Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi

Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 1200s around the time of Giotto and Dante. He is best known for being a wicked usurer according to Dante in the Divine Comedy. He practiced usury in France and was made a knight upon his return to Florence.

Place in Dante's "Inferno"

In Dante’s Comedy, Dante says that he saw Catello in the inner ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where the violent are eternally punished. The inner ring of the Seventh Circle is a burning hot desert with a continual rain of fire. The usurers are to be found sitting on the sand, swatting away fire the way that animals swat bugs, and crying. Around their necks are found purses emblazoned with their coats of arms. This, and a bit of research into Dante's time-period, make it possible to identify who the suffering sinners are meant to be.

Usurers are considered violent because, as Dante's Virgil explains in Canto XI, usurers sin against Art, and Art is the Grandchild of God.

Relevant lines from "The Inferno" with explanations (Mendelbaum translation)

So I went on alone and even farther (43)along the seventh circle’s outer margin,to where the melancholy people sat.

Despondency was bursting from their eyes; (46)this side, then that, their hands kept fending off,at times the flames, at times the burning soil:

Not otherwise do dogs in summer-now (49)with muzzle, now with paw-when they are bittenby fleas or gnats or by the sharp gadfly.

When I had set my eyes upon the faces (52)of some on who the painful fire falls,I recognized no one; but I did notice

That from the neck of each a purse was hung (55)that had a special color or an emblem,and their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.

Looking about-when I had come among them- (58)I saw a yellow purse with azure on itthat had the face and manner of a lion. <1>

Then, as I let my eyes move farther on, (61)I saw another purse that was bloodred,and it displayed a goose more white than butter.

And one who had an azure, pregnant sow
inscribed as emblem on his white pouch, saidto me: “What are you doing in this pit?

Now be off; and since you’re still alive, (67)remember that my neighbor Vitalianoshall yet sit here, upon my left hand side.

Among these Florentines, I’m Paduan; (70)I often hear them thunder in my ears,shouting, ‘Now let the sovereign cavalier,

The one who’ll bring the purse with three goats, come!’” (73)At this he slewed his mouth, and then he stuckhis tongue out, like an ox that licks his nose.

<1> (This person is Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, because a lion azure on a field of gold is the device of the Gianfigliazzi family.)

Citations

cite book
last = Eimerl
first = Sarel
authorlink =
coauthors = the Editors of TIME-LIFE BOOKS
title = The World of Giotto
publisher = Time Incorporated
year = 1967
location = New York
pages= 109
url =
doi =
id =

cite book
last = Ciardi
first = John
authorlink =
coauthors = Dante Alighieri
title = The Inferno (Translators Notes)
publisher = New American Library
year = 1954
location = London, England
pages= 154-155
url =
doi =
id =

cite book
last = Dante
first = Alighieri
authorlink =
coauthors = As translated by Allen Mendelbaum
title = The Divine Comedy
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf
year = 1980
location = Germany
pages= 130-131
url =
doi =
id =