[104] A similar story is told of Dante, who was a contemporary of Don John Manuel, by Sachetti, who lived about a century after both of them. It is in his Novella 114, (Milano, 1815, 18mo, Tom. II. p. 154,) where, after giving an account of an important affair, about which Dante was desired to solicit one of the city officers, the story goes on thus:-- “When Dante had dined, he left his house to go about that business, and, passing through the Porta San Piero, heard a blacksmith singing as he beat the iron on his anvil. What he sang was from Dante, and he did it as if it were a ballad, (_un cantare_,) jumbling the verses together, and mangling and altering them in a way that was a great offence to Dante. He said nothing, however, but went into the blacksmith’s shop, where there were many tools of his trade, and, seizing first the hammer, threw it into the street, then the pincers, then the scales, and many other things of the same sort, all which he threw into the street. The blacksmith turned round in a brutal manner, and cried out, ‘What the devil are you doing here? Are you mad?’ ‘Rather,’ said Dante, ‘what are _you_ doing?’ ‘_I_,’ replied the blacksmith, ‘_I_ am working at my trade; and you spoil my things by throwing them into the street.’ ‘But,’ said Dante, ‘if you do not want to have me spoil your things, don’t spoil mine.’ ‘What do I spoil of yours?’ said the blacksmith. ‘You sing,’ answered Dante, ‘out of my book, but not as I wrote it; I have no other trade, and you spoil it.’ The blacksmith, in his pride and vexation, did not know what to answer; so he gathered up his tools and went back to his work, and when he afterward wanted to sing, he sang about Tristan and Launcelot, and let Dante alone.” One of the stories is probably taken from the other: but that of Don John is older, both in the date of its event and in the time when it was recorded. “And now, knowing that I cannot hinder the books I have made from being copied many times, and seeing that in copies one thing is put for another, either because he who copies is ignorant, or because one word looks so much like another, and so the meaning and sense are changed without any fault in him who first wrote it; therefore, I, Don John Manuel, to avoid this wrong as much as I may, have caused this volume to be made, in which are written out all the works I have composed, and they are twelve.”