The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

G. Villani, viii. 122, xi. 23. The former were not received in Florence, the latter were welcomed all the more readily.

1102

Corio, fol. 281. Leon. Aretinus, Hist. Flor. lib. xii. (at the beginning) mentions a sudden revival called forth by the processions of the ‘dealbati’ from the Alps to Lucca, Florence, and still farther.

1103

Pilgrimages to distant places had already become very rare. Those of the princes of the House of Este to Jerusalem, St. Jago, and Vienne are enumerated in Murat. xxiv. col. 182, 187, 190, 279. For that of Rinaldo Albizzi to the Holy Land, see Macchiavelli, Stor. Fior. l. v. Here, too, the desire of fame is sometimes the motive. The chronicler Giov. Cavalcanti (Ist. Fiorentine, ed. Polidori, ii. 478) says of Lionardo Fescobaldi, who wanted to go with a companion (about the year 1400) to the Holy Sepulchre: ‘Stimarono di eternarsi nella mente degli uomini futuri.’

1104

Bursellis, Annal. Bon. in Murat. xxiii. col. 890.

1105

Allegretto, in Murat. xxiii. col. 855 sqq. The report had got about that it had rained blood outside the gate. All rushed forth, yet ‘gli uomini di guidizio non lo credono.’

1106

Burigozzo, Arch. Stor. iii. 486. For the misery which then prevailed in Lombardy, Galeazzo Capello (De Rebus nuper in Italia Gestis) is the best authority. Milan suffered hardly less than Rome did in the sack of 1527.

1107

It was also called ‘l’arca del testimonio,’ and people told how it was ‘conzado’ (constructed) ‘con gran misterio.’

1108

Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 317, 322, 323, 326, 386, 401.

1109

‘Ad uno santo homo o santa donna,’ says the chronicle. Married men were forbidden to keep concubines.

1110

The sermon was especially addressed to them; after it a Jew was baptised, ‘ma non di quelli’ adds the annalist, ‘che erano stati a udire la predica.’

1111

‘Per buono rispetto a lui noto e perchè sempre è buono a star bene con Iddio,’ says the annalist. After describing the arrangements, he adds resignedly: ‘La cagione perchè sia fatto et si habbia a fare non s’intende, basta che ogni bene è bene.’

1112

He is called ‘Messo del Cancellieri del Duca.’ The whole thing was evidently intended to appear the work of the court only, and not of any ecclesiastical authority.

1113

See the quotations from Pico’s Discourse on the Dignity of Man above, pp. 354-5.

1114

Not to speak of the fact that a similar tolerance or indifference was not uncommon among the Arabians themselves.

1115

So in the Decameron. Sultans without name in Massuccio nov. 46, 48, 49; one called ‘Rè di Fes,’ another ‘Rè di Tunisi.’ In Dittamondo, ii. 25, we read, ‘il buono Saladin.’ For the Venetian alliance with the Sultan of Egypt in the year 1202, see G. Hanotaux in the Revue Historique iv. (1877) pp. 74-102. There were naturally also many attacks on Mohammedanism. For the Turkish woman baptized first in Venice and again in Rome, see Cechetti i. 487.

1116

Philelphi Epistolae, Venet. 1502 fol. 90 b. sqq.

1117

Decamerone i. nov. 3. Boccaccio is the first to name the Christian religion, which the others do not. For an old French authority of the thirteenth century, see Tobler, Li di dou Vrai Aniel, Leipzig, 1871. For the Hebrew story of Abr. Abulafia (b. 1241 in Spain, came to Italy about 1290 in the hope of converting the Pope to Judaism), in which two servants claim each to hold the jewel buried for the son, see Steinschneider, Polem. und Apol. Lit. der Arab. Sprache, pp. 319 and 360. From these and other sources we conclude that the story originally was less definite than as we now have it (in Abul. e.g. it is used polemically against the Christians), and that the doctrine of the equality of the three religions is a later addition. Comp. Reuter, Gesch. der Relig. Aufklärung im M. A. (Berlin, 1877), iii. 302 sqq. 390.

1118

De Tribus Impostoribus, the name of a work attributed to Frederick II. among many other people, and which by no means answers the expectations raised by the title. Latest ed. by Weller, Heilbronn, 1876. The nationality of the author and the date of composition are both disputed. See Reuter, op. cit. ii. 273-302.

1119

In the mouth, nevertheless, of the fiend Astarotte, canto xxv. str. 231 sqq. Comp. str. 141 sqq.

1120

Canto xxviii. str. 38 sqq.

1121

Canto xviii. str. 112 to the end.

1122

Pulci touches, though hastily, on a similar conception in his Prince Chiaristante (canto xxi. str. 101 sqq., 121 sqq., 145 sqq., 163 sqq.), who believes nothing and causes himself and his wife to be worshipped. We are reminded of Sigismondo Malatesta (p. 245 (#x10_x_10_i29)).

1123

Giov. Villani, iv. 29, vi. 46. The name occurs as early as 1150 in Northern countries. It is defined by William of Malmesbury (iii. 237, ed. Londin, 1840): ‘Epicureorum … qui opinantur animam corpore solutam in aerem evanescere, in auras effluere.’

1124

See the argument in the third book of Lucretius. The name of Epicurean was afterwards used as synonymous with freethinker. Lorenzo Valla (Opp. 795 sqq.) speaks as follows of Epicurus: ‘Quis eo parcior, quis contentior, quis modestior, et quidem in nullo philosophorum omnium minus invenio fuisse vitiorum, plurimique honesti viri cum Graecorum, tum Romanorum, Epicurei fuerunt.’ Valla was defending himself to Eugenius IV. against the attacks of Fra Antonio da Bitonto and others.

1125

Inferno, vii. 67-96.

1126