• The castle is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the mountain Monte Gianicolo. See Barlow, Study of Dante , p. 126. Others say Monte Giordano. ↩
• “This Caccianimico,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “was a Bolognese; a liberal, noble, pleasant, and very powerful man.” Nevertheless he was so utterly corrupt as to sell his sister, the fair Ghisola, to the Marquis of Este. ↩
• In the original the word is salse . “In Bologna,” says Benvenuto da Imola, “the name of Salse is given to a certain valley outside the city, and near to Santa Maria in Monte, into which the mortal remains of desperadoes, usurers, and other infamous persons are wont to be thrown. Hence I have sometimes heard boys in Bologna say to each other, by way of insult, ‘Your father was thrown into the Salse .’ ” ↩
• The two rivers between which Bologna is situated. In the Bolognese dialect sipa is used for si . ↩
• They cease going round the circles as heretofore, and now go straight forward to the centre of the abyss. ↩