Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Dante's Early Days In the month when Charles of Anjou sailed up the Tiber to Eome, a child was born at Florence to a citizen named Alighiero, son of Bellincione. We do not know for certain his casato, or family name. Bellincione's father was another Alighiero, or, as it was originally written, Aldighiero. His father was Cacciaguida, who had a brother named Eliseo ; from which it has been conjectured that he may have belonged to the prominent house of the Elisei, which is known to have existed as far back as the beginning of the eleventh century, since it was not uncommon for members of a family to bear the founder's name. We know, further, that the name of Alighiero came into the family with Cacciaguida's wife, who belonged to some city near the Po, probably Ferrara, where a family of Aldighieri isknown to have existed. In any case, it was originally no Florentine name, and it may be doubted if it ever was recognised as the appellation of a family. True, Dante is once or twice referred to as " Dantes de Alegheriis," but this may be due to the fact that he was known to have had recently two ancestors of the name. He himself, if we may trust the evidence of letters ascribed to him, seems to have written " Dantes Alligherius," while his son calls him Dantes Aligherii, and himself Petrus Dantis Aligherii, " Peter, son of Dante, son of Alighiero." In the official Florentine documents, where his name occurs, it is " Dantes Allegherii " or " Dante d'Alighiero," " Dante the son of Alighiero," and no more. The form "degli Alighieri," which would indicate a true family name, we find in no undoubtedly contemporary document. In view of this initial uncertainty, the discussion whether the poet was of " noble " family or not seems a trifle superfluous. His great-great-gran... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.