GANTO VI. plot was as unproved as the peculation of Dante; and their real misdemeanor was that of possessing great riches both in gardens and palaces, all of which were plundered by the French (1); who at last evacuated Florence in May 1302, that is, 6 months after they had entered it; and followed their Prince against Naples, where he was destined to reap as little glory as had been merited by his treachery and rapacity among the Tuscans (2). Both he and two Cardinals, who were deputed at different periods, instead of establishing tranquillity in Florence, as they professed to endeavour to do, left it in far worse confusion than they had found it. Every vial of wrath seemed to be poured out on that devoted spot, murder, famine, pestilence, excommunications (besides the fall of a bridge during a public festival, by which many thousands of both sexes were drowned in the Ar-. no) and, to crown the whole, a terrible fire which was purposely lit by a most wicked priest, at the (1) It was one of the Podestà's most usual schemes molti furono accusati, e convenia loro confessare, aveano fatta congiura, che non laveano fatta (Dino Compagni Lib. 2, p. 44.) sotto il detto ingannevole trattato, si partirono della città... e furono condannati per Messere Carlo come rubelli, e disfatti i loro Palazzi, ec. Gio. Villani, Lib. vin. Cap. 48. The charge was founded upon letters; which Machiavelli avows were probably fabrications. Istorie Fior. Lib. 2. p. 91. (2) Id. Id.—Il partit pour la Sicile emportant avec lui les maledictions des Toscans. In Sicily he was soon obliged to sue for peace; and thence returned ignominously into France, as well meriting the reputation of lackland as when he left it - notwithstanding the Pope's promise of making him, among other magnificent things, Emperor of Constantinople. Sismondi, Hist. des Répub. Ital. Vol. 1v. p. 127. - GANTO VI. instigation of Donati and the Blacks, and which burned down more than 1900 fine houses, palaces, and churches; that is, above half the town, before it could be extinguished (1). Still the Whites (as a body) were not as yet sent into banishment, although a few of their chiefs had been; so that, it were incorrect ou this account to apply the second banishment referred to by Ciacco to any of the above events. He identifies this banishment by saying it occurred three solar years (infra tre sole) after the prior one that is after the ascendancy obtained by the Whites on return from Sarzana. So, as this ascendancy dates June, 13or, we must look for the other event about 1304: and, in fact, I find that it was in July of that year that the Whites were entirely overthrown. To this it is, that v. Lxvin alludes; and if other commentators pretend otherwise, it is only, that they are not minute chronologists. The White chiefs, by degrees as they became exiled, congre. gated in Pistoja, and conducted their affairs by means of a council of twelve, one of whom was our poet, who had joined them on his leaving his Roman Embassy after the sentences promulgated against him. No favourable opportunity for action presented itself before 1304; during the summer of which, the new elected Pope (Benedict x1) was (1) Un malvagio Prete scelleratamente mise lo fuoco.... e ciò accadde il 1o di Giugno 1304. Priorista Fior. p. 51. This authority calculates 1500 houses, etc; but Dino Compagni 1900. Lib. 3. p. 65. CANTO VI. prevailed upon to cite the modern Catiline (Corso Donati (1)) and eleven others of the Blacks before. him and on their obeying the summons, those Whites who were in banishment were advised to seize the occasion, which had been made by his Holiness expressly to favour them, and penetrate into Florence, while their enemies were deprived of so many of their leaders (2). And so indeed they did: and on the twenty-second of July, advanced into the very heart of the city (as far as the square of S. John') in beautiful array, with their snowwhite banners and garlands of Olive in their bonnets, offerring not the smallest violence to any one; for although they had their swords drawn, their points were held down, and their cry was ever peace, peace, peace! Although the leaders were Whites, their troops to the amount of 1200 men-atarms on horseback were chiefly from Bologna, Arezzo and Romagna; and they were dressed in white cloaks, a symbol both of their party and their pacific intentions. But the enterprize failed; in a great (1) Un Cavaliere della somiglianza di Catilina Romano, ma più crudele di lui, gentile di sangue, bello del corpo, piacevole parlatore, adorno di belli costumi, sottile d'ingegno, coll' animo sempre intento a mal fare, col quale molti masnadieri si raunavano, etc. Dino Compagni, Lib 2. p. 43. (2) Yet Villani denies the Pope was a party in the business. The Whites being in such small numbers (and indeed almost all their troops being strangers) proves that it had been only a few heads of family that were expelled earlier than 1304. Villani adds a few hundreds to the force as calculated by Dino Compagni, but agrees in representing them as a mixed horde of mercenaries. CANTO VI. degree by their own imprudence in having the foolhardiness to prefer to the friendly hours of shade the glaring meridian of a day so hot that the very air appeared to be on fire, and in taking no precautions to have water for themselves and horses; but also partly by the want of courage of their illassorted levies, and the defection of their partisans within the city. These, far from aiding them, retired into their houses; and some even took up arms against them and set fire to the buildings in their vicinity in order to recommend themselves to the Blacks; so that the unfortunate White captains, betrayed by their own allies, assailed by their foes, and parched almost to death by the torrid sun, were beaten back with grievous loss in the battle and incalculable cruelties after it. Those that could be taken prisoners were either butchered on the spot, or reserved for the more ignominious fate of the rack and the gibbet: and the event was closely followed by the expulsion, not merely of all the Cerchi and other white potentates, but radically of their entire party (1). They were henceforth doomed to roam about the rest of Italy in the utmost penury and slavery:' and that they should continue in that miserable situation 'long' (lungo tempo) was all that Dante could put into the mouth of Ciacco, or of any one else at any time, for they (1) Dino Compagni Lib. 3. p. 65- Gio. Villani, Lib. v. cap. 72Machiavelli, Ist. Fior. Lib. 2. p. 94. CANTO VI. were still in exile when he died. They dispersed themselves up and down from Calabria to the Alps, and, naturally allying with those of their fellowcitizens who had been exiled years before as Ghibellines, they all became known promiscuously under this latter old term of reproach; and the appellation Whites fell into disuse, and of course that opposed to it, Blacks, also. Dante consequently, who had been so unjustly accused of belonging to the former faction, was fated quite as unjustly to partake of its fresh obloquy and to be branded with a charge of Ghibellinism: but we have seen that he was already exiled and sentenced to be burnt alive, long before either he or the Whites had incurred that charge; and, as we go on, we shall have continual occasions of proving (what I affirmed from the beginning (1)), that he was never either Guelph or Ghibelline, as clearly as, I hope, I have here done, that he was neither Black nor White. Perhaps few better illustrations of the miserable fluctuation of things in Florence can be given, than the declaration of Boccaccio, (who wrote so shortly after the events we have been reciting) that those same Donati and Cerchi, so much spoken of as absolute masters of the Republic, were dropt into poverty and so gone out of notice that scarcely any remembrance of them existed (2). In (1) Hell, Comment, Canto 1. p. 4. (2) Furon de' nostri di in tanto stato che guidarono le cose piccole e grandi, secondo il piacere loro, ovc oggì appena è ricordo di loro. Comento, Vol. 1. p. 17 |