Reginaldo degli Scrovegni was a Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

n nobleman of the Guelph

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...

 faction who lived in the early 14th century around the time of Giotto

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages...

 and Dante

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

. He is best known for being a wicked usurer, and by association with his son, Enrico degli Scrovegni

Enrico degli Scrovegni

Enrico degli Scrovegni was a Paduan nobleman who lived in the early 14th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. He was the son of Reginaldo degli Scrovegni. He may have been a member of the Calvalieri Gaudenti....

, who commissioned the famous Arena Chapel by Giotto.

Place in Dante's Inferno

In Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

’s Divine Comedy poem Inferno

Inferno (Dante)

Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...

, Dante says that he saw Reginaldo in the inner ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, where the violent are eternally punished. The inner ring of the Seventh Circle is a burning hot desert with a continual rain of fire. The usurers are to be found sitting on the sand, swatting away fire like animals swat bugs, and crying. Around their necks are found purses emblazoned with their coats of arms. This, and a bit of research into Dante's time-period, make it possible to identify who the suffering sinners are meant to be.

Usurers are considered violent because, as Dante's Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

 explains in Canto XI, usurers sin against Art, and Art is the Grandchild of God.

Relevant lines from "The Inferno" Canto XVII with explanations (Mandelbaum translation)

So I went on alone and even farther (43)

Along the seventh circle’s outer margin,

To where the melancholy people sat.

Despondency

Tears

Tears are secretions that clean and lubricate the eyes. Lacrimation or lachrymation is the production or shedding of tears....

 was bursting from their eyes; (46)

This side, then that, their hands kept fending off,

At times the flames, at times the burning soil:

Not otherwise do dogs in summer-now (49)

With muzzle, now with paw-when they are bitten

By fleas or gnats or by the sharp gadfly.

When I had set my eyes upon the faces (52)

Of some on who the painful fire falls,

I recognized no one; but I did notice

That from the neck of each a purse was hung (55)

That had a special color or an emblem,

And their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.

Looking about-when I had come among them- (58)

I saw a yellow purse with azure on it

Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi

Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. He is best known for being a wicked usurer according to Dante in the Divine Comedy...

That had the face and manner of a lion

Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi

Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. He is best known for being a wicked usurer according to Dante in the Divine Comedy...

.

Then, as I let my eyes move further on, (61)

I saw another purse that was bloodred

Ciappo Ubriachi

Ciappo Ubriachi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. In the Florentine Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, his family was a Ghibelline...

,

And it displayed a goose more white than butter

Ciappo Ubriachi

Ciappo Ubriachi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. In the Florentine Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, his family was a Ghibelline...

.

And one who had an azure, pregnant sow (This person is Reginaldo, because a sow azure on a field argent

Blazon

In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

 is the coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of the Scrovegni family.)

Inscribed as emblem on his white pouch, said

To me: “What are you doing in this pit?

Now be off; and since you’re still alive, (67)

Remember that my neighbor Vitaliano

Shall yet sit here, upon my left hand side.

Among these Florentines

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, I’m Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

n; (70)

I often hear them thunder in my ears,

Shouting, ‘Now let the sovereign cavalier

Giovanni di Buiamonte

Giovanni di Buiamonte was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. He was highly esteemed in the Florence of his day as “the sovereign cavalier", and was chosen for many high offices....

,

The one who’ll bring the purse with three goats

Giovanni di Buiamonte

Giovanni di Buiamonte was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. He was highly esteemed in the Florence of his day as “the sovereign cavalier", and was chosen for many high offices....

, come!’” (73)

At this he slewed his mouth, and then he stuck

His tongue out, like an ox that licks his nose.

Citations