[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49. [65] _Purg._ xi. 95. [66] _Purg._ ii. 91. [67] _Purg._ iv. 123. [68] Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current in the streets of Florence.--Sacchetti, _Novelle_, cxiv, cxv. [69] _Purg._ xii. 101. [70] _Purg._ xi. 94:-- 'In painting Cimabue deemed the field His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, Till by his fame the other's is concealed.' [71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the _Comedy_; but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting and sculpture appears from many a passage of the _Purgatorio_. [72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. ii. p. 349. [73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to retain the command of the vast resources of the _Parte Guelfa_? This made them almost independent of the Commonwealth. [74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory. [75] Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note. [76] It is to be regretted that Ampère in his charming _Voyage Dantesque_ devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan city has more thoroughly preserved its mediæval character. There is no authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to exaggerate his political importance and activity. [77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street in the suburbs.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 279. [78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127. [79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii. [80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, and lawyers of a certain rank--notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for example, never gets it. [81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great business house of Peruzzi. [82] _Inf._ iii. 60. [83] He is 'the Prince of the modern Pharisees' (_Inf._ xxvii. 85); his place is ready for him in hell (_Inf._ xix. 53); and he is elsewhere frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent towards him (_Purg._ xx. 86). [84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never crowned at Rome. [85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party.