N. 25. - Inscription and coat of arms to commemorate the CAVALCANTI. Via dei Calzaioli near the entrance from Porta Rossa:
Reading edition
........ “se per questo cieco Carcere vai per altezza d’ingegno, Mio figlio ov’è, e perchè non è teco?” Ed io a lui: “Da me stesso non vegno: Colui che attende là per qui mi mena, Forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno”. DANTE, Inferno, X, 58–63. ........ “if through this blind Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius, Where is my son? and wherefore not with thee?” And I to him: “I come not of myself; He who is waiting yonder leads me here, Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.” Longfellow’s translation.
The spirit of Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti rises up at the sight of the Poet to look around, as eager to explore, if there were any other person with Dante, expecting to see his son, Guido Cavalcanti, whom Dante calls “the first of his friends” in his Vita Nuova, where the commencement of their friendship is related. It began when Dante was eighteen years of age and terminated only with the death of Guido. He was a poet of mark, but being more given to philosophy than to poetry, Guido was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil, Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory, whom Dante designates with the words: “He who is waiting yonder leads me here”.
The Cavalcanti also were a powerful family (see N. 22) and at the head of a “Consorteria” (see Consorteria N. 6).
DONATI