Plaque located inside the courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio.
Coat of arms: Degli Uberti family
Paradiso – Canto XVI – vv 109 – 110
” OH QVALI VIDI QVEI CHE SON DISFATTI
PER LOR SVPERBIA !”
“Oh, how high I saw those who are now in ruin because of their pride!”
–“OH QVALI VIDI” (Oh, how great I saw them): This exclamation emphasizes the surprise and the weight of this past vision. In this context, the term “quali” is used to indicate “how great” or “how powerful” they once were.
“QVEI CHE SON DISFATTI” (Those who are undone): This refers to those Florentine families whom Cacciaguida had seen at the height of their power and wealth, but who, at the time he speaks (and in Dante’s own time), have since fallen, been ruined, and scattered, losing all their influence.
“PER LOR SVPERBIA” (By their pride): This is the direct cause of their downfall. Pride (Superbia)—excessive presumption and arrogance—is the vice that, according to Cacciaguida, led to the moral corruption and subsequent material and political destruction of these ancient Florentine houses.
In summary: Cacciaguida laments and highlights that many illustrious families of Florence’s past were punished and destroyed by their own arrogance and immoderate ambition.
The family in question is the Uberti: their pride led them to ruin and exile from the city after rebelling against the Municipal Ordinances (Ordinamenti Comunali). The tower-houses of the Uberti once stood majestic precisely where Palazzo Vecchio is located today.
