"Or fu giammai
Gente si vana come la senese?
Certo non la francesca si d'assai."
Boccaccio's "Commento" gives the same explanation of these lines.
[53] The Latin compilation says: quingentos annos et plus; the Italian, and more modern versions, merely say, "five hundred years."
[54] Even history tells us that Totila was in Tuscany towards the middle of the sixth century.
[55] "Libro fiesolano", chap. xv.
[56] This is also mentioned by Hartwig, i., xxiv., and fol.
[57] The first to note this was Hegel: "Ueber die Anfange der florentinischen Geschichtschreibung," in Sybel's Historical Journal, No. 1, anno 1876.
[58] Chaps. xvi. and xvii. of Follini's edition.
[59] Villani, i. 41.
[60] Villani, iii. 3.