XXIX/2 In the previous ditch, amongst the schismatics, Dante had failed (or perhaps had needed to fail) to see his father's first cousin Geri del Bello, who was the victim of a blood-feud murder by one of the Sacchetti family. Dante now recalls him: one wonders whether, had he seen him, his thoughts would have dwelt on schism as perpetrated and perpetuated by his own family. Under the obligation of Vendetta the poet feels guilt at not having himself avenged his relative's death. The quotation shows Dante (in Rime CIII/83) as one who largely believed that 'fine honour's gained extracting just revenge'. The plate for the original etching was scratched and scored by my own fingernails as the inhabitants of this Bolgia forever scratch themselves, for Vendetta is an ever open and self-replicating sore. The scratches themselves (though there is a hint of gore in the titling) are bloodless as are the spirits that are scratched and is Dante's Hamletesque failure to kill in vengeance. These scratches on the plate yield, appositely enough, scabs in the printing, here of course photographically reproduced. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.