COMPAGNI, DINO. — Born around 1260 in Firenze, died on 26 February 1324. Enrolled in the Wool Guild, he supported the democratic ordinances, collaborating with Giano della Bella, and was elected consul of his Guild six times. In 1289, at the time of the Guelph victory at Campaldino, he was among the Priors. In November 1295 he was accused of having failed to see to the implementation of
COMPAGNI DINO - COMPAGNIA DELLE FIGLIE DI MARIA N. S.
of the ordinances of justice. When the Blacks prevailed, he ended his political life and avoided exile with a letter of protest. He was buried in Florence, in the church of S. Trinita.
The Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne' tempi suoi, composed after 1310, covers the history of Florence from 1280 to 1312. A conciliatory temperament in political life, the C. defends in his Cronica the position of the Whites and his own personal activity; for this reason, some have wished to regard the work itself as a prolonged autobiographical apology. In its vigorous, linear, and solemn style, the C. reveals himself as a great artist and eloquent writer. His conception of life and history is theological; in the narrative, there is frequent appeal to God, “guardian and guide of princes,” to the struggle between good and evil, and to divine justice, which many times secretly punishes and “takes good shepherds away from guilty peoples who are not worthy of them, and gives them those whom their wickedness deserves” (III, 12). The polemic of the second half of the nineteenth century concerning the text of the Cronica concluded with the critical edition of I. Del Lungo (D. C. e la sua Cronica, Firenze 1879-87). Among the minor works of the C. are the Rime giovanili; the allegorical doctrinal poem L'intelligenza, in nona rima, was once attributed to him, an opinion no longer maintained after the studies of D'Ancona and I. Del Lungo. First published by Muratori in Rer. Ital. Script., IX, pp. 465-536, it is now available in the 2nd ed., vol. IX, part 2, pp. xvi-456, with the notes of Isidoro del Lungo.