Ghin di Tacco

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Ghin di Tacco is mentioned by Dante in Purgatorio VI, v. 14, in a passage that compares his violent death to that of other illustrious figures. According to the notes on the canto, he was a Sienese gentleman who, banished from his own city, established himself at the castle of Radicofani in the Maremma, where he turned into a highway robber. The same notes recall that he is the protagonist of a celebrated novella by Boccaccio in the Decameron (X 2), in which he is described as a man very famous for his pride and for his robberies. The date of his death is placed probably in 1303. His fame as a proud and rapacious man was such that Dante recalled him as a term of comparison, without the character appearing directly on the scene of Purgatorio.