Toynbee "Talamone"
small sea-port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, situated on a promontory of the same name in the SW. extremity of the Sienese Maremma, in the territory of Grosseto in Tuscany, about 10 miles SE of the mouth of the Ombrone, and about the same distance NW. of Orbetello; it possesses a convenient anchorage, sheltered from the SW. gales by the island of Giglio and by Monte Argentario, but the creek is liable to become silted up.

In 1303 the harbour of Talamone was purchased by the Sienese from the abbot of San Salvatore for 8,000 gold florins. The deed of purchase, dated Sept. 10 in that year, is still preserved at Siena [see Muratori, RIS, xv, p. 44]. The Sienese were eager for an outlet to the sea, but the enterprise was a failure on account of the expense entailed by the constant dredging operations to keep the entrance clear, and also because of the unhealthiness of the situation, the place being infected with malaria from the Maremma.

The hopes of the Sienese with regard to Talamone are referred to mockingly by Sapia (in Circle II of Purgatory), who prophesies that her fellow citizens will lose both money and lives in the project, and will in the end be more disappointed even than in their search for the stream Diana, [Purg. xiii. 151-154]. [Diana_2: Sanesi: Sapia.]

Benvenuto says:

. . . sciendum, quod Thalamon est unum castellum senensium in Maritima, ubi senenses expenderunt aliquando multum, et saepe fecerunt cavari portum cum magnis laboribus et expensis; sed perdebant operam, qua portus cito replebatur, et propter corruptionem aeris locus non est bene habitabilis; et tamen semper habebant in ore Thalamonem, et de ipso confabulabantur; sed spes eorum erat vana.

Buti:

Talamone è uno castello in sul mare dov'è lo porto chiamato lo porto a Talamone, et è de' Senesi; nel quale porto li Senesi anno grande speransa, credendo per quello divenire grandi omini in mare, forsi come li Genovesi o li Veneziani; ma quello porto è poco usato, perche non è in buono sito di mare, et è infermo et è molto di lunge da Siena, sicche sllercanzie non v'anno corso.

The place was taken and destroyed a few years after D.'s death by Don Pedro, son of Frederick, king of Sicily, as Villani records ({Villani. x. 100.}); but some thirty years later (in 1356) the Florentines, being at war with Pisa, asked leave of the Sienese to establish there a commercial depot, thus proving that the little port had capabilities. [See B. Aquarone, Dante in Siena, (Citta di Castello, 1889) pp. 70 ff.

©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