StonesofFlorence (original) (raw)

It can be useful to have at hand a time line concerning these events in connection with Orsanmichele:

1260-1266 Brunetto Latino goes on embassy to Alfonso X el Sabio, following writing several folios and being often named in the Libro di Montaperti, then is in exile in France. Alfonso X el Sabio, seeking to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, sends Florence a regal copy of Las Cantigas de Santa Maria with the miracles of the Virgin in a tabernacle (BNCF MS Banco Rari 20). Brunetto sends him a Second Redaction copy of Li Livres dou Tresor, now Escorial MS ii.I.3.

1264 Birth of Francesco da Barberino

1265 Birth of Dante Alighieri

13 October 1284 The Tuscan League of Florence, Genoa and Siena, with ser “Burnectus Latinus” as ambassador, is seemingly allied against Pisa to please Charles of Anjou, ASF, Capitoli di Firenze, Reg.43, fols. 34r-37v, 85r-87v.

1284-1288 Pisa, blockaded and starving, discovers the betrayal of Ugolino della Gherardesca with Florence, and places Ugolino and his progeny in prison (Inferno 32.124-139 - 33.1-108; G. Villani, Cronica, VII. civ).

18 March 1289 Ugolino and his two sons and two grandsons are discovered to have died of starvation and cannibalism.

22 March 1289, 7 December 1291, 17 July 1292, the Comune of Florence discusses giving compensation for Count Guelfo, Ugolino’s sole surviving son for this war crime

3 July 1292 Giani Della Bella’s Ordinaments of Justice. Miracles of the Virgin in Orsanmichele’s tabernacle begin, Guido Cavalcanti writing about them in his sonnet.

1295 Dante’s membership in the Arte de’ Medici e Speziali.

15 June-15 August 15 1300, Dante is one of Florence’s Priors in the 23. Torre della Castagna, near Orsanmichele. These Priors, according to the Ordinaments of Justice, have to exile Corso Donati and Guido Cavalcanti, who dies in consequence of his exile in August of malaria.

1302 The Libro del Chiodo with the sentences against the White Guelfs by the Black Guelfs, whose leader is Corso Donati, is kept in the Podestà’s Palace, near Orsanmichele. Dante and Francesco are themselves exiled. Francesco goes to Padua where Giotto is frescoing the Arena Chapel.

1304 Orsanmichele is destroyed in a fire, and then rebuilt.

1304-1308 Francesco da Barberino is Notaio to Corso Donati who is elected Podestà in Treviso. Francesco commissions the now lost fresco about Justice, Mercy and Conscience for the Bishop of Treviso’s Palace. It is probably during this period that Dante begins the Commedia.