LA CASA DI CHE NACQUE IL VOSTRO FLETO, PER LO GIUSTO DISDEGNO CHE V'HA MORTI E PUOSE FINE AL VOSTRO VIVER LIETO, ERA ONORATA, ESSA E SUOI CONSORTI.
DANTE, PAR., XVI, 136-139.
THE HOUSE FROM WHICH IS BORN YOUR LAMENTATION, THROUGH JUST DISDAIN THAT DEATH AMONG YOU BROUGHT AND PUT AN END UNTO YOUR JOYOUS LIFE, WAS HONOURED IN ITSELF AND ITS COMPANIONS.
Dante refers to the ancient and powerful Florentine Amidei family, whose tower, located, at the time, near Porta Santa Maria, from which the current street takes its name, was later lowered - like many others - as a result of Giano Della Bella's orders of justice. As the protagonists, together with the allied families, of Buondelmonte Buondelmonti’s murder, they took revenge for the broken promise of marriage. Hence the 'lamentation', to which the poet refers, caused by the 'just disdain', which gave rise to the fierce fighting between the Florentine factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines.
To learn more about the origin of the feud between Guelph and Ghibelline families, click here!
Lapide Dantesca: Torre degli Amidei
Via Por Santa Maria 15r, Firenze
