by Matt Dubois

Created on: January 17, 2009

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

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