Toynbee "Caprona"
castle in the territory of Pisa, about 5 miles from that city, on a hill close to the Arno. In August 1289, shortly after the death of Count Ugolino and the expulsion of the Guelphs from Pisa, tne Tuscan Guelphs, headed by the Lucchese and Florentines, invaded the Pisan territory, and captured several forts, including that of Caprona, as Villani records:

Nel detto anno 1289 del mese d'Agosto, i Lucchesi feciono oste sopra la città di Pisa colla forza de' Fiorentini, . . . e andarono insino alle porte di Pisa e fecionvi i Lucchesi correre il palio per la loro festa di san Regolo, e guastarla intorno in venticinque dì che vi stettono ad oste, e presono il castello dl Caprona, e guastarlo. ({Villiani. vii. 137}.)

D. mentions Caprona, with reference (probably) to the capitulation of the Pisan garrison, and their issue from the fort through the midst of the besieging force under a safeconduct, [Inf. xxi. 94-96].

Benvenuto states that D. himself took part in the siege:

. . . hic nota quod autor fuit personaliter in isto exercitu; erat enim tunc iuvenis viginti quinque annorum, et ibi vidit istum actum; ideo libentius fecit talem comparationem, ut de se mcmoriam faceret, quia aliquando tractaverat arma.

[See I. Del Lungo, DtD, pp. 171-173.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press