• Rascia or Ragusa is a city in Dalmatia, situated on the Adriatic, and capital of the kingdom of that name. The king here alluded to is Uroscius II , who married a daughter of the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, and counterfeited Venetian coin. ↩
• In this line I have followed the reading male ha visto , instead of the more common one, male aggiustò . ↩
• The Ottimo comments as follows:⁠— “Here he reproves the vile and unseemly lives of the kings of Hungary, down to Andrea” (Dante’s contemporary), “whose life the Hungarians praised, and whose death they wept.” ↩
• If it can make the Pyrenees a bulwark to protect it against the invasion of Philip the Fair of France. It was not till four centuries later that Louis XIV made his famous boast, “ Il n’y a plus de Pyrénées. ” ↩
• In proof of this prediction the example of Cyprus is given. ↩
• Nicosia and Famagosta are cities of Cyprus, here taken for the whole island, in 1300 badly governed by Henry II of the house of the Lusignani. “And well he may call him beast,” says the Ottimo , “for he was wholly given up to lust and sensuality, which should be far removed from every king.” ↩