• Bologna was renowned for its University; and the speaker, who was a Bolognese, is still mindful of his college. ↩
• Florence, the bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma , as Dante calls it, Convito , I 3. ↩

• An order of knighthood, established by Pope Urban IV in 1261, under the title of “Knights of Santa Maria.” The name Frati Gaudenti , or “Jovial Friars,” was a nickname, because they lived in their own homes and were not bound by strict monastic rules. Napier, Florentine History I 269, says:⁠— “A short time before this a new order of religious knighthood under the name of Frati Gaudenti began in Italy: it was not bound by vows of celibacy, or any very severe regulations, but took the usual oaths to defend widows and orphans and make peace between man and man: the founder was a Bolognese gentleman, called Loderingo di Liandolo, who enjoyed a good reputation, and along with a brother of the same order, named Catalano di Malavolti, one a Guelph and the other a Ghibelline, was now invited to Florence by Count Guido to execute conjointly the office of Podestà.