Then there is the first line of the _Divina Commedia_ “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,”[538] which is usually taken to mean that Dante was in his 35th year, since in _Conv._ IV. xxiv. 30, 31, and xxiii, 88-94, he says that in normal natures the “punto sommo,” the “colmo,”[539] of the Arch of Life is reached at this age. But is it to be taken as indicating a precise year? If so, it points to one which has never been suggested for the Vision, so far as I know, for in another passage of the _Convivio_ he says when speaking of his exile, that he had lived in Florence “fino al colmo della mia vita,”[540] and we know that the year of his exile was 1302. But if we look again at the discussion concerning the arch of human life, we find that the whole period of “gioventute,”[541] which is from the 25th to the 45th year “veramente è colmo della nostra vita”[542] (_Conv._ IV. xxiv. 22, 23). If, nevertheless, it is said that the “mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” means Dante’s 35th year, we must know the date of his birth with certainty before we can deduce the year at which he had reached this age. And this is not quite easy. This very line is used indifferently to show that he was born in 1265 because the date of the Vision was 1300, or that the date was 1300 because he was born in 1265! No registers of births or baptisms were kept in those days. Most of the old biographers give 1265 for the date, but not all, and some of those who do betray ignorance or confusion in the matter: Boccaccio says the year 1265, when Urban the Fourth was Pope, yet Urban we know died in 1264; Lionardo Bruni says “1265, a little after the return to Florence of the Guelfs, who had been in exile by reason of the defeat of Montaperti,” but this return was in September 1266! Dante himself says that his ancestors shared in this exile,[543] and as he also often refers to the fact that he was born in Florence,[544] it is difficult to see how that could have been in 1265. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [538] “Midway in the journey of our life.” [539] “The highest point,” the “summit.” [540] “Until the summit of my life.” _Conv._ I. iii. 24, 25. [541] “Youth.” [542] “Is in truth the summit of our life.” [543] Farinata alludes to the two Guelf banishments of 1248 and 1260. _Inf._ x. 42-50. [544] _Conv._ I. iii. 22-24; _Inf._ xxiii. 94, 95, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------