[75] Fraticelli, Storia della Vita di Dante, page 112 and note.
[76] It is to be regretted that Ampère in his charming Voyage Dantesque devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan city has more thoroughly preserved its mediæval character. There is no authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to exaggerate his political importance and activity.
[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street in the suburbs.—Witte, Dante-Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 279.
[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at Parad. xvi. 127.
[79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii.
[80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, and lawyers of a certain rank—notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for example, never gets it.
[81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great business house of Peruzzi.
[82] Inf. iii. 60.
[83] He is ‘the Prince of the modern Pharisees’ (Inf. xxvii. 85); his place is ready for him in hell (Inf. xix. 53); and he is elsewhere frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent towards him (Purg. xx. 86).
[84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never crowned at Rome.