were unwilling to part with the sad and honourable memorial of their own hospitality. No better success attended the subsequent negociations of the Florentines for the same purpose, though renewed under the auspices of Leo X. and conducted through the powerful mediation of Michael Angelo'. The sepulchre, designed and commenced by Guido da Polenta, was, in 1483, erected by Bernardo Bembo, the father of the Cardinal; and, by him, decorated, besides other ornaments, with an effigy of the Poet in bas-relief, the sculpture of Pietro Lombardo, and with the following epitaph: Exiguâ tumuli, Danthes, hic sorte jacebas, Squalenti nulli cognite penè situ. At nunc marmoreo subnixus conderis arcu, Hoc tibi, quem imprimis hæ coluere, dedit. A yet more magnificent memorial was raised so lately as the year 1780, by the Cardinal Gonzaga2. His children consisted of one daughter and five two of whom, Pietro3 and Jacopo 1, inherited sons, 1 Pelli, p. 104. 2 Tiraboschi. In the Literary Journal, Feb. 16, 1804, p. 192, is the following article:"A subscription has been opened at Florence for erecting a monument in the cathedral there, to the memory of the great poet Dante. A drawing of this monument has been submitted to the Florentine Academy of the Fine Arts, and has met with universal approbation." monument, executed by Stefano Ricci of Arezzo, has since been erected to him in the Santa Croce at Florence, which I had the gratification of seeing in the year 1833. A 3 Pietro was also a poet. His commentary on the Divina Commedia, which is in Latin, has never been published. Lionardo, the grandson of Pietro, came to Florence, with other young men of Verona, in the time of Leonardo Aretino, who tells us, that he showed him there the house of Dante and of his ancestors. Vita di Dante. To Pietro, the son of Lionardo, Mario Filelfo addressed his life of our Poet. The son of this Pietro, Dante III. was a man of letters, and an elegant poet. Some of his works are preserved in collections: he is commended by Valerianus de Infelicitate Literat. lib. 1. and is, no doubt, the same whom Landino speaks of as living in his time at Ravenna, and calls "uomo molto literato ed eloquente e degno di tal sangue, e quale meritamente si dovrebbe rivocar nella sua antica patria e nostra republica." In 1495, the Florentines took Landino's advice, and invited him back to the city, offering to restore all they could of the property that had belonged to his ancestors; but he would not quit Verona, where he was established in much opulence. Vellutello, Vita. He afterwards experienced a sad reverse of fortune. He had three sons, one of whom, Fran some portion of their father's abilities, which they employed chiefly in the pious task of illustrating his Divina Commedia. The former of these possessed acquirements of a more profitable kind; and obtained considerable wealth at Verona, where he was settled, by the exercise of the legal profession. He was honoured with the friendship of Petrarch, by whom some verses were addressed to him1 at Trevigi, in 1361. His daughter Beatrice 2 (whom he is said to have named after the daugher of Folco Portinari) became a nun in the convent of S. Stefano dell' Uliva, at Ravenna; and, among the entries of expenditure by the Florentine Republic, appears a present of ten golden florens sent to her in 1350, by the hands of Boccaccio, from the state. The imagination can picture to itself few objects more interesting, than the daughter of Dante, dedicated to the service of religion in the city where her father's ashes were deposited, and receiving from his countrymen this tardy tribute of their reverence for his divine genius, and her own virtues. It is but justice to the wife of Dante not to omit what Boccaccio3 relates of her; that after the banishment of her husband she secured some share of his property from the popular fury, under the name of her dowry; that out of this she contrived to support their little family with exemplary cesco, made a translation of Vitruvius, which is supposed to have perished. A better fate has befallen an elegant dialogue written by him, which was published, not many years ago, in the Anecdota Literaria, edit. Roma (no date), vol. ii. p. 207. It is entitled Francisci Aligerii Dantis III. Filii Dialogus Alter de Antiquitatibus Valentinis ex Cod. MS. Membranaceo. Sæc. xvi. nunc primum in lucem editus. Pietro, another son of Dante III. who was also a scholar, and held the office of Proveditore of Verona in 1539, was the father of Ginevra, mentioned above in the note to p. 2. See Pelli, p. 28, &c. Vellutello, in his life of the Poet, acknowledges his obligations to this last Pietro for the information he had given him. 4 Jacopo is mentioned by Bembo among the Rimatori, lib. ii. della Volg. Ling. at the beginning; and some of his verses are preserved in MS. in the Vatican, and at Florence. He was living in 1342, and had children, of whom little is known. The names of our Poet's other sons were Gabriello, Aligero, and Eliseo. The last two died in their childhood. Of Gabriello, nothing certain is known. 1 Carm. lib. iii. ep. vii. 2 Pelli, p. 33. 3 Vita di Dante, p. 57, ed. Firenze, 1576. с discretion; and that she even removed from them the pressure of poverty, by such industrious efforts as in her former affluence she had never been called on to exert. Who does not regret, that with qualities so estimable, she wanted the sweetness of temper necessary for riveting the affections of her husband? Dante was a man of middle stature and grave deportment; of a visage rather long; large eyes; an aquiline nose; dark complexion; large and prominent cheek-bones; black curling hair and beard; the under lip projecting beyond the upper. He mentions, in the Convito, that his sight had been transiently impaired by intense application to books1. In his dress, he studied as much plainness as was suitable with his rank and station in life; and observed a strict temperance in his diet. He was at times extremely absent and abstracted; and appears to have indulged too much a disposition to sarcasm. At the table of Can Grande, when the company was amused by the conversation and tricks of a buffoon, he was asked by his patron, why Can Grande himself, and the guests who were present, failed of receiving as much pleasure from the exertion of his talents, as this man had been able to give them. "Because all creatures delight in their own resemblance," was the reply of Dante2. In other respects, his manners are said to have been dignified and polite. He was particularly careful not to make any approaches to flattery, a vice which he justly held in the utmost abhorrence. He spoke seldom, and in a slow voice; but what he said derived authority from the subtileness of his observations, somewhat like his own poetical heroes, who 1 "Per affaticare lo viso molto a studio di leggere, intanto debilitai gli spiriti visivi, che le stelle mi pareano tutte d'alcuno albore ombrate: e per lunga riposanza in luoghi scuri, e freddi, e con affreddare lo corpo dell' occhio con acqua pura, rivinsi la virtù disgregata, che tornai nel prima buono stato della vista." Convito, p. 108. 2 There is here a point of resemblance (nor is it the only one) in the character of Milton. "I had rather," says the author of Paradise Lost, "since the life of man is likened to a scene, that all my entrances and exits might mix with such persons only, whose worth erects them and their actions to a grave and tragic deportment, and not to have to do with clowns and vices." Colasterion, Prose Works, vol. i. p. 339. Edit. London, 1753. Parlavan rado con voci soavi. spake Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet. Hell, iv. He was connected in habits of intimacy and friendship with the most ingenious men of his time; with Guido Cavalcanti; with Buonaggiunta da Lucca2; with Forese Donati 3; with Cino da Pistoia; with Giotto 5, the celebrated painter, by whose hand his likeness was preserved; with 1 See Hell, x. and notes. 2 See Purg. xxiv. Yet Tiraboschi observes, that though it is not improbable that Buonaggiunta was the contemporary and friend of Dante, it cannot be considered as certain. Stor. della Poes. Ital. tom. i. p. 109, Mr. Mathias's Edit. 3 See Purg. xxiii. 44. 4 Guittorino de' Sigibuldi, commonly called Cino da Pistoia (besides the passage that will be cited in a following note from the De Vulg. Eloq.) is again spoken of in the same treatise, lib. i. c. 17. as a great master of the vernacular diction in his Canzoni, and classed with our Poet himself, who is termed "Amicus ejus;" and likewise in lib. ii. c. 2. where he is said to have written of "Love." His verses are cited too in other chapters. He addressed and received sonnets from Dante; and wrote a sonnet, or canzone, on Dante's death, which is preserved in the library of St. Mark, at Venice. Tiraboschi, della Poes. Ital. v. i. p. 116, and v. ii. p. 60. The same honour was done to the memory of Cino by Petrarch, son. 71. part. i. "Celebrated both as a lawyer and a poet, he is better known by the writings which he has left in the latter of these characters," insomuch that Tiraboschi has observed, that amongst those who preceded Petrarch, there is, perhaps, none who can be compared to him in elegance and sweetness. "There are many editions of his poems, the most copious being that published at Venice in 1589, by P. Faustino Tasso; in which, however, the Padre degli Agostini, not without reason, suspects that the second book is by later hands." Tiraboschi, ibid. There has been an edition by Seb. Ciampi, at Pisa, in 1813 &c.; but see the remarks on it in Gamba's Testi di Lingua Ital. 294. He was interred at Pistoia, with this epitaph: "Cino eximio Juris interpreti Bartolique præceptori dignissimo populus Pistoriensis Civi suo B. M. fecit. Obiit anno 1336." Guidi Panziroli de Claris Legum Interpretibus, lib. ii. cap. xxix. Lips. 4to. 1721. A Latin letter supposed to be addressed by Dante to Cino was published for the first time from a MS. in the Laurentian library, by M. Witte. 5 See Purg. xi. 6 Mr. Eastlake, in a note to Kugler's Hand-Book of Painting, translated by a Lady, Lond. 1842, p. 50. describes the discovery and restoration, in July 1840, of Dante's portrait by Giotto in the chapel of the Podestà at Florence, where it had been covered with whitewash or plaster. But it could scarcely have been concealed so soon as our distinguished artist supposes, since Landino speaks of it as remaining in his time, and Vasari says it was still to be seen when he wrote. Oderigi da Gubbio1, the illuminator; and with an eminent musician 2 his Casella, whom he wooed to sing, Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. Milton's Sonnets. Besides these, his acquaintance extended to some others, whose names illustrate the first dawn of Italian literature. Lapo degli Uberti3; Dante da Majano; Cecco Angiolieri; Dino Frescobaldi "; 1 See Purg. xi. 2 Ibid. canto ii. 3 Lapo is said to have been the son of Farinata degli Uberti, (see Hell, x. 32, and Tiraboschi della Poes. Ital. v. i. p. 116.) and the father of Fazio degli Uberti, author of the Dittamondo, a poem, which is thought, in the energy of its style, to make some approaches to the Divina Commedia, (Ibid. v. ii. p. 63.) though Monti passes on it a much less favourable sentence (see his Proposta, v. iii. pte 2. p. ccx. 8vo. 1824). He is probably the Lapo mentioned in the sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti, beginning, Guido vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io, which Mr. Hayley has so happily translated (see Hell, x. 62.); and also in a passage that occurs in the De Vulg. Eloq. v. i. p. 116. "Quanquam fere omnes Tusci in suo turpiloquio sint obtusi, nonnullos Vulgaris excellentiam cognovisse sentimus, scilicet Guidonem Lapum, et unum alium, Florentinos, et Cinum Pistoriensem, quem nunc indigne postponimus, non indigne coacti." Although almost all the Tuscans are marred by the baseness of their dialect, yet I perceive that some have known the excellence of the vernacular tongue, namely Guido Lapo," (I suspect Dante here means his two friends Cavalcanti and Uberti, though this has hitherto been taken for the name of one person,) " and one other," (who is supposed to be the Author himself,)" Florentines; and last, though not of least regard, Cino da Pistoia." 4 Dante da Majano flourished about 1290. He was a Florentine, and composed many poems in praise of a Sicilian lady, who, being herself a poetess, was insensible neither to his verses nor his love, so that she was called the Nina of Dante. Pelli, p. 60, and Tiraboschi, Storia della Poes. Ital. v. i. p. 137. There are several of his sonnets addressed to our Poet, who declares, in his answer to one of them, that, although he knows not the name of its author, he discovers in it the traces of a great mind. 5 Of Cecco Angiolieri, Boccaccio relates a pleasant story in the Decameron, G. 9. N. 4. He lived towards the end of the thirteenth century, and wrote several sonnets to Dante, which are in Allacci's collection. In some of them he wears the semblance of a friend; but in one the mask drops, and shows that he was well disposed to be a rival. See Crescimbeni, Com. alla Storia di Volg. Poes. v. ii. par. ii. lib. ii. p. 103; Pelli, p. 61. 6 Dino, son of Lambertuccio Frescobaldi. Crescimbeni (ibid. lib. iii. p. 120.) assures us that he was not inferior to Cino da Pistoia. Pelli, p. 61. He is said to have been a friend of Dante's, in whose writings I have not observed any mention of him. Boccaccio, in his Life of Dante, calls Dino "in que' tempi famosissimo dicitore in rima in Firenze." |