Cagnan

Description

In the ninth canto of the Paradiso, Dante indicates the Cagnan as the watercourse that joins the Sile, identifying the place of the announced betrayal by means of the names of the two rivers. The note to verse 49 clarifies that the conjunction of the Sile and the Cagnano designates the city of Treviso, in keeping with a characteristic usage of the canto, and that in that place the lord of the city will be treacherously killed, here indicated in the killing of Rizzardo da Camino, lord and imperial vicar, son of the good Gherardo. The verse itself, "e dove Sile e Cagnan s'accompagna" ("and where Sile and Cagnan come together"), is thus the starting point for recognizing in the Cagnan the fluvial element that, joining with the Sile, marks the site of Treviso according to Dante's usage of naming cities by means of their watercourses.