Abstract: The article deals with the issue of law as an instrument of justice and strength in the Middle Ages. It investigates the contrapasso, adopted by Dante in his work as a principle of justice aimed at limiting revenge and not promoting it. Moreover, it demonstrates that the penalty of the sack (poena cullei) and its medieval declination (the mazzeratura) are, in the Comedy, a synonym for oppression. Eventually, the article briefly traces the literary success of the motif of the “penalty of the sack”, understood as violence perpetrated according to the law, in Cino, Boccaccio, and in the modern cabaret.
Keywords: Dante, Criminal Law, Mazzeratura, Cino, Boccaccio, Violence, Revenge, Contrapasso, Justice.
