Again, in giving the account of Guido da Montefeltro, (Inferno, Canto XXVII.,) Benvenuto says on the lines,

 —­e poi fui Cordeliero,
  Credendomi si cinto fare ammenda,

“And then I became a Cordelier, believing thus girt to make amends,”—­“That is, hoping under such a dress of misery and poverty to make amends for my sins; but others did not believe in him [in his repentance].  Wherefore Dominus Malatesta, having learned from one of his household that Dominus Guido had become a Minorite Friar, took precautions that he should not be made the guardian of Rimini.”  This last sentence is rendered by our translator,—­“One of the household of Malatesta related to me (!) that Ser Guido adopted the dress of a Minorite Friar, and sought by every means not to be appointed guardian of Rimini.”  A little farther on the old commentator says,—­“He died and was buried in Ancona, and I have heard many things about him which may afford a sufficient hope of his salvation”; but he is made to say by Signor Tamburini,—­“After his death and burial in Ancona many works of power were ascribed to him, and I have a sweet hope that he is saved.”

We pass over many instances of similar misunderstanding of Benvenuto’s easily intelligible though inelegant Latin, to a blunder which would be extraordinary in any other book, by which our translator has ruined a most characteristic story in the comment on the 112th verse of Canto XIV. of the “Purgatory.”  We must give here the two texts.

BENVENUTO

Et heic nota, ut videas, si magna nobilitas vigebat paulo ante in Bretenorio, quod tempore istius Guidonis, quando aliquis vir nobilis et honorabilis applicabat ad terram, magna contentio erat inter multos nobiles de Bretenorio, in cujus domum ille talis forensis deberet declinare.  Propter quod concorditer convenerunt inter se, quod columna lapidea figeretur in medio plateae cum multis annulis ferreis, et omnis superveniens esset hospes illius ad cujus annulum alligaret equum.

TRANSLATION.

And here take notice, that you may see if great nobility flourished a little before this time in Brettinoro, that, in the days of this Guido, when any noble and honorable man came to the place, there was a great rivalry among the many nobles of Brettinoro, as to which of them should receive the stranger in his house.  Wherefore they harmoniously agreed that a column of stone should be set up in the middle of the square, furnished with many iron rings, and any one who arrived should be the guest of him to whose ring he might tie his horse.

TAMBURINI.

Al tempo di Guido in Brettinoro anche i nobili aravano le terre; ma insorsero discordie fra essi, e sparve la innocenza di vita, e con essa la liberalita.  I brettinoresi determinarono di alzare in piazza una colonna con intorno tanti anelli di ferro, quanto le nobili famiglie di quel castello, e chi fosse arrivato ed avesse legato il cavallo ad uno de’ predetti anelli, doveva esser ospite della famiglia, che indicava l’ anello cui il cavallo era attaccato.