The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno

[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the period.—Witte, Dante-Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 312.

[42] The Vita Nuova contains some thirty poems.

[43] See Sir Theodore Martin’s Introduction to his Translation of Vita Nuova, page xxi.

[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English customs.

[45]Donne, ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore: Ladies that are acquainted well with love. Quoted in Purg. xxiv. 51.

[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266.

[47]Purg. xi. 98.

[48]Purg. xxiv. 52.

[49] The date of the Convito is still the subject of controversy, as is that of most of Dante’s works. But it certainly was composed between the Vita Nuova and the Comedy.

There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also Purg. xxx. 124.

[50]Convito ii. 13.

[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce the number of his children to three.

[52] His sister is probably meant by the ‘young and gentle lady, most nearly related to him by blood’ mentioned in the Vita Nuova.

[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of marriage must be kept in mind.

[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the exactness of one who had been there (Purg. v. 155).

[55] Leonardo Bruni.

[56]Inf. xxii. 4.

[57]Inf. xxi. 95.

[58]Conv. iii. 9, where he illustrates what he has to say about the nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze.

[59] The Convito was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four were written.

[60]Wife of Bath’s Tale. In the context he quotes Purg. vii. 121, and takes ideas from the Convito.

[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs and interests. See Convito iv. 28.

[62] From the last canzone of the Convito.

[63] In the Vita Nuova.

[64]Purg. xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; Parad. iii. 49.

[65]Purg. xi. 95.

[66]Purg. ii. 91.

[67]Purg. iv. 123.

[68] Sacchetti’s stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his canzoni are interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current in the streets of Florence.—Sacchetti, Novelle, cxiv, cxv.

[69]Purg. xii. 101.

[70]Purg. xi. 94:—

‘In painting Cimabue deemed the field His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, Till by his fame the other’s is concealed.’

[71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the Comedy; but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting and sculpture appears from many a passage of the Purgatorio.

[72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, Hist. de Florence, vol. ii. p. 349.

[73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to retain the command of the vast resources of the Parte Guelfa? This made them almost independent of the Commonwealth.

[74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory.

[75] Fraticelli, Storia della Vita di Dante, page 112 and note.

[76] It is to be regretted that Ampère in his charming Voyage Dantesque devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan city has more thoroughly preserved its mediæval character. There is no authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to exaggerate his political importance and activity.

[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street in the suburbs.—Witte, Dante-Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 279.

[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at Parad. xvi. 127.