COMPAGNI, DINO. - Born around 1260 in Florence, died February 26, 1324. Enrolled in the Arte della Lana, he upheld the democratic ordinances in collaboration with Giano della Bella, and six times was elected consul of his guild. In 1289, at the time of the Guelph victory at Campaldino, he was among the Priors. In November 1295 he was accused of not having attended to the enforcement of the ordinances of justice. With the ascendancy of the Blacks his political life came to an end, and he avoided exile by means of 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, C. in his Cronica defends the position of the Whites and his own personal conduct; for this reason some have wished to regard the work itself as a prolonged autobiographical apology. In his incisive, linear and solemn style, C. reveals himself as a great artist and an 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 of good and evil, to divine justice which many times punishes secretly and takes good shepherds away from guilty peoples who are not worthy of them and gives them those whom they deserve for their wickedness" (III, 12). The controversy of the later nineteenth century over the text of the Cronica concluded with the critical edition of I. Del Lungo (D. C. e la sua Cronica, Florence 1879-87). Among the minor works of C. are remembered the youthful Rime; there was once attributed to him the allegorical doctrinal poem L'intelligenza, in ninth rhyme, an opinion no longer followed after the studies of D'Ancona and I. Del Lungo. Published for the first time 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.
Bibliography7 works
Giovanni Fallani