Dante Alighieri (18 page)

    
(The original Latin text of this letter is printed by F. Bonaini, in
Acta Henrici VII Romanorum Imperatoris et Monumenta quædam alia suorum temporum historiam illustrantia
, 1877, vol. ii. p. ccclxv; an Italian translation is given by Del Lungo, in
Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica
, 1880, vol. i. pp. 637-8.

    
²⁵
Epistola
viii.

    
²⁶
Purgatorio
, xxiv. 37, 43-5.

    
²⁷
This Gentucca was the daughter of Ciucchino di Guglielmo di Morla of Lucca. Her husband, Buonaccorso di Lazzaro di Fondora (familiarly known as Coscio or Cosciorino Fondora) several times mentions her in his will (dated 15 December, 1317). Dante's Gentucca is identified with this lady on the strength of the statement of an early commentary on the
Divina Commedia
(as yet unpublished), confirmed by documentary evidence (see C. Minutoli,
Gentucca e gli altri Lucchesi nominati nella D
.
C
., in
Dante e il suo Secolo
, pp. 221-31).

    
²⁸
The text is printed by Del Lungo in
Dell
'
Esilio di Dante
, pp. 148 ff.

    
²⁹
This man, who bore the title of “bargello” is described by Villani (bk. ix. ch. 76) as “uomo carnefice e crudele”. He was appointed chief magistrate in May, 1316, but was displaced in the following October by Count Guido of Battifolle, who was appointed Vicar in Florence by King Robert of Naples.

    
³⁰
Epistola
ix. §§ 3, 4. A critical text of this letter is printed in the
Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana
, N.S. (1905), xii. 122-3, by A. della Torre, who points out that the correct reading at the beginning of § 3 is not, as hitherto usually printed,
revocatio gloriosa
, but
revocatio generosa
.

    
³¹
Vita di Dante
, ed. Macrì-Leone, § 5, p. 30.

    
³²
Among Dante's friends and acquaintances at Ravenna the names have been preserved of Dino Perini, a young notary of Florence (see Ricci,
L
'
Ultimo Rifugio di Dante
, pp. 99 ff.), and Fiduccio de' Milotti, a physician of Certaldo (see Ricci,
op
.
cit
. pp. 100 ff.), who figure respectively as Meliboeus and Alphesiboeus in Dante's Latin eclogues (see below, pp. 254-6). Another friend was Menghino Mezzano, a notary (and, apparently, later an ecclesiastic) of Ravenna, who wrote an epitaph on Dante, and whose intimacy with the poet is attested by Coluccio Salutati (see below, p. 105; and Ricci,
op
.
cit
. pp. 218 ff.). Yet another acquaintance is said to have been Bernardo Canaccio of Bologna, the author of the epitaph inscribed on Dante's tomb (“Jura Monarchiae,” etc.) (see below, p. 105; and Ricci,
op
.
cit
. pp. 237 ff.). Besides these, Boccaccio mentions Piero di Giardino (see below, pp. 103, 119; and Ricci,
op
.
cit
. pp. 209 ff.).

    
³³
Paradiso
, xxv. 1-3.

    
³⁴
Vita di Dante
, ed. cit. § 6, p. 31.

    
³⁵
Printed in the Oxford Dante, pp. 185-6.

    
³⁶
Printed in the Oxford Dante, pp. 186-7. As to the genuineness of this poetical correspondence between Giovanni del Virgilio and Dante, see below p. 252.

    
³⁷
See below, pp. 256 ff.

    
³⁸
See
Giornale Dantesco
, iv. 126-30.

    
³⁹
This is the Galeazzo who is referred to by Dante in
Purgatorio
, viii. 79-81, in connection with his marriage to Beatrice of Este, the widow of Nino Visconti of Pisa.

    
⁴⁰
The Pope's name was Jacques D' Euse.

    
⁴¹
Dante refers in the
Divina Commedia
to the practice of witchcraft upon people by means of images made in their likeness. Speaking of the witches in Malebolge, he says “Fecer malìe con erbe e con imago” (
Inf
. xx. 123); upon which the
Anonimo Fiorentino
comments: “Puossi fare malíe per virtù di certe erbe medianti alcune parole, o per imagini di cera o d' altro fatte in certi punti et per certo modo che, tenendo queste imagini al fuoco o ficcando loro spilletti nel capo, così pare che senta colui a cui imagine elle son fatte, come la imagine che si strugga al fuoco.”

    
⁴²
“Vide Bartholomee ecce istam ymaginem quam feci fieri ad de-structionem istius pape qui me persequitur, et est necessarium quod subfumigetur, et quia tu scis facere subfumigationem in talibus, volo quod tu facias subfumigationes isti ymagini cum solemnitatibus convenientibus.”

    
⁴³
See below, p. 232.

    
⁴⁴
“Galeas dixit eidem Bartholomeo: Scias quod ego feci venire ad me magistrum Dante Alegriro (
sic
) de Florencia pro isto eodem negocio pro quo rogo te. Cui Bartholomeus dixit: Sciatis quod multum placet michi quod ille faciat ea que petitis. Cui Bartholomeo dictus Galeas dixit: Scias Bartholomee quod pro aliqua re de mundo ego non sustinerem quod dictus Dante Alegiro (
sic
) in predictas poneret manum suam vel aliquid faceret nec revelarem sibi istud negocium qui daret michi mille floreni (
sic
) auri, quia volo quod tu facias, quia de te multum confido.”

    
⁴⁵
Boccaccio in his comment on the opening line of the
Commedia
, has an interesting note as to Dante's age at the time of his death, which proves incidentally how carefully Boccaccio made his inquiries with regard to the details of Dante's life. “That Dante was thirty-five,” he says, “at the time when he first awakened to the error of his ways is confirmed by what was told me by a worthy man, named Ser Piero, son of M. Giardino of Ravenna, who was one of Dante's most intimate friends and servants at Ravenna. He affirmed that he had it from Dante, while he was lying sick of the illness of which he died, that he had passed his fifty-sixth year by as many months as from the previous May to that day. And it is well known that Dante died on the fourteenth day of September in the year 1321” (
Comento
, i 104-5). Inasmuch as Giovanni del Virgilio and Menghino Mezzano in their epitaphs on Dante speak of his death as having taken place “septembris idibus,” some suppose that he actually died on the evening of 13 September (see Corrado Ricci,
L
'
Ultimo Rifugio di Dante
, pp. 157-8). It is probable, however, that the exigencies of metre had more weight with these writers than considerations of scrupulous accuracy.

    
⁴⁶
J. R. Lowell.

    
⁴⁷
The remains of laurel leaves, no doubt the relics of the poet's wreath, were found in the tomb when it was opened at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and again in 1865 (see below, pp. 113, 117).

    
⁴⁸
Vita di Dante
, ed. Macrì-Leone, § 6, pp. 32-3.

    
⁴⁹
It was long supposed that these lines (Latin elegiacs, beginning: “Theologus Dantes, nullius dogmatis expers”) were inscribed on Dante's tomb, but Corrado Ricci has shown that this was not the case (see
L
'
Ultimo Rifugio di Dante
, pp. 252 ff.).

    
⁵⁰
See Ricci,
op
.
cit
. p. 259.

    
⁵¹
Beginning: “Inclita fama cuius universum penetrat orbem”.

    
⁵²
Coluccio Salutati, in a letter written from Florence on 2 October, 1399, speaks of him as “notus quondam familiaris et socius Dantis nostri,” and says that he was a close student of the
Divina Commedia
, on which he believed him to have written a commentary (see F. Novati,
Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati
, vol. iii. p. 374).

    
⁵³
Englished as follows by the English traveller, Fynes Moryson, when he was at Ravenna in 1594:—

    
For “scant” in the last line Moryson (or his printers) substituted “sweet” (see
Itinerary
, ed. 1617, part i. p. 95).

    
⁵⁴
See Ricci,
op
.
cit
. p. 264.

    
⁵⁵
That is, “Sibi Vivens Fecit”.

    
⁵⁶
See plate opposite. Bembo commemorated his restoration of the tomb in a Latin inscription (beginning: “Exigua tumuli Dantes hic sorte jacebas”), which was affixed to the wall at the left side of the tomb, and in which he states that before his restoration the tomb was almost unrecognisable. This inscription, which is still preserved, though in a different situation, was transcribed by Fynes Moryson in 1594.

    
⁵⁷
An interesting engraving of the tomb, as it appeared after this second restoration, is inserted in the first volume of the edition of Dante's works published by Antonio Zatta at Venice in 1757.

    
⁵⁸
“Nel anno 1321, del mese di Luglio,
*
morì Dante Alighieri di Firenze nella città di Ravenna in Romagna . . . e in Ravenna dinanzi alla porta della chiesa maggiore fu seppellito a grande onore, in abito di poeta e di grande filosafo” (bk. ix. ch. 136).

    
⁵⁹
See above, p. 50; see also Zingarelli's
Dante
, pp. 318-20. A sonnet of Dante to Quirini (
Son
. xxxvii.) is translated by Rossetti in
Dante and his Circle
, p. 240.

    
⁶⁰
See above, p. 49.

*
Villani's mistake for September.

    
⁶¹
The original is printed in
Rime di M
.
Cino da Pistoja
,
ordinate da G
.
Carducci
, Firenze, 1862, pp. 136-7.

    
⁶²
See Zingarelli,
op
.
cit
. pp. 326, 330-1.

    
⁶³
The original is printed by Zingarelli,
op
.
cit
. p. 348.

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

T
HE history of Dante's remains from the time of their burial by Guido da Polenta in 1321 is a most curious one, and shows how jealously the people of Ravenna guarded the treasure which had been deposited in their keeping. Boccaccio, in a chapter of his
Life of Dante
, headed “A Rebuke to the Florentines,”
¹
reproaches them with their treatment of Dante, and urges them at least to recall his dead body from exile, adding, however, that he feels sure their request for his remains would be refused.

    
“Oh! ungrateful country,” he exclaims, “what madness, what blindness possessed you to drive out your most valued citizen, your chiefest benefactor, your one poet, with such unheard-of cruelty, and to keep him in exile? If perchance you excuse yourself on the ground of the common fury of that time, why, when your anger was appeased and your passion abated, and you repented you of your act, why did you not recall him? Alas! your Dante Alighieri died in that exile to which you, envious of his merit, unjustly sent him. Oh! unspeakable shame, that
mother should regard with jealousy the virtues of her own son! Now you are freed from that disquietude, now he is dead you live secure amid your own imperfections, and can put an end to your long and unjust persecutions. He cannot in death do to you what he never in life would have done; he lies beneath another sky than yours, nor do you ever expect to behold him again, save on that day when you shall see once more all your citizens, whose iniquities by the just Judge shall be visited and rewarded. If then, as we believe, all hatred, and anger, and enmity cease at the death of whoso dies, do you now begin to return to your old self, and to your right mind; begin to think with shame of how you acted contrary to your ancient humanity; prove yourself now a mother, and no longer a foe, and grant to your son the tears that are his due, and show to him the love of a mother; seek at least to regain him in death, whom when alive you rejected, nay drove out as a malefactor, and restore to his memory the citizenship, the welcome, the grace you denied to himself. Of a truth, although you were wayward and ungrateful to him, he always revered you as a mother, and, though you deprived him of your citizenship, yet did he never seek to deprive you of the glory which from his works must ensue to you. A Florentine always, in spite of his long exile, he called himself, and would be called, always preferring you and loving you. What then will you do? Will you for ever remain stiff-necked in your injustice? Will you show less humanity than the pagans, who, we read, not only begged back the bodies of their dead, but were ever ready to meet death like heroes in order to get them back? Who doubts that the Mantuans, who to this day reverence the poor hut and the fields that once were Virgil's, would have bestowed on him honourable burial had not the Emperor Augustus transported his bones
from Brundusium to Naples, and ordained that city as their last resting-place?