[Witte, Karl: Neu aufgefundene Briefe Dante's, in DanteForschungen, Vol. I, pp. 473-88.]

We shall quote, without note or comment, the testimonies of older writers regarding Dante's Letters.

Dante, New Life (Chap. xxxj), says: "When the most gentle lady had departed from this world, the above-named city was all widowed, as it were, and despoiled of all dignity; whereupon I, still weeping in this desolate city, wrote to the princes of the land something concerning its condition, borrowing for my opening the words of Jeremiah the Prophet: Quomodo sedet sola civitas !”

66

Giovanni Villani, in his Cronica (IX, 136), tells us: He wrote, among others, three noble letters. One he sent to the government of Florence, complaining of his undeserved banishment; another he sent to the Emperor Henry, when he was at the siege of Brescia, upbraiding him for his delay, and almost prophesying; the third he sent to the Italian cardinals, at the time of the vacancy after the death of Pope Clement, begging them to agree in the election of an Italian pope. All were in Latin, written in a lofty style, with excellent views and authorities, which were much commended by men of ripe intelligence."

Boccaccio writes: "This worthy poet also wrote many prose Epistles in Latin, whereof a large number are still extant."

Lionardo Bruni has preserved for us the fragment of Dante's letter on the causes of his banishment, cited above [p. 74]. He affirms that Dante, during his exile, wrote several times, not only to individual citizens, but also to the people, and sent, among others, a very long letter, beginning, "Popule mi, quid feci tibi?" Elsewhere he says: "He (Dante) was, moreover, a perfect penman, and his writing was thin and tall, as I have seen it in some letters written with his own hand. In Latin he wrote many letters in prose."

Any one willing to place confidence in Giovan Maria Filelfo1 might cite the opening lines of letters written by Dante to the King of Hungary, to Pope Boniface VIII, to his son, who was studying at Bologna, etc. But we need not trouble ourselves about an impostor like Filelfo.

Carlo Troya, in his Del Veltro Allegorico di Dante (p. 60), says: "In the middle of the fifteenth century there were still extant, at Forlì, a number of letters written by Dante to Pellegrino Calvi, secretary to Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, from which it appeared that the Poet obtained from the Lord of Verona a body of cavalry and infantry to make an attack on Florence; but it is now vain to look for these letters at Forlì, where the papers of the Ordelaffi were burnt through unrighteous zeal." (Page 125.) "The fact of this new excursion of Dante's (into the Romagna) is attested by another letter written from Forlì to Cane della Scala, in the name of the Florentine exiles. Pellegrino Calvi, formerly secretary to Scarpetta Ordelaffi, made a copy of it with his own hand; but time has destroyed this, as well as many other things which Dante wrote in the service of his fellows."

$9. THINGS OF DOUBTFUL AUTHENTICITY AND THINGS SPURIOUS. — There pass under the name of Dante Alighieri several other compositions, some of which,—for example, certain lyrics,—may be authentic, whereas others have been attributed to him through the ignorance of copyists, while some have been forged by human perversity. Apart from a considerable number of sonnets, odes, and other lyrics, which are ascribed to Dante in ancient manuscripts, and with regard to whose

[1 See p. 8.]

authenticity or spuriousness it is often difficult, some times impossible, to form a judgment, there are several other things assigned to him which must be rejected as spurious. These are the so-called Sacred Lyrics, that is, The Seven Penitential Psalms, a miserable performance in terza rima, the Catholic Catechism, or The Profession of Faith, an exposition in 247 terzines of the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments, the Deadly Sins, the Virtues, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ave Maria; the Laud in Honor of Our Lady; the New Creed; and other stuff of the same kind. Of doubtful authenticity are the letters to Cardinal Nicolò da Prato, Bishop of Ostia, and to the exile friend from Pistoia. Spurious are the letters to Counts Oberto and Guido of Romena, and the three which Dante is said to have written, in the name of Margaret, Duchess of Brabant, to her consort, the Emperor Henry VII;2 foolish and absurd forg

[1 It is instructive to compare with this Fraticelli's judgment: “I venture to affirm that . . . this translation deserves the preference over all the other translations of these psalms ever made, and they are not few. In this, more than in any other, simplicity and naturalness, combined with devotion and humility, appear diffused through the whole, as the blood through the body. At the same time we find, here and there, the expressions, the thoughts, the freedom of rhyme, and the peculiar characteristics of our translator; so much so that any one versed in his other poetry, without being told the name of the translator, could not help saying, 'This is Dante's work'" (Op. Min. di Dante Alig., Vol. I, p. 332).]

[2 The author is here in error. The letters are from the Countess Catherine of Battifolle, wife of Count Guido Selvatico of Poppi, to Margaret, wife of Henry VII. See Fraticelli, Op. Min. di Dante Alig., Vol. III, p. 408; Giuliani, Op. Lat. di Dante Alig., Vol. II, pp. 69 sqq. On the letter to the Counts Oberto and Guido, which most critics consider genu

eries are the two letters to the Marquis Morovello Malaspina1 and to Messer Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna. No weight is to be attached to Giovan Maria Filelfo's assertion that Dante wrote a History of the Guelphs and Ghibellines in the vulgar tongue,-a history which never existed, and was never mentioned by any other writer.

To examine, one by one, the numerous lyrics attributed to Dante, and published under his name, would be a tedious task, and would in but few cases lead to any definite conclusion with respect to the authenticity or spuriousness of the different pieces. With regard to the so-called Sacred Lyrics, war enough has been waged, and it is of no use to waste more words upon them, although there are still some persons who believe in their authenticity. Of more importance is the question with regard to the letters attributed to Dante, those, namely, which we have placed among the things of doubtful authenticity, or among the things spurious and forged. A thorough-going, critical examination of the question would require a whole volume, and, of course, cannot be undertaken here. For this reason we must leave it in abeyance, at the risk of being once more charged with pronouncing judgments without proof, of peremptorily denying and condemning, merely because we suspect. But it is only a simple matter of course, that, in a note to a line of The Comedy, or in a small Handbook like the present, that,

ine, see Karl Witte, Dante und die Grafen Guidi, in Dante-Forschungen, Vol. II, pp. 194-236.]

[1 Cf. above, p. 230. It ought to be borne in mind that all the judgments of this section, except that on Filelfo, belong to that purely subjective class which the author has elsewhere (p. 234) so strongly and so justly condemned. The simple truth is, that we are not yet sufficiently acquainted with Dante's character to be able to say with certainty what he may, and what he may not, have written.]

while we may communicate the results of studious inquiries, we cannot recount all the steps by which they were reached. Moreover, there has been enough of discussion in regard to these letters, and we are saying nothing new in pronouncing them doubtful or spurious. Only one of them, that to Morovello Malaspina has been, and still is, considered authentic; and yet, if there be one thing that is falsely attributed to Dante, this is that one. We shall show this at length, in another work. Here we shall simply say that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, among the things generally reckoned spurious, that stands in such open contradiction to the character of Dante as this same silly letter.1

On the lyrics attributed to Dante, see Fraticelli, P.: Opere Minori di Dante Alig., Vol. I, pp. 219-328; Ferrazzi, G. J.: Manuale Dantesco, Vol. IV, pp. 475-79; Vol. V, pp. 507–9. The so-called Sacred Lyrics of Dante were published by Quadrio, Bologna, 1753; by P. Narbone, Palermo, 1831; by Fraticelli, in his edition of the Minor Works, etc. Other things of the same sort are the Laud in Honor of Our Lady, edited by A. Bonucci, Bologna, 1854; the New Creed, published by A. Mainardi, Mantua, 1871, etc.

As many lyrics really belonging to Dante are known, and many others are attributed to him, the editors of the Book of Lyrics exercise a certain amount of criticism; whereas the letters are so few, that, in order not to strip Dante of correspondence altogether, science has been forced to leave him with all those attributed to him, and criticism has nothing at all to say. Hence all the Letters that pass under Dante's name are to be found in the best-known editions of the Minor Works, named above, p. 187.

[1 And yet it is considered genuine by three such profound Dante-scholars as Fraticelli, Giuliani, and Witte. So much for subjective criticism!]