Commentary Purg V 134

This line, celebrated for its brevity and power, has the lapidary quality of a headstone, perhaps because it represents one: the beginning of Virgil's epitaph, 'Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere....' (Mantua gave me birth, Calabria took me off), as Gmelin (Gmel.1955.1) is among the many moderns to suggest (comm. ad loc.).  See notes to C.Purg.III.27; C.Purg.VI.72.  And see Hollander (Holl.1984.4), p. 119, n. 7.

      Armour (Armo.1993.1), p. 116, suggests that, if she was defenestrated by her husband (or one of his agents), as many early commentators claim, then the hard earth of the Maremma actually did 'undo' her, smashing her body when she hit it.