Among My Books, Second Series | Page 4

be briefly stated. In 1274 occurred what we may call his spiritual
birth, the awakening in him of the imaginative faculty, and of that
profounder and more intense consciousness which springs from the
recognition of beauty through the antithesis of sex. It was in that year
that he first saw Beatrice Portinari. In 1289 he was present at the battle
of Campaldino, fighting on the side of the Guelphs, who there utterly
routed the Ghibellines, and where, he says characteristically enough, "I
was present, not a boy in arms, and where I felt much fear, but in the
end the greatest pleasure, from the various changes of the fight."[18] In
the same year he assisted at the siege and capture of Caprona.[19] In
1290 died Beatrice, married to Simone dei Bardi, precisely when is
uncertain, but before 1287, as appears by a mention of her in her
father's will, bearing date January 15 of that year. Dante's own marriage

is assigned to various years, ranging from 1291 to 1294; but the earlier
date seems the more probable, as he was the father of seven children
(the youngest, a daughter, named Beatrice) in 1301. His wife was
Gemma dei Donati, and through her Dante, whose family, though noble,
was of the lesser nobility, became nearly connected with Corso Donati,
the head of a powerful clan of the grandi, or greater nobles. In 1293
occurred what is called the revolution of Gian Della Bella, in which the
priors of the trades took the power into their own hands, and made
nobility a disqualification for office. A noble was defined to be any one
who counted a knight among his ancestors, and thus the descendant of
Cacciaguida was excluded.
Della Bella was exiled in 1295, but the nobles did not regain their
power. On the contrary, the citizens, having all their own way,
proceeded to quarrel among themselves, and subdivided into the
popolani grossi and popolani minuti, or greater and lesser trades,--a
distinction of gentility somewhat like that between wholesale and retail
tradesmen. The grandi continuing turbulent, many of the lesser nobility,
among them Dante, drew over to the side of the citizens, and between
1297 and 1300 there is found inscribed in the book of the physicians
and apothecaries, _Dante d' Aldighiero, degli Aldighieri, poeta
Fiorentino_[20] Professor de Vericour[21] thinks it necessary to
apologize for this lapse on the part of the poet, and gravely bids us take
courage, nor think that Dante was ever an apothecary. In 1300 we find
him elected one of the priors of the city. In order to a perfect
misunderstanding of everything connected with the Florentine politics
of this period, one has only to study the various histories. The result is a
spectrum on the mind's eye, which looks definite and brilliant, but
really hinders all accurate vision, as if from too steady inspection of a
Catharine-wheel in full whirl. A few words, however, are necessary, if
only to make the confusion palpable. The rival German families of
Welfs and Weiblingens had given their names, softened into Guelfi and
Ghibellini,--from which Gabriel Harvey[22] ingeniously, but
mistakenly, derives elves and goblins,--to two parties in Northern Italy,
representing respectively the adherents of the pope and of the emperor,
but serving very well as rallying-points in all manner of intercalary and
subsidiary quarrels. The nobles, especially the greater ones,--perhaps
from instinct, perhaps in part from hereditary tradition, as being more

or less Teutonic by descent,--were commonly Ghibellines, or
Imperialists; the bourgeoisie were very commonly Guelphs, or
supporters of the pope, partly from natural antipathy to the nobles, and
partly, perhaps, because they believed themselves to be espousing the
more purely Italian side. Sometimes, however, the party relation of
nobles and burghers to each other was reversed, but the names of
Guelph and Ghibelline always substantially represented the same things.
The family of Dante had been Guelphic, and we have seen him already
as a young man serving two campaigns against the other party. But no
immediate question as between pope and emperor seems then to have
been pending; and while there is no evidence that he was ever a mere
partisan, the reverse would be the inference from his habits and
character. Just before his assumption of the priorate, however, a new
complication had arisen. A family feud, beginning at the neighboring
city of Pistoja, between the Cancellieri Neri and Cancellieri
Bianchi,[23] had extended to Florence, where the Guelphs took the part
of the Neri and the Ghibellines of the Bianchi.[24] The city was
instantly in a ferment of street brawls, as actors in one of which some
of the Medici are incidentally named,--the first appearance of that
family in history. Both parties appealed at different times to the pope,
who sent two ambassadors, first a bishop and then a cardinal.