Poets and thinkers

Guido

Guido is remembered by Farinata among the Epicureans of the sixth circle as the intellectual adversary of his family; the notes identify him as the father of Guido Cavalcanti, Dante's first friend.

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In Canto X of the Inferno, Farinata, rising from the fiery tomb of the heretics, points to Guido and his relatives as the adversaries of his own house: "Guido or Alessandro or their brother." The notes to the canto identify this Guido as the father of Guido Cavalcanti, Dante's first friend and poetic master, and emphasize the height of his intellect and his influence on the Florentine culture of the time. The same notes recall how Cavalcante, the father of Dante's friend, raises himself from the tomb and addresses to Dante the dramatic question about his son, showing the moral greatness shared by Farinata and Guido, figures whom Dante leaves whole in their human worth.

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