Which medieval Italian minister is found among the suicides in the seventh circle?

The medieval Italian minister found among the suicides in the seventh circle is Pier della Vigna.

Dante meets Pier della Vigna in the second ring of the seventh circle of Hell, the Wood of the Suicides, in Inferno, Canto XIII. Pier was a powerful chancellor, jurist, diplomat, and secretary to Emperor Frederick II. In Dante’s poem, the souls of suicides are transformed into thorny trees; harpies feed on their leaves, and the trees can speak only when their branches are broken.

Pier identifies himself as the man who held “both keys” to Frederick’s heart, an image of his influence over imperial correspondence and decisions. He says that envy and false accusations destroyed his position and reputation. Dante’s decision to place him among the suicides, rather than among traitors, reflects the poem’s sympathetic suggestion that the charges against him were unjust.

Historical accounts disagree about Pier’s death. He was imprisoned and blinded after falling from favor in 1249, but sources differ on whether he died from torture, his injuries, or suicide. The other named figures belong to different parts of Dante’s Hell.