_Per mezzo Toscana si spazia
Un fiumicel che nasce in Falterona,
E cento miglia di corso nol sazia._
DANTE, _Purgatorio_, XIV, 16–18.
Through midst of Tuscany there wanders
A streamlet, that is born at Falterona,
And not a hundred miles of course suffice it.
Longfellow’s translation.
The above is part of Dante’s answer to Guido del Duca di Brettinaro’s
question, whence he cometh. He means by the _streamlet_ the Arno--(a
name so hateful to him, that he avoids pronouncing it)--that rises at
Falterona, a mountain in the Appennine, its course being a hundred and
twenty miles, and adds: “from its banks bring I this frame”.
From the summit of the Falterona all the valley of the Arno can be
traced. Dante follows in that Canto the course of the river, and as he
advances brands every place he comes to with fierce imprecation--the
farther he goes, the more his bitterness increases. Which is easily
understood when we remember, that during his exile he wandered up
and down the valley and those mountain-paths seeking refuge from his
enemies.
[Illustration: CONSORTERIA OF THE ADIMARI {Adimari shield: top half
gold, bottom half blue.}]
N. 28. - _Inscription and coat of arms to commemorate the ADIMARI
placed near the arcade of N. 17 in Via dell’Oche. On this spot was the
famous Loggia called la Neghittosa, belonging to the CONSORTERIA of
the ADIMARI, which rose among the towers, palaces and houses belonging
to those families_:
_L’oltracotata schiatta, che s’indraca
Dietro a chi fugge, ed a chi mostra il dente
O ver la borsa, com’agnel si placa._
DANTE, _Paradiso_, XVI, 115–117.
The insolent race, that like a dragon follows
Whoever flees, and unto him, that shows
His teeth or purse is gentle as a lamb.
Longfellow’s translation.
The _Adimari_ are one of those families of Florence to whose
introduction Cacciaguida attributes its degeneracy. They were at the
head of a numerous and powerful “Consorteria” and therefore obnoxious
to the people, and though rich and mighty so little esteemed, that
Ubertino dei Donati who had married a daughter of Bellincion Berti was
offended with his father-in-law for giving another of his daughters
in marriage to one of the Adimari. It was a member of this family,
_Boccaccio Adimari_ who got possession of Dante’s property in Florence,
when he was banished, and always bitterly opposed his return, which may
have sharpened the Poet’s angry judgement against them. The Consorteria
of the Adimari was composed of ten distinct families, all varying in
armorial bearings and patronymics.
N. 29. - _Inscription outside Porta San Miniato placed at the foot of
the stairway that leads to the MONTE ALLE CROCE_:
_. . . . . . per salire al monte,
Dove siede la Chiesa che soggioga
La ben guidata sopra Rubiconte,
Si rompe del montar l’ardita foga
Per le scalee che si fero ad etade
Ch’era sicuro il quaderno e la doga;_
DANTE, _Purgatorio_, XII, 100–105.
. . . . . . to ascend the mount,
Where seated is the Church that lordeth it
O’er the well-guided, above Rubiconte,
The bold abruptness of the ascent is broken
By stairways that were made there in the age,
When still were safe the ledger and the stave.
Longfellow’s translation.
Dante, in describing a certain site in the Purgatory compares it to
the stairway that leads to the _Monte alle Croce_. The church of _San
Miniato_ is situated on the height that overlooks the Arno, where it
is crossed by the _bridge of Rubiconte_, (now Ponte alle Grazie) so
called from Messer Rubiconte da Mandella of Milan, Podestà or chief
magistrate of Florence, by whom the bridge was constructed in 1237
(Villani). Dante speaks ironically, when he calls Florence “_the well
guided city_”, and “_that time, when the ledger and stave were safe_”
alludes to certain instances of fraud, committed in Dante’s time with
respect to the public accounts and measures. A certain Messer Niccolò
tore out a leaf from a ledger to hide his fraud.
N. 30. - _Inscription in S. GIOVANNI on the pavement at the side of
Via Cerretani_:
“_Nel mio bel San Giovanni._”
DANTE, _Inferno_, XIX, 17.
In my beloved Saint John’s dome.
In the third gulf are punished those who have been guilty of simony;
they are fixed with their heads downwards in certain apertures, so that
only their legs appear, and on the soles of their feet are seen burning
flames.--Dante says: the holes were as wide “_as those fonts in St.
John’s dome, destined to hold the baptismal streams_,” one of which he
had broken some years ago, to save a child, that had fallen in.
His enemies having represented the motive of his breaking the font
maliciously, he mentions the fact here, to prove his innocence.
. . . “and one of which, not many years ago,
I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
Be this a seal, all men to undeceive!”
N. 31. - _Inscription at SAN GIOVANNI on the pavement at the side of
the Duomo_:
_Se mai continga che il poema sacro,
Al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra
Sì che m’ha fatto per più anni macro,
Vinca la crudeltà, che fuor mi serra
Del bello ovile, ov’io dormii agnello
Nimico ai lupi che gli danno guerra;
Con altra voce ormai, con altro vello
Ritornerò poeta, ed in sul fonte
Del mio battes mo prenderò il cappello._
DANTE, _Paradiso_, XXV, 1–9.
If e’er it happen that the sacred Poem,
To which both heaven and earth have set their hand,
So that it many a year has made me lean,
O’ercome the cruelty that bars me out
From that fair sheep-fold, where a lamb I slumbered,
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece
Poet will I return, and at my font
Baptismal will I take the laurel crown.
Longfellow’s translation.
The verses form the beginning of the 25th Canto wherein St. James
questions Dante concerning Hope. It appears from one of his “Epistles”,
that about 1316 Dante had the option given him of returning to Florence
on the ignominious terms of paying a fine, and of making a public
avowal of his offence.--It may perhaps be in reference to this offer,
which he indignantly rejected, that he promises himself, he shall
one day return “in other guise and, standing up at his baptismal
font, shall claim the wreath due to the poet’s temples”.--His fame at
that time had spread so far and the glory, which his Poem had gained
him was such, that he himself declares in the treatise “De Vulgaris
Eloquentia”, it had in some measure reconciled him even to his
banishment.