Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/55

 regnum italicum of the earlier Middle Ages, but the complete undivided Italy which he represents in the De Vulgari Eloquentia and the Divina Commedia, including Venice and the entire South with Sicily, and the "Italia irredenta" of our own day. The effectuation of this kingdom would obviously imply a certain political unity of Italy. Although Dante does not indicate the position of the individual states, we may surmise that those which he regarded as legitimate would retain their complete autonomy. Venice had never acknowledged any allegiance to the western Emperor, but Dante would presumably have regarded the republic as a legitimately constituted government within the Empire. As for the South, Apulia had been claimed for the regnum italicum by Otto the Great. Liutprand makes this claim in Otto's name on his legation to Nicephorus Phocas: "Terram quam imperii tui esse narras, gens incola et lingua Italici regni esse declarat" (Relatio de legatione constantino-politana, M.G.H.S. III., p. 348). When the great Norman, Roger, established his monarchy, St. Bernard adapted the words of the fourth Gospel in his letter to Lotharius: "Est Caesaris propriam vindicare coronam suam ab usurpatore siculo &hellip; Omnis qui in Sicilia regem se facit, contradicit Caesari" (Epist. 139, Migne, Pat. Lat. 182, col. 294). Dante nowhere seems to regard the Normans as usurpers, but he does emphatically so represent the Angevin king of Apulia and the Aragonese king of Sicily of his own day, Charles II. and Frederick (Conv. IV. 6). In his eyes, Apulia and Sicily had been reunited to the Empire by the House of Suabia, and possibly an imperial investiture would have regulated the position with respect to the Angevins. In Par. VIII., it is implied that the children of Carlo Martello, the son of Charles II., would have been rightful sovereigns had they succeeded, but there is a special reference to his being the son-in-law of the Emperor; these regi will be "nati per me di Carlo e di Ridolfo" (Par. VIII. 72). On the other hand, the formation of the Italian kingdom would unquestionably have 43