23. Anonymous Notice, in Latin, in the Supplement to the first Venice edition (5 September, 1494) of the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of Beauvais.20
24. JOHANN TRITHEIM (1462-1516): in Latin, in his De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis (c. 79)21; first printed at Basle, 1494.
25. RAFAELLO MAFFEI DI VOLTERRA (commonly known as Rafaello Volterrano) (1451-1522): in Latin,22 in his Commentariorum Urbanorum Libri xxxviii; first printed at Rome, 1506.
26. PAOLO GIOVIO (1485-1552); in Latin, in his Elogia Virorum literis illustrium; first printed at Florence, 1549.
27. FRANCESCO MAUROLICO (fl. circ. 1550): in Latin, in his supplement to the De Poetis Latinis of P. Crinito and P. Sampieri; first printed at Messina, 1865.23
28. GIAMPIETRO FERRETTI (1482-1557): in Latin, in his Vitae virorum illustrium civitatis Ravennae; first printed at Ravenna, 1864.24
29. GIROLAMO DELLA CORTE (fl. circ. 1560): in his Storia di Verona lib. xxii25 fino al 1560; first printed at Verona, 1596.26
30. BERNARDINO DANIELLO DA LUCCA (d. arc. 1560): prefixed to his Commentary on the Divina Commedia; first printed at Venice, 1568.
31. ALESSANDRO VELLUTELLO (circ. 1519-circ. 1590): prefixed to his Commentary on the Divina Commedia; first printed at Venice, 1544.
32. LODOVICO DOLCE (1508-1568); prefixed to his edition of the Divina Commedia; first printed at Venice, 1555.
33. MATHIAS FLACH FRANCOWITZ (known as Flaccus Illyricus) (d. 1575); in his Catalogus Testium Veritatis; first printed at Basle, 1562.27
34. JACOPO CORBINELLI (fl. 1570-1590); in the editio princes of Dante’s De Vulgari Eloquentia (pp. 81-2), printed at Paris, 1577.
35. MARCANTONIO NICOLETTI (1536-1596); in his Vite degli scrittori volgari illustri libri iv; first printed at Milan (s.a.) (by A. Solerti, in Le Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, scritte fino al secolo decimosesto).28
36. JEAN PAPIRE MASSON (1544-1611): in Latin, in his Vitae trium Hetruriae procerum Dantis, Petrarchae, Boccacii; first printed at Paris, 1587.
37. FRANCESCO BOCCHI (1548-1618): in Latin, in his Elogia Florentinorum Doctrinis Insignium (i. § 20); first printed at Florence, 1609.
38. ALESSANDRO ZILIOLI (fl. 1600-1630); in his Istoria delle Vite de’ Poeti Italiani; first printed at Milan (s.a.) (by A. Solerti, in Le Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, scritte fino al secolo decimosesto).29
The above lives and notices of Dante (with the exception of Nos. 3, 10, 26, 29, 33), many of which were previously more or less inaccessible, as being either in MSS. or in rare early editions, have recently been printed, some for the first time, by Angelo Solerti in his collection of the lives of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, down to the end of the sixteenth century, published at Milan under the title of Le Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, scritte fino al secolo decimosesto (s.a.).
Information as to the credibility and sources of many of these notices of Dante will be found in Storia della Letteratura Italiana (vol. v.), by Adolfo Bartoli (Florence, 1884); Dante and his Early Biographers, by Edward Moore (London, 1890); Studi Danteschi, by Vittorio Imbriani (Florence, 1891); Alcuni Capitoli delta Biografia di Dante, by Michele Scherillo (Turin, 1896); and in the volume of Solerti mentioned above.
In addition to these, the reader may be referred to the Vita di Dante of Count Cesare Balbo (first published at Turin in 1839; reissued at Florence by Le Monnier, with additional notes by Emmanuele Rocco, in 1853), of which an English translation, with modifications and additions, by Mrs. F. J. Bunbury, was published in London in two volumes in 1852; the Vita di Dante of Melchior Missirini (published at Florence in 1840); the Storia della Vita di Dante by Pietro Fraticelli (first published at Florence in 1861), which is based upon the Memorie per servire alla vita di Dante, collected by Giuseppe Pelli (first published at Venice in 1758, in second part of vol. iv. of Antonio Zatta’s edition of Le Opere di Dante; second and enlarged edition published at Florence in 1823); the Companion to Dante (London, 1893) of G. A. Scartazzini, which is a translation (with modifications), by A. J. Butler, of the same author’s Dante-Handbuch (Leipzig, 1892), which in its turn is a rifacimento of the author’s own Prolegomeni della Divina Commedia (Leipzig, 1890); and, lastly, to the first part of Nicola Zingarelli’s exhaustive volume upon Dante in the Storia Letteraria d’ Italia (Milan, 1903), of which a compendium (La Vita di Dante in Compendio), was published at Milan in 1905.
References to numerous other works (many of them by English writers), including the valuable monographs by Isidoro Del Lungo, will be found in the bibliographical sections30 of the above-mentioned works of Scartazzini, as well as, under various headings, in the same writer’s Enciclopedia Dantesca (Milan, 1896-9).
* * *
1 In modern editions of Villani this chapter is numbered 136.
2 Boccaccio’s Vita di Dante exists in two forms, one of which, commonly known as the Compendio, is shorter than the other. The latest writer on the subject (E. Rostagno : La Vita di Dante, Testo del così detto Compendio attribuito a Giovanni Boccaccio. Bologna, 1899) argues, with some probability, that the so-called Compendio is Boccaccio’s first draft of his work.
3 In the Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani (vol. iii. ff.) the author’s name is given as Marchionne di Coppo Stefani.
4 See A. Solerti: Le Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, scritte fino at secolo decimosesto, p. 81.
5 Based on Benvenuto da Imola.
6 See A. Solerti: Le Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, scritte fino al secolo decimosesto, p. 76.
7 See Haym, Biblioteca Italiana, 1781, p. 157 note 5.
8 See Tiraboschi: Storia della hetteratura Italiana, vi. Pte. 2, pp. 1141-5 (ed. Milan, 1824).
9 See Carlo del Balzo: Poesie di mille Autori intorno a Dante Alighieri, iii. 224-241 (Rome, 1891); and Moore: Dante and his Early Biographers, pp. 88 n. 3, 113-15.
10 See Moore: op. cit. 110-13. Of this work but four MSS. are known, only three of which are complete; one of these is in the British Museum, another in the Vatican Library, and the third in the Escorial (see A. Farinelli, Dante in Ispagna, p. 70 n.).
11 See Tiraboschi: Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vi. Pte. 2, pp. 1145-7 (ed. Milan, 1824). Polentone’s work exists in two forms, the one much shorter than the other—the notice of Dante is printed in both forms by A. Solerti, in Le Vite di Dante, etc. pp. 154-5.
12 Tiraboschi mentions an edition of Venice, 1480; but this is unknown to Hain, Brunet, and Proctor.
13 See Bullettino della Societa Dantesea Italiana, No. 8 (1892), pp. 21-2, 25 ; and Haym : Biblioteca Italiana, 1781, p. 29 note 7.
14 No. xvi. p. 157.
15 Written circ. 1450 ; based on Vellutello and Leonardo Bruni.
16 See A. Solerti: Le Vite di Dante, etc., p. 97.
17 The text of this notice is printed in the Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature for March, 1898 (p. 52), where reference is made to an article in the Historisches Jahrbuch by Prof. Grauert, who shows that the Speculum notice (No. 23) was borrowed from that in the Nuremberg Chronicle (No. 22), and that that was borrowed from the notice in the Supplementum of Filippo da Bergamo, which in its turn was based on two passages in the De Genealogia Deorum of Boccaccio. (See above, No. 2.)
18 See Haym: Biblioteca Italiana, 1781, p. 36 note 5.
19 See above, note 4.
20 See Paget Toynbee: A Biographical Notice of Dante in the 1494 edition of the Speculum Historiale (in Eng. Hist. Rev., April 1895); and supplementary article on the same, in Mod. Quart. Lang. Lit., March 1898 (see above, note 4).
21 See A. Solerti: Le Vite di Dante, etc. p. 197.
22 See Père Hardouin: Doutes sur l’âge du Dante, pp. 25-6 (ed. Paris, 1847); and Tiraboschi: Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vii. p. 1166.
23 See A. Solerti: Vite di Dante, etc. p. 199.
24 See A. Solerti: Vite di Dante, etc. pp. 200-1.
25 Actually only xx.
26 See Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana, No. 8 (1892), pp. 24-5; and Haym: Biblioteca Italiana, 1781, p. 73, n. 8.
27 See Edward Leigh: A Treatise of Religion and Learning, and of Religious and Learned Men (1656), p. 177; and Paget Toynbee: Dante in English Literature from Chaucer to Cary, vol. i. p. 148.
28 No. xxxi. pp. 222-33.
29 No. xxxii. pp. 234-6.
30 Omitted from the English edition.
INDEX
A
Abati;
Ghibelline family of Florence, 37n., 38;
Dante’s mother perhaps member of, 37n., 38.
Abati, Bocca degli;
his treachery at Montaperti, 24.
Abati, Durante degli;
maternal grandfather (as is supposed) of Dante, 38.
Abati, Scolaio degli;
maternal great-grandfather (as is supposed) of Dante, 38.
Accursius (d. 1260);
proposed monument to, in Duomo at Florence, 112.
Adamo;
great-great-great-grandfather of Dante, 40.
Adamo, Maestro;
burnt alive for coining, 84n.
Adimari family of Florence;
their hostility to Dante, 43n., 149;
Dante’s relations with, 147-9.
Adolf (Emperor, 1292-1298);
not recognized as Emperor by Dante, 234-5n.
Aguglione, Baldo d’ (d. c. 1315);
his Riforma, 95.
Aix;
corohation of Henry VII at, 235 n.
Alberico da Rosciate. See Rosciate.
Albert I (Emperor, 1298-1308);
reference to, in Convivio, 235n.;
not recognized as Emperor by Dante, 234-5n.
Albertino Mussato. See Mussato.
Albini, G.;
critical edition of Dante’s Eclogues, 253.
Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio;
Florentine Guelf, 21.
Aldus (Aldo Manuzio) (1450-1515);
editions of D. C. printed by, 214.
Alfraganus;
Dante’s astronomical authority, 48n., 67.
Alighieri, Alighiera degli;
Dante’s great-great-grandmother, 40, 41.
Alighieri, Alighiero degli;
Dante’s great-grandfather, 40, 41;
his wife and sons, 41.
Alighieri, Alighiero degli;
Dante’s father, 37, 38;
a notary, 38;
mention of, in documents, 38n.;
twice married, 38;
his children, 38;
position of, in Florence, 39;
character of, 39;
alluded to by Forese Donati, 39;
eldest son of Bellincione, grandson of Cacciaguida, 42.
Alighieri, Antonia;
Dante’s daughter, 70;
identified by some with Beatrice Alighieri, 71n.
Alighieri, Beatrice;
Dante’s daughter, 70;
with Dante at Ravenna, 71, 99;
a nun in the convent of Santo Stefano dell’
Uliva, 71;
visited by Boccaccio there, 71;
her bequest to the convent, 71;
identified by some with Antonia Alighieri, 71n.
Alighieri, Bellincione degli;
Dante’s grandfather, 37, 41;
his sons, 42.
Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321);
mention of, in documents, 38n., 53, 72-3, 74, 82, 83, 84, 91;
birth of, 36, 42;
his family Guelfs, 36-7;
a friend of Giovanni Villani, 37n.;
his parentage, 37-8;
stepmother, 37n.;
house in Florence, 37n.;
descent, 37-42;
half-brother and half-sisters, 38-9;
origin of his Christian name, 38;
his nephew Andrea Poggi, 39;
poetical correspondence with Forese Donati, 39, 51;
earliest known ancestors, 40;
approves the Vendetta, 41;
born in Florence, 42;
his baptism, 42;
breaks the font of San Giovanni, 42-3;
first meeting with Beatrice, 43;
his love for her, 43-5, 53, 63;
grief at her death, 47-9, 63;
tradition as to his having joined the Franciscan Order, 48n.;
correspondence with Cino da Pistoja and Guido Cavalcanti, 48-52;
alleged unfaithfulness to memory of Beatrice, 51, 71;
comes of age, 53;
military service, 53-63;
at battle of Campaldino, 53-4, 57, 61, 62, 74;
alleged account of the battle, 57n., 251;
his handwriting, 54n.;
at capitulation of Caprona, 62;
early studies, 64-7;
relations with Brunetto Latino, 64;
artistic skill, 65, 72;
familiarity with Provençal literature, 66;
ignorance of Greek, 66;
attendance at the schools of the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella, 66n.;
alleged studies at Bologna and Padua, 67;
marriage, 67-9;
Boccaccio’s picture of his married life, 67-9;
children, 69-71;
descendants, 70n.;
alleged amours, 71;
attachment to lady at Lucca, 71, 97;
enrolled in Guild of Apothecaries, 72;
details of public life, 72-4;
embassy to San Gemignano, 73;
priorate, 74, 75, 78, 81, 86;
document relating to, 74n.;
belongs to White faction, 82;
in charge of public works in Florence, 82;
opposes Pope Boniface, 82;
embassy to Rome, 83, 124-5;
charges against, 83-4;
sentenced to banishment, and afterwards to death, 83-4, 88, 98;
confiscation of his goods, 84-5;
his private property, 85-6;
loans and debts, 86-7;
in exile, 88-118;
references to his sufferings, in Convivio, 88-9, 91, 175, 177;
in De Vulg. Eloq., 89;
his wanderings, 89-103;
at San Godenzo, 90;
holds aloof from other exiles, 90;
at Forli, 90;
at Verona with the Scaligers, 91;
alleged visit to Padua, 91;
doubts as to this visit, 91n.;
at Sarzana with the Malaspini, 91;
relations with them, 91-2;
supposed visit to monastery of Santa Croce del Corvo, 92n.;
in Paris, 92;
alleged visit to England and Oxford, 92-3;
back in Italy, 93;
in Tuscany, 93-4;
present at coronation of Henry VII at Milan, 94;
letters to the Princes and Peoples of Italy, to the Florentines, and to Henry VII, 93-4, 95-6;
excluded from amnesty, 95;
hopes of return to Florence extinguished by death of Henry VII, 96-7;
letter to the Italian Cardinals, 97;
at Lucca, 97;
attachment to Gentucca, 97;
again sentenced to death, 98;
rejects pardon, 98-9;
letter to friend in Florence, 98-9;
again at Verona, 99;
goes to Ravenna, 99;
life at Ravenna, 99-100;
friends at Ravenna, 100n.;
invited to receive laurel crown at Bologna, 100, 252, 254;
at Mantua and Verona, 100-1, 257;
at Piacenza, 101, 103;
reputed a sorcerer, 101-3;
embassy to Venice, 103;
death at Ravenna, 103;
age at time of his death, 103n.;
date of his death, 103n., 151;
burial at Ravenna, 104-5;
epitaphs, 105-6;
his tomb, 106-7;
record of his death by Villani, 107, 126-7;
elegies by Cino da Pistoja and Giovanni Quirini, 107-8;
poetical correspondence with Quirini, 107n.;
fate of his remains, 109-18;
attempts by F
lorentines to get possession of them, 112-15;
proposed monument to, in Duomo at Florence, 112;
offer of Michel Angelo to design and execute tomb, 113;
disappearance of remains, 113-14, 117;
rediscovery of them, 115-17;
reburial, 118;
characteristics of Dante, 119-57;
description of, by Boccaccio, 119-26;
anecdotes of, by Boccaccio, 120, 121-3, 124-5;
his abstemiousness, 120;
taciturnity, 121;
eloquence, 121;
fondness for music and poetry, 121, 123;
delight in solitude, 121;
absorption in studies, 121-2;
marvellous memory, 122-3;
greedy of honour and glory, 123-4;
scornful disposition, 124;
high conceit of himself, 124-5;
fortitude in adversity, 125;
political animosity, 125;
alleged lustfulness, 126;
description of, by Villani, 126-7;
portraits of, 128-43;
Norton on, 128-40;
portrait by Giotto, 128-35, 139-40, 141;
death-mask of, 135-40;
statue in Santa Croce, 137n.;
his beard, 138n.;
Naples bronze bust, 141;
portrait by Taddeo Gaddi, 141;
the Riccardi portrait, 142;
picture by Domenico di Michelino, 143;
picture by Andrea del Castagno, 143n.;
anecdotes of, 144-57;
by Petrarch, 144-5;
by Michele Savonarola, 145;
by Gower, 145-6;
by Anonimo Fiorentino, 146-7;
by Sacchetti, 147-50;
by Sercambi, 152-4;
by Poggio Fiorentino, 154-5;
by Sir John Harington, 155;
by Edward Wright, 156;
by Isaac D’Israeli, 156-7;
Italian works of, 158-230;
Canzoniere, 158-60;
Vita Nuova, 160-73;
Convivio, 173-92;
Divina Commedia, 193-230;
Latin works, 231-59;
De Monarchia, 231-9;
De Vulgari Eloquentia, 239-46;
Latin Letters, 246-52;
Latin Eclogues, 252-6;
Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, 256-9;
Apocryphal Works, 259-61;
earliest biographical notices of, 275-81.
Alighieri, Francesco;
half-brother of Dante, 38;
mentioned by Forese Donati, 39n.;
one of the guarantors in act of reconciliation between Alighieri and Sacchetti, 42;
Dante Alighieri Page 29
