by Dante
78. For a second time (see vv. 31–33), the brightness of Jesus overwhelms Dante’s ability to look at Him. (The line literally means “the battle of the weak brows.”) [return to English / Italian]
79–84. The precondition for this simile, as we finally will realize in verse 86, is that Jesus has withdrawn, going back up to the Empyrean. And so now He, as the Sun, shines through a rift in clouds and illuminates a spot of earth, representing, resolved from the simile, the host of Christ’s first triumph (the Harrowing) and the souls of all those saved after that. [return to English / Italian]
82–84. On a beam of light passing through a cloud as an expression of Dante’s light physics, see Gilson (Gils.2000.1), pp. 150–69. Boyde (Boyd.1993.1), pp. 67–68, deals with its three prime elements: luce (the source of light), lumen (in Dante’s Italian, raggio, the beam along which the luce travels), splendor[e] (the surface that the light irradiates). Perhaps nowhere else in the poem is this arrangement articulated so neatly, each element receiving one line in the tercet, but that is not to say it is not often present. See the note to Paradiso XII.9. [return to English / Italian]
85–87. Christ, addressed as His paternal attribute, Power, is now thanked by the poet for having made, by withdrawing, his experience of the scene possible. His overwhelming light, which is compared to the sun being present only through a chink in the clouds (His “ray” that illuminates the resplendent flowers in a field without blinding the onlooker by shining full on him as well), is thus only resplendent on the souls that constitute the “garden” of the Church Triumphant. [return to English / Italian]
88–89. This passage brings out emotional responses in even hardened commentators, as demonstrated by a quick sampling of their responses to it in the DDP. And surely they are correct in thinking that Dante is revealing a personal trait, what a stern Protestant would describe, with perhaps an Anglo-Saxon harrumph, as “Mariolatry.” This is, nonetheless, one of the few touches in the poem that allow us to feel the presence of an ordinary human being beneath the writer’s words (we often are allowed to share Dante’s thoughts, only rarely his doings), one who is occupied with the details of daily living, praying to the Intercessor before he descends the stairs in a stranger’s house and then again after he climbs them in the evening (see Par. XVII.60). [return to English / Italian]
90. For the significance of Mary’s appearing to be greater in size than the other saints, see the note to Paradiso XXII.28–29. [return to English / Italian]
91–102. This little scene reflects a genre familiar from paintings of the time, an Annunciation, with its two familiar figures, the archangel Gabriel and the mother of Jesus. It ends with the canonical color for Mary, her earmark glowing blue. Porena (comm. to vv. 106–108), however, denies that the angelic presence here is that of Gabriel, urging rather the candidacy of an unnamed Seraph. [return to English / Italian]
93. Mary is as elevated over all the other saints in Heaven as she exceeded in virtue all other living beings while she was on earth. [return to English / Italian]
95. For the Virgin’s crown, created by Gabriel’s circling, see Carroll (comm. to vv. 91–108): “Aquinas distinguishes between the essential bliss of heaven and the accidental reward. The essential bliss he calls the corona aurea, or simply aurea; and the accidental reward, aureola, a diminutive of aurea. All saints in the Fatherland receive the aurea, the essential bliss of perfect union of the soul with God; but the aureola, or accidental reward, is given only to those who, in the earthly warfare, have won an excellent victory over some special foe: virgins, martyrs, and doctors and preachers [Summa, Supp., q. xcvi, a. 1].” [return to English / Italian]
97–102. Similetic in its feeling, this passage does without the trope’s traditional markers but surely has telling effect: “Ave Maria,” for instance, would sound like a cloud crackling with thunder if compared with the “song” created by the angelic affection for Mary. [return to English / Italian]
100. While the poet never explicitly says that Gabriel is singing, he makes it clear that the angel is indeed doing so by referring to him as a “lyre.” [return to English / Italian]
103–108. The Starry Sphere is the one most characterized by singing. (For the program of song in the last cantica, see the note to Par. XXI.58–60.) [return to English / Italian]
104. The word ventre (womb, belly), about as explicitly a low-vernacular word as a Christian poet could employ in this exalted context, brought forth a wonderfully numb-brained remark in complaint by Raffaele Andreoli (comm. to vv. 103–105): “più nobilmente il Petrarca: ‘Virginal chiostro’ ” (Petrarch says this more nobly: “virginal cloister”). His insistence on the desirability of a “higher,” more “civilized” stylistic level strikes a reader sympathetic to Dante’s strategy as inept. [return to English / Italian]
107–108. If we needed clarification, here it is: Jesus has returned, and Mary is about to return, to the Empyrean. As far as we can tell, all the other members of the Church Triumphant are meant to be understood as still being present down here in the eighth heaven. [return to English / Italian]
110. The “other lights” are clearly the members of the Church Triumphant, not including Jesus and Mary. [return to English / Italian]
112–120. Trucchi (comm. to these verses) considers this scene, surmounting those that previously reflected the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin, a revisitation of her Assumption; as Carroll already had suggested (comm. to vv. 91–108), this scene represents “the heavenly counterpart of the Assumption of the body of Mary, which, according to the belief of the Church, God did not suffer to see corruption. Like her Son, she rose from the dead on the third day, and was received by Him and the angels into the joy of Paradise.”
It would be like Dante to have worked those three major episodes in her life into his scene, the first representing her being chosen, the second her victory over death, and the third her bodily Assumption into Heaven, a reward she shares with her Son alone. The other commentators, with the exception of Carroll (comm. to vv. 109–129), do not mention it. [return to English / Italian]
112–114. The poet refers to the primo mobile, the ninth sphere, also known as the Crystalline Sphere (because, even though it is material, it contains no other heavenly bodies in addition to itself). It is “royal” because it is the closest of the nine “volumes” (revolving heavens, or spheres) to God. [return to English / Italian]
115–120. Since his eyes could not yet see the Crystalline Sphere, they of course could not follow Mary’s rising still farther, that is, beyond that sphere and back “home” into the Empyrean. [return to English / Italian]
120. Mary sowed her seed, Jesus, in the world. [return to English / Italian]
121–126. This final simile of the canto portrays the denizens of the Empyrean, currently visiting Dante in the eighth heaven, as infants reaching up with gratitude to their mommies who have just nursed them. We remember that, in the non-invocation (vv. 55–60), Dante referred to the Muses’ milk that had nourished classical poets (verse 57), whose songs would not be much help at all in singing Beatrice’s smile. That milk is evidently in contrast with the one referred to here. This milk, we understand, is a nourishing vernacular, one quite different from the Latin latte that is of little nutritional value for a Christian poet. (See Hollander [Holl.1980.2].)
The word “mamma” has an interesting presence in this poem (see the notes to Inf. XXXII.1–9 and to Purg. XXI.97–99). It is used a total of five times, once in Inferno, twice in Purgatorio (last in Purg. XXX.44), and twice in this final canticle (first in Par. XIV.64). Here it picks up on its last use in Purgatorio. It is always a part of Dante’s rather boisterous championing of the “low vernacular,” and never more naturally than in this warmly affectionate scene that represents the members of the Church Triumphant stretching upward in expression of their love for Mary. [return to English / Italian]
128. In the wake of Mary’s ascent, following Jesus back up to the Empyrean, the rest
of the members of the Church Triumphant sing her praise. From the beginning of the commentary tradition, with Jacopo della Lana (comm. to this verse), the hymn “Queen of Heaven” has been identified as an antiphon sung at Easter, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. (An antiphon is a responsive song, based on a psalm, sung by the congregation, after the reading of that psalm, which forms the text of the lesson at Matins or Vespers. This particular antiphon was used in the eight-day period defining the Easter season, Palm Sunday to Easter itself.) Scartazzini (comm. to this verse) gives the complete Latin text, six verses, each ending with the cry of praise “hallelujah.” (For the English text, see Singleton [comm. to this verse].) Both the third and sixth verses of the antiphon refer to the resurrection of Jesus; since He has recently (verse 86) Himself gone back up, we probably (and are meant to) think of His first ascent, in the flesh then as now. [return to English / Italian]
130–135. In our translation, we have mainly followed Carroll (comm. to vv. 130–139), who has Dante turning from his admiration of Mary to “the heavenly treasures stored up in the Apostles. The metaphors, it must be confessed, are somewhat mixed. The Apostles are at once the sowers or the soil (depending on how we understand bobolce) and the chests in which the abundant harvest is stored. The harvest is not simply their own personal bliss, but the life and joy they have in the treasure of redeemed souls all round them in this Heaven, won in weeping in the Babylonian exile of earth, where for this wealth, they abandoned gold.” [return to English / Italian]
130–132. Lino Pertile (Pert.2006.1) demonstrates that many elements found in this canto are reprocessed in Dante’s first Eclogue, and goes on to hypothesize that this, the first modern European classical eclogue, was written soon after Dante had finished working on this canto, and that his reference, in the eclogue, to the ten “pails of milk” that he hopes soon to send to Giovanni del Virgilio, his poetic correspondent, are precisely the final ten cantos of the Paradiso, a bold and interesting idea first proposed by Carroll (comm. to Par. XXV.1–12). [return to English / Italian]
132. The word bobolce, a hapax, one, more than most, the deployment of which is obviously forced by rhyme. See Enrico Malato, “bobolca,” ED I (1970), for the various interpretations. We believe that it probably refers, as most of the early commentators believed, to the apostles as “sowers” of the “seeds” of the new faith. [return to English / Italian]
133–135. The first tercet of the concluding seven-line flourish celebrates the victory of the triumphant Church, seen for the last time in this realm. There is no valediction for them, only celebration.
Pietro Alighieri (Pietro1, comm. to vv. 130–136) was apparently the first (and remains one of the surprisingly few) to note the presence here of an allusion to Psalm 136 [137]:1: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion,” a text Dante himself had previously remembered in Epistola VII.30 (as was noted by Poletto [comm. to vv. 130–135]).
It is worth noting here (it will be unmistakably clear in Paradiso XXXII) that Dante specifically refers to the Hebrews who were saved (“the treasure / they gained with tears of exile, / in Babylon”). It will come as a shock to some readers to learn that fully half of those in Paradise are, in fact, ancient Hebrews who believed in Christ as their savior. (See Par. XXXII.22–24.) [return to English / Italian]
133. For the importance (and changing significance) of the word tesoro (treasure), see the note to Par. XVII.121.
Tommaseo (comm. to vv. 133–135) here puts into play both Matthew 6:20 (about laying up true treasure in Heaven) and 19:29 (“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life”). [return to English / Italian]
136–139. Now the poet sets all his attention on St. Peter, who will examine the protagonist on faith, the first of the three theological virtues, in Canto XXIV, serving as guide in the first and the last of the following four cantos. In this heaven, he will share speaking parts with two other of the original disciples, James and John, as well as with the first father, Adam. Peter will speak in both Paradiso XXIV (eight times for a total of 54 verses) and XXVII (an utterance in 36 verses and in two parts, both devoted to a ringing denunciation of the corrupt papacy). [return to English / Italian]
PARADISO XXIV
* * *
1–9. Beatrice apostrophizes the heavenly host (minus Christ and Mary, who have now both ascended to the Empyrean) on behalf of Dante. She hopes that they will share their “meal,” as it were, with her pupil.
This is one of the three cantos (of the thirty-three in which she might have done so, Purg. XXXI through Par. XXX) in which she speaks the opening lines. See also Purgatorio XXXI and Paradiso V. [return to English / Italian]
1. This verse/tercet is made up of “loaded” terms, the first of which is sodalizio: Jacopo della Lana says there are four kinds of fellowship: in battle, “cumpagni”; on voyages, “comiti”; in business, “cumlega”; at table, “sodali.” For a likely “source” for Dante’s choice of the word eletto, see Matthew 22:14: “Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi” (For many are called, but few are chosen). For the phrase la gran cena, see Apocalypse 19:9: “Beati qui ad coenam nuptiarum agni vocati sunt” (Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb) and Luke 14:16: “coenam magnam” (great banquet). [return to English / Italian]
4. The verb prelibare (to have a foretaste) is a striking one. We have seen it once before (at Par. X.23). It has also been used in De vulgari (I.iv.5) and in Epistle VI.24. All these occurrences are recorded in the entry “prelibare” by Antonio Lanci in the Enciclopedia dantesca (ED IV [1971]), which, however, omits the two occurrences in the Epistle to Cangrande (XIII.42 and XIII.46). Its use here may remind us of its presence there, where it indicates the opening passage of the cantica, the foretaste of (or prologue to) what is coming. [return to English / Italian]
5. For the crumbs of bread that fall from the banquet of philosophy, see Convivio I.i.10; is this a correction of that passage, substituting a better “meal,” communion in Christ, for the one portrayed there? For the last canticle as the “completed Convivio,” see the note to Paradiso III.91–96. [return to English / Italian]
8. For this image, see Aeneid VI.230, rore levi (light dew), as was first suggested by Tommaseo (comm. to vv. 7–9). [return to English / Italian]
10–12. These souls whirl, upon a central point, in circles. They look like comets because they have tails of light; however, they apparently maintain their circular orbits, that is, are not errant in their motions, as actual comets are. [return to English / Italian]
13–18. The simile clarifies the motion of these “comets.” Like the flywheels of a mechanical clock, some move more quickly than others; however, here greater speed is the mark of greater worthiness, as we learn from vv. 19–21.
Among the earlier commentators, only John of Serravalle (comm. to these verses) perceives and expresses the precise resemblance between the simile’s tenor and vehicle. For him the circling groups of dancers and the flywheels are precisely related in their varying grades of joy, their greater and lesser speeds revealing their relative degrees of blessedness. He does not go on to observe, and nearly five centuries would pass until Poletto would do so (comm. to these verses), that, since we are seeing the Church Militant, the circles that we are observing here might well be the circles we observe there (in Canto XXXII), that is, the “rows” in the round “amphitheater” of the Rose. In that case, all those who seem to believe that this circle contains only apostles need to revise their opinion. The highest tier of the Rose contains Mary (Par. XXXII.1); John the Baptist (XXXII.31); Adam, Peter, John (as scribe of the Apocalypse), Moses, Anna, and Lucy (all referred to in XXXII.118–137). All of these, we must assume, are in that circling dance from which issues Peter now, and James and John in the next canto. It is difficult to understand why Poletto’s understanding of these verses has no
t entered the discussion of them, which remains, as a result, maddeningly vague. See Hollander (Holl.2006.2).
For a much earlier listing, which also refers to the population of the top tier of the Rose, see the note to Paradiso IV.29–30. In those lines we learn that Moses, both Johns, Mary, and Samuel are probably there; the first four are indeed confirmed as being in the highest row by the text of Paradiso XXXII. [return to English / Italian]
16. The word carola (lit. “carol”) here refers to a style of dancing. See Greco (Grec.1974.1), pp. 112–13, for the distinction between a danza (dance) and a carola (reel), in which dancers in circles or in straight lines hand each other off to a next (temporary) partner. But see Landino (comm. to vv. 16–18) for the most economical explanation: “Chosì quelle carole, idest anime che si giravono; proprio carola che significa ballo tondo, differentemente danzando, et per questa differentia dimostra più et meno beatitudine, et però dice mi si faceano stimare veloci et lente della sua richeza” (Thus were these “carols,” i.e., souls, turning. “Carol” signifies “round dance.” “Moving to a different measure” in such a way as to reveal more and less beatitude; and therefore [the poet] says “made me gauge their gladness” by its wealth). [return to English / Italian]
19–21. From among the “dancers” and from the group of them that was most joyful, evidently the one that includes the apostles, came a “flame” that was as bright as any other there. We perhaps need to be reminded that Dante is beholding the Church Triumphant, minus Jesus and Mary. When we examine the inhabitants of the Rose (Par. XXXII.118), we will see that the only two apostles mentioned there (Peter and John) are in the highest rank in that great stadium. Their situation here lends support to those who believe that the group set apart here is also apostolic. But see the note to vv. 13–18. [return to English / Italian]
