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

N. 5. - Inscription and coat of arms commemorating the LAMBERTI Via Pellicceria N. 10 on the side front, facing VIA LAMBERTI. Here stood the houses that constituted the so called die of the Lamberti:

Reading edition

.......... e le palle dell’oro Fiorian Fiorenza in tutti i suoi gran fatti. DANTE, Paradiso, XVI, 110–111. .......... the balls of gold Florence overflowered in all their mighty deeds. Longfellow’s translation.

The golden balls were in the arms of the Lamberti and “the Poet mentions them by their emblem,” writes the Ottimo, “meaning to say: as the ball is the symbol of the universe, and gold surpasses all other metals, so in goodness and valour these surpassed the other citizens and embellished the city with their great deeds.” The family are said to have come to Tuscany from Germany with the Emperor Otho the Great, about the middle of the tenth century. They were a powerful but turbulent family; one of them, Mosca dei Lamberti instigated the murder of Buondelmonte (see N. 12).

Left half of shield, Visdomini: top right and bottom left quarters have three horizontal black stripes on silver, the other two quarters are gold. Right half, Cortigiani: brown lion with a silver crozier and a small shield of the Florentine people, a red cross on a silver field.

CONSORTERIA OF THE VISDOMINI