Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei... Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei... HANNIBAL: Because of his avarice, and his betrayal of the emperor's trust, Pier della Vigna was disgraced, blinded, and imprisoned. Dante's pilgrim finds Pier della Vigna on the seventh level of the Inferno. Like Judas Iscariot, he died by hanging. But Judas and Pier della Vigna are linked in Dante by the avarice he saw in them. In fact avarice and hanging are linked in the medieval mind Now this is the earliest known depiction of the Crucifixion, carved on an ivory box in Gaul, about A.D. four hundred. It includes the d**h by hanging of Judas, his face upturned to the branch that suspends him. Here he is again on the doors of the Benevento cathedral, hanging. This time with his bowels falling out
Now on this plate from the fifteenth-century edition of the Inferno Pier della Vigna's body hangs from a bleeding tree. I will not belabour the obvious parallel with Judas Iscariot, but Dante Alighieri needed no drawn illustration: It is his genius to make Pier della Vigna, now in Hell, speak in strained hisses and coughing sibilants as though he is hanging still Come l'altre verrem per nostre spoglie Ma non però ch'alcuna sen rivesta Ché non è giusto aver ciò ch'om si toglie Qui le trascineremo, e per la mesta Selva saranno i nostri corpi appesi Ciascuno al prun de l'ombra sua molesta Avarice, hanging, self destruction Io fei gibbetto a me le mie case Make my own home be my gallows --- .