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EPITAPH OF

DIETZMANN, LANDGRAVE OF THURINGIA,

ASCRIBED TO DANTE.

Among the papers left by Carlyle was an envelope addressed to him, on which he had written :

"The (soi-disant) Dante Inscription on Titzmann's Tomb at Leipzig (May, 1855). [No probability of its being genuine seemingly not the least knowledge to judge about it, in Italy among "the learned."]" The envelope contained the following note from Carlyle's friend, Count Pepoli:

MY DEAR MR. CARLYLE: Here is the copy of a letter from Doctor A. Torri to the Countess Allighieri-Gozzadini upon the Epitaph attributed to Dante.

This Lady tells me that many other literati partake the opinion of the learned Doctor.

I am truly yours

C. PEPOLI.

The 1st of May, 1855.

II ST. GEORGE'S TERRACE, New Kensington.

To TH: CARLYLE Esqr.

5 Cheyne Row,

Chelsea.

The copy referred to was on a separate sheet, and was as follows:

LATINA EPIGRAFE ATTRIBUITA A DANTE, ETC.

Il Dottor Alessandro Torri celebre collettore di tutte le cose che si rifferiscono a Dante, scrive così da Pisa alla Contessa Allighieri :

"Già da ben otto anni io conosceva la iscrizione o epitaffio metrico latino attribuito a Dante pel Langravio di Turingia Dieterico Tizmanno, avendolo pubblicato con illustrazioni fino dall' a: 1846 il Cavre Carlo

Promis nell' Antologia di Torino, fascicolo Io Luglio, pagine 99-107. Fattone ora riscontro colla copia ch' Ella ebbe da Londra trovai alcune lievi differenze, ma una non lieve nel v. 2 del disticho 10: e tutte qui le vedrà da me trascritte. Il Cavalier Promis mostrasi persuaso della originalità della Iscrizione riguardo a Dante, ed io pure vorrei essere del sentimento suo, ma m' imbarazzano le Date sottopostevi, oltre ad altre considerazioni che mi fanno dubbioso. Nondimeno dica al Conte C. Pepoli (cui ricambio cordialissimi saluti) ed al inglese letterato Mr Carlyle, che io ristamperò l'Iscrizione nel ultimo dei volumi delle Opere Minori Dantesche (Tomo VI) destinato alle poesie liriche, avendomi permesso il sudto Cavaliere di far uso delle sue illustrazioni molto ingegnose nel sostenere il proprio parere."

Here follows a list of the variants referred to, with two or three brief notes upon them by Carlyle, and on the back of the leaf are other notes by him on the German authorities for the inscription and on its various readings, closing with "Enough! (25 April, 1855).”

At this time Carlyle was hard at work on his "Life of Frederick," which had been seriously begun about two years before, toiling, as he said, on his "dim dreary course through the desert of Brandenburg sand,'" and it was in his study of the early history of the Hohenzollerns that he had come across this epitaph ascribed to Dante, and, moved by his lifelong interest in the poet, desired to satisfy himself concerning its genuineness.

Although there is little reason for supposing Dante to have been the author of the inscription, yet the fact that it was long since attributed to him, and that some later scholars have maintained its genuineness, give to it a certain interest in the eyes of the student of Dante's work. As appears from his letter, it was Dr. Torri's intention to print it in the final volume of his edition of the Minor Works of Dante, but this volume was never published, and so far as I am aware, the epitaph is not to be found in any book easily accessible to the student. It seems therefore worth while to reprint it, with some account of its origin and fate. There is the further reason for doing so that its subject was a victim of the "Alberto Tedesco" denounced by Dante for his neglect of the garden of the empire, in the well-known magnificent verses in the sixth canto of the Purgatory.

...

This Alberto was Albert I., Kaiser from 1298 to 1308. "6 Albert," says Carlyle ("History of Frederick the Great," Book ii. ch. 9), "was by no means a prepossessing man, though a tough and hungry one a Kaiser dreadfully fond of earthly goods, too. Who indeed grasped all round him, at property half his, or wholly not his: Rhine-tolls, Crown of Bohemia, Landgraviate of Thüringen, Swiss Forest Cantons, Crown of Hungary, Crown of France even: - getting endless quarrels on his hands, and much defeat mixed with any victory there was. Poor soul, he had six-and-twenty children by one wife; and felt that there was need of apanages! He is understood (guessed, not proved) to have instigated two assassinations in pursuit of these objects: and he very clearly underwent one in his own person. Assassination first, was of Dietzmann the Thüringian Landgraf, an Anti-Albert champion, who refused to be robbed by Albert, — for whom the great Dante is (with almost palpable absurdity) fabled to have written an Epitaph still legible in the Church at Leipzig."

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Dietzmann was assassinated in December, 1307 (the day is variously given by different authorities), at night, in the Church of St. Thomas at Leipzic.*

Dietzmann was the younger brother of Frederick, Landgrave of Thuringia, known as Fredericus Fortis, or still better as Fredericus Admorsus, in German Friedrich mit der gebissenen Wange. They were the children of Albert, Landgrave of Thuringia, whose evil nature and wicked deeds gained for him the appellation of degener, and of Margaret, daughter of the great Emperor Frederick II. It was a hard fate for her to be transferred from the splendor and refinement of her father's court at Palermo to the cold and rude surroundings of the Thuringian landgrave, and its pathos deepened into tragedy. After several unhappy years of marriage, her husband plotted her murder. The plot was revealed to her by the poor fellow whom Albert had hired for the deed, and she was forced to fly hastily by night from the old hill-castle of Wartburg. “Dum colliguntur a ministris quæ viderentur necessaria, ipsa in cubiculum suorum filiorum properat, et inter oscula atque amplexus, suam miseriam, filiorum deplorat solitudinem, et mente intuetur futuram calamitatem. Fredericus trium annorum erat, Dicemanus anni unius et dimidii. Cum iis etiam atque etiam valedixisset fæmina in magna fortuna maxime ærumnosa, majoris natu incumbens cunis, dextram ejus malam morsu impetit. . . . Amoris perpetui hoc vulnus erit nota (inquit) et justi doloris testimonium." It was thus that Frederick

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