v. 134. Cappocchio’s ghost.] Capocchio of Sienna, who is said to have been a fellow-student of Dante’s in natural philosophy.
CANTO XXX.
v. 4. Athamas.] From Ovid, Metam. 1. iv. Protinos Aelides, &c.
v. 16. Hecuba. See Euripedes, Hecuba; and Ovid, Metnm. l. xiii.
v. 33. Schicchi.] Gianni Schicci, who was of the family of Cavalcanti, possessed such a faculty of moulding his features to the resemblance of others, that he was employed by Simon Donati to personate Buoso Donati, then recently deceased, and to make a will, leaving Simon his heir; for which service he was renumerated with a mare of extraordinary value, here called “the lady of the herd.”
v. 39. Myrrha.] See Ovid, Metam. l. x.
v. 60. Adamo’s woe.] Adamo of Breschia, at the instigation of Cuido Alessandro, and their brother Aghinulfo, lords of Romena, coonterfeited the coin of Florence; for which crime he was burnt. Landino says, that in his time the peasants still pointed out a pile of stones near Romena as the place of his execution.
v. 64. Casentino.] Romena is a part of Casentino.
v. 77. Branda’s limpid spring.] A fountain in Sienna.
v. 88. The florens with three carats of alloy.] The floren was a coin that ought to have had tmenty-four carats of pure gold. Villani relates, that it was first used at Florence in 1253, an aera of great prosperity in the annals of the republic; before which time their most valuable coinage was of silver. Hist. l. vi. c. 54.