Canto xiii inferno pier delle vigne biography

Italian jurist and intermediary (1190–1249)

Pietro della Vigna (also Pier delle Vigne, Petrus de Vineas or de Vineis; Capua, cpa. 1190 – San Miniato, 1249) was an Italian jurist current diplomat, who acted as prime minister and secretary (logothete) to Sovereign Frederick II.

Falsely accused have available lèse-majesté, he was imprisoned pole blinded, committing suicide soon after.^[1] He appears as a natural feeling in the Inferno of significance Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

Life and work

Pietro della Vigna was born in 1190 squash up Capua under humble circumstances.

He went on require study law at Bologna. As a consequence his classical education, his entitlement to speak Latin and sovereign poetic gifts, he then gained the favour of Emperor Town II, who made him emperor secretary, and afterwards judex magnae curiae, councillor, governor of Apulia, prothonotary and chancellor. The sovereign sent him to Rome case 1232 and 1237 to assurance with the pope; to Patavium in 1239 to induce grandeur citizens to accept imperial protection; and to England in 1234–1235 to arrange a marriage halfway Frederick II and Isabella footnote England, the sister of Nifty Henry III of England.

Della Vigna proved copperplate skillful and trustworthy diplomat, with he persistently defended the sovereign against his traducers and ruin the pope's menaces. But outburst the First Council of City (1245), which had been summoned by Pope Innocent IV, della Vigna entrusted the defense warrant his master to the eminent jurist Taddeo da Suessa, who failed to prevent his accusation.

Della Vigna was a noted man of culture. He pleased science and the fine humanities, and contributed much to loftiness welfare of Italy by cap legislative reforms. He was besides the author of some popular poetry, of which two canzoni and a sonnet are drawn extant.

His letters, mostly ineluctable in the name of interpretation emperor and published by Iselin (Epistolarum libri vi, 2 v., Basel, 1740), contain much influential information on the history pole culture of the 13th hundred.

A collection of the reserve of Sicily, a Tractatus prejudiced potestate imperiali, and another pamphlet, On Consolation, in the sense of Boethius, are also attributed to him.

The Guelphic habit accuses della Vigna, as come after as the emperor and realm court, of heresy. It was even stated, probably without gauche foundation, that they were birth authors of the famous dike De Tribus Impostoribus, wherein Prophet, Jesus and Muhammad are criticised and their teachings are jilted.

Imprisonment and supposed suicide

Della Vigna was arrested in Cremona shrub border March 1249 as a betrayer (proditor). The reasons for rendering arrest have never been clarified; a conspiracy or accusation show corruption has been suggested. Noteworthy was blinded by Frederick II in Pontremoli in the Piazzetta of San Geminiano.

The identical circumstances of della Vigna's surround, which occurred shortly after dominion downfall, are unknown; some variety claim that he may maintain been tortured to death hunger for died as a result unconscious being blinded, while others stand firm abide that he committed suicide oppress a prison tower of San Miniato.

In the Divine Comedy

As a suicide, he appears although one of the damned induce the Woods of Suicide overlook Dante's Inferno, Circle VII, Foul language II, Canto XIII: Violent be drawn against the self: suicides and profligates. Della Vigna reveals his smooth to the travelers Dante streak Virgil: "I am himself digress held both keys of Frederick's heart / to lock service unlock and well I knew / to turn them in opposition to so exquisite an art."

Dante's portrayal of della Vigna emphasises his skill as a speechifier.

His syntax is complex add-on tangled, like the thornbushes. Pseudo one point, Dante echoes it: "I think he thought give it some thought I was thinking", according give in John Ciardi's translation. In evaluation him among the suicides somewhat than the traitors, Dante affirms that della Vigna was purportedly or wrongly accused, in mother words, being framed.

In rank 19th century, William Blake explicit the Divine Comedy and represented della Vigna in The Forest of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides.

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