Before to start to write about Vanny Fucci, I have to write a brief introduction about the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri, because maybe the most of you don't know it (here in Italy every kids study the Divina Commedia at school ^_^).
The Divina Commedia is a long allegorical poem written by Dante Alighieri (the most famous ancient italian poet) between the 1308 and the 1320. It's considered the greatest work of the Italian Literature! Dante, in this poem, give us a vision of the afterlife from the point of view of the late middle age in Italy and the poem is divided in 3 parts: inferno, purgatorio and paradiso (hell, purgatory and heaven).
I'm very proud to say that Dante was born and lived in Tuscany (as me!!! ^_^) and this his poem helped to standardized the Italian Language from the Tuscan language. I have to say that here in Tuscany we don't have a specific dialect of the region, but we talk an Italian "standard". We just have a particular pronunciation of the letter "c" that you can't hear in other regions of Italy ^_^
(I use a detail of an old illustration by Gustave Doré as background for my pic)
And now:
Vanni Fucci
Vanni (called "the beast") was born in my city Pistoia and he's "famous" just because Dante talk about him as a soul in one of the circles in the Hell (in the poem Divine Comedy, the Hell is divided in many circles, every circles have different souls depeding on the sin committed by them during their life).
Vanni Fucci was a very violent man and when Dante met him in the 1292 he was shocked by the violent acts of this man.
In the 1293, during a night of Carnival, Vanni stole a treasure from the Dome (the Church of St. James in Pistoia). At the first time, the guilt fell on another innocent man, but fortunately soon was clear that the guilty was Vanni "the beast" Fucci.
In the meantime, Vanni escaped from Pistoia, terrorizing all people out of the city. He was declared guilty in absentia (as a killer and thief), but he "disappeared" and he was never punished.
This is the part of the Divine Comedy about Vanni:
« "Io piovvi di Toscana,
poco tempo è, in questa gola fiera.
Vita bestial mi piacque e non umana,
sì come a mul ch'i' fui; son Vanni Fucci
bestia, e Pistoia mi fu degna tana". »
Every city has some stories to tell and my city is really full of stories to tell ;)
Night night to everyone
Silvia