"Denique principium Veronensium progenitores eadem habuerunt insignia:
_donec_ in eam familiam Alboinus et _Canis Magnus_ Aquilam imperii cum
Scala primum ab Henrico VII^o, deinde a Ludovico Bavaro acceptam nobis
reliquerunt."
Alboinus, however, who received this grant upon being made a Lieutenant of
the Empire, and having the Signory of Verona made hereditary in his family,
only bore the eagle "_in quadrante scuti_."
"Sed Canis Magnus, cum eidem a Caesare Ludovico Bavaro idem privilegium
confirmatum esset, totum scutum Aquila occupavit, _subjecta Alitis
pedibus Scala_."
Can Grande, then, was surely the first who carried the "santo uccello" _in
su_ la Scala; and his epithet of Grande would also agree best with Dante's
words, as neither his father nor brothers seem to have had the same claim
to it.
I would offer a farther remark about this same title or epithet Can Grande,
and the origin of the scala or ladder as a charge upon the shield or coat
of this family. Cane would at first sight appear to be a designation
borrowed from the animal of that name. There would be parallels enough in
Italy and elsewhere, as the Ursini, Lewis the Lion (VIII. of France), our
own Coeur de Lion, and Harold Harefoot. Dante, too, refers to him under the
name "Il Veltro," _Inferno_, canto 1. l. 101. But Joseph Scaliger, in the
letter to which I referred before, gives the following account of it:--
"Nomen illi fuerat _Franscisco_, a sacro lavacro, _Cani_ a gentilitate,
_Magno_ a merito rerum gestarum. Neque enim _Canis_ ab illo _latranti
animali_ dictus est, ut recte monet Jovius, sed quod lingua Windorum,
unde principes Veronenses oriundos vult, _Cahan_ idem est, quod lingua
Serviana _Kral_, id est Rex, aut Princeps. Nam in gente nostra multi
fuerunt Canes, Mastini, Visulphi Guelphi."--P. 17.
This letter consists of about 58 pages, and stands first in the edition of
1627. It is addressed "ad Janum Dousam," and was written to vindicate his
family from certain indignities which he conceived had been put upon it.
Sansovino and Villani, it appears, had referred its origin to Mastin II.,
"qui," to use Scaliger's version of the matter,--
"Qui primus dictator populi Veronensis perpetuus creatus est, quem et
_auctorem_ nobilitatis Scaligerae et _Scalarum_ antea _fabrum_
impudentissime nugantur hostes virtutis majorum nostrorum."
It was bad enough to ascribe their origin to so recent a date, but to
derive it from a mere mechanic was more than our author's patience could
endure. Accordingly he is not sparing of invective against those who so
disparage his race.
_Vappa_, _nebulo_, and similar terms, are freely applied to their
characters; _invidia_, [Greek: kakoetheia], &c., to their motives. The
following is a specimen of the way he handles them:--
"Dantes Poeta illustrissimum Christianissimorum Regum Franciae genus a
laniis Parisiensibus deducit, utique tam vere, quam ille tenebrio
nostrum a scalarum fabro: quas mirum, ni auctor generis _in suspendium
eorum parabat_, quos vaticinabatur illustri nobilitate suae
obtrectaturos."
Now the charge of a ladder upon their shield was certainly borne by the
several branches of this family long before any of them became masters of
Verona; and I should suggest that it originated in some brilliant escalade
of one of the first members of it. Thus, of course, it would remind us all
of perhaps the earliest thing of the kind--I mean the shield and bearings
of Eteoclus before Thebes:
"[Greek: Eschematistai d' aspis ou smikron tropon;]
[Greek: Aner d' hoplites klimakos prosambaseis]
[Greek: Steichei pros echthron purgon, ekpersai thelon.]"
Sept. c. Thebas, 461.