Boniface

Profile

Benedetto Caetani, who was pope with the name Boniface VIII from 1294 to 1303, is indicated in the verses of Inferno XIX by the form Bonifazio, when Nicholas III, damned in the third bolgia of the simonists, prophesies his coming. According to the notes to the canto, Dante firmly opposed his policy of interference in Florence, by which the Blacks were supported and the Whites exiled. Beyond the personal and civic affair, Dante saw in Boniface VIII the symbol of the lust for power: successor of Celestine V, whom he forced to abdicate, he was the author of the bull Unam sanctam which affirmed the pope's right over temporal government, a right contested by Dante in the Monarchia. His appearance in Hell, obtained through a dramatic device, was presented as inevitable, and the entire Canto XIX is imagined as constructed around his figure, with a final indictment pronounced by Dante before his own time and posterity.