# Paradise Canto 16

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XVI
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Cacciaguida relates the time of his birth; and, describing the extent of
> Florence when he lived there, recounts the names of the chief families who
> then inhabited it. Its degeneracy, and subsequent disgrace, he attributes to
> the introduction of families from the neighboring country and villages, and to
> their mixture with the primitive citizens.
> 
> O slight respect of man's nobility!
> I never shall account it marvellous,
> That our infirm affection here below
> Thou movest to boasting; when I could not chuse,
> E'en in that region of unwarp'd desire,
> In Heaven itself, but make my vaunt in thee.
> Yet cloak thou art soon shorten'd; for that Time,
> Unless thou be eked out from day to day,
> Goes round thee with his shears. Resuming then,
> With greeting[1] such as Rome was first to bear,
> But since hath disaccustom'd, I began:
> And Beatrice, that a little space
> Was sever'd, smiled; reminding me of her,
> Whose cough embolden'd (as the story holds)
> To first offence the doubting Guenever.[2]
> 
> [1: "With greeting." The Poet, who had addressed the spirit, not
> knowing him to be his ancestor, with a plain "Thou," now uses more ceremony,
> and calls him "You," according to a custom of the Romans in the latter times
> of the empire.]
> 
> [2: Beatrice's smile reminded him of the female servant who, by her
> coughing, emboldened Queen Guenever to encourage Lancelot. See Hell, Canto v.
> 124.]
> 
> "You are my sire," said I: "you give me heart
> Freely to speak my thought: above myself
> You raise me. Through so many streams with joy
> My soul is fill'd, that gladness wells from it;
> So that it bears the mighty tide, and bursts not.
> Say then, my honour'd stem! what ancestors
> Were those you sprang from, and what years were mark'd
> In your first childhood? Tell me of the fold,[3]
> That hath Saint John for guardian, what was then
> Its state, and who in it were highest seated!"
> 
> [3: Florence, of which John the Baptist was the patron saint.]
> 
> As embers, at the breathing of the wind,
> Their flame enliven; so that light I saw
> Shine at my blandishments; and, as it grew
> More fair to look on, so with voice more sweet,
> Yet not in this our modern phrase, forthwith
> It answer'd: "From the day,[4] when it was said
> 'Hail Virgin!' to the throes by which my mother,
> Who now is sainted, lighten'd her of me
> Whom she was heavy with, this fire had come
> Five hundred times and fourscore, to relume
> Its radiance underneath the burning foot
> Of its own lion. They, of whom I sprang,
> And I, had there our birth - place, where the last[5]
> Partition of our city first if reach'd
> By him that runs her annual game. Thus much
> Suffice of my forefathers: who they were,
> And whence they hither came, more honourable
> It is to pass in silence than to tell.
> All those, who at that time were there, betwixt
> Mars and the Baptist, fit to carry arms,
> Were but the fifth of them this day alive.
> But then the citizen's blood, that now is mix'd
> From Campi and Certaldo and Fighine,[6]
> Ran purely through the last mechanic's veins.
> O how much better were it, that these people[7]
> Were neighbours to you; and that at Galluzzo
> And at Trespiano ye should have your boundary;
> Than to have them within, and bear the stench
> Of Aguglione's hind, and Signa's,[8] him,
> That hath his eye already keen for bartering.
> Had not the people,[9] which of all the world
> 
> [4: From the incarnation of our Lord to the birth of Cacciaguida, the
> planet Mars had returned 580 times to the constellation of Leo, with which it
> is supposed to have a congenial influence. As Mars then completed his
> revolution in a period of forty - three days short of two years, Cacciaguida
> was born about 1090.]
> 
> [5: The city was divided into four compartments. The Elisei, the
> ancestors of Dante, resided near the entrance of that named from the Porta S.
> Piero, which was the last reached by the competitor in the annual race at
> Florence.]
> 
> [6: Country places near Florence.]
> 
> [7: "That the inhabitants of the above - mentioned places had not
> been mixed with the citizens; nor the limits of Florence extended beyond
> Galluzzo and Trespiano."]
> 
> [8: Baldo of Aguglione, and Bonifazio of Signa.]
> 
> [9: If Rome had continued in her allegiance to the Emperor, and the
> Guelfi - Ghibelline factions had thus been prevented, Florence would not have
> been polluted by a race of upstarts, nor lost her best element.]
> 
> Degenerates most, been stepdame unto Caesar,
> But, as a mother to her son, been kind,
> Such one, as hath become a Florentine,
> And trades and traffics, hath been turn'd adrift
> To Simifonte,[10] where his grandsire plied
> The beggar's craft: the Conti were possest
> Of Montemurlo[11] still: the Cerchi still
> Were in Acone's parish: nor had haply
> From Valdigreve passed the Buondelmonti.
> The city's malady hath ever source
> In the confusion of its persons, as
> The body's, in variety of food:
> And the blind bull falls with a steeper plunge,
> Than the blind lamb: and oftentimes one sword
> Doth more and better execution,
> Than five. Mark Luni; Urbisaglia[12] mark;
> How they are gone; and after them how go
> Chiusi and Sinigaglia![13] and't will seem
> No longer new, or strange to thee, to hear
> That families fail, when cities have their end.
> All things that appertain to ye, like yourselves,
> Are mortal: but mortality in some
> Ye mark not; they endure so long, and you
> Pass by so suddenly. And as the moon
> Doth, by the rolling of her heavenly sphere,
> Hide and reveal the strand unceasingly;
> So fortune deals with Florence. Hence admire not
> At what of them I tell thee, whose renown
> Time covers, the first Florentines. I saw
> The Ughi, Catilini, and Filippi,
> The Alberichi, Greci, and Ormanni,
> Now in their wane, illustrious citizens;
> And great as ancient, of Sannella him,
> With him of Arca saw, and Soldanieri,
> 
> [10: A castle dismantled by the Florentines. The person here alluded
> to is not known.]
> 
> [11: The Conti Guidi, unable to defend their castle from the
> Pistoians, sold it to the state of Florence.]
> 
> [12: Cities formerly of importance, but then fallen to decay.]
> 
> [13: The same.]
> 
> And Ardinghi, and Bostichi. At the poop[14]
> That now is laden with new felony
> So cumbrous it may speedily sink the bark,
> The Ravignani sat, or whom is sprung
> The County Guido, and whoso hath since
> His title from the famed Bellincion ta'en.
> Fair governance was yet an art well prized
> By him of Pressa: Galigaio show'd
> The gilded hilt and pommel,[15] in his house;
> The column, clothed with verrey,[16] still was seen
> Unshaken; the Sacchetti still were great,
> Giuochi, Fifanti, Galli, and Barucci,
> With them[17] who blush to hear the bushel named.
> Of the Calfucci still the branchy trunk
> Was in its strength: and, to the curule chairs,
> Sizii and Arrigucci[18] yet were drawn.
> How mighty them[19] I saw, whom, since, their pride
> Hath undone! And in all their goodly deeds
> Florence was, by the bullets of bright gold,[20]
> O'erflourish'd. Such the sires of those,[21] who now,
> As surely as your church is vacant, flock
> Into her consistory, and at leisure
> There stall them and grow fat. The o'erweening broad,[22]
> That plays the dragon after him that flees,
> But unto such as turn and show the tooth,
> Ay or the purse, is gentle as a lamb,
> Was on its rise, but yet so slight esteem'd,
> That Ubertino of Donati grudged
> His father - in - law should yoke him to its tribe.
> 
> [14: The Cerchi, Dante's enemies, had succeeded to the houses over
> the gate of St. Peter.]
> 
> [15: The symbols of knighthood.]
> 
> [16: The arms of the Pigli, or as some wrote it, the Billi.]
> 
> [17: Either the Chiaramontesi, or the Tosinghi; one of which had
> committed a fraud in measuring out the wheat from the public granary. See
> Purgatory, Canto xii. 99.]
> 
> [18: "These families still obtained the magistracies."]
> 
> [19: "Them." The Uberti.]
> 
> [20: The arms of the Abbati, or of the Lamberti.]
> 
> [21: Of the Visdomini, the Tosinghi, and the Cortigiani, who, being
> sprung from the founders of the bishopric of Florence, are the curators of its
> revenues, which they do not spare, whenever it becomes vacant.]
> 
> [22: This family was so little esteemed that Ubertino Donato, of the
> same stock as his wife, was offended with his father - in - law, Bellincion
> Berti, for giving another daughter to one of them.]
> 
> Already Caponsacco[23] had descended
> Into the mart from Fesole: and Giuda
> And Infangato[24] were good citizens.
> A thing incredible I tell, though true:
> The gateway, named from those of Pera, led
> Into the narrow circuit of your wells.
> Each one, who bears the sightly quarterings
> Of the great Baron,[25] (he whose name and worth
> The festival of Thomas still revives,)
> His knighthood and his privilege retain'd;
> Albeit one,[26] who borders them with gold,
> This day is mingled with the common herd.
> In Borgo yet the Gualterotti dwelt,
> And Importuni;[27] well for its repose,
> Had it still lack'd of newer neighbourhood.[28]
> The house,[29] from whence your tears have had their spring,
> Through the just anger, that hath murder'd ye
> And put a period to your gladsome days,
> Was honour'd; it, and those consorted with it.
> O Buondelmonte! what ill counselling
> Prevail'd on thee to break the plighted bond?
> Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice,
> Had God to Ema[30] given thee, the first time
> Thou near our city camest. But so was doom'd:
> 
> [23: The Caponsacchi, who had removed from Fiesole.]
> 
> [24: Guida Guidi and the family of Infangati.]
> 
> [25: The Marchese Ugo, who resided at Florence as lieutenant of the
> Emperor Otho III, gave many of the chief families license to bear his arms. A
> vision is related, in consequence of which he sold all his possessions in
> Germany, and founded seven abbeys, in one whereof his memory was celebrated at
> Florence on St. Thomas' day. "The marquis, when hunting, strayed away from
> his people, and, wandering through a forest, came to a smithy, where he saw
> black and deformed men tormenting others with fire and hammers; and, asking
> the meaning of this, he was told that they were condemned souls, who suffered
> this punishment, and that the soul of the Marchese Ugo was doomed to suffer
> the same, if he did not repent. Struck with horror, he commended himself to
> the Virgin Mary; and soon after founded the seven religious houses."]
> 
> [26: Giano della Bella, of one of the families thus distinguished,
> who no longer retained his place among the nobility, and had yet added to his
> arms a bordure or.]
> 
> [27: Two families in the compartment of the city called Borgo.]
> 
> [28: Some understand this of the Bardi; and others, of the
> Buondelmonti.]
> 
> [29: "The house." Of Amidei.]
> 
> [30: "To Ema." "It had been well for the city if thy ancestor had
> been drowned in the Ema when he crossed that stream on his way from Montebuono
> to Florence."]
> 
> Florence! on that maim'd stone[31] which guards the bridge
> The victim, when thy peace departed, fell.
> 
> [31: Near the remains of the statute of Mars, Buondelmonti was slain,
> as if he had been a victim to the god; and Florence had not since known the
> blessing of peace.]
> 
> "With these and others like to them, I saw
> Florence in such assured tranquillity,
> She had no cause at which to grieve: with these
> Saw her so glorious and so just, that ne'er
> The lily[32] from the lance had hung reverse,
> Or through division been with vermeil dyed."
> 
> [32: The arms of Florence had never hung reversed on the spear of her
> enemies; nor been changed from argent to gules; as they afterward were, when
> the Guelfi gained the predominance.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto 16*