that filled a hollow in the well-head than he felt his heart swell
within him like a sponge, and with a stifled cry to God, he choked and
died.

MESSER GUIDO CAVALCANTI

TO JULES LEMAITRE

MESSER GUIDO CAVALCANTI

_Guido, di Messer Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, fu un de' migliori loici
che avesse il mondo, et ottimo filosofo naturale.... E percio che egli
alquanto tenea della opinione degli Epicuri, si diceva tra la gente
volgare che queste sue speculazioni eran solo in cercare se trovar si
potesse che Iddio non fosse._[1] (The _Decameron_ of Messer Giovanni
Boccaccio, Sixth Day, Novella IX.)

DIM
NON. FVI. ME.
MINI. NON. SVM.
NON. CVRO. DO.
NNIA. ITALIA. AN.
NORVM. XX. HIC.
QVIESCO.[2]

(Inscription from the _Cippus of Donnia Italia_ as read by M.
Jean-Francois Blade.)

[Footnote 1: "Guido, son of Messer Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, was one of
the best Logicians the world held, and a most finished Natural
Philosopher.... And forasmuch as in some degree he held by the opinion
of the Epicureans, it was therefore said among the vulgar folk how that
these his speculations were only pursued for to discover if it might be
there was no God."]

[Footnote 2: "To the Gods of the Lower World.--I was not. I remember. I
am not and I heed not. I, Donnia Italia, a maid of twenty, rest here."]

Messer Guido Cavalcanti was, in the twentieth year of his age, the most
agreeable and the best-built man of all the Florentine nobles. Beneath
his long, dark locks, which escaping from under his cap, fell in jetty
curls over his white brow, his eyes, that had a golden gleam in them,
shone out with a dazzling brilliance. He possessed the arms of Hercules
and the hands of a Nymph. His shoulders were broad, and his figure slim
and supple. He was well skilled in breaking difficult horses and
wielding heavy weapons, and a peerless rider at the ring. Whenever he
passed along the city streets to hear Mass at San Giovanni or San
Michele, or walked by Arno side in the water-meadows, that were pranked
with flowers like a beautiful picture, if any fair ladies, going in a
troop together, met him in the way, they never failed to say the one to
the other with a blush: "See, yonder is Messer Guido, son of the Lord
Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti. 'Tis a very St. George for comeliness,
pardi!" And men report that Madonna Gemma, wife of Sandro Bujamonte, one
day sent her Nurse to let him know how she loved h