Toynbee "Malebolge"

Benvenuto comments as follows on the name given by D. to Circle VIII:

Autor primo describit circulum generalem fraudulentorum, quem distinguit in decem valles speciales. . . .Et sic vide quomodo describit primo locum a nomine novo, quia istud dictum est nuper ab autore, nunquam ab alio, et est nomen conveniens. Bulgia enim in vulgari florentino est idem quod vallis concava et capax.

D. gives a description of Malebolge, which he says is 'all of stone and of the colour of iron', [Inf. xviii. 1-18]. In this Circle are punished the Fraudulent, who are divided into ten classes, each class being distinct and having a separate bolgia and distinctive punishment assigned to it [Frodolenti]. Geryon, the symbol of fraud, conveys the two wayfarers down to the edge of the deep abyss (alto burrato, [Inf. xvi. 114]) which separates Circle VII from Circle VIII [Inferno_1], where he deposits them ([Inf. xvi. 106] to [Inf. xvii. 136]) [Gerione]; they make their way down, keeping along the banks and crossing by the bridges, thus viewing the contents of the various bolge from above, except in the case of the third (where the Simoniacs are) and sixth (where the Hypocrites are) into which they descend ([Inf. xix. 34-45], [Inf. xxiii. 37-53]); when they arrive at the bottom of Malebolge, the giant Antaeus lifts them down and places them in Caina, the first round of Circle IX ([Inf. xxxi. 112-143]) [Anteo].