Secondo il mio talento agli occhi altrui.
c. vi.
Trust to my hand the heliotrope, by which
I may at will from others’ eyes conceal me
Compare Ariosto, II Negromante, a. 3. s. 3. Pulci, Morg. Magg.
c xxv. and Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, c. x. st. 17.
Gower in his Confessio Amantis, lib. vii, enumerates it among the
jewels in the diadem of the sun.
Jaspis and helitropius.
v. 104. The Arabian phoenix.] This is translated from Ovid,
Metam. l. xv.
Una est quae reparat, seque ipsa reseminat ales,
&c.
See also Petrarch, Canzone:
“Qual piu,” &c.
v. 120. Vanni Fucci.] He is said to have been an illegitimate offspring of the family of Lazari in Pistoia, and, having robbed the sacristy of the church of St. James in that city, to have charged Vanni della Nona with the sacrilege, in consequence of which accusation the latter suffered death.
v. 142. Pistoia.] “In May 1301, the Bianchi party, of Pistoia, with the assistance and favor of the Bianchi who ruled Florence, drove out the Neri party from the former place, destroying their houses, Palaces and farms.” Giov. Villani, Hist. l. viii. e xliv.