In Canto XV of The Inferno Dante passes through the seventh circle of hell and comes across a roving band of sodomites in which Brunetto Latini is a member. When he recognizes his teacher, through baked features from running in fiery rain, Dante shows great reverence and pity for Brunetto.

There are several theories about why Dante casts such a beloved and admired figure down with the sodomites. In Brunetto’s Hell, the seventh ring with those who sinned against nature, he is accompanied by what he calls men of worth, great men of letters, and renowned scholars, who are all defiled by the same crime on earth. Though the word sodomites infers that one is homosexual or bestial there is no hard evidence that Brunetto was either. It has been speculated that the reason for Brunetto’s damnation could be due to his political affiliations or that his greatest work, Li Livres dou Tresor, was written in French.

Li Livres dou Tresor, or The Book of the Treasure was written in France while Brunetto was exiled from Florence and is the result of a Benefactor who commissioned Brunetto to compile a work of the origin of all things. The fact that the work was written in French may be reason enough for Brunetto’s placement in hell…Dante would have not approved.