truth by saying that Dante was a Guelf in his aims, but
that he approximated to the traditions if not to the practices of the
Ghibellines in the means by which he hoped to see them realized.

SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRONICLES OF VILLANI

NOTES AND WARNINGS

The marginal references are to the divisions and lines of Moore's
"Oxford Dante."

* * * * indicates a passage omitted in the translation; . . .
indicates a hiatus in the Italian text.

Villani makes the year begin on March 25th. Thus 1300 is still running
till March 25th, 1301. For instance, Bk. VII., Sec. 9, gives the last
day of February, 1265, as the date of the Battle of Benevento. By our
reckoning this is the February of 1266. So too the Reconciliation of
the Florentines by the Cardinal Latino, Bk. VII., Sec. 56, took place
by our reckoning in February, 1279, and the death of Charles of Anjou,
Bk. VII., Sec. 95, on January 7th, 1285, etc.

The Kingdom = The Kingdom of Apulia.
The Duchy = The Duchy of Spoleto.
The March = The March of Ancona.
The Principality = [?] The Principality of Tarento.
San Miniato = San Miniato al Tedesco, in the Arno
Valley, West of Empoli.
Nocera = Nocera of the Saracens near Naples,
not the Nocera of _Paradiso_ xi. 48.
The Duomo or Cathedral = What is now known as the Baptistery.

Master, M., Messer, all represent the Italian Messer.

"Popolo" is translated "people" except where it means "the Democracy"
as a form of government. It is there given untranslated. [[V] If this
rule is ever departed from, it is through inadvertency.]

The "popolari" or "popolani" are members of the "popolo" or people,
sometimes opposed to the "Nobili," or old Nobility of birth, and
sometimes to the "Grandi," or Magnates, the new nobility of wealth and
status.

To be "placed under bounds" appears to mean banishment or confinement,
under the form of a prohibition to cross certain stated "bounds."

The "Black" Cerchi are merely a branch of the Cerchi family: they were
"Whites" politically.

Villani was well acquainted with Dante's works, and evidently regarded
him as an authority. Therefore it must not be taken for granted,
without further thought, that in every case of agreement Villani's
testimony is an _independent_ confirmation of Dante.

CHRONICLE OF JOHN VILLANI

BOOK I.

_T