Toynbee "Farinata"

Nel detto parlamento [a Empoli] tutte le città vicine . . . e tutti i baroni d'intorno proposono e furono in concordia per lo migliore di parte ghibellina, di disfare al tutto la città di Firenze, e di recarla a borgora, acciocchè mai di suo stato non fosse rinomo, fama nè podere. Alla quale proposta si levò e contradisse il valente e savio cavaliere messer Farinata degli Uberti . . . dicendo com'era follia di ciò parlare, e come gran pericolo e danno ne potea avvenire, e s'altri ch'egli non fosse, mentre ch'egli avesse vita in corpo, colla spada in mano la difenderebbe. Veggendo ciò il conte Giordano e l'uomo, e dell'autoritade ch'era messer Farinata, e il suo gran seguito, e come parte ghibellina se ne potea partire, e avere discordia, sì si rimase, e intesono ad altro; sicchè per uno buono uomo cittadino scampò la nostra città di Firenze di tanta furia, distruggimento, ruina. Ma poi il detto popolo di Firenze ne fu ingrato, male conoscente contra il detto messer Farinata, e sua progenia e lignaggio. ({Villani vi. 81.})

After Montaperti Farinata returned to Florence, where he died in April 1264, the year before D.'s birth. [Cf. M. Barbi, 'Il canto di Farinata', SD, viii (1924), 89; and I. Del Lungo, SPD, p. 65.] A few years later (Jan. 1266/7), at a time when an attempt was made to reconcile the Guelph and Ghibelline factions in Florence by means of matrimonial alliances, a daughter of Farinata was betrothed to the Guelph Guido Cavalcanti, and the marriage subsequently took place. [Cavalcanti, Guido.]

F. Villani gives the following description of Farinata:

Fu di statura grande, faccia virile, membra forti, continenza grave, eleganza soldatesca, parlare civile, di consiglio sagacissimo, audace, pronto e industrioso in fatti d'arme. ({Villani, vii. 50}.)

Boccaccio says of him:

Fu messer Farinata cittadino di Firenze, d'una nobile famiglia chiamata gli Uberti, cavaliere, secondo il temporal valore, da molto, e non solamente fu capo e maggiore della famiglia degli Uberti, ma esso fu ancora capo di parte ghibellina in Firenze, e quasi in tutta Toscana, sì per lo suo valore, e sì per lo stato, il quale ebbe appresso l'imperador Federigo secondo, il quale quella parte manteneva in Toscana, e dimorava allora nel Regno; e sì ancora per la grazia, la quale, morto Federigo, ebbe del re Manfredi, suo figliuolo, con l'aiuto e col favore del quale teneva molto oppressi quegli dell'altra parte, cioe i guelfi. E secondo che molti tennero, esso fu dell'opinione d'Epicuro, cioè che l'anima morisse col corpo, e per questo tenne, che la beatitudine degli uomini fosse tutta ne' diletti temporali.

D., accepting the common belief that Farinata was a freethinker, places him among the Heretics in Circle VI of Hell, where he is pointed out by Virgil, [Inf. x. 32]; el, [Inf. x. 35]; lui, [Inf. x. 38]; gliel, [Inf. x. 44]; ei, [Inf. x. 45]; lui, [Inf. x. 50]; quell'altro magnanimo, [Inf. x. 73]; lui, [Inf. x. 85, 95]; lo spirito, [Inf. x. 116]; lui, [Inf. x. 117]. [Epicurei: Eretici.]

Farinata and his wife Adeleta were posthumously condemned as heretics by the inquisitor Fra Salomone; their children, and two surviving nephews, were deprived of their heredity. [See the document, dated 1283, published by N. Ottokar, Studi comunali e fiorentini (Firenze, 1948), pp. 115 ff.]

Farinata's place in Hell, tra l'anime più nere, had already been indicated by Ciacco (in Circle III of Hell), in response to D.'s inquiry as to the fate of him and Tegghiaio, che fuor sì degni, [Inf. vi. 79-87]. [Ciacco.]

As D. and Virgil pass along among the tombs in Circle VI in which the Heretics are confined, one of the latter, recognizing D. by his speech to be a Florentine, begs him to stop ([Inf. x. 22-29]); V. tells D. that this is Farinata, who can be seen to rise up 'as if he held Hell in great scorn' ([Inf. x. 29-36]); V. then, bidding D. to be circumspect in his speech, thrusts him towards F., who, looking at him disdainfully, asks him who were his forefathers ([Inf. x. 37-42]); D. having replied, F. tells him that they had been his bitter foes, and had twice been scattered by himself (viz. in 1248 and in 1260) ([Inf. x. 43-48]); D. reminds him that after each occasion they had contrived to return (viz. in 1251 after the death of Frederick II and the defeat of the Ghibellines at Figline, and in 1266 after the defeat and death of Manfred at Benevento), which was 'an art he and his had not well learned' (the Uberti having been among the sixty families who were exprcssly excluded from the pacification of 1280) ([Inf. x. 49-51]); after an interruption caused by the appearance of Cavalcante ([Inf. x. 52-72]), F. tells D. that the knowledge of the perpetual exile of his family causes him more torment than the pains of Hell ([Inf. x. 73-78]); he then foretells that before fifty months (i.e. before the spring of 1304, at which time, after several abortive attempts on thc part of the Bianchi to secure their return to Florence, D. finally cut himself adrift from the party) D. himself would find how hard it was to learn 'the art of returning' ([Inf. x. 79-81]); F. next asks D. why the Florentines were so pitiless towards his house in all their decrees ('questo dice perchè d'ogni legge che si facea a grazia delli usciti, li Uberti n'erano eccetti; e se si facea a danno, v'erano nominati', says Buti), to which D. replies that it was in revenge for the defeat of Montaperti ([Inf. x. 82-87]); F. thereupon retorts that others besides himself were concerned there, and reminds D. that it was he who single-handed prevented the proposed destruction of Florence ([Inf. x. 88-93]); he then, in answer to an inquiry of D., proceeds to explain that those in Hell know nothing of what is actually happening on earth, though they can see dimly into the future ([Inf. x. 94-108]); D., after giving him a message for Cavalcante, asks what other spirits are there with him ([Inf. x. 109-117]); F. replies that there are more than a thousand, of whom he names Frederick II, and the cardinal, and then hides himself in his tomb ([Inf. x. 118-121]). [Cavalcanti, Cavalcante.]