Chapter C: How the Emperor Frederick Went to the Old Man of the Mountain

The Emperor Frederick once went to the Veglio, or Old Man of the Mountain, and great honour was done him [165].

The Old Man, in order to show how he was feared, looked up and saw on a tower two of his band who were called assassins [166]. And then he took hold of his great beard, and the two men cast themselves down to earth and died immediately [167].

NOTES

[1] Presto Giovanni in orig. This Prester John or Prester Kan is the hero of many stories and fables. See Marco Polo.

[2] Administrators, sometimes treasurers of a court.

[3] The ancients believed that certain stones and one especially called the heliotrope, had the power of rendering a person invisible.

[4] This story is of Oriental origin. It occurs in some versions of The Thousand and One Nights.

[5] Guillare: court minstrel, story-teller, buffoon. As these men frequented the courts of kings and nobles, they were called men of the court.

[6] A mark had the value of four-and-a-half florins.

[7] The story appears in the French poem of Lambert Le Tort and Alexander de Bernay, with a slight variation.

[8] lit.: “gave a sufficient reply”.

[9] Biagi reads: Infermo—ill.

[10] This reading follows Biagi. Others give “striking as he willed”.

[11] The origin of this novella is, of course, Kings ii, chap. 24. It is curious to notice the variations.

[12] The original calls them “barons,” though the word sounds strange in a Biblical connection.

[13] Kings III, chap, xi.–xii.

[14] These were: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and algebra.

[15] Apart from Alexandria in Egypt, there were of course A. Troas on the sea-coast near Troy and Issum, seaport on the Syrian coast. Many of the cities so-called soon lost their names.

[16] lit.: smoke.

[17] The story appears in slightly different forms in many languages. See Lelli, Favole; Pappanti, Passano ed i novellieri in prosa.

[18] Ancient gold money of the Eastern Empire of about the same value as a ducat. It changed naturally in the course of the centuries.

[19] According to Malaspina, the Slave of the Bari was “an idiot or almost one, unlettered and unread, but of great natural talent, wit and wisdom”. Ambrosoli, on the contrary, asserts that he was a certain Michele Schiavo who was a Greek governor of Bari in the tenth century.

[20] The source of the tale is Liber Ipocratis de infirmitibus equorum.

[21] The city was Rabba and belonged to the Ammonites.

[22] See Kings II, chap xii. The compilator has mixed up the names, confounding Aminadab with Joab. The errors or variations occuring in the Biblical themes treated in the Novellino have given rise to the conjecture that the stories were taken from a book of Jewish legends, the Midras Rabbolh written not later than the VIIIth century.

[23] Other readings have “fire”.

[24] The passage is obscure, but the above would seem to be the meaning.

[25] An Indian king conquered by Alexander and afterwards turned into a friend and ally.

[26] The story appears in slightly different form in several authors. See the Decameron; Cavalca’s Lives of the Fathers of the Desert.

[27] Other readings have Seleucus.

[28] Appears also in Cicero, De Legg. II, 6.

[29] The word in the original is tortori, literally torturers, though it means, of course, the keepers of the prison.

[30] Also in Saint Gregory, Dialogues, III, 1.

[31] Peter or Piero.

[32] The story appears in Cavalca’s Vite dei Santi Padri, and also in other forms elsewhere.

[33] Biagi’s version is a little more elaborate. The origin of the tale is to be found in the Pseudo-Turpino. See Gaspary, History of Italian Literature.

[34] bontà in original—goodness.

[35] The young King was Henry, eldest son of Henry II of England. He was often known under this title.

[36] Beltram, or Bertrand di Born.

[37] This change from indirect to direct narrative occurs frequently in the Novellino.

[38] The story of the tooth appears also in Conti di antichi cavalieri.

[39] The passage is not clear and is probably corrupt. I have added the word “lost”. For Bertran see Dante, Inf. XXVIII, 134, 22.

[40] uomini d’arti: men of arts literally, artificers, necromancers or magicians.

[41] Seated at table in accordance with the mediæval custom.

[42] schiavine. Sacchetti says: “the first thing a pilgrim does when he sets out is to put on his long cloak.”

[43] lit.: the two masters.

[44] A similar enchantment is told of in a Turkish tale translated by Petit de la Croix: The Story of Sheik Schehabbedin.

[45] An immense importance was attached to a good hawk at this time.

[46] To wear striped cloth was considered unsuitable for a serious man. Fantastic clothing of almost any kind was the property of the court buffoons, story-tellers and the whole world of mediæval Bohemianism.

[47] tamarix gallica, a wood supposed to have medicinal properties.

[48] or else good clean food.

[49] The incident is apparently historical, and the Emperor, is Barbarossa. The wise men or savi being Bolgaro or Bulgaro and Martino, sometimes called Gossia. The story seems to confuse two separate episodes in the life of the Emperor. The titles are different in the versions of Gualteruzzi and Borghini.

[50] Selah-eddyn (1137–93), Sultan of Egypt, after 1174 famous throughout medieval Christendom for his knightliness. He is one of the chief characters of Scott’s Talisman.

[51] The second part of this tale is to be found in the Cronaca of Turpino, and in F. Sacchetti’s 125th tale.

[52] cotta. This antiquated form has survived in the cotta which priests put on during certain religious ceremonies of the Catholic Church.

[53] The meaning of this word is uncertain. Probably it is a kind of Oriental wise man from the Arabic Muaddab, meaning sage or wise man. There are several conjectures on this point. Another reading is Mago, mage.

[54] Lancelot of the Lake.

[55] cavaliere di scudo in the original. Sacchetti says cavalieri di scudo were those made knights by lords or by the people.

[56] The Empyrean is the seventh and outermost Heaven of Paradise.

[57] (sitting there). This novella is particularly abrupt and characteristic in its elliptical constructions.

[58] An untranslatable play on words: Cappello meaning hat and also sometimes rebuff, snub.

[59] lit.: over head what is? sopra capo che ha?

[60] The circle that limits human knowledge.

[61] The First Cause, or the Divinity.

[62] Another reading is “honour”: onore instead of amore.

[63] Azzolino or Ezzelino da Romano, born 1194, died 1259 in battle against the Milanese. Known as tyrant of Padua and the Marca Trevigiana. Dante (Inf. XII, 110, and Par. IX, 29) places him among the tyrants.

[64] Ancient coin belonging to the Eastern Empire.

[65] Appears elsewhere in slightly different forms. See Don Quixote and Disciplina clericalis.

[66] It has been suggested that this Riccar dell’ Illa was a Riccar di Lilla, Lille, in Flanders.

[67] En Barral, or Sire Barral, lord of the noble house of Balzo in Provence. He was a lover of letters, philosophy and the arcane arts.

[68] The famous philosopher, reputed the founder of mathematics, was not born in Spain but in Samos. This is another of the numerous instances of the fantastic geographical and historical notions of the compiler of the Novellino.

[69] Imberal expects her to say towards which of the cardinal points the bird’s tail was turned.

[70] This novel probably derives from the ascetic or ecclesiastical collections and purports to show the dangers of too lively a fantasy on the morals.

[71] Solanum insanum. Another reading is melon.

[72] Medicine or science.

[73] Balak, son of Zippor, king of the Moabites; see Numbers, chaps. 22 and 23.

[74] The high places of Baal: Numbers xxii, 41.

[75] This second part of the story is of course in contradiction to the Biblical account. Another instance of extra-Biblical sources of the Old Testament tales in the Novellino.

[76] Another reading is “set on their breasts a fly”, reading mosca fly, for nosca, buckle.

[77] It would appear that the compiler of the Novellino is referring to Thales of Miletus, one of the seven wise men of Greece, who lived 639–564 B.C.

[78] St Augustine speaks of Thales in Book VIII, not Book VI.

[79] The original version of this anecdote is to be found in Diogenes Laertius, Book I. See also Æsop’s fable of the Astronomer.

[80] Fra Aldobrandino, a Dominican of the noble family of the Cavalcanti. He was the Pope’s Vicar in Rome during his absence at the Council of Lyons, having been made a Bishop in 1271.

[81] Perhaps Saladin of Pavia is meant, a poet who lived about 1250.

[82] Paolo, or Paul. The Traversaro family was one of the principal families of Ravenna. See Dante, Purg. XIV, 98 and 107. Also Boccaccio, Decameron, Giorno X, Nov. 8.

[83] Following the reading of Biagi.

[84] Or “Bergdam”.

[85] The last count of Provence, who died in 1245. See Dante, Par. VI, 135.

[86] The boasts of the knights figure greatly in knightly legend and story.

[87] Underlined so in the original.

[88] Orig.: ne metto, ne traggo. I do not put you among the number of knights defeated by me nor do I exclude you from them. In other words: I don’t know what to make of you. The tale is probably corrupt in the MS.

[89] The story is told of other knights in several different places. See Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry.

[90] Giacopino Rangone, son of Gherardo, was podestà (governor) of Bologna in 1240. Also possibly at Cremona. There are doubts as to the personality of the Giacopino referred to here.

[91] lit.: do your combing elsewhere.

[92] Marco Lombardo is mentioned by Dante (Purg. XVI, 46).

[93] Saxony?

[94] Narcis in the text.

[95] The almond is the first tree to blossom but not to bear fruit. In Ovid (Metam. III) Narcissus is, of course, changed into the flower that bears his name.

[96] These two knights are mentioned by Dante in the 14th Canto of the Purgatorio, vv. 88–90 and 97.

[97] Conrad IV of Svevia, son of Frederick II, elected Emperor of Germany in 1250, came to Italy to take possession of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

[98] Francis, son of the famous jurist of Florence, Accorso da Bagnolo, was professor of Civil Law in the University of Bologna. He went to England at the request of Edward I, where he remained until 1281. See Dante, Inferno, XV, 110.

[99] Guasca, a woman from Gascony.

[100] The reference may be to Guido di Lusignano, fourth son of Hugh VII. Called to the throne of Jerusalem in 1186, he was soon made prisoner by Saladin. He ceded his title, when released to King Richard of England, receiving in exchange the kingdom of Cyprus.

[101] Or Atri. See Longfellow’s poem The Bell of Atri.

[102] The tale is from Disciplina Clericalis.

[103] Mangiadore was Bishop of Florence from 1251–74. Therefore the ordinary editions are wrong when they write: mangiadore meaning gluttonous. The tale is to be found in Wright’s Anecdota literaria, London 1884, under the title “the Bishop and the Priest”.

[104] See Novella XLIV.

[105] No doubt this is thirteenth century wit, though to us neither of the two minstrels seems to have had a particularly sharp tongue. In original: tiello credenza a me et io a te. In other words: do not say we are poor. Neither shall you say it to me, nor I to you.

[106] Le Marche, the province of which Ancona is now the chief town.

[107] This novella is not in the Gualteruzzi edition, but is to be found in that by Papanti founded on the Panciatichiano MS.

[108] From the Panciatichiano MS.

[109] This story is well-known in many countries. The best known version of it is perhaps The Ephesian Widow in Petronius’s Satyricon.

[110] The king is Louis IX, the saint who forbade tourneys under pain of death. The Count of Anvers or Universa, or Anversa or Unvers.

[111] The tournament became a jousting bout.

[112] Various commentators have observed that this tale is only a garbled version of the story told of Curio by Cicero in his De Senectute, 55. See also Gesta Romanorum, ch. LXI.

[113] The perpero was a Byzantine gold coin.

[114] Orig.: in sul donneare. The meaning is uncertain. The tale is of course to be found in the Decameron, IV, 9.

[115] I have changed the punctuation here considerably—to the benefit, I hope, of the sense.

[116] This story, according to Manni, is taken from one of the Round Table romances. Meliadus (or Meliodas or Meliardus), King of Lyonesse, was the son of King Felix, and husband of Eliabella, daughter of old King Audrey of Sobis, and sister to King Mark of Cornwall.

[117] Raimondo Berlinghieri, father-in-law of St Louis, King of France, referred to in Novella XII.

[118] The boasts formed a usual part of tournaments.

[119] Sent him away in disgrace.

[120] The narrative changes abruptly into the direct form here as in several other places. I have kept to the original form here as elsewhere.

[121] The original of the “song” runs:—

Aissi co’l sers que cant a fait lonc cors
Torna murir als crit del chassadors,
Aissi torn eu, dompna, en vostra mersé.

A longer “song” is given in some of the readings.

[122] Iseult la bionda, to distinguish her from Iseult dalla bianca mano “of the white hand”.

[123] Biagi has “an ill-disposed knight”.

[124] Amoraldo, King of Ireland, who, in order to extort a tribute from King Mark, laid siege to one of his towns, and was killed by Tristan.

[125] See Aulus Gelius, Macrobius, and Polibius.

[126] This passage is obscure and defective.

[127] “she said”.

[128] The compilator is considerably out of his reckoning here, as, of course, Pope Gregory lived more than four centuries after Trojan. He was elected Pope in 570.

[129] The story probably originated from an episode mentioned by Dion Cassius.

[130] The text is subject to various readings. Biagi has “thing” (cosa) while other versions give “woman” and “wild beast,” femina and fiera.

[131] A book of Seneca’s.

[132] The story derives from Jewish sources, and appeared for what was probably the first time in the Scebet Jehuda. It is to be found in several other places in slightly different forms. See Gesta Romanorum, Avventuroso Ciciliano of Busone da Gubbio, etc.

[133] Suetonius (Vita Tiber.) has a somewhat similar story of the Emperor Tiberius.

[134] This tale was widely known throughout Europe and a part of Asia during the Middle Ages, and is still frequently found on the lips of popular tellers of tales. The oldest version of it is to be found in the Persian poet Ferid-ed-din-’Attar: see translation by Ruckert in Zeitschrift deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, XIV, 280.

[135] Monte Nero is a little hill-town near Leghorn, with a famous sanctuary of the Madonna. Rinieri, or rather Ranieri, is the name of the patron-saint of Pisa.

[136] I have taken this tale from the Magliabechiana MS, as given in Papanti, No. 31.

[137] The account is of course full of anachronisms and absurdities, such as the two thousand Greeks killed by Hector. It is based on the legend of Darete Frigio, it would seem, popularized in Italy by the Poet Guido delle Colonne, a Sicilian. See also the Roman de Troie.

[138] Vassal to a king, a lord, or noble.

[139] The versions differ here. Biagi gives the lines about the sailless vessel with oars and no one aboard.

[140] lit.: the enemy (’l nemico).

[141] lit.: free, unpossessed, libero.

[142] See Rappresentazione di S. Antonio, Le Monnier (1872), II, 33.

[143] Superior servants, major-domos.

[144] Azzolino’s of course.

[145] Throughout this novella Azzolino is nearly always referred to as “he”.

[146] “si chiamano le pentole, olle.” The point of this novella depends on the play of the words untranslatable in English. They told Azzolino that the man was “un olaro” a potter, while the tyrant understood them to say uno laro, that is un ladro, or a thief.

[147] Cassano on the Adda.

[148] The Emperor Frederick II.

[149] This tale comes from the Magliabechiana MS, as given in Papanti, No. 27.

[150] Podestà.

[151] The eagle being the king of birds, the Emperor considered the falcon as a kind of regicide, and so ordered it to be killed.

[152] This brusque change into the direct narration is characteristic of the Novellino. I have followed the original here, and elsewhere, where it has been possible as tending to preserve the quality of the quaint original.

[153] consigliatemi, a rather unusual form.

[154] The meaning may also be: he was so content.

[155] “and not sent me the sturgeon” is missing in some texts. Biagi gives the version as printed here.

[156] crostate also means tart.

[157] lit.: “a very new beast.”

[158] The novella appears elsewhere, as in the Proverbi of Cinto de’ Fabrizi.

[159] A small piece of money. Two medaglie, which was a coin of mixed silver and copper, were worth a danaio.

[160] lit. “and so did”.

[161] The text of this novella is corrupt. There are several slightly different readings.

[162] The cask was divided into three compartments.

[163] The text is probably defective, but this seems to be the meaning of this novella.

[164] Of the town. Even in modern Italy the gates of many small towns are closed at night.

[165] The Veglio, or Old Man of the Mountain, spoken of in mediæval legends, was an Arabian prince, who lived between Antioch and Damascus, in an inaccessible mountain fastness. He was a tyrant, and had an army of faithful followers. He was probably little more than a superior kind of brigand.

[166] Those who followed the Veglio were called assassins.

[167] Touching his beard was the sign which the Old Man gave to his followers to kill. See Marco Polo.