ctaylor

“O human race born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou fall” (The Divine Comedy).  In The Inferno, there are three Florentines that Dante meets, well known Florentines that Dante approaches and speaks with, and Pope Nicholas III who were all highly respected people in their lives on the earth, but crashed into the condemnation of torture in the Seventh and Eighth Circle of Hell.  The three Florentines in Round Three of Circle Seven are Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci.  These three men were “higher then you think there in the world, in honor and degree” (The Inferno, p. 143) “whose good counsels the world would have done well to understand” (The Inferno, p. 144).  The third says “I owe my sorrows to a savage wife” (The Inferno, p. 144).  These three men were of high stature during their lives.  They all, though, committed violence against nature and art.  These three men flew upward in life, succeeding in every aspect they wanted to, but they had one flaw, a little wind, that brought their achievements tumbling to eternal torture.  At the end of Round Three, just before Dante and Virgil board Geryon for their flight into the next circle of hell, Dante speaks to a Paduan for Florentine who is waiting the arrival of Vitaliano “the sovereign cavalier” (The Inferno, p. 151), who the translator, John Ciardi, traces to Giovanni di Buiamonte.  Buiamonte was an esteemed Florentine and held many high offices, but was violent against the arts, which was the little wind that would cause his fall from the high offices into the Third Round of The Seventh Circle.  In the Third Bolgia of Circle Eight Dante meets Pope Nicholas III, who obviously held a high office in the Church during life, was tormented in this section of hell because he bought his way into the position.  The little wind that collapsed his high flight of Papacy was how he obtained his situation.  All of these wraiths were of high standards and lived well respected lives, but had one short-coming that made a little wind, that converted their high flying into a fall, landing them in hell.