Neither O nor I: The Handiwork of Inferno 24 and 25

Inferno 24 and 25 contemplate the harm that theft perpetuates not just on individuals and communities, but on a thief’s own identity. The type of theft punished in this Bolgia is covert, and its contrapasso is a continual negation of the human body and being. As has long-been observed, the figure of writing is central to these cantos, and commentators have posed many theories as to the ways theft and writing are linked in Dante’s mind. What has not been discussed, however, is how the ‘characters’ O and I of Inf. 24.100, may further unite the acts of theft and writing. If we look at these two letters not just as letters, but also as numbers, questions of having and not having, being and not being come into view. This chapter explores what seeing symbols-on-a-page change their identities may add to our understanding of Dante’s critique of the shifty transformations at the core of theft and of writing. Both acts are about making marks, or not—creating objects that count or things that leave us empty—and both prompt us to think about as much about the handiwork of a poet as the slight-of-hand of a thief.