260. Quod videas ante—"Which you may have seen before."
263. Hated house. The poet hates the rule of the House of Lorraine, and prefers the days of the painter Orgagna, in the fourteenth century, when Italy was free.
273. Tuscan. The literary language of Italy and not given to superlatives such as are indicated by "issimo."
275. Cambuscan: a reference to "The Squire's Tale," left unfinished by Chaucer.
276. Alt to altissimo. "High to highest."
277. Beccaccia. A woodcock.
281. Shall I be alive. According to Giotto's plan the tower was to have had a spire fifty braccia or cubits (about 95 feet) high. This spire has never been built.
["DE GUSTIBUS—"]
The whole phrase is De gustibus non disputandum—"there is no disputing about tastes." Browning is writing to a friend who prefers an English landscape while the poet himself declares in favor of Italy.
2. If our loves remain. If we have a life after death.