This little monograph on the first canto of the Inferno is also a "per nozze" piece: that is, it was published by the author in honor of a close friend's wedding. As the author explains in his dedication, the monograph actually picks up the thread of a discussion that the two friends had three years earlier over mugs of beer. And, as Schiavo writes, "no matter what A. Graf says [Arturo Graf, a well-known fellow Dantist], Dante is suitable even for weddings." So it was that among Mazzoni's circle of acquaintances, even a monograph on two lines in the Inferno could be a cherished wedding present.