In my opinion the verse "E'l caso ghibellin ben seppe il fiorentino" is (or,
better: may be) a reference to Dante (=il fiorentino) who perfectly
understood (even if he was NOT a Ghibelline) the Ghibellines reasons...
                            Luca Gallesi

----- Original Message -----
From: charles moyer <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: Ezzelino da Romano


>     Thank you, Luca. I should have looked at the orginal Italian Canto
> LXXII, but Pound , for some odd reason, did write him, Ezalino in the
> English translation.
>     Burckhardt, the Basel historian, says that Ezzelino was someone unique
> in the Middle Ages because up to his time there had always been real or
> pretended inheritance claims to conquests an usurpations, but in
Ezzelino's
> case "for the first time the attempt was openly made to found a throne by
> wholesale murder and endless barbarities, by the adoption, in short, of
any
> means with a view to nothing but the end pursued." He is then the most
> important character in "Cento Novelle Antiche" ed. 1525. But did the
> Florentines understand the Ghibelline case?
>     "E 'l caso ghibellin ben seppe il fiorentino." Canto LXXII
>
> CDM