Jacopo del Cassero

In 1298, Jacopo was elected mayor of Milan, and to reach the city he prudently decided to pass through Venice by sea and continue by land, thus avoiding the territories of the Este family.

[1] Despite this, while he was in Padua on the banks of the Brenta, near the marshes that surrounded the castle of Oriago, he was reached by assassins sent by Azzo VIII and was wounded in the leg and groin.

Jacopo del Cassero appears as a character in the Divine Comedy, composed between 1308 and 1321, where he is featured in canto 5 of Purgatorio alongside Pia de' Tolomei and Bonconte da Montefeltro.

Dante the pilgrim meets Jacopo among the souls who were victims of violent deaths and repented for their sins in the very last moments of their lives.

When Jacopo steps forward, he asks Dante to make the truth known to his relatives so that they pray for him and thus his time spent in Ante-Purgatory is shortened.