# Inferno Canto 29

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XXIX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the bridge that
> crosses the tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries of the alchemists and
> forgers, who are tormented therein; but not being able to discern anything on
> account of the darkness, they descend the rock, that bounds this, the last of
> the compartments in which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold the
> spirits who are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two of them, namely,
> Grifolino of Arezzo, and Capocchio of Siena, are introduced speaking.
> 
> So were mine eyes inebriate with the view
> Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds
> Disfigured, that they long'd to stay and weep.
> But Virgil roused me: "What yet gazest on?
> Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below
> Among the maim'd and miserable shades?
> Thou hast not shown in any chasm beside
> This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them,
> That two and twenty miles the valley winds
> Its circuit, and already is the moon
> Beneath our feet: the time permitted now
> Is short; and more, not seen, remains to see."
> 
> "If thou," I straight replied, "hadst weigh'd the cause,
> For which I look'd, thou hadst perchance excused
> The tarrying still." My leader part pursued
> His way, the while I follow'd, answering him,
> And adding thus: "Within that cave I deem,
> Whereon so fixedly I held my ken,
> There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood,
> Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear."
> 
> Then spake my master: "Let thy soul no more
> Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere
> Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge's foot
> I mark'd how he did point with menacing look
> At thee, and heard him by the others named
> Geri of Bello.[1] Thou so wholly then
> Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled
> The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not
> That way, ere he was gone." "O guide beloved!
> 
> [1: "Geri of Bello." A kinsman of the Poet's, who was murdered by one
> of the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof
> that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has
> generally been supposed.]
> 
> His violent death yet unavenged," said I,
> "By any, who are partners in his shame,
> Made him contemptuous; therefore, as I think,
> He pass'd me speechless by; and, doing so,
> Hath made me more compassionate his fate."
> 
> So we discoursed to where the rock first show'd
> The other valley, had more light been there,
> E'en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came
> O'er the last cloister in the dismal rounds
> Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood
> Were to our view exposed, then many a dart
> Of sore lament assail'd me, headed all
> With points of thrilling pity, that I closed
> Both ears against the volley with mine hands.
> 
> As were the torment, if each lazar - house
> Of Valdichiana,[2] in the sultry time
> 'Twixt July and September, with the isle
> Sardinia and Maremma's pestilent fen,[3]
> Had heap'd their maladies all in one foss
> Together; such was here the torment: dire
> The stench, as issuing streams from fester'd limbs.
> 
> [2: The valley through which passes the river Chiana, bounded by
> Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the autumn it was formerly
> rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the water, but has since been
> drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chiana is mentioned as a remarkably
> sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto xiii. 21.]
> 
> [3: See note to Canto xxv, v. 18.]
> 
> We on the utmost shore of the long rock
> Descended still to leftward. Then my sight
> Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein
> The minister of the most mighty Lord,
> All - searching Justice, dooms to punishment
> The forgers noted on her dread record.
> 
> More rueful was it not methinks to see
> The nation in Aegina[4] droop, what time
> Each living thing, e'en to the little worm,
> All fell, so full of malice was the air
> (And afterward, as bards of yore have told,
> The ancient people were restored anew
> From seed of emmets), than was here to see
> 
> [4: "In Aegina." He alludes to the fable of the ants changed into
> Myrmidons. - Ovid, Met. lib. vii.]
> 
> The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale,
> Up - piled on many a stack. Confused they lay,
> One o'er the belly, o'er the shoulders one
> Roll'd of another; sideling crawl'd a third
> Along the dismal pathway. Step by step
> We journey'd on, in silence looking round,
> And listening those diseased, who strove in vain
> To lift their forms. Then two I mark'd, that sat
> Propt 'gainst each other, as two brazen pans
> Set to retain the heat. From head to foot,
> A tetter bark'd them round. Nor saw I e'er
> Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord
> Impatient waited, or himself perchance
> Tired with long watching, as of these each one
> Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness
> Of ne'er abated pruriency. The crust
> Came down from underneath, in flakes, like scales
> Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader mail.
> 
> "O thou! who with thy fingers rendest off
> Thy coat of proof," thus spake my guide to one,
> "And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them,
> Tell me if any born of Latian land
> Be among these within: so may thy nails
> Serve thee for everlasting to this toil."
> 
> "Both are of Latium," weeping he replied,
> "Whom tortured thus thou seest: but who art thou
> That hast inquired of us?" To whom my guide:
> "One that descend with this man, who yet lives,
> From rock to rock, and show him Hell's abyss."
> 
> Then started they asunder, and each turn'd
> Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear
> Those words redounding struck. To me my liege
> Address'd him: "Speak to them whate'er thou list."
> 
> And I therewith began: "So may no time
> Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men
> In the upper world, but after many suns
> Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are,
> And of what race ye come. Your punishment,
> Unseemly and disgustful in its kind,
> Deter you not from opening thus much to me."
> 
> "Arezzo was my dwelling,"[5] answer'd one,
> "And me Albero of Siena brought
> To die by fire: but that, for which I died,
> Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him,
> That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air;
> And he, admiring much, as he was void
> Of wisdom, will'd me to declare to him
> The secret of mine art: and only hence,
> Because I made him not a Daedalus,
> Prevail'd on one supposed his sire to burn me.
> But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten,
> For that I practised alchemy on earth,
> Has doom'd me. Him no subterfuge eludes."
> 
> [5: Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero, son of the Bishop of
> Siena, that he would teach him the art of flying; and, because he did not keep
> his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have him burnt for a
> necromancer.]
> 
> Then to the bard I spake: "Was ever race
> Light as Siena's?[6] Sure not France herself
> Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain."
> 
> [6: The same imputation is again cast on the Sienese, Purgatory,
> Canto xiii, 141.]
> 
> The other leprous spirit heard my words,
> And thus return'd: "Be Stricca[7] from this charge
> Exempted, he who knew so temperately
> To lay out fortune's gifts; and Niccolo,
> Who first the spice's costly luxury
> Discover'd in that garden,[8] where such seed
> Roots deepest in the soil; and be that troop
> Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano
> Lavish'd his vineyards and wide - spreading woods,
> And his rare wisdom Abbagliato show'd
> A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know
> Who seconds thee against the Sienese
> Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen'd sight,
> That well my face may answer to thy ken;
> So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's ghost,[9]
> Who forged transmuted metals by the power
> 
> [7: This is said ironically, Stricca, Niccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of
> Asciano, and Abbagliato, or Meo de' Folcacchieri, belonged to a company of
> prodigal and luxurious youth in Siena, called the "brigata godereccia."
> Niccolo was the inventor of a new manner of using cloves in cookery, and which
> was termed the "costuma ricca."]
> 
> [8: "In that garden." Siena.]
> 
> [9: Capocchio of Siena who is said to have been a fellow - student of
> Dante's, in natural philosophy.]
> 
> Of alchemy; and if I scan thee right,
> Thou needs must well remember how I aped
> Creative nature by my subtle art."
>
> — *Inferno Canto 29*