• Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, who used his power so nobly as to make the people forget the usurpation by which he had attained it. Among his good deeds was the collection and preservation of the Homeric poems, which but for him might have perished. He was also the first to found a public library in Athens. This anecdote is told by Valerius Maximus, Fact. ac Dict. , VI I . ↩
• The stoning of Stephen. Acts 7:54:⁠— “They gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven.⁠ ⁠… Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him.⁠ ⁠… And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge! And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” ↩
• He recognizes it to be a vision, but not false, because it symbolized the truth. ↩
• The Third Circle of Purgatory, and the punishment of the Sin of Pride. ↩
• Poor, or impoverished of its stars by clouds. The same expression is applied to the Arno, Canto XIV 45, to indicate its want of water. ↩