Usury + Violence = A Theory Of Art: Inferno, Canto XI, Lines 91 - 114

Walking With Dante

Having asked one question and gotten smacked down, our pilgrim, Dante, dares to ask Virgil a second question. And this one's much harder. So much so that even Virgil seems hesitant in his reply.

Why is usury punished so far down in hell, even below the murderers? And why is usury punished among the violent?

The answer, which involves Artistotle and Genesis, leads to a place no one could have a predicted: Scholastic reasoning has forced Virgil--and Dante-the-poet--to lay out a basic theory of art.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this difficult passage at the back of Canto XI of INFERNO. The pilgrim wants to know the logic of the punishment of usury. Virgil offers him much more.

Here are the sections of this episode:

[00:56] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto XI, lines 91 - 114.

[02:56] The pilgrim's second question based on Virgil's map of hell: Why is usury placed so far down in hell, at the bottom of the big circle of the violent?

[05:26] Virgil's reply--which becomes a theory of art itself. This is a crabbed, tough passage, combining Aristotle's PHYSICS with the Biblical book of Genesis to arrive at a notion of art that anticipates the Renaissance.

[15:28] More on the scholastic reasoning that's behind this passage and that will structure the deepest parts of the sins of violence.

[18:41] A temporal marker after a map of hell, perhaps the most fascinating lines of all of Canto XI.