Capraia

Description

In Inferno XXXIII, at verse 82, Capraia is mentioned together with Gorgona in a passage in which Dante calls for a divine punishment against Pisa, guilty of the cruelty inflicted upon Ugolino and his sons. The verse, muovasi la Capraia e la Gorgona, is part of an invective in which the poet, after having described the count's inhumanity, expresses horror and pity for the four innocent young men and indignation toward Pisa's neighboring Guelphs, the Florentines and the Lucchese, called upon to avenge such savagery. According to the critical note to verse 82, the movement is of a biblical type, since in Scripture divine punishment sometimes strikes entire cities: Dante thus asks that the islands shift to interpose themselves and submerge Pisa, transforming real geographical elements into instruments of poetic justice.