Dante’s InfernoCanto 28

Matthew VirdenEnglish 230-02

Elisabetta Le JeuneApril 20, 2009

Summary Statement of Canto 28

“The Eighth Circle, Ninth Pouch, where the Sowers of Scandal and Schism, perpetually circling, are

wounded and-after each healing-wounded again by a demon with a sword. Mohammed and Ali.

Warning to Fra Dolcino, Curio, Mosca, and Bertran de Born.”

Main Characters

• The main characters in this canto are Alardo de Valery, Mohammed, Ali, Fra Dolcino, Curio, Mosca, and Bertran de Born.

• Alardo defeated Conradin, the nephew of Manfred, son of Fredrick II, in the town of Tagliacozzo in the year of 1268 A.D.

• Mohammed is the founder of Islam and regarded by some as a renegade Christian (570- 632 A.D.)

• Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed, had a dispute with him and the caused the division of Islam in the Suni and Shia sects.

• Fra Dolcino was head of a reformist group in 1300 A.D., known as the Apostolic Brothers, that was condemned heretical by the Pope.

• Curio was bribed by Julius Caesar to betray his friends and convinced Caesar to cross the Rubicon and invade the Roman Republic, starting a civil war.

• Mosca was a Florentine noble, who caused civil strife in 1215 A.D. by convincing a father to kill the man who broke off an engagement with the father’s daughter.

• Bertran de Born was a Provencal nobleman and poet, who continually advised the son of Henry II of England to rebel against his father.

• These people are there because they caused division and strife amongst the people around them.

• They are being punished by continually being healed and then wounded again by a demon with a sword.

• One example of punishment is Ali where his face is wide open from chin to forelock.

Summary of Canto 28

• Virgil has lead Dante to the eighth circle, where the people that are there a being punished for being Sowers of Scandal and Schism. There punishment includes where they are continually healed and wounded again by a demon with a sword. The characters that are mentioned include Mohammad, Ali, Fra Dolcino, Curio, Mosca, and Bertran de Born.

Images of Canto 28

• Dante is in the eighth circle of and the ninth abyss of Hell.

• What he see is blood and guts and people continually being healed and wounded.

Works Cited

• Vol. 1. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Eds. Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2002. 2 vols. 1919-23.