This image from the Yates Thompson 36 manuscript depicts Canto 19. In this canto, Dante and Virgil encounter those who are damned because of the sin of Simony. The definition of this is using the position in the church to sell church positions or privileges. The souls here are stuck head down in holes, with only their legs and feet exposed, and their feet inflamed. Here, Dante refers to the church as a bride, in this metaphor, the pope is the groom, and by being simoniac has failed to protect her. He sees this as a truly awful sin, and does not show any pity towards the souls, as he has in some previous cantos. This is shown in line 12, when he exclaims “how justly your Power distributes!” Dante wholly approves of the punishment given to these sinners.

In the image, these souls are shown in the centre. Their legs and feet are red, almost as if the skin has been removed. there is even more red at the entrance of the hole, and the red is sprayed, and looks like blood. Dante is shown talking to Pope Nicholas III in the centre of the piece. In the second half of the canto, Dante berates then man, telling him that he deserves the suffering he is now enduring. Dante then takes pride in the approval he gets for what he has said, in lines 121-123: “I firmly believe that it pleased my leader, with such a contented smile he listened still to the sound of the true words I spoke.” On the far right of the image, Virgil has lifted the pilgrim up, ready to carry him away.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.