The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 01
Forese Donati, in the exchange of insulting sonnets with Dante, implies that Dante's father was a moneylender (72a) and states that he was a moneychanger (74a), see Dante's Lyric Poetry, ed. Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1967) 2 vols.; given the tone of the insults, it is possible that the first is an exaggeration, but the second is likely. Giuseppe Garrani, n pensiero di Dante in tema di economia monetaria e creditizia (Palermo: Cassa di Risparmio,1965), 12, thinks he probably was a banker. Jeremy Catto, "Florence, Tuscany, and the World of Dante," in The World of Dante, ed. Cecil Grayson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980), notes that Dante's sister married a moneylender and that Dante himself first appears in Florentine records in 1283 or 1284 as the owner of a debt, 8.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 02
See Enrico Bensa, Francesco di Marco da Prato (Milan: Treves, 1928), 63. Giovanni Livi, Dall'archivio di Francesco Datini (Florence: Lumachi, 1910) cites the letters mentioned here, see particularly 24.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 03
See Raymond deRoover, Business, Banking and Economic Thought in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. ed. Julius Kirschner (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1974), 120 ff., on the development of accounting. Cf. Armando Sapori, The Italian Merchant in the Middle Ages, trans. Patricia Kennen (New York: Norton, 1970), 30.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 04
See Sapori, Italian Merchant, 51; the information in this paragraph is drawn from Sapori (also his Studi di storia economica medievale [Florence: Sansoni, 1946], 587 ff.), and Roberto Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1976).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 05
Richard W. Kaeuper Bankers to the Crown, The Riccardi of Lucca and Edward I (Princeton: Princeton University, 1973), 83, 151; the list of debtors is given on 60 If.. The name is spelt with an i in Italian studies.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 07
0n Florence, see Marvin Becker, Florence in Transition, vol. 1, The Decline of the Commune (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins,1967), 17. Cf. Lopez, Commercial Revolution, 70: "Italian communes were essentially governments of, by, and for merchants." See M. V. Clarke, The Medieval City-State (1926; reprint, Cambridge: Speculum Historiale, 1966), 120, on the development of political offices from guilds, and Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), 63, on elections by guilds. On Florentine bankers in local politics, see Gino Masi, "I Banchieri Fiorentini nella Vita Politica della citta sulla fine del Dugento," Archivio giuridico 'Filippo Serafini' 105 (1931), 57-89, and "La Struttura sociale delle fazioni politiche fiorentine ai tempi di Dante," Giornale dantesco 31 (1928), 3-28.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 08
See Sapori, Studi, 708; Roberto Lopez and Irving Raymond, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (1955; reprint, New York: Columbia, 1961), 92, and Lopez, Commercial Revolution, 67. DeRoover, Business, Banking, 342, notes the unusual social mobility in north Italy because of trade. He cites examples of partnership formulae which begin "a nome di Dio, e guadangnio," ("in the name of God and gain," dated 1308), 71, and an entry in an account book, "Al nome di Dio, amen, di guadangno, e di buone venture ke Dio ci dea" ("In the name of God, amen, of gain, and of good fortune which God may give us," 1253), 345. The move into commerce was widespread in north Italy and from an early date. 1. Capecchi and M. P. Puccinelli, "L'economia pistoiese ai tempi di Dante," Bullettino storico pistoiese NS7 (1965) 171-83, point out that Pistoia developed artisans and trade rather than agriculture from the twelfth century, when it was small, because of its numerous ponds and canals, that the wealthier families went into banking, and that moneychangers held posts in the city government.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 09
Francesco Mazzoni, "Teoresi e prassi in Dante politico," in Dante Alighieri, Monarchia, Epistole politiche (Turin: ERI, 1966), lix, cites the sentence against Dante. There seems to be no evidence that Dante was actually guilty of barratry, see Garrani, n pensiero di Dante, 89, fn. 139.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 10
Arte can refer to the work of an artist or artisan, of anyone who practices a profession or craft; arte is the official name used by guilds to signify the occupation, and Dante uses it in Convivio, 4.6.6, to mean whatever men do in their work, for example, "operazione od arte," "l'arte di cavalleria." In the Convivio, Dante lists three licit ways of acquiring wealth, of making money by craft or trade or service, "per arte o per mercatantia o per servigio meritante" (4.11.7), as opposed to theft and robbery. The focus in the Convivio, however, is on the negative aspects of wealth, the dangers of desiring and possessing it; even its distribution is attributed to random causes, whereas in the Comedy, Dante treats wealth as an important element in the workings of providence.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 11
Dante goes far beyond the simple metaphorical use of treasure, such as the Egyptian gold in Exodus that was interpreted as pagan learning to be put to Christian use in biblical exegesis. See Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, 2.40 (60), and Glossa Ordinaria, for Ex. 3:22 and 12:35-36.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 12
John W. Baldwin, Masters, Princes and Merchants (Princeton: Princeton University, 1970), 2 vols., 1.271, hereafter cited as MPM.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 13
Baldwin, MPM, 1.262, notes that in ancient times when one wanted to insult a wanderer, like Ulysses, one called him a merchant, as Nausicaa's father did.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 14
See deRoover, Business, Banking, 337, and John W. Baldwin, "The Medieval Theories of the Just Price," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society NS 49 (l959), 63-66 hereafter cited as JP. Bonaventure recognizes the necessity of an army to defend the faith, of trade so that lands can live (Commentum on Sentences of Peter Lombard, Commentum in quattuor libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi, 4, d. 16, dub.l5), and admits that a merchant can act without sin if he does not practice deception; Aquinas says that those things without which the republic cannot be maintained are not vices, but ordered to virtue, provided the merchant acts without fraud and according to a licit contract (Commentary on Sentences of Peter Lombard 4, d.16, q.4, a.2). Giles of Rome De regimine principum 2.3.12, mentions five ways to acquire money, which include trade and transporting goods.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 15
See Francis A. Riehey, Character Control of Wealth according to SL Thomas Aquinas (Washington: Catholic University, 1940), E. VanRoey, "La monnaie d'apres St. Thomas d'Aquin," Revue Neo-Scholastique 12 (1905), 2754, 207-38, for Aquinas on wealth and money; on monopoly and just price see Sapori, Studi "11 'Giusto Prezzo' nella dottrina di San Tommaso e nella practica del suo tempo," 189-227, Raymond deRoover, "La Doctrine scolastique in matiere de monopole et son application a la politique economique des communes italiennes," in Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani (Milan: Giuffre 1962), 6 vols., 1.151-79.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 16
See Ovidio Capitani, "La venditio ad terminum nella valutazione morale di S. Tommaso d'Aquino e di Remigio dei Girolami," Bulletino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per a Medio Evo 70 (1958), 229-363; cf. Alfred O'Rahilly "Notes on St. Thomas," Irish Ecclesiastical Record 31 (1928), l59-68.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 17
Ownership does not change legitimately in usury any more than in fraud, theft, robbery, or simony, so all gain must be restored to the rightful owner according to canon law, Baldwin, MPM, 1.303.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 18
See Jacob Viner, Religious Thought and Economic Society (Durham: Duke, 1978), 63-64, who cites Richey, Character Control.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 19
See Charles Davis, "An Early Florentine Political Theorist: Fra Remigio dei Girolami" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (1960), 667, and Capitani, "la venditio ad terminum," 340 ff., for text and commentary of Determinatio utrum sit licitum vendere mercationes ad terminum.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 20
See John T. Noonan, The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 1957), 49.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 21
On credit sales, see Baldwin, JP, 39-52, and Viner, Religious Thought, 8185. On loans, see Noonan, Scholastic Analysis of Usury, 39 and 48, citing Gratian and Bonaventure, and T. P. McLaughlin, "The Teaching of the Canonists on Usury in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries," Medieval Studies 1 (1939), 81147, and 2 (1940), 1-22, particularly 1.100; cf. Viner on usury, 85-99.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 22
See McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 1.99, and Benjamin N. Nelson, The Idea of Usury (Princeton: Princeton University, 1949), 16.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 23
McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 1.88-89; interest is technically distinct from usury as compensation for damages incurred from a loan, see Noonan, Scholastic Analysis of Usury, 106, and Baldwin, MPM, 1.282-86.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 24
McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 1.125 If.. Those in which the fruits of the property serve as interest are: feuda, the return of a fief to the church as security, in which the fruits may be enjoyed without being deducted from the debt as long as the vassal is freed from service during the same period; pro dote, property given to the bridegroom as security for a dowry that could not be paid, in which the fruits need not be deducted because a dowry is not always sufficient to support the burdens of matrimony and a dowry must be kept intact for the public good; stipendia cleri, clerics may take revenue of pledges placed with them for loans if they are ecclesiastical benefices they are recovering from laymen; venditio fructus, essentially a rent charge, the revenues of land sold for a limited period of time, allowed because of the uncertainty involved; lex commissoria by which the seller is allowed to regain possession for the same price, while the revenue goes to the purchaser. Compensation for damages includes: fidejussor, compensation to those who put up security for clerics in debt to merchants and were forced to pay damages; pretium post tempora solvens, late payment to cover possible damages; poena nec in fraudem, penalty for nonexecution of contract, as long as it is a penalty and not indemnification of the lender. Usury for heretics and infidels, cui velle jure nocere, is based on Ambrose, "ubi jus belli, ibi jus usurae," where it is right to make war it is also right to make usury, but Hostiensis does not accept this because harm to another cannot be justified.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 25
See deRoover, "L'Evolution de la lettre de change, XlVe-XVIIIle s.," Affaires et gens d'affaires, 4 (Paris: Colin 1953), 23-24, and Kirschner, "Raymond deRoover on Scholastic Economic Thought," in de Roover, Business, Banking, 32.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 26
Both Sapori, Studi, 536, and Garrani, 11 pensiero di Dante, 68 ff., particularly 78, comment on Dante's acceptance of commerce.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 27
In Purgatory,12.105, Dante couples corruption by words in official records (il quaderno) with corruption by money in customs and weights (la doga).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 28
Baldwin, JP, 74. See Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Intellectual and Manual Labor (London: Macmillan, 1978), for a discussion of the relation between commerce, particularly coinage, and abstract thinking; see also R. A. Shoaf, Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the Word (Norman: Pilgrim Books, (1983).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 29
AII commercial Italians seem to have been called "Lombards" at first (Sapori, Italian Merchant, 14) and were persecuted as a group in France (ibid. 17-18); they banded together of ficially under a captain of Lombard and Tuscan merchants "Capitaneus mercatorum lombardorum et tuscanorum" in l278, and he negotiated for them with the French king; later they formed a socieq of Italian merchants, "Universitas mercatorum italicorum," 1288 (ibid. 19). Garrani, n pensiero di Dante, 13, notes that these organizations were self-disciplinaq; he also mentions that commercial hmilies joined togehter in caravans in order to be safer in their travels. Italian companies that were fierce rivals at obtaining wool in England apparently shared ships to transport it (Kaeuper, Bankers to the Crouyn, 42). F. P. Luiso, "Su le tracce d'un usuraio fiorentino del s.XIII," Archivio storico italiano NS 42 (1908), 3-44, cites a document of the Curia in 1294 in which Giovanni Gianfigliazzi promised in his own name and that of the merchants from Florence and Lombardy residing in Provence at the time to pay a sum in order to abolish or modify a royal decree on usuq, 24. When the king of England needed large sums, he could count on the Ricciardi to raise them from among the Italian banking communiq (Kaeuper, 301). In the Datini archives, letters about merchants in Spain mention the "detti Italiani" apropos of royal permissions and restrictions (Livi, Dall'archivo, 52).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 30
Garrani, n pensiero di Dante, 139, mentions a particularly intriguing way of regularizing monetaq circulation, by the use of imaginaq money, which existed only as a standard against which real monies could be measured, the "Fiorino a Fiorino" in Florence, and the Sicilian "oncia."

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 31
Counsellors of fraud, who teach others to gain power and wealth by deception, are also tongues, spurting from the "throat" of their bolgia, and the three worst traitors, those who sell out their benefactors, hang from the three mouths of Lucifer. This is the essence of Hell, turning the mouth, the instrument of communication through which reason speaks, into an organ of pure consumption.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 32
Fulgentius, Mitologiarum Liber 1, ed Rudolfus Helm (1898; reprint, Stuttgart: Teubner, 1970), chapter 18, and The Commentary on the First Six Books of the Aeneid, ed. J. W. and E. F. Jones (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1977), 4.222 ff.; the commentary was translated by E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1979). Mercury as eloquence was, of course, well established by Martianus Capella's De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. Thomas Aquinas connects trade with lying words, ST, 2.2ae, q.77, a.4: "difficiliter exuitur negotiator a peccatis labiorum." There is an interesting analogue to Dante as poet and merchant in some versions of the Tristan story, in which the hero disguises himself in his wanderings both as a merchant and as a minstrel.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 33
Aquinas speaks of the expiation of sins in Purgatory in terms of debts, profit, and compensation, ST, Supp. 2.71, particularly a.4. Jacques Le Goff, La naissance du Purgatoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1981), notes the financial language in that passage, although he points out that the text was put together by Thomas's disciples from his work. See also Jacques Le Goff, "The Usurer and Purgatory," The Dawn of Modern Banking, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA (New Haven: Yale University, 1979), 25-52, for connections between the concept of Purgatory (the salvation of sinners) and the development of capitalism.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 34
Cf. Matelda, who gives Dante more than she had promised, sure that it will be no less valued for that (28.137-38), i.e., one can be prodigal of learning as well as of love.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 35
Saint Francis was so named because his father, a merchant, was in France on business at the time of his birth.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 36
ST, 2.2ae, q.118, a.8: "avaritia est superfluus amor habendi divitias, in duobus excedit ... in retinendo ... in accipiendo.... Et sic in acquirendo aliena utitur quandoque quidem vi, quod pertinet ad violentias; quodoque autem dolor. Qui quidem si fiat in verbo, erit fallacia, quantum ad simplex verbum; periurium autem si addatur confirmatio iuramenti. Si autem dolus committatur in opere, sic, quantum ad res, erit fraus; quantum ad personas, proditio, ut patet de luda, qui ex avaritia prodidit Christum.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 37
The coins of the other popes in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries use PP, PAPA, sometimes PA, or PAP. Boniface's are the only ones I could find with PAPE in this period (see Francesco Muntoni, Le monete dei Papi e degli Stati pontefici [Rome: P & P Santamaria, 1972] 1.24 ff.), though Leo VIII had one in the tenth century.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 38
Cf. Garrani on the counterfeiter's swollen stomach, 11 pensiero di Dante, 160 Of.;; Garrani suggests that by condemning avarice, which takes money out of circulation, whereas loans put it in, Dante is distinguishing bankers from usurers who lend at excessive rates, 86.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 39
The restless movement of merchants in pursuit of gain is a classical topos adopted by the church fathers, Baldwin, MPM, 1.262.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 40
McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 2.10-11, and Marvin Becker, "Florentine Politics and the Diffusion of Heresy in the Trecento: A Socio-Economic Inquiry," Speculum 34 (1959), 61, and Emilio Morpurgo, "I Prestatori di Danaro al tempo di Dante," Dante e Padova (Padua: Prosperini, 1865), 193-233. According to Morpurgo, the mission of the Frati Gaudenti was to safeguard peace, wipe out heresies, defend ecclesiastical privileges and the claims of widows and orphans, and particularly to oversee the repression of usury. 216.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 41
See Niccolo Ottokar, "La condanna postuma di Farinata degli Uberti," Archivio storico italiano 77 (1919),159 ff., for the text of the sentence; he notes that a year and a half after the posthumous trial of Farinata, Bruno degli Uberti was similarly condemned for heresy, posthumously, and his sons lost their inheritance, dispersing another substantial part of the Uberti family fortunes.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 42
According to Robert Davidsohn, Storia di Firenze, I primordi della civilta fiorentina Industria, arti, commercio e finanze (Italian trans. Giovanni Miccoli), 6.256, no one took part as frequently in the consulate of the Calimala guild as the Cavalcanti and indeed the wool industry also had a seat in their houses; on the importance of the Cavalcanti in commerce and banking, see Masi "Banchieri," 61-62.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 43
There are various suggestive details in the canto which have financial overtones: the souls appear from the waist or chin up, as busts or heads, seen against the backdrop of their tomb covers, rather like the figures on coins, and Farinata does not move except for one slight raising of the eyebrow, like an engraved figure; Cavalcanti's face is seen to the chin, mento, which rhymes with talento, "talent", and spento, "spent." (Talento means "desire" rather than the coin here, but that is not clear until the following line. 10.55-56.) Dante "reads Cavalcanti's name" in his words and penalty (10.64-65) as one identifies the figure on a coin.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 44
See Enrico Salvagnini, "Jacopo da Sant'Andrea e i Feudatarj del Padovano," Dante e Padova (Padua; Prosperini, 1865), 37-40 and 55.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 45
Saint Bernard compares himself to a tailor at the end of Paradise (32.140), but there it is a humility topos, revealing a willingness to work within the limits and material given by God. The sexual implications of the sodomites' clothes imagery were discussed in chapter three.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 46
In civil law, fraud, dolus, is any cunning, deceit, or contrivance used to defraud, deceive, or cheat another; two kinds are specified, "dolus ex proposito," intentional fraud, which nullifies a contract, and "dolus re ipsa," which is by mistake and has no remedy in law (Baldwin, MPM, 1.264). The ten categories of fraud described in Dante's eighth circle are all of the first kind.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 47
See Wayne Conner, "Inferno XVIII 66 ("femmine da conio") and S1 ("pungenti salse")," Italica 32 (1955), 95-103, for an analysis of various meanings of conio, the most obvious being "coin," but with the other possibilities including the die or stamp used in making coins (with a possible obscene reading of women easily stamped), a measure for liquids (not applicable here), and deception (possible as a double-entendre).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 48
See Corpus nummorum italicorum, vol. 11, Toscana (Zecche minori) (Rome: Cecchini; Milan: Hoetli,1929); vol. 12, Toscana (Firenze), cited below, was published in 1930.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 49
Storia di Firenze, 6.448-50. Davidsohn also notes that statutes of guilds, which were well-meaning attempts to control usury, served instead to cover it "hypocritically with a veil of piety," 6.269. Cf. Morpurgo, "Prestatori di danaro," 216.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 50
On the economic life of Pistoia, see Capecchi and Puccinelli, "L'economia pistoiese"; on the metamorphoses of cities, see above, chapter 3.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 51
Noonan, Scholastic Analysis of Usury, 17, cites Anselm of Canterbury Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Comnestor, and Peter Lombard; see also Nelson, Idea of Usury, 9; see McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 1.82, for similar treatment in commentaries on the Corpus juris canonici.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 52
The early commentators make distinctions among three kinds of theft in these cantos, assuming that each metamorphosis must represent a different one, but they do not specify contracts; Jacopo, however, defines thieves as those who fraudulently and secretly extort others' goods through the subtlety of their wit (1.312). The connection between Dante's theft and fraudulent business practices should be considered, whether or not one accepts the specific kinds of contract suggested here.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 53
Note the emphasis on numbers in this passage: "'non se' ne due ne uno.'/ Gia eran li due capi un divenuti,/quando n'apparver due figure miste/in una faccia, ov'eran due perduti./Fersi le braccia due di quattro liste" (25.69-73).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 54
See Masi, "Struttura sociale," 2425.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 55
Giovanni Rosadi, "11 canto XXIV dell'lnferno," Lectura Dantis (Florence: Sansoni, 1917), 21-22.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 56
See Bruno Nardi, Dante e la cultura medievale (Bari: Larerza, 1949) 15354.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 57
Garrani,11 pensiero di Dante, 163 ff. On Adam and other abuses of coinage mentioned in the Comedy, see Flavio Valeriani, "La numismatica nella DivinaComedia," Rivista Italiana di Numismatica 28 (l915), 197-220; he uses the continuing existence of certain coins as evidence for the extent of counterfeiting and circulation of bad coins. I am indebted to Alan Stahl of the American Numismatic Society for this reference.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 58
The last major sin of Hell, the betrayal of those to whom one is tied by specific bonds is less overtly social a sin in its victim than fraud, though it still has politico-social overtones. One would not expect to find the same suggestions of commerce in this circle, and one does not; nonetheless, money and possessions are a factor, at least as important a motivation in this circle as power. There are commercial elements, although Dante does not allude to them, behind the betrayal of Ugolino, which is connected with Pisa's struggle against Florence and Lucca. His audience probably knew that one of the major problems between Pisa and Lucca was Pisa's periodic counterfeiting of Luccan currency (Garrani, 118). Many of the betrayals alluded to in the ninth circle occur either to gain possessions or as the result of a bribe. Even in Satan's mouth, the central figure, Judas, is one who committed the betrayal of Christ for money.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 59
Even in the calculation of the sin's weight, however, unexpected values are applied: Bonconte, we learn in canto S. was saved despite his sins because of one little tear, "per una lagrimetta" (5.107), to the distinct annoyance of the devil.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 60
See McLaughlin, "Canonists on Usury," 1.108 and 2.15-16, and Baldwin, MPM, 1.273. Not all contracts call God to witness, though partnerships usually do (see Lopez, Medieval Trade, for documents); but all call some public official, usually a notary, to witness, and all involve giving one's word.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 61
See Rodolfo Spahr, Le Monete Siciliane dai Bizantini a Carlo I d'Angio Zurich: Association Internationale des Numismates Professionels,1976). Frederick 11 had coined a small quantity of a gold coin which recalled the ancient empire in its metal and minting, as well as its name, the Augustale (Valeriani, "La numismatica," 202).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 62
On Augustine, see Joseph A. Mazzeo, "St. Augustine's Rhetoric of Silence," Journal of the History of Ideas 23 (1962), 175-96. On the two traditions, see James J. Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California, 1974). Cf. my "The Relation of Speech to Sin in the Inferno," Dante Studies 87 (1969), 33-46.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 63
She tells the story of her affair as though it were a brief encounter rather than a long duration, presenting herself and Paolo as young lovers, though they were middle-aged when they died; she also reverses the roles of the lover in the Lancelot-Guinevere kiss in order to suggest that Paolo is the active force in their affair, but his silent weeping belies her. Though she uses the lyric cliches, the real desires keep asserting themselves: "Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende," a line which might have been written by Guido Guinizelli, is followed by "prese costui de la bella persona" (Hell S.100-01: "love that swiftly takes hold of a noble heart took him for my beautiful body"), revealing the physical aspect of the love. Similarly, "Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona," is quickly undercut by "mi prese del costui piacer si forte" (5.103-04: "Love that exempts no loved one from love, seized me for the strong pleasure [I took] in him").

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 64
Cf. letter to Can Grande, sec. 29, in which Dante says he lacks the knowledge because he has forgotten and lacks the power because even if he remembers speech fails him: "for we perceive many things by the intellect for which language has no terms, as Plato indicates by his employment of metaphors; he perceived many things by the light of the intellect which his everyday language was inadequate to express." Dante, too, finds ways to transcend the limitations of normal language.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 65
Dante progresses from the symbols in the Earthly Paradise, which are real objects with symbolic meaning, to metaphors in the early part of Paradise, and finally to symbolic figures; for instance, the garden in the Earthly Paradise is a real garden which represents the created universe in its prelapsarian state, souls in the first part of paradise are metaphorically "plants," but in the sphere of the stars, Dante sees all the souls as flowers in the garden of the church triumphant and, in the Empyrean, as petals of a single rose.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 06: 66
For a more detailed study of the unusual technical devices in Paradise, see my "Words and Images in the Paradiso: Reflections of the Divine," in Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Studies in the Italian Trecento In Honor of Charles S. Singleton, ed. Aldo S. Bernardo and Anthony L. Pellegrini (Binghamton: SUNY, 1983), 115-32.