Commentary Inf XIII 109-126

This self-contained unit of twenty-seven verses is devoted to a second class of those violent against themselves. These wastrels were 'prodigal' in so thoroughly intentional a way that they did not casually toss away their possessions, but willfully destroyed them in a sort of 'material suicide.' Once again we note the line that Dante has drawn between the incontinent form of a sin (prodigality, punished in Inferno VII) and its 'malicious' version.

Paget Toynbee describes the two sinners found here as follows: 'Lano [Arcolano Maconi], gentleman of Siena, placed by Dante, together with Jacomo da sant' Andrea, among those who have squandered their substance.... Lano is said to have been a member of the "Spendthrift Brigade" of Siena, and to have squandered all his property in riotous living. He took part in an expedition of the Florentines and Sienese against Arezzo in 1288, which ended in the Sienese force falling into an ambush and being cut to pieces by the Aretines under Buonconte da Montefeltro at... Pieve al Toppo. Lano, being ruined and desperate, chose to fight and be killed, rather than run away and make his escape; hence the allusion of Jacomo in the text.... Jacomo [and not Dante's 'Jacopo'] della Cappella di sant' Andrea of Padua, the son of Odorico Fontana da Monselice and Speronella Delesmanini, a very wealthy lady, whose fortune Jacomo inherited, and squandered in the most senseless acts of prodigality. He is supposed to have been put to death by order of Ezzolino da Romano [see Inf. XII.102] in 1239' (cited from Lano and Jacomo da sant' Andrea).