Folgore da San Geminiano. “Sonnet. To the Same (To the Guelf Faction).”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeedc
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets vol. 1, xxviii.

◦ Contini, Poeti de duecento vol. 1, 403-404.

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Early Italian Poets text.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This sonnet is a companion piece to another political sonnet also translated from Folgore by DGR. Both are pleas to Guelph supporters to maintain political solidarity; and the disastrous defeat at the battle of Montecatini (1315) is the focus of the plea.

DGR's source was Poeti del primo secolo (II. 194). For further commentary see commentaries for DGR's translation of the companion sonnet and its Italian original, “Guelfi, per fare scudo delle reni”.

Textual History: Composition

Almost certainly an early translation—late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 217d-1861.raw.xml