“This silly institution,” continues Benvenuto, “lasted only ten months, the treasury being exhausted, and the wretched members became the fable and laughingstock of all the world.” In honor of this club, Folgore da San Geminiano, a clever poet of the day (1260), wrote a series of twelve convivial sonnets, one for each month of the year, with Dedication and Conclusion. A translation of these sonnets may be found in D. G. Rossetti’s Early Italian Poets . The Dedication runs as follows:⁠— “Unto the blithe and lordly Fellowship, (I know not where, but wheresoe’er, I know, Lordly and blithe,) be greeting; and thereto, Dogs, hawks, and a full purse wherein to dip; Quails struck i’ the flight; nags mettled to the whip; Hart-hounds, hare-hounds, and blood-hounds even so; And o’er that realm, a crown for Niccolò, Whose praise in Siena springs from lip to lip. Tingoccio, Atuin di Togno, and Ancaiàn, Bartolo, and Mugaro, and Faënot, Who well might pass for children of King Ban, Courteous and valiant more than Lancelot⁠— To each, God speed! How worthy every man To hold high tournament in Camelot.” ↩