"Denique principium Veronensium progenitores eadem habuerunt insignia: donec in eam familiam Alboinus et Canis Magnus Aquilam imperii cum Scala primum ab Henrico VIIo, deinde à Ludovico Bavaro acceptam nobis reliquerunt."
Alboinus, however, who received this grant upon being made a Lieutenant of the Empire, and having the Signory of Verona made hereditary in his family, only bore the eagle "in quadrante scuti."
"Sed Canis Magnus, cum eidem à Cæsare Ludovico Bavaro idem privilegium confirmatum esset, totum scutum Aquilâ occupavit, subjectâ Alitis pedibus Scalâ."
Can Grande, then, was surely the first who carried the "santo uccello" in su la Scala; and his epithet of Grande would also agree best with Dante's words, as neither his father nor brothers seem to have had the same claim to it.
I would offer a farther remark about this same title or epithet Can Grande, and the origin of the scala or ladder as a charge upon the shield or coat of this family. Cane would at first sight appear to be a designation borrowed from the animal of that name. There would be parallels enough in Italy and elsewhere, as the Ursini, Lewis the Lion (VIII. of France), our own Cœur de Lion, and Harold Harefoot. Dante, too, refers to him under the name "Il Veltro," Inferno, canto 1. l. 101. But Joseph Scaliger, in the letter to which I referred before, gives the following account of it:—
"Nomen illi fuerat Franscisco, à sacro lavacro, Cani à gentilitate, Magno à merito rerum gestarum. Neque enim Canis ab illo latranti animali dictus est, ut recte monet Jovius, sed quod linguâ Windorum, unde principes Veronenses oriundos vult, Cahan idem est, quod linguâ Serviana Kral, id est Rex, aut Princeps. Nam in gente nostrâ multi fuerunt Canes, Mastini, Visulphi Guelphi."—P. 17.
This letter consists of about 58 pages, and stands first in the edition of 1627. It is addressed "ad Janum Dousam," and was written to vindicate his family from certain indignities which he conceived had been put upon it. Sansovino and Villani, it appears, had referred its origin to Mastin II., "qui," to use Scaliger's version of the matter,—
"Qui primus dictator populi Veronensis perpetuus creatus est, quem et auctorem nobilitatis Scaligeræ et Scalarum antea fabrum impudentissime nugantur hostes virtutis majorum nostrorum."
It was bad enough to ascribe their origin to so recent a date, but to derive it from a mere mechanic was more than our author's patience could endure. Accordingly he is not sparing of invective against those who so disparage his race.
Vappa, nebulo, and similar terms, are freely applied to their characters; invidia, κακοήθεια, &c., to their motives. The following is a specimen of the way he handles them:—