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| Toynbee "Bonatti, Guido" |
famous astrologer and soothsayer of Forlì (but he
may have been born in Florence), placed by D. among the Sooth
sayers, along with Asdente, in Bolgia 4 of Circle VIII of Hell
(Malebolge),
[Inf. xx. 118]
[Indovini]. B., who was a tiler
(ricopritore di tetti) by trade, seems to have acted as
domestic astrologer to Guido da Montefeltro; it is said to have
been by his aid that the latter won his decisive victory over the
French papal forces at Forlì, May 1, 1282 ({Villani, vii. 81})
[Forlì]. His treatise on astrology enjoyed three
editions, and that
of 1550 (Basel) bears the title Guidonis Bonati foroliviensis
mathematici, de astronomia, tractatus X, universum quod ad
iuditiariam rationem Nativitatum, Aeris, Tempestatum attinet
comprehendentes. From this work certain autobiographical
indications can be garnered, viz. that the astrologer was in
Ravenna in 1231, in Bologna in 1233; in 1246 (on his own
statement)
he unveiled for Frederick II the plot against him by astrological
means. He was in the service of the emperor for a time, and was in
the entourage of Ezzelino da Romano, in Brescia, in 1259. As a
follower of Guido Novello, he participated in the Battle of
Montaperti, the victory being in part ascribed to his
calculations.
Presumably, he moved to Florence after the Ghibelline victory and
became official astrologer of the Republic. A document published
by
Zaccagnini attests that Guido was still living on Jan. 13, 1296.
[For further details, see B. Boncompagni, Della vita
e delle opere di Guido Bonatti, astrologo ed astronomo (Roma,
1851); D. Guerri, 'Un astrologo condannato da Dante',
BSDI,
xxii. (1915), 200 ff.; G. Zaccagnini, 'Personaggi danteschi
in Bologna', GSLI,
lxiv: 2 (1914), 22-24.]
An old chronicle, appended to the 1494 edition of the Speculum
historiale of Vincent de Beauvais, says of Bonatti:
In syderalibus disciplinis universo occidenti notissimus et
celeberrimus fuit. Cui adeo ea in facultate aperta fuerunt omnia,
ut nil apud eam illi incognitum fuerit.
Salimbene of Parma, who was his contemporary, gives the following
account of how he was discomfited at Forlì by a Franciscan friar
of
Reggio:
. . . [frater Ugo] de Regio, qui dictus est Hugo Paucapalea . . .
fuit magister in gramatica in seculo et magnus truphator et magnus
prolocutor et in Ordine fratrum Minorum sollemnis et optimus
predicator, et qui mordaces Ordinis confutabat et confundebat
predicationibus et exemplis. Nam quidam magister Guido Bonattus de
Furlivio, qui se philosophum et astrologum esse dicebat, et
predicationes fratrum Minorum et Predicatorum vituperabat, ita ab
eo fuit confusus coram universitate et populo Liviensi, ut toto
tempore, quo frater Ugo fuit in partibus illis, non solum non
loqui, verum etiam nec apparere auderet. [F. Bernini ed. (Bari,
1942), i, p. 238.]
Filippo Villani claims Guido Bonatti as a Florentine, and says
that
he was of good
family, and was brought up to the law, which he abandoned for the
superior attractions of astrology.
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press