Pietro Peccator

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Pietro Peccator is mentioned in a verse of Paradiso (XXI, 122), where it is stated that «fu' ne la casa» of a religious building. According to the interpretation reported in the critical notes to canto XXI, some ancient commentators (Lana, Ottimo, Pietro di Dante) read the verb as third person, understanding that the verse distinguished Pier Damiano from another Pietro who lived at Santa Maria in Porto and was called Pietro Peccatore. This Pietro was, in fact, the founder – in 1096 – of the canons' house of Santa Maria in Porto at Ravenna, where he died in 1119. On his tomb there was read an epitaph that remembered him as «Petrus Peccans cognomine dictus». The two figures, Pietro Peccator and Pier Damiano, were often confused with each other, so much so that in Boccaccio's time it was believed in Ravenna that the founder buried at Santa Maria in Porto was the monk of Fonte Avellana. This reading of the verse is however considered unsustainable by the critical annotation, which points out its contestation for contextual and historical reasons.