Dante Alighieri (2 page)

                        
“Se Dio ti lasci, Lettor, prender frutto Di tua lezion.”

Inf
. xx. 19

PART I

GUELFS AND GHIBELLINES

CHAPTER I
(1215-1250)

    
Origin of the names—Distinguishing principles of the two parties in Italy—Introduction of the parties into Florence—The Ghibellines with the aid of Frederick II expel the Guelfs from Florence—Return of the Guelfs after the Emperor's death, and pacification between the two parties

CHAPTER II
(1251-1260)

    
Renewed hostilities—Adoption of distinctive banners by the two parties in Florence—The Ghibellines intrigue with Manfred and are forced to leave Florence—They retire to Siena and persuade Manfred to send them help—Great Ghibelline victory at Montaperti

CHAPTER III
(1261-1267)

    
Flight of the Guelfs from Florence—Farinata degli Uberti saves Florence from destruction—The Ghibellines supreme in Tuscany—Defeat of Manfred at Benevento by Charles of Anjou—Flight of Guido Novello and the Ghibelline allies from Florence—Guy de Montfort arrives in Florence as Charles's vicar—Guelf supremacy finally re-established

PART II

DANTE IN FLORENCE

CHAPTER I
(1265-1290)

    
Dante's birth and ancestry—His father and mother—Cacciaguida—Geri del Bello—Beatrice Portinari—Episodes in the
Vita Nuova
—Folco Portinari—Death of Beatrice—Poetical correspondence with Cino da Pistoja, Guido Cavalcanti, and Forese Donati

CHAPTER II
(1289-1290)

    
Military service—War with Arezzo—Battle of Campaldino—Victory of Florentine Guelfs—Buonconte da Montefeltro—Siege of Caprona—“Quomodo sedet sola civitas!”

CHAPTER III
(1291-1300)

    
Early studies—Brunetto Latino—Classical acquirements—Marriage—Gemma Donati—Children—-Public life—Embassy to San Gemignano—Priorate

CHAPTER IV
(1300-1302)

    
Blacks and Whites in Pistoja—In Florence—Cerchi and Donati May Day, 1300—Dante in office—Embassy to Rome—Charles of Valois in Florence—Triumph of the Blacks—Condemnation and exile of Dante—His possessions and debts

PART III

DANTE IN EXILE

CHAPTER I
(1302-1321)

    
Wanderings—Dante's fellow-exiles—Henry VII in Italy—His death—Fresh sentence against Dante—His retirement to Ravenna—Alleged visits to Mantua, Verona, and Piacenza—Reputed a sorcerer—Death and burial—His tomb and epitaphs—Elegies

CHAPTER II

    
Boccaccio's rebuke to the Florentines—Efforts of Florence to get possession of Dante's remains—Leo X grants permission for their removal—Disappearance of the remains—Their accidental discovery during the commemoration of the sixth centenary of Dante's birth- Public exhibition of them at Ravenna, and subsequent re-interment

PART IV

CHARACTERISTICS OF DANTE

CHAPTER I

    
Boccaccio's account of Dante's person and character—His love of fame—His failings—Account of him by his contemporary, Giovanni Villani

CHAPTER II

    
Portraits of Dante—The Giotto portrait in the Bargello—Norton's account of the Bargello portrait—Its disappearance and re-discovery—The death-mask—Its relation to the portrait—The Naples Bronze—Portrait by Taddeo Gaddi—The Riccardi portrait—The picture by Domenico di Michelino

CHAPTER III

    
Anecdotes of Dante—Dante and Can Grande della Scala—Belacqua and Dante—Sacchetti's stories—Dante and the blacksmith—Dante and the donkey-driver—Dante's creed—Dante and King Robert of Naples—Dante's reply to the bore—Dante and the Doge of Venice—Dante a kleptomaniac—Dante and Cecco d' Ascoli

PART V

DANTE'S WORKS

CHAPTER I

    
Italian Works—Lyrical Poems—The
Vita Nuova
—The
Convivio

CHAPTER II

    
The
Divina Commedia
—Its origin, subject, and aim—Date of composition—Scheme of the poem—Boccaccio's story of the lost cantos—Why it was written in Italian—Dante and his rhymes—Manuscripts and printed editions—English editions and translations—Commentaries

CHAPTER III

    
Latin Works—The
De Monarchia
—The
De Vulgari Eloquentia
—The
Letters
—The
Eclogues
—The
Quaestio de Aqua et Terra
—Apocryphal Works

                                                   
 

    
Appendix A—Genealogical Table of the Family of Dante

    
Appendix B—Letter of Frate Ilario to Uguccione della Faggiuola

    
Appendix C—Extracts from letters from Seymour Kirkup to Gabriele Rossetti concerning the discovery of the Giotto portrait of Dante in the Bargello, and Kirkup's drawing from it

    
Appendix D—Chronological List of early (cent. xiv-xvi) commentaries on the
Divina Commedia
, with titles of printed editions

    
Appendix E—Bibliographical Note of the Earliest Biographies and Biographical Notices of Dante

    
Index

  
1.  Bronze bust of Dante

  
2.  Florence and the Arno

  
3.  The city of Florence

  
4.  Farinata degli Uberti
(from the painting by Andrea del Castagno, in the Museo Nazionale at Florence)

  
5.  Dante's house in Florence

  
6.  The Baptistery of San Giovanni at Florence

  
7.  San Gemignano

  
8.  Cast of Dante's face taken after death

  
9.  Dante's tomb at Ravenna

10.  Chest in which Dante's remains were found at Ravenna in 1865

11.  Portrait of Dante (
from Codex
1040
in the Riccardi Library at Florence
)

12.  Portrait of Dante by Giotto in the Bargello at Florence
(from a drawing by Seymour Kirkup)

13.  Mask of Dante in the Uffizi at Florence
(formerly in the possession of the Marchese Torrigiani)

14.  Bronze bust of Dante at Naples

15.  Dante and his book
(from the picture by Domenico di Michelino, in the Duomo at Florence)

16.  Dante Alighieri
(from the painting by Andrea del Castagno, in the Museo Nazionale at Florence)

(
Boccaccio to Petrarch
)

                                        
“the gretë poete of
Ytaille That highte Dant.”

C
HAUCER
,
Monk's Tale

DANTE ALIGHIERI

His Life and Works

FLORENCE AND THE ARNO

    
Origin of the names—Distinguishing principles of the two parties in Italy—Introduction of the parties into Florence—The Ghibellines with the aid of Frederick II expel the Guelfs from Florence—Return of the Guelfs after the Emperor's death, and pacification between the two parties.

N
ORTHERN ITALY
in the middle of the thirteenth century, at the time of Dante's birth,
¹
was divided into two great political parties, of which the one, known by the name of Guelfs, looked to the Pope as their head, while the others, the Ghibellines, looked to the Emperor. The distinctive titles of these two parties were of German origin, being merely Italianized forms (
Guelfo
and
Ghibellino
) of the two German names
Welf and Weiblingen
. The former of these was the name of an illustrious family, several members of which had successively been Dukes of Bavaria in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The heiress of the last of these intermarried with a younger son of the house of Este; and from them sprang a second line of Guelfs, from whom the royal house of Brunswick is descended.

    
Weiblingen was the name of a castle in Franconia, belonging to Conrad the Salic, who was Emperor from 1024 to 1039, and was the progenitor, through the female line, of the Swabian emperors. By the election of Lothair in 1125 in succession to Henry V (Emperor from 1106 to 1125) the Swabian family were ousted from what they had come to regard almost as an hereditary possession; and at this time a hostility appears to have commenced between them and the house of Welf, who were nearly related to Lothair. In 1071 the Emperor Henry IV had conferred the Duchy of Bavaria upon the Welfs; and in 1080 the Duchy of Swabia had been conferred upon the Counts of Hohenstaufen, who represented the Franconian line.

    
The accession in 1138 of Conrad III of Swabia to the Imperial throne, and the rebellion of Henry the Proud, the Welf Duke of Bavaria, gave rise to a bloody struggle between the two houses; and at the battle of Weinsberg, fought on 21 December, 1140, in which the Welf Duke was defeated by Conrad, the names
Welf and Weiblingen
were for the first time, it is said, adopted as warcries.

    
These names, which in Germany, as we have seen, distinguished the two sides in the conflict between the Welfs and the Imperial Swabian or Hohenstaufen line, in Italy acquired a different meaning, and became identified respectively with the supporters of the Church and the supporters of the Empire. Their first appearance in Italy seems to have been quite at the beginning of the thirteenth century, when they were adopted by the two leading parties which divided the towns of Lombardy during the struggle for the Imperial throne between Philip, Duke of Swabia (brother of the Emperor Henry VI), and the Welf Otto of Brunswick, many important
Italian towns sympathizing with the latter, who after his rival's death in 1208 became Emperor as Otto IV.

    
The division between the opposing factions rapidly deepened, till not only rival towns, but also the leading families within the towns themselves, became involved in party strife, the citizens ranging themselves, ostensibly at least, under the chiefs on either side.

    
The main outlines of the principles which actuated the two parties in Italy, during the period covered by this book, have been ably sketched by the late Dean Church. “The names of Guelf and Ghibelline,” he writes, “were the inheritance of a contest which, in its original meaning, had been long over. The old struggle between the priesthood and the Empire was still kept up traditionally, but its ideas and interests were changed. It had passed over from the mixed region of the spiritual and temporal into the purely political. The cause of the Popes was that of the independence of Italy—the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north, and the dependence of the centre and south on the Roman See. To keep the Emperor out of Italy, to create a barrier of powerful cities against him south of the Alps, to form behind themselves a compact territory, rich, removed from the first burst of invasion, and maintaining a strong body of interested feudatories, had now become the great object of the Popes. The two parties did not care to keep in view principles which their chiefs had lost sight of. The Emperor and the Pope were both real powers, able to protect and assist; and they divided between them those who required protection and assistance. Geographical position, the rivalry of neighbourhood, family tradition, private feuds, and above all private interest, were the main causes which assigned cities, families, and individuals to the Ghibelline or Guelf party. One party called themselves
the Emperor's liegemen, and their watchword was authority and law; the other side were the liegemen of Holy Church, and their cry was liberty; and the distinction as a broad one is true. But a democracy would become Ghibelline, without scruple, if its neighbour town was Guelf; and among the Guelf liegemen of the Church and liberty the pride of blood and love of power were not a whit inferior to that of their opponents.