Toynbee "Fucci, Vanni"
natural son of Guelfuccio di Gerardetto dei Lazzari, noble family of Pistoia; he was a violent partisan of the Neri, and was one of the three members of that party told to make an end of Focaccia, the champion of the Bianchi [Focaccia]. In 1293, together with a notary by the name of Vanni della Monna and one Vanni Mironne, also of Pistoia, he broke into and plundered the treasury of San Jacopo in the church of San Zeno at Pistoia, for which crime a namesake of his, with whom he had deposited the booty, was hanged, Vanni having revealed his name in order to save the life of a certain Rampino di Francesco Foresi, who was on the point of being executed as the culprit. Benvenuto, who tells the story at some length says Vanni, was repeatedly banished for his criminal doings, but used to return to the city at night by stealth, and consort with all sorts of evil company:

. . . iste Vannes . . . fuit filius spurius domini Fucii de Lazaris de Pistorio, vir sceleratissimus et ad omne facinus audacissinms; et quia erat de nobili genere multos excessus saepe faciebat impune: et quamvis bannitus saepe propter multa maleficia enormia, nequiter et nefarie perpetrata, tamen aliquando de nocte stabat in civitate, et cum pravissimis conversabatur.

According to S. Ciampi (Notizie inedite della sagrestia pistoiese de' belli arredi . . . (Firenze, 1810), pp. 57-67), the real facts were as follows:

In Jan. 1293, certain unknown thieves broke into the church of San Zeno, and made an unsuccessful attempt to rob the treasure of the chapel of San Jacopo, their special object being to carry off two tablets of silver, with the images of the Virgin and the Apostles, which had been placed there six years before. The authors of the outrage were not discovered till the followillg year (1294), when, during the podestàship, at Pistoia, of the famous Giano della Bella, one of the thieves, Vanni della Monna, confessed to the crime, naming as his accomplices Vanni Fucci and Vanni Mironne. Among those who had been suspected of the crime was Rampino di Francesco Foresi, who had been arrested and kept in custody, and was only set at liberty in March 1295, when the real culprits were condemned.

Ciampi quotes the following documents relating to the incident. The first is the petition (dated Jan. 1293) of the overseers of San Jacopo for leave to repair the damage done by the thieves:

Orlandinus Partis et Bartromeus Federighi Operarii Opere beati Jacobi petunt a vobis Dominis Capitaneo et Anthianis populi civitatis Pistorii--

Quod dicti Operarii possint, teneantur, et debeant solvere et dare de pecunia dicte opere in tabulis et lignis et ferramentis et aliis necessariis pro aptando portellum et portam Ecclesie majoris S. Zenonis qui et que fuit devastata et perforata quando fuit derobatum altare beati Jacobi.

Et quod Operarii possint . . . solvere de pecunia et avere ipsius Opere pro reaptatura ymaginum beate Marie Virginis et apostolorum supra altare beati Jacobi apostoli unde fuerunt derobate et elevate et ipsas facere aptari conciari et solvere magistris et in aliis necessariis.

The second is a contemporary account of the affair from an old record of the miracles of the Virgin at Pistoia, the unexpected discovery of the perpetrators of the crime having been attributed to her agency:

Vannes Fucci della Dolce, Vannes della Monna, et Vannes Mironne pistorienses cives nephandi et homines male conversationis et vite contractaverunt inter se deliberatione habita instigatione diabolica thesaurum beati Jacobi derubare. Quibus de causis et enormitatibus fuerunt multi et alii male infamati et inculpati inter quos erant Rampinus filius domini Rannucci de Forensibus porte Guidonis et Sanna corregiarum et Puccius Grassius fuerunt vexati et gravati per multa genera tormentorum. Unde dominus Rampinus filius domini Rannucci ad mortem dicebatur dampnari et item ad caudam equi muli et ad furcas suspendi. Et Vannes della Monna particeps ex delicto predicto fuit captus inter septa majoris ecclesie quadam die prima quadragesime tunc temporis et in fortia potestatis, videlieet Giani della Bella de Florentia, et comunis Pistorii, qui nominavit malefactores qui ad dictum furtum consenserunt et facere intendebant, excepto filio dicti domini Rannucci, excusando eumdem quod inculpabilis fuerat.

[For a review of the whole case and relevant bibliography, see G. Fallani, Poesia e storia nella Divina Commedia (Milano, 1961), ii, pp. 123-128. See also P. Bacci, Dante e Vanni Fucci secondo una tradizione ignota (Pistoia, 1892), p. 15.]

D. places Vanni (i.e. Giovanni) Fucci (whom he had known, at any rate by sight, [Inf. xxiv. 129]) among the Robbers in Bolgia 7 of Circle VIII of Hell (Malebolge), [Inf. xxiv. 125]; un [ladro], [Inf. xxiv. 97]; il, [Inf. xxiv. 98, 121, 128]; el, [Inf. xxiv. 101]; ei, [Inf. xxiv. 122]; ello, [Inf. xxiv. 121]; peccator, [Inf. xxiv. 118], [Inf. xxiv. 130]; mul (i.e. bastard), [Inf. xxiv. 125]; bestia, [Inf. xxiv. 126]; uomo di sangue e di crucci, [Inf. xxiv. 129]; ladro, [Inf. xxv. 1]; el, [Inf. xxv. 16]; l'acerbo, [Inf. xxv. 18] [Ladri]. While watching the torments of the Robbers D. sees one close to him on to whose neck a serpent fastens itself ([Inf. xxiv. 97-99]); and who is straightway turned to ashes, and as suddenly restored to his former shape ([Inf. xxiv. 100-120]); Virgil having asked him who he is, he replies that he had but lately come thither from Tuscany, that while in the flesh he had led the life of a beast, like the bastard he was, and that his name was Vanni Fucci, the beast, for whom Pistoia was a fit den ([Inf. xxiv. 121-126]); D. then begs V. to ask him what crime had brought him there, as he had known him for 'a man of blood' in his lifetime ([Inf. xxiv. 127-129]); Vanni, after declaring that to be seen by them in his present condition is more grievous to him than death itself ([Inf. xxiv. 130-135]), explains that he is being punished for his sacrilegious robbery of the treasury of San Jacopo, the blame of which had been wrongfully laid on another ([Inf. xxiv. 136-139]); he then, lest D. should exult over him, hastens to predict the downfall of the Bianchi, foretelling how after they had helped to expel the Neri from Pistoia (May 1301), they would themselves be driven out of Florence (at the coming of Charles of Valois, Nov. 1301), and would, finally, be defeated by Moroello Malaspina at Campo Piceno ([Inf. xxiv. 140-151]) [Bianchi: Campo Piceno]; having finished his speech, Vanni makes a blasphemous remark, accompanied by an insulting gesture and, being forthwith again attacked by serpents, flees pursued by Cacus, while D. observes that he is the most presumptuous against God of all the spirits he has seen in Hell, not even excepting Capaneus ([Inf. xxv. 1-18]) [Capaneo].

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press