GIOTTO

AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA

1. TOWARDS the close of the thirteenth century,¹ Enrico Scrovegno, a noble Paduan, purchased, in his native city, the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre or Arena from the family of the Dalesmanini, to whom those remains had been granted by the Emperor Henry III. of Germany in 1090. For the power of making this purchase, Scrovegno was in all probability indebted to his father, Reginald, who, for his avarice, is placed by Dante in the seventh circle of the Inferno, and regarded apparently as the chief of the usurers there, since he is the only one who addresses Dante.* The son, having possessed himself of the Roman ruin, or of the site which it had occupied, built himself a

* “Noting the visages of some who lay

Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire,

One of them all I knew not; but perceived

That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch,

With colours and with emblems various marked,

On which it seemed as if their eye did feed.

And when amongst them looking round I came,

A yellow purse I saw, with azure wrought,

That wore a lion’s countenance and port.

Then, still my sight pursuing its career,

Another I beheld, than blood more red,

A goose display of whiter wing than curd.

And one who bore a fat and azure srvine

Pictured on his white scrip, addressed me thus:

What dost thou in this deep? Go now and know,

Since yet thou livest, that my neighbour here,

¹ [The exact date is A.D. 1300.]

13

[Version 0.04: March 2008]