Commentary Inf XXXII 54-69

The speaker is Camicione de' Pazzi. Nothing much is known of him except that he, from near Florence (the Val d'Arno) murdered his relative Ubertino. His is the only voice we hear in this first zone of Cocytus, the prime reason to believe that it was he who spoke at vv. 19-21. Having warned Dante to be careful as he began walking, lest he kick the inseparate heads of the two brothers, he now identifies them for Dante. Alessandro and Napoleone degli Alberti, Counts of Mangona, were also 'neighbors' of Dante's, living in the countryside near Prato. While little is known of them, they apparently killed one another in the 1280s as the result of a dispute over their inheritance from their father.

Also here, says Camicione, is Mordred (vv. 61-62), who killed King Arthur and was slain by him, as recounted in the Old French Morte d'Arthur. The blow of Arthur's lance left a hole clear through Mordred's body so that a ray of sunlight passed through it -- and thus through his shadow as well. And Focaccia is here (v. 63). That was the nickname (see Aher.1982.2) of Vanni dei Cancellieri of Pistoia, a White Guelph who was reputed to have murdered various of his relatives by various commentators, most probably at least his cousin Detto, a member of the Black Guelphs, ca. 1286. Also present is Sassol Mascheroni (vv. 63-66), another Florentine who murdered a relative in a quarrel over an inheritance. After he identifies himself, Camicione says that his relative, Carlino, will commit a still greater sin, betraying a White stronghold in the Val d'Arno to Black forces for money -- a sin fit for the next zone, Antenora, where political treachery is punished, thus making (in his own eyes, at least) Camicione's sin seem less offensive.

Carlino's treachery and death took place only in 1302; therefore, Camicione is using the power of the damned to see into the future, of which we were told in [Inf X 100-108]. The staging of a future damnation just here perhaps has consequence for Francesca's projected damnation of her husband in 1304 to precisely this circle and zone: Gianciotto is headed here, according to her ([Inf V 107]; and see C.Inf.V.107). Since Dante uses this occasion precisely to predict the later coming of a damned soul currently still alive, we may be reminded of Francesca's similar prediction. And we sense how easy it would have been for Dante to have had Camicione, guilty of the same sin as Gianciotto, tell of his future presence in Caïna, thus 'guaranteeing' Francesca's prediction. And he, like Francesca in this, tries to exculpate himself to some degree by insisting that the person he refers to is more guilty than he is, and will be punished still lower down in hell.