Talamone

Description

In the Purgatorial passage, Sapia recalls with irony the vain hopes of the Sienese regarding Talamone, a port in southern Tuscany located near Orbetello, which the city had purchased at a high price from the counts of Santa Fiora. The acquisition was motivated by the desire to obtain an outlet on the sea to relaunch Sienese commerce, with a view to becoming a great maritime power. The enormous expenses, both for the purchase and for the works of reclamation from malaria, however did not produce the hoped-for effects, transforming the port into one of the disillusionments of Sienese expansionist policy, on a par with the fanciful search for the river Diana. Dante thus mentions Talamone as an emblem of the city's disappointed aspirations, associating it with the pronominal adverb perderagli, derived from the Latin illic and indicating the place itself.