Cavalcanti

   “... se per questo cieco
carcere vai per altezza d’ingegno,
mio figlio ov’è, e perché non è teco?”
   Ed io a lui: “Da me stesso non vegno:
colui che attende là per qui mi mena,
forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno.”

(Inferno X.58-63)

   “... if through this blind
jail you come by dint of intellect,
where is my son and why is he not with you?”
   And I to him: “I don’t come of my own accord.
He who is waiting there leads me through this place,
perhaps to one whom your Guido did disdain.”

These ominous and unforgettable verses are taken from the circle of the heretics, specifically from Dante’s conversation with Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti who is imprisoned alongside Farinata degli Uberti in a fiery sepulcher (as Doré depicted him below). Cavalcante, of course, was the father of Guido Cavalcanti, philosopher-poet and Dante’s best friend.

Quite a lot has been written about these lines, but the gist is this. Since Farinata is also Guido’s father-in-law, and since Guido had a touch of Epicureanism in his reputation (or was simply a patarine), Dante may be damning his own friend to hell. Others say that the “one” to whom Dante traveled (and whom Guido disdained) was not God, but Beatrice. Either way, the youthful friendship between Dante and Guido did not last.

Above, from left to right, the three poets Cino da Pistoia, Dante and Guido Cavalcanti by Paolo Giovio (in the First Corridor, window side, of the Uffizi).

Though members of the Cavalcanti family appear in records as early as the 1170s, their origins are surprisingly unclear. They made their money from properties between their home and what is now Mercato Nuovo (where the Porcellino is) and from investments in the textile industry. They were traditionally Guelph in their politics and, when that party split into two, they joined the White Guelphs, as Dante did.

Guido Cavalcanti (ca. 1255-1300) belonged, with Dante, to a small group of student-poets often called the fedeli d’amore (Love’s faithful) who got together to drink wine and write poetry by candlelight. But these young men were also involved in politics, which could be dangerous. Around 1295, Guido set out on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He had to end that trip prematurely, however, because someone tried to assassinate him. He returned to Florence certain that the hitman had been hired by the head of the Black Guelphs, Corso Donati, whom Guido himself then attacked, but only wounded, in a street clash.

Dante just happened to be serving as a member of the Priors when they were asked to suppress the violence by exiling the instigators. Torn by a desire for peace and his friendship with Guido, Dante chose peace. In the summer of 1300, Guido was sent with other White Guelphs to the city of Sarzana, where he immediately contracted the malaria that killed him back in Florence just weeks later.

This entire block once belonged to the Cavalcanti and their name appeared on the streets all the way around it. Now, the southern edge is part of Via Porta Rossa (so-called because it led from here to a red-brick gate in the walls) and the Via dell’Arte della Lana.

At the corner where these two streets meet (above), there once stood one of the famous loggias of medieval Florence, appropriately called the Loggia dei Cavalcanti, which was closed up 1564. However, a plaque remained there until about 1900 to commemorate its existence and the reason for which it was closed. It read: “Hic Cavalcantae familiae xystus est qui ad pios usus conversus puellis honeste collocandis est dicatus” (“This is the loggia of the Cavalcanti family, which was converted to pious purposes when dedicated to the honest marriages of young ladies”).

In short, the Cavalcanti family closed the loggia and converted it into commercial spaces. The rent they received was then given over to the Monte delle Doti, a municipal fund invented by the city in 1425 with the purpose of providing dowries and simultaneously generating operating funds without raising taxes. Fathers would invest money in the Monte for their young daughters, almost like savings bonds, and upon their coming of age would receive the initial investment plus interest. (In the event that the girl did not survive to adulthood, the city kept the cash.)

Above: coat of arms of the Cavalcanti family

Below: their coat of arms on the southeast corner of their block