XLVI.  The year 1603, made up of centuries seven and nine and years three, was expected by the astrologers to bring a great mutation in the order of our planet.  The celestial signs were supposed to reassume the position they had occupied at Christ’s nativity.  Campanella, who believed in astrology, looked forward with intense anxiety to this turning-point in modern history.  It is clear from the termination of the sonnet that he wrote it some time before the great date; and we are hence perhaps justified in referring the rest of his prophetic poetry to the same early period of his career.

XLVII. Qui legit intelligat, says Adami.  Line 7:  refers to the outlying vassals of the Roman Empire, who destroyed it, ruled Rome, and afterwards fell under the yoke of the Roman See.  Lines 9-14 are an invective against the Papacy.

XLVIII.  A sonnet on his own prison.  The prison or worse was the doom of all truth-seekers in Campanella’s age.

XLIX.  For the understanding of this strange composition Adami offers nothing more satisfactory than mira quante contraposizioni sono in questo sonetto.  The contrast is maintained throughout between the philosopher in the freedom of his spirit and the same man in the limitations of his prisoned life.  Line 12 I do not rightly understand.  Line 14 refers to Paradise.

L. There is an allusion in this sonnet to an obscure passage in Campanella’s life.  It seems he was condemned to the galleys (see line 12); and this sentence was remitted on account of his real or feigned madness.  We should infer from the poem itself that his madness was simulated; but Adami, who ought to have known the facts from his own lips, writes:  quando brucio il letto, e divenne pazzo o vero o finto.  Line 12:  I have translated l’astratto by the mystic; astratto is assorto, or lost in ecstatic contemplation.

LI.  To this incomprehensible string of proverbs Adami adds, ironically perhaps:  questo e assai noto ed arguto e vero.  It is an answer to certain friends, officers and barons, who accused him of not being able to manage his affairs.  He answers that they might as well bring the same accusation against Christ and all the sages.  Line 3:  I have ventured to read e for e as the only chance of getting a meaning.  Line 8:  seems to mean that he would not accept life and freedom at the price of concealing his opinions.

LII.  The same theme is rehandled.  Lines 1-4:  Campanella argued that a man’s mental life extends over all that he grasps of the world’s history.  Line 5:  the Italian for mite is marmeggio, which means, I think, a cheese-worm.  The eclipse of Campanella’s sun is his imprisonment.  Lines 7 and 8 I do not well understand in the Italian.  Line 11:  ’Ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,’ Lines 12-14:  saints and sages are made perfect by suffering.