Were it not that the air between them aids;
Although the calamite is a stone,
The other existing stones
Are not so powerful
To attract, because they have not the influence.”
The “Paradiso,” translated by A. J. Butler, London, 1885, Canto XII. v. 29, reads: “Si mosse voce, che l’ago (needle) alla stella,” and Fazio degli Uberti in the “Dittamondo” (about 1360) has “Quel gran disio, che mi, traeva addietro come ago a calamita” (III. 2).
References.—Hœfer, “Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XIII. pp. 21–50, the last-named page containing an unusual number of citations; “Biblogr. Dantesca,” by Colomb de Batines, Prato, 1845–1846; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XIII. pp. 887–901, embracing many additional references; the note at p. 154 of Plumptre’s “Dante,” also Humboldt’s “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 629; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Math.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 164, etc.; Frederic C. Harrison, “The New Calendar of Great Men,” London, 1892, pp. 310–315.
Dante Alighieri. “La Divina Commedia,” Mantuae 1472, the first page of what is by many regarded as the oldest edition of the earliest known poem written in the Italian language.
Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.