THE SCALIGERS

"Lo primo tuo rifugio e 'l primo ostello Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo, Che *'n su* la Scala porta il santo uccello." Dante, *Paradiso*, xvii. 70. The Scaligers are well known, not only as having held the lordship of Verona for some generations, but also as having been among the friends of Dante in his exile, no mean reputation in itself; and, at a later period, as taking very high rank among the first scholars of their day. To which of them the passage above properly belongs—whether to Can Grande, or his brother Bartolommeo, or even his father Alberto, commentators are by no means agreed…