"Lo primo tuo rifugio e 'l primo ostello
Sara la cortesia del gran Lombardo,
Che _'n su_ la Scala porta il santo uccello."
Dante, _Paradiso_, xvii. 70.
The Scaligers are well known, not only as having held the lordship of
Verona for some generations, but also as having been among the friends of
Dante in his exile, no mean reputation in itself; and, at a later period,
as taking very high rank among the first scholars of their day. To which of
them the passage above properly belongs--whether to Can Grande, or his
brother Bartolommeo, or even his father Alberto, commentators are by no
means agreed. The question is argued more largely than conclusively, both
in the notes to Lombardi's edition, and also in Ugo Foscolo's _Discorso nel
testo di Dante_.
Perhaps the following may be a contribution to the evidence in favour of
Can Grande. After {134} saying, in a letter, in which he professes to give
the history and origin of his family,--
"Prisca omnium familiarum Scaligerae stirpis insignia sunt, aut _Scala
singularis_, aut Canes utrinque scalae innitentes."