[8] The Paduan Guelphs, resisting the Emperor, to whom they owed duty, were defeated more than once, near Vicenza, by Can Grande, during the years in which Dante was writing his poem.
[9] The Sile and the Cagnano unite at Treviso, whose lord, Ricciardo da Camino, was assassinated in 1312.
[10] An act of treachery on the part of the Bishop and Lord of Feltro, Alessandro Novello, in delivering up Ghibelline exiles from Ferrara, of whom thirty were beheaded; a treason so vile that in the tower called Malta, where ecclesiastics who committed capital crimes were imprisoned, no such crime as his was ever punished.
[11] That is, of the Guelphs, by whom the designation of The Party was appropriated.
[12] The Thrones were, according to St. Gregory, that order of Angels through whom God executes his judgments.
[13] Because we see reflected from the Thrones the judgment of God above to fall on the guilty.
[14] See Canto VIII., near the beginning.
The next joy, which was already known to me as an illustrious thing,[1] became to my sight like a fine ruby whereon the sun should strike. Through joy effulgence is gained there on high, even as a smile here; but below[2] the shade darkens outwardly, as the mind is sad.
[1] By the words of Cunizza.
[2] In Hell.