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| Toynbee "Alighieri" |
Dante's family name; referred to by Cacciaguida,
D.'s great-great-grandfather (in the Heaven of Mars), as tua
cognazione,
[Par. xv. 92]; il sopranome tuo,
[Par. xv. 138].
Cacciaguida, who is said to have belonged to the Elisei, one of
the
ancient families of Florence who boasted their descent from the
Romans, married one of the Aldighieri or Alighieri, probably of
Ferrara, from whom he says D.'s surname was derived, mia donna
venue a me di val di Pado, e quindi it sopranome tuo si feo,
[Par. xv. 137-138].
[Alighiero:
Cacciaguida:
Dante.]
The most recent investigations tend to show that in the Latin form
the name was probably originally Alagherii and in the
Italian Alighieri. [See M. Scherillo, 'Il cognome
Alighieri', in Alcuni catitoli della biografia di Dante
(Torino 1896), pp. 66-81.] The name in its Latin form (spelt
variously by different editors) occurs,
Epist. ii. tit.,
Epist. v. 1,
Epist. vi. 1,
Epist. vii. 1,
Epist. xi. tit.,
Epist. xii. 5,
Epist. xiii. 1,
Epist. xiii. 28,
Quest. I. 87.
[For the authoritative collection of documents on the Alighieri
family, see R. Piattoli, CDD. Still useful is N.
Zingarelli, Vto, i, pp. 54 71.]
©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