Read The Portable Dante Online
Authors: Dante Alighieri
The Portable Dante (70 page)
112. Bellincion Berti, a distinguished Florentine citizen and member of the honorable Ravignani family, lived in the late twelfth century and was father of the “good Gualdrada” (see
Inferno
XVI, 37).
115. De’Nerli and del Vecchio were the names of noble Florentine families.
127-129. Cianghella, a contemporary of Dante, was a Florentine woman of questionable reputation and loose and profligate lifestyle. Lapo Salterello, a prominent Florentine citizen belonging to the Bianchi faction, was a corrupt lawyer and judge. In the period of the Roman republic, Cincinnatus was called from the plough to be dictator, during which time he conquered the Aequians (458 B.C.). Cornelia, daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus, was mother of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi, Roman tribunes who died attempting to preserve the republic.
To this serene, this lovely state of being within this comity of citizens, joined in good faith, this dwelling-place so sweet, | 132 |
Mary, besought by pains of birth, gave me; and then within your ancient Baptistry a Christian I became, and Cacciaguida. | 135 |
Eliseo and Moronto were my brothers; my wife came from the valley of the Po and brought with her the surname that you bear. | 138 |
And then I served Conrad the Emperor who later dubbed me knight among his host, so pleased was he by all my gallant deeds. | 141 |
Along with him I fought against the evil of that false faith whose followers usurp— only because your Shepherds sin—your rights. | 144 |
There the vile Saracen delivered me from the entanglements of your vain world, the love of which corrupts so many souls— | 147 |
from martyrdom I came to this, my peace. ” |
T
HE PILGRIM TELLS
the reader that he can no longer wonder at those on earth who glory in their family lineage, since he himself in Paradise, where wills are perfect, gloried in it too. When Cacciaguida finishes speaking, Dante addresses him with the formal “you”
(voi
in Italian
),
at which Beatrice smiles. At Dante’s request, Cacciaguida gives an account of the family history and goes on to describe his Florence, in contrast to the corrupt Florence of Dante’s time, discoursing on the
changing fortunes of the city and her old families and lamenting the loss of the peace and glory of the earlier period.
136. Nothing at all is known about Cacciaguida’s brothers, Eliseo and Moronto.
139. Conrad III (1093-1152) was the son of Frederick, the duke of Swabia.
Ah, trivial thing, our pride in noble blood! That you can make men glory in you here on earth where our affections are weak-willed, | 3 |
will never again amaze me, for up there where appetite is always in the right, in Heaven itself, I gloried in my blood! | 6 |
Nobility, a mantle quick to shrink! Unless we add to it from day to day, time with its shears will trim off more and more. | 9 |
I spoke again addressing him as “ | 12 |
and Beatrice, not too far from us, smiling, reminded me of her who coughed to caution Guinevere at her first sign | 15 |
of weakness. I began: “You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am more than I. | 18 |
My soul is overflowing with the joy that pours from many streams, and it rejoices that it endures and does not burst inside. | 21 |
Tell me, then, cherished source from which I spring, about your own forefathers, who they were; what years made history when you were young? | 24 |
Tell me about the sheepfold of St. John, how large it was and who among the folk were worthiest to hold the highest seats?” | 27 |
25. The Florentines are the “sheepfold” of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence.
As glowing coals in a quick breath of air burst into flame, just so I saw that light grow brighter when it heard my loving words, | 30 |
and as his beauty grew before my eyes, so, in a voice sweeter and more refined (so different from our modern Florentine), | 33 |
his light said: “From the day ‘Ave’ was said to that on which my mother, now a saint, heavy with child, gave birth to me, her son, | 36 |
to its own Lion this fiery star returned five hundred fifty times and thirty more to be rekindled underneath his paw. | 39 |
The house where I and all of mine were born stands at the place the last ward is first reached by all those running in your annual games. | 42 |
About my forefathers, let this suffice, for what their names were and from where they came is better left unsaid than boasted of. | 45 |
All those who lived at that time fit for arms between Mars and the Baptist were no more than just one fifth of those who live there now; | 48 |
The population then, polluted now by Campi, and Certaldo and Fighine, was pure down to the humblest artisan. | 51 |
34-39. From the time of the Annunciation (Luke 1:28) to the time of Cacciaguida’s birth, the planet Mars had revolved 580 times, returning to its position in the constellation Leo. One revolutíon of Mars was estimated to take 687 days; by multiplying 580 by 687 and dividing by 365, we can calculate that Cacciaguida’s birth year was 1091.
47-48. These landmarks, the statue of Mars (on the north side of the Ponte Vecchio) and the Baptistry of St. John, mark the southern and northern boundaries, respectively, of the old city.
50. Campi, Certaldo, and Fighine are small towns near Florence whose inhabitants, according to Cacciaguida, polluted the purity of Florentine blood by moving to the city.
Oh how much better it would be if they were still your neighbors and your boundaries Galluzzo and Trespiano as they were, | 54 |
than have such folk within and bear the stench of Aguglione’s churl and him from Signa, already with a sharp eye out for swindling! | 57 |
If that group of the world’s most despicable had not played a stepmother’s role to Caesar, but been a loving mother to her son, | 60 |
a certain nouveau-Florentine who trucks and trades would now be back in Semifonte where once his own grandfather begged his bread, | 63 |
and Montemurlo would still have its Counts, the parish of Acone have its Cerchi, and Valdigreve still its Buondelmonti. | 66 |
A mingled strain of men has always been the source of city decadence, as when men stuff their stomachs sick with food on food; | 69 |
54. Galluzzo is an ancient Tuscan village two miles south of Florence on the road to Siena. Trespiano lies three miles to the north of Florence on the Bologna road.
56. Baldo d’Aguglione, a prominent Guelph political leader, became prior of Florence in 1298. “Him from Signa” is probably a reference to Fazio de’ Morubaldini da Signa (a town ten miles west of Florence). He was prior of Florence several times and was sent in 1310 as ambassador to Pope Clement V to aid in organizing opposition to Emperor Henry VII’s coming into Italy.
64. The Conti Guidi, unable to defend the castle of Montemurlo against the Pistoians, were forced to sell it to Florence.
65. According to Cacciaguida, among the many results of the feud between the Church and the Empire was the emigration of the Cerchi family from the small town of Acone to Florence where a feud with the noble Donati family resulted in much civil disturbance. Originally of low birth, the Cerchi rose to wealth and political prominence in Florence.
66. When their castle in the valley of the Greve was destroyed to permit Florence to expand its borders, the Buondelmonti family moved in 1135 to that city. The Buondelmonti became leaders of the Guelph party in Florence.
a bull gone blind is more likely to fall than a blind lamb; often a single sword will cut more efficaciously than five. | 72 |
If you consider Luni and Urbisaglia, how they have perished, how Sinigaglia and Chiusi too now follow them to ruin, | 75 |
you should not find it hard to understand or strange to hear that families dwindle out when even cities pass away in time. | 78 |
All of your works must die, as you must too, but they conceal this fact since they endure a longer time, and your life is so short. | 81 |
And as the turning of the lunar sphere covers and then uncovers ceaselessly the shore, so Fortune does with Florence now; | 84 |
and so, you should not be surprised to hear me talk about the noble Florentines whose fame has disappeared, concealed by time. | 87 |
I knew the Ughi and the Catellini, Greci, Filippi, Alberichi, Ormanni, illustrious citizens even in decline; | 90 |
I also knew, as great as they were old, the families dell’Area and Sannella, the Soldanieri, Ardinghi, and Bostichi. | 93 |
73. Luni, an ancient Etruscan city, on the border between Etruria and Liguria, decayed during the Roman period and was eventually destroyed. “Urbisaglia, ” the ancient Urbs Salvia, in the region of the Marches, had once been an important town, but by Dante’s time it had fallen to ruin.
74. “Sinigaglia, ” now Senigallia, was the ancient city of Sena Gallica. This city on the Adriatic was ruined in the thirteenth century during the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
75. “Chiusi, ” the ancient Clusium, located halfway between Florence and Rome, had once been one of the twelve great Etruscan cities.
88-93. The families mentioned in these verses were noble Florentine families that were extinct by Dante’s time.
Close to the gate now laden with the weight of unbelievable iniquity, a cargo that will soon submerge the ship, | 96 |
once lived the Ravignani from whom came Guido the Count and all of those who took as theirs the noble Bellincione name. | 99 |
The della Pressa were already versed in governing as one should, and Galigaio already had his hilt and pommel gilded. | 102 |
Already great the pale of vair, the Galli, Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifanti, and Barucci and those who blush now for the stave affair. | 105 |
The stock from which sprang the Calfucci branch already had grown great, the Arrigucci, the Sizii occupied high seats of offices. | 108 |
97-99. The Ravignani were another noble family extinct in Dante’s day.
100. The della Pressa were a prominent Ghibelline family who were among those driven out of Florence in 1258.
101. Like the della Pressa, the Galigai (“Galigaio”) were exiled with other Ghibellines in 1258.
102. A gilded sword hilt and pommel were a sign of nobility.
103-104. A representation of a strip of ermine (“vair”) longitudinally bisected the escutcheon of the Pigli family arms. The Galli were a family of Ghibellines whose houses in Florence, like those of the Galigai, were destroyed in 1293. The Sacchetti were Guelphs and among those who fled Florence after the Ghibelline victory at Montaperti. The Giuochi, the Fifanti, and the Barucci were Ghibelline families; the Barucci were extinct by Dante’s time.
105. Durante de’ Chiaramontcsi, as head of the Salt Import Department of Florence, had reduced the size of a bushel-measure by one stave, appropriating the balance.
106-108. An ancient Guelph family extinct in Dante’s time, the Calfucci were ancestors of the Donati. The Arrigucci and the Sizii held public offices during Cacciaguida’s time and as Guelphs were among those who fled Florence in 1260 after the Ghibelline victory at Montaperti.
How great I saw them once who now are ruined by their own pride! And how those balls of gold shone bright as Florence flowered in great deeds! | 111 |
Such were the fathers of those who today prolong some vacant office in the Church and grow fat sitting in consistory. | 114 |
That insolent, presumptuous clan that plays the dragon to all those who flee, the lamb to anyone who shows his teeth—or purse— | 117 |
was on the rise, though still of such low class that Ubertin Donato was not pleased when his father-in-law made him their kin. | 120 |
By then, the Caponsacchi had come down from Fiesole to the marketplace; the Giudi and Infangati were good citizens. | 123 |
Here is a fact incredible but true: one entered the small circle by a gate named for the della Pera family. | 126 |
109-110. Here Dante refers to the Uberti, a Ghibelline family of Germanic origin, who had come to Florence in the tenth century.
110-111. The Lamberti, whose arms bore golden balls on a field of blue, were of Germanic origin. The infamous Mosca, a member of their family, was responsible for inciting the Amidei to murder Buondelmonte, the act that began the Guelph-Ghibelline feud. (See note to lines 136-137).
112-114. The Visdomini and the Tosinghi families administered episcopal revenues of the Florentine bishopric whenever the See was vacant.
115-120, This “clan” is the Adimari family, who were Guelphs and as such were expelled from Florence in 1248.