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| Toynbee "Compagni, Dino" |
Florentine Guelph, of the Bianchi faction,
born c. 1260, died Feb. 26, 1324/5. Dino was one of the promoters
of the democratic reform of 1282, and a supporter of Giano della
Bella, the great law-maker and champion of the commons. He was
prior in 1289, gonfalonier of justice in 1293, and prior again in
1301, in which year his tenure of office was brought to an abrupt
termination by the violence of the Neri on the occasion of the
coming of Charles of Valois to Florence; he was saved from sharing
the fate of Dante and the other exiles only by pleading the
privilege of a law in virtue of which no one who had filled the
office of prior could be in any way proceeded against until after
the expiry of a year from his term of office. Dino was the author
of the well-known chronicle (written between 1310 and 1312) which
bears his name, as well as of several poems, among them a sonnet
addressed to Guido Cavalcanti. [Cavalcanti, Guido.] [For his
chronicle, see the critical edition with commentary by I.
Del Lungo (RIS, N.S.ix.2; Citta di Castello, 1913-16.]
©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