v. 59.  The dame.] His godmother’s dream was, that he had one star in his forehead, and another in the nape of his neck, from which he communicated light to the east and the west.

v. 73.  Felix.] Felix Gusman.

v. 75.  As men interpret it.] Grace or gift of the Lord.

v. 77.  Ostiense.] A cardinal, who explained the decretals.

v. 77.  Taddeo.] A physician, of Florence.

v. 82.  The see.] “The apostolic see, which no longer continues its wonted liberality towards the indigent and deserving; not indeed through its own fault, as its doctrines are still the same, but through the fault of the pontiff, who is seated in it.”

v. 85.  No dispensation.] Dominic did not ask license to compound for the use of unjust acquisitions, by dedicating a part of them to pious purposes.

v. 89.  In favour of that seed.] “For that seed of the divine word, from which have sprung up these four-and-twenty plants, that now environ thee.”

v. 101.  But the track.] “But the rule of St. Francis is already deserted and the lees of the wine are turned into mouldiness.”

v. 110.  Tares.] He adverts to the parable of the taxes and the wheat.

v. 111.  I question not.] “Some indeed might be found, who still observe the rule of the order, but such would come neither from Casale nor Acquasparta:”  of the former of which places was Uberto, one master general, by whom the discipline had been relaxed; and of the latter, Matteo, another, who had enforced it with unnecessary rigour.

v. 121. -Illuminato here, And Agostino.] Two among the earliest followers of St. Francis.

v. 125.  Hugues of St. Victor.] A Saxon of the monastery of Saint Victor at Paris, who fed ill 1142 at the age of forty-four.  “A man distinguished by the fecundity of his genius, who treated in his writings of all the branches of sacred and profane erudition that were known in his time, and who composed several dissertations that are not destitute of merit.”  Maclaine’s Mosheim, Eccl.  Hist. v. iii . cent. xii. p. 2. 2. 23.  I have looked into his writings, and found some reason for this high eulogium.

v. 125.  Piatro Mangiadore.] “Petrus Comestor, or the Eater, born at Troyes, was canon and dean of that church, and afterwards chancellor of the church of Paris.  He relinquished these benefices to become a regular canon of St. Victor at Paris, where he died in 1198.  Chaudon et Delandine Dict.  Hist.  Ed. Lyon. 1804.  The work by which he is best known, is his Historia Scolastica, which I shall have occasion to cite in the Notes to Canto xxvi.

v. 126.  He of Spain.] “To Pope Adrian V succeeded John xxi a native of Lisbon a man of great genius and extraordinary acquirements, especially in logic and in medicine, as his books, written in the name of Peter of Spain (by which he was known before he became Pope), may testify.  His life was not much longer than that of his predecessors, for he was killed at Viterbo, by the falling in of the roof of his chamber, after he had been pontiff only eight months and as many days.  A.D. 1277.  Mariana, Hist. de Esp. l. xiv. c. 2.