Note 37 — Chapter VIII

It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin, Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’]