THE SCALIGERS.
"Lo primo tuo rifugio e 'l primo ostello
Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo,
Che 'n su la Scala porta il santo uccello."
Dante, Paradiso, xvii. 70.
The Scaligers are well known, not only as having held the lordship of Verona for some generations, but also as having been among the friends of Dante in his exile, no mean reputation in itself; and, at a later period, as taking very high rank among the first scholars of their day. To which of them the passage above properly belongs—whether to Can Grande, or his brother Bartolommeo, or even his father Alberto, commentators are by no means agreed. The question is argued more largely than conclusively, both in the notes to Lombardi's edition, and also in Ugo Foscolo's Discorso nel testo di Dante.
Perhaps the following may be a contribution to the evidence in favour of Can Grande. After
saying, in a letter, in which he professes to give the history and origin of his family,—
"Prisca omnium familiarum Scaligeræ stirpis insignia sunt, aut Scala singularis, aut Canes utrinque scalæ innitentes."
Joseph Scaliger adds—