Filippo Argenti

Profile

Filippo Argenti is presented by Dante as a Florentine knight belonging to the Adimari family, the Cavicciuli branch, aligned with the Black faction. Ancient sources describe him unanimously as overbearing and proud, a trait also emphasized by the nickname "Argenti," which, according to the tradition reported by Boccaccio, derived from his custom of shoeing his horse with silver, a sign of vainglory. An ancient note defines him as «arrogant and proud and an enemy of Dante,» indicating a personal conflict with the poet, confirmed by the fact that his family drove the White faction out of Florence and that his brother enjoyed the goods confiscated from the exile. In the eighth canto of the Inferno Dante places him among the wrathful in the swamp of the Styx, where the spirit of the Florentine even attempts to attack the poet on the boat of Phlegyas, unleashing a most violent reaction. The episode stands as the first direct and resentful clash of the journey between Dante and a damned soul, elevated by the presence of explicit appeals to God as an example of condemnation against the overweening arrogance of the powerful.