Allusions in the Commentary to Contemporary Events.

The defeat and capture of King John of France by the English (at Poictiers, 19 Sept., 1356), I. 261; II. 55; III. 532; V. 248; the defeat and death of Peter the Cruel of Castile at the hands of his natural brother (Henry, 1368), I. 261; the defence of Pavia against the Visconti by the friar Jacopo Bossolaro, who by his eloquence stirred up the people to resistance (1356–1359), I. 322–3; the coronation of the Emperor Charles IV. at Arles during the reign of Pope Urban V. (4 June, 1365), I. 326; the excesses committed by the foreign mercenaries (English, Germans, Britons,

Gascons, and Hungarians) in Italy, I. 401 (cf. I. 394, 396); the miserable condition of Crete, then known as Candia, under the tyranny of the Venetians, I. 487; the destruction of the Castello Sant' Angelo in Rome during the riots after the election of Robert of Geneva (Clement VII.) as antipope to Urban VI. de anno praesenti MCCCLXXIX' (1379), II. 8 ; the antipope Robert of Geneva (Clement VII., 1378–1394), II. 53 (cf. II. 8); the subsidies voted by Clement VI. in aid of King John of France against the English, and the defeat and capture of the French king (at Poictiers, 19 Sept., 1356), II. 55 (cf. I. 261); the five kingdoms of the Spanish peninsula, viz. Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Portugal, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada, II. 136; many of the princes and lords of Italy, while renowned abroad, are evil-doers and oppressors in their own country, II. 268; the decayed condition of Ravenna, which in Dante's day was a flourishing city, II. 306; the great plagues in Italy of 1348 (Boccaccio's plague) and 1362, in the former of which ninety per cent of the population of Sardinia perished, II. 397-8; the decayed condition of Pisa after its long war with Florentines (1356–1364), II. 533; the miserable condition of Italy, which was far worse than in Dante's day, III. 180-1, 397; the two visits of the emperor, Charles IV., to Italy (Oct., 1354; May, 1368), and his departure thence on the second occasion colla borsa piena, ma con poca gloria,' III. 186-7; Prague, the seat of the emperor, Charles IV. (who was also king of Bohemia), III. 209; the harassing of Lombardy by Bernabò and Galeazzo Visconti, III. 235; the costume of the Doge of Venice, III. 315; the miserable condition of Romagna and of the rest of Italy, III. 397 (cf. III. 180-1); the shameful marriage of the daughter (Isabella) of King John of France, who was captured by the English (at Poictiers, 19 Sept., 1356), to Gian Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan (June, 1360), III. 532 (cf. I. 261; II. 55); the arts whereby the Florentine women add to their charms, and their habits of feasting, IV. 62; the Hellespont, called the Bras de Saint George, from the church of that name near Constantinople, IV. 170; the neglect of poets and poetry owing to the prevailing greed for gain, IV. 303; the cult of the emperor for Bacchus, IV. 305; the names of Guelph and Ghibelline no longer remembered in Italy, IV. 453; Louis the Great, king of Hungary (1342–1382; of Poland, 1370-1382), IV. 489; the extravagant dress of women, such as the habit of even bakers' wives wearing pearls on their shoes in Venice, Padua, and Genoa, V. 145; the practice of giving enormous dowries, V. 146; the wandering habits of the Florentines, who go and settle in France, Flanders, England, and Brabant, V. 149; Cola di Rienzi's contemptuous application of the letters S. P. Q. R. to the Roman populace, V. 181–2;

the invasion of France by the English and their capture of the French king (at Poictiers), V. 248 (cf. I. 261; II. 55; III. 532); the invasion and conquest of Cyprus by the Genoese (Oct., 1373), a just punishment for their effeminacy, luxury, and dissoluteness, V. 252; Urban V. compared to Ser Ciappelletto of Boccaccio's tale (Decam. I. 1), V. 262.

Autobiographical and Personal Details from Benvenuto's Commentary.

The anecdote told him by Boccaccio of the Florentine boys and the leopard (lonza), I. 35; his doubts as to his fitness to write a commentary upon the Divina Commedia, I. 78; his experience of tramps and beggars in Savoy and Provence, and especially at Avignon, I. 116; his comparison of Dante's Hell to the amphitheatre at Verona, and the Corbis' at Bologna, I. 185; his contempt for the romances of the Round Table, which are in everybody's mouth, and which he characterises as 'frivola et vana,' I. 204; his account of the fight between two of his students, who rolled on the ground, and thumped and scratched and bit each other, I. 269; his description of the ancient fortifications at Padua, I. 294; his visit to the labyrinthine cave near Vicenza, I. 387; his experience of the snow while crossing the Alps, I. 472; his report of the wonderful herbage on Mt. Ida in Crete, which turns yellow the teeth of the herds which graze it, I. 488; his acquaintance with the Lago di Garda, Peschiera, and the Mincio, I. 494; II. 80-2; his unhappy experience of old men guilty of unnatural offences, I. 505; his denunciation of students at Bologna for similar offences, while he was lecturing on the Commedia in 1375, and the odium he incurred thereby, I. 523-4; his account of the village wrestlers, I. 535; his friend who meant to call his daughter Lucretia and called her Alegricia, I. 539-40; his experience as a traveller on horseback on a restive animal, and through a country harried by the enemy, I. 585-6; his mention of the stone bridges over the Arno at Florence, the Tiber at Rome, and the Rhone at Avignon, II. 4; his account of the crowds at Rome during the Jubilee of 1350, II. 6; his description of the Salse at Bologna, and the common taunt about it among the boys of Bologna, II. 11; his account of the beauty of the ladies of the Bolognese house of Caccianemici, II. 12; his eulogy of Bologna and reprobation of the spendthrift and immoral habits of the Bolognese, II. 15; his ten years' residence in Bologna, II. 16; his comparison of the Florentine Baptistery to that at Parma, II. 35; the misfortunes of a famous astrologer of his acquaintance, II. 65; his experience of the obstinacy and mendacity of astrologers, II. 69; his account of the ancient remains at Luni, II. 76; and at Sirmio,

II. 81; his description of long-haired Greeks, II. 87; his acquaintance with the magical books of Michael Scot and Guido Bonatti, II. 88, 90; his disbelief in the magical powers of Virgil, II. 89; his experience of the demoralizing effect of the Papal Court, II. 96; and of the venality of the treasurer of Urban V. at Avignon, II. 118; and of many corrupt officials whom he could name if he chose, II. 122; the vicar of Urban V.'s legate in Bologna an instance, II. 137; the merciless extortions of such people, which he himself has known of, II. 139; his witness of a woman escaping from a fire, II. 162; his mention of the water mills on the Po, II. 164; his account of the hypocritical preacher, who by his maudlin tears, stimulated by Malmsey wine, extracted large sums from his congregation, wherewith he subsequently purchased a fat bishopric, II. 166; his researches as to the history of the Frati Gaudenti, II. 174-5; his information as to certain thieving guilds composed of men of good position, II. 260; his account of the extravagance of the French mode of dress, and lament that French fashions were followed in Italy, II. 409-10; the Paduan who ran amuck and killed his wife and children, II. 418; his selection of Dante as an example to follow, III. 18; his comparison of the Mount of Purgatory to the amphitheatre at Verona, III. 43; his description of the tomb of Virgil, and Mt. Vesuvius, III. 86-7; his experience of the road along the Genoese Riviera, III. 95; his account of San Leo, III. 117; his denunciation of gambling and ignorance of games of chance, III. 167; his experience as a traveller, III. 201 (cf. I. 585–6); his testimony to the loss of caste by a woman who marries a second time, III. 232; his report of criticisms passed upon Giotto's paintings, III. 313; his description of the Campo at Siena, III. 320; his confession that he, like Dante, had been guilty of pride, but not of envy, III. 370; the account given him by a Sienese Dantist of the meaning of the word ammiragli, III. 371; a reminiscence of his lectures on Dante at Bologna, III. 411; his experience while crossing the Apennines between Bologna and Florence, when he was caught in a fog, III. 453; his account of the three churches dedicated to San Zeno in Verona, III. 490; his disbelief in geomancy and astrology, III. 498; refers to his commentary upon Valerius Maximus, IV. 35 (cf. V. 107); a cure for winedrinking in the case of a bishop he had known, IV. 70; the triumphal entry of Cardinals into Bologna witnessed by him, IV. 305; his experience of the difficulty of the Divina Commedia while lecturing on it at Bologna, IV. 335-6; his ridicule of the theologian who publicly denounced Dante for his ignorance of theology, IV. 339; his story of the unhappy end of a beautiful youth of his acquaintance, IV. 365; his denunciation of the ignorance of a rival commentator upon Valerius Maximus, V. 107 (cf. IV.

35); his description of the neglected state of the church of Santo Stefano at Florence, which he observed while attending Boccaccio's lectures on the Commedia, V. 145; stories of the eccentric lady Cianghella told him by his father, who had been a neighbour of hers at Imola, V. 151; his account of the ancient ruins at Orange in Provence, V. 214; the immense sums received by ecclesiastics for the absolution of the excommunicate, of which in one case in Romagna he had personal knowledge, V. 227; his experience of friendly disputations, V. 266; the cardinal of his acquaintance who took his concubine on the crupper of his horse when he went out hunting, V. 289; his testimony to the saintly lives led by certain communities of Benedictine monks, especially at Monte Oliveto, V. 301; his description of the boat's crew which stopped rowing instantly as one man on hearing the commander's whistle, V. 369.