It will be seen that they voted with beans—a white bean for "No," a black bean for "Yes."
[568] Cf. Milanesi, op. cit., u.s., Vol. I, p. iii, and Toynbee, op. cit., p. 99. The record in the Libro delle Provvisioni ad annum 1373 has been destroyed since 1604, when Filippo Valori (cf. Gamba, Serie dei Testi di Lingua, ed. quarta, p. 554, col. a. No. 2006), saw it. He says: "Il qual Boccaccio, oltre al dirsi Maestro dell' Eloquenza, fu stimato di tal dottrina, che e' potesse dichiarare quella di Dante, e perciò, l' anno mille trecento settanta tre, lo elesse la Città per Lettor pubblico, con salario di cento fiorini, che fu notabile; e vedesi questo nel Libro delle Provvisioni." Cf. Manni, Istoria del Decamerone, p. 101. The facts are, however, recorded in the Libro dell' uscita della Camera, now in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze. Milanesi, op. cit., p. iii, quotes this document: "1373, 31 Decembris. Domino Johanni de Certaldo honorabili civi florentino electo per dominos Priores Artium et Vexilliferum Justitie dicti populi et Comunis, die XXV mensis augusti proxime preteriti ad legendum librum qui vulgariter appellatur il Dante, in civitate Florentie, pro tempore et termino unius anni incepti die decimo ottavo mensis ottubris proxime preteriti et cum salario centum florenorum auri pio anno quolibet, solvendorum secundum formam reformationis consilii dicti populi et Comunis de hac materia loquentis, pro ipsius domini Johannis salario et paga primorum sex mensium dicti temporis, initiatis die decimo ottavo mensis ottubris proxime preteriti, pro dimidio totius dicti salarii, vigore electionis de eo facte, in summa florenorum quinquaginta auri."
[569] Cf. Gerola, Alcuni documenti inediti per la biografia del Boccaccio in Giornale Stor. della Lett. Ital., Vol. XXXII (1898), p. 345 et seq.
[570] So Guido Monaldi tells us in his Diario (ed. Prato, 1835): "Domenica a dì ventitrè di ottobre cominciò in Firenze a leggere il Dante M. Giovanni Boccaccio."
[571] Cf. Boll. di Soc. Dant. Ital., n.s., III, p. 38 note. Milanesi in his Introduction to the Comento tells us, mistakenly, that Boccaccio lectured in S. Stefano al Ponte Vecchio. This church, since the church of S. Cecilia was destroyed in Piazza Signoria at the end of the eighteenth century, has been called SS. Stefano e Cecilia, but from the thirteenth century till then it was called S. Stefano ad portam ferram. That it was not here but at S. Stefano della Badia that Boccaccio lectured we know from Monaldi's diary, and it is confirmed for us by Benvenuto da Imola: "In interiori circulo est Abbatia monachorum sancti Benedicti, cuius ecclesia dicitur Sanctus Stephanus, ubi certius et ordinatius pulsabantur horæ quam in aliqua alia ecclesia civitatis; quæ tamen hodie est inordinata et neglecta, ut vidi, dum audirem venerabilem præceptorem meum Boccaccium de Certaldo legentem istum nobilem poetam in dicta ecclesia" (Comentum (ed. Vernon), Vol. V, p. 145). Dr. Toynbee thinks that S. Stefano is the ancient dedication of the Badia, which was later placed under the protection of S. Mary. If this was so, then it was in the Badia itself that Boccaccio lectured. Mr. Carmichael, however (On the Old Road through France to Florence (Murray), p. 254), states that Boccaccio lectured not in the abbey, but in the little church of S. Stefano ad Abbatiam, formerly adjoining the abbey, and indeed almost a part of it. Unfortunately he gives no authority for this important statement, nor can he now give any. It is, however, a very interesting suggestion, worth examining closely.
[572] It will be remembered that Dante was not only expelled from Florence, but condemned by the Florentines to be burned alive, "igne comburatur sic quod moriatur," should he be taken. This sentence bears date March 10, 1302.
[574] De Blasiis, op. cit., p. 139 et seq.
[575] Filocolo, ed. cit., II, p. 377. Cf. Dobelli, Il culto del Boccaccio per Dante in Giornale Dantesca (1897), Vol. V, p. 207 et seq. Signor Dobelli seems to me to lay far too much emphasis on the sheer imitations of Boccaccio. Now and then we find a mere copying, but not often. This learned article of Dobelli's is traversed, and I think very happily, by a writer in the Giornale Stor. della Lett. Ital., XXXII (1898), p. 219 et seq.
[576] For instance, in the opening of the third part, Filostrato, ed. cit., Pt. III, p. 80, which may be compared with Paradiso, I, vv. 13 et seq.