"Thy left," cried I, "slew what thy right hand gave." TO ROME. Tell me, proud Rome, why dost these edicts read, Where thy unconquered sons their might displayed, But slavery not rule is now thy meed. And over foreign nations heldest rein, Unless Thy law within the heart be fixed. It is worth noticing that in the Trionfo d' Amore Petrarch couples the names of Dante and Cino, Beatrice and Selvaggia.t Another interesting name is that of Johannes de Virgilio, to whom Dante addresses two Eclogues. In the first he alludes to the unpoetic labour * This sonnet was imitated by Petrarch at the conclusion of the Canzone, Quell' antico mio dolce empio signore. It is an example of a style of verse very common in mediæval poetry. There are court scenes in "Reynard the Fox" and in "Piers Plowman." In Gerson's Traité contre le Roumant de la Rose (written in 1402) the author feigns that he is in a Christian Court, presided over by the Lady Canonical Justice and her assessors Mercy and Truth; Chastity is the plaintiff, the amorous fool or foolish lover (le fol amoureux) the defendant. In Gavin Douglas' "Palace of Honour" the poet is put on his trial before the Court of Venus for a libellous poem and pleads to the jurisdiction that (a) ladies may not be judges; (b) the defendant, being a clerk, is not amenable to a lay tribunal. Many other instances will suggest themselves to those acquainted with the early poetry of Western Europe. The writer hopes at some time to pursue this subject further. + Ecco Dante e Beatrice; ecco Selvaggia; Ecco Cin da Pistoia. Cap. iv., 31. of the jurists of Bologna.* Other persons connected with Bologna and named by Dante are Franco Bolognese, the miniature painter,† Guido Guinicelli, Pier delle Vigne,§ Accursius,|| Venedico Caccianimico,T and Gratian.** The geography of Bologna was well known to Dante, as one might expect when one knows that he resided there probably for two periods of his life, once as a student and once as an exile. The date of the first residence cannot be fixed, that of the second is placed by Scartazzini between 1304 and 1306. Bologna is frequently referred to in the "Divina Commedia” and other works, especially the "De Vulgari Eloquio,” sometimes by name,†† sometimes by implication. He knows the leaning tower of Carisenda, to which he compares Antæus,‡‡ the Salsa-according to one interpretation-a valley near Bologna where the bodies of suicides were cast away,§§ and the frati godenti,|||| called from Bologna in 1266 to rule Florence; the institution of the arti is attributed to them by G. Villani. The word sipa¶¶ also shews an intimate knowledge of the Bolognese dialect, as does the discussion on the dialect in the "De Vulgari Eloquio." * Montibus Aoniis Mofsus, Melibae, quotannis Dum satagunt alii causarum jura doceri Se dedit. Ecl. i., 28. Dante apparently would not have agreed with the English writer. T. Wright, "Political Songs," 210. ¶¶ Inf. xviii., 61. This was a peculiar dialectic use of the affirmative, no longer in use. It is said to be connected with sia and not si. Ferrari in his Vocabolario Bolognese says that Bologna ought rather to be called la città del brisa, a form of the negative particle equivalent to the more usual punto. Other University cities visited by Dante were Padua, Perugia, and Siena, and in all these a faculty of law, more or less flourishing, existed.* The University of Pisa was not founded till 1346, a quarter of a century after his death. The principal name connected with the early legal history of Perugia is Bartolus. His life just overlapped Dante's (he was born in 1314), and he was a pupil of Cino's. It is therefore possible that he may have seen Dante when he was quite a child.† (2.) Lawyers.-The number of those connected with the law, whom Dante names in the "Divina Commedia," is considerable. The earliest and the greatest is Justinian, the hero of one of the noblest cantos in the Paradiso,‡ the more immediately legal part of which may be Englished thus: Since Constantine turned back the eagle's flight Against the course of heaven, the which of old Throughout the world until, from hand to hand And primal love so urged me that to clear One nature in the Christ I deemed, no more, But blessed Agapetus with his lore (Chief shepherd he) to faith more excellent * See the various Dante itineraries, such as Enrico Croce's, and monographs such as A. Gloria, Dante e Padova (Padua, 1865), B. Acquarone, Dante in Siena (Siena, 1865). † Bartolus was not technically a glossator, in spite of the well-known song of the German Commersbuch, Der Bartolus Glossator. Canto vi.; he is also named in Purg. vi., 89, and in Canzone xviii., 37. Him I believed and that his argument Now see I clearly, just as thou dost see In contradiction truth and falsehood blent. In arms to Belisarius gave I place, 'Twas sign that I must rest what time I marked Next in interest is Dante's master, Brunetto Latini or Latino. Like Dante's father he was a notary, and his pride in his profession is proved by the well-known story that when he had prepared a document which was held to be invalid for want of form, he preferred to be thought guilty of fraud rather than wanting in skill. He is thrice named in the "Divina Commedia" and appears as Brunetus Florentinus in the "De Vulgari Eloquio." In two of the † three places where he is named in the "Divina Commedia " he has the epithet of Ser, the title of a jurist, applied to him by the poet. In the Trésor, his French prose work, he has some discussions of legal interest, e.g., the election of kings and emperors, the government of a town, the king and his council, how a king ought to honour ambassadors, the trial of accused persons. In the Tesoretto, his Italian work in verse, he especially condemns the crime for which he suffered in the Inferno. The simile with which Dante parts with him is one of the most beautiful in the poem.§ Che corrono a Verona il drappo verde Per la campagna e parve di costoro Quegli che vince e non colui che perde.—(Inf. xv., 121.) There are many other names more or less famous in the history of law. The foremost is S. Thomas Aquinas, whose definition of law, as will be seen later, was accepted by Dante, though the argument of his De Regimine Principum was not. He is alluded to very frequently, and it is not too much to say that a great part of the argument of the Paradiso is little more than a versification of S. Thomas. The principal civilian is Franciscus Accursius, or Francesco d' Accorso, the most eminent of an eminent family of jurists, and interesting to Englishmen from his having been one of the Secretarii Regis of Edward I. in 1278.* Canonists are represented by Isidore of Sevillet and Gratian, the monk of Bologna and the compiler of the Decretum.‡ Among jurists of smaller note are Petrus de Vinea or Pier delle Vigne, the Chancellor of Frederic II.,§ Lapo Saltarello,|| Taddeo,¶ and Bonagiunta.** Oriental law is represented by Averroestt and his first translator, Michael Scott.‡‡ In addition to these, there are others alluded to but not expressly named. They begin with Moses, who is il legista par excellence,§§ * Inf. xv., 110. He had free quarters in the Beaumont Palace at Oxford (Rashdall, "Hist. of the Universities of Europe," ii., 460, from Twyne's MS.), + Par. x., 131. § Inf. xiii., 158. Par. x., 104. || Par. xv., 128. He is not to be confounded with the more famous Lapo Gianni named in the sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti. ¶ Par. xii., 83. Taddeo is said to have been a jurist, but he was more probably Taddeo d' Alderotto, a physician of Bologna and the translator of Aristotle's Ethics. (See Convito, i., 10.) ** Purg. xxiv., 19; De Vulg. El., i., 13, where he is alluded to with some contempt. Possibly his law, rather than his literary power, was his strong point. tt Inf. iv., 144. The legal treatises written by Averroes (Ibn Rasch) are enumerated by Renan, Averroes (2nd ed., 1861, p. 73). The main one appears to have been an abridgment of Al Ghazzali's Al-Mustasfa. The etyniology o Averroes from a and veritas (quasi senza verità) will hardly hold water, although it is the invention of as good a Dante scholar as Benvenuto da Imola. Inf. xx., 116. Like Pier delle Vigne, he was one of the Court of Frederic II. §§ Inf. iv., 57. |