ON POPULAR ELOQUENCE. De Vulgari Eloquio,1 is a defense of the literary use of the vernacular language, but written in Latin to influence the learned despisers of the language of the people. It was to embrace ten books, but only two have come down to us. It treats of language in general, and the different dialects of Italy, and is important for the development of a national Italian literature which Dante founded as the first and unsurpassed classic. The treatise was written in the latter part of his exile, to which he touchingly alludes when he writes: "I have most pity for those, whosoever they are, that languish in exile, and revisit their country only in dreams." ON WATER AND EARTH. A Latin essay on the two elements of water and earth (Quæstio de Aqua et Terra) contains the substance of a disputation which Dante held January 20th, 1320, before the assembled clergy at Verona, in the chapel of St. Helena. It concludes with an honest confession of humble agnosticism, asking men to cease troubling their brains about subtle questions which transcend their capacity, and reminding them of Paul's words: "O the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out" (Rom. xi. 33). In this treatise Dante maintains that the sea-level is uniform, that the earth is spherical, that the moon is the chief cause of the tides. Some zealous admirers claim for him an anticipation of Newton's theory of gravitation and other important discoveries of truths of modern science. But this is about as preposterous as to assert that Shakespeare discovered the circulation of the blood before Harvey, or that St. James anticipated the Copernican system when speaking of the "Father of lights," with whom there can be "no shadow of turning" (i. 17). Dante was original as poet, but as a philosopher he was a pupil of Aristotle, and as a theologian a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. 1 Or better, De vulgari Eloquentia. See Scartazzini, p. 243. 2 He was, however, aware of universal attraction. Inf. XXXIV., 106–114. LETTERS. Fourteen letters, two of them recently discovered by Professor Witte. They illustrate the prophetic character with which Dante believed himself to be endowed. The longest and most important is addressed to his patron and friend, Can Grande della Scala, of Verona, and furnishes the key for the understanding of the Divina Commedia. The letters to Emperor Henry VII., and to the princes of Italy and the people of Florence cast light on his politics. THE CREED. The Credo of Dante, so called, is a series of didactic poems or poetic paraphrases of the Apostles' Creed, the seven Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the seven Penitential Psalms, the seven deadly sins, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ave Maria. It is a sort of manual of faith and devotion and written in the same metre as the Commedia. But it is so much inferior to his genuine poetry that it betrays either great haste, or premature decline of power, or, more probably, the hand of an admirer who wished to clear him of the suspicion of heresy. This was a very unnecessary task. His Comedy is sufficiently orthodox for every intelligent Catholic, if we judge it from the medieval, and not from the modern Vatican or ultramontane standard. His genuine prayer to the Virgin Mary in the thirty-third Canto of the Paradiso is far superior to the questionable Ave Maria of the Credo, both in ardor of devotion and poetic beauty. 1 Plumptre (II., 318-325) gives a rhymed translation of the Credo, but confesses that he cannot find in it the traces of the master's hand. It is not mentioned by Boccaccio and the earliest commentators, and comes to us through an anonymous MS. in the Bibliotheca Riccardiana of Florence, but is received by Fraticelli and included in his edition of the Canzoniere, and by Witte and Krafft in their German translations of Dante's Minor Poems. 2 According to an uncertain tradition, the Franciscans took offense at the lamentations of St. Francis over the degeneracy of his order in Paradiso, XI., 120-139, and brought Dante before the Inquisitor, but Dante asked for a short respite to prepare his defense, and produced over-night this Credo; whereupon he was acquitted. THE COMEDY. The Divina Commedia, which requires a separate essay, is Dante's last and greatest work, to which all others are preparatory and contributory. He calls it a "sacred poem " "To which both heaven and earth have set their hand.": 1 Par., XXV., 1 : "Il poema sacro, Al quale ha posto, mano e cielo e terra." NOTE TO p. 317, THE PORTRAITS OF DANTE.-Since the preceding pages were stereotyped, Prof. Thomas Davidson directed my attention to Le Opere di Giorgio Vasari con nuove annotazioni e commenti di GAETANO MILANESI (Firenze, 1878), which contains (p. 413 sqq.) a lengthy discussion on Giotto's portrait of Dante. Milanesi shows that Giotto was not the author, as is generally supposed, of the fresco picture of Dante in the capella del Palazzo del Poestà in Florence, but of a portrait on wood which stood on the altar, and was lost about the beginning of the fifteenth century, having, however, been previously copied on the wall of said palazzo and also on that of the Church of Santa Croce. A. D., 1265. 1268. DANTE CHRONICLE. May or June. Dante born at Florence. Conradin, grandson of Frederick II., and the last of the Hohenstaufen, defeated at Tagliacozzo by Charles of Anjou, and beheaded at Naples. (Cf. Inf. XXVIII. 17 sqq.; Purg. XX. 67 894.) 1274. May. Dante's first meeting with Beatrice (see Vita Nuova). Death of Thomas Aquinas, "the angelic doctor," and Bonaventura, "the seraphic doctor." (Purg. XX. 67-69 ; Par. X. 96 XII, 110, 127.) 1276. Birth of Giotto, the painter. 1280. Death of Albertus Magnus. (Purg. XI. 95.) (Par. X. 95.) 1281. Dante's second meeting with Beatrice. Death of Pope Nicholas III. (Inf. XIX. 71.) 1282. The Sicilian Vespers, and revolt of Palermo. (Par. VIII. 73 sqq.) 1289. June 11. Dante fights as a Guelf in the battle of Campaldino and the siege of Caprona. (Inf. XXI. 95.) Murder of Francesca da Rimini. (Inf. v. 71 sqq.) Death of Count Ugolino. (Inf. XXXII. 124, XXXIII. 78.) 1290. December 31. Death of Beatrice. (Purg. XXXII. 2, “decennial thirst.") 1290 or 1291. Dante wrote the Vita Nuova, the story of Beatrice. Episode of the Donna Pietosa. Study of philosophy and secular pursuits. (See end of Vita Nuova, and beginning of Convito.) 1292. Dante marries Gemma Donati, of the noble family of Corso Donati, the leader of the Guelfs. (Purg. XXIV. 82: "he whose guilt is most.") 1294. Pope Celestine V. makes, through cowardice, “the great refusal." (Inf. IV. 59 sqq., XXVII. 104 sqq.) But the refer ence to this sainted pope is doubtful. Election of Boniface VIII. 1295. Dante joins the guild of Physicians and Apothecaries, and is 1296. Dante exercises his civil rights as a citizen of Florence. 1301. September or October. Dante sent as ambassador to Rome. 1301. November. Charles of Valois, by authority of Pope Boniface VIII., enters Florence as Pacificator of Tuscany." Triumph of the Guelfs. 1302. January 27th. Dante banished from Florence for two years and punished by a fine of 5000 florins. 1302. March 10th. Dante banished for life, on pain of being burnt alive in case of his return. 1303. Capture and death of Boniface VIII., at Anagni. (Inf. XIX. 53 ; XXVII. 70, 85; Purg. XVII. 50; XX. 85 sqq.; XXVII. 22; XXX. 148; XXXII. 148 sqq.; XXXIII. 44 sqq. Par. IX. 132; XII. 19; XXVII. 20 sqq.) 1305. Election of Pope Clement V. Transfer of the papal see to Avignon. (Inf. XIX. 83; Par. XVII. 82; XXX. 143.) 1308. Murder of Emperor Albert I. (Purg. VI. 98; Par. XIX. 115.) Death of Corso Donati, Dante's political enemy. (Purg. XXIV. 82.) 1309. Henry VII., Duke of Luxemburg, elected Emperor. 1310. Henry VII. arrives in Italy and is crowned at Milan, with the iron crown of Lombardy. Dante meets him at Susa, or Turin, or Milan, greets him as a second Moses, exhorts him to subdue Florence, and calls upon all the rulers of Italy to submit to the authority of the new Emperor, who was again crowned with the golden crown at Rome, 1312, but died in 1313. (Par. XVII. 82, "the noble Henry;" XXX. 135, 138.) 1311. September 6th. The sentence of banishment renewed against 1313. Dante. Death of Henry VII. Dante's political hopes transferred to Can Grande, of Verona, or some future deliverer and reformer. 1314. Uguccione della Faggiola conquers Lucca. Death of Clement V. and of Philip the Fair, of France. (Inf. XIX. 83 sqq.; Purg. VII. 109; Par. XIX. 118.) 1315. November 6th. Florence again renews the sentence of banishment, and extends it to the sons of Dante. 1316. John XXII. elected Pope. (Par. XXVII. 58.) Dante refuses to be pardoned on condition of admitting his guilt. 1317-1319 or 20. Dante resides at Verona with Can Grande. (Inf. I. 100 sqq.; Par. XVII. 75 sqq.; Purg. XXXIII. 39 sqq.) 1320-21. Dante at Ravenna, under the protection of Guido Novello da Polenta. Completes the Divina Commedia. 1321. September 14th. Death of Dante at Ravenna. 1865. Celebration of the sixth centenary of Dante's birth. |