Remember Filippo Argenti? In Hell, he was scorned by Dante; Dante doesn’t even pity him OR faint! That must mean he’s pretty bad because we know Dante is kind of faint of heart. Not a lot is known about him historically, but I’ll tell you what I found out. (We get some of this from Dante’s Inferno.)
He lived in Florence and was involved in politics. And big surprise, he was an aristocrat! He was also one of the Black Guelphs. (As you may remember, Dante was a White Guelph.) He received the nickname “Argenti” because he had “his horse shoed with silver!” He seems high maintenance...
Here are some reasons Dante may have hated him. I’m not sure all of these are one hundred percent verified, but I think they’re likely possibilities.
1. He slapped Dante
2. When Dante was exiled, Filippo’s brother took Dante’s possessions. (Without asking, I’m assuming—haha!)
3. His family openly opposed Dante coming back from exile.
(FYI—these reason are straight from my source. I can’t guarantee that all of this happened, but these reasons would make sense. They’re funny regardless!)
Lastly, how would you feel about being featured in someone’s work of literature? Especially if it became famous?
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Argenti
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I think the most interesting and important thing to consider about such characters in Dante's "Inferno" as Filippo Argenti, is that their images are created for the reader solely out of Dante's mind and therefore, opinions. While Argenti had done some objectively awful things as Jessie wrote, the way he was portrayed in Dante's Hell was based only on the way that Dante interacted with him and felt about him. After all, I doubt Argenti's wife, for example, would have hated him and portrayed him in the same light. In highlighting the subjectivity of Dante's Divine Comedy, it is important to further recognize that the opinionated nature of Dante's work is largely considered sacreligious. Ultimately, who is Dante to place his enemies in Hell when they could have led lives of repentance, leading them to archetypal salvation?
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