ABSTRACT
The story of the Donati family during the Middle Ages is one of violence, fraud, theft, power games, and civic strife just as gripping as any of Shakespeare's historical plays or the popular fiction and television dramas of today. Nothing better illustrates the part played by the Donati in the history of Florence than an episode found in the chronicles of the time concerning Gualdrada, grandmother to Corso, Forese, and Piccarda. Buoso, who appears to have been the uncle of Corso, Forese, and Piccarda, was suspected of embezzlement. Both appear among the thieves of Inferno xxv. Therefore, lies the germ of the contrappasso governing the transmutations which the thieves undergo in Inferno xxiv-xxv. Unique, therefore, and terribly appropriate is the revenge which the power of God invoked to punish Vanni Fucei levies on the thieves, making serpents the lords of men, whereas men should have dominated the reptiles.
