he Marquis Hugh which built the Badia of Florence, they took
their arms and knighthood, for they were of great account with him.

[Sidenote: 1040 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1056 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1073 A.D.]

Sec. 14.--_How in those times Oltrarno was but little inhabited._ Sec.
15.--_How Henry II. called III. was made Emperor, and the events which
were in his time._ Sec. 16.--_How Henry III. was made Emperor, and the
events which were in Italy in his time, and how the Court of Rome was
in Florence._ Sec. 17.--_How S. John Gualberti, citizen of Florence, and
father of the order of Vallombrosa, was canonized._

Sec. 18.--_Narration of many things that were in those times._

[Sidenote: 1070 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xxviii. 13, 14. Par. xviii. 48.]

[Sidenote: iii. 118-120.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. xxxiii. 119.]

In those times, the year of Christ 1070, there passed into Italy
Robert Guiscard, duke of the Normans, the which by his prowess and wit
did great things, and wrought in the service of Holy Church against
the Emperor Henry III., who was persecuting it, and against the
Emperor Alexis, and against the Venetians, as we shall make mention
hereafter: for the which thing he was made lord over Sicily and
Apulia, with the confirmation of Holy Church; and his descendants
after him, down to the time of Henry of Suabia, father of Frederick
II., were kings and lords thereof. And also in those same times was
the worthy and wise Countess Matilda, the which reigned in Tuscany and
in Lombardy, and was well-nigh sovereign lady over all, and did many
great things in her time for Holy Church, so that it seems to me
reasonable and fitting to speak of their beginning and of their state,
in this our treatise, forasmuch as they were much mixed up with the
doings of our city of Florence through the consequences which followed
their doings in Tuscany. And first we will tell of Robert Guiscard,
and then of the Countess Matilda, and their beginnings and their
doings briefly, returning afterwards to our subject and the deeds of
our city of Florence, the which by the increase and the doings of the
Florentines began to multiply and to extend the fame of Florence
throughout the whole world, more than it had been heretofore; and
therefore almost by necessity it behoves us in our treatise to narrate
more universally henceforward of the Popes and of the Emperors and of
the kings, and of many provinces of the world, the events and things
which ha