Inferno, Canto 27

The Text of Canto 27 (Open PDF)

Summary

The spirit of Guido da Montefeltro asks for news of Romagna, and being answered he tells his story.

The Prepatory Lecture

Click here if video doesn't appear.

Questions for Reflection

• Why would it be such an appealing thing for the damned souls to have Dante recall their names among the living and why would Guido da Montefeltro find that so unappealing (27.61-66)?
• How did Pope Boniface VIII contribute to Guido’s moral and spiritual corruption? How did Boniface’s political ambitions corrupt his spiritual leadership? Is it just that Guido is damned because he was misled by the Pope? How does Dante use Guido’s situation to critique the abuse of spiritual authority?
• What does Guido mean by comparing his actions, not to that of the Lion, but to that of the Fox (27.75)? Would Machiavelli approve of Guido’s actions even if Dante does not?
• At his death, S Francis and a demon argue over Guido’s soul with the devil ultimately winning. The devil insists that a soul cannot will to sin and repent at the same time (27.119). What does this tell us about the nature of confession and repentance?

Canto 27 © Jan Hearn

The Images

Guido da Montefeltro.   Whereas Virgil addresses the Greek hero Ulysses in Inferno 26, Dante himself inquires of Guido da Montefeltro--a figure from Dante's medieval Italian world--in Inferno 27. Guido (c. 1220-98), a fraudulent character who may himself be a victim of fraud, immediately reveals the limits of his scheming mind when he expresses a willingness to identify himself only because he believes (or claims to believe) that no one ever returns from hell alive (Inf. 27.61-6).
​
Tyrants. "Tyrant" is used here in a broad sense for the emerging signori or "princes" of northern and central Italy, whose rule was based on arbitrary seizure rather than law or tradition (see 12.104). Technically, a tyrant was "one who rules a commonwealth unlawfully" (Gregory the Great); Dante, following Aristotle, writes that tyrants "do not follow laws for the common good, but attempt to twist them to their own benefit" (Monarchia 3.4; see also Convivio 4.6.27). The list of tyrants here is bracketed at the extremes of the canto by the classical Phalaris and the tyrannical Pope Boniface.

Mark Vernon's Lecture