Campo Piceno

Description

The Campo Piceno is the name by which Dante designates the Pistoian territory, prophesied as the theater of a violent political clash. The definition is offered indirectly by the note to the passage, where the Pistoian territory is identified as the Campo Piceno. The reference is part of the prophecy uttered by Vanni Fucci at verses 143–148 of Canto XXIV of the Inferno, in which the obscure image of a storm—with a lightning bolt (a fiery vapor) issuing from the Val di Magra and colliding with clouds heralding a tempest—foreshadows a harsh and violent battle on that field. The identification with the Pistoian territory, and not with the Marches city of Ascoli Piceno, is clarified by the critical note, which also refers to a passage in the Composizione del Mondo by Ristoro d'Arezzo.