Lapo Salterello

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Lapo Salterello is a name that Cacciaguida pronounces in Paradiso (XV, 128) alongside that of Cianghella, in a survey of Florentine figures singled out for their morally reprehensible behavior: according to the notes to the canto, in his time a shameless woman or a corrupt politician would have been phenomena worthy of wonder, whereas in the present corruption has become customary, and for this reason Dante's great-great-grandfather calls up concrete examples well known to Florentine readers. The name itself, placed on the same level as Cianghella—described in the notes as a brazen woman of dishonest speech—thus serves as an emblem of the political and moral dissoluteness of the Florence contemporary with Dante. No further biographical data on Lapo Salterello, his family, his profession, or any public offices he may have held emerge from the verses—or from the authorized notes—nor is the circle of Purgatory or the celestial place in which the figure is situated specified: the mention is purely verbal, pronounced by the voice of Cacciaguida in the Heaven of Mars.