My sources were many and varied. The major ones were Barbara Tuchman’s A DISTANT MIRROR, Allison Cornish’s READING DANTE’S STARS, ASIMOV’S GUIDE TO SHAKESPEARE by Isaac Asimov, and a collection of differing versions of Romeo & Juliet (ironically published by the Dante University Press). This last includes works by Masuccio, Luigi da Porto, Bandello, and, of course, the Bard of Stratford. Then there was NARRATIVE AND DRAMATIC SOURCES FOR SHAKESPEARE, vol. I, which reprints Arthur Brooke’s (long, awful, boring) Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet.

Most important for historical data was A.M. Allen’s century-old A HISTORY OF VERONA. Though Ms. Allen takes much legend as pure fact, her analysis of events and insights into the people and the politics are fascinating. She also has several lovely turns of phrase, making her book an enjoyable as well as informative read. I am indebted to The Newberry Library in Chicago and The University of Michigan Graduate Library in Ann Arbor, both for their copies of this book and the several other diamonds of data in the historical rough. For hunting down a copy of my own, I have to thank Barnes & Noble Online for their used and out-of-print book search.

I also quite enjoyed PADUA UNDER THE CARRARA by Benjamin J. Kohl, again thanks to U of M.

For details of Dante’s family history, I relied greatly upon DANTE E GLI ALLIGHIERI A VERONA, by Emanuele Carli. For more personal information, I was honored with an interview with Count Serego-Alighieri, the direct descendant of Pietro. Visiting him on the vineyard bought by Pietro in 1353, my wife and I found him gracious and generous with his time and his knowledge of his family’s history. And the wine grown on the estate is superb.

Though I’ve read the Longfellow, the Oxford and the Penguin translations of THE INFERNO, the new one by Robert and Jean Hollander flows better than any other, and their commentary is magnificent (though not for the faint of heart).

For the duel in the book, I went to the fifteenth century fight master Hans Talhoffer, whose illustrated manual of sword-fighting and close combat has been used for centuries. This was where I discovered the oval shield-spear I put in Pietro’s hand.

More sources to follow.

– DB