Political Intrigue and Divine Punishment

Dino Compagni's Chronicle serves as an invaluable tool for understanding the turbulent and clandestine state of the Florentine political climate at the time of Dante Alighieri's exile. Through its historical, though at times highly subjective account of the machinations of the Guelf and Ghibelline, and primarily the White and Black Guelf conflicts, Dino sheds light on the political influences and allusions in Dante's contemporary work, the Inferno.

The variegated sins of Fraud are a theme of great importance to Dante's work, as well. This is unsurprising, as Dante was an active member of his party, the White Guelfs, and was exiled during a violent coup, staged by the Black Guelfs in conjunction with Pope Boniface VIII. As a product of the divisive and murky Florentine political environment, Dante's Inferno was concerned with many of the same prominent political figures as is Dino's Chronicle. Though the former is a poetic work of fiction, and the latter is an historical account of the times, each serves to illuminate the convolutions and maneuverings of contemporary political figures.

One of the primary recurring themes of Dino's Chronicle is that of the sowers of discord, or those who sought to promote political disunity and deception in pursuit of their own gain. Dino Compagni is quick to revile these corrupt citizens, and to illustrate that he, himself, was an honest man concerned only with the good of Florence, stating that he was trusted "because he was a good and intelligent man" (Compagni 11).

These "sowers of discord" are given repeated reference in Dante's Inferno; in fact, he devotes an entire Bolgia to their just punishment. It is unsurprising that Dante would bear such enmity towards this particular breed of sinners, as he was exiled from his beloved Florence on the grounds of false accusations of corruption, embezzlement, and conspiracy. Dante himself was a living testament to the effect of the discord resultant from the misuse of political power, and spent his entire life trying to exonerate his name from the stigma unjustly associated with it.

Dante devotes Canto XXVIII of the Inferno to the "Sowers of Scandal and Schism," or those corrupt officials to which Dino refers to as the sowers of discord. Here, the sinners are represented as having suffered terrible wounds under the swords of the devils residing in that Bolgia. Dante compares these wounded souls to the piled dead of historical battles. This is a fitting simile, in that the deceitful words of the sowers of discord many times resulted in violence and treachery, because of which many lost their lives. A prime example of violence resultant from political deception is to be observed in the execution of the other White Guelf Priors with which Dante presided. Dante was fortunate to have been an envoy to Rome at the time of the upheaval, else he could have been put to death with several of the others.

As it stood, the entire Cerchi family was exiled from Florence or killed, under dubious accusations, simply because they were aligned with the White Guelfs when they fell from power. It is fitting, then, that such corrupt sowers of discordia should meet with perhaps Dante's most gruesome contrapasso. Dante the poet interjects to expresses his horror at the carnage of the ninth Bolgia: "Who could, even in the simplest kind of prose. / Describe in full the scene of blood and wounds / that I saw - no matter how he tried!" (Canto XXVII, ll. 1-3).

Dante's disgust and loathing for the sowers of discord is paralleled by Dino's own contempt for these dishonest citizens. Having already established himself as good and intelligent, Dino also intimates that he is entirely ingenuous as well. In an effort to promote peace and good faith in Florence coincident with the visit of Prince Charles of Anjou, Dino arranged for the leading citizens of Florence to meet at the baptistery at San Giovanni. Here, he asked them to, on the baptismal font "where you received holy baptism, swear a good and perfect peace among yourselves, so that the lord who is coming may find all citizens united" (Compagni 38). The oath seemed to have a positive effect on the citizens of Florence, and they exhibited signs of having been moved by it. However, even this poignant ceremony and an oath upon the baptismal font and Bible were incapable of effecting lasting change; "Those wicked citizens, who there displayed tears of tenderness and kissed the book and showed the most ardent good will, proved to be the leaders in the destruction of their city" (Compagni 39). The deceit and intrigues continued unabated, and Dino now faced that added burden of having been complicit in the damnation of hundreds of citizens for their sin of perjury (Compagni 39).

Through their similar portrayal of the Florentine political landscape, especially in their treatment of its rampant deceit and treachery, contemporaries Dino Compagni and Dante Alighieri reveal the similar attitudes of two men smirched by the fickle lady Fortune. Thus, a careful reading of Compagni's Chronicle will provide an alert reader with indispensable context and support for Dante's more widely-known Inferno, and shed light on the era from which it sprang.