The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression. — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression.
Dante Alighieri · en
Another, but far less perfect, specimen of this kind of production
is afforded by the Lucca MS., to which previous allusion has been
made. The author carefully tells us that it was composed between the
years 1290 and 1342. He transcribes the whole legend of the origin of
Florence, and then gives his Italian _pasticcio_ of Martin Polono,
beginning from the Emperor Octavian. But he intersperses it with "many
things relating to the affairs of Tuscany, and especially of Florence
... the greater part being found in divers books on Tuscany, of which
some contain more, some less" (_qual na più, qual na meno_). Having
reached the year 1309 in this fashion, he continues his narrative by
borrowing from Villani, several books of whose history had already
appeared in 1341, and with this assistance carries his work down to
1342. He continues by reproducing a Latin description of Florence
written in 1339, and then gives the Latin introduction that Martin
Polono had added to his history. The compiler of this Lucca Codex
avows that his method is neither logical nor chronological; but craves
the reader's indulgence, saying that in this work he had first put
together all the Italian and then all the Latin portions, with the
intention of arranging them better afterwards, by fusing them together
and writing the whole in Latin. This intention he seems to have found
no time to fulfil. From this Codex also, all the portions relating to
Florence were subsequently extracted and printed.[38] As may be seen,
the compiler's method is always the same, although in this case heavier
and more mechanical than usual, for lack of any inherent connection
between the different parts. The only novelty consists in transcribing
the entire legend to make it serve as an introduction to Florentine
history; an example that, as will be seen, was afterwards followed by
others.