Padua

Description

Padua, designated by the Paduans as descendants of Antenor, appears in Paradiso IX in the prophetic discourse of Cunizza da Romano, who indicates it as one of the Guelph political centers opposed to the imperial restoration of Cangrande della Scala, of whom Dante was a guest. The condemnation pronounced in the canto is directed specifically at that nucleus of anti-Scaliger Guelphism identified with the city, alongside the papal court. The prophecy has a painful violence because it strikes also the one who announces it, and Cunizza is linked to Padua inasmuch as she belonged to the house that had dominated it in the first half of the century.