unchangeable identity of speech in different times and places. Invention of 'Grammar'.This having been settled by the common consent of many peoples [l00], seems exposed to the arbitrary will of none in particular, and consequently cannot be variable. They therefore invented grammar in order that we might not, on account of the variation of speech fluctuating at the will of individuals, either fail altogether in attaining, or at least attain but a partial knowledge of the opinions and exploits of the ancients, or of those whom difference of place causes to differ from us.
↑ 17. Eloquent writers (doctores), i.e. poets whose writings have given them the authority of teachers. So again below, line 21 of this chapter, and 10: 25, 12: 10, 15: 45, and II. 5: 24, where the word is translated 'teachers.' </ref>
[6]- ↑ 25. On Giraut de Borneil, see Purgatorio, XXVI. 115n. This and the other Provençal poems quoted in this work are printed in extenso in Chaytor's Troubadours of Dante (Clarendon Press, 1902).
- ↑ 27. This King of Navarre was Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne (1201-1253), who in 1234 succeeded his uncle, Sancho VII., as King of Navarre, under the title of Teobaldo I. He took part with Louis VIII. of France in the crusade against the Albigenses. He is celebrated for his passion for Blanche of Castile, mother of St Louis, and ranks among the first of the lyric poets of Northern France in the thirteenth century (Toynbee).
- ↑ 30. These are the third and fourth lines of the first stanza of the canzone whose first line is quoted below (II. 5: 42). On Guido Guinizelli, see Purgatorio, XXVI 16n.
- ↑ 50. See Convivio, IV. 23: 46.
- ↑ 70. Sec Convivio, I. 5: 55 ff.
- ↑ 101. Compare above, I. 1: 28n. In view of Convivio, II. 14: 83 ff., where Dante points out that changes had taken place and would take place in 'Grammatica,' the 'unchangeable identity' here ascribed to it must
