Inscriptions from Dante's Divina Commedia in the streets of Florence

N. 12. - Inscription and coat of arms commemorating the BUONDELMONTI N. 5 Borgo SS. Apostoli, which was the principal palace of the family and on the façade of which is still to be seen the emblem of the People of Florence, placed there, when the family resigned their privilege of nobility:

Reading edition

O Buondelmonte! ............ ........................ Molti sarebber lieti che son tristi, Se Dio t’avesse conceduto ad Ema La prima volta che a città venisti. DANTE, Paradiso, XVI, 140–144. O Buondelmonte! ............ ........................ Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice, Had God to Ema given thee, the first time That near our city camest. H. F. Cary’s translation.

The people of Florence’s shield: red cross on a silver field.

POPOLO DI FIRENZE N. 12a.

Buondelmonte was betrothed to a lady of the Amidei, but broke his promise and united himself to one of the Donati. This was so much resented by the former that they and their kinsmen met together to consider the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca dei Lamberti persuaded them to resolve on the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, “cosa fatta testa ha” (the thing once done, there is an end), and so, young Buondelmonte, clad in a white mantle, coming on Easter morning from visiting beyond the Arno, riding a white horse, had just reached the foot of Ponte Vecchio near the remains of that broken statue of Mars (see N. 14), when the whole party issued forth upon him and dragging him from his horse despatched him with a thousand wounds. Villani, says: This was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence, the one siding with the Buondelmonti, who placed themselves at the head of the Guelphs or adherents of the papal power, the others embracing the cause of the Amidei, who sided with the Ghibellines or those who supported the authority of the Emperor.

This happened in 1215. And therefore Cacciaguida says: “O Buondelmonte! it had been well for the city, if thy ancestor had been drowned in the river Ema,” when he crossed that stream to come to Florence from Montebuono, his castle in the rural district of Valdigrieve (see N. 13, 14, 15).

AMIDEI