Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)

by Dante

  28–30. Guido’s opening verbal gesture of disdain sets the stage for his serial denunciation of the mountain hamlets and cities of the plain along the Arno. For the resonance of Job 18:17: “Memoria illius pereat de terra” (and may memory of him vanish from the earth) see Tommaseo (1837) on this tercet. [return to English / Italian]

  31–42. Guido first indicates the length of the entire river, from the mountain range (the Apennines) “from which Pelorus was broken off” to the sea on the other side of Pisa, where the river deposits its waters to replace that moisture drawn by the sun from the sea and subsequently dropped into the mountains where the Arno has its source. The natural cycle of renewal that typifies the river is not replicated by the inhabitants along it; these go from bad to worse as the river descends. (Compare the descent of the rivers that eventually make up the Po, falling from Lake Garda to the Adriatic Sea in Inf. XX.61–81.)

  Pelorus, the promontory at the northeast end of Sicily, was believed to have been cut off by the sea (the Strait of Messina) from the southwest end of the Apennine range. Virgil testifies to this phenomenon at Aeneid III.410–419. [return to English / Italian]

  37–42. The word for “snake,” biscia, deployed a third and final time (see also Purg. VIII.98 for its use to indicate the serpent in the garden) in the poem, recalls Inferno IX.77: the angelic messenger compared to a snake from which frogs flee.

  The cause for the immoderate behavior of the valley’s inhabitants, expressed as uncertain (“whether some curse / is on the place or evil habits goad them on”), is eventually explicitly identified as the result of the misapplied freedom of the will (i.e., the second cause alluded to here) by Marco Lombardo (Purg. XVI.67–83), as was pointed out, uniquely among the early commentators, by Benvenuto da Imola. All of the Arno-dwellers seem to have been turned to brutes by the sorceress Circe, most particularly those described in the next tercet. [return to English / Italian]

  43–45. This porcine part of the Casentino is associated with the Conti Guidi (see note to Inf. XXX.58–61) and in particular with the branch of the family that ruled in Porciano, a fortified town near Mt. Falterona along the shallow stream that will grow to become the Arno. Non-Tuscan readers may be surprised at commentators’ certainty about the identities of all the unnamed towns or cities referred to in this part of the diatribe, but Dante counts on a reader familiar with the major points of habitation along the river. [return to English / Italian]

  46–48. Next downstream is Arezzo, from which city the river turns sharply away in order to head northwest toward Florence as though it wanted to avoid the nasty “whelps” of Arezzo. Like the Texas rancher who is all hat and no cattle, these little dogs are all snarl or bark and no bite—or so the Ottimo (1333) thought. [return to English / Italian]

  49–51. Florence seems to be associated, unsurprisingly, with avarice. (For the wolf as representing avarice see note to Inf. VII.8.) [return to English / Italian]

  52–54. If Florence is associated with avarice, Pisa is presented as being full of fraud. Foxes are referred to in two other passages in the poem (Inf. XXVII.75: Guido da Montefeltro refers to his former “vulpine” strategies; Purg. XXXII.119: a fox, generally understood as heresy, invades the cart of the chariot of the Church).

  Pietro di Dante (1340) and Daniello (1568) both think of a passage in Boethius as Dante’s source for the animals in Guido’s outburst. See De consolatione philosophiae IV.iii (pr).57–60: “You will say that the man who is driven by avarice to seize what belongs to others is like a wolf; the restless, angry man who spends his life in quarrels you will compare to a dog. The treacherous conspirator who steals by fraud may be likened to a fox;…the man who is sunk in foul lust is trapped in the pleasures of a filthy sow” (trans. Richard Green). (The accompanying poem in Boethius begins with Circe, who turned the companions of Ulysses into animals by means of her poisoned potions.) [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. This passage offers the occasion for a dispute among the commentators: does altri refer to Rinieri or to Dante? (According to most early commentators, the former; to most later ones, the latter.) The major problem with the older hypothesis is that one has a hard time seeing what good it can do Rinieri to hear this news (and Guido’s locution points to a potential benefit to his auditor), since he cannot intervene in worldly events, while Guido’s unseen mortal interlocutor still has a life to live back on the earth—indeed in Tuscany—and may profit from this prophetic warning. [return to English / Italian]

  58–66. Guido’s prophecy concerns the grandson of Rinieri, Fulcieri da Calboli, “member of the illustrious Guelf family of that name at Forlì; he was Podestà of Florence in 1302/3, after the return of the Neri [the Black Guelphs] through the influence of Charles of Valois, and proved himself a bitter foe of the Bianchi” (T). His enmity was shown not only to White Guelphs but to Ghibellines, as he had leaders of both these parties arrested and tortured and killed.

  Fulcieri bargained with his employers (the Black Guelphs) over the fates of his prisoners, thus currying the favor of the Black leaders while shoring up his position as podestà; he eventually handed many of the captives over to be put to death by their enemies, selling them like cattle.

  The metaphoric reference to Florence as a trista selva (wretched wood) in verse 64 may draw our attention back to the second verse of the poem, in which the protagonist discovers himself in a selva oscura (dark wood). The language of this tercet also identifies the better days of Florence as Edenic and suggests that the good old days are now gone for a very long time. [return to English / Italian]

  77–80. Guido reminds Dante that he has not furnished his own name, but relents upon considering Dante’s special relationship to the Divine plan that is manifest in his mere presence on the mountain in the flesh. [return to English / Italian]

  81. “Guido del Duca, gentleman of Bertinoro, near Forlì, in Romagna, son of Giovanni del Duca of the Onesti family of Ravenna. The earliest mention of Guido occurs in a document dated May 4, 1199, in which he is described as holding the office of judge to the Podestà of Rimini. In 1202, and again in 1204, he is mentioned as playing an important part in the affairs of Romagna, both times in connexion with Pier Traversaro (Purg. XIV.98), whose adherent he appears to have been. In 1218, Pier Traversaro, with the help of his Ghibelline friends, and especially of the Mainardi of Bertinoro, made himself master of Ravenna, and expelled the Guelfs from the city. The latter, in revenge, seized Bertinoro, destroyed the houses belonging to the Mainardi, and drove out all Piero’s adherents; among them was Guido del Duca, who at this time apparently, together with his family, betook himself to Ravenna, his father’s native place, and resided there under the protection of Pier Traversaro. Some ten years later (in 1229) Guido’s name appears as witness to a deed at Ravenna; he was alive in 1249….” (T). [return to English / Italian]

  82–84. Guido’s wry self-knowledge, similar to that of Sapia (Purg. XIII.110–111), practically defines the sin of envy as Dante understood it. Pietro di Dante (1340) cites Horace (Epistles I.ii.57): “The envious man grows lean when his neighbor prospers.” The citation is apt, even if Dante’s knowledge of the Epistles is not assured. A more certain source is found in Aquinas, as is variously noted, first by Poletto (1894): tristitia de alienis bonis (sadness at another’s possessions). But see Jacopo della Lana (1324), who attributes the phrase to John of Damascus (eighth century): “tristitia de bonis alienis.”

  For the gray-blue color of envy see the note to Purgatorio XIII.8–9. [return to English / Italian]

  85. The phrasing (sowing and reaping) is obviously biblical, as Lombardi (1791) was perhaps the first to note, citing St. Paul (Galatians 6:8): “Quae enim seminaverit homo, haec et metet” (For what a man sows, that shall he reap). Tommaseo (1837) cites another five biblical passages that also rely on this metaphor, but the passage in Paul is favored by the commentators once it enters the tradition. Here Guido, in purgation, harvests the straw of expiation for his sins on earth; his wheat awaits
him in paradise. [return to English / Italian]

  86–87. Guido’s denunciation, in the form of an apostrophe of the human race, places the blame for our envious lot in our not being able to seek goods that are shared. His phrase, “things that of necessity cannot be shared,” will come back to be scrutinized in the next canto (XV.45), there offering Virgil occasion for a lengthy gloss (XV.46–75). [return to English / Italian]

  88–89. “Rinieri da Calboli, member of the illustrious Guelf family of that name at Forlì…. Rinieri, who played an important part in the affairs of Romagna, was born probably at the beginning of Cent. xiii; he was Podestà of Faenza in 1265 (the year of Dante’s birth). In 1276 he made war upon Forlì, but was compelled to retire to his stronghold of Calboli, in the upper valley of the Montone, where he was besieged by Guido da Montefeltro (Inf. XXVII), at that time Captain of Forlì, who forced him to surrender, and destroyed the castle. In 1292, while for the second time Podestà of Faenza…, Rinieri captured Forlì, and expelled … many … powerful Ghibellines. Two years later, however (in 1294), Rinieri and his adherents were in turn expelled. In 1296 Rinieri and the Guelfs once more made themselves masters of Forlì, but the Ghibellines … quickly retook the city and killed many of the Guelfs, Rinieri among the number” (T). [return to English / Italian]

  91–92. Guido now describes the boundaries of Romagna, a large area on the right-hand side of Italy, separated from Tuscany (subject of the first half of the canto’s exploration of sins along the Arno) by the Apennines, lying south and west of Romagna. The rough boundaries include the river Reno, just to the west of Bologna, the river Po, flowing into the Adriatic north of Ravenna, the Adriatic at the eastern limit, and the hills of Montefeltro at the southern edge. [return to English / Italian]

  93–96. Once virtuous, peopled by such as Rinieri, Romagna is now turned to an unweeded garden. [return to English / Italian]

  97–123. Guido’s second speech on a set topic, a version of the “ubi sunt?” (where are [the good folk of the past] today?) topos, as Sapegno (1955) insists, pointing to a general sense of source in the Bible and in medieval Latin hymns, includes references to ten additional worthy individuals, four families, and three towns, each of which is gone or has come upon hard times. The three categories are intermixed. [return to English / Italian]

  97. Lizio [di Valbona, a castle near Bagno], a Guelph, fought alongside Rinieri in the losing battle at Forlì in 1276. Lizio is a character in one of the novelle (V.iv) of the Decameron. Arrigo Mainardi, a Ghibelline from Bertinoro, associated with Guido del Duca, was still living in 1228. Thus this first pair is divided equally between the two protagonists of the canto and their two political parties. [return to English / Italian]

  98. Pier Traversaro, the most distinguished member of the powerful Ghibelline family of Ravenna and renowned for his patronage of poets, was an ally of Guido del Duca. At the end of his life in 1225 he was the unofficial ruler of Ravenna, where he had earlier been podestà for three separate terms, but his son Paolo, who succeeded him as the central political figure in the city, became a Guelph and, at his death in 1240, the Traversaro influence in Ravenna, which had been strong for nearly three hundred years, came to its end. Guido di Carpigna, a Guelph whose family was related to the counts of Montefeltro, was once podestà of Ravenna (in 1251). [return to English / Italian]

  99. The relationship between the first four names and the present-day inhabitants of Romagna is oppositional, a notion that escaped some of the early commentators, who thought Dante was vilifying at least the next two names. [return to English / Italian]

  100. Fabbro [de’ Lambertazzi], leader of the Bolognese Ghibellines, served as podestà of seven Italian cities (of three more than once) between 1230 and 1258. [return to English / Italian]

  101–102. Bernardin di Fosco, sprung from ordinary folk (the Ottimo [1333] says he was a peasant), apparently exhibited such personal gentility that the nobles of Faenza eventually looked upon him as one of their own. While no commentator seems to know enough about him to present his political party, the fact that he seems to have been involved in the defense of Faenza against the emperor (Frederick II) in 1240 would ordinarily suggest that he was a Guelph; on the other hand he apparently was in the emperor’s favor in 1248 and 1249 when he was made podestà of Pisa and then of Siena—positions that would suggest his alignment with the Ghibellines. However, Isidoro Del Lungo (1926), the only commentator to deal with the issue, simply states that he was a Guelph. [return to English / Italian]

  104. Of Guido da Prata so little is known that one commentator, Luigi Pietrobono (1946), is of the opinion that, in light of the small amount of information that has come down to us, Dante had overestimated his worth. Prata is a village in the Romagna, between Forlì and Faenza; Guido seems to have been active in the political life of Ravenna. [return to English / Italian]

  105. Ugolino d’Azzo was born in Tuscany, but at some point moved to Faenza (and thus, in Guido’s words, “lived among us”). He was the son of Azzo degli Ubaldini and thus related to both the cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini (Inf. X.120) and the archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini (Inf. XXXIII.14). He was married to a daughter of Provenzan Salvani (Purg. XI.121) and died at a ripe old age in 1293. [return to English / Italian]

  106. Of Federigo Tignoso practically nothing is known. Benvenuto says he was a rich nobleman of Rimini and that he had heard tell that Federigo had a great shock of yellow hair, so that his sobriquet, Tignoso, which is the adjective from the noun tigna (or “mange”), was a playful misnomer. Federigo’s companions were, apparently, those who took part in his hospitable way of life. Those who attempt to date his life set it in the first half of the thirteenth century. [return to English / Italian]

  107–108. Dante suddenly switches from munificent individuals to munificent families. Of the Traversari of Ravenna we have heard tell in the person of Piero (see note to verse 98); now we hear of another great Ghibelline family of that city, the Anastagi. When we consider that the last years of Dante’s life were spent at Ravenna as a result of the hospitality of Guido Novello da Polenta it is striking that the Polentani, perhaps the greatest of all the families of Ravenna (along with the Traversari), are not mentioned here. Writing after 1317, Dante would surely have included them, since their Guelph allegiance would apparently have been no bar to being included in the cast assembled here, containing roughly as many Guelphs as Ghibellines.

  Both these families have by 1300 nearly died out—a fate that is not the unmitigated disaster it might seem, as we shall soon see. [return to English / Italian]

  109–111. These verses served Ariosto (1474–1533) as the model for the opening of his epic poem, Orlando furioso: “Le donne, i cavalier, l’arme, gli amori, / le cortesie, l’audaci imprese io canto” (Ladies and knights, weapons and love, courteous acts, bold-hearted deeds: all these I sing). The good old days have yielded to an iron age; it is perhaps better not to breed. That is the message that begins to be hammered home. For the themes of cortesia and nobiltà see Lo Cascio (LoCa.1967.1). [return to English / Italian]

  112–114. Bertinoro, between Forlì and Cesena, was renowned for the generosity of its noble families, as the early commentators, beginning with the Anonymous Lombard (1322), told. The family referred to as having left may be the Mainardi (mentioned in verse 97) or some other; some commentators want to see the term as generic (i.e., all the good people of the town) but this is probably not warranted. [return to English / Italian]

  115. Bagnacavallo, between Imola and Ravenna, a Ghibelline stronghold in Dante’s time, is congratulated for not having male offspring by its counts (the Malvicini family), extinguished, in their male line, by 1300. [return to English / Italian]

  116–117. Castrocaro, near Forlì, was a Ghibelline stronghold of the counts of Castrocaro until 1300, when it passed into the hands of the local Ordelaffi family and then, subsequently, into the possession of the Florentine Black Guelphs. Conio, a castle near Imola, was in the possession of Guelph counts.
Both these strongholds are seen as breeding worse and worse stock. [return to English / Italian]

  118–120. To conclude the brief list of families, Dante refers to the Pagani. They were Ghibelline lords of Faenza. Rather than praise their good early stock, Dante fixes on their “Devil,” Maghinardo Pagano da Susinana, a truly impressive warrior and statesman. A Ghibelline, he also favored the Florentine Guelphs because of their decent treatment of him when he was a child and in their protection. On one side of the Apennines he fought on the side of Guelphs; on the other, of Ghibellines. What undoubtedly took any possibility of a dispassionate view of this extraordinary man from Dante was the fact that he entered the city in November 1301 at the side of Charles of Valois, the French conqueror of Florence (in collaboration with Corso Donati).

  Maghinardo is the only name mentioned in this passage of a person alive at the imagined date of the vision (he died in 1302). Everyone else is of thirteenth-century provenance, and of the persons and events datable in this welter of historical material, nothing before 1200 or after 1293 is alluded to, thus reinforcing the notion that Dante is talking, through the mouth of Guido del Duca, of the “good old days” in Romagna. A similar and longer discourse in historical romanticism will be put forth by Cacciaguida in Paradiso XVI, an entire canto given over to the moral supremacy of a Florence that is now long gone. [return to English / Italian]