by Dante
Scartazzini (comm. to vv. 67–68) was apparently the first to cite as “source” the upside-down “rain of manna” of angels returning to Heaven in Vita nuova XXIII.25, in the canzone “Donna pietosa e di novella etate.” The context of that central poem (sixteenth of thirty-one poems in all, second of three canzoni) is, however, the opposite of this passage, for in it Dante imagines the death of Beatrice, and does so in human, tragic terms. Here, Beatrice is very much alive, watching as her companions in beatitude joyfully return to their immortal stations.
It seems extraordinary that leggere Dante con Dante (“reading Dante through the lens of Dante,” in a free translation), as Scartazzini is doing here, took so long to establish itself as a critical method. There is very little reference to other loci in the Commedia (and hardly any to Dante’s other works) in the first five hundred years of the poem’s life among its commentators. And, in a related phenomenon, there is hardly any citation of the poet’s “competitors” in vernacular lyric; the major sources of literary reference are the Bible and the Latin classics. Today, readers take all of these as necessary and useful avenues for exploring the poem. See, for example, Pasquini, “Fra Dante e Guido: la neve e i suoi segreti” (in Pasq.2001.1, pp. 66–67), discussing the Cavalcantian elements of this simile. [return to English / Italian]
70. Standing at either end of this heaven is a reference to it as “aether” (etera), the denser-than-air substance of the planetary spheres (see the note to Par. XXII.132). [return to English / Italian]
71. The adjective attached to these souls (trïunfanti) is both descriptive and designative, the latter insofar as they are members of the Church Triumphant—in case we had forgot. [return to English / Italian]
73–75. The space is that between the Starry Sphere and the Empyrean (i.e., situated above the Crystalline Sphere), and thus defeats Dante’s ability to see them return. [return to English / Italian]
76–78. Beatrice, seeing that Dante can no longer make out the members of the Church Triumphant as they return home, invites him, once again, to look beneath his feet, down through the universe, toward the earth (see Par. XXII.127–129). [return to English / Italian]
79–87. The formally similar beginnings and conclusions of the two passages (this one and Par. XXII.133–153) devoted to the protagonist’s earthward gazing back down through the heavens underline the formulaic aspect of both scenes. See Moore (Moor.1903.1), pp. 62–71, for a full discussion.
Dante’s reference points are noteworthy: He is over the trackless ocean to the west of the two islands referred to as Gades (Insulae Gades [see the note to verse 82]) where Ulysses began his folle volo (Inf. XXVI.125) and can almost see the shore of Asia Minor, where Europa was raped by Jupiter. Some suggest that these two myths reflect the two most insistent temptations of man, prideful or transgressive intellectual behavior and lust. It may also be tempting to see them in autobiographical terms for Dante, his besetting sins of wayward philosophizing and sexual misconduct, these two sins finding an echo (and a model?) in St. Augustine’s Confessions (see Hollander [Holl.1969.1], p. 165n.).
As Jacoff points out (Jaco.1991.2), p. 237, Ovid tells the story of Europa in three different places (Metamorphoses II and VI; Fasti II) with quite diverse treatments; she meditates upon the possibility that Dante has at once paired Europa with Ulysses in malo, as transgressive voyager (even if she is a victim of Jove’s lustful forcing), and also in bono, as a sort of classical prefiguration of Dante, in that she was conjoined with the divine. On this passage, see Moevs (Moev.2005.1), pp. 132–33, arguing that Ulysses and Europa have opposed valuations, he being identified with selfish seeking, while she represents “loving surrender to the divine.” For expression of the more usual view, see Scott (Scot.1977.1), p. 223, finding in Ulysses a man who fell victim to the temptations of the intellect and the will, while seeing in Europa a victim of her own sensual desires. However, it might be objected that Europa is not the character who is paired with Ulysses, but that Jove is. That is, Ulysses and Jupiter are both portrayed as embarking on voyages, spurred by curiosity in the first case and by lust in the second, that are harmful to their “mates.” [return to English / Italian]
79–81. How long was Dante away from our terrestrial globe? In Carroll’s words (comm. to Par. XXII. 151–154), this is “one of the most difficult problems in the poem.” But then Carroll himself neglects the question of how long Dante actually remained in the heavens. Most Dantists today seem likely to agree that he was there some thirty hours.
If we limit our inquiry to how long he was in this heaven, we can establish that period from the celestial details we are given here (see, e.g., Moore [Moor.1903.1], p. 68): Six hours have passed since the protagonist last looked down (at the conclusion of Par. XXII). And see the note to Paradiso XXVI.139–142, pointing out that Dante spends six hours in the Starry Sphere, as did Adam in Eden. (This is not to mention that [all but two] members of the Church Triumphant were also present here for that amount of time [see the note to vv. 67–72]).
See Tozer’s clarifying paraphrase of this passage (comm. to this tercet): “Hence Dante, in describing himself as passing, while he was in Gemini, from the meridian of Jerusalem to that of Gades, says that he moved along the arc formed by the primo clima. The interval between those two points is represented as reaching from the middle to the end of the first clima, because to Alfraganus the climata were divisions not of the entire globe, but of the habitable globe (thus he says ‘Loca quadrantis habitabilis dividuntur in septem climata’), and he regarded their extension from E. to W. as corresponding to twelve hours in time (‘longitudo omnium climatum ab oriente in occasum spatio 12 horarum a revolutione caelesti conficitur’), which represent 180° in space. Consequently, the half of this extension (dal mezzo al fine) would be six hours in time, or 90° in space, thus corresponding to the difference between Jerusalem and Gades. Fine is appropriately used of the western extremity of the clima, because the movement of the sun, and that of Dante himself in the zodiac, which are here regarded, are from E. to W. It is hardly necessary to add that, when it is said that Dante was on the meridian of Jerusalem or of Gades, it does not follow that he was over those places, but only that he was in the same longitude with them.” [return to English / Italian]
82. See Kirkham (Kirk.1995.1), p. 347n., on “Gade”: “Dante’s ‘Gades’ refers not to Cadiz, but to the Gades Insulae described by Paulus Orosius, the foundations upon which Hercules built his pillars, marking the outermost limit of the western world. See for this clarification M. A. Orr, Dante and the Early Astronomers (London: Wingate, 1913), p. 222.” [return to English / Italian]
83. Ulysses reappears once more. Again he figures a voyage quite different from Dante’s, a voyage to destruction. Those who attempt to read the central character of Inferno XXVI as positive here must deal with Dante’s firm rejection of the hero, which surely makes it even more difficult to heroicize him than did the ironic treatment offered in the earlier episode. See, in a similar vein, Picone (Pico.2002.7), p. 430. [return to English / Italian]
86. It is nearly certainly hazardous to translate aiuola (little patch of earth) as “threshing-floor”; see the note to Paradiso XXII.151. Boyle (Boyl.2000.1) is among the many who simply assume that it is what is meant by the word.
For the twin problems, exactly how far Dante had moved with the heavens and, consequently, how much of our globe he was able to observe, see Carroll (comm. to Par. XXII.151–154). His hypothesis is that the reader is supposed to identify each of the three apostles with whom Dante has conversed as having been particularly identified with efforts located in specific parts of the Mediterranean world, John with Asia Minor, Peter with Rome, and James with Spain. And thus, with regard to the second question, the protagonist’s vision of earth coincides with those regions. [return to English / Italian]
85–87. This tercet repeats two distinctive elements we found at the arrival in the Starry Sphere: The poet again (see Par. XXII.151) refers to the little globe belo
w as the “small patch of earth” that it seems (aiuola) and the protagonist again (Par. XXII.129) sees it beneath his feet (sotto li piedi)—see the appended note concerning the possibility that we are supposed to conclude that those feet make the protagonist present in his body. When we read the phrase now, however, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion, since Peter has already (see verse 64) referred to Dante’s “mortal burden”—with him now, his flesh. [return to English / Italian]
88–99. Only the last of these four tercets allotted to the ascent to the next heaven, the Crystalline Sphere, is devoted to the ascent itself. Once again, Beatrice has become unspeakably more beautiful, outdoing either natural beauty or artistic rendering. With his eyes fixed on hers, Dante moves up to the next realm. The passage includes, perhaps surprisingly, a reference to Beatrice’s physical beauty (vv. 91–93). We are close enough to the Empyrean for that to come as a surprise, even as a shock. However, when we examine the text, we find that the poet tells us that such carnally delightful images would be nothing compared to her beauty as a reflection of God’s divinity. [return to English / Italian]
98. Her eyes draw him aloft out of Gemini, the “nest of Leda,” a reference that may have been chosen to remind us of Jupiter, seducer of Europa (verse 84) and Leda, among others. [return to English / Italian]
100–102. The Crystalline Sphere is uniform and transparent. Those of us who have been hoping to have confirmation that somehow the specifications made in Convivio about the intellectual activities sponsored by the various heavens, as these are described there, might seem reflected in these same heavens, as they are described here, must once again suffer disappointment, as the Primum Mobile, according to Convivio (II.xiv.14–18), is supposed to resemble moral philosophy—not angelology. It certainly seems plain that Dante abandoned this schematic design of the earlier work in the Comedy, for whatever reason. But see Armour (Armo.1995.1), p. 410, claiming that Beatrice’s turning to invective is indeed the sign of this heaven’s alignment with moral philosophy. [return to English / Italian]
100. There is considerable contention about the possible reading vicissime (nearest), defended vigorously and even nastily by Scartazzini (comm. to vv. 100–102). Petrocchi (Petr.1966.1), pp. 245–47, defends his choice of vivissime. As always, whatever our opinion, we have followed Petrocchi, who argues that it here means “moving most quickly.” There are a number of other candidates, as sketched by Bosco/Reggio (comm. to vv. 100–102). [return to English / Italian]
103. Beatrice, reading Dante’s mind, knows that he wants to find out exactly where he is. [return to English / Italian]
106–114. These verses make clear the relationship of this sphere to the Empyrean, which, without having any recognizable shape at all, is like a tenth celestial circle, if only in that it “surrounds” the Primum Mobile. [return to English / Italian]
107. The word mezzo, which also can have a quite different technical meaning (e.g., at Purg. I.15), here apparently means “midpoint” or “center,” indicating the earth as the center of the material universe. [return to English / Italian]
109. For the notion that Dante’s universe is four-dimensional, a hypersphere, see Peterson (Pete.1979.1), who believes that Dante’s vision of the cosmos looks forward to Einstein’s; Osserman (Osse.1995.1), pp. 89–91, suggesting that Peterson overlooks the earlier model proposed by Riemann; Freccero (Frec.1998.1); and Egginton (Eggi.1999.1). However, the reader probably should temper an enthusiasm for such “premodern physics” on Dante’s part with an awareness of his possible dependence, for his “ontological, neoplatonic, and theocentric” vision of the rest of the universe, on such models as he found in his precursors. For instance, see Chiarenza (Chia.1988.1), pp. 232–34, reacting to Paradiso XXVIII.14–15 with the suggestion that Dante’s “picture” derives from Bonaventure (Itinerarium mentis, V).
For a quick introduction to the properties of the hypersphere, one may visit the following site: http://www.hypersphere.com/hs/abouths.html. [return to English / Italian]
115–120. The Crystalline Sphere rules the temporal relationships among the parts of the rest of the universe. Dante employs the word testo (“flowerpot”; in modern Italian “baking dish”), a hapax when having this sense (but see Inf. XV.89 and Purg. VI.29 for its use with the meaning “text”) to portray the ninth (and invisible) sphere as the container of all time, with its invisible roots here, displaying its leaves, pushed downward, in the visible portions of the rest of the spheres (the stars and planets). (The Crystalline Sphere’s “likeness” to a flowerpot would seem to be based on the fact that we cannot see the “roots of time,” just as we cannot see the root system of a plant when it is in a pot.)
The author of the Codice Cassinese was perhaps the first to point to Dante’s source here, Aristotle’s Physics (IV.x–xiii); Francesco Torraca (comm. to vv. 118–120) appears to have been the first commentator to cite Dante’s citation of that passage in Convivio (IV.ii.6). [return to English / Italian]
121–126. Ever since the protagonist encountered the wolf of cupidity in the first canto, cupidigia has been a constant presence in the poem. It now becomes, in metaphor, the flood that covers all humankind and stifles efforts toward noble enterprises. Since we naturally long for the good, it is the blight of cupidity that turns our first flowering into rotten fruit. [return to English / Italian]
126. Casini/Barbi (comm. to this verse, citing BSDI 9 [1902]:161) refer to the Tuscan saying (given here in a rough English version) that offers the following meteorological pearl: “If it rains on Ascension Day / the plums will suffer quick decay.” [return to English / Italian]
127. We follow Chimenz (comm. to vv. 127–129) and most recent commentators in reading the word fede in the moral (rather than the theological) sense, and thus “loyalty” or “honesty.” [return to English / Italian]
130–135. In these two examples of failing human conduct, does Dante rehearse the first two sins of mankind, eating and killing? An air of puzzlement about the poet’s reasons for choosing these particular examples pervades the early commentaries. John of Serravalle (comm. to vv. 133–135) is among the few to offer a motive, in the second instance, for such nasty thoughts on the part of the grown child, putting in his mouth the following maledictive question: “When will she be dead, this damned widow?” Baldassare Lombardi (comm. to vv. 134–135) suggests two motives: to be done with her pious corrections and to dissipate her property. This two-part motive is repeated by any number of later commentators; Luigi Pietrobono (comm. to verse 135) is the first of them to think of Cecco Angiolieri’s sonnet “S’io fossi fuoco” (If I were fire) in which he says, “S’i’ fosse morte, andarei a mi’ padre;—s’i’ fosse vita, non starei con lui:—similemente faria da mi’ madre” (If I were Death, I’d go to my father; if I were life, I would not abide with him: and [I’d have] the same dealings with my mother). [return to English / Italian]
130. The gerund balbuzïendo, used as participle (repeated in verse 133), picks up the adjective balba (stammering) from Purgatorio XIX.7, the description of the foul seductress in Dante’s second Purgatorial dream. There it contrasted with the false beauty and eloquence that the dreaming protagonist lent her; here it is the sign of innocence and immaturity that is preferable to mature and calculated evildoing. [return to English / Italian]
136–138. A widely debated tercet, one of the most vexed passages in the entire poem. And yet, at least at first glance and if we listen only to its first interpreters, it seems easier to resolve than it has in fact turned out to be. The Ottimo, Benvenuto, and Landino, obviously reflecting on the context of the preceding six verses, argue that the bella figlia is human nature itself, “created” by the Sun (the Ottimo refers us to Par. XXII.116 for Dante’s presentation of the Sun as “father” of every mortal life). Starting with John of Serravalle (comm. to this tercet), who also believes that the reference is to human nature, commentators refer to Aristotle’s tag, “Homo et sol generant hominem” (Man and the Sun generate men
), found near the end of the second section of the Physics (and quoted by Dante [Mon. I.ix.1].) This is then repeated by numerous later glossators.
What tends to be obscured in the conflicting studies of the tercet is the difficulty in making out the literal sense of the phrase “nel primo aspetto.” This phrase may be understood in at least three mutually exclusive ways: the aspetto (1) belongs to the daughter (it is probably located in the skin of her face, her “aspect,” what she looks like) and is darkened by the Sun; (2) belongs to the daughter and is her gaze; (3) is what is seen by the Sun, that is, is in his sight (whatever the Sun represents, whether itself or God). Since there is no sure way of determining which of these possibilities governs, one has to proceed “backward,” arguing from the context to the meaning of this phrase. (Indeed, that is how we arrived at the first option.)
What may seem surprising today, in light of the wildly differing responses that begin with Carmine Galanti (as reported by Poletto [comm. to this tercet in 1894], he introduced Circe into the list of “candidates”) and continue into our own time, is the near unanimity of the ancients. Major exceptions are Jacopo della Lana (comm. to this tercet), who interprets her as representing the Church; the Anonimo Fiorentino (comm. to this tercet), who, in a variation, thinks that she represents the priesthood. (For passages in Bonaventure’s Collationes in Hexaemeron [XII and XXV] that portray the Church as filia solis, see Pierotti [Pier.1981.1].) On the other hand, and for something completely different, see Francesco da Buti (comm. to vv. 121–138), who uniquely is of the opinion that, reflecting her presence in Aeneid VI.142 (the next two verses detail the plucking of the golden bough), she is Proserpina, or the Moon. The most complete summary of interpretations until 1921 is found in Casini/Barbi (comm. to verse 136) and is still useful, to a point, today.
