Volume 1
Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal / [Anon].
- Date:
- 1835-1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
18/332 page 4
![I oft lament my sins and smite my breast, Thou could’st not, in so brief a space, through fire Have pass’d and pluck’d thy finger, as I saw And was within the sign that follows Taurus. © glorious stars! light full of highest virtue! From whence, whate’er it be, my genius sprang, With you arose, and set the Sire of life *, When first I breathed the Tuscan air. With you My lot was cast, when grace was given to mount The lofty wheel which guides your revolutions. To you, devoutly, my whole soul aspires To gather courage for the bold adventure That draws me onward tow’rds itself.” + Brunetto Latini (his tutor afterwards) is reported to have foretold the boy’s illustrious destiny, on due con- sultation with the heavenly bodies that presided at his birth. Yet, superstitious as Dante appears to have been in this respect, in the twentieth canto of the “ Inferno” he punishes astrologers, and those who presume to pre- dict events, by twisting their heads over their shoulders, and making those for ever look backward who, too dar- ingly, had looked forward into inscrutable futurity. <¢ People I saw within that nether glen, Silent, and weeping as they went, with slow Pace, like the chaunters of our litanies. + As I gazed.down on them, the chin of each Seem’d marvellously perverted from the chest, And from the reins the visage turn’d behind: * The sun in the sign of the Twins.. *¢ S’ io torni mai, Lettore, a quel devoto Trionfo, per lo quale io piango spesso Le mie peccata, e 7] petto mi percuoto, Tu non avresti in tanto tratto e messo Nel fuoco il dito, in quanto io vidi ’1 segne, Che segue ’! tauro, e fui dentro da esso, O gloriose stelle! O lume pregno Di gran virtt, ’dal quale io riconosco Tutto (qual che si sia) il mio ingegno ; €on voi nasceva, e s’ascendeva vosco Quegli, ch’ @ padre d’ogni mortal vita, Quand’ io senti’ da prima l’aer Tosco, E poi quando mi fu grazia largita D’entrar nell’ alta ruota che vi gira, La vostra regién mi fu sortita. A. voi divotamente ora sospira L’ Anima mia, per aquistar virtute Al passo forte che a se Ja tira.’’ + In religious processions on saint-days.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33030133_0001_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
