Guido Bonatti

Profile

Guido Bonatti is mentioned by Dante in Canto XX of the Inferno, among the damned of the ditch of the diviners. The authoritative notes describe him as a celebrated astrologer from Forlì, of the Ghibelline faction, who was in the service of Frederick II, of Ezzelino da Romano, of the Commune of Florence after Montaperti, and, for a long time, of Guido da Montefeltro, dying at the end of the thirteenth century. He is remembered as the author of a treatise on astronomy in ten books, known throughout Europe, and for having advised Guido da Montefeltro on the propitious moments in which to ride against his enemies. In Dante's framework he is placed, like Michael Scot and Asdente, among the modern figures of Dante's time, set against the ancient diviners of the classical canon, and treated with equal punishment and sarcastic tone, to underscore the condemnation of divination as fraud.