[499] Del Lungo, "Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica," i. p. 162. The author believes that Dante Alighieri may have been one of the nobles proclaimed men of the people.
[500] The chroniclers have much to relate on this subject. Compagni says (pp. 86–7) that the Cerchi "made friends with the people and the rulers;" farther on he remarks that "all holding the views of Giano della Bella gathered round them" (the Cerchi) (p. 106). Stefani (iv. p. 220) states that the people "adhered to the Cerchi from party spirit, and chiefly because they were merchants."
[501] Professor Del Lungo supplies special information on this subject in several passages of his work.
[502] Villani, viii. 38.
[503] The aims of Pope Boniface and his plots with the Blacks have been placed in a new light by the careful researches of Signor Guido Levi and the documents discovered by him. Vide his excellent work, "Bonifazio VIII. e la sue Relazioni col Comune di Firenze," first published in vol. iv. of the "Archivio Storico della Società Romana di Storia Patria," and subsequently in separate form. Rome, Forzani, 1882. My quotations are taken from the latter.
[504] Levi, Doc. i.
[505] Vide Ficker, "Forschungen," iv. n. 499, p. 506; Levi, p. 49.
[506] The words quoted above form the heading of a copy of the document mentioned by Signor Levi (p. 49, note 2), and were taken as a motto for his work.
[507] Levi gives the whole passage at p. 51, note 2.
[508] Levi, pp. 48, 49, and Doc. iii.