It was the birthplace of the naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795–1876), and the political economist Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch (1808–1883), to the latter of whom a statue has been erected. Originally a settlement of the Sorbian Wends, and in the 12th century part of the possessions of the bishops of Merseburg, Delitzsch ultimately passed to the Saxe-Merseburg family, and, on their extinction in 1738, was incorporated with Electoral Saxony.
DELIUS, NIKOLAUS (1813–1888), German philologist and
Shakespearean scholar, was born at Bremen on the 19th of
September 1813. He was educated at Bonn and Berlin, and took
the degree of doctor in philosophy in 1838. After travelling for
some time in England, France and Germany, he returned to Bonn
in 1846, where in 1855 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit,
Provençal and English literature, a post he held until his death,
which took place at Bonn on the 18th of November 1888. His
greatest literary achievement was his scholarly edition of
Shakespeare (1854–1861). He also edited Wace’s St Nicholas
(1850), a volume of Provençal songs (1853), and published a
Shakspere-Lexikon (1852). His original works include: Über
das englische Theaterwesen zu Shaksperes Zeit (1853), Gedichte
(1853), Der sardinische Dialekt des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (1868),
and Abhandlungen zu Shakspere (two series, 1878 and 1888). As
a critic of Shakespeare’s text he stands in the first rank.
See the biographical notice by J. Schipper in Englische Studien, vol. 14.
DELLA BELLA, STEFANO (1610–1664), Italian engraver, was
born at Florence. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith; but some
prints of Callot having fallen into his hands, he began to turn his
attention entirely towards engraving, and studied the art under
Canta Gallina, who had also been the instructor of Callot. By
the liberality of Lorenzo de’ Medici he was enabled to spend
three years in study at Rome. In 1642 he went to Paris, where
Cardinal Richelieu engaged him to go to Arras and make drawings
of the siege and taking of that town by the royal army. After
residing a considerable time at Paris he returned to Florence,
where he obtained a pension from the grand duke, whose son,
Cosmo, he instructed in drawing. His productions were very
numerous, amounting to over 1400 separate pieces.
DELLA CASA, GIOVANNI (1503–1556), Italian poet, was born
at Mugillo, in Tuscany, in 1503. He studied at Bologna, Florence
and Rome, and by his learning attracted the patronage of
Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul III., made him nuncio
to Florence, where he received the honour of being elected a
member of the celebrated academy, and then to Naples, where his
oratorical ability brought him considerable success. His reward
was the archbishopric of Benevento, and it was believed that it
was only his openly licentious poem, Capitoli del forno, and the
fact that the French court seemed to desire his elevation, which
prevented him from being raised to a still higher dignity. He
died in 1556. Casa is chiefly remarkable as the leader of a reaction
in lyric poetry against the universal imitation of Petrarch, and
as the originator of a style, which, if less soft and elegant, was
more nervous and majestic than that which it replaced. His
prose writings gained great reputation in their own day, and long
afterwards, but are disfigured by apparent straining after effect,
and by frequent puerility and circumlocution. The principal
are—in Italian, the famous Il Galateo (1558), a treatise of
manners, which has been translated into several languages, and
in Latin, De officiis, and translations from Thucydides, Plato
and Aristotle.
A complete edition of his works was published at Florence in 1707, to which is prefixed a life by Casotti. The best edition is that of Venice, 1752.
DELLA COLLE, RAFFAELLINO, Italian painter, was born at
Colle, near Borgo San Sepolcro, in Tuscany, about 1490. A pupil
of Raphael, whom he is held to have assisted in the Farnesina
and the Vatican, Della Colle, after his master’s death, was the
assistant of his chief scholar, Giulio Romano, at Rome and
afterwards at Mantua. In 1536, on the occasion of the entry of
Charles V. into Florence, he took service in that city under
Vasari. In his later years Della Colle resided at Borgo San
Sepolcro, where he kept a school of design; among his many
pupils of note may be mentioned Gherardi and Vecchi. His
works, which are to be found at Urbino, at Perugia, at Pesaro
and at Gubbio, are fine examples of the Roman school of
Raphael. The best are a painting of the Almighty supported
by angels, a Resurrection and an Assumption, all preserved
in churches at Borgo San Sepolcro.
DELLA GHERARDESCA, UGOLINO (c. 1220–1289), count of
Donoratico, was the head of the powerful family of Gherardesca,
the chief Ghibelline house of Pisa. His alliance with the Visconti,
the leaders of the Guelph faction, through the marriage of his
sister with Giovanni Visconti, judge of Gallura, aroused the
suspicions of his party, and the Ghibellines being then predominant
in Pisa, the disorders in the city caused by Ugolino and
Visconti in 1271–1274 led to the arrest of the former and the
banishment of the latter. Visconti died soon afterwards, and
Ugolino, no longer regarded as dangerous, was liberated and
banished. But he immediately began to intrigue with the Guelph
towns opposed to Pisa, and with the help of Charles I. of Anjou
(q.v.) attacked his native city and forced it to make peace on
humiliating terms, pardoning him and all the other Guelph
exiles. He lived quietly in Pisa for some years, although working
all the time to extend his influence. War having broken out
between Pisa and Genoa in 1284, Count Ugolino was given the
command of a division of the Pisan fleet. It was by his
flight—usually attributed to treachery—that the fortunes of the day
were decided and the Pisans totally defeated at La Meloria
(October 1284). But the political ability which he afterwards
displayed led to his being appointed podestà for a year and
capitano del popolo for ten years. Florence and Lucca took
advantage of the Pisan defeat to attack the republic, but
Ugolino succeeded in pacifying them by ceding certain castles.
He was however less anxious to make peace with Genoa, for
the return of the Pisan prisoners, including most of the leading
Ghibellines, would have diminished his power. He was now the
most influential man in Pisa, and was preparing to establish his
absolute sovereignty, when for some reason not clearly understood
he was forced to share his power with his nephew Nino Visconti,
son of Giovanni. The duumvirate did not last, and the count
and Nino soon quarrelled. Then Ugolino tried to consolidate
his position by entering into negotiations with the archbishop,
Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, the leader of the Ghibellines. But that
party having revived once more, the archbishop obliged both
Nino and Ugolino to leave the city, and had himself elected
podestà and capitano del popolo. However, he allowed Ugolino
to return soon afterwards, and was even ready to divide the
government of the city with him, although he refused to admit
his armed followers. The count, determined to be sole master,
attempted to get his followers into the city by way of the Arno,
and Ruggieri, realizing the danger, aroused the citizens, accusing
Ugolino of treachery for having ceded the castles, and after a
day’s street fighting (July 1, 1288), Gherardesca was captured
and immured together with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and
his grandsons Nino (surnamed il Brigata) and Anselmuccio, in
the Muda, a tower belonging to the Gualandi family; here they
were detained for nine months, and then starved to death.
The historic details of the episode are still involved in some obscurity, and although mentioned by Villani and other writers, it owes its fame entirely to Dante, who placed Ugolino and Ruggieri in the second ring (Antenora) of the lowest circle of the Inferno (canto xxxii. 124-140 and xxxiii. 1-90). This terrible but magnificent passage, which includes “thirty lines unequalled by any other thirty lines in the whole dominion of poetry” (Landor), has been paraphrased by Chaucer in the “Monk’s Tale” and more recently by Shelley. But the reason why Dante placed Ugolino among the traitors is not by any means clear, as the flight from La Meloria was not regarded as treachery by any writer earlier than the 16th century, although G. del Noce, in Il Conte U. della Gherardesca (Città di Castello, 1894), states that that was the only motive; Bartoli, in vol. vi. of his Storia della Letteratura italiana, suggests Ugolino’s alliance with the Ghibellines as the motive. The cession of the castles was not treachery
