuated, just as an ugly woman 
 appears to worse advantage when bedizened in silk and 
 gold.'i 
 
 The question naturally follows as to what are 
 fitting subjects for the volgare ilhistre, which, 
 * being in itself excellent, can only treat of things 
 excellent.' These are resolved by the author under 
 three heads, briefly stated : Feats of Arms, Love, 
 
 ^ Lib. ii., c. i., pp. 189, 190.
 
 ' La Teselde ' 67 
 
 and Righteousness. All have been treated by the 
 great poets of the day, and examples are cited as 
 to feats of arms from the Gascon warrior 
 troubadour Beltram di Bornio/ as to love from 
 Arnaldo Daniello,^ as to righteousness Gerardo 
 di Borniello. Again, of love, Cino da Pistoja ; 
 again, of righteousness, the * friend of Cino da 
 Pistoja' {i.e., Dante). 
 
 * As yet, so far as I know,' Dante concludes, * no 
 Italian has sung of arms.' 
 
 It was not long, however, before Boccaccio 
 took up this challenge, and supplied the de- 
 ficiency in his ' Teseide,' i.e., Duke Theseus 
 against the Amazons, whence Chaucer borrowed 
 in part his ' Knight's Tale.' He plumes himself 
 on having filled the vacant place in the eighty- 
 fourth stanza of the last book of the poem. 
 
 * But thou, O Book ! be thou the first to tell 
 Of feats of Mars ; how warriors fought and fell 
 In vulgar parlance of the Latium tongue — 
 Deeds that till now remained unknown, unsung; 
 And as thou art the first whose keel will leap 
 Through the wide waste of trackless waters deep, 
 Ploughing through waves that ne'er were ploughed be- 
 fore, 
 
 ' *Sappi ch' io son Beltramo dal Bornio, quelli 
 Che al Re giovane diede i mai coniforti.' 
 
 Inf., xxviii. 134, 135. 
 - ' Li dolci detti vostri 
 
 Che quanto durera 1' uso moderno 
 Faranno cari ancora i loro inchiostri.' 
 
 Purg., xxvi. 1 12-1 15. 
 
 5—2
 
 68 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Thou in all lowliness niayst pass them o'er, 
 
 And from the novel subject of thy lays 
 
 Mayst share with others honour, fame and praise.'' 
 
 Of the five illustrations drawn from the writers 
 of the time,- we select a few of the verses by 
 Guido Guinizzelli, justly honoured by Dante as the 
 father of Tuscan rhyme, on account of their per- 
 fection both as to manner and matter: 
 
 ' Al cor gentil ripara sempre amore, 
 Siccome augello in selva la verdura : 
 Non fu Amore anzi che gentil core, 
 Nfe gentil core anzi ch' Amor, Natura : 
 Ch' adesso come fu '1 Sole, 
 Si tosto lo splendore fue lucente ; 
 Ne fu davanti al Sole : 
 E prende Amore in gentilezza loco, 
 
 Cosi propriamente, 
 *Com, il calore in claritk del foco. 
 
 ' Fuoco d'Amore in gentil core s' apprende. 
 Come vertute in pietra preziosa, 
 Che dalla stella valor non discende, 
 Anzi ch'l Sol la faccia gentil cosa ; 
 
 Poi chb n'ha tratto fuore 
 Per la sua forza il Sol cio, che gli e vile, 
 
 La Stella i dh. valore : 
 Cosi lo cuor, che fatto fe da natura 
 
 Schietto, pur, gentile, 
 
 Donna a guisa di Stella lo' nnamora. 
 
 1 ' La Teseide,' lib. iv., 84. 
 
 2 V, E., lib. ii., c. v., 215.
 
 Guldo Guinizzelli 69 
 
 ' Amor per tal ragion sta in cor gentile, 
 Per qual lo foco in cima del doppiero ; 
 Splende al suo diletto, clar, sottile, 
 Non gli staria altra guisa tanto e fiero : 
 
 Perb prava natura 
 Incontr' a amor fa come 1' aigua al fuoco, 
 
 Caldo per la freddura : 
 Amore in gentil core prende rivera ; 
 
 Perocchi simil luoco ; 
 Come adamas del ferro in la minera,' etc.^ 
 Trafislaiion. 
 
 * Like as the birds to depths of sylvan grove, 
 So to the gentle soul comes hastening love ; 
 Nor without gentle soul can such love be, 
 Nor without love the soul's gentility. 
 Swift as the sun appears with glitt'ring ray, 
 So swiftly Nature dons her mantle gay ; 
 Nor was her splendour previous to the sun. 
 Thus blend the gentle soul and love in one, 
 
 So of necessity 
 Must heat by clearest flame engendered be. 
 
 • Fire of love pertains to gentle heart 
 
 As virtue doth of precious stone make part ; 
 Celestial powers fall not from the star 
 Till they by solar influence fashioned are. 
 
 When his magnetic ray 
 All that is vile or mean hath purged away. 
 
 Then from that radiant star 
 Virtue and worth derived infused are. 
 
 So to the gentle heart 
 
 Fair lady's glance like star doth love impart. 
 
 ' • I'Jme di diversi Antichi Toscani di Guido Guinizzelli,' pp. 288, 
 280. Guido Guinizzelli, f. 1220.
 
 JO Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' In gentle heart it follows love must stay, 
 As on the burnished helm the glancing ray ; 
 Subtle the glint which darts from side to side, 
 And such the guise beseeming love's true pride. 
 
 The nature mean 
 Towards love as magnet in the fire is seen, 
 
 Cold 'mid the heat ; 
 Love and the gentle heart together meet — 
 
 The place akin — 
 As iron drawn by loadstone's power unseen,' etc. 
 
 The interest of these lines is further enhanced 
 by Dante's own reference to them in his tenth 
 sonnet. On being asked to define the nature of 
 love, he wrote as follows : 
 
 ' Amor e cor gentil son una cosa 
 Siccome il saggio in suo dittato pone 
 E cosi senza 1' un 1' altro esser osa 
 Come alma razional senza ragione.'^ 
 
 ' Love and the gentle heart agree in one : 
 Thus into verse by poet sage 'tis done ; 
 As lief without the other one dare be. 
 As without reason reasoning soul we see.' 
 
 He is, moreover, the poet referred to in the 
 lines of the ' Purgatorio ' as having been robbed 
 of his fame by Guido Cavalcanti : 
 
 ' Cosi ha tolto 1' uno all' altro Guido 
 La gloria della lingua ;' 
 
 * Thus hath one Guido from the other snatched 
 The letter'd prize ;' 
 
 ^ Sonnet x., '11 Canzoniere di Dante Alighieri,' p. 99.
 
 * La Rettitudine ' 71 
 
 while the concluding line of the passage is 
 supposed to refer to Dante himself : 
 
 ' e forse e nato 
 Chi r uno e 1' altro caccera dal nido.' 
 
 ' And he perhaps is born 
 Who shall drive either from their nest.'^ 
 
 But to return to the theme chosen by Dante, 
 * La Rettitudine,' for it furnishes the solution of 
 apparent inconsistencies in the ' Divina Corn- 
 media,' and the explanation of what is dark and 
 obscure. Inwardly convinced of the power of a 
 native language, he made use of it while yet in its 
 roughness, not with the object of perfecting 
 romantic poetry nor of illustrating the theme of 
 love, nor yet to flatter those in power, but with 
 the purpose of elucidating the hidden depths of 
 philosophy and theology, taking for his foundation 
 the system of sacred monarchy which he had 
 evolved. Therefore, instead of relying upon pagan 
 authors, he borrows both imagery and method 
 from the Psalms, the Canticles, the Apocalypse, 
 and the Prophets. If we examine the ' Divina 
 Commedia ' attentively, it becomes at once 
 evident that it resembles in no way the Greek 
 and Latin classical methods of construction, either 
 in space, time, or the action to be represented. 
 With Dante the space is no less than the whole 
 creation — all the known world which he covers 
 in his journey from the centre of the earth to the 
 
 ^ ' Purg.,' xi. 97, et seq.
 
 72 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 planets, thence to the stars, and even beyond them. 
 As in all that space there must be some connect- 
 ing-link, we have the strange conception of a 
 gigantic Lucifer, who, falling head downwards 
 from the spheres, displaces the surface of the 
 globe in depth and extent sufficiently to invert 
 the Mount of Purgatory, whose summit is lost in 
 the clouds as it joins the first of the planets. 
 Thus, the gradation of the heights of the * Purga- 
 torio ' is in proportion to the depths of the 
 * Inferno,' and no less marvellous, producing a 
 scheme of architecture as novel as it is awe- 
 inspiring. 
 
 Then, if we consider how these three realms are 
 peopled, and that to each inhabitant is justly 
 apportioned either punishment, probation, or 
 reward, it becomes evident that the eternal 
 principles of truth and justice govern that distri- 
 bution. Nor are these principles warped, as a 
 superficial observer might think, by human 
 passions. The punishments are not meted out to 
 the enemies of Dante because they were his 
 enemies — in many cases, notably that of Brunetto 
 Latini, his dear and honoured master, the sufferers 
 were his friends — but because they had sinned 
 against that principle of righteousness which 
 was his theme. Like Milton, who followed him, 
 it was the ' great argument ' by which he meant to 
 
 ' Assert eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men.'^ 
 
 ' 'Paradise Lost,' c. i.
 
 La Drittura 73 
 
 Under the name of La Drittura, Righteousness 
 appears again in the ' Canzoniere,'^ and, with 
 reference to the disordered state of Italy, is made 
 thus to reply to Love's question as to who she is : 
 
 ' lo, che son la piu trista 
 Son suora alia tua Madre, e son Drittura 
 Povera, vedi, a panni ed a cintura.' 
 
 Love is here meant to personate the Love of 
 Virtue, whose mother is Justice, while the 
 tattered and dilapidated and poverty-stricken 
 condition of Drittura, i.e.. Righteousness, illus- 
 trates the strife and confusion of the world at 
 that moment. 
 
 Having disposed of the subject-matter adapted 
 for a lofty style, Dante proceeds in his deliberate, 
 methodical way to treat of the manner. Putting 
 aside prose, he devotes his attention to the three 
 forms of poetry then in use: the sonnet, the 
 ballad, and the canzone ; and of these three the 
 canzone, in his opinion, bears away the palm. 
 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the ballad 
 and the sonnet for the fourth book, which, as we 
 know, was never written, he devotes himself to 
 the examination of the canzone. He distin- 
 guishes briefly the three styles — the tragic, the 
 comic, and the elegiac. 
 
 Again relegating these two last to the fourth 
 book, he deals with the tragic style, the highest 
 of all, and destined for the highest theme. 
 
 ^ ' II Canzoniere ' xix., p. 206.
 
 74 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 It befits no other, and 
 
 ' Let no one who attempts either theme or style think 
 that the task can be accomphshed without natural gift, 
 great assiduity, and perfect knowledge of the art. Such 
 have been truly described by the poet of the " /Eneid " as 
 blessed of the gods, and as immortal sons of the gods 
 let them speak. Palpable, on the other hand, is the 
 folly of those who without science or art rely only upon 
 their own natural talent to attempt to sing the highest 
 themes : let them cease from their presumption, and if 
 from idleness or lack of study they are nothing but 
 geese, let them not attempt to imitate the flight of the 
 eagle. '^ 
 
 The succeeding chapters deal with the me- 
 chanical construction of rhyme and verse, treating 
 at length of the words, the verses, stanzas, and 
 rhymes, preparing, as he says, the wood for the 
 faggot and the cords, that he may show how the 
 bundle, that is, the canzone, should be united. 
 
 To the verse of eleven feet he gives the palm, 
 both on account of the occupation of time, 
 capacity of sentence, construction and choice of 
 words. Dante says that the learned have all been 
 aware of this, and their noblest poems open in 
 this manner. 
 
 Verses, we are told, are beautiful when they 
 close in rhyme ; but the poet should have free 
 license to arrange them according to his own 
 talents if it makes a harmonious rhythm and 
 avoids repetition. 
 
 ^ Lib. ii., c. iv.
 
 * Amor che nella mente mi ragiona ' j^ 
 
 He cites the translations from the troubadour 
 poets of his time, most of whom are familiar to 
 us either by name or allusion in the * Divina 
 Commedia.' 
 
 Gerault de Borneil, who calls his lady-love 
 
 'Mon SobreTos'i 
 ('Mio sopra tutti'); 
 
 the King of Navarre, Tebaldo II. : 
 
 ' Dreit Amor ch' en men cor repaire.'^ 
 (' Dritto Amore che in mio core ripara ') ; 
 
 Folchetto di Marsala •? 
 
 ' Tarn m' abelheis 1' amorosos pensameno ' 
 
 (' Tanto m' abbelisce 1' amoroso pensamento '); 
 
 ending always with Cino da Pistoja and * his 
 friend,' whose noble canzone* 
 
 ' Amor che nella mente mi ragiona ' 
 
 is the song, set to the sweet music of Casella, 
 sung by the spirits in the * Purgatorio.'^ 
 
 ' Do not be surprised,' he concludes, ' my reader, that 
 I have cited so many examples from so many authors, 
 because it is not possible to judge of the construction of 
 
 ^ 'Purg.,' xxvi. 120. 'Quel di Limosl ' (he was a citizen of 
 Limofjes). 
 
 - ' Inf.,' xxii. 52. Ciampolo says : ' Pol fui famiglio del buon Re 
 Tebaldo.' 
 
 » ' Par.,' ix. 94, 95 : 
 
 ' Folco mi disse quella gente, a cui 
 Fu nolo il nome mio.' 
 * No. xii., 'Canzonieie.' '•' 'Purg.,' ii. 112.
 
 76 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 the highest style without some illustration of its perfec- 
 tion. In truth, to obtain a real mastery over style, it 
 would be a most useful study to refer to the classical poets, 
 such as Virgil, the " Metamorphoses " of Ovid, Statius 
 and Lucan ; also to those who have written prose in the 
 great style, such as Tullius, Livy, Pliny, Frontinus, Paulus 
 Orosius, and many others, to the study of whose works 
 our own solitude is friendly.'^ 
 
 These studies must certainly have compre- 
 hended the *Ars Poetica ' of Horace, from whom 
 Dante borrowed largely in his treatment of rhyme 
 and metre, and the ' Rhetoric ' and * Poetics ' of 
 Aristotle, his revered master, whose Praise is 
 summed up in the single line, 
 
 ' II Maestro di color che sanno.' 
 
 ////, iv. 131. 
 
 Evidently such were his great models as to 
 the choice of subjects adapted for poetry, and 
 the method of dealing with them. The quota- 
 tion from chapter vii. of the first book of the 
 ' Volgare Eloquio ' runs parallel^ with the chapter 
 in * Rhetoric' ' Of the Becoming in Style,' and the 
 chapters in the ' Poetics' ' On Diction '^ have laid 
 the ground for the suggestions in the ' Volgare 
 Eloquio ' as to the choice of words. 
 
 ' Many, O reader, are those which must be sifted from 
 your vocabulary, so that only the highest and best may 
 
 * ' II Volgare Eloquio,' lib. ii., c. vi. 
 ^ Aristotle's ' Rhetoric,' c. vii. 
 
 * * Poetics,' c. xix.
 
 The Canzone 
 
 17 
 
 remain in your sieve. . . . All puerile words must be 
 discarded — words too feminine in their softness, all the 
 rough harsh dialects of the provinces, all the jabber of 
 the town.'^ 
 
 Not to enter into the elaborate discussion 
 which follows, and which would be wearisome 
 if reproduced here, the cultivated and polished 
 citizen is advised to employ words of pure mas- 
 culine strength for the description of his subject, 
 adding for ornament words of many and high- 
 sounding syllables, which will make an excellent 
 combination. 
 
 At last we reach the construction of the can- 
 zone in chapter viii. In this and the following 
 chapters the canzone — according to Dante, the 
 most excellent form of poetry — is described. 
 
 The art of the canzone seems to consist in 
 three things : the division of the subject, the 
 disposition of the parts, the number of verses and 
 the syllables. Rhymes do not properly belong 
 to a canzone, though it is lawful to introduce 
 them. 
 
 In the following chapters are described the 
 action it should recite, and the method of recital. 
 The illustration is given from the famous can- 
 zone of the ' Convito ': 
 
 ' Donne che avcte intelletto d' amore.' 
 Rules for the mechanical art of foot and verse 
 
 ' ' II Volgare Eloquio,' lib. ii., c. vii.
 
 78 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 and rhythm, wherewith to interweave the chaplet 
 of verse, occupy the three next chapters. It is 
 obvious that these rules must have afterwards 
 guided Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso in succes- 
 sion. Tasso, it is known, noted the * Volgare 
 Eloquio ' with his own hand. But these appear 
 now to have been quite forgotten in Italy. No 
 modern writer studies them, and therefore none 
 are capable of reproducing the classical canzone 
 of the fourteenth century. Their versi sciolti, 
 although, as in the case of Aleardo Aleardi, 
 they often give expression to original and most 
 poetical imaginings, are a very poor exchange for 
 the interwoven crown of grace and rhythm, 
 cadence and melody, which will remain for ever 
 the charm of the Italian lyrics. 
 
 As of the manner so of the matter. The 
 great Master would have written upon variety of 
 style, for example, as to one manner being suit- 
 able for one subject, and another for another ; 
 only the fourteenth chapter, which was to be 
 dedicated to this important subject, breaks off in 
 the middle. The end was either never written or it 
 has been lost. The fragment that remains recom- 
 mends discretion in the choice of the argument 
 to be treated by the Poetic Muse ; that the mode 
 of versification should be adapted to the theme, 
 and as all the subject-matter for poetry is capable 
 of division into two classes, placing the one on 
 the right hand, and the other on the left, that is 
 to say, it is sometimes the province of song to
 
 Subject-matter for Poetry 79 
 
 persuade, sometimes to dissuade, sometimes it 
 should move to joy, sometimes to praise, some- 
 times to blame ;^ therefore, as the words which 
 treat of things sinister (or on the left hand) 
 should hurry to their close, so, on the contrary, 
 those on the right hand should, with suitable 
 lingering, advance step by step towards their 
 climax. 
 
 Here, as if the pen of the writer were sud- 
 denly arrested, the chapter breaks off, and the 
 treatise on the sublime style was therefore never 
 finished. No more were the two remaining 
 chapters, which the author intended, as we have 
 seen, to dedicate to the treatment of the comic 
 and elegiac styles, in which the ballad and sonnet 
 would have found their place. Had the work 
 been complete, Dante would have established 
 the laws for every kind of composition in the 
 vulgar tongue, even as he himself said in the 
 course of the work, down to the common daily 
 parlance of family life. 
 
 But the fragment which remains to us has 
 been quoted at length, because it contributes in 
 no small degree to the portrait of Dante, which 
 
 ' Compare again Aristotle's * Poetics,' c. iv. : 
 
 ' But poetry was divided according to appropriate manners. For 
 men of a more venerable character imitated beautiful actions and the 
 actions of such men ; but the more ignoble imitated the actions of 
 depraved characters, first composing vituperative verses in the same 
 manner as the others composed hymns and encomiums. 
 
 • • « « « 
 
 ' Hence also the iambic verse is now called, because in this metre 
 they used to ianibize, i.e., defame, each other.'
 
 8o Dante at Ravenna 
 
 in all his works is more or less drawn by his 
 own hand. These may be said almost to con- 
 stitute an autobiography of the man, without 
 that touch of egotism which seems almost in- 
 separable from autobiography. Indeed, we find 
 him so true to his maxim, twice over expressed,^ 
 that a rhetorician should never quote his own 
 name, that his own is always coupled with that 
 of Cino da Pistoja as * 1' amico suo,' who chose 
 for his theme ' La Rettitudine.' For with Dante 
 his own personality is always second to the work 
 he undertakes. It is there, unmistakable in its 
 familiar, severe outlines, but subordinate to the 
 matter in hand. Original, almost archaic in its 
 simplicity, is the passage which traces all lan- 
 guage to its source; and then suddenly the proud 
 yet wistful exile stands before us in his regret 
 that he cannot in justice, notwithstanding his 
 unalterable love for his country, assign to her 
 language the coveted distinction of having been 
 the first language uttered in Paradise. 
 
 With the utmost deliberation, step by step, he 
 proceeds in his careful analysis, and by his 
 masterly division of the European languages into 
 groups forestalls in the thirteenth century the 
 modern methods of comparative philological and 
 ethnographical research. Then some little touch 
 of irony in the illustration, like that of the ugly 
 woman bedizened with gold and silk, the ox in 
 trappings or the pig in a sash, brings Dante 
 
 ' 'Convito Trattato,' I., c. ii., p. i ; ' Purg.,' xxx. 63.
 
 ' II Volgare Eloquio ' 8 1 
 
 before us in his strong sense of humour — or, again, 
 in his love of order and fitness, when he lays 
 down the axiom that ' ornament is nothing but 
 the addition of something befitting the object to 
 be adorned/ Here we find again forestalled the 
 keystone of the architecture of the Renaissance. 
 
 Dante took nothing for granted. All his work 
 is drawn from life — the result of personal observa- 
 tion, personal exertion, personal care. Just as 
 the phenomena of Nature in every varied phase 
 of beauty, and at every hour of the day, from the 
 first silver streak of the dawn to the last ray of 
 the setting sun, became familiar to his eye in his 
 nineteen years of wandering, suggesting reflec- 
 tions and illustrations which are set like pearls 
 along the thread of his great conception of the 
 ' Divina Commedia,' so to the same causes may 
 be attributed his oral acquaintance with all the 
 dialects of Italy. 
 
 From the friendly and beautiful solitude of the 
 Castello of Tolmino, where he probably took 
 refuge from the harsh accents of Aquileja, to 
 Padua, thence to Bologna, through the Romagna 
 and Puglia, where yet lingered the cultivated 
 influence of the Court of Frederick II. and Manfred 
 his son, the ear attuned to the melody of Casella, 
 which in the ' Purgatorio' could anticipate the 
 celestial harmony of the spheres, caught and 
 noted, one by one, the chafacteristics of each 
 /dialect, sifted and classified them all. 
 
 We have seen that Dante took the Tower of 
 
 6
 
 82 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Babel and the confusion of speech for his starting- 
 point in his treatise on the * Volgare Eloquio,' and 
 there is a dramatic unity of purpose highly charac- 
 teristic of his mind in the intention which he so 
 adequately fulfilled of fusing again into one 
 language the various dialects of Italy. 
 
 But the great Master did more yet. He taught 
 by example as well as by precept. Not only did 
 he create the Italian language out of the raw 
 material of jargon and dialect, but he secured 
 for that language immortality when he wove it 
 into such a chaplet of verse as must for ever 
 remain the birthright and the inheritance, as of 
 the past, so of every future generation. 
 
 ' Del bel Paese la dove il si suona.' 
 
 /«/[, xxxiii. 80. 
 
 ' In that fair region, where the Italian voice 
 Is heard.' 
 
 Carv, Trans.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LIFE AND PUPILS AT RAVENNA 
 
 6—2
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LIFE AND PUPILS AT RAVENNA. 
 
 ' Dimmi, Maestro mio, dimmi, Signore.' 
 
 Inf., iv. 46. 
 
 THE biographers are not in accord as to 
 the exact locahty of Dante's house in 
 Ravenna, but there is no doubt that he 
 had one assigned to him by Guido Novello, 
 where he might Hve in undisturbed peace, and, 
 free from all molesting cares, pursue his great 
 work. 
 
 It was also the centre of a little circle of 
 friends and pupils, whom he taught, and whose 
 boast it was to have received instruction in poetry 
 from him. 
 
 Five centuries have learnt from the written 
 words of Dante ; but who were the pupils who 
 hung on his living lips? Foremost among them 
 stands the remarkable figure of Guido da Polenta, 
 whose reverence for his master was such as may 
 be best expressed by the well-known line that * ne'er 
 from son to father more was owed.'^ 
 
 ' 'Che piu non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.' 
 
 Purg., i. Zl.
 
 86 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 This veneration is all the more remarkable as 
 the Polentani cannot be said to have been favour- 
 ably dealt with in the ' Divina Commedia.' 
 
 With regard to the principal episode connected 
 with them, that of Francesca da Rimini, the 
 aunt of Guido Novello, there was no doubt that 
 Guido was himself familiar with the famous lines 
 which describe her story, as he imported one of 
 them, ' Che mai da me non fia diviso,' into one of 
 his own sonnets.^ 
 
 Moreover, it might be reasonably urged that 
 the handling of the narrative by Dante, and the 
 unrivalled pathos which he imparts to it, might 
 go far to reinstate the unfortunate Francesca in 
 the opinion of posterity. It certainly gave the 
 keynote to one of the earliest historical narratives 
 of the event as recounted by Boccaccio.^ 
 
 But apart from this episode, which can of 
 course be considered in two ways, the family of 
 the Polenta are rigidly dealt with by Dante. 
 They are not exempted from the fierce invectives 
 against the tyrants of the Romagna, into which 
 category also falls the family of Caterina, the 
 wife of Guido Novello. She was descended from 
 the Bagnacavalli, a family specially singled out 
 for vituperation in the ' Inferno,' in words which 
 could be hardly pleasing to their surviving 
 descendant.^ Nevertheless, so strong was the 
 
 ' Sonnet xli., 'Ultimo Rifugio,' p. 384. 
 
 2 ' II Comento di Giovanni Boccaccio sopra la Commedia,' vol. i., 
 p. 476, lezione xx. 
 
 3 'Inf.,' XXX. 76-78.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 87 
 
 love of letters and learning, so great the venera- 
 tion inspired by the personality of the poet, 
 blended, perhaps, with a feeling of compassion for 
 his unmerited and unhappy exile, that there seems 
 to have been no place left for rancour in the mind 
 of the generous Polentani. Far from this, the 
 hospitality to the father extended itself to the 
 son, and benefactions were heaped upon Pietro 
 di Dante by Caterina and her family. Such 
 generosity maices a bright spot in the dark annals 
 of a period when revenge for injuries received 
 was a matter of course, and, far from being a vice, 
 even aspired to a place on the borderland of 
 virtue. 
 
 The just verdict of posterity recognises the 
 noble exception afforded by the example of the 
 Polenta family, and has repaired all former injury 
 by associating for ever the name of Guido Novello 
 with that of Dante. Much interest centres round 
 their relationship as pupil and teacher. There is 
 historical confirmation of the fact that Guido 
 Novello learnt from Dante the art of poetry, 
 described in those days as ' il dire in rime volgare,' 
 the secrets of which art seem, as we have seen, 
 to have been comprised in the * Volgare Eloquio,' 
 and happily there are sonnets by Guido still 
 extant which serve to prove that he was no 
 unworthy follower in the footsteps of his great 
 Master. There is a collection of his verses in the 
 " Codice Marciano,^ gathered from various sources 
 
 ' cxci., cl. ix., Ital. Sec. xvi. ' Ultimo Rifugio,' etc., 86, 87.
 
 88 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 by a Venetian, Antonio Isidoro Mezzabarba, and 
 copied, as the note records, 
 
 'by my own hand in the month of May, 1509, neither 
 changing in any way, nor adding to that which I have 
 found in the ancient books.' 
 
 This collection consists of sixteen ballads in 
 which we discover a certain power as well as 
 variety of expression not always to be found in 
 the minor poets of that period, and which recall 
 the influence of his great Master, more distinctly 
 to be perceived when compared with his * Can- 
 zoniere ' than with his great poem. 
 
 We recognise many familar turns of thought 
 and language besides the one already cited out of 
 sonnet xii., which finds its counterpart in the 
 episode of Francesca da Rimini, and which for 
 that reason is reproduced at length : 
 
 ' Era 1' aer sereno e lo bel tempo 
 Et cantavan gli augei per la rivera, 
 Et in quel giorno apparve primavera 
 Quand' io te vidi prima bella gioia. 
 Ben fosti gioia, che tal m' apparisti 
 E CO '1 novo color nel tuo bel viso, 
 Che gih. da la mia mente non si parte, 
 E quando sono in piu lontana parte, 
 Pill mi sovvien de '1 tuo piacente riso 
 Si dolcemente ne '1 mio cor venisti 
 Per un soave sguardo che facisti, 
 Da tuoi begli occhi, che mi mirar fiso
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 89 
 
 Si che gia da me non fia diviso 
 Tanta allegrezza mi da fuor di noia.'^ 
 
 ' Serene the air, and sweet the happy time, 
 When spring appears — the glad year's fairest part — 
 And on the banks the birds rang tuneful chime 
 When first I saw thee, jewel of my heart ! 
 Jewel ! Ah yes ! As such thou didst appear 
 When the fair colour flashed across thy face, 
 And never leaves my thoughts that vision dear. 
 When far away, in sad and lonely case, 
 I most bethink me of thy radiant smile ; 
 And straight into my inmost heart doth come, 
 In memory fond, that sweetest glance erewhile 
 Shot from thine eyes — and, piercing, found its home. 
 Henceforth divided never can we be, 
 And joy from grief's sad clutch doth ransom me.' 
 
 To cite one more example especially pleasing on 
 account of the grace of thought and diction : 
 
 * Quando specchiate, Donna, il vostro viso 
 
 II cor del vostro servo 
 
 Vedete com' e fatto e dove e miso. 
 Come del viso al specchio ogni bellezza 
 
 Vi si mostra compiuta, 
 Cosi fermate '1 cor da la chiarezza 
 
 Quella cor desiosi occhi sentuta; 
 
 Si che non fe fattezza 
 Nel viso bel, che 'n lui non sia veduta, 
 Onde r onesto sguardo c '1 dolce riso 
 
 Con la forza d' Amore, 
 
 II tiene in quel, da lui sempre diviso. '^ 
 
 * ' Ultimo Rifugio,' appendix, quoted from Cod. Marciano, cxci., 
 vv. I, 2. Ilallate di Guido da Polenta. 
 ' /die/., XV.
 
 90 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' Lady, when in thy face thy servant's heart, 
 As in a mirror, clear reflected lies, 
 See how 'tis formed, and look on ev'ry part ; 
 As the reflection with the object vies 
 So read thy servant's heart in thine own eyes, 
 And see him stand reflected in thy sight. 
 There is no feature in thy own fair face 
 Which calls not forth an answer from thy knight. 
 Thy smile, thy look, command an answering grace, 
 And Love, thy willing servant. Lady fair, 
 E"en though apart, must ever hold him there.' 
 
 The cultured and refined taste which could in 
 the midst of a barbarous age find expression in 
 such delicate forms of thought was not less 
 susceptible to the influence of the sister art of 
 painting. It is no uncertain tradition which 
 records that at the instance of Guido da Polenta 
 Giotto was summoned to Ravenna by Dante. 
 
 We may please ourselves with fancying these 
 two friends the great types of the highest attain- 
 able perfection in the sister arts in the thirteenth 
 century, following and interpreting each other 
 more and more in the close harmony of a friend- 
 ship which had deepened with advancing years. 
 In process of ripening when both were at Rome 
 in the year of the jubilee, 1300, it had matured 
 itself in that brief interval between the return of 
 Dante to Florence and his fatal embassy to 
 Boniface VIII.^ 
 
 The record of that period of their friendship 
 
 1 Vide ante, p. 29.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 91 
 
 remains in the authentic contemporary portrait 
 of the poet, introduced by Giotto into his fresco, 
 on the walls of the Bargello, representing the 
 arrival of Charles of Valois as the pacificator of 
 Florence. This famous incident in the feud 
 between the Bianchi and Neri resulted, as it is 
 well known, in the perpetual exile of Dante. But 
 by a strange irony of fate his painted semblance, 
 as portrayed by the hand of his friend, remains 
 as a perpetual spectator of the event so fatal to 
 his hopes. The episode is represented, moreover, 
 on the walls of the Palazzo whence issued the 
 harsh and often-repeated decrees of perpetual 
 banishment. 
 
 Many years of exile had passed over that head 
 when the two friends met again, and Giotto must 
 have gazed once more upon the face so faithfully 
 delineated by him in the prime of manhood and 
 the flush of fame. It is sad that no portrait should 
 be extant by the same hand representing that 
 same countenance as it must have appeared then, 
 wan with long years of persevering stud}',^ dark- 
 ened with disappointed hope, furrowed with the 
 hardships of his wandering life! And yet through 
 all must have blazed the unquenched fire of 
 genius — above all, the ennobling influence of a 
 lifelong converse with things Divine. Such a 
 portrait Giotto, and only Giotto, the contem- 
 porary artist, the companion mind, the beloved 
 
 ^ ' SI che m' ha fatto per piu anni macro.' 
 
 Par., XXV. 3.
 
 92 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 and intimate friend,^ might have painted. Alas 
 that such a portrait does not form part of the few 
 genuine fragments of Giotto's work in Ravenna ! 
 All that now exists is to be found in the side- 
 chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, representing 
 the Evangelists with their symbols, and the Latin 
 Fathers of the Church — SS. Gregory, Ambrose, 
 Augustine, and Jerome. These have been so 
 repainted that the original work makes itself felt 
 with difficulty through the gray film which 
 defaces it. 
 
 Once the Church of Sta. Maria in Porto Fuori 
 was all covered with paintings by Giotto ; not one 
 trace of them remains. But the beautiful work 
 of his pupils, Giuliano, Giovanni, and Pietro da 
 Rimini, has been recently redeemed from the 
 whitewash which defaced it by the patient effort 
 of Don Pio Pozzi, the priest in charge of the 
 church, revealing certain characteristics of type 
 which indicate both Giotto and Dante among 
 the bystanders in the frescoes of the Presentation. 
 Although this representation of the two friends 
 can only rest upon tradition, contemporary 
 evidence will furnish historical proof of the 
 actual presence of Giotto in Ravenna at that 
 time. 
 
 The chain is unbroken. First of all we find the 
 record of a sum of 300 scudi, bequeathed by 
 Lamberto da Polenta in his will bearing date 
 January 18, 13 16, for the express purpose of 
 
 ^ Vasari : ' Di cui era moltissimo amico ;' vol. i., p. 372.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 93 
 
 restoring the fabric of San Giovanni Evangelista. 
 Next in order we read of the determination of 
 Guide Novello, the immediate successor of Lam- 
 berto, to summon Giotto through the agency of 
 Dante to undertake the decorative part of the 
 work. Finally, there is the treatise composed 
 by Rainaldo Concoreggio, at that time Archbishop 
 of Ravenna, upon Galla Placidia and her church, 
 ' now about to be rededicated after the completion 
 of its restoration.'^ 
 
 This Archbishop forms another figure in the re- 
 markable group which Dante, the great personality 
 of Dante, gathered round him at Ravenna. He 
 came of a noble Milanese family, and studied at 
 Bologna contemporaneously with Dante. At 
 Lodi he was offered the post of a Teacher of Law 
 at the rate of 40 imperial livres a year, to which 
 ten more were to be added if he succeeded in 
 obtaining his degree, which he did. Having 
 subsequently taken Holy Orders, a rapid and 
 splendid career was immediately open to him, 
 due in the first instance, no doubt, to the in- 
 fluence of his powerful family, but ably seconded 
 by his own great learning and ability. He be- 
 came chaplain to Boniface VHI., thence was 
 promoted to the See of Vicenza, and afterwards 
 was sent to France as Papal Nuncio during the 
 war between Philip IV. and Edward HI. of 
 England. On his return to Italy, having been 
 appointed Vicar-General of the Romagna, he 
 
 1 'Mur. Rev. Ital. Script.,' t. i., part ii., 567.
 
 94 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 went unarmed to mediate between the Ordelaffi 
 and the insurgent populace of Forli, and was so 
 severely wounded that his recovery was looked 
 upon as little short of a miracle. Finally, he 
 was elected Archbishop of Ravenna, where his 
 care of his diocese, his zeal in his pastoral office, 
 his remarkable learning, which he devoted to 
 reconstructing the decaying schools of theology 
 and music in Ravenna, and his simple piety, 
 single him out from among the rapacious and 
 ambitious clergy of the time, just as Guido da 
 Polenta stands alone in his cultivation and re- 
 finement amongst the lawless tyrants of the 
 Romagna. 
 
 It is curious that this Archbishop should have 
 been so little noticed by the early biographers 
 of Dante, for it is not an improbable surmise, 
 though it cannot pretend to even the basis of 
 tradition, that those great and kindred minds 
 must have met in intercourse upon the scene of 
 a common interest like the restoration of the 
 ancient church of San Giovanni Evangelista. 
 
 The Archbishop predeceased Dante by a few 
 short weeks, or perhaps his name would have 
 been recorded in a manner less ambiguous than 
 that of a predecessor in the See of Ravenna, 
 Archbishop Bonifazio : 
 
 ' Che pasturd col rocco molte genti,'^ 
 
 ' ' Purg.,' xxiv. 29, 30, i.e. : 
 
 ' Who from the revenues of his bishopric fed his flock.' 
 The rocco was the ancient pastoral staff of the See of Ravenna. 
 It was so called because, instead of the usual crook in which the
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 95 
 
 if, indeed, it had not shared the honours of Pier 
 Damiano in the ' Paradiso,'^ 
 
 The sarcophagus to which the remains of Arch- 
 bishop Rainaldo were consigned, a specimen of 
 early Christian art, is still to be seen in the 
 cathedral at Ravenna. Hardly were the funeral 
 rites completed, when Dante was himself over- 
 taken by the illness which closed his mortal career. 
 
 Guido Novello, the Archbishop Rainaldo, and 
 Giotto, are the great personal contemporaries of 
 Dante in Ravenna, and among his pupils Guido 
 may claim precedence on every ground. With- 
 in a very short period of each other — indeed, in 
 a manner almost simultaneous — all these great 
 characters passed from this world's stage ; but 
 there were others belonging to either the first 
 or second category, and sometimes both, who 
 contributed their meed of interest and no insig- 
 nificant details to fill in the picture of the time. 
 We read of Ser Dino Perini, Ser Pietro di Messer 
 Giardino the notary, Menghino Mezzani the 
 rhymester, Fiduccio dei Milotti the companion 
 
 crozier terminates, it was surmounted by a little shrine, or rocco. 
 The line refers not only to the government of his people, but to his 
 large liberalities. These, together with a personal failing, that of 
 gluttony, must have been etjually a tradition in Ravenna when 
 Dante was resident there. Willi characteristic impartiality, both 
 aspects of the character of the Archbishop are presented in the 
 ' Divina Commedia.' lie is assigned a place among the gluttons in 
 that division of the ' I'urgatorio ' where this crime against self is 
 expiated ; but at the same time is chronicled tlie redeeming virtue 
 r.{ his great liberality to others. He filled the See of Ravenna for 
 twenty years (1274-1294). 
 ' ' I'ar.,' xxi. 120, et seq.
 
 96 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 of his walks in the Pineta, who dissuaded Dante 
 from going to Bologna, Niccolo Carnevalli, Achille 
 Mattarelli, and Bernardo Canaccio, who many 
 years afterwards engraved the epitaph on the 
 poet's tomb. 
 
 It may be asked how these names have been 
 preserved through the long tract of centuries, 
 and it is satisfactory, and at the same time very 
 interesting, to trace them sometimes under a 
 feigned classical name in the Latin eclogues 
 written by the poet himself from Ravenna to 
 Giovanni del Virgilio. Giovanni del Virgilio, 
 so called because of the facility he displayed in 
 imitating Virgil, was a Bolognese, and held a 
 school in Bologna, where he received a salary 
 from the State. He afterwards moved to Cesena, 
 where he died ; but he was at Bologna when 
 the remarkable correspondence took place between 
 him and Dante. This correspondence has already 
 been alluded to in order to fix the date of Dante's 
 residence at Ravenna.^ 
 
 We will now examine it more closely, as from 
 it, as from a lantern held by the poet himself, 
 there falls the most certain light upon this period 
 of his life. The correspondence consists of one 
 poem, the ' Carmen,' as it is called, of Giovanni 
 del Virgilio, and three eclogues. The authenticity 
 of all has been clearly proved,^ and there have 
 been several recent Italian editions with annota- 
 
 ^ Vide anfe, InirodMCtion p. 11. 
 2 ' Ultimo Rifugio,' p. 68.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 97 
 
 tions, from which the following account of them 
 has been taken. The * Carmen ' opens the cor- 
 respondence. In the first hexameters, Giovanni 
 del Virgilio praises Dante for his noble work of 
 the * Divina Commedia,' the great theme of those 
 immortal ' cantiche :' 
 
 ' Which in new rhymes the listening age beguile, 
 Fixing of souls their after-state, the while 
 Thou from three diverse confines draw'st the veil. 
 In Pit of Hell the bad their sins bewail. 
 The penitent in Lethe are washed white, 
 The blest ascend to realms beyond the light ;' 
 
 and then takes him to task for writing in the 
 vulgar tongue : 
 
 * Ah, wherefore theme so grand, so grave, so vast, 
 Before the vulgar herd dost deign to cast, 
 And we, the Poets, who thy meaning prize, 
 Turn towards thee, in longing vain, our eyes : 
 For well 'tis known the Poet Sage will none 
 Of people's jargons, were there even one ! 
 And there are thousand such. Till now 
 None of that Choir, sixth amongst whom thou,^ 
 E'er sung in common parlance, nor yet he 
 Thou foUowedst heavenwards.- Suffer me, 
 Censor of Poets, greatest among men ! 
 Ah ! suffer me to speak, nor chide my pen. 
 
 ' ' Inf.,' iv. 102. Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan. 
 
 ' SI ch' io fui sesto tra cotanto senno.' 
 
 ' ' Purg.,' xxii. Statius, whom Dante followed with Virgil round 
 the fifth cornice of the ' Purgatorio.' 
 
 ' .Seguiva in su gli spiritl veluci.'
 
 98 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Throw not with lavish hand thy pearls to swine, 
 Nor clothe unworthily the Muse divine ; 
 But still thy verse in such a form unfold 
 Common to all — all clear thy meaning hold.' 
 
 He then implores Dante to address his next 
 poem to the pacification of Italy, harassed on 
 all sides and devastated by war, and the follow- 
 ing lines contain allusions to the principal 
 historical events of the period, and fix approxi- 
 mately the date of the correspondence : 
 
 ' Awake, then ! tell how wings to realms above 
 His lofty flight the sacred Bird of Jove ;^ 
 Of Lilies lopped by Ploughman's ruthless hand ;^ 
 How writhe 'neath canine fangs the Frison Band f 
 Tell how Ligurian shore with triumph hails, 
 Resounding loud, Parthenope's proud sails : 
 Till Cadiz wake Alcides' giant rock, 
 And through the world reverberates the shock ! 
 Ister to Fano will repeat thy strain, 
 And Dido's shores re-echo it again.'* 
 
 But the exact date seems to be fixed by the 
 lines which describe in the present tense the 
 siege of Genoa in the winter of the following 
 year, 1319. 
 
 ^ The Eagle of the Empire — this is an allusion to the death of the 
 Emperor Henry VII., August 24, 1313. 
 
 2 The rout of the Florentines by Uguccione della Faggiola at 
 Montecabini, August 29, 1315. 
 
 ** The slaughter of the Paduans by Can Grande della Scala 
 between 13 14- 13 18. 
 
 "• The triumphant entry of King Robert of Naples into Genoa, 
 July, 13 18, which resounded throughout the four quarters of the 
 European world.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 99 
 
 ' E'en now there fills my ears loud din of war, 
 And threats which menace, both from near and far, 
 O Father Apennine, thy lofty crest, 
 And thou Tyrrhenian sea by storms possessed ! 
 O Mars ! what dost thou, scatt'ring wide all peace ? 
 Then tune thy lyre and bid such discord cease.' 
 
 The poetical metaphors, which appear so high- 
 flown, are supported by the historical narrative 
 of the events by Muratori, in which he relates 
 how fiercely the battle raged both by sea and 
 land round Genoa before the siege was raised 
 and King Robert able to make his escape to 
 Avignon.^ 
 
 Such a subject as this, the eclogue proceeds to 
 say, treated in Latin verse, and not in the vulgar 
 tongue, would be worthy of the pen of Dante, 
 and would obtain for him the laurel crown of 
 Bologna, whither Giovanni del Virgilio adjures 
 him to come — in the concluding lines of his 
 poem — or, if he will not come, will he at least 
 send him a friendly word, to say the appeal 
 has not been distasteful to him ? Alluding to 
 the residence of Dante at Ravenna, 
 
 ' Su la marina dove '1 Po discende 
 Per aver pace co' seguaci sui ' 
 
 (/«/, V. 98, 99), 
 
 he is apostrophized as — 
 
 » ' Annali d' Italia,' t. viii., pp. 72, 75, 107, 108. 
 
 7-2
 
 loo Dante at Ravenna 
 
 * Dweller on banks of Po,^ if hope canst give 
 That thou wilt come and in my dwelling live, 
 Some friendly missive send ; nor take amiss 
 The fevered lines I send to thee with this, 
 Unworthy crow that dares uplift its note,^ 
 Nor falls abashed before the Swan's proud throat — 
 Answer, my master, or my prayer fulfil.' 
 
 No common interest centres round the reply 
 of Dante, which was apparently despatched about 
 the summer of 1319. It is couched in the form 
 of an eclogue, closely modelled upon the Pastorals 
 of his great Master, Virgil, to which both the 
 locality and the circumstances lend themselves 
 with curious exactitude, the first Pastoral of 
 Virgil being written from * the lands about 
 Cremona and Mantua,' when Virgil was in 
 exile, though afterwards — and here the com- 
 parison fails — restored to his country. Yet 
 when Dante wrote his eclogue his hopes were 
 not yet dead, as we may gather from its wistful 
 lines. He follows Virgil exactly in his persona- 
 tion of Tityrus, while to his friend Dino Perini 
 he gives the name of Meliboeus.^ Giovanni del 
 Virgilio he addresses as Mopsus — ' one of two 
 
 ^ Ravenna was at that lime surrounded by the various branches 
 of the great river. The Po di Primaro, the Po di Padoreno, and 
 the branch called the Padenna, actually flowed through the streets 
 of the town. 
 
 - Probably imitated from 
 
 • And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough.' 
 
 Dryden's Vi7'gil, Pastoral i. 
 
 •' This is shown by a gloss upon the MS. supposed to have been 
 written by Boccaccio. Codice Laurenziana, xxix. 8 ; quoted in 
 ' Ultimo Rifugio,' p. 84.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna loi 
 
 very expert shepherds at song/ as Dryden tells 
 us. The classical scholar will pardon a quota- 
 tion from Dryden's translation of the well-known 
 opening of the first Pastoral, for the purpose 
 of showing how much the eclogue of Dante was 
 influenced by it. 
 Meliboeus speaks : 
 
 ' " Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse, 
 You, Tityrus, entertain your sylvan muse ; 
 Round the wide world in banishment we roam, 
 Forced from our pleasing fields and native home." '^ 
 
 Dante opens his eclogue by declaring that 
 when the poem reached him he was collecting 
 his pastured goats (Me Pasciute capre'-). He 
 throws his composition into the form of a 
 dialogue, which runs thus : 
 
 ' On the white sheet impressed, the lettered line 
 Of songs inspired by the heavenly nine 
 We saw, Melibceus and I, expressed 
 In graceful terms, and thus to us addressed. 
 Still as we stood beneath the oak-tree shade, 
 And of the pastured flocks the reckoning made, 
 Melibceus'^ spake : " O Tityrus,* my friend, 
 Speak, then, and tell me what doth Mopsus'' send ?" 
 And while I laughed, insisting as before. 
 He pressed his fond entreaties more and more. 
 
 ' The P'irst Pastoral, or Tityrus and MelibcEus, Dryden's 
 Trans., 1-4. 
 
 '•' In the same MS. already cited another gloss substitutes 
 ' scolares ' for ' caprc. ' 
 
 * Dino Pcrini. * Dante. '•' Giovanni del Virgilio.
 
 I02 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 At length, O Mopsus, yielding to his whim 
 For friendship's sake, I turned and spoke to him : 
 " Insensate, mind thy flocks, nor vainly heed 
 Aught else," I said ; " thy utmost care they need." ' 
 
 But Meliboeus persisting in his demand, Dante 
 pours forth his idyll, and, declining the invitation 
 to Bologna, gives free course to the still cherished 
 hope of return to his country, there and there only 
 to receive the poet's crown, in terms which run 
 parallel with the well-known lines in the * Divina 
 Commedia,'^ 
 
 ' Rather would I wait 
 Till my own country grant a triumph late. 
 And laurel wreath for hoary locks prepare — 
 Locks which erewhile on Arno's banks were fair.' 
 
 Meliboeus urges the flight of time, and asks 
 when will that moment come, to which Tityius 
 (Dante) replies again, and that reply indicates 
 exactly the point which he had reached, at 
 that time, in the composition of the ' Divina 
 Commedia ' : 
 
 ' " When my songs relate 
 How planets circle round the heavenly gate, 
 Of souls in bliss the sweet estate shall tell 
 As of those left in Purgatory or Hell, 
 Then shall the bay and laurel intertwine 
 To crown my brows — for, Mopsus, they are mine." 
 
 '■ ' Par.,' XXV. 5 : 
 
 ' Con altra voce omai, con altro vello 
 Ritomero Poeta, ed in sul fonte 
 Del mio Battesimo prendero il Cappello.'
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 103 
 
 "But Mopsus," urged Meliboeus, "dost not see — 
 
 Will not away with words in comedy ? 
 
 Such common parlance and such trivial sound 
 
 Beseem the women, and with them abound. 
 
 So does he write, and to Castalian choir 
 
 Blushes that songs like these should e'er aspire !" 
 
 He spake thus, Mopsus, then did loud exclaim, 
 
 " What power can Mopsus change, or heal his blame ?" ' 
 
 The allegory which follows of the favoured 
 solitary sheep, while the rest of the flock repose 
 under the shadow of a great rock, the sheep 
 which is to give milk so abundant^ as to fill 
 ten vessels, is interpreted to mean ten cantos 
 of the * Paradiso,' as yet unknown to the world, 
 while the great rock which shelters the rest of 
 the flock is supposed to represent the mount 
 of Purgatory, 
 
 ' One favoured sheep I have, thou knowest well, 
 So rich in milky store that none can tell 
 The great abundance. While the flock remain 
 'Neath the great rock upon the sheltered plain, 
 Or else in search of food together roam, 
 Ajjart and solitary she wanders home. 
 No shepherd's wand compels her willing feet. 
 But straightway comes to yield the treasure sweet ; 
 From the rich source ten vessels overflow, 
 And these to Mopsus will my labours show. 
 
 ' The ' abundance ' is intended to represent the abundant, flowing 
 verse of the ' Divina Commcdia,' called the ' I5ucolicum Carmen,' 
 because written in the vulgar tongue, by contrast with the scant 
 paucity of the Latin eclogues.
 
 I04 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Tend thou the goats, for good teeth will they need 
 On the hard bread of charity to feed.^ 
 And thus, still sitting 'neath the spreading oak, 
 And reasoning o'er the words Melibojus spoke, 
 We sang and pondered o'er each other's lays, 
 While in the hut hard by prepared the maize.' 
 
 The interesting correspondence continues, for 
 Giovanni del Virgilio hastens to reply from his 
 native * cave ' or ' grotto ' in Bologna to the 
 poet, whose lays have been despatched to him 
 from the pine forest at Ravenna : 
 
 ' There, where on meadow's sward of emerald green 
 The dense, deep shadow of the pines is seen — 
 Pines that as sentinels in long, dark row 
 Man the lone coast where Hadrian's breezes blow 
 Soft as the zephyr o'er the favoured strand ; 
 Where flow'ring myrtles scent the pleasant land. 
 And limpid waters, hurrying to the sea, 
 O'erflow their banks and bid them fertile be : 
 In such a spot, and 'neath such grateful shade, 
 E'en there, O Tityrus, thy song was made. 
 Then Eurus breathed, and o'er the murmuring trees 
 The echo reached me, borne upon the breeze ; 
 And through the rocky steep, distinct and clear. 
 It fell as balsam on my list'ning ear. 
 The milk I taste — or was it nectar's wine ? 
 For since the golden age no draught like thine 
 
 ^ ' Come su di sale 
 Lo pane altrui, e com' e duro calle 
 Lo scendere e '1 salir per 1' altrui scale,' 
 
 Far., xvii. 59, 60,
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 105 
 
 Can shepherd pond'ring o'er his flocks recall, 
 E'en though Arcadian pastures bred them all. 
 Ah ! woe is me, that base and sordid shed, 
 Should sadly canopy thy honoured head. 
 Or that thy noble soul should grieve and fret 
 (Shame on the graceless city, cruel yet !) 
 O'er flocks which wander homeless on the plain, 
 While Arno's meadows stretch their shores in vain. 
 Forgive thy Mopsus, nor shall useless tears 
 O'erflow mine eyes and conjure up new fears. 
 Adding fresh torments to thy bitter fate. 
 Oh, my sweet master 1 on whose words I wait. 
 Round whom my love in fond embrace doth twine 
 As wreathes the husband elm, the clinging vine. 
 Rather let hope in flatt'ring, fond presage 
 Bid youth regild the hoary head of age, 
 Near the baptismal font the feast prepare. 
 And drop the laurel garland on thine hair. 
 Ah ! who shall paint the joy and dear delight 
 When thy loved country dawns upon thy sight ! 
 But as on Time and Chance we patient wait. 
 Time that doth travel but with heavy gait. 
 Come thou to me, my tranquil rest to share, 
 Relax thy mind, and free thy soul from care, 
 And thought exchange with thought, as friend with 
 
 friend ; 
 Thus in sweet harmony our songs shall blend. 
 Upon the reed pipe I, take thou the lyre, 
 As best befits of noble song the sire. 
 
 ♦ ♦ * * ♦ 
 
 ' Here will flock 
 Both old and young from sweet Parnassus' rock ;
 
 io6 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Those who would see the honoured face again, 
 To learn the old and hear thy newest strain ; 
 Come, then, I pray thee . . . 
 . . . Mopsus, art thou mad ? 
 Paltry thy gifts, thy dwelling mean and bad. 
 Can these with Jolas'^ palace proud compare ? — 
 Jolas, who tends his guests with courteous care ; 
 And yet again Hope spreads her flutt'ring wings, 
 Still 'neath thy feet the quick desire springs. 
 Hast ever seen a maid with fond delight 
 Behold a child, what time the child's keen sight 
 Follows a bird, the bird the waving trees — 
 Trees which all eager wait the fresh'ning breeze ? 
 Ah, Tityrus ! to thee in such a guise 
 Doth Mopsus turn his ever-longing eyes. 
 Despise him not, but come, for it is said 
 Love born of sight by sight is also made.' 
 
 In a second eclogue, Dante meets and replies 
 to the poetic effusion of his friend. We read 
 first, in the opening lines, of Meliboeus running 
 and panting with eagerness to bring him the 
 missive from Giovanni del Virgilio. And then 
 another friend comes upon the scene, to whom 
 Dante gives the name of Alfesibeo. He was 
 in reahty Fiduccio dei Milotti,- by birth a 
 Tuscan of Certaldo, but at that time a doctor 
 of medicine in Ravenna — a favourite companion 
 of Dante in his walks in the Pineta, who warned 
 him against leaving Ravenna for Bologna, and 
 
 ^ Name chosen for Guido Novello. 
 
 - Noted in the margin of the MS. as follows : ' Magister Fiducius 
 de' Milottis de Certaldo, Medicus, qui tunc, morabatur Ravenna.' 
 — ' Ultimo Rifugio,' p. 105.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 107 
 
 who in all probability, as he survived Dante, 
 must have attended him in his last hours. 
 
 But to return to the eclogue. The hour of 
 the day, and this time it is the full mid-day 
 heat of the sun, is indicated in one of those 
 semi -mythological, semi -astronomical descrip- 
 tions which so often recur in the pages of the 
 * Divina Commedia ' — Tityrus and Alphesibseus, 
 taking pity on the flock and themselves, have 
 fled from the heat of the town into the out- 
 skirts of the forest, and there 
 
 ' 'Neath shade of lime and plane and ash- tree gray 
 The lambs and kids in mixed confusion lay ; 
 And, Tityrus, above thy aged head 
 A maple's boughs their shelt'ring welcome spread ; 
 Thy weary limbs doth knotty staff sustain. 
 Cut from the pear which in the earth had lain. 
 Alphesibseus spake, and smoothly flow 
 His lucid reasonings, as he would show 
 That souls which from the stars receive their force 
 Must to those stars return in Nature's course,' etc. 
 
 The translation is not pursued, because all 
 readers of the * Divina Commedia ' will be 
 familiar with the passages which treat the same 
 subject, only at greater length and with more 
 mastery.^ But it is interesting to see how 
 strictly Dante adheres to his model Virgil, for 
 the discussion of the Platonic philosophy by 
 Alphesibccus finds a close parallel in the 
 
 ' • Purtj.,' XXV. 52, et seq. ' Par.,' iv. i, e( seq.
 
 io8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 description by Sileiius of the formation of the 
 universe and the origin of animals according to 
 the Epicurean philosophy. 
 
 ' He sang the secret seeds of Nature's frame, 
 How seas and earth, and air, and active flame 
 Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall 
 Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball,' etc. 
 
 Dryden's Virgil, Pastoral vi. 
 
 Dante, continuing the imaginary dialogue, puts 
 these words into the mouth of Alphesibseus : 
 
 ' " Revered old man, dost dare to leave again 
 The dewy meadows of Pelorus' plain. 
 And seek the darkness of the Cyclops' cave?" 
 " My friend, what fear'st thou for me, what wilt have?" 
 " Oh, my sweet master ! prythee with us stay, 
 Nor heed the voice which would thee lure away ; 
 Climb not the steeps of Etna's shaggy rock — 
 The forest nymphs forbid — thy loving flock, 
 Sad and bereaved, their master's loss bewail ; 
 Hill, wood, and stream repeat the same sad tale." ' 
 
 By Pelorus he indicates the plain round 
 Ravenna, as by the rocks of Etna the approach to 
 Bologna, and any modern traveller will recognise 
 without effort the justice of the comparison. But 
 on account of his great love for Mopsus these 
 objections would not have weighed with him did 
 he not fear the giant Polyphemus.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 109 
 
 ' " Though Etna's craggy steeps compare in vain 
 With the smooth fragrance of the smiHng plain, 
 Yet, Mopsus, as for thee my heart doth burn, 
 To thee, by love impelled, my steps would turn ; 
 E'en my loved flock would leave behind me here, 
 
 But for thee, Polypheme, whose wrath I fear " 
 
 " And who," Alphesibaeus spoke again, 
 
 " Did such as Polypheme e'er fear in vain ? 
 
 Horrid the monster, deaf to prayer or tear, 
 
 And wont with gore his tangled locks to smear. 
 
 Aye, Galatea, since that fatal day 
 
 When done to death his victim Acis lay, 
 
 And thou, in breathless terror's rapid flight, 
 
 Didst scarce evade the giant's eager sight, 
 
 Can love with such o'erwhelming force contend ? 
 
 Bethink thee well of the forgotten friend 
 
 In Cyclops' cave, Achemenides left 
 
 In dire distress, alone, of hope bereft, 
 
 His soul aghast, for there before his eyes, 
 
 Stained with his comrade's blood, the monster lies ! 
 
 The gods forbid !" thus Alphesibceus said, 
 
 " Go not, my life. Ah ! spare thy honoured head, 
 
 Nor heed Bologna's Naiad when she weaves 
 
 Of laurel garland the perpetual leaves." 
 
 And thus, O Tityrus, into thy mind 
 
 Sank words of wisdom and entreaties kind, 
 
 Unheeded not they fell, nor without force. 
 
 But sec, the car of Phoebus turns its course. 
 
 Cleaving so fast, in its descent, the skies. 
 
 That broad upon the earth the shadow lies. 
 
 Homewards, behind their flocks, their way 
 
 The shepherds take, while fades the dying day — 
 
 Flocks which, returning from the valleys cold
 
 iio Dante at Ravenna 
 
 And distant woods, already seek the fold ; 
 The shaggy goats the bleating troop precede. 
 Meanwhile hard by, where ends the flow'ry mead, 
 Jolas the wise the long discourse had heard, 
 And there, unseen, had noted every word ; 
 Each word to us he showed in meaning plain, 
 Which we to thee, O Mopsus, tell again. '^ 
 
 Various conjectures have been hazarded as to 
 who this giant is meant to represent, whether 
 Romeo de' Pepoli, at that time Tyrant of Bologna, 
 King Robert and the Guelph party generally, or 
 a certain ' Zenga,' a contemporary of Dante, and 
 a descendant of the Venetico, and Ghisolabella 
 Caccianimici of the * Inferno,'- eager to avenge 
 the insults of the poet. 
 
 Whoever it was that the giant was intended to 
 personate, Dante thought it wiser to abide by the 
 counsel, either real or feigned, of * Alfesibeo,' and 
 to stay at Ravenna under the protection of his 
 kind friend and patron, Guido Novello, referred to 
 in the last eclogue under the name of Jolas. True 
 to his imitation of Virgil throughout, the name of 
 Jolas was chosen on account of the friendship 
 between Jolas and ^neas. 
 
 It has been thought worth while to analyze 
 carefully the Latin correspondence between 
 Giovanni del Virgilio and Dante, because those 
 who have the patience to unravel the somewhat 
 stilted classical similitudes which were the 
 
 ^ ' II Canzoniere di Dante Alighieri uggiuntori le Egloghe Latine 
 di Giovanni del Virgilio e di Dante Alighieri,' pp. 410, 437. 
 - ' Inf.,' xviii. 41, 66.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 1 1 1 
 
 characteristic of the period will find the clue not 
 only to the life and friendship of the poet at 
 Ravenna, but also to the progress of his great 
 work. For we gather from the correspondence 
 some very important facts. In the first place, 
 that early in the year 1319 both the 'Inferno' 
 and the ' Purgatorio ' were not only completed, 
 but known and discussed in Bologna, at that time 
 the principal University of the civilized world, and 
 the resort of thousands of students. 
 
 In the second place, as to the * Paradiso.' 
 More than once we find in the Latin eclogues 
 ideas and passages which recall some of the best- 
 known lines of the * Paradiso.' We have seen 
 that ten cantos were, at all events, completed, for 
 under the simile of the ' ten vessels of milk ' 
 they were despatched to Giovanni del Virgilio at 
 Bologna, received, read, and highly approved by 
 him. There is no actual evidence to prove which 
 these were, but if we compare the opening of the 
 tenth canto, where the reader is invited to lift 
 his eyes to the celestial spheres that he may 
 
 ' See how thence oblique 
 Brancheth the circle where the planets roll,'^ 
 
 with the lines in the eclogue, 
 
 ' When my songs relate 
 How planets circle round the heavenly gate,' 
 
 ' 'Par.,' X. 12-15: 
 
 ' Vcdi come da indi sidirama 
 L' obliquo ccrchio che i Pianehi porta,' etc.
 
 112 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 it rather suggests itself that the composition had 
 reached that point, and that the first ten cantos 
 of the * Paradiso ' were the portion of the poem 
 despatched to Bologna. 
 
 By means of the Latin correspondence we 
 have gained some acquaintance with Dino Perini 
 under the name of Meliboeus, and Fiduccio del 
 Milotti under the name of Alphesibaeus. But the 
 picture would not be complete without the men- 
 tion of three other friends and pupils whose 
 connection with their great Master can be traced 
 with almost equal certainty, although their names 
 do not appear in the 'eclogues, Pietro Giardini, 
 Menghino Mezzani, and Bernardo Canaccio. 
 
 Pietro Giardini, whose family dates back to 
 the beginning of the thirteenth century, had been 
 for some years a notary in Ravenna before Dante 
 came to take up his sojourn there. This is 
 proved by a document in the archiepiscopal 
 archives dated May i8, 1311, bearing his signa- 
 ture. Besides this deed, many others attested by 
 him are extant to prove his existence in Ravenna 
 up to the year 1348. We must keep this date 
 before our minds, because in the year 1346 Boc- 
 caccio paid one of his visits to Ravenna, and 
 Pietro dei Giardini claims our very special atten- 
 tion as the source of the information which Boc- 
 caccio has collected concerning Dante, as from 
 the living friend who had seen and held constant 
 converse with the poet. 
 
 From the same source must have been derived
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 1 1 3 
 
 those personal characteristics which give such 
 interest to his description of Dante. These will 
 be referred to later on, together with the account 
 of the discovery of the missing cantos of the 
 ' Paradiso ' in the house of Piero di Giardino — a 
 house much frequented by Dante in his lifetime. 
 No doubt because of the vital interest attached to 
 these statements, and all that they involve, the 
 whole narrative has been the mark for the fiercest 
 darts of destructive criticism ; but those who care 
 to follow the comparison of contemporary docu- 
 ments, which have been brought together in the 
 last great work upon the period,^ will see that the 
 researches of the nineteenth century have gone 
 far to establish the simple statements made by 
 Boccaccio not twenty-five years after the death 
 of Dante, as he had himself received them from 
 the lips of Piero di Giardino, the constant com- 
 panion and chosen friend of the poet. Nor is 
 contemporary evidence lacking with regard to 
 Menghino Mezzani. He was descended from an 
 ancient family of Mezzano near Ferrara, and was 
 also a notary at Ravenna when Dante arrived 
 there in 1317. Deeds bearing his signature, rela- 
 ting both to the public affairs of the city and the 
 private matters of the citizens, date from that 
 year, and are preserved among the archives. He 
 was, moreover, associated with other learned 
 jurists in revising the statutes of Ravenna. But 
 
 ' ' Ultimo Rifugio,' pp. 204-218. See also Appendix of Docu- 
 ments, p. 412. 
 
 8
 
 114 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 as a pupil of Dante in poetry, as Menghino 
 Mezzani the rhymester, he is more interesting to 
 us. Not equal to Guido Novello in imagination, 
 grace, or power of diction, his verses relating to 
 the actual events of the period have great value 
 from a historical point of view. Thrown into 
 prison, after the banishment of Guido Novello, by 
 Bernardino da Polenta, his verses written from 
 his captivity to his friend Antonio da Ferrara give 
 a piteous account of his sufferings. Antonio da 
 Ferrara, on his part, comforts him, and holds out 
 a prospect of escape in a sonnet dedicated to 
 * Hope ' : 
 
 ' My friend, I will thou don that fairest robe 
 Of Hope, who throws her mantle o'er our globe ; 
 For if thou wilt not, then I say, Beware ! 
 Know that without it mortal life lies bare. 
 The solace of mankind, did she not stay 
 When Faith and Charity had fled away ? 
 Her sisters, made by wickedness to fly 
 From cruel earth, to seek the kinder sky. 
 
 Ah, who would sojourn in this world of ours, 
 But for the comfort of her succ'ring powers ! 
 False dost thou call her ? Vain the promised dream ! 
 Strike off the promise — how does life then seem ? 
 Reason should balance chance, then take the blame. 
 Deceived? To her, and not to Hope, be shame.' 
 
 The reply of Mezzani has only been preserved 
 in a fragmentary form. But it appears from two 
 preceding sonnets (III., IV.) that their hope
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 1 1 5 
 
 was centred, according to the Ghibelline practice 
 of the period, upon a German deliverer, and in 
 so doing their reason was certainly ' to blame,' 
 for it was a vain illusion to expect anything from 
 that quarter. It is evident that the famous 
 appeal of their master to * German Albert ' was 
 fresh in their remembrance, for it is reproduced 
 word for word in the sonnets which vituperate 
 his successor, Charles of Luxembourg, in Caesar's 
 seat. 
 
 But, like his predecessors, Charles of Luxem- 
 bourg, laden with the spoils of Italy, returned 
 to Germany, * more intent,' as the historian says, 
 ' upon robbing Italy of her money than upon 
 healing her divisions ' ;^ and Menghino Mezzani, 
 like Dante before him, was obliged to seek com- 
 fort in the hope that some unknown deliverer, as 
 personified by the famous * Veltro,' would arise — 
 one who 
 
 ' Will not life support 
 By earth, nor its base metals, but by love, 
 Wisdom and virtue. ... In his might 
 Shall safety to Italia's plains arise.' 
 
 /«/!, i. loi, Gary, Trans. 
 
 It was not till the year 1350, at the death of 
 Bernardino da Polenta, that Mezzani obtained 
 his release, and during this captivity, which 
 lasted many years, he had another correspon- 
 dent of no less importance than Petrarch, whose 
 
 ' Mur., 'Ann. d' Italia,' viii., 291, 292. 
 
 8—2
 
 ii6 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 sonnet, offering him consolation, and Mezzani's 
 reply, have been preserved in the contemporary 
 MSS. It is also supposed that the allusion is 
 intended for him when Petrarch, in his letter to 
 Boccaccio, refers to 
 
 ' that old sage of Ravenna who, being fully competent 
 to decide in such matters, assigns to thee the third place 
 in our literature.'^ 
 
 The first place had evidently been assigned 
 to Dante, and the second to Petrarch. That 
 he opinion of Mezzani was held in high esteem 
 appears from the testimony of Coluccio Salutati, 
 who, in a letter to a friend, speaks of Mezzani 
 * as known to have been the friend and com- 
 panion of Dante.'- 
 
 This testimony is of great importance, because 
 not only does it come from a contemporary 
 source, supported by documentary evidence, but 
 there is actually now extant in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale at Paris^ a letter from Coluccio Salutati 
 to Mezzani, addressed as follows : ' Eloquentis- 
 simi viro domino Menghino Mezano, civi Raven- 
 nati, amico ignoto carissimo.' 
 
 The word ' ignoto ' shows that they had never 
 known each other personally, nor had they corre- 
 sponded before this letter, which describes itself 
 as the first writing which had passed between 
 
 ' ' Lett. Sen. di F. Petrarca,' vol. i., pp. 274, 283. 
 
 - ' Ult. Rif.,' p. 218. 
 
 ' MS. Lat. 8572, pp. 25, 26 ; quoted in the ' Ult. Rif.,' p. 232.
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 117 
 
 them, and to which the reply, if there was any, 
 has not been preserved. But this single letter 
 refers to the testimony of a common friend, 
 Tommaso di Mengardino, from whose lips the 
 writer had heard that Mezzani 
 
 * is not less remarkable for his eloquence than for his 
 noble, upright life, and that he is a constant student 
 of the poets and moral writers. To thee' (the letter 
 continues) ' belongs the power which is the gift of the 
 auspicious star under which thou wert born, to discourse 
 of virtue, and to hold in little account those things 
 which most delight mankind.'^ 
 
 In another passage this contemporary writer 
 refers to Mezzani's commentary on the ' Inferno ' 
 and ' Purgatorio ' of Dante,- a work which takes 
 the shape of an epitome rather than a com- 
 mentary. It has no merit from a literary point 
 of view, as it contributes nothing to the history 
 or explanation of the poem. Nor yet as poetry 
 does it deserve the name, for it is a sort of 
 doggerel paraphrase, taking the opening words of 
 each verse from the original, and completing the 
 explanation of the text after the commentator's 
 own fashion, as for example : 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 235, et seq. 
 
 * The MS. of this work is extant in the Gambalunga Library at 
 Rimini, and a portion of it in the Bodleian at Oxford. It was com- 
 mented on by Professor Crescentino Giannini in the ' Bil^liofdo,' Ann. 
 '•> P- I55> ^n^ by Luigi Tonini in his pamphlet on * Francesca 
 da Rimini.'
 
 1 1 8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 * Nel mezzo del camin, si trova Dante 
 Smarrito fuor di via per selva oscura 
 Et le bramose ficre starse avanti,' etc. 
 
 Appefidix to ' Ult. Rif.,' p. i. 
 
 Yet, as a literary curiosity and contemporary 
 work, it is certainly worthy of attention. But 
 the interest which surrounds Mezzani as a friend 
 and companion of Dante culminates in the 
 sonnet addressed to Bernardo Canacci, in which 
 he pours forth eulogies and thanks for the epitaph 
 in honour of his dear master : 
 
 ' Thine, then, at last the pious tribute laid, 
 Messer Bernardo, at our Dante's feet, 
 Dearer to him because none else have made, 
 Of all his other friends, an offering meet. 
 
 ' In heaven, amid the saints, you win his praise, 
 And mine, who perish in affliction's fire ; 
 Such that nor eye nor voice I dare to raise. 
 Nor can I serve you as I would desire. 
 
 ' That which the lowliest of all Dantists, I, 
 
 May not bestow of honour, praise and fame, 
 Abashed, I leave to greater minds to try 
 How they may celebrate his noble name. 
 
 ' Through thy device that name can never die, 
 Unless, indeed, first die this iron age ; 
 Behold thy marble — there where every eye 
 
 Can read the lines from off the solid page. 
 Honour thus paid unto the senseless clay 
 Of thy great love in life shall fitly say.'
 
 Life and Pupils at Ravenna 1 1 9 
 
 To which Bernardo replied : 
 
 ' Pallas the beautiful ! to thee his eye 
 
 Thy troubled votary turns with gasping breath, 
 And, as the last discomfiture draws nigh, 
 Through thee more constant meets the approach of 
 death. 
 
 ' And so St. Lawrence, servant of his God, 
 Stretched on the bed of pain all patient lay, 
 And firm as rock the path of sorrow trod, 
 Nor cast, in cowardice, his crown away. 
 
 ' So felt the Psalmist, who in bitter grief 
 
 Prostrate on earth did mourn the livelong night — 
 The sometime shepherd, who as wolf and thief 
 Stole Bathsheba from him who fell in fight. 
 
 ' So we of less account, in such-like guise, 
 
 Can steadfast stand beneath the storms of fate 
 Until the end be won, or purpose wise 
 
 Complete for those who thus can patient wait. 
 And so, in dear remembrance of thy praise, 
 I would revive thy hope, thy spirits raise.' 
 
 From these two sonnets we can settle approxi- 
 mately the date of Bernardo Canacci's ' Epitaph 
 on Dante,' and place it about the year 1350, 
 which, looking back from our side of the five 
 hundred years which have elapsed, seems to bring 
 it sufficiently near to the death of the poet to 
 invest it with a very significant interest. But by 
 the surviving contemporaries and friends some 
 such tribute to his memory must have been 
 eagerly expected, and this appears from Me/zani's 
 sonnet, long before it came.
 
 I 20 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 The concluding lines of that sonnet, which refer 
 to the 'great love in life' entertained by Bernardo 
 Canacci for Dante, establish with certainty the 
 fact of their close and intimate friendship. But 
 there are no other facts concerning Bernardo 
 which can be looked upon as equally certain. 
 Out of many theories respecting him, the proba- 
 bilities seem to lie in favour of his having belonged 
 to a Bolognese family which had migrated to 
 Ravenna, and that he was one of the many 
 rhymesters of the Romagna called upon by Guido 
 Novello to compete for the honour of composing 
 !3ante's epitaph. That he was the successful com- 
 petitor we have already seen, and in the conclud- 
 ing chapter the epitaph will be given, with further 
 details connected with it. Upon that tribute to 
 the memory of his Master and friend may justly 
 rest the claim of Bernardo Canacci to the notice 
 of posterity. 
 
 Such were some of the principal characters in 
 that remarkable group of friends who surrounded 
 Dante during his residence at Ravenna, sympathiz- 
 ing with him in the yearnings of his exile, cheering 
 his solitude, and eagerly watching the progress of 
 his great work, with, probably, little thought that 
 their association with him would confer upon 
 them a share in the immortality of his fame. Yet 
 in that way only can we account for the details of 
 their personality which it has been possible to 
 rescue from oblivion and, after a lapse of more 
 than five centuries, to reinvest with life.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CLOSING YEARS OF THE LIFE OF DANTE AT 
 RAVENNA.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CLOSING YEARS OF THE LIFE OF DANTE AT 
 
 RAVENNA. 
 
 ' Quando mi vidi giunto in quella parte 
 Di mia eta, dove ciascun dovrebbe 
 Calar le vele e raccoglier le sarte.' 
 
 Inf., xxvii. 78-80. 
 
 IN the last chapter we have gained some im- 
 pression of the life at Ravenna contempo- 
 rary with Dante, and of his own work in the 
 midst of it, which Boccaccio sums up in one of 
 his graceful paragraphs : 
 
 ' Dante then inhabited Ravenna (having lost all hope, 
 though not the desire, to return to Florence) for some 
 years, under the protection of a kind and benevolent 
 patron, and there by his lectures he instructed many 
 students in the art of poetry, and especially in that of 
 the vulgar tongue ; being, in my opinion, as much the 
 first among the Italians to place the language in a 
 proper position, and to give it a due value, as Homer 
 was among the Greeks or Virgil among the Romans. 
 Before him, although it may have been recognised as a 
 language, no one had either the desire or the courage 
 to make it instrumental in composition, save that in
 
 1 24 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ballads of love and such-like light matters it was some- 
 times used. But he proved, and effectually proved, that 
 it might be employed when treating of the highest sub- 
 jects, and thus exalted our vulgar tongue, and made it 
 more glorious than that of any other nation. '^ 
 
 Although it is obvious that we must not seek 
 for any reference to the living contemporaries of 
 Dante at Ravenna in the pages of the ' Divina 
 Commedia,' more than one passage proves how 
 deeply his mind was imbued with the past tradi- 
 tions of the city, from the times of Julius Caesar 
 and the Emperors down to the great families of 
 the Traversari and the Anastagi, over whose 
 recent extinction he deeply grieves, and the out- 
 lines of whose tombs must have been as familiar 
 to him as to us. * Where ' — such is the ex- 
 clamation he puts into the mouth of Guido del 
 Duca — 
 
 ' Where is good Lizio ? where Arrigo Mainardi, 
 Pier Traversaro- and Guido di Carpigna?' 
 
 adding, in the same speech : 
 
 ' Marvel not, Tuscan, if thou see me weep 
 When I recall those once-loved names. 
 
 ^ * * * * 
 
 With Traversaro's house and Anastagio's 
 
 (Each race disherited).' 
 
 Furg., xiv. 108. 
 
 ' Boccaccio, 'Vita di Dante,' p. 27. 
 
 - I'ietro de Traversari a Podesta, in Ravenna in 1 177, was a very 
 great character in early Ravennese history. lie delivered his
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 125 
 
 These families, whose names appear in chron- 
 icles dating from the fifth century, were extinct, 
 but there were descendants still living of the 
 family of the Onesti, and their hearts may have 
 glowed with pride when they found their name 
 recur in the pages of the * Paradiso.' First in 
 order comes San Romualdo degli Onesti, born at 
 the beginning of the eleventh century, who founded 
 the Order of the Camaldolese. Placed by Dante 
 among the contemplative spirits in the seventh 
 heaven, which is the planet Saturn, he is men- 
 tioned in the eulogy of St. Benedict : 
 
 ' These other flames, 
 The spirits of men contemplative, were all 
 Enlivened by that warmth, whose kindly force 
 Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness : 
 Here is Macarius ; Romualdo here ; 
 And here my brethren who their steps refrained 
 Within the cloisters, and held firm their heart.' 
 
 Par., xxii. 44, et seq. 
 
 Next we have Beato Pietro Onesti, called II 
 Peccatore, who built, in iog6, the Church of Sta. 
 Maria in Porto Fuori. In the last chapter we 
 referred to the beautiful frescoes which cover 
 the walls of the interior ; the exterior is no less 
 
 father out of the hands of the Papal Legate, received the Emperor 
 Frederick on his return from Venice after his humiliation there 
 before Alexander III., made an expedition to the Holy Land, and 
 was buried in the Church of S. Giovanni Battista. The tomb has 
 since been moved into the museum.
 
 126 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 interesting. Once on the coast, it now stands in 
 the midst of a green campagna, from which the 
 sea has receded. The curious and rather clumsy 
 campanile rises from the quadrangular base of 
 the old Roman lighthouse of the port whence the 
 church derives its name. 
 
 The remains of the founder still rest in the 
 ancient marble sarcophagus under an archway on 
 the left hand of the nave, adorned with the figures 
 of our Saviour and the Apostles in rude relief, 
 Pietro Peccatore must not be confounded with 
 Pier Damiano, another Ravennese saint, born in 
 1007, who died at Faenza in 1072, and whose life 
 and works are too well known to be recapitulated 
 here. Only it is curious that Dante should him- 
 self have foreseen the confusion which has arisen 
 between the two saints, and which he tried to 
 forestall. 
 
 Pier Damiano is made by Dante to describe the 
 Monte Catria and the monastery of Fonte Avel- 
 lana. This monastery is still to be found nestling 
 under the side of the mountain in the midst of the 
 oak glades watered by ever-flowing springs of 
 limpid clearness, still served by the Benedictine 
 monks in their white habit, though only three 
 represent the brotherhood which once peopled the 
 now silent and deserted cells. Still the room 
 which Dante occupied remains as it was then ; 
 and through the same window may be seen the 
 rolling green swards of the base of the Catria, 
 that giant of the Apennines, which may well have
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 127 
 
 suggested to him the description of the meta- 
 phorical Mount of Consolation : 
 
 ' Guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalle 
 Vestite gia de' raggi del pianeta 
 Che mena dritto altrui per ogni calle.' 
 
 /«/, i, 16. 
 
 ' I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad 
 Already vested with that planet's beam 
 Which leads all wanderers safe through every way.' 
 
 And in the ' Purgatorio ' we find the actual 
 mountain named, and the convent described : 
 
 ' 'Twixt either shore 
 Of Italy, nor distant from thy land, 
 A stony ridge ariseth ; in such sort 
 The thunder doth not lift his voice so high. 
 They call it Catria : at whose foot a cell 
 Is sacred to the lonely eremite : 
 For worship set apart, and holy rites. 
 
 . There 
 So firmly to God's service I adhered, 
 That, with no costlier viands than the juice 
 Of olives, easily I passed the heats 
 Of summer and the winter frosts, content 
 In heavenward musings. Rich were the returns 
 And fertile, which that cloister once was used 
 To render to these heavens 3 now 'tis fallen 
 Into a waste so empty that ere long 
 Detection must lay bare its vanity. 
 Pietro Damiano there was I yclept.' 
 
 Par.., xxi. 94, et seq.
 
 128 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 So far Gary's translation is exact, but when he 
 goes on to say, 
 
 ' Pietro the sinner when before I dwelt 
 Beside the Adriatic, in the house 
 Of our blest Lady,' 
 
 he makes the very confusion which Dante had 
 tried to anticipate by introducing the personal 
 pronoun {io). The original runs thus : 
 
 ' In quel loci fu' io Pier Damiano 
 E Pietro Peccatore fu nella casa 
 Di nostra Donna in sul lido Adriano,' 
 
 which should be rendered : 
 
 ' Pietro Damiano there was I yclept. 
 Peter the sinner was the one who dwelt 
 Beside the Adriatic, in the house 
 Of our blest Lady.' 
 
 There is one conclusive proof that Pietro 
 Damiano could never have dwelt in the monastery 
 * beside the Adriatic,' because that monastery 
 was founded twenty-four years after his death 
 by Pietro Peccatore degli Onesti. No one could 
 be better aware of this fact than Dante, who 
 when at Ravenna was the contemporary of San 
 Rainaldo, the esteemed historian of the Church 
 which he had governed for twenty years.^ 
 
 Moreover, there were at that time many living 
 descendants of the family of the Onesti, to whom 
 
 ^ Vide ante.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 129 
 
 the sarcophagus of Pietro Peccatore, placed 
 then, as now, in a prominent position in the 
 church which he had founded — ' Di nostra 
 Donna in sul lido Adriano ' — was a source of just 
 pride. 
 
 Thus, with the past history of the city vividly 
 before his mind, amid the companionship of 
 Hving contemporaries, who from their associa- 
 tion with him have left their mark upon the 
 page of history, in the midst of surroundings 
 less altered, perhaps, by the course of centuries 
 than any other of the cities of Italy associated 
 with his name, we can imagine Dante at 
 Ravenna. 
 
 Even at this distance of time we can form 
 some idea of the different aspects of his life. 
 At the Court of Guido Novello it is evident that 
 he filled many functions. In a public capacity 
 he was the trusted counsellor in the affairs of 
 State, and often the Ambassador, chosen on 
 account of his known eloquence, to conduct 
 delicate and difficult negotiations with rival 
 States. On the other hand, in a private capacity, 
 he was the intimate friend, the honoured guest, 
 the revered master in the art of rhetoric and 
 poetry, whose delight it was to guide the natural 
 aptitude and the refined taste of his illustrious 
 pupil. But, besides this close connection with 
 his patron, we have seen that he had a separate 
 independent life, a recognised position as a public 
 instructor of youth in Ravenna, and a house of 
 
 9
 
 130 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 his own, provided for him by Guido Novello, the 
 site of which, although conjecture has been busy 
 with suggestions, has not yet been identified with 
 certainty. 
 
 It is time now to speak of his family. By 
 his marriage in 1292, two years after the death 
 of Beatrice, with Gemma dei Donati, the lady 
 at the window, whose compassionate glance ap- 
 pealed to his broken heart,^ he had six children. 
 Of these Alighiero and Eliseo died of the plague 
 in childhood. Imperia, the eldest daughter, be- 
 came the wife of Tano di Bencivenni Pantaleoni ; 
 the remaining three children — two sons, Pietro 
 and Jacopo, and one daughter, Beatrice — shared 
 their father's exile. ^ To Pietro we have already 
 had occasion to refer, because certain dates con- 
 nected with the two ecclesiastical benefices, San 
 Simone di Muro and Sta. Maria di Zenzanigola,^ 
 which he held in Ravenna, are of great import- 
 ance in fixing the date of the arrival of Dante in 
 the city. Pietro was a lawyer of considerable 
 reputation and fortune in Verona, where he 
 filled several important offices of the State. 
 Thence he came to join his father in Ravenna. 
 The benefices which he held there did not 
 involve in his case, any more than in that of 
 
 ' ' Vita Nuova,' xxxvi. : 
 
 ' Sicche tutta pietade pare in lei raccolta.' 
 
 - ' Dante e il suo Secolo,' p. 68. 
 
 ' San Simone di Muro, because built on the wall of the city ; 
 Sta. Maria di Zenzanigola, from the name of the street which exists 
 to this day.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 131 
 
 Jacopo, who held a canonry in the parish of 
 S. Giorgio at Verona, the necessity of taking 
 Holy Orders. 
 
 Jacopo, the elder of the two brothers, who 
 had shared to a certain extent his father's 
 political career in Florence, was included in the 
 decree, of November 6, 1315, which renewed for 
 the fourth time the sentence of banishment, and 
 being also included in the pardon, offered two years 
 later to the illustrious exile, he shared in his 
 indignant refusal to return to Florence on the 
 terms offered to him. 
 
 It was the custom in Florence, on the feast- 
 day of the patron saint (San Giovanni), to pardon 
 a few of the condemned criminals, offering them, 
 so to speak, before the altar of the saint, lighted 
 taper in hand, and remitting the sentence to a 
 fine. In that year, 1317, it was decreed, probably 
 for the first time, that political offenders might 
 be admitted to the same privilege, and the offer 
 was made to Dante. His reply has been fortu- 
 nately preserved to us, and whatever doubts 
 may have been cast upon the authenticity of 
 some of his letters, as to this one both external 
 and internal evidence declare it to be his own. 
 
 • Is this,' he asks with a scorn worthy of the epithet 
 * Alma Sdegnosa,' which he confers upon himself in his 
 poem^ — ' is this the triumphant recall of Dante Ahghieri 
 to his country after nearly fifteen years of unmerited 
 
 * ' Inf.,' viii. 44. 
 
 9—2
 
 132 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 exile ? Is this the reward of an innocence patent to all, 
 whoever they may be, of continued labour and study in 
 the sweat of the brow ? Be far from a man conversant 
 with philosophy the mere thought of a baseness proper 
 only to the heart of a churl, that he, like Ciolo^ and his 
 companions of evil renown, should be as some prisoner 
 ransomed from just condemnation. 
 
 * Be it far from a man who has once held the scales 
 of justice, that he, the injured party, should pay the fine 
 to his injurers, as to those entitled to receive it. . . . 
 Not in this way will I return to my country ; but if, O 
 my father,- through thee, or through others, another way 
 could be found which will compromise neither the honour 
 nor the fame of Dante, in that way I will at once set 
 myself. For if I cannot re-enter Florence by an honour- 
 able path. I will not re-enter it at all. And forsooth in 
 whatever corner of the world I may find myself, can I 
 not behold the sun and the stars ? Can I not beneath 
 any portion of the canopy of heaven meditate upon the 
 highest, sweetest truth, unless I make myself a man of 
 no renown, if not, indeed, one dishonoured in the face of 
 the people and the city of Florence ? Nor, I am confi- 
 dent, shall I ever want for bread. '^ 
 
 The rest of the letter is lost, but the frag- 
 ment cited, copied in Boccaccio's handwriting, 
 is to be seen in the Laurenziana Library, and 
 
 ^ Probably some well-known criminal of the time. 
 
 - The Florentine friend to whom this letter was addressed is 
 supposed by Balbo to have been Fra Moricone, the Prior of the 
 Monastery of Fonte Avellana ; but there are also other theories 
 respecting it ('Vita di Dante,' vol. ii., p. 282). 
 
 ^ Epistola X., ' Air amico Fiorentino,' Opera Minore, vol. iii., 
 p. 501.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 133 
 
 it is commented upon by him in his Life of 
 Dante : 
 
 ' Oh, noble scorn of a magnanimous soul ! how power- 
 ful was thy influence in withstanding thy eager desire to 
 return, if such return could only be accomplished by 
 means unworthy of a man nourished in the school of 
 philosophy !'^ 
 
 The decree of exile and the offer of pardon 
 did not touch Pietro, who had taken no part in 
 politics ; but his indignation was the same as 
 that of his brother Jacopo, and even after his 
 father's death he never re-entered Florence, nor, 
 although the names of the two brothers appear 
 conjointly in the deeds, did he take any personal 
 part in the division of the patrimony, which 
 Jacopo, availing himself of a later pardon in 
 1323, sued for and obtained as an act of clemency 
 from the Florentine Duke of Athens. 
 
 Although there is scarcely any record of their 
 intercourse with their father during the years they 
 shared his exile, they must have been admitted 
 into his full confidence respecting his great work, 
 a portion of it being still to be seen in the hand- 
 writing of Pietro in the rare MS. preserved in the 
 museum at Ravenna, while upon Jacopo devolved 
 the task of recovering the lost cantos of the 
 * Paradiso,' and of addressing the completed work 
 to Guido Novello, as will be shown in the last 
 chapter. 
 
 * Boccaccio, 'Vita di Dante,' p. 12.
 
 I 34 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 But the entire reticence on the part of Dante 
 himself respectinj^ his family relationships is an 
 accepted fact. There was no exception made, 
 and there is no ground for supposing that the 
 vituperation which Boccaccio has heaped upon 
 Gemma, his wife, originated with Dante. She 
 may or may not have been the Xantippe depicted 
 by the practised hand of that prince of narrators. 
 No word upon the subject fell from the lips of 
 Dante himself. 
 
 On the other hand, there is no word of praise, 
 or even any mention of her after she became his 
 wife, no allusion to her in any of his writings, 
 and it is certain that she did not share his exile. 
 This absolute silence, this proud reserve, shows all 
 the more strongly by contrast with the outpouring 
 of the stream of his strong affection, the expres- 
 sion of every tender thought the human heart is 
 capable of, with reference to Beatrice, a devotion 
 which, far from being weakened, seemed only 
 to gain strength with the lapse of years, and 
 which finds expression in the latest utterances 
 of his poetic genius. His youngest daughter 
 bore her name, and was with her father at 
 Ravenna. 
 
 It is not surprising that this fact should have 
 suggested to modern art a most inspiring theme, 
 and that it should have commanded the utmost 
 skill of poet, novelist and dramatist in clothing it 
 with all the grace and pathos imaginable. But at 
 present, till more research has cast further light
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 135 
 
 upon the subject, we must be content with the fact 
 that her presence at Ravenna is proved by the 
 circumstance of her entering the Convent of San 
 Stefano degli Ulivi after her father's death, and 
 that there Boccaccio found her when he brought 
 her, in 1353, the pension of ten gold florins, 
 whereby Florence, too late, endeavoured to repair 
 an irreparable act of injustice. 
 
 The archives of Or San Michele still preserve 
 the following entry : 
 
 'Sept., 1350. A. M. Giov. di Bocchacio fiorini dicci 
 d' oro perch^ gli desse a Suora Beatrice figluola di 
 Dante Alighieri, Monaca nel Monistero di S. Stefano 
 deir Uliva di Ravenna.'^ 
 
 To this visit of Boccaccio to Ravenna we owe 
 the sketch of Dante's life. It forms the prefix to 
 the famous commentary delivered first of all in 
 the form of lectures, when he was appointed by 
 the Government of Florence the first public ex- 
 ponent of the ' Divina Commedia,' in the Church 
 of San Stefano at Florence, in 1373. But to return 
 to the sketch of the life. It was, as he tells us in 
 his preface, intended as a slight amends to the 
 memory of Dante for his exile, and the lack of 
 any monument in Florence. He wished to supply 
 with his poor faculty of writing the honours which 
 the commonwealth had refused to the noblest of 
 her sons. 
 
 1 < 
 
 Ult. Rif.,' p. 214.
 
 136 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' And therefore, being myself of the same city, although 
 my citizenship is but the smallest fraction when set by the 
 side of the large nobility and virtue of Dante Alighieri, 
 yet as each fellow-citizen is under a solemn obligation 
 to celebrate his great fame, and that which the city 
 ought to have done magnificently not having been done, 
 I, though unworthy to undertake the task, will with my 
 poor ability endeavour to do, not, indeed, with a statue 
 or a gorgeous sepulchre, for neither would be in my 
 power, but with my pen, all unequal though it may be to 
 such a theme, in order that it may not be said among 
 strange countries that our nation is unworthy of such a 
 poet. And I will write in the Florentine idiom, because 
 it will agree with that which he employed in the greater 
 part of his works, things which his modesty forbade him 
 to speak of ; that is to say, the nobility of his birth, his 
 life, studies, and habits, gathering together in one the 
 works of his composition, the which he has himself 
 made so clear to posterity that perhaps my exposition 
 will serve rather to obscure than elucidate them further. 
 Not that such is my wish or my intention, being con- 
 tent to abide in this, as in other things, by the judg- 
 ment of those wiser than myself, and to be corrected by 
 them.' 
 
 Passing by that portion of the sketch which 
 relates to the early hfe and career of its great 
 subject, we will turn to those personal character- 
 istics which must have been derived from Piero 
 di Giardini, who was still living when Boccaccio 
 arrived in Ravenna.^ 
 
 ^ Vide ante, p. 112.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 137 
 
 ' Our poet was of middle stature, and as soon as he 
 had reached middle life had a habit of stooping when he 
 walked. His carriage was grave and dignified ; his 
 dress simple, suitable to his time of life and adapted 
 to his advancing years. His face was long, the nose 
 aquiline ; the eyes large, rather than small ; the jaw 
 massive, and the under lip projected somewhat ; the 
 complexion dark, and the hair and beard thick, dark 
 and curling : the expression always thoughtful and 
 melancholy. On this account it happened that one day 
 in Verona (the fame of his works having spread every- 
 where, and particularly that part of the " Divina Com- 
 media" entitled the "Inferno," which was well known 
 to numbers of men and women), as he passed by a 
 doorway where many women were congregated, one of 
 them, in a low voice, but sufficiently loud to be heard by 
 himself and by the person who was with him, said to the 
 other women : " Look at him ! That is the man who goes 
 down to hell, and returns when he Hkes and brings to us up 
 here tidings of those who are down there." To which one 
 of the other women replied, with the utmost simplicity : 
 " No doubt thou art speaking the truth, because dost not 
 see how his hair is black and singed, and his face bronzed 
 with all the heat and the smoke there is below ?" And 
 he, hearing these words ejaculated behind him, and per- 
 ceiving that they were uttered by the women in simple 
 faith, pleased and content that such should be their 
 opinion, smiled to himself and passed on. Both in 
 puljlic and private life his manner was a'ways composed 
 and sedate, with invariable courtesy towaras all men. 
 
 ' He was most temperate both as to eating and drink- 
 ing, never eating but at the regular times, and never 
 more than was necessary ; nor did he ever show any
 
 138 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 greediness in the choice either of food or drink ; and, 
 although he appreciated delicate fare, he lived for the 
 most part on common and ordinary food, greatly blaming 
 those who made luxurious food and its special preparation 
 their study, declaring that such people did not eat to 
 live, but lived, instead, to eat. No one was more vigilant 
 in study, allowing no other care or interest to contend 
 with it, so much so as to cause grief to his wife and 
 family before they became accustomed to his habits, 
 when they accepted it as a matter of course. He seldom 
 spoke, unless directly addressed, and when he did speak 
 it was with a voice and manner exactly measured and 
 adapted to the matter in hand, although when the occasion 
 required his eloquence was rich and abundant, fluent 
 also, and with careful distinct enunciation. 
 
 ' In his youth he took great delight in songs and melo- 
 dies, and attached himself to anyone who had made 
 himself famous as a rhymester or minstrel ;^ and the 
 result of this delight showed itself in compositions 
 adapted for melody, which were so arranged by his 
 minstrel friends. How much he was influenced by 
 the tender passion of love has already been clearly shown, 
 and it is universally believed that this passion was the 
 main incentive to his becoming first of all a rhymester in 
 the vulgar tongue, and then, urged by the desire to give 
 solemnity to the declaration of his passion and to gain 
 subsequent fame, he diligently perfected himself in the 
 use of it till he had not only outstripped all his con- 
 temporaries, but he so greatly improved and developed 
 it that many at the time and many since have desired 
 and succeeded in becoming experts in it. He preferred 
 to be alone and to live a solitary life, in order that his 
 1 Casella, 'Purg.," ii. 91.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 139 
 
 contemplations might be uninterrupted ; and if some 
 thought suddenly struck him, he being at that time in 
 the company of others, he would remain silent and 
 abstracted, no matter what question was put to him or 
 what observation made, until he had either concluded 
 his meditation or dismissed it from his mind ; this 
 would often happen either when at table or when walking 
 with his companions, and they desired to take another 
 way. His studies he pursued with unremitting assiduity, 
 and no new occurrence was ever allowed to alter or dis- 
 place the time allotted to them. It is said by those 
 worthy of credence, that being one day in Sienna, in 
 front of the booth of an apothecary, and a book having 
 been brought to him which had for a long time been 
 promised to him — a book much thought of by the learned 
 men of the time, but never having been seen by him — 
 and having by chance no place where he could take it 
 away to study it, there upon the bench outside the 
 booth where he stood, he placed himself, with the book 
 before him, and began to read it with such avidity that, 
 although on account of a general feast-day in Sienna 
 there was a joust and tournament going on before his 
 eyes, accompanied with the clash of weapons and armour, 
 the sound of various musical instruments, and the shouts 
 of the people — to say nothing of the accompaniments of 
 the feast, such as the dancing of beautiful women, and 
 deeds of prowess and skill on the part of the young men 
 — he was never seen to stir or to lift his eyes once from 
 the book ; and having placed himself there at nones, it was 
 not till after vespers that, having read the book through, 
 and having made himself thoroughly master of it, he 
 rose from his seat. On being asked how he could refrain 
 from looking at the gay spectacle in front of him, he re-
 
 140 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 plied that he had not been even aware of it, and so to 
 the first wonder was added a second for his questioners 
 to ruminate upon. 
 
 ' He was, moreover, a poet of marvellous genius, of 
 sound memory, and keen intellect — so much so that, 
 when in Paris, assisting at a discussion, " De quolibet," 
 a subject at that time much debated in the schools of 
 theology, fourteen questions were put to him by different 
 men of great learning upon different points, with the 
 arguments for and against on either side, he, without 
 a moment's hesitation, gathered them together, and, in 
 their order as they had been put to him, replied to 
 them one by one in the same order, with much subtlety 
 meeting and confuting the arguments on the contrary 
 side, the which thing was looked upon as a miracle by 
 the bystanders. 
 
 ' To the loftiness of his thought and the subtlety of 
 his inventive faculty his own works, rather than my 
 words, bear sufficient testimony. He longed for honour 
 and fame, perhaps more than was altogether consistent 
 with the nobility of his character. But, on the other 
 hand, what spirit is there so altogether humble as to be 
 insensible to the allurements of fame ? And it was, I 
 believe, on account of this longing that he preferred the 
 study of poetry, perceiving that as philosophy was superior 
 to all other studies, its excellence could only be under- 
 stood by the few, and that there existed already in the 
 world many famous philosophers ; whereas in the case 
 of poetry it was easy to all to understand and delight 
 in it, yet of poets they were few and far between. 
 Therefore, hoping by means of poetry to attain to the 
 almost obsolete and distinguished honour of the laurel 
 crown, he gave himself up both to the study and com-
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 141 
 
 position of the art. And certainly his desire would 
 have been fulfilled had fortune been favourable to him, 
 and had he been able to return to Florence, where alone, 
 at the Font of San Giovanni, would he have accepted the 
 laurel crown — there where he had received the first 
 name to take the second in the act of coronation. But 
 thus it fell out, that, although his merit was sufficiently 
 great to have enabled him to claim anywhere the honour 
 of the laurel crown (which does not, of itself, increase 
 knowledge, being but the seal and adornment of it), yet 
 that falling out which never should have been, he waited 
 in vain, and, refusing every other offer, died without the 
 much-coveted honour.'^ 
 
 Such is the outline of the portrait traced by the 
 first biographer of Dante. Popular tradition has 
 added, in the form of anecdote, a few character- 
 istic touches. One of these relates how that 
 
 ^ Later on in the same work Boccaccio makes a divergence to 
 treat of this custom, and gives three reasons for the choice of the 
 laurel, because the laurel amongst others has three especial pro- 
 perties : ' The first, we can see for ourselves it is evergreen ; the 
 second, it is impervious to the bolt of the thunder and the blast of 
 the lightning, in which it differs from all other trees ; the third, it 
 is odoriferous with the sweetest perfume — this we can also per- 
 ceive for ourselves. These three properties were reckoned by the 
 ancients, from whom the custom is derived, to mark its fitness for 
 celebrating the merit of the poet and the victory of the commander. 
 First, because the perpetual green of the leaves demonstrates the 
 undying fame of their deeds, those who have been crowned, or who 
 ever will be crowned, being thereby rendered immortal. Secondly, 
 their fame is so surely established as to be impervious to the blast 
 of envy and the destructive power of time, wiiich consumes every- 
 thing. Thirdly, to show that all deeds of fame can never, in the 
 course of years, lose their enchantment for reader and listener alike, 
 but, Vjeing always acceptable and full of charm, are in their per- 
 petual sweetness like the leaves of the laurel.' — 'Vita di Dante,' 
 PP- 52, 53-
 
 142 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Dante, in one day's journe}', passed through 
 Lugo, where he was cheated and given short 
 measure by a mercer ; through Fusignano, where 
 he was made to pay an unjust tax ; through 
 Bagnacavallo, where he was insulted by the 
 people. Recapitulating in his evening orisons 
 the three outrages of the day, he is said to have 
 exclaimed : 
 
 ' A statera Luci, a justitia Fusignani et ab infami plebe 
 Balneocaballi libera nos Domine.' 
 
 ' From the standard of the Lughese, from the injustice 
 of the Fusignanese, and from the insults of the men of 
 Bagnacavallo, deliver us, O Lord.' 
 
 The tradition remains among the people of 
 Bagnacavallo to such an extent that, when any- 
 one embarks in a search for hidden treasures or 
 antiquities, they are derided for ' searching after 
 the bones of Dante's ass,' The poor animal 
 which carried the poet that day was so ill-treated, 
 while its master, the Ghibelline passing through 
 Guelph territory, was insulted, that it died shortly 
 afterwards, and was buried at Bagnacavallo. 
 
 A second anecdote is important, because it has 
 reference to what is called the ' Credo ' of Dante, 
 which, although pronounced by modern criticism 
 to be apocryphal, has hitherto been printed with 
 the minor works of Dante. It was originally 
 published in the fifteenth century in Latin, in the 
 modern spelling, and translated into Italian by
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 143 
 
 Quadrio.^ Confronted again with the original 
 MS.- by Rigoli, who discovered corroboration in 
 no less than twelve original MSS. of the fourteenth 
 century, and acquired a ' terzina ' in this process, 
 which had never been printed before,^ the ' Credo ' 
 was placed by him at the head of a collection of 
 rhymes by various great writers,* with the follow- 
 ing introduction : 
 
 ' It would not be possible to open our collection with 
 a more illustrious name. Dante stands first, both on 
 account of his fame and because of the chronological 
 order which we propose to adopt in the disposition of 
 our material. We therefore start with his " Profession of 
 Faith," which contains the Apostles' Creed, the Exposi- 
 tion of the Sacrament, and the Decalogue, the enumera- 
 tion of the deadly sins, the Paraphrase of the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Ave Maria in " terza rima." '^ 
 
 Although, as a matter of poetry, it has no 
 extraordinary merit, yet on account of the terse 
 and pellucid exposition of the faith as Dante 
 believed it, showing exactly what his tenets were 
 even with respect to the observance of Sunday,*^ it 
 
 ^ Author of ' Storia e Ragione di Ogni Letteratura,' a standard 
 work. 
 
 ' Codice 1,011 della Riccardiana. 
 ' ' Masol di quell' eterno,' etc., xxvi. 
 
 * ' .Saggio di Rime di diversi buoni Autori.' 
 
 * ' II Canzoniere di Dante Alighieri,' etc., Da Pietro Fraticelli. 
 
 ® ' II Terzo si e, che ciascun si riposa 
 D' ogni falica un dl nulla semana 
 Siccome Santa Chiesa aperto pose.' 
 
 The commandment is called the third instead of the fourth, because 
 the first and second are made into one.
 
 144 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 is to be hoped that the further researches in con- 
 templation will remove all doubt that it was 
 indeed his work. Moreover, the origin of the 
 composition is not a little interesting. The story 
 is as follows : 
 
 There dwelt in Ravenna a learned friar of the 
 minor order, who was an inquisitor, and hear- 
 ing much talk of this Dante, he determined ' in 
 his heart to know him so that he might see 
 whether in truth he erred from the faith of Christ; 
 and one morning, when Dante was in a church to 
 worship our Lord, this inquisitor arrived in the 
 same church, and Dante was pointed out to him. 
 Then the inquisitor caused him to be summoned. 
 Dante approached him with reverence. The 
 inquisitor then asked, " Art thou that Dante who 
 sayest that thou hast passed through hell, purga- 
 tory and paradise ?" And Dante replied, " I am 
 Dante Alighieri of Florence." And the inquisitor 
 went on angrily, "Thou makest songs and sonnets 
 and such-like rubbish. Thou wouldst have done 
 far better to write a grammar, and have been 
 content to rest on the foundations of the Church 
 of God, giving no heed to such inventions, which 
 may one day bring thee the reward that thou 
 meritest." And Dante making as if he would 
 reply to this, the inquisitor said, " This is not the 
 time ; but on such a day we will meet, for I wish 
 to investigate these things." Dante then an- 
 swered that this would be most agreeable to him, 
 and, leaving the inquisitor, retired to his room.
 
 Closing Years of the Life of Dante 141; 
 
 There he wrote the treatise which is called the 
 " Little Creed," the which is a complete affirma- 
 tion of the creed of Christ. Having shown this to 
 the inquisitor, it seemed to him a very remarkable 
 production, and he knew not any more what to 
 say to Dante.' 
 
 A third anecdote is cited as valuable evidence 
 that Dante gave public instruction in Ravenna. 
 It is said that, while these lectures were being 
 delivered, another of the Ravennese doctors said 
 to a student who was praising the science of 
 Dante, ' You speak of the science of a rogue,' 
 adding, ' Because Dante has said everything 
 worthy of fame and remembrance in his poems, 
 and has left nothing for anyone else to say, there- 
 fore he is a rogue.' 
 
 The fourth and last shows the unfailing readi- 
 ness of his wit. One day, at the Court of Guido 
 da Polenta, a courtier, perceiving that Dante, 
 silent and grave, as was his wont, kept aloof from 
 the company, never ceased persecuting him with 
 questions as to what was the matter — what was 
 he thinking about ? 
 
 ' I was wondering,' replied Dante, ' which was 
 the greatest beast in the world.' 
 
 ' Oh !' said his tormentor, ' don't rack your 
 brains any more about that, for I can tell you. 
 The elephant is the greatest beast in the 
 world.' 
 
 ' Then,' replied Dante immediately, * dear 
 
 10
 
 146 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Mr. Elephant, do leave me alone and attend to 
 your own affairs.' 
 
 These anecdotes are preserved in Ravenna with 
 as much care as the tradition which indicates the 
 path, called the Viale de' Poeti, or del Poeta, taken 
 by Dante on his way to the Pine Forest.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PIN ETA— EMBASSY TO VENICE— DEATH AND 
 
 BURIAL. 
 
 10-
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PINETA — EMBASSY TO VENICE — DEATH 
 AND BURIAL. 
 
 ' La divina Foresta spessa e viva.' 
 
 Purg., xxviii. I, 2. 
 
 IF, from the Latin correspondence, it is reason- 
 able to suppose that the ' Paradiso ' was 
 mainly written at Ravenna, the description 
 of the ' divina Foresta spessa e viva ' in the * Pur- 
 gatorio ' leaves no room for doubt that the Pine 
 Forest at Ravenr.a must have inspired that 
 passage, and that there, and nowhere else, could 
 it have been written. 
 
 It has been ably argued, in the paper already 
 alluded to, by Mr, Gladstone, when enumerating 
 probabilities in favour of Dante's visit to Oxford, 
 that he must have had personal cognizance of the 
 places he described. For example, when he nar- 
 rates the journey of Caesar up the Rhone it is 
 through his own personal experience of the place. 
 Again, the cities of Flanders arc named by him, 
 because he saw them in his journey further North,
 
 150 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 and so on till he reaches England, adding touches 
 of local interest which could only have been ob- 
 tained by a personal knowledge of the spot. 
 
 This argument is still more forcible when 
 applied, not to a city or a place, but to some pass- 
 ing phenomenon of Nature or sudden effect. How, 
 for example, if he had not himself witnessed it, 
 could Dante have described the appearance of 
 the Tower of Cariscenda, which, if the clouds 
 behind it are travelling in the direction contrary 
 to the inclination of the tower, make it seem 
 
 about to fall P^ 
 
 ' As appears 
 The Tower of Cariscenda, from beneath 
 Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud 
 So sail across, that opposite it hangs. 
 Such then Antaeus seemed, as at mine ease 
 I marked him stooping.' 
 
 Carv, Trans. 
 
 Or, again, the gentle fall of the snow in the silence 
 of a mountain pass,^ or the sudden rising and 
 spreading of the mist till the whole landscape was 
 blotted out, if he had not himself beheld the 
 phenomena while passing the Apennines in the 
 early winter ? 
 
 In a similar way, only more forcible still, the 
 forest in the 'Purgatorio' is a living picture of the 
 Pineta at Ravenna, and has been referred to in 
 this sense in all the commentaries, most notably 
 in that of Benvenuto da Imola.^ 
 
 ' 'Inf.,' xxxi. 136, 141. - 'Purg.,' xxx. 85. 
 
 ^ ' Comentum,' iv. 161, 162.
 
 I 
 
 w 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 'A 
 
 -if 
 
 H 
 U
 
 The Pineta 151 
 
 It is not only the rustle of the pines and the 
 song of the birds which, in the poem, exactly 
 describe the great forest at Ravenna. The picture 
 is a facsimile in all its details, and proves how 
 profound was the impression upon the mind of 
 Dante. No point of note escapes him when, in 
 the ' Purgatorio,' he paints from the Hfe the tall, 
 rugged trunks, often in straight rows like the 
 aisles of an ancient basilica, with branches reach- 
 ing out from side to side, interlacing each other, 
 making shelter alike from heat and storm, and 
 penetrated by an even, tempered light. Below, 
 an undergrowth of myrtle and juniper, as if 
 rejoicing in the protection overhead, spreads 
 itself over a carpet of moss, broken here and 
 there by little clumps of flowering shrubs and 
 sweet-smelling flowers. Here is the first picture 
 of it in the lines : 
 
 ' Vago gia di cercar dentro e dintorno, 
 La divina Foresta spessa e viva.' 
 
 Picrg.^ xxviii. i. 
 
 ' Through that celestial forest, whose thick shade 
 With lively greenness the new springing day 
 Attempered, eager now to roam, and search 
 Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank.' 
 
 Like a curtain of green velvet, the thick crests 
 of the pines break the blast of the wind so effectu- 
 ally that it cannot bluster in the sheltered aisles 
 of the mysterious forest, and only reaches the 
 traveller with a force as mitigated as that of the
 
 152 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 light. And when the sirocco blows from the 
 south-east the pines on the coast turn towards 
 the west, and through their needle foliage passes 
 a sweet murmur as of an ^olian harp : 
 
 ' Tal, qual di ramo in ramo si raccoglie 
 Per la Pineta in sul lito di Chiassi, 
 Quando Eolo Scirocco fuor discioglie.' 
 
 Purg., xxviii. 19-21. 
 
 ' Even as from branch to branch, 
 Along the piny forests on the shore 
 Of Chiassi, rolls the gathering melody, 
 When Eolus hath from his cavern loosed 
 The dripping south.' 
 
 Gary, Trans. 
 
 The birds which, by a natural instinct, have 
 sought refuge in this evergreen arcade, undisturbed 
 by the storm, sing on in ceaseless melody : 
 
 ' Non pero dal lor esser dritto sparte 
 Tanto, che gli augelletti per le cime 
 Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte : 
 Ma con piena letizia 1' aure prime, 
 Cantando, riceveano intra le foglie, 
 Che tenevan bordone alio sue rime.' 
 
 Ibid., 13-18. 
 
 ' Upon their top the feathered quiristers 
 Applied their wonted art, and with full joy 
 Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill 
 Amid the leaves, that to their jocund lays 
 Kept tenor.' 
 
 Carv, Trans.
 
 The Pineta 153 
 
 Then we have the description of the canals 
 which, at regular intervals, intersect the dense 
 regions of the great forest, carrying their limpid 
 waters to the sea, their banks lined with fresh 
 herbage : 
 
 ' Gia m' avean trasportato i lenti passi 
 Dentro all' antica selva tanto, ch' io 
 Non potea riveder dond' io m' entrassi : 
 Ed ecco r andar piu mi tolse un rio, 
 Che inver sinistra con sue piccole onde 
 Piegava 1' erba che in sua ripa uscio. 
 Tutte r acque, che son di qua piu monde, 
 Parrieno avere in se mistura alcuna 
 Verso di quella, che nulla nasconde, 
 Avvegna che si muova bruna bruna 
 Sotto r ombra perpetua, che mai 
 Raggiar non lascia Sole ivi, nb Luna. 
 Coi pie ristetti e con gli occhi passai 
 Di la dal fiumicello, per mirare 
 La grande variazion de' freschi mai. ' 
 
 Ibid., 22-36. 
 
 ' Already had my steps, 
 Though slow, so far into that ancient wood 
 Transported me, I could not ken the place 
 Where I had entered, when behold ! my path 
 Was bounded by a rill, which to the left 
 With little rippling waters bent the grass, 
 That issued from the brink. On earth no wave 
 How clean soe'er, that would not seem to have 
 Some mixture in itself, compared with this, 
 Transpicuous, clear ; yet darkly on it rolled, 
 Darkly beneath perpetual gloom, which ne'er
 
 154 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Admits or sun or moon light there to shine. 
 
 My feet advanced not ; but my wondering eyes 
 Passed onward, o'er the streamlet, to survey 
 The tender May-bloom, flushed through many a hue, 
 In prodigal variety.' 
 
 Gary, Trans. 
 
 No one who had ever visited the spot could 
 fail to recognise in the ' divina Foresta spessa e 
 viva ' of the terrestrial paradise the character- 
 istics of the Pine Forest at Ravenna, and one 
 glance back at the Latin eclogue of Giovanni del 
 VirgiHo, while confirming Dante's description, 
 will show how familiar these were also to his 
 correspondent.^ 
 
 This conjunction of testimony would lead one 
 to suppose that the concluding cantos of the 
 ' Purgatorio,' as well as the whole of the * Para- 
 diso,' were composed in the cool, mysterious 
 shade of the forest to the melodious accompani- 
 ment of the rustling pines and ceaseless song of 
 the birds. 
 
 To this period also belong those minor works of 
 Dante — the ' Credo,' already referred to, and the 
 ' Paraphrase of the Seven Penitential Psalms.' 
 This paraphrase, though, of course, lacking in the 
 power and vigour which characterize the original 
 work of Dante, has caught the spirit of the writer, 
 prompted probably by the same feelings, that 
 appeal from the injustice of men to the justice 
 of God, which inspired the psalmist, and the 
 
 ^ Vide ante. Chapter IV., p. 104.
 
 Opere Minori 155 
 
 passionate yearnings which, in the hour of 
 anguish, have gone up from many and many a 
 sorrow-laden soul. 
 
 Here and there we find thrown in many a little 
 personal touch relating to his own life, short- 
 comings, and bent of mind. These are to be 
 found especially in Psalm V., and still more in 
 the De Profundis, which is the most masterly 
 paraphrase of all. 
 
 From the calm solitudes where he pursued 
 occupations of this nature, and from a corre- 
 sponding state of thought, Dante was suddenly 
 called upon by his patron, Guido Novello, to 
 appear once more in the public capacity of an 
 Ambassador from Ravenna to Venice ; and this is 
 the last important act of his life. 
 
 Needless to say that the closing event of such a 
 career has proved the last citadel round which 
 every storm of criticism, assertion, and counter- 
 assertion has raged, and will rage till further and 
 renewed investigation has settled the points of 
 dispute. Meanwhile the facts can only be re- 
 stated as they have hitherto stood, together with 
 the arguments for and against the letter, supposed 
 to have been written from Venice by Dante to 
 Guido da Polenta. Boccaccio makes no allusion 
 to the Embassy to Venice. After the sentence 
 in which he describes the life of Dante at Ravenna 
 as being chiefly spent in giving instruction to his 
 scholars in the art of poetry in the lingua volgare,^ 
 
 ' See Chapter IV.
 
 156 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 he passes at once to that hour appointed to all 
 men which came also to Dante. Only in so far 
 as the date which he assigns talhes with the period 
 of the return from Venice does the testimony of 
 Boccaccio throw any light upon the vexed ques- 
 tion. It is upon the narrative of Villani, sup- 
 ported by Manetti, that biographers have hitherto 
 rested for their statements. The chronicle of 
 Villani records that Dante died 
 
 ' in the city of Ravenna in the Romagna, on his return 
 from his Embassy to Venice on behalf of the Signori da 
 Polenta, with whom he lived. '^ 
 
 Then follow further particulars, from which we 
 gather the motive of the Embassy. A dispute had 
 arisen between Venice and Ravenna ; a Venetian 
 ship had been attacked by the Ravennese, the 
 captain killed, and many of the crew wounded. 
 The Venetians, furious, quickly determined on 
 reprisal. They made an alliance with the Orde- 
 laffi at Forli, promising to supply funds to the 
 amount of 3,000 golden florins to raise and equip 
 troops so as to make immediate war upon Ravenna, 
 and, in return for their support, they were to receive 
 a free supply of salt and grain while the war lasted. 
 They laid their grievance before the Malatesta of 
 Rimini, relating the offence committed in time of 
 peace against the Republic by Guido da Polenta 
 and the commune of Ravenna. As a protest 
 against such an outrage they summoned Pandolfo 
 
 ^ ' Storie,' lib. ix., c. xxxiv.
 
 Embassy to Venice 157 
 
 to withdraw his alliance from Ravenna, and to 
 refuse the passage through Rimini of any force 
 sent to the assistance of Ravenna, under pain of 
 being considered the enemy of Venice. Cesena, 
 Imola, and Faenza received similar instructions 
 from the incensed Republic. Meanwhile the 
 Ordelafii lost no time in responding to the 
 Venetian proposals, promising at once to attack 
 Ravenna with all the infantry they could muster, 
 as well as to supply two hundred cavalry within 
 the first and three hundred within the second 
 month, ' in order to defeat that city, the enemy of 
 Venice, with force and valour, to the utter loss 
 and destruction of the same until she sued for 
 peace or a truce.' 
 
 Ravenna, thus threatened on all sides by a 
 combination of enemies, one of whom alone 
 would have sufficed for her destruction, had no 
 time to lose in pacifying her enraged adversary, 
 and Guido da Polenta decided to despatch an 
 immediate Embassy to Venice to avert the im- 
 pending storm. Nor was there any hesitation in 
 his choice of Dante as the principal Ambassador, 
 not only on account of his learning and well- 
 known powers of rhetoric, but because of his 
 diplomatic experience in former embassies, his 
 previous relationship with the Ordelaffi family, 
 who shared his politics, and one of whom, 
 Scarpetta, he had served as secretary (1307-8). 
 Matters having reached this threatening crisis, 
 delay was dangerous, and the Ambassadors must
 
 I 58 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 have left Venice in the last days of August. 
 Although no document has yet been found in the 
 Venetian archives relative to the arrival of this 
 first Embassy from Ravenna, the documents which 
 do exist are as follows : 
 
 I. August II, 1321. The determination of the 
 Maggior Consiglio as to a rupture of all negotiation 
 between Venice and Ravenna, 
 
 II. August 17, 1321. The despatch of the 
 Venetian Ambassador, Niccolo di Marsilio, by 
 Doge Giovanni Soranzo to Cecco degli Ordelafft 
 to solicit his alliance. 
 
 III. August 22, 1321. The repl}^ as cited, of 
 Cecco degli Ordelaffi. 
 
 Another document, that of October 20, the same 
 year, one month after the death of Dante, relates 
 to the second Embassy despatched from Ravenna, 
 in which there is plain and distinct allusion to the 
 previous Embassy. This had evidently resulted 
 in the preliminaries of a peace, the provisions 
 of which were carried a stage further by the 
 second Embassy. The reply of the Doge and 
 the Council leaves no room for doubt upon the 
 matter. 
 
 ' You already know ' (these are the terms in which it is 
 couched), ' both from ourselves and our commissioners, 
 that it is our intention to live in peace with the com- 
 munity of Ravenna, but because you have already said, 
 and say now, that you are not empowered to reply, go 
 back for your instructions and return, either yourselves, 
 or let others return in your stead, with an arranged con-
 
 Embassy to Venice 1 59 
 
 tract and agreement, ready to be signed, and the 
 negotiations will proceed in such a manner as to put a 
 stop to all discord, and peace will again reign. Mean- 
 while it will be well that the Ravennese restore what they 
 have taken, and we will do the same. As to the pro- 
 clamation of peace, go back to Ravenna and proclaim it 
 both in regard to ourselves and to our allies, especially 
 the Ordelaffi.' 
 
 Two things are clear from this document, which 
 fortunately has been preserved. In the first place, 
 that there had been a previous Embass)', the date 
 of which may be fixed somewhere between the 
 last days of August and the first of September. 
 Secondly, that that Embassy — the Embassy of 
 Dante — had been a successful preliminary measure. 
 It would seem as if either a truce or a peace had 
 been proposed by Dante ; that the Venetians had 
 not shown themselves averse to either, but had 
 demanded concrete proposals. Therefore a second 
 Embassy had arrived from Ravenna in October to 
 suggest that Venice should take the initiative and 
 draw up the articles of the treaty. To this the 
 Doge and Council replied as we have seen, and 
 this was transcribed as a preliminary compact in 
 the Venetian archives. The result, then, of the 
 Embassy of Dante was success, though he did 
 not live to see the treaty signed. 
 
 We must now consider the letter from Venice. 
 It is No. viii. among the Latin epistles.^ The 
 
 ' 'II Convito fli Dante e le Epistole,' Kralicelli, p. 431.
 
 1 6o Dante at Ravenna 
 
 title : * Al Maj^nifico Messer Guido da Polenta, 
 Sig^nor di Ravenna.' The date March 30, 1314. 
 
 Whether or not this is a genuine letter — and at 
 present the arguments remain equally balanced — 
 can only be decided by some fresh discovery. It 
 first saw the light in 1547, being published in a 
 volume entitled, ' Prose Antiche di Dante, Petrarca, 
 Boccaccio,' etc., collected by a certain Anton 
 Francesca Doni. Whereas the other Latin 
 epistles can be confronted with original MSS., in 
 the case of this one, up to the present time, the 
 MS. is lacking. The initial difficulty as to the date, 
 1314 instead of 1321, can be disposed of in two 
 ways : either that it is a mistaken figure, which 
 seems to be the opinion of Balbo,^ or that it 
 belongs to another of the occasions when Dante 
 was sent on an Embassy to Venice. Possibly it 
 belongs to the complimentary visit of congratula- 
 tion despatched from Ravenna to Venice on the 
 occasion of the election of the Doge Giovanni 
 Soranzo, 13 14, which seems suggested by the 
 internal evidence of the document. However 
 that may be, the greater part of the letter consists 
 of an indignant protest because, having begun his 
 oration in Latin, he was told to desist because 
 the language was not understood by the Venetians 
 in council assembled ; and the second attempt to 
 address them in his mother-tongue was attended 
 with as little success. Nor was their ignorance 
 to be wondered at, considering their Greco-Dal- 
 
 1 Balbo, 'Vita di Dante,' vol. ii., p. 331.
 
 Embassy to Venice i6i 
 
 matian origin. Then follows a request to Guido 
 never to send him again on a similar Embassy, 
 which could neither add to his own reputation nor 
 be productive of any satisfaction or consolation to 
 his patron. The letter concludes with the para- 
 graph : 
 
 ' I shall stay here a few days to feast my bodily eyes, 
 which are naturally enchanted with the novelty and 
 beauty of this spot, and shall then return to the sweet 
 haven of my retirement, surrounded with the benign pro- 
 tection of your princely courtesy. '^ 
 
 We must accept with some reserve the state- 
 ments in the chronicle of Villani that the Vene- 
 tians purposely refused to listen to Dante, fearing 
 that the power of his eloquence might deter them 
 from the revenge for which they thirsted ; also 
 that they would not send him back under escort 
 in one of their ships to Ravenna, lest the same 
 dreaded eloquence should convert the Vene- 
 tian Admiral and corrupt the fleet. This seems 
 scarcely probable, although it is not unnatural 
 that Villani should omit no touch in his narrative 
 which might enhance the reputation of Dante as 
 an orator. It is more likely that he took the 
 return journey by land to escape any vexation by 
 the Venetian fleet. We must also bear in mind 
 that the road along the coast was the accepted 
 highway and post communication between the 
 Marches, the Romagna, and Venice, and con- 
 
 * ' Le Epistole,' viii., p. 482. 
 
 II
 
 1 62 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 tinued to be so up to the close of the last century. 
 The treacherous waves of the Adriatic and sudden 
 fierce storms were too well known to the dwellers 
 on the coast to make it a chosen method of com- 
 munication between Ravenna and Venice. The 
 very Venetian soldiers were ordinarily despatched 
 by land, the Castle of Marcabo having been built 
 as a fortress to command the land access. There 
 was also the question of time ; the Embassy was 
 obliged to return without delay to lay before 
 Guido Novello the proposals upon which the 
 safety of the State depended. It was not likely 
 that in such an emergency they would expose 
 themselves to a delay of possibly twenty days on 
 a journey by sea which could be accomplished by 
 land in three or four. We may, then, imagine the 
 route pursued by Dante and his fellow-Ambas- 
 sadors. They would probably have gone by boat 
 along the shores of Malamocco, Pelestrina, and 
 Chioggia, past the great Murazzi, or sea-walls of 
 Venice, and possibly the sunset over the Lagune, 
 with the soft haze upon the Euganean Hills, would 
 have brought to a close the journey of the first 
 day. The next day, passing through the delta 
 of the Po by means of the huge flat-bottomed 
 boats or rafts which then, as now, formed a 
 means of communication, they would reach in the 
 evening the magnificent Benedictine Abbey of 
 Pomposa, whose tall tower, glittering with majolica 
 and terra-cotta, must have been a welcome sight 
 to the weary travellers. Probably there, as at the
 
 The Return from Venice 163 
 
 Fonte Avellana on Monte Catria, the Benedictine 
 Fathers came out in their white robes to welcome 
 the illustrious Embassy on its return journey. 
 Pursuing their way with the morning light, the 
 travellers would thread through the Lagunes of 
 Comacchio, and, keeping to the long sandy strip 
 of shore, would cross the Lamone, and enter the 
 northern extremity of the Pineta. Thence through 
 the deep, unbroken silence of the forest, beneath 
 the sheltering shade of the protecting pines, with 
 the velvet sward beneath his feet, Dante paced 
 his last steps, ' nel cammin di nostra vita,' perhaps 
 in that sweet hour of sunset when 
 
 ' Volge il disio 
 . . . Ainaviganti ed intenerisce '1 cuore 
 Lo di ch' ann detto ai dolci amici addio.' 
 
 * Now was the hour that wakens fond desire 
 In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart 
 Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell.' 
 
 Gary, Trans. 
 
 It was his farewell to earth, for the fatal 
 malaria was already in his veins. The season, 
 the early days of September, was the worst for 
 travelling along the coast, through marshes where 
 the first autumn rains had stirred the deposits of 
 the long, dry summer, drawing forth exhalations 
 of a pestilential character, and Dante reached his 
 home in Ravenna only to die. 
 
 We must now return to the narrative of Boc- 
 caccio, remembering that this portion of it was 
 
 II— 2
 
 164 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 taken down from the lips of an eye-witness of that 
 death, Pietro Giardino, to whom Dante confided, 
 
 'as he lay in his last sickness of which he died, that he 
 had already passed his fifty-sixth year by as much time as 
 the interval between the preceding May and that day 
 (September 14).^ 
 
 ' He then having received, with humility and devotion, 
 every ecclesiastical sacrament, according to the rites of 
 the Christian Faith, and being reconciled to God for all 
 those things which he had done contrary to His will, and 
 at peace with man, in the month of September, in the 
 year of our Lord 132 1, on the day when the Invention 
 of the Cross is celebrated by the Church, to the great 
 grief of the aforesaid Guido da Polenta, and generally to 
 that of all the citizens of Ravenna, he commended his 
 weary spirit into the hands of his Creator, the which, I 
 doubt not, was received into the arms of his saintly 
 Beatrice, with whom, in the presence of Him who is the 
 Supreme Good, having bid farewell to the miseries of 
 this world, he lives in that other life, to the everlasting 
 felicity of which there is no end.' 
 
 Further, we learn from the same narrative how 
 Guido da Polenta caused the body of Dante to 
 lie in state, vested with all the insignia and 
 decorations becoming a poet ; that it was then 
 carried by the chief citizens, accompanied by the 
 whole lamenting populace, with every mark of 
 honour and distinction, to its last resting-place, 
 near the Church of the Franciscans in Ravenna, 
 where it was deposited in the sarcophagus, which 
 
 ' ' Vita di Giovanni Boccaccio,' vol. i.
 
 The Return from Venice 165 
 
 remains as it was to this day. Guido then re- 
 turned to the house in which Dante had lived, 
 and there, according to the custom of Ravenna, 
 pronounced a long and eloquent funeral oration, 
 with the double purpose of giving emphasis to the 
 deep learning and distinguished merits of the 
 dead, and to comfort the living friends to whom 
 his loss would occasion such bitter mourning. 
 
 A few lines in verse by Antonio Pucci, of which 
 the translation is given, follow, and somewhat 
 amplify the prose narrative of Villani and Boc- 
 caccio : 
 
 ' There in Ravenna, ne'er again to smile, 
 But late returned from Venice, whither sent 
 Ambassador on Guide's hest erewhile, 
 He died amid the city's loud lament. 
 
 ' He, the true poet, in that garb they vest; 
 The laurel crown they place upon his head ; 
 A noble book he clasps to silent breast ; 
 With cloth of gold they drape his fun'ral bed : 
 Thus willed Polenta's Lord, at lavish cost, 
 Some time in life his kind and courteous host.'
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE TOMB OF DANTE, AND THE DISCOVERY OF 
 HIS REMAINS.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE TOMB OF DANTE, AND THE DISCOVERY OF 
 
 HIS REMAINS. 
 
 ' In terra e terra mio corpo.' 
 
 IN death, as in life, Guido da Polenta held fast 
 by the privilege of honouring his revered 
 guest, and the hospitality which had never 
 ceased to accompany the living form of the poet 
 was now directed to raising such a monument 
 over his remains as would alone have handed 
 him down to posterity had his own merits failed 
 to do so. Moreover, it was to be inscribed 
 with an epitaph, and that this might be worthy of 
 the occasion, Guido threw it open to competition 
 among all the poets of the Romagna, hoping that 
 either because they wished to pay their individual 
 tribute to a great name, or from motives of per- 
 sonal vanity to gain distinction, or because they 
 wished to win the favour and applause of the cele- 
 brated Lord of Ravenna, there would be every 
 motive for emulation among them to produce an 
 epitaph which would fitly instruct posterity as to
 
 170 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 the high merit of him whose remains were en- 
 closed in that sepulchre. Most unfortunately a 
 scheme so happily conceived, so worthy of Guido 
 da Polenta in its large-hearted liberality and 
 keen desire for perfection, was frustrated by an 
 undeserved and overwhelming disaster. 
 
 ' Jolas,' it will be remembered, was the name 
 assigned by Dante to Guido Novello in the Latin 
 correspondence, because of the friendship between 
 Jolas and ^Eneas ; but there was also, though 
 Dante was unaware of it, an element of prophecy 
 in the comparison. The lines of the * Mxieid ' 
 relate of Jolas : 
 
 ' In high Lyrnessus and in Troy he held 
 Two palaces, and was from each expelled ; 
 Of all the mighty man, the last remains, 
 A little spot of foreign earth contains.' 
 
 ^nei'd, xii. 800, Dryden's Trans. 
 
 But before we reach the narrative of subsequent 
 treachery, we will turn to the one bright spot 
 which relieves it, which sets the crown upon the 
 relationship between Guido Novello and his guest, 
 and shows that the sons of Dante knew how to 
 appreciate the constant kindness of their father's 
 patron and friend. It will be remembered that 
 Guido Novello was called away from Ravenna to 
 Bologna almost immediately after the death of 
 Dante, September 14, 132 1, and therefore he 
 had been some seven months at Bologna when 
 he was elected Capitano del Popolo, April i, 1322.
 
 The Tomb of Dante 171 
 
 It was on this day, and to celebrate this event 
 with the greatest compliment in their power, that 
 he received from the sons of Dante the first com- 
 plete copy of the * Divina Commedia,' made from 
 his father's autograph by Jacopo Alighieri, with a 
 prefix of his own in ' terza rima,' beginning as 
 follows : 
 
 ' O voi che siete del verace lume 
 Alquanto illuminati nella mente 
 Ch' e sommo frutto dell' alto volume 
 Perche vostra natura sia possente 
 Piu nel veder 1' esser dell' Universe 
 Guardate all' alta Commedia.' 
 
 ' All ye within whose minds some streak doth shine, 
 If but with tempered ray of light divine, 
 Of this consummate work the end and aim, 
 If that your nature would with power claim 
 The being of the universe to see, 
 Then look within this lofty comedy.' 
 
 Then follows the preface, ' Proemio di Jacopo 
 Alighieri al suo comento sopra la Commedia di 
 Dante suo Padre.' It begins : 
 
 ' Accib che del fructo universale novellamente dato al 
 mondo pr lo illustro phylosofo poeta Dante Alighieri co' 
 pill agevolezza si possa gustare p. colore in cui lume 
 naturale alquanto risplende senza scientilica appresione 
 io Jacopo suo figluolo p. malcriale prosa dimostrare 
 itendo parlare del miso profomlo ed autcntico itendi- 
 mcnto. La quale per piii chiare/za simigliantamente
 
 172 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 si conviene seguitare dichiarando ore bisogna quella 
 parte al libro p. dicto p. titulo che a cio si conviene nella 
 quale cominciando cosi procedo Nel mezzo del cammin,' 
 etc., 
 
 which may be translated : 
 
 ' In order that the fruit newly given to the world by 
 the illustrious philosopher and poet, Dante Alighieri, 
 may be of universal benefit, and more easily tasted by 
 those whose natural intellect is not seconded by scientific 
 knowledge, I, Jacopo, his son, intend to demonstrate in 
 plain language some part of his profound and true mean- 
 ing. The which for more clearness it will be better to 
 follow closely, explaining where it is necessary that part 
 of the aforesaid book citing the passage in question, and 
 beginning with it, I proceed Nel mezzo del cammin,' etc. 
 
 This work is sent first to Guido da Polenta, 
 because no one is so fit to correct it as Guido, on 
 account of his intimate acquaintance with the 
 poem itself, quaintly described by Jacopo as ' his 
 sister,' whose features are so familiar to Guido. 
 
 The sonnet is as follows : 
 
 ' Accib che le bellezze Signor mio 
 Che mia sorella nel suo lume porta 
 Habian d' agevolezza alcuna scorta 
 Pill in coloro in cui porgon disio 
 La qual di tal piacer ciascun conforta 
 Ma non a quelli c' han la luce morta 
 Che '1 ricordar a lor saria oblio ! 
 Perb a voi c' havete sue fattezze 
 Per natural prudenza habituate 
 Prima la mando che la corregiate.
 
 The Tomb of Dante 173 
 
 E s' ella e digna che la commendiate 
 Ch' altri non e che di cotai bellezze 
 Habia si come voi vera chiarezze.' 
 
 ' In order that, O lord and master mine, 
 My sister's beauties, as they radiant shine, 
 May with the more facility unfold 
 To those who seek them with desire to hold, 
 The which on such will ever comfort shed. 
 But not on those in whom true light is dead 
 (To such remembrance gives oblivion place) : 
 Therefore to thee I send — the well-known face. 
 Familiar, long by gift and learning proved, 
 I send, that worthy she may be approved ; 
 For none as thee with such discerning eye 
 Beauties so great hast power to descry.' 
 
 Carducci, one of the greatest modern authorities 
 on Italian literature, comments thus upon this 
 sonnet : 
 
 ' There is certainly no affinity between the verses of 
 Dante and those of Jacopo, yet to have for a father the 
 father of the " Divina Commedia " is a matter for family 
 pride to which nothing can be compared in this world. 
 To have felt this pride, to have loved the work of his 
 father, which, on account of its superlative character, 
 must deprive anyone bearing the same name of any hope 
 of distinction ; to have loved it so well as to have clothed 
 this awful and terrible vision with a semblance of cor- 
 poreal form, and to have called it by one of the sweetest 
 names of family relationship, showing by that affectionate 
 metaphor the place it held in his thoughts, testifies to the 
 noble and generous nature of the man ; for the power
 
 1/4 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 to reverence genius for its own sake, and the faculty to 
 
 understand it, stands only second to genius itself.'^ 
 
 This preface, often to be found in MS. copies 
 of the ' Divina Commedia,' rests for authenticity 
 upon three of the most important, because the 
 earliest, MSS. of the poem — I. The Bodleian 
 MS., from which the translation on the pre- 
 vious page has been made. II. That of the 
 Carriani of Mantua, which bears the signature of 
 the scribe, Jacopus de Placentia, 1380, and, after 
 giving the introduction by Jacopo Alighieri, cites 
 also the sonnet, which, ' with the aforesaid intro- 
 duction, was sent, by Jacopo, the son of Dante, 
 to the magnificent and noble knight, Guido da 
 Polenta, a.d. 1322.'^ III. That of the Codice 
 Dantesco, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, 
 date 1351,^ which, besides bearing the name of 
 Jacopo, has also this conclusion: 
 
 ' Per ipsum missus fuit ad magnificum et sapientum 
 militem Dum Guidonem de Polentia anno millesimo 
 trecentesimo vigesimo secundo dii primo mensis Aprile,' 
 
 and is followed by the valuable glosses of our 
 Jacopo upon the ' Inferno.'* 
 
 This proemio, or preface, by Jacopo Alighieri, 
 which relates to the whole poem, must not be 
 confused with another gloss upon his father's 
 
 ' Carducci, ' Delia varia Fortuna di Dante.' 
 - 'Ultimo Rifugio,' p. 175. 
 
 * No. 7,765 old nuinerale, now 534- 
 
 * ' Seguitato da Pregh°" chiose del n' Jacopo supra 1' Inferno.'
 
 The Tomb of Dante 175 
 
 work, entitled the ' Divisione di Jacopo Alighieri,' 
 of which the MS. is also to be found in the Paris 
 Library.^ The ' Divisione ' has reference only to 
 the ' Paradiso,' dividing it — hence the name of 
 * Divisione ' — into nine parts, explaining that this 
 form has been chosen because of the ' good ' of 
 which the number nine is the emblem, ' Simile al 
 ben che dal nove declina.' Thus, Jacopo divides 
 off, in short doggerel couplets, the well-known nine 
 spheres of the * Paradiso,' concluding with the 
 lines of which the translation is subjoined : 
 
 ' Therefore from this you may henceforward see 
 How much of that profound high fantasy 
 Of Dante, sole artificer and sire, 
 You may by careful study there acquire. 
 See how the words upon his ample page 
 The universal good successful gauge ; 
 Hence, by example, how to evil shun. 
 Nor with unmastered passion heedless run. 
 And fatal plant our feet in error's way 
 (Which from th' eternal temple leads astray) ; 
 For he himself was once a wanderer lost, 
 Till a hand stretched from out th' heavenly host 
 Led him by will Divine forth from the strife, 
 While yet midway in this our earthly life.' 
 
 How quickly the knowledge of the poem became 
 diffused over the Court of Guido Novello at 
 Bologna may easily be imagined, and it was in 
 Bologna that the first commentaries upon it by 
 Graziolo dei Bambaglioli (1324) and Jacopo delia 
 
 * MS. da Francesco di Maestro Tura, etc.
 
 176 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Lana (1323-1328) began to appear. Both had 
 political and official relations with Guido Novello, 
 which we may fairly conclude may have been 
 drawn to a common literary centre by their joint 
 and close study of the ' Divina Commedia.' In 
 all probability this would be also the period when 
 Giovanni del Virgilio, in response to the appeal 
 from Guido Novello, wrote the famous epitaph : 
 
 ' Theologus Dantes nullius dogmatis expers, 
 Quod foveat claro philosophia sinu : 
 Gloria Musarum, vulgo gratissimus auctor, 
 Hie jacet, et fama pulsat utrumque polum. 
 Qui loca defunctis gelidis regnumque gemellum 
 Distribuit, logicis, rhetoricisque modis. 
 Pascua Pieriis demum resonabat avenis ; 
 Atropos heu ! lectum livida rupit opus. 
 Huic ingrata tulit tristem Florentia fructum, 
 Exilium vati patria cruda sue. 
 Quern pia Guidonis gremio Ravenna Novelli 
 Gaudet honorati continuisse Ducis 
 Mille trecentenis ter septem Numinis annis 
 Ad sua septembris idibus astra redit.' 
 
 ' Dante the theologian, wanting in no dogma 
 Of all that Philosophy cherishes in her glorious bosom, 
 The glory of the Muses, the most famous author in 
 
 the vernacular, 
 Lies here, but with his name strikes the two Poles, 
 Who told in due order, by rule of Logic and Rhetoric, 
 Of the places for the cold dead and of that other em- 
 pire.
 
 Epitaph by Giovanni del Virgilio 177 
 
 Lastly, he began to celebrate the Shepherd's Arcady 
 
 with Pierian pipe. 
 Alas ! envious Fate cut short the work in its bloom. 
 To him ungrateful Florence, his unkind country, 
 Rendered to her poet a bitter recompense of exile ; 
 Him pious Ravenna delights to have held 
 In the bosom of her honoured Lord Guido Novello. 
 In the year of God 1321, on the Ides of September, 
 He returned to his own stars. '^ 
 
 The touch of internal evidence as to the ' Shep- 
 herd's Arcady,' from the pen of Dante's corre- 
 spondent, in the eclogues from which we have 
 cited, seems to add another convincing proof to 
 the weight of evidence in favour of Giovanni del 
 Virgilio as the author. 
 
 Following the narrative another step, we can 
 picture to ourselves that this would have been 
 the epitaph engraved by Guido Novello upon the 
 ' egregia sepoltura ' with which he intended to 
 honour the resting-place of Dante on his return 
 to Ravenna, after the expiration of his temporary 
 office of Capitano del Popolo.- This was frustrated 
 by the treacherous plot which announced itself by 
 the brutal murder of Rainaldo da Polenta, Arch- 
 bishop of Ravenna, and brother of Guido Novello. 
 Documents still extant attest the immediate de- 
 parture of Guido for Ravenna, to avenge his 
 brother's death, and the prompt succour tendered 
 by the Bolognese, but in vain; he never re-entered 
 
 ' Translation made by J. S, rhillimore, Esq., Ch. Ch., Oxford. 
 * Vide ante, p. 171. 
 
 12
 
 lyS Dante at Ravenna 
 
 the city, and thus the first project for the adornment 
 of the sepulchre, either by the hand of the sculptor 
 or the verse of the poet, came to nothing. That 
 the lines of Giovanni del Virgilio, however, were 
 preserved we owe to Boccaccio, who tells us that 
 he himself examined the poems of the competing 
 poets of the Romagna, 
 
 • and that as, on account of the great misfortune which 
 foiled the purpose of Guide Novello, they could not 
 appear on the tomb ; nor indeed, had it been otherwise, 
 could all the compositions have been inscribed there, but 
 only one most worthy of the honour — these verses, I 
 say, having been shown to me, and having examined 
 them all, I consider that, both as to style and sentiment, 
 the fourteen lines by that great and famous poet, 
 Giovanni del Virgilio, the intimate friend, moreover, of 
 Dante, are the most worthy of preservation, and there- 
 fore 1 transcribe them here.'^ 
 
 We have seen that Guido Novello was the 
 fortunate recipient of the earliest complete copy 
 of the * Divina Commedia ' ; but, it may be asked, 
 why did an interval of nine months elapse between 
 the death of Dante and the presentation of this 
 copy to his patron ? This is accounted for by a 
 very interesting contemporary anecdote related by 
 Boccaccio in his narrative, and corroborated by 
 Piero di Giardino, whose intimate relations with 
 Dante will be borne in mind by the reader. 
 
 ' It was,' Boccaccio tells us, ' a habit with Dante, as 
 soon as he had finished six or eight cantos, before anyone 
 
 1 'Vita di Dante.'
 
 The Dream of Jacopo Alighieri 179 
 
 else had seen them, to send them to Can Grande della 
 Scala, whom he esteemed more than any other Hving 
 man, and as soon as he had seen them, Dante would 
 then make a copy for anyone else who wished for it. 
 In this way, having sent him all but the last thirteen 
 cantos — these being done, but not as yet sent — it hap- 
 pened that Dante, not having any recollection that they 
 had not been sent, died ; and the survivors, both sons 
 and disciples, having sought many times and for many 
 months among all his writings for the completion of the 
 work, and not being able, in spite of all their efforts, to 
 discover the lost cantos, renewing again and again the 
 search, urged by the entreaties of every surviving friend 
 of the poet, coupled with bitter lamentations that God 
 had not lent him a little longer to the world, so as to 
 enable him to complete his work, they were driven to 
 distraction. Jacopo and Piero, the sons of Dante — 
 both of them more or less adepts in the art of verse — 
 urged by the persevering entreaties of the friends, were 
 about to attempt to supply the missing cantos, so that 
 their father's work might not go forth incomplete into 
 the world, when to Jacopo, who was of the two most 
 eagerly bent upon this course, a vision appeared, which 
 not only put an end to such presumptuous folly, but 
 also revealed to them where the thirteen missing cantos 
 were to be found, which hitherto they had sought for in 
 vain. 
 
 'A worthy citizen of Ravenna, PierGiardino byname, 
 and for a long time himself the pupil of Dante, was 
 wont to relate how, in the eighth month after the death 
 of his master, this same Jacopo arrived at his house in 
 the night, just near to the hour of dawn, and told him 
 that he had that very night, a very short time previously, 
 
 12 — 2
 
 i8o Dante at Ravenna 
 
 seen a vision in his sleep of Dante, his father, clad in 
 white robes and with an unwonted light upon his face, 
 advance towards him ; that it seemed as if he, Jacopo, 
 then addressed him and asked him if he still lived ; to 
 which he replied, Yes, but that he was alive with a true 
 life — not with this of ours. Then it seemed as if he 
 (Jacopo) further asked him (Dante) whether before pass- 
 ing into the true life he had completed his work, and, if 
 he had completed it, where was the missing portion, 
 which they had sought in vain, to be found. To this 
 question he appeared to hear for the second time the 
 answer, Yes, I finished it. And then it seemed as if 
 the spirit took him by the hand and led him into the 
 chamber where he was wont to sleep when in life, and, 
 touching one part of it, he said, "It is here, that which 
 you have so long sought for." And having said this, it 
 seemed as if both the vision and his own sleep vanished 
 simultaneously, on which account he (Jacopo) would 
 declare that he was quite unable to keep from coming to 
 him (Pier Giardino) at once to relate what had occurred, 
 in order that they might both go together and search in 
 the spot indicated, of which he retained an accurate 
 recollection, in order to see if it had been pointed out 
 by a true spirit or was merely a false delusion of the 
 mind. Therefore, although it was still night, they set 
 off together, arrived at the spot indicated, and there they 
 found a stove fixed against the wall, the which yielded 
 easily to their efforts to move it, revealing behind it a 
 little window, which had hitherto entirely escaped their 
 observation — nor did they even know that it was there — 
 and in that window-seat they found some manuscript 
 sheets, mildewed and about to perish from the damp of 
 the walls. These, when cleansed from mildew, they per-
 
 The Dream of Jacopo Alighieri i8i 
 
 ceived, on reading them, to be the thirteen lost cantos. 
 At this discovery they proceeded at once to copy them 
 and send them, according to the author's custom, to Can 
 (Grande della Scala), and then united them to the imper- 
 fect work in their due place. Thus the poem which it had 
 taken so many years to construct was completed at last.'^ 
 
 The simple narrative of Boccaccio has been 
 given word for word as he received it from Pier 
 di Giardino. 
 
 That Pier di Giardino existed, that he was the 
 friend and pupil of Dante, present at his last 
 illness if not actual death, that he was alive when 
 Boccaccio came to Ravenna in 1346, are all 
 matters of proved history, and these facts being 
 now patent to all, no purpose is gained by citing 
 those authorities who since, arguing from one 
 common basis, have either rejected with scorn, 
 or believed, or partly rejected and partly believed 
 the extraordinary vision. 
 
 But it must be pointed out that the negative 
 criticism which has eagerly assailed the credibilitj' 
 of the narrator, the better to discredit his state- 
 ment, is not supported by the more recent investi- 
 gation of Boccaccio's literary work. 
 
 The Giornale Dantesco for the current year, 
 which contains two very interesting articles 
 entitled ' II culto del Boccaccio per Dante,' points 
 out how the whole of Boccaccio's work bears the 
 impress of his intense devotion to Dante, and that 
 more and more as his study deepened of the great 
 
 ' Boccaccio, ' Vita di Dante,' jip. 63, 64.
 
 1 82 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Master, the result appears in his own work, till 
 the ' Vita di Dante,' which was the last of 
 Boccaccio's writings, became ^ 
 
 ' a priceless jewel in Italian literature, redounding no less 
 to the glory of the biographer than the subject of the 
 biography. Besides the Italian editions of the " Vita di 
 Dante," we possess Latin translations and paraphrases 
 re-translated into Italian, which prove how, on its diffu- 
 sion, it became the common patrimony, so to speak, of 
 reader and copyist alike, the field upon which their 
 labours were concentrated. 
 
 ' What, then, is the amount of reliance to be placed 
 upon the great novelist ? 
 
 ' Shall we say with Aretino, Manetti, Filelfo, and 
 
 Gaddi, that he is careless and untrustworthy ? Shall we 
 
 share the sceptical opinion of his work held by Vellu- 
 
 tello, Biscioni, iNlaffei, Tiraboschi and Todeschini? Or 
 
 shall we go a little further, with Mercurio, and declare 
 
 that he is not the author of the work at all ? All these 
 
 exaggerated statements have been brought into the 
 
 crucible of modern criticism, and all now know that " II 
 
 Certaldese " (Boccaccio) made investigation, and drew 
 
 his information from the best and purest sources — from 
 
 Piero Giardino, for a long time the disciple of Dante ; 
 
 Andrea di Leon Poggi, the nephew by the mother's side 
 
 of Alighieri ; and Ser Dino Perini, another of his greatest 
 
 friends ; and all know that, if any of these witnesses gave 
 
 contradictory evidence, the biographer vindicated his 
 
 claim to a trustworthy narrative by honestly stating the 
 
 several versions, leaving the reader to the free exercise 
 
 of his own judgment.'^ 
 
 ' Giornale Dantesco, Anno v., ii. della Nuova Serie, Quaderno vii., 
 p. 304.
 
 The Prophecy of Boccaccio 183 
 
 No less striking than the vindication of his 
 truth as a narrator has been the vindication of 
 his truth as a prophet as to the fate of the remains 
 of his Master. Following immediately upon his 
 recital of the death and burial of Dante, we find 
 in his narrative the short chapter of bitter reproof 
 to the Florentines/ which concludes with this 
 striking passage of prophecy : 
 
 ' Thy Dante x\lighieri has died in the unjust exile to 
 which thy envy of his just merit consigned him. Ah ! 
 the shame of having to record that a mother was envious 
 of her own child. Now thou art freed from all further 
 alarm on that account; now by his death thou canst live 
 in unchecked security amid thy imperfections, and bring 
 thy prolonged unjust persecutions to an end. He can- 
 not do to thee, dead, what living he would never have 
 done. He sleeps beneath another sky than thine, nor 
 mayest thou ever hope to see him again, till that day 
 when thou wilt again see all thy citizens, to whom a just 
 Judge will give the final award. If then, as it has been 
 said, all anger, hatred and strife cease with the death of 
 whoever it is that dies, begin now to reflect within thy- 
 self, and in a calmer frame of mind begin to think with 
 shame of having acted contrary to thy wonted kindness ; 
 begin now to show thyself as mother rather than enemy, 
 and of thy mother's pity give to thy son the tears which 
 are his due ; and he whom thou didst reject, and when 
 in life didst drive away from thee, seek at least to regain 
 in death ; re-invest him with thy citizenship in thy bosom, 
 and let thy honours adorn his memory. . . . Seek, then, 
 to have the guardianship) of thy Dante, asking to have 
 ^ ' Rimprovero ai Fiorentini.'
 
 184 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 him back ; show that compassion at least, supposing it 
 not to be thy wish, and so with this fiction seek to 
 remove some of the blame of thy former conduct. I 
 tell thee, I am certain of it, that he will not be given 
 back to thee, and in that hour when, by asking for him, 
 thou wilt seek to show thy compassion, thou wilt, on 
 being refused, reap the reward of thy former innate 
 cruelty. But what am I advising thee to do ? Hardly 
 can I believe that, if dead bodies are capable of feeling, 
 that of Dante would wish to leave the place where it now 
 lies to return to thee. It lies in far more honourable 
 company than any thou couldst supply. He lies in 
 Ravenna, far more worthy of veneration than thou art, 
 and if now showing somewhat of the decay of age, in her 
 youth she flourished far more than thou ever wilt. She 
 holds as in one vast sepulchre the bodies of great and 
 holy men, so that there is no part of the city where you 
 can tread without feeling that their ashes lie beneath 
 you. Why, then, should the body of Dante desire to 
 return to thee, to lie among thy dead, who, it would 
 seem, preserve in death the anger and rabid factions of 
 life, and in their enmity flee the one from the other, like 
 the flames of the two Thebans ? ^Vhereas Ravenna, 
 almost completely bathed in the blood of the martyrs, 
 where to this day their relics are reverently preserved, 
 and in like manner the bodies of many a magnificent 
 emperor, and other great and noble men, distinguished 
 both on account of their ancestry and good work, will 
 rejoice not a little that, besides all her other precious 
 dowry, it was also the gift of God to her to be the per- 
 petual guardian of such a treasure as is the body of him 
 whose works have held the admiration of the whole world, 
 of whom thou wert not worthy ; and yet not so great will be
 
 The Prophecy of Boccaccio 185 
 
 her joy at possessing him, but that her envy of thee from 
 whom he had his origin will be greater still, grieving that 
 she can only claim the record of his last day beside thee, 
 to whom belongs the first. And so remain with thy in- 
 gratitude, while to Ravenna, rejoicing in her honours, will 
 belong the triumph of posterity.' 
 
 Read by the light of subsequent history, the 
 prophecy is not a little extraordinary, so much so 
 that, although the facts are already known to 
 most students of Dante, no excuse will be required 
 for restating them here. So great were the vicis- 
 situdes which beset the remains of Dante, that it 
 would seem that as if in death no more than in 
 life was there to be a permanent place of rest for 
 * lo corpo dentro al qual io feci ombra.' 
 
 In life we know that a clause in one of the 
 sentences of exile forbade the return of Dante to 
 Florence under pain of being burnt at the stake. 
 His body had not been in the grave eight years, 
 when it was threatened with the same fate. The 
 proposed desecration arose out of an unwarrant- 
 able use of his book ' De Monarchia.' The argu- 
 ments on which the treatise is based were twisted 
 by Ludovic of Bavaria to back the pretensions of 
 Piero della Corvara, the Antipope, whom he 
 created because John XXII., the reigning Pope, 
 had refused him the Imperial crown. 
 
 The book, hitherto almost unknown, became 
 famous by this unseemly controversy, and there- 
 fore on the defeat of Ludovic, the dispersal of the 
 Antipapal party, and the fall of the Antipope, the
 
 i86 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Papal Legate, Bertrando del Poggetto, was in- 
 structed to burn the book as an heretical com- 
 position. The bones of the author were condemned 
 to the same fate, and were only rescued from it by 
 the timely intervention of Pino della Tosa, a gentle- 
 man of Bologna, and Ostazio da Polenta, then in 
 power at Ravenna. But a Riminese monk, Guido 
 Vernano, of the Order of San Domenico, was in- 
 structed to prepare a refutation of the obnoxious 
 work, the MS. of which, ' De Reprobatione 
 Monarchiae compositsea,' is still extant in the 
 archives of Ravenna. The MS. of the ' Morale ' 
 of Pietro di Dante, which takes the form of ' II 
 Lamento delle Sette Arti ' over the condemnation 
 of Dante as a heretic, has also been preserved to 
 us. The contemplated desecration of his remains 
 would, it is observed with bitter sarcasm, have sur- 
 prised nobody, for 
 
 ' what could signify the committal of a book and just a 
 handful of dry bones to the flames in those times, when, 
 in the name of the most edifying Christianity, men were 
 burnt, and not unfrequently in the full tide of life, sound 
 in body and mind ?'^ 
 
 For more than sixty years after this first 
 attempt to violate the sepulchre the remains were 
 allowed to rest in peace. During this period one, 
 if not two, epitaphs were engraved upon the 
 sarcophagus. It has been said by some of the 
 writers upon this vexed question, that these epi- 
 
 1 'Ult. Rif.,' 193.
 
 Menghino Mezzani 187 
 
 taphs displaced the lines by Giovanni del Virgilio. 
 But contemporary evidence does not seem to 
 support this theory. 
 
 Boccaccio, as we have seen, preserved the lines 
 in his Life of Dante, because they were not engraved 
 upon the tomb, and from Menghino Mezzani's 
 sonnet to Bernardo da Canatro we certainly infer 
 that no inscription had hitherto adorned the sar- 
 cophagus. It will be remembered that he wrote 
 thus from his captivity to Bernardo ■} 
 
 ' Thine, then, at last the pious tribute laid, 
 
 Messer Bernardo, at our Dante's feet, 
 Dearer to him because none else have made 
 
 Of all his other friends an offering meet. 
 
 ***** 
 Through thy device that name can never die. 
 
 Unless, indeed, first die this iron age. 
 Behold thy marble there, where every eye 
 
 Can read the lines from off the solid page. 
 Honour thus paid unto the senseless clay 
 Of thy great love in life shall fitly say.' 
 
 This sonnet, Bernardo's reply to Menghino 
 Mezzani, and the epitaph itself,- are all to be found 
 attached to a fourteenth-century MS. of the 
 ' Divina Commedia ' in the Bodleian Library.^ 
 
 ' Fid/; ante. 
 
 • MS. of epitaph by Bernardo Canacci attached to page 193 of 
 a fourteenth-century parchment copy of the ' Divina Commedia.' 
 Bernardo Canaccio is described as Bernardo ' Da Canatro.' 
 • Epitaffium ad Sepulcrum Danlis in Kavenna Urbe factum per 
 dominum liernardum de Canatro.' — 'Jura Monarchic^,' etc. 
 
 ' Bodleian Library, Canon. Ital., 97, 193.
 
 1 88 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 The epitaph, with the prefix 
 
 ' Kpitaffium ad Sepulcrum Dantis in Ravenna 
 Urbe factum per Dominum Bernardum de Canatro,' 
 
 is as follows : 
 
 ' Jura Monarchic, Superos, Phlegetonta, lacusque 
 Lustrando cecini voluerunt fata quousque 
 Sed quia pars cessit melioribus hospita castris 
 Actoremque suum petiit felicior astris, 
 Hie claudor Dantes, patriis extorris ab oris 
 Quern genuit parvi Florentia mater amoris.' 
 
 ' The Rights of Monarchy, celestial realms, 
 Phlegethon, th' infernal lake, while traversing, I sung 
 Long as the fates so willed. Because of me 
 One part has ceased from here, and upwards soared 
 Happy towards its Author 'mid the stars, 
 To dwell in better tents, made welcome there. 
 Here lie I, Dante, banished from thy land, 
 Florence who bare me, mother scant of love.' 
 
 This inscription remains upon the tomb to this 
 day, but the second epitaph, which belongs to the 
 same period, always cited together with the 'Jura 
 Monarchies ' of Bernardo da Canatro, has dis- 
 appeared from the sarcophagus. That it was once 
 there, and that it was inscribed at about the same 
 time above the one still extant, it seems hardly 
 possible to doubt, after the discovery of the Cesena 
 copy of the ' Divina Commedia,' by Francesco di 
 Maestro Tura. Transcribed in 1378, it recites 
 that this second epitaph had been * recently
 
 Epitaphs by Da Canatro and Mezzani 189 
 
 engraved ' ; that it occupied a place above the 
 * Jura Monarchiae,' and that it was the work of 
 that discreet and learned man Menghino Mezzani 
 of Ravenna.^ 
 
 This epitaph is as follows : 
 
 * Inclita fama cuius universum penetrat orbem 
 Dantes Aligherius florentina natus in urbe, 
 Conditor eloquio lumenque decusque latini 
 Vulnere saevge necis stratus ad sidera tendens 
 Dominicis annis ter septem mille tercentis 
 Septembris idibus includitur aula superna.' 
 
 * He whose glorious fame reaches through the whole 
 world, 
 
 Dante Alighieri, born in the city of Florence, 
 
 The founder of the vernacular, the bright star and 
 honour of Latinity, 
 
 Laid low by the stroke of cruel death, bound for the 
 stars, 
 
 In the year of our Lord 1321, on the Ides of Sep- 
 tember 13th, 
 
 And is numbered in the Court of Heaven.' 
 
 Whether it was indeed written by Menghino 
 Mezzani after his release from captivity in 1350, 
 which probability is suggested by the statement 
 in the MS. of 1378 that it had been 'recently 
 engraved ' on the tomb, or whether it was, as 
 some say, the work of Jacopo Alighieri, it bears, 
 like the companion epitaph by Bernardo da 
 
 ' Codice della Divina Commedia, del Secolo xiv. Citato dal 
 De Batines, ii. 135, 237.
 
 190 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Canatro, the stamp of the age, and this should 
 make us lenient to the jumble of false quantities 
 which Dr. Moore hopes never did * disfigure the 
 poet's tomb.'^ 
 
 We may, then, sum up the facts connected with 
 this first epoch of the sepulchre as follows : At 
 the death of Dante, September 13, 1321, Guido 
 Novello caused the remains to be provisionally 
 interred in a stone sarcophagus, evidently one of 
 the many ancient sarcophagi which to this day 
 remain a characteristic feature in Ravenna. 
 
 Guido, driven into exile, was foiled in his pur- 
 pose of erecting the noble sepulchre which he had 
 planned, and the sarcophagus appears to have re- 
 mained without ornament till past the middle of 
 the fourteenth century; only the name of the poet 
 inscribed upon it gave evidence of its precious 
 contents. Shortly after Boccaccio's second or 
 third visit to Ravenna, in 1353, the sarcophagus 
 appears to have been repolished, and either 
 simultaneously, or within a very short period of 
 each other, there appeared upon it the two 
 epitaphs cited above. 
 
 It was at the close of the year, December 22, 
 1396, that Florence made the first of those de- 
 mands for the remains of Dante which Boccaccio 
 in his prophecy had anticipated. This first claim 
 arose out of the decree that five monuments were 
 to be erected in Santa Maria del Fiore to the 
 most famous literary men of Florence. The name 
 
 ^ Historical Review, October, 1888.
 
 Florence demands his Remains 191 
 
 of Dante stood second to that of Accursio, and 
 preceded that of Petrarch ; the names Zanobi da 
 Strada and Boccaccio completed the list. 
 
 It was probably in order that the bones of 
 Dante might rest beneath the proposed monu- 
 ment that Ravenna was solicited to restore them 
 to Florence. The demand being refused, the 
 request was reiterated on February i, 1429, on 
 the same plea, and it was again refused. But the 
 desire of the Florentines was stimulated and kept 
 alive by a certain Frate Antonio Neri, a preacher 
 of some fame, an appointed reader and lecturer 
 upon the ' Divina Commedia ' in Florence in 1430- 
 1432. He caused to be painted and placed in the 
 cathedral a portrait of Dante, which has since 
 been displaced for that by Michelino in 1430. 
 But the old painting was inscribed with curious 
 and obscure lines, the sense of which has been 
 interpreted, with a note by Bartolomeo Ceffoni, 
 to this effect : 
 
 ' These verses are a copy of those painted and written 
 into the old painting, which represents Dante in Santa 
 Liperata, otherwise Santa Maria del Fiore, where at this 
 present time (1430) Dante is being read by Antonio 
 Frate di San Francesco. This same Master Antonio 
 caused the said painting to be executed, to remind the 
 Florentines that they must bring back the bones of Dante 
 to Florence in order to do him the honour which he 
 deserves in a fitting place. '^ 
 
 Stung by refusal, the Florentines began to cast 
 
 ' Codice Riccard, 1036, a.c. i8o, quoted in the ' Ultimo Rifugio,' 
 p. 381.
 
 192 
 
 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 about for some powerful ally to support their 
 demand, so their next attempt was made in the 
 time of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, April 17, 
 1476, through the Venetian Ambassador, urging 
 Venice to coerce Ravenna, then under her 
 dominion, into yielding up the coveted remains. 
 It is supposed, though not absolutely proved, that 
 this Ambassador was no other than Bernardo 
 Bembo, and that when he failed to influence his 
 Government in favour of the Florentine demand 
 for the restoration of the remains, he directed his 
 energies to adorning the place of their repose. 
 His epitaph is a record of the neglected condition 
 in which he found the sepulchre : 
 
 ' Exigua tumuli Dantes hie sorte jacebas 
 Squallenti nuUi cognite pane situ. 
 At nunc marmoreo subnixus conderis area 
 
 Omnibus et cultu splendidiore nites. 
 Nimirum Bembus musis incensus ethruscis 
 Hoc tibi quem in primus hoc coluere dedit. 
 Ann. Sal. mcccclxxxiii. vi. Kal. Jvn. 
 Bernardus Bemb. Praet. ?ere sue Posuit.' 
 
 ' Here, Dante, in the penurious chance of thy burial 
 Thou didst lie, scarce known to any man for the foul 
 
 neglect, 
 But now under a marble vault thou'rt laid to rest. 
 And shin'st with a brighter splendour than all. 
 For Bembo, fired by the Tuscan Muses, 
 Rendered this tribute to thee, their prime favourite. 
 The year of salvation 1483, the sixth day before the 
 first of June, Bernardo Bembo, Chief Magistrate, 
 erected this at his own cost.'
 
 Bernardo Bembo 193 
 
 He placed the work in the hands of the 
 sculptor Pietro Lombardi, who was at that time 
 employed b}^ the Republic to execute various works 
 in Ravenna, as, for example, the two columns in 
 the Piazza Maggiore. the one surmounted by the 
 symbolical Lion, the other by a statue of San 
 Apollinare/ and the image of St. Mark, now in 
 the cathedral. 
 
 These are only interesting as being the work 
 of the sculptor who adorned the tomb of Dante, 
 and whose work, almost as it originally stood, 
 can be seen to this day. The ingress to the tomb 
 was not altered by Pietro Lombardi, but was 
 still as it had hitherto been, from the Piazzetta. 
 Immediately opposite, with its back to the wall, 
 was the ancient * Area Lapidea,' which was re- 
 polished and somewhat reduced in dimensions 
 by the clever sculptor. He placed above it a 
 sculptured effigy in Istrian marble of Dante, with 
 the poet's laurel round his head, and the ' vair ' 
 tippet of a Doctor of Divinity upon his shoulders, 
 in the act of reading from an open book, which 
 rests on a desk in front of him. The face being 
 in profile, the traditional cast of feature is 
 accentuated by the sculptor, and it must be 
 freely owned that both in attitude and expression 
 it is a somewhat stiff and cramped representation 
 of the poet. The chin is supported by the left 
 hand, the right rests upon another book laid 
 open upon a table, where three volumes and an 
 
 ' Since displaced by that of San Vitale by Clemente Molli. 
 
 13
 
 194 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 inkstand are also represented. Although more of 
 an effigy than a sculpture, the whole effect has a 
 certain merit and a character of its own. Pietro 
 Lombardijit has been well remarked by Cicognara, 
 approached his task more from the architect's 
 than from the sculptor's point of view, and the 
 architecture and decorations have a certain 
 chaste elegance characteristic of the period. The 
 basso-relievo, or effigy, is let into a background 
 of African veined marble, which must have 
 belonged at one time to some ancient monu- 
 ment at Ravenna. This in its turn has an 
 ornamentation of Grecian marble which forms 
 the setting and frame. The two materials are 
 blended in the same way in the architectural 
 ornamentation of the lunette above, which takes 
 the form of a funeral wreath, half laurel, half 
 palm, emblematic of the glory of the poet and 
 the suffering of the exile, and surrounds the motto 
 * Virtuti et Honori.' The same motto and the 
 same emblems are repeated on a smaller scale in 
 a little square of marble which was once an out- 
 side decoration, but is now inserted in the wall on 
 the left-hand side. This ornament carries a shield 
 in the centre, inscribed with the words 
 
 ' His non cede Malis,' 
 
 freely interpreted : 
 
 • Because of the poet's crown, 
 Because of the martyr's palm, 
 I do not yield to misfortune.'
 
 INTERIOR OF THE lOMI! OK DANTE. 
 
 To/acc />. IIJ4.
 
 The Mysterious Letters S. V. F. 195 
 
 The sarcophagus itself, which originally was 
 on the same gigantic scale as those which 
 are still to be seen in S. Apollinare in Classe, 
 was somewhat reduced in its dimensions by 
 Lombardi, but the proof that it is the original 
 one in which the body was laid was clearly 
 established when it was opened in 1865. It was 
 then seen that the lower slab which formed the 
 bottom had received a faint but distinct impres- 
 sion of the skeleton. Had the sarcophagus been 
 sculptured anew out of the living marble in 1483, 
 and the remains then transferred to it, it is 
 evident that these, dry with the dust of a century 
 and a half, could have left no impression upon 
 the stone. The lid of the sarcophagus is sculp- 
 tured, like many of the ancient sarcophagi, in 
 imitation of the scales of a fish. It is raised on 
 a pedestal, and enclosed in a marble frame with 
 ornamentation like that of the upper part of the 
 tomb. Upon the face of it the sculptured imita- 
 tion of a white cloth drawn and fastened with nails 
 carries the epitaph by Bernardo da Canatro as it 
 appears to this day. It was replaced where it had 
 originally been by Bembo, with the prefix of the 
 three capitals S. V. F. These mysterious 
 letters have been the subject of much comment, 
 and have been variously interpreted; but it is sup- 
 posed that Bernardo Bembo followed a tradition 
 much in vogue at the time that Dante wrote his 
 own epitaph, and that, therefore, S. V. F. stand 
 for * Sibi Vivens Fecit ' : * Made by himself when 
 
 13—2
 
 196 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 alive.' That it was a mistaken tradition arising 
 out of the use of the first person by Bernardo da 
 Canatro seems to be proved by the poetical inter- 
 change of sonnets between Bernardo da Canatro 
 and Menghino Mezzani, but that such a tradition 
 existed may possibly account for Bembo having 
 caused that epitaph only to be re-engraved upon 
 the tomb, discarding the other one, * Inclita 
 Fama,' which had, we believe, up to that time 
 been inscribed above it. 
 
 Such were the first adornments of the sepulchre 
 as they were completed by Bernardo Bembo at 
 the close of the fourteenth century. The suc- 
 ceeding century was yet in its youth when Florence 
 returned to the charge and made the most famous 
 and the most formidable of all her attempts, this 
 time being determined to possess herself by force 
 of the treasure which Ravenna had denied to her 
 reiterated entreaties. The Accademia Medicea 
 at Florence drew up the petition and addressed it, 
 not to Ravenna, but to Leo X., the Medici and 
 Florentine Pope, the patron of the belles-lettres 
 and the arts. Moreover, he was Lord of Ravenna, 
 for that city had by the League of Cambrai (1509) 
 passed under the Papal dominions. The petition of 
 the Medicsean Academy, bearing date October 20, 
 1519, had many signatures. Among these were 
 the names of Jacopo Nardi, Luigi Alamanni, Giro- 
 lamo Benivieni and Pietro Portinari, a descend- 
 ant of the family of Beatrice. Finally, it was 
 backed by Michael Angelo, who wrote across it :
 
 Petition of the Accademia Medicea 197 
 
 *I, Michael Angelo, sculptor, supplicate your Holi- 
 ness in the same terms, offering myself to make 
 a worthy sepulchre for the divine poet in an 
 honoured place in this same city.' Leave was 
 granted, as we gather from a letter of Cardinal 
 Pietro Bembo — son of the very Bernardo Bembo 
 who had just completed the tomb — to the Floren- 
 tines to carry away the bones of Dante from 
 Ravenna to Florence, and every facility was given 
 them to execute their purpose. The Magistrate 
 and Council of Ravenna having refused to pay 
 an exorbitant demand of 150 florins of gold to 
 support the Papal Swiss Guard, Leo X. caused 
 them to be imprisoned in Cesena. At that 
 moment, while the city was deprived of its 
 natural protectors, the Envoys of Florence and 
 the President of the Romagna arrived in the dead 
 of the night to make good their claim. Fortified 
 with the Papal authority, they betook themselves 
 to the tomb of Dante. They raised the stone lid 
 of the sarcophagus, intending to withdraw the 
 remains and transport them at last to Florence. 
 
 But their tyranny and their efforts were alike 
 in vain. The tomb was empty save for a frag- 
 ment of bone and a few withered leaves of the 
 laurel which had adorned the poet's head. 
 Ravenna had fought gallantly in the open field 
 so long as it was possible, but perceiving that on 
 this occasion she must be defeated by overwhelm- 
 ing odds, she had had recourse to strategy. 
 
 For nearly three and a half centuries no one
 
 198 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 knew what that strategy was. The first attempt 
 to account for the loss of the remains is charac- 
 teristic of the times : 
 
 ' And thus,' recites the memorial drawn up by Carlo 
 Nardi to Pope Leo, ' there could be no translation made 
 of the bones of Dante, because the deputies from the 
 Accademia (Medicea) having visited his tomb, they found 
 Dante neither in soul nor yet in body ; and it being 
 believed that he had in his lifetime, in body as well as in 
 spirit, made the journey through the Inferno, Purgatorio, 
 and Paradiso, so in death it must now be assumed that in 
 body as well as in spirit in either one or other of those 
 realms he has been received and welcomed.' 
 
 Whether or not this explanation was considered 
 satisfactory we do not know, but the very sudden 
 death of Leo X. early in the following year may 
 account for no steps having been taken to press 
 the matter further at the time. But to 
 Clement VII., successor to Leo X., a sonnet 
 was speedily addressed by Alvisi reciting the 
 failure of the attempt of his brother Leone, 
 * Sommo Pastore,' urging him to punish the 
 Ravennese who had stolen away the bones, and, 
 with a pun on his name, to show ' clemency ' to 
 Dante by restoring his remains to an honoured 
 place in Florence. 
 
 Clement VII., of a different disposition to 
 Leo X., was too engrossed with political diffi- 
 culties to have either time or inclination to follow 
 up the quest, and Florence, daunted by the hope-
 
 The Chapel of Bracciotorte 199 
 
 lessness of the empty tomb, seems to have given 
 up the task in despair. 
 
 In Ravenna the tradition of the loss was 
 studiously shrouded in myster}', if not altogether 
 concealed. But there was always a floating sense 
 of uneasiness amongst the populace upon the 
 subject. 
 
 About the middle of the seventeenth century, the 
 Franciscans made considerable alterations in the 
 chapel of Braccioforte, adjoining the tomb of 
 Dante. This chapel, dedicated first to the 
 Nativity of the Saviour, subsequently to San 
 Pier Crisologo, owes its present name to a tradi- 
 tion connected with a very ancient wooden 
 Crucifix which it contained, and which was held 
 by the people in great veneration. Andrea 
 Agnello, the historian of the ninth century, re- 
 cords that on one occasion two friends came to 
 the chapel, and solemnly called upon the Crucifix 
 to be witness to a secret loan between them. 
 The lender, exhibiting the money he was about 
 to lend to his friend, made his invocation 
 thus : 
 
 * O Lord God Omnipotent, do Thou be my 
 surety for this act.' 
 
 The friend, having received the money, went 
 away to the East without any thought of returning 
 to Ravenna. The lender, at last weary of wait- 
 ing, betook himself again to the chapel, and, 
 standing in front of the Crucifix, called upon the 
 effigy of the Saviour to make good the surety-
 
 200 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ship, and, by the might of the strong arm (braccio 
 forte) of God, to maintain his cause. 
 
 The historian goes on to relate how the strong 
 arm of God brought back the debtor from the Far 
 East, and made him pay all that was due, so that 
 the two friends went their ways in peace, and the 
 chapel has ever since borne the name of Braccio 
 Forte — the Strong Arm of God. 
 
 This ancient chapel was originally connected 
 with the tomb of Dante by a portico with marble 
 columns. This portico appears to have been 
 altogether removed by the Franciscans in 1658, 
 when they were making considerable alterations 
 in their church and convent. The doorway of 
 the chapel, which corresponded with the entrance 
 to the tomb of Dante, was blocked up, and 
 another access was given from the chapel into the 
 church. The sepulchre was reconstructed, with 
 the entrance to the north, facing the Piazza 
 Maggiore, as we see it to this day. 
 
 But the Franciscans, absorbed in the larger 
 repairs of their church and convent, contented 
 themselves with reconstructing the exterior of the 
 tomb, leaving the interior in such a state of neglect 
 that Cardinal Corsi, the Papal Legate, following 
 the example of Bernardo Bembo, determined to 
 rescue it once more from such a condition. He 
 had not, however, taken into account the indig- 
 nant opposition of the Franciscan Brotherhood. 
 They claimed jurisdiction over the sepulchre, and 
 so harassed the stone-masons engaged upon the
 
 Epitaph by Cardinal Corsi 201 
 
 work of restoration that the Cardinal was obhged 
 to apply for a guard of forty sbirri to protect the 
 workmen, who laboured without intermission day 
 and night till the restoration was completed, 
 May 4, 1692. Then the Cardinal wrote in turn 
 his epitaph, and caused it to be placed upon the 
 tomb. It runs as follows : 
 
 ' Exvlem a Florentia Dantem Liberalissime 
 
 Excepit Ravenna. 
 
 Vivo fruens Mortvvm colens 
 
 Magnis cineribus licet in parvo magnifici parentarvnt 
 
 Polentani Principes erigendo 
 
 Bembvs Praetor Lvcvlentissime extrvendo 
 
 Pra2tiosum Alysis et Apollini Mavsoleum 
 
 Quod injvria temporvm pane sqvallens 
 
 E. mo Dominico Maria Cvrsio Legato 
 
 Joanne Salviato Prolegato 
 
 Magni civis cineres Patriae reconciliare 
 
 Cvltus perpetvitate cvrantibvs 
 
 S. P. Q. R. 
 
 JVRE Ac Aere suo. 
 
 Tanquam Thesavrvrn svvm mvnivit 
 
 Instav ravitornavit 
 
 A.D. MDCXCII.' 
 
 * When Dante was exiled from Florence 
 
 Ravenna most generously received him, 
 
 Rejoicing in him alive, and honouring him dead. 
 
 To his great ashes 
 
 (Though such a field was small for their magnificence) 
 
 The Princes of Polenta by erecting, and Bembo the 
 
 Praetor by sumptuously adorning,
 
 202 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 A sepulchre precious to the Muses and Apollo, 
 
 Did pious service. 
 
 Which sepulchre, 
 
 Almost decayed by the injuries of Time, 
 
 The Council and People of Ravenna 
 
 The most Eminent Domenico Maria Corsi, the Legate, 
 
 And Giovanni Salviati, the Prolegate, 
 
 Making it their charge 
 
 To reconcile, by perpetual honour, to his own country 
 
 Their great citizen, 
 
 In their own right, and at their own cost. 
 
 Did establish, repair, and adorn. 
 
 A.D. MDCXCII.'^ 
 
 Not satisfied with this written record of his 
 restoration, the Cardinal emphasized his share in 
 it by causing his coat of arms to be engraved on a 
 shield outside the tomb, flanked by that of 
 Monsignore Salviati, Legate of the province, on 
 one side, and that of the Franciscan community 
 on the other. 
 
 The report of the master-builder Cicognini is 
 preserved, in which he states that he completed 
 his work under the guard, and with the protec- 
 tion of forty sbirri, while the Fathers of the 
 venerable convent of San Francesco came con- 
 stantly to the spot, complaining and lamenting, 
 and making all the disturbance they could to 
 hinder the work. There is also extant the testi- 
 mony of the sculptor Berthoz : 
 
 'In the month of June, 1692, I engraved in marble, 
 with great care, the three coats of arms, according to the 
 1 Translation by J. S. Phillimore, Esq.
 
 Question of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 203 
 
 orders which I had received. Moreover, I solemnly 
 attest that at the same time the workmen under my 
 direction polished the marble of the sepulchral urn which 
 contains, // is said, the bones of Dante the Poet, and all 
 the other surrounding marbles which adorn the tomb.' 
 
 The significant words, * it is said,' show that 
 the sculptor was well aware of the tradition of the 
 empty sarcophagus. 
 
 The question was again raised during the legal 
 proceedings which ensued between the magistrates 
 of Ravenna, backed by Cardinal Corsi, and the 
 Franciscan Brothers, as to the right of jurisdiction 
 over the sepulchre. The matter reached a climax 
 when an escaped felon claimed the right of sanc- 
 tuary within the precincts of the tomb of Dante. 
 The Padre Guardiano of the Franciscans claimed 
 the right of ecclesiastical immunity for the 
 wretched man, who was, notwithstanding, forcibly 
 dragged back to prison. 
 
 The authorities, still backed by the Vatican, had 
 recourse, to justify their action, to the argument 
 that Dante having been condemned as a heretic 
 after death, the place of his burial, far from having 
 any claim to the rights of a sanctuary, was, on 
 the contrary, polluted ! Then the Franciscans 
 themselves made use of the rumour that the bones 
 were no longer there, rather than lose their right 
 of jurisdiction over the sepulchre. The magis- 
 trates declared that by the recent repairs the 
 sepulchre stood isolated, the Franciscans that it 
 still rested with its back to the wall of the con-
 
 204 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 vent. Moreover, they pointed triumphantly to 
 the shield of their community which the Cardinal 
 had himself affixed to the sepulchre. 
 
 Thus the dispute continued in more or less 
 degree throughout the century. The Franciscan 
 Brothers, by sheer obstinacy, held their own, 
 and wearied out the Vatican, so that we actually 
 find Cardinal Valentino Gonzaga, the Papal 
 Legate, taking them into his counsels when he 
 undertook, in 1780, under the auspices of Pius VI., 
 the third and last restoration of the tomb. This 
 time, Camillo Morigia, a gentleman and native of 
 Ravenna, was chosen as the architect. Preserv- 
 ing the work of Lombardi inside, he threw the 
 exterior into the shape of the little mausoleum or 
 temple which it now assumes. 
 
 The florid style of the period, adapted for some 
 mock classic memorial in a pleasure-garden, sur- 
 rounded with myrtles and weeping willows, ill 
 accords with the severity of the Franciscan 
 environments, the dark foliage of the tall cypress, 
 the grim tower of San Francesco, black with 
 centuries, rising behind it, still less with the 
 stern grandeur of the poet himself. The work 
 was complete when the Gonzaga shield was 
 made to crown the entrance. 
 
 The mausoleum was inaugurated in June, 1782, 
 when a meeting of the Accademia degli Informi, 
 in Ravenna, was assembled to celebrate the occa- 
 sion by compositions in prose and verse, which, 
 as an Italian writer observes, 'had more to say
 
 Epitaph by Cardinal Gonzaga 205 
 
 about the Cardinal than about Dante.' Under- 
 neath the sarcophagus the Cardinal placed a 
 marble urn, in which were enclosed some coins of 
 the time of Pius VI., and a parchment relating 
 the extent and cost of the undertaking. He then 
 wrote, as follows, the sixth and last epitaph : 
 
 ' Danti Alighiero 
 Poetse . svi . Temporis . Prime 
 Restitvtori 
 Politioris Hvmanitatis 
 Gvido . et Hostasius Polentiani 
 Clienti . et Hospiti . Peregre . Defvncto 
 Monvmentum . Fecervnt 
 Bernardus . Bembus . Prastor . Venet . Ravenn . 
 Pro . Mentis . Eivs . Ornatu . Excolvit 
 Aloysivs . Valentivs , Gonzaga . Card 
 Leg. Prov. ^mil. 
 Svperiorvm . Temporvm . Negligenti Corrvptvm 
 Operibvs Ampliatis. 
 Mvnificentia . sva Restitvendvm. 
 Cvravit. 
 Anno . MDCC.Lxxx.' 
 
 'To Dante Alighieri, 
 
 The first Poet of his Time, 
 
 The restorer of Classical Elegance and Learning, 
 
 Dead in a foreign country, 
 
 Guido and Hostasio Polenziano 
 
 His Patron and Host 
 
 Erected this Monument. 
 
 Bernardo Bembo, Governor for Venice at Ravenna, 
 
 Decorated and adorned it 
 
 As Dante deserved.
 
 2o6 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Aloisio Valenzio Gonzaga, Cardinal 
 
 Legate for the Province of Emilia, 
 
 Of his munificence 
 
 Improved and restored 
 
 What the neglect of preceding generations had allowed to 
 
 decay. 
 
 A.D. MDCCLXXX.'l 
 
 It now remained to prove that the tomb which 
 he had so lavishly adorned was indeed the recep- 
 tacle of the remains of the poet ; therefore, in the 
 presence of a few selected witnesses sworn to 
 secrecy, the sarcophagus was opened. The 
 Cardinal was obliged to take refuge in ambiguous 
 phrases to conceal the result from the people. 
 But the entry of one of the Franciscan friars in 
 a missal, now in the hands of the Municipio at 
 Ravenna, states the bald fact : 
 
 ' The coffin of Dante was opened, and nothing was 
 found inside, so it was sealed up again with the Car- 
 dinal's signet ring, and strict silence was observed as to 
 everything.' 
 
 The Franciscans may have found a not un- 
 natural solace for the loss of their jurisdiction 
 over the tomb by making this record, for we read 
 that the Cardinal, on leaving Ravenna, placed the 
 key in the hands of the magistrate, and, nothing 
 daunted by the result of the investigation, recom- 
 mended to his most careful preservation so noble 
 and so glorious a relic of the past. 
 
 Two Cardinals, both Papal Legates, in two suc- 
 
 ^ Translation by J. S. Phillimore, Esq.
 
 The Republique Cisalpine 207 
 
 ceeding centuries had spent themselves in adorn- 
 ing the tomb of Dante. Their sculptured coats of 
 arms made part of its architectural ornament, and 
 florid epitaphs connected their names with his. 
 Then, by a curious irony of fate, the Republique 
 Cisalpine came upon the well - worn scene. 
 Dressed in their little brief authority, they made 
 use of it to remind the people of Ravenna, as 
 citizens and brothers, that the great champion, 
 who had exposed the * imposture of sacerdota- 
 lism,' the Signor dell' Altissimo Canto, the Divine 
 Dante, was their fellow-citizen, and that his 
 glorious memory must be democratically cele- 
 brated, bidding them hasten with laurel and myrtle 
 to his tomb to shed the tears which flow from the 
 eyes of a patriot over a genius who has deserved 
 well of humanity. 
 
 The deputies of the Republique Cisalpine do 
 not appear to have been troubled with any dis- 
 quieting fears that they were paying homage to 
 an empty shrine ; but in 1841 we find the fact 
 again stated with unmistakable plainness in 
 Filippo Mordani's memoirs of Dionigi Strocchi. 
 He recounts that on July i, 1841, Dionigi Strocchi 
 said to him : 
 
 * There is something I wish to tell you, now that we 
 are alone. Do you know that the coffin of Dante is 
 empty ; the bones are no longer there. The Archbishop 
 Monsignore Codronchi told me this ; but do not breathe 
 a word about it, for it is a secret. '^ 
 
 ' ¥. Mnrtlani ' Operette della Vita privata di L, Strocchi,' 
 vol. iii., p. 232.
 
 2o8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Another quarter of a century and the festivities 
 for the sexcentenary of Dante's birth were being 
 celebrated all over Italy. They were made the 
 occasion by Florence for her last demand for his 
 remains. The Municipio of Florence wrote as 
 follows to the Municipio of Ravenna, May 7, 1864 : 
 
 ' One of the first considerations present to the minds 
 of the Commissioners^ is the eager desire that the remains 
 of the great poet should be laid to rest in his native city ; 
 and because this desire is most warmly shared by all alike, 
 and that it was debated for a long while how it should 
 be expressed, it was decided that publicly, by means of 
 the press and by private initiative, the Commission 
 should interpret to you the general wish of the people.' 
 
 II Carobbi, the Gonfaloniere that year, address- 
 ing himself to the chief magistrate of Ravenna, 
 then added : 
 
 ' I am sure you will make use of all your influence 
 before the Common Council to obtain a favourable reply 
 to the demand of the Florentines, because by this act 
 they desire to repair the wrong done by their ancestors, 
 and the disastrous treatment Dante has received at their 
 hands.' 
 
 The Municipio of Ravenna replied briefly that 
 they could not grant the request, and that 
 
 ' The deposit of the sacred remains of Dante Alighieri 
 in Ravenna could no longer, owing to the happily altered 
 conditions of Italy, be looked upon as a perpetuation of 
 
 1 Appointed by the Government to arrange the plan of the 
 festivities.
 
 Discovery of the Remains 209 
 
 his exile, as all the cities of Italy were now united in one 
 enduring bond under one rule.' 
 
 Even while they drew up this reply, there must 
 have been a strong prevailing impression in their 
 minds that in truth the coveted remains were no 
 longer in the sepulchre at all. However, the 
 finale of the great festival, which was naturally to 
 take place at Ravenna, was drawing near, and the 
 climax at hand when the coffin would be opened 
 for the purpose of verifying the remains. 
 
 The workmen were actually engaged in making 
 preparations for the scaffolding round the tomb, 
 so as to enable the bystanders to obtain a better 
 view of the ceremony. A portion of the outer 
 wall of the adjoining Chapel of Braccioforte, 
 which had blocked the original ingress to the 
 chapel, had been demolished, and a further 
 clearance was contemplated, when it became 
 necessary to introduce a pump to get rid of the 
 water which proved a constant hindrance to the 
 work. The pump was placed in the angle made 
 by the Fantuzzi, afterwards called the Rasponi, 
 Chapel and that of Braccioforte, but it was found 
 that the handle could not work on account of 
 some fragments still standing of the wall which 
 had taken the place of the original entrance. 
 
 The inspector of the works, G. B. Lorenzetti, 
 then directed the principal stone-mason, Pio di 
 Luigi Felletti, to take away a few of the stones of 
 the blocked doorway so as to give play to the 
 handle of the pump. The mason, trying now 
 
 14
 
 2IO Dante at Ravenna 
 
 here and now there to introduce his mattock into 
 the wall, suddenly came upon a cavity, and felt 
 his tool strike against wood which gave back a 
 hollow sound. His curiosity being roused, the 
 mason removed carefully other surrounding stones, 
 when there appeared a wooden box which partially 
 fell to pieces, revealing some portions of a human 
 skeleton. At the bottom of the box was the in- 
 scription : 
 
 ' Dantis Ossa Denuper revisa die 3 Junii 1677,' 
 
 and further examination discovered another in- 
 scription similarly written on one of the outer 
 planks of the chest : 
 
 ' Dantis Ossa 
 A Me 
 
 Fra Antonio Santi 
 Hie posita. Anno 1677 
 Die 18 Octobris.' 
 
 Amazed at this discovery, Felletti and Angelo 
 Dradi, his fellow-workman, quickly replaced the 
 bones in the box, and, securing it as best they 
 could, conveyed the precious receptacle into the 
 adjoining mausoleum of Dante. In a very short 
 time the news of the discovery spread like wild- 
 fire through the city. The authorities arrived in 
 haste, and in their presence a deed was drawn up 
 by the notary, stating the discovery, while the 
 populace outside could hardly be restrained from
 
 Discovery of the Remains 21 1 
 
 breaking down the iron gate of the mausoleum in 
 their mixed frenzy of curiosity and joy, while they 
 remembered a tradition current in the city, that 
 the Chapel of Braccioforte contained a treasure 
 which one day would be yielded up. 
 
 Medical experts — Professor Cavaliere Giovanni 
 Puglioli and Claudio Bertozzi — made a careful 
 examination of the bones, and proceeded to re- 
 construct the skeleton. The minutiae of their 
 examination, though full of interest for a medical 
 or scientific treatise, would not be fitly placed 
 here, but for the purpose of identification they 
 were all sufficient to prove that the remains were 
 indeed those of Dante. The stature answered to 
 that of the poet as nearly as the measurement of 
 a skeleton can represent the living form, and the 
 skull found in the chest corresponded exactly with 
 the mask taken from Dante's face immediately 
 after his death, which was brought from Florence 
 for the purpose of making this comparison. 
 
 The next step was to examine the sarcophagus 
 in the chapel, and here we will quote the words of 
 Dr. Moore, who received from an eye-witness the 
 account of the proceedings : 
 
 ' The writer [i.e., Dr. Moore] met, a few years ago, one 
 who was present on this most interesting occasion, and 
 who had carried away, and still preserved as a relic, a 
 small portion of the precious dust which was found at 
 the bottom of the tomb. This examination took place 
 on June 7, 1865, and f/ic tomb was then found to be empty ^ 
 
 14 — 2
 
 2 1 2 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 with the exception of a little earthy or dusty substance, 
 and a few bones corresponding with most of those miss- 
 ing in the chest recently discovered, and these were 
 certified by the surgeon present to belong undoubtedly 
 to the same skeleton. There were found in it, also, a 
 few withered laurel leaves, which possess a special 
 interest in reference to the description of 1 )ante's burial 
 to which we have already referred. It contained, further, 
 some broken fragments of Greek marble, of the same 
 ^laterial as the sarcophagus itself. These were soon 
 found to proceed from a rude hole which had been 
 knocked through the sarcophagus at the back, precisely 
 at the part accessible only from the inside of the monas- 
 tery, through which, beyond all doubt, the removal of 
 the bones had been effected. This hole had been 
 stopped up with bricks and cement, and then plastered 
 over outside so as to leave no mark.'^ 
 
 By the light of subsequent history we must now 
 retrace our steps to the period of the abstraction 
 of the remains from the sepulchre. In 1483, the 
 date of the reconstruction of the tomb by Ber- 
 nardo Bembo, the remains were in it, and were 
 naturally left there. Bernardo's epitaph, already 
 cited at length, and still to be seen upon the left 
 wall of the mausoleum, is a standing record of 
 the fact. In 1520, when about to be claimed 
 by the Florentines, they were gone. But it 
 was not till April 14, 1890, that the culminating 
 proof was supplied as to how the removal of the 
 
 ' Historical Review, October, 1888, 'The Tomb of Dante,' 
 p. 648.
 
 The Franciscan Stratagem 213 
 
 remains had been effected. Signor Ricci describes 
 that on that day he obtained leave from Mon- 
 signore Uberti, the priest in charge of the Church 
 of San Francesco, to enter the monastery, and 
 having marked on the wall of the cloister the 
 exact place corresponding with the broken part 
 of the sarcophagus of Dante on the other side, 
 the bricklayers were instructed to chip away the 
 plaster from the wall. They had hardly been at 
 work half an hour, when the uneven surface of 
 the wall, exactly behind the sarcophagus, betrayed 
 where the hole had been made, the even course of 
 the bricks being interrupted and broken, and then 
 filled up again with different material, brickbats, 
 and rubble. Here, then, was the aperture made 
 by the Franciscan Brotherhood, through which, 
 in the dead of the night, in the year 1520, they 
 had withdrawn the bones of Dante from their 
 tomb, to save them for Ravenna from the cove- 
 tous grasp of Florence. 
 
 But as the first inscription by Fra Antonio, 
 * Denuper revisa ' (revisited anew), bears date 
 June 3, 1677, and the second, 'Hie Posita,' October, 
 1677, it is evident that the remains must have 
 been preserved somewhere in the convent for more 
 than one hundred and fifty years before, at the date 
 of the second inscription, they were built into the 
 new piece of the wall erected to block the old 
 entrance to the Braccioforte chapel. 
 
 This, no doubt, furnished the opportunity long 
 coveted for depositing them in a place of safety,
 
 214 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 where no despoiler could reach them. Fra 
 Antonio did not let it slip. He hastened to 
 relieve the Franciscan Superiors from the burden 
 of a secret which must have been transmitted 
 by each in turn to his successor in office for 
 a century and a half. It is recorded that Fra 
 Antonio Santi occupied an important official 
 position in the convent in 1672, and held it till 
 after 1677, the date of his inscription. He was 
 alive in 1703, when Cardinal Corsi was busying 
 himself with the repairs of the tomb, and was 
 obliged to send forty sbirri to protect his work- 
 men from the harassing attacks of the Fran- 
 ciscans, who probably feared the discovery of 
 their secret. It was fortunate for Fra Antonio 
 and his brotherhood that the Cardinal's repairs 
 did not extend to the sarcophagus itself. At length 
 the works were completed. 
 
 The Padre Superiore must have drawn a long 
 breath of relief, and a vague tradition prevailed 
 among the Frati, which they kept secret among 
 themselves, that the chapel of Braccioforte con- 
 tained a great treasure. 
 
 As late as 1865, a writer states that at that 
 time relatives of the last Warden were still exist- 
 ing who remembered having heard of the same 
 tradition from his lips. 
 
 There was yet another tradition present to the 
 minds of the people at the time of the great dis- 
 covery.
 
 The Dream of the Sacristan 215 
 
 The sacristan of the Franciscan Confraternity, 
 called La Confraternita della Mercede, was wont 
 to sleep in the damp recesses of the ancient 
 chapel of Braccioforte. His name was Angelo 
 Grillo. Ricci,^ in his great work, tells us that in 
 1890 there were many who remembered him in 
 Ravenna, and that he used to indicate the corner 
 of the chapel where the doorway had been blocked 
 up, and to relate a dream which, though turned 
 into ridicule at the time, when viewed by the 
 light of subsequent events is at least worthy of 
 attention. The narrative is as follows : 
 
 The sacristan declared himself to have seen 
 in his dream a shade issue from the spot indi- 
 cated, clad in red, and that it passed through the 
 chapel into the adjoining cemetery. It approached 
 him, and, on being asked who it was, replied, ' I 
 am Dante,' 
 
 The sacristan died in May, 1865. A few days 
 afterwards (it will be remembered that the 27th 
 was the day of the discovery), in that very angle 
 of the chapel where the doorway had been 
 blocked, were found the bones of Dante. It 
 was not a posthumous dream, or a story made 
 up after the event by the old sacristan, for, being 
 dead, he was not there to make it. The facts are 
 as they stand, and as lately as 1890 there were 
 witnesses alive to prove them. They bear a 
 curiously close resemblance to the dream of 
 
 1 • 
 
 Uh. Rif.,'p. 174.
 
 2i6 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 Jacopo Alighieri, as recorded by Boccaccio, 
 which has been so studiously discredited by the 
 negative attacks of modern criticism. 
 
 This last touch of the marvellous forms the 
 concluding link to the chain of an undoubtedly 
 remarkable history, w^hich those who visit Ravenna 
 can verify for themselves. On the wall of the 
 cloister in San Francesco they can read the in- 
 scription which recites how that was the very 
 spot where, at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, the aperture was made by the Fran- 
 ciscans, through which they penetrated into the 
 sarcophagus of Dante, and withdrew from it his 
 remains, thus securing for ever the possession of 
 them to Ravenna. 
 
 In the Biblioteca Nazionale they can see the 
 wooden chest, or box, carefully preserved, exactly 
 as it was, with the two inscriptions by Fra 
 Antonio Santi, and the Custodian of the library, 
 Achille Pasquali, will tell them, as he told the 
 writer of these pages, that he had himself seen 
 the box fall from the wall and empty its precious 
 contents upon the ground. In the same place 
 can also be seen the cast taken from the skeleton 
 in the glass coffin where the remains themselves 
 were exposed to the exultant populace of Ravenna. 
 For three days, June 24, 25, and 26, they lay in 
 state in the midst of the ancient chapel of 
 Braccioforte, that through the now opened arch- 
 way they might be visible to the thronging crowds
 
 'Italia Una' before the Tomb of Dante 217 
 
 who came in hundreds and thousands from all 
 parts of Italy to file before the crystal coffin. 
 The old and the infirm were supported through 
 the crowd, and children too young to be con- 
 scious of what they saw were taken up to the 
 coffin, in order that in after-years they might say 
 that they also had gazed on Dante. 
 
 Finall}', on June 26, the remains were once more 
 consigned to their original tomb. ' Italia Una,' 
 represented by every province and every town, 
 stood uncovered before that bier, and assisted, 
 with every pomp of circumstance and every mark 
 of respect, to lay at last to undisturbed rest the 
 greatest of her sons. 
 
 Still the nation deliberates how to raise a fitting 
 monument to his memory, and perhaps the day 
 will come when the little, quiet sixteenth-century 
 monument will, like the Porziuncula of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, have as grand an environment as the 
 chapel of Sta. Maria degli Angeli. 
 
 Some such tribute to their ' great heir of fame ' 
 might be more in accordance with the greatness 
 of a free, united kingdom, but it could not 
 enhance the greatness of Dante, and in the per- 
 fect simplicity and thoughtful attitude of the 
 figure in bas-relief, still reading, still pondering, 
 there is something which suggests the one aim of 
 his life upon earth, ' Diligite justitiam ' (Love 
 righteousness), and, when that life was completed, 
 the reflection :
 
 2 1 8 Dante at Ravenna 
 
 ' Qual si lamenta perche qui si muoia 
 Per viver colassu non vide quivi 
 Lo refrigerio dell' eterna ploia.' 
 
 Par., xiv. 23. 
 
 Whoso laments that we must doff this garb 
 Of frail mortality, thenceforth to live 
 Immortally above, he hath not seen 
 The sweet refreshing of that heavenly shower.' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot S^ock, 62, Paternoster Row, London.
 
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