Brunetto Latini is only mentioned once in Dante’s works, besides the passage in the _Inferno_ already referred to. In the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ Brunetus Florentinus is mentioned with admiration as a distinguished man of letters, but blamed with other Tuscans for writing in his own local dialect.[124] Brunetto, who was born in Florence about 1210, was sent on an embassy in 1260 to Alfonso X. of Castile, the learned king under whose guidance the famous astronomical Tables had been drawn up. But on his way back to Florence he was met by the news that the Florentine Guelphs had been defeated at the disastrous battle of Montaperti,[125] and expelled from Florence; and as he belonged to this party he took refuge in France, first at Montpellier and afterwards in Paris. When the Guelphs had regained the ascendancy through their victory at Benevento in 1266 (where Manfred lost his life),[126] Brunetto returned to Florence, and his name subsequently appears in no less than thirty-five public documents as having been consulted by the government of his native city on various important matters. For the most part, moreover, it is recorded that his advice was followed. He died at a venerable old age in Florence in 1294, and was buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [124] _V. E._, I. xiii. 1-11. [125] _Inf._, xxxii. 81, and x. 85, 86. [126] _Purg._, iii. 112-129. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was while exiled in France that Brunetto wrote the Italian poem _Il Tesoretto_, in which he represents himself as a pilgrim on an allegorical journey; and from this Dante perhaps derived some suggestions for his Vision. The poem is incomplete, and breaks off at a tantalizing point, for Brunetto has just met Ptolemy on Mount Olympus, and has put a question to him: Ptolemy “rispose in questa guisa”[127]—and here the poem ends! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [127] “Replied after this fashion.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In France also he wrote _Li Louvres dou Trésor_, a great compendium of learning, in French prose. The first part treats of the Creation and Biblical history, and of the natural sciences; the second of ethics, rhetoric, and politics. In the section on astronomy which is included in the first part, Brunetto gives a very brief account of Ptolemy’s system, and the sizes and distances of the heavenly bodies as estimated by the Arabs: it seems to be based chiefly on Alfraganus. But beside the periods of the planets he adds in each case their astrological properties, as for instance:— “Saturnus, qui est le souverain sor tous, est cruex et felons et de froide nature ... Jupiter ... ast dous et piteus et plains de biens.... Mars et chaus et bataillereus, et mauvais, et est apelez Diex de batailles.”[128]