moned to the city of Florence; but this measure, instead of remedying the evil, only contributed to increase its virulence, by communicating it to the citizens of Florence themselves. For the contending parties were so far from being brought to a reconciliation, that each contrived to gain fresh partisans among the Florentines, with whom many of them were closely connected by the ties of blood and friendship; and who entered into the dispute with such acrimony and eagerness, that the whole city was soon engaged either on one part or the other, and even brothers of the same family were divided. It was not long before they passed, by the usual gradations, from contumely to violence. The factions were now known by the names of the Neri and the Bianchi, the former generally siding with the Guelphs or adherents of the papal power, the latter with the Ghibellines or those who supported the authority of the Emperor. The Neri assembled secretly in the church of the Holy Trinity, and determined on interceding with Pope Boniface VIII. to send Charles of Valois to pacify and reform the city. No sooner did this resolution come to the knowledge of the Bianchi, than, struck with apprehension at the consequences of such a measure, they took arms, and repaired to the Priors; demanding of them the punishment of their adversaries, for having thus entered into private deliberations concerning the state, which they represented to have been done with the view of expelling them from the city. Those who had met, being alarmed in their turn, had also recourse to arms, and made their complaints to the Priors. Accusing their opponents of having armed themselves without any previous public discussion; and affirming that, under various pretexts, they had sought to drive them out of their country, they demanded that they might be punished as disturbers of the public tranquillity. The dread and danger became general, when, by the advice of Dante, the Priors called in the multitude to their protection and assistance; and then proceeded to banish the principals of the two factions, who were these: Corso Donati1, Geri Spini, Giachonotto de' Pazzi, Rosso della Tosa, and others of the Nera 1 of this remarkable man, see more in the Purg. xxiv. 81. party, who were exiled to the Castello della Pieve in Perugia; and of the Bianca party, who were banished to Serrazana, Gentile and Torrigiano de' Cerchi, Guido Cavalcanti', Baschiera della Tosa, Baldinaccio Adimari, Naldo son of Lottino Gherardini, and others. On this occasion Dante was accused of favouring the Bianchi, though he appears to have conducted himself with impartiality; and the deliberation held by the Neri for introducing Charles of Valois2 might, perhaps, have justified him in treating that party with yet greater rigour. The suspicion against him was increased, when those, whom he was accused of favouring, were soon after allowed to return from their banishment, while the sentence passed upon the other faction still remained in full force. To this Dante replied, that when those who had been sent to Serrazana were recalled, he was no longer in office; and that their return had been permitted on account of the death of Guido Cavalcanti, which was attributed to the unwholesome air of that place. The partiality which had been shown, however, afforded a pretext to the Pope3 for despatching Charles of Valois to Florence, by whose influence a great reverse was soon produced in the public affairs; the ex-citizens being restored to their place, and the whole of the Bianca party driven into exile. At this juncture, Dante was not in Florence, but at Rome, whither he had a short time before been sent ambassador to the Pope, with the offer of a voluntary return to peace and amity among the citizens. His enemies had now an opportunity of revenge, and, during his absence on this pacific mission, proceeded to pass an iniquitous decree of banishment against him and Palmieri Altoviti; and at the same time confiscated his possessions, which indeed had been previously given up to pillage1. 1 See notes to Hell, x. 59. and Purg. xi. 96. 2 See Purg. xx. 69. 3 Boniface VIII. had before sent the Cardinal Matteo d'Acquasparta to Florence, with the view of supporting his own adherents in that city. The cardinal is supposed to be alluded to in the Paradise, xii. 115. On the 27th of January, 1302, he was mulcted 8000 lire, and condemned to two years' banishment; and in case the fine was not paid, his goods were to be confiscated. On the 16th of March, the same year, he was sentenced to a punish On hearing the tidings of his ruin, Dante instantly quitted Rome, and passed with all possible expedition to Sienna. Here being more fully apprised of the extent of the calamity, for which he could see no remedy, he came to the desperate resolution of joining himself to the other exiles. His first meeting with them was at a consultation which they had at Gorgonza, a small castle subject to the jurisdiction of Arezzo, in which city it was finally, after a long deliberation, resolved that they should take up their station'. Hither they accord ment due only to the most desperate of malefactors. The decree, that Dante and his associates in exile should be burned, if they fell into the hands of their enemies, was first discovered in 1772, by the Conte Lodovico Savioli. See Tiraboschi, where the document is given at length. At Arezzo it was his fortune, in 1302, to meet with Busone da Gubbia, who two years before had been expelled from his country as a Ghibelline, in about the twentieth year of his age. Busone, himself a cultivator of the Italian poetry, here contracted a friendship with Dante, which was afterwards cemented by the reception afforded him under Busone's roof during a part of his exile. He was of the ancient and noble family of the Rafaelli of Gubbio; and to his banishment owed the honourable offices which he held of governor of Arezzo in 1316 and 1317; of governor of Viterbo in the latter of these years; then of captain of Pisa; of deputy to the Emperor in 1327; and finally of Roman senator in 1337. He died probably about 1350. The historian of Italian literature speaks slightly of his poetical productions, consisting chiefly of comments on the Divina Commedia, which were written in terza rima. They have been published by Sig. Francesco Maria Rafaelli, who has collected all the information that could be obtained respecting them. Delicia Eruditor, v. xvii. He wrote also a romance, entitled L'Avventuroso Ciciliano, which has never been printed. Tiraboschi, Stor. della Poes. Ital. v. ii. p. 56. In Allacci's Collection. Ediz. Napoli. 1661. p. 112. is a sonnet by Busone, on the death of a lady and of Dante, which concludes, Ma i mi conforto ch' io credo che Deo Dante abbia posto in glorioso scanno. At the end of the Divina Commedia, in No. 3581 of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, are four poems. The first, beginning, O voi che siete nel verace lume, is attributed, as usual, to Jacopo Dante. The second, which begins, Acio che sia più frutto e più diletto and proceeds with a brief explanation of the principal parts of the poem, is here attributed to Messer Busone d'Agobbio. It is also inserted in Nos. 3459 and 3460 of the same MSS.; ingly repaired in a numerous body, made the Count Alessandro da Romena their leader, and appointed a council of twelve, of which number Dante was one. In the year 1304, having been joined by a very strong force, which was not only furnished them by Arezzo, but sent from Bologna and Pistoia, they made a sudden attack on the city of Florence, gained possession of one of the gates, and conquered part of the territory, but were finally compelled to retreat without retaining any of the advantages they had acquired. Disappointed in this attempt to reinstate himself in his country, Dante quitted Arezzo; and his course is1, for the most part, afterwards to be traced only by notices, casually dropped in his own writings, or discovered in documents, which either chance or the zeal of antiquaries may have brought to light. From an instrument2 in the possession of the Marchesi Papafavi, of Padua, it has been ascertained that, in 1306, he was at that city and with that family. Similar proof3 exists of his having been present in the following year at a congress of the Ghibellines and the Bianchi, held in the sacristy of the church belonging to the abbey of S. Gaudenzio in Mugello; and from a passage in the Purgatory we collect, that before the expiration of 1307 he had found a refuge in Lunigiana, and I have had occasion to refer to it in the notes to Purg. xxix.140. The third is a sonnet by Cino da Pistoia to Busone; and the fourth, Busone's answer. Since this note was written, Busone's Romance, above mentioned, has been edited at Florence in the year 1832, by the late Doctor Nott. A late writer has attemped a recital of his wanderings. For this purpose, he assigns certain arbitrary dates to the completion of the several parts of the Divina Commedia; and selecting from each what he supposes to be reminiscences of particular places visited by Dante, together with allusions to events then passing, contrives, by the help of some questionable documents, to weave out of the whole a continued narrative, which, though it may pass for current with the unwary reader, will not satisfy a more diligent inquirer after the truth. See Troya's Veltro Allegorico di Dante. Florence, 1826. 2 Millesimo trecentesimo sexto, die vigesimo septimo mensis Augusti, Padue in contrata Sancti Martini in domo Domine Amate Domini Papafave, præsentibus Dantino quondam Alligerii de Florentia et nunc stat Padue in contrata Sancti Laurentii, &c. Pelli, p. 83. 3 Pelli, p. 85, where the document is given. 4 Canto viii. 133. with the Marchese Morello or Marcello Malaspina, who, though formerly a supporter of the opposite party, was now magnanimous enough to welcome a noble enemy in his misfortune. The time at which he sought an asylum at Verona, under the hospitable roof of the Signori della Scala, is less distinctly marked. It would seem as if those verses in the Paradise, where the shade of his ancestor declares to him, Lo primo tuo rifugio e'l primo ostello Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo, First 2 refuge thou must find, first place of rest should not be interpreted too strictly: but whether he experienced that courtesy at a very early period of his banishment, or, as others have imagined, not till 1308, when he had quitted the Marchese Morello, it is believed that he left Verona in disgust at the flippant levity of that court, or at some slight which he conceived to have been shown him by his munificent patron Can Grande, on whose liberality he has passed so high an encomium3. Supposing the latter to have been the cause of his departure, it must necessarily be placed at a date posterior to 1308; for Can Grande, though associated with his amiable brother Alboino4 in the government of Verona, was then only seventeen years of age, and therefore incapable of giving the alleged offence to his guest. The mortifications, which he underwent during these wanderings, will be best described in his own language. In his Convito he speaks of his banishment, and the poverty and distress which attended it, in very affecting terms. "Alas 5," said he, "had it pleased the Dispenser of the 1 Hell, xxiv. 144. Morello's wife Alagia is honourably mentioned in the Purg. xix. 140. 2 Canto xvii. 68. 3 Hell, i. 98. and Par. xvii. 75. A Latin Epistle dedicatory of the Paradise to Can Grande is attributed to Dante. Without better proof than has been yet adduced, I cannot conclude it to be genuine. See the question discussed by Fraticelli, in the Opere Minori di Dante, tom. iii. pte ii. 12o. Fir. 1941. 4 Alboino is spoken of in the Convito, p. 179. in such a manner, that it is not easy to say whether a compliment or a reflection is intended; but I am inclined to think the latter. 5 "Ahi piacciuto fosse al Dispensatore dell' Universo," &c. p. 11. |