Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851. VariousЧитать онлайн книгу.

      Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo,

      Che 'n su la Scala porta il santo uccello."

      The Scaligers are well known, not only as having held the lordship of Verona for some generations, but also as having been among the friends of Dante in his exile, no mean reputation in itself; and, at a later period, as taking very high rank among the first scholars of their day. To which of them the passage above properly belongs—whether to Can Grande, or his brother Bartolommeo, or even his father Alberto, commentators are by no means agreed. The question is argued more largely than conclusively, both in the notes to Lombardi's edition, and also in Ugo Foscolo's Discorso nel testo di Dante.

      Perhaps the following may be a contribution to the evidence in favour of Can Grande. After saying, in a letter, in which he professes to give the history and origin of his family,—

      Joseph Scaliger adds—

      Alboinus, however, who received this grant upon being made a Lieutenant of the Empire, and having the Signory of Verona made hereditary in his family, only bore the eagle "in quadrante scuti."

      Can Grande, then, was surely the first who carried the "santo uccello" in su la Scala; and his epithet of Grande would also agree best with Dante's words, as neither his father nor brothers seem to have had the same claim to it.

      I would offer a farther remark about this same title or epithet Can Grande, and the origin of the scala or ladder as a charge upon the shield or coat of this family. Cane would at first sight appear to be a designation borrowed from the animal of that name. There would be parallels enough in Italy and elsewhere, as the Ursini, Lewis the Lion (VIII. of France), our own Cœur de Lion, and Harold Harefoot. Dante, too, refers to him under the name "Il Veltro," Inferno, canto 1. l. 101. But Joseph Scaliger, in the letter to which I referred before, gives the following account of it:—

      This letter consists of about 58 pages, and stands first in the edition of 1627. It is addressed "ad Janum Dousam," and was written to vindicate his family from certain indignities which he conceived had been put upon it. Sansovino and Villani, it appears, had referred its origin to Mastin II., "qui," to use Scaliger's version of the matter,—

      It was bad enough to ascribe their origin to so recent a date, but to derive it from a mere mechanic was more than our author's patience could endure. Accordingly he is not sparing of invective against those who so disparage his race.

      Vappa, nebulo, and similar terms, are freely applied to their characters; invidia, κακοήθεια, &c., to their motives. The following is a specimen of the way he handles them:—

      Now the charge of a ladder upon their shield was certainly borne by the several branches of this family long before any of them became masters of Verona; and I should suggest that it originated in some brilliant escalade of one of the first members of it. Thus, of course, it would remind us all of perhaps the earliest thing of the kind—I mean the shield and bearings of Eteoclus before Thebes:

      INEDITED BALLAD ON TRUTH

      I send you herewith a copy of an ancient ballad which I found this day while in search of other matters. I have endeavoured to explain away the strange orthography, and I have conjecturally supplied the last line. The ballad is unhappily imperfect. I trust that abler antiquaries than myself will give their attention to this fragmentary poem.