DGR clearly seems to have decided to translate this
sonnet to illustrate the kind of hostility that was directed at
Dante by his enemies in Florence. The sonnet refers to the key event of 1316, when Dante and
other Florentine exiles were offered pardons if a fine were paid and
public penance made in the Baptistry. Unlike some others,
Dante scorned the degrading terms—his reply was made in his famous
Epistola XII
DGR's source was Trucchi's
Poesie Italiana inedite
Probably an early translation, late 1840s.
The translation was first published in 1861 in
The
Early Italian Poets
Dante
and his Circle
Early Italian Poets)