Vanni Fucci di Pistoia was a 13th-century Italian and a minor character in '' Inferno'', the first part of

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

the ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'', appearing in Cantos XXIV & XXV. He was a thief who lived in

Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...

, as his name ("di Pistoia" meaning "of Pistoia") indicates; when he died, he was sent to the seventh bolgia (round; in Italian, "ditch" or "pouch") of the eighth circle of Hell, where thieves are punished. In that bolgia, his punishment was to be stung by a serpent, reduced to ashes, and then restored to his former shape for more torturing. Dante and Virgil meet him and ask him why he was there. He replied that he stole a treasure from the Church of St. James in his hometown; he had wrongly accused an innocent man, Vanni della Nona, with the crime, for which della Nona was executed. Fucci says he was not caught but he still went to Hell. He then predicts the overthrow of the Florentine Whites to spite Dante and then insults God by making obscene gestures at him, and is attacked by numerous nearby serpents and by the monster Cacus, who was put in the bolgia for stealing Hercules's cattle. Fucci is a major character in

Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes ...

' 1988 short story " Vanni Fucci Is Alive And Well And Living In Hell"; in it, Fucci appears on a corrupt Alabama televangelist's TV show to punish him, his guests and his studio audience. The name is used again in Simmons' 1992 novel '' The Hollow Man'', in which Vanni Fucci is portrayed as a small-time mafioso and thief, whose backstory includes the theft of a

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...

from his hometown church, for which his sole regret is that he was unable to fence it. He is also the subject of Alexander Theroux's poem "The Gesture of Vanni Fucci."''The Lollipop Trollops and Other Poems'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 1992), 62.

References

Characters in the Divine Comedy People from Pistoia 13th-century Italian people {{Divine Comedy navbox