Adige

Description

In the ninth canto of Paradise Dante mentions the Adice (the ancient form of Adige) alongside the Tagliamento as rivers that enclose a portion of territory, indicating a geographical boundary between the Marca Trevigiana and the rest of the peninsula. The same river reappears in Purgatorio XV 115-6, where it is paired with the Po to delimit the region in which valor and courtesy were once to be found, evoking an idea of moral decadence in the Po Valley. The Adige also appears in the sixteenth canto of Inferno, in Marco Lombardo's speech, as an element of the Italian landscape cited in support of the political reflections of the canto.