ance of Dante
only to quarrel with the great poet afterwards; but of this there is no
evidence. It is certain, however, that, having published a commentary on
the sphere of John de Sacrobosco, in which he propounded audacious
theories concerning the employment and agency of demons, he got into
difficulties with the clerical party, and was condemned in 1324 to
certain fasts and prayers, and to the payment of a fine of seventy
crowns. To elude this sentence he betook himself to Florence, where he
was attached to the household of Carlo di Calabria. But his
free-thinking and plain speaking had got him many enemies; he had
attacked the _Commedia_ of Dante, and the _Canzone d'Amore_ of Guido
Cavalcanti; and his fate was sealed. Dino di Garbo, the physician, was
indefatigable in pursuit of him; and the old accusation of impiety being
renewed, Cecco was again tried and sentenced, this time to the stake. He
was burned at Florence the day after sentence, in the seventieth year of
his age.

Cecco d'Ascoli left many works in manuscript, most of which have never
been given to the world. The book by which he achieved his renown and
which led to his death was the _Acerba_ (from _acervus_), an
encyclopaedic poem, of which in 1546, the date of the last reprint, more
than twenty editions had been issued. It is unfinished, and consists of
four books in _sesta rima_. The first book treats of astronomy and
meteorology; the second of stellar influences, of physiognomy, and of
the vices and virtues; the third of minerals and of the love of animals;
while the fourth propounds and solves a number of moral and physical
problems. Of a fifth book, on theology, the initial chapter alone was
completed. A man of immense erudition and of great and varied abilities,
Cecco, whose knowledge was based on experiment and observation (a fact
that of itself is enough to distinguish him from the crowd of savants of
that age), had outstripped his contemporaries in many things. He knew of
metallic aerolites and shooting stars; the mystery of the dew was plain
to him; fossil plants were accounted for by him through terrene
revolutions which had resulted in the formation of mountains; he is even
said to have divined the circulation of the blood. Altogether a
remarkable man, he may be described as one of the many Cassandras of the
middle ages--one of the many prophets who spoke of coming light, and
were listened to but to have their words cast back at them in
accu