Real
Caprona
Caprona is the Pisan castle cited in Inferno XXI, 95 in the military simile with which Dante compares the damned emerging from the pitch to soldiers capitulating beneath a fortress.
Description
Caprona is recalled by Dante in the twenty-first canto of the Inferno (v. 95), where the damned of the fifth bolgia, immersed in boiling pitch, are compared to soldiers who come out of a castle after a negotiated surrender. The note to the verse specifies that this refers to the siege of Caprona in August 1289, a castle in the Pisan territory held by the Ghibellines, placed under siege by the victorious Guelphs immediately after the Battle of Campaldino in June of the same year. The same note indicates in this simile the only but decisive testimony left by Dante of his participation in military actions. The introduction to the canto notes that the warlike tone of the scene prefigures the parody of military acts that runs through cantos XXI and XXII.
In the text
Linked verses
1 verses| Cantica | Canto | Verso | Testo | Open verse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inferno | Canto XXI | 95 | ch’uscivan patteggiati di Caprona, | Open verse |