S A DAN B! DEM] OGG OF TH T TUE OF TE, , L IE E U FFI Z I . WITH DA NTE IN MOD ERN FLORENCE

MA LA ! B! R! E. C 1

WITH TWENT! -EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW ! ORK ON COMPA N! E . P . D U TT

31 WEST TWENT! -THIRD STREET

L. H m“ LA MIA AMIGA ” m1 8 umAm

’ mi lo o mio m o mre Tu oe estro e lo t

I fo ll hmthe fo tin of tb feete o w o g y t th mI e ra h " i h n so mth t er a m That w y e ni g y eete.

Bo nus !) Su ns“ .

PREFACE

’ ” I m Land of H rt s Desire. ade il rima e to the eo p g g

E. Ho r t o n.

Un vo n e dans lee lieu o uDante a ve mest y g c ” — Au rknt . nne perp etnelle illustratio nde so npo ene. l 'r must he confessed that there is something slightly disappointing to the Dante lover at

first sight in the aspect o f modern Florence. has 0 He journeyed thither as a pilgrim, h ping to discover fo r himself the City that the Poet s so dearly loved and so pa sionately hated, and he is at once confr onted with buildings that f did not exist, at least in their present orm , o f an: in the thirteenth century, with works i u that Dante never saw, and w th streets thro gh

which by no possibility he could have passed. a f Spre d out be ore his eyes, and visible to his o c s o f m st a ual glance, lies the Florence the M n f c edicea period, the Florence o the Decaden e, and th e Florence o f United Italy. The City is still so beautiful in spite o f the m any changes PREFACE

f re- it has known, that he eels inclined to echo f u the words o the Emperor Charles, q oted by “ Isaac Walton, and say that it is too pleasant " to be looked upon but only on holidays, but no t it is not the City he came to see, the City where the greatest o f Florentines was born. It will take some time to learn that the Florence o f to -day is in reality a palimpsest ; that under the writing o f later scribes lies the original manuscript ; that if he will be at pains to sear ch fo r trac es o f the Divine Poet they may be found, even though six centuries have come and gone since he passed away into exile. The object o f this little book is to help the reader to r e-construct as far as may be the f Florence o Dante , and to gather together whatever is still left in the City that will

' serve to throw light either on the B iatuo

'

mmedza o f . Co or on the history the Author In the last chapter an account will be found o f the manner in which Florence Repentant has sought— all too late— to reconcile herself to s the son who, while living, she so ruthles ly f " thrust out into the cold world, that lay uori, beyond his birthplace.

MA R! E. LACY.

mm1 1 2. 1 ” 3 , 9 CONTENTS

I . THE CIT! o r r un Po r t

Ta x Dam- mr an o r F RENCE I I. Qu LO

I II. THE Praz z a DEL Duo u o

. AN MI E E T E B IV On S CH L , H n c n w, AND z V m Pan z o ac c o

V. Tux CHURCHES o r r u n Farms

s T RT r mT I. DmAND HE A o s n V ur

' ' VII . Fla me: Rs p z N rAN r

INDEX

LIST OF ILLU STRATIONS

- ' ‘ r m STA run o r AN I B av DemL o ms o r THE U r D , , o

' FLORENCE As a n o n SAN MrNi Aro AL MONTE. Cc c x Do wn OS'I’BLLO

“ m: Vn u r . IL Po c c o m Po

w r mA E RAZ I E R mc mAND AN Vrn o Po s LL G ( v o ), S

' MrmA r Ar. M m o o

A'ro Vac c mo Mu c

[reu ni n r SAN MxNiA'ro AL Mo m o o

CAs: EG I Au mnmAmn R N R o EC ST UCTI N m D L O O 1 91 :

' x rmo n r BAPTI T ! . V E o S ER osr no ANTICO BAP r rsu o

' “ r! o r e r v. IL m h um s n a . AN o o n S GIO VAN!" new : o r Duo uo

hu mo r: o r e s't u r A'r PISA n wm , s o o FONT

' mVI I. D r A Po m; Bo u I u S rUt o r cr. uo o

mx MA LD o N . ma r o Co uNu ss u A r Tusc A v Mom

Cmmc n o r 011 SAN Mrc nu r Ea mn o r o xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TORRIONT o r THE GUILD o r W001 .

ExTRRIOR o r THE PALAz z O DEL Po po no, WITH THE T mTII V A o o r R ACC

PORTRAIT o r DANTII IN Tm: A RLn i r THE B RG o, B o n RR-p AINTINo

TRA ITI N RT AIT r D NTR r D O AL PO R o A , B ORCACNA. SANTA MARIA NOVELLA

INTRRIOR o r SPANISH CHAPEL. S ANTA MARIA

No a LA

TunTRIUMPH o r ST. TNOII As AquINAs . SANTA MARIA NOVELLA

N N S. I TT . THE RR UNCIATION o r ST. FRA CI G O O SANTA

Tm; R EL I B AN UC LAI MADONNA, C MA UE . S TA MARIA

NOVEL“ 0 0 o 0 0 O 0 0 0

' ‘ DRATII o r ST. FRANCIS. GIOTI O. SANTA CROCE

“ ” Tux CAMPANILE. ORA IIA GIOTTO IL GRI DO

’ T ns R V N A INTTRIOR o r DANTE S o . A E N

D II PAINTING o r DANTE. av O RNIco DI MICHRLINO. DUOMO

MONUMENT To DANTE. S ANTA CROCR

NATIONAL MONUII TNT To DANTR. PIAz z A SANTA CROCE INTRODU CTION

f R m ns Flo re nc e is the daughter o o e and Etruria the So — i me s c in h o rse o f o f Go d having as n so any oth r in tan es t e c u ’ — ’ th dau h er of mn. this world s histo ry wedded e g t s e

BEFORE beginning the task set before us it would be well in the first instance to devote our attention to what Dante has to say concerning o f the origin his native City, and then, taking

' ivina mdz D Co me a fo r the guide, make a slight sketch o f her history down to the middle o f the thirteenth century. In no par t o f his writings does the Poet describe in so many words the founding o f

' o nmto Florence, but in the C he speaks o f her as la bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma — the most beautiful and famous o f the many daughters o f Rome ; and it is evident from other passages in his works that he loved to regard her as an offshoot from the great Mistress o f the Wmorld . This is not to be wondered at when we re ember in what high estimation the writer B INTRODUCTION

Co mmedia o f the held Ancient Rome, how he looked upon her as an antitype o f that Eternal City where the earthly head o f the Church o f f d God was a terwards to be enthrone , nay more, that he beheld in her a symbol o f Paradise as— b o f itself. He believed Aene y reason the position he occupied as father o f the Roman — o f people to have been worthy, like St. Paul, a 1 o f special revelation, spoke Heaven as that f “ Rome where Christ Himsel is Roman , and did not hesitate to apply to the Cruc ified f “ “ Saviour the title o Sommo Giove, supreme o f Jove . It is Virgil, the Poet the Empire, who leads him tenderly through the gloomy circles " i o f o f Hell, and the m lder shades Purgatory,

never quitting his side, until amid the glories n o f the ear thly Eden, huma understanding gives

place to Divine Wisdom, and Beatrice herself

appears before his longing eyes. Dante wished with all his heart that primitive Florence had been wholly peopled by colonists o f from the banks the Tiber, but he was obliged was reluctantly to confess that this not so, and that a portion o f her population came to her — from Fiesole, that town which sadly diminished in size and importance— still clings to a hillside

’ n II 1 . i . I f. . 3 rtrg r u n. 1 02. a [bid VI. I I s0

TH E MAKING OF FLORENCE t e m s hr e iles to the north o f the pot no w o c c u pied by her great desc endant. There c an be no was doubt that the Poet right in his surmise, and that Rome and Etruria j o ined hands to gether in the making o f Florence. The natives o f s f Fie ole, that ungrate ul and malignant peo ple “ ’ — quell ingrato popo lo - descended to the rivers ide fo r purposes o f trade in very early f times, and on the site where the City o Flowers f was in the uture to stand, established a small f o f settlement. A ter the conquest Fiesole by n f the Roma s about two centuries be ore Christ, f n the dominant race re ou ded Florence, or “ ” in Florentia, as they named it, and it was h Fieso lans habited bot by and Romans. To “ ” this confusion o f persons, the admixture o f barbaric bloo d with the sementa santa 1 — the holy seed o f Rome— Dante as cribes most o f the misfortunes from which the City suffered during his lifetime. N 0 very clear tr ace is left in modern Florence o f the handiwork o f either nation— there is no

Porta Augusta as at Perugia, no great Arena as f at Verona. Still we are aware, rom the result o f recent excavations, that the Romans fixed the c entre o f their rule on the site o f what was once M u ercato Vecchio, and there built For m and

1 a xv. 61 . 4 INTRODUCTION Capitol— and fragments have been found in s o f o various part the town, f theatres, a temple o f l Isis, baths and wa ls. Moreover, there is good reason to believe that the famous

Baptistery, so closely associated with the o f n f memory Da te, either stands on the site o a temple dedicated to Mars— who is alluded to in the I nferno as the first patron o f the City 1 - o r contains within itself the shell o f that — . Of a temple the Etruscans curious people, r who have gone out into the da kness, leaving

o f - behind them a legacy rock hewn tombs, f indecipherable inscriptions, and works o art fo r the most part more grotesque than beautiful — even less remains. In the Museo Archeologico,

Via della Colonna, may be seen, however, a collection o f tombstones and other relics that tell o f their occupation o f the City.

Commedia No reference is to be found in the t to that very important event, the introduc ion o f Christianity into Florence ; but it is certain f that by the time o the Emperor Decius, at o f latest, some her citizens had relinquished the worship o f the false and lying gods gli dei “ falsi e bugiardi. Many and great were the vicissitudes through which the little town on

’

n x 1 . . I f. iii. 43 Ihd. i 72. TOTILA AND CHA RLEMAGNE 5 the banks o f the Arno passed during the first few centuries o f her existence. She appears to have been reduced to misery more than once by invaders from the North— one o f these incursions being alluded to by Dante. Totila, in the middle o f the sixth century, is said to have almost destroyed her, and the Poet evidently had this event in mind when he speaks in the thirteenth Canto o f the I nferno o f the rebuilding o f her walls on the ashes left by A ttila } as through some confusion common f he to himsel and the chronicler Villani, , mis

names the Gothic King. For a period o f about f three hundred and fi ty years, as is supposed, f a ter her conquest by Totila, Florence remained in a more or less desolate and ruinous condition, having sunk so low that she became a mere ’ suburb to Dante s despised Fiesole. " — ’ To Carlo Magno Charlemagne, that o f sovereign romance, whose soul in the

' P a r adzso finds an honoured place in the heaven o f — i Mars h company with Joshua, Godfrey de u Bo illon, and other heroic warriors, Florence o f t is believed to owe a deep debt grati ude.

He twice spent some time within her boundaries, extended her Contado— the portion o f the sur rounding country over which she bore rule

1 x . P a . a iii I 49. r xviii . 43. I NTRODUCTION

to a radius o f three miles from the Baptistery, and gave such an impulse to the rebuilding and beautifying o f the City that he may almost

be regarded as her second founder. The Church o f the Santissimi Apostoli was originally built by him— a fact commemorated on the f present acade, and , according to a legend P that must surely have delighted the oet, the f amous Paladin Orlando, at a time long previous “ " 1 f f u to la dolorosa rotta, the atal rout o Fo ta

rabia, was present at the ceremony o f the consecration.

After the arrival Of the Franks in Italy Florence became part o f the Marquisate o f f Tuscany, and rom this time forward her pros

perity was assured . Her position on the Flaminian Road— that great highway which crossed Northern Italy to Rome— favoured her commerce ; German Emperors on their way to be crowned by the Vicars o f Christ lodged in

her palaces ; while, on the other hand , the Popes occasionally found in her a very desirable place o f refuge when the turbulence o f their subjects

drove them out o f the Eternal City. Hugh the f Great and the amous Countess Matelda, who o each in their turn held the marquisate fTuscany,

n I6. I f. xxxi . H UGH THE GREAT

f have le t very fragrant memories in Florence, o f mar mo and both the e inti ately ass ciated with

' ’ ’ s Dzm na o mmedza. pa sages in the C To the former Dante makes allusion in the a o r sixteenth C nto o f the P aradis , whe e he speaks

Del ran ro ne ii c ui no me il c ui re o g ba , e p gi ” La festa da To mmr c n . aso i o fo rta

o f The Great Baron, Hugh or Ugo o f Brandenburgh, had in his youth been guilty as gross licentiousness, but w suddenly con mf he verted by eans o a strange vision witnessed r while hunting in the Mugello, that la ge tract o f broken country that extended almost up to s o f nd the gate Florence. In a rocky a sequestered f spot he saw before him a scene o horror, and beheld black demons tormenting the souls o f f the damned. This awful spectacle le t him a f changed man, he at once amended his li e, and in token o f repentance built seven Benedictine

Convents, in expiation o f the Seven Deadly

Sins . After his conversion he spent many years in the City as Vicar o f the Emperor Otho I II .,

ruling wisely and well, and gaining the love t f and respec o f all men. Not a few o the noble

P ar . xvi. 1 28. INTRODUCTION

’ families o f Florence in Dante s time were proud to believe that they derived miliz ia e privilegio knighthood and dignity— from the famous 1 006 Marquis. He passed away in the year , and until quite recently it was customary on the Feast

f . a o f o St Thomas, the annivers ry his death, to f commemorate him in the Church o the Badia, fo r some young nobleman, specially chosen the purpose, declaiming his praises during the celebration o f the Mass.

The Badia, a Benedictine Abbey, dedicated f ll to St. Stephen, had been ounded by Wi a, ' o f Brandenbur h s Ugo g mother, and greatly enriched by Ugo himself. It was reconstructed

f 1 2 f by Arnol o del Cambio in 85 , but o the work o f the renowned architect only the termination f o the choir remains, as it was almost wholly rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The o f monument the Marquis, set up by the monks a 1 1 f s o f in the ye r 43 , rom the de ign Mino da

a . Fiesole, still st nds in the south transept The “ ii - effigy o f gran barone a beautiful figure, peacefully awaiting the advent o f that Day o f

Reckoning, which he is believed to have dreaded so intensely while on earth— lies in an arched

o f . recess, under the image Madonna and Child The Poet refers to the Badia when he would

P ar . xvi. I 30.

INTRODUCTION

f honour o the great Countess. It is possible that the undoubted benefits Matelda bestowed D on his native town, is the reason why ante , who could not but be opposed to her political

’ o medza f m views, trans orms her in the C into f f that delight ul figure, the Lady o the Earthly ‘ as o f Paradise, who stands type the active f f li e o f the soul, as Beatrice does O the contemplative. ’ With the later years o f Matelda s rule we touch the period that the Poet evidently regarded f as the golden age o Florence, the time when Cac c ia uida al his great ancestor, g , was ive. Cac c iaguida was born in all probability about 1 0 0 the year 9 , he meets Dante in the Heaven o f

Mars, and discourses at great length on the o f condition the City in his day, comparing it very favourably to what it had become by the close Of the thirteenth century. He tells his 3 descendant how small was that City, how f fo r sober, chaste and peace ul, and draws him a wonderful picture o f the simplicity o f the

f and citizens, their plain ood dress, and the small importance they attached to pomp and worldly display. After the age o f Cac c iaguida Florence d increased r apidly in size and importance, an

1 3 r . P n g xxviii. 40. P ar . xv. I 35 . 1 6121 . xv. 97. DIVISIONS IN TH E CITY became to all intents and purposes a free and independent state. She captured and destroyed ieso le F , and took possession o f the castles o f n the obility in the neighbourhood o f the City, pulling down these robber strongholds, and thus greatly increasing the size o f her Contado. an f By act o very doubtful policy, in the year 1 1 1 3, she compelled the dispossessed owners o f s the ca tles to come into the town, where little by little they contrived to get the n governme t into their own hands. Sixty years later the first feud took place

f - between the descendants o the new comers, the r n G andi or nobles, and the Popola i or trading o f class, who represented the original burghers o f Florence, and after this date fo r a space about a century and a half the historians o f the City are chiefly called upon to fill their pages with details o f the perpetual struggle o f these two

- an factions fo r pre eminence. The Popolani b ded “ ” themselves together into Guilds, or Arti, as o f they were called, corporations made up mer chants and workpeople engaged in the same kind ” “ r o f trade. These Arti soon became very ich f and power ul, and threatened to undermine the r f f ule o the Grandi. To protect themselves rom the encroachments Ofthe Popolani the Florentine f mn “ nobles or ed orga izations called So ciete delle I NTRODUCTION

Torri — Societies o f the Towers— so nam ed from the tall fortified towers that adjoined the

Palazzi in which they dwelt. o f f This state things was bad enough in itsel , but soon after the beginning o f the thirteenth r f f centu y a resh element o discord appeared , that fanned into flames the smouldering ashes o f civic hatred. By this period nearly all the northern cities o f Italy had become divided into i two definite polit cal parties, to which the titles o f Guelph and Ghibelline were applied, the first siding with the Pope, the second with the 1 2 1 Emperor. Until the year 5 Florence held herself aloof fr om taking any active part in the contest that was raging around her, but at this e n time a terrible event happen d which, accordi g to both Dante and Villani, at once brought her into the thickest Ofthe fray. o n elmo nte B u ndelmo nti ‘ Bu d degli o , a young f o f f nobleman o Florence, came a amily who, after the destruction o f their castle o f Monte r buoni in Val di Greve, had been d iven into the

City. From political motives he had agreed to

o f unfo r tu marry a daughter the Amidei, but l r mf fe ate fo n y hi sel and his llow citizens, he broke his troth, and announced his intention n o f o f wedding, at the instigatio her mother

P ar . xvi. 1 40. B UONDELMONTE’S DEATH

Gualdr a a f d . , a very beauti ul girl, Ciulla Donati This breach o ffaith naturally gave great offence to the proud family to whom he should have been allied, and the Amidei consulted with their f an riends d kinsmen , and determined to exact the utmost vengeance fo r the insult. As the young bridegroom, dressed in white and mounted f on a white pal ry, all unsuspecting, rode across “ o f Ponte Vecchio, on the morning the Easter o f the Resurrection, his wedding day, on his f Buo ndelmo nti way to the Palazzi o the in

Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, they set upon him and stabbed him to death. His body was carried

- f through Florence on a bier, his girl wi e support ing the head o f her dead lord, and it is not difiic ult to imagine the impression this awful f deed left on the minds o all men . Still it seems a very extraordinary circum stance that what was after all only an act o f private revenge should serve to embroil the w fo r entire City. This was, ho ever, the case, each o f the seventy- two noble families at that time resident in Florence took part in the the e quarrel, and thus aristocracy b came divided

r - o f into two Opposing camps. Thi ty nine these u nd lmi f B o e o nt families espoused the cause o the , while the rest banded themselves together under rti the leadership o f the Ube , the first calling 1 4 INTRODUCTION

e . themselves Guelphs, the second, Ghib llines Nor was this most unhappy state o f affairs r o f o f short duration, fo when at the battle

- f m fiv Montaperti forty e year s later, the a ous Farinata degli U berti carried o ff as prisoner a Bu ndelmo nti certain Cece degli o , he was pur to sued by his own brother Piero, who, unable bear the idea o f the survival o f a member o f the rival faction, deliberately killed the captive f with repeated blows o a club. In process o f time the political significance o f Guelph and Ghibelline was very much forgotten, and the old names simply served to a o f indicate, in all civic questions, the p rty f progress and the party o reaction. In the first

al s place, the older houses were mo t invariably

Ghibelline, the richer burgher class being commonly Guelph, but this distinction tended to become obliterated later, when branches o f the same family often belonged to the rival parties in the State. n Havi g first sought out the origin o fFlorence, o f an origin almost hidden in the mists antiquity, and then traced the history o f her development down to the age that witnessed the birth o f

Dante, it is now possible to consider her condition at the time when the Poet dwelt within her walls.

Cum THE CITY OF THE POET [ fourteenth century differed from the city o f his birth . A new spirit was abroad in Italy and else f f in r f where, making itsel elt every depa tment o human life . A devotion to the art and literature o f f f r classic times, a love o beauty o its own k sake, a sense that it was worth while to ma e the most o f the passing hour— all these things combined to revolutionize the thought o f the ’ ri age in which Dante s lot was cast. The w ter

' ' ' rmna o mdza f f D ma o f the C was himsel pro oundly influenced by the new spirit, although he regretted certain evils that seemed inseparable f f rom it, and his works must o necessity have if been so much the poorer, they had been composed at any less splendid epoch in the history o f mankind. The mystical marriage o f Faust and Helen o f Troy— the wedding o f the Middle Ages with the Ancient World— and the f "— birth o their son, Euphorion the Renais sance— was surely accomplished during the wonderful years that Dante walked this earth . ’ The Florence o f the Poet s infancy was still “ ” 1 surrounded by the Cerchia Antica, o f which Cac c iag uida speaks— the ancient circuit o f walls e 1 0 r that had b en built about the year 78, du ing o f the rule Matelda, taking the place o f the

P ar . xv . 97. 1 1 THE SESTIERI o r FLORENCE 1 7

o f original enceinte the City, as planned, according to tradition, by Charlemagne. This “ Cerchia Antica ” extended from the Arno on the south to a little beyond the Baptistery on f i n the north, and rom San P ero o the east to

San Pancrazio on the west. Visitors to Florence at the present day will best realize how small was the space included in it, by noting that the gro und where stand so many o f the more f — fo r remarkable buildings o the City example, the Churches o f Santa Maria Novella, Santa

Croce, and the Annunziata, and the Convent “ o f — f lo San Marco was as yet uori muri, outside the walls. The ear lier town had been divided into ft the f Quarters, named a er our principal gates that led out into the country at the points o f — n the compass Porta San Pa crazio, Porta del

Duomo, Porta San Piero Maggiore, and Porta f Santa M aria. A ter the reconstruction o f the walls the Quarters were replaced by Sestieri the Quarter o f Santa Maria being divided into S o f c hera io the estieri Porta San Piero S gg , and ’ Borgo Santissimi Apostoli — Sestiere d Oltrarno

being added, though as yet it was wholly

unfo rtified. It is believed that to wards the close o f the thirteenth century the inhabitants o f Florence THE CITY OF THE POET (Can .

numbered about ninety thousand, and even though a certain proportion o f her population dwelt in the suburbs that clustered around

her, still the pressure in the City itself must

have been very great. This being the case, f f Arnol o del Cambio, a amous architect, was commissioned by the authorities to enlarge her

boundaries. He began his undertaking in the

1 2 year 84, and it was approaching completion f at the time that Dante le t Florence. The area shut in by the new walls was three times as large as that contained in the “ Cerchia Antica " — a o f great part Oltrarno being included in it. This third circuit survived with but small e alt ration until recent days, but unfortunately, during the brief period that Florence was the o f Capital United Italy, it was almost wholly

swept away, and replaced by new and un “ ” e inter sting Viali, or boulevards, that still, r however, se ve to mark the limits o f the later

mediaeval City. We will now think o f the gateways by which o f n the Florence the Poet was e tered, to two

’ f mdza o Co m. which he makes allusion in the One o f these was at all times a mere postern l Peruz z a the Porta del Pera, or , named, as he f f himsel implies, rom the Peruzzi family, who

P ar . xvi. 1 26. I] PORTA SAN PIERO MAGGIORE 1 9

inhabited a neighbouring Piazza, and whose o f coat arms, charged with six pears, is still o f to be seen on some the houses in the vicinity .

They were noble citizens and bankers, and partners with the Bardi— the family into which r Beatrice Po tinari married. The postern itself

has long vanished, but Augustus Hare informs “ o f us that on one side the Palazzo Cocchi, f n at the corner o Piazza Sa ta Croce, is a huge "

o f . hinge, a remnant the Porta del Pera

' f P aradzso In the same Canto o the , Dante f f re ers to the gateway o his own Sestiere, the ‘ o f Porta San Piero, which no trace remains . Hard by it in his day were the houses o f the “ " — a Cerchi novi homines, or nouve ux riches

- f a low born amily, who had insinuated them ff d selves into public a airs, an who Dante believed to be partly responsible fo r the division o f the Guelph party into the hostile f factions o f Bianchi and Neri. He speaks o the actual gateway as being weighed down by “ nuova fellonia ”— new treachery — from the o f proximity the spot it occupied, a portion o f the space where now stands Piaz za San Piero

o f . Maggiore, to the Palazzi the Cerchi The three other gateways associated with the original Quarters o f the City have long Cum THE CITY OF THE POET [

e ceas d to exist, and in all probability it would be hard to lo cate exactly the position o f Porta del Duomo and Porta San Panc razio — both o f which were doubtless destroyed soon after the exte nsion o f the walls had rendered them use

. o f f less Porta Santa Maria, the last the our n importa t gateways, is still, however, com me o ra d mte by the Via Por Santa Maria, the street that connects Ponte Vecchio with the

Mercato Nuovo, and it is well that this should fo r be so, it has a peculiar claim to remem “ t brance. Not only was it the early Por a o f o f r Romana the City, the point depa ture fo r Ancient and Papal Rome, but within the m “ ” f archway or erly hung the Martinella, or

- o f c f r war bell Floren e, that o thirty days and nights before a campaign tolled continually fo r greatne ss o f mind —as an old chronicler assures us that the enemy might have full " time to prepare himself. Dante speaks o f the ringing o f bells in the twenty- second Canto l In e o o f the f r n , and doubtless the Martinella sounded its warning note before the commence o f ment o f that war with Pisa and Arezzo, maldino f a which C p , the battle where he himsel f probably ought, was the most important engagement.

Inf. xx u. 7. PONTE VECCHIO

New gateways were rendered necessary by r f w the building o f the third ci cuit o alls, and f — three o these Po rta al Prato, Porta San Gallo, — and Porta alla Croce were built by Arnolfo. Close to the Cascine Gardens still stands a

a al solit ry tower, a remnant o f the old Porta Prato — Porta San Gallo was rebuilt in the eighteenth century, while Porta alla Croce still

stands in the modern Piazza Beccaria. r We c an now go down to the A no, that f river which Dante, according to his mood o the l a f moment, cal s altern tely the beauti ul stream — “ il bel hume ” ‘ —and the cursed and luck ” less ditch la maladetta e sventurata fossa, — a whose waters all unch nged, yet flow through

the City, transparently green in fine weather,

brown and turbid in time o fflood . Four bridges o f spanned the banks in the age the Poet, just as at the present day, the Ponte Vecchio being

far r at that time by the most ancient, fo , if

not the original bridge built by the Romans , was it at least an early successor to it. Dante speaks ] o f Ponte Vecchio— the Old Bridge— as “ ’ ” ” Passo d A r no and Il ponte ‘— in both cases with regard to a mutilated s tone pietra ” sc ema the scanty remains o f an equestrian

1 In . xx F f iii . 95 . arg . xiv. 5 1 . 4 In . 1 f. xiii 46. Far . xvi. 1 46. a m THE CITY OF THE POET [C

f statue o the god Mars, tutelary deity o f Roman

- Florentia, that in pre Christian days had stood in the Temple on the site o f the Baptistery. Later on it had been placed on the north bank o f the river, close to the bridge, probably on

iai li the side o f the modern Lungarno A c c uo , and appears to have been regarded as the al o f f o f p ladium Florence . At the oot this Bu ndelmo nte statue the murder o f the young o if— had taken place, as as the Poet suggests the unhappy youth had been offered in sacrifice to Mars in the last hour o f the peace o f the

City.

Ma tra c em c onveniasi a quella pie s a 1 Che uarda ] nt c h F o renza fesse g po e, e i ” i ma D l 1 V tt e la sua c o strema. i pa e p

Several buildings that are o f interest in connection with this grim tragedy still stand in the neighbourhood o f Ponte Vecchio. At the entrance o f the Borgo Santissimi Apostoli f is the Tower o f the Amidei amily, a double o f tower, with rude heads lions on the second f r ff e stage ; while not a o , in Via delle Term , is n elmo nti the Buo d tower, tall and stately, in f S pite o f the passage o so many centuries. In ' L mb rte a Via a e sc , also within a stone s throw f o the Old Bridge, is a third tower, that o f

1 P ar . xvi. 1 47.

THE CITY OF THE POET [CHAR

as Ponte alla Carraie, or Ponte Nuovo, it f o f the f was ormerly called, the westermost our 1 21 u o f the bridges, was erected in 8, on acco nt increase o f the silk and wool industry in Borgo o f Ognissanti. It was originally c onstructed an f r wood, d this act gave ise to a terrible acci dent a few months after Dante had been pro ai a cl med n exile, fo r the bridge broke down under the weight o f the crowds that had s a sembled to witness a mystery play, enacted n in boats on the river, and many Flore tines were drowned or seriously injured. They had been invited to behold a spectacle o f the world o t few o f that lay behind the visible, and n a them went in person to the reality o f which as the show w a shadow. Ru ac o nte Ponte b , now Ponte alle Grazie , o f lying to the east Ponte Vecchio, possesses f r r a double interest o all Dantists, fo not only is it the only existing bridge on which the feet f o the Poet could have trod, but it has also the

'

ommedia . honour o f being mentioned in the C It was built by Lapo — father o f Arnolfo di ei o f — n 1 2 fo r L pi, the architect the Bargello i 35 , Ru ac e b o nte da Mand lla, a Milanese Podesta, during whose term o f office the streets o f the

'

e . P ur a town w re paved Dante, in the g tono , m “ co pares the ascent to the Cornice o f the

1 ] DANTE AND PONTE RU BACONTE 25

Envious from that o f the Proud to the foot r r s taircase, which, built in the thi teenth centu y, s till connects this bridge with the hill where a i s n S n Min ato ta ds.

C a s ra r al mt o me mande t sa re on e pe li , v d l a Do e sie e a c hiesa, c he soggiog ” o r 1 La hen guidata s p a Rubac o nte.

It was formerly fringed with houses like 1 Ponte Vecchio, but in 874 they were removed , when the bridge was altered and widened. The " more recent name, Ponte alle Grazie, comes f m r ro an image o f the Virgin at one time p e ser ved in a little chapel on the right bank o f the river. Ponte Rubac o nte was the scene o f the recon ciliation effected between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines in 1 273 in the presence o f Pope

X. o f r Gregory , Charles Anjou, and the Empero ld o f Ba win Constantinople, the child Dante being then old enough to take some interest in this solemn farce that had no permanent effect whatever on the feuds o f the City. The f i — f ourth br dge Ponte Santa Trinita, also o wo od— was built by Lamberto de Frescobaldi 2 2 d ar i in 1 5 . Bo th it an Ponte alla C ra e were m r destroyed in the sa e flood that ove whelmed e and Ponte V cchio, not rebuilt until the period

1 P urg . xii . 1 00. P THE CITY OF THE POET (CRA .

f o the Medicean rule in Florence. The con struction o f these three bridges during the short space o f thi rty-five years in the thirteenth century bears witness to the growing import ’ o f ance Oltrarno, that in Dante s day had begun to rival the northern half o f the City in size. We have now traced the bounds o f the o f Florence Dante, and counted her gates and It bridges. would be well to go in spirit into her streets— those streets through which the Poet walked on his way to church or council chamber ; those streets through which Beatrice “ Portinari passed, crowned and clothed with “ ’ milta” 1 — humility coronata e vestita d u and “ attended by a company o f gentle ladies, a little ” older than herself. It is pleasant to be able to remember in this connection that a great many o f the streets o f the early City are still o fo r in existence, though f course the most part altered and modernized, and that some actually bear the name by which they were originally designated. The visitor to that

r f qua ter o Florence, that lies south o f the 1 Duomo, between the Bargello and 0 S an

Michele, will find an abundance o f narrow ways, and even a tiny Piazza or two, that

1 V. N. xxvi. I] THE STREETS OF FLORENCE 27 preserve almost unchanged their mediaeval characteristics. How narrow were certain at least o f the ’ streets o f Dante s City may be guessed from a

r . sto y related by Franco Sachetti, the novelist

The Poet, then a person o f some civic import b ance, had een as ked to intercede with the ffi Esecutore di Giustizia, an o cer who appears to have watched over the minor morals o f the f o f citizens, on behal o f a youth the Adimari f amily, who had got into trouble through inso lent behaviour. He set out willingly enough on his errand, but on the way he began to o f o f think the conduct this young man, and how when he passed on horseback through Florence he was in the habit o f stretching out his legs so widely that the toes o f his boots —b touched the passers y , and that those who by ill luck encountered him, were obliged in some cases even to turn back and seek another route. 5 0 angry had Dante become in the r f cou se o his meditations by the way, that on his arr ival at the o fiic e o f the Esecutore he related to him the manner in which the culprit “ i o f usurped the r ghts the Commonwealth, and thus instead o f palliating his original r offence, secured fo him a severer penalty than would otherwise have been inflicted. As we THE CITY OF THE POET [CHAP .

can easily imagine, this incident did not endear the Poet to the members o f the house o f the

Adimari, and indeed it is said to have been one o f the causes o f his banishment from the

City a few years later. Sheer up from the streets in true mediaeval fashion uprose a multitude o f towers, belonging a to the noble families o f Florence. When D nte,

t - fir st n f In erno in the thir y Ca to o the f , describes dim how, bewildered by the light that prevailed o f in the lowest circle Hell, he mistook the “ giants that stood round Lucifer fo r Alte ” torri 1 —towers o f great height— he may have had in mind almost any town in Tuscany as f seen a ter sunset. In his native place, how r a ever, g eater import nce appears to have been

attached to these towers than anywhere e lse, fo r the possession o f one o f them served as a “ ” o f . patent nobility The associations o f Grandi, formed to resist the upward movement o f the " " r Popolani, were named Soc iete delle Tor i, and the expression used in common speech to signify houses o f distinction was Famiglie di

- Torri e Loggie, the latter being open air

porches where festivities were held. At one period certain o f these towers were n 2 0 f no less tha 7 eet high, but by a law passed 1 In f xxxi. 20.

0 3 THE CITY OF THE POET (Cu p .

fo r o f f f . the circumstances amily li e Florence, indeed, lived in a chronic state o f faction fight f and street war are, and her nobles required some stronghold that could sustain a siege if necessary. From these Torri and Palazzi they swooped down into the streets at the cry o f “ ’ Ac c o r — uomo Help, Help ready and eager to join in the fray, whether the combat ants were fighting on the side Of the different political parties, or were simply actuated by a desire fo r private revenge. Member s o f the same house usually sup

in f r ported each other these contests, and o this reason their dwelling places clustered — fo r Via together example, in dei Bardi at one time there were no less than twenty- three Palazzi belonging to the family from whom the street was named . The abodes o f the Popolo ” - - Grosso, or well to do tradespeople, the rising f burgher class, were to be ound in all the older f a portions o the town, s ndwiched in among the Palaz zi o f the Grandi but the bulk o f them were doubtless situated in the manu o f fac turing districts, such as the Sestiere

o f . Of Ognissanti, and some parts Oltrarno the ” o f i humble thatched huts the Popolo M nuto, or working class, that large but insignificant section o f the community whom the chroniclers M ERCATO VECCHIO 3 1

o f all times have been apt to overlook, and who hardly became articulate in Florence until “ ” r o f the ising the Ciompi, or wooden shoes, no trace remains. They were crowded together, especially on the spot now occupied by the a f beautiful g rdens o the Cascine, and in a ” certain Borgho or suburb o f Oltrarno that from the poverty o f its inhabitants bore the i i — ’ title o f P t gliso the beggar s quarter. Ever since the earliest period o f her exist ence Mercato Vecchio had been in a sense the o f l a d heart F orence, n by the thirteenth century the Palazzi o f her nobility clustered thickly round it, the mediaeval houses in not a few instances concealing mosaic pavements and o f other relics the settlers in Roman Florentia. Cac c iaguida mentions the Old Market in con 1 nec tio n with the Capo nsac c hi — the family to which the mother o f Beatrice belonged— who had f i l descended thither a ter the destruction o fF eso e. In o f Elisei the age Dante, the Vecchietti, the , Nerli f the Amidei, the , and other noble amilies ” . o f dwelt there The title Mercato, the market ar excellence h place p , ad been bestowed on it in 1 0 the year 79, when it became the centre o f the o f retail trade the city, markets having been held f previously in many parts o the town .

1 P ar . xvi. 1 2 1 . THE CITY OF THE POET (CRAP .

Down to the end o f the nineteenth century Mercato Vecchio was one o f the most interesting Ca o nsac c hi places in Florence ; the Torre dei p , s f the Ca a degli Amidei, and one o the Vecchietta Palaces were still to be seen there ; the shields o f former noble occupants were yet visible on f s several o the house , and four old churches o f stood, one in each corner the square . Unfortunately a passion fo r modernization then seized on the Florentine municipality, and instead o f trying to preserve and res tore the s treasure that the ages had pared, the whole was destroyed with a ruthless hand . A terrible o f modern Piazza, bearing the name Vittore f e Emmanuele, rom which, as has b en cleverly f said, even the equestrian stat ue o the first o f King United Italy is vainly trying to escape, o f now stands on the site the Old Market. It is the greatest loss that lovers o f Dante

o f u have been called upon late years to end re, and one that is unfortunately absolutely irreparable . The historian Villani says that by the close o f the thirteenth century there were a hundred and ten churches and convents in Florence. e Of these latt r five were nunneries, sheltering five m hundred devout wo en, and ten were monasteries inhabited by monks belonging to

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES

the Regular Orders. At that time religious Observances were still bound up with the events o f f daily li e in a manner which we, who live in an age when a hard- and- fast line is apt to be drawn between things spiritual and things r o f h tempo al, to the great detriment bot , find

it diffic ult to understand . As yet the majority o f Flo rentines were intensely orthodox in their f al few belie s, though a individuals among them had become tainted with the scepticism that

invariably, in a greater or less degree, was one f o the products o f the Renaissance. Probably every noble family in Dante’s day had definitely f associated itsel with some special church. If not actually the founders or r ebuilders o f this s t f church, they were at lea the owners o a chapel that they decorated according to their own taste— often at considerable expense f r where Masses were said o them , and their

dead were laid to rest. Nor were the burgher class backward in this “ s f r e o f Ar t re pect, o memb rs each te or rading i e r guild were l nk d together by eligious services, f mo ffi o f the per or ed in the cial Church Guild, and by corporate works o f mercy, done under n f a r the sanctio o the ecclesiastic l autho ities. Philanthropy was not as yet the prevailing fo r o f motive deeds benevolence, the primary D 34 THE CITY OF THE POET (CRAP .

o f f o f fo r desire the ounder a hospital the sick, fo r or a hostel travellers, being the greater o f o f glory God and the good his own soul. It was a great age fo r the establishment o f con fraternities ; organizations in which laymen were

f r banded together o purposes o f devotion, or with the idea o f carrying out some special act o f charity .

f f One o these con raternities, extant in the o f time the Poet, has survived to the present day. The visitor to Florence is sure to make acquaintance, sooner or later, with the Brethren o f f o f the Misericordia, who, a ter the lapse so many centuries, may still be seen conveying the sick to hospital or the dead to burial. This f con raternity was, it is said, instituted in the 1 2 year 40 by Piero Borsi, a porter employed by alimala— the Arte di C the great Guild o f Foreign — Cloth among his fellow workers . Dante must have been familiar with the sight o f these

shrouded figures gliding through the streets,

intent on their charitable errands, but at that time they presented a more cheerful aspect

the f r than is now case, o the Brethren wore

o f . cloak and hood red, and carried a red litter

f B e The beauti ul Loggia, called the ig llo, in

Piazza del Duomo, stands on the site o f their

6 3 THE CITY OF THE POET (Ca n . this later hospital by the presence on the Loggia ” o f th e famous tondi, the exquisite swaddled nf o f i ants Andrea della Robbia. While appr e c iatin e o f g the b auty these lovely works o f art, the Dantist will also remember that the fine building they adorn is in a very real sense the “ ” o f the h f l successor little ospital, uori o muri, the f i that Poet may himsel have v sited. ’ During Dante s childhood the churches o f his birthplace were still chiefly o f the Basilican e typ , a simple ground plan, consisting o f a parallelogram, divided longitudinally into three o f aisles, separated by rows pillars connected - v by round headed arches, and ha ing at the east t h end an apsidal ermination. Probably t e o f h earliest these c urches was San Lorenzo, o f e o f h not, course, the M dicean building t at name, but one standing on the same site, n founded by a Florentine woma named Giuliana, r r o f in gratitude fo the bi th a son, and couse crated by no less a person than St. Ambrose himself. Santa Reparata, at one time the o f Cathedral o f Florence, was another church a similar pattern it was destroyed while Dante was y et in the City, in order to make room fo r the great Duomo. But small trace remains o f either o f these ancient Houses o f God or o f other churches SAN MIN IATO AL MONTE 37

o f that resembled them . Outside the walls

Florence, however, standing high above the f Arno, there still U pli ts itself to heaven San al Miniato Monte, a Basilican building but little altered since the Poet referred to it in the

’ f ivine o mmedza amous passage in the D C

La c esa e so o hi , c h ggi ga ” 1 La ben guidata so pra Rubac o nte.

San Miniato was founded in the year 1 01 3 b o f y Alibrando, Bishop and citizen Florence, Miniatus and dedicated to a Roman soldier, , who ff su ered in the Decian persecution, being twice exposed to the lions on his refusal to give up his faith in Christ. The exterior o f the church

f r f is somewhat disappointing, o the fine acade e o an is a century later than the ag f D te, though f it may have replaced one o earlier construction, and somewhat similar design, and the Campanile

o f r a - is but the successor the o igin l bell tower, w 1 hich collapsed in the year 499. o f All sense disappointment is, however, at an end when we pass into the interior o f the

u f r b ilding, o it is much in the same condition wa that it s when first erected. By an arrange al ment very unusu out o f Tuscany, the nave a r le ds directly to the c ypt, with the sanctuary

1 r . 1 P n g xi i . 0 1 . THE CITY OF THE POET [CHAP .

above it, serving as upper story, approached by flights o f steps from the side aisles.

Standing in the centre o f the nave we are surrounded by beautiful specimens o f early workmanship, such as the low marble screens that outline the sanctuary, and the richly inlaid o f pulpit, bearing an image a woman, Mater — — an Ecclesia our Mother the Church eagle, type Of Divine Inspiration, being placed above f the her head, while below her eet is a lion, o emblem f power. In the apse is an ancient mosaic, showing the Saviour enthroned, in the o f f act blessing the Madonna, while on His le t S an s side stands Miniato, habited as an Ea tern ff n U prince, and o eri g p his crown. The whole design o f this mosaic is absolutely Byzantine ld in style, and was already so O in the year 1 2 o f 97that it was in process restoration .

Beneath our feet lies a lovely pavement o f

T ssalatum Opus e , laid down in symbolic o f patterns, one square representing the signs f o f u the Zodiac, the gi t the abbot Joseph s in

1 2 07, and the walls are sheathed with marble S o f slabs, chiefly the poil the temples o f those Miniatus f heathen gods whom re used to worship. No great imagination is required to behold A lma r i . P bo to

I. N I NTERIO R OF SA N M I N IATO A M O TE .

1 ] SAN GIOVAN N l GUALBERTO 39

’ f Divine: omza n o C med the writer the , percha ce on the festival o f San Miniato (October U gazing pon all these wonders, or kneeling at

Mass in the crypt before that selfsame altar. under which the relics o f the heroic soldier o f still rest in peace. Even the little Chapel the Crucifix, standing in the centre o f the nave, though o f much later date than the remainder o f n the church, o ly recalls to our minds a legend a m D nte ust have known, and, we cannot but f believe, have loved. Two hu ndred years be ore f his time San Giovanni Gualberto, the ounder o f the Vallombrosan order, while still a layman , had met o ne Good Friday the murderer o f his brother, on the hill below the church . The wretch begged fo r life in the Name o f the Lord

Wh ff and o had su ered as on that day, this appeal the future Saint found himself unable to resist . f f A ter reely pardoning the assassin, he entered f the sacred building, and as he knelt be ore the

f r i d Image o the C uc fie , exhausted doubtless by the mental struggle through which he had passed, the Figure on the Cross bowed down to him in token o f approval o f the deed just performed fu r by His merci l se vant. In an age like that o f Dante, when such supreme importance was o f u attached to the act revenge, men m st still have remembered with wonder and admiration 40 THE CIT! OF THE POET [CHAR the forbearance exercised fo r love o f the S aviour by San Giovanni Gualberto.

The latter half o f the thirteenth century was f c indeed a period o f transition, and this a t is nowhere shown more clearly than in the arc hi f tec tur al histor y o f Florence. During the ew years that Dante dwelt in his native City before o f going away into exile, no less than three the largest and most important o f the churc hes— the

Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Croce a were begun. Not only so, but a great lteration had taken place alike in the manner o f con struction, and the ideals by which the builders were inspired. The spirit o f the Renaissance that was sweeping over Italy had reached the Florence, and simple Bas ilican style which had hitherto contented her citizens was not found sufficiently mag nificent fo r the growing desires o f the rising generation . They wished s fo r churches o f greater size, where large ma ses o f people might worship together, and where elaborate ceremonies could fitly be performed. f The quadrangular plan yielded to the cruci orm , an f and the pointed arch, introduction rom the north o f Europe, but little in use at an earlier

f . date, was requently employed Owing to the increase o f wall space a greater amount o f

m THE CITY OF THE POET [Ca Second only in importance to the buildings in which the government o fthe City was actually o f ff conducted, were the houses the di erent “ ” f - trading guilds, each o the twenty one Arti n f “ providi g an official abode o r their Consuls. The greater number o f these guild- houses have been destroyed, one or two quite recently, but o f r the Torrione the A te della Lana, adorned “ with the arms o f the Art o f Wool — the Agnus Dei bearing a banneret— may be seen in Via di

Calimala . , close to Or San Michele It was built in the thirteenth century, but the ugly buttress connecting it with the church is o f o f later date. The great hall behind it, also s con iderable antiquity, is now called the Sala f di Dante, and is used o r lectures given by o f members the Societa Dantesca Italians . Near at hand is the residence o f the Guild “ h - o f Butchers, whose emblem, a black e goat ” rampant, is still visible. Two Palazzi belong f t ing to the Lamberti amily, one in Merca o

Nuovo, the other in Via Pellicceria, that had been handed over to the Arte della Seta and the Arte f degli Oliando respectively, a ter the expulsion f o f a a rom Florence their origin l owners, are lso yet in existence. The names o f certain modern streets bring " back memories o f the different Arti ; Via 1 ] GOLD FLORI N OF FLORENCE 43

l a f m h Ca zaioli was so c lled ro the presence t ere in old days o f the factories and shops belonging

f - to the Guild o Stocking makers, while the Guild o f Furriers and Skinners had their quarters in

Via Pellicceria. Even in the more aristocratic parts o f Florence signs o f industry prevailed r few if eve ywhere, very , any, o f the noblest families holding themselves aloof from some kind o f trade. The visitor to Borgo degli Albiz z i may yet see on the window frames o f Palazzo Alessandri the rods on which the cloth that was the special product o f the Arte di

ima h t . Cal al was ung out o dry The reproach levelled at the English might have been applied f lo rentines more truth ully to the F , they were “ ” o f indeed a nation shopkeepers, and their

u merchandise was well known all over E rope. Mediaeval Florence had begun by being an o f oligarchy, by the close the thirteenth century

she had become what Villani calls her, a

Republic o f merchants. flo rin o f The gold Florence, to which Dante

' t a Divine: mmea’ ll Co ra makes hree llusions in the , was at once the sign and seal o f her commercial

1 2 prosperity. It was first struck in the year 5 2 “ ” in the Zecca or mint that then stood on the f ffiz i f site o the U , her coinage having be ore this

1 P a Fo . x . Inf. xxx . 74 ; r . ix . 1 30 ; r viii 1 34. 44 TH E CITY OF THE POET (Can .

date been carried out in bronze a nd silver only. wa It s about the size o f an English sovereign , and was stamped on one side with the image o f . St John Baptist, Patron o f the City, and bore “ ” fam on the other the ous lily or Giglio, the

o f -f badge the Republic. It contained twenty our o f carats unalloyed gold, and was not only universally accepted as a standard o f currency o f throughout Italy, but became the model the

o f i . gold coinage England, France, and Spa n So great was the demand fo r this beautiful coin by the close o f the thirteenth century, that the Zecca was called upon to turn out no n less tha gold flo rins annually. Fazio

' Uberti D z m tta nd degli , in the o o , when he would “ ' s r de c ibe fine gold, says, Pura era come l oro " del Fiorino, and to our Poet it served as the f r symbol o money in gene al. In the tenth ” o f I n er no n Bolgia the f , amo g other impostors, r o f m the pilgrims behold the spi it Maestro Ada o o f 1 Brescia, at one time employed in the F flo rin lorentine Mint, who counterfeited the , altering the legal proportions o f the metals o f o f which it was compounded, to the advantage f f r his patrons, the Counts o Romena, o which was crime he burned to death. Numerous o f fl r examples the gold o in, including some 1 n I } :xxx . 6 1 . I] SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE CITY 45 specimens that were current during the years in that Dante spent his birthplace, and may e cons quently even have been handled by him , be s may een in the Museo Nationale, or Bargello, the ancient Palazzo del Podesta.

Consider a little the social conditions o f the ’ City where the Poet s youth and early manhood

e s c . wer pa sed, onditions changing every day We learn fr om Villani that the Florentines o f r the middle o f the thirteenth centu y, as in the “ ia da age o f Cac c gui , lived soberly, and on coarse "

n . mn a e foo d, a d at sm ll expense The wore ” leather jerkins and worsted caps or berrette, while even the great ladies were content with f ai scarlet gowns, o rough cloth, pl nly made, and r without o nament, over which in the winter they

r- placed fu lined mantles with hoods attached.

f mthe As we see ro words that Dante puts f r a n into the mouth o his g eat ncestor, alteratio s fo r the worse in this respect had taken place before he left the City. The unassuming garb in which the noble citizens had gone about their “ o f business, typified by the belt leather and f " the clasp o bone, c into ’ ” d o sso 1 di c uo io e ,

1 P ar . xv. 1 1 2. Cam 46 THE CITY OF THE POET [

had been replaced by much gayer clothing. f fur f Surcoats o brocade and , o ten embroidered f with coats o arms and other devices, were worn by the younger men , while their elders bore “ ” i c the lucco, a long hang ng garment o f s arlet or black silk, or fine serge. The ladies also f r shared the taste o magnificent apparel, silken f robes were the rule on estive occasions, and the Florentine beauties adorned themselves with “ chains, diadems, and girdles that caught the " 1 eye more than did the wearer. Not only did ff they o end in this matter, but they immodestly m11 uncovered their persons to the co mon gaze, and painted their faces the better to attract attention . The first sumptuary law by which Florence attempted to cu rb the extravagance o f

1 2 her women was passed in the year 90, only few f a years be ore these passages were written, and this curious little fact seems to show that the severe strictures Dante makes on the subject d o f female attire were not altogether unjustifie .

’ v mza Di i e: o med The author o f the n C appears to award the palm fo r luxury and prodigality to the natives o f the neighbouring city o f 11 o f f Siena. He mentions the names our ‘ Sienese, who belonged to a society called the

11 P x . nrg . xiii . 1 03 1 1 I id x . 1 1 In :xx 1 2 . b . iii 5 . } ix . 5 1 ] EXTRAVAGANCE AN D GLUTTONY 47

i o f Br gata godereccia, composed twelve t young men, who wasted their subs ance in riotous living, spending, it is said, the enor mous sum o f two hundred thousand flo rins in o Of twenty months. One f this band spend

r f alimb ni e th i ts, Niccolo S , according to Dante, ” 1 r discovered a new use fo cloves, nothing less, so some commentators assure us, than the employment o f them as fuel fo r the roasting o f game ; while others shod their horses with f silver, and orbade their servants to pick up if f ff the shoes they ell o . These absurdities roused the wrath o f the and o f o f Poet, he speaks them in a tone bitter f irony, but there is reason to believe rom the evidence o f his own works that Florence also was not free from that special form o f self indulgence that shows itself in too great f devotion to the pleasures o the table. It is remarkable that the first spirits that meet us the one in the “ Bolgia ” where gluttony “ is punished, the other in that Cornice o f P urg ato ry where a like sin is in process o f — l r tines expiation are both F o en . In the former instance it is an unimportant citizen called 1 Ciacco (pig), who Dante recognizes with difficulty ; in the latter it is his own friend

1 1 In . xx x. 1 2 . Ibid. vi f i 7 . 5 2. 1 1 AP THE CITY OF TH E POET [C . and 1 kinsman, Forese Donati, who he evidently dearly loved. The Poet also finds great fault with the early age at which marriages were ra cont cted in Florence, the large dowry demanded with her maidens, and the manner in which the mar ried women had discontinued 1 the use o f spindle and distaff — all signs and o f r o f tokens a pe iod luxury, and in some o f respects decadence.

Visitors to Italy at the present day cannot fail to notice the fact that the inhabitants o f both towns and villages spend a large o f air proportion their time in the open , especially during the summer months. Details o f the culinary art, and processes connected with the toilet are freely carried on outside the houses ; bargains are struck in the streets and squares ; and neighbours and friends meet and chat in the nearest convenient corner that — offers a little shade. It is only at night a night which seems far too short to the weary fo r traveller, longing quiet in which to sleep f or during the hours o the daily siesta, that the people remain in their homes. r an a l resco This taste fo f existence, com bined with a disregard fo r privacy that seems

1 1 xx . 8. P ar . xv. 1 1 . PW . iii 4 7

a lm THE CITY OF THE POET [C

fo r occasions were set apart general rejoicing. First and foremost o f these was the Calends of f May, a estival which in the warm climate o f a o f It ly, so unlike that England, really did ” o f r celebrate the coming P imavera, the most f s o f delight ul sea on the year. On this day the streets were alive with bands o f young men and women— sometimes a thousand strong — f beautifully dressed , carrying garlands o f flowers and musical instruments, ollowing in f the footsteps o a leader, called the Lord o f " Love, and singing Maggiolata, or songs o f

S pring. The houses were decorated with green

r - boughs and b ight coloured hangings, and dancing and games took place in the different f squares o the town, notably in Piazza Santa — Trinita. Prominent citizens like the father o f Dante’s Beatrice— feasted their friends in their own homes, choosing a young maiden as “ o f Contessa di Maggio, or Queen the May, f in allusion to the amous Matelda. It is not impossible that the little daughter o f Folco Portinari had been thus chosen on the occasion o f her first meeting with the Poet, and that the “ crimson vesture that left such a deep impression on his imagination was in reality f the symbol o mimic royalty. Another great festival in Florence was the THE PALLIO

- f o f twenty ourth o f June, the c ommemoration the Patron, St . John Baptist, the day when the " - w f well kno n Pallio, to which Dante re ers in

o f P ar adiso e. the sixteenth Canto the , took plac “ ” 1 This annual giuoco, or yearly game, was r a race, the horses starting from San Panc azio o f and in the western ward the City, running through Mercato Vecchio to the eastern ward, the prize bestowed on the winner being a cloak " or Pallium o f rich crimson velvet. Another

Pallio was run on the Feast o f St. Barnabas, n f amaldino the a niversary o f the battle o C p , a f r public holiday, and a great opportunity o

r - mer y making. These contests fo r the Pallium served as the principal amusement o f the n c m mediaeval Italia ; they were usually ac o anied o p by some kind f religious ceremonial, and, though the idea is strange enough to us, who are only too well acquainted with the degrading associations o f the modern race course, there c an be no doubt that a sacred a signific tion was attached to them. Dante had f f probably himsel witnessed the Pallio o Verona, In e 1 to which he makes allusion in the f r no , a “ f fo r i oot race, which the pr ze was a green " mantle, run annually on the first Sunday in Lent . ” When Dante, on leaving the Bolgia where

1 1 P ar . xvi. 2. n x 4 I f. v. 1 22. THE CITYmOF THE POET [CHAP . s the robbers are tor ented by fiery erpents, bids Florence exult bec ause she beats her wings ’ ” 1 o er sea and land, his words, though spoken s o f n in a pirit a gry sarcasm , inspired by the o f disho nesty her citizens, record a literal and f simple act . The commerce o f the City had o f become so great, that by the beginning the f r ourteenth centu y, she was in touch with all f the civilized nations o the world . The agents o f r lim a the A te di Ca ala and the Arte della L na were doing business in England, France, Spain , f Portugal, and Flanders, bartering the beauti ul products o f the Florentine looms either fo r fleeces or undressed cloth There were several wool trading companies in London , and not a few o f the English monasteries supplied them f ra with the need ul w material . The Florentines were also the great bankers o f Europe ; with one hand they lent money to

r III. r I kings, notably our own Hen y and Edwa d . , while with the other they collected the tribute “ ’ called Peter s Pence fo r the Holy See. A ’ single family, the Bardi, in Dante s day, had legal representatives in France, England, Ireland, and o f Germany, while the London agent another

- f r s o baldi well known house, that o the F e c , was o f appointed by Edward I . to the post director

1 n . I f. xxvi I . THE CONTADO o f the currency in England, his business being n to correct mistakes made by English ba ks. 1 00 At the first Papal Jubilee in the year 3 , no less than twelve powers, including the Emperors o f o f Byzantium and Germany, and the Kings n Fra ce and England, were represented by lo ren i F t nes. Pope Boniface VIII . was so struck by this c ircumstance that he remarked that Florence was far and away the greatest o f all ” f cities, adding the words, She eeds, clothes, and governs us all . Indeed she appears to rule are the whole world. She and her people , in ”

f o f . truth, the fi th element the universe

We are rather too ready to think o f mediaeval

Florence as merely a City, whereas in the age we ar e considering she had become a large state— about a sixth part o f _the whole area o f Tuscany being included in her Contado. As ll Hy ett te s us, her rule extended almost to the

f - walls o Pistoia, nearly half way to Pisa and f- Lucca, and much more than hal way to Arezzo " I and Siena. n the immediate vicinity o f the City were many villas surrounded by gardens r r and orcha ds, to which the riche citizens were o f r d in the habit reti ing uring the summer heats . o ed m Villa Bellosguard belong at that ti e to the f ’ Cavalcanti amily, and doubtless Dante s chief 54 TH E CITY OF THE POET (CRAP. f f riend, Guido, o ten so ught refuge there, to read and meditate, and write those poems he passed r a on to his great litera y riv l. There also Dante ffi must have visited him, and it is not di cult to imagine the two scholars, their friendship as yet ff unbroken by political di erences, pacing along the terrace from which such a beautiful view f o Florence is obtained, discussing perchance

Vita Nuo vo a passage in the , or even possibly

' f f Divine: o o mmedr . planning a rough dra t the C a Dante himself was not without a personal

ff f f r interest in the a airs o the Contado, o a meadow just outside Porta San Gallo is known was to have been his property. He also the o f al Camerlata owner a little estate c led under ” Fiesole, that was handed over by his sons

f alf- a ter his death to his h brother, Francesco o f o Alighieri, in payment a sum f two hundred and five gold flo rins advanced to him in the 1 0 f year 30 . Francesco sold it shortly a terwards r o f to Accerito and Giovanni Portina i , nephews ” “ - Beatrice. The Villa Bondi, the well known

- centre o f the terra c otta industry, on the old road between Florence and Fiesole, stands on

- - the site o f the thirteenth century dwelling house, f some portions o the latter, it is believed, yet o f surv iving, incorporated into the walls the more recent building . PASTORAL LI FE

The external as pect o f the country that was once subject to Florence has altered but little

’ since the Poet s day, the everlasting hills

still keep watch and ward round his birthplace, o f as they did old, while the towered towns on ” 1 f cypress heights, that orm such a conspicuous f far eature in the Tuscan landscape, have, as

as situation is concerned, known hardly any

change or alteration . Nature has undergone o f no convulsions here, as in other parts Italy, nor have social or political revolutions had any great influence on the lives and customs and o f the country folk. The vintage olive harvests are still conducted fo r the most part as they were in the thirteenth century— modern innovations having obtained little footing here - and great white oxen with huge horns and gentle eyes yet bring into the villages the o f product field and vineyard. The visitor to the rural districts o f Tuscany at the present time will see every day a thousand sights — familiar to Dante and his contemporaries that will enable him to understand the better the many pastoral allusions that find a place

' '

z n media . f vi a o m in the pages o the D C

1 Evelyn U nderhill . CH APT E R I I

THE DANTE-QUARTER OF FLORENCE

”— Inc ipit Vita No va. DANTE.

“ T r o t the Vito Nma t fi h o ugh u here is a strain like the rst fal m c h th e n urmc rea s ear i mr mo ur e e s emt ead li g whi h n o o e w, ” and prepares us to loo k Upo n the sea .

Tu n Sestiere di Porta San Piero Maggiore, f the Sestiere in which Dante himsel dwelt, o f o f was one the original divisions Florence. o f r It lay south the Baptiste y, on both sides o f the Via del Corso and the Borgo degli

Al iz z i b , extending on the west as far as a little beyond the Via Calzaioli, the eastern termination being in Piazza San Piero Maggiore. The famous Benedictine convent from which Of the name the Sestiere was derived, stood ” in close proximity to the Porta, or gateway. This very anc ient foundation held a unique o f position among the religious houses Florence, fo r to the church that belonged to it came f every new Bishop, immediately a ter his first entrance into the City, there to go through a

~ 5 8 TH E DA NTE QUARTER (Ca n . brings with it a certain measure o f disappoint ment. The most that can be said with any sort o f confidence about the present house is that it probably stands on the site o f a portion o f o f f the original dwelling the Alighieri amily, which in the time o f Dante extended much f further back, having its principal rontage in o f Via Santa Margherita, and that one or two the rooms contained in it may possibly date from the thirteenth century. Not only has the

’ Cas a di Dante sufiered greatly from neglect “ f re and alteration, but it was un ortunately ” o f all 1 8 stored out decency in the year 77, after the municipality acquired it fo r the purpose o f throwing it open to the public.

Passing through the narrow entrance, a steep staircase leads to a room on the second floor

fe r e where a w Dante relics are prese ved. Her

o f Commedia are to be seen early editions the , o f f coins and glass panes the period, a bust o f the Poet by the daughter o the Pisan sculptor, f Dupre, and laurel leaves ound in the sarco o f phagus at Ravenna, where the remains Dante i lie. One cannot but w sh that it were possible

to establish in this building a regular museum, where the various manuscripts relating to the history o f the Poet and his works— now scattered

1 1 ] COPIES OF TH E COMMEDIA 59

f o f all over the City, or at least acsimiles them — might be rendered easily accessible. The Florentine Archives contain certain documents that would be o f immense interest all f to Dantists, and each o the three great libraries possess treas ures that many travellers

- - — from far o ff lands would rejoice to behold .

ffi z i fo r In the Biblioteca o f the U , example, is

’ ’ ' o mdza zmna C me the most ancient Codex Of the D in existence ; also a copy, once belonging to o f the Sassetti family, with a profile portrait

Dante as he appeared in middle age. Boc ' c i f ac c o s autograph MS. o the Eclogues and

f - Epistles, together with a ourteenth century

‘ o medzo a o f f Co m copy the , on one p ge which ” f is the famous Bearded Dante, are to be ound in the Biblioteca Laurenziana ; while in the Biblioteca Riccardi - attached to a Codex o f

anz omZ— o f the C is another interesting portrait

— - f the author half life size. I these and similar

objects were once gathered together, the Casa " di Dante, in S pite o f the uncertainty that c h r atta es to its past histo y, would become, what all good Florentines would wish it to

be, a not altogether unworthy shrine fo r the o f memory their Divine Poet. The view to be obtained from the windows o f this room is a very notable one. Immediately THE DANTE- QUA RTER [CHAR opposite to the Casa is the Torre della Cas tagna ’ — a tower that in the Poet s day belonged to f n the monks o the Badia, a d had fo r some years served as a dwelling- place fo r the Po destas o f Florence, until the building now known as f r the Bargello was ready o their oc c upation. A little to the right o f this ancient tower lies the tiny Piazza S an Martino al Vescovo — the very centre o f the Dante-quarter o f Florence— most

m - inti ately associated with the life story not o f f only the Poet but o his ancestors . When Cac c iaguida tells us that the birthplace o f both himself and his forefathers lay close to ' ” 1 l mo - the Last ward l u ti sesto reached

- a by the competitors in the hors e r ce on St . ’ John Baptist s day, he is practically assuring us that he lived in the immediate vicinity o f o this Piazza. Curiously enough the truth f this statement is borne out by a deed now in the

State archives o f Florence, in which his two Pretenitto sons, Alighiero and , bind themselves to cut down a fig -tree that was growing in their garden against the wall o f San Martino the c hurch that may be seen on the east side — o f the square at the request o f the then rector. It is well known that the Poet owned pro — — perty probably inherited from Cac c iaguida ia

1 P ar . xvi. 40. PIAZZA SA N MARTINO an f d about this Piazza, and many o his personal friends and foes inhabited dwellings either in the square itself or the narrow streets by which s it was surrounded. To take one in tance only s at the present moment, close at hand tood the 1 f house o f Geri del Bello, that cousin o the Poet who is to be found among the sowers o f discord I n er no in the f , a sullen spirit, declining to take o f any notice his kinsmen, because the violent death he had sustained at the hands o f members f f o the Sachetti amily, who also lived hard by,

was as yet unavenged. The little Piazza bears such an air o f antiquity that it is difficult to f f orget, as we look upon it, the passage o six o f long centuries change and progress, and so we can easily return in spirit to those years s when Dante and his a sociates loved and hated, feasted and fought in the Sestiere di San Piero

Maggiore. The custodian who keeps watch and ward over the Casa di Dante finally throws Open a door leading out o f the room overlooking the a Piazza San Martino, into an lmost wholly dark f chamber behind it, and says in a tone o deep “ impressiveness, Here was born the Divine ” Poet. No authority can be quoted in support o o f f this statement, and the exact truth it may

1 Inf. xxix. 27. - THE DANTE QUARTER (CRAP.

well be questioned ; still there is no doubt that the event that gave to Florence her most f amous son, and to the world in general the o f ak noblest Christian Poets, really did t e place

very near to the spot where the Casa stands. But few details concerning the family o f

Dante have come down to us, nor do we hear f much o his early life. A prophet has no o f honour in his own country, and none his r contemporaries were aware that he, mo e than

any other in his day and generation, belonged f to the race o the immortals, and that posterity would welcome gladly the most trifling piece

o f information concerning him. We do know from his own words that he “ ’ ’ l fiume d Arno was born sovra bel alla gran ” 1 ’ villa, in the great town by Arno s stream, in the year The exact date o f his birth is un 11 f f P aradiso certain, but rom his re erence in the to the influence exerted over him in after life by f “ ” the constellation o the Twins, there is reason to believe that it occurred shortly after the o f eighteenth May, the day when the sun enters o f Gemini. May the thirtieth, the Festival St. Lucia o f Syracuse— his possible Patron Saint has been suggested, and this suggestion seems not unlikely when we remember the Lucia o f

1 1 1 - In :xx . . 1 xxi. . P 1 2. } iii 95 M 1 1 3 ar . xxn. 1 5 1 3

64 THE DANTE- QUARTER [CHAR

m’ Co medza A single line in the is her only ” 1 memorial. Her husband married La pa di a s imi ffi t h hri ri s C alu e C o , desc endant o f a well known Guelph house, and by her had three children, a son named Francesco, and two o f al daughters, one whom was c led Tana. In none o f his works does Dante make any ar direct allusion to his p ents, and it would seem likely that they did not play a very prominent part in his life— he probably never knew his f mother, and his ather is supposed to have died when he was quite a boy. One reference to his fo r Vi N ’ family alone survives, in the ta uovo a o f and n he spe ks a young ge tle lady, who watched over him in his illness, and was o f his near kindred— “ la quale era meco di pro ” ui sima san iunta — pinq s g congiunta and it is thought that this unknown damsel was one

- o f his halfsisters. By nature the Poet was o f an undoubtedly austere temperament, but ma e s Of it y b that the lonelines his youth developed in him the severity o f mind that became such a strong feature o f his character “ in later days, turning him into an alma ” s 1 — a f — sdegno a, indeed disdain ul soul having but little patience with the follies and pettinesses o f frail humanity.

1 s 1 1 v . . V. N. xx . a iii 45 iii . Inf viii . 44. DANTE’S ANCESTRY

In er no It is evident from the passage in the f , where Brunetto Latini warns Dante o f the ill “ ” 1 will borne to him by the Beasts o f Fieso le — the Florentine descendants o f the original inhabitants o f Tuscany— that he himself believed that the family from which he sprang belonged “ 11 r ma c o nfi to the holy seed o f Rome. In tion o f this belief Boccaccio tells us that in early times a member o f the house o f the r an i ani f F g p , Eliseo by name, came rom Rome, f o f settled in Florence, and founded the amily

Elisei c c ia uida . the , o f whom Ca g was one Dante himself bore the coat o f arms o f the ff Frangipani, with some slight di erence in — “ colour the canting crest, Azure, a wing — fre Ali ir tie. erect, or, g o , winged, Alighieri quently to be seen on modern souvenirs o f his Florence, having been only adopted by f posterity some years a ter his death. ' Of the history o f Cac c iag uida— Dante s great

f e great grand ather, the anc stor whom he had most reason to revere— we know the rough outline from the account he gives o f himself to the Poet, at the time o f their meeting in the 1 o f . r Heaven Mars He was bo n in Florence, ‘ and baptized in the old Baptistery, was 1 I 1 ' nf. xv. 73. Ibrd. xv . 76. 1 1 P ar . xv. 1 30. 1 M xv. 1 34. - THE DANTE Q UA RTER [CHAP .

1 knighted by the Emperor Conrad I II . , and died in battle fighting against the Paynims.

It is not impossible that, as seems to be implied in the beautiful line where Cac c iaguida indicates the manner o f his end

mr r a uesta ac e E venni dal a ti io q p and came to this peace from martyrdom that Dante regarded him as having passed directly into Paradise without previous Purga

ia f r to r l discipline, o death in a Crusade was

f and considered an equivalent o martyrdom, the Church has always looked upon martyrdom as a sacrament o f plenary grace.

The wife o f Cac c iaguida came to him from o f f the valley the Po, probably rom Ferrara, ’ and it was from her that Dante s surname o f

Alighieri was derived, it having been bestowed on her eldest son, and borne by his descendants, no settled rule as to the transmission o f names

a . as yet obtaining in It ly This same elder son, o f f the first Alighiero Florence, at the time o f ' f his ather s meeting with Dante, an interval o more than a hundred years having elapsed since

his death, was yet detained in the first Cornice 1 o f Purgatory, and needed the prayers o f his

1 Po r . xv. 1 39. “ X R R o r BA S R! . V S R AN BAPTISTEO E TE IO PTI TE O T O TICO .

1 1 ] BRUN ETTO DI BELLINCIONE 67

f great grandson to set him ree. It may be conjectured that a tendency to that selfsame f r sin o f pride, o which the elder Alighiero had paid so dearly, was apt to be hereditary in the family . The Poet does indeed describe himself ' “ o mdz a me a C more th n once in the as a lamb, but as a commentator has pertinently remarked, “ ” Did ever lamb roar so like a lion before ? and from various passages in his writings we see that he was not unaware o f his own shortcomings in this respect . Whatever may have been Dante’s feelings with regard to his ancestry, there can be no f o f Cac c ia uida doubt that, a ter the age g , envious time had clipped the mantle o f the greatness o f 1 his house, and that his descendants had done f little or nothing to maintain its air proportions.

With one honourable exception , that o f the ’ s u Bellinc i ne Poet uncle, Br netto di o , who was in c harge o f the Carroccio or war- chariot o f

l the f o f F orence at amous battle Montaperti, when the river Arbia ran red with blood

’ 1 Che fec e l Arbia c o lo rata in

’ none o f Dante s immediate ancestors attained to any special distinction in the service o f the

Republic . We have also abundant evidence

1 1 P ar . xvi. . 7 In} :x . 86 . THE DANTE- QUARTER

f ’ that at the time o the Poet s birth, the Alighieri family were not by any means in the front rank ” o f Florentine grandi, neither were they a an overburdened with we lth, nor in y way i distingu shed by their intellectual gifts. It was reserved to the little son o f Alighiero the Third and Madonna Bella to do much more than restore the waning glories o f the house o f c ia i Cac gu da. We have no information as to the manner a O a in which D nte btained his educ tion, an education that must have been o f a very unusual excellence even in an age when f all learning o kinds was highly esteemed, and when, as we are assured, the very gamins o f Florence were able to read. The idea that 1 is Brunetto Latini was h tutor, in any ordinary o sense f the word, has been generally

r fift -fiv abandoned, fo he was already y e years o f age when Dante was born, and too much occupied with state affairs to be able to find leisure fo r the drudgery o f actual tuition . Like r the father o f the Poet he was a nota y, as the “ ” title Ser Brunetto suggests, and probably too k an interest in the promising son o f his dead confrere, encouraging him in his work, and directing the course o f his studies. No

1 1 1 03 xv. 30.

70 THE DANTE-QUARTER

things that appertain to mortals, written in the I! Tes ret o French language, and o t , an allegorical treatise, composed in his own native tongue. 1 The first o f these he recommends to the Poet, o at the moment f his departure from him, evidently holding it in high esteem . It has been said that Dante borrowed the

’ Dimna ommedia f original idea o f the C rom ’

Brunetto s I! Teso retto . second book, Some superficial resemblance may perhaps be detected by the careful student between the two works, but the essential difference between them is so immeasurable, that it is impossible not to agree Z n “ f with the verdict o f a no ni, I any one is pleased to imagine that this is the case, he must confess that a slight and almost invisible ” spark has served to kindle a vast c o nflagratio n. In addition to many documents bearing the o f signature Brunetto Latini , a memorial o f him f r o still exists in Florence, o part f his tomb is r n r prese ved in the Church o fSa ta Ma ia Maggiore , u close to the Via Cerretani. He was b ried in the C loisters attached to the building, but the portion o f his monument that has sur vived has been removed into the interior o f the ma in church, where it y be seen the chapel on f the le t side o f the High Altar. It bears the

1 Inf. xv. 1 1 9. THE VI TA N UOVA

S e ulc hrum inscription, p Ser Brunetto Latini et fi ” lio rum.

’ V Nuo vo Dante s earliest work, the ita , in which he writes down fo r us the history o f his e fo r lov Beatrice, opens with the only incident o f his childhood that he thought worthy the trouble o f relating. When nine years o f age he met fo r the first time 1 the little girl who was to dominate the whole course o f his after f r li e, to se ve as the object o f his devotion while h and on eart , to guide him when she had passed away, through sphere after sphere, up to the

Throne o f the Most High. This incident, in common with all the other events that find a f Vi place in the pages o the ta Nuovo , is described f f if more a ter the manner o a vision, than as it were the record o f an actual fact. We seem to see Dante and Beatrice and all the other ’ actors in the drama o fthe Poet s youth, through mo f o f the edium water or vapour, a veil some kind, translucent, it is true, but not wholly transparent, being stretched out between us

m. and the

n In this insta ce, while describing the dress in which the glorious lady o f his mind la gloriosa donna della mia mente — appeared

V0 N o “. - 72 THE DANTE QUARTER (CRAP.

“ o f u to him, a most noble colour, a subd ed " ff and goodly crimson, and the e ect that her presence produced on his own heart, he neglects to tell us her family name, or the circumstances under which his first meeting with her took place. We are indebted to Boccaccio, and to f r r him only, o the information that Beat ice was a daughter o f Folco Portinari, and that Dante saw her first at a May-day festival at the house f r o her parents, to which he was esco ted by his f own ather. Not a few commentators have thought fit ' to question Boccaccio s statement as to the o f identity Beatrice, but it must be remembered that the novelist, though somewhat prone to r credulity, had in this case exceptional Oppo t niti s o f u e ascertaining the truth. He is known to have been the son o f a man who in the famous Bardi bank had fo r fellow-worker a nephew o f Beatrice Portinari ; in 1 35 3 he was o f sent on a mission to the daughter the Poet,

’ ’ ’ zmna o ia D C mmed and when he lectured on the o f in Florence twenty years later, members the

Portinari family were still dwelling in the City. We shall therefore accept his statement that Beatrice Portinari was indeed the Beatrice whom the Poet loved.

- 74 TH E DANTE QUARTER (CHAT.

o f been keeper the Porta di S an Piero Maggiore, ' o f the gateway Dante s own Sestiere.

Messer Folco, the father o f Beatrice, the representative o f the house o f the Portinari ' as in Dante s day, w held by all men in high i esteem . The Poet speaks o f him in the V ta Nuo va as being a man o f exceeding good ” X . ness ; and Pope Gregory , while hating his political principles, said , He is a Ghibelline , ” but a Christian, a citizen, and a neighbour. He was specially exempted from the sentence o f banishment pronounced o n the party to which

1 26 o f he belonged in the year 8, was one the ” f Buo no mini ourteen instituted by Cardinal Latino in 1 281 to seal the peace established between Guelphs and Ghibellines, and held the

ffi o f o ce Prior on three occasions. He is best remembered in our own day and generation as the original founder o fthe Spedale f o f Santa Maria Nuova, still the chie hospital f f o Florence. Four years be ore his death, by f ff a deed o f gi t, he o ered the hospital and the chapel adjoining it to God the Father, the

Saviour, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, as an " “ fo r atonement, so the document runs, the f f f o sins o mysel and my amily, and f r the " service o f the sick poor. It is said that the idea

1 V. N . xxii . FOLCO PORTINARI 7S o f this work o f charity was first suggested was to him by his servant Monna Tessa, who in the habit o f receiving sick persons, and ’ nursing them in her own room in her master s house, and a marble figure still to be seen at the entrance to the hospital is regarded by the poorer Florentines as an authentic likeness o f f fo r this good woman , though un ortunately romance it belongs to a much later period than the founding o fthe hospital . ’ P e f In ol o s will, in which he le t to Madonna “ Bice - his daughter Beatrice— the sum o f fifty ” io rini 8 o f — lire a F , not quite £ our money she having already received her marriage portion he desired to be buried in the chapel o f his f oundation . His wishes were loyally carried out, and his tomb still survives, although both chapel and hospital have been rebuilt, it ’ having been r e-erected in the Church o f Sant h Egidio, w ere his simple epitaph may yet be read. That Beatrice sincerely mourned the death o f her father may be gathered from that section o f the Vita Nuo va where it is related “ ” How certain ladies o f her companionship 1 came together to comfort her under her great f r f loss, and how they bore tidings o her g ie r to the sorrowful Dante. Folco Po tinari had

1 V. N . 1 1i . - THE DANTE QUARTER (CHAT.

ns c c hi 1 married Cilia di Gherado de Capo a , like a her himself o f Etrusc n ancestry, and by he f was had eleven children, o whom Beatrice the f eldest. One o her brothers, Manetto by name, o f was beloved o f the Poet, who speaks him as “ a friend whom I counted as second unto " “ me in the degrees o f friendship era amico

imia i . med temente l a me dopo primo Owing to the dreamlike character o f the Vita Nuova it is very difficult to discern clearly the ’ history o f Dante s Lady. She is indeed shown under many o f the ordinary aspects o f daily f o f li e, passing through the streets the City, f 11 re using or granting her salutation to Dante, ‘ attending the services o f the church, or sitting f 11 at the wedding east, but no direct mention o f m occurs that event, which ust have been o f supreme importance to her lover, her marriage 1 to Simone dei Bardi, in the year 287. There are so many questions one would like to ask n if in this con ection, there were any possibility o f obtaining answers to them . Did the young and Alighieri ever put his fate to the test, demand the hand o f Beatrice ? and did Messer Folco prudently refuse his consent preferring fo r son-in-law a member o f the great banking

1 1 1 - P ar N . . xvi. 1 2 1 . V. xxxiii . 1 6121 . iii x . 1 1 Ibid. v. Ibid. xiv.

THE DANTE- QUARTER [CHAR

when it heard o f her death, and departing to that High Heaven where the angels are at peace ” 1 N r mo v li an e anno ce. el ea e e g g li h pa f ’ The romance o Dante s youth was ended, and the dread Vision o f his later life was close f at hand. The devotion he had elt on earth was about to be transfig ured and spiritualized on the o f other side the veil, and the same gracious figure that had saluted him in Florence would then come to meet him serene and radiant amid o f o f the glories the Triumph the Church, with n those divine words on her lips, Ben son, he " 1 " son Beatrice I , even I , am Beatrice. The Vita Nuova is but the prelude to the Divine

' o media f m o C , and the burden both is identical, fo r the Poet wishes to say to us in either instance

’ Io vo c o n vo i de a mia do nn 1 ll a dire f o mine own Lady would I speak to y o u. Was there ever a love-s tory like this so pure f u r f and peace ul, standing o t in such high elie against the background o f the age when it was f o f enacted, an age o f euds and fighting, deeds o f unbridled passion and wild revenge. The very year that the little Bic e saw the light

1 1 1 . N x . V. N . 1001 1 1 . P ra y . xxx . 73 V. . ix WAR AND TUM ULT 79 was o f mu o f one tu lt and outrage in the City

r r her bi th, fo the populace, led by Gianni 1 o ldani r i S e , a traitor whom the Poet beholds f “ ” imprisoned in the ice o Antenora, rose in rebellion against the rule o f the Ghibellines, and great was the trouble before the revolt f could be suppressed. Without the walls o ” d is La gran villa, while Dante an h Lady were f n and fo r in a ts, France Italy struggled together the possession o f the Kingdom o f the Two i i i f o f S c l es, and the right ul heir, Conradine 1 ua ia ff S b , perished on the sca old, at the instance f f o f u o Charles o Anjou. This act cr el injustice was destined to be followed by a tardy but r f r 1 282 few te rible retribution, o in , a months “ f o be ore the Salutation f Beatrice, tidings were brought into Tuscany o f the Sicilian ” l o f Vespers, the massacre in a sing e day every man f , woman, and child o French nationality f 11 in the town o Palermo. Nor were the doors o f the Temple o f Janus in Florence closed fo r any great length o f time ’ during the short span o f Beatrice s earthly ’ existence. Folco Portinari s elder daughter was hardly out o f her cradle when her countrymen routed the Sienese at the battle o f Colle in Val

1 1 ml. 21 . P nr . xx. 68. 1 a i 1 g 1 v . . Fo r . iii 75 THE DANTE - QUARTER [CHAR

’ 1 d Elsa f , and not long be ore her passage to the other world the more famous engagement o f 1 maldino Ca p took place, Dante and Simone dei n Bardi fighti g together on the Guelph side, against the inhabitants o f Arezzo and the “ ” f r - Ghibelline uo usciti or outlaws. Some o f the most appalling tragedies o f modern times also occurred during the years o f this exquisite romance . Guy de Montfort slew his cousin “ ” 11 1 2 2 in grembo a Dio in 7, a deed that thrilled all Catholics with horror ; twelve years later 1 r Francesca da Rimini, the only Ch istian woman m In erno Dante entions by name in the f , met her pitiful end ; and in 1 280 Count Ugolino de 11 Gherardesc hi and his sons were starved to

o f m. death in the Tower Fa ine at Pisa No portrait exists in Florence or elsewhere o f immr Beatrice Portinari, and he who has o taliz ed her has never sought to describe her

l . e persona appearance H does, however, speak " 1 nd o f her pearly pallor, a compares the colour f o f 1 o her eyes to that emeralds, so that it would seem she was o f a more hlo nde type o f beauty l f than is usua in Italy, though, as a matter o f act, lo rentines f the F , rom their mixed nationality,

1 1 P nr . x . 1 1 . Ibid v g iii 5 . . 92. 1 1 In . xi i . 1 1 . f 9 Ibid. v. 1 1 6. 5 1 1 In . xxx . 1 . V. N . xix. P nr f iii 3 g . xxxi . 1 1 6 .

THE DANTE- QUARTER [CHAR

It can only be with a certain feeling o f regret and surprise that the reader turns from the

idyll in which Beatrice is the central figure, to think o f the actual event which followed so closely on her death— the marriage o f the Poet to Gemma Donati. What could have been the motive that inspired ] this has ty action an f action that, i Boccaccio is to be believed, he lived long enough to regret bitterly . Possibly, as has been suggested, she really was the Donna della Fenestra " 1 — the young and beautiful lady who looked out at Dante from her window and pitied him at the time o f his been f greatest need ; and, as has o ten said, pity " is akin to love. That he had known her all his

f f r li e is probable, o although the majority o f the Palazzi o f the Donati family stood at a little f distance rom his own home, the branch to f o f which Manetto, the ather Gemma, belonged, a dwelt in Pi zza Donati, hard by the Piazza San

Martino. far As as worldly position goes, Gemma Donati was no unfitting mate fo r the young

fo r o f - Alighieri, she came a well known house, the members o f which as far back as the time o f Matelda had taken a prominent part in the public affairs o f Florence— their names being

1 V. N. xxxvi. SAN MARTINO 33 included in a contemporary list o f Judges and

o f . Assessors the City It seems likely, however, if— as is supposed— she only brought him the l f u f sma l dowry o two h ndred lire, that her ather was not in good circumstances at the date o f the marriage. f According to tradition, the wedding o Dante and Gemma took place in San M artino al

Vescovo, the little church that stands within f sight o the Casa di Dante. It is not always easy to gain admission into the interior o f this o f building, but by inquiry at one the neigh bo uring shops the whereabouts o f the sacristan n c a usually be discovered. It is through a doorway whose proportions are so insignifi cant that it might well be an entrance to some

- humble dwelling house, that we pass into the church, and find ourselves in the tiny nave, cut o ff from the tinier chancel by a simple wooden screen. Whatever it may have been in the thirteenth century, San Martino is now — a poor little place enough low vaulted, small wi windowed, th hardly anything except its asso ciation with the Poet to attract the atten o f tion o f the visitor. It was one the older f churches o f Florence, having been ounded in o f 986 by an Irish archdeacon Fiesole, who o f presented it to the monks the Badia. THE DANTE- Q UA RTER [CHAR There is reason to believe that Dante 's a l 1 2 1 m rriage took p ace in the year 9 , and until o f d f all the period his exile, he an his wi e in probability inhabited the house that stood at the corner o f Via San Martino and Via Santa

Margherita. Several children were born to b them, though the exact number has never een r asce tained. It is said that two sons, Alighiero and E i i f f — l se , died in in ancy o the plague that curse o f mediaeval times that seems to have reappeared at intervals in all the cities o f

Italy ; and that an elder daughter, Imperia by name, lived to grow up and marry Tano di

B iv nni o f . enc e Pantaleone, a citizen Verona It is impossible to discover the truth o f these

ffi statements, but su cient evidence remains to prove the existence o f a family o f two sons — and two daughters Jacopo, Pietro, Antonia, and Beatrice. a The elder son, J copo, took minor orders and became a canon o f the parish church o f f San Giorgio in the diocese o Verona, but he never sought the priesthood, and finally married. In company with the elder Dante he was declared a rebel by the Republic o f Florence

1 1 f f in 3 5 , and, like his ather, re used to accept the degrading conditions that would have per mitted few his return to the City a months

THE DANTE-QUARTER

“ says, the illustrious Poet had founded a ” dynasty.

Nothing is known o f the history o f Antonia, but Beatrice, the daughter who bore the name ’ o f Dante s dead Lady— like her brothers f followed her father to Ravenna. A ter he o passed away, she entered the Convent f San far f Stephano degli Ulivi, not rom his resting

1 6 place, where she died about the year 3 9, leaving by will three gold ducats to her nunnery.

A modern tablet, on the site where the convent f once stood, records the act that here Beatrice ” si voto a Dio. o f f The biographers the Poet, ollowing in f the footsteps o Boccaccio, have said hard things o f Gemma Alighieri, and have declared that the violence o f her temper embittered the life o f

her husband. This may or may not be true, but the fact remains that she and Dante never f fo r met again a ter he left Florence, when her three children sought out their father at

Ravenna, she stayed behind in her native City. 1 A document is still extant by which, in 31 5 , f she received a small bequest rom her mother, r n s r Ma ia Donati, and she is k own to have u vived Dante by some years, as she was still

1 2. If alive in 33 not a very lovable character, GEMMA ALIGHIERI 87 she appears at least to have been a prudent ff o f woman, capable o f looking after the a airs f f ' her amily, o r at the period o f her husband s disgrace, she stored their more valuable posses sions in the houses o f neutral friends, so that they escaped destruction when his dwelling place was sacked by order o f the Republic . To this forethought and care on the part o f the despised Gemma, it is said that we owe the preservation o f the seven first Cantos o f the

' ' ’ Di m na Co mmedza , which their author had left behind in Florence when he started on his ill f 1 2 ated expedition to Rome in the year 30 .

According to Boccaccio, Andrea Poggi, a nephew o f the Poet, found the precious manuscript hidden away with other papers in a certain f chest, and it was orwarded to Dante, who said f on receiving it, The restoration o my greatest f r work, and the return o f my honour o many centuries and thus turning back to his old thoughts, and resuming his interrupted labours, w he began his eighth Canto with the ords, Io dico seguitando. The history o f the house with which Dante became allied by his marriage is most closely bound up with that o f the Sestiere di Porta a San Piero M g giore, as the Donati were the founders in the ninth century o f the Benedictine THE DANTE-QUARTER [CHAR

o f convent, from which the very title the

Sestiere was derived. Their habitations had in the first instance clustered closely round their f u Albiz z i o ndation in the Borgo degli , but by the f time o f Dante, the amily had become a very

al m large clan, and P azzi belonging to the were “ to be seen in nearly all parts o f the Sesto ” a — s o f di Scandali, more especi lly as in the ca e the father o f Gemma— in that Piazza to which they gave their name. The Torre dei Donati still stands in Via del Corso, hard by the Church o f Santa Margherita dei Ricci— a mute witness f al to the nobility o f the amily, and so to the f e turbulence o their disposition. They b longed to the Guelph divis ion o f the Grandi o f Florence, and were distinguished fo r the readiness with which they threw themselves alike into civic

r broils and private qua rels. A long- standing feud existed between them and their near neighbours in the Piazza San f Piero Maggiore, the Cerchi, a feud that a ter bringing much trouble in its train, caused the death o f two prominent members o f the rival houses on Christmas Day in the year 1 30 1 . They were in almost constant warfare with the

Adimari, that presumptuous crew, that plays " 1 f a the dragon after him that flees, the amily th t

1 Fo r . xvi. 1 1 5 .

- 90 THE DANTE QUARTER (Ca n .

“ that Cornice o f Purgatory where the sin o f f gluttony is expiated. Very beauti ul is the interview that takes place between the penitent sinner and the man who on earth had not only been united to him by the bands o f a f s — close riend hip, but had also as it has been — said given him the first impulse to repentance. Forese had delayed to turn to God until he f was overtaken by atal illness, and only five years having elapsed since his death, the Poet is surprised to see him so far advanced on the upward course, but he explains that the rapid f 1 progress he has made is due to his wi e Nella, who has assisted him with her sighs, prayers,

f f r and tears, having never orgotten o an instant the husband she so deeply loved . He also explains the manner in which purification is “ ff o f e ected in the Cornice the gluttonous, and intimates that the spirits experience greater pleasure in satisfying the demands o f Divine

u n r J stice, tha so row in bearing the punishment laid upon them. Their wills are at one with

that o f the Most High, and so even the anguish

by which they are expiating their misdeeds, brings with it a sense o fjoyful resignation. 1 Dante asks him where Piccarda is, and he

u f replies that his sister, who was at once bea ti ul

1 1 ' P nr . xx . . g iii 87. Ibrd. xxiv. 1 0 PICCARDA DONATI

“ and good, he knows not which the more, has gone to Olympia— Paradise— and there the Poet finds her among the souls o f those who have been constrained to break their vows . Her w S o f spirit is in the Moon, the lo est phere the

al o f celesti order, but no sense disappointment or loss is hers. She comes to meet him , radiant i n o f w th gladness, glowi g with the flame love, and answers his questions as to the lot assigned o to her in a speech o f great beauty, one line f “ M as . t al which, a rare gem, r Glads one c ls it

“ 1 In la sua vo luntade e nostra pac e

in His Will is our peace - is as exquisite as anything Dante ever wrote. In even greater measure than could be possible as yet to her brother, Piccarda has learned the true secret o f the Christian life— c onformity to the Will o f God— and knows that in that secret lies hid f the happiness o Heaven. She tells the Poet her history while on earth, how she had dedi c ated herself in her girlhood to the service o f o f her Lord, and entered a convent the Poor o f Clares, hoping to spend the rest her days was f in that quiet refuge. She torn rom the " 11 sweet cloister by men on evil bent, and

1 1 1 1 . . P ar . iii. 85 . 6 21 iii . 1 07 THE DANTE-QUARTER God alone knew how after that her life was ”

am. fr ed

“ ” 1 Dio si se ual mv firsi. q po i ia ita

According to a monkish chronicler, Corso Donati was the person responsible fo r this act o f fo r sacrilege, which at a later date he was compelled to perform public penance in his ffi shirt. Together with eleven other ru ans he entered the convent, seized his sister, and having stripped the habit from her, forced her into marriage with his friend Rossellino della

. immedi Tosa She died, it is believed, almost f ately a terwards, passing away to Him Whom she had desired to serve, safe at last surely “ " in that haven where she would be. The Pia Casa di Lavoro— the Workhouse o f Florence in Via dei Malcontenti, close to Santa Croce now stands on the site once occupied by the o f Franciscan Convent Monticelli, where Pic f carda look the veil. She hersel is not altogether

fo r forgotten in her native City, as the Blessed " Costanza - that being her name in religion she is no w commemorated in the Florentine

Calendar.

1 P ar . iii. 1 08.

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR reconstruction that has little by little trans formed this most fascinating portion o f the

City into what it is at the present day. At the time o f his birth the Piazza was o f r ve y limited extent, closely girt round with and towers tall, narrow houses, inhabited fo r the most part by members o f the leading f o f amilies Florence. To the eas t lay the f Church o Santa Reparata, a small building o f c the Basilican type, o cupying the space where the choir o f the Duomo now stands. It had been founded in the eighth century, and was fas t falling into a ruinous condition . The facade was panelled with black and white a marble, entrance being g ined into the interior

- through a round headed doorway, while above, in the gable, was a large circular window devoid o f trac ery r The internal arrangements o f the building resembled San Miniato, the nave terminating in a large crypt, to which the chancel served as an upper story. Although at this period Santa Reparata was no longer f the Cathedral o Florence, it had not ceased to exert a distinct influence over the religious life

f r o f the City, o it was emphatically a church o f the laity, who were encouraged to take part in the services held there . Immense psalters with musical notatio n were set up at the THE BAPTISTERY

s entrance to the anctuary, so that men and boys might join with the clergy in the chanting o f ffi the daily o ces, a custom that was continued and in the Duomo, has survived to modern times, i as v sitors to the Cathedral will remember. To the north o f Santa Reparata stood the f f bel ry, an old tower built in our stages and w crowned ith a short spire, while on the spot ' f i u where, fi ty years later, G otto s exq isite

Campanile would uplift itself to heaven, was o f an the tiny oratory S Zenobio, belonging to o f brethren the Servite Order, the spiritual descendants o f Seven Servants o f the Blessed r al Virgin, who had been mi aculously c led upon f f " to lead a li e o contemplation . o f The Baptistery, great age even then,

showed grey and bare, the external walls o f “ ” macigno, or rough sandstone, being as yet

unadorned with marbles, while it was approached o f by flights steps, rendered necessary by the o f inequalities the Piazza. All around this

most ancient church, then serving as the o f Cathedral the diocese, extended a large

Campo Santo, the graves clustering thickly in the vacant space that lay between it and Santa

Reparata, while numerous sarcophagi, many o f o f them Roman origin, and other memorials o f n f the dead, hi dered the ree passage o f the 96 P IA Z Z A DEL D UOMO [CHAR

an s mand b ho mel d living . A ll was y i ple, etter mo f su ited to the ideas p r ev alent at the ti e Cac c iagu ida than to tho se o f the ag e in whic h ' l t mat . D ante s o was In i f th nc umber ed c o nd tio n o f the s p te o e e i Piaz z a it bl alwa s b was, and had p ro ba y y een , the sc n sinc e the intr o duc tio n o f Chr is tianity, e e o f all the c hief r eligio u s and p o litic al fu nc tio ns th i o rm M r a a o f e C ty . i c le p l ys were p e r f ed there and r o c essio ns fr u ntl ed th o u h , p eq e y pass r g it o in us uall t t h B t r whe e , g g y o e ap tis e y , r , as illan inf r mus o s marr and ac e V i , iag es pe makin s and ve r fest n l mf g , e y ival a d s o e nity o " the Co m mu ne w r w n el , e e o t to be c ebrate d. It was als o a g r eat p lac e o f res o rt fo r the noble c itiz ens o f Flo r e nc e wh , o we re in the habit o f

r e pai ing hithe s ec iall o n u n a o r t r, e p y S d ys, t met e a e c h o the r in fr iendl f y a shio n, whe nev er t he var io us p u blic and p r iva te feu ds in which he w re t y e s o c o ns tantl invo lved r m y pe itted a li so c ia in e r ttle l t c o u rs e .

was t er efo re har d It h ly wo nde rful tha t in the ea 1 2 wh y r 93, en D ante was twenty- eight e ars o f a e th a y g , e utho ritie s fi nally deter mi e n d t o ake ma e s ure s to inc reas e the am t o u nt o f ava a e s ac e c p o n aine d in the Piaz z il bl t o . The t as k was in rus ed t to A r no fo del Cam t l i b o , a nat ve o f the l t le w ’ i i t to n o f Co lle di Val d El s a,

96 PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

. was ml living All ho e y and simple, and better suited to the ideas prevalent at the time o f Cac c iaguida than to those o f the age in which ’ a Dante s lot was c st . o f m t o f In spite the encu bered condi ion the z was an Piaz a it , d had probably always been , f since the introduction o Christianity, the scene o f all the chief religious and political functions

o f the City. Miracle plays were performed and f there, processions requently passed through

it, going usually to the Baptistery, where, f “ as Villani in orms us, marri ages and peace f o f makings, and every estival and solemnity " the Commune, were wont to be celebrated. It was also a great place o f resort fo r the noble o f o f citizens Florence, who were in the habit al repairing thither, especi ly on Sundays, to f f meet each other in riendly ashion, whenever the various public and private feuds in which they were so constantly involved per mitted a

little social intercourse. It was therefore hardly wonderful that in

1 2 - the year 93, when Dante was twenty eight

years o f age, the authorities finally determined to take measures to increase the amount o f

available space contained in the Piazzo . The f d l task was intrusted to Arnol o e Cambio, a ’ d Elsa native o f the little town o f Colle di Val ,

98 PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

Reparata, the small size and lack o f stateliness o f the old church ill according with the rising o f prosperity the City. A spirit o f emulation doubtless had something to do with the decision

o f r the Florentines in this matter, fo the neigh bo uring town o f Pisa had already a splendid

Cathedral, and the Sienese were busily occupied o f in the construction that exquisite Duomo, which even in its unfinished condition strikes nd the traveller with wonder a admiration . Arnolfo had no reason to complain o f any o f fo r want scope his genius, fo r he was “ r f ordered to aise the lo tiest, most sumptuous and most magnificent pile that human invention ” a could devise, or hum n labour execute. He

lost no time in setting about his great enterprise, and the first stone o f the new structure was 1 2 8 b laid in 9 y the Papal legate, Dante being

probably present at the ceremony. A record o f v o f still exists this ser ice benediction, in a tablet with a Latin inscription built into the f wall o the Duomo, close to the Campanile. After the death o f Arnolfo his design was

greatly modified, and the noble church, so dear o f to the hearts all visitors to Florence, owes If comparatively little to him . we wish to know what he meant his Cathedral to be like “ we must look at the fresco o f the Church 1 1 1] THE DUOMO 99 Militant and Triumphant in the Spanish Chapel f o o Santa Maria Novella, in the background f which it is represented. The slender twisted shafts and delicate decorations serve to remind the beholder that Arnolfo was strongly influenced “ ” f fa o by the Cosmati, that wonder ul mily f builders, who have left traces o f themselves th m within e walls o f Ro e, and in the surrounding l towns and villages. A though the Poet could l have seen hardly anything o f the new Cathedra , f f r ar 1 02 as he le t the City o ever in the ye 3 , there is a pleasant tradition that connects it f r S with him, o let into a wall on the south ide o f the Piazza is a slab bearing the words, Sasso ” o f di Dante, said to mark the position a little stone benc h on which he used to sit and watch f f the laying o the oundations. l The visitor to F orence, when he catches sight o fthe Duomo through one o f the entrances az find ffi f to the Pi za, would it di cult to eel any sense o f regret fo r the destructiono f Santa

Reparata, and yet it seems a pity that so little, f o f so very little, should be le t the old church ’ f w o f Dante s childhood and youth. A e courses o f stone that once formed part o f the ancient building are to be seen in the walls o f the a present edifice, and two st tuettes representing the Saviour and Santa Reparata, with other PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR f ms f f a e rag ent rom the ac de, are pres rved in the

Opera del Duomo, but this is all that envious time has spared. Even the original dedication was lost after the rebuilding, and Santa Reparata, who had been patroness o f the City fo r six hundred o f years, yielded her place to the Mother Christ, under the title o f Santa Maria del Fiore— Our ar Lady o f the Flowers. The e lier dedication f r was a peculiarly interesting one, o it was connected with the miraculous period o f the f o f ecclesiastical history o Florence, the age

mfa o f . Zenobio, the ost mous her early Saints This good Bishop was born in the last year o f o f the reign Constantine, and when but a

f . lad, embraced the Christian aith The story o f his life is largely obscured by a mist o f legend, but it seems certain that he was a man o f r o f great pe sonal austerity, boundless charity, o f the protector the poor and oppressed, and

f . the devoted riend o f St Ambrose, at that time o Bishop f Milan. In company with two dis c i les r c n i s p , Eugenius and C es e t u , he lived in a little monastery on the site o f the present Church o f S an Lorenzo— then outside the walls — and afterwards in a tower in Via Por Santa r Maria, that still su vives, and bears either the n o f f f o f ame the Saint, or that o the amily

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR o f the white stoles. She is not an unfrequent

figure in Tuscan art, being shown standing f usually on one side o the Madonna and Child, bearing crown and palm in memory o f her

. mr f martyrdom On the ode n facade o the

Duomo, a statue o f Santa Reparata faces San Zenobio on either side o f the principal door mf way, and thus, in some slight easure, a ter o f the lapse so many centuries, she has come into her own again. We will now go straight to the centre o f

r the Piazza, and tu n our attention to that building which is more intimately associated with Dante than any other in the world, except a perhaps the sad little Temple at R venna, where all that is mortal o f the Poet lies. The o f f Baptistery is octagonal orm, and at least as old as the ninth century, as it is mentioned

o f 8 a in a document the year 97, nd some writers think it was originally built by the

Romans, and dedicated to the god Mars. ’ Dante s allusion to the changing o f the patron 1 o f the City seems to show that he at least believed the truth o f this supposition. Be ma this as it y , it was largely rebuilt about a 1 1 0 th f the ye r 5 , at e expense o the Arte di li Ca mal . a , the Guild o f Foreign Cloth The

1 Inf. xiii . 1 43. ' ‘ P lro lo . A lino n . r D U FAcAD E o OMO .

'

1 Cm. 04 PIAZZA DEL DUOMO ( o f the Poet were car ried into this old Baptistery " f f r in their innocent in ancy, Beata Beatrix, o " o f 1 example, the giver blessing, and also

Corso Donati, to whose venomous hatred Dante probably owed the greatest o f all the f f mis ortunes that befell him, his exile rom the

City where he first saw the light. The visitor who would remember these things S hould enter f the ancient building on Sunday a ternoon, and o f a minis witness the rite Baptism, as then d re — te d to numberless babies a hurried, slightly a the s a perfunctory ceremony, s it seems to ca u l o f al beholder, with great elaboration ritu ,

al f s t being put into the mouth o the child, and o f chrism on the back the neck. as Although, one would suppose, the Bap tistery must have been among the most precious f f o the treasures o mediaeval Florence, it f o f appears, rom a statement the Chronicler f Villani, to have had a narrow escape rom 1 2 destruction in the year 49. It was then largely frequented by members o f the Guelph party, while the Ghibellines, unable even to worship in peace with their political antagonists, associated themselves with the neighbouring

h r i Church o f San Piero Sc e agg o . At that time a tall house belonging to the Adimari family

1 V. N . ii . GUA DA MORTO

stood at the corner o f the Via Calz aioli, on the exact spot where the Bigallo now stands. It " “ Guadamo rt bore the title o f o , or Watcher o f the Dea either because it overlooked the

Campo Santo, or because the dead were some “ " times watched there, in a room in the lower story, on the night previous to burial. The e f f Ghib llines having, a ter a action fight, got the upper hand in Florence, dec ided to pull " Guadamo rto f down , in the hope it would all across the Church o f San Giovanni Baptista nd a reduce it to ruins, a strange example, as it o f seems to us, the blind bitterness brought f about by party stri e. Their evil plan, how f l ever, was rustrated by the sculptor Nicco a

Pisano, to whom was confided the demolition o f Guadamr r o to , fo he, like a true artist, cared

fo r f a nothing civic war are, nd carried out his difficult tas k with such skill that no injury

resulted to the ancient building.

The exterior o fthe Baptistery has not altered very greatly in appearance since the time o f ' A rn l o o f o f s restoration, although, course, the beautiful bronze gates that give entrance into it on three sides had not come into existence If f in the thirteenth century. we stand acing f o f the west, and look at the ramework the most PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR f f amous o these gates, that lovely pair which

Michael Angelo said were worthy o f Par adise, we shall notice two columns o f red porphyry, f one on either hand. These shafts are o some

n the iDanti i terest to st, as a story connected with the manner o f their acquirement is supposed to be the origin o f that feeling o f distrust o f the Florentines fo r the Pisans that finds a

‘

o Divi o mdra . f ne: me reflection in the pages the C f f 1 1 1 2 They were a gi t rom Pisa in the year , in gratitude fo r the protection afforded by Florence mo f to the city during the months that ost the male inhabitants were fighting in Majorca. These columns were believed to be endowed a a with magic l qu lities, but the Pisans, according ' f to tradition, be ore parting with them, passed them through the fire to efface their oc cult r vi tues, and thus render them less valuable to their new possessors. The suspicion engen dered by this possibly apocryphal tale, repeated by two or three generations o f credulous r ntin s fo r Flo e e , is quite enough to account the harshness o f the judgment expressed by the

Poet, when he calls the dwellers in the neigh “ " ur in le f bo g township, volpi si piene di roda " 1 o f f f . a race oxes, so replete with cra t The south door o f the Baptistery is always

1 x P ure. iv. 53.

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR o f f a the seven choirs o ngels, and to scenes t f and aken rom the Old New Testament, but h the eight side, that above the altar, is devoted s to a ingle subject, the Last Judgment. A l tremn colossa Figure o f Christ Rex e dae

- majestatis sits within a circle, having His arms outstretched, the dead rise beneath His f eet, the good departing to the right, the bad f to the le t. The angels blow the trumpets which summon mankind to their doom, and the Apostles assist in the final assize, while the

Blessed Virgin and St. John sit opposite to ' “ f " 1 each other as in Dante s Rose o Paradise, and Lucifer is shown with a sinner hanging out o f his mouth which he is in the act o f 1 f devouring. The treatment o this portion o f the mosaic is absolutely Dantesque in feeling, an if d it had but belonged to a later period, we should have imagined that the artist had borrowed not a few o f the details contained

’ f D imna o e zo f mmd o in it rom the study the C . The very lovely pavement is o f the same o f age as the mosaics, and is composed pieces ar r o f coloured m bles, ar anged in the Byzantine f style. The signs o the Zodiac and other symbolic images find a place here, while the ar e borders that intersect the whole, made up “ 1 1 1 Fo . r . xxx . 1 1 7. Inf. xxxiv. 55 1 1 1 ] TH E FONT o f s o f w r wavy line , suggestive ate , the rivers r o f Paradise possibly, o that Jordan in which our Lord was baptized. The entire design might have been composed fo r some textile f r an f ab ic, d this act was evidently speedily r w recognized, fo not a fe o f the first silk brocades o f Florence are indebted fo r the patterns with which the weaver adorned them f to the pavement o San Giovanni Baptista. The font 1 in which the Poet was baptized u f 1 1 2 had been bro ght rom Santa Reparata in 8.

It is, alas, no longer in existence, having been 1 6 destroyed in the year 57, during the prepara tions fo r the christening o f a wholly unimportant o f u o f a son the then Grand D ke Tusc ny, who, po or mite, died in his sixth year. There is no in difficulty knowing what it was like, fo r an almost exactly similar font is preserved in the f ' Baptistery o Pisa, within easy reach o f a day s F expedition from lorence. It was o f octagonal s u shape, thus re embling the b ilding in which it stood fo r so many centuries, and occupied f a large space o ground. The eight sides are said to have been typical o f the six days o f Creation— the Sabbath o f the Rest o f God and that spiritual re-c reation that is effected o f n m in the heart the Christia by eans o f water

1 P ar . xxv . 8. PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

n f a d the Holy Ghost. The chie peculiarity o f this species o f font are the cylindrical apertures surrounding the central well, in which stood ffi o the o ciating priests, in order to av id being jostled by the crowd that filled the Baptistery on certain special occasions. To these apertures Dante alludes in the nineteenth Canto o f the

I n r o fe n , where he compares the pits in which imnic al the S o Popes are placed head downwards , ’ ” 1 f to the Luogo de Battezzatori, the place o

' the baptizers in the Church o f St . John in F f nf lorence. He urther i orms us that he broke one o f these apertures fo r the purpose o f rescuing a child who had fallen into the font 1 and was in danger o f drowning, an act that had provoked from his enemies a charge o f sacrilege, which he indignantly repels. The child is believed to have been a member o f avic iulli f and the C amily, the event is supposed to have taken place on Easter Eve, the most usual day fo r the administration o f Holy Baptism e in the m diaeval Church. Two other references to the Baptistery are

' ' '

f Dzznna o mmedza. In to be ound in the C the ' o f 11 f first these, Dante s great great grand ather “ tell him that it was nel vostro antico baptisteo in your ancient Baptistery — that he became

1 In x 1 1 f. ix. 1 8. Ibid. xix. 20. P ar . xv. 1 34.

SAN GIOVANN I

“ a t o ne and the same time cristiano e Caccia " u d o f g i a, was admitted into the religion Christ and received his Christian name. The other f a llu sion is o a very touching nature, Dante has entered Paradise and ascended fro m sphere e t o sph re, beholding as he goes on his way,

- e s corted by Beatrice, an ever increasing measure

o f light and glory. He has reached the eighth o f H e aven, that the fixed stars, and witnessed the triumph o f the Church— the Beatific Vision is — th at hand and yet, standing on e very h o f f t reshold all that the heart o man desires, “ he turns back in spirit to il mio bel San ” G 1 the iovanni, little homely building o f his 1 ea . rly days He expresses a wish, never as we now know to be gratified, that at the baptismal fo nt to which he had been brought in fa in ncy, he might return in manhood, and f there receive the crown o Poet.

a Poor banished D nte, a very different offer to that he hoped fo r was made to him by

Florence, yet one which is, strangely enough,

connected with the church he loved so well. In the year 1 31 6 it was indeed proposed that he should once more re- enter his native place — but as a criminal ; that he should walk in

1 1 In . xix . 1 . P ar f 7 . xxv. 9. PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR proc ession on the Festival o f the Baptist to f " my beauti ul St. John, and there humbly s ue fo r 1 kneel and pardon. The letter is still in i extant wh ch, with noble disdain, he refuses

ff - this ignominious o er, and declines to re enter “ " r . the City except with honou Can I not gaze, “ he asks, upon the sun and stars wherever I am ? Can I not meditate on the sweetest truths wherever I may be under heaven but m , I ust first make me inglorious and shameful before the people and the state o f Florenc e if It is well, time permits, to rest a little f on one o the seats in the ancient church, and consider Dante’s attitude towards that great in community into which, this very building, e u o f he was admitt d, thro gh the Sacrament

Baptism . A certain number o f critics in nearly c s every age, misled by his scathing denun iation u o f o f ecclesiastical ab ses, and the scheme

' De Mo na rc hra government advocated in the , have regarded him as a disloyal and rebellious if e son o f Holy Church, one whom he had liv d at a later period would have broken away f altogether from the old, and joined those sectaries who have parted Christendom into so many warring camps. Hardly had he gone to his account than Fra Guido Ver nani— a

1 Epistle ix .

1 1 4 PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

and he detains outside that gateway the souls o f if the those who die excommunicate, even at 1 last they have made their peace with God. It is quite certain that he is in the habit o f follow o f f ing the Hours the Church, rom the manner in o f which he makes use the prayers, hymns, a ffi and ps lms belonging to these o ces, with regard to the time o f day at which they were r o f recited, in eve y division the poem . His answer to the questions addressed to him by fai 1 St. Peter concerning the th, show ho w u a absol tely orthodox is his own person l creed, and how familiar he is with the writings o f the

great mediaeval theologians. f a The real act is this, to D nte, as to so

many devout souls in all ages, had come the great Vision o f the Church Militant here on " a un e rth ; a true Ecclesia, pure and defiled, that should constantly set before humanity f the purposes o the Most High, and weigh every cause brought before her in the balance f o f the sanctuary. With this lo ty ideal in view the Poet could not but feel a sense o f gri ef and shame when he turned to contemplate the o f Church his own day and generation, and

note, as he was bound to do, the low tone o f morality that prevailed among the higher

1 1 P nr . iv. 1 0. P g 3 ar . xxiv. HIS OWN DEFENCE 1 1 5

o f n o f clergy, the worldliness the ra k and file a o f the priesthood, and the w nt spirituality among the members o f the religious orders. The best response to be made to those who would accuse him o f a leaning towards schism or heresy is contained in his own words, written f “ f in one o his Epistles, I have no ault to f find with the Ark o the Covenant, but only with those oxen who are dragging it o ff the " 1 track.

Leaving with some reluctance the Baptistery us behind , we cross the Piazza, and seek admis sion into the Duomo. The contrast between r f al the exte ior o the Cathedral, l glowing with s marbles and mo aics under a southern sun, and the cold and bare interior is very dis appointing, especially to the traveller familiar with the beauties o f Northern Gothic archi tecture. Little is to be seen here that does o f not belong to a later age than that Dante, and we can only glance at the famous fresco o f f the Poet on the north wall o the nave, as it must o f necessity be reserved fo r co nsideration in the last chapter o f this book. In spite o f f these acts, however, we should remember that the building we have entered is the successor

1 Epistle viii . PIAZZA DEL DUOMO ICHAP . o f o ld little Santa Reparata, the church Dante o f knew in the days his youth, and inherits the great traditions that belonged to the older edifice. The relics o f San Zenobio rest under the Altar o f the Blessed Sacrament in the and apse, on a pillar o pposite the principal

o f o f rc a na entrance is a picture the school O g , representing the saintly Bishop vested in his episcopal robes, sitting on a throne, with his Cr esc entius disciples, San and Santo Eugenius, kneeling on either side .

We must also not omit to no tice the monu ments erected to the memory o f the two first builders o f the Duomo— Arno lfo and Giotto r f both contempo aries o Dante. The earlier “ artist, the Michael Angelo o f the thirteenth as m John Addington Sy onds calls was u him, highly honoured d ring his lifetime by the representatives o f the City whose o ut ward appearance he had so utterly transformed by the power o f his genius. In the archives o f Florence fo r the year 1 300 is an entry stating “ f o f that to Arnol o del Cambio, on account his " industry, his experience and his talent, was a granted exemption from t xation, and a seat

a. few in the Signori He a months later, “died f and he and his mother, Madonna Per etta, who

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR o f which were not laid until thirteen years after the Poet had pas sed away. Although it is most unlikely that he ever knew that the erection o f f this bel ry was in contemplation, one cannot but feel that a S pirit similar in character to that

’ ’ ' zm a na m D o medr which inspired the C is mani fested in the noble scheme o f symbolic sculpture with which it is adorned. It is well known that f f Dante and Giotto were ast riends, and surely the mental development o f the famous artist must have been greatly advanced by close intercourse with the man who possessed one o f o the most commanding intellects f his own , or indeed o fany ag e. To the left o f the great western doorway stands a statue before which all Dantists must fo r f r needs pause a moment, o the subject here f represented is Boni ace VI I I , the evil genius f ff o the Poet, the Ponti to whose machinations f he owed, at least indirectly, his banishment rom ac c o m Florence, and all the misfortunes that

anied . u p his exile The statue, which occ pied a prominent position on the first and second f facades o the Duomo, has been ascribed either n to Arnolfo del Cambio or Andrea Pisa o.

The great Pope is shown seated on a throne, f v ully ested, and with a high tiara on his head, the f o al broken arms, o ne o which was rigin ly A V D O O. ST TUE OF POPE BONI FACE III . U M

PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

bo th because his predecessor Celestine V. He " fu who made the great re sal,

Co lui ” 1 Che f r v e ii rifiuto ec e pe iltad gran , was yet alive, and because in his anxiety to secure the triple tiara he had been guilty o f acts resembling simony. He makes allusion to several o f the most important events o f the ’ f f a Pope s li e, such as the eud he had m intained f f a 1 r with the noble amily o the Colonn , the w ong f 1 and he did to Guido da Monte eltro, the ‘ a celebration o f the first Papal Jubilee. He lso speaks with horror and indignation o f his d 11 capture an imprisonment at Alagna, by order o f IV f and ff Philip . o France, compares the su er ing he then endured to those borne by Christ, mc e o thus showing it was the man, not the , he f f detested. Finally he oretells the ate that 11 awaits him in the other world, a place in the " o f Bolgia the Simonists, where he will receive the fruit o f those crimes by which he has defiled

o mc e. his high It is but fair to the memory o f the Poet to say that the estimate he formed o f the character f ff o f o f Boni ace VIII . di ers very little from that

the writers who were his contemporaries. The

1 1 ' 1 In . 60. Ih d. xxvu . . f iii . 85 . Ibid. xxvn. 70 1 ’ 1 1 d. xv . 2 . P . Ih iii 9 urg xx . 86. Inf. xix. 53. ANDREA DEI MOZZI

f- treachery, violence, and sel will displayed by this remarkable personage during the years o f his o nt fi a p i c te, together with the miserable o f far f manner his end, go to justi y the prophecy concerning him ascribed to his predecessor, that f x he would begin his reign as a o , continue it as a lion, and die as a dog.

Apart from this statue no memorial o f

Boniface VIII . remains here, and there is no reason to suppose he ever visited Florence. In o f the Vescovado, to the west the Duomo, lived his representative, Andrea dei Mozzi, Bishop o f 2 1 2 the City from 1 87to 95 . He was a member f o f a noble Florentine amily, Bankers to the o f Papal Court, and the possessors great wealth, who dwelt in the Piazza named after them in

O l . Oltrarno, pposite to Ponte a le Grazie It is to him we owe the foundation o f the Episcopal an Palace close to S Miniato, which is still in existence, and he is said to have suggested to Fo lco Portinari the first idea o f the building o f the hospital o f Santa Maria Nuova. Whatever may have been the benefits he conferred on his n birthplace, they were more tha counterbalanced by the evil example he set his flock, and at

' least on account o f the unseemly manner o f his f o f li e, he was, at the request it is said his own PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

f brother, removed rom Florence. Boniface VIII . inflicted no punishment on him, but fo r the avoidance o f further scandal simply translated the o f him to see Vicenza, a circumstance to which Dante alludes in the fifteenth Canto o f the I n erno 1 f . He only survived his translation one year, and his body was brought back to Florence , and interred in the now destroyed Church o f

San Gregorio, which had been founded by his family, and stood close to their Palazzi. The mere fact that Dante passed a certain number o f the more thoughtful years o f his life under

o ntific ate o f f . the p Boni ace VI I I , and the f episcopacy o Andrea dei Mozzi, is surely a sufficient reason fo r the scathing censures he pronounces on the higher ecclesias tics o f the

Church in Italy.

Leaving the Duomo behind us we cross the

Piazza, and passing the Baptistery, look at the o f A rc hivesc o va exterior the do , as it is now a o f called, the occup nts the see o f Florence having attained to the higher dignity o f the ’ Archiepiscopate since the Poet s time. The ’ building stands at the corner o f the Via de o f Cerretani, and is great antiquity, as it dates from the eighth century. It was, however,

1 In} :xv. 1 1 2.

A ma r r. P ho to I N ! M O N U M ENT To T H E COU NTESS M ATH DA 0 1 TUSC A . ’ S T . E R S R . , OM E PIAZZA DEL DUOMO [CHAR

f all designed by Bernini, must be amiliar to Dantists who have had the good fortune to “ ” . r visit the Eternal City On it, la g an do nna is represented in a standing position, holding in her left hand the triple tiara and the papal s r key , while extended in her ight hand is the roll o f parchment on which her legacy to the Holy

See is inscribed. On the sarcophag us below is shown on a bas relief the famous meeting P between Ope Gregory VI I I . and the Emperor t o f Henry IV. a her castle Cano ssa, while behind the principal actors in this most c haracteristic o f the scene Middle Ages, stand, it is said, the f i figures o Dante and h s Beatrice. The accompanying epitaph describes her as f r a woman worthy o ete nal praise, a verdict with which the writer o f the Divine: Co medic would doubtless have been in com lete p agreement, though from a wholly different motive to that by which the seventeenth-century ff as ponti w inspired. To Dante she was indeed greatly to be honoured on ac c ount o f her f f blameless li e, her countless deeds o c harity, and the many benefits she had bestowed on t his native City, but he stern critic who saw " in the so -called Donation o f Constantine 1 the root o f most o f the ecclesiastical abuses o f

1 In] . xix. 1 1 5 .

DANTE AND MATELDA

’ a his day, could not have approved o f M telda s e f bequest to the S c o Rome. Even so, however, f o f imr t mo he bestows on her the gi a poetic a o t lity, that may possibly utlast other earthly f f r o f P nr ato rrb ame, o at the close the g she serves as the herald o f the Triumph o f the 1 d Church, an administers to the Poet that rite o f

Baptism in the river Lethe, by which alone he could be rendered pure and disposed to mount ” unto the stars.

” Pur e di re mile. o sposto a sali alle

1 1 n x . 1 00. xx 1 P rg . xxi we. xiii . 45 . CH A PTE R IV

OR S MI E E B E ND AZ Z O AN CHEL , TH ARG LLO, A PAL VECCHIO

II Men

Ar dled nt n e c ra i o poetry by wro g,

They learnin so rro w what they teac h inso ng .

S HELLEv.

T H H h f mw n e o eavenand ell t y et ay i , ” B n me n in. ut thi e own ho use they c o o t

R T I . D. G . OSSE T

THE public life o f the Poet before his exile is intimately associated with three o f the most notable buildings remaining in Florence— the a Bargello, as it is now called, P lazzo Vecchio, f and the Church o Or San Michele. The first o f these was formerly the residence o f the f r o f the Podestas, or oreign ulers the City ; in second the Priors o f the people held their deliberations ; the third— albeit o f considerably later date than that o f Dante— ser ves as the “ ” memo rial o f those Arti, or trading guilds, that by his day had become an all-important element in the government o f Florence.

1 28 TH REE NOTABLE BUI LDINGS [CHAR

was credited with miraculous powers, and every evening the members o f a company o f devout laymen assembled together under the Loggia, f f a ter the business o the day was over, to sing " Laudi in her honour. Dante may have had these peaceful gatherings o f his fellow citizens in mind when, after many years o f absence f he P nr ato rio rom Florence, , wrote the g , and showed the Souls in the Valley o f Pr inces “ waiting until daybreak fo r the great Vision " 1 o f o f the guarded mount, in the act singing “ " 1 the Salve Regina, the proper hymn fo r

ffi o f . Compline, the closing o ce the Church Little by little the fame o f Our Lady o f Or

San Michele spread through Tuscany, and f far a pilgrims rom and ne r visited her shrine, ’

ff . f f bringing votive o erings Dante s chie riend,

Guido Cavalcanti, alludes in a sonnet, half ironically as it seems, to the wonders wrought by this marvellous image, demons being exor i d c se , the blind restored to sight, and the sick f ft healed. Two years a ter Dante le Florence, a faction fight between the Cavalcanti and their f o f allies, and certain other amilies hostile political views, raged round Or San Michele, and the Loggia took fire from the surrounding was houses and burnt to the ground . The

1 1 n. P i . Milto nrg . vi . 82 ' P ho to A Ifmt r r .

X H SAN E TERIO R OF C H URC OF OR M IC HELE .

1 0 3 TH REE NOTABLE BUI LDINGS (Ga n .

To each o f these more important Arts belonged

- a train band, presided over by a Gonfaloniere or an f St dard Bearer, orming collectively a large o f company militia, ever ready to defend the rights o f the bourgeoisie in times o f civic dis

turbance. Included among the Lesser Arts

were the Butchers, Builders, Innkeepers, and f other retail traders o the City.

The feud that had existed fo r so many years between the Guilds and mthe Nobility only increased in intensity as ti e went on, and at f f last, by the year 1 293, the ormer ound them selves sufficiently powerful to ex clude members o f the latter altogether from the government o f r Florence, except under ce tain somewhat galling conditions. Through their influence a f series o statues, called the Ordinamenti della " Giustizia, were passed by the Signoria, which provided that no nobleman should in the future hold any office in his native town without firs t renouncing the rank he held among the Grandi, f f and then enrolling himsel in one o the Guilds.

an n f As D te belonged by birth to a oble amily, he was o bliged, as a preliminary to his entrance

‘

f . into public li e, to comply with these conditions 1 2 Ac cordingly, in 95 , he sought admiss ion into f the sixth o the Greater Arti, that o f Medici m OF THE 1 1 INSIGN IA GUILDS 3

— e Speziali Doctors and Apothecaries. The entry o f his matriculation in the Book o f the

Sesta dell Arte Maggiore is still extant. ’ He is described as Dante d Aldighieri degli " A hi ri ldig e poeta Florentino. The exterior walls o f Or San Michele consist o f fourteen pilasters connected by arch a mo f a m ways, thirteen o f them be ring the g a f thirteen different Guilds, while the ourteenth

is devoted to that Universita dei Mercanti, or board o f magistrates which held supreme jurisdiction in all matters commercial in the

City . The seven Greater Arts are all r epre f o f sented here, but rom absence space the “ emblems o f eight out o f the fourteen Ar ti

Minore are o f necessity omitted. On the facade o f the church that faces Via Calz aioli may be seen on either side o f the f Verr hi f beauti ul group by o c o o Christ and St.

Thomas, bronze statues o f St. John Baptist and

. n o f St Luke the Eva gelist, Patrons the Guilds o f o the Dressers f Foreign Cloth, and the and Judges Notaries respectively, while the coats o f arms o f the same Guilds are displayed in — — tondi circles aho ve the statues. The north . side o f the building is given up to four o f the r a Lesser Arts, the Butche s, Shoem kers, Builders, r v b n and Armoure s, the latter ha ing ee in the 1 32 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS

f fu past the proud possessors o the beauti l St. f George o Donatello, now removed into the

Bargello, a bronze copy occupying the vacant o f all niche. The most notable the Guilds, the o f W001 Arte della Lana, the corporation the

Merchants, finds a place on the western wall,

f . n the statue o St Stephen, the Patron, bei g the work o f Ghiberti while close at hand are the insignia o f the Arts o f the Bankers and Money

Changers and the Smiths and Ironworkers . The southern facade is occupied with repro atio ns f f sent o the emblems o the Flax Merchants, a the Furriers and Skinners, and the gre t Arte f della Seta, or Guild o Silk Merchants, the

n fo r . latter having St. JOh the Evangelist Saint

Last, but not least, on the same wall, is an f o f empty shrine, ormerly containing a figure f the Madonna, Patroness o the Guild to which the Poet nominally belonged . The statue that once stood there was removed into the church 1 6 0 in the year 3 , where it may be seen over t an one o f the side al ars in the north aisle, idea having somehow gained credence that on

occasion the eyes o f the figure moved. The " a origin l tondo, a very lovely work by Luca in si della Robbia, is still tu, and shows the o r coat f a ms o f the healing art, the Madonna and Child seated under an arch between two

MEDICI E SPEZIALI

o f pots Annunciation Lilies. The University o f Medici e Speziali stood in Mercato Vecchio ffi in close proximity to San Tommaso, the o cial o f church the Guild, and the consuls inhabited a handsome house in Via di Sant Andrea, that was destroyed only a few years ago, the ceiling o f the Hall o f Audience belonging to n it bei g placed in the Museo San Marco. In ’ f V Dante s time, as we learn rom illani, no less than sixty physicians and surgeons were a o the practising in the City, while a hundred p f caries dispensed drugs, mostly imported rom the Levant, so there is every reason to suppose that the Guild was in a flourishing condition. In spite o f the v ery realistic description given o f various forms o f disease in the thirtieth

o f In r no Canto the fe , it is unlikely that the

’ ’ o f D z mdia a me mn o writer the C ever applied f f himsel seriously to the study o medicine. His o f ma choice this special Art y have been determined by the fact that the Librai, or l Booksel ers, belonged to it, and that books were among the wares sold in the pharmacies o f r Florence. Forty yea s later a very minor i poet, Matteo Palmieri, matr culated in the same

Guild.

' Dante appears to allude in the P aradzso to 1 B CHAP 34 THREE NOTABLE UILDINGS [ .

’ 1 d Alder tti f f Taddeo o , the ounder o the Florentine

r . medical school, who cured Pope Hono ius II o f e f the gout. This not d physician, the son o

rn an l r a c o c h d e , was born in Florence in the 1 22 year 3, and studied at Bologna. He translated the Commentaries o f Galen into the vulgar tongue, and d isplayed such a devotion to the f o works o Hippocrates, that Dante speaks f “ ’ him as l Ippo c ratisto . He became a most c f a suc ess ul pr ctitioner in his birthplace, taking

f - - large fees rom the well to do citizens, and twith leaving several disciples behind him. N o fam n standing the e he acquired, there can be o doubt that the science o f medicine was at a very low ebb in Italy during the Renaissance ri d. pe o Violent remedies, such as cauterization and bleeding were resorted to on almost i every occasion, and the prescr ptions that have sur vived are o f a most alarming character, l more likely, one would think, to ki l the unhappy patient than to mitigate his woes. Even as late as the year 1 492 the physicians ’ in attendance on Lorenzo de Medici, having regard rather to the external circum stances o f Ma nific o o f the g , than to the condition his poor

- worn out body, administered to him a potion composed o f crushed rubies and pearls. These

1 x P ar . 1 1 . 83.

1 36 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR

secure in their old quarters, and therefore Arnolfo del Cambio— that most useful servant o f the Republic— was commissioned to design a suitable abode, where they could hold their deliberations undisturbed.

l- According to a wel known tradition, Arnolfo wished to place his new building on ground that had been previously occupied by the Palazzi o f the Uberti— a famous family o f

Ge rmanic descent, who had attained to great importance in the City o f their adoption ; but the authorities o f Florence refused to comply “ with his request, saying that where the ' r traitor s nest had been, the e the sacred fo unda tions o f the house o f the people should not " o f be laid. This tradition is special interest, because the lc hief representative o f this much o hated race, during the middle f the thirteenth Ub rti century, was that Farinata degli e who holds such a prominent position in the Divine

’ mmedia f Co , uprising rom his burning tomb in f the Circle o the Heretics, come avesse ’ ” 1 i l Inferno in gran dispitto, as f in his pride f he despised even the pains o Hell. He was the leader o f the Ghibelline party and the organizer o f measures that led to the defeat o f an the Guelphs at Montaperti, d the subsequent

1 Inf. x. 36. IV] FARINATA DEGLI U BERTI 1 37 subjec tion o f Florence to the r ule o f the

Ghibellines. The Florentines found it very difficult to forgive his conduct at this critical period o f an their history, d took the first opportunity o f avenging themselves on his descendants f a f a ter he had p ssed away, a year be ore the ’ Poet s birth. When the Guelphs had once more regained the control o f the City, the Uberti were expelled, being excluded by name from every act o f amnesty granted to the f action to which they belonged, and the bones o f their dead were disinterred and thrown into r f the iver. It is even said that the citizens be ore the Altar o f San Giovanni repeated in their litanies the petition, That it may please Thee to root out and disperse the family o f the " er i Ub t , a practice to which Dante seems to “ a arin a o r az io n llude when he says to F at , Tale 1 fa far nel nostro tempio prayers o f this f ” nature were o fered up in our temple.

It was not until a century after the death o f Farinata that the inhabitants o f Florence remembered the gratitude that was his due,

f r o f A D. o when, at the Council Empoli ( it was seriously proposed to destroy the City

1 In} :x. 87. 1 38 TH REE NOTABLE BUILDI NGS [CHAR

altogether, in order to maintain the ascendency o f a the Ghibelline cause in Tusc ny, he alone f “ ” 1 de ended her, Openly, a viso aperto. As an o f an act tardy recognition o f his patriotism, ffi o f e gy him, believed to have been the work o f e f Donatello, was placed on the s cond acade o f the Duomo, and at the present day a modern i statue o f the Savio ur o f Florence, guard ng " with his sword the emblematic Giglio, or lily, f m o f looks out ro a niche on the portico the ff U izi, over the Arno. If , as some writers hold, the tradition that connects the site occupied by Palazzo Vecchio with the Uberti cannot be substantiated, it is at least certain that among the buildings demolished to make room fo r the Palace o f the Peo ple was San Piero S c heraggio — the church commonly attended by members o f the Ghibel line faction— where Farinata and his friends s used to worship . Thus, in any ca e, the very o f spot ground where this fine Palazzo stands, is symbolical o f the victory that the democracy f f had achieved, during the li etime o the Poet, over the ancient aristocracy o f Florence. The o f — pulpit the destroyed church from which, it o f is said, Dante once addressed the members the Consiglio del Popolo, on the occas ion o f an 1 : In} x. 93.

C AP 1 40 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [H .

an is, in reality, iris, but, unlike the majority “ “ o f fl r l the eu s de luce, it is a ways seeded , h ms e he ds that is, it as s all e d a between the three large petals o f which it is composed. The “ ' connection o f the Giglio with Dante s birth place is fancifully united with the legend o f n Sa ta Reparata, but it probably came about " from a play on the word Flo rentia — flo wery — the iris being one o f the most conspicuous wild flowers in that part o f Tuscany. f am— n The amous C panile the crow ing glory o f f — the Palace o the People was, all but the upper story, the work o f Arnolfo, who turned to account as superstructure an ancient tower belonging to the Foraboschi family. The great bell hung in this Campanile was popularly “ " named La Vacca, or, the Cow, and when, as was not unfrequently the case, it sounded forth a warning note to call the citizens to arms, men said to each other, in the common f " speech o Florence, La Vacca mugghia the cow lows — such lowing being often the fatal d u and preliminar y to strife an tum lt, bloodshed death. There is but little left in the interior o f the Palace o f the People that c an in any way bring f back the age o Dante, the Cortile having been redecorated in the sixteenth century, and the X R R H E A AZ Z D EL O \V H TH E E TE IO OF T P L O P POLO, IT TO\! ER OF TH E VACC A .

1 42 THREE NOTABLE BU ILDINGS [CHAR

nt f tr 1 Buo nc o nte da M o e el o , who was mortally f If wounded in the ray. the letter quoted by ar n m Leon do is authentic this was by o eans ' r r Dante s first experience o f wa fare, fo he tells us that at the date o f the battle he was ” i a nd already no child n rms, a it also seems s sa I n rno likely from a pa ge in the fe , that 1 he was present at that siege o f Caprona which followed closely on the victory o f

amaldino . C p It was during a time o f storm and stress that Dante fir st took office under the Florentine o f Republic. With the passing the Ordinamenti della Giustizia and the institution o f a popular magistrate— the Go nfaloniere or Standard Bearer o f ustic e— a it h J two years e rlier, might ave seemed as if the long str uggle between the c o Grandi and the Popolani had me to an end, f mf and that ro hence orth the government o f the City would lie entirely in the hands o f the

. o f a ms , democracy The rule the ple la ted however, but a short time, and was not pro c tive o f c du mu h peace, on account o f the r ivalry that existed between the author o f the new ’ a a statutes, Giano della Bell , nd Dante s kinsman

r . f m c am by mar iage, Corso Donati The or er e o f a noble house, and had the r ight to bear 1 In f. xxi. 95 . IV] GIANO DEL BELLO 1 43 the quarterings o f no less a hero than Count o f e an l e Ugo Tuscany, but lik ear ier Egalit f Orleans he abandoned his peers to their ate, and threw in his lot with the common herd, “ " 1 o f col pOpo l si rauni. He was the owner considerable ability and much strength o f a fo r few ch racter, and a months carried every f 1 2 thing be ore him . In March, 95 , just as he f f was proceeding to urther re orms, his rule was overthrown by an insurrection in the City, largely brought about by the machinations o f

Corso Donati, and he was compelled to leave

Florence, his possessions were confiscated, and f his house hal destroyed. He sought refuge in

e. France, and died ther Considerable disquiet prevailed in the City f that he le t, and the rich burgher class, the " m Popolo Grosso, once ore seized the reins r o f gove nment, the nobles and the artiz ans x c f alike being e luded rom a share in it. The elevation o f Cardinal Benedetto Gaietani to

h o f St. o n r 1 2 the t rone Peter, Ch istmas Eve, 94, f o f . under the title Boni ace VI II , was also an event o f sinister import fo r the well-being both o f Dante and o f his birthplace.

1 00 th o f The year 3 , e year the first Papal

1 P ar . xvi. 1 31 . 1 44 THREE NOTABLE BU ILDINGS [CHAR

’ o f Dzvina Jubilee, and the ideal date the o mmedia C , proved, though he then knew it not, ' r to be the turning point in the Poet s histo y . Without accepting too literally Boccaccio ’s statement that no important question was settled in Florence without his Opinion, there seems to be no doubt that by this time the f f force o his intellect had made itself elt, and his contemporaries recognized his fitness fo r a definite share in the government. On the seventh o f May he was sent as ambassador to the neighbouring town o f San Gemignano to speak on behalf o f the Guelph league o f

Tuscany, an embassy he appears to have dis in n charged a most creditable man er. On June the fifteenth he attained to the summit o f t Florentine ambi ion, being, in common with

five other citizens, chosen out from among f the Consuls o the Arti, to sit as Prior in the Signoria. To this event, which under more favourable circumstances would have been one

be - o f happy augury, attributed in after life f f all the mis ortunes that be ell him. Just before his election to the priorate a fresh development had occurred in those internal dissensions that had fo r so long devastated f Florence, and it was this act which rendered o f ffi f the acceptance o ce so atal to him. The

1 46 THREE NOTABLE BUI LDINGS [CHAR

al Cav canti alike associated themselves, were in favour o f the rule o f the Signoria ; the Neri wished, on the contrary, to wrest the government f rom the burgher class altogether, and hand it over to the aristocracy o f Florence. Unable to achieve their purpose without external ll assistance, the Neri entered into an a iance

f . with Boni ace VIII , who, only too delighted fo r fe at a pretext inter rence, promptly sent i into Tuscany as Legate, Card nal Matteo ' as d A c quas parta. This prelate w the Vicar F General o f the ranciscans, to whom Dante 1 P aradise alludes somewhat slightingly in the , on account o f the relaxations he had permitted in the Rule o f the Order. He came nominally as a paciere, or peacemaker, but in reality acted in the interest o f Corso Donati and his o f party, with the intention bringing Florence o f under the direction the Pope. This happened ’ o f t during the term Dan e s priorate, and it fell to his lot to receive and entertain the f Legate, but he evidently realized to the ull ’ a o f i the true me ning the Cardinal s v sit, and was at one with his fellow Priors in their F refusal to accept his arbitration. inding that f his mission was a ailure, the Legate returned to Rome, leaving Florence under an interdict,

1 P ar . xii . 1 24. ’ DANTE S FRIEN D 1 47

and it is believed denounced Dante to his as f master an enemy o the Papal Power. Things went from bad to worse in the nu f a at happy city a ter his dep rture, and last, o n account o f the perpetual disturbances brought f n about by the rival actio s, the Signoria deter mined to send into exile the most turbulent o n partizans either side, with the result that u Corso Donati and his great antagonist, G ido n f Cavalca ti, ound themselves included in the o f sentence banishment. Dante would hardly have been human if he had not had a cer tain sense o f satisfaction in recording the vote he possessed against Corso Donati— the man he r had eve y reason to dislike and distrust. On a b t the other h nd, one cannot u believe that it must have grieved him to the heart to exercise f his authority in the case o Guido Cavalcanti, even if he were convinced that the absence o f fr his iend would contribute to the public weal. Guido Cavalcanti belonged to a noble and ancient house, second to none among the f aristocracy o Florence. He was born abo ut ' 2 o a the year 1 50, and was a s n o f Cav lcante de

- f Cavalcanti, a well known leader o the Guelph party, and a noted sceptic, who, as a pen alty o f f o f his want aith, is placed by Dante in one o f the flaming sepulchres o f the Circle o f the 1 48 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR

1 In er no f l Heretics in the f . Guido o lowed the f civil traditions o f his ather, and took a part in the government o f the Republic during the r 1 2 pe iod o f the Guelph rule. In 80 he acted as one o f the sureties fo r the Sestiere o f San h r i Piero Sc e agg o , his own quarter, on the f occasion o f the mission o Cardinal Latino, and four years later sat on the grand council o f the ’ Commune, in company with Dante s preceptor, ” Ser Brunetto.

When o nly nine years o f age he was married o f arinata to Beatrice, or Bice, daughter F degli erti s Ub , a union dictated by political motive that is not supposed to have been productive f f f o much happiness to either himsel or his wi e. Guido’s name was certainly associated in after years with at least two other ladies, Giovanna o f Florence— the Primavera o f the Vita Nuova — and Mandetta o f Tho ulo use , and it is not impossible that the Poet may have had the disagreements o f this ill- assorted couple in mind when he so vehemently declaimed against the early marriages that were o f such frequent 1 occurrence in his own day. The intellectual powers o f Guido were o f a very high order, Bo ccaccio assures us that he

1 1 Inf x . 53. P ar . xv. 1 04.

1 50 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR that at that time surrounded the Old Baptistery out-distanced his pursuer s telling them that they by reason o f their folly belonged to the e f dead , whil he, thanks to his love o study and e contemplation, had a plac among the living. His natural refinement o f disposition pro bably partly accounts fo r the violent antipathy that existed between him and that very unrefined al person ity, Corso Donati, an antipathy which before the close o f the political struggle in which they were both engaged bec ame positively murderous. Corso attempted to assassinate his a enemy during the time o f his pilgrim ge, and Guido as soon as he returned to Florence attacked the former in the streets o f the City . The Signoria surely judged wisely when they determined to expel from their boundaries, in f e f the interest o p ace, the two inveterate oes, neither o f whom could have been sent away in justice without the other. The close intimacy between Dante and Guido s f 1 2 Cavalcanti date rom the year 83, and was doubtless the result not only o f a similarity f i r o f o l tera y tastes, but also a natural austerity f o temperament common to both, that while r drawing them together, tended to sepa ate

f - them rom the ordinary light hearted, pleasure l loving F orentines. It seems probable that DEATH OF GUIDO

Guido acted as co nfidant to his friend during f Vita the days o his early romance, that the Nuova was was dedicated to him, and that he : mmedia the first to suggest that the Divine Co should be written in Italian rather than in

Latin . Whatever may be the truth o f these suppo sitions, he certainly has a share in the honour due to those who created the dolce stil nuovo — that school o f poetry in the f c a Lingua Volgare, the patois o Tus ny, that ‘ the greatest Poet o f the age was about to ’ o f render immortal. Not a few Guido s poems and were addressed to Dante, we know that f man the writings o the older exercised a f f r pro ound influence over him, o as Rossetti points out, on more than one occasion he e f S plac s lines borrowed rom them, very lightly o f altered, among the music his own matchless

Co media. f m verse in the pages o the It is sad that a fr iendship founded on a mutual love o f all that was beautiful S hould have suffered an eclipse just as it was about to

ar h be ended, so f as t is world is concerned, by the hand o f death. The place, Sarzana, to which o f Guido, in company with the rest the Bianchi, was exiled, was notoriously unhealthy, and he f f ell ill o malaria almost immediately, returning to Florence only to die a few weeks later. 1 5 2 THREE NOTABLE BU ILDINGS (CHAR

No record has come down to us o f any reconciliation that may have taken place between the brother poets , but it seems certain that Dante ever cherished in after-life a kindly memory o f the man whom in happier days “ ’ — he had called, primo de miei amici the f f c first o my riends. We seem to hear an e ho o f the grief he experienced at his premature o f departure, in that wonderful passage the Inferno where the elder Cavalcanti from his burning tomb inquires if his son is already numbered among the dead.

’ No n viv egli anc o ra ? " 1 No nfi li c su lo d ce o me. ere g o c hi o i o l l

ur ato r io Not only S o , but when in the P g f Dante shows the uncertainty o f human ame, he recalls to mind the writings o f the friend f o his youth, and would have his readers remember that by his poetic skill he had “ ’ taken from I altro Guido — Guido Guinic elli " o f Bologna la gloria della lingua 1 —the glory o f a a the It li n tongue. But small trace o f the once illustrious house o f Cavalcanti remains in modern Florence. Guido himself was buried in the precincts o f he t Duomo, but no monument marks the place

1 e XI. . I nf x . 68. P urg 97

1 54 TH REE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR f f r o f o wn amily, o the salvation her soul, and those o f her father and mother and o f her two

f z z li o . brothers, one o whom was E o n The second act in the great tragedy o f ’ Dante s life followed c losely on the death o f f Guido Cavalcanti. Corso Donati took himsel to Rome directly after sentence o f exile had f r o f been pronounced on him , o the purpose f f beseeching Boni ace VII I . to inter ere once more on behalf o f the party o f which he was

. a leader Bonif ce, only to o willing to comply with this request, dispatched without delay to o f a Florence, as his envoy, Charles V lois, f brother o the French King, who entered the

City on All Saints Day in the year 1 303. Like ’ d Ac uas arta Cardinal q p , he came in the character n o f a peacemaker, but, as was well know , the true object o f his mission was nothing less isc o mfitur e f than the d o the Bianchi, and the placing o f the government o f the Commune in f f the hands o the Neri. In the Church o Santa Maria Novella he first took a solemn oath to do all in his power fo r the maintenance o f f “ peace, and then immediately a terwards jousting with the lance o f Judas 1 treacherously armed his followers, the better to be able to coerce his l politica Opponents, while he permitted Corso

1 P nrg . xx . 74. SENTENCES ON DANTE

i Donati to break open the pr sons, and pillage and spoil the Palazzi o f the Bianchi. Having by main force got the U pper hand in the City he expelled the White members from the

Signoria, setting up in their place citizens f o f chosen rom the ranks the Black party, o f while, under his direction , a new Podesta, ’ c l i f— like pro iv ties to himsel Cante de Gabrielli, — a native o f Gubbio was appointed.

This sudden revolution brought disaster in its train to a large number o f the prominent n n Bia chi, and to none more tha the Poet, who had rendered himself obnoxious to the new rulers by his persistent oppo sition to the Papal policy, and especially by a refusal to give his official sanction to subsidies paid by Florence to Charles o f Valois. He was thus singled out fo r vengeance, and on January the twenty seventh in the following year the new Podesta condemned him to pay a fine o f five thousand f lire, on a wholly imaginary charge o peculation i f dur ng the time o f his priorate. A ew months fai to a later (March the tenth), on his lure appe r ’ before the tribunal o f Cante de Gabrielli, he was sentenced to be burnt alive Igne com ” buratur mri r — if sic quod o atu he should come under the jurisdiction o f the Republic. This 1 56 TH REE NOTABLE B UILDINGS [CHAR

an f decree was never repealed, d o r the remainder f f f o his li e Dante lay under sentence o death, and death in a form most appalling to the V f imagination. ery seldom in the course o his Mystic Journey does the Poet confess to a sense o f terror as regards his own personal safety, and it is probably some haunting memory o f the fate that might yet await him

' that inspires that pas sage o f the P nrg ato rro where he represents himself as shrinking in agony from the wall o f flame that separates him from Beatrice and Heaven . The actual tex t o f both the sentences pronounced on him

' i ra d o n may yet he read in the L b z C nda ne, the official record o f the pains and penalties inflicted by the state o n the law- breakers o f

Florence. It is not quite certain if Dante witnessed o f o f the entrance into the City Charles Valois. Le onardo Bruni tells us that he was at that time absent in Rome, having been sent as ” a W Amb ssador to the Pope by the hite party, f and that Boni ace purposely delayed his return, was f until his ruin an accomplished act. He recorded his vote, as one o f the Consuls o f

‘ A fo r the rti, the last time in September the

- 1 01 and f r 1 2 twenty eighth, 3 , be ore Februa y, 30 , had ft he undoubtedly le his birthplace, never

1 58 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR

r r o f democ atic gove nment Florence, and was primarily intended to serve as a dwelling fo r o f the Captain the People, the head o f the if National Guard. It is doubtful, however, this personage ever inhabited it, and in course o f time it became the official home o f the f Podesta, or chie magistrate o f the City, who had hitherto either dwelt in the Vescovado or r a in the Tor e della Cast gna, the tower that overlooks the Casa di Dante. er This magistrate was required, in the int ests f o f peace, to be a oreigner, in the hope, by no means always realized, that he would be actuated in his judgments by a S pirit o f greater impartiality than would have been possible to a Florentine. It was further demanded o f him that he should come o f gentle blood, and be a Catholic in religion, l and a Guelph in po itics. Many restrictions were imposed on him during his term o f ffi fo r S o f o ce, which lasted the pace one year. He was not permitted to br ing with him fro m f his native town his wi e, children, or other relatives ; he was strictly forbidden to acc ept presents, to eat or drink with the citizens, or f have any amiliar intercourse with them . The supreme power in all temporal matters he enjoyed probably compensated him fo r these PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 1 59

o r somewhat burdensome conditions, f in time of peace he was virtually president o f the

Florentine Republic, and as soon as war was declared he became the general o f the forces f o the Commune. The original design fo r the Palaz zo del

Podesta was the work, as Vasari tells us, o f r A nolfo di Lapo, but it was probably modified later by the two Dominican Friars who con s o f a tructed the Church S nta Maria Novella. By the year 1 282 it was sufficiently finished fo r the magistrate and his counsellors to meet fo r consultation in the loggia which led into ” t the great hall. Since the ime o f Dante this old building had passed through many changes a f C and vicissitudes, the be uti ul ortile and stair f r c ase, o example, were not completed till long ft after the Poet had le this earth, but the facade facing the Via Proconsolo has not been very greatly changed, and the tower with which he must have been familiar still looks down over the City that he loved. The o f Bargello, or head the polic e, resided here f an dur ing the fi teenth century, d o f late years the building has been turned into a public museum. Entering the ancient dwelling o f the

Podestas, and ascending to the second story, 1 60 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [CHAR it would be well to pause an instant in the a S la di Donatello, once the great council f f r chamber o the Republic, o it was here that n i Da te spoke on July the s xth, 1 295 in favour o f some proposed alterations in the recently “ passed statutes, those Ordinamenti della ” Gi ustizia that pressed so heavily on the order to which he belonged. Close at hand is a room originally constructed to serve as the o f and private chapel the Podestas, dedicated

a . f to St. Mary M g dalene Soon a ter the erection o f this chapel the walls were adorned with frescoes, painted by Giotto, or, as some o critics believe, by Taddeo Gaddi, one f his o pupils. About the middle f the seventeenth century it was dismantled and transformed into a prison fo r criminals condemned to n f death, a d the rescoes were covered with plaster. For two hundred years the lost paintings were to all intents and purposes forgotten , although it was well known from the writings o f Vasari that under the plaster on the east wall a portrait o f Dante lay concealed. This strange indifference on the part o f the Florentines with regard to the representation o f v 1 their Di ine Poet lasted until the year 850,

. Kirk when an Englishman, Mr Seymour up,

IV] TH E BARGELLO PORTRAIT 1 6 1 and i ain Signor Bezz , o f Florence, obt ed per f an m mission rom the Itali Govern ent to remove ff the plaster at their own expense. Their e orts f were crowned by the discovery o the portrait, but in a very damaged condition, one eye having been injured by a nail driven into the fo r wall the support o f some scaffolding. The utmost excitement reigned in the City as soon ’ L a iamo k bb as the discovery was nown, and , il nostro Poeta Our Poet has returned to " us — was the cry o f the delighted Florentines ; but the authorities showed themselves incapable o f taking care o f the treasure thus unexpectedly an restored to them , d actually ordered an artist named Marini to repaint the portrait. The figure o f Dante had been c lothed in garments o f red, white, and green, the colours in which 1 Beatrice appears in the Earthly Paradise, symbolical o f the three Christian graces, but the green was changed into choc olate in the repainting as the combination o f colours was ” regarded as democratic and dangerous. In spite o f the ravages brought about by this terrible restoration, it is impossible not to feel greatly moved when one stands before the o f a t image the Poet, and to many D ntis s this ruined fresco is perhaps the most precious relic

I 1 2 Ge m 6 THREE NOTABLE BUILDINGS [ o f their hero that the ages have spared to them. see a a f We him there, just s he appe red be ore fi he went away into exile, a stern gure, thirty “ s o f z five year age, nel mez o del camin di ” 1 nostra vita — in the midst o f the pathway o f this our mortal life— habited in the lucco and o f berretta the Florentine magistrate, with a Vita Nuo vo rm book, possibly the , under one a , his ha while he holds in nd a pomegranate, type o f f ff T D mdi li e and su ering. he ivine: Corn e a the f s a seems hidden behind ace, a Fitzger ld “ ” and remarks, like the flower in the bud, we can disc ern in the features bo th the austerity o f mind and the rare tender ness o f heart dis in o f r i played the greatest Ch ist an epics. This portrait forms part o f a large painting o f Paradise, in which the Saviour is shown in r glo y, seated on a throne, reigning over the

Blessed who stand immediately below Him . There are differenc es o f Opinion as to the exact f e date o the fr sco, and on that date the identific a ” o f a t tion the Be ti depends, but according o w a recent and not improbable the ory, it as designed during the later weeks o f the year 1 01 o f 3 , and thus serves as a record the transient peace that followed on the mission o f Charles o f h Valois, while the City lay stunned beneat

l

1 64 TH REE NOTABLE BU ILDINGS [CHAR hand o f Dante are Brunetto Latini and Corso o f Donati, the face the latter being sufficiently well preserved fo r us to note the small cunning eyes and close- shut mouth o f the famous leader “ ” o f the Neri. As the head o f the Donati f amily, Corso was a person o f no small import ance among his contemporaries. and successively ffi o f filled the o ce Podesta in Bologna, Pistoia, f and Treviso. He took as his first wi e a member f h f o the Cerc i amily, who died suddenly, not i o f r w thout suspicion poison, and then ma ried i a daughter o f Ugguc c o ne della Faggiuola, the o f great Ghibelline Capta in . He had no lack ability, but the insolence be displayed in his dealings with all sorts and conditions o f men, alienated even his adherents, and the Florentine “ ” f a populace bestowed on him the title o Malef mi, ” Do me harm . Charles o f Valois left him in possession in

Florence, at his departure, but his overbearing ff conduct gave universal o ence, and at last he was charged by the Priors with conspiring against the Commonwealth in company with

- in- U uc c io ne his father law, gg , and summoned to f to appear before the Podesta. On his re usal n o bey he was co demned as a traitor, and the forces o fthe Commune were dispatched to arrest be f o him, but shut himsel up in that Tower f IV] DEATH OF CORSO DONATI 1 65 the Co r biz z i family (that yet stands in the Via del Merc antino close to the Church o f San Piero

f r f Maggiore) , and o a ew hours defied the i author ties. At length he was compelled to

flee, and met his death outside the Porta alla r o f Croce, d agged at the heels an infuriated ” 1 a ai beast, s his own brother tells us, and sl n at length by the hands o f a hireling soldiery f at the bidding o the Signoria. In the words n “ f o f the historia , Dino Compagni, his li e was ” perilous, and his death was blameworthy. If the interpretation suggested o f the inner o f f a f meaning this resco is correct, the v lue o it r fo our present purpose is redoubled, fo r in f addition to the portrait o the Poet, we have f be ore our eyes, but dimly it is true, the out ward semblance o f the three men who at the turning point o f his life exercised such a malign n i fluence over his subsequent fate, Charles o f ’ V a d Ac uas arta alois, Cardin l q p , and Corso

Donati .

In the halls o f the Bargello may be seen many interesting objects dating from the end o f the thirteenth and the beginning o f the f rv ourteenth century, and these se e to bring back to mind the domestic life o f Florence

1 P nrg . xxiv. 83. 1 66 THREE NOTABLE BU ILDINGS [CHAR IV dur ing the years that her great so n dwelt within her walls. Surpassing all these in importance is ste s o f f f n a pla r ca t the ace o the Poet, take , it is f - said, rom a death mask prepared by order o f i f hi Guido da Polenta, h s host at the time o s decease. Allowing fo r the difference o f age it a greatly resembles the po rtrait in the ch pel, and am thus in the s e building we have two i likenesses o f Dante, the o ne show ng him just a f as he appe red be ore his exile, the other when that exile had terminated with his earthly exist ence . As a last thought in connection with the political life o f the Po et it must not be forgotten f ms o f r e as that ro the gate the Ba g llo issued, “ o f Gardner tells us, the Crier the Republic who summoned Dante and his companions in ’ misfortune to appear before the Po desta s ” court.

1 68 CHURCHES OF THE FRIARS (CHAR

It is in the Heaven o f the Sun that Dante

finds the souls o f St. Thomas Aquinas and

. B n v ntur St o a e e, the representatives among theologians o f the Dominicans and Franciscans respectively, and from them he hears the w panegyrics o f the two Saints, each ith a i generosity rare among Religious, sing ng the praises o f the Founder o f the rival order. It is in lines full o f poetic feeling that St. Thomas, r o f the Angelic Doctor, relates the sto y the f f e f li e o St. Francis, the S raphic Father, rom the time o f his birth at Assisi to that glorious hour when among the mountains o f Alverno “ he received from Christ the las t seal ' l u tim1 — l o sigillo o f fellowship with Himself

Suc t at the M23 t ver ounds r md h h y w we e sta pe , hi n ” 1 Upo n s esh.

The Seraphic Doctor then takes up his par able, and in words o f almost equal beauty recites r o f the histo y the Angelic Father, Dominic “ ' ” — l amr 11 o o so drudo della fede cristiana o f f the passionate lover the Faith o Christ, he who had been chosen from among mankind to aid his Lord in the cultivation o f the Garden o f C the hurch.

As every one knows, the chief characteristic

1 1 1 P ar . xi. 1 0 . . . N m. H e an P ar 7 J w . xi i . 5 5 . SANTA MARIA NOVELLA 1 69 o f the mendicant orders was the absolute acceptance o f the precept o f voluntary poverty, not only as it concerned the individual Friars, but also every detail o f their corporate life. That Dante appreciated to the full the immense importance o f this innovation is evident to all

’ mmedia f readers o f the Co who are amiliar with the exquisite passage where he describes the 1 Mystical Marriage o f St. Francis with his bride Poverty

ve M r a r ma uso Si c he do a i i se gi , 1 Ella c onCristo salse in su la c ro c e

She who mounted with Christ on the Cross, a while Mary stayed bene th.

r An age like his own , when luxu y and avarice were the distinguishing vices o f the clergy as a body, even the Vicars o f Christ seldom escaping the general contagion, needed a striking example o f self- restraint in the matter ' o f this world s goods. The chief Dominican Church o f Florence is

Santa Maria Novella, situated in the Piazza o f

- the same name, a little to the south west o f the old Baptistery. The building was begun in 1 2 8 f o f o f 7, rom the design three the Friars, the foundation stone being laid by Cardinal

1 1 P o r . xi. 6 4. xi. 71 . 1 70 CHURCHES OF THE FRIARS [Ca AR

a r a f mn L tino de F angip ni, himsel a Do inica , and s o f not impossibly a kin man the Poet . By the year 1 30 1 the church must have been at least f f r roo ed in, o it was here that Charles o f Valois t f m ook his a ous oath to preserve the libe rties f o the Commune, an oath broken almost in o the act f utterance. Before the c onstruction o f o f f the new walls the City by Arnol o, the site where it stands was outside the boundaries f o f o Florence, and the title the older church that it replaced is in accordance with this cir c umstanc e fo r was al , it c led Santa Maria tra le Vigne St. Mary among the Vineyards so closely did town and country approach each o f Cac i other in the time c aguida. The Piazza o f Santa Maria Novella was laid out at the close f f o the thirteenth century, just be ore Dante went into exile, and during those wonderful years when the Florence known to us was gradually brought into being. The church is a fine example o f Italian f o f Gothic, built in the orm a Tau Cross, the transverse bar fringed with chapels extending on either side o f the apse behind the High and Altar. The nave is wide unencumbered r with monuments, fo the Friars were the o f es great preachers the Middle Ag , and much space was needed fo r the crowds who flocked

Cum 1 72 CHU RCHES OF THE FRIARS [

f now agreed, there is no oundation whatever in fact. The altar-piece is the work o f Andrea r a a f o f O c gn , the more skil ul the brother i painters, and here the Sav our is represented

the . delivering to St. Peter keys, and to St mma f s Thomas the S o , his amou book, passages from which are frequently paraphrased by Dante. Around the altar-piece the Last Judgment is shown in fresco. The Judge is enthroned the Apostles and the Angels with trumpets await His verdict ; the newly risen dead part f to right and le t, anticipating their sentence ; while the Madonna pleads fo r mercy on the saved, and St. John Baptist seems to demand the execution o f justice on the lost. It is a l weird scene, such as the stern F orentine might if i well have conceived, and where, trad tion can

f u f r be trusted, he does himsel fig re, o among the ranks o f the Redeemed is seen an upturned f f r ace, ramed in a be retta, whose features hear so touching a resemblance to those o f Dante c an a that the likeness hardly be ccidental.

On the wall to the right o f the altar Leonardo Orc agna has depicted the Hell o f ’ a In erno f r - the Lost, taking D nte s f o text book. o f f Enthroned in the middle the resco is Lucifer, ' ' P lro lo A lrna r r.

RAD NA L R RA DA N B! ORCAGNA . T ITIO PO T IT OF TE , V L SA N I A MAR IA NO E LA .

1 74 CHU RCHES OF THE FRIARS [CHAR

vi It was, perhaps, ine table from the nature o f the subject that this fresco should be less a transcription o f the ideas o f the Poet than the I erno r a n nf , though portions o f it recall ce t i detached passages from his works. Among ff s f at Orc a na no other di erence o tre ment, g had hesitation in depicting the outward semblance ’ f a i o f n an o the S v our ma kind, while D te s reverence caused him to abstain from any pre " 1 entment o f o f r un s the Lord Glo y, save der type and symbol. De scending the steps into the nave we seek n Cl out the entra ce to the oisters, which, from

o f r al the lack o ientation so usual in It y, lie westward o f the church. Here in the midst o f c f mth the Chiostro Verde, so alled ro e green f tinted rescoes that line the walls, stands the o f m Capella degli Spagnu li, or erly the Chapter f House o the Convent. This chapel was begun 1 20 in the year 3 , twelve months before Dante f and the r departed this li e, inte ior, more than f s a century later, was re coed by the hands o f n certain u known artists. Lo oking upon the splendid series o f paintings with which the u o f r was Co ncil Chamber the Fria s adorned, we once more drink deeply o f the stream o f scholastic theology that finds noble expression V] CAPELLA DEGLI SPAGN UOLI 1 75

s o f the Divine o mmedia in the page C . The " to f Pic r Ignotus, probably himsel a Dominic an , f r responsible o this design, gave to the world nothing less than a pictorial representation o f the entire system o f religious doctrine and practice as taught by the Friars and accepted by Dante. In this vaulted room are depicted the Mysteries o f Redemption and the Mysteries o f

Grace, together with a striking illustration o f the subjection o f all human knowledge to the f Obedience o f the Church, so o ten suggested in the writings o f the Poet. Although the o f f mn f hand the cra ts a ailed him more than once when he came to carry out the designs o f the Master Painter, and the frescoes have suffered not a little from neglect and resto ra l s tion, they are sti l a trea ure house to all who f o f M would eel the spell the iddle Ages, an attitude o f mind entirely necessary fo r those f o f who follow in the ootsteps the great Tuscan .

Entering the chapel, immediately above the High Altar rises a representation o f the Cruci al o f fixio n o f the Lord, that centr act the Passion that Dante beholds transfigured in the

Heaven o f Mars, together with the Procession to Calvary and the Descent into Hades. Fo llo w ing on the events o f the Holy Week come those 1 76 CH URCHES OF THE FRIARS [CHAR

- f r o f f t o f Easter tide, o on two the our segmen s o f the roof are shown the Resurrection and Ascension o f the Saviour Christ now risen " f t from His lowly grave, Gia surto uo della " 1 o l ral and r sep c buca, His t iumphant return , l ” 1 N e reame ove gli angeli hanno pace, to the Kingdom where the Angels are at peace. The Mysteries o f Redemption thus brought u i r o f to a concl s on, the Myste ies Grace succeed, r f fo r the Bi th o the Church, as symbolized by f the outpouring o the Spirit upon the Apostles, immediately follows. The fourth and last seg “ ment o f the roof is occupied by la Barca di " 11 o f mo f Pietro, the Ship the Fisher an, type that Ark o f Mercy into which the Redeemed

m. are admitted by Holy Baptis Below this fresco to the right is a great painting, whose purpose is the setting forth the relation o f the Baptized to the Church nd Militant a the Church Triumphant. In this remarkable picture Santa Maria del Fiore, the o f beautiful Duomo the Florentines, serves as o f at the image the Church war, while in front f o f the amiliar building sit Pope and Emperor, “ " s ideal ruler , according to the De Monarchia,

‘ o f o f the bodies and souls men. And around these central figures are noble groups o f priests

1 1 1 P nr . xxi. . V. N . mu. . P ar . xi 1 g 9 3 . 1 9.

V1 THE HOUNDS OF THE LORD 1 77 and laymen, judges and citizens, scholars and — ladies portraits indeed o f the brilliant and r f m va ied types o men and wo en that the a painter saw d ily about him, though it is impossible now to identify them with any certainty. But it is well to mention that the wearer o f the triple tiara is believed to be — f . Benedict XI . successor to Boni ace VIII to whom Dante appears to allude in one o f 1 his Epistles, and that the Emperor is Henry “ ’ " l alto 1 r o f Luxemburg, Arrigo, the he o o f ’ “ - the Poet s dream, the long desired Titan " i us f Pac fic , who would bring peace to air Italy, fo r whose beloved spirit a place is reserved in f the mystic Rose o Paradise. “ Below Pope and Emperor the Hounds o f s the Lord, as the Friar were popularly called, from a play on the word Dominican “ Domini

— - canes watch dogs, black and white as the

Dominican habit, protect the sheep o f the “ fold from the wo lfish teeth and privy paw o f the heretics who would disturb the faith f o the Church. The temptations o f the Christian on his upward course are typified by enthroned f figures o the vices, strong and seductive, and i by maidens, who, danc ng in circle, endeavour o f to allure the unwary into the way danger.

1 1 E vi . P a pistle ii r . xxx. 1 37. N 1 78 CHURCHES OF THE FRIARS [CHAR

The possibility o f pardon and restoration even fo r those who fall into deadly sin is indicated by the presence o f a Friar who receives the f con essions o f the penitents. St. Dominic himself is guardian o f the forgiven souls, h h and points them to the eavenward pat , f r through the gateway o St. Peter la Po ta ” 1 an U di S Pietro. Finally, in the pper portion o f the picture is painted the image o f Incarnate God the Love that sways the sun and the other stars

” ’ mil ’ r s e l 1 LAmr c h uo ve So e e ait e t e o e l l l , awaiting in glory the coming o fthe Redeemed. The Mysteries o f Redemption and the o f f Mysteries Grace have passed be ore us, and as far as human salvation is concerned “ " f o f the rest is silence, but on the le t side the chapel there remains one fresco o f the utmost r f impo tance to Dantists. The subject o this

o f . painting is the Triumph St Thomas Aquinas, the Saint who was the brain o f the great body

o f r . F iar Preachers, as St Dominic was the a s heart. He is seated on throne, urrounded by Apostles and Prophets, who confirm his teaching, while below are allegoric figures an representing those Arts d Sciences that, even l though in part revea ed to the Pagan world,

1 In :1 1 1 } . 1 34. P or . xxxiii. 45 .

1 80 C H URCHES OF THE FRIARS (Ca n .

s a o f o m there cluster other per on ges the C

’ i 1 — mza . ed Sabell us and Arius the two famous heresiarchs— spoken o f by Dante as mutilators o f a r f the S c ed Scriptures, crouch at his eet , ’ together with the Arabian scholar Averroes, “ " who made the great commentary, their sub ordinate position testifying to the conquest o f the Catholic faith over false doctrine . On either side o f these recumbent figures are representa ff tives o f di erent departments o f human learning, and included in this goodly fellowship we ‘ “ i ” find Aristotle, l maestro di color che sanno “ the master o f those who know — the Greek philosopher whose works are more frequently quoted by Dante than those o f any other writer, ancient or modern . He stands as the o f exponent Logic, and in close proximity to him is his companion in Limbo— Ptolemy ‘ the originator o f the astronomic scheme on ’ which the whole o f the cosmography o f Dante s ‘ poem is based. Donatus the Grammarian, the — o f . far ff he preceptor St Jerome, is not o who, “ ’ as Dante says, alla prim arte degno por la ” “ mano ; and near at hand is Justinian, the c o difier o f noted existing laws, the soul that comes to meet the Poet in the Heaven o f

3 3 P . x . 1 2 . 1 . 1 ar iii 7 n W 44. iv. 1 31 . 5 ' Mid. iv. 1 2. P ar . . am o . 4 . 1 37 Ihd. vi. t THE R H S . HO A S A NAS SA N A A R A NOV A . T IUMP OF T T M QUI . T M I ELL

C m 1 82 CHU RCHES OF TH E FRIARS [ra

sam the e bo ok was also evidently in his mind when he composed the exquisite saying o f poor Francesc a da Rimini

Nessunma or r ggi do lo e Che r c ordars del mfe c e i i te po li ” Nel a miser l ia, that passage so beautifully paraphras ed by Tennyson in the line

’ ” So rro s c ro n o f so rro is remember n a er t n s. w w w i g h ppi hi g

f May it not be that the lover o Beatrice, in o f f the hour his bitterest grie , had realized to the full the truth o f the words o f the old writer, and that his own experience was with him when in after years he related the terrible history o f the woman he had probably known as an innocent child in the happy security o f her early home at Ravenna ? ’ f Dionysius the Areopagite ollows, the

f . Athenian convert o St Paul, whom the Middle o f Ages identified with St. Denys France, and credited with many writings o f a mystical and symbolic nature belonging to a much later f r age. Dante was greatly indebted o the marvellous descriptions o f the trinal triplici ties o f the Choirs o f the Angelic Hierarchy t e P r adi e in h a s , to these c urious works. Las t

1 In . v. m o . ] . F r x. u s. V . A 1 8 ] ST FR NCIS AN D ST. DOMIN IC 3

o f all we see St. Augustine o f Hippo, in this f resco the representative o f Dogmatic Theology, F but by the Poet placed, with St. rancis and

. f St Dominic, among the petals o the Celestial l Rose, as the Founder o f a Religious Order. The treasures o f Santa Maria Novella are by no means exhausted, and a visit here will be needful when we consider the early Art o f Tuscany ; but fo r the present we must bid f arewell to this beautiful building, the older sanctuary o f the Dominican brethren in Florence, r fo r and visit Santa Croce, the chu ch so many centuries associated with the Friars following r o f the Franciscan Rule. Facing the ent ance Santa Maria Novella on the opposite side o f the Piazza is the Lo ggia di San Paolo, adorned with a lunette by Andrea della Robbia com

emratin o f . r n . mo g the meeting St F a cis and St an i Dominic, event sa d to have taken place in fo r an old hospice pilgrims in Via dei Bardi, incorporated some years ago in the Palazzo

i as- Canigian . This lovely h relief may well serve ' o f s as a symbol the Church s Knight Errant, vina Co mia f r Di med o in the as here, le due

” “ ' campioni, the twin champions o f Christ s l h n — host, c asp a ds together brothers, not rivals, in their devotion to their Lord.

1 3 P ar . 1 mm. . 1 35 M xu. 44. Cum 1 84 CHURCHES OF THE FRIARS [ Thus we proceed from the spiritual home

a f . r c o f the Sp nish Dominic to that o St F an is, his Italian fellow-worker in the same fields h ” w ite unto harvest, traversing the whole length o f the Cerchia Antica o f Florence f a be ore we re ch Santa Croce. The way lies through the Via de’ Banchi and Via de’ Cerretani - names that recall two important industries o f — the City to the Piazza del Duomo, that great ha square unted by so many memories, and surely at all times o f the year one o f the

o r a sunniest spots in Tuscany indeed in It ly. Then it turns sharply to the right down Via ” a f - ak C lzaioli, or the Street o the Stocking m ers, which formerly bore the name o f Cors o degli f Adimari, rom the presence there in large numbers o f the Palazzi o f the great Guelph f house, that amily whom Dante hated with a l burning hatred . On the right is still visible f one o their towers, and near at hand dwelt f Boccaccio Adimari, the enemy o the Poet, who seized his goods during the early days a l o f his exile, and did l that lay in his power to hinder his return to his birthplace. It says ’ something fo r Dante s lack o f personal malice that this man— albeit alive at the time the ommedia — C was written did not find himself, P ar . xvi. u s.

1 86 C Ca m H URCHES OF THE FRIARS [

and to St. Anthony, o f this some part remains c o f behind the hoir the later church. The l chapel could not have been ong in use, when

r r the F iars who wo shipped in it (fired, it may x o f ca be, by the e ample their Domini n brethren, hard at work o n their new foundation on the other side o f the town) determined to enlarge i their bounds. They appl ed to Arnolfo del t n o f f Cambio, hen at the very ze ith his ame, fo r the design fo r the great church which should supersede their little oratory, and it 1 2 was begun in the year 94, a few months f be ore Dante entered on his political ca reer. r Two o f the Great Guilds, the A te dei Mercanti

r m r Cali ala and the A te di , specially cont i buted to the expenses o f the rebuilding, and Cardinal ’ Matteo d Ac quas parta proclaimed an indulgence to whosoever would provide funds fo r its completion. The modern facade o f Santa Croce has no connection with Dante or his times, and

af . im so it may s ely be neglected The first pression to be derived from the interior o f the building is the likeness that exists between the design o f Arnolfo and that o f the Friars who constructed Santa Maria Novella, both in churches being the Gothic style, while r a r both possess a ve y simil r g ound plan, SANTA CROCE i s;

r n consisting o f a wide nave, sho t tra septs, and r o n an unimpo tant chancel, flanked each side by unf r chapels. A common feature that has o un a the t ately in both cas es disappe red, is screen a a n or tr mezz o th t once crossed the ave, at the place where a step still remains, altering f the level o the pavement. Dante doubtless

' had P ur ato no in mind, when writing the g , a f partition like this, o r when he would describe h t e Gateway o f St. Peter he uses the word ” 1 n m d regge, a a e only applie to the door whence ingress and egress were obtained ” r m. th ough the centre o f the tra ezzo His a al ! own portrait by Giotto, long v nished, as is believed to have hung at one time in the centre o f the middle aisle o f this church, r possibly on pa t o f the sc reen. Santa Croce is not unfrequently called the f Westminster Abbey o Florence, and the chief desire o f the strangers who flock here from all quarters o f the globe is unquestionably to seek out the tombs and other monuments erected to the memory o f the more famous ar - a men o f this f famed City. The prim ry object, r however, o f a first visit to the great F anciscan shr ine should be the consideration o f the t o f f his ory the Founder o the Order, as depicted

1 n . ix. 1 34. 1 88 CH URCHES OF THE FRIARS (Ca n .

a alike by p inter and sculptor, and the relation

a mmedia . it bears to D nte and the Divine: Co The morning is the best time fo r the study o f f s has - f f r re co and relie , o although in some respects Santa Croce is most beautiful o f aspect when the western sun streams into the building, the dazzling glory in which it is then enveloped is a hindrance to the distinguishing o f detail. At the o utset arises a problem which has a n gre tly perplexed Da te students in all ages, and is never now likely to be satisfac torily answered. Was the Poet in a special sense a son o f Francis, a member o f that Tertiary Order to which so many o f the more devout among his contemporaries belonged ? There is a strong tradition to this effect, and though there cannot be said to be any very direct re evidence in favour o f it, there a indications rendering it not unlikely. If the su pposition ffi u is accepted, a very di c lt passage in the Inferno can be comprehended— that in which t o f ee Dante casts in o the abyss Hell, after s ing s o f the puni hment carnal sinners, the cord 1 r with which he is girded, a co d being a portion o f o f the Franciscan habit, and a type the

mo r tific atio n o f f . the sin ul lusts o f the flesh 1 n I f. xvi. 1 06.

Ca lm 1 90 CH URCH ES OF THE FRIARS [ keynote fo r the right understanding o f the

s s f o f . ymboli m o this noble house God Notice, in the first place, the hand holding a cross fo r projecting from one o f the sides, the a o f dedic tion chosen by the Friars, that Santa " n Croce, was dictated neither by cha ce nor o f caprice, as to them the instrument the ’ Saviour s Death was an object o f most peculiar r veneration. The reason fo this special devotion grew from their belief that the continual con mlati n f f te p o o the Crucifixion o Christ had 1 impressed on the body o f their Founder, in an even more literal sense than that o f St. “ " o f . is Paul, the marks the Lord Jesus It , f c there ore, the Holy Cross on whi h they u would have s first meditate, and then on the

n f f . ra f circumsta ces o the life o St F ncis, o r the lovely has - reliefs with which Benedetto a f f da Mai no, a sculptor o the fi teenth century, r r has en iched this, his most characte istic work, ar e given up to scenes from the life o f the Saint and o f his early disciples. s The Cross and Franci , they are inseparably a connected, and both were indeed dear to D nte, and have left their image throughout the pages o f a the gre t Poem. In the choir are the frescoes ar o f in which Agnolo Gaddi, an tist the school

1 Par . xi. 1 06. V] THE TRUE CROSS

o f o f Giotto, has related the mediaeval history the True Cross. On the north wall is shown the little shoot o f tender green leaves that n f should bring salvatio to mankind, itsel sprung f o f rom that Tree good and evil, whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our ” o f woe, planted by Seth on the grave Adam , and greeted in humble adoration by the Queen f ar o Sheba. It is to this p t o f the legend that a n D nte is evidently alludi g, when in the wonderful allegory at the close o f the P urg a ‘ ' l to r ta o f , he describes how the mere touch the pole o f the Chariot o f Holy Church— the Wood o f the Passion— brings back beauty and blossom to the bare trunk despoiled and rendered leafless the f m by sin o Ada . Other passages from the same story follow : the angry Jews draw from o f the Pool Bethesda, into which it had been f — contemptuously cast, the Tree o Healing now grown into a mighty beam— and fashion there f o f rom the Cross Christ, soon to be exalted

al . on C vary Three centuries later St. Helena discovers through a miracle the precious relic, o f more value to the devout Queen than all earthly treasures ; and finally it is seen captured by the Persians, and restored to the Christians by the Emperor Heraclius

1 ’ - I m. mu g . 1 2 Cum 9 CH URCHES OF THE FRIARS [

The most sacred spot in the whole building is thus devoted to the celebration o f the glories ” e o f the True Cross, thos glories so wonder fully painted in the fourteenth Canto o f the aradise P , where Dante finds it impossible to describe in human language the splendour o f af the vision vouchs ed to his longing eyes. f 1 Extended be ore him is a great Cross, a Cross

- m r within a ci cle, equal ar ed, resembling the aureole that in early Italian Art is set about o f the Head the Saviour, and the token o f His r Presence in the Sac ament o f the Altar. Up and down the transverse bar o f the vener abil ” segno float the warrior spir its o f the Heaven o f Mars— among others his own ancestor Cac 1 c iaguida — each glittering with a more vivid a the radiance as they c tch celestial contact, and on the glowing background is the Figure o f

Christ Himself. It is but a step from the choir o f Santa ’ Croce to that Chapel o f the Bardi— Beatrice s kinsmen by marriage— where Giotto wrought o f r out his rendering the sto y o f the Saint, f f r c ified who, following in the ootsteps o the C u , carr ied the Cross on his own shoulders with

such courage and even gaiety, a Divina ” Commedia indeed, and one most specially

1 1 P . xi 1 0 1 . 1 m. xv. 8 . ar v. 9

V] THE STIGMATA 1 93

beloved by both Dante and the painter. The first act o f this most popular o f miracle - plays f — is the espousal o Pover ty by St. Francis not the Mystical Marriage , but the literal renuncia tion o f all his possessions by the lad o f Assisi in o f f d the presence his own ather, an o f the o f Bishop the Diocese.

s r ta e Dinanz i alla pi i l c o rt , ” 1 E c r mr . t o a pat e

To this succeeds the confirmation o f the af r v Rule by Pope Honorius, who, ter a ma el “ lous dream , added a second crown , seconda ” 11 al corona, to the seal ready set on the labours II f o f the Saint by Innocent I . The arrival o 1 Francis nella presenza del Soldan superba — he o f Egypt follows, and then his appearance “ ” out o f the body to St. Anthony o f Padua, f two years before his departure rom this world. Giotto makes no attempt here to show the a f bestow l o the Stigmata, that unimaginable “ scene that took place, nel crudo sasso intra ” 1 a o f Tevere ed Arno, among the h rsh rocks o f f La Verna ; but in the last the great rescoes, f that representing the deathbed o the Saint, certain o f the Friars are occupied in the verifi o f cation the sacred wounds.

1 P ar . xi. 6 1 . 1 1 ' Ibid. xi. 1 0 1 . Ihduxi. 1 06 .

0 a m 1 94 CHURCHES OF THE FRIARS [C

The altar- piec e o f this chapel has been as and cribed to Margheritone, is said to be e f an auth ntic portrait o Francis, while around the image o f the Founder o f the Order are grouped four o f the more notable Fran 1 c isc ans . e , St Louis the King, to whom Dant alludes in rather slighting terms, possibly in f r a spirit o human i ritation, remembering that

f . . he owed his c anonization to Boni ace VI II , St

f . o f Louis o Toulouse, St Elizabeth Hungary, a and St. Clare, that L dy whose habit and veil ’1 were borne by the gentle Piccarda. On the

f . vaulted roo may be seen St Francis in glory, “ ” ls and his three commanding ange , as Ruskin be calls them, Poverty, Chastity, and Holy O nc f die e, a simpler version o the earlier and

- better known frescoes at Assisi. Later on it will be needful to return to Santa Croce and look at the monument bearing o f fo the name Dante, but r the moment such a pilgrimage is completed by a visit to the f o f an second Dominican oundation Florence, S o f e b Marco. The interior the conv nt may e regarded as a great Gospel Book, illustrated and by Fra Angelico, on nearly every page is pictured S t. Dominic ; not indeed in the ex ternal circumstances o f his life that lack the

1 a P ar 8 p m. xx. 50. . iii . 9 .

CH A PTER VI

D r m: r 1 1 mum: AN 1 s r m: ART o

” an Dante onc e prepared to paint a gel.

; mG. o

’ “ Vostr arteia Dio quasi e nipote. Dam

m: a o f r T early ye rs the centu y in which Dante far saw the light were, as as Art is concerned, al a period o f utter decadence, ike in Tuscany

and throughout the Italian peninsula. The Byzantine school had in earlier days produced

works o f great beauty and dignity, domed a churches, delicate carvings, grand mos ics, but ff it had now sti ened into utter immobility.

Artists still there were, but mere copyists, f hopelessly ettered by ecclesiastical tradition , which left no scope whatever fo r any sort o f

i al . a orig n ity Their figures were b dly drawn, and habited in strange hieratic garments— mere f images, passive, unemotional, li eless. The Divine Infant was represented with the Cmr V . I] ARTISTIC DECADENCE proportions o f a miniature man held in the arms o f a Mother who, while gazing at the spectator

- in out o f sad almond shaped eyes, seemed capable not only o f maternal feeling, but even f o womanly solicitude fo r her sacred charge. The Christ o f Calvary was shown more com mnl o a y de d, a shapeless twisted figure, crushed o f all out but the barest semblance to humanity, e hideous, distorted, r pulsive. The range o f subject possible to painter or sculptor was very small ; in fact, it was almost limited to the two mentioned— the

Madonna and Child, and the Crucifix. The medieval Church rightly desired above all things to impress on mankind the two great f acts o f redemption, the Incarnation and the “ ” “ Passion, Incar natus est, Passus est, and her interpreters in the realm o f A r t were too unskilled to escape the boundaries o f a narrow convention, and depict scenes demanding f o f reshness o f treatment. A certain number paintings which belonged to this age may be seen in the Accademia delle Belle Arti, the

f fiiz i galleries o the U , and in some o f the o f f churches Florence, and should be care ully studied by all who would realize the importance o f that artistic revival which Dante saw with living eyes. DANTE AND ART (Cu r .

The first awakening from the sleep o f immobility came, as far as Tuscany is con n t ’ t cerned, o in Dante s beloved Florence, bu in the neighbouring republics o f Pisa and Siena. f — e who as In the ormer city, Nicola Pisano h , A John ddington Symonds says, first breathed wi f rms th breath o f genius life into the dead o o f a — n ar s pl stic art produced, eve in the ye f e and has be or the birth o f the Poet, statues e f n r liefs o great beauty, owing their inspiratio to t he t he sculptures o f antiquity. In t latter own ar had m o f a school o f tists who beco e impatient the fetters by which their predecessors were e f r Buo nse na bound, pav d the way o Duccio di g , f mr t who broke away altogether ro the t adi ions inherited from Constantinople. m mak It see s strange that Dante es no reference in his Poems to these famous f r pioneers o f the Renaissance, o he must have been familiar with the masterpieces o f f both. A ter his exile he certainly visited the two cities, and doubtless beheld in the Pisan Baptistery the far - famed pulpit o f Nicola i o f Pisano, wh le over the High Altar Siena “ ” hung in his day the splendid Majestas o f i B n Ducc o di uo segna. The truth is, the writer

’ o f Divina o mza - C med the was pre eminently a n t Florentine, a d regarded Florence as he

DANTE AND ART o f having their walls decorated by Greek wa artists, and the lad s speedily attracted f and by the work o these men, spent all his leisure in their society, neglecting his books. His true vocation was happily rec ognized before any irrecoverable step had been taken in the and f direction o f Holy Orders, he was set ree to devote his energies to the pursuit o f Art. f o f A ter a term apprenticeship to the Greeks, he laboured earnestly and successfully fo r many ff f years in di erent parts o Italy, acco mplishing paintings much in advance o f those o f his f r f orerunne s, but ate has dealt hardly with all f a that he le t behind him, nd very little remains to testify to the ability which impressed itself f so deeply on his contemporaries. His rescoes both at Pisa and Florence have disappeared, it is not certain that those in the Upper Church at Assisi assigned to him are really h by his hand, w ile the authenticity o f the in Madonna the Accademia delle Belle Arti, r o f as once in the Chu ch Santa Trinita, h also a been questioned. The rtist has special reason to deplore the loss o f a famous portrait o f the

w r - Contessa Matelda, the a like Deborah o f the ” Papacy, whom he represented on horseback in martial array. For several centuries his reputation rested T E R LE LLA I AD NNA A B SAN A AR A N V . H U M O , CIM UE . T M I O ELLA

DANTE AND ART (CRA P .

l fo r m A as romance, odern critics are inclined to attribute the Ruc ellai Madonna to Duccio di Buo nse na g , or some other painter o f the Sienese

. us f . Fr school Let be thank ul that Mr Roger y , no mean authority on matters artistic, upholds i the earl er ascription, and thus permits us to a i fo r o f ccept t ourselves, without any those questionings which are impertinent where a delightful legend is concerned. ’ Towards the close o f Cimabue s c areer we appear to emerge onc e more from the twilight f o f uncertainty into the light o f day, o r there is every reason to believe that the last work he undertook was the mosaic o f the Christ in u o f blessing in the D omo Pisa, a work which r h he never finished, fo e died in Florence in ai the year 1 302, and was l d to rest in the precincts o f Santa Maria del Fiore. The title o f the Father o f modern painting has been ’ bestowed on him, but, as Dante s lines seem it to imply, belongs more rightly to his wonder ful pupil Giotto . u Giotto Bo done, unlike his master, belonged f to the peasant class, and although a native o f wa r the Commune o Florence, s not in the st ict o f sense the word a Florentine, as his parents n f lived at Vespigna o, a village about ourteen ' o f miles to the north Dante s birthplace, where CIMABUE AN D GIOTTO

was he born in 1 276. Two conflicting stories are o f told his intro duction to Cimabue, the one that the older painter found him in the neighbour o f his m r f the hood ho e, making a ude sketch o sheep he was tending, the other that he was

- apprenticed to a wool stapler in Florence, and sought out fo r himself the studio in the future BorgomAllegro. In either cas e the result was the sa e, Cimabue realized the budding genius o f the boy, and undertook his training as an artist ; but Giotto was o f too great and inde pendent an intellec t to owe very m uch to his a te cher, and coming under Sienese influences a B z an at an early ge, he speedily forsook the y f tine ormula, and turned from convention to nature. At what period o f his life he and Dante ame is but u bec e acquaint d uncertain, do btless the latter knew Cimabue, and it was probably e in his bott ga, or workshop, that he first m a a e w s f mf r t the youth who to per or o p int in mc mf g the sa e mira le that he hi sel would r accomplish fo the sister art o f poetry. Certain r stories, ve y possibly authentic, have come down which seem to show that a c lose intimacy existed between them, and that the rather caustic wit o f the scholar, and the genial humour o f the c raftsman were freely exercised at the DANTE AND ART (Ca n .

o f ff expense one another, without o ence to either. Except fo r a visit Giotto paid to Rome

o f f . at the command Boni ace VI II , he appears to have remained in Florence until Dante f r f quitted the city o ever, so the riends, so unlike each other in everything but their

a d ff fo r devotion to the ide l, an their a ection

. r St Francis, must have had many oppo tunities o f sweet converse. f fal and A ter the bolt had len, the Poet was a a banished man, he and the P inter met in the 1 year 306 at Padua. Giotto was engaged in the f ’ adornment o the Madonna del Arena, the chapel which Enrico da Scrovegni built in f f expiation o the sins o f his ather, that noted usurer who in the I nferno is distinguished from his fellow-criminals in the Circle o f the

Extortionate, by the wearing o f a pouch emblazoned with the arms o f his family— argent 1 f . a fat sow (scro a), azure There is a tradition that Dante aided his friend in the choice o f subjects fo r the frescoes covering the walls o f an the chapel, d it is curious to note that the scenes include the Expulsion o f the Money f f changers rom the Temple, and the hiring o o f J udas, while the figure Charity tramples on — bags filled with .coin incidents such as might

1 Inf. xvu. 64.

DANTE AND ART

r Chapel at Santa Croc e. As early as the yea o f rew n al s 1 236, Giunta, a native Pisa, d o the w l a s ar c c o f San Fr ancesco t A sisi, in very hai o f s ak r mthe f f o fashion, a series cenes t en li e d ue d r o f Francis, an later on Cimab an o the painters laboured there ; but the glory o f representing in any adequate sense the life-story o f the Saint belongs o f right to the peasant o f

u . t e rs Vespignano, Giotto Bo done As h powe o f this gr eat artist matured he developed a taste him e fo r symbolism that brings into very clos n ain relationship with Da te, so much so that cert o f his paintings might also be regar ded as the f pictorial equivalent o f the writings o f his riend. This is especially the c ase with the frescoes that he painted over the High Altar o f the Lower o n f Church at Assisi, and indeed e o them, that has e t its o f Holy Poverty, b en thought o owe 1 the famu t c arr inspiration to o s Mys i al M iage

' o o f the P aradzs . That this is an impo ssible has ums supposition been shown by doc ent proving that the fr esco was in existence

' P aradzso was w before the ritten, and there c an be no doubt that Painter and Poet alike borrowed the idea that they c arried o ut with and f mea such singular beauty grace ro rly

Franciscan literature, especially fro m a Latin

1 P ar . xi. 64. GIOTTO ANmD DAmNTE m207 poem entitled Sacru Co merciu beati " Pau ertate r Franc isc i cum domina p , asc ibed to

John o f Parma. Whether Dante visited Assisi w while Giotto as at work cannot be ascertained, but they probably met at intervals until the close ’ f f fo r o the Poet s li e, Giotto travelled much, undertaking commissions in various parts o f n Italy, and it is more tha probable that he would ha f f ve gone out o his way to visit his riend. e According to a not unlikely tradition, th y did ’ so come together a few months before the Poet s a death, the p inter being occupied with the execution o f certain frescoes in the Church o f San Giovanni Evangelista at Ravenna, by ' i o f order, so it s said, Guido da Polenta, Dante s host. Fate has been kinder to the pupil than to and m the master, much still re ains in Florence which will enable the visitor to realize fo r him self the marvellous manner in which Giotto t tr ou s ipped, not only Cimabue, but also every other artist who preceded him . It is in his mural paintings that the extent o f his genius an may be most clearly seen, d in addition to r f f those scenes f om the li e o St. Francis in the C a a s apella B rdi at S nta Croce, already de cribed, frescoes by him ar e preserved both in the Capella Perruzzi in the same building and in /tr DANTE AND ART [Cu .

n r no t the cloisters o f Sa ta Ma ia Novella, to mention the famous but doubtfully authentic u portrait o f Dante in the Bargello. Altho gh much injured by time and restoration, the composition and colouring o f these works are f supremely beauti ul, and their appearance during the first half o f the fourteenth century constitute a veritable epoch in the history o f Florentine Art .

Even Domenico Ghirlandaio, near ly a century later, to take one example only, was indebted to the earlier master fo r his design fo r the fine

o f f r fresco the Death o St. F ancis, that he painted on the walls o f the Sassetti Chapel in

Santa Trinita. It is not without meaning that Giotto was the first to take religious themes out o f the region o f the unknown and translate them into o f the simplicities ordinary life. To him, as to his artistic descendants, the Drama o f Re al far demption was enacted in It y, not in some al away ecclesiastic country. And the men and women who are witnesses o f all that he depicts c o f are lothed in the attire Italian citizens, and al stand among It ian buildings, with an Italian landscape behind them, the low hills and olive trees o f Tuscany replacing the gold back o f grounds a more primitive age. In this matter also a certain affinity is felt between

’ v1 ] GIOTTO S CAMPAN ILE

f r n Poet and Painter, o there are many Italia s o f I n er no P ur a among the inhabitants the f , the g

' tono P ar adis o , and the , and the affairs o f even the lesser Italian cities are accorded a position o fextraordinary importance in all three Canticas vi o mdia i na me . o f the D C Examples o f the altar- pieces o f Giotto are

f ffiz z to be ound in the Accademia, the U i, S an d C Marco, an Santa roce, and these, though dis ting uished by a lesser measure o f originality o f treatment than his more ambitious attempts, deserve very close attention. Above and beyond all else, the lovely Campanile he designed ' still keeps his memory green in Dante s own f city, and no lover o the great writer who has ever beheld it towering up against the divinely blue sky o f Italy will forget the famous passage f P ur a torio o the g , or cease to assert that even “ after the lapse o f so many centuries ora ha ” il r Giotto g ido. f To Dante, born in a ortunate hour, was granted the privilege o f beholding the dawn f o f the Renaissance in Florence, as the riend d f man an comrade o the , to whom, more than al to any other individual, the greatest reviv o f If modern times is due. he had not been possessor o f a temperament disposing him to

sympathize with the spirit o f his age, these 9 Can DANTE AND ART ( .

facts might have affected him but little ; as it

is, they exerted a profound influence over the Vita Nuo va a d character o f his works. The n the na mdia r ff ivi me e di D Co a both in their erent o f f degrees the productions an artist, o one who was blessed with rare powers o f visualiz o f ing, who saw clearly with the eye his imagin ation what he was about to set down with r s unerring hand. The lovely visiona y scene o f the earlier bo ok suggest at once the touch o f — th x the painter miniatures ey are, e ecuted f upon vellum , belonging to the Con essio " Amant s o f the . i Middle Ages Even so is it also with certain episodes that can never be forgotten in the more famous Poem — fresco c n has s its paintings these, on whi h Eter ity et 1 : c seal Paolo and Fran esc a,

h d Go ing fo r ever o n t e ac c urse air, ” 1 T r in h d wnl ss tw ht he e t e a e ilig ,

“ r o f f r o the ar ival the boat, wa ted by the Bi d f God to the shores o f the cleansing mount ; 1 the vision o f Blessed Mary greeted by the a a Archangel Gabriel, midst the accl mations o f o f 1 the Host Heaven. The contemporaries o f Dante were so struck by the marvellous realism displayed in the

1 1 1 1 v. . n 74 Malloc k . P nrg . 1 1 . 23. 1 P ar . xxxii . 95 .

DANTE AN D ART also a marvel o f careful delineation " al 1 dead, the living seemed ive,

“ ” Mo rt li mvi o rt v i i , e i vi pareanvi i,

the author, in this instance, appearing strangely enough— to anticipate the glories o f “ ” Gr afitti a those , or pictures in stone mos ic, with which a century later the churches o f Italy ef were adorned. He also r ers to

“ ’ quell arte ” 1 mr Che l umnare i ato in Pa s a l i e c h a i i, that branch o f the fine arts which belonged to was the illuminator, whose business it to “ enrich the black letter o f the more precious

r a manusc ipts with gloriously coloured c pitals, and border the pages o f Missal and Breviary — an with quaint designs birds, beasts, d flowers f curiously intertwined. Two o these scribes Dante specially mentions— Oderisi o f Gubbio 11 o f ‘ f and Franco Bologna, both o whom were in Rome at the time o f the first Papal Jubilee, engaged in the carrying out o f commissions fo r Pope Boniface VII I . They are believed to and Divina have been master and pupil, in the

' o mdz me a C stand in a parallel position to Cimabue and Giotto, the Bolognese having wholly out

stripped his Umbrian teacher, and snatched 1 1 1 P nr . xi i . . 1 m. xi. 80. i . xi. . g 67 Ib d 79 1 i x . 83, “ 1 1 1 1 : A AN L . ORA HA 01 01 1 0 1 1 . 11 1 00 C M P I E 0 .

2 I 4 DANTE AND ART (Gnu .

a o f f ai o f he ds Luci er, and many o f the det ls ” 1 Bo l ia r the g s are red, ro sso ; while pe sa, a tint Dante himself describes as c ompounded o f and a black purple, the bl ck predominating, s f is u ed o the waters o f the Sty x. When we descend into the depths we find that the Circle ’ o f the Traitors is white and pallid from the o f excessive cold, the winter the soul always reigning in the centre o f the land o f Eternal " 11 f Exile, shadowed by the wings o the great o f enemy mankind. o f Leaving the gloom Hell behind, we o f emerge into a world pure brightness. The sky overhanging the sacred mount is o f the ’ " d o r i ntal z afi r 1 dolce color e o , a deep and f o f lovely blue. The distinguishing eature r f Purgatory is the p esence o hope, and the symbolic green o f early spring is therefo re to be seen in the vestments and wings o f the 11 o f angels guarding the elect, in the herbage o f r ‘1 o f t the Valley P inces, and the leaves tha tree by which the sin o f gluttony is done ‘1 “ away. With this exception, white, the colour is r r less colour, everywhere p esent, ca rying out the idea o f the blossoming o f the human

1 1 1 1 vu. 1 0 . ”id. xxx v. 2 . 1 m. xx i. 1 26. a 3 i 9 ii 1 1 1 M viii. 28. 1 mx 1 x iii. 1 . GREEN AND WHITE 2 1 5

soul under that process o f purification which “ o f fits it to approach the abode the All Holy. The stone in the Cornice where the Envious o f 1 are chastened is indeed a livid hue, and in the Cornice o f the Angry all colour is 1 lost in darkness ; but everywhere else in Purgatory there is a harmony o f green and

white. This is accentuated in the Earthly

Paradise, where the figures in the procession o f the Triumph o f the Church walk— vested in — f white through a wood, under the shade o 1 r fl r . green boughs, over g ass mingled with o we s The Blessed Beatrice has a green mantle over f 1 l the robe o flame colour, that reca ls to mind “ s f the dre s o a subdued and noble crimson, in which she first gladdened the heart o f Dante on a certain May morning in Florence so many f r years be o e, and her hair is wreathed with f olive. Her eyes, those wonder ul eyes, where ar e f all Heaven is to be reflected, o the colour “ o fan emerald. m r Light, sy bolizing Love, is the cha acteristic o f Heaven, and as Dante ascends thither with a Beatrice, the sun glows brighter, unbe rable s as molten iron, until he believe there must be 11 P aradiso al two suns. In the there are most

1 1 1 xvi. 1 . xx x. P ra y . xiii. 9. i 88. 1 1 I id . x . 1 . b xx i 1 6 P ar . 1 . 63. a lm DANTE AND ART [C

In erno as many flames as in the f , only here they represent glory and devotion, there shame o f and punishment. The eagle, made up the f 1 souls o warriors and crusaders, burns like fire ; the faces o f the angels who hover round the 1 Mystic Rose are o f flame ; the Spirits o f the

Redeemed are little sparks, the animating love a irradiating their outward semblance. D nte loves jewels almost as much as does the

Beloved Apostle, but with him it is the inhabitants o f the celestial country who are 1 r o f - and the treasu es God, the rose red rubies glowing topazes 1 that adorn the City o f

Peace. In the glory issuing from the Throne o f the Most High every fragment o f colour stands out brilliantly, except in the moon, “ ’ l eterna ” Margherita, the immortal Pearl,

d . where all tints are iridescent, pale an subdued f At the close o the Apocalypse o f the Poet, Beatific the Vision, there is colour triple 1 in colour, colour unspeakable, and those circles o f diverse hues is the revelation o f the Triune o f Deity, the Creator Heaven and earth, whose covenant with man is symbolized by the Iris, ” the Bow set in the cloud. The question whether Dante had a more

1 1 P ar . x 0 . 1 . x x 1 . viii. 1 7 M x i. 3 1 1 1 . . 12 . xxx . 1 1 . Ibid xv. 85 1 0 . ii . 34 Ibid. iii 7

Camv1 DANTE AND ART [

materials needful fo r their work could only be pro cured in the spezierie or drug-shops o f

Florence. As might have been expected from the a o f pictori l character his verse, the writings o f the Poet exerted a profound influence over f the Artists who came a ter him. For two a w centuries at least no It lian, hether minia

- r turist or wall decorato , ever took upon him self to depict certain dread scenes o f the Hereafter without being more or less indebted

'

ivina ommedra . to the D C Who that has stood a a an in the lovely C mpo S nto at Pisa, d gazed in awe and wonder at the tremendous frescoes f rc n attributed in ormer days to O ag a, but is conscious o f this fact ? Even the far less forcible rendering o f the same subjects by Fra Angelico in the Florentine Accademia bears plainly enough the mark o f the same sour ce o f n i spiration ; while Michael Angelo, in a later o f his age, borrowed many details terrible " Las t Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel at f the I n erno fhis Rome, rom f o brother Florentine. CH A PTER VII

rLo nr-znc x 123 9 11 11 1 1 11 1 “

” The o r d i st. gl y ies not, and the grief s pa

a o rs .

" E un la m grand pac ier orte.

Max z o m.

DANTE left his native town fo r ever before the o f f close February in the year 1 303, and rom that time he led the life o f a banished man, f wandering rom one place to another, the sport

o f f . circumstance, the guest o many hosts For some months after the pronouncement o f the r n was fi st se tence against him, his mind entirely occupied by schemes fo r the return o f the u Bianchi to Florence, and his own s bsequent r estoration to home and happiness. With these ends in view he consorted with the fuo r " u usciti, the outlaws, both G elph and Ghibelline, in various friendly cities, taking council with them, and planning how by united action they might overthrow the rule o f the N eri. Little a m FLORENCE REPENTANT [C by little the hopes be cherished ended in dis appointment ; his fellow-exiles wasted their strength in dissension ; treachery thinned their r ranks ; wheneve they had recourse to arms, f a de eat was their portion. Fin lly, in the July o f 1 o f 304, a desperate attempt on the part f the Bianchi utterly ailed, and Dante quitted

Tuscany in a state bordering on despair. His movements fo r a space o f five years after this disaster are shrouded in obscurity, but traces o f his presence remain in Verona, f Bologna, Padua, and other parts o Northern

Italy. In the Lunigiana he received much “ Ma i kindness from the lesp na, that gente " 1 il onrata whose liberality and courage, pregio della borsa e della spada, he celebrates

’ mdza o me . in the C Not only did he repay the hospitality extended to him in the hour o f need by acting on their behalf as ambassador fo e o f s o f to an ancient the house, the Bi hop be P ur Luini, but in later days dedicated the

' ator zo o f f l g to the then head the amily, More lo

Malespina.

At the conclusion o f this period the Poet al most certainly betook himself to Paris, study n o f ing theology, it may be, u der the guidance

1 P ra y . viii. 1 28.

a m FLORENCE REPENTANT [C

descended into Italy, possessed with the idea that with him it rested to bring about the pac ific atio n o f that fair land whose welfare he had so deeply at heart. Dante, ever on the watch fo r a possible regenerator— one who would endeavour to carry into practice the theory he had himself embodied in the “ De " Monarchia, the dual rule o fthe Supreme Pontiff and the descendant o f the Caesars— hailed his f advent with joy, and ollowed his progress with palpitating interest. He saw in Henry the “ ” o f f 1 characteristics the amous Veltro, that strange mystic beast, on whom, as has been “ h said, every commentator as vainly tried to " r l slip a colla , and cal ed on all Italians through out the peninsula to give in their allegiance to him. A certain measure o fsuccess gladdened the heart o f the Poet in the first few months ’ t o f Henry s c ampaign, but he mission o f the Emperor was foredoomed to failure very power f a ful were the orces arrayed ag inst him, and

the though courageous and single minded, was ral neither a great gene nor a great statesman. For more than three years he played a losing 2 1 1 game, and then, on August 4, 3 3, disil lusio ned and disheartened, defied by Florence a and other Guelph cities, and bandoned by the

1 1 a i. 1 01 . DANTE AT LUCCA

o f f u Pope, he died ever at B onconvento, near o f Siena, and at the moment his premature ’ departure from this world the ship o f Dante s f f i a ortune oundered w th all h nds on board. It is quite impossible to relate in ordered ’ sequence the events o f the Poet s life in those f o f years that ollowed the extinction his hopes. His own restless temperament or the necessities o f his exile compelled him frequently to shift if his quarters, and popular tradition is to be f his believed, he ound way into an infinity o f r o f towns and castles in eve y part Italy, except ft the extreme south. For some months a er the f a death o the Emperor, he appe rs to have been 1 o n a an at Lucca, the city f Sa t Zita d the Volto 1 u o f uc c io n Santo, as the g est Ugg e della Fag

i o la - n a g u , the well k own Ghibelline c ptain, to I n rno whom the fe was dedicated . Whilst there m n 11 he beca e attached to a lady named Ge tuc c a, o f Ro ssimelo f i af a member the p am ly, terwards f o f r Mo ria the wi e a certain Berna do , on an n at account, so ancie t comment or tells us, “ ” f an o her great virtue d modesty. The young girl doubtless admired the genius o fthe banished man , and sympathized with his sorrows, and her gentle compassion must have been very precious

1 1 In} :xxi. 38. 1 3121 . xxi. 48. 1 P nrg . xxiv. 37. Cal m FLORENCE REPENTANT [

to him in those days whenthe remembrance o f the crushing calamity that had befallen him lay 1 1 6 heavy on his soul. In 3 U gguc c io ne was driven out o f Lucca by the machinations o f the if Guelphs, and Dante had not already sought

an asylum elsewhere, he was probably obliged i to do so w thout delay.

v Later on we find him at Verona, li ing at

o f Can the Court Grande della Scala, perhaps the most notable o f the Italian magnates o f f the early fourteenth century. A true son o

Mars, bold and prompt in battle, and victorious " f fo r exceedingly, he was amous, not only his o f wide dominions, largely won by force arms, but fo r the generous hospitality he extended a to the political refugees o f his time. His p lace “ was a veritable haven o f refuge fo r the P uor " “ s usciti, and it is aid that, desiring to appeal " to the imagination o f these unhappy people, “ he caused to be represented on the walls o f the apartments assigned to them symbols analogous to their destiny— M uses fo r the Poets ; Mercury fo r the Artists ; Par adise fo r the Preachers ; fo r all the figure o f Fortune " the Inconstant.

Dante had known his courteous host fo r

f r f many years, o almost immediately a ter his

Cam FLORENCE REPENTANT [ poverty dogged his footsteps ; he must always have been overshadowed by a sense o f u n — r merited disgrace. We are told and the sto y is peculiarly signific ant— that on one occasion he was discovered knocking at the gate o f the o f Benedictine Monastery Santa Croce, near

Spezia, an unknown and silent man, and on s o f U uc being a ked by the Prior, a brother gg a i a cione della F gg uo l , what he sought, he mur " mured the one word, Peace. At length, when his time on earth was drawing to a “ ’ ” f l ultimo f close, he ound re ugio, his latest al f v tempor re uge, at Ra enna, under the care f o Guido Novella da Polenta, nephew o f the 1 unhappy Francesca da Rimini, the heroine o f that marvellous episode that stands at the “ n o f In er no ope ing the f , like a lily in the mouth " 1 o f a . f Tart rus Here, as the concluding lines o

' P a radzso the would bid us believe, he was able to realize in his o wn per son the truth o f that saying whic h has comforted so many ff L su erers in every age, Umbra Dei est ux, “ and here, like the blessed Beatrice, he attained ” 11 to look on the beginning o f peace.

The last act o f the long conflict o f the ’ f f f Poet s li e inspires a eeling o relief.

1 1 1 In . v. 1 1 6. xx . f Leigh Hunt. V. N . iii L' ULTIMO REFUGIO

H a s him e h te , That would uponthe rac k o f this to ugh wo rld ” 1 r tc himut o n er . St e h o l g

o f The quiet o f the little town Ravenna, ancient even then, though less desolate than f f now, m ust have com orted him a ter the noisy ’ stir o f Can Grande s court. His new host, o f Guido da Polenta, was a man culture, a student rather than a warrior, the possessor o f a temperament that fitted him to value to the uttermost the mind and heart o f his majestic guest. Dante had leisure to think and d ream and write ; he took up with renewed energy the tas k o f earlier years, and carried f it to triumphant per ection, completing, before f f the hand o the En ranchiser touched him, the mmia— Divina Co ed the marvel that was to shine r a star y constellation on the centuries to come. Who c an say how much he owed to his surroundings ? what inspiration he may have drawn from the splendid mosaics o f the churches— the serried lines o f Saints that in ’ Sant Apollinare Nuovo advance to do homage to Christ and His Holy Mother, the circle o f Apostles adorning the cupola o f S an Giovanni in Fonte ? Might not the very Vision o f the Heaven o f Heavens have been the poorer if

1 Shakespeare. FLORENCE REPENTANT (Can . he had never beheld these jewels o f Byzantine 1 art, or watched the Emperor Justinian, a a radiant figure vested in royal purple, c rry o fferings acro ss the c hoir o f S an Vitale o m However this may be, we know at least fr “ a his own words, that he chose la pinet in " a 1 e sul lito di Chi ssi, the pine wo od some mil s

al s f f r t se beyond the w l o the city, o he tting o f rad t a wa r his Earthly Pa ise, and h t it s the e, “ ” 1 in v a h la di ina fores ta spessa e viv , t at r r Matelda gathered flowe s , and Beatrice appea ed wreathed with o live and seated o n the Car o f the Church.

For abo ut four years Dante dwelt at a e o R venna, making his home in a house b l ng ing to Guido da Polenta, hard by the Church f a o S n Francesco . The cr uel loneliness that had been one o f the worst feature s o f his r f i exile was now removed, fo three o h s r child en, his sons Piero and Jac opo and u ri e it his da ghter Beat c , were w h him, and he was happy in the society o f a little company f al o intellectu and sympathetic friends. In the o f 1 2 1 him summer 3 Count Guido sent to as s Venice, his repre entative, to treat with the

Republic on so me questions o f state. This

1 1 1 P ar . vi. 1 0. Far . xxvi 0 i . 2. g ii. 2 . Ib d. xxviii

DEATH OF DANTE

s s himf fo r mi sion co t his li e, the Venetians, f f hime a ter re using to give audi nce, declined u was to allow him to return by sea, tho gh he a w lready ill with fever, and he as obliged to undertake the fatiguing and unhealthy journey o f overland. He reached Ravenna in a state al mort sickness, and at once began to prepare “ f r himsel fo his approaching end, receiving every sacrament o f the Church humbly and " a o f devoutly. On the Feast o f the Ex ltation 1 ea the Holy Cross, September 4, in the y r o f that the century came age, he entered into rest, passing into that unseen world whose pathways he had already trodden even before he was released from the burden o f the flesh .

Guido da Polenta and the citizens o f Ravenna buried the body o f Dante with much pomp and ceremony. They bore him, clothed in the ra F nciscan habit, but crowned with poetic

f . laurels, into the adjacent convent o St Francis, f and laid him there, under the shadow o the r gentle Saint o f Assisi. When all due ites rf se were pe ormed, they returned to the hou , and Guido spoke to the assembly o f the genius f i o the dead Po et, and h s own intention that a tomb should be built in the near future o f s resplendent and worthy so great a gue t . C 230 FLORENCE REPENTANT ( uar .

Meanwhile no sign o f grief or remorse was o s sh wn by Florence ; the City a a whole, whatever may have been the feelings o f indi al vidu Florentines, remaining wholly unmoved by the tidings o f the death o f her greatest son . For a space o f more than fifty years ff r she o ered no reparation to his memo y, f although, owing to the publication o the

’ Divina Commedza f , his ame had spread abroad a o f t throughout the length and bre dth I aly, and both Giovanni Villani and Boccacc io were

f . f eloquent in his de ence The ormer, in his “ " “ r nic he f Ch o Florentine, spoke o the lofty o f virtues and worth so great a citizen, and f o f deeply regretted the act his banishment, declaring that such a penalty was wholly undeserved

Boccaccio, who was but eight years o f age ' o f at the time Dante s death, seems to have grown up with an instinctive love and rever " ence fo r him, calling him his father, copying out with his own hand the whole o f the media u i a o m Divin C , and rg ng Petrarch to study c his writings. By a happy chan e, in the year

0 o f Dec amero 1 35 the Author the ne was r brought into touch with Beatrice Alighie i, and doubtless heard from her lips many details o f f the utmost interest to himsel , concerning

l m FLORENCE REPENTANT [Ca

s o fo r no offence or c rime, wa the P et driven i " into ir revocable ex le, urging them in the same breath to demand from the Ravennese al f t the mort remains o Dante, hat they might f r find sepulchre in the City o his bi th. In the year 1 373 Florenc e appears to have first awakened to a sense o f the glo ry o f her r Divine Po et, and afte her awakening she at once manifested a desire to associate herself was ac im with the honour that corded to h wherever the Italian tongue was spoken . The passage o f more than half a c entury had o f necessity modified the bitterness o f party f -c r feeling, and his ellow itizens emembered Dante more in the character o f a writer than that o f a politician. They no longer wished to be behindhand in their appr eciation o f his great work, and accordingly a petition bear ing s many signatures was ent to the Signoria, asking fo r the appointment o f a lecturer who should publicly read and expound the book El a which is popularly called D nte, otherwise

’

v na o medra . i C m the D i The question o f the lectureship was put to the vote in the great o f assembly the Commune, and carried by an n i overwhelmi g major ty, only nineteen o f the members out o f a total o f two hundred and

five being averse to it, and a Cathedra ’ BOCCACCIO S LECTU RES 233

f Dantesca, with a salary o one hundred ax gold flo rins, free o f t es, was immediately established. The occupancy o f this chair was offered to o f f al Boccaccio, and in spite ailing he th he gladly accepted it, delivering a series o f s o f a addre ses in the Church the B dia, on the f In erno first sixteen Cantos o the f , the sub

‘ stance o f which was afterwar ds given to the f world in the form o a commentary. After o 1 his death, which to k place in 375 , he was succeeded in this appointment by Filippo i o f f Villan , a nephew the amous Chronicler, f o f f o f n and himsel the writer a short li e Da te , composed in the Latin language.

- r Twenty three yea s later, the City, having f f at las t ully come to hersel , decreed the erection o f a monument to Dante in the and Duomo, then, unwilling that it should be ff f a mere cenotaph, begged ine ectually o the Ravennese fo r the metaphorical ashes o f the f t man, o whom she had threatened o make " literal cinders 1 if he had ventured within her 1 2 jurisdiction when still alive. In 4 9 she made s another attempt, addre sing a petition to Ostasio Po lentani o f , Lord Ravenna, but again without the success, Signore being firm in his refusal 1 l Lo wel . Cum FLORENCE REPENTANT [

to give up to the Florentines the custody o f

the sacred dust. Meanwhile public expositions i md ' na o me ia o f the Div C were frequently given ff h o f in the di erent c urches Florence, and in

1 2 f 43 , a ter the delivery by a Friar, Antonio r f Ne i by name, o a remarkable ser ies o f these f expositions, a portrait o the Poet was placed n in the Duomo, with an inscriptio , urging the recovery o f his bones.

The year 1 444 witnessed the death o f the

- well known humanist, Leonardo Bruni, the author o f a life o f Dante wr itten in the ver n lar r ac u , and a t ue lover both o f him and his f works. It ell to his lot, as he himself tells us, to entertain hospitably Leonardo Alighieri , ’ an Dante s grandson, d to show him the home f o f his ancestors, and urnish him with many particulars concerning them, on the occasion o f a visit he paid to their native City. The tomb o f this kindly Dantist may be seen in the south aisle o f Santa Croce— his recumbent figure lying below an image o f the Madonna n and Child, sculptured by Ber ardo Rossellino. It is on the wall o f the north aisle o f the Duomo that the reverence and admiration that the Florentines o f the fifteenth century felt fo r their illustrious exile is most clearly written .

PORTRAIT OF DANTE 235 Here we behold a picture painted on wood by o f n Domenico di Michelino, a pupil Fra A gelico, o f in the year 1 465 , by command the Signoria, showing Dante in the act o f ex pounding the

’

i a mmedza . The Div n Co Poet is in a standing n positio , laurel crowned, holding a book in his r left hand, and with his ight hand extended as if to emphasize his words. Behind him is the

Mount o f Purgatory, with the Angel o f St. an Peter at the Gate, d little naked figures running round the different cornices by which o it is encircled. On one side f him is the f and entrance to the In erno, on the other a o f conventional view Florence, as it appeared e o f o f at the tim the execution the painting. It is thought that the design fo r the central figure o f this composition was drawn by Alessio l o vinetti Ba d , and that it may have been a r e production o f that likeness o f the Poet by Giotto which was once on the destroyed screen o f n in the nave Sa ta Croce, and is no w unfo rtu V nately lost. olkman says o f this painting that “ it is the sole picture o f an early time that i o f gives an individual portra t Dante, together with scenes from his wor The inscription a composed by Politian was added five ye rs later. We have now reached the most brilliant o f a a s a period the It lian Ren i s nce, the years 236 FLORENCE REPENTANT (Cw .

’ L r e i i when o enzo de M dic , the Magn ficent, as he was m s m justly ter ed, held the upre e

e . a pow r in Florence It w s not unnatural that, in an age when the literature o f the past was s o f mn so highly e teemed, the minds e should have turned back to the Poet o f an earlier f day, one o the first o f the Florentines to be ” influenced by the new learning, the precious treasure bequeathed by ancient Greece and

Rome to the mo dern world. The question o f o f his i was mo d the place bur al o nce ore m ote , and in 1 476 the Venetian Ambassador was approached in the hope that the Sister Re d en public would be in uced to coerce Rav na, f ec f now in a position o subj tion to hersel , into the surrender o f the body o f Dante. This and F n application produced no result, lore ce 1 1 w waited until the year 5 9, hen the hour md i fo r the ac c see e pecul arly propitious omplish

mo f . ent her desire

re Leo X. m The igning Pope, , was a ember o f an the ho use o f the Medici, d a petition drawn c a an up by the Medicean A demy, d signed by a n al f m ny i fluenti citizens, was orwarded to him , as king fo r permission to bring back the remains o f the Po et that they might be laid in his o wn

City. The Pope gladly gave his sanction envoys f R n were sent rom Florence. The aven ese dared

Cum FLORENCE REPENTANT [

s o f f member the Medicean amily, would surely have been guided by an even higher measure o f inspiration if they had been employed o n what would have been to their owner a verit able labour o f love— the execution o f a memorial a m erected by Florence Repent nt to the emory

o f f Divina Co media . o m the Author the During the century and a half that the Florentines were vainly endeavouring to possess themselves o f the remains o f their Poet there is abundant testimony to the steady growth o f his fame within the bounds o f the f City that had rejected him. His chie work was copied and re -copied fo r the benefit o f

the learned, no man with any pretence at culture being unwilling to remain ignorant o f the first poem o f any no te composed in the " u o f Lingua volgare, the co mmon tong e

. n o f Tuscany These transcriptions, ma y which r o are preserved in the public libra ies f Florence, a are o f S pecial interest, more particul rly when, as f o f i was o ten the case, the labours the scr be were supplemented by those o f the illuminator. The quaint miniatures with which the vellum is then adorned give us an idea o f the manner alm r in which artists who were ost contempora ies

' Divina ommedza o f Dante, regarded the C , and the opening initial o f the Inferno usually VII] THE EDITIO PRIN CEPS 239

s f contains a tiny likeness o f the Poet him el , engaged in the task that had made him “ lean " 1 fo r so many years.

Printed books, however beautiful they may f be, lack the note o individuality that belongs o f right to manuscripts, and a feeling that such was the case may be one reason why Florence was so far behind the rest o f Italy in the ” production o f her Editio Pr inceps o f the

‘ o m medza C 1 . It was not until 1 48 that it appeared , nine earlier editions having already been sent out from the presses o f other cities ; but this tardiness was at leas t partly atoned fo r by the fact that the text was accompanied by a com r mentary written by Cristo pho o Landino, and illustrated by woodcuts said to have been adapted from the designs o f Sandro Botticelli. f Other editions followed in due course o time, and thus the poem was brought within reach o f the poorer class o f scholars, to whom it must have been denied as long as it remained solely in manuscript. k n One printed copy, as we now, more tha rivalled in interest the most elaborate hand f r written volume, o on the wide margins thereof Michael Angelo— to whom it belonged— drew f a series o illustrative sketches in pen and ink.

1 P ar . xxv. 3. 240 FLORENCE REPENTANT (Cw .

This recio reas r bec amin af er ar s p us t u e e t ye r n o the p operty o f A toni Montanti, a sculpto r, and was lost at sea o ff Civita vec c hia with the rest o f his goods, which were in c ours e o f — removal fro m Florence to Rome an irr eparable t n o misfor u e to the w rld at lar ge, as well as to the immediate owner. A graceful action performed by the newly established Counc il o f the Eight c onnec ts the amo f a o aro a w t f s nt n e S v n l i h that o a de c enda

f n . ro s n o f un o Da te By a p vi io this Co cil, June 1 na hat 8, 495 , it was e cted t co nsent should be n a r s o f esse an i give to eque t M r D te Aligh eri, n s o f e o m great gra d on the Po t, to be relieved fr a mn o f a t d the p y e t cert in axes that prevente him from returning to Flo rence. The do cument f : m concludes as ollows dee ing it well to give some pro of o f gratitude to the po sterity r o f the Poet, who is so g eat an ornament to this City, we do hereby provide that the said be d x em n a e r mr fi e Messer D nte hel pt f o eve y " and penalty.

For three centuries after the fall o f the in 1 20 the Republic 5 , City held her peace, f urs the mo paid no urther hono to emory f e Dante, and s nt no more embassies to the inhabitants o f Ravenna. The Medicean Grand

VII] MON UMENT TO DANTE

ff o f Dukes, the degenerate o spring Giovanni f delle Bande Nere, grasped o r two hundred years the reins o f government in Florence, the last ruling member o f this once famous family being succeeded by the earliest Grand f r Duke o the House o f Lo raine. The succession o f these latter princelets was interrupted fo r a r e ime short time by the Napoleonic g , when the beautiful City o f the Lily became the capital o f i the new k ngdom o f Etruria, and immediately f r 1 1 a ter thei restoration in 8 5 , the first stirrings “ o f ma the Risorgimento began to ke them f selves elt. Florence had wearied o f the yoke o f the f r u m o eigner, but the ho r had not yet co e when she could openly rebel, though great secret t disconten prevailed within her walls . In her o f time darkness and almost o f despair, her citizens bethought themselves once more o f n f f Da te Alighieri, that lover o reedom, who had pas sed such scathing ce nsures on the n o f tyra ts his own day, and had highly com mended the action o f Cato in preferring death o f to the loss o f liberty. As a token her renewed interest in the Poet, a monument to f him, the cost o f which was de rayed by public 1 2 subscription, was, in the year 8 9 set up in the south aisle o f Santa Croce, the recognized R 2 2 a n 4 FLORENCE REPENTANT (C .

o f was shrine Florentine genius. The design f entrusted to a very mediocre sculptor, Ste ano f Ricci, and leaves much to be desired rom the artistic standpoint. Dante is shown seated on s ! a sarcophagus, untenanted, ala while the Muse o f Poetry greets him with uplifted hand, and

Italy bewails his loss. About the same time a full- sized statue o f him was placed in one

fiiz i o f the niches o f the Loggia o f the U , a not unpleasing figure, sculptured by Demi, holding “ f ta his great work, the Bible o the Italian uni ry ” ideal, in one hand, while the other rests upon a lyre . We have witnessed act after act in that drama o f reconciliation by which Dante and Florence were brought together once more after the o f a lapse so m ny centuries, and nothing now remains to be recorded except the celebration f S ex c entenari o f o the o the birth o f the Poet, f f an anniversary that ell in a ortunate hour, his birthplace having just become the Capital o f United Italy. As a preliminary to the f commemoration o so great an event, the M uni io o f 1 86 c ip the City on May the seventh, 4, 1 Car bbi fal e o f sent 1 o , the Gon oni re that year, o f on an embassy to the Municipio Ravenna, once more praying fo r the restoration o f his bones. The petitioners stated in the document

FLORENCE REPENTANT (Cw .

The chief centre o f interest lay in Piaz za nt wi h re re Sa a Cro ce, which was dec orated t p sc u f t tatio ns o f the li e o f Dante, together wi h r r po traits o f his biographers and commentato s, and t i f ra al h ther on May the fi teenth, his t dition birthday, a long pro c ession wended its way. In the centre o f the Piazza sto od the National n e a t bas Mo um nt, a high pedest l enriched wi h r f o f f o Co mnudia o wne elie s incidents r m the , cr d f r c o by a figure o the Poet, sculptured by En i f s Pazzi o Ravenna, and bearing the imple insc riptio n

“ A mm1 1 1 1 01 1 1 11 1 1 1

1 31 1 1 1 1 41 1

” u noc c u tv.

This monument was solemnly unveiled in a the the presence o f King Vittore Emm nuele,

f - f repre sentatives o fifty nine provinces o Italy, and as innumerable spectators, the vast sembly “ shouting as with one voice the words Onorate ’ ” l altiss mo a 1 i Poet s e is msa The tale i told , ther no ore to y ; Florence has done all that lay in her power to wipe out the shame o f centuries ; she and the her exile ar e again one, as they were in find r mal happy years that thei emori in the

1 Inf. iv. 80. ’ l l o A lma r r. l w

NA L 0 AZ Z A A N A R NA TIO M ON U M E NT 1 D ANTE. PI S T C OCE .

INDE X

A Churc h of Santa Cro c e, 24 1 , ‘ ” Nioc hia di c cademia delle Belle 1 A 97, 3 05 r t t ’ Aorp aspa a , Mat eo d (Cardi 99 1 6 1 6 1 86 o f 2 2- 2 Statue o f— Lo 4 , 3, , 4 45 ; g amo da Brec il ia o f Ufi n l Ad o , g , Ear y l i ves imri 2 1 o f 2 1 2 Ad fi mil 0 a , , 3 , _ y, 7, 4 33 B°mc a 1 8 l ieri Dante °2 571 1 4 , (Great Grandso n i aml 66 ig he Poet Al ghieri, F i , ): 3 4° Ali h g’ Bellincio ne 6 h g , 3

Anto nia, 84, 86 Beatric e 8 86 228 2 0 “ ” 8 , 4 , , , 3 , re3 f?

Bella, 63, 3 65 “ mi i 62 A d famil ; e , y, 1 2, 22, 31

fo r A 00, F 1 1 2 1 8 tri e Mar i e 82 A22} Bea c , 71 , 72 ; r ag , , 5 ; 3 391 Children, 84, Entry

into Public Life, 1 41 ; Elec tio n P 1 h as rio r, 44 ; Friendship wit a - Guido C valc anti, 1 471 5 2

Friendship with Gio tto , 203, d mn A uinas Tho — Co n e tio 1 mas t na , 55 , q , S . 1 68, 1 71 , - 3 Early Days o f Exile, 21 9 22 1 7. 1 732 1 79 t m2; Aris le 1 80 Asso cia io n with the E to t H Arias 8 enry VIL, 221 , 222 ; isits , 1 0 L c a 22 Guest CanGrande Arno River B uc , 3 o f , . Sa ridgea.

della Sc ale at Vero na, Art, ' viv 1 11 LastDays at Ravennan ai Flo rence, 1 99 I t - n erest in Art, 209 21 3 ; His I nfluenc e onlater Art, 2 1 8 - o1 6 Arti. Set Gu l mg i ds. ? M ument in P z a Santa Au ustin S 1 8 on iaz g e, t.. 3 ' 8 m1 A rr es Croc e, 1 5 , 244 Monu ent 11 ve o , 1 80 INDEX

B Celestine V Po e 1 20 :, p , Cerc hi, ! 88. 1 45 SanStefi no 2 ), 33 m 1 Chart 5 , 6, 1 7, 21 Ch rles ” alo is 1 1 6 V , 55. 3 Ch Am ur Catho lic & ch, l - - rude to wards, 1 1 2 1 1 5 . 80 Cm 7 del Po Cialufi h a di C , p - tie, 1 99 202 B lla Giano del l g e , la, 43 ms m ’ Bellinc ione Brur etto dt 6 Co lle in d Elsa— Battle o f , z , 7 , 79

XI., P 1 77 . 1 454 47. 1 54. 1 5 5 6 M O. 3 6S, 73 1 86s 872

Bo naventure, St., 1 68 O ” vmPo e 1 8 2 Eoniaee , p .53. 1 4 1 . S 226 Cro s T — o f 1 1 s, rue Legend , 9 Cunisss, 1 531 1 54

d li, 1 2’ 1 22 Bu o d t m ofsegng bfioct h fl “ ” 6 De Monarchia, The, 1 1 2, 1 7,

C Dio n us the Areopagite, 1 82 Died? Referenc es to md d ro 6 Florenc e 1 - 1 1 8 1 3 1 C m , . . 4, 9. iid o f l mfir Se bn C o th. 22 2 Pastoral Cali , 5 , 37, Cambio Arno lfo del 8 1 8 6 ° 11 01 011 1 0 1 1:d R91 3 " , , , , 9 55 1 0 99. c ases, 62, 65 ; to ry o f Pre amerla under Fieso le illa ser vation o f seven first Cantos C ta (V , ° h Bo ndi), 54 87 Referenc es to t e Bap l o Battle Of m1 i t —1 2 r n to ma din t s er 1 1 0 1 Refe e oes Ca p , , y 5 1 y, ; V 80, 1 42, 2 1 1 Pope Bonifi c e Ill n ’ e, Gio tto s, 1 1 7, 1 1 8,

’ Cavalc ante de 1 B rigata» M es 1 6 - 1 , 47 . 9 77 Guido 1 28 1 4 D 1 2 1 8 , , 475 3 o natello , 3 . 3

250 INDEX

Hu the Maris Santa uo va— S da le gh Great, Marquis of Tus , , N pe - i 2 c any, 6 8 d . 74, 7s. 1 ! Mars The c d 22 1 02 , , 4, ,

I

ti Innoc en , Spedale 35 1 36 d n Matel a, Co u tess o f Tusc any, 6, 1 0 1 2 - 1 2 9, , 3 5 Ma -da Fe ivr i J y y st t es, 50, ’ Medic i Lo renz o , e n 8 G 1 Justi ian, 1 1 , 228 oo . 1 7. 1 34, 236 Merca Nu 1 to ovo , 53 ec chio 1 V , 3, 3 Mic helino Do menic o i 2 , d , 35

Miniato , S an, Al Mo nte Lamberti Mosc dei 2 urc h o f — 1 , a , 3 Ch , 374 L o Arno lfo di 2 1 M niatus St. ap , , 4, 59 i , . 7, 9 — m i Brunetto 0 2 H o da Fieso3e 3 Latin , , 68 7, 45 ,

. Po e 2 6 2 Miseri c o rdia Confmternit Leo X , p , 3 , 37 , y, 34, — h Leo nardo inArc etri, San Churc 35 Mo nte B t f o f, 1 39 at le o , 1 4, 67 Mon el o n n Libraries o f Florenc e, 59 t tr , Buo c o te da, 1 42 Lombard Peter 1 81 Guido da 1 20 21 , , , , 3 Lo renso San— Churc h o f 6 Mo ntfo rt Gu de 80 22 1 , , 3 , , y , , z 3 7 Mo z i, Andrea det, 1 21

Lu a To n o f 1 2 22 c c , w , 3, 3 O Lucia, Santa, 62, 63

emb unt o f. St! Lux Co i Oderist d Gubbio , 21 2 Henr H. y ltr no t r d 1 O ar , Ses ie e , 7, 26, 30, 3 1 77 Sun Mi el — h 1 01 ch e C urc h o f, 26 2 l 35 1 3‘ Ot en ua Andrea 1 1 1 1 2 o g , , 35 , 7, 7 Maiano , Benedett da, 1 1 7, 1 90 Leonardo famil , M y, Oxfo rd, University o f, 22 1 o rello , 220

Mandelh , Rubaco nte da, 24 r S — f Ma c o , an Co nvent o , 1 94, P 1 9s Mu heritone 1 206 Padua Ci o f 20 220 g , 4, , , 4, 9 ” Man an del Fio re. Palaz z f l s , S ta, See 1 o o renc e, 9 Palaz z o Vec c hi l o (del Popo o ), 41 , M i e— Ch f 2 agg or urc h o , 1 6, 1 35 1 4 1 o h r alli , o rse o fo o t rac e, 5 1 , i f Novella— Churc h of _ , 1 1 8 1 2 1 2 69 3 0 Paris, City o f, 1 2, 220, 221 -- o vella Pi z z di P r Guelfa— alaz , a a , a te P so della, 1 45 1 0 7 Pazz i, Enric o , 244 INDEX

i — v n Ric i Stef o 2 2 Piero , San, Magg o re Con e t c , an , 4 o f Ro bbia Andrea 6 56, 5 7 , . 3 , 1 83

— Ro bi 1 4 0 3 1 3 Sc heraggio Church b a, 3 1 3 o R mt f - f, 1 04, 1 8 o e, Ci y o , 2 6, 1 56 Cit o 30 8 1 06 1 3 3 38 y . 9 1 9 1

o , Andrea, 1 1 8

Nic o la, 1 98 b F ! Pius [X .,’ OIR 1 l 3 Po desta o nc e o f 1 1 1 8 Sabellius 1 80 , , 4, 55. 5 . m, S ali beni i s9 , N cc o lo , 47. — P d l Bar 1 “ Salviati Palano , alaz z o e ( ge11 0) 1 57 , , 73

66 Savo naro la, l B lo m2 Sca arto eo d ll 2 Andrea, 87 a, e a, 5 m3 nga Cateri Can Grande della 22 t , , 5 , 4, 2 Guida No vella, 1 661 3071 25 226- 22 Sc rove ni Enric o da 9 g , , 3 3 m Po lentani Ostasio s i Flo renc e 1 , , 3 et : . 7 g“3 l1 anof Po nte alla Carraie,’ “P3 31 79 im‘ it all Ge nie S C Of 6 1 Rubac o nte ( e ) : s y 1 4 1 471 981 98

S o ldsnieri, Gianni, Santa Triniti 3 Stefano San— Chuni o f 2 . 5 , , 3 ec c hio 2 1 - 2 V , 3 ’ mf P Dante s treat ent o , in ’ mn r 1 1 2- 1 1 minc C d a g , 5

Po rta alla Croc e. 3 1 1 65 D uo m2”0 del o . 1 71 ’ del Pera 1 8 1 Taddeo d Aldero tti 1 , , 9 m , 34 2 Tafi o r al Prato , ! ( osaic w ker ). 3 1 7

San Gallo , 3 1 1 54 To rri, So c iete delle, 1 1 , 1 2, 28 anta Marla x 20 To ers their num S ber and im , 71 w ,

SanPanc raz io , 1 7, 20 ‘ San Piero Maggio re, 1 71 91 56 _ Sestiere di PM di s 9 , 501 t ‘S 56- 92 m Po rtmari “ il , ” 73 Ac et ito , 54 U 0 1 4 i Beatric e , 5 1 7 ” 1 mz i Galleri o f FO1 °°1 U , es , 81 , n Ugo li o da Siena, 1 27

T mmaso 1 o , 8 Pt m1 80 ole y, V

ac ca Torre dell V , a, 1 40 enic e Cit o f 228 2 6 V , y , , 3 Ravenna Cit o f 1 02 3 36- 3 1 erona Cit of 8 21 1 20 , y , , 3 V . y , 5 , , 2 , anta — h r h o f 2 22 Reparata, S C u c , 36. 2 4, 5 - 1 03 io 1 1 941 95 1 99 Verro c ch , 3 25 2 INDEX

d The 1 22 1 2 1 A Prelude to the Divina o n , , 3 7 z 1 m6 “,a 5 4 1 04, 5 Guido Cavalc anti, 1 5 1

Z wo man o f the p 6 Con 4 , ’ taimthe Sto r o f Dante s Lad Z enobio $21 1 1 00 1 01 1 1 6 y y, , , 95 , , ,

PRINT” I V Wi ll —[AI GLOW” AND SONS LIMITED ma r: no mm. , ,