Incipit Vita Nova ... so long Florence

In that part of the book of my memory before the which is little that can be read, there is a rubric, saying, Incipit Vita Nova. Under such rubric I find written many things; and among them the words which I purpose to copy into this little book; if not all of them, at the least their substance.

In quella parte del libro de la mia memoria dinanzi a la quale poco si potrebbe leggere, si trova una rubrica la quale dice: Incipit vita nova. Sotto la quale rubrica io trovo scritte le parole le quali è mio intendimento d'assemplare in questo libello; e se non tutte, almeno la loro sentenzia.

- La Vita Nuova, Dante

A very successful trip ... and now, off to the airport ...

Henry James on the "extravagant" figure of Dante as depicted at Santa Croce

"The place is the great Florentine Valhalla, the final home or memorial harbour of the native illustrious dead, but that consideration of it would take me far. It must be confessed moreover that, between his coarsely-imagined statue out in front and his horrible monument in one of the aisles, the author of The Divine Comedy, for instance, is just hereabouts rather an extravagant figure". - Henry James, Italian Hours (1909)

I must confess that James is spot on in his assessment of the sculptural renditions of Dante that have become the model for how we picture him. I can't imagine that he's always that stern or unhappy looking as depicted at Santa Croce!

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Detail of Dante's Tomb, Santa Croce

The great Florentines in Santa Croce, with some side comments by Mark Twain

One of my main goals in Florence was to visit Santa Croce and see the tombs and monuments to great Florentines. Santa Croce did not disappoint. From outside on the piazza, it's hard to grasp its size, inside it's immense. Though Santa Maria Novella is still probably my favorite of the "big three" in Florence, Santa Croce, whose bells I heard at night and which I passed every day, remains special.

Here's some comments from Mark Twain, from Innocents Abroad (1869) on the monuments of Santa Croce:

Caption

Galileo
That we had lived to see his dust in honored sepulchure in the church of Santa Croce we owed to a society of literati, and not to Florence or her rulers.
















Dante
We saw Dante's tomb in that church, also, but we were glad to know that his body was not in it; that the ungrateful city that had exiled him and persecuted him would give much to have it there, but need not hope to ever secure that high honor to herself.












Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rossini (not Raphael)

"We went to the Church of Santa Croce, from time to time, in Florence, to weep over the tombs of Michael Angelo, Raphael and Machiavelli, (I suppose they are buried there, but it may be that they reside elsewhere and rent their tombs to other parties--such being the fashion in Italy,) and between times we used to go and stand on the bridges and admire the Arno."

(from left: Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Rossini)

"Blessed are the few who sit at the table where the bread of the angels is eaten" Dante ... or, the closing #TDWG banquet

"Blessed are the few who sit at the table where the bread of the angels is eaten, and most unfortunate those who share the food of sheep! (Oh beati quelli pochi che seggiono a quella mensa dove lo pane delli angeli si manuca! e miseri quelli che colle pecore hanno comune cibo!)." - Dante, Convivio, I.i.7

Tonight, the 2013 TDWG Conference banquet took place at Osteria dei Baroncelli. A splendid time was had by all on this Halloween!

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2013/10 2013 TDWG Dinner, a set on Flickr.

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Looking for Beatrice on the Ponte Santa Trinita

"After the lapse of so many days that nine years exactly were completed since the above-written appearance of this most gracious being, on the last of those days it happened that the same wonderful lady appeared to me dressed all in pure white, between two gentle ladies elder than she. And passing through a street, she turned her eyes thither where I stood sorely abashed: and by her unspeakable courtesy, which is now guerdoned in the Great Cycle, she saluted me with so virtuous a bearing that I seemed then and there to behold the very limits of blessedness." Dante, La Vita Nuova (trans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1899)

It was here at the Ponte Santa Trinita, that legend has it that Dante for the second time in his life saw his muse, Beatrice. After this encounter, where he first heard her speak, he was taken by a fit of extacy and composed the great La Vita Nuova (1295). 

Here's a series of night shots ... any Dantes in these groups I wonder? 

And here are a few shots in the early morning:

Looking for Beatrice at the Santa Margherita de' Cerchi

"Nine times already since my birth had the heaven of light returned to the selfsame point almost, as concerns its own revolution, when first the glorious Lady of my mind was made manifest to mine eyes; even she who was called Beatrice by many who knew not wherefore.She had already been in this life for so long as that, within her time, the starry heaven had moved towards the Eastern quarter one of the twelve parts of a degree; so that she appeared to me at the beginning of her ninth year almost, and I saw her almost at the end of my ninth year. Her dress, on that day, was of a most noble colour, a subdued and goodly crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited with her very tender age. At that moment, I say most truly that the spirit of life, which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart, began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook therewith; and in trembling it said these words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi." - Dante, La Vita Nuova (trans. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1899)

The Church of Santa Margherita de' Cerchi, is where Dante, as a child of nine, first saw his beloved Beatrice Portinari. Interestingly, it was also where Dante is reputed to have married Gemma Donati. The church also has the tomb of Folco Portinari, Beatrice's father (but not Beatrice). The church is interesting, tucked away in a little side street, it was quite small and dark.

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