v. 140. Navarre.] Navarre was now under the yoke of France. It soon after (in 1328) followed the advice of Dante and had a monarch of its own. Mariana, 1. xv. c. 19.
v. 141. Mountainous girdle.] The Pyrenees.
v. 143. -Famagosta’s streets
And Nicosia’s.]
Cities in the kingdom of Cyprus, at that time ruled by Henry II a pusillanimous prince. Vertot. Hist. des Chev. de Malte, 1. iii. iv. The meaning appears to be, that the complaints made by those cities of their weak and worthless governor, may be regarded as an earnest of his condemnation at the last doom.
CANTO XX
v. 6. Wherein one shines.] The light of the sun, whence he supposes the other celestial bodies to derive their light
v. 8. The great sign.] The eagle, the Imperial ensign.
v. 34. Who.] David.
v. 39. He.] Trajan. See Purgatory, Canto X. 68.
v. 44. He next.] Hezekiah.
v. 50. ‘The other following.] Constantine. There is no passage in which Dante’s opinion of the evil; that had arisen from the mixture of the civil with the ecclesiastical power, is more unequivocally declared.
v. 57. William.] William II, king of Sicily, at the latter part of the twelfth century He was of the Norman line of sovereigns, and obtained the appellation of “the Good” and, as the poet says his loss was as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the presence of Charles I of Anjou and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow and complaint.
v. 62. Trojan Ripheus.]
Ripheus, justissimus unus
Qui fuit in Teneris, et servantissimus aequi. Virg. Aen. 1. ii. 4–.
v. 97. This.] Ripheus.
v. 98. That.] Trajan.
v. 103. The prayers,] The prayers of St. Gregory
v. 119. The three nymphs.] Faith, Hope, and Charity. Purgatory, Canto XXIX. 116.
v. 138. The pair.] Ripheus and Trajan.
CANTO XXI
v. 12. The seventh splendour.] The planet Saturn
v. 13. The burning lion’s breast.] The constellation Leo.
v. 21. In equal balance.] “My pleasure was as great in complying
with her will as in beholding her countenance.”
v. 24. Of that lov’d monarch.] Saturn. Compare Hell, Canto XIV. 91.
v. 56. What forbade the smile.] “Because it would have overcome thee.”
v. 61. There aloft.] Where the other souls were.
v. 97. A stony ridge.] The Apennine.
v. 112. Pietro Damiano.] “S. Pietro Damiano obtained a great and well-merited reputation, by the pains he took to correct the abuses among the clergy. Ravenna is supposed to have been the place of his birth, about 1007. He was employed in several important missions, and rewarded by Stephen IX with the dignity of cardinal, and the bishopric of Ostia, to which, however, he preferred his former retreat in the monastery of Fonte Aveliana, and prevailed on Alexander II to permit him to retire thither. Yet he did not long continue in this seclusion, before he was sent on other embassies. He died at Faenza in 1072. His letters throw much light on the obscure history of these times. Besides them, he has left several treatises on sacred and ecclesiastical subjects. His eloquence is worthy of a better age.” Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett Ital. t. iii. 1. iv. c. 2.
v. 114. Beside the Adriatic.] At Ravenna. Some editions have FU instead of FUI, according to which reading, Pietro distinguishes himself from another Pietro, who was termed “Peccator,” the sinner.
v. 117. The hat.] The cardinal’s hat.
v. 118. Cephas.] St. Peter.
v. 119 The Holy Spirit’s vessel.] St. Paul. See Hell, Canto II. 30.
v. 130. Round this.] Round the spirit of Pietro Damiano.
CANTO XXII
v. 14. The vengeance.] Beatrice, it is supposed, intimates the approaching fate of Boniface VIII. See Purgatory, Canto XX. 86.
v. 36. Cassino.] A castle in the Terra di Lavoro.
v. 38. I it was.] “A new order of monks, which in a manner absorbed all the others that were established in the west, was instituted, A.D. 529, by Benedict of Nursis, a man of piety and reputation for the age he lived in.” Maclaine’s Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. v. ii. cent. vi. p. 2. ch. 2 – 6.
v. 48. Macarius.] There are two of this name enumerated by Mosheim among the Greek theologians of the fourth century, v. i. cent. iv p. 11 ch. 2 – 9. In the following chapter, 10, it is said, “Macarius, an Egyptian monk, undoubtedly deserves the first rank among the practical matters of this time, as his works displayed, some few things excepted, the brightest and most lovely portraiture of sanctity and virtue.”
v. 48. Romoaldo.] S. Romoaldo, a native of Ravenna, and the founder of the order of Camaldoli, died in 1027. He was the author of a commentary on the Psalms.
v. 70. The patriarch Jacob.] So Milton, P. L. b. iii. 510: The stairs were such, as whereon Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright.
v. 107. The sign.] The constellation of Gemini.
v. 130. This globe.] So Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, b. v,
And down from thence fast he gan avise This little spot of earth, that with the sea Embraced is, and fully gan despite
This wretched world.
Compare Cicero, Somn. Scip. “Jam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est.” &c. Lucan, Phar 1. ix. 11; and Tasso, G. L. c. xiv. st, 9, 10, 11.
v. 140. Maia and Dione.] The planets Mercury and Venus.
CANTO XXIII
v. 11. That region.] Towards the south, where the course of the sun appears less rapid, than, when he is in the east or the west.
v. 26. Trivia.] A name of Diana.
v. 26. Th’ eternal nymphs.] The stars.
v. 36. The Might.] Our Saviour
v. 71. The rose.] The Virgin Mary.
v. 73. The lilies.] The apostles.
v. 84. Thou didst exalt thy glory.] The diving light retired upwards, to render the eyes of Dante more capable of enduring the spectacle which now presented itself.
v. 86. The name of that fair flower.] The name of the Virgin.
v. 92. A cresset.] The angel Gabriel.
v. 98. That lyre.] By synecdoche, the lyre is put for the angel
v. 99. The goodliest sapphire.] The Virgin
v. 126. Those rich-laden coffers.] Those spirits who, having sown the seed of good works on earth, now contain the fruit of their pious endeavours.
v. 129. In the Babylonian exile.] During their abode in this world.
v. 133. He.] St. Peter, with the other holy men of the Old and New testament.
CANTO XXIV
v. 28. Such folds.] Pindar has the same bold image: [GREEK HERE?]
On which Hayne strangely remarks: Ad ambitus stropharum vldetur
v. 65. Faith.] Hebrews, c. xi. 1. So Marino, in one of his sonnets, which calls Divozioni:
Fede e sustanza di sperate cose,
E delle non visioili argomento.
v. 82. Current.] “The answer thou hast made is right; but let me know if thy inward persuasion is conformable to thy profession.”
v. 91. The ancient bond and new.] The Old and New Testament.
v. 114. That Worthy.] Quel Baron.
In the next Canto, St. James is called “Barone.” So in Boccaccio, G. vi. N. 10, we find “Baron Messer Santo Antonio.” v. 124. As to outstrip.] Venturi insists that the Poet has here, “made a slip;” for that John came first to the sepulchre, though Peter was the first to enter it. But let Dante have leave to explain his own meaning, in a passage from his third book De Monarchia: “Dicit etiam Johannes ipsum (scilicet Petrum) introiisse SUBITO, cum venit in monumentum, videns allum discipulum cunctantem ad ostium.” Opere de Dante, Ven. 1793. T. ii. P. 146.
CANTO XXV
v. 6. The fair sheep-fold.] Florence, whence he was banished.
v. 13. For its sake.] For the sake of that faith.
v. 20. Galicia throng’d with visitants.] See Mariana, Hist. 1. xi.
v. 13. “En el tiempo,” &c. “At the time that the sepulchre of the apostle St. James was discovered, the devotion for that place extended itself not only over all Spain, but even round about to foreign nations. Multitudes from all parts of the world came to visit it. Many others were deterred by the difficulty for the journey, by the roughness and barrenness of those parts, and by the incursions of the Moors, who made captives many of the pilgrims. The canons of St. Eloy afterwards (the precise time is not known), with a desire of remedying these evils, built, in many places, along the whole read, which reached as far as to France, hospitals for the reception of the pilgrims.”
v. 31. Who.] The Epistle of St. James is here attributed to the elder apostle of that name, whose shrine was at Compostella, in Galicia. Which of the two was the author of it is yet doubtful. The learned and candid Michaelis contends very forcibly for its having been written by James the Elder. Lardner rejects that opinion as absurd; while Benson argues against it, but is well answered by Michaelis, who after all, is obliged to leave the question undecided. See his Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Dr. Marsh, ed. Cambridge, 1793. V. iv. c. 26. – 1, 2, 3.
v. 35. As Jesus.] In the transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
v. 39. The second flame.] St. James.
v. 40. I lifted up.] “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Ps. Cxxi. 1.
v. 59. From Egypt to Jerusalem.] From the lower world to heaven.
v. 67. Hope.] This is from the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus. “Est autem spes virtus, qua spiritualia et aeterna bona speratam, id est, beatitudinem aeternam. Sine meritis enim aliquid sperare non spes, sed praesumptio, dici potest.” Pet. Lomb. Sent. 1. Iii. Dist. 26. Ed. Bas. 1486. Fol.
v. 74. His anthem.] Psalm ix. 10.
v. 90. Isaias ] Chap. lxi. 10.
v. 94. Thy brother.] St. John in the Revelation, c. vii. 9.
v. 101. Winter’s month.] “If a luminary, like that which now appeared, were to shine throughout the month following the winter solstice during which the constellation Cancer appears in the east at the setting of the sun, there would be no interruption to the light, but the whole month would be as a single day.”
v. 112. This.] St. John, who reclined on the bosom of our Saviour, and to whose charge Jesus recommended his mother.
v. 121. So I.] He looked so earnestly, to descry whether St. John were present there in body, or in spirit only, having had his doubts raised by that saying of our Saviour’s: “If I will, that he tarry till I come what is that to thee.”
v. 127. The two.] Christ and Mary, whom he has described, in the last Canto but one, as rising above his sight
CANTO XXVI
v. 2. The beamy flame.] St. John.
v. 13. Ananias’ hand.] Who, by putting his hand on St. Paul, restored his sight. Acts, c. ix. 17.
v. 36. From him.] Some suppose that Plato is here meant, who, in his Banquet, makes Phaedrus say: “Love is confessedly amongst the eldest of beings, and, being the eldest, is the cause to us of the greatest goods ” Plat. Op. t. x. p. 177. Bip. ed. Others have understood it of Aristotle, and others, of the writer who goes by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, referred to in the twenty-eighth Canto.
v. 40. I will make.] Exodus, c. xxxiii. 19.
v. 42. At the outset.] John, c. i. 1. &c.
v. 51. The eagle of our Lord.] St. John
v. 62. The leaves.] Created beings.
v. 82. The first living soul.] Adam.
v. 107. Parhelion.] Who enlightens and comprehends all things; but is himself enlightened and comprehended by none.
v. 117. Whence.] That is, from Limbo. See Hell, Canto II. 53. Adam says that 5232 years elapsed from his creation to the time of his deliverance, which followed the death of Christ.
v. 133. EL] Some read UN, “One,” instead of EL: but the latter of these readings is confirmed by a passage from Dante’s Treatise De Vulg. Eloq. 1. i. cap. 4. “Quod prius vox primi loquentis sonaverit, viro sanae mentis in promptu esse non dubito ipsum fuisse quod Deus est, videlicet El.” St. Isidore in the Origines, 1. vii. c. 1. had said, “Primum apud Hebraeos Dei nomen El dicitur.”
v. 135. Use.] From Horace, Ars. Poet. 62.
v. 138. All my life.] “I remained in the terrestrial Paradise only tothe seventh hour.” In the Historia Scolastica of Petrus Comestor, it is said of our first parents: Quidam tradunt eos fuisse in Paradiso septem horae.” I. 9. ed. Par. 1513. 4to.
CANTO XXVII
v. 1. Four torches.] St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and Adam.
v. 11. That.] St. Peter’ who looked as the planet Jupiter would, if it assumed the sanguine appearance of liars.
v. 20. He.] Boniface VIII.
v. 26. such colour.]
Qui color infectis adversi solis ab ietu Nubibus esse solet; aut purpureae Aurorae. Ovid, Met. 1. iii. 184.
v. 37. Of Linus and of Cletus.] Bishops of Rome in the first century.
v. 40. Did Sextus, Pius, and Callixtus bleed And Urban.]
The former two, bishops of the same see, in the second; and the others, in the fourth century.
v. 42. No purpose was of ours.] “We did not intend that our successors should take any part in the political divisions among Christians, or that my figure (the seal of St. Peter) should serve as a mark to authorize iniquitous grants and privileges.”
v. 51. Wolves.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. xii. 508, &c.
v. 53. Cahorsines and Gascons.] He alludes to Jacques d’Ossa, a native of Cahors, who filled the papal chair in 1316, after it had been two years vacant, and assumed the name of John XXII., and to Clement V, a Gascon, of whom see Hell, Canto XIX. 86, and Note.
v. 63. The she-goat.] When the sun is in Capricorn.
v. 72. From the hour.] Since he had last looked (see Canto XXII.) he perceived that he had passed from the meridian circle to the eastern horizon, the half of our hemisphere, and a quarter of the heaven.
v. 76. From Gades.] See Hell, Canto XXVI. 106
v. 78. The shore.] Phoenicia, where Europa, the daughter of Agenor mounted on the back of Jupiter, in his shape of a bull.
v. 80. The sun.] Dante was in the constellation Gemini, and the sun in Aries. There was, therefore, part of those two constellations, and the whole of Taurus, between them.
v. 93. The fair nest of Leda.] “From the Gemini;” thus called, because Leda was the mother of the twins, Castor and Pollux
v. 112. Time’s roots.] “Here,” says Beatrice, “are the roots, from whence time springs: for the parts, into which it is divided, the other heavens must be considered.” And she then breaks out into an exclamation on the degeneracy of human nature, which does not lift itself to the contemplation of divine things.
v. 126. The fair child of him.] So she calls human nature. Pindar by a more easy figure, terms the day, “child of the sun.”
v. 129. None.] Because, as has been before said, the shepherds are become wolves.
v. 131. Before the date.] “Before many ages are past, before those fractions, which are drops in the reckoning of every year, shall amount to so large a portion of time, that January shall be no more a winter month.” By this periphrasis is meant ” in a short time,” as we say familiarly, such a thing will happen before a thousand years are over when we mean, it will happen soon.
v. 135. Fortune shall be fain.] The commentators in general suppose that our Poet here augurs that great reform, which he vainly hoped would follow on the arrival of the Emperor Henry VII. in Italy. Lombardi refers the prognostication to Can Grande della Scala: and, when we consider that this Canto was not finished till after the death of Henry, as appears from the mention that is made of John XXII, it cannot be denied but the conjecture is probable.
CANTO XXVIII
v. 36. Heav’n, and all nature, hangs upon that point.] [GREEK HERE]
Aristot. Metaph. 1. xii. c. 7. “From that beginning depend heaven and nature.”
v. 43. Such diff’rence.] The material world and the intelligential (the copy and the pattern) appear to Dante to differ in this respect, that the orbits of the latter are more swift, the nearer they are to the centre, whereas the contrary is the case with the orbits of the former. The seeming contradiction is thus accounted for by Beatrice. In the material world, the more ample the body is, the greater is the good of which itis capable supposing all the parts to be equally perfect. But in the intelligential world, the circles are more excellent and powerful, the more they approximate to the central point, which is God. Thus the first circle, that of the seraphim, corresponds to the ninth sphere, or primum mobile, the second, that of the cherubim, to the eighth sphere, or heaven of fixed stars; the third, or circle of thrones, to the seventh sphere, or planet of Saturn; and in like manner throughout the two other trines of circles and spheres.
In orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood, Orb within orb
Milton, P. L. b. v. 596.
v. 70. The sturdy north.] Compare Homer, II. b. v. 524.
v. 82. In number.] The sparkles exceeded the number which would be produced by the sixty-four squares of a chess-board, if for the first we reckoned one, for the next, two; for the third, four; and so went on doubling to the end of the account.
v. 106. Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram.] Not injured, like the productions of our spring, by the influence of autumn, when the constellation Aries rises at sunset.
v. 110. Dominations.]
Hear all ye angels, progeny of light, Thrones, domination’s, princedoms, virtues, powers. Milton, P. L. b. v. 601.
v. 119. Dionysius.] The Areopagite, in his book De Caelesti Hierarchia.
v. 124. Gregory.] Gregory the Great. “Novem vero angelorum ordines diximus, quia videlicet esse, testante sacro eloquio, scimus: Angelos, archangelos, virtutes, potestates, principatus, dominationae, thronos, cherubin atque seraphin.” Divi Gregorii, Hom. xxxiv. f. 125. ed. Par. 1518. fol.
v. 126. He had learnt.] Dionysius, he says, had learnt from St. Paul. It is almost unnecessary to add, that the book, above referred to, which goes under his name, was the production of a later age.
CANTO XXIX
v. 1. No longer.] As short a space, as the sun and moon are in changing hemispheres, when they are opposite to one another, the one under the sign of Aries, and the other under that of Libra, and both hang for a moment, noised as it were in the hand of the zenith.
v. 22. For, not in process of before or aft.] There was neither “before nor after,” no distinction, that is, of time, till the creation of the world.
v. 30. His threefold operation.] He seems to mean that spiritual beings, brute matter, and the intermediate part of the creation, which participates both of spirit and matter, were produced at once.
v. 38. On Jerome’s pages.] St. Jerome had described the angels as created before the rest of the universe: an opinion which Thomas Aquinas controverted; and the latter, as Dante thinks, had Scripture on his side.
v. 51. Pent.] See Hell, Canto XXXIV. 105.
v. 111. Of Bindi and of Lapi.] Common names of men at Florence
v. 112. The sheep.] So Milton, Lycidas. The hungry sheep look up and are not fed, But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly.
v. 121. The preacher.] Thus Cowper, Task, b. ii.
‘Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul, &c.
v. 131. Saint Anthony.
Fattens with this his swine.]
On the sale of these blessings, the brothers of St. Anthony supported themselves and their paramours. From behind the swine of St. Anthony, our Poet levels a blow at the object of his inveterate enmity, Boniface VIII, from whom, “in 1297, they obtained the dignity and privileges of an independent congregation.” See Mosheim’s Eccles. History in Dr. Maclaine’s Translation, v. ii. cent. xi. p. 2. c. 2. – 28.
v. 140. Daniel.] “Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” Dan. c. vii. 10.
CANTO XXX
v. 1. Six thousand miles.] He compares the vanishing of the vision to the fading away of the stars at dawn, when it is noon-day six thousand miles off, and the shadow, formed by the earth over the part of it inhabited by the Poet, is about to disappear.
v. 13. Engirt.] ” ppearing to be encompassed by these angelic bands, which are in reality encompassed by it.”
v. 18. This turn.] Questa vice.
Hence perhaps Milton, P. L. b. viii. 491. This turn hath made amends.
v. 39. Forth.] From the ninth sphere to the empyrean, which is more light.
v. 44. Either mighty host.] Of angels, that remained faithful, and of beatified souls, the latter in that form which they will have at the last day.
v. 61. Light flowing.] “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Rev. cxxii. I.
–underneath a bright sea flow’d
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl.
Milton, P. L. b. iii. 518.
v. 80. Shadowy of the truth.]
Son di lor vero ombriferi prefazii. So Mr. Coleridge, in his Religious Musings, v. 406. Life is a vision shadowy of truth.
v. 88. –the eves
Of mine eyelids.]
Thus Shakespeare calls the eyelids “penthouse lids.” Macbeth, a, 1. s, 3.
v. 108. As some cliff.]
A lake
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown’d Her crystal mirror holds.
Milton, P. L. b. iv. 263.
v. 118. My view with ease.]
Far and wide his eye commands
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade, But all sunshine. Milton, P. l. b. iii. 616.
v. 135. Of the great Harry.] The Emperor Henry VII, who died in 1313.
v. 141. He.] Pope Clement V. See Canto XXVII. 53.
v. 145. Alagna’s priest.] Pope Boniface VIII. Hell, Canto XIX.
79.
CANTO XXXI
v. 6. Bees.] Compare Homer, Iliad, ii. 87. Virg. Aen. I. 430, and Milton, P. L. b. 1. 768.
v. 29. Helice.] Callisto, and her son Arcas, changed into the constellations of the Greater Bear and Arctophylax, or Bootes. See Ovid, Met. l. ii. fab. v. vi.
v. 93. Bernard.] St. Bernard, the venerable abbot of Clairvaux, and the great promoter of the second crusade, who died A.D. 1153, in his sixty-third year. His sermons are called by Henault, “chefs~d’oeuvres de sentiment et de force.” Abrege Chron. de l’Hist. de Fr. 1145. They have even been preferred to al1 the productions of the ancients, and the author has been termed the last of the fathers of the church. It is uncertain whether they were not delivered originally in the French tongue.
That the part he acts in the present Poem should be assigned to him. appears somewhat remarkable, when we consider that he severely censured the new festival established in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the virgin, and opposed the doctrine itself with the greatest vigour, as it supposed her being honoured with a privilegewhich belonged to Christ Alone Dr. Maclaine’s Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. 3 – 19.
v. 95. Our Veronica ] The holy handkerchief, then preserved at Rome, on which the countenance of our Saviour was supposed to have been imprest.
v. 101. Him.] St. Bernard.
v. 108. The queen.] The Virgin Mary.
v. 119. Oriflamb.] Menage on this word quotes the Roman des Royau
-Iignages of Guillaume Ghyart.
Oriflamme est une banniere
De cendal roujoyant et simple
Sans portraiture d’autre affaire,
CANTO XXXII
v. 3. She.] Eve.
v. 8. Ancestress.] Ruth, the ancestress of David.
v. 60. In holy scripture.] Gen. c. xxv. 22. v. 123. Lucia.] See Hell, Canto II. 97.
CANTO XXXIII
v. 63. The Sybil’s sentence.] Virg. Aen. iii. 445.
v. 89. One moment.] “A moment seems to me more tedious, than five-and-twenty ages would have appeared to the Argonauts, when they had resolved on their expedition.
v. 92. Argo’s shadow]
Quae simul ac rostro ventosnm proscidit aequor, Tortaque remigio spumis incanduit unda,
Emersere feri candenti e gurgite vultus Aequoreae monstrum Nereides admirantes.
Catullus, De Nupt. Pel. et Thet. 15.
v. 109. Three orbs of triple hue, clipt in one bound.] The Trinity.
v. 118. That circling.] The second of the circles, “Light of Light,” in which he dimly beheld the mystery of the incarnation.
End Paradise.
PREFACE
In the years 1805 and 1806, I published the first part of the following translation, with the text of the original. Since that period, two impressions of the whole of the Divina Commedia, in Italian, have made their appearance in this country. It is not necessary that I should add a third: and I am induced to hope that the Poem, even in the present version of it, may not be without interest for the mere English reader.
The translation of the second and third parts, “The Purgatory” and “The Paradise,” was begun long before the first, and as early as the year 1797; but, owing to many interruptions, not concluded till the summer before last. On a retrospect of the time and exertions that have been thus employed, I do not regard those hours as the least happy of my life, during which (to use the eloquent language of Mr. Coleridge) “my individual recollections have been suspended, and lulled to sleep amid the music of nobler thoughts;” nor that study as misapplied, which has familiarized me with one of the sublimest efforts of the human invention.
To those, who shall be at the trouble of examining into the degree of accuracy with which the task has been executed, I may be allowed to suggest, that their judgment should not be formed on a comparison with any single text of my Author; since, in more instances than I have noticed, I have had to make my choice out of a variety of readings and interpretations, presented by different editions and commentators.
In one or two of those editions is to be found the title of “The Vision,” which I have adopted, as more conformable to the genius of our language than that of “The Divine Comedy.” Dante himself, I believe, termed it simply “The Comedy;” in the first place, because the style was of the middle kind: and in the next, because the story (if story it may be called) ends happily.
Instead of a Life of my Author, I have subjoined, in chronological order, a view not only of the principal events which befell him, but of the chief public occurrences that happened in his time: concerning both of which the reader may obtain further information, by turning to the passages referred to in the Poem and Notes.
January, 1814
A CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW
OF
THE AGE OF DANTE
A. D.
1265. Dante, son of Alighieri degli Alighieri and Bella, is born at Florence.
Of his own ancestry he speaks in the Paradise, Canto XV. and XVI.
In the same year, Manfredi, king of Naples and Sicily, is defeated and slain by Charles of Anjou. Hell, C. XXVIII. 13. And Purgatory, C. III. 110.
Guido Novello of Polenta obtains the sovereignty of Ravenna. H. C. XXVII. 38.
1266. Two of the Frati Godenti chosen arbitrators of the differences at Florence. H. C. XXIII. 104. Gianni de’ Soldanieri heads the populace in that city. H. C. XXXII. 118.
1268. Charles of Anjou puts Conradine to death, and becomes King of Naples. H. C. XXVIII. 16 and Purg C. XX. 66.
1272. Henry III. of England is succeeded by Edward I. Purg. C. VII. 129.
1274. Our Poet first sees Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari.
Fra.
Guittone d’Arezzo, the poet, dies. Purg. C. XXIV. 56. Thomas Aquinas dies. Purg. C. XX. 67. and Par. C. X. 96. Buonaventura dies. Par. C. XII. 25.
1275. Pierre de la Brosse, secretary to Philip III. of France, executed. Purg. C. VI. 23.
1276. Giotto, the painter, is born. Purg. C. XI. 95. Pope Adrian V. dies. Purg. C. XIX. 97.
Guido Guinicelli, the poet, dies. Purg. C. XI. 96. and C. XXVI. 83.
1277. Pope John XXI. dies. Par. C. XII. 126.
1278. Ottocar, king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. C. VII. 97.
1279. Dionysius succeeds to the throne of Portugal. Par. C. XIX. 135.
1280. Albertus Magnus dies. Par. C. X. 95.
1281. Pope Nicholas III. dies. H. C. XIX 71. Dante studies at the universities of Bologna and Padua.
1282. The Sicilian vespers. Par. C. VIII. 80. The French defeated by the people of Forli. H. C. XXVII. 41. Tribaldello de’ Manfredi betrays the city of Faenza. H. C. XXXII. 119.
1284. Prince Charles of Anjou is defeated and made prisoner by Rugiez
de Lauria, admiral to Peter III. of Arragon. Purg. C. XX. 78. Charles I. king of Naples, dies. Purg. C. VII. 111.
1285. Pope Martin IV. dies. Purg. C. XXIV. 23. Philip III. of France, and Peter III. of Arragon, die. Purg. C. VII. 101 and
110.
Henry II. king of Cyprus, comes to the throne. Par. C. XIX. 144.
1287. Guido dalle Colonne (mentioned by Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquio) writes “The War of Troy.”
1288. Haquin, king of Norway, makes war on Denmark. Par. C. XIX. 135.
Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi dies of famine. H. C. XXXIII. 14.
1289. Dante is in the battle of Campaldino, where the Florentines defeat the people of Arezzo, June 11. Purg. C. V. 90.
1290. Beatrice dies. Purg. C. XXXII. 2. He serves in the war waged by the Florentines upon the Pisans, and is present at the surrender of Caprona in the autumn. H. C. XXI. 92.
1291. He marries Gemma de’ Donati, with whom he lives unhappily.
By this marriage he had five sons and a daughter. Can Grande della Scala is born, March 9. H. C. I. 98. Purg. C. XX. 16. Par. C. XVII. 75. and XXVII. 135. The renegade Christians assist the Saracens to recover St. John D’Acre. H. C. XXVII. 84.
The Emperor Rodolph dies. Purg. C. VI. 104. and VII. 91. Alonzo III. of Arragon dies, and is succeeded by James II. Purg. C. VII. 113. and Par. C. XIX. 133.
1294. Clement V. abdicates the papal chair. H. C. III. 56. Dante writes his Vita Nuova.
1295. His preceptor, Brunetto Latini, dies. H. C. XV. 28. Charles Martel, king of Hungary, visits Florence, Par. C. VIII. 57. and dies in the same year.
Frederick, son of Peter III. of Arragon, becomes king of Sicily. Purg. C. VII. 117. and Par. C. XIX. 127.
1296. Forese, the companion of Dante, dies. Purg. C. XXXIII. 44.
1300. The Bianca and Nera parties take their rise in Pistoia. H. C. XXXII. 60.
This is the year in which he supposes himself to see his Vision. H. C. I. 1. and XXI. 109.
He is chosen chief magistrate, or first of the Priors of Florence; and continues in office from June 15 to August 15. Cimabue, the painter, dies. Purg. C. XI. 93. Guido Cavalcanti, the most beloved of our Poet’s friends, dies. H. C. X. 59. and Purg C. XI. 96.
1301. The Bianca party expels the Nera from Pistoia. H. C. XXIV. 142.
1302. January 27. During his absence at Rome, Dante is mulcted by his fellow-citizens in the sum of 8000 lire, and condemned to two years’ banishment.
March 10. He is sentenced, if taken, to be burned. Fulcieri de’ Calboli commits great atrocities on certain of the Ghibelline party. Purg. C. XIV. 61.
Carlino de’ Pazzi betrays the castle di Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines. H. C. XXXII. 67. The French vanquished in the battle of Courtrai. Purg. C. XX. 47. James, king of Majorca and Minorca, dies. Par. C. XIX. 133.
1303. Pope Boniface VIII. dies. H. C. XIX. 55. Purg. C. XX. 86. XXXII.
146. and Par. C. XXVII. 20.
The other exiles appoint Dante one of a council of twelve, under Alessandro da Romena.
He appears to have been much dissatisfied with his colleagues. Par. C. XVII. 61.
1304. He joins with the exiles in an unsuccessful attack on the city of Florence.
May. The bridge over the Arno breaks down during a representation of the infernal torments exhibited on that river. H. C. XXVI. 9.
July 20. Petrarch, whose father had been banished two years before from Florence, is born at Arezzo.
1305. Winceslaus II. king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. C. VII. 99. and Par. C. XIX 123.
A conflagration happens at Florence. H. C. XXVI. 9.
1306. Dante visits Padua.
1307. He is in Lunigiana with the Marchese Marcello Malaspina. Purg. C. VIII. 133. and C. XIX. 140.
Dolcino, the fanatic, is burned. H. C. XXVIII. 53.
1308. The Emperor Albert I. murdered. Purg. C. VI. 98. and Par. C. XIX. 114.
Corso Donati, Dante’s political enemy, slain. Purg. C. XXIV. 81. He seeks an asylum at Verona, under the roof of the Signori della
Scala. Par. C. XVII. 69. He wanders, about this time, over various parts of Italy. See his Convito. He is at Paris twice; and, as one of the early commentators reports, at Oxford.
1309. Charles II. king of Naples, dies. Par. C. XIX. 125.
1310. The Order of the Templars abolished. Purg. C. XX. 94.
1313. The Emperor Henry of Luxemburg, by whom he had hoped to be restored to Florence, dies. Par. C. XVII. 80. and XXX. 135. He takes refuge at Ravenna with Guido Novello da Polenta.
1314. Pope Clement V. dies. H. C. XIX. 86. and Par. C. XXVII. 53. and XXX. 141.
Philip IV. of France dies. Purg. C. VII. 108. and Par. C. XIX. 117.
Ferdinand IV. of Spain, dies. Par. C. XIX. 122. Giacopo da Carrara defeated by Can Grande. Par. C. IX. 45.
1316. John XXII. elected Pope. Par. C. XXVII. 53.
1321. July. Dante dies at Ravenna, of a complaint brought on by disappointment at his failure in a negotiation which he had been conducting with the Venetians, for his patron Guido Novello da Polenta.
His obsequies are sumptuously performed at Ravenna by Guido, who himself died in the ensuing year.