Feltre

Description

In the ninth canto of Paradiso, Cunizza da Romano, speaking with Dante, prophesies that Feltre will have to weep for the sin committed by its own bishop. This sin is presented as so grave that no prisoner has ever entered prison for a crime equal to his. The critical notes of the canto connect this statement to the offense of betrayal and allude to a notorious damp and muddy prison of the time, indicated by the term malta, according to a usage documented in writers such as Jacopone. The reference to the shepherd of Feltre fits into the series of political prophecies that characterize the canto, dedicated to the destinies of Treviso and the Veneto territories. The verse constitutes a very harsh moral judgment against the local ecclesiastical authority, assimilated in guilt to the governor of that city.