Jlr^svo/yjruc^ A^iqiSHa [jgr^AS 6561 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082154612 ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY A SHORT HISTORY OF POLITICS, RELIGION, LITERATURE AND ART IN THE TIMES OF INNOCENT III ST. FRANCIS, NICCOLA PISANO GIOTTO, AND DANTE IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II . Ar-no^fo cU Canibio ; ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY BY HENKY DWIGHT SEDGWICK Voi credete fOTse che siamo esperti d' esto loco ma noi siam peregrin, come voi siete. PUBG, II, 61-63. VOLUME II BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Xit Slibet^tbe png^ ^Tambcibge 1912 COPYRIGHT, Igl2, BY HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Pullished November iqi2 CONTENTS I. The Intermediate Poets 1 II. Venice 23 III. The French Conquest (1261-1266) 37 IV. Charles the Conqueror (1266-1272) 60- V. From Gregory X to Nicholas III (1272-1280) . 8L. VI. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 103 VII. Saint Bonaventura (1221-1274) 117 VIII. From Nicholas III to Boniface VIII (1280-1295) 13a IX. LOMBARDY, BOMAGNA, AND PlEDMONT (1260-1300) 149\ X. Tuscany (1260-1290) 17t XI. Manners and Customs 190 XII. Sculpture 219 XIII. Niccola's Pupils 231 XIV. Painting in the Latter Part of the Century . 246 XV. The Frescoes at Assisi 262 '' XVI. Il Dolce Stil Nuovo 276 ,^VII. Latin Literature 297 XVIII. Pope Boniface VIII 320) XIX. The Outrage at Anagni 333 XX. Epilogue 347 Appendix Chronology 355 Bibliography 365 Index 379 ILLUSTRATIONS Boniface VIII Rome ITALY 11^ THE THIRTEEI^TH CENTUEY CHAPTER I THE INTEEAIEDIATE POETS Let us now praise famous men . such as ... set forth verses in writ- ing. — Ecclesiastious, xuv. The Sicilian school of poetry fell with the fall of the House of Hohenstaufen, but its influence still lingered on even after new schools had arisen, and showed itself in a few faithful disciples here and there. Of these laggards Dante has lifted one, Bona- giunta of Lucca, to a high place in the palace of fame, less to do him honour, than to use him as a beacon by which to mark the progress of poetry. In point of time Bonagiunta belongs with later poets, Guido Guinizelli, Dante himself, and Cino da Pistoia ; but his lack of sincerity, and his clinging to the Proven- gal manner are badges that manifest the old poetical habit of Jacopo da Lentino, the Notary, and his school. Yet in his lifetime he had his admirers, whose taste in poetry was fashioned by what they had heard when they were boys, men who judged it a great compliment to liken him to the troubadours, Folquet of Marseilles and Pierre Vidal. Bonagiunta, too, was by profession a notary ; apart from this the records show little except that towards the end of the century he had some duties of superintending ; ; 2 ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY the works on the church of San Michele in his na- tive town. It is also said of him that though ready with rhymes he was readier with the wine cup. His poems^ such as are left, are his real record ; and if he is far inferior to the later poets of the "sweet new style," at least he seems as good as those of the school to which he belongs. Quando vegio la rivera e le pratora fiorire, e partir lo verno k' era, e la state venire, e li auselli in ischiera cantare e risbaldire, no mi posso sofferire di fame dimostranga k' io agio odito dire c' una grande allegran^ non si po ben covrire, cotanto s' innavanga. E r amanga per nsanga c' h de la frescura, e li alori c' 6 de' fiori, rende la verdnra, si m' incora e innamora, ke mi disnatura und' io trovo novi canti per sola^o degli amanti, ke ne canti tuctiquanti. When along the river side I see the fields with flow'rets pied, And the winter gone away And the summer come to stay. ; THE INTERMEDIATE POETS 3 And the birds in merry band Sing and carol through the land, I cannot hold back From joining with the jolly pack For I have heard men say That on a jocund holiday They cannot outwardly conceal The inner merriment they feel. And the affection, Through recollection Of this fresh scenery, With the laurel (WhoUy floral) In its greenery, Plucks up my soul To Love's control. And maketh a new man of me. Wherefore I sing new songs To comfort lovers' wrongs. And sing away The livelong day. These verses sound poor enough in the bald Eng- lish translation ; but if a street singer, as sometimes happened in Lucca or Bologna, " was a handsome man, clad in samite, with a coronal of flowers on a good head of fair hair, well combed, and in his hand a lute, wonderfully made, painted and inlaid with ivory," and if this baritone or tenor stood in the piazza before the cathedral in Lucca or in front of the palace of the podesta in Bologna, and trolled out the easy Italian rhymes, one would surely have joined the crowd about him and applauded with all the people of the neighbourhood. With Bonagfiunta we take leave of the Sicilian school and its royal memories ; yet before going on ; ; ; 4 ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY to the next school, which is in the main contempo- rary with the ItaHan career of Charles of Anjou, some notice perhaps is due to those poets who have not been assigned to any school by the text-writers. Of these there were many ; some wrote religious poetry, some didactic, and others popular poems and songs or ballads. They were, for the most part, poets little known outside of their own neighbour- hood ; and though unclassified seem to come as close to nature as the poets of the schools. I quote from a poem called Proverbia que dicuntur super natura Femi7iarum,, Proverbs on the nature of Women, written perhaps by a native of Cremoua, Messer Girardo Patecchio, who wrote a poem often referred to by Bro. Salimbene, The Book of Ennui, and also had put into rhyme the Proverbs of Solomon : — Levaime una tnaitina a la stela diana, entrai en un gardino q'era su 'na flumana, et era plen de flore aulente plui de grana colgaime su le flore apres una fontana. Oi deu, com de grande gloria era plen sto gardino, de bele erbe aulente e de flore de spino, e de rosignoleti qe braiva en so latino, lo merlo e lo tordo cantava sopra I pino. Sicom eu repausavame sovra le flor aulente, un pensero veneme qe me torbk la mente, de I'amor de le femene, com este fraudolente quand I'om en elle enfiase, como 1 mena rea mente. I got up in the morning beneath the star of day, I went into a garden that by a river lay, And it was full of flowers sweeter far than hay I lay me down on flowers just where the fountains play. O dear, how full of glory that garden seemed to me, ! THE INTERMEDIATE POETS 5 With lovely fragrant grasses and hawthorn budding free, And nightingales that trilled aloud their sweet latinity, And blackbirds, too, and thrushes upon the tall pine tree. While I am lying resting upon the fragrant herbs A sudden thought comes to me that my peace of mind disturbs, About the love that women give — how fraudulent are they How, when a man puts trust in them, they lead him far astray. We leave these unclassified poets with a touch of academic disdain and, following the critics who seem most reasonable, turn to what they call the inter- mediate school of poetry. The leader of this school of poetry, intermediate between the Sicilian school and Dante's circle, was Guittone of Arezzo. Not very much is known of him. He married in Arezzo, but divided most of his time apparently between Bologna and Florence. Sometime before the year 1269 he became a mem- ber of the Ordo Militise Beatse Marise, a somewhat fashionable body, which Loderingo degli Andalo and other gentlemen of Bologna and Modena had founded for the purpose of succouring widows, or- phans, pilgrims, and the poor, of making peace and of procuring other high objects. These noble pur- poses were apparently soon forgotten, and the Order became a sort of by-word, as its nickname "The Jolly Friars — Frati Godenti " indicates ; and yet per- haps popular report did it injustice, for though Guit- tone may have joined it in his younger days, when he was a poet of love, nevertheless he continued to be much interested in it many years later, after he had turned his mind to moral and religious subjects. Frate Guittone was much more of a man-of-letters than the poets of the Sicilian school ; he was a Latin 6 ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY scholar, a student of Provengal, and he has left epis- tles in prose and in verse. His letters, as becomes a frate and a man of his position in the literary world, are pious and a little rhetorical, and in writing to ladies he carefully observes Boncompagno's precept not to spare flattery, yet his letters, even to ladies, sound sincere. Some concern the city of Florence, and it is pretty to see his love for her. There exists a letter of his written to Florentine friends, carissimi e amatissimi molti miei, in which he exhorts them " to peace and amity : You must know that it is not costly clothes that make a man, nor palaces that make a city, but as reason, wisdom, right living make a man, so do ordered justice, peace and hap- piness make a city.