Chapter 5 · Malebolgeone of the damnedCircle VIIIBeing built
Master Adam
The coiner of the tenth ditch, swollen with water and unable to rise, and the only counter in the whole chapter.
Maestro Adamo, che batté fiorini con tre carati di lega e per questo fu arso. È gonfio d’acqua e muore di sete, e non si alza. Fonde ancora: l’oro che gli porti torna indietro in chiodi, e pesano giusto.
Revealswhat Master Adam sells, and what is wrong with his goods.
Master Adam struck florins with three carats of alloy in them and was burned for it; in the poem he is swollen with dropsy, dying of thirst, and does not get up. In the game he does not get up either, but he has a furnace, and his is the one place in the whole chapter where anything is bought: you bring him gold and he casts it back into nails.
A piece of gold yields six nails. They weigh right, they sound right, and one in four snaps when you put weight on it, and there is no way of telling which: his sin is not theft, it is that what leaves his hands looks sound and is not, and the game puts it in your hands instead of telling you about it.
Whoever arrives with no gold is not locked out: Adam will melt old iron down too, six good nails for three of alloy, and he keeps more than half. That is avarice, not mercy, and it exists only so that the last door of the chapter cannot bar itself. The note the game shows reads: Master Adam, who struck florins with three carats of alloy and was burned for it, swollen with water and dying of thirst, who does not get up and is still casting, and the gold you bring him comes back as nails, and they weigh right.
The numbers
| What | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Nails from one piece of gold | 6 | |
| Good nails he asks to recast | 6 | once the gold has run out |
| Alloy nails he gives back | 3 | |
| Clamps that hold the last span | 4 |
Links
- Found in
- The Tenth Ditch, the Falsifiers
- See also
- Gold from the holes, Nail, Alloy nail