Smith 1 Nathan Smith Professor Brian Rockett English 271 28 Nov, 2022 Dante’s View of Usury The Inferno, written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, is an important epic written in the early 14th century. This period is known as the late Middle Ages. Dante wrote much of the epic after being exiled from his native city of Florence by a rival political party. Dante is commonly considered to be a forerunner of Renaissance literature especially with his humanistic approach to the Inferno. Dante was also involved in the politics of Florence, leading to his exile. He references some of the political and moral failings of his city and the sins committed by its citizens. He even goes as far as to put some of them in his Hell. Dante’s punishment and careful placement of the usurers in Hell gives insight into Dante’s beliefs on money and of Dante’s opinion on the Florentine banking families. Hell in the inferno is split into nine circles descending into the bottom of a pit. According to Dante the pits are ordered “each in its degree” (438). Dante structures Hell in a kind of ranking system of importance. The worse the sin the lower in the pit punished are placed. The pit is even further divided, according to Samuel A. Stoner. Stoner claims that “The whole of Hell can be divided into two regions, one outside of Dis’s walls … and the others within Dis’s walls” (63). The city of Dis is composed of the circles after the gates of Dis the poets passed though in Canto IX (Alighieri 432). Stoner is saying that the separation made by the walls of Dis create a lower and upper section of Hell. This distinction is important because it shows Dante’s view of Smith 2 the sins in the upper and lower sections of Hell. Dante views the sins in upper Hell to be less egregious than those found in lower Hell. This separation gives an insight into Dante’s opinion of Usury. The placement of the usurers may seem rather odd at first considering that the act of charging interest on loans is commonplace today. Dante explains the positioning of these sinners when he writes, “man was meant // to labor and to prosper. But usurers, / by seeking their increase in other ways, / scorn Nature in herself” (441). Dante is arguing that the act of Usury violates nature itself. He is arguing that to gain wealth without working, goes against the laws of nature. This is why he places the usurers in the lower section of hell with the blasphemers. According to Simon Ravenscroft this view stems from Aristotle’s view on money. Ravenscroft writes, “Aristotle states that … unlike livestock … money is sterile and if stored does not naturally fructify” (96-97). The viewpoint these two shares is that by charging interest you are growing your wealth without growing you labor output. Dante’s harsh punishment of the usurers is also Dante rebuking the rich families in Florence. The usurers in the seventh circle have bags hanging from there neck blazoned with coats of arms. When approached one of the usurers says, “A Paduan among Florentines, I sit here” (Alighieri 466). The declaration made by the Paduan is Dante showing that all the sinners present besides the Paduan are Florentines. The coats of arms displayed by the sinners implies that they are a member of important families in Florence. The important families of Florence, especially the Medici family later in the 15th century, were known for their merchant banking. Many saw these merchant bankers as going against Christian morality (Mews 5). Dante by portraying the punished as important Florentines and placing them with the blasphemers is Smith 3 calling out the rich families in his own city. Dante wants them to see the sin they are committing and how in his mind it is just as egregious as blasphemy. The placement of usury alongside sodomy is Dante drawing a connection between the two sins. Dante has a tendency to pair inverted sins together to symbolize a connection between the sins. In canto VII he paired the hoarders and wasters together in the fourth circle (Alighieri 421). Dante pairs the two sins of usury and sodomy together for the same reason. According to Ravenscroft, “Dante views sodomy as making what is naturally productive sterile, while usury is making what is naturally sterile productive” (113). This view really helps to show how the two sins are similar but inverted. This helps to give another perspective for Dante’s treatment of the usurers. This portrayal of the usurers alongside those guilty of sodomy helps to give easier insight into why Dante sees it as a sin against nature. By comparing it to a sin involving such instinctual part of humanity, Dante is able to give better justification for his opinion and strengthen his argument against the rich of Florence. While today usury may be commonplace. In Dante’s time, the act was much more frowned upon. Dante was a poet, but he was also a philosopher and moralist. His structuring of Hell and position of sins like usury was a deliberate way to influence the moral beliefs of his readers. Dante’s Divine Comedy, which include the Inferno is widely credited with popularizing the use of the vernacular in literature. The divine comedy’s use of the Tuscan dialect of Italian is also credited as the reason for the dialect’s dominance in modern Italian culture. The Inferno has also influenced modern views and depictions of Hell. The Divine Comedy has also inspired and influenced countless works of art, literature, and other forms of media. Some even argue for its direct influence in literature like C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Dante was truly a man ahead of his time, with an impact that is still felt 700 years after he died. Smith 4 Works Cited Alighieri, Dante. Inferno. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Vol. A, edited by Martin Puchner, Norton, 2018, 394-548 Mews, Constant, and Ibrahim Abraham. “Usury and Just Compensation: Religious and Financial Ethics in Historical Perspective.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 72, no. 1, Apr. 2007, pp. 1–15. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9151-0. Ravenscroft, Simon. “Usury in the Inferno: Auditing Dante’s Debt to the Scholastics.” Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies, vol. 42, Sept. 2011, pp. 89– 114. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1353/cjm.2011.0037 Stoner, Samuel A. “A Note on Virgil’s Account of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.” St. John’s Review, vol. 60, no. 1/2, Fall-Spring 2018, pp. 61–72. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=a9h&AN=1 36113486&site=eds-live.
