Appendices

. Chronology of Dante’s Life and Works 48

2. Guelfs and Ghibellines 420
3. List of Popes in Dante’s Lifetime 42
4. Holy Roman Emperors Referred to by Dante 42
5. The Canzone 42

Notes 423
Select Index 459

Illustrations

Frontispiece Dante from a sketch by Seymour Kirkup of a portrait by

Giotto
Figure  The Baptistery in Florence 2
Figure 2 Baptismal Font in Pisa 4
Figure 3 Pope Boniface VIII 40
Figure 4 St Paul and the Archangel Michael 07
Figure 5 The Cupola of the Baptistery in Florence 228
Figure 6 Lucifer in the Cupola of the Baptistery in Florence 23
Figure 7 The Emperor Henry VII 235
Figure 8 Face of a Glutton in Purgatorio 295
Figure 9 Mosaics Adorning the Tomb of the Countess Matilda 323
Figure 0 The Emperor Justinian and His Retinue 349
Figures –2 Transformations of the Letter ‘M’ 360–
Figure 3 The Eye of the Eagle 365
Figure 4 Mask of Dante 42
Figure 5 Diagram of Inferno 45
Figure 6 Diagram of Purgatory 46
Figure 7 Diagram of Heaven 47
 To the memory of my many students
for whom I wish I had been more courageous
 Acknowledgements

I
acknowledge with thanks the kind permission of David Higham
Associates to reproduce translations by Dorothy L. Sayers and myself
from the three volumes, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, published by
Penguin Classics. I am indebted also to the same publisher for permission
to publish a development of part of the Introduction to the new edition of
my translation of La Vita Nuova.
The illustration on the cover of Dante studying is reproduced from the
fresco by Luca Signorelli on the wall of Orvieto Cathedral. The Frontispiece
is reproduced from a sketch by Seymour Kirkup of Dante as a young man,
after Giotto. The photographs of the Baptistery of Florence and of the
decorations on the cupola are reproduced from Piero Bargellini’s Questa è
Firenze, published by G.C. Sansoni, 968. The photograph of the statue of
Pope Boniface VIII by Arnolfo di Cambio is reproduced from T.S.R. Boase’s
book, published by Constable and Co. in 933. The drawing of the Emperor
Henry VII is reproduced from Kurt-Ulrich Jäshke’s Europa und das römisch-
deutsche Reich um 1300, published by W. Kohlhammer, 999, supplied by
courtesy of Professor Janos Bak. The illustrations of the Journey of St Paul
are reproduced from the article ‘La Descente de Saint Paul en Enfer’ by P.
Meyer, Celtica, s.d. The photographs of the mosaics relating to the former
tomb of Matilda are independently produced. The mosaic of Justinian and
his retinue is a reproduction from the panel in San Vitale, Ravenna. The
masque of Dante is reproduced from the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The
diagrams of Wilfrid Scott-Giles from the three Penguin volumes are repro-
duced by kind permission of his son, Giles Scott-Giles.
The text of the Commedia is taken from the edition by John D. Sinclair,
London, John Lane, The Bodley Head, 3 volumes, revised edition, 948.
Lyrics by Dante, if not otherwise acknowledged, are to be found in Dante’s
Lyric Poetry, edited by Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde, Volume I, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 967.

ix
What is important is not proof (for who can be said to
have proved anything?) but what is most probable to the
rational, informed mind.
Louise Baron

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

William of Ockham
 Introduction

T
his book offers a new look at Dante. After a professional life spent
lecturing and teaching on Dante, dutifully passing on what was then
received opinion, I decided to read all his works again, this time
with an independent mind. This is difficult to achieve. We carry a lot of
excess baggage when we set out on such a journey and I still cling to some
of it. Nevertheless, I believe that what I here present is a portrait of Dante,
the poet, the political thinker and the man, which has not been seen before.
Almost every chapter contains new ideas and fresh insights, some of them
radical, many controversial.
Among the discoveries which I have made are two which offer a funda-
mental challenge. They concern the famous enigmas: the veltro and the
DVX, the first a prophecy by Virgil, the second by Beatrice, of a leader who
was to bring peace and order to the world. Many learned and ingenious
attempts have been made to identify him, but no definitive conclusion has
been reached. By keeping an open mind, I have, almost by accident, hit upon
what I consider are the solutions to both conundrums. Their very simplicity
has caused them to be overlooked for nearly seven centuries. They are bound
to meet with disagreement, perhaps with instant dismissal. I hope that they
will at least arouse discussion and so lead on to further perceptions.
Almost every factual statement concerning Dante has been disputed and
many continue to be controversial. The accepted opinion regarding Beatrice,
the Florentine girl with whom he fell in love and who was the main inspira-
tion of his poetry, is that she was the daughter of Folco Portinari, that she
married Simone Bardi and died in 290 at the age of 24. But it has also been
maintained that she did not exist at all, being merely an allegorical figure
signifying Theology. In this book I suggest that Beatrice plays not one but
many roles in the Commedia, some of them not defined before.
It is said that Dante’s early poems were set to music and sung by his friend
Casella, the composer: there is no proof that this is so. Dante had five, six,
seven children: according to recent opinion, he had only two sons and one
daughter. Dante studied for a time in Paris (Gladstone even believed that he
studied at Oxford): according to other opinion, he never left Italy. Several

xi
xii DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

works and letters attributed to him have been judged to be forgeries and
some are still the subject of controversy. Dante and his friend Forese Donati
exchanged a series of obscene sonnets. When discovered they were rejected
as spurious, then accepted as genuine; they are once again the subject of
discussion. All such disputes, and there are many, give the biographer a free
hand, but it requires courage to use it, rather than simply weigh one view
against another and reach no decision.
Taking a new look at one of Dante’s minor works, his treatise on the art
of writing in the vernacular, De Vulgari Eloquentia, I realized for the first
time that it was written originally as a lecture. Read in this light, it reveals
him vividly as a public speaker. We become suddenly aware of his ability to
entertain an audience, his talent as a mimic, his acute sensitivity to accents
as he walks about Bologna, noting the differences in pronunciation from
district to district. It also reveals him as an irate personality, downright in his
opinions and impatient of disagreement.
Another minor work, long considered spurious but now accepted as
authentic by most Dante scholars, is his address to Can Grande della Scala,
the ruler of Verona and Dante’s patron. I offer here a totally new view of
it. I consider that it has been wrongly defined as an ‘epistle’: it is, on the
contrary, an oration, delivered in Verona by Dante himself in an attempt to
gain promotion and financial aid for the third part of his poem, Paradiso.
There has long been a mystery concerning Dante’s philosophical work,
Il Convivio, intended, when he began it, to be his magnum opus. Why did
he leave it unfinished and turn to writing the Commedia? I offer a solution
which has not been suggested before. Again, it is a simple one. Dante, the
exile, cut off by then from the funds of fellow exiles, with whom he had quar-
relled, was hard pressed for money. He hoped to generate income by giving a
course of lectures on subjects arising from his canzoni, philosophy, allegory,
astronomy and ethics, and by selling copies of his text as he progressed.
Unfortunately he misjudged his market. Audiences dwindled, sales fell off
and he was obliged to turn to a more successful kind of entertainment: the
story of a journey into the world of the dead. Investing what was a primitive
form of pop art with the dignity of Virgil’s story of the journey of Aeneas
into Hades and making it a vehicle for his own profound ideas, he created a
new form of literary art which this time held his audience and has continued
to do so ever since.
I use the word ‘audience’ advisedly. In Dante’s time, owing to the expense
of manuscripts, works were read aloud in public more often than perused
in solitude. This accounts for the many varied sound effects perceptible in
Dante’s style. It is also possible to see how he adjusted the work to the
responses it received as it progressed. Modern readers, limited to the page-
 INTRODUCTION xiii

to-eye-to-mind experience, tend to overlook the importance of the relation-

ship between an author and a listening public. To hold their attention, Dante
had need of variety. This he achieved by changing his style from canto to
canto. Most effective of all was the fact that he told the main story in the
first person: ‘I was there … I saw … I heard’. Read aloud by Dante himself,
the Inferno especially must have been compelling. Stories are inserted within
stories, startling encounters are contrived between himself and personages
not long dead. He reduced the traditional figures of personification allegory
(‘perambulating labels’) and replaced them by real characters, who, while
being themselves, at the same time represented abstract concepts. Though
remote from us now, they still hold our fascinated attention, owing to skilful
character drawing and to dialogue that brings personalities to life by differ-
ent styles and tones of voice. An element of drama is perceptible throughout.
There is also the fact that Dante had quite a few personal scores to settle.
It was not his intention simply to preach a parable about punishments for
sin and rewards for virtue. He was deeply concerned about the state of the
world and believed that he had found a solution: the acceptance throughout
Europe of the supreme secular authority of an Emperor. His chief aim in
writing the Commedia (as it was to have been in Il Convivio) was to promote
this belief among as wide an audience and readership as possible. He held
that mankind was created for happiness and that the highest joy was to
be found in the use of reason and the pursuit of truth. His reading of the
mystics and his own gift for contemplation enabled him to conclude the
work with a vision of the Trinity, a vision which he may actually have expe-
rienced.
Views differ as to whether he did or not. There is no conclusive proof and
I leave the question open. I suggest, however, a possibility which does not
appear to have been presented before. From his earliest writings, in particu-
lar in his visionary imaginings of Beatrice conveyed in La Vita Nuova, there
are indications that Dante, perhaps in company with his fellow poets, may
have indulged in herbal stimulants which induced a heightened state of
consciousness. There is an intriguing clue, hitherto unnoticed, in the first
canto of Paradiso, which points in that direction.
In my descriptions of the Commedia and of Dante’s minor poetry I have
aimed at presenting the traits of his personality as well as the qualities of his
narrative and literary skills. In several chapters I offer new insights, of which
one of the most important is my discovery of the source of his story of the
last journey of Ulysses. The translations, unless otherwise indicated, are my
own, some of which are published here for the first time.
Since this book is the result of independent observation, I give no bibli-
ography. The sources of quotations and, where appropriate, of information
xiv DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

and occasionally of opinion, are provided in the notes. In order not to

hold up the narrative, I have relegated to an appendix basic information
about Guelfs and Ghibellines, Popes contemporary with Dante, Emperors
mentioned by him, together with a chronology, so far as it is known, of his
works and of the chief events of his life.
Several professional friends have read the work in full or in part and
have made valuable suggestions, in particular Jill Paton Walsh and A.N.
Wilson. I wish especially to thank Professor Andrew Lewis for his guid-
ance on matters relating to mediaeval law. I have also benefited from an
exchange of views with colleagues and am grateful to them for their help
and encouragement, as well as for their warnings and misgivings. They are
(or were): Catherine Aird, Professor Janos Bak, the Rev. Robert S. Beresford,
Professor Patrick Boyde, George Bull, Christopher Dean, Dr John Keast-
Butler, Professor E.M. Peters, Dr Roger Poole, Professor Jonathan Saylor,
Professor John Scott, Dr Prue Shaw, Professor Ruggero Stefanini, Canon
John A. Thurmer and Dr Richard Webster. I also thank Dr Louise Baron for
allowing me to quote her wise saying as an epigraph. I also thank my literary
executors, Kerstin Lewis and Adrian Thorpe, for following my undertaking
with a watchful eye.
My thanks are also due to I.B.Tauris for their enterprise in publishing
this book, expecially to Alex Wright and his colleagues, and also to Alison
and David Worthington for their careful typesetting of the text.

Barbara Reynolds
Cambridge 2006
 CHAPTER 1

The Early Years

D
ante Alighieri believed that he was a direct descendant of the ancient
Romans. According to family tradition, a great-great-grandfather
on his father’s side could trace his origins to the Elisei, one of the
Roman families reputed to have founded Florence. This illustrious ancestor,
Cacciaguida, was born towards the end of the eleventh century. A Florentine,
he served, as other Tuscans did, in the Second Crusade, was knighted and
killed in battle. His wife, Alighiera Alighieri, came from the region of the
Po Valley, possibly Ferrara, and some of her descendants adopted her family
name. Derived from the Latin word aliger, it means ‘winged’. Dante owed
his Christian name to his mother’s side. A shortened form of Durante, it
means ‘enduring’. The notion of ancient lineage, whether Roman or not, and
names charged with such significance must have inspired in him a strong
sense of destiny.
He was born in the year 265. The precise day is not known but since he
claimed the constellation of Gemini as his natal stars1 it must have been
between May and June. He was christened the following year in the Baptistery
of San Giovanni, one of the earliest buildings in Florence, where he believed
that his ancestor Cacciaguida too had been baptized.2 The Cathedral, as we
know it today, had not then been built and the Baptistery was more promi-
nent than it is now.3 Dante called it his ‘beautiful San Giovanni’ and looked
back to it from exile with longing, hoping one day to receive the poet’s
crown of laurel there.4
The original baptismal font is no longer in place, though broken segments
of it are said to be in the Museum of the Works of the Cathedral. It was a
low octagonal structure, like the font in the Baptistery at Pisa,5 and inside
it, as at Pisa, were stone cylinders. Multiple baptisms were held twice a year,
on Easter Eve and on the Eve of Whit Sunday, when the Baptistery was
crowded with families and godparents. It has been said that the baptizing
priests stood in the cylinders and leant forward to the water in the font. It
is more likely that the priests stood in the dry font, facing the congregation
and baptizing with water contained in the cylinders. One day someone (it


2 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig . The Baptistery in Florence

 THE EARLY YEARS 3

has been said a child) fell into a cylinder and was unable to extricate himself.
Dante smashed it with an axe to release him, an action that was considered
sacrilegious. He makes a point of justifying himself in Inferno, where holes
in the rock containing Popes guilty of simony remind him of these cylinders,
one of which he broke, he says, to save someone who was drowning:
… e questo sia suggel ch’ogn’ uomo sganni.
… and by this seal let all be undeceived.6
His father, Alighiero Alighieri, was about 45 years old when Dante was born.
A man of property, both inside Florence and in the countryside beyond,
he added to his income by lending money, an activity which Dante later
condemned as usury. By means of it, however, the father maintained his
family in comfort and left them modestly provided for. Dante’s mother,
named Bella, was the daughter of Durante Scolaro, said to be related to
a distinguished family, the Abati. She died when Dante was a child, some
time between 270 and 275, and his father married again. His second wife
was Lapa, the daughter of Chiarissimo Cialuffi. She bore him two children:
a son, Francesco, and a daughter, Gaetana. Another daughter (possibly of
his first wife), whose name is unknown, married Leone Poggi. Their son,
Andrea, was said by Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante’s first biographer, to look
marvellously like the poet.
Boccaccio was eight years old when Dante died in 32 and had never
set eyes on him. Nevertheless, in preparation for his biography, he ques-
tioned many people who had known him, including his nephew Andrea. He
describes Dante’s appearance as follows:
This our poet, then, was of middle height; and when he had reached maturity
he went somewhat bowed, his gait grave and gentle, and ever clad in most
seemly apparel, in such garb as befitted his mature years. His face was long,
his nose aquiline, and his eyes large rather than small; his jaws big, and the
under lip protruding beyond the upper. His complexion was dark, his hair and
beard thick, black and curling, and his expression was always melancholy and
thoughtful.7
From measurements taken of Dante’s skeleton in 92,8 his height was
between .644 and .654 metres, roughly the equivalent of five feet five
inches. Measurements of the upper part of the skull confirm that his face
was long. The nasal cavity suggests that the nose slanted slightly to the right
and that it was large and aquiline. The orbits of the eyes show that they were
large; also that the right eye was larger and slightly lower than the left. The
cheek bones were prominent. The lower jaw is missing so its size cannot be
verified. Calculations of the skull indicate that his cranial capacity was ,700
cubic centimetres. The weight of his brain has been estimated as a possible
4 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig 2. Baptismal Font in Pisa

,470 grams. These measurements suggest that his brain was above average
in size and weight.9
In his youth he was not bearded, as can be seen from the portrait of him,
said to have been painted by his friend Giotto, on the wall of the Bargello
in Florence. This was damaged and badly restored in 84 but some idea
of what it was like originally can be seen from a sketch which the artist
Seymour Kirkup was able to make of it before the damage had gone too
far.10 This shows a sensitive, oval face, beardless, with a straight nose and
firm chin. The prominence of the under lip, to which Boccaccio refers, can
be seen in potential and this perhaps developed as he grew older.
There is no evidence that Dante felt himself an outsider among his
father’s second family. An allusion in one of his poems to a sister standing
at his bedside while he lay ill indicates, on the contrary, an affectionate rela-
tionship:
Donna pietosa e di novella etate,
adorna assai di gentilezze umane,
ch’era là ’v’io chiamava spesso Morte,
veggendo li occhi miei pien di pietate,
e ascoltando le parole vane,
si mosse con paura a pianger forte.
A lady, youthful and compassionate,
much graced with qualities of gentleness,
who where I called on Death was standing near,
beholding in my eyes my grievous state,
 THE EARLY YEARS 5

hearing babbled words of emptiness,

began to weep aloud in sudden fear.
These lines are the beginning of a canzone which Dante included in a selec-
tion of his early poems, entitled La Vita Nuova.11 In a prose commentary
he explains that this ‘kind and gracious young woman’ was closely related to
him. The traditional interpretation is that she was his half-sister, Gaetana,
who in the year of Dante’s illness, 290, would have been about 5. Apart
from this brief and tender reference, Dante does not mention his siblings,
though it is said that his half-brother Francesco visited him in his exile and
negotiated a loan for him. He refers to his parents once only, in Il Convivio,
a work he wrote in the early years of his exile. Explaining why he is writing
in the vernacular instead of in Latin, he gives as one reason his intimate love
of his native speech, which he feels is part of his very being. This is literally
true, he says, because his parents spoke it and this brought them together
and so was responsible for his existence:
Questo mio volgare fu congiugnitore de li miei generanti, che con esso parla-
vano … per che manifesto è lui essere concorso a la mia generazione, e così
essere alcuna cagione del mio essere.
This vernacular of mine brought my parents together, for they spoke in it … so it is
obvious that it had a share in begetting me and thus is a cause of my existence.12
In these words we can sense Dante’s longing to hear the Florentine speech
again. It may even be that he is here recalling an echo of his mother’s voice:
con esso parlavano: he seems to be remembering his parents talking together.
If so, this must be one of his earliest childhood memories.13
His father died some time between 28 and 283, leaving Dante, then in
his late teens, under the authority of a guardian, as the law required, until
he was 25 years of age.14 From the many images of parenthood that occur
in the Commedia it would seem that the early loss of his mother and later
of his father left Dante with an emotional need. Several times he writes of
himself as a child: held in the protective arms of Virgil, carried sleeping up
part of Mount Purgatory by St Lucy, turning to Beatrice like a little boy to
its mother for reassurance in a moment of panic; once he even compares
himself to an infant hungrily mouthing for the breast.
After the death of his mother, his most important childhood experi-
ence was his meeting with a little girl of eight when he himself was nearly
nine. Describing this event later in La Vita Nuova, when the child, grown
to womanhood, had married and had died, Dante, by then an established
poet, idealized the feelings she aroused in him at this first meeting as the
beginning of a life-long submission to the power of love. In a realistic sense,
it may have been his first awareness of the stirrings of puberty. Later in life,
6 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in a sonnet addressed to a poet friend, Cino da Pistoia, he admits that the

origins of his feelings for her were sexual.15 In another poem he even traced
her influence upon him to the day of her birth, when, he says, his little
childish body felt a strange tremor and he fell to the ground.16 Since he was
then only about nine months old, he could not have remembered this. If
there is any truth in it, he may have suffered an infantile convulsion about
which his nurse or his mother told him later. He describes himself as having
a tendency to faint when overcome by strong emotions, as when in La Vita
Nuova he sees Beatrice unexpectedly at a wedding, or within the fiction of
Inferno, when Francesca da Rimini comes to the end of her piteous story and
Dante says of himself: ‘I fell as a dead body falls’:
e caddi come corpo morto cade.17

He says in La Vita Nuova that when he first saw Beatrice she ‘was dressed
in a very noble colour, a decorous and delicate crimson, tied with a girdle and
trimmed in a manner suited to her tender age’. She has been identified as the
daughter of Folco Portinari, a banker and a prominent citizen of Florence.
Boccaccio relates that the meeting took place at a May Day party held in
the Portinari home. She was one of  children: five sons and six daughters.18
One of the sons, either Manetto or Ricovero, who were both of an appro-
priate age, was a close friend of Dante’s.19 Folco Portinari held government
office and was elected Prior in August 282. In 288 he founded the hospital
of Santa Maria Nuova.20 There is a tradition that he was persuaded to do so
by Beatrice’s nurse, Mona Tessa, who, aided by the Sisters of the Order of
Oblates, looked after the first patients. To this day, every year the Sisters cele-
brate Mona Tessa’s birthday (3 July) in the little church of Santa Margherita,
situated between the Portinari and the Alighieri houses,21 where Dante and
Beatrice both worshipped. There is a memorial tablet and an effigy of Mona
Tessa on the original building of the hospital. Folco died on 3 December
289. In his will, which is dated 5 January 288, it is shown that Beatrice, to
whom he bequeathed 50 Florentine pounds, was by then married to Simone
Bardi, a member of a prominent family of bankers. Dante does not mention
her marriage.
He does mention her father’s death, in La Vita Nuova, where he describes
a group of women mourners returning from a visit of condolence to Beatrice,
with whom he deeply sympathized. Several years had passed since the death
of his own father but it seems that he felt regret for what might have been,
for he says: ‘No friendship is as intimate as that between a good father and
a good child.’ It was a few days after Folco’s death that Dante fell ill and lay
babbling in the delirium that frightened his sister. He had perhaps caught
a cold in the winter weather, as he stood watching the mourners, and may
 THE EARLY YEARS 7

have succumbed to pleurisy or pneumonia. The piercing winds that whistle

down the narrow streets of Florence in winter are dangerous still today.
The image of the ‘angelic child’, as he called her, stayed with him
throughout his childhood, eclipsing another important event, which he
never mentions: his betrothal at the age of 2 to Gemma, a daughter of the
Donati family, arranged by his father and hers. In due course, Boccaccio
says after the death of Beatrice in 290, but probably earlier, he and Gemma
married. She brought him a substantial dowry and they had several children,
the exact number of whom has not been verified. There were certainly two
sons: Iacopo, who became a priest and had only illegitimate issue, and Pietro,
who prospered as a judge and built a villa at Gargagnago, near Verona, where
his descendants, the Serego-Alighieri, still live. There has been mention of
two other sons, Giovanni and Gabriello, but it is thought that they may
have been the offspring of someone of the same name as Dante. If this is
the case, they may have been cousins. It has been said that there were two
daughters, Antonia, and Beatrice who became a nun in Ravenna. The more
recent opinion is that there was only one daughter and that it was Antonia
who took the veil under the name of her father’s celebrated love. Boccaccio,
on little evidence, as he admits, says that the marriage was unhappy and that
for this reason Gemma did not join her husband in exile, though her sons
and one daughter did.22 Whatever the truth, marriages were arranged for
financial or political reasons and were not an occasion for romantic expecta-
tions.
As the son of parents who prided themselves on distinguished lineage,
Dante was instructed in the Trivium and the Quadrivium, a course of study
consisting first of grammar (that is, Latin), logic and rhetoric, followed by
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. His earliest Latin grammar book
is likely to have been the Ars Grammatica by Donatus, the fourth-century
grammarian, for long in use. Dante places the soul of Donatus among the
learned in Paradiso, an unusual tribute to the author of a Latin primer.23
He was less kind to Priscian, to whose more advanced work he probably
progressed, for he places him in Inferno on the burning sand among the
sodomites.24 The texts he read could have included a Latin translation of
Aesop’s fables, a collection of moral precepts by Dionysius Cato,25 a book of
eclogues which drew parallels between classical mythology and Scripture,
and a work entitled Facetus, which taught good manners.
He seems not to have made much progress in Latin as a boy, for he
said that when as an adult he tried to read Cicero and Boethius he found
them difficult. With later study he became a proficient reader of the clas-
sics, particularly of Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Cicero and of the later poet Statius;
he also learnt to write Latin prose and verse with competence. He knew
8 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

no Greek, apart from a few words, but that was usual in his period. There
was no university in Florence, but he was able to continue his education by
attending lectures at the schools of the Franciscans in Santa Croce and the
Dominicans in Santa Maria Novella. One of the canons of Santa Maria
was the preacher Remigio de’ Girolami, who had studied in Paris and may
have heard St Thomas Aquinas lecture on Aristotle there. On his return to
Florence he took up a post as lecturer in theology at the Dominican school.
If Dante heard him, there is the intriguing possibility of a close link between
St Thomas and Dante the student of theology and philosophy. He admired
Brunetto Latini, an eminent scholar, notary, magistrate and man of letters.
When Dante knew him he was in his 60s, about the age his father would
have been. He encouraged the boy in his studies and saw a great future for
him in his horoscope. Dante draws an affectionate though painful portrait
of him among the sodomites in Inferno,26 where he expresses sorrow and, it
seems, surprise at his plight, as well as profound respect and indebtedness,
as though to a surrogate father, whose ‘dear, benign, paternal image’ he still
keeps in his heart, recalling how he hourly taught him the art ‘by which men
become immortal’.27
Dante was deeply moved by music, especially by singing, which seems
to have induced in him a trance-like state of bliss. He is not known to have
played any instrument, though he may have done, for one of his friends was
a maker of lutes.28 Many of his poems were set to music, one at least by his
friend Casella, who was a singer as well as a composer.29 The musical setting
of a ballata included in La Vita Nuova 30 is mentioned both in the poem and
in the prose commentary. A ballata, as the word implies, was not only sung
but was accompanied also by a performance of dancers.31
Leonardo Bruni, his fifteenth-century biographer, says that Dante drew
excellently and there is an allusion to this skill in La Vita Nuova, in which he
speaks of himself drawing figures of angels on wooden boards.32 He calls it
la mia opera (‘my work’), which sounds like something more than doodling.
It may have been work commissioned by a church. He was later to depict
angels in words, notably two in Purgatorio, arrayed in garments ‘green as
fresh leaves new-budded on a wand’, which trailed behind them, fluttered
by green wings, their hair golden, their faces so dazzling that the eye of
the beholder was confounded.33 If this was how he also painted angels his
‘work’ must have been colourful. He was knowledgeable about contempo-
rary artists and the materials used for paints. In Purgatorio he gives a list of
colours which the flowers in the Valley of the Rulers surpassed: ‘gold and
fine silver, cochineal and white lead, indigo, bright and clear emerald when
it is newly split’.34 Two of his friends were artists: the miniaturist, Oderisi of
Gubbio, and Giotto, whom he is said to have watched at work on the fres-
 THE EARLY YEARS 9

coes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Nothing remains that is known to be

in his handwriting but Leonardo Bruni, who had seen ‘certain epistles’, says
that he wrote ‘a finished hand, with thin, long letters, perfectly formed’.
Though not tall, Dante must have been robust for he was trained in
horsemanship for battle and in the use of the lance, the sword and the mace.
Such skills required strength, dexterity and years of practice. In 289, when
he was 24, he fought in the first rank of the Florentine cavalry against the
Ghibellines of Arezzo at the Battle of Campaldino. In a letter which Bruni
saw, he described the battle and drew a plan of it, saying that though he was
then no novice in arms he at first felt great fear, which changed to exultation
when the cavalry, routed in the beginning, regrouped and charged, defeating
the enemy. Dante had thus done his share of hacking and slicing. It has been
suggested that it may even have been Dante himself who slew the Ghibelline
warrior, Buonconte da Montefeltro, whose moment of death he describes so
poignantly in Purgatorio.35 In Inferno he mentions being present at the siege
of the fortress of Caprona, when, later in the same year, the Tuscan Guelfs,
led by Lucca and Florence, invaded Pisan territory and captured several
strongholds.36 Leonardi Bruni regrets that Boccaccio did not say more in his
biography about Dante’s military valour.
A vigorous and active man, Dante also took part in sports, such as hunt-
ing, both with hounds and hawks. In one of his sonnets he reproaches himself
for spending too much time in such masculine pursuits, to the neglect of the
company of women:
Sonar bracchetti, e cacciatori aizzare,
lepri levare, ed isgridar le genti,
di guinzagli uscir veltri correnti,
per belle piagge volgere e imboccare,
assai credo che deggia dilettare
libero core e van d’intendimenti!
Ed io, fra gli amorosi pensamenti,
d’uno sono schernito in tal affare,
e dicemi esto motto per usanza:
‘Or ecco leggiadria di gentil core,
per una sì selvaggia dilettanza
lasciar le donne e lor gaia sembianza!’
Allor, temendo non che senta Amore,
prendo vergogna, onde mi ven pesanza.
Huntsmen hallooing, hounds that bark and bay,
hares from their cover leaping, shouts of glee,
swift, eager greyhounds from the leash set free,
coursing the sunlit slopes to snatch their prey,
such things give ample pleasure, I dare say,
0 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

to hearts untouched as yet by gallantry.

But I, whose thoughts of love encumber me,
by one of them am mocked on such a day.
It says, in teasing words which well I know:
‘Oh, what a faithful lover we have here,
who for rough country sport prefers to go,
forsaking the fair sex who pleased him so!’
And then, afraid that Love will overhear,
I feel ashamed and heavy-hearted grow.
He enjoyed coarse company, as well as manly sport. With one his friends,
Forese Donati, a cousin of his wife, he exchanged a series of vulgar and sexu-
ally insulting sonnets. This was a literary game known as a tenzone, a contest
between poets who vied with each other, not always in abuse, sometimes
in courteous argument. When first identified in the nineteenth century
these sonnets caused so much outrage to Dante scholars that they refused
to believe they were genuine. Later accepted for many years, they are once
again the subject of controversy.37
A significant event in Dante’s years as a young adult was his admittance
into the society of poets who were experimenting with new concepts. The
literary fashion of courtly love, as cultivated by troubadours in aristocratic
centres in Provence, had spread to Northern Italy and Sicily. The stereotyped
homage paid to an unnamed married woman was developed and refined by
Italian poets in the thirteenth century, particularly by Guido Guinizelli of
Bologna,38 whose verses expressed a new reverence for female beauty and
virtue. Love came to be seen as an ennobling experience of which only a cor
gentile (gentle, or noble heart) was capable. Such rarefied emotion, distin-
guished from lust, gave rise to intense visionary and dream-like imaginings,
sometimes mystical and verging on the religious. Poets who cultivated such
experience, possibly with the stimulus of love potions,39 were known as the
Fedeli d’Amore (the Faithful Followers of Love), who acknowledged obedi-
ence to Love, personified as a feudal lord or some other figure of authority.
In Florence the poets exploring such concepts formed a self-consciously
élite group and were sometimes mocked by other, more earthy versifiers, as
was Dante.
Hoping to become one of the elevated circle, Dante, at the age of about
7, began circulating some of his sonnets, at first anonymously. On receiv-
ing replies, he grew bolder and sent other poems to a wider group. One
is a sonnet relating a dream which he asks the recipients to interpret. He
later introduced it as the first poem in La Vita Nuova, saying there that it
relates to Beatrice, though originally it may have been just an exercise in the
conventional narration of a vision:
 THE EARLY YEARS 

A ciascun’alma presa e gentil core

nel cui cospetto ven lo dir presente,
in ciò che mi rescrivan suo parvente,
salute in lor segnor, cioè Amore.
Già eran quasi che atterzate l’ore
del tempo che onne stella n’ è lucente,
quando m’apparve Amor subitamente,
cui essenza membrar mi dà orrore.
Allegro mi sembrava Amor tenendo
meo core in mano, e ne le braccia avea
madonna involta in un drappo dormendo.
Poi la svegliava, e d’esto core ardendo
lei paventosa umilmente pascea:
appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo.
To every captive soul and gentle lover
within whose sight this present rhyme may chance,
that, writing back, each may expound its sense,
greetings in Love, who is their Lord, I offer.
Already of those hours a third was over
wherein all stars display their radiance,
when lo! Love stood before me in my trance:
recalling what he was fills me with horror.
Joyful at first he seemed and in his keeping
he held my heart, while in his arms there lay
my lady in a mantle wrapped, and sleeping.
Then he awoke her and, her fear not heeding,
my burning heart fed to her reverently.
Then he departed from my vision weeping.
Among the poets who replied was Dante of Maiano, who took a coarse,
jocose tone and, in a parody of medical advice, told his young namesake to
give his testicles a good wash to see if that would clear his head; if not, he
suggested he should see a doctor and present a specimen of his urine,40 thus
mockingly diagnosing a pathological sexual condition.
A serious reply came from Guido Cavalcanti,41 which began:
Vedeste, al mio parere, onne valore
e tutto gioco e quanto bene om sente,
se foste in prova del segnor valente
che segnoreggia il mondo de l’onore …
You saw, in my view, all the good there is,
all joy and virtue that a man can know,
since that great Lord had taken you for his,
to whom in honour all obedience owe …42
2 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

This response was welcome to Dante for two reasons: the meaning of his
dream had been taken seriously by the most eminent among the poetic
group he wished to join; it also marked the beginning of a friendship.
Guido Cavalcanti, a member of an aristocratic and prosperous Guelf
family, was Dante’s senior by about ten years. Male comradeship was impor-
tant to Dante and this early friendship was one of the most influential.
‘My first friend’, Dante called him, meaning not so much the first in time
as the first in order of affection. They talked about poetry, love and reli-
gion. Cavalcanti’s father, an Epicurean, believed that the soul died with the
body and Guido was also suspected of being an unbeliever.43 His love poetry
expressed conflict between idealism and desire, which resulted in more
torment than joy. Dante became his protégé and responded to his guid-
ance as a poet. Something of their relationship is perhaps reflected in the
pupil–teacher relationship between Dante and Virgil in the Commedia.44
From Cavalcanti he could have heard family reminiscences of the
Ghibelline warrior Farinata degli Uberti, the imposing personage who in
Inferno rises from the burning tomb of heretics, ‘seeming to hold all Hell in
scorn’.45 Guido had been espoused in childhood to his daughter in the hope
of creating amicable relations between two families of opposing political alle-
giance. Guido could also have told Dante tales of the troubadour Sordello,
whose mistress, Cunizza da Romano, passed her old age in the Cavalcanti
household. Sordello, though a Mantuan, wrote poems in Provençal, a
language that Dante also mastered. So greatly did he admire him that he
chose him as a figure worthy to embrace Virgil, a fellow Mantuan, on Mount
Purgatory, making the meeting an occasion for an impassioned outburst
of patriotic wrath. The celebrated lines describing the dignified disdain of
Sordello as they approach him could have been derived from Cunizza’s own
words about him, as remembered by Cavalcanti:
… o anima lombarda,
come ti stavi altera e disdegnosa
e nel mover degli occhi onesta e tarda!
Ella non ci dicea alcuna cosa,
ma lasciavane gir, solo sguardando
a guisa di leon quando si posa.
… o soul of Lombardy,
what pride and scorn thy attitude avouched,
and in thy slow regard what dignity!
He said no word to us as we approached,
but merely fixed his gaze upon us both,
after the manner of a lion couched.46
 THE EARLY YEARS 3

Cunizza herself had led a colourful life, having had four husbands and
two lovers, one of whom was Sordello, for whom she left her first husband.
Dante derived a sympathetic account of her, perhaps from Cavalcanti’s
memories, for he places her in the Heaven of Venus in Paradiso, an example
of human love set in perfect relation to the divine. Something of Cunizza’s
authentic personality may be reflected in the joyous utterance in which she
forgives herself, since the love by which she sinned is now her beatitude.47
The love life of the group of poets extended beyond the vision of one
idealized woman. In a charming and subtly erotic sonnet Dante expresses
a wish that he, Guido and Lapo Gianni, another poet friend, might sail
away together in a boat, accompanied by three women whom they loved:
Giovanna (for Guido), Lagia (for Lapo) and, for himself, ‘she who is number
thirty on the list’. We do not know her name. We know only that it was not
Beatrice.
Guido, i’ vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io
fossimo presi per incantimento
messi in un vasel, ch’ad ogni vento
per mare andasse al voler vostro e mio,
sì che fortuna od altro tempo rio
non ci potesse dare impedimento,
anzi, vivendo sempre in un talento,
di stare insieme crescesse ’l disio.
E monna Vanna e monna Lagia poi
con quella ch’ è sul numer de le trenta
con noi ponesse il buono incantatore:
e quivi ragionar sempre d’amore,
e ciascuna di lor fosse contenta,
sì come i’ credo che saremmo noi.
Guido, I wish you, I and Lapo could,
by virtue of enchantment, taken be
and placed upon a boat, to sail the sea,
no matter what the wind, where’er we would.
And that no tempest or ill-omened flood
might put our voyaging in jeopardy,
but, living ever in such harmony,
we’d find our pleasure day by day renewed.
And that the kind magician might convey
Giovanna, Lagia in the boat with us,
and her who’s number thirty in my rhyme.
Then in Love’s converse we would spend our time,
making all three content and bounteous,
while we, I vow, would joyful be as they.
4 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The ‘number thirty’ refers to a poem, mentioned in La Vita Nuova but no

longer extant, in which he had listed the names of the 60 most beautiful
women of Florence. Who they were (apart from Beatrice) we do not know,
nor what the number 60 signified. The idea may have arisen from a pageant
or a dramatic representation of some kind. The name of Beatrice coincided
with the number nine, which as the square of the Trinity signified a mystical
quality attaching to her, not her position in a beauty competition; indeed
he says elsewhere in the same work that her loveliness was like a miracle
beyond compare. However, it is plain that his interest in women was not
confined to her alone.
Florence in Dante’s youth was a prosperous and powerful city state, both
beautiful and terrible. The chronicler Giovanni Villani48 records that the
population in his day was about 900,000, not counting the religious orders of
monks and nuns in monasteries and convents. In addition he estimated that
there were some ,500 foreigners, travellers and soldiers staying or passing
through Florence. Boys and girls of reading age numbered between 8,000
and 0,000. Those learning arithmetic are said to have been between ,000
and 2,000; those learning Latin and rhetoric in four large schools between
550 and 600. There were 0 churches in the city and its environs, including
abbeys. Some 200 or more workshops for woollen manufactures employed
more than 30,000 people. Dino Compagni, another chronicler, describes the
city as follows:
a city of invigorating air, well-mannered people, beautiful, well-dressed women,
magnificent houses decorated by skilled craftsmen, a city different from others
in Italy. From far and wide people come to visit it, not from necessity but for
the sake of its many arts and crafts and the ornamental beauty of its build-
ings.49
This is an idealized picture, rather like an extract from a travel leaflet.
Nevertheless it is not surprising that Florence had even then become some-
thing of a tourist attraction. Florentine buildings, with their geometrical
patterns of dark green or rose marble on white, the painted interiors of
churches, glittering with frescoes and mosaics, were and are still a brilliant
sight. There were festivals, such as the processions of the Fedeli d’Amore,
with Love garlanded and garbed in white, accompanied by his followers; the
celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday with a pageant of eminent
citizens and members of guilds, accompanied by dancing and singing. On 24
June, the Feast of St John the Baptist, the patron saint, a horse race, like the
one in the Campo of Siena, was run along the Corso, finishing in the centre
of the city. There were also spectacular pageants on the river Arno. Men and
women, robed and masked, represented qualities of valour, loyalty, virtue and
perfection, inspired by the chivalric tradition. Life was lived in public; funer-
 THE EARLY YEARS 5

als, weddings, festivals, processions engaged and heightened the emotions;

joy, triumph, grief, anger were all expressed with theatrical display.
There was also a dangerous and sinister aspect to Florence: a forest of
stone, it has been called. The noble and powerful families built houses with
immensely tall towers, examples of which may be seen to this day in San
Gimignano. Erected as a defence against rival families, they served as ambush
points from which bolts from crossbows or flaming arrows were shot across
the narrow streets, darkened by overhanging balconies. Shouting, rioting
and the clatter of horses was continuous. The arrogant Filippo Argenti of the
wealthy Adimari family is said to have shod his horse with silver and was
famed for riding dangerously through the crowded alleys, making those on
foot flatten themselves in terror against the walls.50
Public executions of a horrific nature were usual, as in other cities. Dante
says that he saw people burned alive. He had also witnessed the fearful
death of assassins, who were killed by being planted head down, with only
their legs protruding. An example of this ghastly fate is depicted in one
of the bronze panels on the doors of the church of San Zeno in Verona.
In Inferno Dante says that the legs of sinners, which he sees sticking out
of holes in a rock, remind him of this punishment. As he bends to talk to
one of them, he compares himself to a priest leaning down to catch the last
words of a condemned man, who prolongs his confession in order to defer
the terrible moment when the earth is shovelled in and smothers him.51
Dante was familiar with instances of torture, death by starvation, murder,
treachery, adultery, sodomy and bestiality.52 Images of evil were depicted
everywhere. In particular, the cupola of the Baptistery was decorated with
mosaics arranged in rectangles, placed symmetrically, representing Hell,
Purgatory and Paradise, the Last Judgement and, of special importance for
the Commedia, a grotesque figure of Satan, with three mouths, two protrud-
ing snake-like from the sides of his head, each devouring a sinner, an image
with which Dante was familiar from earliest childhood.53 His representation
of Lucifer in Inferno resembles it closely, even to the sinners being crunched
in his three mouths.54
The devils and torments in Inferno are not Dante’s own inventions. Such
terrifying warnings were not only displayed in frescoes and mosaics: they
were recited in rhyme by street entertainers, they were the subject of sermons
and they were enacted.55 The chronicler Giovanni Villani describes a festival
held in 304 in which were represented
scenes and figures of Inferno, with fires and other punishments and tortures,
with men disguised as devils horrible to look at and others representing figures
of naked souls, enduring various torments with great shrieking and screaming
and commotion, hateful and terrifying to hear and see.56
6 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

But Florence was also a joyful and brilliant city, full of prosperous,
sophisticated and talented people, accustomed to luxuries, such as gold, silver
and pearls; fine wool imported from England and Spain; silk, perfumes and
spices imported from the Far East. Its wealth was created by craftsmen,
organized into guilds, of which one of the most powerful was the guild
of wool merchants. There were also cloth-makers, silk merchants, furriers,
leather-makers and the guild of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries. Only
members of the major guilds could take part in government, and Dante
became a nominal member of the last mentioned when he decided to enter
public life. Banking, scarcely organized elsewhere, was well advanced in
Florence, with connections all over Europe. Women wore costly embroidered
gowns, cut low to reveal the breasts; they wore jewels, they used makeup,
they dyed their hair blond or auburn. The young men wore fitted hose and
jerkins so short, Boccaccio says disapprovingly, that no woman could be in
doubt as to their gender, even though their hair was long.57 Significantly,
in his biography he says that Dante’s dress was always seemly. He may be
speaking of Dante’s middle and later years, when he wore the long dignified
robe called a lucco, associated with the office of magistrate. In the portrait
attributed to Giotto, Dante is shown wearing what appears to be a formal
gown and his hair is concealed beneath the characteristic Florentine hood.
It would be surprising, however, if as a young man he did not dress like his
contemporaries on informal occasions. From his conversation with Forese
Donati on the Mountain of Purgatory,58 it is clear that in later years Dante
also took a censorious view of ostentation and immodesty; and in Paradiso,
through the words he gives to his ancestor Cacciaguida,59 he nostalgically
refers to the days when men wore plain buff coats, girt with leather belts,
bone-buckled, and their wives wore clothes of home-spun thread and put
no makeup on their faces. We do not know how he felt about such matters
when he was young. We know only that he sought and enjoyed the company
of beautiful women.
The poet Folgore da San Gimignano60 has provided in a series of sonnets
a radiant picture of social life in Tuscany. Known as ‘The Garland of the
Months’,61 they are addressed to a group of nobles in Siena but the details
which emerge would apply equally well to Florence. We see the interior of
houses, warmed by fires in January and lit by torches, beds laid with silk
sheets and coverings of fur. In February there is hunting of the hare, deer
and boar, the riders, clad in sturdy buskins and short jerkins buttoned close,
coming home, their servants laden with the prey, to feast and drink wine
and carouse. In March there is fish to be had from teeming rivers: lampreys,
salmon, eel, trout and sturgeon. April is a month for sporting on the grass
beside a fountain in the company of women; there are Spanish palfreys, the
 THE EARLY YEARS 7

latest fashions from France, singing and dancing in the style of Provence,
accompanied by music played on the newest instruments from Germany.
May is the month of tournaments, with women looking on and joyfully
embracing the victors. In June the fruit is ripe: lemons, oranges and dates;
and in the shade of trees men and women sprawl at leisure. In July white
Tuscan wine is brought up from cellars, cooled with ice; pheasant, partridge
and capons in aspic, and veal flavoured with garlic are on the menu. In
August, to escape the heat, people go into the mountains and take pleas-
ure in riding from morning to eve. September is the time for hunting with
falcons, astors, merlins, sparrowhawks or with hounds. October, November
and December are the months for keeping warm indoors with wine, log fires
and whole pigs roasting on the spit.
Dante as a young man took part in such pleasures, as far as his means
permitted. His life is unlikely to have been limited to the rarefied occupation
of writing idealistic love poems. In fact we have a suggestion that it was not,
for once Guido Cavalcanti rebuked him in a sonnet for wasting his talents:
I’ vegno il giorno a te infinite volte
e trovote pensar troppo vilmente;
allor mi dol de la gentil tua mente
e d’assai tue vertù che ti son tolte.
Solevanti spiacer persone molte,
tuttor fuggivi la noiosa gente …
I come to thee by daytime constantly,
but in thy thoughts too much of baseness find:
greatly it grieves me for thy gentle mind,
and for thy many virtues gone from thee.
It was thy wont to shun such company,
and all such sorry concourse ill inclined …62
Such was the environment in which Dante was born and grew to matu-
rity. The contrasts between joy and horror are reflected in the conflicting
aspects of his personality: on the one hand, realistic, earthy and sensual, and
on the other, righteous, idealistic and visionary. His background accounts
for him to some extent, but it cannot explain how, sharing these influences
with his contemporaries, he yet so outstripped them as to become one of
the greatest poets of the Western world. There is no explanation for genius
but some clues as to why Dante developed as he did can be traced in the
political events of his life and in his writings. The earliest of these were his
love poems, particularly his selection and interpretation of them known as
La Vita Nuova. This is the subject of the next chapter.
 CHAPTER 2

Dante and Guido Cavalcanti

D
ante’s first book, La Vita Nuova, written between 292 and 294,
was the direct outcome of his friendship with Guido Cavalcanti.
A treatise by a poet, written for poets, on the art of poetry, it is
composed of a selection of Dante’s early poems, accompanied by a commen-
tary in prose. This is of two kinds. First, he narrates the events and feelings
that led him to compose each poem; next, he analyses each poem from the
point of view of structure and content.
The title, translated literally, means ‘The New Life’, but it is not even
certain that Dante intended it to be the title of the whole work. It arises
from the Latin words Incipit vita nova, which he says stand as a heading
near the beginning of his book of memory. It may therefore be only an
introduction to the first few chapters, which cover his childhood. There are
at least two other indications later in the work that other headings were
intended. The Latin word novus means not only ‘new’ but also ‘first’, ‘inex-
perienced’, ‘untried’; it can also mean ‘wonderful’, ‘marvellous’, ‘unheard of ’.
The Italian phrase vita nuova does not, in fact, occur anywhere in the text
itself, but Dante refers to it with that title in Il Convivio (‘The Banquet’),
a philosophical work he wrote in the early years of his exile.1 The phrase is
used again, though ambiguously, in Purgatorio, where Beatrice, speaking of
Dante to the angels, says:
‘Questi fu tal nella sua vita nova
virtualmente, ch’ogni abito destro
fatto avrebbe in lui mirabil prova.’
‘This man in his new life potentially,
was such that every worthy gift from grace
a wondrous bounty should have proved to be.’ 2
In this context it seems to mean youth, or perhaps it is an allusion to the work
itself. Whatever the explanation, an element of novelty, of things discovered
and untried, is certainly a feature of La Vita Nuova.
The Italian vernacular was only about half a century old as a literary

8
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 9

language when Dante and his contemporaries began writing verse. Compared
with Old French and Provençal, it was limited in range and quality. Brunetto
Latini, for instance, may have taught Dante many things but how to write
verse was not one of them. His poem in Italian, Il Tesoretto, consists of a
primitive jog-trot of seven-syllable couplets which give no inkling of how
poets would transform the language within a generation.
When Dante first began circulating his poems, he entered into an
exchange of sonnets, a tenzone, on the subject of love, with the same Dante
of Maiano who returned such a coarse comment on Dante’s account of
his dream.3 These early attempts show no great talent or originality on
either side, but as soon as Dante came under the influence of Cavalcanti
his knowledge widened and his verse improved. The Florentine circle and
their contacts beyond Florence were professional men of distinction: Dino
Frescobaldi was a member of a banking family, Lapo Gianni was a notary,
Cino da Pistoia was an eminent scholar in jurisprudence. They were influ-
enced by poets of an earlier generation, Guittone of Arezzo and especially
Guido Guinizelli of Bologna, another lawyer. Cavalcanti himself was witty
and profound, a student of philosophy, a reader of Albertus Magnus and
Averroës. In his own poems he showed how terms from physiology and
psychology could provide a new vocabulary in which to analyse the effects
of love, terms which Dante borrowed.
Under the influence of Cavalcanti he tried his hand at the canzone. This
was derived from the Provençal canso, a poem intended to be sung, as the word
indicates. The structure was elaborate and in strict accordance with musical
form. In common with all his educated contemporaries, Dante had been
instructed in music. Like the other three components of the Quadrivium
(arithmetic, geometry and astronomy) it was a study based on proportion
and relationship. Number, conceived as the essence of all things, provided
the key to an understanding of the universe. It also unlocked beauty. St
Thomas Aquinas had said, ‘The senses delight in things duly proportioned.’
The creative challenge to link the potential of the new, untried language
with concepts that embraced infinity and the cosmos must have been exhila-
rating indeed.
Conversation between Cavalcanti and Dante, as they stood on the brink
of these uncharted waters, was destined to lead, in the case of Dante, to
unprecedented exploration. In La Vita Nuova, if we listen carefully, we can
hear snatches of their talk. Discussing the question of personification, Dante
says that since the ancient Latin poets used it (and he gives examples), there
is no reason why it should not also be used in vernacular rhyme, though never
as a mere ornament: it must always be possible to reveal the true meaning
that lies beneath.
20 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

I will add that the Latin poets did not write in this manner without good
reason, nor should those who compose in rhyme,4 if they cannot justify what
they say; for it would be a disgrace if someone composing in rhyme introduced
a figure of speech or rhetorical ornament, and then on being asked could not
divest his words of such covering so as to reveal the true meaning. And this
friend of mine and I know quite a number who compose rhymes in this stupid
manner.5
In its colloquial tone, the last sentence (E questo mio amico e io ne sapemo bene
di quelli che così rimano stultamente) is like an extract from a tape recorder,
or even a video, for we not only hear them talking, we see them and sense
Dante’s gratification at being in agreement with his distinguished friend.
Not only is La Vita Nuova the outcome of such conversations. There is
more than one hint that the work is written in accordance with Cavalcanti’s
advice. Dante says, for instance, that when Beatrice died he wrote a letter of
lament in Latin, but he does not include it because it was his intention from
the beginning to write this work only in Italian:
I am well aware, too, that my first friend, for whom I write this work (a cui io
ciò scrivo), also desired that I should write it entirely in the vernacular.6
The words a cui io ciò scrivo have been understood to mean that Dante ‘dedi-
cated’ the book to Cavalcanti. They may not bear such a formal significance
but it is clear that the figure of his ‘first friend’ was at his elbow as he wrote.
Even so, Dante does not entirely do without the authoritative imprimatur
of the senior language. The book begins and ends with a Latin phrase and
there are quotations from the Vulgate and classical authors in the course of
the work; his faculties, personified as ‘spirits’ (a conceit he borrowed from
Cavalcanti), and the figure of Love address him in Latin, as though the
vernacular were too familiar for such high and significant converse.
By the time Beatrice died in 290, aged 24, Dante had become recognized
in Florence as a leading poet. His verses were sung, recited and memorized
not only by men but also by women, some of whom commissioned him to
write for them. That is to say, he now had a public. He and they realized that
he was venturing into new territory.
In the beginning, like his Florentine friends, he had written within the
conventions inherited from the troubadours and their Sicilian and Italian
imitators. The stock situations were: the torment of unrequited love, the obli-
gation to keep secret the name of the beloved, the device of a ‘screen-love’ to
deceive the inquisitive, the personification of Death as a pitiless destroyer of
youth, misunderstandings with the beloved, intolerable ecstasy in her pres-
ence and anguished mortification at her mockery. But a new ingredient had
been added by Guido Guinizelli, who created the concept of the cor gentile
(‘gentle’ or ‘noble heart’), a quality of mind and soul that alone made it possi-
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 2

ble to experience the elevating effect of love.

The avant-garde poets who gathered round Cavalcanti saw themselves
as an in-group who had special understanding of this concept. They perhaps
met in Cavalcanti’s house, bringing their latest compositions to be read
aloud or more probably sung, for example by Casella, whose soul, ‘met in
the milder shores of Purgatory’, Dante woos to sing again as he used to do
in Florence, soothing Dante’s longings with his songs of love.7 Women were
welcomed as members of the audience, and some of Dante’s poems were
addressed exclusively to them. They were not only sung but, in the case of
ballate, accompanied by dancing. Possibly they were also expounded and
discussed. If this is so, the prose sections of La Vita Nuova may be a devel-
opment of such gatherings, which must have been rather in the nature of
concerts or recitals. When a poet sent a composition directly to his lady the
occasion was similar to an aubade or a serenade. Minstrels were employed on
regular wages in a sizable household and accounts often furnish names and
sometimes specify the instruments played. Whether such minstrels were
employed by Cavalcanti is not known.
It is easy to forget that these poets led everyday lives, pursued their
professions, took part in politics, attended social functions, met and courted
attractive women, married and had love affairs. Guido Cavalcanti and Lapo
Gianni, for instance, who were both married, are said to have shared the
same mistress. Like the others, they separated their real from their imagina-
tive lives, in which the experience of love, analysed in terms of new concepts,
underwent a process of spiritualization.
The society in which Dante moved was small and closely knit. People
took a keen interest in one another’s affairs, especially love affairs, and there
was much gossip. When at the age of 8 Dante realized that he was in love
with the adult Beatrice, he tried to conceal his feelings from all except his
poet friends. He only once disclosed her name in writing (and that in the
abbreviated form of Bice8) while she was still alive. This was in accordance
with the rules of the literary game, but may also reflect what he actually did.
What distinguishes La Vita Nuova is the amount of vivid social detail it
provides.
He describes being in church one day, sitting where he could gaze at
Beatrice, who was also present. Another woman, who sat in his line of vision,
thought he was gazing at her and this gave him the idea of making her his
‘screen-love’, to deceive those who were taking too much interest in him.
The scene is not difficult to imagine: the other woman who in her vanity
thought Dante was attracted to her, the friends who thought so too, the
nudges and raised eyebrows, the chatter and laughter as they came out of
church. Not much attention can have been paid to the sermon that day.
22 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The ‘screen-love’s’ delusion must have been confirmed by the poems that
Dante wrote for her. Possibly it was not a delusion and he did make his feel-
ings known to her. Why not? He says that her appearance was very pleasing;
he was a young man, much given to philandering, according to Boccaccio.
The pretence, if it was pretence, was maintained, he says, for ‘several years
and months’. When she left Florence he admits he was more dismayed than
he would have believed possible and, to keep up appearances, he wrote a
lament.
Eventually he replaced her by another ‘screen-love’. His way of narrating
this is figurative. He says that he was riding on a journey with a company
of people, feeling despondent because he was leaving the city where his true
love lived. Along the way, he met Love dressed in humble, travelling clothes,
who advised him to take a new ‘screen-love’. He named her; it was some-
one Dante knew well. On his return to Florence he played the part of her
admirer so ardently that malicious gossip reached the ears of Beatrice, who
cut him in the street.
Her refusal to greet him upset him deeply. He fled to the privacy of his
room where he lay on his bed and wept, falling asleep ‘like a little child that
has been beaten’. In his sleep, he dreamt that Love stood beside him in the
figure of a young man dressed in white. He gazed pensively at Dante, then,
sighing, spoke to him in Latin, saying: ‘My son, it is time for our false images
to be set aside.’ He then wept and when Dante asked him why, he said, again
in Latin: ‘I am like the centre of a circle, to which the parts of the circum-
ference are related in similar manner; you, however, are not.’ When Dante
asked what these words meant, Love replied, in the vernacular: ‘Do not ask
more than is useful for you’. He then explained why Beatrice had withdrawn
her greeting: his attentions to the ‘screen-love’ had given rise to scandal and
she feared her own name might suffer likewise.
Since Dante’s long-kept secret was already partly known to Beatrice,
Love advised him to write a poem addressed indirectly to her, saying that
he had loved her ever since his boyhood and that when his gaze rested on
another woman Love made him see in her face the face of Beatrice: ‘In this
way she will come to know your true desire and will see how mistaken are
those who speak ill of you.’ He is to take special care that the poem is set to
harmonious music. Since it is a ballata, it will be accompanied by dancing, as
well as sung.
This imaginary dialogue between himself and the figure of Love repre-
sents Dante’s guilt and embarrassment. He has been indiscreet in his affair
with the new ‘screen-love’; he knows that he has been deceiving himself in
pretending that his love is always pure and ennobling, though he believes
that there is a perfect state of mind and soul in which all love is good.
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 23

He personifies the ballata, requesting it to seek the company of Love.

Together they are to visit Beatrice and ask her forgiveness. When Beatrice
has heard the song performed, Love is to explain the reasons for Dante’s
apparent love of other women. Beneath the complex poetic figure may be
glimpsed the picture of Beatrice receiving the dancers and singers into her
home or perhaps her garden, watching and listening to them. From an
event which followed soon afterwards it does not seem that she was much
affected.
A friend invited Dante to accompany him to a wedding reception.
Among the guests was Beatrice. He sensed her presence even before he saw
her and became so faint that he had to lean ‘for support against a fresco
painted in a frieze round the walls of the house’. This was observed by other
women who laughed at him, and Beatrice too, alas, joined in their mockery.
He was so overcome that he thought he was dying. His friend had to take
him by the hand and lead him away. He returned to his room, where again
he wept, in an agony of shame. It occurred to him that if he explained to
Beatrice why the sight of her had so overwhelmed him she might have
compassion on him. Although Love had told him it would not be fitting to
address her directly (that is, it was contrary to convention to do so), he did
now address three sonnets to her. The first of these, reproaching her for her
mockery, begins:
Con l’altre donne mia vista gabbate,
e non pensate, donna, onde si mova
ch’io vi rassembri sì figura nova
quando riguardo la vostra beltate.
Se lo saveste, non poria Pietate
tener più contra me l’usata prova,
chè Amor, quando sì presso a voi mi trova,
prende baldanza e tanta securitate. …
With your companions you make fun of me,
not thinking, Lady, what the reason is
I cut so strange a figure in your eyes
when, raising mine, your loveliness I see.
If you but knew, Pity no more could be
severe towards me in her usual guise.
Finding me near you, Love his weapons tries,
gaining in boldness and temerity. …9
Bewildered by the effect which the sight of Beatrice has upon him, Dante
converses with himself, asking, ‘Since I take on such an absurd appearance
whenever I am near her, why do I still try to see her? If she asked you this,
what would you say to her?’ He expresses this bewilderment in the other two
24 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

sonnets addressed to her.

Later a group of women, perhaps those who were present at the wedding,
asked him what the point of his love was, since he was overcome by faintness
in his lady’s presence. He replied that his joy originally lay in her greeting
but now that this was denied him he found all his beatitude in writing words
in praise of her. One of the women retorted: ‘If that were true, your verses
would be very different.’ With feminine directness, she had put her finger on
the nub: his poems up to then had been self-pitying laments. The dialogue
suggests that Dante may have met with a similar challenge at one of the
poetry recitals.
Thinking the matter over, Dante realized that the women were right: the
time had come for him to concentrate in his poems on the beauty and virtue
of Beatrice and forget his sufferings. But the more he thought about it, the
more afraid he was to begin, as though he were verging on an enterprise that
might prove beyond his powers. Then one day, as he walked by a stream of
very clear water, his tongue, as though moved of its own accord, uttered the
words:
Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore.
Ladies who understanding have of love.
This seemed to him to be an excellent beginning for a poem, as well as for
the new direction he wished to take. He stored the line away in his mind for
several days until he found the resolve to continue. The completed poem is
the first canzone in La Vita Nuova and ushers in what have been called the
poems of praise.
There was nothing new in poems of praise. This was a very usual theme in
the poetry of the time. What is different is that the imaginative transforma-
tion of Dante’s experience of love had entered a new stage. Beatrice was now
more than the focus of a conventional, poeticized love. In thinking of writ-
ing poems in praise of her he came to realize that she represented something
beyond herself: ideal virtue, incomparable beauty, a paradisiacal being for
whose presence in Heaven the angels and the saints were clamouring. This is
Dante’s first step towards a new form of allegory: it is not personification or
symbolism, but the perception that actual persons can be images of qualities
beyond themselves, not only in masques and pageants but in real life. This
would immensely enlarge his range, leading eventually to the creation of the
convincing, unforgettable characters who people the Commedia, and at the
same time represent sins or virtues.
Years later, when he was two-thirds of the way through his major work,
Dante looked back to this canzone and recognized it as a turning point. In
Purgatorio, on the Cornice of the Gluttons, he introduces the soul of the
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 25

poet Bonagiunta of Lucca, to whom he gives the following words:

‘Ma dì s’ i’ veggio qui colui che fore
trasse le nove rime, cominciando
“Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore.’’’
‘But say, do I see here the man who wove
the strands of those new verses which begin,
“Ladies who understanding have of love?”’
Dante answers:
… ‘I’ mi son un che, quando
Amor mi spira, noto, e a quel modo
ch’e’ ditta dentro vo significando.’
… ‘I am one who when
Love breathes in me, take note, and in the way
that he dictates I say what his words mean.’ 10
Bonagiunta answers: ‘Oh, now I see what is meant by what they call the dolce
stil nuovo.’
The Italian phrase, dolce stil nuovo, is usually translated into English as
‘sweet new style’, but that is not what it means. In Italian, as in French, when
there are two or more adjectives it is the final one that carries the emphasis.
In English, this is the function of the first adjective. The point is that there
was already a dolce stile (‘a sweet style’), as there was an aspro stile (‘a harsh
style’). What Dante had initiated was a new sweet style.
Dante da Maiano was not the only one who made fun of him. Cecco
Angiolieri, who wrote comic verse, teased him about an apparent contradic-
tion in one of his sonnets and quoted some of his words in gentle mockery.
Dante did not expect (or even want) many of his readers to understand him
and he said so more than once. Sometimes he said that a poem was written
only for a specially chosen group of readers, such as women who understood
the meaning of love. At the same time, Dante did not always take himself as
solemnly as some of his commentators do. He wrote some teasing lines to
a certain Brunetto Brunelleschi, accompanying a poem he knew would be
beyond his wits. In another sonnet he made fun of himself for absent mind-
edly gazing up at the leaning Carisenda tower in Bologna, oblivious to what
was going on around him. Perhaps he was absorbed in watching the effect of
a cloud passing over in a direction contrary to the tower’s slant, which makes
it seem as if the tower is falling. He was to remember this effect in describing
the stooping of a giant in Inferno.11 A delightful tease, unnoticed by Dante
scholars, occurred in the eighteenth century, when Lorenzo da Ponte (who
was well read in Italian literature) wrote his charming parody of ‘Donne
26 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

ch’avete intelletto d’amore’ in the words he gives the love-sick Cherubino to

sing to ‘his’ ladies in Le Nozze di Figaro:
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor …
When the canzone had been heard by several people, a friend asked
Dante to write a poem defining love. To do so he had recourse to a defini-
tion already provided by the predecessor from whom he and his friends
acknowledged derivation: Guido Guinizelli. He does not give his name but
refers to him as il saggio (‘the wise man’) and quotes his concept of the ‘noble
heart’:
Amor e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa,
sì come il saggio in suo dittare pone,
e così esser l’un sanza l’altro osa
com’alma razional sanza ragione.
Falli natura quand’ è amorosa,
Amor per sire e ’l cor per sua magione,
dentro la qual dormendo si riposa
tal volta poca e tal lunga stagione.
Bieltate appare in saggia donna pui,
che piace a li occhi sì, che entro al core
nasce un disio de la cosa piacente;
e tanto dura talora in costui,
che fa svegliar lo spirito d’Amore.
E simil face in donna omo valente.
Love and the noble heart are but one thing,
even as the wise man tells us in his rhyme,
the one without the other venturing
no more than reason from a reasoning mind.
Nature, disposed to love, creates Love king,
making the heart a dwelling-place for him
wherein he lies quiescent, slumbering
sometimes a little, now a longer time.
Then beauty in a virtuous woman’s face
pleases the eyes, striking the heart so deep
a yearning for the pleasing thing may rise.
Sometimes so long it lingers in that place
Love’s spirit is awakened from his sleep.
By a worthy man a woman’s moved likewise.12
The last line seems an off-hand, last-moment attempt to imagine a recip-
rocal response on the part of a woman. This is unusual and the idea is not
developed. Dante and his fellow poets wrote of love from the man’s point of
view. The women they praised were beautiful, virtuous, gracious and modest;
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 27

the love they inspired was elevating and transforming. What they them-
selves experienced does not seem to have been a subject for poetry. In the
previous generation there had been a woman poet, known as la compiuta
donzella (‘the accomplished damsel’), but only three sonnets by her remain
and they were not influenced by Guinizelli.
What Beatrice felt about Dante and about his idealization of her we can
only guess. Perhaps it was a matter of pride, both to her and to her husband,
that she should be the object of the outstanding devotion of so admired a
poet. We see her first as an adult walking down a street in Florence, dressed
in white, decorously accompanied by two older women; she turns on notic-
ing Dante and greets him graciously. Next she is offended by the excessive
attention he pays to a ‘screen-lady’ and we see the scornful toss of her head
as she cuts him in the street. Then we find her laughing, unkindly, with other
women at his trembling embarrassment in her presence. In a sonnet, not
included in La Vita Nuova, we see her among a group of beautiful women,
she the most beautiful of them all, at a celebration of All Saints’ Day, when
Dante dares to look her directly in the face and sees an image of an angel.
Wherever she goes she inspires virtue. Her greeting, when she is disposed to
grant it, bestows salvation and fills him with love of the whole world. In one
sonnet he describes his happiness on seeing her walking behind Giovanna,
whom Cavalcanti once loved, and in the commentary he interprets the occa-
sion as a revelation of Christ preceded by St John the Baptist. By the time
he wrote the commentary, his perception of the natural as an image of the
supernatural had reached an advanced stage. To understand how Beatrice
is related to this image and to other visions of her, he resolved to devote
himself to a period of study and reflection, in order, as he says at the end of
the work, to prepare himself to write of Beatrice what had never before been
written in verse of any woman.13
As to Beatrice’s appearance, Dante says that her complexion was pearl-
like, but not pale to excess. In Purgatorio he refers to her eyes as smeraldi
(‘emeralds’). If this means that her eyes were green (though, like so many
things concerning Beatrice, this has been disputed), then it may be that her
hair was auburn. This would account for the pale skin, which is a feature
of people with reddish hair. She was devout and had a profound venera-
tion for the Virgin Mary. We do not know where she was educated: most
probably by nuns at a convent school. When her father died she was deeply
grieved, although she was by then married and had left her family home.14
She herself died the following year. We do not know whether she had chil-
dren; it may be that she died in childbirth. Dante says, in the third canzone,
that she had suffered no chill or fever; she simply died suddenly.
In the prose which follows the third canzone he says that he does not
28 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

intend to discuss ‘her departure from us’, la sua partita da noi, a phrase inter-
preted as referring to her death. It is more likely, however, that it refers to
her funeral. He gives three reasons for not discussing it: first, it is outside the
subject of his book; secondly he does not possess adequate words to treat
of it; and thirdly, to do so would involve him in self-praise. This has been
unconvincingly interpreted as meaning that for him she had become such
that to speak of her death would reflect glory upon him as well as upon her.
He limits himself to showing that the date of her death, at the ninth hour
on 9 June 290, calculated by the Arabian, Syrian and Roman calendars,
corresponds in hour, day, month and year with the number nine, ‘with which
number she was always associated’.
Funerals were very public affairs in Florence and the mourning for a
beautiful young woman, whose father had been renowned, whose husband
also was an eminent citizen, must have been widespread. Dante, the distin-
guished poet, whose poems to her were so much admired, and who was
also a close friend of one of her brothers, is likely to have been an honoured
guest, perhaps even one of the chief mourners. How could it have been
otherwise? It is possible even that one of his poems to her was recited or
sung, or, more probably, the lament in Latin which he says he wrote after
her death was read out at her funeral.15 To have spoken of this would indeed
have been to speak in praise of himself and this may well be what he means
when he speaks so mysteriously of his third reason for not discussing what
he calls ‘her departure from us’. This cannot simply mean her death, about
which, in fact, he goes on to speak at some length.
In writing previously of the death of the father of Beatrice, he does discuss
public aspects of that event, explaining that it was the custom in Florence
for women and men to mourn the dead separately.16 Thus it is that he sees
a group of women returning from mourning with Beatrice and hears them
exclaiming about her grief, saying ‘How bitterly she weeps!’ It makes Dante
himself weep to hear them and they are amazed, on passing him, to observe
his grief and say to each other, ‘Look at this man. He is so distressed that you
would think he had seen her weeping as we have.’ Dante would have liked to
speak with them but that would not have been fitting, for at such moments
men and women did not mingle.
Nevertheless, grief was as freely manifested in public as in private and it
was the pious duty of relatives and friends to wail and lament out loud, or,
to use the Irish word, to ‘keen’. After this ritual, came the funeral, the coffin
being carried through the streets, followed by a long procession in which
members of the public joined, as may still be seen in Italy to this day. The
funeral of Beatrice would have been an event of great social importance in
Florence. Dante in fact speaks of the city as being widowed by her loss.
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 29

In the second canzone, which occupies a central position in the book,

he describes the nightmare he suffered during his illness, in which he saw
Beatrice lying dead. His commentary contains details which suggest that he
may actually have gone to her house and witnessed the ritual of her laying-
out:
I seemed to go to see the body in which that most noble and blessed soul
had been; and the illusion was so powerful that I saw my lady lying dead,
and women seemed to be covering her, that is, her head, with a white veil. …
When I had seen all the sorrowful necessities completed which it is necessary
to perform for the bodies of the dead, I thought I returned to my room.17
He insists that all this was the vain imagining of a nightmare, but some
commentators believe that this poem was written after her death and inserted
into La Vita Nuova as a pseudo-prophetic vision. If this is the case, he may
have converted what actually happened to the status of a dream. From an
episode related earlier in the work, it appears that he had paid at least one
such visit of respect, on the occasion of the death of a young woman ‘who
had graced the city with her loveliness’:
I saw her lifeless body lying where many women were mourning piteously over
it. When I remembered that I had seen her formerly in the company of my
most gracious one I could not help shedding a few tears.18
And as he wept he decided to compose something about her death.
His grief on the death of Beatrice is overpowering. He makes no attempt
to conceal it; on the contrary he deliberately makes it public and seems to
take comfort in the fact that people are concerned at his forlorn aspect. He
has reached the stage where the merest glance of sympathy sets him weep-
ing again, when he catches sight of a beautiful woman looking at him from
a window with every appearance of compassion.
He never names this woman, probably because she was still alive; she is
referred to simply as la donna gentile (‘the gracious lady’). He finds himself
drawn more and more to her; he writes sonnets to her; he debates with
himself as to the nature of this new attachment. It must, he thinks, be a very
noble love, but he then declares that his heart is the enemy of his reason19
and he reproaches himself with infidelity to the memory of Beatrice. Finally
he has a vision of her as a child, as he first saw her, and this makes him
resolve to put an end to the affair.
In Il Convivio Dante interprets the donna gentile as Philosophy. He does
not deny, however, that she was a real woman. This is another example of
perceiving an actual person as an image of something beyond herself. He
says that she replaced Beatrice and that this can be confirmed by reference
to the end of La Vita Nuova. This is one of the most disputed passages in
30 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Dante’s writings. At the end of the earlier work Dante says that his love for
Beatrice ended by being victorious over his feelings for the donna gentile,
not the other way round. Attempts have been made to reconcile the two
texts. It has even been suggested that there was an earlier version of La Vita
Nuova, which Dante then altered. The apparent contradiction can be solved,
however, if we understand that in Il Convivio he is referring to his resolve
to put off writing poems about Beatrice until he had completed a period of
study. In other words, it is a question, not of one woman replacing another,
but of one activity (the writing of love poems to Beatrice) being superseded
by another (the study of philosophy).20
Why did Dante introduce the donna gentile into La Vita Nuova at all?
Probably because the poems he wrote to her had been heard by many
people, who were also aware of his new attachment. The poems needed to be
explained, as did the affair. For a real affair it probably was and, as affairs do,
it came to an end. Nevertheless the consolation he derived from it was later
perceived by him to be an image of the consolation he derived at the same
period from his study of philosophy, and this is a concept he pursues, not
without further obfuscation, in Il Convivio.
His affair with the donna gentile had brought his grieving to an end. If,
as seems likely, he was by then married to Gemma Donati, it must have
tried her patience to have a husband continually in tears. Perhaps Guido
Cavalcanti suggested writing La Vita Nuova as a remedy. Many poets, Ted
Hughes, to take a modern example, have tried a similar therapy. In Dante’s
case, there seems to have been a need to reveal as well as a desire to conceal
and mislead. Both poems and explanations are equivocal.
Up to this point, Dante’s poems had been known more by ear than
by eye. Parchment was expensive and even paper was scarce, so few writ-
ten copies can have been in circulation. La Vita Nuova, on the other hand,
was intended as a permanent document, to be referred to by those who
wished to know how the poems came to be written and how they should
be understood. At the same time, it is also possible that the work was read
aloud, possibly by Dante himself. The analytical sections represent what
was known as a divisio textus, a division of the text into parts according to
content. Contemporary readers, accustomed to this method of clarification,
no doubt found it enlightening. Modern readers find it tedious. It is said
that when Dante Gabriel Rossetti was at work on his translation, he found
these passages so uninspiring that he asked his brother William to translate
them for him.
What is intriguing is that the divisions do not correspond to the formal
structure of the poems. The emphasis is on the argument and its devel-
opment. Dante evidently thought it necessary to make clear where these
 DANTE AND GUIDO CAVALCANTI 3

articulations occur, as though the metrical form of the poem or its musical
setting would obscure the meaning. It may also be that the analyses were
intended as a guide to those who wished to read the poems aloud, or to
composers invited to set them to music. Whatever their function, they play
an important part in the structure and design of the work.
The arrangement of La Vita Nuova is based on an elaborate pattern, of
which the number nine (the square of three, the symbol of the Trinity) is
the key. The 3 poems are placed in the following sequence: ten short poems,
one canzone, four short poems, one canzone, four short poems, one canzone,
ten short poems. The mid-point of this series is the second canzone. With
its supporting eight short poems, four preceding and four following, it is the
centre of a central group of nine. This central group is flanked by two ones,
which are in turn flanked by two tens, thus:
0 +  + 9 +  + 0
which can also be arranged as:
+9++9++9+
in which the number nine occurs three times.
The second canzone is the central panel of a triptych, of which the first
and third canzoni are the supporting panels to the left and right. This can be
taken to signify the division of Dante’s life into two parts, the period before
Beatrice’s death and the period after it. The pattern is further emphasized
by a bilateral symmetry in which the earthly life of Beatrice at the begin-
ning is mirrored by her celestial nature at the end. The mirror-imaging is
further managed by the position of the analyses of the poems, which before
Beatrice’s death follow them and after her death precede them, in order,
Dante says, that the later poems may seem more ‘widowed’.
This fascination with numerical pattern is characteristic not only of
Dante but of his contemporaries. By understanding the virtue of numbers,
the relationship between them, their squares and their cubes and what was
known as mystic addition,21 it was possible to see that the same mathemati-
cal laws governed all life. In making a work of art it was necessary to employ
a numerological symbolism in order to control the relationship of its parts
to the whole. Such patterns of thought had been inherited from Pythagoras
and preserved for the Middle Ages by St Augustine and Martianus Capella,
among others. The doctrine of the Trinity led Christian writers to perceive
patterns of three throughout creation and to construct their works accord-
ing to a triple pattern. What is unique in Dante is the extraordinary skill he
would eventually show in applying such control to the construction of the
Commedia.22
32 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

We do not know how Guido Cavalcanti received La Vita Nuova. He

must have been gratified that it was written in accordance with his advice.
He was not to know, however, that it was the first step on an unprecedented
journey, for he died in 300. The circumstances of his death, in which Dante
was tragically involved, are part of Florentine politics, the subject of the next
chapter.
 CHAPTER 3
Disaster

I
t was 295. Dante was now 30. In 2 years, from being a young unknown
versifier, he had become an admired member of a distinguished group
of poets. His poems were sung, recited and memorized; copies were
made of them, even beyond Florence. He had given permanent form to a
selection of them in an elegantly constructed memorial to his lady. He was
married and had a young family. He had moved on from writing poetry to
Beatrice and was devoting himself to the study of philosophy and to the
writing of odes with a philosophic and social content. Now of mature age,
he had attained full citizenship of the Republic of Florence and was eligible
to take part in public duties. Perhaps it was now that he began to wear the
long dignified robe called the lucco.
Something very splendid had happened in the spring of 294. Charles
Martel, great-grandson of King Louis VIII of France, who had been crowned
King of Hungary at the age of 9 and was also heir to the Kingdom of
Naples and to the County of Provence, visited Florence, where he remained
for three weeks, awaiting the arrival from France of his father, Charles II
of Anjou. The Florentines were overjoyed to welcome the young royal. He
arrived accompanied by 200 French and Neapolitan knights arrayed in scar-
let and dark green, their horses’ saddle cloths embroidered with gold lilies
bordered with gold and silver.1 Magnificent entertainments were organized.
Dante, the distinguished poet, was invited to take a prominent part and one
of his canzoni was performed.2 A friendship developed and Dante perhaps
hoped that Charles would offer him patronage in some sphere of public life.
Any hopes he may have had were blighted the following year when Charles
died of plague in Naples. Regret for what might have been is poignantly
conveyed in Paradiso, where the soul of Charles Martel, in the Heaven of
Venus, greets Dante by quoting the first line of the canzone,3 recalling their
affection and lamenting his early death, but for which Dante’s life might
have been very different.
This heady moment of finding himself close to power and in the midst
of splendour may have led to Dante’s decision to enter public life. To do so
it was necessary to join one of the guilds. He chose that of the Physicians

33
34 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

and Apothecaries. It has been said that the reason for his choice was that
manuscripts were sold at apothecaries’ shops; another may have been that
painters were also members of this guild. It is more likely that his new stud-
ies in philosophy rendered him eligible to the fellowship of men of science,
or ‘natural philosophy’ as it was called. To his distinction as a poet he was
adding the gravitas of the status of a student of philosophy. This enlarged his
professional as well as his intellectual range.
Dante’s family and that of his wife were Guelfs. The Guelf party had
held power in Florence for a quarter of a century, but the threat of reprisal
by Ghibelline exiles was always present. There had been an attempt in 289,
repulsed at the Battle of Campaldino, in which Dante had fought in the
cavalry. There was also the delicate problem of defending the independence
of Florence against the ambitions of the Pope while at the same time rely-
ing on Papal influence to discourage plans of the Emperor’s supporters to
encroach upon Tuscany.
Power within Florence itself swayed between magnates and commoners.
The oppression of the people by the nobles had recently provoked a rebellion,
led by Giano della Bella, himself a member of a noble family, who brought
about a reform of the government, enacted in a series of new laws known
as the Ordinamenti della Giustizia (Ordinances of Justice). These provisions
had come into effect in 293, only two years before Dante became involved
in political matters. All members of noble families were now excluded from
office, and harsh penalties were imposed on any manifestation of resist-
ance. On the other hand, participation in government was opened to wider
sections of the community than ever before. One result of these changes
was to set Guido Cavalcanti and Dante Alighieri on different sides. Guido,
a member of a noble family, was barred from office; Dante, of distinguished
but lesser lineage, was eligible for membership of a guild and so for partici-
pation in government.
The structure of the new Florentine government consisted of a
Gonfaloniere di Giustizia (Standard-bearer of Justice), who was an elected
official with an army of ,000 to enforce the Ordinances, supported by six
Priors, elected by the major guilds, who held office for two months. There
were three councils: one of 00 members which was responsible for finance;
one of 300 members which advised the official known as the podestà (elected
as an independent arbiter from outside Florence); and one of 50 members
which advised an official known as the Capitano del Popolo (Captain of the
People). Each council was re-elected every six months and no councillor
could be re-elected to the body on which he had just served. Power was thus
effectively distributed, balanced and curtailed, and members of the govern-
ment were vigilant in defence of their new constitution.
 DISASTER 35

Official documents record that Dante spoke in a number of debates. A

supporter of the White Guelfs, he was elected a member of the executive
body known as the Council of the Hundred and became recognized as an
eloquent and persuasive speaker. In May 300 he was sent as a delegate to
San Gimignano where he addressed the commune on a matter relating to
the Tuscan Guelf League. After five years of active participation he was
elected one of six Priors, to hold office from 5 June to 5 August 300.
By then the situation in Florence had become difficult and dangerous.
The Guelf party had split into two factions, known as the Whites and the
Blacks.4 The Blacks were reputed to be more militant and aggressive than
the Whites but in that respect there was little to choose between them.
The leader of the Blacks in Florence was Corso Donati, handsome, popu-
lar, aggressive and ambitious, the brother of Dante’s friend Forese and a
cousin of Dante’s wife. Like Dante, he had fought with valour at the Battle
of Campaldino.5 The leader of the Whites was Vieri de’ Cerchi, a member
of a family that had recently come into wealth and prominence and whose
ostentatious lives aroused resentment and envy. Guido Cavalcanti, though
disbarred from government, was an active supporter of the Whites. Corso
Donati was a bitter enemy of Cavalcanti, whom he dubbed insultingly
‘Cavicchia’ (a word meaning peg, an equivalent presumably of ‘prick’) and it
is said that he attempted to have him murdered. Cavalcanti, in retaliation,
aimed a spear at Corso, but missed. The magnates, or grandees, resented
being excluded from government and there were continual riots and protes-
tations.
The office of Prior, representing the highest status in the Florentine
Republic, carried great prestige, but since it was tenable only for two months
it was held in turn by a fair number of persons. Election signified, therefore,
little more than good standing and the trust of one’s fellow participants in
public life. While it lasted the position was princely. Throughout their two
months in office Priors were obliged to live in seclusion, in the Torre della
Castagna, forbidden to accept private invitations or to have contact with
outsiders, rather like a jury under English law, protected from intimidation,
bribery or any other form of corrupt influence. When they walked abroad
they were distinguished by their coats of crimson cloth, adorned with ermine
linings, collars and cuffs. The Palazzo della Signoria, on which construction
began in the 290s, was intended as an improved official residence for the
Priors. What is now called the Piazza della Signoria was known in Dante’s
time as the Piazza dei Priori.
Even after his term of office, Dante was called upon to serve the Republic
in various ways. In April 30 he was appointed to superintend the widening
and straightening of a road in Florence, undertaken so that reinforcements
36 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

could be brought in easily to protect the city against attacks by the magnates
or against the return of exiled Ghibellines. On 9 June of that year he spoke
in two debates. On both occasions he opposed the application of Pope
Boniface VIII for support from Florence for a campaign he was waging
against personal enemies. A motion to send money and troops was carried
but Dante’s vote was recorded as a decided negative. This may be an example
of the kind of imprudence of which he later accused himself, in a letter seen
by Leonardo Bruni, in which he traced all his misfortunes to his election as
Prior.
His most painful duty befell him while he still held office. On May Day
300, six weeks before his election, violent rioting broke out in the city. The
hostility between the Black and White Guelfs came to a head and the Pope
sent Cardinal Matteo of Acquasparta to make peace; he did not succeed. On
23 June, the Eve of the Feast of St John the Baptist, the processing heads
of the guilds were set upon by some of the nobles, who shouted: ‘We won
Campaldino and now you keep us out of office!’ The Priors, in an attempt to
restore calm, decided to banish the leaders of both sides. The most promi-
nent of the Blacks were confined to Castel della Pieve in Umbria; the lead-
ers of the Whites, including Guido Cavalcanti, were sent to Sarzana in the
Lunigiana.6 This was a malarial district and Guido fell ill. In consequence,
he was allowed to return to Florence, where he died at the end of August
300.
This was a tragic ending to a friendship that had been so important to
Dante in his early years. He refers to it obliquely, with moving subtlety,
in Inferno. The fictional date of the journey through Hell, Purgatory and
Paradise is Easter Week of the year 300. When he began writing the
Commedia Dante had been in exile for several years. This gap between
fictional and real time enabled him to contrive pseudo-prophecies, making
his created persona, the character Dante, unaware of what was to happen.
One of the most memorable of these occurs in the Circle of the Heretics,
whose souls are entombed in burning sepulchres. The scene is dominated by
the towering figure of Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibelline warrior who led
a crushing defeat of the Guelfs at the Battle of Montaperti in 260.7
The proud heretic, who seems to hold all Hell in scorn, challenges the
traveller, whose voice he has recognized as Tuscan. ‘Who were your ances-
tors?’ he asks. Dante informs him. Farinata slightly raises his eyebrows
and says scornfully: ‘They were fierce enemies of mine, but twice I scat-
tered them.’ Dante, the Guelf, collects his self-command and replies, no
less challengingly: ‘They twice returned, but your party has not learned that
skill.’ This is a painful thrust: Farinata’s party had been in exile for 40 years.
Ghibelline and Guelf are now locked eyeball to eyeball and there is silence.
 DISASTER 37

The scene must have been full of drama for contemporary listeners, espe-
cially Florentines. The Battle of Montaperti and the intention of the victori-
ous side to raze Florence to the ground had not been forgotten. Members
of the Uberti family were permanently exiled and their property destroyed.
Farinata himself had been posthumously declared a heretic and his bones
disinterred from hallowed ground and scattered.
Before Farinata can retort, another soul rises from the same tomb, a less
impressive figure, reaching about up to Farinata’s chin. ‘I think,’ says Dante,
‘that he was kneeling.’ Looking bewilderedly round, as though searching for
someone, this second soul asks, in quavering tones, ‘If loftiness of intellect
gives thee the right to walk through this dark prison …
‘mio figlio ov’è? Perchè non è ei teco?’
Where is my son? Why is he not here with thee?’ 8
The thin, whining tones of the repeated vowel e in the original Italian are
skilfully suggestive of a querulous old man.
Dante realizes that this is the father of Guido Cavalcanti, reputed to have
been a heretic, and he answers, somewhat enigmatically: ‘I am not here by
my own virtue. He who waits there is leading me to her for whom perhaps
your Guido felt disdain.’ His use of the past tense ( forse cui Guido vostro ebbe
a disdegno 9) plunges the father into confusion and despair. Is his son then
dead? Dante hesitates in his reply and the soul falls back into the tomb in
grief.
Farinata, who has stood motionless, unmoved by this interruption,
resumes his confrontation of Dante, saying: ‘The continued exile of my party
torments me more than this tomb which is my bed; but within fifty months
you will know how difficult an art it is to return from banishment.’
This is a forecast of Dante’s own exile. Before he can reply, Farinata asks
him why the Florentines are so hostile to his descendants. Dante answers,
‘They have not forgotten the great slaughter that stained the river Arbia red
with blood.’ Farinata sighs and shakes his head: ‘I was not alone in that,’ he
says, ‘but when it was decided to destroy Florence, then I stood alone against
the council and faced them openly.’
Dante then conveys a perplexity, the reply to which contains what is in
fact a moving farewell to Guido, but so veiled that it has gone unnoticed:
‘You souls in Hell, it seems, can see the future, but are confused as to the
present.’ Farinata confirms that they are like people who have long sight:
they can see events far off but as things draw near their vision of them grows
dim. Dante now understands the other soul’s bewilderment and requests
Farinata to tell him that his son is still among the living.
38 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

That was true in the timeframe of the story, but what Dante the charac-
ter does not know is that Guido’s exile too is approaching, a sentence that
would be signed by Dante himself as Prior, and which would result in his
death. This is a hidden prophecy, impossible for the father to foresee because
it will happen so soon, of no concern to the haughty Ghibelline, though he
was Guido’s father-in-law, too painful for the writer Dante to convey more
plainly.
It is interesting to notice that when addressing both Farinata and
Cavalcanti senior, Dante uses the respectful voi, whereas they both address
him as tu. The same occurs in his conversation with Brunetto Latini,10 with
Guido Guinizelli,11 with Dante’s crusader ancestor Cacciaguida,12 and with
Beatrice (except in his farewell prayer to her). Here is an echo of the social
etiquette of Dante’s time. His form of address to Virgil, however, for all his
reverence of him, is the intimate tu, expressive of the close bond between
them.
The year 300 was of unique significance for the Christian world. Pope
Boniface had declared a Jubilee, offering plenary absolution to all repentant
pilgrims who visited the shrines of St Peter and St Paul and made a full
confession of their sins. There had been no such event on such a scale before.
The response was immediate and immense. Rome was crowded throughout
the year with pilgrims from all over Europe. Florentines too set out in great
numbers, on horseback, in carriages, on foot, staying at hostelries along the
way or camping out. Among them was Giovanni Villani. He was so affected
by the sight of Rome that he decided to write a chronicle, just as Edward
Gibbon, 500 years later, sitting among the ancient ruins, resolved to write his
history of the Empire’s decline and fall. Recalling his impressions, Villani
wrote:
Finding myself on that blessed pilgrimage in the holy city of Rome, behold-
ing the great and ancient things therein, and reading the stories and the great
doings of the Romans, written by Virgil and Sallust and Lucan and Titus
Livius and Valerius and Paulus Orosius, and other masters of history … I
resolved myself to preserve memorials … for those who should come after.13
Villani estimated that on every day of the Jubilee no fewer than 200,000
pilgrims thronged the streets. He himself had been in danger of being tram-
pled underfoot. Another chronicler, Guglielmo Ventura of Asti, estimated
that the total number for the whole year amounted to about 2 million.
Among the pilgrims from Florence was Dante. The first sight of Rome
to a traveller from the north was from Montemario. He would later make
his ancestor Cacciaguida allude to it in Paradiso.14 Crossing the bridge of
Castel St Angelo, Dante was impressed by the method of crowd control,
whereby the traffic was regulated into two columns, facing opposite direc-
 DISASTER 39

tions. He was to make satirical use of this in the arrangement he provides

for the panders and seducers in Inferno.15 But his attitude to Rome was not
scornful; quite the contrary. In Il Convivio he refers with awe to the ‘noble
city … the holy city, of which the very stones of the encircling walls are
worthy of reverence and the soil on which she stands more hallowed than
has ever been acknowledged’. 16
The vast crowds of pilgrims from near and far, mainly burghers and
simple peasants, with their clamour of foreign tongues, their alien dress
and aspect, provided Dante with his first physical awareness of the variety
and dimensions of the European world. Of this world Rome was the spir-
itual and historical centre, an inspiring vision that transcended local politics
and ambitions. By the time he returned to Florence his world view had
been enlarged and altered in ways that would ultimately provide him with
powerful themes for the Commedia. The spectacle of thousands of penitent
pilgrims, himself among them, arriving to make full confession of their sins
and to receive absolution, made an imaginative and spiritual impact upon
him. It is not surprising that when he came to write the allegory of his own
life-pilgrimage and of world disorder he should choose for its chronological
setting Easter Week of the year 300.
In the meantime, there were the dangers of Florentine politics. In the
disaster that was about to take place, three figures played prominent roles.
They were Pope Boniface VIII, Charles of Valois (the brother of the King
of France), and Corso Donati. Dante, esteemed and respected as a poet, but
otherwise at that time a minor figure, was about to be caught up in intrigues
of international politics over which he had no control but which were to
change his life for ever.
Benedict Caetani was elected Pope with the name of Boniface VIII in
294. The nephew of a bishop, he had a successful career in the secretarial
and diplomatic service of the Church, for which his study of canon law had
prepared him. He advanced from modest incumbencies to responsibilities
involving a range of diplomatic skills. In 265 he was sent to England with
Cardinal Ottobono Fieschi (later Pope Clement IV) who was charged to
pledge Papal support to Henry III in his conflict with Simon de Montfort.
There they remained for three years, during which time the Cardinal and
Caetani were imprisoned in the Tower of London. They were rescued by
Prince Edward (later King Edward I). In 276 Ottobono became Pope and
entrusted Caetani with the responsibility of collecting Papal tithes from
France. His experience was thus early involved with the role of the Papacy
in Europe. In 28 Simon de Brie, a French friend of his early years, became
Pope Martin IV. His election was disputed and Caetani supported him. In
return the Pope created him Cardinal Deacon, and Charles II of Anjou (the
40 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig 3. Pope Boniface VIII

 DISASTER 4

grandson of the King of France) entrusted him with confidential business.

He became involved as curial agent in conflicts between France, Sicily and
Aragon and observed with interest the prominent part played by Charles
of Valois, to whom at one point the Kingdom of Aragon was assigned. He
increased his personal fortune, holding a plurality of benefices, in France,
Italy and even one in Towcester, in the diocese of Lincoln, England.
His enemies accused him of simony (the trafficking of ecclesiastical
preferment in return for money or power) and of the aggrandizement of
members of his family. His election to the Papacy was beset with contro-
versy. After the death of Pope Nicholas IV in 292, the cardinals, in conclave
for two years, failed to agree on a successor. Finally an eccentric choice was
made. Pietro Morrone, a saintly hermit aged 80, who lived in a cell in the
mountains of the Abruzzi, was elected as Pope Celestine V. The office was
beyond his powers and after five months he abdicated. It was said that
Caetani put pressure on him to do so and that he intrigued to secure his
own election, which took place a few days later. Dante certainly believed this
to be the case and never forgave him for the part he was to play in the fate
of Florence. Of all the evil-doers in the Commedia he is the most repeatedly
reviled and execrated.
The turmoil in Florence was of grave concern to Boniface. He suspected
the White Guelfs of anti-Papal ambitions and determined to support their
opponents, the Blacks. Their leader, Corso Donati, who had been banished
from Florence in 299, broke bounds and went to Rome to conspire with
the Pope. Boniface decided to empower Charles of Valois as an intermedi-
ary and peacemaker. The Whites grew anxious about the independence of
Florence and their newly established constitution, for which they suspected
the Pope held no respect. They did not trust Charles of Valois either, and
they were right.
Heavy-featured, tall and thick-set, Charles shared the handsome looks
of his brother the king (known as Philip the Fair) but in a coarser mould.
A courageous soldier, ambitious and already powerful, he had been in the
sights of Boniface for some time as a useful tool. In October 30 Corso
Donati, having negotiated with the Pope, visited Charles in Siena, bringing
promises of Papal favour and offering 70,000 florins from the Blacks for his
support in Florence.
In the same month the Whites, anxious and in a weak position, sent an
embassy of three to Pope Boniface, requesting his assurance that Charles, if
he came as peacemaker, would be charged by His Holiness to uphold the
Florentine constitution. It is said that Dante was a member of the trio. If
so, it must have been a striking face-to-face encounter: the Pope, majestic,
five feet ten inches tall, florid-faced,17 Dante, five inches shorter, dark in
42 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

complexion, bearded by then, lean-faced and lantern-jawed, contemplating

him with his dark, deep-set eyes. According to tradition, the Pope received
the emissaries coldly. His plans had been made and he had no intention of
changing them. It is said that he dismissed two of the group but detained
Dante, possibly judging that he might prove hostile and uncompromising
if allowed to return to Florence, possibly also intending to involve him in
some compact or concession, or misleading him by flattery and diplomatic
skill into believing that this was so.
Meanwhile in Florence on  November, All Saints’ Day, Charles of Valois
arrived at the gates, ostensibly as a peacemaker. He gave a pledge of fair
conduct and the Whites had no option but to admit him. In addition to his
own troops, he was accompanied by 200 knights from Perugia and others
from Lucca and Siena, who had come, it was said, to do honour to the
brother of the King of France. He was lodged at the house of the Frescobaldi
family, across the river Arno. The Priors, one of whom was the chronicler
Dino Compagni, were alarmed by his military entourage. Charles invited
them to dine but they were prevented by their oath of office from accepting.
They agreed to meet him at Santa Maria Novella, and there in public assem-
bly they handed control of the city over to him. He swore to preserve the
peace but immediately gave orders for his followers to stand ready for action.
Three days later, Corso Donati arrived, illegally, accompanied by other exiled
Blacks, who were armed. It was a coup d’état. They flung open the prisons,
releasing more supporters, and set about pillaging the city, murdering the
Whites, and plundering and burning their houses. Charles did nothing to
restrain them. By 8 November new Priors had been elected (all of the Black
party) and plans were at once set in hand to pass sentences of banishment
upon the Whites.
Among them was Dante Alighieri.
 CHAPTER 4

The First Years of Exile

P
ope Boniface may have received the embassy not in Rome but in
Anagni,1 where it was his habit to withdraw to his family palace.
Anagni is some 30 miles south-east of Rome, on a hill in the prov-
ince of Frosinone, commanding a superb panorama of the valley of the river
Sacco and of Mounts Laziali and Lepino. There in his moments of leisure
Dante may have walked along the narrow streets of the walled city and
prayed in the Cathedral, noting its aisled nave, its alternating square and
column-shaped piers, its three eastern apses, its spectacular crypt with a
multicoloured mosaic pavement, its walls decorated with frescoes of Biblical
scenes and allegories of the sciences and figures of the evangelists and saints.
The Caetani palace no longer exists,2 but at the time when Dante and his
two fellow delegates may have been received there it glittered with Papal
splendour. The city was soon afterwards to be the scene of a sensational
outrage.
Released at last, Dante rode northwards along the wintry roads, accom-
panied by an armed escort3 and carrying in his saddle-bags the few garments
and belongings he had brought for what he had assumed would be a brief
stay. On reaching Siena he received news of the disaster that had befallen
the White Guelfs in Florence. The murderous violence, the plunder and
destruction of houses, including his own, made it impossible for him to
return there. He had no way of making contact with his wife. Since Gemma
was a Donati and a cousin of Corso, he could hope that she and the chil-
dren had been granted shelter and protection. This seems in fact to have
been the case. For himself, his only immediate option was to join his fellow
exiles who were gathering in Gargonza, near Siena. As he rode on, shocked
and anguished, he reviewed in his mind what had occurred. He knew that
Charles of Valois had been charged to respect the constitution of Florence
and to function justly as peacemaker. It was now obvious that he had had
no intention of doing so. This was deliberate treachery and Dante would
later refer to him contemptuously as being ‘armed with the lance of Judas’.4
But he saw clearly now that the real villain was Pope Boniface, who had all

43
44 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

along schemed and intrigued to gain control of Florence, even to the point
of preventing Dante, the most able of the deputies, from putting his fellow
Whites on their guard. A fierce hatred, never to be extinguished, flared up in
Dante’s heart and would ultimately fuel the great work he was to write.
His arrival at Gargonza must have caused a stir of interest and excitement.
Here was Dante Alighieri, the distinguished and eloquent man of letters,
invested with the dignity of a former Prior, who had recently parleyed with
the Pope. Exile was a common weapon in those days. The community that
received him was only one of many such groups of political refugees, expe-
rienced in the routine of supplying shelter, food and clothing and of sharing
funds. They at once involved him in their plans for a return to Florence,
whether by negotiation or by force. They were too few to take action on
their own. The only thing to do, however distasteful it might be, was to make
common cause with previously exiled Ghibellines, some of whom were now
of the second or third generation, their banishment having lasted since their
defeat by the Guelfs at the Battle of Benevento in 266.5 Their first joint
meeting probably took place in February 302. There was no doubt a differ-
ence between those newly exiled, with the shock and pain fresh upon them,
and those who had come to terms with their predicament and made lives
and careers for themselves, though nurturing still a desire for vengeance and
hopes of an eventual triumphant return.
A second joint meeting took place in June 302 at San Godenzo, 20 miles
to the north-east of Florence. Plans were made for military action. Thus
Dante, the former cavalryman, found himself at the age of 37 caught up once
more in a world of combat and military strategy. By then two sentences of
banishment had been passed on him. On 27 January 302 he and four others
were accused in absentia of corruption, prohibited from ever again holding
public office in Florence, fined 5,000 florins and banished from Florentine
territory for two years. They were required to appear before the new Priors
within three days to pay the fines. If they failed to do so their property would
be confiscated. On 0 March the banishment against him and 4 others
was extended to perpetuity, with the further decree that if they returned to
Florence they would be burned alive.
Dante could only co-operate with his fellow exiles. More and more kept
arriving, bringing continued reports of rioting, murder and the burning of
property. They began to organize their campaign. There were several minor
skirmishes but for the most part the Blacks maintained the advantage. In
the summer of 302 there was further inconclusive fighting in the Mugello
area,6 which continued until September. It has been said that Dante took
part in these early combats, though he seems somewhat over-age to have
done so. He was probably more usefully employed as a delegate and spokes-
 THE FIRST YEARS OF EXILE 45

man. In the autumn of 302 he went to Forlì, in Romagna, 20 miles north-

east of San Godenzo. His mission there was to enlist the help of Scarpetta
Ordelaffi, head of a Ghibelline family, whom the White Guelfs were will-
ing to accept as their commander-in-chief. Plans were made for an attack
against Florence in March 303. Known as the Second War of Mugello, it
was a humiliating failure for the exiles.
By May or June 303 Dante was in Verona, at the Ghibelline court of
Bartolommeo della Scala. He was to speak of Verona as his first refuge and it
seems that Bartolommeo extended a generous welcome to the celebrated poet
from Florence.7 His original purpose may have been to enlist Bartolommeo’s
help against the Blacks. He found other Florentines in Verona,8 including
members of the Alighieri family, cousins on his father’s side. Also in Verona
was Lapo degli Uberti, the son (or nephew) of the famous warrior Farinata,
the victor of the Battle of Montaperti against the Guelfs of Florence in
260, whom Dante was to evoke so powerfully in Inferno.9 Conversation
with Lapo and other members of the Uberti family no doubt provided him
with a vivid impression of the personality of the Ghibelline who by force of
character had reversed the decision of the victorious side to raze Florence
to the ground. Why, his descendants asked, did the Florentines persist in so
ferocious a vendetta against them? In Canto X of Inferno, as has been shown,
Dante gave this question to the soul of Farinata and contrived for him to
make what is in effect a plea for forbearance.10
As the renowned author of love poems, he would have been a figure of
interest, especially to women, some of whom may have aspired to console
him for the loss of Beatrice. There is a tradition in the family of the painter
Altichiero11 that they are descended from an illegitimate offspring born
of Dante from this period of his life. Some sexual release he must have
sought and love affairs are reflected in several of his poems written during
his exile.12
While he was still a guest at the court of Bartolommeo, an event occurred
that shocked the Christian world. Known as the Scandal of Anagni, it was a
sacrilegious attack upon the person of Pope Boniface which led to his death.
Among the enemies of Boniface was Philip IV of France who persisted in
the taxation of clergy without Papal consent. Boniface issued a Bull forbid-
ding such procedure under penalty of excommunication. In reply Philip
forbade the export of currency and valuables, thereby reducing the Papal
revenue. Boniface made certain concessions, being obliged to do so by his
war against the Colonna family, bitter enemies of the Caetani. Boniface led
a successful campaign against them and in 298 they surrendered. They were
absolved but not reinstated in their possessions. Some fled to France and
conspired with Philip against Boniface.
46 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

To further his own interests, Philip called a general council to investigate

charges of heresy and profligacy against Boniface, who promptly announced
his excommunication. On the eve of the publication of the Bull, Boniface
was attacked in his residence in Anagni. The date was 6 September 303. The
coup was led by Sciarra di Colonna and the French emissary Guillaume de
Nogaret. They were supported by a number of Italians who had grievances
against Boniface. They also had allies inside Anagni itself.
At 6 o’clock in the morning, 300 armed men on horseback and ,000
men on foot entered the town of Anagni by a gate left open by treachery and
thronged the narrow streets. An Englishman, William Hundleby, proctor of
the Bishop of Lincoln, sent back an agitated account:
Men and women were leaping from their beds and opening the doors, asking
the cause of such hubbub, and it was discovered that Sciarra Colonna … had
entered the town with a great force acquired through the King of France, to
seize the Pope and bring about his death.13
Bells rang and people rushed out into the market place. Some of the inhab-
itants, including members of the Papal guard, welcomed the intruders. The
houses of cardinals were plundered and three of them were obliged to make
their escape. The attackers arrived at the Caetani palace, where they found
Boniface, with only two cardinals in attendance.
Boniface was then in his 80s,14 suffering severe pain from a stone in the
bladder. He faced his enemies with dignity and courage and asked what they
wanted. Their demands were that he should reinstate the Colonna family in
their possessions, surrender Church treasure, renounce the Papacy and give
himself up as a prisoner. The Pope refused all their demands and the attack
was renewed. Only a few faithful retainers remained to defend him.
By 6 o’clock in the evening, Sciarra Colonna and Guillaume de Nogaret,
with their followers, forced their way into the Pope’s own chamber. He had
put on his Papal robes and confronted them seated on a throne, the crown of
Constantine on his head and the Keys and the Cross in his hands. He said:
‘Since, like Jesus Christ, I am to be taken by treachery and put to death, I will
at least die as Pope.’15 It is not known whether he was physically assaulted
but he was put under guard as a prisoner and his treasures were plundered.
By now the people of Anagni had begun to rally to his defence and decided
to rescue him. Nogaret was wounded but both he and Sciarra made their
escape. The Pope was escorted to the market place, where he absolved the
people, the French banner was trailed in the mud and women brought gifts
of food and wine. Boniface asked the people to restore any treasure they had
stolen and many did so. On 6 September Boniface left Anagni under the
protection of a guard sent from Rome. On the 8th he reached his palace
in the Lateran and on the 2st he moved into the Vatican. He did not long
 THE FIRST YEARS OF EXILE 47

survive the effects of the attack and on 2 October he died.

News of the scandal aroused general consternation. Resentment against
Boniface was forgotten. There was criticism of the outrage even in France.
Christ had been assailed in the person of His vicar. The new Pope, Benedict
XI, who as Cardinal Nicholas Boccasini had been an eyewitness, preached
this view of the event in his sermons. Strange to say, Dante took his line
from him.
In Purgatorio, on the Cornice of the Covetous, Dante encounters the soul
of Hugh Capet, ancestor of the Capetian kings of France, who prophesies
and laments the sins committed by his descendants. Among them, he fore-
sees the outrage committed by Philip IV, ‘the new Pilate’:

‘e nel vicario suo Cristo esser catto;

veggiolo un’altra volta esser deriso;
veggio rinovellar l’aceto e ’l fele,
e tra vivi ladroni esser anciso …’
‘and in Christ’s Vicar, Christ a captive made;
I see once more the mockery and the railing,
I see renewed the vinegar and the gall,
’twixt two live thieves I see his deadly nailing …’ 16

In these words Dante is echoing a hymn written by Boniface himself, in

which he describes a vision of the Virgin Mary standing at the foot of the
Cross beholding ‘once more’ the sufferings of her Son: vede l’aceto ch’era
di fiel misto (‘she sees the vinegar mingled with gall’). The thrust of Hugh
Capet’s reproach is directed at Philip IV and his agents, the ‘two live thieves’,
Sciarra Colonna and Guillaume de Nogaret. Talk about the outrage must
have been lively at Verona. Dante could scarcely help having mixed feelings
about it. However greatly he despised and hated Boniface, he deeply revered
the sacred office he held. When he came to write the passage in Purgatorio
he expressed horror at the sacrilege but he also mocked the man himself by
making his own words echo back at him. He had already bitterly reviled him
in Inferno ; nor had he finished with him yet.
On 3 January 304 the new Pope appointed Cardinal Niccolò da Prato
as peacemaker in Tuscany, specially charged with reconciling the opposing
factions in Florence; for there was now much quarrelling among the Blacks
themselves, owing to the increasing ambitions of Corso Donati. The Cardinal
arrived in Florence on 0 March. This raised the hopes of the Whites who
looked to him not only to pacify the Blacks but to bring about reconciliation
with all the Tuscan Guelfs, thereby facilitating their return to Florence.
Bartolommeo della Scala died on 7 March that same year and Dante soon
afterwards left Verona. He went almost certainly to Arezzo, which was now
48 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the headquarters of the Whites. He had become one of their 2 councillors

and it was on their behalf that he wrote a letter to the Cardinal17 expressing
readiness to abide by his arbitration and promising a truce from warfare on
their part. From the text of the letter it is apparent that a communication
from the Cardinal had been conveyed to the exiled Whites by an unnamed
envoy (who has not been identified), referred to as ‘Brother L’. The letter is
a reply to an admonishment urging desistance from further military action
and is headed:
To the most reverend Father in Christ, their most blessed Lord, the Lord
Nicholas, by divine grace Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, Legate of the Apostolic
See, and by Holy Church ordained Pacificator in Tuscany, Romagna, the
March of Treviso, and the regions circumadjacent, his most devoted sons,
Alexander the Captain,18 the Council and the whole body of the White Party
of Florence, commend themselves in all devotion and zeal.
The text begins:
In submission to salutary admonishment19 and in response to the Apostolic
Holiness, after consultation which we held to be of value, we reply … to the
sacred communication you have addressed to us.
Lest the reply has seemed slow in coming, the writer of the letter (Dante)
begs indulgence, given
… the number and nature of the consultations and communications necessary
for the proper conduct of the affairs of our brotherhood and for the observance
of good faith with the league.
These words convey the tension and complexity of the discussions, with
messengers scurrying from post to post. Nevertheless the exiles reached a
consensus and commissioned Dante to say that the Cardinal’s letter had
filled their minds with joy:
… for the healing of our country, for which we have yearned, longing for it as
it were even in our dreams, in the course of your letter … is more than once
promised us.
They undertook to cease from all assault and acts of war and, as lovers of
peace and justice, to submit themselves to the Cardinal’s judgement and
commands:
With filial voice … we most affectionately implore that your most merciful
Highness may bedew with the calm of tranquillity and peace this Florence
so long tempest-tossed; and that as a loving father you may keep under your
protection ourselves, who have ever been defenders of her people, and all who
are under our authority.
 THE FIRST YEARS OF EXILE 49

The appeal is earnest, heartfelt and moving. Hopes have been raised. But the
Cardinal was unsuccessful in his mission: the Blacks would not agree to the
return of the Whites. Some had gone to Florence in advance as delegates
and on 8 June the Cardinal advised them to leave. Two days later the Blacks
renewed their burning of houses and the Cardinal departed, placing the city
under an interdict.
Soon afterwards Alessandro da Romena died and Dante wrote a letter
of condolence to his nephews, Guido and Uberto.20 Praising his virtues and
professing lasting remembrance, Dante laments the passing of so great a
Tuscan, in whom he, an undeserving exile (exul immeritus),21 had placed
his hopes of a return. He also excuses himself for not having attended
Alessandro’s funeral. It was not lack of respect or ingratitude that kept
him away but the poverty of exile, depriving him of horses and arms,22 a
poverty from which he struggles with all his strength to free himself, with-
out success.
On 7 July Pope Benedict died. His peacemaking attempts had failed and
the exiles did not know what to expect from Benedict’s successor, whoever
he was to be.23 On 20 July they made one last determined effort to re-enter
Florence, Dante having advised delay. White Guelfs and exiled Ghibellines
from Florence, reinforced by troops from Bologna, Arezzo, Pisa, Pistoia
and elsewhere, gathered at Lastra, near Fiesole, a few miles to the north
of Florence. Though planned carefully, the attack failed and some 400
Ghibellines and White Guelfs were slain.
It was about this time that Dante quarrelled irrevocably with his fellow
exiles and broke away from them, forming, as he said, ‘a party of himself
alone’.24 The disappointment of so many defeats, the compromises between
exiled Guelfs and Ghibellines, the failure of the peace mission of Cardinal
Niccolò da Prato, which had raised their hopes, and Dante’s advice to defer
action, which they considered responsible for their most recent failure, led
inevitably to recriminations, suspicion and calumny. Dante would speak
later of his former companions with extreme contempt and bitterness, call-
ing them vicious, violent fools and rejoicing in their ultimate failure.25 The
quarrel must have been violent. Possibly they had accused him of trying
to negotiate a return to Florence for himself in return for betraying their
military plans. To have been accused, unjustly, of corruption by the Blacks,
and now, possibly, to be made a scapegoat by his companions in misfortune
would have been hard to bear. One result of this rupture was that he was no
longer eligible for a share of the funds that the exiles made available to those
who co-operated in their cause. It is significant that shortly before the break
Dante’s half-brother, Francesco, was in Arezzo in May negotiating a loan on
his behalf.
50 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Dante was now on his own. There was no future for him in politics or
military combat. He must rely on his own abilities. He had been able to
add to his income now and then, as the opportunity arose, by undertak-
ing secretarial and diplomatic (possibly even secret) commissions. In Forlì
he served Scarpetta Ordelaffi in some such capacity. It is possible that in
Verona Bartolommeo also employed him in a similar manner. The relatively
tranquil period of his first sojourn there, the respect accorded to him as
a poet and philosopher, had led him to reconsider his future. It may have
been then, or soon afterwards, that manuscripts which he had left behind in
Florence came once more into his hands.
According to tradition, Dante’s nephew Andrea was asked by Gemma
Donati to look for certain documents she had hurriedly stored away
in a chest. Among various materials he came on papers in Dante’s writ-
ing. Boccaccio at first identified them wrongly as the first seven cantos of
Inferno. They were probably sonnets and canzoni that he had written after
the death of Beatrice. Perhaps they were brought to him by Francesco when
he visited him in Arezzo in May 304. It is unlikely that he came empty
handed. Indeed, the meeting between the brothers must have been charged
with emotion. Francesco was able to give him up-to-date news of his wife
and children and Dante could ask what chances he had of being recalled to
Florence. These were remote: even his two sons, Pietro and Jacopo, had been
included in a recent sentence of banishment when they should reach the age
of 4.
Turning over his manuscripts again and re-reading his poems, in particu-
lar his philosophic odes, he experienced a resurgence of his literary powers.
They were further stimulated by a renewal of his friendship with Cino da
Pistoia.
Cino da Pistoia26 was a member of a wealthy Guelf family, of the Black
faction, who took an active part in politics and was exiled from Pistoia for
three years, from 303 to 306. He was a distinguished jurist, whose Lectura
in codicem 27 is a commentary, still of fundamental importance to legal histo-
rians, on the first nine books of the Codex of Justinian. He was also a lyric
poet, admired by both Dante and later by Petrarch. He and Dante had been
friends for many years and had exchanged poems, continuing to do so even
during Dante’s exile. It was once thought that Cino was among those who
replied to Dante’s earliest sonnet.28 When Beatrice died he sent Dante a
canzone in condolence, from which Dante quotes a line in De Vulgari
Eloquentia.29
They met again in Bologna, during Cino’s exile there, between 304 and
306. The change of environment offered refreshment to Dante’s mind and
senses. The city, with its Roman street plan, its 70 towers, its buildings and
 THE FIRST YEARS OF EXILE 5

arcades of russet and pink-toned local sandstone, was dignified and prosper-
ous. It was also a city with a university, one of the oldest in Europe,30 famous
as a centre of jurisprudence, where Cino was teaching Roman law. Dante
could mingle with other intellectuals, lawyers, physicians and men of letters.
He had access to manuscripts. He could attend lectures, including those
delivered by Cino. University and legal texts were reproduced quickly and
efficiently, being distributed in parts, to allow several scribes to work from a
single copy. Bibles, choir books, guild statutes and registers were produced
more slowly, many of them beautifully illuminated, by Oderisi of Gubbio,
whom Dante met, and later by Franco Bolognese.31 Here he was a witness
to the handing down of the principles of Roman civilization to the contem-
porary world torn by tumult and disorder. Conversations with Cino, it may
reasonably be assumed, enriched and enlarged his hopes for the future.
The fact that Cino was a member of the Black Guelfs of Pistoia made
no difference to their friendship. Their mutual concerns transcended party
politics. They shared an interest in the traditions linking the ancient Roman
Empire with the authority vested in the Emperor of contemporary Europe.
Cino as a poet was closely associated with Dante’s literary past. In a sense
he was a replacement for Guido Cavalcanti but destined to be even more
influential. Two works which Dante began in Bologna were the outcome of
this renewed relationship. One of these, De Vulgari Eloquentia, is the subject
of the next chapter.
 CHAPTER 5

Language and Poetry

I
n the university city of Bologna, surrounded by scholars, Dante felt
drawn to resume intellectual activity. His renewed contact with his
friend and fellow poet, Cino da Pistoia, revived his memory of the style
that they and other members of the Fedeli d’Amore had developed for their
poems. It occurred to him that no one had written on their literary use of the
vernacular, nor had even defined what that literary vernacular was. He now
undertook to do so. The result of his resolve was a work in Latin prose, De
Vulgari Eloquentia (‘On the Art of Writing in the Vernacular’).
It shows many signs of having been delivered orally, as a course of lectures,
and later published in a reader’s edition.1 This is not the usual view but once
it is accepted as a possibility many unnoticed features of the work, as well as
aspects of Dante’s personality, leap from the page. Dante’s position in rela-
tion to the University was equivalent to the modern situation of a poet in
residence. Here was a poet-scholar, recently arrived in Bologna. His friend
Cino, who as well as being a poet was also a learned professor of jurispru-
dence, was in a position to recommend and sponsor him.2 Having quarrelled
with his fellow exiles, he was no longer eligible for a share in their funds and
needed to earn what money he could.
The work begins with an announcement of novelty:
Since I do not find that anyone before me has dealt with the doctrine of the
vernacular language … and since it is my wish to enlighten to some little
extent the discernment of those who walk through the streets like blind men,
generally fancying that things which are in front of them are behind them,3
I will endeavour, the Word aiding me from Heaven, to be of service to the
vernacular speech.4
Vernacular speech he identifies as ‘that which we acquire without any rule,
by imitating our nurses’. From this is derived a ‘secondary speech’, which
the Romans called ‘grammar’. This, he states, is artificial and it is the natural
speech he first undertakes to define and describe.
To explain the variety of languages throughout the world, he has recourse
to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, a story he takes literally. This
is not surprising, any more than his literal belief in Adam, ‘the man who had

52
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 53

no mother, was never suckled, who never saw either childhood or youth’, and
who received the gift of speech direct from God. The language he spoke,
Dante says, was Hebrew. He was to change this belief when he wrote in
Paradiso of his encounter with the soul of Adam, who reads in his mind the
desire to know, among other things, what language he spoke in the Garden
of Eden. From Adam’s words it is apparent that Dante later thought that
language was a product of human reason and, as such, susceptible of change
and decay.5
What is surprising, and delightfully so, is to find him, in De Vulgari
Eloquentia, vividly imagining the workmen building the Tower of Babel:
Some were giving orders, some were acting as architects, some were building
the walls, some were adjusting the masonry with rules, some were laying on
the mortar with trowels, some were quarrying stone, some were engaged in
bringing it by sea, some by land …6
Having surveyed the main linguistic groups of Europe, he discusses
change and development. Just as manners and dress alter, as he has noticed,
travelling from one part of Italy to another, so do languages, with time and
place. Of this he gives an eerie example, which must have stirred the imagi-
nation of his listeners:
I boldly affirm that if the ancient inhabitants of Pavia were to rise from the
dead they would speak another, different language if they talked to Pavians of
the present day.7
Because of gradual, imperceptible change it became necessary to devise
rules (‘grammar’) to secure a fixed identity of language. As in the case of
Latin, literary forms were developed also for French, Provençal and Italian.
French, identified by its affirmative oïl,8 is pleasant and easy, a fit vehicle
for the translation of the deeds of the Trojans and Romans, of works of
history and learning and of ‘the most beautiful adventures of King Arthur’
(Arturi regis ambages pulcerrimae), a hint of the pleasure Dante took in
Arthurian romances. Provençal, identified by its affirmative oc,9 a sweet,
polished language, has served the art of the troubadours. Italian, identified
by its affirmative sì,10 the sweetest of all three, has been the medium of the
subtlest poets, ‘like Cino da Pistoia and his friend (amicus ejus)’, namely
Dante himself. This graceful compliment to Cino, accompanied by the refer-
ence to their friendship, occurs several times in the work. If Cino was in the
audience, as he may have been, this would have made the allusion all the
more meaningful. There is an echo here of the references in La Vita Nuova
to Guido Cavalcanti as his ‘first friend’.
He next moves to a consideration of the many forms of Italian vernacu-
lar speech, in order to discover which one, if any, is fit to be the basis of
54 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

a literary language for writers all over Italy. He compares the search for
an ideal vernacular to a hunt (he later compares it to hunting a panther),
saying:
[I]n order that we may be able to have a practicable path for our hunt, let us
first clear the bushes and brambles out of the wood.11
The ‘bushes and brambles’ (frutices atque sentes) are the dialects he dislikes
most and he gives examples: the speech of Rome, Spoleto, Ancona, Milan,
Bergamo, Aquileia, Istria, the Casentino and Prato. He is particularly
contemptuous of the vernacular of Rome:
[T]he vulgar tongue of Rome, or rather their hideous jargon, is the ugliest of
all the Italian dialects.12
He also feels great scorn for the Sardinians (‘who are not Italians’), though
he is not known ever to have been to the island. He has heard that their
original language has died out and says disdainfully that they now attempt
to speak Latin, ‘as apes imitate men’.13
Wandering from place to place, he has become aware of many different
accents and idioms. Why does speech differ so greatly in Italy, he asks, as
for instance between Pisa, Padua, Milan, Verona, Rome and Florence? And,
what is even stranger, why does it differ between parts of the same city, as for
instance in Bologna, where speech alters between one district and another,
such as Borgo San Felice and Strada Maggiore? Here is a local example,
chosen specially for a Bolognese audience, conjuring up the figure of Dante
walking about the city, listening, like a mediaeval Professor Higgins, to the
passers-by and noting with surprise the variations in their talk. The tone of
this section of the work is so informal and intimate that it brings us along-
side Dante, listening with him. It is likely that in quoting examples of local
barbarisms, as he calls them, he imitated the various accents.
He knows too how to amuse an audience. Concerning the speech of
Genoa he says:
[I]f the Genoese were so careless as to lose the letter z, they would have either
to be dumb altogether, or to invent some new kind of speech, for z forms the
greatest part of their dialect and this letter is uttered with great harshness.14
The towns at the extremities of Italy, such as Trent, Turin and Alessandria,
are situated so near the frontiers that they cannot possess pure languages:
Even if their vernaculars were as lovely as they are hideous, I would still say that
they were not truly Italian because of the foreign elements they contain.15
And he adds, with arrogant finality:
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 55

If anyone has any doubt about this, I do not consider him worthy of any reply
from me.
As for the Venetians, there are not many who would put in a claim for their
language, but
if any of them, trusting in error, should cherish any delusion on this point, let
him ask himself if he has ever said
Per le plaghe de Dio tu non veràs.
By God’s wounds thou shalt not come.16
It is difficult to see what he found so offensive about this example, at least
in its written form, which is quite similar to Tuscan, which he himself spoke
and wrote: Per le piaghe di Dio tu non verrai. It must have been the Venetian
accent which he found objectionable and which he mimicked.
Love of one’s mother tongue, that is to say the vernacular one learns in
childhood, should not lead one to rate it above all others. In speaking of his
own he gives moving expression to his love of Florence, which nevertheless
he does not allow to prejudice him:
[T]hough I drank of the river Arno before I cut my teeth, and though I love
Florence so dearly that for the love I bore her I am wrongfully suffering exile,
I rely on reason rather than sentiment. And although as regards my own
pleasure and physical comfort there is no more agreeable place in the world
than Florence, yet when I unroll the volumes17 of poets and other writers
who describe other places in the world it is my considered and firm opinion
that there are many countries and cities both nobler and more delightful than
Tuscany and Florence, and also that a great many nations and races use a
speech more agreeable and serviceable than Italians do.18
Dante here thinks back, imagining himself as an infant hearing the Florentine
voices of his nurse, his mother, his father and other members of the house-
hold long before he could understand them. As he says also in Il Convivio, a
work he was writing concurrently with this, the vernacular his parents spoke
brought them together and thus resulted in his own existence. He retained
his Florentine way of speaking and it is intriguing to realize that in lectur-
ing in Latin to a Bolognese audience he would have pronounced it with a
Florentine accent.
Although he dearly loves Florence, and would later recall with regret the
pleasure and comfort of living where bread did not taste of salt and where
the stairs of his house were familiar beneath his feet, he is bitterly scathing
about the claims of Tuscans that their vernacular is superior to all others:
[I]nfatuated in their frenzy they arrogate to themselves the title of the illustri-
ous vernacular; and in this matter not only the minds of the common people
are crazed, but many distinguished men have also embraced this delusion.19
56 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

He cites as examples Guittone of Arezzo,20 Bonagiunta of Lucca,21 Gallo of

Pisa,22 Mino Mocato of Siena23 and even his revered Brunetto of Florence,24
all of whose style he terms merely municipal. With scorn he cites in rapid
succession discordant examples of the speech of Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena
and Arezzo. It is as though he is reading from an actor’s script, cued for the
imitation of five different accents. He acknowledges, however, that though
‘almost all the Tuscans are obtuse as regards their degraded dialect’, several
writers have selected its better qualities and made good use of them; in
this connection he names Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni and ‘another’
(himself ), who are all Florentines, and Cino who is a native of Pistoia.
Leaving Tuscany, he moves next to the eastern territories of the Italian
peninsula:
Crossing now the leaf-clad shoulders25 of the Apennines, let us continue our
hunt on the left side of Italy, beginning from the east.
In Romagna he finds two types of dialect with opposite characteristics.
One, because of the softness of its words and pronunciation, seems so femi-
nine that it makes a man sound like a woman. He has noticed this espe-
cially in Forlì. (This is perhaps a jibe at Scarpetta Ordelaffi who failed in
the attack he led against the Florentines in March 303.) He greatly dislikes
the speech of Brescia, Verona, Vicenza and Padua. With their ugly contrac-
tions of endings in -to and -tà, their dialects are bristling and shaggy and
with their rough harshness distort a woman’s speech, making her sound like
a man. He also condemns the Trevisans, who like the Brescians and their
neighbours, pronounce v as f, as in nof for nove and vif for vivo, which he
regards as a gross barbarism. He singles out for special praise one writer of
the Veneto who has striven to depart from his mother tongue and to use
a justly balanced (his word is ‘curial’) vernacular, namely Aldobrandino of
Padua.
This is an intriguing allusion. His name is unlikely to have been famil-
iar to his Bolognese audience but it had a special significance for Dante.
Aldobrandino dei Mezzabati of Padua held the office of Captain of the
People in Florence from May 29 to May 292. Dante met him then and
may have renewed acquaintance with him during his first visit to Verona.
A sonnet of Dante’s, written possibly during this period (or in Florence in
the 290s), was known to Aldobrandino, who replied to it. It concerns the
attempt of a woman named Lisetta to gain Dante’s affections but, find-
ing him attached to someone else, ‘she turns away, her face suffused with
shame’.26 Aldobrandino, in his reply, encourages Lisetta to try again. This
was perhaps a private jest. However it may have been, whether a real or an
imagined episode, here is the name of an obscure versifier, caught and held
for ever in the amber of Dante’s Latin prose.
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 57

Next comes a handsome compliment to the people of Bologna which

must have gratified his listeners. Their speech, he says, is more beautiful than
the others, containing elements borrowed from Imola, Ferrara and Modena
and resulting in a dialect tempered to a praiseworthy sweetness: ‘and this
without hesitation I judge to be the case’. In this Dante may have been
sincere as well as politic. The speech of the people of Bologna to this day is
particularly pleasing, being low and rich in tone, in comparison with which
the speech of Florence tends to be harsh and strident.
But, Dante continues, Bolognese speech is superior only when compared
with the other dialects. This does not mean that it is in itself the ideal liter-
ary language of Italy. If this had been so, Bolognese poets would not have
departed from it, as did Guido Guinizelli and his cousin Guido Ghisilieri,27
Fabruzzo28 and Onesto. The last mentioned, a Doctor of Laws, is known to
have been living in Bologna in 30. If he was still there in 304 Dante may
have met him. He is the only one of the last three mentioned whose poems
are known to have survived. Both Cino and Petrarch praised them.29
Resuming his metaphor of the chase of the panther, ‘who is fragrant
everywhere but nowhere apparent’,30 Dante recommends that we should
take up our hunting spears and encircle our prey in a systematic manner.
Like Italian characteristics in general, which are not peculiar to any one
town but are common to all, so the ideal vernacular of which he is in search
is not particular to any one region but is discernible in all. For this language
he invents four adjectives: illustrious, cardinal, courtly and curial.
These are not rhetorical categories or definitions. They are descriptions,
verging on metaphors. An ‘illustrious’ vernacular is that which is illuminated
by power, illuminates others and sheds lustre on the user. Examples of writ-
ers who have made excellent selective use of it are, once again, Cino da
Pistoia and his friend (himself ), as may be seen in their canzoni. A ‘cardinal’
vernacular is one upon which all the others hang and turn, as a door turns
on its hinge.31 ‘Courtly’ is that which is appropriate to a court: ‘hence it is
that all who frequent royal palaces always speak the illustrious vernacular’.
‘Curial’ is that which is well balanced, as are scales that are found in the most
excellent courts of justice.
In the following section,32 Dante proposes to say who is worthy to use
the ideal vernacular, for what subjects, as well as how, where, when, and
to whom it should be addressed. He considers first the use of it in verse,
which he regards as a model for prose. Those to whom Dante himself has
addressed his poems are fellow poets, a woman, or a particular group of men
and women, personifications and supernatural beings. Not all who write
verse are at liberty to use the ideal vernacular, nor is it appropriate for all
subjects, as for instance dwellers in mountains who would write of rustic
58 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

matters:
[L]anguage is as necessary an instrument of our thought as a horse is of a
knight, and since the best horses are suited to the best knights … the best
language will be suited to the best thoughts.33
Dante had served in the first rank of the Florentine cavalry and ridden
the finest horses available. In his present poverty he can no longer afford a
horse of any kind, but his thoughts are elevated above those of many who
can, for the best are to be found only in a writer in whom knowledge and
genius are combined (a clear reference to himself ). The illustrious language
confers the highest adornment but should not be used for inferior subjects.
For instance:
[W]e would not describe an ox with trappings or a hog with a belt as adorned,
rather we laugh at them as disfigured; for adornment is the addition of some-
thing appropriate.34
His next example of unsuitable adornment gives us a disconcerting
glimpse of what Dante’s attitude was to women when he was not writing
poems about them:
As to the statement that superior things mixed with inferior ones bring about
an improvement in the latter, that is true if the mingling is well judged, as when
for instance we mix gold and silver together; but if it is not, the inferior things
appear worse, as when for instance beautiful women are seen in the company
of ugly ones … or when an ugly woman is decked out in gold or silk.35
He then moves to consider which subjects are appropriate for the illus-
trious vernacular. He identifies three groups, under the headings Arms, Love
and Virtue (prowess in war, amorous passion and rectitude). As an instance
of the first category, he quotes the name of the Provençal poet Bertran de
Born. No Italian poet, he says, has written on the subject. He also cites two
other Provençal poets: Arnaut Daniel, who has written on love, and Giraut
de Borneil, who has written on rectitude. Of Italian poets he cites only Cino
da Pistoia, who writes on love, and himself (‘his friend’), who writes on
rectitude. He is alluding here to his philosophic canzoni, composed after the
death of Beatrice, presenting himself in a new role: no longer primarily a
love poet but a poet of righteousness.
Of the various forms in which poets have written, the canzone, the ballata
and the sonnet, Dante considers the canzone the most excellent. One reason
he gives for this is particularly interesting because of the light it sheds on
poetry as a performing art. If we take a right view of poetry, Dante says,
it is nothing more than a rhetorical composition set to music. Only the
canzone, however, has its individual melody (often surviving in manuscript).
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 59

The ballata is performed by dancers, who also sing the words, but the melody
is either well known and used for many different ballate, or improvised.36
Modern readers, for whom Dante’s poems are reduced to a page-to-eye-to-
mind experience, are deprived of a great deal of their original effect, which
must have been most beautiful, being not only sung but sometimes danced,
and accompanied on a musical instrument. It is possible that Dante, while
composing a canzone, had a melody in his head, or that indeed he sang as he
worked. When he comes to describe its structure, it is clear that the musical
setting is the first consideration.
Introducing this subject, he has recourse to a picturesque image: ‘We will
now,’ he says, ‘unlock the workshop of this craft (illius artis ergasterium reser-
emus).’ Like promising apprentices we enter his workshop and are first of all
solemnly admonished. Writing poetry, in particular a canzone, is a discipline
and must not be undertaken casually (casualiter). To attain perfection we
must copy the great poets of the past. As teachers of rhetoric we must also
follow their teaching. A poet must be careful to choose a subject suited to his
strength (as Horace advised in his Ars poetica), ‘lest he fall into the mud’.
Having thus induced in his audience a respectful attitude to the craft of
poetry, he defines three styles or levels of diction. The usual translation for
the Latin terms he uses is tragic, comic and elegiacal. This is misleading.
Even in classical Latin the adjective tragicus meant ‘grand, lofty, sublime’, as
well as ‘tragic’. The adjective comicus not only meant ‘comic’ but was used of
the subject of comedy, that is to say, ordinary or everyday. The word elegia,
in mediaeval Latin usage, could mean not only an elegy but also a composi-
tion that was merry or lascivious, that is to say, lowly or vulgar. For subjects
of the first category only the illustrious vernacular will do. For those of the
second category, an everyday vernacular may be combined with the lowly.
For subjects of the third category, only a lowly vernacular may be used.
It was Dante’s intention to give examples of all three levels, but unfor-
tunately the work does not proceed beyond Chapter 4 of the second book,
in which only the canzone and the illustrious vernacular are discussed. This
is a sad loss because Dante was to make use of all three categories of the
vernacular when he came to write the Commedia and it would have been
interesting to have his further comments in advance. He had already begun
to adopt a violent and lowly style in some of his canzoni, as for instance in
the one beginning Doglia mi reca nel core ardire (‘Grief brings boldness to my
heart’), which he quotes in this work as an example of a poem on righteous-
ness.37
He continues his consecrated approach to the composition of poetry.
Talent by itself is not sufficient. The writer must exercise caution and discre-
tion. He must make strenuous efforts to develop his inborn genius; he must
60 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

practise his craft with diligence; he must acquire the mental training of a
man of learning: hoc opus, hic labor est (‘this is a task, here is toil’).38 Dante is
here quoting from Virgil’s Aeneid, where the Sibyl addressing Aeneas speaks
of the few whom kindly Jupiter or their own shining worth lifts up into the
heavens as sons of the gods. Dante interprets these fortunate few as poets
who are fit to sing of the highest subjects in the highest style. It is evident
that among them he includes himself. The Sibyl’s words are immediately
preceded by a prophecy of the task that awaits Aeneas:
… facilis descensus Averno;
noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est …
… easy is the descent to Avernus;
night and day the doors of gloomy Dis stand open;
but to retrace thy steps and pass out into the upper air,
this is the task, here is the toil …39
The importance of this passage in relation to the Commedia can hardly be
overstated and it is fascinating to catch a glimpse of Dante’s mind already
engaged with it. For the present, however, he is concerned merely to express
scorn for those who being nothing more than geese aspire to soar like an
eagle to the stars.
Only the canzone is appropriate for the loftiest subjects, which must be
sung in the illustrious language, and only the best poets are fit to undertake
the task. Illiterate writers who burst forth into ill-constructed canzoni are
to be laughed at, ‘as we laugh at a blind man making distinctions between
colours’.40 Here is another instance of a disconcerting insensitivity on the
part of Dante, all the stranger when we recall the delicacy of his approach to
the blind on the Cornice of the Envious in Purgatorio:
A me pareva andando fare oltraggio,
veggendo altrui, non essendo veduto.
To me to pass on seemed discourteous,
since I saw them but they could not see me.41
He moves on to instruct his listeners on the tools of the craft. First, the
length of the lines: those of  syllables are the stateliest, though those of five,
seven or three syllables are also admissible. Next, the arrangement of words
in sentences: this varies from flat, moderately ornate, pedantic to elegant.
The first examples he gives are in Latin prose, one concerning his exile,
one concerning the negotiation of Charles of Valois with the Marquis of
Este, who lent him 0,000 gold florins, and the last concerning the treach-
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 6

erous overthrow of Florence by Charles and the subsequent failure of his

campaign in Sicily. The use of such events as examples of the technique of
Latin style show how bitterly the recent disasters were rankling in Dante’s
soul.
He also quotes examples of excellence in sentence structure from six
Provençal poets and from four Italians: Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti,
Cino of Pistoia and lastly, once again, himself. He recommends aspiring
writers to read Latin poets, such as Virgil, Ovid, Statius and Lucan, as well
as writers of lofty prose, such as Livy, Pliny, Frontinus,42 Orosius, ‘and many
others whom friendly solitude leads me to seek out’. The words ‘friendly
solitude’ (amica solitudo) evoke a touching picture of a lonely Dante finding
consolation in seeking out manuscripts in the University or in the shops of
apothecaries where manuscripts were sold. The chapter ends with a scornful
reference to those who in their ignorance praise Guittone of Arezzo and
others like him, who never managed to avoid plebeian words and construc-
tions.
We learn next about the classifications of words and how to discern which
are worthy to be used in a canzone. He identifies three main groups: child-
ish, feminine and manly. Examples of childish words are mamma and babbo,
which are to be excluded altogether. Feminine words, such as dolciada and
placevole, are too soft. Sylvan words, such as greggia and cetra, are too rough.
Urban words, which alone are admissible, he divides into groups for which
he uses terms associated with the cloth trade, with which, as a Florentine,
he was familiar: they can be combed-out and glossy, or shaggy and rumpled,
descriptions which indicate on Dante’s part a sensuous, tactile response to
words. It is as if, when he writes, he fingers the nap of what he weaves. The
combed-out and the shaggy words are the noblest and they alone belong to
the illustrious vernacular. By ‘combed-out’ he means words that have, prefer-
ably, three syllables, which are without an aspirate,43 which do not contain
the letters z or x, double liquids, or a liquid immediately after a mute letter.
Such words produce a sweetness, as in the case of amore, donna, disio, vertute,
letitia, salute, securitate, defesa. Shaggy words are either necessary monosyl-
lables, or words that may have a certain roughness, yet, when mixed with
combed-out words, produce a pleasing harmony. Examples are: terra, honore,
speranza, gravitate, alleviato, impossibilità, and even words of many syllables,
such as sovramagnificentissimamente, which has .
In quoting the last example, Dante resembles a collector who proudly
takes from his cabinet one of his most unusual specimens and holds it up
for admiration. There is even, he adds, a word of 2 syllables in Italian and 3
in Latin, but this falls outside the present discussion, as it would not fit into
a line of  syllables. The word in question is honorificabilitudinitate. This is a
62 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

joke word and one can imagine a smile on Dante’s lips as he uttered it. It is a
word that also amused Shakespeare, who used it in its 3-syllable Latin form
in the ablative plural: honorificabilitudinitatibus.44
We next learn how closely the construction of a canzone is related to
musical form. The music by itself does not constitute the canzone: no trum-
peter, organist or lute player would claim as much (and here we have a
fleeting glimpse of the musicians who accompanied the singers of poems).
Nevertheless, the whole art of the canzone depends on three things: first, the
division of the melody; second, the relation of the parts; third, the number
of lines and syllables.45 And since a canzone is a joining together of stanzas,
it is necessary to say what a stanza is.
The Italian noun stanza, from the verb stare, ‘to stand’, is primarily a
standing, or pausing. By development it came to mean a place where a pause
is made, or where one stands. By further development it came to mean a
room or a division of a house. That is the meaning that Dante attaches to
the stanza of a poem. It is interesting that he envisages it in this concrete
sense, for it indicates the architectural nature of his art, a feature particularly
evident in the Commedia. A canzone is thus a structure like a house in which
one moves from room to room, all designed in a unifying style.
The kinds of stanza used depend on the musical setting for which they
are designed. The musical form may consist of one continuous melody with-
out repetitions or it may be divided into two different melodic sections,
which Dante calls odi, a word that normally means ‘odes’ but here means
‘musical phrases’. According to where the repetition occurs, the stanzas are
divided into sections for which he uses the terms pes, volta, frons, sirma,
coda.46 These variations in structure are so intricate that an audience could
not have understood them without the help of musical accompaniment.
Dante has already mentioned three instruments, any one of which could
have been have been used for the purpose: a trumpet, a lute or an organ, that
is, an orgue portatif, a small portable keyboard instrument.
Concerning rhymes, Dante says that the poet relies on them for the
sweetness of the whole harmony of his composition. The pleasure Dante
takes in them and in their unifying effect, the beautiful linkage (concatenatio
pulcra) of one stanza with another, the final couplet of each stanza which
‘with rhyme falls into silence’ makes this section of the work one of the most
intimate and revealing. It also anticipates the importance that rhyme will
have in unifying the cantos of the Commedia in the interweaving pattern of
terza rima, which Dante has yet to invent.
Just as he is about to discuss the number of lines and syllables a stanza
should contain the work comes to an end. We have only time to learn that
this depends on the subject. If it is a sinister theme calling for rebuke, irony
 LANGUAGE AND POETRY 63

and invective, it should be brief. If it is a pleasing theme, calling for the

expression of joy and praise, the stanza should flow gradually with a fitting
richness to its conclusion.
It is not known why the work is unfinished. Certainly his plan for its
completion was clear in his mind. Of the manuscript only three examples
are extant, but they are not in Dante’s handwriting, of which, surprisingly,
no example is known to have been preserved. It is not impossible that a
complete version did once exist.
Enough remains to provide a portrait of the man he was in 304: harsh
and embittered by his misfortunes, arrogant and dismissive, keenly aware of
his talent, determined to gain recognition, but at the same time intellectually
enamoured of the high calling of poetry which he felt himself endowed to
serve.
 CHAPTER 6
Invitation to a Banquet

D
ante’s first book, La Vita Nuova, was written for fellow poets. His
second, De Vulgari Eloquentia, was written in Latin for a learned
audience and learned readers. Before he began it he wrote the first
section of another book and continued writing the two works together.
The title was Il Convivio (‘The Banquet’) and he wrote it in Italian. It was
intended for readers who had no opportunity or time to learn Latin, for
‘princes, barons, knights, and many other noble folk, not only men but also
women, who use the vulgar tongue and are not scholars’. 1 He had taken on
the role of moralist and educator and was addressing the widest public he
had ever attempted to reach.
His plan was to write 5 sections in all, beginning with an introduc-
tion and proceeding with an interpretation of 4 of his canzoni. The inter-
pretation is in two parts, literal and allegorical, and offers both scientific
information and moral instruction. The educative purpose was noble and
generous-minded: his mind is radiant with the joy of communicating what
he believes to be true and of using his genius to persuade us how the world
may be put right. The volume would have been immense if he had finished
it. In fact, only three canzoni are interpreted, making a work of four sections
in all. Completed, it would have totalled at least 300,000 words. It was to
have been his magnum opus.
A question arises: how did he propose to reach so wide an audience?
Did he at first offer the work as extra-mural lectures? There are several signs
in the text that this may have been the case. At one point he uses the word
voluptade (‘pleasure’) and adds: ‘I don’t mean voluntade [‘will’], I spell it with
a p.’2 At another point, using the word adorna (‘adorns’) he says: ‘This word is
a verb, not a noun, a verb, I mean, in the present tense of the indicative, third
person.’3 Both these interpolations suggest someone delivering a lecture and
might have been copied unnecessarily into a reading text. In addition, in the
first section, as will be shown below, he expresses embarrassment about his
impoverished appearance.
An oral delivery would not alone have been sufficient for his purpose,
however. To have a lasting effect, the work would have to be circulated,

64
 INVITATION TO A BANQUET 65

read and discussed. There were plenty of scribes in Bologna, but how did
he manage to pay them? Perhaps money he received from the University
for his work on the Italian vernacular was put to this use. If so, that would
explain why he began writing both works in tandem. As soon as parts of
both texts were copied, they could have been offered for sale and a source of
income thereby created. Demand may have dried up and that was perhaps
why neither work was completed. No other convincing explanation has been
suggested.
He had a personal as well as a public agenda in writing Il Convivio. The
poems inspired by the donna gentile, written after the death of Beatrice, had
been read aloud and circulated in manuscript. Rumours had reached him
that he was being criticized for being unfaithful to his first great love. He
undertook to show that this was a misunderstanding. He also wished to set
his canzoni in a context of high cultural importance.
He was sensitive not only to public opinion of his writings but also to
the impression he made on those who saw him. He plays for sympathy near
the beginning in words that are so direct and intimate that it is as though we
hear and see him being interviewed:
If the Disposer of the Universe had willed otherwise, men would not have
acted wickedly towards me and I should not have unjustly suffered punish-
ment, the punishment, I mean, of exile and poverty. Ever since the citizens of
the fairest and most renowned daughter of Rome, namely Florence, chose to
cast me out of her sweet bosom, wherein I was born and nurtured to manhood
and where, if she is willing, I long with all my heart to rest my weary soul and
end my allotted days, through nearly all the regions to which this language
extends I have been wandering, a pilgrim, almost a beggar, displaying against
my will the blows of fortune, which are often judged to be the fault of the
injured person himself. In truth I have been a ship without a sail, without a
rudder, blown to different ports and inlets and shores by the parching wind of
grievous poverty. And many people who have set eyes on me, imagining from
my reputation that my appearance would be different, have thought poorly of
me and my works, both those I had already written and any I might write in
the future.4
This, then, is how he thinks people think of him as he begins the work by
which he hopes to establish his reputation and even, perhaps, to earn an
honourable recall to Florence. He exaggerates a little about his wanderings
as an exile, since by 304 he had sought refuge only in Tuscany, Venetia and
Romagna; but he had been dependent, first on his fellow exiles and next
on the hospitality of Bartolommeo della Scala, and on whatever he could
borrow or earn. Once he went attired in the scarlet, ermine-trimmed mantle
of a Prior of Florence and lived in privilege in the Torre della Castagna. Now
66 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

his clothes are shabby and he has no home.

But he could give a banquet, a feast of the mind, the food of angels, for
which all humans hunger, namely knowledge. He does not consider himself
a philosopher, except in the sense that he is a lover of wisdom, but he has sat
at the feet of those who feed on the bread of angels and has eaten the scraps
that fall from their table.
His canzoni will be the main courses of the feast and his interpretation
and commentary the bread. At actual banquets which he had attended, as
for instance the one given in honour of Charles Martel in Florence or at
others in the Scala court in Verona, bread, baked in the form of trenchers,
was brought to the table unclean, bearing the marks of ashes from the oven,
and those serving had to cut away the dirt before the main course could be
placed on it, rather like scraping a piece of toast that has got burned. This he
must now do with his commentary before the feast can begin.
The first objection, or ‘stain’ (macula), as he calls it figuratively, is that he
will be obliged to speak of himself. This is contrary to the rules of rhetoric,
and to justify himself he refers to two illustrious predecessors: St Augustine
and Boethius. Although he had spoken of himself continually throughout
La Vita Nuova he had then felt no need to apologize, but this is to be a more
serious and adult work. The second ‘stain’ is that the commentary is in a lofty,
grave and difficult style. He justifies this by saying that it is necessary for
him to clear himself of imputations of insincerity by expounding his canzoni
in terms that will lend him authority. He fears also that his air of poverty will
disappoint those who have heard of his fame and may cause them to take
a disparaging view of his work. All the more need, therefore, that his style
should be dignified.
The flour from which the bread is made also requires to be justified, for it
is produced from barley, not wheat; that is to say, the commentary is written
in the vernacular, not in Latin, which was the usual language for commen-
taries. He had already departed from this tradition in La Vita Nuova, relying
then on the authority and advice of his friend Guido Cavalcanti. He now
proposes to go further and make the vernacular a medium for philosophy,
science and ethics, an extension for which he had few predecessors.5 It was
a bold step, but his love for the vernacular and his confidence that he had
mastered it in its highest form gave him the necessary resolve.
He finds it necessary to defend the vernacular against widespread dispar-
agement, inspired mainly by ignorance and incompetence. Those who cannot
write it well blame their failure upon the language itself, ‘as the bad smith
blames the iron which he has to use, and the bad lute-player blames his
lute’. Others, to show off their knowledge, praise foreign languages (such
as Provençal or French) as superior to Italian. Still others are motivated
 INVITATION TO A BANQUET 67

by envy or meanness of spirit. All such detractors of the vulgar tongue he

condemns as ‘execrable wretches … adulterers … by whose wicked guidance’
the blind are led astray.6
Latin, he maintains, would not have been a suitable medium for a
commentary on his canzoni because they are written in the vernacular, a
language which is subject to change, whereas Latin is stable and in a superior
category, unsuited to perform a subsidiary service to an inferior medium:
[I]f we look back attentively over some fifty years, we see that many words have
become extinct and have come into existence and been altered. … Thus I say
that if those who departed this life a thousand years ago were to return to their
cities, they would believe that they had been occupied by some foreign people,
because the language there would be so different from their own. This will be
much more fully discussed elsewhere in a book which I intend to compose,
God permitting, about the Vulgar Tongue.7
This is the first reference to De Vulgari Eloquentia, from which it is evident
that it was in his mind when he began Il Convivio. He uses the same striking
instance of the dead rising and finding the language of their cities greatly
changed, though in the Latin work he transfers the shock to the living and
gives as a specific example the city of Pavia.8
A commentary in Latin would have been intelligible only to learned
readers and there are many others who wish to understand his canzoni. It is
true that Latin can be read by speakers of other languages, such as German
and English, but the canzoni would have to be translated for their benefit.9
And here Dante utters a condemnation in words that strike submission into
the heart of all translators, yet fail to deter them:
Let it be known that nothing that has been harmoniously composed in poetic
form can be translated from its own language to another without destroying
its sweetness and harmony. And this is the reason why Homer has not been
translated from Greek into Latin like the other writings which the Greeks
have bequeathed to us; and this is the reason why the verses of the Psalter have
none of the sweetness and music of harmony, for they were translated from
Hebrew into Greek and from Greek into Latin, and in the first translation all
that sweetness disappeared.10
He could, of course, have written the commentary in Latin, leaving it to
others to translate it for unlearned readers, but
I took the precaution of composing it [in the vernacular], trusting to myself
more than to anyone else.
He is convinced that in his mastery of the vernacular, both in prose and in
his canzoni, he has brought the language to a new level of eloquence and
beauty. It is his intention now to gain renown for it.
68 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

His main purpose, however, is to ‘lead men to knowledge and virtue’, and
only those who are noble in character can benefit from such guidance. What
he means by ‘noble’ he will explain, he says (and he does so), in the fourth
section, one of several indications that the plan of the book was complete in
his head. The knowledge of Latin is not in itself a guarantee of superiority.
Indeed, there are many who learn Latin purely for motives of gain or pres-
tige. Such people should not be called men of letters,
just as no-one should be called a lute-player who keeps a lute at home in order
to lend it out on hire.11
To ask him if he loves his native tongue is as foolish as to ask, on seeing
flames coming out of the windows and doors of a house, whether it is on fire.
He loves it for its intimate relationship to himself and to the persons who
are nearest to him, that is, his parents, his fellow citizens and his own people.
He loves it also for its intrinsic qualities,
and here we must understand that every good quality that is peculiar to
anything is part of its beauty, as in the male sex having a handsome beard, and
in the female sex being quite free of facial hair, or as in a hound having a keen
scent, and in a wolf-hound the ability to run fast.12
He feels not only love for his own language, but lealtà (‘loyalty’ or ‘obliga-
tion’), a virtue which he says he will discuss in the 4th section.
At last, having cleansed the bread of stains and justified the ingredient
of which it is made, he is ready to serve the banquet, by which thousands
of guests will be fed, leaving baskets full of fragments over for himself. And
from this miracle a new sun will rise, giving light to those who sit in dark-
ness. The Biblical echoes with which Dante ends the first section show the
solemnity and joy with which he sets out on his task and his confidence that
it will bring him recognition and acclaim.
The canzoni that provide the first three courses of the banquet (as far as
it goes) were all written in Florence after the death of Beatrice. The first of
these, beginning Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete (‘O you who by under-
standing the third heaven move’), is the one which may have been sung in
honour of Charles Martel on the occasion of his visit to Florence in 294.13
When he came to write Paradiso, Dante would use this first line in the greet-
ing by which the soul of Charles welcomes him in the Heaven of Venus.14
All three canzoni had been performed and discussed at gatherings of
his fellow poets and friends in Florence. Thus they had given rise to gossip
about Dante’s fidelity as a lover and were continuing to do so. More than ten
years had passed since he wrote them, and recent tragic events had cut him
off from his life as a renowned poet and prominent citizen of Florence. As
he re-read them in his present circumstances, they took on a different aspect
 INVITATION TO A BANQUET 69

and he saw that they could serve a new purpose. Since the subject was the
relationship between love and righteousness, he saw that he could make of
them, and others (for he continued to write canzoni), material from which
to construct an ambitious moral and educational programme.
When Beatrice died in June 290, Dante found consolation in love for
her successor, a woman who is never named15 but is called la donna gentile
(‘the kind’, or ‘gracious lady’). He suffered agonizing feelings of disloyalty
to the memory of Beatrice and wrote several poems to express this conflict.
Some of these are included and explained in La Vita Nuova.16 The canzone
beginning Voi che ’ntendendo, though not included there, belongs to the same
period and continues the theme of emotional conflict. It is, however, less
personal, since his love for the donna gentile had become associated with a
dedication of another kind.
At the end of La Vita Nuova Dante relates that his infatuation with the
donna gentile was vanquished when a vision of Beatrice as a child appeared
to him. A further vision of her in Heaven made him resolve to write no more
of her in verse until he could do so worthily:
And to this end I apply myself as much as I can, as she indeed knows. Thus,
if it shall please Him by whom all things live that my life continue for a few
years, I hope to compose concerning her what has never been written in rhyme
of any woman.17
When he wrote these words he had already entered upon a course of
study in philosophy. His mind became so enamoured that it seemed to him
as though he had fallen in love again. He identified the experience with his
love for the donna gentile, with which it appears to have been contempo-
rary. This ‘double vision’, so to call it, he now undertakes to interpret in Il
Convivio, a work which will be written in a more mature style than La Vita
Nuova. He does not mean by this to disparage the earlier work but to illumi-
nate its meaning by means of the new. The conflict that took place between
his love for Beatrice and his love for the donna gentile is said in Il Convivio
to have ended in the victory of the latter. This has been held to contradict
what he says at the end of La Vita Nuova. The problem is resolved, however,
if we understand him to mean that when he began to study philosophy his
poems were inspired by a new kind of love.18
He first explains that writings can be understood and ought to be
expounded in four senses, which he calls literal, allegorical, moral and
anagogical.19 The literal sense is ‘a beautiful fiction’; beneath that, disguised
as by a cloak, is the allegorical meaning. He cites as an example Ovid’s tale
of Orpheus who with his lyre made wild beasts tame and caused trees and
stones to move towards him; of this the true meaning is that a wise man by
his voice makes cruel hearts mild and humble and moves at his will those
70 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

who have no knowledge or art. Why poets chose to conceal their true mean-
ing in this way he intended to discuss in the 4th section.
To illustrate the moral and the spiritual interpretations, he uses two texts
from Scripture. Teachers, he advises, should look carefully for the moral
sense for their own as well as their hearers’ benefit. As an example he cites
the Gospel story of Christ’s ascent of the mountain where the transfigura-
tion occurred, on which occasion he took with him only three of his apos-
tles; of this the moral meaning is that for our most secret affairs we should
have only few companions.
The anagogical or spiritual sense can be perceived in writings that already
in their literal meaning relate to higher matters. As an example he cites Psalm
04: ‘When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of
strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.’ Though
it is plain that the literal sense of this is true, the spiritual sense is no less
true,
namely, that when the soul issues forth from sin she is made holy and free as
mistress of herself.
From these examples it appears that at the time of writing Il Convivio Dante
did not consider that one and the same text would yield all four interpreta-
tions. When he came to explain the meaning of the Commedia in his so-
called epistle to Can Grande della Scala he showed that the same text could
in fact be understood in four senses.20
He proceeds next to expound the literal meaning of the first canzone.
He begins by reminding readers of the closing chapters of La Vita Nuova,
in which he writes of the donna gentile and of her compassion for him after
the death of Beatrice. In the conflict between his memory and his new love
he addressed the angelic beings who move the sphere of the planet Venus,
from which the force of love derives. This leads him to his first passage of
scientific information. The subject is astronomy.
Like all his educated contemporaries, Dante had been taught that the
earth was a globe, motionless in the centre of the universe. Encircling it
were eight concentric spheres carrying seven planets, the Moon, Mercury,
Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and in the eighth sphere the constella-
tions. Beyond that was believed to be a ninth sphere, the Crystalline Heaven
or Primum Mobile, which imparted movement to the others. The spheres
circled the earth all together once every 24 hours, from east to west. As well
as this diurnal motion, the planets and the stars moved back along their
spheres from west to east, at different speeds. The planet Venus performed
a still more complicated movement, whirling also in its epicycle, a smaller
sphere which was thought of as attached to the main one. This was the basic
explanation, inherited from the generations of astronomers who preceded
 INVITATION TO A BANQUET 7

Copernicus, of the movements of the heavenly bodies as perceived by the

naked eye. Dante would have been instructed in such matters in his youth
when he studied astronomy as one of the four subjects of the Quadrivium.
By the time he came to write Il Convivio he had learnt a great deal more
about the subject, both from reading and from his own observations.
Poring over manuscripts late into the night by candlelight, as well as
naked-eye gazing at the stars, fatigued his eyes, as he says:
A star sometimes appears blurred on account of the eye which from weakness
or weariness undergoes a change and exhibits some colour and some lack of
power. For example it sometimes happens that when the sheath of the pupil
becomes much bloodshot through infirmity caused by weakness almost all
things appear ruddy, and so the star appears tinged with colour. And because
the sight is weakened, some dispersion of the visual spirit takes place in it, so
that an object is no longer seen as concentrated, but appears diffused, almost in
the same way as our writing on damp paper. And this is the reason why many
persons when they wish to read remove the writing to a distance from the eye
in order that the image may enter the eye more smoothly, and in a finer shape.
… Of this I myself had experience … for, through greatly overtaxing my sight
by studious reading, I so weakened the visual spirits that the stars all appeared
to be discoloured by a kind of white haze. And by giving my eyes a long rest
in dark and cool rooms, and by cooling the ball of the eye with pure water, I
regained the former healthy condition of my sight.21
Astronomy had a powerful influence upon his creative imagination.
Intertwined with it were profound concepts of philosophy and theology. The
mediaeval notion of the universe seems limited to us with our present-day
instruments and exploration of outer space, but for Dante and his contem-
poraries the cosmos reached beyond the physical into the infinite and the
eternal. His authority on the subject was Alfraganus,22 an Arab author
whose work on the elements of astronomy consists of 30 chapters. Based on
the principles of Ptolemy, it was translated from Arabic into Latin about the
year 42 by, it is supposed, Johannes Hispalensis, under the title Alfragani
Elementa Astronomica. This version was in common use during the Middle
Ages and is the one that Dante studied.23 He refers to it several times in
Il Convivio and some of the information he provides about the heavens in
this work and in La Vita Nuova is translated almost word for word from the
Latin text. It is as though we see him in his study looking from one book
to another, as Luca Signorelli portrays him in the fresco in the Cathedral of
Orvieto.24
Alfraganus quotes from Aristotle, from whom the concept of a tenth
heaven was derived. This was known as the Empyrean, a word meaning a
sphere of fire. It was thought of as the abode of God, which existed neither
72 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in time nor space. When God, who is Himself timeless, changeless and
infinite, created the universe, time and change began. Simultaneously with
primal matter and the material heavens, God created angels, who function
as His agents operating through nature. Among their activities is to diffuse
their influence upon the heavenly bodies which in their turn influence life on
earth. Thus astronomy is identified with astrology, in which Dante believed,
though not to the exclusion of free will.
He considered it appropriate to address his canzone to the angelic beings,
also called Intelligences, who move the sphere of Venus, since this was the
planet, named after the goddess of love, which had infused in him his love
for both Beatrice and for the donna gentile. Such concepts would be familiar
to his contemporaries. Though the names of the planets are derived from
Roman deities, or, as Virgil was to call them in Inferno, ‘false and lying
gods’,25 the angels were as real to Dante the Christian believer as the heav-
enly bodies themselves. They can be apprehended by human senses, for
there shines in on our intellect light which emanates from their living essence
… just as a man who has his eyes shut is aware that the air is luminous because
a gleam from its brightness reaches him … just as a ray of light passes through
the pupil of a bat.
He explains the transference of his love for Beatrice to the donna gentile
by saying that whereas the latter still lived on earth and was subject to the
influence of the movers of Venus, Beatrice was now in Heaven, beyond their
power. This leads him to a digression about the immortality of the soul,
in which he has absolute belief. He berates as ‘most brutish, vile, foolish
and pestilent’ all those who think otherwise. He quotes as sources for his
conviction Aristotle’s De Anima (‘On the Soul’), the beliefs of the Stoics,
Cicero’s De Senectute (‘On Old Age’), as well as the beliefs of Jews, Saracens,
Tartars,
or of any others who live according to law of any kind. If all of these were
deceived, an impossibility would follow which would be horrible even to
mention.
Nature has implanted hope of immortal life in the human mind, a hope that
sets man apart from the animals. This hope is further confirmed by dreams,
which we could not have if there were in us no immortal part, inasmuch as, if
we think about the matter exactly, the medium of revelation whether corporeal
or incorporeal must needs be immortal.
Above all, assurance is given us by ‘the most veracious doctrine of Christ’,
a doctrine which we cannot perfectly behold while our immortal is mingled
with our mortal part; but we behold the immortal perfectly by faith, and by
 INVITATION TO A BANQUET 73

reason we behold it touched with the shadow of darkness which falls upon it
owing to the mixture of mortal and immortal: and this ought to be our strong-
est argument that both one and the other exist in us. Thus I believe, thus I
affirm, thus I am assured, that I shall pass to another better life after this where
that glorified lady survives, of whom my soul was enamoured.26
Not only were the writings of poets to be interpreted allegorically. Reality
itself, history, present events and persons all had multiple significance. This
is different from the traditional personification allegory, that is, the repre-
sentation of an abstract concept in the figure of a person, as when Boethius
represents Philosophy in the figure of a woman. The form which Dante
here adopts might be called revelation-allegory, that is, the recognition of
meanings beyond the literal and actual. He makes systematic use of this
type of allegory in his commentary in Il Convivio. The nine heavens, which
he believes actually exist, are identified with abstract concepts, namely the
sciences which compose the totality of knowledge which is accessible to
reason. The seven planets are said to correspond to the seven branches of
learning known as the Quadrivium and the Trivium: the Moon to grammar,
Mercury to logic, Venus to rhetoric, the Sun to arithmetic, Mars to music,
Jupiter to geometry, and Saturn to astronomy; the constellations correspond
to physics and metaphysics, the Primum Mobile to ethics; ultimately, beyond
space, is the Empyrean, which corresponds to theology. The movers of the
sphere of Venus, whom Dante addresses in his canzone, are in this allegorical
sense understood to be masters of the art of rhetoric, in particular Cicero
and Boethius, by whose writings he was first drawn to the study of philoso-
phy. The donna gentile, of whom he was in actual life enamoured after the
death of Beatrice, is identified with Philosophy itself.
This form of allegory was first consciously explored by Dante as a poet
in the composition of the canzoni he wrote after the death of Beatrice. His
most striking and creative use of it would be made later in the Commedia.
What he discovered in his allegorical interpretation of the donna gentile led
him to the revelation of the meaning of Beatrice.
Why, then, did Dante omit all reference to the donna gentile in the
Commedia? The answer is that he did not.
Two of his canzoni, which were inspired by his love for her, in fact the
very first two which he interprets in Il Convivio, are quoted in the Commedia.
‘L’amor che nella mente mi ragiona’ is sung by Casella on the shore of Mount
Purgatory; the first line of ‘Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete’ is quoted by
Charles Martel in the Heaven of Venus. Dante could not have forgotten, nor
could he assume that his readers had forgotten, that in Il Convivio he had
equated the donna gentile with Philosophy, ‘the fairest and most honourable
Daughter of the Emperor of the Universe’. It was impossible that such a
74 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

sublime figure should not appear in his poem as having played a major role
in his salvation, but since she was still alive in the fictitious year of the story
she could not (in the poetic convention of the time) be introduced as her
actual self.
At the beginning of the Commedia Virgil tells Dante that the Virgin
Mary has commanded Lucia, the enemy of all who are cruel and whose
fedele (‘devotee’) Dante is, to urge Beatrice to go to the rescue of one who
for love of her uscì della volgare schiera (‘departed from the common herd’).27
Lucia has been traditionally identified as St Lucy of Syracuse, a third-
century martyr, the patron of persons with weak sight. As such, she has been
interpreted as signifying illuminating grace. Such a meaning can also be
attached to philosophy, which illumines the mind, as Dante makes clear in
his canzone ‘Amor che nella mente …’, using several dazzling images of light
to do so. It was his study of philosophy that enabled him to write ‘more
worthily’ of Beatrice, as he said he hoped to do at the end of La Vita Nuova.
He could now perceive her as a figure of revealed theology, as the donna
gentile was a figure of philosophy.
Lucia’s role in the Commedia is not limited to sending Beatrice to Dante’s
aid. It is she who carries the sleeping Dante up the lower slopes of Mount
Purgatory, leaving him to awaken at the gate which leads to the seven
cornices. It is through philosophy, ‘the blessedness of the intellect’, she ‘who
gently turns round all those that have been deflected from the right way’ (as
he says in Il Convivio), that Dante represents himself as progressing towards
an understanding of sin and righteousness, reaching at last a readiness for
confession, contrition and absolution. In the story of the Commedia a stage
in this spiritual journey is achieved while he is sleeping, just as in an actual
metanoia the soul moves through several stages without being consciously
aware of it.
Lucia may also be la donna santa e presta (‘the lady holy and alert’) who
appears to Dante in a dream on the Mountain of Purgatory.28 She is the last
of the souls pointed out to Dante by St Bernard as seated in the Celestial
Rose in Paradiso.29 On her right is St John the Baptist, the Forerunner, and
on his right is St Anne, the mother of the Virgin, another forerunner. It is
significant too that Lucia ‘faces Adam’, since philosophy, as Dante says in Il
Convivio, ‘was in God’s thought when He created’.
We do not know the name of the donna gentile. It is not impossible that
it was Lucia.
 CHAPTER 7

Main Dishes and Trenchers

T
he metaphor of a banquet hangs like a tapestry as a visual back-
ground to the intellectual feast that Dante prepared. In his day such
an occasion was an art form, stately and elaborate. The main dishes
were carried into the hall in splendour, sometimes on the back of a horse.
They made, in the traditional phrase, an ‘entrée’, accompanied by servitors,
musicians, even by acrobats. At the most festive banquets entertainments
were provided between the courses, such as dances accompanied by singing,
or miniature pageants.
At Dante’s banquet 4 main dishes have been prepared, that is, his 4
canzoni, to be eaten on trenchers of bread, namely, his commentary. As befits
such an occasion, every canzone is a thing of beauty, perfectly concocted, a
worthy offering to his guests. It is to be imagined, it may even have happened,
that each canzone was sung to an accompaniment before the reader (Dante
himself ) passed to the prose, a possibility that would heighten the pleasure
of the repast. The recipe is provided in De Vulgari Eloquentia but it required
a master chef to create so exalted and varied a selection of courses. It seems,
sadly, that the guests had appetite for no more than three.
The first dish, ‘Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete ’ (‘You who by under-
standing the third heaven move’), is an early example of his new form of
allegory.1 He was writing consciously in a double sense: the conflict between
his old love and the new, in which the occasional lack of response from the
donna gentile is an image of his difficulties with the study of philosophy. His
second main dish is the canzone beginning Amor che nella mente mi ragiona
(‘Love which discourses to me in my mind’). Like the first, it draws the
listeners’ thoughts up into the heavens, raising their imagination to the sun
circling the earth. This is the song which the soul of Casella sings on the
shore of the Mountain of Purgatory.2 It is appropriate that it should be sung
on Dante’s arrival in the southern hemisphere, for the astronomy of that
region is brilliantly visualized both in the canzone and in the commentary
that follows it. In fact, the description of the yearly spiralling of the sun has
been called the most remarkable passage of scientific prose before the time

75
76 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

of Galileo. To make clear the changing distribution of light between the

northern and southern hemispheres, Dante asks his listeners to imagine two
cities, one at the north pole and one at the south, divided by the equator.
Mysteriously, instead of designating these two positions on the globe ‘A’ and
‘B’ or ‘X’ and ‘Y’, he personifies them with the names ‘Maria’ and ‘Lucia’.
His intention may have been to indicate that the passage is more than an
astronomical explanation. The light of the sun, shed equally and alternately
upon Maria and Lucia, may signify the power of God diffused now upon
divine grace, the Virgin Mary, now upon illuminating grace, Lucia. If this is
so, it is all the more appropriate that in the Commedia Lucia should come to
Dante’s aid on Mount Purgatory in the southern hemisphere.3 The clarity of
his explanation of the sun’s positions through the year as it spirals north and
south of the equator is again demonstrated there in Virgil’s exposition and
in Dante’s ready grasp of it, a conversation overheard and amiably mocked
by his indolent friend Belacqua.4
Expounding his canzoni in his present circumstances was a nostalgic task
for Dante, but the opportunity to display their beauty was some consolation
to his pride. So musical is the sequence of words, so exquisite the linking
of the lines that from the page alone they rise like songs, though voice and
accompanying instrument have long been silent. The second canzone is a
hymn to Philosophy:
Suo esser tanto a Quei che lel dà piace,
che ’nfonde sempre in lei la sua vertute
oltre ’l dimando di nostra natura …
Cose appariscon ne lo suo aspetto
che mostran de’ piacer di paradiso …
Elle soverchian lo nostro intelletto,
come raggio di sole un frale viso:
e perch’io non le posso mirar fiso,
mi conven contentar di dirne poco.
Her being so pleases Him who gave it her,
in her unceasingly He infuses power
beyond our nature’s measure to conceive …
Such things within her aspect are perceived
as demonstrate the joys of Paradise …
These overpower our human intellect,
as sunlight with its beam confounds weak sight:
and since I cannot fix them with my gaze,
I must contented be with but few words.5
This allusion to his weak sight offers yet another interesting link between
the donna gentile and St Lucy, the patron of those with failing vision. It is on
 MAIN DISHES AND TRENCHERS 77

interpreting these lines that Dante speaks of the condition of his own eyes,
weakened by constant reading and star-gazing.6
The lady who is Philosophy is she who humbles all who are wicked; she
was in the mind of Him who set the universe in motion:
Questa è colei ch’umilia ogni perverso:
costei pensò chi mosse l’universo.7
In Inferno8 Lucia, whose fedele (‘devotee’) Dante is said to be, is designated
nimica di ciascun crudele (‘the enemy of all who are cruel’), a phrase that
closely resembles colei ch’umilia ogni perverso (‘she who humbles all who are
wicked’), applied here in the canzone to Philosophy.
Having placed before his guests these two celestial dishes, Dante next
offers more terrestrial fare: a canzone on the subject of nobility. The opening
lines, Le dolci rime d’amor ch’i’ solia/cercare ne’ miei pensieri,/convien ch’io lasci
… (‘The sweet love-poems for which I used to search my thoughts I must
now forsake’), introduce a change of style as well as of theme: he will now
speak in harsh and subtle verse concerning the quality that makes a man
truly noble. This poem is allegorical only in the sense that by the word donna
the meaning ‘Philosophy’ is intended, ‘that most powerful light, Philosophy,
whose rays cause the flowers to bloom again and to bear fruit in the true
nobility of men’ (quella luce virtuosissima, Filosofia, i cui raggi fanno ne li fiori
rifronzire e fruttificare la verace de li uomini nobilitade). Having made this
clear, Dante proceeds to expound and enlarge on the literal sense, which is
didactic and polemical.
The concept of gentilezza (of which ‘nobility’ is one meaning) had been
raised by Guido Guinizelli in the poem which the Fedeli d’Amore took as
their inspiration, ‘Al cor gentil ripara sempre Amore’ (‘Love in the gentle heart
his refuge always seeks’).9 He denied there decisively that gentilezza was
derived from lineage. It is to be expected that Dante would follow him in
this, but there was another reason why the concept of nobility exercised
his mind. He wrote this canzone soon after 295, when those of noble birth
had just been excluded from the government of Florence as a result of the
Ordinances of Justice introduced by Giano della Bella in 293.10
The third canzone, when he wrote it, was thus of immediate and topi-
cal interest. He had already entered public service and was concerned with
questions of social justice and political life. A great deal of Provençal poetry
had been of a moral or political nature and the tradition had already been
developed in Italy by Guittone of Arezzo and his imitators. What made this
canzone an innovation on Dante’s part was his decision not to limit himself
from now on to the one subject favoured by the Fedeli d’Amore, namely love,
and to extend the range of his diction accordingly.
78 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

When he came to comment on it in Il Convivio, about ten years had

passed and his life had undergone a drastic change. The political and ethi-
cal concerns of the poem had acquired tragic overtones, not only for him
personally but for the social and political state of Italy. It was more than ever
necessary to give the lie to false assumptions and establish the true princi-
ples by which men should govern themselves and one another. He speaks of
his canzone as medicine which he wishes now to provide speedily in order
to restore good health. In the metaphor of the banquet, it is a plain dish,
intended to provide substantial nourishment after the rich fare of the two
preceding courses.
The commentary is carefully constructed, with many sub-divisions and
digressions, rising frequently to the eloquence of an oration. Speaking of
himself as he was when he wrote the canzone, he says that in his devo-
tion to Philosophy, in whom all reason dwells and rectitude has its source,
he came to love the followers of truth and to hate the followers of error,
though reminding himself that hatred should be directed not at those who
commit errors but rather at error itself. (It must be acknowledged that when
he came to write the Commedia he failed on several occasions to follow this
precept.)
One error he condemned above all: a mistaken belief concerning the
origin of nobility, as a result of which the good were held in contempt and
the evil were honoured and exalted. This was the worst confusion in the
world, as anyone could see who considered the consequences.
The erroneous opinion had been attributed to the Emperor Frederick
II,11 who on being asked what nobility was is said to have replied: ‘Ancestral
wealth and fine manners’. This had been widely accepted, though the second
part of the definition was usually disregarded. Dante set out to refute the
Emperor’s opinion, but in order to clear himself of a charge of disrespect
he now, in his commentary, first analyses the basis of imperial authority and
secondly shows that it does not extend to the matter in hand. In the first part
of his argument he sets forth important new beliefs which he has formed
during his exile.
In his ‘friendly solitude’ (amica solitudo), as he calls it in De Vulgari
Eloquentia,12 he had spent much time pondering moral obligations, the prob-
lems of civil unrest, the principles of government and the purposeful design
of history. Before his exile, on entering on his study of philosophy, he had
found enlightenment in the writings of Cicero and Boethius. He had also
begun a close study of Virgil’s Aeneid and the Roman historians, especially
Livy. In philosophy his supreme authority was Aristotle, whom he quotes 40
times in Il Convivio, referring to him as ‘the chief Philosopher’, ‘the leader
of all philosophers’, ‘he who brought moral philosophy to perfection’, ‘the
 MAIN DISHES AND TRENCHERS 79

guide and conductor of the world’, ‘the most worthy of trust and obedience,
whose words are the supreme and highest authority’, ‘the master and leader
of human reason’. His opinion is to be preferred above all others:
[I]n any matter on which the divine judgement of Aristotle opens its mouth it
seems best to me to set aside that of everyone else.13
This is he whom he will call il maestro di color che sanno (‘the master of those
who know’) when he sees his soul in Limbo in Inferno.14
It is to Aristotle that he looks for guidance as to the first principles of
government. Quoting his definition of man as ‘a social animal’ (Dante’s word
is compagnevole), he lists the needs of the individual for the domestic compan-
ionship of a family (of which Dante was now deprived), of the household
for a neighbourhood, of the neighbourhood for a city, of the city to further
its crafts and strengthen its self-defence, for interchange and brotherly rela-
tions with neighbouring cities. Such connections lead to the formation of
kingdoms, which by desire for increased territory are led to make war upon
one another. Thus the happiness of individuals, for which they were created,
is impeded. The only remedy is that a single monarch should govern the
whole world:
a single prince, who having nothing further to desire would keep kings
confined within their borders and hence at peace with one another, and such
peace would lead to mutual love and to happiness.15
Such universal and incontestable office of command is known as Empire,
the command of all other offices of command, held by an Emperor who
declares and enforces law for all.
Dante is next obliged to prove that such authority was rightfully lodged
in the hands of the Emperors of ancient Rome and subsequently rightfully
inherited by the elected rulers of the Empire of the Christian world. He had
formerly believed that the power of Rome had been established by force, but
his reading of Virgil and Livy caused him to alter his view. The supremacy of
the Romans, descendants of the lofty lineage of Troy, he now believed, was
ordained by God for the perfecting of human life on earth. As the mind of a
smith is the efficient and moving cause in hammering out a knife, while the
blows of the hammer are but the instrumental cause, so not force but reason
and, moreover, divine reason, was the efficient and moving cause in the crea-
tion of the Roman Empire.
The subject calls for a digression which he says will provide ‘both profit
and enjoyment’. This quotation of the words of Horace16 introduces one
of the most important chapters in the work. It begins with a discourse
on Divine Providence, whose works are often incomprehensible to us.
How indeed could human reason discern eternal counsels? Quoting from
80 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Proverbs, ‘Hearken because I have to speak of great things’,17 he links the

wisdom of the ancient pagan world with that of the Old Testament and the
foundations of the Christian faith.
His vision of continuity leads him to identify the time chosen by God
for His Incarnation with the period when the authority of Rome was
established under an Emperor. Earth was then in its best conjunction of
elements; universal peace reigned as it had never done before nor ever would
again, ‘for the ship of human society was speeding over a smooth track to its
destined port’. He further identifies the birth of Rome, that is, the coming
of Aeneas to Italy, as contemporary with the birth of David, the ancestor
of the Virgin Mary. He greatly marvels at the wisdom of God in bringing
these two events together and calls down curses upon those who have the
presumption to disbelieve:
Oh, ineffable and incomprehensible wisdom of God who didst so long ago
prepare for Thy coming a single moment yonder in Syria and here in Italy!
Oh, most foolish and degraded beasts who pasturing under the guise of
men, presume to speak against our faith and, spinning and delving, claim to
know what God with so much foresight has ordained! Accursed be you, your
presumption and those who put their trust in you!18
There follows a long, eloquent passage in glorification of Roman history,
from the time of Romulus to that of the first Emperor. It is evident, he says,
that Rome was blessed not with human but with godlike citizens, who in
their devotion to her were inspired not with human love but with divine. In
an accumulation of powerful statements he lists the heroes and their deeds,
which were not done without some light from the divine goodness over and
above their own natural goodness. And it ought to be manifest that these most
eminent men were the instruments by which Divine Providence worked in the
Roman Empire, where often the arm of God appeared to be present.19
Rhetorical questions follow one upon another in a mounting crescendo of
oratorical effect:
Who will say that Fabricius was under no divine inspiration? … Or Mucius
when he set fire to his own hand? … Who will say that Torquatus, when he
sentenced his own son to death, could have endured to do so without divine
assistance? … Did not God put His own hand to the task when the Franks,
after taking the whole of Rome, endeavoured to enter the Capitol by stealth,
and only the cry of a goose made it known? And did not God put His own
hand to the task in the war of Hannibal with the Romans? … And did not
God put His own hand to the task when a new citizen of small standing,
namely Cicero, defended the liberty of Rome against so great a citizen as
Catiline? Yes, without doubt. And I indeed believe that the stones of her walls
 MAIN DISHES AND TRENCHERS 8

are worthy of reverence, and that the soil on which she stands is worthy beyond
all else that has been proclaimed and praised.20
Legends drawn from Livy’s history of Rome and accepted by Dante on
the same footing as facts are here set out in an exalted example of the new
vernacular prose he is creating. The effect strongly suggests a passage written
to be read aloud. The same events would be cited again in his Latin treatise
on world government, Monarchia.21 They would also appear in epic style in
Paradiso,22 where he gives to the soul of Justinian, Emperor and lawgiver,
the task of unrolling the scroll of Rome’s history from its earliest begin-
nings, linking it with the age of Charlemagne and with Dante’s own, thereby
proclaiming Roman justice the earthly symbol of the divine.
Dante was not only expounding a political theory. By the time he wrote
Il Convivio he had come to believe that he understood God’s plan for the
world and that he, a descendant of the ‘godlike citizens’ of Rome, was
destined to reveal it. This vision was a sacred truth which the banquet was
designed to celebrate.
Having established the lawful grounds of imperial authority, Dante next
undertakes to consider the status of philosophy. Reviewing the development
of the ancient schools, he shows that the highest and most trustworthy
master is Aristotle. Philosophical authority is not opposed to imperial; on
the contrary, the two reinforce each other and when conjoined reach their
fullest strength. Thus it is that in the Book of Wisdom Solomon says, ‘Love
righteousness, ye that judge of the earth.’23
This statement of the basis of justice will be given spectacular presen-
tation in Paradiso, where the souls in the Heaven of Jupiter spell out in a
pattern of lights the words Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram, in which
wisdom and kingship combined are shown to constitute perfect justice.24
This image is forcibly contrasted by the execration of unworthy rulers on
earth, just as in Il Convivio Dante follows the quotation of the words attrib-
uted to Solomon by the condemnation of two contemporary rulers, Charles
II of Anjou and Frederick of Aragon and other unnamed tyrants, who lack
all philosophical authority in their exercise of power.
Reverting to his canzone, Dante points out how it refutes the opinion of
what he calls ‘the common people’ (il vulgo) concerning the origin of nobil-
ity. There is danger, he says, in allowing false opinions to take hold, for they
spread like weeds in a field, suffocating the crop, that is, truth. It is a mighty
task to weed an overgrown field of popular opinion, so long left destitute of
tillage. He does not intend to clear the whole field but to free only those
blades of the plant of reason which have not been completely smothered.
The rest deserve no more care than beasts, for it is impossible to communi-
cate with anyone in whom reason is extinct. It would be like calling back to
82 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

life someone who has lain four days in the tomb.

To be devoid of reason or to refuse to apply it is to renounce life as a
human being, for it is reason that distinguishes man from the beasts. In
fact, to reject reason, as to commit evil, is to be dead, even though the body
walks the earth. This terrifying image is used to great effect in Inferno, where
the soul of Branca d’Oria, who invited his father-in-law to a banquet and
murdered him, is pointed out to Dante among the traitors.25
After describing the fruits of reason, among which are discernment and
reverence of the lesser for the higher, Dante is ready to refute the false opin-
ion that nobility is conferred by wealth. Before doing so, as though to gather
together all his strength, he uses a striking military metaphor, drawn from
his own experience in battle:
We will now charge full front at depraved opinions and throw them to the
ground, in order that by means of this victory the true opinion may hold the
field in the minds of those in whose interest it is right that the truth should
prevail.26
The manoeuvres of the combat, which is prolonged, are mapped in the next
chapter.
 CHAPTER 8

The True Definition of Nobility

D
ante next sets himself to refute the opinion that nobility is derived
from wealth and possessions. Riches, being base, are the very oppo-
site of what is noble. To begin with, there is no justice in the distri-
bution of wealth. It can be acquired by chance, by inheritance or by unlawful
means. Lawful gains, it is true, do arise from skill, commerce and service
but the greatest riches are obtained without equity. He himself has seen
the place in Falterona1 where a lowly peasant digging in the soil found a
bushel of silver coins. There is no justice in such chance events. Bequests and
succession, too, devolve more often on the wicked than on the good. Would
that the words of a certain Provençal troubadour were heeded: ‘He who does
not inherit goodness should forfeit inheritance of wealth.’ Unlawful gains
never come to those who are virtuous, for they would reject them, while
lawful gains seldom come to the virtuous either, who are concerned with
more important matters.
By the time Dante wrote his commentary he had spent nearly two years
in Bologna, where he had opportunity to study the matter profoundly. He
himself was impoverished by then and though this caused him pain and
embarrassment he still denounced greed for money and possessions. This
is the sin of avarice, which endangers and destroys cities, regions and indi-
viduals, continually inspiring desires for greater and greater wealth, which
cannot be satisfied, and this is the important point, without injury to others.
Discussing the matter, as he probably did with his friend Cino and other
scholars in jurisprudence, he had come upon the safeguard against this most
dangerous of evils. It stood plainly stated in the texts of canon and civil
law:
[F]or what else were they designed to remedy so much as that cupidity which
grows by the amassing of riches? Certainly both branches of the law make
this sufficiently plain when we read their origins (cominciamenti), that is, the
origins of their written record.2
Texts of canon and civil law were readily available in Bologna. Copies were
being made continually by students for their own use and were also on

83
84 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

sale. Perusing them, Dante found a structure for the well being of society.
Avarice could be checked by civil law if a righteous Emperor, who alone
could declare and enforce it, came to power. By partnership between canon
and civil law and given an ideal relationship between Church and State, evil
could be eliminated from the world. In words which have puzzled readers
for centuries, Dante would express this hope in the form of an enigmatic
prophecy uttered by Virgil in the first canto of Inferno.3
In spite of his personal misfortunes, brought about by the ill doing of his
enemies, Dante asserts his unshaken belief in ultimate good. The highest
desire of every soul is to return to God who created it, yet it is liable in its
journey to take the wrong path. In a pleasing simile, Dante compares the
soul to a traveller
who takes a road along which he has never gone before and thinks that every
house he sees in the distance is an inn and, finding he is mistaken, fixes his
eyes trustfully on another and so on from house to house until he arrives at
the inn he is seeking.
The same errors can be observed in children who first desire an apple, then a
bird, then, as they grow older, a horse, then a mistress, then wealth and still
more wealth. Our desires are as though heaped in the form of a pyramid,
the object of least value being at the apex, leading towards God who is the
base of all. As we proceed through life we desire greater and greater things
but in this progress we may be led by the wrong desire because ‘the path is
lost in error like the roads on earth’ (questo cammino si perde per errore come le
strade della terra):
[I]n human life there are diverse paths, one of which above all is the right road,
and another the wrong, and certain other paths which are more or less wrong
or right.4
The image of the right path that has been lost, an image of Biblical origin
which is repeated several times by Boethius, would be used by Dante in the
opening metaphor of the first canto of Inferno, in three lines which must be
among the best known in Western literature:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai in una selva scura
chè la diritta via era smarrita.
In the middle of our path in life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood
for the way which leads us straight was lost to sight.5
The metaphor is anticipated in Il Convivio again in a phrase describing the
soul entering upon a new and hitherto untrodden path of life (nel nuovo e
 THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NOBILITY 85

mai non fatto cammino di questa vita), and so also is the image of the dark
wood, when he speaks of the young man ‘who enters into the wrong forest
of this life (l’adolescente che entra ne la selva erronea di questa vita) and cannot
keep to the right path unless it is pointed out to him by his elders’.6
From Boethius, Dante had learnt that there were above all three wrong
paths: the desire for pleasure, the desire for fame and the desire for material
possessions. In the first canto of Inferno he would represent them as three
wild animals which impede his progress up a mountain: a leopard, a lion
and a she-wolf. The last of these terrifies him more than the others, driving
him step by step back down into the valley.7 Boethius too, comparing vices
to animals, had said that a man burning with greed for other men’s posses-
sions was like a wolf.8 (The coming event of the Commedia casts many of its
shadows before.)
The evils of wealth are well known. Those who possess it are hated and
live in fear of losing it. Merchants who carry their money with them about
the world are afraid of every rustle of leaves, but if they travel without it they
enliven their journey with song and converse. The man who possesses nobil-
ity of soul is not discomposed if he loses his wealth, for such a loss cannot
rob him of his nobility, a thought from which Dante himself could now
draw moral courage.
The belief that nobility is derived from ancestral wealth is easily shown
to be false, since a logical consequence would be that no humbly born man
could ever become noble, which is to say that nobility can never have a
beginning. To anyone holding such a foolish opinion,
one would wish to reply not with words but by taking a dagger to such brutish
ignorance.9
It is difficult at this distance in time to know whether this is an example
of Dante’s sardonic humour or yet another expression of the contempt he
felt towards those who lacked the ability to reason and towards those who
disagreed with him.
Let us consider, he says, the case of Gherardo da Camino. Nobody could
deny that he was a noble man, and even if his origin had been humble
nobody would have dared to say otherwise. Gherardo, cited here as a model
of excellence, and referred to in the past tense, had died in March 306.
Thus it is possible to determine that this passage and the remaining chap-
ters of Il Convivio were written after, probably quite soon after,10 that date.
This tribute to him is in the nature of an obituary, of immediate signifi-
cance to Dante’s contemporary readers, but requiring for us the resource of
archives to bring him back to life. Born about the year 240, Gherardo was
Captain-General of Treviso from 283 until his death. He was respected and
well known, in Tuscany as well as in his own region, as a champion of the
86 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

White Guelfs. He was also celebrated as a patron of poets and other writ-
ers; in this capacity Dante may have known him and perhaps had reason to
feel indebted to him. He thought so highly of him that he would refer to
him again in Purgatorio, where Marco Lombardo speaks of him as il buon
Gherardo.11 In 300, the fictional time of the Commedia, he was still alive but
Dante represents himself as not then having met him or even heard of him.
This may be an example of the many oblique allusions to his exile and to
those who will befriend him in his misfortune.
In the canzone, having demonstrated the falsity of the opinions he
contests, Dante says ‘it is clear to all sound minds (intelletti sani) that such
statements are vain’:
… per che a ’ntelletti sani
è manifesto i loro diri esser vani.12
In his commentary he explains what he means by minds that are sound
and by minds that are not. The phrase is of special interest because he uses
it again in Inferno, where he draws the attention of those who have ‘sound
minds’ to the teaching that is hidden beneath the veil of certain mysterious
lines:
O voi ch’avete li ’ntelletti sani,
mirate la dottrina che s’asconde
sotto ’l velame de li versi strani.13
By intelletto, he explains in Il Convivio, he means
the noble part of our soul which may be designated by the common term
‘mind’. The intellect may be termed ‘sound’ when no evil disposition of mind
or body impedes it in its operation, which is to discover what things are, as
Aristotle says in the third book of his De Anima [‘On the Soul’].14
He has observed an evil disposition of the soul attended by three terrible
kinds of sickness of the mind. The first of these is a boastfulness that leads
people to believe that they know everything and to affirm as certain things
that are not. Cicero condemns such people in the first book of his De Officiis
(‘On Duties’), as does St Thomas Aquinas in Contra Gentiles (‘Against the
Gentiles’):
[T]here are many who by their natural dispositions are so presumptuous as to
believe that they can gauge everything by their intellect, believing everything
true that seems to them true, and false everything that does not.15
Such people never attain to learning, believing they are already sufficiently
instructed; they never ask questions, they never listen, they never desire to be
questioned, and if they are, they reply before the question is concluded and
their answer is wrong.
 THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NOBILITY 87

The second sickness he has observed is caused by a natural dejection of

the mind, which leads people to deny the possibility that anything can be
known, by themselves or by others. They never enquire or reason or heed
what others say. Such people, Aristotle said, were not qualified to be students
of moral philosophy, for they live in ignorance like beasts and despair of all
learning.
The third sickness is a kind of levity or superficiality of mind which leads
people to pass all bounds in their reasoning, leaping to a conclusion before
they have framed a syllogism, flying off to another conclusion, believing
they are arguing most subtly when they do not start from any principle.
With those who deny first principles, as Aristotle said, it is useless to argue.
Among them are many uneducated people who do not know their A B C
and yet would dispute about geometry, astrology and physics.16
In addition, there are infirmities of the body, such as congenital defects,
as in the case of half-wits, and the derangement of the brain, as in the case
of madmen. For such cases the law provides in the Infortiatum,17 from which
he quotes: ‘In one who makes a will, at the time when the will is made
soundness of mind, not of body, is required.’18 With this specific reference
to a text in the second section of the Digest we have evidence that while in
Bologna Dante read and noted legal texts.
Moving to the positive definition of nobility, Dante states that ‘wherever
virtue is, there is nobility’. It is a grace received by the individual soul direct
from God. Virtue is derived from nobility, but the reverse is not true. He
illustrates this in the canzone by an image of the sky in which many stars are
shining. When he comments on it in Il Convivio his imagination takes wing,
his style soars and his very voice can be heard:
How fine and appropriate an illustration! For truly nobility is a heaven in
which many and divers stars are shining. There shine in her the intellectual and
moral virtues; there shine in her good dispositions bestowed by nature, namely,
piety and religion, and praiseworthy feelings, shame and pity, and many more;
there shine in her bodily excellences, namely beauty, strength, and almost
perpetual health. And so many are the stars which spread themselves over her
sky, that surely we cannot wonder if they make many and divers fruits grow
on human nobility, so many are their natures and potencies, concentrated and
united in one simple substance; and on them as on divers branches she bears
fruit in divers ways. In very truth I dare affirm that human nobility, when its
importance is measured by the number of the fruits which it bears, surpasses
that of angels, although the nobility of an angel is more divine in its unity. And
this the Psalmist recognized when he began ‘O Lord our God, how admirable
is Thy name in all the earth. … Thou hast made man a little lower than the
angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour and hast set him over the
works of Thy hands.’19 Indeed, therefore, the comparison of human nobility to
88 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the heavens was most beautiful and appropriate!20

This is the exultant Dante admiring his own poetic simile, the Dante who
will go on to create sublime passages of contemplation in Paradiso. His prose
too at this point has reached a level hitherto unknown in the vernacular.
Nobility, then, is bestowed by God upon the individual soul and is the
source of virtue. Those who possess it are almost like gods. In contemplating
this wonder, Dante again rises to new levels of joyful eloquence. The creation
of the soul stirs in him a sense of marvel that defies his powers of expres-
sion:
Let no one marvel if I speak of things that are hard to understand. To me it
seems wondrous that such matters [as the creation of the soul] can be inferred
and perceived by the intellect. This is not a thing for language to make plain,
I mean the language of the people. Therefore I say with the Apostle, ‘Oh, the
heights of the riches of the wisdom of God, how incomprehensible are Thy
judgements, and Thy ways past finding out!’21
The thought of the soul receiving the gift of nobility direct from God
leads Dante to marvel at the wonders of human procreation, a subject he will
expound also in Purgatorio.22 That his knowledge of biology was at fault and
that his ideas of the relationship between corporeal and spiritual forms were
derived from ancient philosophers, especially Aristotle, is relatively unim-
portant. What matters to readers separated from him by seven centuries is
to see his mind radiant with the joy of perceiving and communicating what
he believes is true. This is ‘the mind in love’ (la mente innamorata)23 which
will create the great hymn in praise of intellectual and spiritual understand-
ing which is Paradiso.
When God sees His creature made ready to receive His gift, He bestows it
with a bounty proportionate to the soul’s readiness to receive it. [Such bounty],
called the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, were identified by Isaiah as Wisdom,
Understanding, Counsel, Strength, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of God.24 Oh excel-
lent harvest! Oh excellent and wonderful seed! Oh admirable and gracious
Sower, who waitest only for human nature to prepare the ground to be sown!
How blest are they who duly cultivate such seed!25
The noblest offshoot of such seed is an appetite of mind, which in Greek is
called hormen.26 If this is not properly tended the seed is of little worth, but
strengthened by good habit it will bear fruit and from the fruit will come
the enjoyment of happiness.
Like a host who eagerly provides for the enjoyment of his guests, Dante
says:
It is a precept of the moral philosophers who have spoken about giving, that a
man should bestow care and trouble on rendering the gifts he confers as useful
 THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NOBILITY 89

as he can possibly make them to the receiver. Thus I, desiring to obey such a
command, strive to make this banquet of mine in each of its parts as useful as
I can. And since in this portion of my subject it chances that I am able to offer
some remarks on the sweetness of human happiness, I think that no discourse
I could utter would be more useful to those who are not acquainted with it.
The ‘sweetness of happiness’ is to be found in the use of the mind. Such
activity can be either practical or contemplative. Both give delight, though
in contemplation the delight is greater, for it is more charged with spiritual
light that anything else on earth. The practical use consists of acting virtu-
ously by our own will, with prudence, temperance, courage and justice; the
contemplative use consists in reflecting on the works of God and Nature.
Such contemplation cannot be fully realized in this life for it consists in
beholding God, Who is beyond our power to know. All our mind can do is to
meditate on Him and behold Him through His effects. This we long for as our
highest beatitude.27
In the last complete stanza of the canzone Dante describes the ways in
which nobility is displayed in the soul at succeeding stages of life. These lines,
written by a poet in his early 30s, still confident in his career and esteemed
by his fellow poets, in full command of his style, possess a particular clarity
and beauty. Read in the light of his commentary, written ten years later and
after such a reversal of fortune, they become an even more moving statement
of his still unshaken belief in potential human goodness.
L’anima cui adorna esta bontate
non la si tien ascosa,
chè dal principio ch’al corpo si sposa
la mostra infin la morte.
Ubidiente, soave e vergognosa
è ne la prima etate,
e sua persona adorna di bieltate
con le sue parti accorte;
in giovinezza, temperata e forte,
piena d’amore e di cortese lode,
e solo in lealtà far si diletta;
è ne la sua senetta
prudente e giusta, e larghezza se n’ ode,
e ’n se medesma gode
d’udire e ragionar de l’altrui prode;
poi ne la quarta parte de la vita
a Dio si rimarita,
contemplando la fine chè l’aspetta,
e benedice li tempi passati.
90 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The soul whom this nobility adorns

does not conceal it in herself,
for from the moment when she joins the body
she displays it till she dies.
Obedient, gentle and restrained
she is in her first age,
and her person she adorns
with every seemly loveliness.
Next in her youth, strong, temperate,
replete with love and praised for courtesy,
in lawful living only she finds joy.
And at the start of her old age,
prudent and just, known for her generous gifts,
joy she feels within herself
when hearing and speaking of another’s good.
Arrived then at the fourth part of her life
God’s bride she is anew,
and meditates on her awaited end,
blessing the years which she has passed.
In his commentary Dante defines precisely four stages of life, which
he calls adolescence, youth, old age and decline, comparing each period to
the span of an arch, rising to an apex and descending. Adolescence, or the
period of growth, lasts from infancy until the age of 25. During this time the
rational part of the soul cannot perfectly exercise discrimination. It is for this
reason that the law ordains that in the performance of certain duties a man
must defer to a father or a guardian until he has passed into the period called
youth.28 Setting aside what philosophers and physicians have said and rely-
ing on his own reason, Dante states that this second span of life lasts from
25 to 45 years. Of this, and of the whole of life, the mid-point is 35. The third
stage, that of old age, lasts from 45 to 70. Finally comes decline, from the age
of 70 until death.
Listing the attributes desirable in each of the four ages, Dante builds up
an ideal world of virtuous behaviour, sadly remote from the reality he sees
around him. Now and then he bursts into lamentations, bitterly contrasting
the real state of affairs with the ideal. His evocation of a world that could
yet come to be reveals his most deeply felt concerns and the matters on
which he set the highest value. It also reveals his courageous resolve to show
how things can be put right. Most remarkable is his faith in the power of
reason.
Among the qualities bestowed by nobility upon the soul of an adoles-
cente, good manners (soavi reggimenti ), modesty, courteous speech, respect
for elders, control of the passions and penitence for faults, the most striking
 THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NOBILITY 9

is what he terms stupore, that is to say,

an amazement (stordimento) of the mind on seeing or hearing great and
wonderful things, or feeling them in some way … which leads to reverence
and a desire to know and learn.29
In mapping the ideal foundation for life during the period he called
adolescenza Dante had the living examples of his own two sons. It is not
known when Pietro and Jacopo were born but they must by now have passed
the age of 4 and so become subject to the decree of exile from Florence.
They may have joined their father in Bologna, or possibly in Verona, where
they may have been left under the protection of Alighieri cousins who were
living there. Dante does not mention them in any of his works; nor does he
ever refer to his wife.
When he wrote Il Convivio Dante himself was in his early 40s, an age,
he says, when reason, like a good horseman, should direct desire with bridle
and spur. The bridle is called Temperance, the spur is Courage, the virtue
which shows us where we should make our stand and fight. As an example
he quotes the tale of Aeneas as related by Virgil:
What a bridling that was when Aeneas, after he had received such pleasure
from Dido, as will be told later in the seventh section, and was experiencing
such enjoyment with her, tore himself from her in order to follow an honour-
able, laudable and profitable course, as is related in the fourth book of the
Aeneid! And what a spurring that was when the same Aeneas had the cour-
age to enter alone with the Sibyl into Hell in quest of the soul of his father
Anchises, encountering such dangers as are described in the sixth book!
This is an age too when love should govern us: a ‘young’ man should love
his elders,
from whom he has received his being, nurture and teaching, lest he should
appear ungrateful. He should also love his juniors, in order that through loving
them he may impart kindness to them and on this account be supported and
honoured when his prosperity wanes.30
Of this, as for the qualities of courtesy and lealtà (obedience to the law),
Dante again takes as examples episodes from Virgil’s story of Aeneas.
His comments on the period of old age are largely inspired by Cicero’s
De Senectute. This is a time when a man should seek to be useful not only
to himself but also to others, his country and the entire world, modelling
himself on the example of Cato of Utica, about whom Dante read in Lucan’s
Pharsalia.31 In this connection Dante twice uses a very pleasing simile. A
man in old age who offers counsel to others
opens out like a rose which can no longer stay closed and diffuses its perfume
92 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

which is generated within … as a rose which renders up her fragrance not only
to him who goes to her for it but also to anyone who passes her way.32
Prudence is the source of right counsel which guides an old man himself and
others to a prosperous end in human affairs and actions:
It is right at this age that a man’s judgments and authority should be a light
and a law to others. And because this unique virtue was perceived by philoso-
phers in antiquity to show itself in perfection at this age, they committed
the government of the state to those who were of this age, and therefore the
assemblage of rulers was called a ‘Senate’.
At this point Dante breaks forth into one of his bitter lamentations:
(Oh wretched, wretched country of mine! What pity for thee wrings my heart
whenever I read, whenever I write anything that bears on civil government!)
But, he continues, since he intends to treat of justice in the last section but
one he will say no more about it for the present.33
On the age of decline, Dante again draws on Cicero who said that natu-
ral death is our haven after a long voyage and our repose:34
And just as a good mariner when he draws near to harbour lets down his sails35
and enters it gently with slight headway on, so also ought we to let down the
sails of our worldly pursuits and turn to God with all our understanding and
heart, so that we may come to that haven with all composure and with all
peace.36
Death in this age, without pain or bitterness, is like a ripe apple detaching
itself lightly, without force, from its bough. It is also like the return of a man
from a long journey who is met at the gate of his own city by her citizens,
or like one who seems to be departing from an inn and returning to his own
mansion:
Oh vile wretches who run into port with sails full set, and in the harbour
where you ought to repose, wreck and destroy yourselves with the force of the
wind at the spot to which you have been so long journeying!
As two examples of those who behaved with wisdom in this respect he cites
Lancelot, who became a hermit in old age, and Guido da Montefeltro, ‘our
noblest of Latins’:
Both these noble men indeed shortened the sail of their worldly occupations
for in their extreme age they surrendered themselves to religion, laying aside
all worldly delights and pursuits.37
Guido da Montefeltro, a renowned leader of the Ghibellines, entered the
Franciscan Order in 298, the year he died. Dante presents him in Inferno
as a victim of the deceit of Pope Boniface VIII, who prevailed on him to
 THE TRUE DEFINITION OF NOBILITY 93

instruct him in tricking his enemies. In the tale which the soul of Guido
himself relates to Dante, he uses the same metaphor of lowering sail as one
approaches death:
‘Quando mi vidi giunto in quella parte
di mia etade ove ciascun dovrebbe
calar le vele e raccoglier le sarte …’
‘When I reached the age when it is meet
for every mariner, with his port in sight,
to lower sail and gather in the sheet …’ 38
Dante’s reference to him in Il Convivio as ‘our noblest of Latins’ may show
that he regarded him as an example of a virtuous man who was still capable
of being led astray by someone as evil and astute as Pope Boniface. It is more
probable that Dante heard only later of the trickery of the Pope, by which
Guido was led to break his vows.
There comes next a beguiling allusion to marriage, mentioned nowhere
else in Il Convivio. The bonds of matrimony may still constrict a man in
old age but this does not excuse him from entering a religious life, for even
those who are married can do so, ‘since God requires only the profession of
the heart’. It has been said that in his youth Dante became a novice of the
Franciscan Order and then withdrew. This reminder that the religious life
may be entered into even by those who are married is perhaps an indication
that Dante was himself considering doing so in the last stages of his life.39
Interpreting the line in the canzone which refers to the remarriage of
the soul to God in the age of decline (a Dio si rimarita), Dante takes as an
example the desire of Marcia, the divorced wife of Cato of Utica, to return to
him at the end of her life. He had read the story in Lucan’s Pharsalia 40 and
relates it here in detail, explaining it allegorically as signifying the desire of
the noble soul to return to God:
And what earthly man is so worthy to signify God as Cato? Certainly none.41
The fourth section of Il Convivio ends with a brief interpretation of the
congedo of the canzone, which he calls an ornament,
for every good workman tries to ennoble and embellish his task at the end
as far as he can, in order that it may be the more valued when it leaves his
hands.
Dante follows this example, sending his canzone forth to where his Lady
(Philosophy) dwells. It is useless, he says in the commentary, to go else-
where, for as Christ has said, we should not cast pearls before swine, and
as Aesop has said, ‘To a cock a kernel of corn is worth more than a pearl.’
Philosophy is found only among the wise and among those who feel love for
94 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

her. He bids the canzone tell his Lady that he now discourses on her friend,
for truly Nobility is her friend, since the one is so deeply enamoured of the
other that Nobility is ever calling for her and Philosophy turns her fondest
gaze to no other quarter. Oh, how great and how beautiful an ornament is
this which is bestowed upon her at the end of this canzone, where she is called
the friend of her whose own mansion is in the most secret place of the divine
Mind!
With this impressive flourish, calling for applause for the conclusion of his
canzone, Dante reaches the end of what remains of Il Convivio. He had so
much more to say, stored in his mind and prepared in his notes. He had
given several indications of how he intended to proceed. The sense of loss is
very great, until we realize that nothing at all has been lost. Everything that
he wrote in Il Convivio, everything that he intended to write in continua-
tion, with much else, will be found, in another form: the Commedia.
 CHAPTER 9

Injustice and Avarice

T
he subject of the 4th section of Il Convivio was to have been justice,
and Dante had a canzone prepared. Beginning Tre donne al cor mi
son venute (‘Three women have gathered round my heart’), it was
written during his exile, probably while he was in Bologna. He is concerned
about the wrongs of society, his resentment at the injustice he himself has
suffered and his growing conviction that God’s plan for the world is the
establishment of peace under a single, righteous ruler.
His canzone on the subject is like a tableau vivant, beautiful and at the
same time mysterious. Written in the form of personification allegory, it
introduces three statue-like female figures. One, the mother and grand-
mother of the others, speaks weeping, leaning upon her hand like a lopped
rose, her bare arm a column of grief, drenched with the storm of tears that
falls from her face, her hair dishevelled and her feet unshod. She is Drittura
( Justice). Her daughter is Larghezza (Generosity) and her grandchild is
Temperanza (Temperance), both born beside the river Nile, whose source is
in the Garden of Eden. All three figures are so beautiful and of such noble
bearing that Love, who rules in the poet’s heart, is overcome and cannot
speak. Once they were welcome in the world, but now they are hated and
reviled. They have come as to the house of a friend to speak of their sorrow-
ful state. Hearing the words of Justice and gazing at the beauty of the three
figures, one of whom dries her eyes on her blond hair, the poet feels it an
honour to share with them the condition of exile:
L’ essilio che m’è dato onor mi tegno.
Exile on me imposed I hold an honour.
To share misfortune with those who are virtuous is also a matter of pride:
Cader co’ buoni è pur di lode degno.
To fall with the good is worthy too of praise.
The figure who speaks tells Love she is the sister of his mother Venus,
namely Astraea, the last of the immortals to leave the earth. She represents

95
96 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

divine and natural law, her daughter the law of nations and her granddaughter
human law. Love tries to hearten them, saying that though Generosity and
Temperance and others born of their blood, which he too shares, must now
go begging, it is mankind that should weep, not they, who are of the eternal
citadel. Though they and he are wounded, a race will return that will keep
bright his arrows which are tarnished now.
If this were all, the poem would be simply a blend of personification
and myth, the meaning plain enough, but Dante adds an image which is
unlike anything in his other lyrics. The garment of Justice, coarse and with
a plain girdle, hangs in such tatters that the part of her body che il tacere è
bello (‘which it is decent not to name’) is uncovered. This physical humilia-
tion may be intended to signify that Justice has been prostituted. He refers
to it a second time, in overtly sexual terms. In the first of the two congedi he
commands the poem to permit no man to pull aside its garment to reveal
what a fair woman conceals; those parts which are uncovered must suffice;
the sweet fruit to which all hands reach out must be denied. But if the poem
meets with someone who is a friend of virtue, it may put on fresh colours
and, thus arrayed, allow the flower, so beautiful to behold, to be desired by
hearts which love. This erotic image may signify that Justice is in danger of
being corrupted and is secure only if administered by the righteous.
A second mystery concerns an admission by Dante that he has erred,
several months previously, but has repented:
… s’io ebbi colpa,
più lune ha volto il sol poi che fu spenta
se colpa muore perchè l’uom si penta.
… if guilt was mine,
through several moons the sun has turned since when
it cancelled was, if blame dies with remorse.
It is not known to what guilt Dante here refers. Since the words come soon
after a mention of his exile, his fault would seem to have been political rather
than moral or religious. In the second congedo Dante asks forgiveness of the
Black Guelfs. For what? Not, surely, for the crimes of which he was falsely
accused and on the pretext of which he was banished − misappropriation
of funds, extortion and bribery − but perhaps for having joined with exiled
Ghibellines and White Guelfs in an attempt to force an entry back into
Florence:
Camera di perdon savio uom non serra,
chè ’l perdonare è bel vincer di guerra.
A wise man does not bar the room of pardon,
for pardon is fair victory in war.
 INJUSTICE AND AVARICE 97

In the last section of Il Convivio Dante intended to deal with the virtue
of liberality.1 For this, too, he had a canzone ready. Beginning Doglia mi
reca ne lo core ardire (‘Grief brings boldness to my heart’), it is quoted in De
Vulgari Eloquentia.2 This shows that it was written by 304. Reference to the
humiliation of having to ask for favours and being granted them grudgingly
suggests that it was written after he had quarrelled with his fellow exiles and
was now dependent upon charity.
It is a very angry and bitter poem. The style is abrupt, in places violent.
He warns readers that he intends to speak out against almost everyone. Like
many of his earlier lyrics it is addressed to women, but with a startling differ-
ence. Despairing of the moral degeneration of men, he commands women
to withdraw from them, hiding their beauty and even going so far as to
deface it. He reproaches them for desiring men who are unworthy. Beauty
was given to them, as moral strength had been given to men, in order that
these two constituents of perfection might blend under the power of love.
Now that there is no honesty in men, there can be no love between the sexes,
unless one gives the name of ‘love’ to bestial appetite.
Men who depart from goodness are like evil beasts. From being masters
they have chosen to become slaves; to life they have preferred death.
Goodness, created by divine Love, is both his servant and high minister.
With joy she steps forth from the fair portals of Love’s domain and visits
the human soul; with joy she travels and returns; with joy she carries out her
service, preserving, adorning and enriching what she finds. She is the reverse
of Death and never heeds him:
O cara ancella pura.
colt’hai nel ciel misura;
tu sola fai segnore, e quest è prova
che tu se’ possession che sempre giova.
O precious and pure handmaid,
who from heaven hast thy rule;
thou only dost nobility confer,
thus thou a gift art, which can never fail.
Whoever departs from such a handmaid is the slave not of a lord but
of another slave. Consider what he who strays from her must lose: his eyes
which should illumine his mind remain closed and he walks at the whim of
one whose eyes are fixed only on folly.
Recalling that he is addressing women, Dante moves from the abstract
to the particular, for it is rarely, he says, that obscure words penetrate the
minds of those who wear the wimple:
98 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Ma perchè lo meo dire util vi sia,

discenderò del tutto
in parte, ed in costrutto
più lieve, sì che men grave s’intenda:
chè rado sotto benda
parola oscura giugne ad intelletto;
per che parlar con voi si vole aperto.
But that my words may be of use to you,
I will descend from general terms
to details and to simpler form,
that less remote my meaning may appear:
for rarely does an obscure word
achieve an entry to a wimpled brow;
and so with you plain speaking is required.
It had long been a commonplace that women are by nature less capable than
men of abstract thought. St Thomas Aquinas had said that women were
influenced more by their feelings than by their reason. From this canzone
it appears that Dante followed his view and yet, when he began to write
Il Convivio, he explicitly included women among those whom he wished
to address, though even here he refers slightingly to their capacity when
he speaks of the vernacular as being a language which ‘even women speak’.
Women who inspire the highest love are beautiful and virtuous, even saintly,
as Beatrice is shown to be in La Vita Nuova. They know by insight what
love is, and Dante addressed several of his poems to them as well as to
Beatrice. It is noticeable, however, that such poems require no powers of
abstract reasoning for their comprehension. How this view of women is to
be reconciled with the role which Beatrice will play as theological guide,
informant and counsellor in Purgatorio and Paradiso will be considered later
in the present work.3
In the present canzone, Dante asks his women readers, for their own
good, not certainly for his, to despise and scorn all men. So enslaved have
men become that they resemble a miser running blindly after money. This
leads Dante to deplore the vice he has come to regard as the most destruc-
tive of all, namely avarice. His poem from here on grows increasingly harsh,
even ferocious in expression. His language seems scarcely suitable for the
canzone or characteristic of the volgare illustre:
Corre l’avaro, ma più fugge pace;
oh mente cieca, che non pò vedere
lo suo folle volere
ch ’l numero, ch’ ognora a passar bada,
che ’nfinito vaneggia!
 INJUSTICE AND AVARICE 99

The miser runs, but peace runs faster still.

Oh! blinded mind, that cannot see
in its mad longing
that the sum it strives to pass
vanishes to infinity!
He personifies Death, who makes equals of us all, and challenges the
miser:
Dimmi, che hai tu fatto,
cieco avaro disfatto?
Rispondimi, se puoi, altro che ‘Nulla’.
Maladetta tua culla
che lusingò cotanti sonni invano!
Maladetto lo tuo perduto pane,
che non si perde al cane!
Chè da sera e da mane
hai raunato e stretto ad ambo mano
ciò che sì tosto si rifà lontano.
Tell me, what hast thou done,
thou miser, blind, undone?
Answer me, if thou canst, apart from ‘Nil’.
Cursed be thy cradle which
beguiled so many dreams in vain!
Cursed be the bread that on thee wasted was,
Though not upon a dog!
For thou, from morn to eve,
hast gathered in and clutched with both thy hands
what slips away so fast, beyond thy grasp.
Misers not only accumulate their wealth beyond measure; they also hoard it,
thus causing servitude to others, from which escape can be made only with
difficulty. He addresses Death and Fortune, rebuking both:
Morte, che fai? Che fai, fera Fortuna,
che non solvete quel che non si spende?
Se ’l fate, a cui si rende?
Non so, poscia che tal cerchio ne cinge
che di la sù ne riga.
Death and savage Fortune, what are you about,
that you do not disperse what is not spent?
Or if you do, to whom?
I do not know, for we are locked within
a circle by the powers above.
00 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Reason should intervene to remedy the unjust distribution and inheritance

of wealth. But Reason says, ‘I am powerless’:
Ah, come poca difesa
mostra segnore a cui servo sormonta!
Ah, what trivial defence
a master makes surmounted by a slave!
And now in words of exceeding bitterness he rebukes the wealthy who watch
the blameless poor run naked over hill and marsh, while they themselves
wrap garments round the worthless clay that is their flesh. In a miniature
allegory, Dante describes the efforts of Virtue to lure the miser to liberality.
She walks round, calling persistently. She throws a morsel of bait towards
him, but the miser makes no move towards it. If, after she departs, he does
approach, he is so pained by the thought of making a gift to anyone that no
praise results when he does. This is Dante’s picture of Scrooge. He knows
him well. ‘I want you all to hear me’, he cries:
I’ vo’ che ciascun m’ oda:
chi con tardare, e chi con vana vista,
che con sembianza trista,
volge il donare in vender tanto caro
quanto sa sol chi tal compera paga.
Volete udir se piaga?
Tanto chi prende smaga,
che ’l negar poscia non li pare amaro.
Così altrui e sè concia l’avaro.
Heed all of you what I now say:
Some misers with delay, some with disdain,
some with a sullen brow,
convert their gift into a costly sale,
so high the price he only knows who pays.
And would you learn the pain?
So much it injures him who takes
that afterwards refusal has no bitterness.
To this a miser comes and others brings.

Dante’s humiliation at the hands of those on whom he depends for char-

ity runs deep. The result is that the unjust distribution of wealth becomes
one of his greatest concerns. The gap between rich and poor, the selfishness
of the rich, the inescapable poverty of the helpless and deserving were prob-
lems to which, at the time of writing this canzone, he could see no remedy.
By the time he began Il Convivio he had come to see and hope for a solu-
tion. The two final sections were to have been a triumphant proclamation
 INJUSTICE AND AVARICE 0

of this vision and this hope, a vision and a hope he then transferred to the
Commedia.
In the meantime, his poetry remains swathed in allegory and his style has
become awkward and obscure. In contrast, clarity and directness are about to
take command of his imagination as he embarks on his new work.
 CHAPTER 10

Dante the Showman

D
ante’s disappointment at the lack of response to Il Convivio must
have been deeply demoralizing. It was his most ambitious enterprise
to date and he had invested in it his highest hopes, his profound-
est learning and his finest talent. Some inkling he must have had that his
audience was dwindling and sales of manuscript were falling off: the refer-
ence towards the end of the last chapter to casting pearls before swine is
significant.
The blow was further exacerbated in October 306 when the Florentine
government brought pressure to bear on the Bolognese to expel all White
Guelfs who had taken refuge there. This added to the difficulty of continuing
Il Convivio, not to mention his lectures on the Italian vernacular. Possibly
forewarned, Dante had already kicked the dust of Bologna from his heels
and had accepted the hospitality of Franceschino Malaspina in his castle
at Sarzana in the Lunigiana.1 Looking back over his shoulder, he retained
a memory of several unworthy Bolognese whom he would later locate in
Inferno: Francesco d’Accorso, the sodomite,2 Venedico di Caccianemico,
who sold his sister to the Marquis Obizzo d’Este and boasts in Hell of the
great number of pimps from Bologna who share his punishment,3 and two
Bolognese friars among the hypocrites.4
Sarzana was a place of sad association for Dante, for it was here that his
friend Guido Cavalcanti was exiled and had caught malaria, returning to
Florence only to die.5 While there, Dante was employed as an intermedi-
ary in a dispute between the Malaspina family and the Bishop of Luni.6
Documents dated 6 October 306 attest that the negotiation was successful.
Here is further indication that Dante eked out his income when he could by
such commissions.
It is not known how long he remained at Sarzana, probably not beyond
the summer of 307. During his stay he had become acquainted with
Franceschino’s cousin, Moroello. A Guelf, he had captained the Florentines
in their campaign against the Ghibellines of Arezzo; in 297 the Guelfs of
Bologna had elected him Captain-General in the war against the Marquis

02
 DANTE THE SHOWMAN 03

Azzo of Este; the following year he was appointed podestà of Bologna; in

299 he was captain of the Milanese forces in a conflict with the Marquis of
Montferrat; from 30 onwards he was frequently in arms on behalf of the
Blacks of Tuscany and by 307 he was made captain of the Guelf League. All
such exploits gained for him a reputation for military valour and political
skill. Dante, once a combatant in arms himself, was an admiring observer
of his career. He introduces the soul of his cousin Currado among the Late
Repentant in Purgatorio and takes the opportunity to pay honour to the
family for their courage and generosity.7 There is also a reference in Inferno
to Moroello’s military prowess.8
This valiant man of arms must also have been a man of letters, for Dante
sent him an epistle accompanying a canzone on the subject of his feelings
for a young woman he had met in the Casentino region after his depar-
ture from Sarzana. Beginning Amor, dacchè convien pur ch’io mi doglia (‘Love,
since grief is once again to be my fate’), it is thought to be his last canzone.
Boccaccio said that it was Moroello who encouraged him to resume work
on the Commedia when the first seven cantos were sent on to him from
Florence. This is a misunderstanding on Boccaccio’s part, for there is no
sign that Dante began the work before his exile. He may have done so soon
after leaving Bologna and perhaps it was this commencement that Moroello
saw and encouraged him to continue. Boccaccio also said that he had been
told that Dante dedicated Purgatorio to him but there is no confirmation of
this. That the tradition exists is an indication that relations between them
were those of a literary companionship. Cino da Pistoia also knew him and
addressed a sonnet to him, to which Dante, at Moroello’s request, wrote
a reply. There are signs here of a poetic liaison between the three men, of
which we have only the residue of two sonnets and one canzone.
In his letter, written in Latin, to Moroello, whom he addresses ceremoni-
ously as ‘Your Magnificence’, Dante apologizes for his silence after leaving
the court at Sarzana, to which he has since looked back with nostalgic regret,
and where, as Moroello remarked, he was both dependent and yet free. His
silence is not due to neglect but to the fact that he has fallen violently in love
and is still a victim of this new passion. His first sight of the young woman
was like a flash of lightning, followed by a thunder clap. All his resolve to
remain aloof from women and to cease from writing poems about them
has been shattered; gone too are his continuous meditations on the things
of heaven and earth. He is now once again and more than ever the help-
less prisoner of love, with no will of his own. The reference to his medita-
tions (meditationes assiduas quibus tam coelestia quam terrestria) suggests that
Moroello had read part at least of Il Convivio or was aware of its existence,
he being, though Dante addresses him, out of protocol, in Latin, an example
04 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

of the ‘princes, barons, knights and many other noble folk’ whom he had
hoped to reach.
On leaving Sarzana Dante became the guest of the Guidi family in their
castle at Poppi, in the Casentino region in the north-east of Tuscany, not
far from the battlefield of Campaldino, where Dante as a young man had
fought against the Ghibellines of Arezzo.9 The Guidi were a powerful family,
of Lombard origin, who in the course of centuries had gained possession of
castle after castle. Their strongholds were solid and impressive; they grew
more and more wealthy and members of their widespread family occupied
important positions in a number of cities in Romagna and Tuscany. It is not
known what commissions Dante undertook for his host on this occasion
but when he returned a second time to benefit again from his protection he
acted as secretary to Count Guidi’s wife, the Countess Battifolle.
On his first visit to Poppi, released from his intellectual concerns at
Bologna and from his duties at Sarzana, Dante, now aged 42, found himself
in the upper valley of the Arno, among the slopes of the Etruscan Apennines,
a beautiful region, tantalizingly near Florence, where he longed to return.
And there, he says in the poem, walking along the bank of the river, he met
a young woman who affected him like a coup de foudre. We do not know
her name. The region is one in which Dante had always felt vulnerable to
the power of Love but now there are no friends, as once there were, neither
women nor men, no fellow poets, to whom he can unburden himself or
to whom he can look for sympathy and understanding. In the congedo he
bids his montanina canzon (‘mountain song’) go forth. Perhaps it will see
Florence, la mia terra (‘my city’), which, lacking all love and pity, locks its
gates against him. If it should enter there he bids it say: ‘No longer can my
lord wage war on you. Where I come from, a chain so binds him that even
if you relent in your cruelty he no longer has the freedom to return.’
This is not an allegorical poem. The subject is not ethics, nor moral obli-
gations, nor justice, nor God’s plan for the world; nor does the lady symbol-
ize Philosophy. This is a poem about carnal love, disguised in conventional
phraseology, sent, man to man, to Moroello who will understand its hidden
meaning. The code words are ‘death’, ‘dying’, ‘failing strength’, ‘revival’, long
used in love poetry as euphemisms for sexual orgasm. The poem expresses
a sense of shock and bewilderment. After a long period of abstinence, love
has caught him off guard. While still in Bologna he had not entirely given
up writing poems on the subject of love, such as a group of sonnets he had
exchanged with Cino, but compared with this canzone those are mere poetic
exercises in which he is seen to be emotionally detached.
After the failure of Il Convivio and the spiritual crisis it probably occa-
sioned, Dante gave thought to his next undertaking. He knew that he had
 DANTE THE SHOWMAN 05

misjudged his public. The ‘princes, barons, knights and many other noble
folk, not only men but women’ whom he had hoped to reach had not
responded. Long discussions on astronomy, morals, law and Roman history,
even though varied by beautiful poems and personal revelations, had failed
to hold attention. Too popular to attract the learned and too learned for
popular taste, Il Convivio had missed its market. But the vast material he
had prepared for it need not be wasted.
There had long been a popular demand for tales of marvels. The street
entertainers developed their skills to meet it. Their repertoire was extensive:
they could sing, play musical instruments, perform acrobatics; they had a
supply of stories by heart, in which the magical and the fabulous predomi-
nated. A favourite was a horror story of a journey into the world of the
dead, with gruesome descriptions of the punishment of unrepentant sinners.
Such tales were recited with realistic gusto, accompanied by tears and
groans, the rudimentary dialogue enlivened with gestures; even masks were
worn. Sometimes the story was fully acted with theatrical props and effects.
Giovanni Villani describes such a performance in Florence in his Chronicle.10
Damned souls tormented by demons and virtuous souls welcomed by joyful
angels into Heaven were everywhere a familiar sight in mosaics and frescoes,
not only in Italy but elsewhere in Europe. In England they were known as
Doom paintings.
One of the most successful was the tale of St Paul’s visit to Hell in the
company of an angel. Already known in the fourth century in two Greek
versions, it was mentioned, with scorn, by St Augustine of Hippo. Another
early version existed in Syriac. Latin versions abounded in the early Middle
Ages, as well as translations in Old French, Early English, Provençal and
Italian, both in prose and verse.11
One version in Old French, in rhyme, accompanied by a translation and
commentary in Latin prose, evidently intended as material for a sermon,
dates from the early fourteenth century. The manuscript is illustrated with
miniatures which could easily serve for Dante’s Inferno. It is God’s will that
St Paul shall see the punishments of Hell. His guide, in this version the
Archangel Michael, leads him by the hand and shows him first the open
gates. He sees a tree on fire, festooned with crucified bodies hanging from
the branches, some by their feet, others by their hands, their arms, their
tongues, their ears, their hair. In a furnace burning with flames of seven
different colours St Paul sees rows of heads of damned souls. He gesticu-
lates in horror and asks who they are. The Archangel replies that they are
the souls of sinners who died before they could repent. They long for death
but the dead cannot die a second time. They weep, they moan, they groan.
St Paul tries to cover his eyes with his mantle, but the Archangel pulls him
06 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

firmly along.
Next he sees a horrible river in which diabolical monsters swim like fish
and gobble up the damned souls without mercy. It is spanned by a bridge,
along which naked souls crawl. The virtuous ones make it to a door which
leads to Paradise. The others fall into the river and stand immersed at differ-
ent levels, some to their knees, some to their bellies and navels, some to their
eyebrows. St Paul weeps piteously and asks the meaning of the different
levels. The Archangel explains that they represent different sins: envy, deceit,
fornication. (The Latin commentary adds: neglect of church attendance and
confession, inattention to sermons.) St Paul weeps and says: ‘Alas for the
souls for whom such torments are prepared!’
In a fiery furnace stand more souls of the damned, visible from their navels
up, biting their tongues and grimacing in torment. In a miniature a demon
is shown beating them from above while below two other demons keep the
fire hot with poker and bellows. Further on is a dark place where women,
dressed in black, are covered with pitch and sulphur, with snakes and vipers
curled about their necks. The Archangel explains that these are the souls of
women who lost their virginity before marriage and who gave the bodies of
their children to pigs and dogs or threw them in a river. A miniature shows
a wheel with damned souls clinging to it while three demons make it whirl
without pause. Next, in a place of ice, one part of which is on fire, are the
souls of those who injured widows and orphans. Men and women, gathered
on the banks of a river, reach out to a fruit tree but cannot grasp the fruit.12
They are souls who did not keep their fasts. One old man tormented by four
demons was a bishop who did not obey the law of God, who was unchaste
in body, words and thoughts, who was avaricious, proud and criminal: hence
the severity of his punishment. St Paul weeps. The Archangel asks: ‘Why do
you weep? You have not yet seen the worst sins of Hell.’
They come to a deep pit from which flames are leaping. The Archangel
says: ‘Stand back a while so that you can endure the stench.’ A miniature
shows St Paul blocking his nose with his mantle. In another place St Paul
sees men and women being devoured by worms and serpents. Other souls
are packed together, heaped high, groaning and sighing with a sound like
thunder. One soul is being pulled along by seven demons. A list of his sins
is presented to him, which he reads and makes his own judgement as to his
place of punishment. The devils seize him and rush him along to where there
is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Still other souls, all tonsured, are tormented
by two demons while another is roasted on a spit, turned by two small
demons. St Paul asks, ‘Tell me, who are these men I see?’ The Archangel
replies: ‘They were ordained ministers of the church who neglected their
priestly duties, loved folly and excess and spent their time in wanton ways.’
 DANTE THE SHOWMAN 07

Fig 4. St Paul and the Archangel Michael

In a continuation, souls dressed in white robes are seen in Heaven, kneel-

ing before Christ. The damned souls cry out for mercy: ‘Jesus, Son of God,
who didst descend into Hell, with a diadem on Thy head, have mercy on
us!’ A reprieve is granted for relief from suffering from the ninth hour of
Saturday to the first hour of Monday. The manuscript, which is incomplete,
breaks off near this point.
The verse is crude and the narrative lacks organization. Many such texts
were similar in these respects. But this is material that Dante used for his
Inferno when he came to write it. Like a masterly showman, he takes the
primitive scenario and develops it into a well-organized production. And
with it he combines something else.
Other stories of journeys into the world of the dead had been inher-
ited from antiquity. Among the best known were Homer’s account of the
descent of Odysseus, the myth of Orpheus who went to recover his wife
Eurydice and, above all, Virgil’s description of the journey of Aeneas into
Hades in search of his father Anchises.13 This last for Dante had supreme
significance.
08 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

In the second canto of Inferno Dante draws back in fear from the enter-
prise to which Virgil has committed him: ‘You say that Aeneas went to the
world of the dead, and did so in the body. But it is clear to anyone why God
allowed this for he was chosen as the father of Rome and of her Empire,
whence came the Papal See. The Chosen Vessel14 went there too, that he
might bring back confirmation of the faith that leads to salvation. But why
should I go? Who allows it? I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul’: Io non Enea, io
non Paolo sono.15
Modern commentators are united in relating the reference to St Paul to 2
Corinthians XII, verses 2–4, in which speaking of himself the Apostle says:
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot
tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth); such a one caught
up to the third heaven. … How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard
unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Dante’s first listeners, however, would undoubtedly have taken his reference
to St Paul to be an allusion to the familiar tale of his journey into Hell, of
which they would recognize many details in the story they were about to
hear. By placing Aeneas and St Paul together in this one line, Dante, in a
stroke of genius, combines the classical and the mediaeval, the august and
the lowly, in what was to prove a new form of literary art.
The shadowy figure of Virgil who stands in the wooded valley in the
first canto of Inferno, silent, as is the way of ghosts,16 until Dante speaks to
him, is not the Virgil we know from our classical sources. For Dante and his
contemporaries he was something different. More than any other ancient
writer, he was a link between the pagan past and the present, between the dei
falsi e bugiardi (‘lying and false gods’) and the true God of the Christians. He,
it was believed, had prophesied the birth of Christ, in his fourth eclogue, in
which, in mysterious words which have never been convincingly explained,
he foretells the birth of a child who will bring to pass a new age of gold. The
belief that this was a prophecy, unwitting on the part of Virgil, of the birth of
Christ was current already in the fourth century. The Emperor Constantine
accepted it. Because of it, Virgil came to be known as the Prophet of the
Gentiles. In Rheims Cathedral his name was included in prayers for the
prophets. In Liège, in the eleventh century, he appeared as a character in a
Nativity play. In Spain, in the fourteenth century, he was classed among the
Old Testament prophets.
Gradually throughout the Middle Ages, Virgil acquired the reputation
of a fabulous figure. Already in classical times he had been regarded as an
oracle. He became famed in legends, accepted by the learned as well as by
the illiterate, as a sage, an astrologer, a protector, a magician, a prophet. All
this mediaeval attire he wore in the eyes of Dante’s earliest audience when
 DANTE THE SHOWMAN 09

he revealed himself in the opening canto of the Commedia:

‘Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto
figliuol d’Anchise che venne da Troia,
poi ch ’l superbo Ilion fu combusto.’
‘I was a poet and I sang in praise
of Anchises’ just son, who came from Troy,
when Ilium the proud was set ablaze.’ 17
To Dante he is the great poet whom he greets with bowed head and rever-
ent words:
‘Or se’ tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte
che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?’
‘Art thou indeed that Virgil and that fount
who pourest forth so broad a stream of speech?’ 18
He is also the glory and the light of other poets, whom Dante has long stud-
ied and loved, on whom alone he has based his own style which has earned
him honour. But he is also the figure invested with an aura of power who can
now help Dante in his peril. Driven back down the mountain by three wild
animals, terrified above all by the she-wolf, he implores:
‘Aiutami da lei, famoso saggio!’
‘Rescue me from her, o thou famous sage!’ 19
Thus he appeals to Virgil as a wise man, a magician. This would not surprise
his listeners. They would expect it. Nor would they be surprised by Virgil’s
mysterious prophecy of the hound that will one day drive the she-wolf from
the world. Virgil was known to utter mysterious prophecies. Nor would it
puzzle them that Virgil, empowered by authority from Heaven, would be
Dante’s guide and guardian and, having led him to the gates of Hell, would
take him by the hand and lead him dentro alle segrete cose (‘in among the
secret things’).20 That was how the Archangel led St Paul. This was going to
be a good story, of the kind they were used to.
This time Dante the showman had captured his audience and he would
hold it for seven centuries.
 CHAPTER 11

The Return of Beatrice

O
ne thing is certain, and few things are, concerning Beatrice: she
plays no part in Il Convivio. At the end of La Vita Nuova, as we
have seen, Dante said he would write no more poetry concerning
her until he had studied enough to write what had never been written in
verse of any woman, sì com’ ella sae veracemente (‘as she truly knows’). By the
time he began Il Convivio, his studies had been extensive, but he was ready
then only to draw a distinction between his love for Beatrice and his love for
the donna gentile. About Beatrice, the glorified soul in Heaven, he would say
no more at present.
When he began his new work his plan changed. The design was vast in
structure and elaborated in minute detail. His story of a journey to the world
of the dead was to have perfectly organized apparatus and scenic effects,
of sufficient grandeur to carry his vision for the salvation of the world and
of his own soul. He would tell it in the first person, obtaining thereby the
utmost verisimilitude. Unlike the story of St Paul’s journey, it would encom-
pass Purgatory and Paradise, as well as Inferno. In Inferno and Purgatory
the pagan and partly Christianized Virgil could be his guide. For Paradise
another figure would be required. The question was: who? There were many
possibilities: St Thomas Aquinas? St Bernard? Angelic beings? Indeed, they
and quite a few other figures do play minor roles as mentors and intermedi-
aries. He needed many voices among which to allocate what he had learnt
from his studies and the beliefs he had formed; for this purpose he assem-
bled an immense cast. But for his own role in the drama he needed someone
of personal significance: the time had come to bring forward Beatrice as his
leading lady.
A compelling feature of the Commedia is the force of the narrative. But
it is not one single narrative: it is studded with minor stories, even stories
within stories, in dialogue or told in the first person, some by mythological
figures but the majority by the souls of people recently dead and well known.
One linking theme, drawn from folklore and also found in Arthurian and
other tales of chivalric adventure which Dante knew well, was the quest of

0
 THE RETURN OF BEATRICE 

the knight for his lady, who sends a messenger to bring him to her and from
afar guides him through the realm of the dead or of faerie. At their meet-
ing, the lady rebukes her lover for his infidelity, he confesses his fault and
they are reconciled. This is the basic story of the journey of Dante, led by a
messenger (Virgil) to Beatrice.1 Structurally it serves to draw the main story
onward, as hints and allusions placed at critical points keep the audience in
anticipation of what is to come. One instance, in Inferno, shows that despite
his meticulous planning Dante occasionally changed his mind as the poem
progressed. When Farinata degli Uberti hints at Dante’s exile, Virgil tells
him he will learn more about the course of his life from Beatrice:
‘La mente tua conservi quel ch’udito
hai contra te’, mi comandò quel saggio.
‘E ora attendi qui’, e drizzò il dito:
‘quando sarai dinanzi al dolce raggio
di quella il cui bell’ occhio tutto vede,
da lei saprai di tua vita il viaggio.’
‘Keep in thy mind what thou against thee now
hast heard’, that man of wisdom counselled me,
‘and mark’, he said, his finger raised, ‘when thou
in her sweet radiance shalt come to be,
whose lovely eyes behold all things that are,
from her thou’lt learn the path ahead of thee.’ 2
But in Paradiso it is Dante’s ancestor Cacciaguida who unfolds his future to
him, not Beatrice.3
We first see Beatrice in the Commedia through the words of Virgil. To
reassure Dante that his journey has the highest authority in Heaven, he
describes the visit of a blessed soul who sought him in Limbo. For the first
time we hear words spoken by her, reported by Virgil, who describes her
voice as sweet, low and angelic, her eyes as brighter than the stars. Her speech
is elaborately courteous. She is aware of his fame as a poet. She expresses
loving concern for Dante’s danger and is anxious lest she may have come too
late. And she tells him who she is:
‘I’ son Beatrice che ti faccio andare.’
‘I Beatrice am who send thee on this quest.’ 4
Virgil continues to relate that in reply to his enquiry as to why she was
unafraid to descend into Hell she described a heavenly scene which led her
to do so. The Virgin Mary in her compassion called to St Lucy who in her
turn urged Beatrice to go to the rescue of one who so loved her that for her
sake he rose to distinction, or as Dante makes St Lucy say, uscì per te della
2 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

volgare schiera (‘for thee departed from the vulgar herd’).5 Alerted by St Lucy
to Dante’s extreme peril, Beatrice instantly left her throne in Heaven in
search of Virgil, trusting to his power as a poet which honours him and all
those who have heard him. Ending her appeal, she turned her countenance
away, her eyes brimming with tears.
This is not the scornful young woman of La Vita Nuova, the Beatrice who
cut Dante in the street, who mocked and laughed at him when he trembled
in her presence. Almost 20 years have passed. Dante’s thoughts concerning
her have led him to create a new Beatrice, beatified and invested with the
divine qualities he had already associated with her but which formerly he
had not understood. As Il Convivio developed, the exalted meaning of the
donna gentile was his foremost consideration, but his mind, radiant with the
contemplation of philosophic truth, was at the same time alert to the truths
of theology. We do not know whether he intended to introduce theological
doctrine into Il Convivio. If so, he would not then have drawn an allegorical
connection with Beatrice, for he said that he intended not to mention her
further in that work. When and why did he decide to give Beatrice the role
of expounding theological doctrine in Paradiso?
Before his exile, while he was still in turmoil with the conflict between
his love for Beatrice and his love for the donna gentile, he had a vision of
Beatrice in Heaven,
clothed in the crimson garments in which she first appeared before my eyes;
and she seemed as young as when I first saw her.6
This was followed by a ‘marvellous vision’ in which he saw things that made
him decide to write no more poetry concerning Beatrice until he could do so
worthily.7 He does not describe this vision, but it follows a sonnet in which
he tells how a thought, which he calls a sigh, ascended into Heaven like a
pilgrim spirit, and there beheld a lady in glory, so beautiful and possessed of
such attributes that his intellect was dumbfounded,
for our intellect in the presence of those blessed souls is as weak as our eyes
before the sun. … I say [in my sonnet] that although I cannot comprehend the
place to which my thought takes me, that is into the presence of her miracu-
lous nature, I understand this at least, that this thought of mine is entirely
concerned with my lady, for frequently I hear her name.8
These visions of Beatrice remained latent in his mind as he studied philoso-
phy and wrote Il Convivio. By the time he began to plan his new work he
had realized their significance: she had become both an instance and an
image of creation glorified by love.
Beatrice, the Florentine child, girl and woman, with whom Dante fell
in love, was educated, as has been presumed, at a convent school, where
 THE RETURN OF BEATRICE 3

she would have learnt her catechism and as much Latin as was needed for
her prayers and the litany. There is an enormous gap between her and the
Beatrice of the Commedia, who on one occasion speaks in Latin,9 proph-
esies the coming of a Benefactor, instructs Dante on the metaphysics of the
moon and the chain of cause and effect between the angelic beings and life
on earth; on the eternal existence of the souls in the Empyrean and their
temporary presence in the spheres for Dante’s benefit; on the doctrine of
unfulfilled vows; on the Atonement, the Just Vengeance, the Resurrection
of the body; on the Angelic Hierarchy; on the Creation; who, with startling
inappropriateness, launches into a sarcastic diatribe against unworthy
preachers who in their sermons rely more on their own jokes than on the
Gospel; whose last words are a bitter gibe at Pope Boniface VIII.10 This,
again, is not the Beatrice of La Vita Nuova. Who then is she?
In one of her roles she is the voice of Dante’s intellect. In Il Convivio his
knowledge, acquired by study after the death of Beatrice, undertaken for her
sake and continued during his early years of exile, is expounded directly, in
the first person. In the Commedia he apportions it among a series of person-
ages, of whom the most continuous are Virgil and Beatrice. The doctrinal
and instructive parts of his work thus take on the form of dialogues, thereby
introducing an element of drama, which heightens the power of the narra-
tive.
The light of theological truth that now radiates his mind, his under-
standing of the universe, his gradual approach to a vision of God, all this
he owes to the memory of Beatrice, for it was in order to understand her
significance that he persisted in his studies. As the character Dante rises
through the spheres of Heaven, shedding error after error, growing continu-
ally in understanding, so the beauty of Beatrice, of her smile and of her eyes,
grows ever more dazzling. By means of this image Dante the poet reflects
his intellectual exultation and spiritual joy at the increasing clarification of
his mind.11
But in the Commedia Beatrice, as Dante creates her, plays many roles.
The simplest and for some readers the most appealing is the Beatrice whom
Dante continues to love, remembering the beautiful Florentine girl, now a
soul in Heaven who, he believes, watches over him and tries to guide him,
but from whose memory he has often strayed. This basic theme, linking
the work together, runs from Virgil’s description of her at the beginning of
Inferno to our last glimpse of her in Paradiso, where, returned to her throne,
she folds her hands in prayer, with all the heavenly host, that the Virgin
Mary may intercede for Dante that he may behold God. This is the Beatrice
of Dante’s early love poetry, in whom he perceived the immanence of divine
glory and who continues to inspire some of his most exalted lines in the
4 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Commedia. At a supreme moment he links the two together. In Paradiso,

when he enters the Empyrean, he turns to look at Beatrice and finds her
beauty so transfigured that it defeats all his power to describe it. Not all that
he has ever written of her would suffice:
Se quanto infino a qui di lei si dice
fosse conchiuso tutto in una loda,
poco sarebbe a fornir questa vice.
La bellezza ch’io vidi si trasmoda
non pur di là da noi, ma certo io credo
che solo il suo fattor tutta la goda.
Da questo passo vinto mi concedo
più che già mai da punto di suo tema
soprato fosse comico o trageda;
chè, come sole in viso che più trema,
così lo rimembrar del dolce riso
la mente mia di sè medesmo scema.
Dal primo giorno ch’i’ vidi il suo viso
in questa vita, infino a questa vista,
non m’ è il seguire al mio cantar preciso;
ma or convien che mio seguir desista
più dietro a sua bellezza, poetando,
come all’ultimo suo ciascuno artista.
Were everything I’ve ever said of her
rolled up into a single jubilee,
too slight a hymn for this new task were there.
Beauty past knowledge was displayed to me –
not only ours; the joy of it complete
her Maker knows, I think, and only He.
From this point on I must admit defeat
sounder than poet wrestling with his theme,
comic or tragic, e’er was doomed to meet;
for her sweet smile remembered, as the beam
of sunlight blinds the weakest eyes that gaze,
bewilders all my wits and scatters them.
From the first hour I looked upon her face
in this life, till that vision, I could trust
the poet in me to pursue her praise;
now in her beauty’s wake my song can thrust
its following flight no farther; I give o’er
as, at his art’s end, every artist must.12
Soon afterwards, realizing that Beatrice has left him to return to her
throne in Heaven, Dante looks up at her and offers the following prayer, in
which the whole of this theme is gathered up in a farewell:
 THE RETURN OF BEATRICE 5

‘O donna in cui la mia speranza vige

e che soffristi per la mia salute
in inferno lasciar le tue vestige,
di tante cose quant’i’ ho vedute,
dal tuo podere e dalla tua bontate
riconosco la grazia e la virtute.
Tu m’hai di servo tratto a libertate
per tutte quelle vie, per tutt’i modi
che di ciò fare avei la potestate.
La tua magnificenza in me custodi,
sì che l’anima mia che fatt’ hai sana,
piacente a te dal corpo si disnodi.’
‘O thou in whom my hopes securely dwell,
and who, to bring my soul to Paradise,
didst leave the imprint of thy steps in Hell,
of all that I have looked on with these eyes
thy goodness and thy power have fitted me
the holiness and grace to recognize.
Thou hast led me, a slave, to liberty,
by every path, and using every means
which to fulfil this task were granted thee.
Keep turned towards me thy munificence
so that my soul which thou hast remedied
may please thee when it quits the bonds of sense.’ 13
Beatrice, it seemed to him, although so distant, smiled, ‘then to the eternal
fountain turned her head’. It is significant that in these last words of loving
gratitude, the honorific pronoun voi by which he has addressed Beatrice
throughout the poem is here replaced by the intimate pronoun tu. She is
here once again the Florentine girl and woman whom he loved.
The meeting between Dante and Beatrice in the Commedia occurs in the
Garden of Eden at the summit of the Mountain of Purgatory. Occupying a
central position in the work, it brings together the unexpected departure of
Virgil, Dante’s shock and grief, the entry on the stage of Beatrice in disguise,
her reproaches, his humiliation, confession of infidelity and reconciliation.
For this crucial and complex scène à faire and for the allegorical spectacles
which follow, Dante uses many different forms of creative art: narrative,
drama, pageant, masque and dumb-show. In each of them Beatrice plays a
different role, though Dante’s personal vision of her, as he had come to think
of her, remains unchanged.
The implications of these paradoxes will be considered in a subsequent
chapter.14
 CHAPTER 12

The Story Begins

T
he most carefully planned feature of the Commedia is its structure.
The number of cantos, the regions of the dead, the form of the verse,
are based on the figure three and its multiples: 33 cantos to each of
the three main sections (cantiche), plus one introductory canto, bringing the
total to 00, the perfect number. Most striking of all is the verse. Known as
terza rima (triple rhyme), it was Dante’s invention. In a long verse narrative
there is always danger of monotony. Couplets are a particular peril. Blank
verse was not used in vernacular writing. Dante loved rhyme, concatenatio
pulcra (‘beautiful linkage’), as he called it.1 It is also an aid to memory and
a safeguard against omissions and alterations by copyists. The separation of
each couplet by a new rhyme which hooks over on to the next, pulling the
narrative forward, was a brilliant solution. It gives individual unity to every
canto, while linking them all in an identical pattern. The effect is that of
woven fabric.
He chose the -syllable line (endecasillabo) for the entire work. This had
long been part of his repertoire. He had used it in sonnets, canzoni, ballate
and sestine and valued it for its stateliness. He would now test its versatility
to the full. Narrative, dialogue, epigrams, enigmas, outbursts of wrath, satire,
humour, farce, caricature, scenes of horror and of beauty, exultation, flights of
poetic imagination and lyrical rapture all had to be accommodated, usually
in end-stopped lines, sometimes flowing over into paragraphs of three lines
or more. His range of diction too would be far more extensive and varied
than he had previously allowed himself. No longer limited to the volgare
illustre, it would include the speech of every day, some of it lowly, some of it
even coarse, as well as diction that is delicate, noble and exalted. The form
of the work was to be part narrative, part descriptive, part dramatic, part
epic, part exhortatory, part satiric and part lyric. The language that would
be adequate for such variety was that of comedy, as he had defined it in
De Vulgari Eloqentia.2 That is why he called the work a commedia. It was
Boccaccio who first added the word divina.

6
 THE STORY BEGINS 7

How did Dante become such a superb master of the art of storytell-
ing, of dialogue, of characterization, of cliff-hanging moments of suspense?
Nothing in his earlier poetry, not even the narrative of La Vita Nuova, gives
any inkling that he had this ability. One can only cast about for models.
There were the stories of the Old Testament, many of them told in dialogue,
almost like mini-dramas. There were the vivid descriptions of transforma-
tion related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, a work which Dante knew well.
There was the epic account of Roman history by Lucan in his Pharsalia.
Above all, there was Virgil’s Aeneid. The mediaeval chansons de geste, the
Arthurian and other stories of chivalrous romance, the accounts of distant
journeys, were a treasure-house of narrative. There were also traditions of
popular storytelling, such as the Legenda Aurea (‘Golden Legends’), contain-
ing lives of the saints and ecclesiastical lore, the Gesta Romanorum (‘Deeds
of the Romans’), compiled in Latin by monks as recreational reading and as
material for sermons. There were mediaeval morality and miracle plays, with
farcical interludes of devil-play. Whatever his models, Dante added material
of his own, some of it invented, some of it sensational and immediate, creat-
ing thereby a mixed composition that is totally unprecedented in literature.
The story opens with the character Dante lost in a dark wood, wild,
rough and dense. He had wandered in while in a state of sleep and came to
himself on reaching the foot of a hill, of which the upper slopes were lit by
the morning sun. He takes courage and begins to climb but is chased back
by three wild animals: a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf. This last of the three
is the most frightening, the more so as it is a female wolf, an image revered
in ancient Rome for nurturing Romulus and Remus but here deformed into
a ravening beast. He stumbles back down the valley and sees a figure in the
shadows. It does not speak and whether it is a spirit or a living man Dante
does not know. He calls out to it for help.
Thus begins one of the most famous double acts in all literature. This is
the poet Virgil, who will accompany Dante through Hell and Purgatory,
instructing, explaining, protecting, exhorting, sometimes scolding, but
becoming, as the story progresses, a loving and beloved companion. On
learning who he is, Dante is overcome with awe. He greets him as the poet
whose work he has read from end to end, from whom he has learnt the bello
stile (‘beautiful style’) which has brought him honour. This cannot mean the
style of the Commedia, for that is not yet written; it can only refer to Dante’s
earlier poems, especially his canzoni on moral subjects, written with a lofti-
ness and gravity that he has learnt from Virgil.
It is to Virgil the wise man, the saggio, however, that he appeals for help
from the wolf. And it is Virgil the prophet who replies. The animal kills all
those who cross its path,
8 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘e ha natura sì malvagia e ria,

che mai non empie la bramosa voglia,
e dopo ’l pasto ha più fame che pria.’
‘and has so vile a nature, framed for ill,
she never satisfies her ravening greed,
and after eating is more hungry still.’ 3
As befits his oracular role, Virgil foretells in mysterious words that a veltro
(‘hound’) will come to destroy the wolf:
‘Molti son li animali a cui s’ammoglia,
e più saranno ancora, infin che ’l veltro
verrà, che la farà morir con doglia.
Questi non ciberà terra nè peltro,
ma sapienza, amore e virtute,
e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro.’
‘With many creatures she is known to breed
and will with others yet, until the hound
shall come to ravage her and leave her dead.
He will not feed on wealth, nor yet on ground,
but wisdom, charity and righteousness;
’twixt felt and felt his naissance will be found.’ 4
The phrase tra feltro e feltro, a conundrum unsolved for nearly seven
centuries, has given rise to many fanciful and ingenious speculations. It has
long been assumed that the hound is the figure of some political or spir-
itual leader who will rid the world of avarice, the usual interpretation of
the she-wolf. The leopard and the lion probably represent the other two
false desires which Dante found identified by Boethius: the desire for pleas-
ure and the desire for fame, said to pose less danger than the desire for
wealth.5 The two nouns feltro and feltro are sometimes printed with a capital
F because they have been identified with the place-names Feltre in Venetia
and Montefeltro in Romagna, an area within which it has been conjectured
that the Benefactor would be born. Other commentators interpret the word
feltro as indicating coarse felt clothing worn by those who renounce wealth.
Another interpretation is that the Benefactor will be born under the constel-
lation of the Twins, called fratres pilleati, the brothers Castor and Pollux,
who wear felt skull caps. According to yet another view the phrase refers to
felt-lined urns in which votes for magistrates were collected.
Identifications of the Benefactor have included Can Grande della Scala,
that is, the Ghibelline ruler of Verona whom Dante greatly admired (the
coincidence of his name ‘Great Dog’ seeming to many to be convincing),
the Emperor Henry VII, Christ in His Second Coming, and even Dante
 THE STORY BEGINS 9

himself. None of these identifications sheds any light on the meaning of the
phrase tra feltro e feltro, except possibly that of Dante, who was born under
the constellation of the Twins. It is far from certain, however, that when he
wrote these words Dante had any specific Benefactor in mind. The assump-
tion that he had has led to much erroneous speculation and confusion.
In the fourth section of Il Convivio, which he had recently written, prob-
ably in 306,6 Dante had stated that the only remedy for the problems of
wars and their causes was imperial authority, invested in a single monarch
who,
possessing everything, and having nothing left to desire, would keep kings
confined within the borders of their kingdoms, so that peace would reign
between them, and cities would rest in peace, and while they so rest neighbour-
hoods would love each other, and in this mutual love families would satisfy all
their wants; and when these are satisfied, a man would live happily, which is
the end for which he is born.7
The remedy for avarice, which more than anything else ‘endangers and kills
cities, countrysides and individuals’, is found to lie in the texts of canon and
civil law:
[F]or what else were the two branches of Law, I mean Canon and Civil Law,
designed to remedy so much as that cupidity which grows by the amassing
of riches? Certainly both branches of the law make this sufficiently plain
where we read their origins (cominciamenti), that is, the origins of their written
record.8
The explanation of the words tra feltro e feltro, understood in this context,
is very simple, so simple that it has been overlooked. It is to be found in the
technique of papermaking.9 A mould was dipped into a vat of pulp and to
absorb the moisture the paper was couched on a sheet of felt. Another felt
sheet was placed on top and another piece of paper on top of that. When a
pile of alternating pieces of felt and paper had been thus constructed, it was
placed in a press by which most of the remaining moisture was removed. The
sheets of paper were then hung to dry. If the paper was not perfectly dry,
the ink blurred on it, as Dante says in Il Convivio, in connection with his
eyesight:
[B]ecause the sight is weakened, some dispersion of the visual spirit takes
place in it, so that an object is no longer seen as concentrated, but appears
diffused, almost in the same way as our writing on damp paper.10
The process of making paper was widely known in Italy by the early four-
teenth century. There were paper mills in operation in Fabriano in 276 and
in Bologna in 298. Dante’s contemporaries would have known that between
20 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

felt and felt one found paper, that is to say, texts. Later commentators, losing
sight of this simple explanation, and assuming that Dante was referring to
a particular person, had recourse to sophisticated interpretations in which
numberless commentators have confounded their readers ever since.
In other words, the remedy for avarice is to be found precisely where,
in Il Convivio, Dante said it was: in the texts of canon and civil law. The
hound prophesied by Virgil is a figure of a righteous emperor, described in Il
Convivio as desiring neither riches nor land, a Benefactor for whom Dante
hopes but who has not yet come. He will declare and enforce the law as laid
down in the Codex of Justinian, maintaining a balance with canon law as set
out in the Decretum of Gratian, that is to say, tra feltro e feltro, between layers
of felt which dry the paper on which writing will then be legible.
Virgil tells the frightened Dante that there is no way past the she-wolf
except through the world of the damned and the repentant. That is to say,
he must be brought face to face with the results of avarice and other sins.
Through these two regions, Inferno and Purgatory, Virgil will lead him.
From there on a worthier spirit will take over, for into Heaven Virgil may
not go. He dwells, we are soon to learn, in Limbo, with others like himself
who lived outside God’s law. Dante in his desperation consents to go with
him and the first canto ends:
allor si mosse, e io li tenni retro.
then he moved on and I behind him went.11
But then, as has been said, Dante has misgivings. Who is he to undertake
such a journey? He is neither Aeneas nor St Paul.
When Virgil reassures him that his journey is authorized by powers on
high, the hidden implication is that he does in fact combine the functions of
Aeneas and St Paul. Dante the writer has had a vision of God’s purpose in
linking the birth of the Roman Empire with the foundation of the Christian
faith, a vision he began to impart in Il Convivio and which he will now make
the main theme of the Commedia.
Virgil reproaches Dante for his cowardice in terms so direct and collo-
quial that we catch the rhythm of everyday speech and even the gestures of
exasperation:
‘Dunque che è? Perchè, perchè ristai?
Perchè tanta viltà nel cuore allette?
Perchè ardire e franchezza non hai,
poscia che tai tre donne benedette
curan di te ne la corte del cielo,
e ’l mio parlar tanto ben t’impromette?’
 THE STORY BEGINS 2

‘What ails thee then? Why, why, dost thou hold back?
Why does such fear take hold within thy heart?
Why courage and decision dost thou lack,
since three such blessèd women take thy part
in Heaven’s court, concerned for thy sad plight,
and promise of such good my words impart?’ 12
The effect on Dante is delicately conveyed by a simile that lifts the reader out
of the dark valley into a meadow lit by the morning sun:
Quali i fioretti, dal notturno gelo
chinati e chiusi, poi che ’l sol li ’mbianca
si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo,
tal mi fec’io di mia virtute stanca …
As little flowers, in the frost of night
drooping and closed, stand open and erect
when the sun touches them with morning light,
so did my failing courage resurrect …13
Dante is reassured. His will and Virgil’s are now one:
‘Tu duca, tu segnore, e tu maestro.’
‘Leader and lord and master be thou then.’ 14
And they set off along the densely wooded path.
 CHAPTER 13

Limbo

T
he two poets arrive before the gateway to Hell. The words inscribed
above it fill Dante with dread. The gate, as though speaking, conveys
its grim warning:
Per me si va nella città dolente.
Per me si va nell’eterno dolore.
Per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore.
Fecemi la divina potestate,
la somma sapienza e ’l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’ entrate.
Through me the way to the abode of pain.
Through me to where all woes eternal prove.
Through me the way to where the lost remain.
Justice inspired my maker high above.
By divine power I was created there,
by highest wisdom and by primal love.
Made before me was nothing whatsoe’er
but things eternal and I eternal bide.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.1
Prominent in this daunting message is the word ‘justice’. The damned are
those who died unrepentant. God’s forgiveness cannot reach them for they
have rejected it. That is why they have no hope. Virgil defines the damned
as those who hanno perduto il ben dell’intelletto (‘have lost the good of the
intellect’), namely truth.2
Dante’s first impression on entering Hell is of sighs and lamentations
echoing through the starless air, strange voices, terrifying tongues, words
of grief and rage. This is what St Paul experiences on his journey with his
angelic guide and, also like St Paul, Dante asks who these souls are and what
it is that makes them lament so loudly. He is told that they are those who

22
 LIMBO 23

lived without praise or blame. Mingled with them are the angels who when
Lucifer rebelled were neither for him nor for God, but merely for them-
selves.
This reference to what were known as ‘neutral angels’ is of special interest.
Belief in them was widespread and occurred in a number of mediaeval works
such as the Voyage of St Brendan and Parzifal by Gottfried von Eschenbach.
They symbolized the concept of an area between good and evil. Belief in
them came to be considered heretical and it is interesting that Dante silently
drops all mention of them in Paradiso. As late as the fifteenth century they
were portrayed by the Florentine painter Francesco Botticini in human
form among the heavenly host,3 the belief then being that though granted a
second chance by God they were unworthy to return to their original angelic
nature.
Dante sees a whirling banner, after which comes a train of souls, so long
he could scarcely believe death had undone so many.4 Dante recognizes (vidi
e conobbi, ‘I saw and knew’) one
che fece per viltà il gran rifiuto.
who out of fear the great refusal made.
He has been identified as Pope Celestine V, who abdicated in 294, thus
making way for the election of Boniface VIII.5 Other identifications
include Esau and Pontius Pilate, but the immediacy of the words vidi e
conobbi suggests someone of recent significance to Dante. If the soul is that
of Celestine V, this is an early and oblique introduction of the theme of
Boniface, which will gain in momentum as the work progresses.
No other soul among this group is named. Virgil scorns them:
‘Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa.’
‘Let us not talk of them; look and pass on.’ 6
Peering ahead, Dante sees people crowding at the bank of a great river
as though eager to cross. He asks again who they are but is told to wait until
they reach the sad shore of the Acheron. Feeling rebuffed, Dante remains
silent. Suddenly a boat is seen, oared by a ferryman, who chants:
… ‘Guai a voi anime prave!
Non isperate mai veder lo cielo.
I’ vegno per menarvi all’altra riva
nelle tenebre etterne, in caldo e ’n gelo.’
… ‘Woe to you, base souls!
Hope not the heavens ever to behold.
I come to take you to the other shore,
into eternal darkness, heat and cold.’ 7
24 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Startled by the sight of Dante, a living man, the oarsman breaks his rock-
ing rhythm and shouts:
‘E tu che se’ costì, anima viva,
pàrtiti da cotesti che son morti.’
‘And thou who standest there, a living soul,
be gone from all these others who are dead.’ 8
When Dante does not move he tells him he is destined for another voyage,
from another port, and by a lighter craft. And now Virgil, the magician,
utters a formula of power, naming the ferryman:
… ‘Charon, non ti crucciare:
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare.’
… ‘Charon, thyself do not torment:
thus it is willed where power and will are one,
so ask no more and with this be content.’ 9
Charon, of the shaggy jaws and eyes ringed with flame, is at once subdued,
but the damned souls burst forth blaspheming God, cursing their parents,
humankind, the place, the time, the seed of their begetting and their birth.
In crowds they clamber on to the boat, Charon beating lingerers with his
oar. This rough description is followed by a simile, not lowly-mediaeval but
Virgilian:
Come d’autunno si levan le foglie
l’una appresso dell’altra, fin che ’l ramo
vede alla terra tutte le sue spoglie,
similmente il mal seme d’Adamo
gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una,
per cenni come augel per suo richiamo.
Just as in autumn, leaves lift, one by one,
until the branch sees on the ground below
where all its former vesture now is gone,
so do the wicked progeny of Adam throw
themselves in turn from off that shore, just as
a bird, at signals, to its lure will go.’ 10
The boat-load moves off over the dark water and Virgil tells Dante to take
courage, for Charon’s words to him promise well for the future destiny of
his soul.
At this the earth shakes, there is a gust of wind, and a crimson flash
deprives Dante of his senses. He falls like someone overcome by sleep. He
is awakened by a clap of thunder and finds himself on the other side of the
 LIMBO 25

river Acheron. How he was transported there we are not told. He peers
down into a deep dark abyss resounding with innumerable cries of woe.
Virgil, leading the way, turns pale. Dante, thinking he is afraid, feels fear
himself, but Virgil says, ‘What you mistake in my face for fear is pity for the
souls below’, adding impatiently:
‘Andiam, chè la via lunga ne sospigne.’
‘Let us move on, for we have far to go.’ 11
And they enter Hell’s First Circle, which is Limbo.
The continuity between the ancient and the Christian world was part
of Dante’s vision in Il Convivio. It is carried over into the Commedia where
it takes on a personalized, dramatic form. God’s plan for the world existed
before time and is eternal. In the experience of humanity, however, there is
before and after: the Incarnation happened in time and place. Those who
lived and died before Christ had not known Him. Those who lived after
Him had access to the Truth. This was an inexorable division, inescapable in
fact and logic.
‘Limbo’ is a theological term denoting the abode and condition of souls
who though choosing virtue are yet excluded from the bliss of the pres-
ence of God. The word is derived from the Latin limbus, meaning border or
edge, and such souls were visualized as dwelling in an upper fringe of Hell,
experiencing no torment other than a perpetual longing. Dante accepted
this belief but it pained and puzzled him. In the Commedia he displays it in
individual terms, relating particularly to the fate of Virgil. This introduces a
tension of anxiety lasting throughout Inferno and Purgatorio which is even-
tually resolved in Paradiso.12
Dante describes Limbo as a place of darkness, filled with the sighing of
vast crowds of men, women and children. They are the virtuous unbaptized
and those who, living before Christianity, did not worship God aright, and
of these, Virgil says, ‘I myself am one.’ Dante the character is seized at the
heart with grief when he hears this, for he knows that people of great worth
are here. Seeking to overcome his doubt, he asks Virgil for reassurance:
‘Dimmi, maestro mio, dimmi signor’,
comincia’ io per volere esser certo
di quella fede che vince ogni error:
‘uscìcci mai alcuno, o per suo merto
o per altrui, che poi fosse beato?’
‘Tell me, lord, master,’ thus did I begin,
that I might certain be and reassured
about that faith that conquers every sin,
‘did any go forth hence, as a reward
for his or other’s merit, to be blessed ? ’ 13
26 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Virgil understands his covert meaning.

The belief that between Christ’s death and Resurrection He visited
Limbo to release the souls of those who had believed in His coming became
orthodox in about the fourth century and found its way into the Apostles’
Creed, in the words ‘He descended into Hell’. Dante would many times
have seen this scene represented in painting and sculpture. It was a favourite
subject of mediaeval legend and drama and is known in English by the agri-
cultural metaphor, ‘The Harrowing of Hell’. In a brilliant stroke of verisi-
militude, Dante imagines that Virgil, who had died 9 years before the birth
of Christ, was a witness of this spectacular event:
Rispuose, ‘Io era nuovo in questo stato,
quando ci vidi venire un possente,
con segno di vittoria coronato.’
‘I was but new to this estate’, said he,
‘when one of power I saw descending here,
with round his head a sign of victory.’ 14
He saw this ‘one of power’ draw forth Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham,
David, Jacob with his father and his sons, Rachel and many others who were
all made blessed. ‘And I would have thee know,’ Virgil adds, ‘that before
then no human souls were saved.’ He does not know who the mysterious
figure was and Dante does not say, but his audience would understand that
Virgil at that supreme moment had, without knowing it, looked on the face
of Christ, just as, in his fourth eclogue, he had unknowingly foretold His
birth.
Making their way through the crowd of souls, dense as a forest, they
come to a blaze of light where others are set apart. These are souls who are
specially honoured in consequence of their fame on earth. Dante hears a
voice call out:
‘Onorate l’altissimo poeta:
l’ombra sua torna, ch’era dipartita.’
‘Pay honour to the loftiest of poets:
his spirit now returns that had departed.’ 15
Four souls draw near, their demeanour neither sad nor joyful. Virgil names
them: they are Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan, an august reception
committee advancing to welcome Virgil back, paying him honour in the
name of poet which they all share, and in this, says Virgil, ‘they do well’.
These shadowy figures form a tableau, like a faded mural painting. They
speak with Virgil for a while, then turn to greet Dante, at which Virgil
smiles.
 LIMBO 27

E più d’onore ancora assai mi fenno,

ch’ e’ sì mi fecer della loro schiera,
sì ch’io fui sesto tra cotanto senno.
And still more honour yet to me they paid,
for to their group they then admitted me
and sixth among such wisdom I was made.16
There was a time, many years before, when Dante, young, unknown and
at the beginning of his career, was admitted to a distinguished group of
rimatori (rhymesters) in Florence. Now he imagines himself admitted to the
company of five of the greatest poets of the ancient world, and made one of
them.
The choice of poets is significant. Homer, the narrator of the defeat of
the Trojans by the Greeks; Virgil, who related the journey of Trojan Aeneas
to the West and his descent into the world of the dead, where he was told
of his mission to found the Roman race; Lucan, who narrated the history
of the Roman civil war which led ultimately to the establishment of the
Empire; Ovid, who narrated ancient tales of myth and legend; Horace, the
moralist and author of the Ars Poetica (‘The Art of Poetry’). Of this sublime
group Dante is now a member. Dante the character is modestly overcome
with awe. Dante the writer will draw on them for much of his material and
will even at times set himself to surpass them. He is also making a decisive
statement about his own standing and mission. The meaning of the link
between the ancient and the Christian world is to be mediated through him.
His position amongst them is thus a just acknowledgement. He is no longer
a mere rhymester, but a poet in the classical sense, an important distinc-
tion.
The company of six move on together, talking of things which were
fitting for that place but on which it is now well to be silent. This is a tanta-
lizing exclusion of the reader from the author’s confidence. What did they
talk about? And in what language? Latin, we may suppose, with translation
into Greek for the benefit of Homer. These are professional secrets which it
is not suitable for us to know.
They come to the foot of a noble castle, encircled seven times by high walls,
defended by a beautiful stream, which they cross as though on firm ground.
Dante, with the five poets, enters seven gateways. Within is a meadow of
bright green grass where souls are gathered, their eyes grave and contem-
plative, and in their aspect great authority; they speak rarely and in gentle
voices. This is Dante’s version of the ancient concept of the Elysian Fields.
A paradise inhabited by the elect and virtuous after death, it is described
by Virgil in the Aeneid as a land of joy, of green meadows and happy dwell-
ings of the Blessed.17 Here were the souls of the Trojan ancestors, of heroes
28 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

who had fought for the fatherland, of priests and poets and philosophers.
In Virgil’s vision these ancient souls are joyful and fulfilled. In Dante’s, they
are serene but grave, longing for unattainable fulfilment. Between the two
visions stands the Christian faith.
The group of six draw to one side and ascend a mount from which the
spiriti magni (‘great spirits’), assembled on the enamelled green, are visible
and can be pointed out to Dante, one by one. The memory of having seen
them fills him now with exultation. The list of names that follows seldom
has this effect on a modern reader, but if we bear in mind that these are the
souls selected by Dante as those he would above all rejoice to see, we can
enter into the reverent wonder in which he holds the ancient world.
He mentions first Electra, the mother by Zeus of Dardanus, the ances-
tor of the Trojan race. She is in the company of her descendants, includ-
ing Hector and Aeneas, the latter Dante’s predecessor, seen here among his
august lineage. It has been shown elsewhere that Dante accepted mytho-
logical and historical personages on the same level. That is why he moves
on straightaway to mention Julius Caesar, whom he regarded as the first
Roman Emperor, ‘armed and with hawk-like eyes’, for he, as God designed,
was a result of the founding of the Trojan race. Next are two women warri-
ors: Camilla, who fought against Aeneas and was killed, and, opposite her
(dall’altra parte), Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, who assisted the
Trojans after Hector’s death and was killed by Achilles. Next he names
Latinus, the King of Latium, who welcomed Aeneas on his arrival and
offered him the hand of his daughter Lavinia, who sits near him. In the union
between Aeneas and Lavinia, the Trojan and Latian lines were united and
the way was opened for the foundation of the city and empire of Rome. But
many heroic deeds were needed before that could be accomplished. Brutus,
who roused the Roman people against Tarquinius Superbus, whose son had
raped Lucrece, is named. Other heroic Roman women listed are: Julia, the
daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, who laments that she did not live
to reconcile her father and her husband; Marcia, whose return in old age to
her husband Cato Dante had interpreted allegorically in Il Convivio as the
return of the soul to God; and Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus
and mother of two renowned Tribunes, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, cele-
brated as a model of a noble Roman matron and matriarch. Seated alone and
to one side is Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, the Muslim hero of the
Third Crusade, praised by Christian writers for his magnanimity. Dante had
referred to him with admiration in Il Convivio.18
Dante then lists examples from the world of learning. Supreme above all
is Aristotle, il maestro di color che sanno (‘the master of all those who know’),
for whom he had repeatedly expressed reverence in Il Convivio. To see him
 LIMBO 29

seated among his philosophic kin, all of whom gaze at him in marvel and
pay him homage, would indeed have been a matter of exultation. Nearest
to him stand Socrates and Plato, the initiators of moral philosophy which
Aristotle, Dante believed, had perfected.
Dante’s joy in his study of philosophy is radiantly conveyed in Il
Convivio. Here now are the masters who engaged his mind in the origins of
the universe and the purpose of human life: Democritus, who believed the
world was created by chance; Diogenes, the Cynic, about whom Dante had
read in St Augustine; Anaxagoras, who rejected the materialistic explana-
tion of the universe and held that mind was the cause of all things; Thales,
the astronomer and mathematician; Empedocles, who first identified the
four elements, earth, water, air and fire, of which all material bodies were
held to be compounded; Heraclitus, who believed that fire was the primary
form of matter and that all things were in a continual flux of becoming and
perishing; Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school of philosophers, for whom
the purpose of life was strict rectitude; Euclid, the geometer, Ptolemy the
astronomer, Cicero, and Seneca, whom Dante calls ‘the moralist’, who wrote
on ethics, philosophy and natural science. These last are mingled with two
poets, Orpheus and Linus. Orpheus is of special importance, since he too
had been down into Hell, in search of his wife Eurydice. Dante had read
of him in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and in Il Convivio he had interpreted the
power of his music over the natural world as an allegory of the influence
of wisdom upon rational beings. He had read of Linus in Virgil’s fourth
eclogue, in the very context in which, it was believed, the birth of Christ is
foretold. ‘If only,’ Virgil wrote, ‘the last days of my life could be prolonged
and breath enough remain, then neither Orpheus nor Linus could out-sing
me, although Orpheus’ mother was the muse Calliope and Linus had Apollo
for his sire.’
A group of particular interest are the naturalists and physicians:
Dioscorides, the herbalist, ‘the good collector of simples’, as Dante calls him;
Hippocrates, the physician; Avicenna, who wrote on natural science; and
Galen, the authority on medicine, whose works were in constant use in the
Middle Ages. Mention of them reminds us that Dante was a member of the
Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries. Like them, he was a healer and set
himself to cure the sickness of the world. The list ends with a mention of
Averroës, also a physician, but above all renowned for his commentary upon
Aristotle. Thus we return full circle to the greatest sage of all.
All these philosophers, poets, moralists and scientists are Dante’s intel-
lectual credentials, his ‘bibliography’, his authorities for writing about Hell,
Purgatory and the Heavens. His sponsors are five great poets of antiquity.
In the story, Dante the character is portrayed as frightened, bewildered and
30 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in continual need of instruction and encouragement. Dante the writer is

quite the reverse: no author can have set out upon a major work with greater
confidence. His creative self-assurance is now immense.
One spirito magno is missing from Limbo, one whom above all great
Romans Dante, it is to be imagined, would long to see: Cato of Utica, the
Stoic, ‘that glorious Cato’, than whom no one could be a more worthy alle-
gorical representation of God.19 The omission is explained at the beginning
of Purgatorio. Astonishingly, Dante has taken it upon himself to perform his
own individual act of Hell-harrowing. As Christ released the figures of the
Old Testament, so he, Dante Alighieri, has removed Cato the Roman from
Limbo and made him the guardian of the lower slopes of the mountain.
Whether at the Last Judgement he is also to be among the Blessed is left
undetermined. The final word on the matter is implied in Paradiso.20
 CHAPTER 14

Francesca da Rimini

I
n the primitive accounts of St Paul’s visit to Hell a devil is described
showing the souls a list of their sins, in which they read the place to
which they are assigned. In some Doom paintings a devil is even seen
ticking off a list with a pen as the souls pass onwards to their fate.1 Dante
takes over this detail and makes it still more grotesque. As the two travel-
lers descend into the Second Circle of the vast funnel of Hell, they find
Minos, in classical mythology a king of Crete and a lawgiver, in Virgil’s
Hades the judge who allots places to the souls according to their misdeeds.
Dante transforms him into a snarling monster. The souls stand before him
and confess their sins. Whipping his tail a number of times round his body,
he indicates the circle to which the souls must fall:
Cignesi con la coda tante volte
quantunque gradi vuol che giù sia messa.
Sempre dinanzi a lui ne stanno molte:
vanno a vicenda ciascuna al giudizio;
dicono e odono, e poi son giù volte.
He girds him with his tail as many times
as are the circles he condemns them to.
An endless crowd before him tell their crimes,
each in his turn his judgment stands to learn:
they speak, they hear and down are whirled betimes.2
The narrative, crude in itself, is given extraordinary plasticity by Dante’s
handling of words. No translation can render adequately the slow, down-
ward tumble of the line: quantunque gradi vuol che giù sia messa.
The souls speak, they hear the slapping of the tail, they are whirled down
into the Abyss. Never before had the Italian vernacular conveyed such visual,
aural and tactile effects as Dante achieves in his three-dimensional creation
of Hell. It is evident that in writing his verse, he was listening to the effect
it would have when read aloud. That is why he varies it in level and tone,
making it now colloquial and conversational, now horrific, now delicate and
lyrical, all styles inviting the acting talents of the reader, probably himself in

3
32 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the first instance.

Catching sight of a living man, Minos halts in his function to warn him
of the dangers he will meet:
‘Guarda com’ entri e di cui ti fide:
non t’inganni l’ampiezza dell’ entrare!’
‘Mind how thou enterest, be on thy guard:
be not deceived by the wide open door!’ 3
As to Charon, so now again to Minos, Virgil chants his formula of power:
‘vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare.’
‘thus it is willed where power and will are one,
and so, as it behoves thee, ask no more.’ 4
The judgement scene is followed by a hurricane and a sound of bellow-
ing as of the sea buffeted by opposing winds. It whirls and drives the spirits,
smiting and tormenting them. These are carnal sinners who allowed their
desires to overcome their reason. As then, so now, they are without control.
Dante the artist, however, is in control. Once again, he changes his style. The
souls, like flocks of starlings flying south in winter, are borne onwards by the
blast:
Di qua, di là, di giù, di su li mena;
nulla speranza li conforta mai,
non che di posa, ma di minor pena.
Now here, now there, now down, now up again
it tosses them, uncomforted by hope
of any rest, nor even of less pain.5
Some are like wailing cranes, strung in long lines across the sky. As St Paul
questions the Archangel, so Dante asks: ‘Master, who are these souls so
scourged by the black air?’
Virgil begins his list of lustful souls with the names of women: Semiramis,
the Queen of Assyria, so corrupted by licentious vice that she made lust
lawful in her law;6 Dido, who broke her vow of constancy to the ashes of
her husband Sychaeus and killed herself for love; wanton Cleopatra; and
Helen, the cause of so many evil years. With the introduction of the names
of men, it is not lust that is mentioned: Achilles,7 Paris and Tristan died
as the result of love. Virgil continues, naming countless knights and ladies
of old times who were likewise the victims of love. Dante the character is
overcome with pity; he is also bewildered. Is love, then, a sin, as punishable
as lust? Dante the writer’s way of answering the question led him to create
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 33

what has become perhaps the most famous episode in the Commedia.
Some time between 283 and 284, Gianciotto Malatesta, the lord of
Rimini, murdered his wife Francesca and his younger brother Paolo, who
had become lovers. Dante may have set eyes on Paolo when he was Capitano
del Popolo in Florence in 282. At the time of his affair with Francesca he
was a married man of about 40, with two sons. Francesca, a daughter of the
Polenta family of Ravenna, had married Gianciotto in about the year 275
and was the mother of a child of nine. The actual facts suggest incestuous
adultery and the outrage of a betrayed husband.
Dante chose to make of the scandal a romantic and tender relationship
that has for centuries captured the imagination of painters, musicians, poets
and dramatists. Seeing a pair of souls floating lightly on the wind, Dante
asks to speak with them. Virgil consents and Dante lifts up his voice in
compassionate appeal, the wind drops and the souls, like doves returning
to their nest, are gently wafted towards him. The remainder of the canto,
almost one half, consists of Francesca’s account of her tragedy.
With her opening words we are transported out of Hell. Gracious and
courtly, she readily agrees to tell Dante what he would know. She and her
companion, ‘who stained the world with blood’, would pray to the king
of the universe for him if they were not outcasts. And now her recitation
begins. She does not give her name but indicates her place of birth as the
city that lies on the outlet of the river Po. The panorama sets the scene for
the enchantment that is to follow:
‘Siede la terra dove nata fui
sulla marina dove ’l Po discende
per aver pace co’ seguaci sui.’
‘My birthplace was a city on the sea,
close to the strand where Po comes flowing down
with all his streams to seek tranquillity.’ 8
Each of the next three stanzas begins with the word Amor. It was love,
quickly kindled in the gentle heart, that overcame her companion with the
beauty of her body, which was taken from her in a way that still outrages
her. It was love, which absolves no one beloved from loving, that overcame
her with her lover’s charms, and still holds her fast. It was love that brought
them to a single death.
Dante the writer has given Francesca words from the poetry of the Fedeli
d’Amore, even the concept of the poet Guido Guinizelli of the cor gentile
(‘gentle heart’).9 This is the kind of poetry Dante himself had written and
was still writing in 300. Looking back, in his 40s, he has come to see that
such concepts can be distorted and misleading. To Francesca they are shown
to be a source of self-deception and excuse.
34 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The character Dante, overwhelmed by compassion, bows his head and

remains mute. Asked by Virgil what he is thinking, he replies: ‘Alas! What
sweet thoughts, what longing led them to their grievous step!’ And, knowing
who she is, he calls her by her name: ‘Francesca, thy torments make me weep
in grief and pity:’
‘Ma dimmi: al tempo de’ dolci sospiri,
a che e come concedette amore
che conosceste i dubbiosi desiri?’
‘But tell me: at the time of your sweet sighs,
how and by what did love concede to you
that hidden longings became certainties?’ 10
Francesca takes up her story again, in words that must surely be among
the most celebrated in literature. She introduces her tragedy as a loss of
happiness:
… ‘Nessun maggior dolore
che ricordarsi del tempo felice
nella miseria; e ciò sa il tuo dottore.’
… ‘The greatest of all woes
is to remember times of happiness
in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows.’ 11
Dante now creates a scene as vivid as a miniature, a window opening into
a room in the court of Rimini. The enamoured pair sit innocently together,
reading an Arthurian romance out loud to each other: the story of Lancelot
and Guinevere and of the kiss that led to their adultery.
‘Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto
di Lancialotto come amor lo strinse:
soli eravamo e senz’alcun sospetto.
Per più fiate li occhi ci sospinse
quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso:
ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.
Quando leggemmo il disiato riso
esser baciato da cotanto amante,
questi, che mai da me non fia diviso,
la bocca mi baciò tutto tremante.
Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse:
quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante.’
‘One day we read together for delight
of Lancelot and how love held him fast.
We were alone, without misgiving quite.
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 35

Many a time our eyes were locked aghast

as we read on, our faces ashy pale,
but one point only conquered us at last:
when we had reached the moment in the tale
where smiling lips are kissed by such a woer,
he then, who from my side will never fail,
my mouth too kissed, trembling the while all o’er.
The book to us a Galleot was and he
who authored it; that day we read no more.’ 12
Francesca’s lover, who is not named, speaks no word, but weeps through-
out. Dante is so overcome that he faints and drops as a dead body falls:
e caddi come corpo morto cade.13
This is his second swoon within the space of two cantos.
One thing Francesca says is mysterious. Immediately after the line ‘love
brought us to a single death’, she bursts out into a vindictive statement:
‘Caina attende chi vita ci spense.’
‘Caina waits for him who quenched our lives.’ 14
The words are not intelligible at this point, nor are they intended to be. It is
not until we reach the Ninth Circle of Hell that we learn that Caina, named
after Cain, is an area of damnation for traitors who murdered their kindred.
It is the most prolonged cliff-hanger in the work. It is also troubling. First,
how does Francesca know of such a place? Secondly, her husband was not
a traitor, but a vengeful spouse, himself betrayed. Dante the writer cannot
intend this fate for his soul.15 At worst he belongs to the category of murder-
ers among the violent in the Seventh Circle. Dante gives these words to
Francesca for a reason: they are a key to her character, as is her use of poetry
to justify her adultery and of Arthurian romance to blame for its influence.
The difference between Hell and Purgatory is repentance. The damned
are those whose will was irretrievably fixed or who died before they could
repent. They are in logic cut off for ever from God’s mercy because they did
not ask for it. But it is not God who decides who the damned souls are, nor
Minos who allots the place. It is the author Dante. Such moral certainty in
respect of individuals is difficult to accept. Creative art, however, is judge-
mental. Dante the artist chose to present Paolo and Francesca as unrepent-
ant victims of murder. Dante Alighieri the man from Florence had no way
of knowing whether or not they had time to repent before they died.
The appealing story, as created by Dante, has been further overlaid by
romantic accretions. These began with Boccaccio. He was not only Dante’s
first biographer; he was also the first public lecturer on the Commedia.16 His
36 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

lectures, known as Esposizioni, were delivered in Florence between 373 and

374. They were intended to be a detailed commentary, literal and allegorical,
on the entire work, canto by canto, but in January 374, after the 59th lecture,
Boccaccio fell ill and a year later he died.
In his commentary on the fifth canto we catch an unmistakable glimpse
of the author of the Decameron, the consummate teller of tales. When he
comes to Francesca’s words, Siede la terra dove nata fui, he pushes Dante’s
text aside and launches into his version of the story, a version that has been
accepted ever since, finding its way into commentaries and notes to the
Commedia, as though it were authentic.
‘Before I go any further,’ Boccaccio begins, ‘in order that you may under-
stand what Francesca says, I will tell you who she was and how she came to
die’:
E’ adunque da sapere che costei fu figliuola di messer Guido vecchio da
Polenta, signor di Ravenna …
It must be known then that she was the daughter of Guido da Polenta the elder, lord
of Ravenna …
In an attempt to make peace between Ravenna and Rimini, it was decided
that she should be married to Gianciotto Malatesta, the son and heir of
the lord of Rimini. But, Boccaccio goes on, a friend said to her father,
‘Mind what you are doing. Your daughter has a will of her own. If she sees
Gianciotto before the marriage she will not take him as her husband.’ For
though Gianciotto would one day become the lord of Rimini,17 he was lame
and ugly. So it was arranged that his brother Paolo should come to Ravenna
to marry Francesca by proxy. Now Paolo was a handsome, attractive and
charming man:
Era Paolo bello e piacevole uomo e costumato molto.
As he approached the court of Ravenna, a lady-in-waiting pointed him out
to Francesca through a loophole and said:
‘Madonna, quegli è colui che dee esser vostro marito.’
‘My lady, there is the man who is to be your husband.’
The lady-in-waiting thought that it was so and Francesca at once fell in love
with him and joyfully became his wife (as she believed) and went with him
to Rimini. Not till the morning after the wedding night did she realize that
she had been deceived. She was outraged and remained as much in love with
Paolo as before.
In order to add verisimilitude to his own account, Boccaccio says Dante’s
story must be a fiction, for how could he know that the lovers had sat read-
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 37

ing an Arthurian romance? According to Boccaccio, Paolo and Francesca

became lovers and continued in adultery for some time, taking advantage of
Gianciotto’s absences from court. But one day a servant told him what was
happening and advised him to pretend to go away and return unexpectedly.
Gianciotto, deeply incensed, did so and saw Paolo enter his wife’s room.
He shouted her name and hurled himself against the locked portal. Paolo
decided to escape through a trap-door in the floor which led to a room
beneath. He leapt down, telling Francesca to open the door, but a fold of his
jerkin caught on the bolt attached to the trap and he hung there, his head
protruding above the floor. Francesca, not noticing this, opened the door to
her husband, who strode in, sword in hand. Francesca flung herself between
her lover and her husband and received the thrust with Gianciotto’s full
weight behind it. Gianciotto drew his sword from her breast and plunged it
into Paolo, killing him. The lovers were buried the next morning, amid many
tears, in a single tomb.
Such was the tale Boccaccio told one day in November 374, in the
church of Santo Stefano di Badia in Florence. This is the Boccaccio who,
though elderly, has lost none of his skills. He still knows how to seize the
dramatic moments and the vivid details and how to choose the words, style
and pace best suited to the effect he wants to make. Here is an instance of a
public reading of the Commedia, whether each canto as a whole, preceding
the commentary, or a few verses at a time, we do not know, but it is by such
means that the work became widely known before the age of printing.
Boccaccio’s story made an impression five and a half centuries later, on
Gabriele D’Annunzio. When he wrote his beautiful but somewhat over-
blown poetic drama, Francesca da Rimini, he followed Boccaccio’s (not
Dante’s) version, even to the extent of using Boccaccio’s very words. Thus
it was that the story came once more to life with Eleonora Duse acting
out the climax, just as Boccaccio had told it, on a stage in Rome more than
half a millennium later. The same story inspired the composer Riccardo
Zandonai, whose opera Francesca da Rimini, based on D’Annunzio’s play,
was performed at Covent Garden in 94.
When Francesca’s nephew, Guido Novello da Polenta, became lord
of Ravenna, he offered the homeless Dante a house of his own, which he
accepted. It was to be his final refuge. Guido, a man of letters, had poetic
leanings and took lessons from Dante in the writing of verse. In one of his
exercises he quotes words which Dante had given to his wayward aunt:
… che mai da me non fia diviso
… who from me never will be parted,
an indication that he took no umbrage at Dante’s presentation of her.18
 CHAPTER 15

Dante in Danger

T
he contrast between the tender and delicate style of Francesca’s
narration and the repulsive description of the gluttons in the follow-
ing canto shows Dante the craftsman at his most deliberate and
self-aware. It is said repeatedly, and justly, that Italian is a beautiful language.
Dante loved and cultivated its musical qualities; he also exploited its capac-
ity to express the ugly and the crude.
The sinners in the Third Circle are depicted as wallowing in stinking
mire beneath a pitiless deluge of rain, hail and snow. Over them stands the
monster Cerberus, barking hound-like from his three gullets, his beard black
and greasy, his belly swollen, his hands clawed, with which he tears, skins
and dismembers the souls:
Con tre gole caninamente latra …
graffia li spiriti, scuoia ed isquatra.1
These words are anything but beautiful, nor are they musical: they are harsh
and coarse, but they are powerfully expressive. Nothing in English can quite
render the effect of the repetition of broad a’s and the phrase caninamente
latra, the adverb (‘hound-sounding’) invented to increase the onomatopoeia
of the verb latra (‘barks’).
The souls have no bodies; the description of their sufferings is a figura-
tive image of the sin itself and of their spiritual and mental anguish. Dante
the character, however, is in the body and he experiences with his living
senses the claustrophobic enclosure of Hell; he sees despite the darkness, he
hears, he touches and he smells. In a precisely structured setting Dante the
writer places and moves his characters, rounded when it suits his purpose
as though, like himself, they were substantial. This combination of bodiless
souls and a tangible man is so convincing that we accept it and seldom stop
to ask, as we read further on, how, for instance, Virgil can carry Dante in his
arms, or how Dante can kick the head of a traitor protruding from the ice
and tear the hair from his scalp. There are conventions for stories of this kind
and on certain points, as Dante puts it, è bello tacere (‘it is good manners to

38
 DANTE IN DANGER 39

be silent’). Later in the work, an explanation of the corporeal semblance of

souls is provided.2
Virgil quells Cerberus in the traditional manner, spreading out his hands
and flinging something into his three jaws, in this instance fistfuls of miry
ground, and the two travellers walk over the souls, which seem corporeal but
are vanità (‘nothingness’). One, seeing them pass, sits up and calls to Dante,
asking if he knows him, but he is so altered that he has to identify himself.
He is a Florentine, nicknamed Ciacco (‘Hog’). He refers spitefully to the
city, so full of envy, he declares, that it is like a sack running over. Dante now
uses another convention: the dead, it was believed, had knowledge of the
future.3 It is therefore within the tradition that Dante should ask him what
will become of Florence and why the city is so divided.
The Commedia is an allegory of damnation, repentance and beatitude and
as such it has general application to Christian belief and human behaviour,
as well as to Dante’s own salvation; or one might call it a vast sermon with
visual aids and sound effects. But it is also a diatribe against Florence and
other cities, against the Papacy, against the monarchy of France and against
the neglectful Emperors who have allowed Italy to degenerate into discord.
In these interpolations, particularly those set within the awesome structure
of Hell, it is Dante the publicist who writes. The more convincing he can
make the literal story, the more compelling will be the message he has deter-
mined to use it to convey. The views he had already set forth and intended
to develop further in Il Convivio in discursive, philosophic terms he now
gives to his various created characters, reporting them with all the authority
of someone fulfilling a divinely ordained mission. Here and there, briefly,
and on one occasion at great length,4 he steps outside his poem and speaks
directly as himself.
In the conversation with Ciacco, the theme of Florence is introduced for
the first time. Ciacco foretells that the two conflicting parties (the White
and Black Guelfs) will come to bloodshed (as they did on May Day of
the year 300) and that the Whites will at first prevail and drive the others
out. But within three years, the other party will return, aided by ‘one who
now prevaricates’. This oblique reference is one of many to Pope Boniface
VIII, who within the timeframe of the story had not yet shown his hand in
Florentine politics.
Ciacco alludes mysteriously to ‘two righteous men whom no one heeds’.
They have not been identified. Dante may simply have meant ‘scarce one
or two’, or he may have meant himself and one other. It is possible that
Giano della Bella, who reformed the laws of Florence, is intended. Dante
asks where he will find other Florentines, whom he names. Are they in Hell
or Heaven? Ciacco warns him that he will find them among the blackest
40 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

souls in Hell. Thus the Florentine theme begins, on a small scale, with local
politics and enquiries concerning a few individuals. As the work progresses
it takes on proportions that link it with world history and ultimately with
the universe.5
One of the features of the legendary material that Dante used was the
resistance of the powers of the Underworld to an intruder from the world of
the living. Charon and Minos have resisted Dante and now so does Plutus,
in classical mythology the god of wealth, and here, like Minos, transformed
into a monster, in charge of the souls of the avaricious in the Fourth Circle.
His utterance is frightening gibberish:
‘Papè Satan, papè Satan, aleppe!’
‘Father Satan, Father Satan, help!’ 6
The word aleppe has never been convincingly decoded but the utterance
appears to be a call to Father Satan for help against the intrusion of a living
man. Virgil, che tutto seppe (‘who knew all things’), reassures Dante, calling
Plutus maladetto lupo (‘accursed wolf ’), the symbol of avarice, and taunting
the monster with the memory of the defeat of the rebellious angels by the
Archangel Michael, as though to say, ‘It’s no use expecting Satan to help
you: remember how Michael dealt with him.’ This so deflates Plutus that he
collapses like the sails on a broken mast. As in the description of the glut-
tons, so here the language is harsh, with rhymes ending in -occia to suggest
Plutus’ spluttering speech, and rhymes in -acca to suggest the clatter of his
collapse. The two opposite groups of the avaricious (the spendthrifts and the
hoarders), pushing heavy boulders before them and clashing in conflicting
bands, are given hurtling rhymes in double consonants: viddi, Cariddi, riddi,
intoppa, troppa, poppa. Dante the technician, having riveted his audience’s
attention by the skilful use of sound, then moves to the visual aid of a picture
of degraded souls, all so alike that they cannot be identified, except that by
their tonsures the majority are seen to have been clerics. This is Dante’s first
attack in the Commedia upon the avarice of the Church.
Earlier tales of Underworld journeys included immersion of souls at
different levels in foul rivers or marshes or streams of blood, incarceration in
burning tombs, imprisonment in ice, the crossing of dangerous bridges, the
tormenting of souls by devils with pitchforks, mutilation with swords and
horrors involving snakes and serpents. All such elements, some of which
are found also in the Aeneid, are used by Dante with increasing realism as
Inferno progresses. The tension of danger also increases.
The Circle of the Wrathful is a marsh, across which Dante and Virgil
are ferried by the boatman Phlegyas,7 Dante’s substantial body weighing
down the boat. For the first time he is in physical danger. One of the wrath-
 DANTE IN DANGER 4

ful rises up and confronts him. Dante knows him and curses him as rightly
punished, whereupon the spirit reaches out to the boat with both his hands.
Virgil pushes him off, saying: ‘Away there, with the other dogs!’ He then
embraces Dante and kisses his cheek, rejoicing in his indignation, utter-
ing the startling words: ‘Blessed is the womb that conceived thee!’8 Dante
answers: ‘Master, I’d dearly love to see him dipped in this broth before we
go.’ Virgil says that his wish will be gratified, and rightly. The soul is set upon
by the muddied mob, who shout: ‘Get Filippo Argenti!’
Filippo Argenti of Florence, as was said, was a man of violent temper,
arrogant and so ostentatious that he shod his horse with silver. His dates
are not known but he had evidently died by Easter Week of the year 300.
The Cavicciuli branch of the Adimari family, to which he was related, were
Black Guelfs and are said to have been bitterly opposed to Dante’s recall
from exile. Commentators have done their best to elevate the outburst of
vengeful wrath on the part of the character Dante, identifying it as righteous
anger, repudiating sin, contrasted with the self-centred fury of the sinners
in the mire. The fact cannot be evaded, however, that Dante the writer has
shown his fictional self as exhibiting monstrous inhumanity. Up to now he
has shown compassion: he has wept and swooned on hearing the tale of
Francesca; he has wept at the condition of his Florentine friend Ciacco;
unable to recognize any of the avaricious, he has conveyed scorn and abhor-
rence for all of them, that is to say, for the sin of avarice in general. But
here he exhibits vindictive rage against an individual sinner, rejoicing in
his sufferings, and is embraced and congratulated by Virgil for doing so, in
words, moreover, that were used of Christ. Commenting on the episode in
his own persona, Dante the writer says, in the present tense, that he still offers
praise and thanks to God for what he saw:
Dopo ciò poco vid’io quello strazio
far di costui alle fangose genti,
che Dio ancor ne lodo e ne ringrazio.
Soon after that I saw the muddy crew
so fiercely set on him that even now
my praise and thanks to God I still renew.9
The quarrel between Dante and Argenti must have taken place before
May Day 300, when the White and Black Guelfs came to bloodshed, as
Ciacco foretold that they would. It is therefore more likely to have been a
personal than a political matter. There is more here than righteous indig-
nation at the sin of wrath. This is Dante Alighieri, man alive, who in Il
Convivio cursed those who denied belief in immortality and said that the
only thing to do with someone who could not argue rationally was to take a
knife to him.
42 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The canto began with a twinkling of lights from a watchtower at the rim
of the marsh. In answer, in the distance, a beacon flickered, and at this signal
Phlegyas had come skimming across in his boat. When they reach the other
side he sets the travellers down at the entrance to a walled city. Its turrets
are red as fire and its walls are like iron. Virgil tells Dante that this is lower
Hell, the City of Dis.10 At the gates Dante sees countless devils, ‘those who
rained down from Heaven’, that is, the rebellious angels. Their opposition
to his approach exceeds all resistance so far. Virgil signals that he wishes to
speak with them apart and they say, ‘Come alone and let him who has dared
to enter this kingdom go back, if he can find the way.’ Dante’s courage fails
him and he begs Virgil to return with him quickly:
‘ritroviam l’orme nostre insieme ratto’.
‘let us retrace our steps together, quick’ .11
Virgil tells him not to be afraid; no one can prevent their journey for it has
been sanctioned by One above. He leaves Dante alone, promising not to
desert him. Dante waits in fear and doubt. He cannot hear what Virgil says
but sees the devils rush inside, shutting the gates in his face. Virgil returns to
Dante with slow steps, gazing at the ground and saying to himself between
sighs: ‘Who are these that forbid my entrance into the abode of pain?’ Then
to Dante he says: ‘Do not be dismayed. I will prevail. They have shown inso-
lence before. And already one is descending without escort through the
circles who will open the city to us.’
Dante has turned pale and Virgil alarms him further by his broken,
mystifying phrases, conveying doubt, which he tries to conceal. Dante asks,
indirectly, with subtle tact, whether anyone has ever descended from Limbo
before. Virgil replies that it seldom happens but that he himself was conjured
once by Erichtho, who sent him to the lowest depths of Hell to draw forth
a spirit for her purposes. He knows the way: Dante need not fear.
Erichtho was a witch about whom Dante had read in Lucan’s Pharsalia,
where it is related that Pompey’s son employed her to conjure up the soul
of one of his dead soldiers to foretell the outcome of the war.12 Similarly, in
the Aeneid, the Sibyl reassures Aeneas that she has been guided by Hecate
through all the penalties of Hades.13 This was probably in Dante’s mind, for
it occurs at a point in the story that resembles the arrival at the City of Dis.
Aeneas, too, has come to a large castle, with pillars of solid adamant, with
an iron tower, from which groans are heard and the sound of a lash. Aeneas,
rooted to the spot in terror, asks, ‘What crimes are punished here? Why do
they cry so loud?’
Three Furies now rise up on the battlements, blood-stained, girt with
green hydras, with asps and adders writhing round their brows. Virgil points
 DANTE IN DANGER 43

them out: on the right is Alecto, on the left Megaera and in the middle
is Tisiphone. They beat their breasts and tear themselves with their nails,
shrieking so loudly that Dante clings to Virgil in terror. ‘Fetch Medusa!’
they cry. ‘We’ll turn him to stone! Why did we not finish off Theseus when
he attacked?’14 At this threat Virgil turns Dante round and places his hands
over his eyes and his own over them. If Dante looks on Medusa it will be
all up with him. If the Furies represent remorse, Medusa is despair. Virgil
protects him with all that he represents of wisdom, art and civilization.
At this point Dante speaks directly to his audience:
O voi ch’avete li ’ntelletti sani,
mirate la dottrina che s’asconde
sotto ’l velame de li versi strani.
O ye whose intellects are sane and sound
note well the doctrine that beneath the veil
of the mysterious verses can be found.15
There is only one other occasion in the Commedia where Dante draws his
listeners’ attention to an allegorical meaning hidden beneath the literal.16
Both precede the arrival of angelic aid. Immediately following these lines a
startling event occurs, the most striking in an already eventful canto.
Over the waves of the turbid marsh comes a crashing sound that sets
both shores shaking, like the noise of a violent wind that assails a forest,
breaking branches, flinging them down or carrying them away, scattering
wild beasts and shepherds. Virgil releases Dante’s eyes and tells him to peer
over the ancient scum to where the fumes are most dense. As frogs before
a snake scuttle to the bottom of a pond, so Dante sees countless souls hide
from a figure who passes the marsh dry-footed, clearing the mist before his
face with his left hand. Dante at once perceives that he is one sent from
Heaven. He turns to Virgil who signs to him to keep silence and to bow
down in reverence. With an air of superb scorn the messenger comes to the
gates and with a little wand opens them. His voice is heard:
‘O cacciati del ciel, gente dispetta’,
cominciò elli in su l’orribil soglia,
‘ond’ esta oltracotanza in voi s’alletta?
Perchè recalcitrate a quella voglia
a cui non può il fin mai esser mozzo,
e che più volte v’ha cresciuta doglia?
Che giova nelle fata dar di cozzo?
Cerbero vostro, se ben vi ricorda,
ne porta ancor pelato il mento e ’l gozzo.’
44 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘O outcasts from on high, despisèd crew’,

thus he began upon that horrid sill,
‘whence comes the insolence which dwells in you?
Why do you kick against the sacred will
whose purpose never can be overborne,
and which has many times increased your ill?
What does it profit you the fates to spurn?
Your Cerberus, if you recall aright,
still has his chin and gullet scraped and torn.’ 17
The messenger then returns across the foul path, saying no word to Dante
and Virgil, with the bearing of one who has other cares beyond the present.
No explanation of his identity is given, though attempts to name him
have been made. Since in some versions of the tale of St Paul’s visit to the
Underworld he is accompanied by the Archangel Michael, the earliest audi-
ence and readers of Inferno would expect him to put in an appearance, or at
least would feel no surprise if he did. He has moreover been mentioned at
the beginning of Canto VII, where Virgil taunts Plutus by reminding him
of the defeat of the rebellious angels by the Archangel. It is significant that
the first lecturer on the Commedia, namely Boccaccio, did so identify him.
Whatever his identity, the allegorical meaning of the event, to which
Dante has drawn attention, must be that Virgil, for all his wisdom and
endowment of magical powers, is unable to overcome the worst of evil. For
that, help from on high is needed and is provided.
 CHAPTER 16

Dante the Taxonomist

I
n one version of the story of St Paul’s journey into Hell, the Archangel
Michael tells him to pause at one moment in order to accustom himself
to the stench that rises from the abyss. St Paul does so, stuffing a fold of
his mantle against his nostrils. Dante adopts this detail to provide an oppor-
tunity for Virgil to describe to Dante the layout of Hell. The moment is
opportune. So many things have happened, monsters have been confronted,
circles of Hell have been traversed, souls have been encountered. Dante
senses that the audience now needs recapitulation and orientation.
After the dialogue with Farinata and Cavalcanti in the Circle of the
Heretics,1 Dante and Virgil take refuge behind the vault of a tomb contain-
ing the soul of Anastasius, a fifth-century Pope, said to have denied the
divine nature of Christ. The tomb is perched on the edge of the abyss, from
which the stench of sin rises, its position a symbol of the outrage on truth
that Dante considered the heresy of a Pope to be. While the two poets rest,
Virgil sets out with schematic precision the hierarchy and categories of sin.
It is not known whether Dante had intended to discuss the categories
of sin in Il Convivio, but it is not unlikely. If so, this is a clear example of
transference of material he had already prepared, either in his mind or more
probably in notes, from the one work to the other. The prosaic nature of the
verse strengthens this possibility.
His two authorities on the subject are Aristotle and Cicero. In Aristotle
he had found wrongdoing divided into three categories: weakness of will,
brutishness and malice. Cicero recognized only two: violence and fraud.
Dante combines the two systems, adding to that of Cicero the category of
‘Incontinence’ (weakness of will), distinguished by Aristotle from sins that
involve the deliberate use of the will.
Virgil begins his discourse with the three circles they will find below them,
one of violence and two of fraud. The last two are distinguished according
to the relationship between perpetrator and victim, the breaking of a bond
of particular trust being defined as treachery. This involves a misuse of the
intellect, a faculty with which only man is endowed, and is consequently the

45
46 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

most offensive to God. Traitors therefore are in the lowest circle of all, the
ninth.
The seventh, which they are about to enter, is divided into three zones,
according to the victim against whom violence is used: one’s neighbour, one’s
self, and God. Acts of violence against one’s neighbour are listed as though
by a teacher holding up a diagram to a class of pupils: murder, bodily harm,
extortion, robbery, plunder, arson. In enumerating these categories, Dante
could scarcely have avoided thinking of the wrongs he himself had suffered
at the hands of the pillaging Black Guelfs in Florence who had destroyed
and set fire to his home. Next comes the zone of those who do violence
to themselves and to their own belongings: suicides, gamblers and wasters
who destroy their own property, considered in Dante’s age as an extension
of the self. Violence against God is divided into blasphemy, outrage upon
nature and upon man’s industry. In this zone Dante groups together in one
category, though distinguishing them, God-deniers, sodomites and usurers.
The only blasphemer named is Capaneus, one of the seven kings who took
part in the siege of Thebes and who while scaling the city wall boasted that
not even Jove could stop him and who in his damnation still defies God. The
inclusion of usury and sodomy together with blasphemy as violence against
God requires some explanation for modern readers, as it evidently did for
Dante’s contemporaries, since he contrives for Virgil to justify it.
He does so by referring Dante to Aristotle’s Ethics, where Nature is
defined as the art of God, and man’s industry as the offspring of Nature.
Any abuse of man’s material resources and of industry is consequently an
offence against God. Aristotle had defined the use of money to generate
more money as a barren activity, an image that is reflected in Dante’s placing
of usurers on barren sand. The Church condemned the lending of money for
interest and so did Dante, although the wealth of Florence was enhanced
by the development of banking, which made possible the organization of
manufacture and industry. Dante’s attitude to usury would seem to be an
aspect of his condemnation of avarice as the greatest obstacle to man’s social
well being. It may be that his objection, as well as that of the Church, was
levelled at exorbitant exactions by money lenders who held a monopoly and
that he might have accepted what in modern terms is called a free market
in financial services, subject to legal regulation. There were in Roman law
rules on rates of interest, which Dante is likely to have held in respect. He
can perhaps be compared to modern objectors to capitalism and in recent
times to globalization. In any event he must have been aware of hardship
suffered by victims of usury. During his exile he was himself obliged to
borrow money. A striking example of atonement for the sin of usury, with
which Dante was familiar, was the donation by Enrico Scrovegni of the
 DANTE THE TAXONOMIST 47

chapel of the Madonna dell’Arena in Padua, which Dante’s friend Giotto

was engaged to decorate with his frescoes. Enrico is said to have been the
son of Rinaldo degli Scrovegni who is placed among the usurers in Hell.2 If
this is so, the offering by Enrico, who is portrayed by Giotto holding up a
model of the chapel, might be seen as a mediaeval example of the benefac-
tions of millionaires of modern times.
The list of sins punished in the Eighth Circle, involving fraud practised
against those with whom no special bond of trust exists, is rattled off in
prosaic verse: hypocrisy, flattery, sorcery, impersonation, theft, simony, sexual
exploitation, corruption, ending with the phrase e simile lordura (‘and such-
like filth’), as though the subject scarcely warranted the trouble of versifying
further. The sins of the Ninth Circle, defined in general as treachery, are
later found to be divided into four groups: treachery against kindred, treach-
ery against political party or cause, treachery against guests and treachery
against benefactors.
Dante asks Virgil about the circles they have already traversed. Why are
those sins punished outside the City of Dis, which they have now entered?
Virgil replies, somewhat testily:
… ‘Perchè tanto delira’,
disse, ‘lo ’ngegno tuo da quel che sole?
O ver la mente dove altrove mira?’
… ‘Why is thy mind,’ he said,
‘so far away, unlike its usual self,
what are thy wits about, where have they fled?’ 3
He reminds Dante of the teaching of Aristotle, according to which the sins
of weakness of will are less offensive than those incurring brutishness and
malice. For this reason they are less severely punished.
During the time he spent at Bologna in the company of his jurist friend
Cino da Pistoia, Dante is likely to have picked up some notions of civil law
and of local tariffs of penalties, but canon law probably had more influ-
ence upon his classification of sins. Book V of the Gregorian Decretals is
devoted to criminal law, with sections on forgery, heresy, homicide, arson,
usury, adultery, theft, blasphemy and sorcery, among other offences. The
writings of mediaeval canon lawyers are more philosophically and theologi-
cally nuanced than those of their civil law contemporaries.
Above all, his arrangement of sins, like much else in the Commedia, is
influenced by numerology. The master concept of the entire structure is
unity, represented by the figure one, a symbol of the union of the soul with
its Maker, of time with eternity. To the seven ethical categories of wrong-
doing in Inferno, he adds two: Limbo and Heresy (non-belief and wrong
48 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

belief ), making nine circles in all, to which is added the Vestibule of the
Futile, bringing the main divisions to ten, which by mystic addition4 is
reducible to the figure one. This scheme is followed also in the structure of
Mount Purgatory, with its two terraces and seven cornices, surmounted by
the Garden of Eden. Likewise in Paradise there are nine heavens, to which
is added the Empyrean. As has been shown, the figure three, the symbol of
the Trinity or Three-in-One, is prevalent throughout. The rhyme scheme,
terza rima, means that every canto is composed of a number of lines divisible
by three, plus a concluding one, yet another return to unity. The 00 cantos
that make up the entire work also represent the square of ten, regarded as the
number of perfection.
Dante’s numerical control of his material is particularly significant where
Beatrice is involved. She is mentioned by name 63 times in the Commedia,
a figure which, again by mystic addition, is reducible to nine. Her name is
used as a rhyme word on nine occasions. She appears to Dante in the 30th
canto of Purgatorio, which is the 64th canto of the whole Commedia, another
figure reducible to ten, itself reducible to the figure of unity. It is preceded
by 63 cantos (reducible to nine) and followed by 36 (also reducible to nine).
The line in which she announces her identity, Guardaci ben, ben sem, ben sem
Beatrice (‘Look well, we are, we are Beatrice’) is line 73 of the canto, while
her first appearance occurs in lines 3–33. Such recurrent play of significantly
Beatrician numbers could hardly be coincidence and must have been laid
out structurally in advance.5
The number ten had particular significance. It can also be represented by
a triangle which the Pythagoreans called the tetrakis. They regarded it as so
holy that they swore oaths by it. Made up of  + 2 + 3 + 4, or 9 + , its compo-
nents represented unity (), duality (2), the harmonizing force that resolved
duality (3) and completeness (4), as in the four elements of creation: earth,
air, fire and water, and the four chief fluids (cardinal humours) of the body:
blood, phlegm, choler and melancholy or black choler. Likewise the figure
seven, of which the significant components are 3 + 4, was seen as a key to an
understanding of the cosmos, as in the number of planets believed to circle
the earth. From all such associations of numbers, Dante drew power for his
creation and relied on it for the magical effect it would have on his contem-
poraries, whether consciously or unconsciously, as they read the Commedia
or heard it read aloud. He himself also drew from it confidence in his struc-
ture as an image of truth.
From Pythagoras onwards, the Greeks had been fascinated by the beauty
of number patterns and proportion. In their architecture they made use of
what was known as the Divine Proportion, a discovery of the ratio between
the length and breadth of a rectangle. The formula was forgotten for
 DANTE THE TAXONOMIST 49

hundreds of years but works of art which were constructed according to it

continued to prove the most pleasing to the eye. Music, too, was constructed
in comparable patterns and continued to be so, whether the composer was
aware of the formula or not. As Leibniz later said, ‘Music is a secret arith-
metical exercise and the person who indulges in it does not realize that he is
manipulating numbers.’
The number seven, which is also a key feature in created works, is math-
ematically related to the spiral, a symbol of the journey of the soul. Spirals
also occur in nature, in the arrangement of seeds, florets, types of fir cones
and the shapes of certain shells, such as the nautilus and the ammonite, as
well as other molluscs which are formed by the accretion of cells along the
tangent to the curve of their growth.6 Consequently the spiralling journeys
of Dante through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, whether consciously under-
stood by him in this light or not, provide an imaginative experience that
satisfies the very nature of our physical and spiritual being. It must have
been an equally satisfying experience for Dante the maker to achieve by such
methods of control the symmetry and harmony to which he aspired.
The Commedia was planned with minute precision but it is also a work
that grew, like a living organism. Cantos of the same number echo and
balance each other in content and significance between one cantica and
another, but the symmetry is not rigid. There is no mid-point in 00, and so
the perspective shifts, like an optical illusion. It was written over many years,
probably between 306 and 32, and the events of the world succeeding in
that period became part of it as it progressed. Dante, too, altered as he grew
older. The author of Inferno is not the same person as the one who sailed
over migliori acque (‘better waters’) to create Purgatorio or, shedding error
after error in Paradiso, was at last enabled to construct a vision of God. As a
craftsman he had planned his journey. As a poet he made discoveries as he
went. This rescued the poem from static regularity and gave it the dynamism
of experience.
 CHAPTER 17

Creation of Character

F
rancesca da Rimini is the first and for some readers the most memo-
rable of all Dante’s characters in the Commedia. The second, Farinata
degli Uberti, has already been mentioned in relation to the death of
Guido Cavalcanti.1 His magnificent unconcern for his torment in Hell, set
against his continuing preoccupation with the fate of his fellow exiles in
the first life, is contrasted with the lesser stature of his companion in heresy,
Cavalcanti, the querulous father of Dante’s friend Guido. Dante’s talent in
creating such portraits has held the fascinated attention of readers for centu-
ries. It is not difficult to trace his description of Hell itself to earlier tales of
the kind, but the selection of individual detail, the variations in speech and
tone of voice, the ability to fix a mannerism and bring a character to life
are tokens of a talent, largely histrionic, that goes beyond derivation. One
after another of these master portraits, Francesca, Farinata, Pier delle Vigne,
Brunetto Latini, Ulysses and Ugolino, are so vividly realized that an actor
would require no further directions in order to represent them on the stage.
Such is their animation that Dante must have heard them speaking as he
wrote. When he read his cantos aloud he no doubt acted their voices. That
he was a mimic is shown in the chapter on De Vulgari Eloquentia.
The setting of each of these figures reinforces the character drawing.
Farinata, for instance, is seen against an austere background of a vast burial
ground, like those at Arles and Pola,2 with the difference that the tombs
inside the wall of the City of Dis are heated by flames, all the lids stand open
and lamentations issue from within. This is the Hell that Farinata, rising to
his full height, appears to hold in scorn. Questioning Dante about his ances-
tors with aristocratic disdain, he raises his eyebrows a little and says, ‘They
were fierce enemies of mine, and of my forebears and of my party, and so
twice I scattered them.’ This is a portrait of a heroic Florentine, devoted to
the city he saved from destruction when his victorious side proposed to raze
it to the ground. It also tells us that Dante the person observed facial expres-
sion. That raising of the eyebrows ‘a little’ is a skilful touch. It has nothing to
do with allegory, or with any of the major concerns of the work: it is pictorial

50
 CREATION OF CHARACTER 5

art for its own sake. Farinata’s response to the sound of a Tuscan voice, which
brought him up from his tomb, provides another trait of character which is
likewise memorable and shows Dante’s imagination at its most vividly crea-
tive; so too is Farinata’s regret that he may have caused too much anguish to
the city he so loved. It is moments like this that make the Commedia much
more than a mediaeval text of historical interest and Dante much more than
a man of the Middle Ages. Here the creator’s finger reaches out to make
contact with us across the centuries.
Another such occasion occurs in the Seventh Circle. The setting is a life-
less wood, where souls who have committed suicide are transformed into
trees and shrubs:
Non fronda verde, ma di color fosco;
non rami schietti, ma nodosi e ’nvolti;
non pomi v’ eran, ma stecchi con tosco.
No verdant foliage, but of dusky hue;
no branches smooth and round, but warped and gnarled;
no fruit was there, but thorns with poison grew.3
Perched among the unnatural vegetation are Harpies, uttering laments. The
sound of voices in distress makes Dante stand in wonder. Virgil does not
explain but allows him to discover for himself what he is hearing. There
follows one of the most visible and tangible similes of the work. Like the
slight lift of Farinata’s eyebrows, it brings us close to Dante as a person who
communicates a vivid experience. Virgil instructs him to break off a twig
from one of the plants:
Allor porsi la mano un poco avante.
e colsi un ramicel da un gran pruno;
e ’l tronco suo gridò: ‘Perchè mi schiante?’
My hand I then put forward, cautiously,
and picked a little twig from a large thorn;
and its trunk roared: ‘Why this brutality?’ 4
These lines are beautifully crafted for reading aloud: the timid hand reach-
ing out to pick a little twig from a large thorn, the sonorous response of the
trunk, with its contrasting vowel sounds. Seeping with dark blood, the plant
continues: ‘Hast thou no pity? We were once men and now are turned to
trees. More merciful thy hand should be, had we been souls of serpents.’
The image of liquid oozing from the branch, together with the hiss of
words, is compared by Dante the writer to a simple, everyday phenomenon.
If a green branch is set alight, sap will issue from one end while from the
other a squeal of air comes forth. Anyone who has burned green wood in
52 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

a bonfire knows exactly what he means: the effect is startling. No wonder

Dante the character drops the twig and stands in fear.
Virgil placates the injured soul, saying that if Dante had been able to
believe what he had read in Virgil’s own poem,5 no such offence would have
been necessary. In recompense he invites the soul to say who he was, so that
the person who has injured him may make amends by reviving his fame in
the world above.
The soul is that of Pier delle Vigne. Born in Capua about the year 90,
he was for many years Chancellor in the service of Emperor Frederick II
of Sicily and became his most trusted adviser. He was in England between
234 and 235, negotiating the marriage between the Emperor and Isabella,
a sister of Henry III. Two years later he fell from favour, being accused of
conspiracy against Frederick. He was arrested, imprisoned and his eyes were
put out. In 249, in a prison at Pisa, he killed himself by dashing his brains
out against a wall. Dante believed that he was the victim of slander. He
chose him as an example of the sin of suicide in order to allow him to speak
in his defence.
Pier was also a poet, of the so-called ‘Sicilian School’, from which the
poetry of the Fedeli d’Amore developed, and was an early author of sonnets.
Dante appropriately gives him words which might have come from one of
his own elaborate poems:
‘Sì con dolce dir m’adeschi,
ch’i’ non posso tacere; e voi non gravi
perch’io un poco a ragionar m’inveschi.
Io son colui che tenni ambo le chiavi
del cor di Federigo, e che le volsi,
serrando e diserrando, sì soavi,
che dal secreto suo quasi ogn’uom tolsi:
fede portai al glorioso offizio,
tanto ch’ i’ ne perde’ li sonni e’ polsi.
La meretrice che mai dall’ospizio
di Cesare non torse li occhi putti,
morte comune, delle corti vizio,
infiammò contra me li animi tutti;
e li ’nfiammati infiammar sì Augusto,
che lieti onor tornaro in tristi lutti.
L’animo mio, per disdegnoso gusto,
credendo col morir fuggir disdegno,
ingiusto fece me contra me giusto.’
‘Thy sweet words so beguile,
I cannot silent stay; may it not displease
if I am lured to speak a little while.
 CREATION OF CHARACTER 53

I am the one who once held both the keys

to Frederick’s heart, which frequently I turned,
locking, unlocking with such gentle ease,
that almost none his confidence so earned:
faithful to such a glorious charge I stayed,
so that all loss of sleep and strength I spurned.
The harlot, who from Caesar’s house ne’er strayed,
nor ever turned away her wanton eyes,
our common bane, of courts a vice inbred,
inflamed all hearts against me, and likewise
the inflamed so inflamed the Emperor with distrust
that joyful honours changed to baleful lies.
My spirit, in a temper of disgust,
thinking by my decease disdain to flee,
against my just self made myself unjust.’ 6
By this masterly pastiche Dante transports us from the wood of the suicides
to the court of Frederick II and we hear the elaborate style of speech that
characterized its cultivated members. Then with an immediate change of
diction we are brought back to the unnatural wood, as the voice from the
tree proclaims:
‘Per le nuove radici d’esto legno
vi giuro che già mai non ruppi fede
al mio signor, che fu d’onor sì degno.’
‘By the strange root-stock of this very tree
I swear I ne’er broke faith towards my lord
who so deserving was of loyalty.’ 7
Unjust accusation of a broken trust was something for which Dante felt
deep sympathy: he himself had been similarly charged. Pier’s declaration
of innocence is thus made the more passionate and moving. Self-murder,
however, is a sin, for which, in the system of Dante’s Christian Hell, there is
no mitigation.8 It is identical with the wanton destruction of one’s material
belongings, property and wealth, another form of violence against the self
which is the subject of the remainder of the canto.
The portrait of Brunetto Latini, Dante’s guide and mentor in his early
years, is drawn with love, pathos and a dignity that is the more compelling
given the squalor of the punishment. In the third ring of the Seventh Circle
of Hell we come to an area of sterile sand on which flames of fire unceas-
ingly rain down, this being in itself an image of a reversal of nature, since fire
burns upwards. This is the arena of the souls of sodomites and other sinners
against the self. Dante and Virgil, having emerged from the wood of the
suicides, are walking along an embankment which skirts a river of blood.
54 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

From this arises a pall of steam that protects Dante from the flakes of fire.
Close to the bank a troop of souls come hurrying towards them, peering
at them in the murky atmosphere, knitting up their brows as an old tailor
squinnies at the eye of a needle. One of them recognizes Dante and reaches
up from the sand to pull at the hem of his gown, crying: ‘This is indeed
a marvel!’ Dante, bending down to peer into his face, is able, despite the
scorched aspect and distorted features, to make out who it is. His response
is dramatic:
‘Siete voi qui, Ser Brunetto?’
‘Are you here, Ser Brunetto?’ 9
In the rhythm of the verse there is a strong emphasis on the word voi,
which conveys a moving effect of shocked surprise on the part of Dante
the character. There has been some reluctance among modern commenta-
tors to acknowledge that Dante intended Brunetto’s sin to be interpreted as
sodomy.10 Given the setting and context, however, it is difficult to see that
there can be any doubt about it.
Brunetto Latini, who was born about the year 220 and died in 294,
was a Florentine Guelf who represented for Dante the virtues of an earlier
period of Florence. He was a notary and a man of learning, much respected
by his fellow citizens and famed for his skill as an orator. He expounded
the writings of Cicero as guidance in public affairs. There is a portrait of
him in the Bargello in Florence, once reputed to be the work of Giotto,
beside the one of Dante. The diminutive of his name, Bruno, may indicate
that he was of small stature. He was much involved in the political life of
Florence and was of sufficient standing to be sent to Seville on an embassy
to Alfonso X, King of Spain, who had recently been elected Emperor but
was never crowned. The Florentine Senate hoped that Brunetto would be
able to gain his support against the threat of the Ghibellines of Siena. The
mission was unsuccessful. On his return from Spain, travelling along the
Pass of Roncesvalles, as he relates, he met a student from Bologna astride a
bay mule, who told him of the disastrous defeat of the Guelfs at the Battle
of Montaperti in 260. As a result, Brunetto, like Dante, was exiled from his
native city. He spent the next six years in France, where he wrote his great
work, in French prose, Le Livres dou Tresor, an encyclopaedia or thesaurus
of history, philosophy, moral instruction and science. He later produced an
abridged version in Italian verse, known as Il Tesoretto.
From the dialogue in Canto XV it is evident that he was an important
influence in Dante’s early years. The relationship between them is interwoven
with tender regard. Brunetto asks first, humbly, if he may keep him company,
letting his group run on. Dante offers to sit down with him but that would
 CREATION OF CHARACTER 55

only increase Brunetto’s penalty: he and the other souls are doomed to keep
moving aimlessly round the arena. Dante does not dare descend on to the
sand to walk beside him; all he can do is to bow his head towards him, like
someone showing reverence. Though Dante addresses him with the respect-
ful pronoun voi, Brunetto uses the informal tu, as was no doubt their custom
when they spoke together in Florence:
… ‘Se tu segui tua stella,
non puoi fallire a glorioso porto,
se ben m’accorsi nella vita bella;
e s’io non fossi sì per tempo morto,
veggendo il cielo a te così benigno,
dato t’avrei all’opera conforto.’
… ‘Follow but thy star,
thy glorious port thou canst not fail to gain,
if I saw truly in my life, once fair;
had I not died so soon, since it was plain
the heavens so propitious were to thee,
thy champion and guide I would have been.’ 11
These words have suggested to commentators that Brunetto once cast
Dante’s horoscope. However that may be, he now proceeds, in obscure
imagery, to foretell his future. The malicious ingrates who of old descended
from Fiesole,12 he says, will be his enemies, and with reason, for it is not
natural that among bitter sorbs the sweet fig should bear fruit. They are
reputed blind, avaricious, envious and proud. Let him beware, he warns, not
to be stained by them. His fortune holds for him such honour that both
parties will try to snatch and devour him, but the grass will be far from
the goat. Let Fiesole’s wild beasts make fodder of themselves and leave the
plant, if on their dunghill any such spring up wherein is found the seed of
Romans who remained when it became the nest of so much ill.
Dante believed that the strife and disorder of Florence were due to the
intermarriage of intruders from Fiesole with the stock of Roman families
who founded the city.13 The earthy, agricultural imagery in which he makes
Brunetto express this view may be characteristic of the man himself and of
his generation. It suggests someone of robust diction and opinion. Dante’s
feeling towards him is devoutly filial:
‘Se fosse tutto pieno il mio dimando’,
rispuosi lui, ‘voi non sareste ancora
dell’umana natura posto in bando;
chè ’n la mente m’ è fitta, e or m’accora,
la cara e buona imagine paterna
di voi quando nel mondo ad ora ad ora
56 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

m’insegnavate come l’uom s’etterna:

e quant’io l’abbia in grado, mentr’io vivo,
convien che nella mia lingua si scerna.’
‘If all my prayers granted were’, I said,
‘you, whom I so revere, would not yet be
beyond our human nature banishèd;
for my heart aches when in my mind I see
your dear, kind image, when from hour to hour,
just like a father, you instructed me
how a man’s gifts eternally may flower:
my thanks for this, as long as I shall live,
in plain and fitting language I will pour.’ 14
This picture of Brunetto instructing Dante has led commentators to assume
that he was in some sense his tutor. This is unlikely but that there was an
intellectual and affectionate bond between the elderly man and the young
poet is clear. It was perhaps Brunetto who induced Dante to read Cicero and
Boethius, as he says he did, after the death of Beatrice. It is also possible that
Brunetto was Dante’s guardian after the death of his father.
The squalor of Brunetto’s sin and penalty is painful for Dante to visual-
ize. He asks for information concerning the other souls and again Brunetto
speaks in bluff, coarse words: they are clerics and scholars, he says, all fouled
with the same sin, and if Dante is interested in ‘such scurf ’, he names one
or two: Priscian the grammarian, a lawyer from Bologna University and a
bishop of Florence. Then seeing another group approach, with which he
must not mingle, he runs off to join his own, calling out:
‘Sieti raccomandato il mio Tesoro
nel qual io vivo ancora, e più non cheggio.’
‘Let my Thesaurus be thy care, I pray,
in which I still live on: I ask no more.’ 15
As the scarred form runs off he seems to Dante like an athlete competing
naked in the foot race in Verona for the prize of the green cloth, not like a
loser but the winning runner.16
This portrait of Brunetto Latini is one of the most personally significant,
providing a glimpse of Dante as a loyal friend who, though not evading the
difference in God’s sight between right and wrong, yet lovingly acknowl-
edged the memory of benefits received.
 CHAPTER 18

Down into the Depths

O
f all the monsters and deformed mythological figures in Inferno
the most terrifying is Geryon. The centaurs who guard the river
of blood in the Seventh Circle, shooting arrows at the murderers,
are picturesque in comparison. Nessus, who at Chiron’s command, carries
Dante on his back to the shore of the Wood of Suicides, is no formidable
mount. Chiron himself, with whom Virgil converses, is a figure of classical
dignity, parting his flowing beard with the notch of his arrow and remem-
bered for his sublime role as the tutor of Achilles. But Geryon, who carries
the poets down the chasm that divides the Seventh from the Eighth Circle,
is repulsive as only an image of nightmare can be.
In Greek mythology Geryon was a monster in human form, with three
heads, or with three conjoined bodies, who was killed by Hercules. Dante
gives him three forms in one body, human, bestial and reptilian. He is the
representation of fraud, having the face of a just man, a body dazzling with
bright colours, the paws and forearms of an animal and a serpent’s tail with
a poisonous sting. As Dante and Virgil pause on the edge of the Seventh
Circle they are stunned by the roar of water and blood falling into the abyss,
draining from the circles above and representing the cruelty and suffering of
humankind throughout the ages. At Virgil’s command, Dante unties a cord
he is wearing round his waist, with which, he says, he once hoped to capture
the creature with the dappled pelt. This has been interpreted as a monk’s
girdle, symbolic of an attempt in youth to resist the temptations of the flesh,
or even of a period when, it is said, Dante became a novice of the Franciscan
Order, from which he later withdrew. It is possible that in its literal sense
the cord is a rope, part of a climber’s equipment, worn by Dante (so much
as a matter of course that it was not worth mentioning at that point) when
he began to ascend il dilettoso monte (‘the mountain of joy’).1 The words in
which he describes his unwinding of it suggest a cord of several coils:
Poscia che l’ebbi tutta da me sciolta,
sì come ’l duca m’avea comandato,
porsila a lui aggroppata e ravvolta.

57
58 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

When from myself I had loosed all the rope,

just as my leader had commanded me,
I gave it to him knotted and coiled up.2
Earlier, if Dante had intended to use it, it had proved futile but now it
is put to use: thrown by Virgil into the ravine with a vigorous right-hand
swing, it serves as a signal to Geryon. The allegorical meaning may be that
all self-sufficient and self-deceptive means of progress may as well now be
abandoned, being useless against fraud, which has to be seen for what it is.
Whatever its meaning, in the literal story it is never retrieved but lies forever
somewhere in the Eighth Circle. Dante proceeds ungirt on his journey from
now on until he arrives at the shore of the Mountain of Purgatory, where
the guardian Cato will command Virgil to re-gird him with a rush, a symbol
of humility.3
The effect of the signal is to bring Geryon up to the edge of the Seventh
Circle. He comes up as though swimming through the thick, dark air, like
a diver who has gone down into the sea to release an anchor from obstruc-
tion, stretching out his arms and drawing up his legs, an action Dante could
have seen when on his travels near the coast. As a landsman he would have
observed it with interest and remembered it, particularly if he had not learnt
to swim himself, as seems likely.
The arrival of Geryon is preceded by an encounter with three other
Florentine sinners against nature. Virgil and Dante were still walking along
the embankment from which Dante had conversed with Brunetto Latini
when three souls detached themselves from a group and came running
towards him. They had recognized him from his dress as alcun di nostra terra
prava (‘someone of our depraved city’).4 This is an intriguing variation of the
recognition of Dante as a Florentine by his speech.
Boccaccio, commenting on this line, says that in Dante’s time ‘almost
every city or state had its own distinctive style of dress, for we had not
then taken to dressing in German or English fashions’.5 Giovanni Villani
relates that the dress worn by Florentines was the most noble and dignified
of all regional styles.6 That of men was distinguished by the lucco, a long
straight gown without folds, gathered at the waist, and by a cap, from which
descended two bands at the side of the face, familiar from portraits of Dante.
This is the first and only time his attire is mentioned in the Commedia.7
The reference by the souls to his style of dress is the more striking in that
they themselves, like Brunetto Latini, are naked and pitifully scarred by the
flames:
Ancor men duol pur ch’ i’ me ne rimembri.
It grieves me yet when I remember them.8
 DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS 59

For all the indignity of their condition, Virgil commands Dante to be

courteous to them, saying that were it not for the flakes of fire it would be
more fitting for him to hurry towards them than for them to show haste in
approaching him.
They must not cease in their running and so, in order to converse with
Dante, they form a circle, resembling wrestlers, naked and oiled, looking for a
vantage from which to grip their opponents, each one with his head and feet
turning perpetually in contrary directions. One of them asks Dante to reveal
who he is. Their present aspect, he says, belies the fame they had on earth:
the one in front of him is Guido Guerra, a Guelf nobleman who fought
to expel the Ghibellines from Arezzo and after the Battle of Montaperti
was himself banished from Florence. He was the grandson of a Florentine
noblewoman, Gualdrada, famed for her beauty and virtue. The soul behind
him is Tegghiaio Aldobrandini, another nobleman, of the Adimari family,
who with Guido Guerra advised against the attack on Siena that ended
in the defeat of the Florentines at Montaperti. The speaker names himself
as Jacopo Rusticucci, whose bestial wife, more than all else, he says, has
brought him to this pass.9
To the Dante of Florence these names, famous in the annals of his city,
are of special significance. Familiar with them from childhood as heroic
figures, he would gladly, he says, had it not been for the fire, have flung
himself down on to the sand to embrace them:
‘Di vostra terra sono, e sempre mai
l’ ovra di voi e li onorati nomi
con affezion ritrassi e ascoltai.’
‘I from your city am and long have known
your deeds and honoured names and with full heart
I heard and told the tales of your renown.’ 10
Jacopo begs Dante to tell them if courtesy and valour are still found in their
city, for Guglielmo Borsiere, who has recently joined them, has brought
troubling news.11 Dante uses the enquiry to broaden the theme of the
corruption of Florence. Lifting his face as though addressing the city itself,
he denounces it for the influx of self-made men and for the quick-got gains
that have generated luxury and arrogance, already a cause to others of depri-
vation and distress. The three souls look at each other like men who know
the truth when they hear it. In their reply they congratulate Dante on being
able to speak so freely and beg him, if he escapes from these dark regions
and ever looks up at the star-lit sky again, to speak of them to living men.
Then, on legs that seem like wings, they speed across the sand and disap-
pear.
60 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Noble and heroic they may have been in the first life, but (Dante evidently
has reason to believe) they were guilty of sodomy and, in the case of Jacopo
Rusticucci, probably of bestiality. His reference to his wife is deliberately
equivocal:
‘La fiera moglie più ch’altro mi nuoce.’
‘My beast wife more than any does me harm.’ 12
The word fiera may be the feminine form of the adjective fiero, meaning
savage, or feral, or it may be a noun, meaning a wild animal.
It is after this deeply emotional episode, with its mingling of heroism and
depravity, its memories of Florence as a city of once valorous and courteous
citizens, now degraded by avarice, that Dante and Virgil are confronted with
the image of fraud, called up by the signal of the cord from Dante’s waist. If
this was simply a feature of the Florentine lucco, it may be that in discarding
it Dante is dissociating himself from the Florence he has just denounced: an
umbilical cord has been severed.
The monster clings to the edge of the Seventh Circle, like a boat lying
part on land and part in water, or like a beaver which in German regions can
be seen to settle to catch fish with its tail.13 To reach it Dante and Virgil go
towards the right and walk ten paces along the edge. While Virgil exerts his
magical power over Geryon to compel him to carry them down, Dante is
sent further along the edge to look at a third group of sinners of the Seventh
Circle.
These are the usurers who sinned against natural resources and man’s
labour by the barren interchange of money, an example of the rapid gains
that Dante has just deplored in his condemnation of present-day Florence.
Distorted and deformed, they squat on the sand staring down at purses that
hang round their necks. These are embroidered with the heraldic arms of their
families, by which Dante is able to identify them. Flapping their hands, they
try to shield themselves from the flakes of fire, as dogs do with their snout
and paws in summer, when bitten by fleas or gnats or flies. The comparison
is deliberately dehumanizing. A Paduan, identified as Rinaldo Scrovegni,14
boasts that his neighbour Vitaliano will join him soon. Meanwhile, he says,
Florentine usurers keep bawling in his ear, calling for il cavalier sovrano (‘the
peerless knight’), who will wear a pouch bearing the heraldic device of three
goats: he has been identified as Giovanni Buiamonte dei Becchi, a notorious
usurer, well known to Dante’s contemporaries, as were two other Florentines,
one of the Gianfigliazzi family and one of the Ubbriachi. The reference to
Buiamonte as a cavalier sovrano is sarcastic, for this was a sobriquet used
in chivalrous romance to denote a knight of supreme honour and valour.
Having thus taunted Dante, Rinaldo distorts his mouth and sticks out his
 DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS 6

tongue like an ox licking its snout. By the use of such coarse vocabulary
Dante, the master of language, exerts his control of the vernacular to express
his contempt for the sin of usury.
The character Dante then returns to Virgil and finds him already seated
on Geryon’s back. Commanded to mount in front, he proves himself no
cavalier sovrano, failing utterly in courage and shaking like someone with a
quartan fever. Shame at last proving stronger than fear, he climbs up on the
loathsome shoulders, trying the while to say ‘Hold on to me’, but no voice
comes. Virgil has already clasped him in his arms and holds him steady. This
is indeed necessary since, as previously at the gates of Dis, when threatened
with the Gorgon, Dante is in extreme peril.
The description of the descent on the back of Geryon is Dante the writ-
er’s greatest feat so far in imaginative visualization. It begins with Virgil’s
words of command: ‘Now move, Geryon, but slowly, in wide circles, remem-
ber the unusual burden on thy back.’ As a little craft backs from its berth, so
Geryon moves out from the cliff. (The modern equivalent might perhaps be
the movement of a helicopter, having achieved lift, rolling slowly off the roof
of a tall building and hanging in space.) Sensing itself in the clear, where its
breast was it turns its tail, stretching and moving it like an eel, and draws
air towards itself with its paws. Dante makes use of two mythical examples
of disastrous flight to convey his fear: that of Phaethon who, driving his
father’s chariot of the sun, dropped the reins and set the sky ablaze, and that
of Icarus who flew so near the sun that the wax on his feathers melted and
he fell into the sea: neither felt greater terror than Dante. In the darkness
he has at first no means of knowing that they are descending except for
the sensation of wind blowing in his face from below (a remarkable feat of
intuition on the part of Dante the writer and one which has recently been
compared to Galileo’s discovery of invariance). He hears the sound of the
cataract falling from the circle above and cranes his head to look. Then the
terror of alighting is worse even than being in mid-air, for he sees fires and
hears sounds of wailing. He cowers back, trembling at the sight of torments
now visible on all sides. At last, like a disappointed, sullen falcon that swoops
slowly down, landing at a distance from its master, Geryon sets its passen-
gers at the foot of the jagged cliff and immediately vanishes, like an arrow
shot from a bowstring.
We have reached the Eighth Circle. Dante’s three-dimensional imagina-
tive power is now at its peak. His artistic task is to create an illusion of a vast
structure, coiled into ten descending compartments or ditches, crossed by
arched bridges, corresponding to ten sins that involve the use of fraud. These
abstract notions have to be enlivened by varied pictures of suffering and by
adventure-action, contrived to hold the audience in acute suspense from one
62 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

ditch to the next.

In the first ditch are panders and seducers, that is, those who exploited
women for gain or for sexual pleasure. For them Dante has devised a savage
punishment. Divided into two groups, they circle the ditch, facing in two
different directions, reminding him of the crowds in Rome at the time of the
Jubilee, who formed two opposing lines as they crossed the bridge spanning
the river Tiber between Castel Sant’Angelo and Mount Giordano, an ironic
comment, perhaps, on the behaviour of the pilgrim-tourists. Many of the
first audience would have seen this example of traffic control for themselves.
The souls are cruelly lashed by horned demons as they pass. Dante takes
satisfaction in recalling how they skipped and leapt to avoid a second blow.
One face in particular he recognizes and he asks Virgil’s consent to go back
and scrutinize it. He knows the soul as Venedico Caccianemico, a powerful
Guelf of Bologna, and asks him sarcastically how he has got himself into
such pungenti salse (‘stinging pickle’), a mocking reference to a place near
Bologna where criminals were flogged and executed. The sinner admits that
he pandered his sister to the Marquis of Este and boasts that there are many
more pimps from that city in the same ditch with him, more even than all
who say sipa, a contemptuous imitation of the Bolognese word for sia (‘so be
it’).
This vindictive thrust at Bologna raises once more the question of
Dante’s attitude to those whom he selects as examples in Hell. He had said
in Il Convivio that it was right to hate sin but not the sinner. It must be
recognized, however, that in Inferno he does not always achieve this detach-
ment. As in the case of Filippo Argenti,15 so here in his choice of the first
sinner in the Eighth Circle, Dante the writer shows personal resentment.
The reason may be that the government of Bologna yielded to pressure from
Florence to exile the White Guelfs who had taken refuge there; it may also
be that he felt contempt for the lukewarm response of the Bolognese public
to the banquet of learning he set before them. Whatever the explanation,
resentment and contempt he certainly felt. ‘If you don’t believe me about the
number of pimps here from Bologna,’ says Venedico,
‘rècati a mente il nostro avaro seno’.
‘just call to mind our avaricious hearts’.16
In our last glimpse of Venedico he is being lashed again by a demon, who
gibes, ‘Get along, you pander, there are no women here to exchange for
coin!’
Dante returns to where Virgil is waiting for him and they climb up the
rock and turn right until they reach the crest of a bridge. From there they
look down on sinners passing below and are able to see the faces of those
 DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS 63

whose backs were turned to them before. From these indications we learn
that the rule of the road in this ditch is to the right.
These are the seducers and they too are lashed by demons. The first,
identified by Virgil, is Jason. Virgil points him out and comments on his
kingly bearing and his courageous endurance of suffering. Here the separa-
tion between sin and sinner is clear. Jason is presented as a flawed heroic
figure, whose indulgence in sexual pleasure involved him in the betrayal
of both Medea and Hypsipyle, the giovinetta (‘young woman’) whom he
left pregnant and alone (soletta) on the island of Lemnos. Dante, who had
read of her in the Thebaid by Statius and in Ovid’s Heroides,17 visualized her
with compassion, as may be seen from the affectionate diminutives he uses
concerning her. Guilty as Jason was, he remains in Dante’s eyes a tragic figure
who loses nothing of his mythical stature as the leader of the Argonauts.
Virgil explains how it is that so great a personage comes to be here: tal colpa
a tal martiro lui condanna.18 The use of the disjunctive pronoun lui, with the
strong beat on the word, and the repetition of tal give particular emphasis, as
though to say ‘such a man has been brought to such a torment by such guilt’.
In the same canto19 another sin is introduced. The second ditch contains
the souls of flatterers, who suffer the most repugnant punishment in the whole
of Inferno. The sinners are immersed in excrement, snuffling and scratching
at themselves with filthy hands. The sides of the ditch are encrusted with
faeces, an offensive sight and stench. By flattery (lusinghe) Dante under-
stands all forms of toadying and insincere adulation made use of for self-
advancement. Ordure was an image of foul or deceitful speech (as the word
‘crap’ is used in English) and he has chosen this worst possible degradation
to express his scorn. He must have observed much flattery in political life
and seen with contempt how well it served those who demeaned them-
selves to employ it. Peering into the depths, he perceives one whose head is
so heaped with filth he cannot tell whether it is tonsured or not. The soul
shrieks: ‘Why look at me, more than at the others?’ Dante replies: ‘I’ve seen
you before, without shit on your head: you’re Alessio Interminelli of Lucca,
that’s why I’m looking especially at you.’
Nothing is known about Alessio, except that he was a member of a
prominent family who supported the White Guelfs in Lucca. Dante must
have had a reason for choosing him to exemplify this sin. He knew him
personally and despite his present degradation he still recognizes him. His
close scrutiny of him now may imply that he had closely watched him in
the world, advancing his career and gaining favours by falsely professing
loyalty – very different from Dante’s own uncompromising character. There
is bitterness here, for by such means Dante might have been able to return
to Florence, or might never have been exiled in the first place.
64 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The example chosen from antiquity is that of a harlot, Thais, not the
Athenian courtesan but a character in Eunuchus, a play by Terence, whose
fulsome words to her lover Dante read in a quotation by Cicero. With a
brief allusion to her, alternately standing and crouching in the dung and
scratching herself with her filthy nails, Dante closes the canto with Virgil’s
dismissive words:
‘E quinci sian le nostre viste sazie.’
‘With what we’ve seen let us be satisfied.’ 20
 CHAPTER 19

‘Him of Alagna’

I
n 300, the fictional date of the Commedia, Pope Boniface VIII was
still alive; indeed that was the year of the great Jubilee. By the time
Dante wrote Canto XIX of Inferno Boniface had been dead for several
years, his demise having been caused in 303 by the assault made on him by
agents of the King of France.1 Dante never relented in his animosity against
Boniface. On the contrary, his hatred grew as the Commedia progressed,
until the climactic moment when no less a figure than St Peter hurls at
Boniface from the eighth sphere of Paradise a denial and a denunciation
at which the heavens for very shame blush with the hues of sunrise and of
sunset.2 The venom with which Dante targets Boniface has never been fully
accounted for.
Chronology made it impossible to construct a face-to-face encounter
with Boniface in Hell, but Dante was determined to place him there in
advance. The solution he contrived is ingenious and dramatic. Looking
down from the crest of the bridge that spans the third ditch where the sin of
simony is punished, he sees the gulley pitted with round holes. They remind
him of the cylindrical containers in the font of his beautiful baptistery in
Florence (mio bel San Giovanni).3 From each of them protrude the feet and
legs of sinners, visible up to the calf, the soles of their feet on fire, the rest of
their body thrust down into the rock. Virgil carries Dante down the slope
and places him by one of the holes so that he is able to speak with the sinner
trapped inside. With scant courtesy Dante calls down to the soul:
‘O qual che se’ che ’l di su tien di sotto,
anima trista, come pal commessa,’
… ‘se puoi, fa motto.’
‘O thou who down below dost hide thy top,
stuck like a post, vile soul, whoe’er thou art,
… if talk thou canst, speak up.’ 4
With heartless indifference Dante compares himself to a priest standing
over an assassin about to be put to death by being planted head down, who

65
66 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

calls to the priest to hear his confession in order to put off the last terrible
moment. The soul replies: ‘What, fixed already, fixed already, Boniface? The
future as I read it erred by several years. Already sated, art thou, with exploit-
ing the Fair Bride seized by thee with guile?’5 Dante stands bewildered and
agape. Virgil interjects: ‘Tell him quickly, “I’m not the one, I’m not the one
thou takest me for.” ’
The soul writhes and twists his feet, then sighing and lamenting he
replies: ‘What dost thou want of me? If thou must know, I too once wore
the great mantle. A son of the she-bear, I was so avid to enrich the cubs
that up above I pouched coin and here below I pouched myself.’ The soul is
that of Nicholas Orsini.6 Pope from 277 to 280, he too was held guilty of
simony and nepotism. He explains that when a new soul arrives it thrusts
the previous sinner further down the rock and waits, its legs protruding
then, to be thrust down further in its turn. This mocking reversal of the
normal dignity of a Pope is Dante’s own personal assault upon Boniface,
as well as upon others who likewise betrayed their sacred trust. Following
Boniface, Nicholas foretells, will come ‘di ver ponente un pastor senza legge’
(‘from towards the west a lawless shepherd’). This will be Pope Clement V,
a Gascon, elected in 305 with the support of the King of France, to whom
he had promised pecuniary concessions. He was responsible for transferring
the Papal see from Rome to Avignon.
The picture of Boniface in Hell, the soles of his feet bright red with flame
as they had been shod in life with rose-red slippers, is followed eight cantos
later, in a dialogue with the soul of Guido da Montefeltro.7 Here Boniface
is shown as a wily intriguer, seeking advice from Guido as to how he might
trick his personal enemies. Guido, a celebrated strategist, had withdrawn
from worldly intrigues into the Franciscan Order, hoping to make his peace
with God. But Boniface, as Dante constructs the story, sought him out,
promising him absolution in advance for the sin he now tempted him to
commit. Guido expresses for Dante all the venom against Boniface that
he himself felt: il gran prete, a cui mal prenda! (‘the great priest, whom ill
befall!’), lo principe de’ novi Farisei (‘the prince of the new Pharisees’), being
at war, not with Saracens or Jews, for every one of his enemies was Christian,
heeded neither his supreme office nor Guido’s vows as a Franciscan, remind-
ing him that he held the keys of Heaven. Guido, trusting him, lapsed into
sin again, with the result that he was now in Hell among the counsellors of
fraud.8
The 9th canto opens with an oratorical outcry against simony, a sin
named after Simon Magus, who tried to buy the gift of healing from the
Apostles.9 After the words of Nicholas Orsini, Dante resumes his tone of
wrathful rebuke. Trafficking in sacred things is pilloried in images of sexual
 ‘HIM OF ALAGNA’ 67

exploitation: simoniacs are those who prostitute for gold and silver the
things of God which should be the brides of righteousness. How great is
God’s wisdom, how great His skill, in Heaven, on earth and in the evil world
below, in His distinctions between sin and sin! The divisions between the
sins punished in the ten ditches of the Eighth Circle are in fact subtle and
Dante is drawing attention to his own discrimination. Avarice, in one form
or another, links them all, as may be seen clearly already in the first three, but
they have each particular characteristics that deserve separate retribution.
Dante, at first with some show of diffidence, takes centre stage. Was he
too bold, he wonders now? He presents himself as being inspired beyond
his immediate control, as though by a song or chant, as he suggests in the
following lines:
I’ non so s’ i’ mi fui qui troppe folle,
ch’ i’ pur rispuosi lui a questo metro.
I know not whether I was here too bold,
that I replied to him in such a strain.10
What follows is rebuke such as might have come from the lips of an early
apostle:
‘Tell me: how much treasure did our Lord ask of Saint Peter before He gave
the keys into his charge? Truly he asked for nothing, saying only ‘Follow me’.
Neither did Peter or the others take gold or silver from Matthias when he was
chosen for the place vacated by the evil soul.11 Stay there, for thou art rightly
punished. But for the reverence I feel for the sublime keys that thou didst hold
in happier life, I’d use graver words still,
chè la vostra avarizia il mondo attrista,
calcando i buoni e sollevando i pravi.
Di voi pastor s’accorse il Vangelista,
quando colei che siede sopra l’acque
puttaneggiar coi regi a lui fu vista,
quella che con le sette teste nacque,
e dalle diece corna ebbe argomento,
fin che virtute al suo marito piacque.
Fatto v’avete Dio d’oro e d’argento:
e che altro è da voi all’idolatre
se non ch’ elli uno, e voi ne orate cento?’
‘for avarice like yours the world bereaves,
trampling the good, exalting evil men.
Shepherds like you the Evangelist perceives
in her who over many waters spreads,
the whore who kings seduces and depraves,
68 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the same who at her birth had seven heads,

and from ten horns drew her authority,
while virtue pleased her spouse in all his deeds.
Silver and gold you make a deity:
how do you differ from idolaters,
who but to one, while you to hundreds pray?’ 12
At this point, Dante reaches not only the climax of his inspired oration
but the very core of the purpose of the Commedia: to proclaim the principles
of justice by which the world should be governed. The Emperor Constantine,
the first Christian Emperor, was believed to have endowed the Church with
dominion over the western part of his empire. This act was set out in a text
known as the Donation of Constantine, later proved to be a forgery but
believed by Dante to be genuine. He regarded it as a grave error on the
part of Constantine, well meant but disastrous for the future of the Church,
which thereafter laid claims to temporal power:
Ahi! Costantin, di quanto mal fu matre,
non la tua conversion, ma quella dote
che da te prese il primo ricco patre!
Ah, Constantine, that was indeed a curse,
not thy conversion, but thy dower which
first filled with wealth the Holy Father’s purse! 13
All through this episode and his inspired remonstrance Dante has been
under the spell of Virgil. It was he who carried Dante down the slope to
reach the aperture from which the sinner’s legs emerged, who stood beside
him as he spoke, encouraging him to deny quickly that he was Boniface,
and seemed by his smile to approve all that Dante said. He then carried him
resting upon his breast, up the slope he had descended, nor did he tire before
he reached the summit of the next bridge, where he set his burden down.
It was from reading Virgil that Dante had come to see the Roman
Empire as divinely ordained for the righteous ordering of earthly life. The
Christian Empire’s independence of the Church in temporal matters, the
clear distinction of its sphere of influence, formed a crucial part of Dante’s
political thinking and was to have been a major theme of Il Convivio, as
it is of the Commedia and was later of his treatise on world government,
Monarchia.14 His surrender to Virgil’s control is an image of his indebt-
edness to him as a convert to imperial authority. In the context of these
great concerns, in the contrast between prophetic oratory and ridicule, such
figures as Boniface dwindle to dwarf stature.
 CHAPTER 20

Virgil and Sorcery

A
fter simony comes sorcery, the distortion of the gift of prophecy for
gain. Once more, avarice is the underlying motive. After his flight
of oratory on the subject of simony, Dante reverts to his role of
the bewildered onlooker and dissolves into tears at the hideous spectacle of
souls whose heads are twisted backwards, their feet pointing forwards, their
tears streaming down their backs to the cleft of their buttocks:
Forse per forza già di parlasia
si travolse così alcun del tutto;
ma io nol vidi, nè credo che sia.
Perhaps the force of a paralysis
once twisted someone so completely round;
I never saw, nor can I credit this.1
They tried to peer into the future; now they walk as slowly as a religious
procession, looking behind them. Dante is sternly rebuked by Virgil for his
sympathy:
… ‘Ancor se’ tu delli altri sciocchi?
Qui vive la pietà quand’è ben morta.’
… ‘Art thou another of those fools?
Here piety survives when pity dies.’ 2
This is Virgil’s canto. He has been credited with magical power but a
clear distinction is now drawn between him and those who pervert for their
own benefit the sacred forces to which he has access. His prophecy of the
birth of Christ, for instance, was believed to be divinely inspired. Similarly,
the control he now has over the guardians and monsters of Hell has been
granted him to enable Dante to convince believers and unbelievers of the
truths of the Christian faith and to proclaim God’s plan for the peace of the
world. The reactions of listeners may have prompted this canto.
Belief in sorcery, necromancy, astrology, chiromancy, geomancy, augury
was widespread in Dante’s time, not only among the unlettered but also

69
70 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

among the learned. It is significant that Dante makes Virgil dissociate himself
from the examples drawn from antiquity. The first of these is Amphiaraüs,
one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes, about whom Dante had read in
the epic by Statius, the Thebaid.3 Having knowledge of the future, he foresaw
his own death in battle and when war came he concealed himself to avoid it.
His hiding place was disclosed by his wife and on the battlefield the earth
opened up and swallowed him, chariot and all, so that he fell, Virgil here
adds, headlong as far as Minos, the judge of all who are damned:
‘Mira, che ha fatto petto delle spalle;
perchè volle veder troppo davante,
dietro guarda, e fa retroso calle.’
‘Look how his shoulders as his breast appear;
because he tried to see too far ahead,
he looks behind and walks not knowing where.’ 4
This is a very summary dismissal. Contemptuous too is Virgil’s identifica-
tion of Tiresias, the prophet of Thebes, of whose metamorphosis from male
to female and back again Dante had read in Ovid.5 Aruns is the next to be
recognized, a renowned Etruscan augur, mentioned by Lucan,6 who says
that he foretold the civil war which was to end in the death of Pompey and
the triumph of Caesar. He who once dwelt in a cave among the white marble
of Carrara, looking out from it at the stars and the sea, is here described as
having his back to the belly of Tiresias, a grotesque claustrophobic detail
which robs the souls of all dignity. So much for them, Virgil seems to be
saying, dismissing them as they shamble along in the dark, twisted and
distorted.
The next to be identified is Manto, the daughter of Tiresias. Her loose
tresses cover her breasts which, like her pubic hair, Dante cannot see. This
degrading picture of a female sorceress is followed by a digression on the
founding of Mantua, the city near which Virgil was born and which was
held to have been named after Manto. Dante evidently considered it impor-
tant to make clear that Manto’s connection with the city, as stated by Virgil
in a brief reference in the Aeneid,7 did not imply a legacy of sorcery. He gives
this refutation to the character Virgil in lines of serene beauty, evoking the
natural elements from which the city was formed:
‘Suso in Italia bella giace un laco,
a piè de l’Alpe che serra Lamagna
sovra Tiralli, c’ha nome Benaco.
Per mille fonti, credo, e più si bagna,
tra Garda e Val Camonica, Apennino
dell’ acqua che nel detto laco stagna.’
 VIRGIL AND SORCERY 7

‘Up in fair Italy there lies a lake,

known as Benaco, at the foot of hills
which near Tyrol the German confines make.
Mount Apennine is by a thousand rills
between Camonica and Garda bathed,
the water which the lake I speak of fills.8
The memory of the landscape evokes in Virgil nostalgia for the region he
once knew and he dwells lovingly on details, some of which he conjures up
by preternatural foresight. In the lake is an island, in the centre of which is
a place where pastors from Trent, Brescia and Verona might, if they passed
that way, all make the sign of blessing.9 Where the surrounding shore lies
lowest stands the fortress of Peschiera, showing a bold front to the inhab-
itants of Brescia and Bergamo. At this point the lake, no longer called
Benaco, becomes the river Mincio, flowing through green pastures as far as
Governolo, where it falls into the Po. After a short course it comes to a level
where it spreads out into a marsh, sometimes unwholesome in the summer.
There Manto, Virgil relates, having wandered through many lands, found
territory uninhabited and untilled, where she dwelt with her familiars to ply
her arts, and where she died. Later came scattered inhabitants who built a
city on that spot, defended on each side by bog land, and called it Mantua
after her who had first lived there, but for no other reason. This is the truth
about the founding of his city, which Virgil charges Dante to make known:
‘Però t’assenno che se tu mai odi
originar la mia terra altrimenti,
la verità nulla menzogna frodi.’
‘Therefore, be sure, since I have put thee wise,
if any of my city’s birth say else,
to let no lie the truth of this disguise.’ 10
The purpose of this digression seems to be to establish that Virgil is no
trumpery magician and that his city should not be tarnished by any reputa-
tion for sorcery, as it may have been in Dante’s hearing.
After this refreshing scenic panorama of lake, mountains and river, we
return to the squalors of the fourth ditch and more sorcerers are named.
Eurypylus, his beard spreading from his cheeks over his swarthy shoulders,
is the augur, Virgil here says, who together with Calchas advised on a propi-
tious date for the Greeks to set sail from Aulis. ‘I mention him somewhere
in my high tragedy,’ he adds casually, ‘thou wilt know, who hast it all by
heart.’ Strangely Dante appears to have confused two episodes: the augury
taken for the appropriate date for sailing from Aulis, which Virgil does not
mention in the Aeneid, and the second augury taken by Eurypylus at Troy for
72 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the date of the Greeks’ return, an incident Virgil does mention and in which
he says Calchas was involved.11
The following examples of sorcerers are all of the Christian era, but
Virgil nevertheless has no difficulty in naming them. The first is Michael
Scot, described as being lean in the flanks (ne’ fianchi … così poco).12 He is
dismissed airily as being well up in the game of deception by magic. Michael
Scot, a thirteenth-century seer from Balwearie in Scotland, was widely
renowned in Europe for his magic arts. He was also praised as a philosopher,
but Albertus Magnus wrote disparagingly of him and Dante may have come
upon this reference. How he learnt that he was lean in the flanks we do not
know.
After Michael Scot, two Italian soothsayers are pointed out: Guido
Bonatti, an astrologer of Forlì, of whom Dante may have heard when he
visited the court of Ordelaffi in that city. The other is Benvenuto, nicknamed
Asdente (‘Toothless’), a master cobbler of Parma, of the first quarter of the
thirteenth century. Although illiterate, he is said to have possessed a good
knowledge of astrology and of prophetic writings. Dante appears to have
despised him, for he mentions him contemptuously in Il Convivio as an
example of one who would be called noble, if notoriety conferred nobility.13
‘He wishes he had stuck to his leather and thread,’ says Virgil, ‘but it’s too
late now.’
The last practitioners of magic arts to be mentioned are not named: they
are women who neglected their needle and shuttle and distaff and took up
with fortune-telling and making herbal potions and images. Thus the whole
question of sorcery is brought down to a level of evil-doing and trivial super-
stition, venerable Greek augurs being classed with unnamed witches.
St Thomas Aquinas had condemned superstitious practices, among
which he included the use of astrology to foretell events. Rulers commonly
kept astrologers in their service14 to advise them when and when not to
take action. A knowledge of astrology was expected of doctors, as it was of
philosophers and other men of science. Dante is guided here by the opin-
ion of Aquinas. It may be that he had previously venerated the augurs of
antiquity, which is perhaps the reason why he represents Virgil as rebuking
him for showing compassion for them in their present condition. The slight
discrepancy between what Virgil says in the Aeneid about the founding of
Mantua and what Dante gives to Virgil to say about it in this canto requires
some clarification.
In Book X of the Aeneid, among the leaders who followed Aeneas from
Etruria, there is mention of Ocnus, ‘son of prophesying Manto and the
Etruscan river, who gave to Mantua her walls and his mother’s name’.15 The
adjective fatidicus, which Virgil applies to Manto, means simply ‘prophetic,
 VIRGIL AND SORCERY 73

predicting the future’. There is no mention of sorcery, though the birth of

a son by the Etruscan river confers on her a mythological status. Virgil’s
command that Dante should let no false tale about the origin of Mantua
pervert the truth must mean that the city had gained a reputation for sorcery,
which was traced to its association with the prophetess Manto.
Virgil in the Commedia has supernatural powers. Having been previously
sought by the witch Erichtho to perform an errand for her in the depths
of Hell,16 he has now received the divinely authorized plea of Beatrice to
go to Dante’s rescue, for which unusual task help from on high has been
promised. In order to pacify guardians and monsters he twice uses what
is in its form a magic spell. He also commands the response of Ulysses by
the use of a formal conjuration. He has the power of prophecy. This is first
manifested in the introductory canto of Inferno, where he makes his oracu-
lar pronouncement about the coming of the veltro.17 He has knowledge of
people, events and places of Dante’s time. In this he resembles other souls, in
Purgatory and Paradise as well as Inferno, the last being able to see into the
distant future, though they have only a confused knowledge of events near
at hand. After the Day of Judgement all such knowledge will be denied to
those in Hell. This belief was an accepted convention. It was also convenient
for the story of the Commedia which, fixed in the timeframe of a single week
in 300, required a range comprehending Dante’s life beyond that date. It
was important that such extension should be seen to derive not from sorcery
but from reputable and believable foreknowledge.
Virgil in the Commedia is also profoundly wise, a sage as well as a seer.
The sense of awe that Dante experiences from being in his company is one
of the most appealing features in the story. He has implicit faith in his advice
and instruction, as when he agrees to obey his command about the truth of
the origin of Mantua:
… ‘Maestro, i tuoi ragionamenti
mi son sì certi e prendon sì mia fede,
che li altri mi sarien carboni spenti.’
… ‘Master, thy every argument
so certain is and so convinces me,
others would be to me like embers spent.’ 18
The writer Dante, imagining the marvel which such a companionship
would be, is inspired to devise dialogue that holds the listener like a fasci-
nated eavesdropper or a spectator of a compelling drama. But the audience is
kept at arm’s length. This is achieved by excluding them from the conversa-
tion from time to time, as they find themselves at the beginning of the next
canto:
74 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Così di ponte in ponte, altro parlando

che la mia comedia cantar non cura,
venimmo, e tenevamo il colmo …
And so from bridge to bridge, of matters talking
of which my comedy declines to sing,
we went, towards another summit walking …19
This is tantalizing, like our exclusion from the conversation between Dante
and the five great poets in Limbo,20 but it also has the effect of making the
listener feel privileged to have been admitted so far into the poet’s confi-
dence and to have heard, if not everything, at least so much.
Such moments demonstrate that the showman Dante has his public
continually in mind and that he knows how to manipulate his material
in such a way as to arouse their curiosity and to hold their attention. For
this purpose, in the following three cantos he adopts a startling change of
style, proving that he has not lost touch with what pleases the ‘groundlings’.
His descent into rollicking and at one moment vulgar comic relief will be
considered in the next chapter.
 CHAPTER 21

Devil-Play

I
n the fifth ditch of the Eighth Circle are the souls of those who made
money by trafficking in public offices, that is to say, those who were
guilty of ‘sleaze’, as common then as now. They are plunged in boil-
ing pitch. At first Dante can see nothing but a black, bubbling, glue-like
substance. Contemplating it with detachment from the crest of the bridge,
he is reminded of a scene he has witnessed in Venice, in winter, when sailors
caulk and refit their ships.1 There too he had seen bubbles of pitch rising
and bursting and sinking again. As he gazes, Virgil catches hold of him and
pulls him close, crying ‘Look out! Look out!’ As they hurry away, Dante,
despite his fear, looks back and sees a black devil skimming up the cliff, his
wings spread wide, his aspect fierce. Astride his high, narrow shoulders he
carries a sinner, clutching him by the ankles. Reaching the bridge, he calls
down to his fellow fiends: ‘Hi, Evil-Claws, here’s an alderman from St Zita
[i.e. Lucca],2 poke him under while I go back for more. They’re all swindlers
there, except Bonturo, of course’:3
‘del no per li denari vi si fa ita.’
‘you can change no to yes for money there.’ 4
He flings the sinner down and wheels back along the stony cliff, faster than
a mastiff after a thief. The soul plunges down and rises again to the surface,
doubled up. Demons hidden under the bridge shout, ‘There’s no Holy Face5
to pray to here! This is no Serchio to swim in.6 Stay under or you’ll feel our
hooks.’ They poke him down with their pitchforks, like scullions prodding
meat in a cauldron:
Non altrimenti i cuoci a’ lor vassalli
fanno attuffare in mezzo la caldaia
la carne con li uncin, perchè non galli.
Just so do cooks make scullions prod the meat
with forks, thrusting it down into the pot,
so that it doesn’t float above the heat.7

75
76 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Dante is thought to have been in Lucca between 307 and 308. He has
already mentioned it as the city of Alessio Interminelli, the flatterer whom
he recognizes although his head is covered with shit.8 His attitude to Lucca
was bitterly contemptuous when he wrote these cantos, perhaps because
of the city’s resistance to Henry VII.9 When he returned later, probably in
34, he received kindness from a lady named Gentucca, to whom he pays a
grateful tribute in Purgatorio, as though to make amends.10 We know noth-
ing about her, but her name rhymed conveniently with the city.
Virgil now takes command of the situation. He needs to parley with the
demons to obtain safe conduct along to the next bridge. He tells Dante to
keep out of sight behind a rock and not to be afraid if he sees them threaten
him,
… ‘ch’ i’ ho le cose conte,
e altra volta fui a tal baratta.’
… ‘for I know how to handle this,
and once before I met their trickery.’ 11
This is an allusion to Virgil’s earlier journey down into the depths of Hell,
about which he told Dante when he met with resistance at the gates of
Dis.12 On that occasion too he left him alone as he went forward to talk
with the devils.
Dante peers from behind the rock as Virgil goes down a slope towards
the sixth bank, where evil sprites rush out from under the bridge, like dogs
at a beggar. Virgil orders them to hold off until he has spoken with one of
them. ‘Let Malacoda go,’ they say, and snarling as he comes, the demon
mutters, ‘What good does he think this will do him?’
Virgil addresses him in reasonable terms. ‘Do you think, Malacoda, I’d
have got as far as this without the help of Divine Will? Let us pass, for it
is decreed in Heaven that I should conduct someone along this dangerous
way.’
Malacoda is so crestfallen that he drops his pitchfork, saying to the others,
‘Keep off him.’ Virgil calls out to Dante in words that are deliberately comic,
both in sound and meaning:
… ‘tu che siedi
tra li scheggion del ponte quatto quatto,
sicuramente omai a me tu riedi.’
… ‘thou hunched down on thy hunkers there
between the broken boulders of the bridge,
come out now, there is nothing more to fear.’ 13
 DEVIL-PLAY 77

Dante stands up and goes quickly to Virgil. The devils surge towards him
and he is terrified that they will disobey orders. He recalls seeing soldiers
marched out after the siege of Caprona under truce, alarmed at finding
themselves among so many enemies.14 He cringes close to Virgil, not taking
his eyes off the demons, whose looks are far from friendly. They lower their
forks and one says to another, ‘How if I poke him in the rump?’ ‘Yes,’ say
the others, ‘give it him!’ But Malacoda turns and says: ‘Down, Scarmiglione,
down!’ He then tells Virgil that the nearest bridge over the sixth ditch is
broken. They must go on to another by which they will be able to cross.
Yesterday, he says, it was exactly ,266 years since this bridge was broken.
This is a reference to the earthquake that followed the Crucifixion on Good
Friday in the year 34.15 It sounds convincing but is only part of the truth, as
will be seen. He summons a troop of his fellow demons to accompany the
poets to the further bridge, where the path, he says, is unbroken. The names
of the demons do not inspire confidence: Alichino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo,
Barbariccia, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto (‘him with the tusks’),
Graffiacane, Farfarello and mad Rubicante.
Attempts have been made to make sense of these ten names, together
with those of Scarmiglione and Malacoda, even to the extent of identify-
ing them as corruptions of the names of the 2 Black Priors who were in
power in Florence in 303, when Cardinal Niccolò da Prato failed to make
peace.16 Another suggestion has been that the names represent families in
Lucca, among whom Corso Donati found support for his intrigue against
Florence. Whatever Dante’s first listeners made of them, it is evident that he
is here avenging himself with relish on those who charged him unjustly of
corruption while he was in office. The names, appearance and behaviour of
the demons recall the grotesque images in mediaeval frescoes, carvings and
sculptures. They were also familiar figures in the farcical scenes of miracle
plays. Dante’s audience would have welcomed them with hilarious gusto as
old friends.
Malacoda commands the escort to keep an eye out for sinners rising
above the pitch, and to take the travellers
… ‘infino all’altro scheggio
che tutto intero va sopra le tane.’
… ‘as far as the next ridge
which goes unbroken across all the dens.’ 17
At this the demons gnash their teeth and make threatening grimaces. Dante
is alarmed and begs Virgil to go on with him alone, but Virgil is unper-
turbed. ‘Let them gnash as much they like,’ he says, ‘they’re only doing it to
frighten the sinners.’
78 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

And so they move off. But first the demons put their tongues between
their teeth, as though in a knowing sign to Barbariccia, who is to lead them.
He, in his turn, sounds the advance, not with a bugle but with a fart. With
this defiant raspberry, no doubt sounded by the reader, the canto comes to
an end, to the rowdy response of the audience.
The following opens with Dante’s ironic reflection that never in all his
military experience had he heard so strange a signal, not from horsemen
moving camp or starting an attack, or mustering, or beating a retreat, not in
the forays of scouts, or in the clash of tournaments or the running of jousts;
he had heard bells and drums and signals from the tops of castles and many
a device, both Italian and foreign, but never had he seen cavalry or infantry
move off or ships set sail to the sound of so strange a trumpet. ‘Oh, well,’ he
says with a shrug:
Noi andavamo con li diece demoni.
Ahi fiera compagnia! Ma nella chiesa
coi santi, ed in taverna co’ i ghiottoni.
We went escorted by that troop of ten.
Fierce company! Ah well, with saints at church,
and in company with gluttons at an inn.18
As they move along, Dante watches the sinners come up above the
pitch for some relief, like dolphins when their humped backs warn sail-
ors of approaching storm. They lie like frogs in a ditch with their muzzles
poking out but as soon as Barbariccia draws near they dive down again.
One wretched soul – Dante shudders to remember it – leaves it too late and
Graffiacane hooks him by his tarry hair and holds him up. ‘He looked to me,’
Dante recalls, ‘like an otter.’ The demons shout to Rubicante to take the skin
off him. Meanwhile Dante asks Virgil to find out who he is.
The wretched soul reveals himself as a native of Navarre, whose father
had been a spendthrift and whose mother had placed him in the service of a
nobleman; he later became a retainer of King Thibaut,19 in whose service he
was guilty of corruption, for which he is now paying the price. He does not
give his name but early commentators identified him as Ciampolo, or Gian
Polo, about whom nothing else is known. He refers to Thibaut as the buon re
(‘good king’) and a reputation for virtue and valour is found also in accounts
of him in mediaeval French poems. Dante must have read of an untrust-
worthy retainer in his service. He attributes to him a talent for trickery, for
when Virgil asks him if he can name any Latin sinners in the pitch, he first
refers to two of a neighbouring race, namely Sardinians,20 Fra Gomita and
Michele Zanche, who never stop talking about their native island.21 This
information is conveyed with difficulty, for as he speaks he is being mauled
and maltreated by several demons. To escape them, he offers to bring up
 DEVIL-PLAY 79

seven sinners from Tuscany and Lombardy. If his tormentors will back off
a moment he will whistle to the sinners as a signal that all is clear, which is
their custom if any of them gets to the surface. Cagnazzo doesn’t trust him
but Alichino says, ‘Lets hide behind the bridge and he’ll soon see we are
more than a match for him.’
Dante announces the next scene with gusto:
O tu che leggi, udirai nuovo ludo.
Reader, a novel scene thou now wilt hear.22
The word ludo is a theatrical term, meaning a play or a scene, and the action
he is about to describe is indeed a novel one.
Choosing his time well, Ciampolo plants his feet on the ground and with
a sudden leap escapes into the pitch. Alichino flies after him but is too late,
like a falcon which misses its prey and flies up again, vexed and discour-
aged. Calcabrina, enraged, sets upon Alichino and both fall into the boiling
pitch, where they flounder, helpless. Barbariccia sends four other demons to
the opposite bank to scoop them out with their grappling hooks. This is a
rollicking piece of devil-play, worthy of clowns at a circus, showing the range
of Dante’s talents as a popular entertainer.
It is followed in the next canto by a contrasting moment of calm. As
the two poets walk on alone, in silence, without an escort, one behind the
other like Franciscan friars, Dante thinks of Aesop’s fable of the frog and
the mouse.23 That story and what has just happened seem so alike that two
words meaning the same thing could not be more so. This thought leads to
another and Dante reflects, ‘The fiends have been made ridiculous through
us and I think this will greatly annoy them. They’ll be after us faster than a
dog after a hare.’ He keeps looking behind him, his hair on end with terror.
‘Master,’ he says, ‘best quickly hide us both. I’m afraid of the Evil-Claws and
feel them behind us already.’ Virgil in a stately and long-winded reply, which
adds to the tension, agrees. The devils, wings outstretched, are already racing
after them. Virgil snatches Dante in his arms, as a mother would a child
from a burning house, and slides down the ravine with him:
Lo duca mio di subito mi prese,
come la madre ch’al rumore è desta
e vede presso a sè le fiamme accese,
che prende il figlio e fugge e non s’arresta,
avendo più di lui che di sè cura,
tanto che solo una camicia vesta;
e giù dal collo della ripa dura
supin si diede alla pendente roccia,
che l’un de’ lati all’altra bolgia tura.
80 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Non corse mai sì tosto acqua per doccia

a volger ruota di molin terragno,
quand’ ella più verso le pale approccia,
come ’l maestro mio per quel vivagno,
portandosene me sovra ’l suo petto,
come suo figlio, non come compagno.
My leader then at once caught hold of me,
and as a mother, wakened by a noise,
who close at hand sees flames and instantly
her infant snatches to her breast and flees,
of herself heedless, caring more for him,
casting upon her only a chemise,
so down that rock-face from its topmost rim
he slithered on his back and came at last
where other ramparts the next gulley stem.
Never, I vow, through any sluice so fast,
to turn a land-mill’s wheel, did water run,
even when closest to the blades it passed,
as did my Master down that slope rush on,
holding me to his bosom as he went,
not like his comrade then, but like his son.24
This moment of tenderness comes as a moving contrast to the coarse raillery
that has preceded it, the more so as it is Virgil who was wrong about the
devils and Dante who was right. They are safe now, however, for Providence,
which set the fiends as guardians of the Fifth Circle, deprived them of all
power to go beyond it. The last we see of them is as they stand thwarted
on the top of the cliff looking down on their intended victims who have
escaped. Another peril has passed.
A further masterly contrast now occurs. After the breakneck pace of the
devil-play and the rapid escape of Dante and Virgil comes the slow, slow
pacing of souls weighed down by heavy leaden cloaks. These are hypocrites,
who used pretence of virtue to gain hidden ends. Their cloaks are gilded and
their hoods, drawn over their eyes, are of the same style as the cowls worn by
the monks of Cluny.25 So burdensome are they that those which Frederick
imposed were in comparison as light as straw: 26
Oh in eterno faticoso manto!
Oh mantle, wearisome eternally! 27
The souls move so slowly that with every stride Dante and Virgil draw
level with a new one. Dante asks Virgil to look behind as they go to see if
any is known by name or deed. Someone behind them, recognizing Dante’s
Tuscan speech, calls out:
 DEVIL-PLAY 8

… ‘Tenete i piedi,
voi che correte sì per l’aura fosca!
Forse ch’avrai da me quel che tu chiedi.’
… ‘Slow down your speed,
you two who go so quickly through the gloom!
It may be I can satisfy thy need.’ 28
Dante looks back and sees two who strive to catch up but are slowed down
by their heavy cloaks and the narrow path. When they draw level, being
unable to lift their heads, they look sideways at him for a while and one says
to the other: ‘This man seems to be alive, from the movement of his throat.
If they are dead, by what privilege are they not wearing the heavy stole?’
Then addressing Dante they say:
… ‘O Tosco, ch’al collegio
dell’ipocriti tristi se’ venuto,
dir chi tu se’ non avere in dispregio.’
… ‘Tuscan, who to the clan
of melancholy hypocrites art come,
to tell us who thou art do not disdain.’ 29
Dante does not give his name but replies merely:
… ‘I’ fui nato e cresciuto
sovra ’l bel fiume d’Arno alla gran villa,
e son col corpo ch’ i’ ho sempre avuto.’
… ‘I grew up and was born
in the great town on Arno’s lovely stream,
and wear the body I have always worn.’ 30
The reason for the insistence on Dante’s Tuscan speech and Florentine
origin is made plain when the two souls reveal who they are. In 266, after
the Battle of Benevento between Charles of Anjou and King Manfred of
Sicily, there was turbulence in Florence between Guelfs and Ghibellines. In
an attempt to settle matters, Catalano de’ Malavolti, a Guelf, and Loderingo
di Landolo, a Ghibelline, both of Bologna, were appointed jointly to the
office of podestà in Florence. They were members of the Order of the Knights
of Our Lady, known as the Frati Gaudenti ( Jovial Friars). Owing to their
maladministration, their term of office ended in an anti-Ghibelline rising
in which the houses of the Uberti were sacked and burned.31 Dante, who
would have heard of these events in his boyhood, was evidently brought up
in the belief that Catalano and Loderingo were hypocrites acting in their
own interests. He is about to reply to them when he catches sight of a figure
on the ground, crucified with three stakes. On seeing Dante he writhes
82 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

and blows into his beard, sighing. Fra Catalano explains that this is he who
advised that it was expedient that one man should die for the sake of the
people.32 This is Caiaphas, suffering the weight of all the leaden-mantled
hypocrites who pass over him. In the same ditch is his father-in-law and all
the members of the council who sowed so ill a seed for Jews. Virgil gazes
in amazement at the crucified figure, ‘racked so shamefully in everlasting
exile’.
Caiaphas is here seen as the arch-hypocrite who gave what seemed like
disinterested advice for concealed motives of political interest. He, together
with Annas and the members of the Sanhedrin, bear the weight of all evil
perpetrated in hypocrisy against the innocent, in this case against the Man
without sin. Here is the supreme crime committed in the name of religion
and the public good. The spectacle is left uncommented, being in itself suffi-
ciently significant.
The canto ends with Virgil’s realization of the true depth of the devils’
trickery. He asks Fra Catalano if there is any route by which they can arrive
at the next unbroken bridge. From his reply it is apparent that all the bridges
across the sixth ditch are broken. Virgil is much put out. ‘That was bad advice
they gave us,’ he says and Catalano, in his Bolognese accent, replies mock-
ingly, ‘I heard in Bologna that the devil was a master of lies.’ Virgil moves
off, piqued, with great strides. Dante follows dutifully,
dietro alle poste delle care piante.
the imprints following of those dear feet.33
 CHAPTER 22

A Den of Thieves

C
anto XXIV of Inferno opens with one of the loveliest similes of the
work. The effect on Dante of the sudden clouding of Virgil’s face
and his return to serenity is compared to the feelings of a shepherd
who seeing the ground covered in hoarfrost goes back in despair into his
house, believing it is snow. Going out again, he sees the world transformed:
In quella parte del giovanetto anno
che ’l sole i crin sotto l’Aquario tempra
e già le notti al mezzo dì sen vanno,
quando la brina in su la terra assempra
l’imagine di sua sorella bianca,
ma poco dura alla sua penna tempra;
lo villanello a cui la roba manca,
si leva, e guarda, e vede la campagna
biancheggiar tutta; ond’ei si batte l’anca,
ritorna in casa, e qua e là si lagna,
come ’l tapin che non sa che si faccia;
poi riede, e la speranza ringavagna,
veggendo il mondo aver cangiata faccia
in poco d’ora, e prende suo vincastro,
e fuor le pecorelle a pascer caccia.
Così mi fece sbigottir lo mastro
quand’ io li vidi sì turbar la fronte,
e così tosto al mal giunse lo ’mpiastro.
In the first quarter of the youthful year
when in Aquarius the sun his locks
refreshes and the nights departing are
towards the south, and when the hoarfrost mocks
her snowy sister’s image on the ground,
though not for long her pen maintains its strokes,
the shepherd, rising early, gazes round
in search of fodder, sees the land all white,
and slaps his thigh, dismayed at what he’s found.

83
84 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

He goes back in, lamenting at his plight,

restless, dismayed, knowing not what to do,
comes out, and gathers hope at a fresh sight:
the world’s face all at once has been made new.
Taking his crook in hand, he drives to pasture
his flock of sheep, as he intended to.
So I lost courage when I saw my master,
his countenance all clouded with dismay,
and just as soon there came the healing plaster.1
The ‘plaster’ that heals is the sweet look (piglio dolce) which Virgil turns on
him, the same look, Dante says, that he first beheld at the foot of the moun-
tain. This is an intimate detail of their relationship, reminding the reader of
the lieto volto (‘sweet look’) with which Virgil encouraged Dante to enter
the gateway of Hell. In a further touch of loving comradeship, Virgil, having
carefully inspected the rocks up which they must climb, gathers Dante in
his arms and lifts him up towards the top of a great boulder. ‘Take hold
of the next,’ he says, ‘but try first if it will hold you.’ The strenuous climb
is graphically described, the pauses in the second line skilfully conveying
breathlessness:
Non era via da vestito di cappa,
chè noi a pena, ei lieve, e io sospinto,
potevam su montar di chiappa in chiappa.
This was no way for heavy-mantled folk,
for we, he light, and I pushed from below,
could scarcely clamber up from rock to rock.2
The rise, fortunately, is less steep than the one behind them, since the ditches
of the Eighth Circle all slope downwards, their slant making each succeed-
ing side lower than the one before. Even so, by the time they reach the top
Dante is out of breath. Unable to go further, he sits down to rest.
But Virgil will have none of that. ‘Lying on feathers under blankets is
no way to fame,’ he says. ‘There is a steeper stair than this for us to climb.’
This is an element of narrative structure that anticipates what is to come: the
climb from the centre of the earth up through the southern hemisphere. At
this point, however, the listener’s curiosity is merely aroused. Dante puts on
a brave face and, pretending to be less breathless than he is, talks as he goes
along. The climb is still rugged and narrow and steep. At last they stand on
the crest of a bridge but Dante can see nothing in the darkness. He asks,
therefore, to cross the bridge and climb down some way into the ditch so
that he can see as well as hear. Virgil consents. The sight that awaits them is
repulsive in the extreme.
 A DEN OF THIEVES 85

Snakes were a feature of the primitive tales about St Paul’s vision of Hell.
Dante now handles the subject with supreme mastery. Here are snakes to
end all snakes. Here are serpents of all kinds: not Libya, Ethiopia or Arabia
can compare, for all the reptilian monsters they may boast: chelydri, jaculi,
pharae, cenchres and amphisbaena. He is quoting from the list of snakes in
Lucan’s Pharsalia,3 a signal that he has taken up the challenge and intends to
surpass all predecessors in bravura. Amid this cruda e tristissima copia (‘cruel
and repulsive plenitude’) run the souls of thieves, naked and in terror, with
no hope of hiding place or heliotrope.4 Their hands are tied behind them
with snakes, of which the heads and tails coil round their loins, forming a
knot in front. As the poets watch, they see a soul run near them. A serpent
stings him where his neck and shoulder join. Quick as a flash, or, as Dante
says, his hand moving rapidly across his manuscript, ‘quicker than O or I was
ever written’, the soul takes fire and burns away to ash. Immediately the ash
reforms into the shape it had before.
As a relief to the description of this loathsome scene, Dante now deco-
rates his page, as in a miniature, with a picture of a phoenix:
Così per li gran savi si confessa
che la fenice more e poi rinasce,
quando il cinquecentesimo anno appressa:
erba nè biada in sua vita non pasce,
ma sol d’incenso lacrime e d’amomo,
e nardo e mirra son l’ultime fasce.
Just so the phoenix dies and, as we hear,
is born again, from what great sages tell,
when it approaches its five-hundredth year:
no herbs nor any grain it eats at all
but only drops of incense and amomum;
while spikenard and myrrh provide its pall.5
Dante had read this description in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.6 It evidently
pleased him for he quotes it almost word for word.
The mythical, exotic rebirth of the phoenix intensifies with its contrast
the horror of the lurid re-forming of the soul from its pile of ash. Like
someone felled to the ground by diabolic power or paralysing stroke, who on
rising looks round in bewilderment, so the wretched soul appears when he
stands up, an example of the power of God who rains such blows in venge-
ance. On being asked who he is, the soul, in a continuation of the metaphor,
replies, ‘I rained from Tuscany not long ago into this savage gullet.’
‘Vita bestial mi piacque e non umana,
sì che a mul ch’ i’ fui. Son Vanni Fucci
bestia, e Pistoia mi fu degna tana.’
86 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘A beast-like life I chose, not of a man,

just like the mule I was. I am that beast
Vanni Fucci, of Pistoia, my just den.’ 7
This is a name to strike horror into Dante’s first listeners, especially Tuscans.
Dante knew him as a murderer, ‘a man of blood and rage’, and asks Virgil
what he is doing in this ditch, instead of among the violent in the Seventh
Circle. Vanni Fucci overhears and is infuriated that Dante has found him
here. Nevertheless he is not permitted to dissemble. Colouring with shame
he admits that he stole from the sacristy of Pistoia Cathedral, famed for its
treasure, and that an innocent man was blamed for the theft.
Pistoia is associated in Dante’s mind with the disastrous beginnings of
the feud in Florence between Black and White Guelfs, for it was from there
that the division originally spread, leading ultimately to the domination of
the Blacks and so to Dante’s exile. To revenge himself for having to confess
to Dante his sacrilegious crime, Vanni Fucci maliciously foretells that the
Whites, having helped to drive the Blacks from Pistoia, will themselves be
driven out of Florence:
‘E detto l’ho perchè dolor ti debbia!’
‘And I have told thee this to give thee pain!’ 8
With this spiteful gibe the canto ends, but not the episode of Vanni
Fucci, who, sacrilegious thief that he is, opens the next canto by making an
obscene gesture in the face of God:
Al fine delle sue parole il ladro
le mani alzò con amendue le fiche,
gridando: ‘Togli, Dio, ch’a te le squadro!’
The thief, his words concluded, hands on high,
made with them both the sign of figs and shrieked:
‘God, take thou that, for thus I thee defy! ’9
No more obscene blasphemy could be devised for Vanni Fucci to commit.
Dante’s hatred of him is savage. He rejoices to see what happens next. Two
snakes, friends to him, Dante says, coil themselves, one about Vanni’s neck,
stifling him, another about his arms, binding him so that he cannot move.
Apostrophizing Pistoia, Dante calls on it to burn itself to ashes since it
surpasses in wickedness those who founded it (an allusion to the tradition
that the city was founded by the survivors of Catiline’s army). His execration
of Vanni Fucci is extraordinary: some personal resentment must underly
it, the reasons for which are now unknown. Of all the sinners seen by him
in Hell, he recalls, none did he see so arrogant in his defiance of God, not
even Capaneus, the blasphemer.10 Nor is his fate in Hell limited to being
 A DEN OF THIEVES 87

burned to ashes and reshaped. The centaur Cacus, relegated to this ditch for
theft, instead of being in the company of his fellows in the Seventh Circle,
comes raging past, shouting, ‘Where is he, where is he, the evil-mouthing
wretch?’11 Cacus has more serpents coiled on his croup than there are in
Maremma12 and on his shoulders is a dragon, its wings stretched wide, and
breathing fire. This is a dazzling mythological picture, like the phoenix and
the winter panorama with which the canto begins, a decoration to the page,
in this case heraldic.
The choreography of these transformations is masterly. Five thieves are
identified, all Florentines: Agnello, Cianfa, Buoso, Francesco and Puccio.
Hearing the name of one of them, Dante signals to Virgil to listen, laying
a finger to his lips, dal mento al naso (‘from chin to nose’), a glimpse of a
gesture as vivid as if made before our eyes, probably made by the reader,
perhaps Dante himself. What he is about to describe takes some believing,
Dante warns: he hesitates to set it down, although he saw it. A serpent with
six feet darts at one soul and fastens upon him. With its middle feet it grasps
his belly, with its front paws it seizes his arms and sets its fangs in either
cheek; the hind feet are spread over the thighs and its tail is thrust between
them and stretched up over the loins behind:
Ellera abbarbicata mai non fue
ad alber sì, come l’orribil fera
per l’altrui membra avviticchiò le sue.
Poi s’appiccar come di calda cera
fossero stati e mischiar lor colore,
nè l’un nè l’altro già parea quel ch’ era,
come procede innanzi dall’ardore
per lo papiro suso un color bruno
che non è nero ancora e ’l bianco more.
Never did ivy bind and cling so tight
about a tree, as did that loathsome beast
its members with the other’s twine and plight.
Then, stuck together like hot wax, they dressed
their several tints before my very eyes,
till which was which I could not then have guessed,
just as when paper burns, as the flames rise
we see a brown hue grow, not black as yet,
although the white diminishes and dies.13
The six-footed monster turns out to be another thief, Cianfa, previously
transformed. Two others, identified later as Buoso and Francesco, look on
aghast and exclaim:
88 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

… ‘Ohmè, Agnel, come ti muti!

Vedi che già non se’ nè due nè uno.’
… ‘Alas, Agnel, how thou dost change!
Already, look, thou’rt neither two nor one.’ 14
Two heads now become one, two faces fuse, two arms and two fore-paws
swell to make two reptilian forequarters, thighs blend with legs, the belly
and the chest become such members as were never seen,
e tal sen giò con lento passo.
and such, at a slow pace, it reeled away.15
So far Dante has done little more than imitate Ovid when he describes the
sexual merging of Hermaphroditus with a Naiad:
she entwines herself about him like a serpent … as the ivy is wont to wind
itself along the tall trunks of trees … clinging to him with every limb as she
holds fast … the mingled bodies of the two are united, and one human shape
is put upon them … so when their bodies meet together in a firm embrace,
they are no more two, and … they can neither be styled woman nor boy; they
seem to be neither and both.16
But now, as with a roll of drums, Dante calls the attention of his audience
to the way he is about to surpass both Lucan and Ovid. Lucan described
how of two soldiers, stung by serpents, Sabellus sank in putrefaction and
Nasidius swelled and burst inside his armour; Ovid described how Cadmus
killed a dragon sacred to Mars and was transformed to a serpent and how
the nymph Arethusa, pursued by a river-god, was changed into a fountain.
Dante envies neither poet:
Taccia Lucano omai là dove tocca
del misero Sabello e di Nassidio,
e attenda a udir quel ch’ or si scocca.
Taccia di Cadmo e d’Aretusa Ovidio;
chè se quello in serpente e quella in fonte
converte poetando, io non lo ’nvidio.
Let Lucan silent be and talk not now
of poor Sabellus and Nasidius,
and listen to what shoots next from my bow.
Let Ovid now no longer speak to us
of Cadmus, Arethusa, one a snake,
the other a fount: I am not envious.17
Ovid never changed two forms face to face as Dante will now do.
The heavy line describing the blended monster is followed by a change of
pace and rhythm:
 A DEN OF THIEVES 89

Come ’l ramarro sotto la gran fersa

dei dì canicular, cangiando sepe,
folgore par se la via attraversa
sì pareva, venendo verso l’epe
delli altri due, un serpentello acceso,
livido e nero come gran di pepe;
e quella parte onde prima è preso
nostro alimento, all’un di lor trafisse;
poi cadde giuso innanzi lui disteso.
Just as a lizard, with a quick, slick slither,
flicks across the highway from hedge to hedge.
fleeter than a flash, in the battering dog-day weather,
a fiery little monster, livid, in a rage,
black as any peppercorn, came and made a dart
at the guts of the others, and leaping to engage
one of the pair, it pierced him at the part
through which we first draw food; then loosed its grip
and fell before him, outstretched and apart.18
Now comes Dante’s showpiece. Step by step he shows precisely how the
serpent and the soul change forms. First the serpent splits its tail into a fork;
the soul draws his feet together and the two legs merge into one without a
seam; the forked tail takes on the shape of the other’s vanished legs and its
skin turns soft; arms draw into armpits and the serpent’s paws are length-
ened in proportion; the hind paws, twisted together, become the member
which a man conceals; that of the wretched soul becomes two feet; smoke
veils them both as they exchange colour; hair appears on one and on the
other is stripped off; one stands, the other falls, both fixing the other with
their lucerne empie (‘baleful lamps’); the snout of the one that stands erect
bulges into temples and of the superfluous matter two ears, a nose and lips
are formed; the form that lies prostrate has its features elongated into a
muzzle and inside its head it draws its ears,
come face le corna la lumaccia;
just like a snail when it pulls in its horns;19
the tongue which was whole and fit for speech divides and the forked one
joins up; the smoke subsides.
Thus, Dante says, I saw that ballast change and interchange. Although
bewildered by all the transformations, he recognizes Puccio by his limp and
Francesco, who caused the Tuscan village Gaville much grief.
The whole canto is a demonstration of bravura, not only in the graphic
descriptions but in the two contrasting pictorial interludes. Here is Dante
90 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

displaying his skill, as in a master class. With assumed modesty, as though

deprecating applause, he says, ‘If my pen has been at fault, let the novelty
of the events be my excuse.’ From the episode of Vanni Fucci onwards, he
is so much absorbed in rising to a challenge as a writer that he neglects to
emphasize the message of the punishment of theft. A note of moral outrage
is resumed in the following canto.
 CHAPTER 23

Tongues of Fire

T
he 26th canto of Inferno opens with an imprecation against Florence.
In addition to Vanni Fucci of Pistoia, Dante had chosen five
Florentines as examples of the sin of theft. We now know noth-
ing about them, except that they were all of noble families: Agnello dei
Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Cianfa dei Donati, Francesco Guercio dei
Cavalcanti and Puccio dei Galigai. Of ‘squint-eyed’ Francesco dei Cavalcanti
it is said that he was murdered by the inhabitants of Gaville, a village in the
Arno valley, and that his kinsmen avenged his death on the villagers. To
Dante’s contemporaries they would all five have been notorious. He now
takes the occasion to reproach Florence for her ill fame, so widespread that
her name is known throughout Hell:
Godi, Fiorenza, poi che se’ sì grande
che per mare e per terra batti l’ali,
e per lo ’nferno tuo nome si spande!
Tra li ladron trovai cinque cotali
tuoi cittadini onde mi ven vergogna,
e tu in grande orranza non ne sali.
Ma se presso al mattin del ver si sogna,
tu sentirai di qua da picciol tempo
di quel che Prato, non ch’altri, t’agogna.
E se già fosse, non sarìa per tempo:
così foss’ ei, da che pur esser dee!
chè più mi graverà, com’ più m’attempo.
Florence, rejoice, so greatly art thou famed,
o’er sea and land thy beating wings resound
and even throughout Hell thou art proclaimed!
Among the thieves five Florentines I found,
whence, as I think of it, I feel disgrace,
nor does great honour unto thee redound.
But if near morning what we dream takes place,
there will befall thee ere much time has gone
what Prato and others crave will come apace.

9
92 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Were it so now, it would not be too soon:

since it must be, so let it come to pass!
The burden heavier weighs as time goes on.1
Dante is prophesying within the timeframe of the story and his phrase
picciol tempo (‘short space of time’) is an allusion to the rioting that broke out
on May Day 300. Prato, a town in Tuscany about ten miles north-west of
Florence, on the road to Pistoia, is cited as an example of the many enemies
of Florence who enviously desire her downfall. His reference to his advanc-
ing age, however (com’ più m’attempo), takes us to the period in which he is
writing. In the years that had followed, many disasters befell Florence: not
only the betrayal of the city by Charles of Valois and Corso Donati, followed
by the exile of the White Guelfs, but later the collapse of a bridge that killed
a great number of people, a fire in which over 2,000 houses were destroyed
and many families ruined, as well as the deaths of the exiles who tried to
return by force. All such doom he interprets as punishment for her corrup-
tion, a reflection that will the more grieve him the older he grows.2
After so many repulsive scenes, although he took pride in his skill in
describing them, Dante the artist judged that the time had come to vary
his effects. The ditches of the Eighth Circle have all been claustrophobic.
In contrast he now opens up the scene by introducing a simile that lifts the
imagination out of Hell to a peaceful hillside on a summer evening:
Quante il villan ch’al poggio si riposa,
nel tempo che colui che ’l mondo schiara
la faccia sua a noi tien meno ascosa,
come la mosca cede a la zanzara,
vede lucciole giù per la vallea,
forse colà dov’ e’ vendemmia ed ara;
di tante fiamme tutta risplendea
l’ottava bolgia …
As on a hillside where a serf at rest,
when he whose beams of light upon us shine
conceals his countenance from us the least,
when gnats replace the flies at day’s decline,
sees fireflies in the valley down below,
where, it may be, he ploughs, and reaps the vine,
with flames of fire as many and just so
the eighth ditch sparkled …3
The flames conceal the souls of those who used their intellects to counsel
deceit, leading others astray by means of their eloquence and cunning. Just
as Elisha saw Elijah in his chariot vanish in a cloud of fire,4 so every soul
is hidden by a ‘thievish’ fire. One flame, divided at its tip, reminds Dante
 TONGUES OF FIRE 93

of the pyre in which the two sons of Oedipus – Eteocles and Polynices
– died: such was their hatred of each other that the flames burning them
sprang apart. Virgil’s reply introduces one of the most memorable episodes
in Inferno. Within the forked flame are the souls of Ulysses (Odysseus) and
Diomedes.
Dante did not read Greek. What he knew about the Iliad and the Odyssey
was derived from Latin sources, from Virgil’s Aeneid, from Cicero and
from Horace, and from one other Roman author whose importance in this
connection will be discussed below. Dante had not read any of the twelfth-
or thirteenth-century accounts of the Trojan War. Nevertheless, he knew
that Ulysses and Diomedes were associated in various stratagems against
the Trojans and that Ulysses was held to be cunning. Virgil, the character
in Inferno, lists the misdeeds held against them: they beguiled Achilles to
desert Deidamia and join them in the war, concealing the prophecy of his
death; they stole the sacred image of Athene, believed to protect Troy; they
were associated in the trickery of the wooden horse. In the Aeneid Virgil
mentions only one of these three deeds as involving both Diomedes and
Ulysses, namely the theft of the image of Athene.5 The deceiving of Achilles
is not mentioned in the Aeneid and in connection with the stratagem of the
horse Diomedes is not mentioned by name.
These joint actions do not alone explain the excitement Dante expresses
on hearing the identity of the souls:
‘S’ei posson dentro da quelle faville
parlar’, diss’io, ‘maestro, assai ten priego
e ripriego, che il priego vaglia mille,
che non mi facci dell’attender niego
fin che la fiamma cornuta qua vegna:
vedi che del disio ver lei piego!’
‘If in those flames the souls have power of speech’
said I, ‘Master I beg thee and again
I beg, a thousand times would I beseech
that my entreaty thou wilt not disdain,
to wait until the double flame draws near:
see in my eagerness towards it I lean.’ 6
Virgil consents. He has read the question in Dante’s mind. But he tells
him to leave the talking to him. The reason for this was for a long time an
unsolved problem.
‘Lascia parlare a me, ch’io ho concetto
ciò che tu vuoi; ch’ei sarebbero schivi,
perchè fuor greci, forse del tuo detto.’
94 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Leave me to speak to them, for I have guessed

what thou dost want to know; and they, being Greeks,
might be disdainful if by thee addressed.’ 7
Dante, an Italian, is a descendant of the Trojans, whom the Greeks defeated.
But so is Virgil, a Roman. What, then, is the difference? The answer is
twofold: Virgil has not only written of them in his alti versi (‘noble lines’),
he also has magical authority.The words he uses are in the form of a conjura-
tion,8 similar to those he has used to Charon and Minos:
‘O voi che siete due dentro ad un foco,
s’io meritai di voi mentre ch’io vissi,
s’io meritai di voi assai o poco
quando nel mondo li alti versi scrissi,
non vi movete; ma l’un di voi dica
dove per lui perduto a morir gissi.’
‘O you that in a single flame are two,
if I deserved of you, ere life was spent,
if much or little I deserved of you
when in the world I wrote with high intent,
halt, I command: let one of you relate
where, lost untimely, to his death he went.’ 9
What is this about a final, fatal voyage? In Homer’s Odyssey Ulysses returns
to Ithaca, slays the suitors of Penelope, quells a rebellion and settles down
to resume his royal and domestic duties. This ending of the Odyssey was well
known in the Middle Ages. The fourteenth-century commentator Benvenuto
da Imola says that even schoolboys and dunces know that Ulysses got back
to Ithaca and that Dante’s account is not supported by any poetic tradition.
In saying this Benvenuto, in common with modern commentators, strangely
overlooked the origin of the story Dante tells.
In response to Virgil’s command, the larger of the two horns of flame
begins to toss and murmur as if blown by wind and the tip, waving to and
fro like a tongue, flings forth a voice:
Indi la cima qua e là menando,
come fosse la lingua che parlasse,
gittò voce di fuori, e disse: ‘Quando
mi diparti’ da Circe, che sottrasse
me più d’un anno là presso a Gaeta,
prima che sì Enea la nomasse …’
The tip, vibrating back and forth again,
as if it were the tongue itself impelled
to speak, threw out a voice, declaiming: ‘When
 TONGUES OF FIRE 95

from Circe I escaped, the same who held

me for a year and more, nearby Gaeta,
before thus by Aeneas it was called …’ 10
Several questions arise. Why does Ulysses begin his tale at that point? Why
is he so precise about the length of time he was held by Circe? Why does he
mention Gaeta? Why does he refer to the fact that Aeneas named it thus?
The answers to these questions and to much else is to be found, not in Virgil,
not in Cicero, not in Horace, but in Ovid.
In the fifth story of Book XIII of the Metamorphoses Ovid begins a para-
phrase of the adventures of Aeneas, which, after interruptions, is resumed
in the second story of Book XIV. The two combine to form what might be
called a ‘Reader’s Digest’ of the Aeneid. There is a summarized version of
Aeneas’s departure from Troy, his arrival at Carthage and reception by Dido,
his departure from Africa and journey up the coast of Campania and arrival
at Cumae. A brief account is then given of Aeneas’s visit to the Underworld
and his return to Cumae. When he reaches Gaeta, however, something
unexpected occurs which is not in the Aeneid.
In order to provide a link between the Odyssey and the Aeneid, Virgil had
introduced a survivor from among the Greeks. Coasting off Sicily, Aeneas
and his men put into harbour for the night, not far from Etna. The next
morning they come upon an unkempt stranger, his ragged clothes hooked
together with thorns, who approaches with arms outstretched in entreaty.
This is Achaemenides, from Ithaca, a comrade of Ulysses, who was left
behind in the cave of the Cyclops when the others made their escape. The
Trojans take him on board and receive from him an eyewitness account of
events that occurred in the Odyssey.
Ovid evidently admired this device, for he made use of it himself. When,
in his account of the Trojans’ adventures, Aeneas and his men reach Gaeta,
they come upon yet another survivor from the crew of Ulysses. This is
Macareus of Neritos (mentioned neither in the Odyssey nor in the Aeneid ).
He greets the Trojans and then in astonishment recognizes Achaemenides,
who gives him an account of the episode of Polyphemus, including a vivid
description of the escape of Ulysses and the surviving members of his crew,
with Polyphemus hurling rocks after the departing boats.
It is then the turn of Macareus. He takes up the story after the event of
the Cyclops, relating the episode of Aeolus and the winds, the arrival at the
ancient city ruled over by Antiphates, King of the giant cannibals (a city
later named Formia). One of their crew is devoured, the rest scurry to their
crafts, pursued by a shower of boulders which sink all but one boat. With
this depleted crew Ulysses proceeds to Circe’s island. ‘There,’ says Macareus,
‘we were detained for a year. During that long year I saw and heard many
96 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

things. Finally, when we were sluggish and inactive through idleness (resides
et desuetudine tardi), we were ordered to embark once more. Circe had fore-
told that dangerous paths, a vast voyage and the perils of the raging sea
awaited us. I was alarmed, I tell you frankly, and having reached Gaeta, here
I stayed.’ Here Macareus ended ( finierat Macareus). Naturally, he had no
more to tell.
This is the story Dante read in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It fired his
imagination. What happened when Ulysses and his crew left Circe? How
did they fare on that iter vastum (‘vast journey’), the thought of which,
Ovid said, so alarmed Macareus that he preferred to stay behind on the
island? The storyteller in Dante responded to the storyteller in Ovid. He
would continue the tale. He would make Ulysses number three in a series of
eyewitnesses, beginning with Achaemenides and Macareus. That is why he
makes Ulysses begin his story with the departure from Circe, why he refers
to the length of time he was held prisoner by her, why he mentions Aeneas’s
naming of Gaeta. He is quoting Ovid almost word for word, and he will now
complete the story that Ovid left unfinished. Once more he will surpass his
distinguished predecessor.
Where does Dante send Ulysses on his iter vastum? Not home to Ithaca
but on a vaster journey than any account related in stories taken from the
Odyssey: he sends him to the southern hemisphere. Not only does he extend
his exploration beyond all imagining, he extends the character of Ulysses
too, from the conniving Greek hero to an image of unredeemed Man, who
in his restless daring and thirst for discovery cannot be deterred from push-
ing beyond forbidden boundaries, who eats, that is, the fruit of the tree of
knowledge. A contrast with Aeneas, divinely guided on his journey, is here
implied.
The ancient world had declared the Ocean innavigable beyond the
Pillars of Hercules, a region of nulla aut ignota sidera (‘nothing but unknown
stars’), which no human eye beholds (humanus oculus non videt), stated a
twelfth-century map. The mediaeval imagination added monsters, excessive
heat, excessive cold, magnetic rocks, violent winds and mountainous waves.
Perhaps there was inhabited land, but nullus nostrum ad illos, neque illorum ad
nos pervenire potest (‘none of us can go to them, and none of them can come
to us’).11 Not everyone, however, thought that the journey was impossible.
Albertus Magnus said tantalizingly, difficilis est transitus, non impossibilis (‘the
crossing is difficult but not impossible’).
Dante took from these hints and half-beliefs what he required for his
own cosmology. At the antipodes of Jerusalem he visualizes rising from
the ocean the highest mountain in the world. This is later revealed as the
Mountain of Purgatory, on the summit of which is the Garden of Eden. To
 TONGUES OF FIRE 97

try to reach it across the southern ocean is an act of arrogance. The shaping
spirit of Dante’s imagination brings to Ovid’s unfinished story not a Ulysses
longing to return to his son, his father and his wife, but Ulysses the voyager
in whom nothing can conquer the restless ardour to explore:
‘Nè dolcezza di figlio, nè la pièta
del vecchio padre, nè il debito amore
lo qual dovea Penelopè far lieta
vincer poter dentro da me l’ardore
ch’i’ ebbi a divenir del mondo esperto,
e delli vizi umani e del valore.’
‘Not fondness for my son, not piety
towards my agèd sire, not lawful love
which should have gladdened my Penelope
could conquer in me the desire to rove
about the world and to explore its ways,
and human wickedness and worth to prove.’ 12
Ulysses recites the story of his foolhardy voyage. With but one ship and
the few survivors of his crew, he set forth on the open sea. Sailing west-
wards on the Mediterranean they came to the outlet where Hercules set
up his landmarks beyond which men were forbidden to pass. He and his
companions were then old and weary: Io e’ compagni eravam vecchi e tardi
… .13 Dante here uses Ovid’s very word tardi, an indication of how vivid
the Latin account is in his mind. At this point Ulysses combines the daring
voyager with the counsellor who gives evil advice. Urging on his men, he
begged them, after so many perils passed, not to refuse this last experience
of an unpeopled world:
‘Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza.’
‘Think of your lineage: men such as you
have not been made to live the life of brutes,
but fortitude and knowledge to pursue.’ 14
His ‘little speech’, Ulysses continued, so inspired his crew that he could then
have scarcely held them back. With their stern pointing east, their oars like
wings, they continued their folle volo (‘mad flight’), losing sight of all north-
ern stars except the Wain, seeing now only unknown stars. Five times they
had seen the moon change from full to crescent, when, suddenly, dark in the
distance, there loomed up a mountain higher than he had ever seen. They
all rejoiced but soon their gladness turned to lamentation. A storm rose up
from the new land and struck the forepart of the ship:
98 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Tre volte il fe’ girar con tutte l’acque:

alla quarta levar la poppa in suso
e la prora ire in giù, com’ altrui piacque,
infin che ’l mar fu sopra noi richiuso.’
‘Three times the whirling waters round us sped,
and at the fourth they lifted high the poop,
the prow went under, as had been decreed,
till over us the engulfing sea closed up.’ 15
Here the canto ends.
This speech by Ulysses is one of the most celebrated in Inferno. The
episode is quite unlike any other. It has nothing to do with party strife, the
corruption of Florence or Dante’s exile. The conception of a daring diso-
bedience, undertaken for noble, inspiring reasons, presents Dante with a
dilemma he feels the necessity to confront. He himself, like Ulysses, is filled
with an ardour to pursue knowledge. He admits his own danger of being
tempted beyond a boundary. He grieved then at what he saw, he grieves
again at the memory:
e più lo ’ngegno affreno ch’ i’ non soglio
perchè non corra che virtù nol guidi;
sì che, se stella bona o miglior cosa
m’ha dato ’l ben, ch’io stesso nol m’invidi.
and more than I am wont my mind I curb,
lest it may run where good does not permit;
if by the stars or better things I’m blessed
with intellect, may I not forfeit it.16
The universality and timelessness of the theme make it a challenge still.17
 CHAPTER 24

The Severed Head

W
e return from the wide ocean in which Ulysses perished to the
deep valley of the Counsellors of Fraud. The waving, speak-
ing tip, now upright, is silent and already the double flame, set
free by Virgil’s magic formula of dismissal, is moving on. Another flame
approaches, drawn by the Lombard dialect it has recognized in the words in
which Virgil releases Ulysses from his conjuration:
‘Istra ten va; più non t’adizzo.’
‘Now go; no longer do I conjure thee.’ 1
The word istra is a Lombardism for now. From this we learn that Dante imag-
ined Virgil speaking in the patois and accent of his native Lombardy. This
touch of realism stretches the conventional agreement between author and
reader. We do not ask in which language Virgil speaks to Ulysses, a Greek.
We accept that the souls of the dead can communicate with one another
without being told what tongue they use and that, for purposes of narrative,
all the dialogue is rendered in the language in which the author has chosen
to write his work.2 We are now led to assume that Virgil’s Lombard speech
was converted into Greek for the benefit of Ulysses and that Ulysses’ speech,
which must have been in Greek, was converted in its turn into Tuscan for
Dante to report. From this it appears that arrangements in Hell have long
anticipated those of the United Nations.
The flame approaching conceals the soul of Guido da Montefeltro, the
leader of the Ghibellines of Romagna who lived from 223 to 298. He was
famous for devious stratagems and acquired the nickname of ‘The Fox’. He
conspired repeatedly against the Papacy and was excommunicated. Later in
life he repented and was reconciled to the Church, eventually entering the
Franciscan Order.
Unable to see in his cieco mondo (‘blind world’), he asks if the speaker has
come recently from the sweet land of Italy and whether he can say if there is
war or peace in Romagna. Dante is gazing down intently and Virgil nudges
him, saying: ‘Speak thou: he is Italian.’ There is no risk of disdain here, nor

99
200 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

any language problem. Dante reports that though the tyrants of Romagna
always have war in their hearts, there was no warfare there when he left.
After bringing the soul up to date concerning the present balance of power,
he asks who he is. Believing that what he says can never be repeated on
earth, the soul reveals his identity and relates the story of his damnation.
His account makes plain Dante’s chief purpose in selecting him as a
further example of the sin of counselling fraud: the deceitful involvement
in his fate of Pope Boniface. Not content with ingeniously placing him
among the Simonists before his death,3 Dante again contrives his pres-
ence in Inferno. Guido da Montefeltro, now a Franciscan, had made his
peace with God, having repented of his many wily deceptions, when he was
approached by Boniface who asked him for advice in his war against his
enemies, the Colonna family. ‘The Prince of the new Pharisees’, as Guido
calls him, making war not on infidels in the Holy Land but on his fellow
Christians, seduced him, a penitent, to commit further sin, tricking him into
believing that he could grant him absolution there and then: ‘Thou knowest
I have the power to lock and unlock Heaven.’ Guido yielded and advised a
deceitful strategy, trusting in the Pope’s assurance that all would be well. A
sad awakening awaited him at death. St Francis came for him but was chal-
lenged by a black cherub, who said: ‘No-one can be absolved who does not
repent and no-one can repent and will to commit sin at the same time: the
contradiction does not allow it.’ He carried off the wretched Guido, saying
‘Perhaps thou didst not think I was logical.’ Brought before Minos, Guido
watched him coil his tail eight times round his body. Then, biting it in rage,
that connoisseur of evil proclaimed, ‘Here’s one for the thievish fire.’
The struggle between a good and evil spirit for the possession of a soul
at death was often represented in mediaeval stories and paintings. Dante
has returned to the devil-play in which he indulged in describing the fate of
the swindlers, but there is no rollicking mockery here. The logic of the black
cherub, a fallen member of the angelic order who have perfect knowledge of
God, is weightier than the dishonest persuasion of a corrupt Pope in whom
Guido had foolishly trusted. Is this a reflection of an attempt by Boniface
to compromise Dante during his converse with him in 30? Something lies
at the back of this presentation of the Pope at his blackest: to connive at the
damnation of another soul is worse than simony. It is Dante’s triumph to
have placed him, by implication, in two places in Hell at once. He is gradu-
ally settling a score but has not finished yet.
The battle between St Francis and the black cherub is balanced structur-
ally by a similar battle for the soul of Guido’s son, Buonconte da Montefeltro,
which has a happier outcome.4 This, the second anticipation of Purgatorio,
immediately follows the glimpse of the Mountain in the speech of Ulysses
 THE SEVERED HEAD 20

in the preceding canto and is one of the many structural links that bind the
work together.
The ninth ditch of the Eighth Circle, containing the souls of those
who caused schism, is a gruesome image of war. This is one of the darkest
moments in Dante’s imagining of Hell. The unity of mankind is continually
broken by the creators of discord, whether in religious schism, civil war, party
strife or family feuds. The endless repetition of human conflict is evoked by
an attempt to suggest the accumulated horror of battlefields from the begin-
ning of history to Dante’s own time:
Chi porria mai pur con parole sciolte
dicer del sangue e delle piaghe a pieno
ch’ i’ ora vidi, per narrar più volte?
Ogne lingua per certo verrìa meno
per lo nostro sermone e per la mente
c’ hanno a tanto comprender poco seno.
Who, though with words from rhyme set free, could tell
of all the blood and wounds which I saw then,
though trying many times to no avail?
All language, certainly, would be in vain;
our speech and memories have little room
so much to comprehend or to contain.5
Here is Dante looking back, and indeed as we not only looking back but
looking on around us also do, at the soul-defying inhumanity of man to
man, helpless before the age-long and continuing spectacle of cruelty and
carnage. All he can do is to represent it in images of butchery in his descrip-
tion of the punishment of those who spread discord and thus divide the
unity of mankind. The chief of these, in his view, is Mahomet, the great-
est renegade from Christianity. He and all the others proceed round the
ditch, passing before a devil with an upraised sword, to be cleft and cleft
again, their shadowy flesh uniting as they complete their circling. Dante’s
first sight of him reminds him of a broken wine vat:
Già veggia, per mezzul perdere o lulla,
com’ io vidi un, così non si pertugia,
rotto dal mento infin dove si trulla:
tra le gambe pendevan le minugia;
la corata pareva e ’l tristo sacco
che merda fa di quel che si trangugia.
Never did wine-tub, losing stave or cant,
so split itself asunder as the one
I saw, from chin to fart-hole cleft and rent.
202 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Dangling between his legs his guts were shown,

his vitals all exposed and the foul sack
which turns to shit whatever we gulp down.6
Of all the lowly language Dante permits himself to use, these lines are
among the most vulgar and the most coarse. We are among the maimed and
mutilated; no illustrious vernacular will serve here. To produce a reaction
of disgust Dante has recourse to images of butchery. He knew what he was
describing: he had been in battle and had looked on carnage.
The soul, seeing Dante staring at him, rips his chest apart with his hands
and says: ‘See how I split myself ! See how Mahomet is mangled! Ahead of
me goes Ali, his face cloven from chin to forelock.’7 He then asks Dante who
he is, lingering on the ridge, perhaps to delay going to his own penalty. Virgil
replies for him: ‘Death does not bring him here, nor guilt, but I who am dead
am charged to lead him down through Hell, from ring to ring, that he may
learn it all.’ At this more than a hundred souls, forgetting their torment in
their amazement, stand still to stare at Dante. Mahomet, one foot raised,
ready to move on, sends a cruelly ironic message to a certain Fra Dolcino,
still alive, advising him to get in a good supply of food to ward against the
snow, otherwise the victory of the Novarese will be gained too easily.8 For us
this is now meaningless, but contemporaries will have interpreted it easily,
knowing that Fra Dolcino and his heretical sect known as the Apostolic
Brothers, against whom Pope Clement V had ordered a crusade in 305, held
out against Papal forces in the hills near Novara and were forced to surren-
der in the snow for want of food. Having shot this spiteful bolt, Mahomet
sets his foot to the ground and goes his way.
His place is taken by another soul, his throat slashed, his nose lopped off,
one ear sliced away, his windpipe showing scarlet. He is Piero da Medicina,
famed for creating discord between the Polenta and Malatesta families in
Romagna. As a mischief maker, spreading lies, poking his nose into the affairs
of others, listening to slander, he is punished symbolically in his mutilations.
Dante may have known him personally, for Piero recognizes him and tells
him to warn two noblemen of Fano of the terrible fate that awaits them:
‘E fa sapere a’ due miglior di Fano,
a messer Guido e anco ad Angiolello,
che se l’antiveder qui non è vano,
gittati saran fuor di loro vasello
e mazzerati presso alla Cattolica
per tradimento d’un tiranno fello.
Tra l’isola di Cipri e la Maiolica
non vide mai sì gran fallo Nettuno,
non da pirate, non da gente argolica.
 THE SEVERED HEAD 203

Quel traditor che vede pur con l’uno

e tien la terra che tal è qui meco
vorrebbe di vedere esser digiuno,
farà venirli a parlamento seco;
poi farà sì ch’al vento di Focara
non sarà lor mestier voto nè preco.’
‘And I advise, to Fano’s two best men,
Guido and Angiolello, let it be known
that, if our future knowledge is not vain,
they will be seized and over shipboard thrown
near La Cattolica, in a stone-filled sack,
by a false tyrant tricked and left to drown.
From Cyprus to Majorca crime so black
Neptune ne’er saw, neither by pirates done,
nor Argonauts who ill fame do not lack.
That traitor, seeing with one eye alone,
who rules the land that he beside me here
wishes he ne’er had seen nor come upon,
will lure them unsuspecting to confer
and will so deal that they Focara’s wind
need not propitiate with vow or prayer.’ 9
This passage contains the prophecy of a murder by the ruler of Rimini, ‘one-
eyed’ Malatestino, of two noblemen of Fano who stood in the way of his
ambition to gain possession of their city. He is said to have tricked them into
sailing up the Adriatic to meet him for a parley and to have arranged for
them to be seized and drowned before they reached the dangerous, windy
promontory of Focara. Dante’s use of the word mazzerati is graphic: it means
‘tied into a sack weighted with stones’ and gives a particularly horrifying
touch to the crime. The outrage is said to have occurred in about 32 and
was therefore fresh in Dante’s mind and in the minds of his first listeners.
It is odd that he introduces it here, for the murder, sensational as it was, was
not specifically a dividing of the body politic or a schism.
He gives it, however, august importance by linking it to an event in
ancient Roman history, Curio’s encouragement of Julius Caesar to take his
army across the Rubicon: an example of the sin of spreading discord and so
dividing the body politic.10 His soul is beside that of Piero, who, on being
asked by Dante to make his meaning plain, pulls down Curio’s jaw and
reveals his truncated tongue: once so bold of speech, he can no longer talk.
Another soul, lifting the mutilated stumps of both arms, from which the
blood streams down over his face, identifies himself as Mosca dei Lamberti,
whose fatal words, capo ha cosa fatta (‘a thing done has an end’), led to the
murder of Buondelmonte, who, betrothed to a daughter of the Amidei
204 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

family, jilted her for one of the Donati. To this event Florentines traced the
origin of the strife between Guelfs and Ghibellines in their city.
The last example chosen is the troubadour Bertran de Born,11 who
fomented a quarrel between Henry II of England and his son Prince Henry,
an intervention that Dante compares to the action of Achitophel who made
trouble between Absalom and David.12 Bertran is shown as a truncated
torso, carrying his head by the hair and swinging it like a lantern. As he
draws near the bridge from which Dante is looking down, he holds the head
up high so that its words may be heard:
Io vidi certo, ed ancor par ch’io ’l veggia,
un busto sanza capo andar sì come
andavan li altri della trista greggia;
e ’l capo tronco tenea per le chiome
pèsol con mano a guisa di lanterna;
e quel mirava noi, e dicea, ‘Oh me!’
I plainly saw, and still I seem to see,
a headless bust which followed in the tread
of those who formed that wretched company;
and by the hair it held the severed head,
swinging it like a lantern in its hand;
it looked at us and ‘Woe is me!’, it said.13
Despite the sinister context, Dante cannot resist amusing himself with the
rhymes come, chiome, culminating mockingly in Bertran’s ejaculation: ‘Oh
me’.
It is not known when Bertran’s alleged machinations made such a dire
impression on Dante. He mentions him favourably in Il Convivio, together
with others, as an example of generosity who lives on in our hearts,14 and
in De Vulgari Eloquentia as an illustrious author of poetry on the subject of
war.15 Over 40 of Bertran’s poems have been preserved, of which the most
famous is a lament on the death of Prince Henry, son of Henry II. Nothing
is known historically of the part played by Bertran in the rebellion of the
young prince against his father. Dante’s source of information appears to
have been a biography of him in Provençal, in which it is related that King
Henry II hated Bertran as the evil counsellor of his son and the cause of
the conflict between them. This account evidently changed Dante’s good
opinion of him, making him appear a fitting example of the sin of fomenting
schism.
What is remarkable about Dante’s selection of examples is that he
mingles a figure such as Mahomet with recent mischief makers of much less
account, perhaps to imply that all sowers of discord are responsible for the
disunity of mankind.
 THE SEVERED HEAD 205

The last image, the head of Bertran de Born, held on high like a lighted
pumpkin and speaking in mid-air, is the most memorable of all. No more
striking image of disunity could be contrived and with it the canto ends.
 CHAPTER 25
The Valley of Disease

G
azing at the vast number of souls with their horrifying wounds,
Dante feels so overwhelmed that he is about to weep. Virgil asks
him ironically if he is trying to count the souls. If so, he must realize
that the ditch is 22 miles round. This is the first indication of measurement,
and various attempts have been made to calculate from it the proportions
of the Eighth Circle. More important is the sense of defeat that Dante’s
grief implies. To mourn and linger over the world’s history of conflict is to
despair.
But Dante has also a personal reason for distress. He had been search-
ing among the souls for one who is related to him by blood. Virgil tells him
to think no more about him. He has seen the soul in question beneath the
bridge, pointing threateningly at Dante, and has heard him called Geri del
Bello. Dante realizes that the soul (a cousin of his father) resents that no
vendetta has been carried out for his murder and he is moved to compassion
for him.
In his commentary on the Commedia, Dante’s son Pietro says that Geri
was murdered by Brodario Sacchetti of Florence; he adds that the murder
was later avenged by Geri’s nephews. The affair of honour, as it was termed,
was finally settled in 342, when an act of reconciliation between the two
families was signed, one of the signatories being Dante’s half-brother
Francesco, representing himself, his two nephews Pietro and Jacopo, and
other members of the Alighieri family. It is not known whether the vendetta
had already been carried out by the time Dante was writing Canto XXIX of
Inferno, but his emotional involvement in the sufferings of Geri, tempered
by the rational withdrawal counselled by Virgil, represents his awareness of
the dangers of family feuds.
The horrors of fraud, represented under ten aspects in the Eighth Circle,
become darker and Dante’s reactions more despondent the deeper down he
goes. The last group, that of falsifiers and impersonators, are shown afflicted
with disease, ranging from physical illness to raving madness. Their lamen-
tations pierce him so painfully that he blocks his ears with his hands to
prevent the sound reaching him:

206
 THE VALLEY OF DISEASE 207

Quando noi fummo sor l’ultima chiostra

di Malebolge, sì che i suoi conversi
potean parere alla veduta nostra,
lamenti saettaron me diversi,
che di pietà ferrati avean li strali;
ond’io li orecchi con le mani copersi.
There, from the crossing-span’s high altitude,
Malbowges’ final cloister all appears
thrown open, with its sad lay-brotherhood;
and there, such arrowy shrieks, such lancing spears
of anguish, barbed with pity, pierced me through,
I had to clamp my hands against my ears.1
If all the sick from the malarial districts of Valdichiana, Maremma and
Sardinia2 were piled together, it would resemble the scene that now meets
his eyes, while the stench that arises is that which comes from festering
limbs. They descend from the long ridge on to the last bank so that they
can see more clearly what unerring Justice, the handmaid of the Lord, has
prepared as punishment for the souls of falsifiers.
Not all that he has read of the pestilence sent by Juno to depopulate the
island of Aegina3 can compare with the spectacle before him. The diseased
lie helpless, one on his belly, one across the shoulders of another, one crawl-
ing on all fours; two sit leaning against each other,
com’ a scaldar si poggia tegghia a tegghia
like pan to pan, together propped to warm4
Covered with scabs from head to foot, they peel them off with their nails,
like a stable-boy currying a horse or a fishmonger scraping the scales off
a fish. The squalor of their condition is matched by the pettiness of their
misdeeds. Griffolino of Arezzo pretended he could fly and was burned to
death as a magician. Capocchio of Siena met the same fate for alchemy. Two
impersonators are shown in the throes of madness: Myrrha who indulged an
incestuous passion for her father, the King of Cyprus, and gained access to
his bed in disguise,5 and Gianni Schicchi, a Florentine, who was persuaded
by Simone Donati to impersonate his father who had just died and to dictate
a new will in favour of Simone. This Gianni obligingly did, taking care to
bequeath to himself also a handsome legacy and the best mare in the stables.
He is described as a raving maniac who seizes Capocchio by the scruff of the
neck and drags him along so that his belly scrapes the bottom of the ditch.
Perhaps the most repulsive description is that of the counterfeiter of
coins, Master Adamo of Brescia. Afflicted with dropsy, his body has swol-
len to the shape of a lute and his parched lips curl one towards his chin, the
208 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

other upwards. In his longing for moisture, he dreams of the rivulets that
flow from the green hills of the Casentino down into the Arno. It was in that
region that Adamo issued gold florins with one-eighth of alloy, for which
crime he was put to death by burning. He speaks bitterly of his patrons, the
Conti Guidi, who induced him to commit this crime. He would gladly give
up all hope of quenching his thirst or even the sight of Fonte Branda6 if he
could but see one of them, Guido or Alessandro or their brother,7 in the
same ditch. He has heard that one of them is there,8 but how in his immo-
bile state can he find him? If he could only move one inch every 00 years,
though the ditch is  miles round and is not less than half a mile across, he
would already have set off in search of him.
Dante sees two other souls lying near by, from whom a steam of fever
rises, as mist is seen to rise from wet hands in winter weather. He asks
Adamo who they are. He says that they have lain there motionless ever since
he arrived and identifies them as falsifiers of words: Potiphar’s wife who
falsely accused Joseph,9 and Sinon the Greek who tricked the Trojans into
bringing the wooden horse within the walls of Troy.
A sordid squabble now occurs. Sinon, angered at being named, strikes
Adamo on his leathery belly, which resounds like a drum. Adamo hits him
in the face with his arm and they exchange squalid insults, mocking each
other’s sufferings with degraded cruelty. Dante listens fascinated until Virgil
harshly reproves him:
… ‘Or pur mira!
ch’ è per poco che teco non mi risso.’
… ‘Keep on gloating then!
A little more and I will row with thee.’ 10
Dante is stricken with remorse at this reproach and the shame of it is still
vivid in his memory. Like someone dreaming that he is in danger and in his
dream wishes that he were in truth only dreaming, he turns to Virgil, long-
ing to ask forgiveness, unable to speak but doing so by his look alone. Virgil
responds:
‘Maggior difetto men vergogna lava,’
disse ’l maestro, ‘che ’l tuo non è stato;
però d’ogne trestizia ti disgrava:
e fa ragion ch’io ti sia sempre a lato,
se più avvien che fortuna t’accoglia
dove sien genti in simigliante piato,
chè voler ciò udire è bassa voglia.’
 THE VALLEY OF DISEASE 209

‘Less shame a greater fault would wash away,

than thine has been’, responded then my guide,
‘therefore cast off the weight of all dismay;
and bear in mind I’m always at thy side
if chance again should bring thee to a place
where disputants thus wrangle and deride;
the wish to hear such bickering is base.’ 11
In his description of the valley of disease Dante the writer seems both
near and distant. On the one hand, he gossips about petty scandals connected
with local personalities: Griffolino of Arezzo who made Alberto, the son of
the Bishop of Siena, believe that he could fly. ‘Were there ever such foolish
people as the Sienese? Not even the French, by far!’ exclaims Dante to Virgil.
‘All except for Stricca,’ chips in Capocchio ironically, ‘and Niccolò, who
started the expensive fashion of cooking with cloves, and Caccia of Asicano,
who wasted his patrimony in vineyards and woodlands, and another nick-
named l’Abbagliato (the Blunderer).’ These individuals, who have nothing to
do with the sin of falsification, were members of a group of Sienese known as
the Spendthrift Brigade. The misdoing of Gianni Schicchi of Florence, who
cunningly impersonated a dead man and arranged for a legacy for himself, is
an episode which had its comic aspect for the composer Giacomo Puccini,
who based his shrewd and entertaining one-act opera on it. All these minor
anecdotes seem to admit us to the intimacy of everyday gossip, yet they
are strangely out of proportion to the destabilizing crime of counterfeiting
currency committed by Master Adamo. They are even more ill sorted with
the ancient stories of Myrrha’s incestuous deception of her royal father, of
the false witness borne against Joseph by the wife of Potiphar and of the
trickery of Sinon the Greek that brought about the fall of Troy. The homely
similes of a stable-boy currying a horse in a hurry for an impatient master,
of a scullion scraping the scales from a fish, of two cooking pots propped
together to keep the contents warm, and of steam rising from wet hands
in winter bring us close to Dante the living man: here are details he has
glimpsed and remembered. Yet his grandiose comparisons of the grotesque
madness of Myrrha and Gianni Schicchi (another strangely matched pair)
with the tragic frenzy of Hecuba finding her son Polydore dead and with the
homicidal madness of Athamas who, mistaking his wife and her two sons
for a lioness and her cubs, seized one of them and dashed him against a rock,
cause Dante to recede from us into a mythological world. Distant events
from a heroic, Biblical and legendary past are here mingled with happen-
ings scarcely worthy of headlines in the tabloid press. To Dante there was
evidently no impropriety in such mingling of epic events with trivial and
local incidents.
20 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Though he represents himself in his character role as reprimanded by

Virgil for listening to the wrangling between Master Adamo and Sinon the
Greek, as a writer he shows a robust talent for coarse invective, sustained
here for over one-fifth of the canto. It is evident that in a quarrel Dante the
man could give as good as he got, or at least that he had listened attentively
to such brawling as he walked about among the populace.
His reaction to illness is not one of compassion but of revulsion. Festering
limbs give rise to stench, the helpless piles of the incurable and dying are
objects of disgust. He may have witnessed such scenes in hospitals or along
the streets at times of plague. All such horrors he takes as the image of a
society in necrosis, suffering deservedly in its self-destruction.
The contrasts of this canto display not only Dante the man but also the
public for whom he wrote. It is plain that he judged it necessary to entertain
grossly as well as to edify. He did both with equal skill.
 CHAPTER 26

Towering Giants

D
ante now descends lower into Hell, to a pit of narrowing circumfer-
ence, but the prelude to the descent engages the imagination in vast
dimensions. As he walks with Virgil across the rampart that divides
the Eighth from the Ninth Circle, in a twilight such as divides night from
day, he hears the blast of a horn so loud that it would have made any thun-
derclap seem faint, more terrible even than the sound of Roland’s horn after
the tragic rout when Charlemagne’s rearguard were slain.1 Peering through
the murky air in the direction of the sound, Dante sees in the distance
what seem to be towers. He asks Virgil what city it is they are approach-
ing. Taking him gently by the hand, Virgil replies: ‘They are not towers, but
giants, standing round the bank of the pit from the navel down’:
Poi caramente mi prese per mano,
e disse: ‘Pria che noi siam più avanti,
acciò che ’l fatto ti paia men strano,
sappi che non son torri, ma giganti,
e son nel pozzo intorno dalla ripa
dall’umbilico in giuso tutti quanti.’
Then by the hand he took me lovingly
and said: ‘Before we further onwards go,
that what is fact may seem less strange to thee,
they are not towers, but giants, thou must know,
around the rampart ranged, and in the pit,
all from the navel down, they stand below.’ 2
Even with the reassurance of Virgil’s handclasp, Dante the character
experiences greater fear the closer he approaches and the more clearly he
sees. Dante the writer, however, is again in perfect control. Once more he
has judged that the time has come to vary his effects. His audience have
had enough of sensational reporting of mutilations and of diseased bodies
piled one upon another. He now sets himself the quite different task of
evoking wonder and amazement at enormous size. To do so, he conjures for

2
22 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

comparison things that he himself has seen and that his earliest listeners
too may well have seen or could easily imagine. First he compares the giants
to the towers that crown the circle of the walls of Monteriggioni, a castle
near Siena.3 Drawing near, he begins to distinguish the face of one of them,
then gradually the shoulders, chest and belly and both arms hanging inert
at his sides. The face, Dante says, is about as long and wide as the pine-cone
at St Peter’s in Rome, a bronze monument, about seven and a half feet in
height at which the many thousands of pilgrims to Rome in the Jubilee year
of 300, Dante among them, would have gazed in the courtyard of the old
Basilica.4 The upper part of the body, which alone is visible, is so high that
three Frieslanders, famed for their great stature, standing upright one upon
another, would have difficulty in reaching to its hair. Altogether, Dante esti-
mates, from where a man buckles his cloak, that is from the throat, down
to the navel, the height of the giant was 30 gran palmi (‘full palms’). Among
various estimations it has been calculated that he intended to convey that
the entire giant was 90 palms in height, or roughly 54 feet.
The lower part of the monster’s body is screened, as by an apron, by the
rampart. In describing the wall as an ‘apron’, Dante uses the word perizoma,
from the Greek περίζωμα, which is found in the plural (perizomata) in the
Vulgate,5 in reference to the covering that Adam and Eve made for them-
selves on realizing they were naked. Thus Dante, with deliberate discretion,
avoided the necessity of giving the measurements of the giant’s genitals.
Like his contemporaries, he did not doubt that ‘there were giants in the
earth in those days’.6 Such creatures, he observes, no longer exist. Nature has
prudently deprived Mars of such executives, producing now only such out-
size creatures as elephants and whales, which, not possessing ill-intentioned
intellect, pose less threat to mankind.
The first giant, identified by Virgil, is Nimrod. In believing him to have
been a giant, Dante is following St Augustine.7 He had already mentioned
him in De Vulgari Eloquentia, where he also refers to him as a giant. The
tradition that he was the builder of the Tower of Babel was well estab-
lished in the Middle Ages, but Dante associates all mankind with this sin of
pride:
Incorrigible man, persuaded by the giant, presumed in his heart to surpass by
his own skill not only nature, but even the very power that works in nature,
who is God; and he began to build a tower in Sennear, which was afterwards
called Babel, that is confusion, by which he hoped to ascend to heaven; intend-
ing in his ignorance, not to equal, but to surpass his Maker.8
Nimrod now gives voice; his words, as is suitable, are babel:
‘Raphèl maý amèch zabì almì ’9
 TOWERING GIANTS 23

They have never been decoded and Dante no doubt intended that we should
believe Virgil when he says that nobody understands Nimrod’s language,
nor does he understand that of others, for this is he who in his pride in
encouraging men to build a tower which should reach to Heaven deprived
mankind of the possession of a single language.10 To dispel Dante’s fear,
Virgil mocks him in words, which to Nimrod are, of course, meaningless:
… ‘Anima sciocca,
tienti col corno, e con quel ti disfoga
quand’ira o altra passion ti tocca!
Cercati al collo, e troverai la soga
che ’l tien legato, o anima confusa,
e vedi lui che ’l gran petto ti doga.’
Poi disse a me: ‘Ellii stesso s’accusa;
questi è Nembròt per lui cui mal coto
pur un linguaggio nel mondo non s’usa.
Lascianlo stare e non parliamo a voto;
chè così è a lui ciascun linguaggio
come ’l suo ad altrui, ch’a nullo è noto.’
… ‘Stupid soul,
keep to thy horn and vent thyself with that
when rage or other passions thee enthral!
Feel round thy neck and thou wilt find the plait
which holds it tied to thee, o soul confused,
binding thy mighty torso like a slat.’
Then he to me: ‘He has himself accused;
for this is Nimrod by whose evil plan
throughout the world one language is not used.
So we will leave him and not talk in vain,
for gibberish to him is every tongue,
as is his jargon, which to none is plain.’ 11
They move along the rampart to the left and at the distance of a bowshot
they come before a second giant, even more ferocious. From now on Dante
uses his knowledge of giants in pagan mythology, drawing on the imaginary
world of his fellow poets, Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Horace and Lucan, those
among whose wisdom he was made sixth. The first, of whom he has read in
Virgil and in Horace, is Ephialtes who with his brother giant fought against
the gods, threatening to pile Mount Ossa on Olympus and Mount Pelion
upon Ossa. In the Aeneid the Sibyl tells Aeneas that the giants are deep in
Tartarus:
‘Here the ancient sons of Earth, the Titan’s brood, hurled down by the thun-
derbolt, writhe in the lowest abyss. Here, too, I saw the twin sons of Aloeus
24 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

[Ephialtes and Otus], giant in stature, whose hands essayed to tear down high
Heaven and thrust down Jove from his realm above.’12
Horace also mentions them briefly as the brothers who tried to place Mount
Pelion upon Olympus.13 Neither Virgil nor Horace mention their names,
but Servius, in his commentary on the Aeneid, which Dante knew, calls them
Ephialtes and Otus and says that they were slain by Apollo and Diana.
Here are the shadowy elements from which Dante forms his impressively
substantial and statuesque figures. Omitting Otus altogether, he concen-
trates upon Ephialtes, who is even larger and more ferocious than Nimrod.
Dante summons the composure to marvel at the intricacy of his bonds:
A cinger lui qual fosse ’l maestro,
non so io dir, ma el tenea soccinto
dinanzi l’altro e dietro il braccio destro
d’una catena che ’l tenea avvinto
dal collo in giù, sì che ’n su lo scoperto
si ravvolgea infino al giro quinto.
Who was the craftsman who had girt him tight
I cannot say, but his left arm was bound
in front of him and at his back the right,
by one sole chain which was so closely wound
from the neck down that on the part we saw
above the brink the coils went five times round.14
Virgil identifies him with brief disdain, referring to him as the proud being
who tried his strength against Jove: ‘the arms he then plied he can no longer
move’. Dante, his curiosity having now overcome his terror, asks if he may
have the experience of setting eyes on lo smisurato Briareo (‘the measureless
Briareus’). Virgil the poet had compared the prowess of Aeneas in battle to
this mighty giant, ‘said to have a hundred arms and a hundred hands’.
Dante’s brave desire is denied him. Briareus, Virgil tells him, is much
further on; he is bound and formed like Ephialtes except that he looks more
ferocious in the face. From this it is evident that Dante regarded Virgil’s
description of Briareus in the Aeneid as hyperbolic, not literal, but he took
from Lucan the adjective ferox15 and from Statius the adjective immensus
(smisurato).16 To have introduced a giant with a hundred arms and hands
would have marred the symmetry of the apparent towers. Deprived of a
glimpse at Briareus, Dante’s spectators, so to call them, are compensated
with a description of Ephialtes suddenly shaking himself, more violently
than ever earthquake rocked a tower. At this, the terror of Dante the char-
acter is close to the fear of death, abated only by the sight of the fetters by
which the giant is controlled. In a sobered state of mind, he is led before a
third giant.
 TOWERING GIANTS 25

This is Antaeus, who stands five yards high, not counting his head. He
is unfettered and is capable of speech. Associated in pagan legend with
astounding feats, he was probably as familiar to Dante’s contemporaries as
the giants of fairy stories are to us. The son of Neptune and Gea (the Earth),
he was a mighty wrestler, whose strength was derived from contact with his
mother. Dante had read about him in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in Lucan’s
Pharsalia and had dwelt on his combat with Hercules in vivid detail in Il
Convivio:
We read in the stories of Hercules both in the Greater Ovid17 and in Lucan
and in other poets, that when the hero was fighting with the giant Antaeus,
every time that the giant was weary and laid his body prostrate on the ground,
whether of his own accord or because Hercules threw him, force and strength
renewed, he rose again from the ground in which and from which he had been
generated. Hercules perceiving this at last took hold of him, and clasping him
tight and uplifting him from the ground held him without letting him come
in contact with the earth, until by superior strength he conquered and slew
him. And this combat took place in Africa as these writings testify.18
This earlier vivid visualization was to develop in the Commedia into a
masterly feat of three-dimensional description.
Virgil requires the help of Antaeus. His words to him do not take the
form of a command or a conjuration, but of a respectful request, referring
to his heroic capture of a thousand lions in the valley in Libya where Scipio
won his glorious victory over Hannibal at the Battle of Zama, details which
Dante had also read in Lucan’s Pharsalia:
‘O tu che nella fortunata valle
che fece Scipion di gloria reda,
quand’ Annibal co’ i suoi diede le spalle,
recasti già mille leon per preda,
e che se fossi stato all’alta guerra
de’ tuoi fratelli, ancora par che si creda
ch’avrebbero vinto i figli della terra;
mettine giù e non ten vegna a schifo,
dove Cocito la freddura serra. …
però ti china, e non torcer lo grifo.’
‘O thou who in the fateful vale which made
Scipio an heir of glory in the fray
when Hannibal with all his army fled,
didst once a thousand lions take as prey,
and if thou too hadst been rebellious
in the great war thy brethren waged, men say
26 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the sons of earth had been victorious,

do not disdain to set us down below
where the cold ice has frozen Còcitus. …
Bend down, and on thy face no grimace show.’ 19
Immediately the huge hands of Antaeus come down, hands which once
grasped Hercules, and take hold of Virgil. Feeling himself thus seized, he
calls to Dante, like a father to a child:
… ‘Fatti qua, sì ch’io ti prenda.’
… ‘Come here, let me catch hold of thee.’ 20
The two tiny figures, huddled together in one bundle, are gathered up
like toys. As Antaeus stoops, Dante recalls the sensation of standing beneath
the leaning tower, Carisenda, in Bologna, when a cloud passes over it against
the direction in which it inclines, resulting in the illusion that it is falling.
‘Gladly,’ says Dante, ‘at that moment would I have gone by another road’:
Ma lievemente al fondo che divora
Lucifero con Giuda ci sposò;
nè sì chinato lì fece dimora,
e come albero in nave si levò.
But gently on the floor which swallows up
Judas and Lucifer ourselves he placed;
and not for long he lingered in his stoop,
but rose erect as on a ship a mast.21
The first audience of this compelling scenic effect must have been spell-
bound with amazement. Nothing so graphic and direct had ever been heard
before. Dante the craftsman, acknowledging as his source the ancient poets
he so much revered, has once again set out to surpass them, and has once
again succeeded.
 CHAPTER 27

The Frozen Lake

D
ante now braces himself and his audience for a subject to which
he fears his powers of expression cannot do justice. The dismal pit
on which all other rocks of Hell bear down requires rhymes that
are harsh and rugged, beyond any he can command, and he approaches his
subject with misgiving. To describe the bottom of the universe is not an
enterprise to be lightly taken in hand, nor is children’s language fit for it. He
entreats the Muses who helped Amphion to build a wall round Thebes to
assist him, so that his words may encompass the truth.
His mention of Amphion and Thebes is significant. Amphion, the son of
Zeus, was a musician who played so beautifully on the lyre that the stones of
Mount Cithaeron came down of their own accord to hear him and placed
themselves in the shape of a wall enclosing the city. Thebes was renowned
for appalling atrocities and in particular for the bitter rivalry between two
brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, which led to the war known as Seven
Against Thebes, about which Dante read in Statius’s Thebaid.1 Dante’s prayer
is that he may now enclose Hell’s city of treachery, the Ninth Circle, in
words which will likewise of their own accord move into place.
It is not only the physical description of this last region of Hell that chal-
lenges his powers. The ‘juice of his concept’ which he would press out more
fully, as he phrases it (io premerei di mio concetto il suco/più pienamente),2 is
the horror and outrage that treachery inspires in him. It is a freezing of all
human bonds, of kinship, loyalty to country or party, hospitality, and grati-
tude for benefaction. Those who commit it are stuck fast in unsplinterable
ice, the memory of which causes Dante still to shudder, not only in his body
but in his soul.
Having descended to a level far below the feet of Antaeus, Dante is still
looking up at the towering cliff when he hears a voice:
… ‘Guarda come passi;
va sì che tu non calchi con le piante
le teste de’ frati miseri lassi.’

27
28 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

… ‘Take care
how thou dost walk, be mindful not to kick
the heads of the two wretched brothers there.’ 3
We do not learn whose voice this is. It is probably not Virgil’s, as he would
not have known that the souls in question are brothers. If it is the voice
of another soul the note of compassion for the frati miseri lassi (‘unhappy
wretched brothers’) is uncharacteristic of the other traitors.
Dante turns and sees at his feet a frozen lake, more like glass than water,
formed from Cocytus, the fourth of the great rivers of Hell. The ice that
covers it is thicker than any that ever sealed the river Danube or the Don,
and if Mount Tambernic or Pietrapana were to fall on it not even the edge
of it would crack. Mount Pietrapana has been identified with Petra Apuana,
a mountain in the north-west of Tuscany. Mount Tambernic has eluded
conclusive identification and has obviously been chosen for the sharp sylla-
ble with which the name ends. To give the impression of the crackling sound
of walking on ice, Dante, always skilful in onomatopoeia, has used three
masculine rhymes in -ic :4
Non fece al corso suo sì grosso velo
di verno la Danoia in Osterlic,
nè Tanaì là sotto il freddo cielo,
com’ era quivi; chè se Tambernic
vi fosse caduto, o Pietrapana,
non avrìa pur dall’orlo fatto cric.
Never the Danube’s course in Austria
in winter had a covering so thick,
nor yet the Don beneath cold skies afar;
if Pietrapana or if Tambernic
had crashed on it, not even at the edge
would it have given forth the slightest creak.5
The sinners with their muzzles sticking out of the ice are like frogs croak-
ing in water at harvest time when a peasant woman dreams of abundant
gleaning, but here in eternal winter their faces are livid and their teeth rattle
like the chattering of the bill of a stork. At his feet are two so close together
that their hair is intermingled. Dante asks them who they are and as they
raise their heads their eyes gush with tears, flooding to their mouths, freez-
ing immediately more firmly than ever wood was clamped to wood by iron
bands. Such fury overcomes them that they butt against each other like two
goats. Since they cannot speak, another soul, whose ears have been frozen
off, reveals that they are the sons of the Count of Mangona, Napoleone and
Alessandro, who quarrelled over their inheritance and killed each other:
 THE FROZEN LAKE 29

‘D’un corpo usciro; e tutta la Caina

potrai cercare, e non troverai ombra
degna più d’esser fitta in gelatina;
non quelli a cui fu rotto il petto e l’ombra
con esso un colpo per la man d’Artù;
non Foccaccia; non questi che m’ingombra
col capo sì ch’ i’ non veggio oltre più,
e fu nomato Sassol Mascheroni;
se tosco se’, ben sai omai chi fu.’
‘From one womb they came forth; and to be seen
in all Caina not one soul is there
more worthy to be fixed in gelatine:
not he whose breast and shadow fractured were
by Arthur, not Focaccia,6 and not he,
whose head so interrupts my view from here
that I beyond it further cannot see,
called Sassol Mascheroni; who he was
thou knowest well if thou a Tuscan be.’ 7
Sassol Mascheroni of Florence murdered his nephew for the sake of inher-
itance. On the discovery of his crime he was rolled through the streets of
Florence in a cask full of nails and afterwards beheaded. Many of the exam-
ples are likewise criminals of recent notoriety, now long forgotten but of
sensational interest at the time, as Jack the Ripper or any modern-day serial
killer is to us. The speaker is another such ‘headline’ murderer, Camicion dei
Pazzi, who says he awaits the coming of his kinsman Carlino, whose evil
deeds will surpass his own. He reveals that the first zone of the Ninth Circle
is called Caina, after Cain, the first fratricide. Virgil listed Abel among the
souls liberated by Christ from Limbo,8 but, surprisingly, Cain himself is not
mentioned as being among murderers of kindred.
Another surprising omission is Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of
Francesca. Now at last Dante’s first listeners knew what she meant when
she said that he who murdered her and her lover Paolo was awaited in
Caina.9 Whether Dante the writer intended such a destiny for the soul of
a cuckolded husband we do not know.10 He makes no further reference to
Gianciotto’s expected arrival (he did not die until 304).
All round him he sees such a vast number of traitors’ faces, grinning like
dogs with the cold, that the memory of them still makes him shudder when-
ever he now sees a frozen pool:
Poscia vid’ io mille visi cagnazzi
fatti per freddo; onde mi vien riprezzo,
e verrà sempre, de’ gelati guazzi.
220 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

A thousand faces there surrounded me,

made dog-like by the cold: I shudder yet
and always will, when frozen pools I see.11
They move on down to the second zone, called Antenora, after Antenor,
the Trojan who was said in mediaeval Latin versions of the Iliad to have
betrayed Troy to the Greeks. As Dante walks between the innumerable
heads, by chance or fate he cannot say, he strikes his foot hard against the
face of one of them. The soul cries out: ‘Why dost thou stamp on me? Is this
some new revenge for Montaperti?’ This brings Dante to a dead stop and he
begs Virgil to wait. The word ‘Montaperti’ has led him to suspect who it is.
The soul refuses to give his name. He rejects Dante’s offer to keep his fame
alive on earth. That is the reverse of what traitors desire. Dante, suspecting
still more strongly who he is, seizes him by the scruff of the neck and threat-
ens to pull out all his hair if he does not reveal his identity. He has already
torn out more than one tuft, the soul barking in protest, when another cries
out:
… ‘Che hai tu, Bocca?
Non ti basta sonar con le mascelle,
se tu non latri? Qual diavol ti tocca?’
… ‘Bocca, what’s got into thee?
Art not content with clattering thy jaws,
that thou must bark? What is this devilry?’ 12
This is a name to make all Florentines shudder. Bocca degli Abati,
originally a Ghibelline, fought on the side of the Guelfs at the Battle of
Montaperti in 260 and at a critical moment came up behind the standard-
bearer of the cavalry and cut off his hand, thus bringing down the standard.
The result was the rout of the Guelfs, with whose blood the river Arbia ‘ran
red with blood’.13 Dante, in triumph, now knows all he needs to know and
vows to relate on earth the fate of the malvagio traditor (‘vile traitor’). Bocca
vindictively tells him to add the names of several others, including Ganelon,
the archetypal figure of a traitor in the Middle Ages.14
Dante’s behaviour towards Bocca, as towards Filippo Argenti,15 reveals
a ferocious side of his character. No amount of allegorical interpretation
can explain away his savage cruelty, displayed not only by the character
Dante but left unmitigated by any expression of compunction by Dante the
writer. Here are no tears, no fainting spells at the sight of the suffering of
the damned. He rejoices in it and relishes the prospect of keeping their black
fame alive on earth.
A further scene of savagery now follows. Another two souls, like the
Mangona brothers, are fixed in a single hole. One of them, protruding like a
 THE FROZEN LAKE 22

hood, gnaws the skull of the other where the brain joins the nape, like some-
one hungrily munching bread. This terrible spectacle is derived by Dante
from the account he has read in the Thebaid 16 of Tydeus, King of Calydon,
one of the Seven Against Thebes who, mortally wounded by the Theban
warrior Menalippus, nevertheless killed him and ordered his head to be cut
off and brought to him, when he gnawed the scalp and tore out the brains.
Dante the character realizes that there must be some reason why the one
soul is committing such an act of barbarity upon another: he asks him to
explain, promising that if he is justified he will make his story known in the
world above.
The theme of treachery has now developed into one of a devouring,
munching cannibalism. Framed within it, in unexpected contrast, is a scene
of piteous suffering, calling for horrified compassion. The ravenous soul who
gnaws the skull of another is Ugolino della Gherardesca and his victim is
Archbishop Ruggieri Ubaldini, both of Pisa and both guilty of political
betrayal. Ugolino and his grandson Nino Visconti were the leaders of two
Guelf parties who in 288 held power in Pisa. Ugolino allied himself with
the Archbishop, a Ghibelline, to drive Nino out. The Guelf party being thus
weakened, the Archbishop turned against Ugolino and conspired to have
him seized together with his two sons and two grandsons and imprisoned
in a tower, where they remained until March 289, when the Archbishop
ordered the door to be nailed up. After eight days the tower was opened and
the five bodies were found dead of starvation. This horrifying act of cruelty,
involving Ugolino’s innocent progeny as well as himself, was committed
when Dante was 23 years old. The episode was well known in Florence,
where Pisa was reviled as an example of barbarity.
In reply to Dante’s question, the soul of Ugolino raises his mouth from
his bestial meal, wiping it on the hair of the head he has ravaged with such
ferocity:
La bocca sollevò dal fiero pasto
quel peccator, forbendola a’ capelli
del capo ch’ elli avea di retro guasto.
Poi cominciò: ‘Tu vuo’ ch’io rinovelli
disperato dolor che ’l cor mi preme
già pur pensando, pria ch’io ne favelli.
Ma se le mie parole esser dien seme
che frutti infamia al traditor ch’ i’ rodo,
parlare e lacrimar vedrai insieme.’
That sinner raised his mouth from the fierce feast,
wiping it on the hair which grew atop the head
which at the rear he’d ravaged like a beast.
222 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Thou dost desire me to renew’, he said,

the desperate grief which swells the heart in me,
even to think of it, ere I proceed.
But if my words the seed of fruit may be
which will defame the traitor I thus gnaw,
one who sheds tears while speaking thou wilt see.’ 17
The style has changed from direct, brutal language to the diction of tragedy.
What is more, the words echo those of Francesca da Rimini, who on being
asked by Dante to say how her love for Paolo began replies:
… ‘Nessun maggio dolore
che ricordarsi del tempo felice
nella miseria; e ciò sa il tuo dottore.
Ma se a conoscer la prima radice
del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto,
dirò come colui che piange e dice.’
… ‘The greatest of all woes
is to remember times of happiness
in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows.
But if a great desire on thee doth press
to know the first root of our love, like one
who weeps while he is speaking, I’ll confess.’ 18
Francesca’s metaphor of the ‘first root’ of her love is echoed by Ugolino’s
‘seed of the fruit of infamy’. The words of both echo those of Aeneas to
Dido, who bids him relate the treachery of the Greeks, the misfortunes of
his comrades and his own wanderings. Aeneas consents:
‘Terrible, o Queen, is the grief thou bidst me revive, but if thou hast such
longing to learn of our disasters and in few words to hear of Troy’s last agony,
though my mind shudders to remember and recoils in grief, I will begin.’19
The lines in which Ugolino tells the story of his death are among the most
famous in the Commedia. The atmosphere of terror, the moonlight filtering
through a narrow slit in the tower, Ugolino’s dream of the Archbishop as
master of a hunt pursuing a wolf and its cubs with lean, eager, well-trained
hounds, the tearing of the wolf and its young by the sharp fangs of the
hounds, all presage what is to occur. On awakening, Ugolino heard his sons
and grandsons crying out for food in their sleep and was filled with misgiv-
ings:
‘Ben se’ crudel, se tu già non ti duoli,
pensando ciò ch’ il mio cor s’annunziava:
e se non piangi, di che pianger suoli?’
 THE FROZEN LAKE 223

‘Cruel thou art if thou dost not grieve now

to think what my heart told me in advance:
if not, by what impelled to weep art thou?’ 20
The young men and boys were now awake and the hour was approaching
when food was usually brought, but all of them, because of their dreams,
were apprehensive. Then the sound was heard of nails being hammered into
the door below. Ugolino turned to stone. He did not weep, although the
others did and the youngest, Anselmuccio mio (‘my little Anselm’), said:
… ‘Tu guardi sì, padre: che hai?’
… ‘Father, thou lookest so strange: what’s wrong?’ 21
Still Ugolino did not speak, nor did he weep, through all that day and night.
The next morning, when the sun’s ray filtered into the tower, he could see
reflected in four faces an image of his own. At this he gnawed his hands in
grief. The boys, thinking he did so in hunger, offered themselves as food:
‘Padre, assai ci fia men doglia
se tu mangi di noi: tu ne vestisti
queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia.’
… ‘Father, much less will we grieve
if thou of us wilt eat; thou didst us clothe,
now in return this wretched flesh receive.’ 22
Not to grieve them further Ugolino calmed himself. That day and the next
they all remained silent:
‘Queta’ mi allor per non farli più tristi;
lo dì e l’altro stemmo tutti muti;
ahi dura terra, perchè non t’apristi?’
‘I calmed myself to let their grief subside;
on that day and the next we all were mute;
ah, cruel earth, why didst thou not gape wide?’ 23
On the fourth day, Gaddo, one of the sons, threw himself at Ugolino’s feet,
and crying ‘Father, why dost thou not help me?’ he died. Between the fifth
day and the sixth, he saw the other three die, one by one. For two days,
Ugolino, himself now blind, groped over their bodies, calling their names,
‘poscia, più che ’l dolor, potè il digiuno.’
‘and hunger then did more than grief could do.’ 24
This line is deliberately ambiguous. As Dante anticipated, it has been under-
stood in two ways: either ‘hunger, not grief, brought about my death’, or,
‘hunger, more powerful than grief, led me to eat their flesh’. There may have
224 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

been a rumour that signs of this were noticed when the corpses were discov-
ered. In the imaginary account he gives to Ugolino, Dante lifts the possibility
to the level of epic by making the sons offer their bodies as food, relegating
the realistic possibility to Ugolino’s gnawing of Ruggieri’s skull. No sooner
has he finished his tale than he returns to his bestial repast:
Quand’ebbe detto ciò, con li occhi torti
riprese ’l teschio misero co’ denti,
che furo all’osso, come d’un can, forti.
When he had spoken thus, with eyes asquint,
once more he took the skull between his teeth,
which, like a dog’s, were strong and violent.25
At this point Dante the wrathful poet stands aside from his story and calls
obliteration down upon all the inhabitants of Pisa, reviled in Florence as an
example of barbarity:
Ahi Pisa, vituperio delle genti
del bel paese là dove ’l sì sona,
poi che i vicini a te punir son lenti,
muovasi la Capraia e la Gorgona,
e faccian siepe ad Arno in su la foce,
sì ch’ elli annieghi in te ogni persona!
Ah, Pisa, shame of the community
of the fair land where sì is heard to sound,26
since slow thy neighbours are to punish thee,
let Capraia and Gorgona 27 shift their ground
and dam the river Arno’s mouth until
every last resident in thee is drowned! 28
This is the wrath of Jehovah who sent the Flood, but without the mercy
shown to Noah. Pisa, a new Thebes, deserves in Dante’s opinion to be utterly
destroyed. He accepts the rumour that Ugolino was guilty of treachery in
yielding certain Pisan strongholds to Florence and Lucca. It is for this and
for other deeds of treachery that he places him among the traitors, but mercy
should have been shown to Ugolino’s sons and grandsons.
In the midst of the deepest savagery to which humans can sink, there
comes a shaft of light. As the moon and sun filter their rays through the
pertugio (‘loophole’) in the tower, so Ugolino’s love and compassion for his
sons and grandsons, their readiness to sacrifice themselves for him, their
bond of kindred, offer hope of an escape, not for the unrepentant damned
but for mankind. It is through another pertugio that Dante will emerge from
Hell, to look once more upon the stars.29
 THE FROZEN LAKE 225

But there is yet worse to come. Leaving Antenora, Dante and Virgil
move on into the third zone of the Ninth Circle, where murderers of guests,
betrayers of the ancient trust of hospitality, are frozen face upwards in the
ice. The zone is named Tolomea, after Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho, who
invited Simon the High Priest and his sons to a banquet and murdered
them there.30
The eyes of these sinners are so caked with ice that, like a crystal visor,
it fills up the cavity beneath the brows and tears well up behind it, increas-
ing their anguish. One of the souls calls out, asking whoever is passing to
remove the frozen crust from his eyes to grant him temporary relief. To this
request Dante replies:
… ‘Se vuo’ ch’ i’ ti sovvegna,
dimmi chi se’, e s’io non ti disbrigo,
al fondo della ghiaccia ir mi convegna.’
‘First tell me who thou art: that is my price,
and if I do not free thee from thy mask,
may I be destined for the deepest ice.’ 31
Since Dante is destined to travel, unharmed, down into the lowest pit of all,
this is a pledge made in ill faith. The soul is deceived by it and reveals his
identity:
Rispuose adunque: ‘I’ son frate Alberigo;
io son quel dalle frutte del mal orto,
che qui riprendo dattero per figo.’
‘I am Friar Alberigo’, the soul said,
‘remembered for the evil garden’s fruit,
and here I am in dates for figs repaid.’ 32
The mysterious reference to fruit is explained by early commentators who
relate that Friar Alberigo33 invited his brother and a nephew to a banquet
and in revenge for an earlier insult, which he pretended to have forgiven,
had them murdered, giving as a signal to his armed servants the command:
‘Bring on the fruit!’ Dante knew that he was still alive and expresses aston-
ishment at finding his soul already in Hell. Alberigo explains that often
when the bond of hospitality is betrayed the murderer’s soul at once falls
into Tolomea and for the rest of his life on earth his body is possessed by a
demon. Alberigo also names the soul of Branca d’Oria of Genoa, whose soul
has been there for many years. Dante does not believe him:
‘Io credo’, diss’ io lui, ‘che tu m’inganni;
chè Branca d’Oria non morì unquanche,
e mangia e bee e dorme e veste panni.’
226 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘I think’, I said, ‘that thou art making fun,

‘for Branca d’Oria is not dead at all,
and eats and drinks and sleeps and puts clothes on.’ 34
These three lines bring us very close to Dante the man. This is his voice,
his everyday way of speaking, his refusal to be made a fool of. Alberigo
assures him that Branca’s soul dropped down into Tolomea even before that
of his victim, his father-in-law Michele Zanche, reached the boiling pitch
of the swindlers.35 It is reported that the murder was committed about the
year 290 and that Branca, with the help of a nephew, conspired to invite his
father-in-law to a banquet, where he had him killed in order to obtain the
judicature of Logodoro in Sardinia which Zanche held. The nephew’s soul is
also in Tolomea, Alberigo adds, and his body too is possessed of a demon.
To allege that three living persons were possessed of demons was to place
them in grave danger in a superstitious world. Why Dante elects to do so
we do not know. Of all his contrivances for anticipating the damnation of
individuals still alive, this is the most malicious. Vindictive too is his refusal,
after his false pledge, to remove the ice from Alberigo’s eyes:
e cortesia fu lui eser villano.
and villainy to him was courtesy.36
Nor do we know why Dante, finding in Tolomea, in company with ‘the
worst spirit of Romagna’, two souls from Genoa, calls for the destruction of
all the inhabitants:
Ahi Genovesi, uomini diversi
d’ogne costume e pien d’ogni magagna,
perchè non siete voi del mondo spersi?
Ah, Genoese, men utterly devoid
of all good custom and with every vice
corrupt, how is it you are not destroyed? 37
Here Dante takes a stance not only of moral outrage but of moral venge-
ance.
 CHAPTER 28
Lucifer

F
rom his childhood Dante had been familiar with the image of Lucifer
in the mosaic decoration of the cupola of the Baptistery in Florence.
Work on these mosaics began in the first half of the thirteenth
century and continued during Dante’s early years. The design on the cupola
consists of an apocalyptic vision of Christ in majesty presiding over the Last
Judgement, the angelic hierarchy, events from the Old and New Testaments
and scenes of damnation, arranged symmetrically in rectangular segments
and culminating in a central triple-octagonal ornamentation. The image of
Lucifer dominates a tumultuous scene in which souls of the damned are
tormented by demons. Lucifer himself is a grotesque monster, horned and
bearded, munching a soul whose legs and buttocks dangle from his mouth.
From his ears protrude two snakes, also munching two souls, who dangle
face forwards. Lucifer clenches other souls in his hands, held ready for the
continuation of his meal. His feet are clamped on yet another two, and
demons force others towards him and towards other snakes. A crude repre-
sentation of his insides shows a soul being digested and about to be excreted.
The devouring is thus represented as endlessly continuous.
Such a representation of Lucifer was conventional in Dante’s time. It
must have held a gruesome fascination for him as a boy. He may have seen
it actually being put into place. The triple-mouthed head would have been
recognized as a parody of the Trinity and the horrifying ugliness of the
whole figure was a visual aid to sermons about the fate of the fairest and
noblest angelic being who rebelled against the Creator.
This is the figure that Dante adopts for the climax of Inferno. It has been
in his mind from the beginning. With characteristic control and orderli-
ness, he improves on the crude mosaic picture while retaining essentials. His
Lucifer has three faces, which, like the figure in the Baptistery, munch three
souls, one with the legs dangling, the other two face forwards. To this extent
he is faithful to his boyhood recollection. He adds, however, many details,
which have significance for his imagined world.
In the mocking words of Virgil, with which the final canto opens, Lucifer
is presented as the King of Hell:

227
228 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig 5. The Cupola of the Baptistery in Florence

 LUCIFER 229

‘Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni

verso di noi; però dinanzi mira,’
disse il maestro mio, ‘se tu ’l discerni.’
‘The banners of the king of Hell advance
towards us, therefore to gain a glimpse of him,’
my master said, ‘cast forward now thy glance.’ 1
Virgil (the pre-Christian) is here quoting, with the addition of the word
inferni, the first line of a Passion hymn sung in praise of the Cross. The
banners are Lucifer’s six wings and it is not they which are advancing but
the poets who are moving towards them. Lucifer, the first and greatest of all
traitors, is stuck fast in the ice, both punished and punisher.
Virgil and Dante are now in the fourth zone of the Ninth Circle, named
Judecca, after the arch-traitor Judas. Here the souls of betrayers of benefac-
tors are completely immersed in the ice, like straws in glass, some supine,
others vertical, with head or feet uppermost, others arched like a bow. No
converse with them is possible and we do not learn who any of them are.
Dante becomes aware of what seems a vast edifice, like a windmill, glimpsed
in a thick fog. A chilling wind makes him draw back behind Virgil as his only
shelter. At a certain point Virgil steps aside to let him see la creatura ch’ ebbe
il bel sembiante (‘the creature who was once so fair’),2 and says: ‘Behold Dis;3
here is the place where thou must arm thyself with courage.’
Dante has no literary predecessor for what he is about to describe. Up
to now he has drawn on Lucan and Ovid, claiming to surpass them, and
he has borrowed from Virgil, but here he is on his own. The fear which the
character Dante feels has its parallel in the soul of Dante the writer:
Com’io divenni allor gelato e fioco,
nol dimandar, lettor, ch’i’ non lo scrivo,
però ch’ ogni parlar sarebbe poco.
Io non mori’ e non rimasi vivo:
pensa oggimai per te, s’ hai fior d’ingegno,
qual io divenni, d’uno e d’altro privo.
How chilled I then became, how faint I grew,
ask me not, Reader, for I cannot say,
no words of any kind for this would do.
I did not die, alive I did not stay:
think for thyself, if thou hast any wit,
what I became, bereft in either way.4
‘The Emperor of the woeful kingdom’ rises mid-torso from the ice. Such is
his size that Dante compares better with a giant than giants compare with
his arms.
230 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

S’ el fu sì bello com’ elli è or brutto,

e contra ’l suo fattore alzò le ciglia,
ben dee da lui proceder ogni lutto.
If he as fair was as he now is foul
and dared defy his Maker in revolt,
well may he be the source of all our dole.5
Dante marvels to see three faces on his head, one in front and two over the
middle of each shoulder, all joined at the crown. The one in front is red,
the one on the right is white and yellow, the one on the left is the colour
of people who inhabit the valley of the Nile. Beneath each are two wings,
larger than any sails ever seen by Dante at sea; they have no feathers but
are like a bat’s. As they flap, they produce three winds, by which Cocytus
is kept frozen. From six eyes he weeps and over three chins drip tears and
bloody foam. In each mouth his teeth crush a sinner, like a hackle dressing
flax, keeping all three of them in constant pain. For the sinner in the front
mouth, the biting is exceeded by the clawing of nails which leave the spine
stripped of all flesh.
This sinner, says Virgil, is Judas Iscariot. The other two are Brutus, who
hangs from the black muzzle and says nothing, and Cassius, who seems
strong-limbed.
‘Ma la notte risurge, e oramai
è da partir, chè tutto avem veduto.’
‘But night is rising 6 once again, and now
the time has come to leave; we have seen all.’ 7
The economy with which Virgil announces the end of the tremendous jour-
ney through Hell is striking but we cannot take our leave of Lucifer with-
out further comment. First, given his enormous height, which from Dante’s
indications has been calculated to be over ,400 feet, and given that about
one-half of him is visible above the ice, his three heads are about 700 feet
above Dante’s own. There is a conflict here between realistic description and
poetic imagination, since from so far below and in such darkness it would be
impossible for Dante to see, for instance, that Judas is being more scratched
than bitten or that Cassius is sturdy of limb. It is possible that Dante here
reproduces his childhood experience of looking up at the cupola of the
Baptistery and knowing, from having been told, what is there although he
cannot precisely see it from the ground. It is likely that in his childhood the
image of Lucifer frightened him and haunted his dreams.
The presence of Judas as the worst of all human traitors requires no expla-
nation, but that of Brutus and Cassius must have puzzled Dante’s earliest
listeners and has in fact given rise to controversy down the centuries. Readers
 LUCIFER 23

Fig 6. Lucifer in the Cupola of the Baptistery in Florence

of Il Convivio knew that Dante believed the Roman Empire to have been
ordained by God for the peace of the world. Those who betrayed Caesar
therefore (Cassius being the chief conspirator and Brutus once Caesar’s
closest ally) were in his view the secular equivalents of Judas who betrayed
Christ. He takes no time at this point to expound this belief: the significance
of the image will become clear as the work progresses. More important for
his narrative is the immediate need to describe how the exit from Hell was
managed. This explanation involves Dante’s vision of the fall of Lucifer and
the effect he imagined it had upon the globe of earth.
Obeying Virgil’s instructions, Dante clasps him round the neck. Virgil
watches Lucifer’s flapping wings and when they are wide apart seizes the
hair on his body and with Dante clinging to him descends from tuft to tuft
between the monster and the icy crust. Reaching the point where the thigh-
bone turns and the haunch swells, Virgil, with a great effort, turns upside
down and pulls himself up, still clutching Lucifer’s hair, so that to Dante it
seems as if they are returning to Hell:
‘Attienti bene, chè per cotali scale’,
disse ’l maestro, ansando com’ uom lasso,
‘conviensi dipartir da tanto male.’
232 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Hold tight, for it is by such stairs as these’,

my master said, weary and out of breath,
‘that we must leave such evil as this is.’ 8
Squeezing through a cleft, Virgil seats Dante on an edge of rock and then
carefully steps across himself. Dante, looking up, expects to see Lucifer as he
had left him and is dumbfounded to see instead that his legs are pointing
upwards:
E s’io divenni allora travagliato,
la gente grossa il pensi, che non vede
qual è quel punto ch’io avea passato.
If I was then astonished and aghast,
let stupid folk imagine, who don’t see
what point it is that I had then just passed.9
The point he has just passed is the middle of the earth.
Virgil commands Dante to get to his feet:
‘Lèvati su’, disse ’l maestro, ‘in piede:
la via è lunga e ’l cammino è malvagio,
e già il sole a mezza terza riede.’
‘Stand up’, my master said, ‘we must move on:
the way is long, the path is rough and hard,
already to mid-terce returns the sun.’ 10
Dante is now more perplexed than ever. Virgil had told him, before they
began to climb down the body of Lucifer, that night was rising: how can it
now be morning? Where is the ice, and why is Lucifer upside down?
Virgil explains that they are no longer in the northern hemisphere but
have passed into the southern and are standing on a sphere of rock that
forms the opposite surface of Judecca. When it is morning where they are, it
is already evening in the north.
Dante now creates a legend to explain Lucifer’s position in the ice and
to describe the effect of his fall from Heaven upon the globe of the earth.
No geological account of volcanic eruptions, of seismic convulsions or of
tectonic changes resulting from continental shift, no science fiction, no
space odyssey can match the magnificence of this titanic visualization.
When Lucifer fell from Heaven, Virgil explains, he collided with the
southern hemisphere of our globe. At that time, all the land was in the
southern sphere and the northern was covered with water. The land, in
horror at the approach of Lucifer, shifted violently away from contact with
him and reappeared in the north, while water rushed in to fill the void in the
south. As the hideously transfigured archangel spiralled through the globe,
 LUCIFER 233

the earth inside rushed past him southwards in like horror, leaving a twist-
ing hollow and forming a mountain which rose above the new covering of
waters. This violent re-arrangement of the face of the earth, the creative feat
of a single poet’s imagination, surpasses all Ovid’s fables of metamorphosis,
constituting a mythology on its own. It also raises the curtain on the cosmic
scene that forms the setting of Purgatorio and ultimately of Paradiso.
The earth’s convulsive horror at the approach of Lucifer is likewise a
symbolic statement that mankind’s habitat was created not for evil but for
good. He has contaminated it and now all sin, depicted in graphic realism in
the cantos of Inferno, flows from him. Nevertheless, there is a gleam of hope.
Light, which filtered through the pertugio of Ugolino’s tower,11 is seen again
by Dante as, climbing up the grotto in the darkness behind Virgil, guided by
the sound of a little stream, he emerges through another pertugio upon the
surface of the southern hemisphere, once more to behold the stars:
Lo duca e io per quel cammino ascoso
intrammo a ritornar nel chiaro mondo;
e sanza cura aver d’alcun riposo
salimmo su, el primo e io secondo,
tanto ch’i’ vidi delle cose belle
che porta ’l ciel, per un pertugio tondo
e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
My guide and I along that hidden route
set forth, to see the world of light once more;
and for repose or respite caring not,
we climbed, he first, I second, as of yore,
until the lovely things the heaven bears
I could perceive through a round aperture,
whence we came forth to see once more the stars.12
 CHAPTER 29

The Tragedy of Henry VII

O
n 27 November 308 an event occurred that had an enormous impact
upon Dante and his world. A new king of the Germans was elected.
This was Henry, Count of Luxembourg, a member of a French-
speaking aristocracy, renowned for their chivalry during the Crusades. The
first of the family to rise to eminence, he was a courageous, idealistic prince
on whom passionate hopes came to be fixed. One of his rivals for election
had been Charles of Valois, supported by his brother King Philip IV of
France. The fact that Henry’s brother Baldwin in his office as Archbishop of
Trier was one of the Electors no doubt influenced the result.1
Henry’s first coronation, as the seventh of that name, took place at Aix-
la-Chapelle on 6 January 309. Three coronations were required to consecrate
his election as, first, King of the Germans, next, King of the Romans and,
finally, Emperor. The crown at the first ceremony was silver. On 2 June of
that year he sent an embassy to Pope Clement V in Avignon, asking for his
support. On 6 July Clement issued the first of two encyclicals confirming
his election. One of Henry’s first moves was to consolidate his relations with
the Habsburgs, the family of his predecessor Albert I (who was murdered),2
by marrying his son John to Elizabeth of Bohemia. King John of Bohemia,
as he was then known, was later killed on the battlefield of Crécy in 346.
In May 30 Henry sent ambassadors to the rulers of Italian cities to
announce his intention of coming to Rome to receive the imperial crown, a
procedure that had been neglected by his predecessors for 60 years. It was
made known that his intention was to reconcile the conflicting parties and
to decree the return of political exiles to their cities of origin. There is a tradi-
tion that he said he would not permit the words Guelf and Ghibelline to be
uttered in his presence.
The Florentines opposed him from the outset. On 3 July his ambas-
sador arrived in Florence and met with a defiant rejection. By August the
Florentine government had made alliances with King Robert of Naples3
and with Guelf cities of Tuscany and Lombardy to resist Henry’s advance
through Italy. On  September Pope Clement issued a second encyclical

234
THE TRAGEDY OF HENRY VII 235

Fig 7. The Emperor Henry VII

236 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

calling on all good Christians, and Italians in particular, to receive and

honour Henry as the Emperor. On 30 September King Robert arrived in
strength from Naples to support the Florentine opposition. The battle lines
were drawn.
On 0 October 30 Henry arrived at Lausanne, where he was welcomed
by ambassadors from a number of Italian cities, but not from Florence. That
same month Henry with his German army crossed the Alps by Mount
Cenis, reaching Susa on the 24th, and arrived in Turin on the 30th. Between
0 November and 2 December he was in Asti, where he received Guelf and
Ghibelline exiles and appointed Imperial representatives (vicari) in vari-
ous cities. By the end of November the Florentines were fortifying their
walls, which had been allowed to fall into disrepair. On 23 December Henry
entered Milan. He was received with acclamation and the Milanese made a
donation of 00,000 florins in his support.
The effect on Dante of the news of these events can hardly be overstated.
Here at last, it seemed, was the fulfilment of his hopes and dreams of peace
and of his return to Florence. Such were the hopes and dreams too of many
of his fellow exiles. He had broken away from those with whom he was
involved in his first years of banishment and had played no part since then
in political negotiation. Now he could no longer stand aside.
One of the first things he did was to travel with fellow supporters to
Milan, where on 6 January 3, in the church of Sant’Ambrogio, Henry
received the ‘iron crown’4 of Charlemagne. Representatives from many
Italian cities were present, but again none from Florence, nor from the
Tuscan league of Guelfs.
Spare, small of stature and with a slight squint, his brow encircled
with the crown which on Christmas Day in the year 800 had been set by
Pope Leo III on the head of the first Holy Roman Emperor, here was the
veltro, prophesied in Inferno and now materialized, the embodiment of the
Monarch whom Dante had foreseen, who, as he wrote in Il Convivio,
possessing everything, and having nothing left to desire, would keep kings
confined within the borders of their kingdoms, so that peace would be main-
tained between them,5
who would establish justice, who would drive avarice from the earth. It must
have been a hallowed moment for Dante when, kneeling in homage before
this august personage, he touched his feet and paid tribute with his lips.6
Henry continued to instate representatives of imperial authority and
attempted to reconcile Guelfs and Ghibellines. Already in January 3 he
had abrogated all sentences of banishment passed for political reasons, but
the problem of the re-entry of exiles was proving intractable. By 20 February
Cremona, incited by Florence, was rebelling against him, followed in March
 THE TRAGEDY OF HENRY VII 237

by Brescia. His supporters resolved to try to influence rulers of Italian king-

doms and communes by despatching proclamations from eminent person-
ages. Among them was Dante.
In all he wrote three letters. His first is addressed to ‘Princes of Italy,7
Senators of Rome, Dukes, Marquises, Counts and Peoples’. Like the other
two, it is written in elegant Latin, in accordance with the rhetorical rules of
the cursus.8 A question that comes to mind is: could these ‘princes, senators,
dukes, marquises and counts’ read Latin? Surely they are the very categories
of readers for whom Il Convivio was written in Italian:
princes, barons, knights, and many other noble folk, not only men but women,
numbers of both sexes who use the vulgar tongue and are not scholars.9
Even if such potentates were not ‘scholars’ (literati), protocol required
that such an epistle should be written in Latin. Literate members of secre-
tariats and chancelleries were in any event available to serve as translators.
Dante’s letter was not the only one despatched, and teams of copyists must
have been engaged. This activity, as well as the cost of galloping messen-
gers, had to be financed by some means. Dante was staying at the time in
the castle of Poppi in the Casentino region in Tuscany, the guest of Count
Guido Novello, with whom he took refuge after leaving Sarzana.10 His
protectors were on terms of personal amity with the Emperor, as is shown
by correspondence between the Countess and the Empress,11 and it is likely
that this powerful and wealthy family were among those who met the costs
of the campaign.
Dante’s letter is expressed in high-flown metaphors: the sun of peace
is rising, justice, which has grown faint, will revive, another Moses has
been raised up to free his people. Let Italy now rejoice. Pitied even by the
Saracens, let her now welcome as her bridegroom Henry, the elect of God.
He will appoint officials to administer justice; he will grant amnesty to all
who submit but will punish those who resist. This is a reference to the rebel-
lious opposition, especially in the north of Italy.
He rhetorically addresses the inhabitants of Lombardy, reviling them
as barbarians, descendants of the Scandinavians,12 and calling on them to
summon what remains of their Trojan and Roman ancestry and offer alle-
giance to the Emperor. Let them not be misled by the wiles of avarice which
like the sirens of old can overcome their reason. This reference to avarice is
in line with Dante’s thoughts on the subject in Il Convivio and in Inferno. It
also suggests that he is aware that opponents of Henry are being bribed to
stand against him.
To those who, like himself, have suffered injustice he counsels patience
and forbearance. He whose power, like that of St Peter and of Caesar, derives
from God, will show mercy and compassion. Let all the inhabitants of Italy
238 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

rise up to meet their king, not only as subjects to his sovereignty but as
free peoples under his guidance. Again, as in Il Convivio, Dante asserts his
conviction that the authority of the Roman Emperor was ordained by God
from earliest times to the triumphs of Augustus, some achieved by the high-
est pitch of human endeavour, from which it is apparent that
God at times has wrought through man as though through new heavens. For
it is not always we who act, but sometimes we are the instruments of God;
and the human will, in which liberty is by nature inherent, at times receives
direction untrammelled by earthly affections, and subject to the Eternal Will
unconsciously becomes the minister thereof.13
If this reasoning does not suffice, let those to whom he writes consider that
during the period of 2 years of peace under the rule of Augustus, God
the Son was made Man for the revelation of the Spirit and, preaching the
gospel, apportioned the world to Himself and to Caesar, bidding that to
each should be rendered that which was his.14
In an echo of his arrogant manner of arguing in Il Convivio, Dante
concludes his letter with a challenge to any obstinate mind ( pertinax animus)
that does not yet assent to the truth: let it recall the words of Christ to Pilate
who claimed vicarious authority over Him.15 Let all, therefore, open the eyes
of their minds and see how the Lord of heaven and of earth has appointed
a king:
This is he whom Peter, the Vicar of God, exhorts us to honour,16 and whom
Clement, the present successor of Peter, illumines with the light of the
Apostolic benediction.17
The reference to the second encyclical of Pope Clement, which Dante echoes
more than once, shows that this letter, which is undated, was written after 
September 30.
To Dante his arguments seemed unanswerable. Only obdurate minds,
closed to reason, could reject them. They cut no ice, however, with Henry’s
opponents, who were more interested in realpolitik than in theological truth,
ancient history and quotations from the Bible. By early 3 the resistance
of the Florentines had become so formidable that Dante next undertook
to challenge them directly. The date of his second letter is 3 March of that
year.
It opens with a form of address so insulting that it made it unlikely that
those in power in Florence would ever re-admit him:
From Dante Alighieri, a Florentine undeservedly in exile, to the most iniqui-
tous Florentines within the city (scelestissimis 18 Florentinis intrinsecis).
 THE TRAGEDY OF HENRY VII 239

The text of the letter begins with a renewed assertion of his conviction
that the Roman Empire was a sacred institution, ordained by God for the
peaceful governance of human affairs. Proof of this is to be found in Scripture,
and the ancients, relying on reason alone, also bore witness to this truth. It is
further confirmed by the fact that when the throne of the Emperor is vacant,
the whole world goes awry, the helmsman and the rowers of the ship of
Peter fall asleep, and unhappy Italy is tossed by such buffeting of winds and
waves as no words can describe. He warns all who in mad presumption have
risen up against the will of God that they will suffer divine retribution.
He accuses the Florentines of avarice, which leads them to resist the
glory of the Roman Emperor, the King of the earth, the minister of God.
He reviles them for their disobedience ‘to most sacred laws’ (sacratissimis
legibus), made in the likeness of natural justice,
the observance of which, if it be joyous, if it be free, is not only no servitude,
but to him who observes with understanding is manifestly in itself the most
perfect liberty.19
Dante holds the concept of law in religious reverence. He had come to
do so already in Bologna, when in Il Convivio he set forth civil and canon
law as the remedy for avarice.20 That society will one day be justly ordered is
certain to him not only as divine law but as a law of nature.
The Florentines presume to set up a separate kingdom in opposition to
that of Rome. Such folly is comparable to that of setting up a second Holy
See, or of creating a second moon and a second sun, the symbols of Papal
and imperial power.21 Let them reflect that the penalty for their crime is
the loss not only of wisdom but of the beginning of wisdom, namely the
fear of God. Florence, he prophesies, is heading for destruction. He mocks
their confidence in their ‘contemptible rampart’. What use will it be to them
when, terrible in gold, the eagle shall swoop down upon them, as once it
soared over the whole civilized world, from the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, the
Atlas mountains, and gazed down upon the vast expanse of ocean?
He draws a terrifying picture of the walls of Florence crumbling beneath
the battering rams of the imperial army, the city set on fire, the populace
starving and in rebellion, the churches, where women take refuge, despoiled,
children suffering in wonder and ignorance for the sins of their fathers:
And if my prophetic soul be not deceived, which announces what it has been
taught by infallible signs and incontrovertible arguments, your city, worn out
by ceaseless mourning, shall be delivered at the last into the hands of the
stranger, after the greater part of you have been destroyed in death or captivity;
and the few that shall be left to endure exile shall witness her downfall with
tears and lamentation.22
240 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The letter concludes with further prediction of the destruction of Florence

and of the triumph of Henry, the elect of God.
Dante was no diplomat. The only reaction to such a letter would be
further defiance. This proved to be the case. Between April and May the
Florentines recalled many of their Guelf exiles in order to weaken the oppo-
sition beyond their walls. Unsurprisingly Dante was not included in this
amnesty; in fact, in a second proclamation, he was expressly excluded.
His third letter, dated 7 April 30, addressed this time to the Emperor
himself, advises him to delay no longer in the north but to attack Florence at
once. From the form of address it is apparent that Dante wrote as a spokes-
man for ‘all the Tuscans everywhere who desire peace’, that is, the exiles who
long for justice. New hope arose in their hearts when Henry crossed the
Alps and they sang, like Virgil, of the return of a golden age. They are now
perturbed by his delay but have not lost trust in him,
and I too, who write as well for myself as for others, beheld thee most gracious
and heard thee most clement, as beseems Imperial Majesty, when my hands
touched thy feet and my lips paid their tribute.23
But they are puzzled that he has not yet moved against Tuscany. He seems to
regard his kingdom as limited by the boundaries of Liguria, forgetting that
the glorious dominion of the Romans was confined neither by the frontiers
of Italy nor by the coastline of Europe.
At this point Dante introduces a further proof of his beliefs. This did not
appear in Il Convivio, nor in his previous letters, but it is one which he will
later make the cornerstone of his treatise Monarchia.24 In the earlier form
in which it appears in this letter, the reasoning is as follows: when Augustus
issued a decree that all the world should be taxed, as Luke records, the fact
that the Son of God willed to be made Man at that time proves that the
decree came from the court of a most just prince. We catch here a glimpse
of the cogitation of Dante’s mind as he sets down the outline of an idea
that will ultimately assume immense importance in his view of history and
Divine Providence.
Urging Henry to move at once against Florence, Dante has recourse
to classical parallels. Henry is a new Aeneas, whom Mercury once chided
for his delay in Carthage; his son, the royal first-born and heir, is another
Ascanius who will follow in his father’s steps and fall like a raging lion upon
the followers of Turnus, treating with gentleness the followers of Latinus.
He cites the example of Hercules who in his attempt to kill the Hydra at
first cut off one head after another, which, ever multiplying, sprouted again,
stronger than before, until he finally attacked the root of its life, applying
fire to the neck whence all the heads sprouted. Of what use is it to subdue
Cremona? New rebellion will break out at Brescia or Pavia and, when that
 THE TRAGEDY OF HENRY VII 24

is quelled, at Vercelli or at Bergamo or somewhere else. Can his exalted

Highness not perceive from his watch-tower that the source of resistance
is Florence? She is the viper who rends her mother’s vitals, the sick sheep
that infects the flock, the abandoned and unnatural Myrrha, inflamed with
passion for her father, and Amata, who killed herself rather than accept her
daughter Lavinia’s marriage to Aeneas. Mingled with these mythological
examples are glimpses of actual events. Dante is aware that the Florentines
are doing their best to win over bordering regions by bribes and lying propa-
ganda; they are also trying to bring about a breach between Henry and the
Pope, as well as negotiating with King Robert of Naples, unlawfully barter-
ing rights which are not theirs.
The letter concludes with renewed exhortation to Henry to put an end
to delay, bidding him overthrow this Goliath with the sling of his wisdom
and the stone of his strength, thereby restoring to the lamenting exiles their
rights as citizens.
Henry paid no attention to Dante’s advice. Throughout September
3 he besieged Brescia and razed its fortifications. Lucca, allied with
Florence, strengthened its defences. Henry again sent ambassadors to the
Florentines, who refused to receive them. In October he moved to Genoa
and in November commanded that representatives from Florence should
appear before him. They again refused. That same month, King Robert sent
troops to help Florence and Lucca in their resistance. The Guelfs of Brescia
again rose against the Emperor and were expelled by his heroic supporter
Can Grande della Scala. Parma and Reggio, aided by Florentine and other
Tuscan Guelfs, also rebelled. Just as Dante had predicted, the Hydra’s heads
were sprouting on all sides.
At the beginning of 32 Cremona again rebelled and drove out the
Imperial representative. In February Henry strengthened the position of Can
Grande della Scala by making him Imperial Vicar of Vicenza but that same
month Padua, aided by Florence and Bologna, rebelled and likewise ejected
the Emperor’s representative. Pope Clement, who had at first declared his
support in two encyclicals, now under menaces from Philip IV of France
felt obliged to leave Henry to carry on his task alone, unaided, if not actually
opposed, by Papal authority.
It was at this unpropitious moment that Henry resolved to go to Rome
to be crowned Emperor. In February he set sail from Genoa for Pisa. In
readiness, King Robert sent his brother, Prince John, to Rome to join forces
with the Orsini in opposition to Henry’s arrival. On 28 April Henry left Pisa
and travelled by way of the Maremma to Viterbo, thence on to Rome, where
on 7 May, with the help of the Colonna family, enemies of the Orsini, he
forced an entry. Prince John’s troops and the Guelfs of Tuscany assembled
242 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in strength to oppose the coronation. Henry was forced to compromise. St

Peter’s being in the hands of hostile forces, he accepted coronation in the
church of St John Lateran. The ceremony was performed on 29 June by
Cardinal Niccolò da Prato25 and two other cardinals. On this occasion the
crown was gold.
In August Henry returned to Tuscany and set up camp in Arezzo, where
it is thought Dante was among those who flocked to support him in his
preparations for besieging Florence. He opened the siege on 9 September
and his forces were ranged outside the walls until the end of October. The
Florentines received large reinforcements from the Guelfs of Tuscany and
Romagna but prudently did not venture out into battle, preferring a policy
of masterly inactivity. On 3 October Henry, having achieved nothing, with-
drew to San Casciano, where he remained until 6 January 33. Later that
month he moved to Poggibonsi and in March he set up camp in Pisa, where
he issued a proclamation against Florence depriving the city of all dignities
and privileges. In August he resolved to march south against King Robert
of Naples. Leaving Pisa, he encamped on the banks of the river Arbia at
Montaperti, the scene of the disastrous defeat of the Florentine Guelfs in
260.
And here Henry fell ill, some say of malaria, others allege that he was
poisoned. He was moved to Buonconvento, near Siena, where on 24 August
he died. His body was taken to Pisa, where he was buried in the Cathedral.
His monument, attributed to the sculptor Giovanni Pisano, is in the Campo
Santo.
The Florentines were jubilant. They addressed an exultant letter to their
allies, inviting them to rejoice at the death of their enemy, ‘the savage tyrant,
Henry Count of Luxembourg’. So much for his three coronations.
For his supporters there was mourning and lamentation and bitter regret
for what might have been. Cino da Pistoia, Dante’s friend, composed a
canzone in lament. To Dante the catastrophe must have been overwhelming,
but from the tragedy he managed to draw forth renewed resolve, stronger
now than ever, to set forth in the Commedia his unshaken conviction that
one day a supreme monarch would arise and bring peace and justice to the
world.26
 CHAPTER 30

Better Waters

H
ow far had Dante advanced in his writing of Inferno when Henry
VII crossed the Alps in 30? We do not know, but the following is
significant. In Canto XIX Pope Nicholas III foretells that Clement
V will push Boniface VIII and himself like pot-holers along the rock:
‘chè dopo lui verrà di più laida opra,
di ver ponente un pastor senza legge,
tal che convien che lui e me ricopra.
Nuovo Jason sarà, di cui si legge
ne’ Maccabei; e come a quel fu molle
suo re, così fia lui chi Francia regge.’
‘for after him will come, in deeds more foul,
a lawless shepherd from the west, to trim
the two of us and move us down this hole.
Another Jason he will be, like him
we read of in the book of Maccabees,
who’ll bend the king of France to suit his whim.’ 1
These words must have been written after Pope Clement V, having at first
supported Henry, treacherously withdrew his allegiance in compliance with
pressure from Philip IV in 32.
Dante is likely to have suspended work on the Commedia from about
30 until Henry’s death in 33. As has been shown, he was deeply involved
in lending his impassioned eloquence to bring about what he believed would
establish justice in a disordered world. This was no time for withdrawal into
imaginative composition; nor is it likely that he would then have gathered
an attentive audience. After Henry’s failure and death, and in the civil unrest
in Italy that followed, the political elements in Inferno increase. Ironic gibes
at public figures, rebukes to cities and regions, predictions of retribution
multiply and become ever more reckless. Florence in particular, from the
beginning a target for reproach, grows ever more so. The doom Dante fore-
told for her in his Epistle is echoed in Canto XXVI of Inferno in words that

243
244 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

are almost a quotation.2 The anti-Florence theme is given even more force-
ful expression in Purgatorio and reaches the last word in condemnation in
Paradiso.3
Dante knew now that the Monarch he foresaw would not come imme-
diately. There was nothing to be hoped for from Henry’s successor, Louis IV
of Bavaria,4 whose battles with a rival candidate, Frederick of Austria, and
subsequently with Frederick’s brother Leopold, kept him occupied north
of the Alps. Pope John XXII, who succeeded Clement V in 36, refused to
recognize either Louis or his rival Frederick and would later assert his right
to administer the Empire himself.5
Despite these discouraging events, Dante never lost faith that one day an
ideal Monarch would arise, and he saw it as his task to prepare public opin-
ion for his coming. He came to believe more strongly than ever that, like the
divine citizens of ancient Rome of whom he writes in Il Convivio and in his
epistle to the rulers of Italy, he himself was an instrument of the will of God.
His poem must also have been sponsored.
Henry had been a forerunner: the time for him had not been ripe. There
is an oblique reference to this in Purgatorio. Sordello, pointing out the rulers
in the Valley of the Late Repentant, indicates the Emperor Rudolph, who,
he says, might have healed the wounds of Italy but neglected to do so and
her recovery will now be deferred:
sì che tardi per altro si ricrea.
not soon her health another will restore.6
The enthronement-to-be of Henry VII in Paradise, confirming and surpass-
ing his three coronations upon earth, is Dante’s supreme obeisance to the
man who might have been the Monarch he still foresees. He has no actual
person in mind but he believes that it is God’s law and a law of nature that
a ruler must one day come who will establish justice in the world. In the
meantime he has his prophetic vision to complete.
The dark, at times despairing images of Hell are now left behind:
Per correr migliori acque alza le vele
omai la navicella del mio ingegno,
che lascia dietro a sè mar sì crudele;
e canterò di quel secondo regno
dove l’umano spirito si purga
e di salire al ciel diventa degno.
On better waters now to navigate
my little skiff of talent lifts her sail,
leaving behind a sea so full of hate;
 BETTER WATERS 245

and of that second realm my song will tell

where human souls are purged and fit become
to rise up into spheres celestial.7
Poetry, which has died in Inferno, will come to life again. To help him he
invokes the Muses, whose devotee he is, and in particular Calliope, the epic
Muse, for he is entering now upon a more heroic mode, though mindful of
the presumption of the daughters of King Pierus who, challenging the Nine,
were turned into idly chattering magpies. Dante had read the story in Ovid’s
Metamorphoses,8 in which Calliope is described as rising to sing and striking
the chords of her lyre with her thumb. Ovid’s words are echoed:
E qui Calliopè alquanto surga,
seguitando il mio canto con quel sono
di cui le Piche misere sentiro
lo colpo tal, che disperar perdono.
And here let Calliopè awhile arise,
accompanying my song with that same sound
which struck in punishment the wretched Pies,
from which no pardon ever could be found.9
Dante still keeps Ovid at his elbow as he writes; likewise Lucan, as will be
seen below.
The tale of a journey across the sea to an unknown island was almost
as widespread in folklore as the tale of the underground journey into Hell.
A well-known example was the Navigatio Brendani (‘The Voyage of St
Brendan’), a Celtic tale of sea adventure similar to the Imrama of Irish liter-
ature. Transmitted in Latin in the ninth century, it was adapted in prose
and verse in Old French, Italian, Provençal and other languages. Dante may
have read the Tuscan version, which dated from the early years of the four-
teenth century. St Brendan’s goal is the ‘Promised Land of the Saints’ and
after prolonged search he finds it, but is sent back to Ireland where he tells
his tale. In some versions, he makes several journeys. On the first he meets
the Devil who takes him to the gate of Hell, where he sees ‘a rough, hot
prison, full of stench and filth and flame’ and horrifying punishments. On
the second he comes to an island where he meets an old man covered with
white hair, like the feathers of a dove or a sea-mew, who has the speech of
an angel. He admits Brendan to a land of Paradise, with radiant fields and
fragrant flowers, where he hears melodies and shouts of joy. In other versions
he comes to a Paradise of Birds. These are the neutral angels who upon the
rebellion of Lucifer were neither for him nor for God. Being without active
guilt they had been transformed into birds and relegated here to await the
Resurrection.10 It has been shown that Dante allots a more degrading fate
246 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

to them in Inferno,11 discreetly omitting all mention of them afterwards in

Paradiso.
It is early dawn when Dante and Virgil emerge from the pertugio tondo
(‘round aperture’) on to the shore of the Mountain of Purgatory. The sky is
sapphire from the zenith to the horizon and Venus, the morning star, who
incites all things to love, makes the east joyful as she veils the constellation
of Pisces following in her train. Turning towards the south, Dante sees four
stars, so brilliant that the whole sky seems to rejoice in their sparkling:
Oh settentrional vedovo sito,
poi che privato se’ di mirar quelle!
Oh widowed region of the northern sphere,
deprived of gazing on such stars as those! 12
These stars are strangely suggestive of the Southern Cross but since Dante
says that they were never seen except by the prima gente (‘first people’), that
is, Adam and Eve,13 it is unlikely that he had heard of them from Marco
Polo and other travellers. It has slipped his mind that he has made Ulysses
say that at one point all the stars of the southern sky were visible:
‘Tutte le stelle già dell’altro polo
vedea la notte …’
‘Already all the stars of the south pole
the night beheld …’ 14
Turning his gaze towards the north, whence the Wain has already
vanished, Dante sees the figure of an old man,
degno di tanta reverenza in vista,
che più non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.
so worthy in his bearing of respect,
no son to father greater reverence owes.15
His beard is long and streaked with white, and a double tress of silvered hair
falls to his breast. Here is the old man of St Brendan’s tale, as the audience
would expect, but he is a great deal more than that. His face is so adorned
with the light of the four holy stars that it seems as though the sun is shin-
ing on him. He does not welcome the travellers but sternly challenges them
in deep, authoritative tones, shaking his venerable tresses as he speaks. It is
interesting that here Dante calls his tresses piume (‘feathers’), a word retained
like a fossil from the earlier story of St Brendan:
‘Chi siete voi che contro al cieco fiume
fuggita avete la pregione etterna?’
diss’el, movendo quelle oneste piume.
 BETTER WATERS 247

‘Chi v’ha guidati, o chi vi fu lucerna,

uscendo fuor della profonda notte
che sempre nera fa la valle inferna?
Son le leggi d’abisso così rotte?
O è mutato in ciel novo consiglio,
che dannati venite alle mie grotte?’
‘Who are you who upstream the hidden brook
the eternal prison have escaped?’ he said,
shaking those reverend feathers as he spoke.
‘Who was your guide, your lantern, when you fled
the night profound which everlasting is,
shrouding in black the valley of the dead?
Thus broken are the laws of the Abyss?
Or does new law in Heaven now permit
the damned to seek my grottoes as they please? ’ 16
Virgil knows at once who this is: he has seen him before in Limbo. He takes
hold of Dante and commands him to kneel and bow his head. The magic
words with which he quelled Charon and Minos will not serve him now.
He launches into an eloquent oration, in which, though his name is not
mentioned, it is revealed that this is Cato of Utica, the ‘god-like’ Roman so
revered by Dante. Virgil answers all Cato’s questions, explaining that neither
he nor Dante is among the damned, that his commission comes from on
high, and asks for consent to lead his charge through the seven kingdoms
under Cato’s command. Dante meanwhile, kneeling in devout reverence, has
his ears pricked.
‘Libertà va cercando, ch’ è sì cara,
come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta.
Tu ’l sai, che non ti fu per lei amara
in Utica la morte, ove lasciasti
la vesta ch’al gran dì sarà sì chiara.’
‘Freedom he seeks, which is so dear, as he
who his own life renounces for it knows.
Thou knowest, for in Utica for thee
death was not harsh when thou thy garb didst shed
which glorified on the great day will be.’ 17
This forecast by Virgil of Cato’s ultimate salvation is startling. Dante has
allowed himself to imagine that Christ, when He released souls from Limbo,
drew forth Cato, a pre-Christian Roman. Unlike the patriarchs and those
who believed in Christ to come, he was not transported immediately to
Heaven but must await the Last Judgement, serving in the meantime as
guardian of the slopes of Mount Purgatory. This unorthodox addition to
248 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Christian belief is the more challenging in that Cato had committed suicide
rather than yield to Caesar after his defeat of Pompey, an act to which Virgil
here refers in admiration, linking it with a dedication to liberty. Since the
passport to Purgatory is repentance, the implication can only be that Cato
has repented of his sin of suicide and purges it by the service he performs
as guardian of those who arrive on the shore of the mountain on their way
to Heaven.
Dante’s idealized portrait of Cato was derived from Lucan: the great-
hearted Cato of Stoic courage, who raised the morale of his troops before
leading them on their march across the Libyan desert, the true father of his
country who would one day be deified and Rome would have a god by whose
name it need not be ashamed to swear.18 Lucan left his epic poem unfin-
ished, before reaching Cato’s suicide, but Dante had read Cicero’s comment,
which he would later quote in Monarchia:
Nature had bestowed on Cato an austerity beyond belief and he had strength-
ened it with unfailing constancy, and had always persisted in any resolve or
plan he had undertaken. It was fitting therefore that he should die rather than
submit to a tyrant.19
Such are the origins of Dante’s historical and ethical view of Cato of Utica,
but the episode in which this august figure appears in Purgatorio belongs not
to history or to ethics but to poetry. ‘Dead poetry’ (la morta poesia), poetry
that has been entombed with death and damnation, does indeed now come
to life again.
The scene has a visual, almost theatrical quality. The three figures, Cato,
with the starlight upon him, speaking in his deep, sonorous voice, Virgil,
awe-struck and deferential, Dante, kneeling, his head bowed, in the pres-
ence of the two Romans he most greatly revered, are like characters in a
play. Virgil, in a long, ornate speech, requests Cato’s consent to proceed on
their journey in the name of Cato’s wife, Marcia, a fellow soul with Virgil in
Limbo. Cato’s response to Virgil’s eloquence is one of the most memorable
snubs in literature:
‘Marzia piacque tanto alli occhi miei
mentre ch’io fui di là’, diss’elli allora,
‘che quante grazie volse da me, fei.
Or che di là dal mal fiume dimora,
più muover non mi può, per quella legge
che fatta fu quando me n’uscì fora.’
‘Marcia’, said he, ‘when I lived yonder there,
so pleased my eyes that any boon whatever
desired by her of me I granted her.
 BETTER WATERS 249

Now that she dwells beyond the evil river

she may not move me, by the edict made
when from that place I took my leave forever.’ 20
‘… but since a lady from on high is guiding thee, there is no need for flattery
(non c’ è mestier lusinghe), let it suffice to ask me in her name.’
This stern rebuff is in keeping with the Stoic personality of the historical
Cato. So too is his lack of interest in Dante except as someone who is in no
condition to appear before the heavenly beings he will meet. To Cato he is
simply costui (‘this man here’) and he commands Virgil to take him to the
water’s edge and cleanse his face and gird him with a rush, which he will find
growing at the margin of the island,
‘là giù colà dove la batte l’onda’
‘down there below where the wave laps the shore’ 21
a line which reveals Cato as a master of onomatopoeia. They are not to
return the same way. The sun, which is rising, will show them where they
can ascend the mountain more easily. Having given these terse instructions,
he vanishes: Così sparì.22
This sudden disappearance of Cato belongs to fairytale. Indeed, this and
the following canto of Purgatorio are written with a delicate enchantment
that reveals a new aspect of Dante’s poetic imagination.
As the light of dawn grows, the morning breeze departs and in the
distance Dante can make out il tremolar della marina (‘the trembling of the
sea’). In a shady spot, where the dew still lingers, Virgil gently lays both
hands outspread on the young grass:
Ambo le mani in su l’erbetta sparte
soavemente ’l mio maestro pose:
ond’io, che fui accorto di sua arte,
porsi ver lui le guance lacrimose …
My master then extended both his hands,
laying them gently on the tender grass:
and I, like one who swiftly understands,
towards him lifted up my tear-stained face …23
This unforgettable scene is one of the most intimate moments in the
Commedia.
Descending to the empty shore, Dante reflects that no man has ever
sailed towards it who was subsequently able to return. He is thinking of
Ulysses. He does not name him but the three rhyme-words in the context
are the same with which he concludes the story of that doomed voyage:
acque, piacque, rinacque.24 Then, as Cato has commanded, Virgil girds Dante
250 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

with a rush. The canto ends with another touch of fairytale; by a marvel the
plant that is plucked grows up again immediately:
Oh maraviglia! chè qual elli scelse
l’umile pianta, cotal si rinacque
subitamente là onde l’avelse.
O marvellous! the very stalk he chose
amid the humble plant was born again,
for where he plucked, the same at once arose.25
 CHAPTER 31

The Morning Sun

D
ante the poet has now induced in his audience the responses of
eagerness and hope, as also in the character whose role he plays.
The early sun has reached the horizon. Standing beside Virgil at
the water’s edge, he sees a light which skims across the sea. As it grows
brighter and larger, a whiteness appears to surround it. Virgil, who remains
silent, discerns the figure of a winged pilot and exclaims to Dante:
… ‘Fa, fa che le ginocchia cali:
ecco l’angel di Dio: piega le mani;
omai vedrai di sì fatti officiali.’
… ‘Down, down upon thy knees,
behold, this is God’s angel, fold thy hands,
henceforth thou’lt see such ministers as these.’ 1
This pilot needs neither oars nor sails. His wings, raised high, fanning the
air, suffice tra liti sì lontani (‘between such far-off shores’).2 As he draws near
his brightness so increases that Dante’s eyes are dazzled. The vessel comes
to land, so light it draws no water. On the stern stands the heavenly steers-
man and in the boat sit more than a hundred souls, singing in unison the
psalm In exitu Israel de Aegypto (‘When Israel went out of Egypt’).3 Dante
had chosen this text in Il Convivio as an example of spiritual allegory: while
conveying a historical truth, it also signifies the release of the soul from sin.4
The angel blesses the souls with the sign of the Cross, they disembark and
he departs as swiftly as he came.
The new arrivals look about them not knowing which way to turn.
Seeing Dante and Virgil they ask for directions. Virgil says they are stran-
gers like themselves, having come by another route so rough and hard that
to climb the mountain will seem easy in comparison. The souls notice from
Dante’s breathing that he is in the first life and grow pale with wonder. Like
people crowding round a messenger who carries an olive branch, they press
forward, eager to learn how this can be, as though forgetful of the purpose
of their journey. One soul draws near to Dante, his arms outstretched. Dante

25
252 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

responds but his arms three times fail to clasp the soul and fold back empty
on his breast.
The metaphysics of the southern world are different from those in Hell;
they are also variable. Virgil can seize hold of Dante and make him kneel
before Cato, but Dante cannot touch this soul, who, smiling at his astonish-
ment and repeated attempts, bids him desist. Dante then knows who he is
and begs him to wait:
Rispuosemi: ‘Così come io t’amai
nel mortal corpo, così t’amo sciolta:
però m’arresto; ma tu perchè vai?’
‘As in my mortal bonds’, was his reply,
‘I loved thee, so, released, I love thee still:
therefore I wait; but where goest thou and why?’ 5
This is Casella, a singer, who is said to have set Dante’s poems to music.
When Dante wrote this canto, Casella had been dead for about 5 years.
Since he died early in the year 300,6 Dante is obliged to explain how it is
that he arrives only now, on Easter Sunday of that year.7 Casella tells him
that souls who die repentant gather at the mouth of the Tiber to await
their passage to the southern hemisphere. For the last three months (since
the proclamation of the Papal Jubilee) the angel-pilot has readily taken all
who were eager to come. Casella’s time of waiting, therefore, has not been
lengthened but reduced.8
Asked if in his new state he can recall the songs of love with which he
used to solace Dante’s longings, Casella at once responds and his sweet voice
sounds forth:
Amor che nella mente mi ragiona
cominciò elli allor sì dolcemente,
che la dolcezza ancora dentro mi sona.
Love which discourses to me in my mind
so sweetly he began to sing at my request,
that in me still the sweetness is entwined.9
Virgil and the hundred and more souls are likewise entranced, listening as if
they had no other purpose for being there. They are interrupted by the stern
tones of Cato, who reappears. Astonished to find the new arrivals dallying,
he calls, in words resonant of a deep voice:
… ‘Che è ciò, spiriti lenti?
Qual negligenza, qual stare è questo?
Correte al monte a spogliarvi lo scoglio
ch’ esser non lascia a voi Dio manifesto.’
 THE MORNING SUN 253

… ‘What now, you laggard souls,

what dallying’s this, what loitering behind?
Off to the mount to strip away the scale
which to the sight of God still makes you blind.’ 10
Like doves startled at their feeding, the souls scatter, making for the slopes,
going they know not where. Nor is the obedient departure of Virgil and
Dante any less swift.
We know nothing of the poetry recitals that took place in Florence when
Dante was a young man, but here, after many years in exile, he longingly
evokes just such an occasion, recapturing his own trance-like pleasure in
the sound of singing. There was evident affection between the two friends
(Casella mio, Dante calls him), but those days are gone and he must not dwell
nostalgically on the past. That is the meaning of Cato’s harsh rebuke: there
are urgent spiritual tasks ahead. Abashed, the souls disperse, Casella with
them. Despite Cato, however, he has lingered for centuries in the imagina-
tion of readers, one of whom was Milton.
The canzone that Dante chooses for Casella to sing has a special signifi-
cance at this point in the Commedia. Dante had provided it as the second
dish of his banquet, Il Convivio.11 A dedication of the intellect to divine
Wisdom, it is also a love poem, inspired not by Beatrice, but by the donna
gentile, identified by Dante in his commentary as Philosophy. In the first
stanza, which we may hope Casella had time to sing, Dante conveys the
difficulties he has met in his study of philosophy: his mind cannot inwardly
express certain things and even what he can grasp he cannot adequately put
into words. This is appropriate to the character Dante’s unreadiness at the
present stage in his journey: he still has many things to learn and many errors
to shed, not only on Mount Purgatory but also in the spheres of Paradise.
The second stanza draws the listeners’ thoughts up into the heavens and to
the movement of the sun in its apparent circling of the earth. In Il Convivio
this had led to a long astronomical discourse, which he is about to transform
into an engaging dialogue between himself and Virgil.
The doctrine of Purgatory released in Dante a sense of joyful elation.
Despite all the evil that human beings commit, the arms of God’s mercy are
so wide that all who repent and seek forgiveness, even at the last moment
before death, are saved from damnation, though the process of purgation
they undergo may last for centuries. It is not sinful actions that are punished
here, for those have been absolved, but sinful innate tendencies. These are
known in theology as the Seven Capital (or Deadly) Sins: pride, envy, wrath,
sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust. They are like illnesses of which the soul must
be healed before it is fit to ascend to Heaven. The time of healing can be
shortened by prayers offered by the living. It is for this reason that the souls
254 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

on the Mountain, on realizing that Dante is still in the body and will return
to the world they have left, are so eager to give him messages to take back
about themselves.
To this orthodox doctrine, Dante adds an arrangement of his own. Below
the seven cornices on which the Capital Sins are purged are two terraces
where souls who died excommunicate, who delayed repentance owing to
indolence or overriding concerns or who suffered sudden death are obliged
to spend a preliminary period of waiting before entering on their purga-
tion. This extension allows Dante to vary the personalities he meets and the
circumstances in which he converses with them.
In Hell Dante was an observer. In Purgatory he is a participant, sharing,
as a figure of mankind, a token purgation of all seven sins, which results
in a bond between him and the souls. Love is an all-embracing element
throughout this cantica, like the sunlight, in which his imagination flowers.
He takes pleasure in constructing and adorning his three-dimensional world
and visualizing himself moving about in it. We are now in the presence of
Dante the scenographer.
He is particularly skilful with his lighting effects. As he and Virgil slow
down their pace and walk towards the mountain, the sun is behind them. In
front of him he sees his shadow, but only his. Alarmed, he turns, thinking
that Virgil has left him. But Virgil is there, reassuring him and reproaching
him for his lack of faith. He takes the opportunity to remind Dante of the
time difference between the two hemispheres:
‘Vespero è là colà dov’ è sepolto
lo corpo dentro al quale io facea ombra:
Napoli l’ha, a da Brandizio è tolto.’
‘It is now twilight where my body lies,
wherein I cast a shade, from Brindisi
to Naples taken after my demise.’ 12
He then begins a discourse on the insubstantial nature of souls, something
which is beyond the grasp of philosophers, who yearn in vain for solutions
to the mysteries of faith. ‘I speak of Aristotle and Plato and many others’,
he says, and bows his head, seeming disquieted. This is a passing but struc-
turally important allusion to Virgil’s eventual return to the noble castle in
Limbo, where the souls dwell in longing without hope.
Dante meanwhile has been looking up at the cliff and sees on the left a
group of souls advancing slowly. He and Virgil have moved on a thousand
paces, or ‘about as far as a stone would fly from a good thrower’s hand’,
when the souls stand still, pressing close together against the side of the cliff.
Virgil addresses them with courtesy and respect:
 THE MORNING SUN 255

‘O ben finiti, o già spiriti eletti’,

Virgilio incominciò, ‘per quella pace
ch’i’ credo che per voi tutti s’aspetti,
ditene dove la montagna giace
sì che possibil sia l’andare in suso;
chè perder tempo a chi più sa più spiace.’
Virgil began, ‘O souls whose death was blessed,
spirits already chosen for that peace
which I believe awaits you, I request,
say where the mountain is less steep, to ease
our upward path, for loss of time, the more
one knows its value, must the more displease.’ 13
As sheep huddle behind their leader, stopping they know not why, so do
the souls when those in front catch sight of Dante’s shadow. Virgil at once
confirms that his companion is a living man, privileged by power on high
to make the journey. The souls, gesturing with the backs of their hands (a
particularly Italian gesture), instruct them to turn and walk ahead of them.
They do so and a voice calls out: ‘Whoever thou art, turn round and say
if thou hast ever seen me yonder in the world.’ Dante turns and looks at him
fixedly:
Biondo era e bello e di gentile aspetto,
ma l’un de’ cigli un colpo avea diviso.
Blond, beautiful and nobly born he seemed,
but one brow had been severed by a blow.14
Dante humbly disowns ever having seen him. The soul shows him a wound
on his breast and, smiling, says, ‘I am Manfred, grandson of the Empress
Constance.’
This is a royal personage of high standing. The natural son of the Emperor
Frederick II, he was a scion of the Hohenstaufen, a Germanic dynasty,
from whom he inherited his blond good looks. On his father’s death in
250 he became ruler of Apulia and Sicily and was a powerful supporter of
the Imperial cause. Pope Clement IV excommunicated him and established
Charles, Count of Anjou, the son of King Louis of France, in his place.
Charles defeated Manfred at the Battle of Benevento, at which he was slain,
in 266.
Manfred relates that on receiving two mortal blows he turned in tears to
God:
‘Orribil furon li peccati miei;
ma la bontà infinita ha sì gran braccia
che prende ciò che si rivolge a lei.’
256 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Horrible were the sins I did commit;

but infinite good has such wide-open arms
that it receives whoever turns to it.’ 15
Manfred was alleged to have committed several murders in his attempt to
hold on to power16 but the chief barrier to his redemption was his excom-
munication. Dante has undertaken to save him from damnation by decree-
ing in his Purgatory that those who die repentant, though excommunicate,
are redeemed, though obliged to spend there 30 times the number of years
they remained in contumacy with the Church. Manfred asks Dante to give
his daughter Constance, mother of the kings of Sicily and Aragon, the joyful
news that he is not in Hell. When Dante wrote these words, Constance
had been dead for many years.17 They are, in effect, addressed to the Papacy,
defying the orthodox belief that excommunication ineluctably damned a
soul to Hell.
Chroniclers had recorded that Manfred’s body was not found for some
days after the battle, when a camp follower recognized it, flung it across an
ass and went about calling, ‘Who will buy King Manfred?’ It was brought
before King Charles, who, at the request of Manfred’s barons who had been
taken prisoner, gave him an honourable burial. Having been excommuni-
cated he could not be interred in consecrated ground, but a pit was dug at
the foot of a bridge near Benevento and every soldier cast one stone over it,
building up a cairn. When the Pope heard what had been done, he ordered
the Archbishop of Cosenza to dig up the body and scatter the remains along
the bank of the river Verde, beyond land belonging to the Church. ‘If the
Archbishop had read God’s page more carefully,’ Manfred says, ‘my bones
would still lie at the bridgehead near Benevento under the shelter of the
heavy cairn.’18
His choice of King Manfred as an example of a redeemed excommuni-
cate is significant. He had formed from chroniclers a romantic concept of
him as a courtier, a poet, a musician, a valiant soldier and a royal personage
of outstanding beauty. In De Vulgari Eloquentia19 he had referred to him and
his father as the founders of the Sicilian school of poetry:
Those illustrious heroes, the Emperor Frederick20 and his well-born21 son
Manfred, displayed the nobility and righteousness of their character, as long
as fortune remained favourable, … and those who were of noble heart and
endowed with grace strove to attach themselves to the majesty of such great
princes. Consequently, in their time whatever the best Italians attempted first
appeared at the court of these mighty sovereigns.
He had then begun a diatribe against their successors, strangely irrelevant to
the subject of the text, as he himself admits, saying, ‘But it is better to return
to our subject than to speak in vain.’ The degeneracy of their followers is a
 THE MORNING SUN 257

matter he will resume with renewed emphasis in Purgatorio, not this time,
he hoped, in vain.22
Whatever Dante’s ultimate opinion of Frederick II and of his descend-
ants, it is evident that he was susceptible to the glamour of royal personages
and to male beauty. Manfred was defeated in battle but Dante invests him
nevertheless with an aura of victory. His wounds were honourably received
facing the enemy and his soul has defeated the anathema of a Pope. When
other details fade from our attention, in the single line
biondo era e bello e di gentile aspetto
King Manfred still shines from the page like a golden heraldic figure in the
light of the morning sun.
 CHAPTER 32

From Humour to Invective

A
t a certain point, the excommunicate souls point out a gap where
Virgil and Dante can ascend to the next level. The ascent is strenu-
ous and Dante is left exhausted and breathless. To recover, he sits on
a ledge and looks east, first down at the shore and then up at the sun. To his
astonishment it is on his left. Virgil notices his surprise and there follows
a dialogue which is a delightful game of mockery, of the audience and of
Dante himself.1
The explanation is simple: they are south of the equator, where, if one
turns to the east, the sun at mid-morning is on one’s left, whereas north
of the equator it is on one’s right. Dante makes Virgil provide a long and
involved account, a parody of learned writings on the subject. ‘If Castor and
Pollux,’ he begins, ‘were in company with the mirror that carries its light
upwards and downwards, the glowing Zodiac wheel would be still closer to
the Bears, unless it departed from its ancient track. To understand clearly
how this may be, imagine Zion and this mountain so placed that they have
one horizon in common and different hemispheres. It will then be plain that
the highway2 on which Phaethon failed to drive must necessarily pass this
mountain on the one side and that on the other side, if thou wilt give thy
mind to it carefully.’
In simple terms, if it were summer, the sun would be still further north;
and since Mount Zion and the Mountain of Purgatory are exactly oppo-
site to each other, the sun is always to the south of Zion and to the north
of Purgatory. Dante’s reply, also needlessly involved, is devised to produce
still more confusion and to demonstrate his own nimble wits. With smug
complacency he answers, ‘Truly, Master, I never saw anything so clearly as I
now discern what I failed to grasp before, that the mid-circle of the celestial
motion, which is called the equator in astronomy, always lies between the
sun and winter, and is as far northward from us here now as the Hebrews
saw it towards the torrid regions.’
Eager now to proceed, he asks how much further they have to go, for the
mountain soars beyond his sight. Virgil encourages him by saying the climb

258
 FROM HUMOUR TO INVECTIVE 259

will seem easier the higher he goes, until when he reaches the top it will be
like going downstream in a boat. At this moment a voice is heard close by:
… ‘Forse
che di sedere in pria avrai distretta!’
… ‘Maybe
before then thou’lt have need to sit awhile.’ 3
They turn and notice a large boulder, in the shade of which souls are rest-
ing. One of them sits clasping his knees and holding his face down between
them. Dante calls Virgil to look at this picture of indolence. The soul, scarcely
moving his head along his thigh, says, ‘Go on up, thou who art so strong!’
Dante then knows who he is and, although still weary, moves towards him.
The soul raises his head a little and says mockingly, ‘Hast thou taken in how
the sun drives his chariot on thy left?’
The soul is that of Belacqua, another friend from Dante’s Florentine
days, a maker of musical instruments, so lazy that he was said never to walk
when he could sit. The genial banter between them evokes a happy relation-
ship, so much so that Dante, the censorious moralist, relaxes for a moment
and smiles. This sudden, intimate self-portrait has caught at the heart of
many readers: Dante, stooping over the hunched figure of his lazy friend,
smiling indulgently at his foible, as perhaps he did when he visited him in
his workshop, pleased now to find him not in Hell but among those who
will ultimately be blessed. But why, he asks, does he delay? Belacqua answers:
‘What would be the use of going up?’ He has to wait until the length of his
earthly life has passed before the ‘angel of God who sits in the doorway’4 will
let him in, unless prayers from a soul in grace shorten the time. ‘What other
prayers are of use?’ Belacqua asks, with characteristic resignation.
But Virgil is calling. They must move on:
… ‘Vienne omai: vedi ch’ è tocco
meridian dal sole ed alla riva
cuopre la notte già col piè Morocco.’
… ‘Make haste, see how
the sun has touched meridian, and night
at the far shore bestrides Morocco now.’ 5
In this brilliant stanza we see the whole globe of earth, the southern hemi-
sphere ablaze with noon-day light, the northern swathed in midnight
black.
Following in Virgil’s steps, Dante hears a soul call out, ‘Look, the rays of
the sun are blocked on the left of the one below’, a nice example of stage-
management, indicating that he has now turned direction. He looks back, his
260 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

attention self-centredly held by the amazement of the souls. Virgil sternly

rebukes him:
‘Perchè l’animo tuo tanto s’impiglia’,
disse ’l maestro, ‘che l’andare allenti?
Che ti fa ciò che quivi si pispiglia?
Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti:
sta come torre ferma, che non crolla
già mai la cima per soffiar de’ venti.’
‘Why do thy wits so wander in a snare’,
my master said, ‘that thou dost lag behind?
If they are whispering, why shouldst thou care?
Follow, and let them talk as they’ve a mind.
Stand like a solid tower that never bows
its head for all the buffeting of wind.’ 6
Dante, blushing with shame, can only reply, ‘I come’.
They now meet souls who died in battle or in murder. Having put off
repentance until the last moment they, like the indolent, must spend time
equal to their years on earth before they are admitted to the cornices of
purgation. Among them is Buonconte da Montefeltro, a Ghibelline warrior
killed on the battlefield of Campaldino, where Dante himself had fought.7
Buonconte’s body was never recovered and Dante invents an explanation,
drawing a deliberate contrast between Buonconte and his father Guido
da Montefeltro, the fate of whose soul, like that of his son, was in a criti-
cal balance at the point of death.8 It is possible that Dante may himself
have slain Buonconte or have seen him slain: they were both fighting in the
cavalry, on opposing sides. The reference to the fatal wound in the throat
suggests one or the other possibility. If so, the story he gives Buonconte to
relate concerning his final moments takes on a personal poignancy.
As a guest in the castle of Poppi, Dante had many opportunities to revisit
the plain of Campaldino and to recall the battle in which he had fought as
a young man. In stormy weather he could have watched the river Archiano
gushing in full spate into the Arno, causing it to overflow its banks.9 Was
this, he may have pondered, how Buonconte’s body disappeared? ‘Where the
stream joins the river,’ Buonconte relates, ‘I arrived, unhorsed, my throat cut,
my blood staining the ground.’ There he lost the power of sight and manag-
ing only to utter the single word ‘Mary’:
‘caddi e rimase la mia carne sola’.
‘I fell and my dead flesh alone was left.’ 10
This vivid picture of a body emptied of its soul further suggests Dante’s
memories of seeing death in combat, possibly even the death of Buonconte.
 FROM HUMOUR TO INVECTIVE 26

As in the case of his father, Buonconte’s soul was the object of dispute
between an angel and a devil. The angel claimed him and the devil bitterly
complained:
‘Tu te ne porti di costui l’etterno
per una lacrimetta che ’l mi toglie;
ma io farò dell’altro governo!’
‘Thou carriest off the eternal part of him
for one small tear by which thou robbest me;
but with the other I will have my whim!’ 11
The devil conjured up a mist that hung between the mountains of Pratomagno
and the Apennines, such as Dante must have often seen when he was in
the region. This so charged the sky that the air was turned to water. Down
came the rain, swirling in torrents that poured full spate into the Arno. The
Archiano reached Buonconte’s stiffened body and swept it along, loosening
its arms from the cross it had formed at the moment of death and rolling it
over and over between the banks until it was covered with weed.
The vividly imagined fate of Buonconte’s body is followed by the brief,
plaintive words of another soul. This is Pia dei Tolomei, said to have been
murdered by her husband. She is forever memorable for the courteous words
in which she asks Dante to pray for her:
‘Deh, quando tu sarai tornato al mondo
e riposato della lunga via’,
seguitò il terzo spirito al secondo,
‘ricorditi di me che son la Pia:
Siena mi fè; disfecemi Maremma:
salsi colui che ’nnanellata pria
disposando m’avea con la sua gemma.’
‘I beg, when thou the world once more hast gained
and rested art from thy long journeying,’
another spirit added at the end,
‘the name of Pia to thy memory bring.
Siena gave me life, Maremma death,
as he well knows who wed me with his ring,
having, betrothed to me, first pledged his faith.’ 12
Pia’s womanly thought for Dante’s need of rest after his journey offers a
glimpse of the pleasure he took in feminine sympathy. Coming as it does
immediately after the memory of the brutal masculinity of battle it is pecu-
liarly touching.
The other souls who clamour round him, eager that he should take back
messages to their relatives on earth, are less self-effacing. Dante, comparing
262 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

himself to a winner at a game of dice, around whom a crowd gathers hoping

for a share, names only six of them, briefly and dismissively. ‘When I had
rid myself of one and all,’ he says with somewhat callous detachment, ‘I
questioned Virgil as to the efficacy of prayer.’ Virgil draws a distinction
between prayers from souls who are in grace and those who are not (as
indeed Belacqua has already done) and says this must suffice until Beatrice
is able to expound the matter further: Dante will see her upon the summit
of the mountain, smiling and blessed.
At the mention of her name all Dante’s detachment vanishes. He is at
once eager to hurry on. Virgil tells him that things are otherwise than he
thinks. They can advance as long as there is light but before they reach the
mountain’s crest they will again see the sun, which is now hidden by the
slope, so that Dante no longer casts a shadow. This adroit change in the
lighting arrangement serves conveniently to remove Dante from the centre
of attention.
Seated to one side is a majestic figure. Gazing disdainfully at the travel-
lers, he is about to let them pass, watching them like a lion couched. Virgil,
however, approaches him and asks the way to the easiest ascent. The soul
does not reply but asks only where they come from and who they are. Virgil
begins: ‘Mantua …’ and the soul at once leaps up, crying ‘O Mantuan, I am
Sordello of thy city!’ and they embrace each other.
At this point Dante steps outside the narrative, like a modern broad-
caster who leaves the autocue, and speaks in his own person: Dante the
exile, Dante the public figure, Dante the champion of imperial authority.
For the rest of the canto he rails, as through a megaphone, against Emperors
who have neglected Italy and against Florence, his city still (‘my Florence’),
which has lapsed into turmoil. The time from which he speaks is 300, but
he is writing more than a decade later, not long after the tragic failure of
Henry VII and the resistance Florence had mounted against him.13
The power of the invective is all the stronger for being unexpected. It
is the brotherly love of the two Mantuans, evoked by the mere mention
of their city’s name, which releases the outburst. Dante the character in
the story stands unobserved, in shadow, a silent onlooker. Dante the writer
stands forward in dramatic prominence and gives vent to his personal wrath,
bringing into evidence the political aim of his work. This is the Dante who
at the time of Henry’s coming addressed letters to the rulers of Italy, to the
Florentines and to Henry himself: all to no avail. With apocalyptic fury
he denounces the irresponsible Emperors and foretells the assassination of
Albert, calling it a just judgement; with grief he enumerates the feuds by
which Italy is torn;14 with frenzied sarcasm he mocks the Florentines for
their lawlessness and for their continual changes of legislation.
 FROM HUMOUR TO INVECTIVE 263

The diatribe is given immense force by cumulative alliteration. Read

aloud for the first time it must have held his listeners spell-bound, a striking
example of Dante’s demagogic power. The similes are overpowering: Italy is
an abode of grief, a ship without a pilot in a raging storm, no longer ruler
of domains but a common hireling,15 a riderless horse. Of what use is the
bridle of laws refitted by Justinian if the saddle is empty? Or worse, if it is
mounted by the clergy who usurp the authority of Caesar? The remedy is
long in coming and at the time of writing Dante seems almost to have given
up hope: has God turned His eyes away, or is He preparing some good in
the secret abyss of His counsel? The bitterness of the outburst, inspired by
the recent tragedy of Henry’s failure and by the thought of what might have
been, is deeply moving. After seven centuries the force of his resentment and
of his desire for vengeance has not diminished.
Some explanation of Sordello’s function as the trigger of this invective
is required. Sordello, the poet, was born in Goito, near Mantua, in about
the year 200 but spent most of his life in Provence. About 40 of his poems
are extant, all in Provençal. Dante speaks of him admiringly in De Vulgari
Eloquentia,16 as being distinguished by his eloquence both in poetry and in
other writings, from which it is apparent that Dante had read certain prose
works by Sordello which have not been preserved. One poem in particular,
known as the Lament for Blacatz, is a denunciation of the foremost princes
of Europe. It is perhaps from this that Dante derived the concept of him as
a figure appropriate to associate with his own invective.
Dante returns to the poem as narrator in the following canto. The gestures
of greeting between the two Mantuans are repeated three and four times
before Sordello draws back and asks, ‘But you, who are you?’17 Virgil replies,
‘Before souls worthy to ascend to God had approached this mountain my
bones were buried by the Emperor Octavian. I am Virgil, and for no other
fault I was deprived of Heaven but for lack of faith.’
Overcome by the marvel of Virgil’s presence, Sordello bows, embracing
him là ’ve ’l minor s’appiglia (‘where the humble clasp the great’):18
‘O gloria de’ Latin’ disse, ‘per cui
mostrò ciò che potea la lingua nostra,
o pregio etterno del loco ond’io fui,
qual merito o qual grazia mi ti mostra?
S’io son d’udir le tue parole degno,
dimmi se vien d’inferno, e di qual chiostra.’
‘O glory of the Latins’, he exclaimed,
‘through whom our tongue showed all that it could do,
for whom my birthplace is forever famed,
264 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

what grace or merit thee to me doth show?

If I deserving am to hear thy words,
art thou from Hell, and from which quire below?’ 19
In Virgil’s reply, in which he tells Sordello of his place in Limbo and of his
journey, sanctioned by divine power, he omits all mention of the fact that
Dante is a living man. Here is another example of well-contrived stage-
management: the revelation is reserved for a later moment when it will
not draw attention away from Virgil and will make its own more dramatic
impact.
Night is now approaching and Sordello, stooping to the ground, draws
a line with his finger, saying, ‘Once the sun goes down there can be no
going up, not even past this mark, but only down and round the hillside.’
He conducts the two travellers to a valley where they can rest and await the
new day. There follows a beautiful scene, filled with colour, fragrance and the
sound of singing.
 CHAPTER 33

Close of Day and a New Dawn

T
he first day on Mount Purgatory begins and ends with song. Seated
on the slopes of the valley to which Sordello leads Virgil and Dante
are the souls of kings, princes and other rulers whose responsibili-
ties and worldly cares led them to delay repentance. They too must wait
the length of their earthly lives before entering the gate to the cornices of
purgation. Sordello identifies the souls from a bank, from which vantage
point the poets can see them well, a scene which balances a similar moment
in Limbo.1 There Dante and the five poets had looked down upon a meadow
of bright green grass, peopled with illustrious souls; here Dante and the two
poets look down on green turf, also peopled with illustrious souls and starred
with flowers, the colours of which surpass all that a painter could contrive,
giving forth a blended sweetness unknown in this world. The souls are sing-
ing the Compline hymn to the Virgin, Salve Regina.
Among them is the Emperor Rudolph, bitterly reproached by Dante
in his recent invective, seated beside his former enemy, King Ottocar of
Bohemia. Also reconciled are Peter of Aragon and his former enemy, Charles
of Anjou. Seated a little apart from the others is Henry III of England,
reputed to be of modest life, whose son, Edward I, excelled him. The moral
is drawn that the worth of these rulers, once so powerful, resided not in their
ancestry but in themselves, a view asserted in Il Convivio.2
The next canto begins with a very beautiful and famous evocation of the
melancholy of evening, which sets the mood of the audience in readiness:
Era già l’ora che volge il disio
ai navicanti e ’ntenerisce il core
lo dì c’ han detto ai dolci amici addio,
e che lo novo peregrin d’amore
punge, se ode squilla di lontano
che paia il giorno pianger che si more.
It was the hour which touches longingly
and melts the hearts of those who said farewell
to friends that day as they set out to sea,

265
266 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

and the new traveller who hears a bell

from far away is pierced with love, as though
of the departing day it tolled the knell.3
One soul rises and with palms held high begins to sing the evening hymn
Te lucis ante terminum (‘Before the ending of the light’), in which prayers
are offered for protection during sleep from phantoms and from the Evil
One. The sound is so beautiful that Dante, as when he listened to Casella,
feels carried out of himself. He draws attention here, as he did once before
in Inferno,4 to the meaning beneath the veil: souls in Ante-Purgatory, being
only recently repentant, are, like new converts in the first life, still vulnerable
to temptation, against which they must pray for God’s protection during
the night.
There follows a colourful scene, managed as though upon a stage
equipped with flying apparatus. From on high descend two angels, bear-
ing truncated swords5 and clad in raiment green as newly unfurled leaves.
Their garments, trailing behind them, are fanned by their green wings. They
alight on opposite banks, guarding the company between. Looking up at
them, Dante perceives their golden hair but their faces are so dazzling he
cannot see them. ‘They come from Mary’s bosom to guard the valley from
the serpent which will soon arrive,’ Sordello explains. At this Dante is terri-
fied and presses close to Virgil’s shoulders. Sordello, unheeding, suggests
that they should descend a little into the valley to speak with the rulers. They
have gone about three paces when Dante sees a soul peering at him in the
darkling air, as though in recognition.
It proves to be Nino Visconti, Judge of Gallura in Sardinia, whom Dante
had known in Florence.6 They greet each other joyfully and Dante, in retro-
spect, recalls his delight at finding Nino on his way ultimately to beatitude.
Nino, not realizing that Dante is still in the body, asks how long it is since he
came across the distant waters to the shore of the Mountain. Dante replies:
… ‘per entro i luoghi tristi
venni stamane, e sono in prima vita,
ancor che l’altra, sì andando, acquisti.’
… ‘from the sad, evil reign
I came this morn and am in the first life,
hoping the other I may thus attain.’ 7
At these astonishing words, Sordello and Nino both turn, one back to Virgil
and the other in the opposite direction to a soul who is seated near by, call-
ing, ‘Currado, rise, and come to see what God has granted by His grace.’
This elegant duple movement is another example of Dante’s choreographic
management of his figures, which he moves about in his imagination as
 CLOSE OF DAY AND A NEW DAWN 267

though upon a model stage. Nino, renouncing all hope of understanding the
strange miracle, begs Dante to ask his daughter Giovanna to pray for him.
He speaks resentfully of his wife Beatrice, who has married again8 and will
live to regret it:
‘Per lei assai di lieve si comprende
quanto in femmina foco d’amor dura,
se l’occhio o ’l tatto spesso non l’accende.’
‘One learns by her example easily
how long love’s fire in females lasts, unless
by sight or touch they often kindled be.’ 9
Dante speaks so seldom of marriage that the slightest reference to it is
intriguing. In Nino’s disillusioned words, love in women is limited to sensu-
ality. Did Dante share this view and did he doubt his wife’s constancy in his
absence? We are here a long way from the idealization of women in La Vita
Nuova.
Dante’s gaze moves skyward and he contemplates with wonder three
stars that now illumine the South Pole. Virgil tells him they have replaced
the four they beheld that morning. He can say no more about them, for they
represent the three theological graces, faith, hope and love, the Christian
meaning of which is unknown to him, while the previous group of four stars
that illumined the face of Cato symbolize justice, prudence, temperance and
fortitude, the cardinal virtues which were within the scope of the ancient
world.
At this moment Sordello draws Virgil’s attention to the arrival of the
serpent, ‘perhaps the very same that tempted Eve’:
Tra l’erba e i fior venia la mala striscia,
volgendo ad ora ad or la testa, e ’l dosso
leccando come bestia che si liscia.
Through grass and flowers slid the evil streak,
turning its head from time to time, its back
to lick, just as a beast itself will sleek.10
The angels are so swift that Dante does not see them move but he does hear
their green wings cleave the air. The serpent withdraws and the angels fly
back to resume their guard during the night.
Throughout this spectacle Currado’s attention has been fixed on Dante. He
is a cousin of Franceschino Malaspina, who was Dante’s host and protector
in Sarzana in Lunigiana, and of Moroello the warrior and Dante’s friend.11
Currado asks for news of the region of Valdimagra.12 Dante disclaims ever
having been there but speaks admiringly of the Malaspina family, renowned
268 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

for their military valour and generosity. Currado replies in cryptic words:
‘Not seven years will pass before thy courteous opinion will be hammered
into thy brain with stronger nails than words.’13 With this new prophecy of
Dante’s exile and oblique expression of gratitude to his future protectors the
canto concludes.
He opens the next with a mythological adornment of his own creation.
Since Aurora, the solar-dawn, is the wife of Tithonus,14 Dante calls the
lunar-dawn his concubine:
La concubina di Titone antico
già s’imbiancava al balco d’oriente
fuor delle braccia del suo dolce amico;
di gemme la sua fronte era lucente
poste in figura del freddo animale
che con la coda percuote la gente.
The concubine of old Tithonus now
gleamed white upon the eastern balcony,
emerging from her lover’s arms, her brow
adorned with gems of sparkling finery,
set in the form of the cold animal
which with its tail does men an injury.15
In this silvery light the company of five recline upon the grass. Dante, who
shares, as he says, the burden of Adam’s mortality, falls asleep.
Just before morning he has a dream. He seemed to be on Mount Ida,
where Ganymede was carried up to Olympus to be cupbearer to the gods.
A golden eagle, hovering for a while, swooped down upon him, terrible as
lightning, and carried him up into the sphere of fire where he and it together
burned, and he awoke.
Only Virgil is beside him now, the sun is more than two hours high
and before him is the sea. Virgil reassures him. He is at the entrance to
Purgatory. As he slept St Lucy came and carried him up the remainder of
the approach and set him down close to the gate.
The usual identification of St Lucy with the martyr of Syracuse, who
died in 303 and was revered as the patron of those who suffered from poor
sight, leaves out of account her representation as an eagle in Dante’s dream.
The eagle is an important figure in the Commedia. It will recur in two key
passages in Paradiso, once as the symbol of imperial authority and again
as the symbol of divine justice.16 Dante’s conversion to the belief that the
Roman Empire was divinely ordained, to which he came during his study
of philosophy, was an important step in his search for truth. It is possi-
ble that St Lucy is the figure of the donna gentile, symbolic, as she was, of
Dante’s philosophical studies and of philosophy itself. In this role, St Lucy,
 CLOSE OF DAY AND A NEW DAWN 269

patron saint of vision, can be said to have opened his eyes.17 In art St Lucy is
represented as a type of divine wisdom with a lighted lamp in her hands, an
appropriate figure for philosophy and for one to whom Dante avows himself
a fedele (‘devotee’).18
Approaching a gap in the mountain wall, he perceives a gate with three
steps of different colours leading up to it. On the top step an angelic guard-
ian, holding a naked sword, is seated on a throne of adamant. Both his face
and the sword are so radiant that Dante cannot keep his gaze on them. The
guardian challenges the two visitors: ‘Where is your escort?’ he demands,
from which it is evident that souls approaching the entrance are usually
sponsored, perhaps by an angelic being. Virgil, who has learnt from Cato to
be brief and to the point, says only: ‘A lady from Heaven, di queste cose accorta
(‘with knowledge of these things’), instructed us to approach.’19 The guard-
ian is satisfied and bids them move forward to the steps.
In the year 300, as has been said, Dante went on a pilgrimage to Rome
to participate in the general remission of sins offered in celebration of the
Jubilee to those who in true repentance made full confession at the shrines
of St Peter and St Paul.20 At least 2 years have passed but that solemn
occasion is still fresh in his memory. His prostration now at the feet of the
guardian, striking himself three times on the breast in token of confession,
contrition and reparation, is a re-enactment in his memory of that earlier
spiritual abasement. So far in the story Dante the writer has shown himself
in possession of moral certainty. The focus from now on will be on him as
an individual sinner, in need of guidance and instruction. The guardian with
his sword outlines the letter P (for peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante’s
forehead, commanding him to see that one is erased on each of the seven
cornices he is about to traverse. Dante thus links himself with the sinful
nature of all mankind.
From beneath his vesture of ashen hue, the guardian draws two keys, one
gold, one silver. There is something homely about his words as he explains
their function, almost as though he were an earthly porter at some castle
gate:
‘Quandunque l’una d’este chiavi falla,
che non si volga dritta per la toppa’,
diss’elli a noi, ‘non s’apre questa calla.
Più cara è l’una; ma l’altra vuol troppa
d’arte e d’ingegno avanti che diserri,
perch’ ella è quella che nodo digroppa.
Da Pier le tegno; e dissemi ch’ i’ erri
anzi ad aprire ch’a tenerla serrata,
pur che la gente a’ piedi mi s’atterri.’
270 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘If one or other of these keys’, said he,

‘should turn awry and make the tumblers block,
this passage will not open; though one be
more costly, yet the other needs a stock
of skill and wisdom in the handling ere
the knot of sinfulness it will unlock.
Peter I had them from; he bade me err
more in the opening than in keeping shut,
if souls kneel in repentance to me here.’ 21
It is an engaging character sketch, based perhaps on priest confessors Dante
had known.
The keys represent the two steps to absolution: repentance and reconcili-
ation. The golden key is the divine authority given to the Church to remit
sin. It is the more costly because it was bought at the price of Christ’s death.
The silver key loosens the entanglement of sin in the heart and requires
special skill on the part of the confessor. Having imparted this informa-
tion, the guardian pushes open the door, warning the travellers not to look
back, else they will find themselves outside again. No distinction is made
between Dante the living man and Virgil the disembodied soul. The guard-
ian addresses them both impartially and shows no interest in their identi-
ties.
The door grides on its hinges. Inside there is a sound of voices singing
Te Deum laudamus, but indistinctly, as when singers are accompanied by an
organ, so that the words are sometimes distinguished and sometimes not.
Dante is now inside Purgatory itself.
This turning point of Purgatorio occurs in the ninth canto, as does the
turning point of Inferno, with the entrance into lower Hell. Dante the writer
has firm control over the architecture of his poem. This will become still
more apparent as he proceeds.
 CHAPTER 34

Pride and Humility

A
fter a strenuous climb, Dante and Virgil reach the First Cornice.
They find it empty. This provides an opportunity for them to exam-
ine the face of the cliff. Of pure white marble, it is sculpted in high
relief with figures representing humility. No human artistry has ever come
near it. The first image is of the Annunciation. The Archangel Gabriel and
the Virgin Mary are so life-like that the words Ave and Ecce ancilla Dei seem
to be breathed forth from the stone. Next is the image of David dancing
in humility before the Ark of the Covenant, with his wife Michal look-
ing on in contempt from a window.1 Ranged round the cart on which the
Ark is carried and the oxen which pull it are a company of people divided
into seven choirs. Dante both hears and does not hear their singing, just as
he is uncertain whether he can smell the incense he sees rising. The third
image represents a legendary episode in the life of the Emperor Trajan, who
humbled himself to grant a widow’s request for vengeance for her son.2 The
scene is described as though it were a tableau vivant. The beseeching widow
stands at the bridle of the Emperor’s horse in an attitude of grief. The area
about them is trampled and thronged by knights on horseback and the
Roman eagles on golden banners flutter in the wind.3 The converse between
Trajan and the widow is reported as though the marble is speaking.
Realistic sculpture had replaced the static formalism of Byzantine art
in the second half of the thirteenth century. Nicola Pisani and his son
Giovanni4 were famous in Pisa, Siena, Pistoia and elsewhere for their richly
carved scenes of episodes from the Bible and from legends, which decorated
tympana, architraves, doors and walls. The most celebrated of their works
were pulpits, alive, as though rustling, with figures that served as visual aids
to sermons and readings from Scripture. Dante, attending Mass, must often
have meditated on the multiple impression made on the senses by words
and sculpture combined. The Pisani, both father and son, were skilful in
producing an effect of swirling drapery, fluttering flags, above all an impres-
sion of movement rippling through the sensuous forms, vigorous gestures
and expressive postures of the crowded figures. In his description of the

27
272 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

divinely created sculptures on the wall of Mount Purgatory, Dante adds to

the impression of movement the illusion of sound: visibile parlare (‘visible
speech’), he calls it, an uncanny forecast of what our modern era would even-
tually produce, first by the combination of photography and soundtrack, and
then by three-dimensional computer graphics.
In the distance a curious procession is seen advancing. Neither Virgil nor
Dante can at first make out what the figures are. Dante is reminded of carv-
ings of distorted forms, knees joined to breasts, bearing the weight of ceiling
or roof, so convincing that the unreal causes real pain to the spectator. They
are the souls of the proud, bowed down by boulders, weeping and beating
their breasts. Among the carvings by Giovanni Pisani on a pulpit in Pistoia
there is a figure of Atlas, a type of pride, bowed beneath a column.
Approaching slowly, they recite the Lord’s Prayer, expanded into a homily
on the dependence of mankind upon the grace of God. Virgil requests one
of the souls to tell them where an ascent can be found which a living man
can scale. The soul who replies is Omberto Aldobrandesco, a member of a
powerful Ghibelline family of Santafiora, near Siena. They were attacked
by the Sienese in 259, when Omberto was murdered in his castle. He is an
example of pride in ancestry, a sin of which Dante acknowledged that he too
was guilty. Significantly, to speak with Omberto he is obliged to bend down,
as though he also were burdened by a block of stone. When, in Paradiso, he
comes into the presence of his illustrious Crusader ancestor, Cacciaguida,
we learn for the first time that Cacciaguida’s son, Dante’s great-grandfather,
Alighiero, from whom his surname came, has been circling the First Cornice
of Mount Purgatory for a hundred years. Cacciaguida bids Dante pray for
him, that his time of purgation may be shortened.5 It is not known on what
evidence Dante attributed the sin of pride to this ancestor, nor why he does
not mention him in Purgatorio. The reference back to him in Paradiso is an
oblique statement that not only Dante but his ancestors too plumed them-
selves on their birth. To a man unjustly impoverished and humiliated this
thought must have helped to restore self-esteem, however reprehensible the
sin of pride.
A conversation is next held with Oderisi of Gubbio, an example of pride
in artistic achievement. Oderisi was an illuminator of manuscripts. Dante
would have seen examples of his work in Bologna, as well as of Oderisi’s
successor, Franco Bolognese.6 Oderisi, twisting his face beneath his burden,
recognizes Dante and calls his name. Dante in turn recognizes him:
‘Oh!’ diss’ io lui, ‘non se’ tu Oderisi,
l’onor d’Agobbio e l’onor di quell’arte
ch’alluminar chiamata è a Parisi?’
 PRIDE AND HUMILITY 273

‘Art thou not Oderisi’, I exclaimed,

‘honour of Gubbio and of that art
which in Paris is illumination named?’ 7
In these lines the hand of Dante the versifier is seen to hover for a moment
over the page. A rhyme for Oderisi? Yes: Parisi; and this gives him an oppor-
tunity to exhibit his knowledge of the term alluminare, derived from French.
In the fourteenth century Paris had become the centre of the art of illustrat-
ing manuscripts.
Here is a meeting between two craftsmen, knowledgeable about each
other’s work. Dante also painted, as we know from La Vita Nuova.8 Passed
now to the life of the spirit and progressing in his release from pride, Oderisi
generously admits the superiority of his rival, Franco of Bologna, some-
thing, he says, he could not have done in his earthly life. This leads him to a
discourse on the impermanence of fame:
‘Oh vana gloria dell’umane posse!
Come poco verde in su la cima dura,
se non è giunta dall’ etati grosse!
Credette Cimabue nella pintura
tener lo campo, e ora ha Giotto il grido,
sì che la fama di colui è scura:
così ha tolto l’uno all’altro Guido
la gloria della lingua; e forse è nato
chi l’uno e l’altro caccerà del nido.’
‘Oh, empty glory of our human deeds!
How brief its green upon the topmost bough,
unless perhaps some grosser age succeeds!
In painting Cimabue thought as how
he held the field; but Giotto rules today,
so that obscure the other’s fame is now.
One Guido from the other took the bay,
the poet’s crown of glory, and perhaps
one’s born who’ll from their nest chase both away.’ 9
Oderisi here comes very close to home. Giotto was a friend of them both. Of
the two Guidos, Guinizelli and Cavalcanti, the latter was Dante’s beloved
friend in his days in Florence and still alive in Easter 300. The one, perhaps
already born, who may supplant them both, is obviously Dante himself.
There has been a strange reluctance among commentators to admit this,
but it presumes false modesty on Dante’s part to think otherwise. He knew
his literary powers. In 300, when the words are fictionally spoken, he was
already acclaimed as the leading poet of Florence. At the time of writing,
probably about 35, although only half way through his major work, he was
274 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

well aware that he had surpassed all who had ever written in the vernacu-
lar. What he must guard against is self-glorification. His genius is a gift
from God, mediated to him through the Muses, whose help he is careful
to entreat. Oderisi’s next comment is a direct personal challenge. Fame is
but a breath of wind, constantly changing direction: what more renown will
he, Dante, have in a thousand years, if he dies in old age rather than while
he still prattled in his infancy? And what are a thousand years compared to
eternity?
Almost 700 years have passed since Dante’s death. Whether the ages that
succeed are gross or enlightened, it is likely that in another three centuries,
if there is not an overthrow of all cultural values, Dante will still be held as
one of the greatest poets of European literature. T.S. Eliot said, ‘Dante and
Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third.’10
This is more than Dante himself, in his most prideful moments, could have
anticipated.
The next example, a soul inching along in front of them, is identified by
Oderisi as Provenzano Salvani, once a powerful Sienese Ghibelline, who
after the Battle of Montaperti was among those who urged the destruction
of Florence:
… ‘quando fu distrutta
la rabbia fiorentina, che superba
fu a quel tempo sì com’ ora è putta.’
… ‘when was brought low
the rage of Florence, as overweening then
as she corrupt and prostitute is now.’ 11
In his first life his name resounded throughout all Tuscany; now it is scarcely
whispered in Siena. Dante, knowing that Provenzano had remained arrogant
until the day of his death, asks how it is that he is not in Ante-Purgatorio.
Oderisi relates that one heroic act, of begging in public in Siena for money
to ransom a friend who had been taken prisoner, gained him release. This
deed of self-abasement caused him such humiliation that he trembled in
every pulse. Oderisi adds that in a short time Dante too will know the igno-
miny of having to beg for money.
Resentment at being dependent on charity rankled deep in Dante’s
soul. In the early years of his exile he had written bitterly in his odes and
in Il Convivio of the injustice and humiliation of poverty. Now, a decade
later, though having received generous hospitality and support from the
Malaspina family and others, he still feels the need to express his chagrin.
He, a descendant of distinguished ancestors, an outstanding poet, and one
who once held high office in Florence, had been obliged to humble himself,
 PRIDE AND HUMILITY 275

trembling, like Provenzano, in every pulse, as he asked for help. It is some-

thing he never forgave.
At Virgil’s command, Dante leaves the procession of burdened souls and
walks erect. The joyful bounce of three final ms in the following line conveys
physical relief and exhilaration:
già mostravam com’ eravam leggieri …
nimbly we moved and light we seemed of limb …12
Dante’s pleasure in pattern and design is shown vividly in the illustrations
he next creates of fallen pride. Like funeral slabs on the floors of churches
recalling the illustrious dead, here on the pavement of the First Cornice are
3 inlaid scenes excelling any upon earth. Arranged in four groups of 2 stan-
zas and ending with a climax in three lines, the examples are chosen from
the Old Testament and from classical legend. The initial letters of the first
lines of the stanzas, V, O, M, form an acrostic reading UOM (the Italian for
‘man’, V and U being interchangeable in ancient and mediaeval script). In
the 3th stanza, all three initials are brought together, providing a key. Such
manipulation of words to form a significant pattern was then a usual part of
a writer’s repertoire.
The first group displays Lucifer, the noblest of created beings, falling like
lightning from Heaven, Briareus who tried to overthrow the gods, the giants
who attempted to scale Olympus, and Nimrod who tried to reach Heaven
by building the Tower of Babel. The second group represents the arro-
gant conviction of superiority, punished by disaster: Niobe, Saul, Arachne
and Rehoboam.13 The third group represents over-confidence, or hubris,
punished by overthrow: Eriphyle, Sennacherib, Cyrus and Holofernes.14 The
final image represents the fall of Troy, the initial letters spelling the Italian
for ‘man’:
Vedea Troia in cenere e in caverne:
O Ilion, come te basso e vile
Mostrava il segno che lì si discerne!
My eyes saw Troy, in ash and craters strewn.
Alas, proud Ilium, how vile and base
Now in that inlaid image thou wert shewn! 15
Dante is stirred to amazement by the verisimilitude of the figures:
morti li morti e i vivi parean vivi (‘the dead seemed dead, the living seemed
alive’).16 No human artist could have achieved such truth, not even Giotto,
his admired friend, whom it is said Dante saw working on his frescoes in the
Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, some time between 304 and 305. Dante had
not then even begun on the Commedia,17 but the memory of Giotto’s work
276 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

may have contributed to it later. The naturalism of the narrative scenes, the
interaction of sharply individualized figures, arranged as in tableaux, so new
and striking in the frescoes, are features which Dante also adopts, not only
in his descriptions of divine art but in his own arrangement of characters
and events.
Dante’s meditation on the scenes of pride overthrown ends with a sarcas-
tic challenge, addressed in his own persona, to mankind in general, figliuoli
d’Eva (‘the sons of Eve’),18 bidding them hold their heads high and avoid
looking down at the evil path they tread. In his role as Dante the character
he is about to undergo an exalting experience. An angel comes towards him,
beautiful and clothed in white, his face as radiant as a star at dawn. His arms
and wings spread wide, he leads the travellers to a cleft in the rock where the
climbing will be easy. He then brushes Dante’s forehead with his wing and
promises him a safe journey. This is the Angel of Humility.
Dante the character, listening to Oderisi, acknowledged that his words
had abated in him a great swelling of pride:
… ‘Tuo vero dir m’incora
bona umiltà, e gran tumor m’appiani.’
… ‘Thy truly spoken words
humble my heart and prick my swollen pride.’ 19
He had known humility in the presence of Beatrice and she herself was
always benignly clothed in that virtue on hearing herself praised.20 Dante’s
return to this state, after years of spiritual turmoil, is moving and convincing.
As he ascends to the Second Cornice he is aware of a lightness he cannot
understand and asks Virgil for an explanation. Virgil tells him that one of
the Ps with which his forehead had been wounded has been healed. Dante,
like people unaware of something on their head, prompted by the gestures of
others, spreads out his fingers and explores his brow: only six letters remain.
At this his fond companion smiles.
This is a pleasing episode, showing the character Dante in an endear-
ing light. The writer Dante is another person. All through the Commedia
there is a personal agenda of vendetta. Among his principal targets are the
Florentines, against whom he looses shaft after shaft. Having already given
Oderisi bitter words to speak concerning their pride and corruption, he now,
describing the ascent to the Second Cornice, compares it to the steps lead-
ing up to the church of San Miniato which looks down on Florence – la ben
guidata (‘the well-governed city’), he calls her, in bitter sarcasm – steps that
were hewn at a time when measures and records were not tampered with.21
This is a contemptuous allusion to two petty frauds, one committed by an
official in charge of the Salt Import Department who reduced the size of the
 PRIDE AND HUMILITY 277

bushel-measure, and another by two public officials who tore a page from a
ledger to conceal their pilfering.
Humility is a blessed state; to attain it Dante is eager to undergo purga-
tion. But humiliation is another matter. The rancour he feels at what he has
suffered in this respect runs like molten lava in his veins, erupting at fault-
lines in his work, even, as will be shown, at moments of sublime exaltation
in Paradiso.
 CHAPTER 35

Evil and the Freedom

of the Will

A
violent and sustained eruption of Dante’s unforgiving rancour
occurs on the Second Cornice of Mount Purgatory. Here the souls
are purged of invidia, the sin that first sent avarice out into the
world. It is usually translated into English as envy. It means not only covet-
1

ousness, however, but hatred of the sight of good fortune and happiness of
others. Those guilty of the sin are purged by having their eyes sealed, while
words recalling instances of generosity and of malevolence go echoing past
them as they sit huddled against each other, like blind beggars outside a
church. Sapia, who lived in Siena at the time of the Florentine defeat of the
Sienese in 249,2 tells the story of her malicious delight in the misfortunes
even of her fellow citizens, for whose defeat she prayed. Her late repentance
would have led her to be detained in Ante-Purgatory had it not been for the
prayers of a saintly character known as Peter the Comb-Seller. His honesty
was so scrupulous that he was said to throw any defective combs among his
merchandise into the river Arno rather than sell them even at a reduced
price. This is a picturesque glimpse of local street-selling but much more
important is the conversation that next arises.
Two souls leaning against each other are curious to know who the passer-
by can be. They have heard him tell Sapia that he is still in the body and will
return to earth and that when he dies he too will have his eyes sealed, but
only for a short while, for he has but seldom looked spitefully on the good
fortune of others; far greater is his fear of the time he will have to spend on
the Cornice of Pride. On being asked who he is Dante says:
‘Per mezza Toscana si spazia
un fiumicel che nasce in Falterona,
e cento miglia di corso nol sazia.
Di sovr’esso rech’io questa persona;
dirvi ch’ i’ sia, sarìa parlare indarno,
chè ’l nome mio ancor molto non sona.’

278
 EVIL AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL 279

‘Through Tuscany there spreads a rivulet:

from Falterona first its waters came,
and scarce a hundred miles suffice for it.
From off its shore I bring this mortal frame.
To tell you who I am would useless be,
for I have won as yet but small acclaim.’ 3
The soul who has addressed him replies, ‘I think, if I have understood
correctly, that river is the Arno.’ His neighbour asks: ‘Why does he conceal
its name as if it were something too horrible to be mentioned?’ The other
answers: ‘I do not know, but it is fitting indeed that the name of such a valley
should perish.’
There follows a deadly denunciation of the whole of Tuscany, uttered
not by Dante the character but by the soul who questioned him. Along the
whole length of the Arno, from its source in the mountains to its outlet at
the sea, virtue is shunned as if it were a snake, either by some misfortune of
the region or because of evil deeds. The inhabitants of the vile valley have so
changed their nature that it is as though Circe held them in pasture. In the
Casentino live foul pigs, more worthy of acorns than of any human food;
Arezzo is populated by snarling curs, at which the river da lor disdegnosa
torce il muso (‘in scorn turns its snout away’);4 the further it descends, the
deeper it fills la maladetta e sventurata fossa (‘the accursed and ill-starred
ditch’); coming to Florence it finds the dogs turned to wolves; plunging still
further through many a steep-cut gorge it reaches Pisa, the home of foxes so
cunning that they fear no trap.
This abhorrent picture of the whole of Tuscany is followed by a prophecy
of a doom that is about to overtake Florence. The speaker, who later reveals
himself, is Guido del Duca, a member of the Onesti family of Ravenna. The
soul huddled beside him is Rinieri da Calboli of the distinguished Guelf
family of Forlì, grandfather of the notorious Fulcieri da Calboli, who was
podestà of Florence in 302 and again in 32. Guido foretells the atrocities
Fulcieri will commit against the White Guelfs and the Ghibellines, selling
their flesh while they are still alive and slaughtering them like cattle, emerg-
ing stained with blood from the trista selva (‘evil and wretched wood’) and
leaving it so deforested that not for a thousand years will it recover.
The phrase trista selva is a deliberate echo of the selva oscura in which, in
the opening lines of Inferno, Dante says that he was lost. The entire invec-
tive marks a renunciation of his Tuscan identity, a matter of deep sadness.
Several times in the story he has been recognized by his accent as a Tuscan.
His descriptions of Tuscan landscape show that he loved the region, and
though he deplored what had happened in Florence he longed to return
there. He is likely to have left Tuscany for good when he wrote this invective.
280 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The panoramic view suggests a final judgement from a distance, and the
sorrowful tone is that of a bitterly regretful farewell. Perhaps he was then the
guest of Can Grande della Scala of Verona.
Leaving his native region offers no escape from evil, however. Romagna
too has deteriorated, as Guido del Duca regrets in his continuing lament.
Gone are the virtuous men of yesteryear, replaced now by those who are
corrupt, the soil so filled with poisonous shoots that it would take long till-
age to destroy them:
‘Oh Romagnoli tornati in bastardi!’
‘Oh Romagnoles, turned to a bastard breed!’ 5
Both Guido’s nostalgic speech about Romagna and his denunciation of the
evil valley of the Arno (the two passages have the same number of lines),
contain, however, seeds of hope. The Tuscans have changed; once the inhabit-
ants of Romagna were noble and chivalrous. Guido weeps as he remembers
them,
‘le donne e ’ cavalier, li affanni e li agi
che ’nvogliava amore e cortesia
là dove i cuor son fatti sì malvagi.’
‘the ladies, cavaliers, the toils, the games
inspired in us by love and courtesy,
where now malevolence our hearts inflames.’ 6
Confessing his own sin of envy, which would formerly have turned him livid
at the sight of a joyful man, Guido asks an important rhetorical question:
‘O gente umana, perchè poni ’l core
là ’v’ è mestier di consorte divieto?’
‘O human race, why do ye covet things
which by their nature partnership exclude?’ 7
The words are enigmatic, deliberately so, and climbing up to the next cornice
Dante asks Virgil to explain them. Virgil answers in the next canto:
… ‘di sua maggior magagna
conosce il danno; e però non s’ammiri
se ne riprende perchè men si piagna.
Perchè s’appuntano i vostri desiri
dove per compagnia parte si scema,
invidia move il mantaco a’ sospiri.’
… ‘he knows the cost of his worst fault;
that he deplores it should be no surprise,
hoping less cause for sorrow will result.
 EVIL AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL 28

Because your longing for possessions flies

where sharing means that fewer can be owned,
envy becomes the bellows to your sighs.’ 8
If men directed their desires towards the highest sphere they would discover
that the more there are who say ‘ours’, the more of good there is to share.
To Dante the character, his mind still set on earthly possessions, this seems
a contradiction. Virgil’s explanation provides a fore-glimpse of Heaven. The
sharing of spiritual goods and the reciprocity of love increase eternal good-
ness, just as mirrors reflect light one from the other. Dante the writer here
extends Virgil’s spiritual understanding beyond that to which his fellow
inmates of Limbo could attain. As though recalling this in time, he restores
Virgil’s pre-Christian status by causing him to say, ‘If my words do not
content thee, thou shalt see Beatrice who will deliver thee from this and
every need to understand.’
Virgil’s discourse is the first section of an intricately devised centrepiece
that crowns the structure not only of Purgatorio but of the whole of the
Commedia. Here are the ingredients of the intellectual feast Dante had
prepared for his banquet, Il Convivio: spiritual, in place of earthly posses-
sions; the wrong choices made by humanity; the means of returning to the
right path; the freedom of the will; and the force which underlies all, which
is love. The inter-related subjects proceed step by step from Canto XIV to
XX, Canto XVII being the central, culminating peak. They reach back to
Inferno and forward to Paradiso: the result is an architectural design of three
edifices, of which the central one, Purgatorio, is spanned by an elegantly
constructed arch.
Engulfed in the smoke that is the purgation of the wrathful, Dante and
Virgil hear the voices of souls. One of them assures them that they are going
in the right direction, and on learning that Dante is in the first life asks for
his prayers. The words in which he reveals his identity lead on to a discourse
that is fundamental to the entire work.
‘Lombardo fui, e fu’ chiamato Marco:
del mondo seppi, e quel valore amai
al quale ha or ciascun disteso l’arco.’
‘I was a Lombard, Marco was my name.
I knew the world, and virtue loved, at which
all bowmen of today have ceased to aim.’ 9
Guido del Duca, in denouncing Tuscany, had already said that virtue there
was shunned as though it were a snake, ‘either from misfortune or from
evil deeds’. Marco Lombardo’s words bring to a head a question to which
Dante the character longs to know the answer: what is the cause of evil in
the world?
282 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Lo mondo è ben così tutto diserto

d’ogne virtute, come tu mi sone,
e di malizia gravido e coverto;
ma priego che m’addite la cagione,
sì ch’i’ la veggia e ch’i’ la mostri altrui;
chè nel cielo uno, e un qua giù la pone.’
‘The world of every good is void indeed,
as thou to me just now didst indicate,
pregnant with vice, with evil overspread;
but what the cause is, tell me, I entreat,
that I may see it and to others show,
which some in heaven, some on earth locate.’ 10
Marco sighs deeply and laments the blindness of those who attribute
all things to the influence of the stars. If this were so, there would be no
justice in reward for virtue or punishment for vice. This subject had been a
matter of debate for centuries and still is: Nature or Nurture? Heredity or
Environment? What part does individual decision play in our actions? By
the ‘stars’ Dante and his contemporaries understood the fixed conditions
of our birth and upbringing. Such conditions ‘initiate your impulses’ says
Marco: ‘I do not say all, but even if it were so, there exists a power of discern-
ment between good and evil, which, if rightly exercised, gains control.’ (As
astrologists still say, ‘The stars impel, they do not compel.’)
‘A maggior forza ed a miglior natura
liberi soggiacete; e quella cria
la mente in voi, che ’l ciel non ha in sua cura.
Però, se ’l mondo presente disvia,
in voi è la cagione, in voi si cheggia;
e io te ne sarò or vera spia.’
‘A greater force, a better law there is
which forms your minds and freely you obey;
no power the stars have over you in this.
So if the present world has gone astray,
in you the cause is, seek for it in you;
thy true guide now I’ll be in what I say.’ 11
In this rejection of determinism Dante makes one of the most positive state-
ments of his belief in moral autonomy. Whatever the conditions into which
we are born, our souls are the direct creations of God and we are responsible
for our deeds.
In Il Convivio Dante had written of the soul entering upon its path in
life, directing its gaze towards the goal of supreme good, being drawn first
by trifling things:
 EVIL AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL 283

So we see little children fixing their chief desire on an apple; then as they go
farther they desire a small bird; then going farther still, fine clothes; after that a
horse, then a mistress; after that riches, then greater and still greater wealth.12
Years before, Dante had seen his children develop from infancy. In the
tenderness of these words and of those he now gives to Marco Lombardo
we perhaps catch a glimpse of Dante remembering his time as a father. If
this is so, the glimpse is a rare one:
‘Esce di mano a lui che la vagheggia
prima che sia, a guisa di fanciulla
che piangendo e ridendo pargoleggia,
l’anima semplicetta che sa nulla,
salvo che, mossa da lieto fattore,
volentier torna a ciò che la trastulla.
Di picciol bene in pria sente sapore;
quivi s’inganna, e dietro ad esso corre,
se guida or fren non torce suo amore.’
‘Forth from His hand who fondly looks on her
from her first origin, like a small child,
crying, laughing, as if a babe she were,
the little, simple soul is born; beguiled
by her Creator’s joy, she follows all
that pleases her or is delightful styled.
At first of trifling good she heeds the call,
and, thus deceived, sets out in quest of it,
unless a guide or rein her longing stall.’ 13
For this reason, law was needed to set a curb, a king was needed who could
at least discern the tower of the true city. Laws there are, but who enforces
them? Nobody, because the shepherd who leads cannot discriminate between
the spiritual and the temporal. Thus Marco, in reply to Dante’s question,
puts the blame squarely on Papal secular ambition:
‘Ben puoi veder che la mala condotta
è la cagion che ’l mondo ha fatto reo,
e non natura che ’n voi sia corrotta.’
‘Thou canst see plainly that ill-guidance is
the cause of evil in the world, not that
your nature is corrupt beyond redress.’ 14
The central position of this denunciation of the temporal greed of the Papacy
gives powerful emphasis to Dante’s diagnosis of the ills of the world. They
are not predestined, nor are they unavoidable: they can be cured. It was
to prescribe the cure that Dante first felt called to write Il Convivio. This
284 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

work having failed to gain a public, it is with the same purpose that he now
transfers the message to the Commedia, having chosen a form that rivets the
attention. The hammer is in his hand and he wields it with vigour. Marco
Lombardo rams home the command:
‘Dì oggimai che la chiesa di Roma,
per confondere in sè due reggimenti,
cade nel fango e sè brutta e la soma.’
‘Say here and now, the Church of Rome, encoiling
two governments in one, falls in the mire,
herself befouling and her burden soiling.’ 15
Here is the central message of the Commedia, set in the very centre of the
work.
 CHAPTER 36

Love, Natural and Rational

D
uring his exile, when he entered on his great undertaking, Il
Convivio, Dante had pondered deeply the nature of love and had
come to identify it as the natural propensity of all created things. He
developed this concept in his commentary on his canzone beginning Amor
che nella mente mi ragiona (‘Love which discourses to me in my mind.’):
Love, truly understood and subtly considered, is nothing else than a spirit-
ual union of the soul with the loved object; and to this union the soul, by
virtue of its nature, runs swift or slow according as it is free or impeded … for
instance, simple bodies have in themselves a love inspired by nature for their
own proper place, and therefore earth always tends downwards to the centre;
fire has a natural love for the circumference above, adjoining the heaven of the
moon, and therefore always leaps up towards that.
The primary composite bodies, such as minerals, have a love for the place
which is adapted for their generation, and grow in that and derive strength
and potency from that. …
Plants … still more evidently have a love for a certain place in accordance
with the requirements of their constitution; and therefore we see that certain
plants almost always do well by water, certain others on the ridges of moun-
tains, certain others on the shore or at the foot of mountains, which if they are
transplanted either die altogether or live as it were sadly, like things detached
from the place they love. Dumb animals not only more plainly have a love for
their place, but we see that they have a love for one another.
Mankind have their own love for all perfect and noble things. [Sharing with
all created things the properties which make them susceptible to gravity and
to love of their place and time of generation] everyone is naturally of more
vigorous body in the place where he was born and at the time when he was
conceived. Likewise, man has affection for certain food, not because it acts on
the senses but because it is nutritious. … And therefore we see that certain
food makes men shapely and large-limbed and of a good healthy colour, and
that certain other food produces an effect contrary to this. … Man feels love
also according to appearance, like the animals, and this love in man most of all

285
286 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

has need of control on account of its excessive activity, chiefly in the pleasures
of taste and touch. Lastly, rational man has affection for truth and virtue; and
from this affection springs true and perfect friendship, derived from what is
honourable.1
This section in Il Convivio brings us close to Dante the person. The style
is informal and engaging, as though he were speaking to an audience. To
read this passage, especially in the original, is to feel, after seven centuries,
that we are members of that audience and are seeing the shabbily dressed,
unjustly impoverished exile and hearing his Florentine voice as he recalls
feeling more vigorous in the place where he was born and at the time of
year when he was conceived and benefiting from certain foods more than
from others. Like plants removed from their natural habitat, he lives sadly,
detached from the place he loved.
As in Inferno, so now in Purgatorio, a stage has been reached when it
is necessary to explain the arrangement of the sins. Ascending from the
Cornice of Wrath, Dante and Virgil reach the top step of the stairway lead-
ing to the Cornice of Sloth. Night has now fallen and by the law of the
mountain they are prevented from going up further. Virgil uses the time
of waiting by discoursing on sloth and its relationship to the sins below it
and above. He first defines sloth as insufficient zeal for the love of good.
Then, in order that Dante may fully understand, he expounds the relation-
ship between love and all the Seven Deadly Sins:
‘Nè creator nè creatura mai’,
cominciò el, ‘figliuol, fu sanza amore,
o naturale o d’animo; e tu ’l sai.
Lo naturale è sempre sanza error,
ma l’altro puote errar per mal obietto
o per troppo o per poco di vigore.’
‘No creature, no creator’, he outlined,
‘was ever without love, my son, and this
thou knowest, natural or of the mind.
The natural love unerring always is,
the other by a faulty aim may err,
or by defect of zeal, or by excess.’ 2
From this it follows, Virgil continues, love is the seed of every virtue and
of every vice, according to that to which it is attached and to its degree of
attachment. Those who love glory desire to be supreme and are thus guilty of
the sin of pride; those who love their own good fortune and are afraid it may
be diminished in comparison with that of others are guilty of the sin of envy;
those who suffer wrong and desire vengeance are guilty of the sin of wrath.
This triform love is purged on the three cornices below. Those who love the
 LOVE, NATURAL AND RATIONAL 287

good, but insufficiently, are guilty of the sin of sloth. Those who love what is
good, though not the supreme good, may love it to excess: they are guilty of
the sins of avarice, gluttony and lust, which are purged on the three cornices
above, as will be shown.
Dante has clearly understood Virgil’s discourse so far but now he needs
to understand the nature of love itself and how it operates in the human
soul. He entreats Virgil to explain further:
‘Però ti prego, dolce padre caro,
che mi dimostri amore, a cui reduci
ogni buono operare e ’l suo contraro.’
‘I beg thee, father, gentle and most dear,
to demonstrate the love thou sayest is
the source of every action whatsoe’er.’ 3
Virgil bids him fix on him the penetrating eyes of his intellect, when
he will see clearly that those who have said that all love is blameless have
been in error. Virgil’s discourse from here on resembles scholastic disputa-
tions between masters and pupils in which Dante may have taken part. The
minute definitions and distinctions reveal the nature of thought processes
characteristic of his time. The mind, Virgil explains, being created to love
readily, is susceptible to everything that it finds pleasing. This pleasure is not
in itself love but it awakens the mind to activity that may become love. But
if, asks Dante, love is a compulsion that moves us from without, how can
we be responsible for what we do? Virgil replies that he can explain only in
terms of reason; beyond that, it is a matter of faith and only Beatrice can
take it further. Every independent being (in mediaeval terms a ‘substance’)
is possessed of a fundamental character (a ‘form’), which gives a being its
separate existence. The ‘substantial form’ of mankind is the intellective soul,
which is different from matter but united with it. Of this, the specific faculty
is the instinct that comprises innate knowledge and a disposition to love.
Such faculty is not perceived except in operation, nor is it ever revealed
except by its results, as life in a plant is known by its green leaves. We do not
know whence comes understanding of the first axiomatic truths, nor love for
the first objects of desire, which are innate, like the instinct in bees to make
honey. Such first desire (prima voglia) is another term for ‘natural love’. In
order that every other desire shall be rightly related to the first blameless
longing for what is good,
‘innata v’è la virtù che consiglia,
e dell’assenso de’ tener la soglia.’
‘innate in you a counselling power resides
and should the threshold of consent command.’ 4
288 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

This is the inborn liberty, perceived by philosophers who allowed the exist-
ence of ethics:
‘Onde, poniam che di necessitate
surga ogni amor che dentro a voi s’accende,
di ritenerlo è in voi la podestate.’
‘Let us suppose that, of necessity,
arises every love that kindled in you is,
to curb it you possess the faculty.’ 5
This noble faculty Beatrice calls free will, which Virgil bids Dante bear in
mind if she should speak to him of it.
Virgil’s role has here reached its most profound and comprehensive.
What he has expounded to Dante is the distinction between natural and
rational love. He has also reached the most moving stage in his relation-
ship with Dante. Virgil is here the loving father, earnestly scanning Dante’s
face, intent to see if he has understood; Dante is the loving son, the reverent
pupil, eager to absorb all that he can from his master. In creating this scene,
Dante is drawing upon his sense of the loss of his father. He had found such
a figure as a boy in his mentor, Brunetto Latini, and as a young poet in his
friend and adviser, Guido Cavalcanti. His friendship with Cino da Pistoia
and the discussions on law and justice he probably held with him in Bologna
is another example of the importance in his intellectual growth of converse
with those from whom he could learn.
As Dante learnt not only from his contemporaries but also from the
masters of the past, so he desired to pass on his understanding to others.
Such intellectual transmission became for him a form of love. It was the
love that prompted him to offer a banquet of learning to those who had had
no opportunity to acquire ‘the bread of angels’ for themselves. When this
offering ceased to attract, he re-arranged the courses he had prepared in the
form of story and dialogue, violent and dramatic in Inferno, appealing and
engaging in Purgatorio, ethereal and ecstatic in Paradiso.
This transformation led him to create a new form of literary art, of univer-
sal and timeless significance, but presented in immediate, human terms. It
also led him to see that truth and the freedom to choose between good and
evil were apprehended by and mediated through the ‘substantial form’ of
mankind, created by God as body, rational mind and soul. Exchange of mind
between such beings was therefore a sacred trust. In writing the Commedia,
Dante’s desire was to serve that trust and to enable others to do likewise. To
this task he brought, to the utmost of his talent, both natural and rational
love.
 CHAPTER 37

The Mountain Trembles

T
wo-thirds of the way up the Mountain of Purgatory that superb
showman, Dante Alighieri, realizing that his audience have had a
surfeit of abstract thought, springs a surprise. At the end of Canto
XX the mountain shakes as though it is falling. Dante the character feels
chilled as with the fear of death. On all sides a great shout goes up: Gloria in
excelsis Deo 1 and Virgil draws his terrified companion close to his side. They
both stand motionless and in suspense. The first listeners who heard this
canto read aloud were also left in suspense: they had to wait until the next
canto was read before they learnt the solution to this (literal) cliff-hanger.
Dante and Virgil stand gazing at the souls on the Cornice of Avarice
who lie face down on the ground, able to see only earth, as their minds had
been fixed only upon the earthly things that wealth can buy. A soul walks
up behind them and greets them with the words, ‘God give you peace, my
brothers.’ Virgil replies with the gracious courtesy of a soul who is in Limbo
to one who is on his way to beatitude. After explaining that Dante is still in
the body and what his own task has been, ‘drawn forth from the wide throat
of Hell for his guidance’, he asks the soul to say why the mountain trembled
and why shouts from all the souls seemed to rise as far as from its ocean
shore.
The soul explains that when a penitent is released from purgation the
mountain shakes and all the other souls cry out for joy. We still do not know
who the released soul is: Dante, a skilful narrator, does not spoil his effects
by telling us too soon. In reply to Virgil’s further enquiry, he says he has lain
for 500 years and more on the Cornice of Avarice and only now has he felt
his will free to move on towards a happier threshold.
Virgil next asks him directly who he was. The soul replies that he lived in
the time of Titus, who avenged the wounds whence flowed the blood that
was betrayed by Judas.2 He bore the title that longest endures and bestows
most honour (that of poet) and received the myrtle crown in Rome. And
now at last he tells his name:

289
290 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Stazio la gente ancor di là mi noma:

cantai di Tebe, e poi del grande Achille;
ma caddi in via con la seconda toma.’
‘Statius by people yonder I’m named still:
I sang of Thebes, of great Achilles next,
but carrying the second load I fell.’ 3
Statius, the author of the Thebaid, an epic poem in 2 books on the history
of the war against Thebes, lived from c. AD 45 to 96. He also began an epic
on Achilles and the Trojan War, but this remained unfinished. As in the
case of Cato, so once again Dante takes it upon himself to place an ancient
Roman not in Limbo, but on the Mountain of Purgatory. He knew from the
Thebaid that Statius had great admiration for the Aeneid, for at the conclu-
sion he says, addressing his epic, ‘Do not attempt to rival the divine Aeneid,
but follow from afar, ever revering its footsteps.’4 It is appropriate therefore
that he now makes Statius say that the Aeneid was mother and nurse to him
in poetry:
‘Al mio ardor fuor seme le faville,
che mi scaldar, della divina fiamma
onde sono allumati più di mille;
dell’ Eneida dico, la quale mamma
fummi e fummi nutrice poetando:
sanz’essa non fermai peso di dramma.’
‘The sparks which my poetic ardour lit
from the divine flame rose inspiringly,
and more than a thousand kindled were by it:
the Aeneid I mean, which nurtured me
as poet like a mother and a nurse;
without it scarce a drachm my weight would be.’ 5
And he adds: ‘Gladly would I have spent another year in Purgatory if only I
could have lived when Virgil did.’
This is a supreme moment of dramatic irony. Our attention is fixed on
the three actors as on a lighted stage. Virgil turns immediately to Dante with
an expression that commands silence. But laughter and tears, Dante says,
are the least subject to the will in those who are the most sincere. He smiles
like someone conveying a hint. Statius looks him fixedly in the eyes and
asks why he is laughing. Every reader who comes on this scene for the first
time experiences a shock of delight at being admitted into Dante’s living
presence. We see him as he stands hesitating between the other two, the one
commanding silence, the other conjuring him to answer. He sighs. Virgil
hears him and relents. Given permission to speak, Dante addresses Statius:
 THE MOUNTAIN TREMBLES 29

… ‘Forse che tu ti maravigli,

antico spirto, del rider ch’io fei;
ma più d’ammirazion vo’ che ti pigli.
Questi, che guida in alto gli occhi miei,
è quel Virgilio dal qual tu togliesti
forza a cantar delli uomini e de’ dei.’
… ‘It may be that amazed thou art,
o ancient soul, by my display of mirth,
but greater wonder yet would I impart:
this man who bids me seek the highest worth
is Virgil, he from whom thou strength didst draw
to sing of gods and mortals upon earth.’ 6
At this revelation, Statius kneels to embrace Virgil’s feet, but is dissuaded
from the attempt. ‘Brother, desist, thou art a shade and a shade thou seest.’
Statius replies, ‘Now thou canst understand the measure of my love for thee,
since I forget our emptiness, treating shades as though they were substan-
tial.’
The metaphysics of Mount Purgatory vary, as has been seen, from place
to place. On the shore, Dante and Casella are unable to embrace; on the
terrace of the late-repentant, Sordello and Virgil succeed in doing so; on the
Fifth Cornice Statius cannot embrace Virgil’s feet. Dante sees no necessity
to reconcile these inconsistencies, which add to the mysteriousness of the
mountain. The curiosity his readers may feel concerning the nature of spirit-
bodies is, in fact, about to be satisfied.7
The three characters ascend to the Sixth Cornice, where the souls of
gluttons undergo purgation. The fifth scar is erased by an angel’s wing from
Dante’s forehead and he feels lighter than before. Meanwhile, a delightfully
realistic conversation is taking place between Virgil and Statius. ‘Ever since
Juvenal8 joined us in Limbo,’ says Virgil, ‘I have known of thy love for me
and I have loved thee in return. But tell me, as friend to friend, how could
avarice take root in thy soul?’ Statius smiles a little and then remarks that
appearances can be deceptive. It was not for miserliness that he was confined
to the Cornice of Avarice, but for its opposite, prodigality. In Inferno also
these two extremes in the mismanagement of wealth are shown to be aspects
of the same sin.9 Certain lines in Virgil’s Aeneid 10 led him to see the error
of his ways, else he too would have found himself among the hoarders and
spendthrifts in Hell.
Virgil, who seems to have learnt something of the Thebaid from Juvenal
in Limbo, then remarks that it does not appear in that work that Statius had
been brought to the faith without which virtuous deeds are not in them-
selves sufficient:
292 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Se così è, qual sole o quai candele

ti stenebraron, sì che tu drizzasti
poscia di retro al pescator le vele?’
‘If that is so, what candles or what sun
dispersed the dark, that thou thy sails didst raise
behind the fisherman then and thereon?’ 11
Dante evidently imagines that details concerning the spread of Christian
belief could have reached Virgil from souls who joined him in Limbo during
the first century: from them he has learnt of St Peter, the fisher of men.
The reply of Statius to this enquiry is the supreme climax of the episode.
Virgil was not only his guide in poetry; he had shown him also the way to
faith:
… ‘Tu prima m’inviasti
verso Parnaso a ber nelle sue grotte,
e prima appresso Dio m’alluminasti.
Facesti come quei che va di notte,
che porta il lume dietro e sè non giova,
ma dopo sè fa le persone dotte,
quando dicesti: “Secol si rinova;
torna giustizia e primo tempo umano,
e progenie scende da ciel nova.”
Per te poeta fui, per te cristiano.’
… ‘Thou first it was
who bade me drink upon Parnassus’ height,
Thou wert like one who goes abroad by night,
his lamp behind him, and thus cannot see,
only to those who follow giving light,
when thou didst say: “The world renewed will be,
justice returns and the first age of man,
from heaven descends a wondrous progeny.”
Poet through thee I was, and Christian.’ 12
Statius confesses that he kept his conversion a secret, fearing the persecu-
tions of the Emperor Domitian, though he wept for the victims and did his
best to succour them. For his insufficiency of zeal he has spent more than
400 years on the Cornice of Sloth. This length of time, added to the 500
years spent on the Cornice of Avarice, accounts for about 950 of the ,200
years since his death. Where he spent the other 250 years we are not told:
perhaps on one of the terraces in Ante-Purgatory.
But now, while they still have time, Statius asks Virgil for news of fellow
poets: Terence, Caecilius, Plautus and Varius. Are they damned and, if so, in
which circle? ‘They are all,’ replies Virgil, ‘and Persius too, with many more,
 THE MOUNTAIN TREMBLES 293

in the First Circle,13 where Homer is, and often we talk of that mountain
where those who nurtured us14 still dwell. Euripides is with us and many
Greeks who once wore the laurel crown.’ And Virgil goes on to name several
characters from Statius’s epic who are also in Limbo, a conversation Dante
must have taken pleasure in devising.
They reach the Cornice of the Gluttons and turn with confidence with
the edge of the mountain on their right, as they have always done, but now
with the reassurance of Statius. The two ancient poets walk ahead and Dante
follows behind, listening to their conversation on the art of poetry. This
picture is of great significance, equal to the moment in Limbo when Dante
is made ‘sixth among such wisdom’ on being admitted to the company of
Homer, Ovid, Lucan, Horace and Virgil.15 Here are two great authors of
epic, one the master of the other, now conversing as equals, with Dante
following and learning from them: his place in the great line of poets, as he
sees it, could hardly be more explicit.
 CHAPTER 38

Dante and Forese Donati

T
he pleasant converse (le dolci ragioni) of the two ancient poets (to
which we are not admitted) is interrupted when they are obstructed
by a tree bearing sweet-smelling fruit. Nearby, a clear stream flows
from a high rock, watering the leaves. They are now on the Cornice of the
Gluttons.
Virgil and Statius approach and a voice is heard among the boughs,
intoning ‘You may not eat of this food.’ It then recites examples of virtu-
ous temperance, of the Virgin Mary at the wedding at Cana, of women
of ancient Rome who abstained from drinking wine, and of Daniel who
despised food and gained wisdom. Next it utters praises of the age of gold,
when hunger made acorns appetizing and thirst made nectar of every brook,
and finally St John the Baptist who fed on locusts and wild honey.
Dante meanwhile has drawn near the tree and is peering into its foliage,
like one who wastes his time on hawking. For this he is gently rebuked by
Virgil:
Lo più che padre mi dicea: ‘Figliuole,
vienne oramai, chè ’l tempo che n’ è imposto
più utilmente compartir si vuole.’
‘My son’, my more-than-father said to me,
come now away, for our allotted time
more usefully than this deployed must be.’ 1
Dante readily follows the two sages, the more so since they continue their
conversation, which it gives him pleasure to overhear. As they proceed they
hear the words Labia mea Domine 2 chanted in lamentation. A crowd of souls
come up behind them and, passing on, look back in wonder. They are pale
and so emaciated that their skin reveals the shape of their bones. So skeletal
are their faces that the word ‘OMO’ seems to be written upon them.3
We are here back among the gruesome distortions of Hell. One soul,
peering at Dante from his sunken eyes, calls out in amazement, qual grazia
m’ è questa? (‘what grace do I receive?’). The encounter is startlingly remi-

294
 DANTE AND FORESE DONATI 295

Fig 8. Face of a Glutton in Purgatorio

niscent of Dante’s meeting with Brunetto Latini, who exclaims, on seeing

Dante, qual maraviglia! (‘what a marvel!’), as he snatches at the hem of his
garment.4 Dante first recognizes the voice and then, just as he made out
his beloved master Brunetto beneath his scorched features, so beneath the
emaciated face before him now he makes out the soul of his Florentine
friend Forese Donati.5
Relations between them in their young days had not been edifying, and
in this canto Dante candidly admits and regrets it. Their playful exchange of
abusive sonnets6 had included on Dante’s part gibes against Forese’s wife, his
incapacity as a husband and his indulgence in gluttony. Dante grieves to see
the face that once he mourned so wasted and disfigured and begs to know
the reason. Forese explains that the fragrance of the fruit and the spray from
the water induce in the penitent gluttons a craving to eat and drink, which
thus reduces them.
Dante then asks another question: ‘Forese, not five years have gone by
since thou didst exchange the world for a better life.7 How can it be that
thou art here already? I thought to find thee down below, where time is
made good by time.’ This enables Forese to pay tribute to his wife, by whose
prayers he has been furthered in his progress towards Heaven. This is Dante’s
way of making amends for having denigrated her:
296 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

… ‘Sì tosto m’ha condotto

a ber lo dolce assenzo de’ martiri
la Nella mia con suo pianger dirotto.
Con suoi prieghi devoti e con sospiri
tratto m’ha della costa ove s’aspetta,
e liberato m’ha delli altri giri.
Tanto è a Dio più cara e più diletta
la vedovella mia, che molto amai,
quanto in bene operare è più soletta.’
… ‘It was my Nella by her floods of tears
who brought me here so soon to drink the sweet
tormenting wormwood; with her sighs and prayers
she drew me from the slopes where souls must wait
and with her constant pleading for my sake
from other cornices did liberate.
So much the greater pleasure does God take
in my dear little widow, whom I loved,
as virtues an exception of her make.’ 8
Forese now bursts out in a bitter condemnation of the women of Florence,
accusing them of being more flagrant in their immodesty than those who
dwell in the wild hills of Barbagia,9 flaunting their bosoms down to their
very paps. A time is not far off, he prophesies, when they will be denounced
from the pulpit and retribution will descend on them. If they but knew what
awaited them,
‘già per urlare avrien le bocche aperte.’
‘ready to howl, their mouths they’d open now.’ 10
This denunciation of Florence is even more disturbing than those already
uttered, in that it is directed solely at women. The crude words are given to
Forese but they are Dante’s own. It would appear that in his late 40s, the
age he was when he wrote this canto, Dante had reached a time of life in
which he felt a revulsion against the allurements of the flesh. Questioned by
Forese, he expresses remorse for their early years together in words that, as
has already been remarked,11 suggest a homosexual relationship:
… ‘Se tu riduci a mente
qual fosti meco, e qual io teco fui,
ancor fia grave il memorar presente.’
… ‘If thou wilt call to mind
what thou with me and I with thee once was,
the memory thou wilt yet a burden find.’ 12
 DANTE AND FORESE DONATI 297

The similarity between his meeting with Brunetto and his present encoun-
ter with Forese would seem to make the sexual meaning of these lines
more than probable. Another explanation could be that of coincidence, but,
given Dante’s meticulous control of his material, this is unlikely, especially
since there is a second similarity between Brunetto’s departure and that of
Forese.13
Moving on to an explanation of his present condition, Dante informs
Forese that he has been guided through the profound night of the truly
dead and up the mountain that straightens those whom the world has made
crooked. His guide will remain until he arrives where Beatrice is and must
then depart. Virgil he names, but not Statius, saying only that it was on his
release that the mountain trembled. Once again Dante the writer keeps skil-
ful control of his material.
The dialogue between Dante and Forese has the casual informality of the
exchange of news between friends. He even mentions the name of Beatrice
with no more ado than if he were alluding to someone they both knew in
Florence, as was the case. He next enquires as to the whereabouts of Forese’s
sister, Piccarda. ‘Oh, she is in Heaven,’ he replies, and, after paying brotherly
tribute to her beauty and her virtue, proceeds to name some of his fellow
gluttons, of whom the most significant is the poet Bonagiunta of Lucca.
There then takes place the dialogue about Dante’s love poetry and the defin-
ing of his style as the dolce stil nuovo (‘new sweet style’), which has already
been discussed.14
There is a rushing movement as the emaciated souls pass them like a flock
of birds streaming at speed along the river Nile. Forese, however, continues
to keep pace slowly with Dante in order to go on talking with him. ‘How
long will it be until I see thee again?’ he asks. Dante’s reply is an expression
of deep sadness, reflecting what he felt at the time of writing rather than in
the year 300:
‘Non so’, rispuos’io, ‘quant’ io mi viva;
ma già non fia ’l tornar mio tanto tosto
ch’io non sia col voler prima alla riva;
però che ’l loco u’ fui a viver posto
di giorno in giorno più di ben si spolpa,
e a trista ruina par disposto.’
‘How long I have to live, I am not sure,
but not so soon’, I said, ‘shall I return
as in desire I long to reach the shore;
the place where I was destined to be born
from day to day denudes itself of good,
intent upon its ruin and forlorn.’ 15
298 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Forese agrees that this is true and foretells the death, not long off, of his own
brother Corso, who, within the timeframe of the story, is about to plot the
downfall of the White Guelfs.
Forese then takes leave of Dante, saying that he must no longer walk
slowly beside him, for time is precious and he must catch up with his fellow
penitents. Just as Brunetto, who had turned back along the burning sand
to talk with Dante, was obliged to run off to rejoin his companions in sin,
seeming, Dante said, like a winner in the race for the green cloth in Verona,
so now Forese, moving off with longer strides, is ennobled by a comparison
to a horseman who leaves a troop of cavalry to gain the honour of a first
encounter. Dante follows him with his eyes, thinking of his words, until he
sees him no more.
These parallels, between the recognition and departure of Forese and
the same two moments in the episode of Brunetto, cannot be other than
deliberate. Their significance with regard to Dante’s sexual relationship with
Forese has been overlooked, but once pointed out can hardly be dismissed.
The question remains: why did Dante choose thus to inculpate himself?
The answer may be that his involvement with Forese was already known, in
Florence and in other cities.
Another tree stands in the way, also green and laden with fruit. A group
of souls lift up their hands towards the foliage, like children reaching for
something they desire, while someone dangles it out of their grasp. This
charming simile seems to evoke Dante’s memories of playing with his chil-
dren. But this is no game. A voice from the tree sternly commands them
to pass on. This plant, it says, was raised from a tree above from which Eve
plucked the apple. At this the three poets draw closer together and walk
along by the mountain’s side. The voice continues, reciting reminders of
examples of gluttony: the centaurs who became drunk at the wedding of
Pirithous and Hippodamia and were defeated, a story which Dante had read
in Ovid,16 and the rejection by Gideon of those of his troops who swilled,
face down, from a stream instead of remaining alert in soldierly fashion and
lapping from the palms of their hands.17
During the personal and intimate exchange between Dante and Forese,
the two great poets of antiquity, Virgil and Statius, are removed from focus.
It is time now to bring them back. Dante does so by describing how they all
three walk thoughtfully in single file, listening to the ancient tales of glut-
tony. A voice calls out:
‘Che andate pensando sì voi sol tre?’
‘What are you pondering, you three alone?’ 18
 DANTE AND FORESE DONATI 299

The scene has been set with timely clarity. The section of the path on which
they walk is now deserted. Dante jumps at the voice, like a startled animal,
and looks up. What he beholds is a dazzling being, brighter red than any
glass or metal seen in a furnace. Dante the poet is perhaps remembering the
description of the angel who appeared to Daniel after his three weeks’ fast:
‘His body also was like the chrysolite and his face as the appearance of light-
ning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour
to polished brass.’19 He may also be thinking of glass-blowers he could have
seen in Venice, or blacksmiths he may have watched, as they removed their
products red-hot from the fire.
This wondrous personage is the Angel of Temperance, arrived to guide
them to the steps that lead up to the next cornice. Like a breeze in May
at dawn, which spreads the fragrance of the grass and flowers, his wing
brushes Dante’s brow as with the odour of ambrosia, removing yet another
of the seven scars. At the same time, the Angel pronounces the Benediction,
‘Blessed are they that hunger after righteousness.’20
The sun has declined from noon and it is no moment for delay. The
three figures walk quickly up the stairway, which is so narrow that they must
continue in single file. Despite their need for haste, Dante cannot hold back
from asking a question as they climb. It is indeed a question that can be
deferred no longer. It takes the combined wisdom of Virgil and Statius to
answer it.
 CHAPTER 39

Body and Soul

T
he question Dante now asks has been at the back of the reader’s
mind from the beginning: how can bodiless forms suffer bodily
anguish?1 The emaciated condition of the souls of gluttons acts as a
trigger: how, Dante longs to know, is it possible to become lean if there is no
need for nourishment?
Virgil in reply suggests two parallel phenomena. Meleager, the son of
the King of Calydon, was doomed by the Fates to die when a certain log
of wood was consumed by fire: as it fell to ashes, his soul fled into the air.2
But this is an example of a relationship between two corporeal objects, a
burning log and a living body; it does not explain how unsubstantial forms
can waste away in consequence of the growth of fruit and foliage. Virgil’s
second parallel is that of a body and its image in a mirror, which he offers as
comparable to the relation between a soul and the body it represents. This is
as far as Virgil, the pre-Christian, can go. That Dante may be fully satisfied
he refers the matter to Statius, who, in graceful homage to his great master,
obeys his request:
‘Se la veduta etterna li dislego’,
rispuose Stazio, ‘là dove tu sie,
discolpi me non potert’ io far nego.’
‘If in thy presence I to him expound
eternal verities’, Statius replied,
‘my pardon be: to obey thee I am bound.’ 3
This brings Statius centre stage as Dante’s mentor not only on the corpo-
real semblance acquired by spirits after death but also on human procreation
and the divine origin of the soul. In assigning to him this important role,
Dante the author makes plain the difference between the pagan and the
Christian mind. The conversion of Statius in the first century of the Christian
era gave him access to truths that were beyond Virgil, for all his wisdom.
Strangely, it even enabled him to be aware of issues that were debated for
centuries since his time on earth. By Dante’s day, certain doctrines had been

300
 BODY AND SOUL 30

shown to be essential to the Christian faith: the direct creation by God of

the individual soul, the unity of rational man who shared the faculties of
vegetative and animal forms but possessed in addition intellectual faculties,
and the autonomy of the human soul endowed both before and after death
with memory, intelligence and will. It is to expound these verities that Dante
detains Statius, a soul who would otherwise have departed immediately to
enter into blessedness in the Empyrean.
The long discourse by Statius is of interest chiefly for the evidence it
provides of Dante’s understanding of embryology, derived from Aristotle,
and of the nature of spirit forms. Here is another example of the father–
son relationship. Statius, like Virgil, addresses Dante as ‘son’ and his tone is
loving.
The link between procreation and the formation of the soul after death
is what Statius calls the virtute informativa (‘formative power’) of ‘perfect
blood’, that is, the semen, which unites with the blood of the female, form-
ing first an embryo, which it quickens into life. This then undergoes four
stages of development: that of a vegetative soul, qual d’una pianta (‘as of a
plant’), with the difference that the soul of a plant is completely developed.
The embryo next moves to the intermediary stage between a plant and an
animal, come fungo marino (‘like a sea fungus’). After that comes the animal
soul, followed finally by the rational:
‘Or si spiega, figliuolo, or si distende
la virtù ch’ è dal cor del generante,
dove natura a tutte membra intende.
Ma come d’animal divenga fante,
non vedi tu ancor: quest’ è tal punto,
che più savio di te fè già errante.’
‘And now the force from the begetter’s heart,
my son, spreads and develops wheresoe’er
nature intends for every limb and part.
So far, however, thou art not aware
how reason it acquires, and here it was
one wiser than thou art was led to err’ 4
Statius is now given the role of proclaiming one of the most important
tenets of the Christian faith. Nothing that Dante learns from Beatrice in
Paradiso is of greater significance:
‘Apri alla verità che viene il petto;
e sappi che, sì tosto come al feto
l’articular del cerebro è perfetto,
302 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

lo motor primo a lui si volge lieto

sovra tant’arte di natura, e spira
spirito novo di vertù repleto,
che ciò che trova attivo quivi, tira
in sua sustanzia, e fassi un’alma sola,
che vive e sente e sè in sè rigira.’
‘Open thy mind to what is true and know:
when the articulation of the brain
has been perfected in the embryo
by Nature’s doing, the First Mover then,
joyful, breathes into it a spirit, rare
and new, filled with a power to entrain
into itself what it finds active there,
which with its substance forms a single soul,
living and feeling, of its self aware.’ 5
To help Dante to understand how this can be, Statius asks him to consider
the heat of the sun which turns the juice of the grape into wine.
When the soul is set free from the body, it carries with it the same virtute
informativa (‘formative power’) which the pure blood (semen) had possessed.
That is, the soul possesses in potential both the human and the divine facul-
ties; the physical senses being now inactive, memory, intelligence and will
are keener than before. The ‘formative power’ enables the soul to imprint
upon the atmosphere that surrounds it the image of the body it formerly
occupied, just as the air, when it is moist with rain, becomes adorned with
the colours of a rainbow. Then, like a flame that follows fire wherever it
moves, this image follows the spirit and by the ‘formative power’ acquires a
semblance of organs for every sense and for every feeling:
‘Quindi parliamo e quindi ridiamo noi;
quindi facciam le lacrime e ’ sospiri
che per lo monte aver sentiti puoi.
Secondo che ci affiggono i disiri
e li altri affetti, l’ombra si figura;
e quest’ è la cagion di che tu miri.’
‘Thence do we speak, thence laugh, and thence we make
our tears and sighs which thou didst hear and see
as thou thy way along the mount didst take.
Whate’er our feelings and desires may be,
the shade takes form and this the reason is
of all that has seemed marvellous to thee.’ 6
On the Seventh Cornice the souls of the lustful are purged in a wall of
fire. Divided into two bands, of natural and unnatural lust, they meet and
 BODY AND SOUL 303

chastely kiss each other, like ants nuzzling to exchange messages. Dante’s
shadow cast on the fire makes the souls marvel and one entreats him to
explain. He identifies himself as Guido Guinizelli.7
Dante expresses joy at this encounter in terms which yet again convey the
father–son relationship which marks his gratitude to all those from whom
he has learnt the art of poetry. In particular, Guinizelli is not only his father
but the father of all who have written sweet and pleasing rhymes of love:
… il padre
mio e delli altri miei miglior che mai
rime d’amore usar dolci e leggiadre …
… to me a father and to those
as well, my betters, who before and since
sweet, pleasing rhymes of love did e’er compose …8
Guinizelli, who has heard of his veneration, asks why it is he holds him dear.
Dante replies, using the honorific voi:
… ‘Li dolci detti vostri,
che, quanto durerà l’uso moderno,
faranno cari ancora i loro inchiostri.’
… ‘Master, I think
your sweetly crafted verses will endear,
as long as our style lasts, their very ink.’ 9
Guinizelli points to an ancestor of them all, the Provençal troubadour
Arnaut Daniel, who surpassed in craftsmanship all those who wrote in any
of the languages of Romance.10 In a self-conscious display of his sense of
heritage, Dante, in homage to this forebear, casts Arnaut’s greeting into
Provençal.
We do not know on what evidence (if any) he relegates Guinizelli and
Arnaut Daniel to the Cornice of the Lustful, but he has shown from the
canto of Francesca da Rimini onwards11 that love, even of the ‘gentle heart’,
can go astray and may need to be purged in the refining fire. Dante’s admi-
ration for the poetry of Arnaut Daniel had led him to compose four of his
most intricate, including one of his most erotic, poems, inspired by an unre-
quited sexual passion for a woman referred to as Pietra.12 Who she was we
do not know: the name ‘Pietra’ probably refers to her stony-hearted indiffer-
ence to Dante. It is possible that he intended to comment on these poems in
Il Convivio, in the context of the need for reason to restrain the excesses of
lust. He does not, however, refer to them directly anywhere in the Commedia.
What next occurs may be his way of purging this episode from his soul.
The fire serves a double purpose. It not only purges those who exceeded
304 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in their loves but, since love is the seed of all action, good or evil, as Virgil
has shown, all the souls who are released from the Mountain of Purgatory
have to go through this fiery barrier to reach the summit, on their way to
beatitude.
Dante, in his mortal body, is terrified. He clasps his hands and gazes at
the fire, vividly imagining bodies he has seen burned. Virgil tries to reas-
sure him, reminding him how he protected him upon the back of Geryon.
Here may be torment but not death, the fire cannot burn him; let him test it
himself with the edge of his garment:
‘Pon giù omai, pon giù ogni temenza:
volgiti in qua; vieni ed entra sicuro!’
E io pur fermo e contra coscienza.
‘Put fear aside, put every fear aside:
turn and draw near; come, enter here with trust!’
But I, against my will, stood petrified.13
Virgil, a little troubled, says, ‘Look, my son, between thee and Beatrice is this
wall.’ At this, Dante’s stubbornness gives way and he turns to his wise leader,
who shakes his head and says, as though tempting a child with an apple, ‘So,
are we to remain here, on this side?’ He then enters the fire himself and bids
Statius, who for long had walked between them, to bring up the rear.
The sensation of burning is so fierce that Dante relates that he would
gladly have thrown himself into boiling glass to get cool. Virgil speaks
continually of Beatrice to hearten him:
Lo dolce padre mio, per confortarmi,
pur di Beatrice ragionanado andava,
dicendo, ‘Li occhi suoi già veder parmi.’
My loving father, to encourage me,
of Beatrice kept talking as he went:
‘Her eyes already now I seem to see.’ 14
Dante’s participation in the purgation of the lustful appears to be a
confession on his part of remorse for lapses from his highest ideals. This
is Dante, close on his 50th year, looking back at himself as a young man,
judging himself and suffering an agony of repentance. Only the thought of
Beatrice gives him the strength to endure what he now suffers. He is guided
too by a voice singing beyond the flame. On emerging he knows that the
song is the beatitude ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you.’15
The sun sets and the three poets spend the night asleep on the steps,
Dante protected like a goat between two shepherds. During his sleep he
 BODY AND SOUL 305

has a prophetic dream in which he sees a beautiful young woman gathering

flowers and singing. She names herself as Leah, whose sister Rachel remains
gazing at herself in a mirror, she with contemplation, Leah with action,
being satisfied.16 With the coming of dawn, the three poets rise and mount
to the top of the last stairway. Before them lies the Garden of Eden.
This is a moment of fulfilment and transition. Dante has travelled
through Inferno and up Mount Purgatory. All seven scars of sin have been
erased from his brow. Virgil can help him no further and, though Dante
does not realize it at the time, he now bids him farewell:
… ‘Il temporal foco e l’etterno
veduto hai, figlio; e se’ venuto in parte
dov’io per me più oltre non discerno.
Tratto t’ho qui con ingegno e con arte;
lo tuo piacere omai prendi per duce:
fuor se’ delle erte vie, fuor se’ dell’arte.
Vedi il sol che in fronte ti riluce;
vedi l’erbetta, i fiori e li arbuscelli,
che qui la terra sol da sè produce.
Mentre che vegnan lieti li occhi belli
che, lacrimando, a te venir mi fenno,
sederti puoi e puoi andar tra elli.
Non aspetta mio dir più nè mio cenno:
libero, dritto e sano è tuo arbitrio,
e fallo fora non fare a suo senno:
per ch’io te sovra te corono e mitrio.’
… ‘the temporal fire and the eterne
thou hast beheld, my son, and come thou art
where of myself no further I discern.
I’ve brought thee here with knowledge and with art;
let pleasure be thy only guide from now:
from steep and narrow ways thou mayst depart.
See now the sun which shines upon thy brow,
the grass, the flowers and the trees, which here
spontaneously from the terrain grow.
Till those fair, joyful eyes to thee appear,
which, weeping, bade me come to rescue thee,
amid the garden rest and wander there.
No longer wait for word or sign from me.
Upright and whole and free thy will has grown,
not to obey it would an error be:
hence over thee I mitre thee and crown.’ 17
 CHAPTER 40
The Christian Sibyl

O
utdoor theatrical spectacles, allegorical pageants, masques and
processions were frequent in Florence and other Italian cities in
Dante’s time. Saints’ days and other communal events were cele-
brated with colour, costume, dance and song, not only in the streets but on
the river. It is not surprising that Dante should decide to organize his own
pageant in the Commedia. The place he chose was the Garden of Eden.
His arrival there is the final climax of Purgatorio. Followed by Virgil
and Statius, he steps eagerly forward into a green and shady wood, where
birds are singing in the topmost branches. They come to the brink of a clear
stream. On the opposite side, over grass which is bright with red and yellow
flowers, there moves a beautiful woman singing and gathering a nosegay.
Audience anticipation is aroused. Can this be Beatrice? It is not, and who
she is we are never told, except that her name is Matilda.1 To Dante the sight
of her recalls Proserpina in the meadow when she was seized by Pluto; she
is as beautiful as Venus when she was pierced by Cupid’s arrow, or as Hero
for whom Leander braved the Hellespont. He asks her to draw near that he
may hear what she is singing. Moving delicately like a dancer, she comes to
the water’s edge and stands upright, her hands full of flowers. As she raises
her eyes she smiles.
Thinking this may surprise them, since they are newly arrived, she tells
them why she smiles: this is the place that God created for man’s eternal
peace but through his fault his stay was short. She explains the miracu-
lous way in which the plants are generated and how the water flows from a
supernatural and unfailing spring. This is perhaps, she adds, what the ancient
poets imagined when they sang of the age of gold. Dante looks back to see
how ‘his’ poets have taken this and sees that they too are smiling.
This pastoral prelude gives no clue of what is to follow. Walking along
on opposite banks of the stream, they follow its curve and come to face the
east. Matilda says: ‘My brother, look and listen.’ A sudden brightness, like
lightning, sweeps through the forest and a sweet melody sounds through the
shining air, which, as the light increases to a blaze of fire, is heard to be songs.
In the distance Dante sees what he at first takes to be seven golden trees.

306
 THE CHRISTIAN SIBYL 307

Nearer they prove to be candlesticks and voices are heard singing ‘Hosanna’.
Dante in astonishment turns back to Virgil but he, for the first time, has
no explanation and can only return a look filled likewise with amazement.
There approaches slowly a procession of figures clothed in white. Above
them the flames from the candlesticks stream like pennons, in the seven
colours of the rainbow, ten paces apart and vanishing into the distance.
Beneath the radiant sky 24 elders walk two by two, crowned with lilies.
They sing: ‘Blessed art thou among the daughters of Adam and blessed
forever be thy beauty!’2 After them come four living creatures, crowned with
green leaves; each one has six wings and in their plumage are six eyes.3 In
a space between these four, a two-wheeled chariot is drawn by a Gryphon,
part lion, part eagle, whose wings stretch up between the coloured pennons.
Its bird-like part is gold, its lion-part is white and red. Not Scipio Africanus,
not Augustus had so magnificent a triumph car, and even the chariot of the
sun would seem pale beside it. At the right wheel three women dance and
sing a roundelay; one is as red as fire, one seems made all of emerald, and
one is as white as newly fallen snow. As they dance they sing, taking their
measure, fast or slow, from the one who leads the song in turn. At the left
wheel four other women dance, clothed in purple, taking their time from
one who has three eyes.4 Bringing up the rear are two old men, one with
the aspect of a physician, the other with a sword, ‘so bright and sharp’ that
Dante feels afraid of it even from across the stream. Four others follow, of
humble aspect, and an old man alone, walking as though asleep but with an
alert countenance. All seven are crowned like the preceding 24, but instead
of lilies their wreaths are of roses and other vermilion flowers, so that from
a distance they seem on fire above their brows. When the chariot draws
opposite to Dante it stops. There is a clap of thunder and the pageant comes
to a halt.
The voice of one of the elders is heard calling three times: Veni, sponsa,
de Libano (‘Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse’)5 and all the others
then join in. At this, more than a hundred angels rise from the chariot and
cry: Benedictus qui venis (‘Blessed art thou that comest’).6 Casting flow-
ers into the air, they also chant: Manibus o date lilia plenis (‘O give lilies
with full hands’).7 At this moment, amid the cloud of flowers, Dante sees a
figure crowned with an olive wreath over a white veil and clad in a garment-
like flame, covered with a green mantle. Never before, or since, has such a
magnificent entry been prepared for a prima donna.
Dante the dramatist here takes over from the pageant-master. The scene
that follows is the most masterly piece of drama in a work that is largely
dramatic. Dante the character at once senses, before he actually knows, that
this is Beatrice:
308 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

E lo spirito mio, che già cotanto

tempo era stato che alla sua presenza
non era di stupor tremando affranto,
sanza delli occhi aver più conoscenza,
per occulta virtù che da lei mosse,
d’antico amor sentì la gran potenza.
My spirit, which through such a span of years,
of trembling, that o’ercame it quite
when in her presence, had put by its fears,
needing no more assurance from my sight,
by secret power that from her came forth
my old love felt again in all its might.8
As he has done so many times before, he turns to Virgil, like a child to its
mother, for support. He says: ‘Not a drop of blood in my veins but does not
tremble. I know the embers of an ancient flame.’ In these last words, conosco i
segni dell’antica fiamma, he is quoting from Dido’s confession of her love for
Aeneas to her sister Anna, a moving tribute to his beloved poet.9
But Virgil has gone. Without a word he has just vanished. Dante’s shock
and grief are so great that he has forgotten even Beatrice. Not all the beauty
of Eden, forfeited by Eve, can recompense him for his loss and he breaks
down in bitter tears.
Beatrice, instead of consoling him, addresses him sternly, calling him by
his name (the only occasion on which it is used in the Commedia):
‘Dante, perchè Virgilio se ne vada,
non pianger anco, non piangere ancora;
chè pianger ti conven per altra spada.’
‘Dante, weep not for Virgil’s going, keep
as yet from weeping, weep not yet, for soon
another sword shall give thee cause to weep.’ 10
In the role that Beatrice here plays she is the lady in the traditional quest
narrative who rebukes her lover for his infidelity. But the scene is more than
a literary trope. The use of Dante’s name indicates that it is personal: Beatrice
here represents his guilty conscience. He portrays her as a severe, authori-
tative figure, like an admiral who inspects his fleet, moving from stern to
prow, surveying and urging on the work of the crews. Royal and stern in her
demeanour, she says, ‘Look on us well, we are, we are Beatrice.’
The use of the plural is startling and significant.11 ‘I am Beatrice,’ she
seems to be saying, ‘and I am also as you behold me now.’ It is as though
the son of a queen, on beholding his mother crowned, sees her now as his
mother, now as his monarch, yet she is always one person. And indeed Dante
 THE CHRISTIAN SIBYL 309

speaks of the mother–son relationship at this point:

Così la madre al figlio par superba,
com’ ella parve a me; perchè d’amaro
sent’ il sapor della pietade acerba.
And even as a little boy may think
his mother harsh, she seemed so then to me;
stern pity is a bitter-tasting drink.12
The speech of accusation that Beatrice now makes is addressed not to
him but to the angels. But they, who partake of God’s eternal vision, do not
need to be informed: her words are for Dante’s benefit. This indirect mode
has the effect of a drama with a chorus, or, to compare it to a modern setting,
of a scene in a court of law. She recalls Dante’s natural endowments, which
in his ‘new life’13 promised such marvellous results. But the more favourable
the ground, the more the weeds flourish if bad seeds fall upon it. For a while
he was uplifted and led aright by her face and the beacons which were her
eyes. But when, on the threshold of her second age,14 she changed one life
for another (mutai vita), he turned from her to someone else. Though her
beauty and virtue were then enhanced, he loved her less and wandered from
the path of truth, following false phantoms of the good. All her attempts to
call him back by dreams and other signs were of no avail. He fell so low that
every means to save his soul had failed, except to show him the damned in
Hell.
‘Per questo visitai l’uscio de’ morti
e a colui che l’ha qui su condotto
i preghi miei, piangendo, furon porti.
Alto fato di Dio sarebbe rotto
se Lete si passasse e tal vivanda
fosse gustata sanza alcun scotto
di pentimento che lagrime spanda.’
‘For this the gateway of the dead I sought,
and weeping, made request of him by whom
he has been raised thus far and hither brought.
It would do violence to God’s high doom
if Lethe could be passed, and evil-doers
to taste this blessed fare could straightway come
without some forfeit of repentant tears.’ 15
With a superb sense of timing, Dante here ends both Beatrice’s speech to
the angels and the canto.
With no preamble, the next canto opens with the sword of her rebuke
pointed straight at Dante himself, che pur per taglio m’ era paruto acro (‘which
30 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

even from its edge towards me had seemed sharp’). She calls on him to say
whether her accusations are true. He is so broken in spirit that he cannot
speak. All he can do is to form the word ‘Yes’ with his lips but no voice
comes, only sobs. But she continues, mercilessly. In answer to her question as
to what allurements had led him astray, he manages to stammer amid tears:
Piangendo dissi: ‘Le presenti cose
col falso lor piacer volser miei passi
tosto che ’l vostro viso si nascose.’
‘Things transitory, with their false delight’,
weeping I said, ‘enticed my steps aside,
soon as your face was hidden from my sight.’ 16
His confession of guilt is to his credit but still she continues her reproaches.
Nothing surpassed the beauty of her body, which now lies buried in the
earth. How could he then have been enticed by something less? At the first
shaft of temptation he should have taken flight to pursue her memory, not
waited for the next, some pargoletta, or other passing fancy.
Standing ashamed and silent, like a child, his eyes fixed on the ground,
Dante is still unable to reply. She humiliates him further:
… ‘Quando
per udir se’ dolente, alza la barba,
e prenderai più doglia riguardando.’
… ‘If
hearing only grieves thee, raise thy beard,
and thou by looking shalt feel greater grief.’ 17
Dante feels the sting of her allusion to his beard: he is not a child but a
grown man. With an enormous effort he lifts up his chin and looks at her
across the stream; still veiled, she is now gazing at the Gryphon. As her
beauty outshone that of all other women when she was on earth, she now
outshines her former self so far that all other past objects of his love he
now hates. Remorse and self-reproach so gnaw his heart that, overwhelmed,
he falls in a dead faint. When he comes to himself he is being plunged by
Matilda in the stream, which we later learn is the river Lethe, the water of
which washes away the memory of all sin.
This prolonged scene of rebuke and confession is placed in a central posi-
tion in the Commedia. From its nature it would seem to have actual, as well
as allegorical, meaning; that is to say, Dante is here the living man, writ-
ing in his late 40s, looking back on himself. He suffers remorse when he
recalls that after the death of Beatrice he failed to live up to the ideal of the
cor gentile, the love that ennobles. There seems to be an admission that he
 THE CHRISTIAN SIBYL 3

erred in this regard in connection with the donna gentile. When Beatrice
says that at her death he turned away and gave himself to someone else, this
surely refers to the conflict he described in La Vita Nuova. He had tried to
reconcile this in Il Convivio but had not totally succeeded. His love for the
donna gentile seems to have merged eventually with his enamoured study
of philosophy but there had been an earlier period when the passion of the
body had predominated over the passion of the mind. This is what he now
confesses to Beatrice, as well as acknowledging trivial entanglements which
are reflected in minor poems. In the drama that he here constructs, Beatrice
is a severe prosecutor; in reality it is Dante Alighieri who is severe upon
himself.
In one aspect of this scene Beatrice is also herself. That is, Dante portrays
her as the woman he had come to imagine her to be. But in the pageant and
in the following episodes, continuing until the end of Purgatorio, he casts
her for roles that go far beyond her actual self, as though she were masqued
like someone performing in an allegorical production, such as he must often
have seen in Florence and elsewhere.
The theme of the pageant so far has been divine revelation. Dante does
not interpret the figures who compose it, for his contemporary readers (or, in
this case, ‘spectators’) would have been familiar with them. The candlesticks
with seven lights represent the seven gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understand-
ing, counsel, might, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The 24 elders are
the books of the Old Testament (as reckoned by St Jerome). They sing in
praise of the Virgin, of whom the books were believed to be full of prophecy.
The four winged creatures are a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle, the symbols
of the Evangelists. The triumph car is the Church. The Gryphon, twyform,
represents the theological concept of Christ, the mystery of the divine and
human nature in one. The three dancers at the right wheel of the chariot are
the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, in their symbolical colours.
The four at the left wheel are the cardinal virtues, Prudence, Courage, Justice
and Temperance, clothed in purple, the colour of empire. The two old men
represent the Acts of the Apostles by Luke, ‘the beloved physician’, and the
writings of St Paul, armed with ‘the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God’. The four who follow represent the General Epistles and the man
walking as though asleep represents Revelations.
The cry of the angels: Benedictus qui venis (‘Blessed art thou who dost
come’), adapted from the words of St Mark, is a line from the hymn sung
before the sacring of the Mass. At this moment, ‘the one who comes’ is
Beatrice. Dante has left unchanged the masculine ending (-us) to show that
at this supreme climax she represents not a woman but something beyond
her gender.
32 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

One of the most important religious processions of Dante’s time cele-

brated the (then) recently renewed observance of the office of Corpus
Christi. This festival, like Dante’s pageant, had chants and lights; flowers too
were scattered. A Papal Bull had ordered: ‘Let faith sing psalms, let hope
dance, let charity exult.’18 Such correspondences have a meaning that indeed
surpasses ‘what has been written in verse of any woman’: the glorification of
Beatrice as the image of the Host.19 As in the Corpus Christi procession the
Host was the centre, carried under a baldachin, so in Dante’s pageant the
centre is Beatrice carried in the chariot that represents the Church.
Emerging from the river Lethe on to the opposite bank, Dante is led
by the four cardinal virtues into the presence of Beatrice. Gazing into her
now unveiled eyes, the smeraldi (‘emeralds’), he sees reflected in them the
Gryphon, now wholly eagle, now wholly lion, though being itself unchanged.
Dante’s soul, ‘full of amazement and gladness’, tastes of the food that satisfies
yet creates for itself still further appetite (the Eucharist). At the entreaty of
the theological virtues, Beatrice unveils her smiling mouth. The canto ends
with an admission that no poet could ever summon the ability to render her
as she then appeared.
In the next canto, Dante, resuming his skill as pageant-master, rises to
heights worthy of an earl marshal. As a military man he understood how
a body of soldiery was manoeuvred. The ‘glorious army’ turns on its right
flank, so that the seven flames are in their faces, together with the sun, now
mounting to its noonday height. As a squadron beneath its shields wheels
with the colours before the whole vanguard can change direction, so the
heavenly militia moves before the pole can turn the chariot round. The seven
virtues again take their places beside the wheels. The Gryphon moves the
blessed burden on and not a feather of its plumage is disturbed. Matilda,
Statius and Dante follow at the right wheel, which describes the smaller arc.
This is troop management indeed.
In time to angelic music, the procession paces through the lofty glade.
When they have advanced about as far as the distance of three arrow flights,
Beatrice descends from the car, thus ending her representation of the Host.
A murmur of the name ‘Adam’ rustles through the ranks, as though in
reproachful memory of his sin of disobedience. The procession halts, encir-
cling a tree which is bare of all flowers and leaves. Of immense height, its
topmost branches spread the widest. The company address the Gryphon:
‘Blessed art thou that with thy beak dost never pluck from this tree, which,
sweet to taste, makes the belly writhe in pain.’
And now an unimaginable thing occurs. The Gryphon, the heraldic
emblem of the two natures of Christ, is heard to speak – a single sentence
only, of cryptic and enigmatic portent:
 THE CHRISTIAN SIBYL 33

‘Sì si conserva il seme d’ogni giusto.’

‘Thus is preserved the seed of all that is just.’ 20
The utterance of so sublime a being, it is evident, is likely to have the utmost
significance, and so it proves to be. First, it is an echo of the words of Jesus
to St John the Baptist at the moment of His baptism:
‘Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.’
or, as Dante read them in the Vulgate:
‘Sic enim decet nos implere omnem iustitiam.’21
In both the Italian and the Latin, the reference is to Justice. The words also
echo those of St Paul:
As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous.22
Adam had betrayed the sense of right, implanted originally by God in
human nature. This Christ restored by His incarnation and death under the
jurisdiction of Empire and by His ‘refusal of the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them’.
Having made its arcane pronouncement, the Gryphon pulls the shaft of
the car to the foot of the despoiled tree and attaches it there with a withy of
the tree itself. At once it blossoms into flowers, less crimson than the rose,
more purple than the violet. This bonding of the chariot to the tree (the Tree
of Knowledge) is a picture of perfected human order under an ideal union
of Church and Empire. The company burst into song but Dante does not
comprehend the words nor hear the music to the end.
The reason was, he fell asleep: how, he cannot describe but passes to
his awakening. A shining splendour breaks his slumber and a voice calls:
‘Arise! What art thou doing?’ as when Peter, James and John after the
Transfiguration were awakened by the touch and voice of Jesus. Over him
stands Matilda and in sudden fear Dante asks: ‘Where is Beatrice?’ Matilda
replies: ‘See where she sits beneath the new foliage at the foot of the tree; see
the company surrounding her [the seven virtues, who now hold the candle-
sticks]; the Gryphon and the others are ascending to the sound of a sweeter
and profounder song.’
Beatrice has now moved to her next role. As guardian of the union
between the chariot and the tree, she becomes a mistress of ceremony, in
command of the masque which will display to Dante the history of the
Church and Empire, from the age of persecution to the present time. It is
also her function to predict Dante’s ultimate salvation:
34 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Qui sarai tu poco tempo silvano;

e sarai meco sanza fine cive
di quella Roma ove Cristo è romano.’
‘Briefly the woodland world will be thy home;
with me eternal citizen thou’lt be
where Christ is Roman in that other Rome.’ 23
But while still in ‘the woodland world’, Dante has a mission to fulfil. It is a
world that has gone much awry and for its sake he will be shown things now
which he must note and write on his return. Beatrice commands him to fix
his eyes on the chariot and he obeys. This is the first time that the purpose
of his journey, other than his own redemption, is made plain, and it comes in
the context of the restoration of justice.
A rapid sequence of violent coups de théâtre now takes place. First, the
bird of Jove swoops down like lightning on the tree, stripping it of its new
foliage and flowers: this represents the persecutions of the early Christians.
Next, a lean and starving fox pollutes the car and is driven off by Beatrice
(the heresies of the early centuries). Next, the eagle returns, leaving the car
feathered with its plumage (the well-meant but in Dante’s view disastrous
Donation of Constantine, as well as enrichments of the Church by Pepin
and Charlemagne).24 The voice of St Peter is heard lamenting from Heaven:
‘O my little vessel, with how much evil art thou burdened!’ Next, the earth
opens between the chariot wheels and a dragon appears. Driving its tail up
through the car, it drags away part of the floor (the schism brought about by
Mohammed). There follows a distortion of the chariot. Seven heads appear,
three on the pole and one on each corner, the three horned like oxen and the
four with a single horn on each forehead (an image taken from the Beast
of the Apocalypse ‘having seven heads and ten horns’).25 This represents the
corruption of the Church. Seated on the car is a harlot, her clothes awry.
Beside her is a giant, with whom she fornicates. She leers at Dante, which
angers the giant, who belabours her and drags her off into the forest.26
The final canto of Purgatorio opens with the lamentations of the seven
virtues. Beatrice, listening to them, is filled with grief, like Mary at the Cross.
She rises to her feet and speaks in Latin:
‘Modicum, et non videbitis me;
et iterum …
modicum, et vos videbitis me.’
‘A little while and ye shall not see me;
again …
a little while, and ye shall see me.’ 27
In quoting these words of Jesus to His disciples concerning His death
 THE CHRISTIAN SIBYL 35

and Resurrection, Beatrice is foretelling the transference of the Papacy to

Avignon and its longed-for return to Rome, an event that did not occur in
Dante’s lifetime.28
With the seven virtues walking ahead of her and followed by Matilda,
Dante and Statius, Beatrice now moves away from the Tree of Knowledge.
When she has advanced ten paces, she commands Dante to draw level with
her, so that he may hear what she will tell him. He does so with reverence
and breathless awe. She speaks to him now in solemn and mysterious words.
The broken chariot ‘was and is not’29 but he who is to blame shall not escape
vengeance. The eagle that left its plumes upon the car will not remain with-
out an heir.
She then utters an enigmatic prophecy, which she commands Dante to
report: the time is coming, she foretells, when one sent by God, un cinque-
cento diece e cinque (‘a five hundred ten and five’) will slay the harlot and the
giant. If her obscure sayings now cloud his mind, events will clarify their
meaning. She bids him note and relate her exact words to the world. Above
all he is to describe what he saw happen to the tree, for whoever robs it
commits blasphemy. She knows that his intellect has turned to stone and is
so darkened that her speech bewilders him. Nevertheless he is to remember
it, if not in words, at least in pictures.
Dante replies that his brain is stamped like wax with the impression of
all which he has seen and heard, and asks why her words so far out-soar his
understanding. She replies that he may now see how remote from God’s
truth are the studies he has made.30 Dante, interpreting this to mean that he
has been estranged from Beatrice, says he cannot recall that this was ever so.
Smiling, she says: ‘Thou hast today drunk the waters of Lethe. If fire may be
inferred from smoke, this thy forgetfulness implies that thou wast indeed at
fault.’ Henceforth, she says, her words will be as plain as is required for the
meaning to penetrate his obtuse mind.
No longer a figure in a pageant or a masque, she has now entered on her
function as Dante’s guide, a role she will continue throughout Paradiso. Her
oracular words, above all her arcane prophecy, make plain the nature of her
Sibylline role.
Her mysterious words, un cinquecento diece e cinque (‘a five hundred ten
and five’), have never been convincingly explained, though many ingenious
and fantastic attempts have been made. One valid but incomplete interpre-
tation, long accepted, is that the numbers written as the Roman numerals
DXV can be arranged to read DVX, that is, the Latin word dux, meaning
leader. This, however, does not get us far. Another acceptable interpretation
reads DXV as the initials of Dominus Christus Victor, but this also leaves
the immediate significance unsolved.
36 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

There is a further interpretation, never previously perceived, which I here

present. The number cinquecento, usually printed as a single word, is inter-
preted as 500. But it can also be read as three words: cinqu’ e cento (‘five and
one hundred’), that is, 05. The following numbers diece e cinque, 0 and 5,
can also, by mystic addition, form 05. The two sets of figures, therefore: un
cinqu’ e cento (one, five and a hundred) and diece e cinque (ten and five) can
both be read as a reference to the line in Inferno, in which Virgil ends his
prophecy of the veltro, that is, Canto I, line 05:
e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro.
’twixt felt and felt his naissance will be found.31
The repetition of the number 05 in the second half of the line makes it
possible also to read the figures as the Roman numerals DXV; in this case
the figure un (one) becomes the indefinite article.
This simple solution is in keeping with Dante’s fascination with the
meanings that can be read into numbers. The figures , 5, 00 also form by
mystic addition the number 7, the total of 3 plus 4, representing the theo-
logical and the cardinal virtues, the symbol of the ideal organization of the
world. The solution also links Virgil and Beatrice as prophets, both of whom
foretell the coming of one who will remedy the ills of the world, visual-
ized by Dante in Il Convivio as a supreme emperor. It is significant that he
introduces this prophecy both at the beginning of the first and at the end of
the middle section of the Commedia, that is, where Virgil, the pagan sage, is
about to lead Dante down into Hell and where Beatrice, the Christian sibyl,
is about to lead him up into Heaven. Finally, the arcane words may be seen
as a farewell to the character Virgil. Beatrice has replaced him but she takes
on his message, like a baton. Failure to recognize its simplicity and once
again, as in the case of the veltro, the assumption that Dante is referring to
a specific person, have obscured its meaning for seven centuries in a wilder-
ness of tangled comment.
 CHAPTER 41

Who is Matilda?

D
ante the dramatist, Dante the pageant-master and Dante the crea-
tor of masques are all to be found in the spectacular events that take
place in the Garden of Eden. There is also Dante the poet. At the
beginning of Purgatorio, after the horrific descriptions of the punishments
in Hell, Dante had invoked the Muses, that poetry might arise again from
the dead:
Ma qui la morta poesì resurga,
o sante muse …
But here let poetry from death arise,
o sacred muses …1
Throughout this second cantica there have been many tender, lyrical
moments, full of colour and imagery, in which the expressive powers of the
volgare illustre have been developed to the utmost. Here in the Garden of
Eden, where the first words of Adam were spoken,2 Dante manifests some
of his finest poetic skills.
The beauty of the garden is evoked with a delicacy that recalls his most
melodious canzoni. The dense, green forest, tempering the rays of the early
sun, the fragrance of the plants, the gentle breeze, the singing of the birds
in the tree-tops, accompanied by the fluttering of leaves, draw the reader in,
with Dante, as he moves slowly forward to explore. The sudden appearance
of a bella donna, singing and gathering flowers, with which all her path was
painted (ond’era pinta tutta la sua via)3 is a picture such as might have come
from Dante’s own brush in the days when he painted figures of angels upon
boards.4
The identity of this figure has been and is still the subject of controversy.
In order to analyse the problem and possibly to arrive at a conclusion, it is
necessary to examine every reference to her more minutely than has been
done in the preceding chapter.
In response to Dante’s entreaty, she draws near the bank of a stream
which divides them, still singing, moving delicately like a dancer:

37
38 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Come si volge con le piante strette

a terra ed intra sè donna che balli,
e piede innanzi a piede a pena mette,
volsesi in su i vermigli ed in sui gialli
fioretti verso me non altrimenti
che vergine che li occhi onesti avvalli.
Just as a dancer, when she pirouettes,
her feet down pointed and together close,
and one before the other tightly sets,
so she, amid the flowers, gold and rose,
towards me turned, her modest eyes cast down,
moving demurely as a maiden does.5
It is possible that Dante is here evoking the performance by dancers of one
of his ballate, such as the one he sent to Beatrice, to be sung and danced to
her in hope of a reconciliation.6
The beautiful and mysterious donna then raises her eyes and smiles.
Thinking some explanation of her joy is needed, she tells the three newcom-
ers that this is the garden created as the dwelling for humanity; the psalm
Delectasti (‘Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work’) will perhaps
dispel all surprise from their minds.7 She then addresses Dante directly,
saying that she will tell him whatever he wishes to know, for she has come
prepared to do so.8 From this it is reasonable to draw a working hypothesis:
she is one of the several guides sent to assist or instruct Dante on his jour-
ney; unlike Cato at the foot of the mountain, and unlike the porter at the
gate to the cornices, she is not permanently present; like St Bernard who
appears at Dante’s side when Beatrice resumes her throne in the Celestial
Rose, she has been sent for a special purpose and will return to Paradise.9
Dante wishes first to know the source of the water and of the breeze in
the garden, for he has been informed (by Statius)10 that above the gateway
to the cornices there are no atmospheric disturbances. The lady’s explana-
tion, delivered in didactic style, links the mountain with the movement of
the heavenly spheres, which, as they circle, produce a soft breeze, which
carries the seeds of plants, spontaneously generated here, to the northern
hemisphere, where they are self-sown. The water issues by God’s will from a
constant unvarying fount, dividing into two streams: the nearer one, named
Lethe, takes from the soul all memory of sin; the other, named Eunoë,11
restores the memory of every good deed, its taste by far surpassing all else in
its sweetness.
The lady then adds what she calls a ‘corollary’: the poets who wrote of the
age of gold and its happy state were perhaps dreaming of this place when
they wrote of the Golden Age:
 WHO IS MATILDA? 39

‘Qui fu innocente l’umana radice;

qui primavera sempre ed ogni frutto;
nettare è questo di che ciascun dice.’
‘Here mankind’s origin was innocent;
here was eternal spring and every fruit,
and what by nectar every poet meant.’ 12
Like a woman in love, she continues singing13 and moves along the bank
upstream, Dante matching his steps to hers on the opposite side. So they
proceed until the arrival of the pageant. After the disappearance of Virgil
it is she who instructs Dante where to fix his gaze. She is a witness of his
humiliation and confession and when he drops in a swoon it is she who
plunges him into the river Lethe. She accompanies the procession to the
Tree and is present throughout the sequence of masques. When Dante falls
asleep it is she who awakens him and reassures him when he looks about
him in search of Beatrice. When Dante is summoned to Beatrice’s side, she
walks behind with Statius. As they come to the second branch of the stream,
Dante asks what this water is. And now at last the mysterious lady’s name
is revealed. Beatrice replies, Prega/Matelda che ’l ti dica (‘Ask Matilda to tell
thee’).14 The lady replies that she has already told him this and many other
things and is sure that the water of Lethe cannot have washed the memory
from him. ‘Perhaps a greater care has clouded his mind,’ Beatrice answers.
‘But there is Eunoë. Lead him to it e come tu se’ usa (“and as thou art accus-
tomed”) revive his weakened powers.’ The lady takes Dante by the hand and
bidding Statius to come with him leads him to Eunoë. From its sacred water
he emerges ‘remade, like plants renewed with new leaves’,
puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.
pure and disposed to rise up to the stars.15
With this repetition of the last rhyme of Inferno, the second cantica ends.
Who is Matilda? Why is her name revealed only at the end of her role
and then with no explanation? What do the words come tu se’ usa convey?
Do they imply that it is her permanent function to immerse penitent souls
in the two streams and, if so, was Statius also immersed? (Nothing is said
concerning him in this regard.) Or does it simply mean that she is now to
plunge Dante in Eunoë as she has already plunged him in Lethe? Is she a
person or merely a symbol? If a symbol, what does she signify?
The earliest commentators, including Dante’s son Pietro, identified her
as Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, and for many centuries this identification
was uncontested. In recent times objections have been raised to it, so many
that it is surprising that it remained unchallenged for so long.
The historical Matilda of Tuscany (046–5) was an ally and supporter
320 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

of Pope Gregory VII and a generous benefactress to the Church, bequeath-

ing to it her vast territories. In 077 she played an important role in the
confrontation between the Pope and the Emperor Henry IV, a celebrated
event that was played out at Matilda’s castle of Canossa.16 The conflict arose
as a result of a decree passed by the Pope forbidding the appointment of
ecclesiastics by secular authorities. This challenged a lucrative traffic and was
bitterly contested by Henry IV.
Matters came to a head over the archbishopric of Milan, to which Henry
had nominated his own candidate, ignoring the Pope’s choice. Gregory could
not overlook such defiance and demanded the withdrawal of Henry’s nomi-
nee. Henry refused. In 076, at a meeting at Worms, attended by 24 bishops
and the archbishops of Mainz and Trier, Gregory was declared deposed. This
was followed by a meeting at Piacenza, at which Lombard bishops issued a
similar declaration. The news was conveyed to Gregory at a Lenten synod at
which there was an outburst of wrath among the assembly. The unfortunate
messenger was set upon and would have been killed but for the intervention
of Gregory. His next step was to excommunicate Henry and to declare him
deposed as Emperor.
A decision was taken to hold a meeting at Augsburg, attended by
Gregory, at which Henry should face his accusers. To forestall this danger,
Henry secretly crossed the Alps with a few attendants in the midst of winter
and arrived outside the gates of the castle of Canossa, where the Pope was
staying as a guest of the Countess Matilda, on his way to Augsburg. Henry
knelt in penitence, barefoot in the snow, for three days. Matilda is said to
have interceded for him and the Pope finally absolved him from his excom-
munication.
This striking event remained for centuries a dramatic icon of Papal and
Imperial conflict, resolved in reconciliation at the mediation of ‘the Great
Countess’. In view of Dante’s concern with the balance of power between
Pope and Emperor, it is surprising that no mention is made of this episode
in the Commedia, nor in his treatise Monarchia.17 The question is: has he
made indirect allusion to it in the figure of Matilda in the scene of reconcili-
ation between himself and Beatrice in the Garden of Eden?
If so, one question can be provisionally answered: why Dante does not
reveal the identity of Matilda until the end of the episode. To have done so
would have distracted attention from Beatrice and from the central scene.
With his strong sense of dramatic structure, Dante always knows better
than to anticipate his effects.
Other problems remain, however. One objection was powerfully expressed
by the Dante scholar Francesco D’Ovidio18 who could not accept that
Dante’s Matilda represented ‘a fiery and imperious old woman of seventy
 WHO IS MATILDA? 32

who had been twice married’. He was convinced that if anything was certain
about Matilda it was that she was not the Countess of Tuscany. Another
objection, which has seemed insurmountable to some commentators, is the
bequest by the Countess of wealth and territories to the Church. As against
this, however, although Dante deplored the Donation believed to have been
made by the Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester, it did not prevent him
from exalting the soul of Constantine to Paradise among rulers who loved
and exercised justice.19
Numerous other candidates have been proposed: two nuns, Matilda
of Hackeborn and Matilda of Magdeburg, both authors of mystical writ-
ings; the Empress Matilda, wife of Henry I; Matilda, daughter of Henry I.
Another category of suggestions offers a range of women mentioned in the
Vita Nuova: one of the screen-ladies; one of the companions of Beatrice;
the lady loved by Cavalcanti, known as Giovanna or Primavera; the donna
gentile. Another desperate solution propounds the theory that she is a purely
fictitious symbol; if this were so, she would be unique among all the charac-
ters in the Commedia.
The case for the Countess may be approached from another angle.
Leaving on one side what is known of the historical personage, it is worth
considering what impression Dante himself might have formed of her. What
was his source of information?
Between the years  and 2 the chaplain of Matilda, named Domnizo,
completed a chronicle in Latin verse relating her virtuous deeds. Referring
to her as ‘the worthy daughter of Peter’, he describes her as follows: ‘she
is tall, with the beautiful features of her mother and her father’s southern
complexion’; ‘she shines as brightly as the star Diana’; ‘she is upheld, irradi-
ated and wonderfully sustained by hope’; ‘she loves greatly the Divine Word
by whom all things are created’; ‘she has always a cheerful, smiling counte-
nance and a calm and peaceful mind;’ ‘she delights in and praises those of
her servants whom she finds full of humility and they honour and obey her
with reverence’; ‘prudence accompanies her every action’; ‘prosperity does
not alter her, nor do misfortunes disturb her’.
The tradition that she was beautiful lived on after her. Riccobaldo, a histo-
rian of Ferrara of the thirteenth century, describes her as possessing great
beauty which she retained even to the last years of her life. She was known to
be an influential patron of art and was involved in the rebuilding of Modena
Cathedral. She promoted the reform of the Cluniac Order, of which several
monasteries were rebuilt under her patronage. Her tomb20 was first placed
in the monastery of San Benedetto Polirone, near Mantua, in the Oratory
of the Blessed Virgin, which formed part of the ancient church founded by
Tedaldo, Matilda’s grandfather. The walls were adorned with frescoes and
322 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

in the pavement round the sarcophagus was a series of mosaics depicting

figures symbolic of Matilda and her qualities. Four stately female figures
represent the cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.
On the left of them is a man with a spear in his hand which he aims at
a dragon; on the right are a unicorn and a bird with webbed feet and an
animal’s head.
From these elements of biography and iconography Dante may well have
fashioned his idyllic picture of Matilda. A further source, that of epigraphy,
could be the origin of the mysterious phrase come tu se’ usa (‘as thou art
accustomed’), uttered by Beatrice when she commands Matilda to revive
Dante in the water of Eunoë. Near Pisa, at Acqua, were certain baths,
beside which, on a wall, an inscription commemorated their renewal by the
Countess Matilda:
MATHELDIS
Comitissa insignis
Ob Humanam Valetudinem
Instaurandam, Praeservandamque
Amena Haec ab Aquis salubria
Balnea
In omnigentium Hominum Usum
Omni cum ornatu cultuque
Dicavit A
A.D. MCXII. K. Maias
(The renowned Countess Matilda, for the establishment
and preservation of human health, dedicated with every
decoration and care these pleasant and salubrious baths
for the use of men of all races, in the year A.D. 2 in
the Kalends of May.)
The words in omnigentium hominum usum (‘for the use of men of all
races’) appear to be echoed by those of Beatrice, come tu se’ usa, as though
health-giving waters for the refreshment of mankind were associated with
the bounty of Matilda.
From these fragments it is perhaps possible to strengthen the case for
the identification of Dante’s Matilda as the Countess of Tuscany, presented
in delicate, idyllic allegory as a figure of the active life, as anticipated by the
figure of Leah in Dante’s dream.21 If so, Beatrice, anticipated by Rachel in
the same dream, represents the contemplative life. The allegory is, however,
many-layered. The central scene between Dante and Beatrice is above all one
of self-abasement and reconciliation, mediated by her handmaid Matilda: it
is, perhaps, by subtle implication, Dante’s own Canossa.22
 WHO IS MATILDA?

Fig 9. Mosaics Adorning the Tomb of the Countess Matilda

323
 CHAPTER 42

Dante and His Patrons

O
f all Dante’s patrons, the most powerful and influential was Can
Grande della Scala.1 The third son of Alberto della Scala, the
Ghibelline ruler of Verona, he became joint lord with his brother
Alboino on the death of their elder brother Bartolommeo in 308. When
Alboino died in 3 Can Grande became sole ruler of Verona, at the age of
20.
A champion of Henry VII, he was present at Milan on 6 January 3
when Henry received the second of his three crowns, and Dante could have
seen him there.2 He was about to embark at Genoa for Rome to support
Henry’s third coronation when news reached him of the death of Alboino
and he returned at once to Verona. From there he continued to campaign
in support of Henry and was appointed Imperial Vicar of Verona and of
Vicenza. He was a brilliant and successful general. Within a short period he
added Vicenza, Padua, Cremona, Mantua and Treviso to his territories.
Can Grande’s court in Verona had a reputation for magnificence and
it was his policy to offer shelter to prominent exiles. A chronicler named
Sagacio Mucio Gazata, who was one of his guests, provided the following
description of his hospitality:
Different apartments, according to their condition, were assigned to the exiles
in the Scala palace. Each had his own servants and a well-appointed table
served in private. The various apartments were marked with various devices
and figures, such as Victory for soldiers, Hope for exiles, Muses for poets,
Mercury for artists and Paradise for preachers. During meals in common,
musicians, jesters and jugglers performed. … The halls were decorated with
pictures representing the vicissitudes of fortune. On occasion Can Grande
invited certain of his guests to his own table, notably Guido da Castello … and
the poet Dante Alighieri.3
It is not known precisely when Dante entered the household of Can
Grande, perhaps between 35 and 36, but he contrives for Marco Lombardo
to mention Guido da Castello in Purgatorio 4 as one of three vecchi (‘elders’)
in whom virtue still survives. Born between 233 and 238, Guido was in his

324
 DANTE AND HIS PATRONS 325

early 60s in 300. He is said to have been still living in 35 so it is possible
that he and Dante met at the court of Verona and dined together at Can
Grande’s table. Dante had referred to him as a model of nobility of character
in Il Convivio,5 but whether he had met him by then or merely knew of his
reputation it is not possible to say.
There are several stories of coarse buffoonery of which Dante was some-
times the victim, but Gazata’s description of individual apartments gives an
impression of dignity and comfort, conditions which make it probable that
Dante wrote and read aloud part of Purgatorio there. Can Grande may have
been lavish in his hospitality but he was also pragmatic. Dante was by then
celebrated as the author of an ongoing and compelling work that champi-
oned the Imperial cause and reviled its opponents, particularly the Papacy.
Can Grande was successfully establishing his power but he had enemies,
particularly among the Paduans, who, having recently suffered from the
atrocities of the tyrant Ezzelino da Romano,6 feared the rise of Can Grande
as another such despot. Dante’s support of Empire as divinely ordained was
an aid to Can Grande in his ambition to be established as the principal
Ghibelline ruler of an extensive area of Italy.
Exactly how Dante’s cantos were made public we do not know, but it is
likely that Can Grande provided copyists, organized public readings and
arranged for the work to be distributed, at least in its later stages. It would
have been to his advantage to do so. He was aware of Dante’s persuasive
skills as a publicist and on one occasion he made use of them, as will be
shown later in this chapter. It has been said that after some time relations
between them became strained (possibly the buffoonery of the Verona court
became more than Dante could endure) but he never lost his admiration and
gratitude towards the valiant young ruler of Verona. His outspoken condem-
nation in his poem of so many public figures earned him enemies also7 and
the protection and sponsorship of someone as powerful as Can Grande were
worth cultivating. They were each of use to the other.
The dependence of potentates upon poets for their fame, both during
their lives and in posterity, is an ancient tradition. Such patronage worked
both ways. It was an advantage to a poet to hitch his wagon to a star, and the
more illustrious a poet became the greater the patron’s renown and hope of
immortality. Such a system brought writers into relation with an influential
social and political élite and obliged them to confront political and social
concerns. In this relationship poets functioned as spokesmen (what are now
called ‘spin doctors’) for public relations, receiving in return financial bene-
fit, protection and hospitality, as well as the circulation of their works with
a prestigious imprimatur. In later centuries the system deteriorated into a
form of courtly literature in which the flattery of rulers became servile.
326 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Can Grande was a patron of artists as well as poets. He is said to have

invited Giotto to Verona and to have sponsored architects. He organized
festivities and pageants to celebrate his victories, splendid in décor, apparel
and allegorical panache. Dante placed great hopes in him as the champion of
Henry VII and, when that enterprise failed, of the next Emperor ordained to
take his place, whoever and whenever that should be. Many commentators
have identified Can Grande himself as the veltro (‘hound’),8 chiefly because
of the punning coincidence of his name, but from Il Convivio onwards Dante
had seen the necessity for an Emperor whose power would be supreme over
the Holy Roman Empire, in command of all other secular rulers, on whom
he could depend to implement and maintain the laws, both canon and civil,
against avarice. For this fulfilment Dante looked to the eventual but not the
immediate future. Not much was to be hoped from the unresolved rivalry
between Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria, as a result of which the
office of Emperor remained vacant for the rest of Dante’s life.9 Nevertheless,
he never gave up hope and regarded it as his mission as a poet-prophet to
provide in his writings a structure of conviction and readiness among his
readers, both popular and learned, for what would come to pass.10
The timeframe of the story of the Commedia permitted only a future
glimpse of Can Grande, for he was a boy of nine in 300, but Dante intro-
duces him in a context of heroic significance. In the central canto of Paradiso,
in the Heaven of Mars, Dante’s crusader ancestor Cacciaguida foretells that
Dante in his ‘first refuge’ (Verona)11 will set eyes on one whose noble deeds
are destined to become renowned:
‘Non se ne son le genti ancora accorte
per la novella età, chè pur nove anni
son queste rote intorno di lui torte;
ma pria che ’l Guasco l’alto Arrigo inganni,
parran faville della sua virtute
in non curar d’argento nè d’affanni.
Le sue magnificenze conosciute
saranno ancora, sì che i suoi nemici
non ne potran tener le lingue mute.
A lui t’aspetta ed a’ suoi benefici;
per lui fia trasmutata molta gente,
cambiando condizion ricchi e mendici.’
‘Of him the world as yet is unaware
for he is young, these circles having turned
for nine years only round his life so far;
but of his prowess sparks will be discerned
before the Gascon the great Harry cheats.
Toil will be scoffed, desire for fortune spurned;
 DANTE AND HIS PATRONS 327

the marvels of his many benefits

so famous will become, his very foes
will scarce be mute about his valiant feats.
Await him and his bounties as time goes;
by him will many fortunes altered be,
the poor he will exalt, the rich depose.’ 12
In 37 or thereabouts Dante received an offer of hospitality from the ruler
of Ravenna. At that time Ravenna was nominally a republic but in reality the
government was under the control of the head of the Polentani family who
with the title of podestà was absolute ruler. In June 36 Guido da Polenta the
Younger (Guido Novello) succeeded to this position. A nephew of the noto-
rious Francesca da Rimini, he evidently appreciated Dante’s compassionate
account of his aunt’s adultery and death in Canto V of Inferno.13 Himself a
versifier, he admired Dante as a poet and regarded his presence an asset to
his court.
He provided Dante with a house of his own, the first since his banish-
ment from Florence in 302. Dante’s sons Pietro and Jacopo, on whom
sentence of exile had become effective when they reached the age of 4,
joined him. The dates of their births are not known. They may have taken
refuge in Verona while their father was the guest of Can Grande. In the
fresh sentence of banishment passed against Dante on 6 November 35
both his sons were included in the threat of public beheading if they re-
entered Florence. His daughter Antonia also joined him in Ravenna and
after her father’s death became a nun in the convent of Santo Stefano degli
Ulivi under the name of Sister Beatrice,14 an indication of the reverence
in which the name of Dante’s great love was held in his family circle. It is
possible also that Dante’s wife Gemma joined the household but there is no
certainty of this, nor, on the other hand, is there evidence to the contrary,
and some commentators believe that she did.
Whatever his domestic arrangements in Ravenna, Dante found it possi-
ble to write the last cantos of Purgatorio there and the whole of Paradiso. It
has been suggested that the beauty of the pine forest nearby, known as the
Pineta, contributed to Dante’s imaginative creation of the Garden of Eden.
Certainly the Byzantine and early Christian art in the city of Theodoric and
Justinian and the sparkling mosaics in the churches representing in hieratic
splendour the rulers of the past can be seen reflected in the iconic qualities
of Paradiso.
The Studio, or University, of Ravenna, provided Dante with an opportu-
nity to add to his income by teaching and lecturing. Among his colleagues
were two fellow Florentines, Dino Perini and a physician, Fiduccio de’
Milotti. Florentine voices and Florentine accents resounded therefore within
328 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the walls of Dante’s house and Florentine affairs were no doubt a subject of
discussion. It is said that private pupils sought his guidance in the art of
writing verse in the vernacular, among them being Guido Novello himself.
There is a tradition that Giotto visited Dante in Ravenna between 37 and
320 and certain frescoes in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista have,
rightly or wrongly, been attributed to him.
Dante’s last years in Ravenna appear to have been congenial. They were
certainly productive. Not only did he complete the Commedia during that
period, he also wrote a number of minor works in Latin. The most important
was his treatise in support of imperial authority, entitled Monarchia.
On 20 April 34 Pope Clement V died. A conclave of 24 cardinals
assembled at Carpentras to elect a successor. Of these, only six were Italian,
the rest being French, mainly Gascons, eager to maintain the policies of the
late Pope. The Italian cardinals hoped to secure the election of the Bishop
of Palestrina, who had pledged to restore the Papacy to Rome and rescue
it from Gascon domination. In May or June 34 Dante, either on his own
initiative or, more probably, commissioned by sponsors, had written a fiery
and bitterly reproachful epistle to the Italian cardinals,15 urging them to
withstand the Gascons and to restore the Papacy to Rome. The Gascon
party, fearing the election of the Bishop of Palestrina, organized an armed
irruption into the conclave and, shouting ‘Death to the Italian cardinals!’,
forced them to take refuge. The See remained vacant for two years, until 7
August 36, when Jacques d’Euse of Cahors, Bishop of Avignon, was elected
as Pope John XXII.
The new Pope at once set about challenging the legitimacy of the title
of Imperial Vicar, conferred by Henry VII on Can Grande and on several
other Italian rulers: Visconti in Milan, Bonaccolsi in Mantua and Estensi in
Ferrara. The Pope, determined to dissolve this powerful alliance of Ghibelline
supporters, issued a decree from Avignon on 3 March 37, warning that
while the office of Emperor was vacant all jurisdiction was transferred to
the Papal see and the title of Imperial Vicar was no longer valid. Those who
persisted in acknowledging it would be excommunicated and placed under
an interdict. On 6 April 38 Can Grande, Matteo Visconti and Passarino
Bonaccolsi were individually targeted: they were given two months to appear
before a Papal judge and submit to the Pope’s decree. They refused to do so
and the dispute continued for the following 20 years.16
This was a serious challenge to the position of Can Grande. It was essen-
tial to convince the clergy of Verona that the decree had no validity and that
they could rightly disregard the threat of excommunication and interdict. It
was a moment of crisis. An authoritative statement was needed proving that
the Pope had no political authority over the Emperor. The obvious person to
 DANTE AND HIS PATRONS 329

turn to was Dante.

His views on the subject were well known, not only from the letters he
had written in support of Henry VII in 30,17 but from his earlier work,
Il Convivio.18 More recently, in Purgatorio, he had plainly attributed the ill
organization of the world to the intrusion of the Pope into secular affairs.19
It is possible that Can Grande called on Dante’s assistance as early as 37.
Dante did not fail him.
For centuries it has been maintained that the treatise known as Monarchia
was contemporary with the letters Dante wrote in support of Henry VII in
30, but recent scholarship has shown that this, always unconvincing, theory
is invalid.20 In the first of the three books of which the work is composed,21
Dante refers to a canto of Paradiso, in which, he says, he has already writ-
ten of free will, as he does now in Monarchia, as ‘the greatest gift conferred
by God on human nature: sicut in Paradiso Comedie iam dixi (“as I have
already said in Paradiso in the Commedia”)’. This is a reference to the words
of Beatrice in the fifth canto:
‘Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezza
fesse creando ed alla sua bontate
più conformato e quel ch’ e’ più apprezza,
fu della volontà la libertate;
di che le creature intelligenti
e tutte e sole, fuoro e son dotate.’
‘The greatest gift which God creating made,
and to His bounty most akin, which He
most precious holds of all that He conveyed,
was freedom of the will, that liberty
with which all creatures made intelligent
were and are each endowed, and only they.’ 22
Scholars who hold to the earlier dating have refused to acknowledge the
authenticity of the reference to Paradiso, explaining it away as an interpola-
tion by another hand or by Dante at a later date. Recent study of the manu-
scripts has shown the reference to be authentic.23
The treatise Monarchia was written, then, to serve an immediate purpose:
to defend the position of Can Grande della Scala by proving that the decree
issued by Pope John XXII was without authority. At the same time, and more
importantly, the challenge provided Dante with an opportunity to set out
in a form appropriate for the attention of prelates and other learned readers
the views he had already presented for general readers in Il Convivio and
was continuing to convey in narrative and allegorical form in the Commedia.
The disguise of the expedient purpose in the midst of philosophical, histori-
cal and theological arguments was a skilful strategy. If the authority of the
330 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Emperor could be shown convincingly in abstract argument to be directly

received from God, no concrete specific refutation of the Pope’s decree was
required: its invalidity would be subsumed in a universal truth. The trea-
tise also provided a firm underpinning of the Commedia, particularly of the
political agenda of Paradiso, several cantos of which were already written.
The Monarchia, more than any other work, brings Dante before us as
an intellectual and a publicist. We see how he was trained, how his mind
worked, how he disputed with opponents. He had learnt from his studies of
Aristotle to argue from first principles. His debating skills were finely honed
and his eye for a fallacy in a syllogism was sharp. It is possible that he had
acquired these skills during his student years, perhaps even from Brunetto
Latini, and that he later took part in disputes with fellow intellectuals in
Bologna and elsewhere, possibly at Can Grande’s court and in Ravenna.
Such competence does not come and is not maintained without training
and practice.
There are, however, many differences between his way of thinking and
ours. His use of examples is selective; he accepts evidence from history,
Scripture, ancient literature and legends on an equal footing; his interpre-
tation of events of the past does not constitute proof, though he presents
it as such. The triumphs of the ancient Romans become the triumphs of
Dante’s contemporary world, the centuries melt away, the past is adjusted
to fit the present. To defend the position of Can Grande it was necessary to
demonstrate that the authority of the Emperor, which the Ghibelline ruler
represented, was derived directly from God. The task was twofold: he had to
prove that arguments supporting the secular supremacy of Papal authority
were fallacious and he had himself to put forward convincing arguments
for the independence of Imperial power. In an elegant construction, he
approaches the subject from three points of view, set out in three books.
In the first book, mankind is considered as a whole. For the fulfilment
of human potential a single leader is required, the principle of oneness
mirroring the oneness of God. Such a leader, set over all others, is essential
for the resolution of conflict and the abolition of avarice; his power alone,
being absolute, can ensure that justice is enforced; he is the peacekeeper and
lawgiver, indeed, the embodiment of the concept of law, the only means by
which the freedom of the will, God’s greatest gift to mankind, can be exer-
cised. The first book concludes with a reminder of the time in history when
mankind enjoyed universal peace, under a universal monarchy, the moment
of Christ’s birth under the imperium of Augustus, an argument that is given
special prominence in the second book.
This is concerned with Roman history. If it can be shown that the Roman
Empire was founded on right it follows that it was founded in accordance
 DANTE AND HIS PATRONS 33

with God’s will. Dante here uses again material he had already set out in Il
Convivio. In the earlier work he had written with passion and wonder of the
divine pattern. In Monarchia, a more disciplined and formal presentation,
the fervour still shines through. He believes, not only by philosophic and
historical argument but with ardent faith, that Roman history presented
clear signs of God’s will in operation. He corroborates his belief by (selec-
tive) quotations from historians, reinforced by others from the ancient poets,
particularly Virgil, who had perceived the truth.
The most powerful and to his opponents24 the most objectionable argu-
ment, already mentioned at the end of Book I, is aimed at Christian believers
and, for the express purpose of the work, at the clergy: if the domination of
the world by Romans was not legitimate, it follows that Christ’s Redemption
of all mankind was invalid. This view, propounded first by Orosius, had been
mentioned briefly by Dante in his letter to Henry VII.25 Here he brings it
forth in full force, a challenge he held to be unanswerable:
If Christ had not suffered under a qualified judge, that suffering would not
have been a punishment. And the judge could not have been qualified had he
not had jurisdiction over the whole human race; since it was the whole human
race that was to be punished in that flesh of Christ, who was bearing and
sustaining our griefs. And Tiberius Caesar, whose vicar Pilate was, would not
have had such jurisdiction unless the Roman empire had been of right.26
In the third book, Dante proceeds to demolish the arguments of his
opponents. His purpose is to show that if the Emperor were subject to the
Pope’s authority this would be contrary to nature’s intention and hence to
the will of God. He identifies three classes of people who oppose the truth:
first, the Pope and other prelates, who, perhaps out of zeal rather than inso-
lence, oppose the truth he is about to demonstrate; secondly those whose
stubborn greed has put out the light of reason, who declare themselves devout,
but, being the sons of Satan, stir up contention and, hating the sacred title of
princedom, impudently deny the first principles …
and thirdly, the Decretalists, who regard the Decretals27 as the only source of
truth concerning the authority of the Church.
With the third group he deals as follows:
the Decretalists, strangers to and ignorant of every kind of theology and
philosophy, who carp at the empire, putting all their reliance on the decretals
(which, as it happens, I revere) and regarding them as supreme. I have heard
one of them declare … that the traditions of the church are the foundation of
the faith, may which impious thought be extirpated from the minds of men …
for the traditions of the church were in Christ the Son of God, either He that
was to come or He that was present and had already suffered.28
332 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

This is the angry, combative Dante, whose fury against opponents is aroused
even in a formal treatise, the same Dante who ten years previously in De
Vulgari Eloquentia had said that if anyone disagreed with him he did not
consider him worthy of any reply29 and in Il Convivio of another opponent
that the only way to deal with him was to take a dagger to him,30 the same
Dante who had cursed the presumption of those ‘most foolish and degraded
beasts’ who did not acknowledge the wisdom of God in bringing together
in time the birth of Rome and the birth of David,31 and who had described
those who denied belief in immortal life as ‘most brutish, vile, foolish and
pestilent’. 32
At the beginning of the second book of Monarchia Dante refers to a time
when he believed that the Roman Empire had been established by force.
When he perceived the truth he was filled with derisive contempt not only
for his own previous folly but towards all those who persist in the same error
and ‘oppose their Lord and his anointed Prince’.33 It is now his intention
to lay aside derision and instead ‘to pour forth the light of instruction and
to break the chains of the ignorance of kings and princes … who usurp to
themselves public government, as they falsely suppose the Romans did’.34
His intention is laudable but his characteristic impatience with those who
oppose his views causes him to break into outbursts of wrath. It is not known
who the Decretalist was whom he heard proclaim the ‘impious thought’ that
the Decretals were the foundation of the faith, but the occasion may have
been a public dispute in which Dante took part. If so, the dispute is likely to
have been intemperate.
In the third book, Dante controls his wrath and demolishes, one by one,
without derision or contempt, the arguments on which his opponents relied
for their belief in the supremacy of the Papacy over the authority of Empire.
His last paragraph is conciliatory: the Emperor, he allows, is in some respect
subject to the Pope, as earthly happiness is subordinate to immortal happi-
ness. For the fulfilment of the two goals of mankind, the exercise of moral
intellectual virtues and the exercise of theological virtues, two guides are
needed. If perfect co-operation between Emperor and Pope can be achieved,
there will be temporal peace on earth and eternal peace in the afterlife. This
is Dante’s undying hope and it is for this that he writes the Commedia.
The Monarchia did not win Can Grande’s conflict for him. It was,
however, considered a dangerous book by the Church. In about 327, only six
years after Dante’s death in 32, a Dominican priest, Guido Vernani, wrote
a denunciation of it, entitled De Reprobatione Monarchiae. In 329 the book
was ritually burned. As late as 554 it was officially placed on the Vatican’s
Index of prohibited books, from which, presumably owing to inertia, it was
not removed until 88.
 DANTE AND HIS PATRONS 333

Dante wrote this remarkable work in Ravenna, in the grace and favour
house granted to him by Guido da Polenta, where he lived with his sons
Jacopo and Pietro and his daughter Antonia. It is striking that the balance
between Church and Empire for which Dante hoped is mirrored in micro-
cosm in the choice of professions made by his offspring: Jacopo became a
priest, Pietro became a judge, Antonia became a nun.
 CHAPTER 43

Prelude to Paradiso

O
f the three sections of the Commedia, the least read is Paradiso.
Many, heeding Dante’s warning, have turned back to seek the
safety of the shore.1 Although the most demanding, it is in some
ways the most rewarding. Here Dante the mature man is to be found, his
conflicting aspects integrated and brought at last into harmony with the will
of God, or, as he says in his final line, with l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
(‘the love which moves the sun and the other stars’).2 He knows that he is
attempting what has never been tried in poetry before and that he needs a
different audience: only those who have reached out to seize the bread of
angels (philosophy and theology) will now be able to follow him. Yet he is
still showman enough to hold the attention of those who have so far been
captured by the story; at one point he even teases them, saying, ‘If I stopped
now, how disappointed you would be!’
Pensa, lettor, se quel che qui s’inizia
non procedesse, come tu avresti
di più savere angosciosa carizia.
Think, reader, if what here I have begun
did not proceed, with what anxiety
thou wouldst desire to know how it goes on.3
Although what he experienced in Heaven is beyond the comprehension of
many, even, as he says, beyond his own capacity to put into words, Dante the
craftsman still knows how to hold his audience with descriptions, portraits
and dialogue, beguiling them with his poetry, as well as rousing them with
his denunciation of evil-doers, as wrathful in its expression as anything
in Inferno or Purgatorio. The construction of the story, too, is beautifully
designed: as Dante ascends, souls descend from the Empyrean, where in
timelessness they all dwell, to greet him as he ascends in the time-space of
the narrative in a succession of planetary spheres, a duple movement that
achieves dynamic variety and at the same time disproves the Platonic belief
that souls returned for ever to the stars whence they first came.

334
 PRELUDE TO PARADISO 335

Not long after writing Monarchia, Dante addressed to Can Grande4 what
has been called an epistle, in Latin, in which he dedicated and commended
to him this final section of his poem. In gratitude for the bounty he has
many times received, it is now his desire to reciprocate by presenting as a
gift this most exalted of his writings. In a formal and public gesture, Dante
is in effect requesting official promotion of the work by his patron, whose
friendship he values as a precious possession. He refers to his first visit to
Can Grande’s court, to which he was drawn by the fame of its splendour, as
the Queen of Sheba had been drawn to visit the temple of Solomon, and
found, as she did, that report fell short of the truth. In his opening words he
salutes Can Grande not only as ‘magnificent’ and ‘most victorious’ but also
as Imperial Vicar of Verona and Vicenza, thereby disregarding the decree
issued by Pope John XXII, which he had recently shown in Monarchia to be
invalid.5 In this act of public defiance he risked calling down excommunica-
tion upon himself.
After the opening salutation, the text develops into the first instalment of
a commentary on Paradiso and on the allegory of the Commedia as a whole.
The commentary was never continued but what exists provides evidence
that Dante hoped to proceed. In its formal style it has the appearance of a
public lecture; in fact, looked at with a fresh mind, it can be seen to be not
an epistle at all but an oration, written to be read at the court of Verona.
There are even indications in the text that Dante delivered it himself.6 This
would not have been a unique event. On 20 January 320 he visited Verona
to deliver a lecture on the relative levels of water and earth on the globe,
having previously attended a lecture at Mantua on the same subject, with
which he disagreed.7
Reading the text as an oration one can imagine oneself a member of
the audience in Verona, hearing the Florentine voice of Dante Alighieri, a
lean figure in his 50s, five feet five inches tall, now slightly bowed, white-
bearded and white-haired. Just as in La Vita Nuova and in Il Convivio he
had analysed his poems in both their literal and allegorical meaning, so, once
again, in his characteristic manner, he defines, divides and expounds his text.
He begins by explaining the meaning of the whole work, which he terms
‘polysemous’, that is, having several meanings: the literal and, as he here
terms them, the ‘mystical’. He illustrates this distinction by expounding the
psalm: ‘When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people
of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.’8 In
the literal sense, these words refer to the escape of the Israelites from Egypt
in the time of Moses; in the allegorical sense, they signify our redemption
through Christ; in the moral sense, the conversion of the soul from the
sorrow and misery of sin to a state of grace; in the anagogical9 sense, the
336 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

passing of the sanctified soul from the bondage of corruption of this world
to the liberty of everlasting glory. All three non-literal meanings, he says,
may be termed ‘allegorical’ in a general sense, in that they differ from the
literal; at the same time (and confusingly), he also applies the word in a
specific sense to the first of the interpretations, as distinct from the moral
and the spiritual.
Dante had used the same psalm as an example in Il Convivio, but in the
earlier work he did not appear to consider, as he does in the present, that
a single text can be expounded in four senses. In Purgatorio he had used it
again: it is the psalm sung by the hundred and more souls who approach the
mountain, piloted by the angel. Of his Commedia, he now identifies only two
meanings, literal and allegorical:
The subject, then, of the whole work, taken in the literal sense only, is the state
of souls after death. … On and about that argument the whole work turns. If,
however, the work is regarded from the allegorical point of view, the subject is
man according as by his merits or demerits in the exercise of his free will he is
deserving of reward or punishment by justice.10
The aim of the whole work as well as of the third part is ‘to remove those
living in this life from a state of misery and to bring them to a state of
happiness’: from this it follows that the branch of philosophy to which it
belongs is that of morals and ethics, but the speculation to which it gives rise
has a practical rather than a theoretical purpose.
His exposition is orderly and systematic. He begins by explaining the
title of the whole work. Relying on a dictionary of etymology in use at the
time,11 he derives the word comoedia from comus, a village, and oda, a song:
‘whence comedy is, as it were, a rustic song’. The word tragoedia is derived,
he says, from tragos, a goat, and oda, a song, and is therefore fetid, like a goat,
‘as may be seen in the tragedies of Seneca’. A tragedy begins tranquilly but
its end is foul and terrible; a comedy begins with adverse conditions but ends
happily. In illustration of this, he quotes a proverbial greeting: ‘I wish you a
tragic beginning and a comic end.’12
He moves next to differences in style: the language of tragedy is high-
flown and sublime, that of comedy unstudied and lowly. His Comedy is writ-
ten not in Latin but in the vernacular, in which even humble women talk to
one another: locutio vulgaris, in quae et mulierculae comunicant. In this depre-
cating reference to women, Dante uses the word mulier, a woman, as distinct
from domina, a lady or mistress of a household. He uses it, moreover, in the
diminutive, conveying the disparaging sense of uneducated women of low
estate. For all his idealization of women in his love poems, there was an
element in Dante of what is now called chauvinism.
Having defined the subject matter of Paradiso, he moves to the division
 PRELUDE TO PARADISO 337

of the text into prologue and narrative. The prologue he further divides into
two parts: a forecast of what is to follow and an invocation to Apollo. He had
learnt from Cicero that a good exordium should meet three requirements:
the hearer should be rendered favourably disposed, attentive and willing to
learn; this is especially so if the subject is unusual. To show how well he has
followed the advice of Cicero, he refers to the first 2 lines of Paradiso, of
which he quotes the first, in Latin:13
La gloria di colui che tutto move
per l’universo penetra e risplende
in una parte più e meno altrove.
Nel ciel che più della sua luce prende
fu’io, e vidi cose che ridire
nè sa nè può chi di là su discende;
perchè appressando sè al suo disire,
nostro intelletto si profonda tanto,
che dietro la memoria non può ire.
Veramente quant’io del regno santo
nella mia mente potei far tesoro,
sarà ora matera del mio canto.
The glory of Him who moves all things whate’er
shines through the universe and light bestows
in one part more, less bounteously elsewhere.
In that heaven where His radiance most glows
was I, and saw things he who thence returns
no knowledge has, nor power to disclose.
For, drawing near to that for which it yearns,
our mind is plunged so deep, our memory
cannot recall nor tell what it discerns.
Yet, all that which has granted been to me
of the blessed realm to treasure in my thoughts
the matter of my song from now will be.14
He moves next to the second part of the prologue, namely the invocation.
Orators, he says, give a summary of what they are about to say, in order to
gain the attention of their hearers. Poets do this also, but in addition they feel
the need to petition superior beings for what is beyond the range of human
powers. In Inferno he had invoked the Muses in general, in Purgatorio he had
invoked them again, and in particular Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry; for
the crowning section of his work he entreats the aid of Apollo.
Referring in the third person to the author-character of the poem and
speaking as commentator, he expounds the metaphysical truth behind the
statement that God’s light shines in every part of the universe, but more in
some parts than in others. In this demonstration we obtain further insight,
338 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

as in Monarchia, into Dante’s intellectual procedures. Ratio sic, he begins,

‘the reasoning is as follows’: everything that exists has its being either from
itself or from some other being; the only self-existent being is God, the
primal cause; all other beings have their origin in Him; the causal power
derived in sequence from all other beings is like rays of light derived ulti-
mately from God, as though reflected from mirrors; since beings exist in
differing degrees of excellence, it is evident that the light of God is variously
received.
The heaven that receives the most of God’s light is the highest, itself
everlastingly at rest but from which all movement is ultimately derived. This
is called the Empyrean, which Dante describes as glowing with fire or heat,
not material but spiritual, which is to say, with holy love. This is the abode
of God. He names as his authorities for these concepts Aristotle and the so-
called Dionysius, believed to be the author of On Celestial Hierarchy, as well
as Scripture, from which he quotes Jeremiah, the Psalms, Ecclesiasticus and
St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. He is here repeating in condensed form
what he had already set out in greater detail in Il Convivio.15
Dante the commentator confirms that Dante the character was in that
part of Heaven where he saw things which he was later powerless to relate.
The reason for this he explains as follows: when the mind reaches a certain
degree of exaltation, memory fails, for it has transcended the range of human
faculty. In support, he quotes St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians:
I know a man (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell; God
knoweth) how that he was caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeak-
able words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.16
He quotes also from St Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, in which
it is related that the three disciples fell on their faces and afterwards could
record nothing as though their memory had failed them.17 For further corrob-
oration he refers also to Richard of St Victor in his work On Contemplation,
to St Bernard in his work On Consideration and to St Augustine in his work
On the Capacity of the Soul. Dante the commentator seems here to be on the
defensive. Twice he refers resentfully to those who may doubt what he says.
Once he calls them ‘envious’, Et ubi ista invidis non sufficient … (‘And if this
should not satisfy the envious …’); on a second occasion he refers to those
who may rant and bluster because of the sinfulness of the speaker: Si vero
… propter peccatum loquentis oblatrarent. Such forceful expressions (the Latin
verb oblatrare means literally ‘to howl against’) suggest that he may have
been challenged by sceptics and that he is here taking the opportunity to
vent his wrath against them by means of this public rebuff.
As to his own unworthiness (and here he identifies himself with the
character Dante), he cites the example of Nebuchadnezzar, who was granted
 PRELUDE TO PARADISO 339

knowledge of divine truths by means of dreams, which he later could not

recall – a somewhat puzzling example, since Nebuchadnezzar had periods
of insanity, eating grass and believing himself to be an animal. Beside this
may be set another strange example in the first canto of Paradiso, in which
he compares himself to Glaucus,18 who through eating a herb was trans-
formed into a sea-god, as he, Dante, was ‘transhumanized’ on ascending into
Heaven. Gazing at Beatrice, he was changed within, he says:
… qual si fè Glauco nel gustar dell’erba
che ’l fè consorte in mar delli altri dei.
Transumanar significar per verba
non si porìa; però l’essemplo basti
a cui esperienza grazia serba.
… like Glaucus who a herb was said to taste
and so an ocean-deity became.
Transhumanizing could not be expressed
in words, so let the example serve, the same
who with the said experience was graced.19
These two references, to Nebuchadnezzar and to Glaucus, who both
consumed herbs, may be oblique allusions to stimulants which produced
effects comparable to what Dante claims to have experienced. He was famil-
iar with the Latin version of the work of Dioscorides, the first-century Greek
physician, il buon accoglitor del quale (‘the good collector of simples’), as he
calls him when he sees him in Limbo.20 Knowledge of herbs and medicinal
potions was passed from country people and herb-gatherers to apothecaries,
and herb gardens were a common feature of monasteries. From the early
fourteenth-century manuscript Tractatus de Herbis 21 it is evident that the
plant Canapa (Cannabis sativa) was known and available. So too was Aloe
vera, from which a substance called aloes was obtained and used medically.
Another plant was called ‘grains of Paradise’. If Dante partook of some such
psychedelic substance, perhaps in the company of the Fedeli d’Amore, when
they gathered to perform and discuss their poems, this might partly account
for his (and their) experiences of heightened awareness, as described in La
Vita Nuova. Aldous Huxley, to take a twentieth-century example, experi-
mented with altered states of consciousness by taking mescalin (obtained
from the aloe). He seemed to see ‘what Adam had seen on the morning of
his creation, the miracle moment by moment of naked existence’:
[Plato] could never have seen [as I was seeing] a bunch of flowers shining
with their own inner light and all but quivering under the pressure of the
significance with which they were charged; could never have perceived that
what rose and iris and carnation so intensely signified was nothing more,
340 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

and nothing less, than they were – a transience that was yet eternal life, a
perpetual perishing that was at the same time pure Being, a bundle of minute,
unique particulars in which, by some unspeakable and yet self-evident para-
dox, was to be seen the divine source of all existence. … Words like Grace and
Transfiguration come to my mind, and this of course was what, among other
things, they stood for.22
Towards the end of his oration, referring again to the Invocation, Dante
says that he will not at present expound its meaning further, nor will he say
more about the narrative that follows, except that it will be by ascent from
heaven to heaven and that an account will be given of the blessed spirits who
are met with in each sphere and of whom things of great profit and delight
will be asked. His reason for not continuing at present is given at the end of
his oration:
Urget enim me rei familiaris angustia, ut haec et alia utilia rei publicae derelin-
quere oporteat.
Anxiety as to my domestic circumstances presses upon me so heavily that I am obliged
to defer this and other tasks of public utility.
He expresses the hope, however, that his Magnificence may grant him the
opportunity at some future date to continue this useful exposition.
This is an overt appeal for financial support and can be viewed as the
mediaeval equivalent of an application to a university for a grant. It was said
that it was Dante’s custom to send batches of cantos to Can Grande as his
work progressed. If this is true, it was not just a question of courtesy but an
arrangement whereby he relied on Can Grande to publicize his work and to
provide subsidy. This may have generated some addition to his income but
it was evidently not enough to liberate him from other paid activities, such
as lecturing and teaching at Ravenna, or commissions carried out for Guido
Novello. We do not know what his domestic anxieties were at this time, but
evidently they were such that he did not see his way to complete Paradiso
and at the same time to continue his exposition of it.
Indeed, his time was more limited than he knew.
 CHAPTER 44

Beatrice in Heaven

B
y the time Dante was at work on Paradiso, Beatrice Portinari had
been dead for more than 25 years. He believed that her soul was in
the Empyrean, the abode of God, where she enjoyed, with the other
souls of the blessed, the experience of timelessness and the contemplation
of the Beatific Vision. He also believed that she had knowledge of him in
the finite world and continued to watch over the welfare of his soul. In his
spiritual life he identified her with all that guided him towards repentance
and the acceptance of salvation. In the role allotted to her in Purgatorio
she brings him to a final stage of contrition and purification from sin. In
the role of a Christian Sibyl she presides over the masque representing the
vicissitudes of the Papacy and she prophesies, as Virgil had done in the first
canto of Inferno, the coming of one who would re-instate peace and order
in the world.1
In Paradiso her role grows more and more exalted. In her exposition of
doctrine, she represents Dante’s intellect, clarified and illuminated by his
meditation, perhaps also by mystical experience, whether or not heightened
by stimulants. Since it was in order to understand a vision of Beatrice that
Dante says he undertook his intensive programme of study, in this sense it
was she who had led him to the understanding of truths that are the subject
of Paradiso. Appropriately, therefore, in the story, she now communicates
those truths to the character Dante as he ascends from heaven to heaven.
The weight of Dante’s body is a realistic feature of the narrative of Inferno
and Purgatorio. At the beginning of Paradiso, still in the body, he finds
himself rising above the earth. Beatrice, knowing that he is puzzled as to
how this can be, explains the law of spiritual gravitation: all created things
are governed by order, wherein resides the likeness of the universe to God;
the natural law by which fire burns upwards, heavy bodies are drawn earth-
wards, and brute creatures are impelled by instinct, is the same by which
creatures endowed with love and understanding (angels and men) are drawn
upwards to their appointed site, the abode of God: since Dante has now
been purged of sin and his will is rightly fixed, the fact that he is ascending

34
342 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

towards Heaven should no more surprise him than the sight of a stream
rushing down hill.2
This explanation which Dante gives to Beatrice to expound is a restate-
ment in verse of words by St Augustine:
In Thy gift shall we rest; there shall we enjoy Thee, our rest, our place. Love
lifts us up thither, and Thy good Spirit exalts our humbleness from the gates of
death. In good will is our peace.3 The body by its own weight strives towards its
own place. Weight is not downward only, but to its own place. … My weight is
my love; by that I am borne, wherever I am borne. By Thy gift we are inflamed,
and are borne upward; we are kindled, and we go. We ascend by the ascents of
the heart, and sing a song of degrees.4
The achievement of Paradiso is not simply a matter of the versification
of doctrine: it is also a supreme feat of poetic imagination. Dante’s entrance
into the moon beguiles the reader into an entranced acceptance of ethereal
experience:
Quali per vetri trasparenti e tersi,
o ver per acque nitide e tranquille,
non sì profonde che i fondi sien persi,
tornan di nostri visi le postille
debil sì, che perla in bianca fronte
non vien men tosto alle nostre pupille;
tali vid’io più facce a parlar pronte.
As from a mirror, polished, terse and clear,
or water, limpid in tranquillity,
but not so deep that shallows disappear,
an image of our face so faint we see,
just as a pearl on a white brow our sight
deceives, so in a throng appeared to me
faces in converse eager to unite.5
Confused, like Narcissus in reverse, Dante thinks they must be reflections
of people behind him. Turning round, he discovers his mistake, whereupon
Beatrice smiles.
The smile of Beatrice, the radiance of her eyes and her increasing beauty
are part of the spiritual gravitation by which Dante is continually impelled
upwards. The effect of her smile and of her miraculous beauty had been
conveyed in several sonnets in La Vita Nuova 6 and to these the mind of
Dante the poet returns in his further exaltation of her in Paradiso. In Paradiso,
as she clarifies his doubts, ‘bringing the fair face of truth to light,’7 his joy is
progressively intensified.
 BEATRICE IN HEAVEN 343

One of his first doubts concerns the location of souls in Heaven: do

they feel discontent in relation to other souls who, it seems, dwell higher
up? He puts this question to the soul which seems most eager to converse
with him. This is Piccarda de’ Donati, the sister of Forese and Corso Donati,
about whom Forese has spoken on the Cornice of the Gluttons on Mount
Purgatory.8 As a young woman she entered the convent of St Clare, but
Corso forced her to break her vows and marry Rossellino della Tosa in order
to achieve a political alliance. Soon after her marriage she fell ill and died.
Dante has chosen her as an example of souls who were guilty of incon-
stancy to vows. Their status is indicated by their manifestation to him in the
sphere of the moon, the planet nearest the earth and a symbol of inconstancy.
Piccarda’s gentleness and sweetness of disposition, touchingly conveyed in
her words, make her a fitting image of the nature that yielded in the first life
to the pressure of others and lacked the steadfastness to remain constant to
the will’s resolve. Now in Heaven, she, like all the souls, repentant and puri-
fied, rejoices in the will of God. All possibility of their wills being in conflict
with His has been removed. This is the essential nature of love:
‘Frate, la nostra volontà quieta
virtù di carità, che a volerne
sol quel ch’avemo, e d’altro non ci asseta.’
‘Brother, our love has laid our will to rest,
making us long only for what is ours,
and by no other thirst to be possessed.’ 9
‘Remember,’ Piccarda seems to be saying to Dante, ‘all that you have experi-
enced and learned of love, and know now that in Paradise to love is to dwell
within the love of God, with which our own wills are made one.’ And she
continues with an utterance that is famous and frequently quoted for its
simplicity and completeness:
‘E la sua volontade è nostra pace:
ell’ è quel mare al qual tutto si move
ciò ch’ ella cria e che natura face.’
… ‘And His will is our peace:
this is the sea whereunto all things move
that it creates and nature furnished has.’ 10
At the conclusion of her exposition of the nature of Heaven, Piccarda, sing-
ing Ave Maria, vanishes like a heavy weight into deep water. Dante strains
his sight to follow her as long as possible, then turns to look at Beatrice. She
is so radiant that he cannot keep his gaze upon her and is obliged to wait
before questioning her further.
344 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

He is held in hesitation between two perplexing concerns: do the souls,

as Plato is believed to have taught, return to the planets which had most
influence over them in their first life? And if Piccarda and the other souls
manifested to him in the moon were forcibly prevented from fulfilling their
vows, is it just that they, as it appears, should enjoy less beatitude? Beatrice
reads these two doubts in his mind and answers them both, taking first the
location of souls as being the more important.
All souls, she tells him are in the Empyrean, the abode of God, all share
beatitude to the extent of which each is capable. Since Dante can apprehend
only with his senses what his intellect then receives, the souls will be shown
to him in the spheres to which he ascends:
‘Qui si mostraron, non perchè sortita
sia questa spera lor, ma per far segno
della cestial c’ha men salita.
Così parlar conviensi al vostro ingegno,
però che solo da sensato apprende
ciò che fa poscia d’intelletto degno.
Per questo la Scrittura condescende
a vostra facultate, e piedi e mano
attribuisce a Dio, ed altro intende;
e Santa Chiesa con aspetto umano
Gabriel e Michel vi rappresenta,
e l’altro che Tobia rifece sano.’
‘They’re shown thee here, not that they here reside,
allotted to this sphere; their mansion
being less exalted, is thus signified.
This way of speech best suits your apprehension,
which knows but to receive reports from sense
and fit them for the intellect’s attention.
So Scripture stoops to your intelligence:
it talks about God’s “hand” and “feet”, intending
that you should draw a different inference;
and so does Holy Church, in pictures lending
a human face to Michael, Gabriel,
and him by whom old Tobit found amending.’ 11
These lines reveal something very important concerning Dante: he did not
believe that Hell, Purgatory and Paradise could be apprehended directly by
humankind as they truly are. Thus it is that Scripture presents us with images
of God and, for example, of the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael,
which we can recognize. These signs, not to be taken literally, imprint
perceptions on the imagination which in its operation leads to intellectual
understanding and so to love. Using means similar to those of Scripture,
 BEATRICE IN HEAVEN 345

Dante renders the three worlds of the afterlife intelligible in terms of sense,
imagination and intellect. For complete apprehension another category of
vision will be required.
Beatrice next solves the second doubt, explaining the distinction between
absolute and conditioned will. Her words are a celebration of the freedom of
the soul, which bring joy to Dante’s mind and inspire him with still further
eagerness to learn and understand:
‘O amanza del primo amante, o diva’,
diss’io appresso, ‘il cui parla m’inonda
e scalda sì, che più e più m’avviva,
non è l’affezion mia sì profonda,
che basti a render voi grazia per grazia;
ma quei che vede e puote a ciò risponda.’
‘O loved’, said I, ‘of the First Lover! O
most heavenly Lady, by whose words I live
more and yet more, bathed in their quickening glow,
my love’s whole store is too diminutive
too poor in thanks to give back grace for grace;
may He that sees and has the power, so give!’ 12
Dante now sees that the intellect can never be satisfied until it reaches
the all-inclusive truth of God, for in its pursuit new doubts spring up like
shoots from a tree. And as he asks yet another question, the eyes of Beatrice,
sparkling with love, grow so divine that he is almost lost and must cast down
his gaze before continuing.
More than once his mental leap of enlightenment is expressed in terms
that are erotic. His enamoured mind, he says, plays endless court to his
lady:
La mente innamorata, che donnea
con la mia donna sempre …
My mind, in love, which to my lady paid
perpetual court …13
On another occasion their mutual joy is conveyed in overtly sexual imagery,
as when Beatrice says:
‘L’alto disio che mo t’infiamma e urge,
d’aver notizia di ciò che tu vei,
tanto mi piace più quanto più turge.’
‘The deep desire, which in thee flames and leaps,
to understand still more what thou dost see,
the more delights me as it tumescent keeps.’ 14
346 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

From this it appears that in his pursuit of truth and release from error Dante’s
creative intellect was seized from time to time by a spiritual equivalent of
orgasm, something not unknown to mystics or to scholars in their discovery
of truth. A further clue to his mental exhilaration can be seen in the raptur-
ous words he had previously used to describe the desire for knowledge. In Il
Convivio he discoursed at length on the way in which such longing increases:
‘properly speaking, this is not growth but a transition from something small
to something large …’, the final object of desire being God.15 In Purgatorio,
he referred to ‘the natural thirst which nothing quenches’ (that is, the desire
for knowledge),16 an image further developed in Paradiso at the moment of
ascent:
La concreata e perpetua sete
del deiforme regno cen portava
veloci quasi come ’l ciel vedete.
The inborn thirst which is perpetual
for God’s own kingdom carried us aloft
as swiftly almost as the heavens roll.17
There is, however, a problem connected with Beatrice, the conveyor of
theological truths, in whose eyes Dante sees the light which is God, the
paradisiacal being whose beauty impels him higher and higher through
the heavenly realms towards the Beatific Vision. In no fewer than three
instances in Paradiso18 Dante the author presents her in yet another role,
one which it is difficult to reconcile with her idealized, transhuman self.
In a mode that is startlingly out of character, she becomes a harsh critic of
human wrongdoing; in a criticism of the sermons of incompetent preachers
she uses language suitable for the market-place, and her very last words are
a vicious gibe at the ultimate fates of Popes Clement V and Boniface VIII.
Such utterances have nothing to do with the Beatrice of La Vita Nuova,
of Purgatorio, or of the rest of Paradiso, and nothing whatever to do with
Beatrice Portinari, the gently nurtured young woman of Florence. Why did
Dante give these invectives to her to pronounce, rather than to some other
character, as he does, for instance, in his denunciation of the moral degen-
eracy of monasticism? These occasions, far from being part of a sustained
ascent, are sudden lurches into the world below. How did Dante the maker
come to admit them to the sublime fabric of his Beatrician vision? Was it a
failure in artistic judgement? If so, how was it that Dante committed such
a lapse, he who elsewhere so skilfully portrays the identity of his characters
and so appropriately adjusts his dialogue to their personalities?
The words that Beatrice speaks at these moments are not hers or those
of any of the mystics, but the words of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine,
 BEATRICE IN HEAVEN 347

uttered in an explosion of wrath, which bursts through the frame of fiction,

regardless of artistic integrity. They belong, in fact, to another category: the
personal and public agenda of Paradiso.
This subject will be discussed in the following chapter.
 CHAPTER 45

Propaganda in Paradiso

D
ante had a powerful political motive in writing the Commedia. This
is especially obvious in Inferno, still apparent in Purgatorio, and
startling when it breaks cover in Paradiso. Bearing in mind that
Paradiso was dedicated to Can Grande and was sent to him in batches of a
few cantos at a time, it is interesting to consider which, if he had time to read
them, are likely to have caught his attention as being in support of his inter-
ests. An immediate answer which comes to mind is the canto of Justinian.1
Living in Ravenna and visiting the church of San Vitale, where the
mosaic figures of Justinian and his retinue gleam from the walls, Dante
could not have been other than responsive to all that he signified. Emperor
in Constantinople from 527 to 565, Justinian made a valiant effort to bind
together the east and west sections of the Empire. With the support of his
generals, Belisarius and Narses, he overthrew the Vandals in Africa and the
Ostrogoths in Italy. His aim was to rebuild the Empire of Augustus, on the
foundation of ancient sovereignty but in accordance with the new faith. He
is celebrated above all for appointing a commission of jurists to draw up a
codification of Roman law, as a result of which, to quote Gibbon, ‘the public
reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the
domestic institutions of Europe, and the laws of Justinian still command
the respect or obedience of independent nations’.2 In the establishment of
Justinian’s government at Ravenna, Dante saw the divinely willed restora-
tion of Imperial rule in western Europe and the promise of his own hopes:
what had happened once could happen again.
Entering the Heaven of Mercury, Dante finds himself in the presence
of a brilliant radiance, within which he is able to discern the eyes and smile
of a soul.3 In response to Dante’s enquiry as to who he is, the soul reveals
himself:
‘Cesare fui e son Giustinano.’
‘Caesar I was and am Justinian.’ 4
In a speech that occupies almost an entire canto he traces the history of

348
 PROPAGANDA IN PARADISO 349

Fig 0. The Emperor Justinian and His Retinue

Rome from its beginnings to the time of Charlemagne. Mingled in contrast

with the epic splendour of his heroic roll-call are disparaging references to
the petty contemporary feuds between Guelfs and Ghibellines, of which,
like all the souls in Heaven, he has present knowledge.
Dante’s method in Paradiso of securing assent to his political convictions
is to set them within the framework of the universe. What is true of the
heavens is true of what he learns there; what is contrary to them is contrary
to nature and to the will of God. Justinian begins by defining the depar-
ture of Constantine to the Eastern Empire as ‘turning back the eagle’ (the
symbol of Roman authority) ‘against the course of heaven’:
‘Poscia che Costantin l’aquila volse
contr’ al corso del ciel, ch’ ella seguìo
dietro all’antico che Lavinia tolse,
cento e cent’anni e più anni l’uccel di Dio
ne lo stremo d’Europa si ritenne,
vicino a’ monti de’ quai prima uscìo;
e sotto l’ombra delle sacre penne
governò ’l mondo lì di mano in mano,
e, sì cangiando, in sua la mia pervenne.’
350 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘When Constantine turned back the eagle’s flight

against the heavens whose course it kept of yore,
following Lavinia’s bridegroom and the light,
a hundred and a hundred years and more
the bird of God on Europe’s last confine
dwelt near the hills that taught it first to soar;
thence ruled the world, as line succeeded line
under the sacred wings’ o’ershadowing span,
and passed from hand to hand to light on mine.’ 5
Since the heavenly spheres revolve diurnally from east to west, and
Constantine had transferred the seat of Empire from west to east, his action
was contrary to the rule of the cosmos. It was contrary also to the course
from east to west taken by Aeneas, the predestined founder of the Roman
Empire. Against such celestial exempla, ranged unassailably by Dante in
support of his thesis, there can be no opposition. It was God’s will that the
heavens should revolve from east to west, it was His will that Aeneas should
move from east to west, it was against His will that Constantine should
remove the power of Empire from west to east; when 200 years had passed,
it was His will that Justinian should restore it to the west. It was His will also
that Justinian should re-establish the valid provisions of Roman law, adapt-
ing them to the conditions of the Christian Empire. Having previously held
the heretical view that only the divine nature, not also the human, existed
in Christ, Justinian was converted to the truth that he now sees as clearly as
it can be seen that of two contradictory propositions one must be true, one
false. There could be no more authoritative witness to the axiom that the
Roman Empire was ordained by right.
All the fervour and passion with which Dante had conjured the names
of Roman heroes and the succession of heroic events, first in Il Convivio,
later in his letter to Henry VII and in Monarchia, vibrate also in the words
of Justinian, this time with epic force. The diction is vigorous and resonant,
sweeping all doubt aside. The heraldic image of the eagle, the symbol of
Roman might and justice, soars over the historic sequence which culminates
in the establishment of world peace under Augustus. But of all the eagle’s
achievements, the greatest of all was that which came to pass when it lighted
upon the hand of Tiberius, in whose reign Christ was crucified. This identi-
fying of the right of the Roman Empire with the Redemption of mankind
was also used by Dante in Monarchia.6 He here takes the argument forward
a final step, beyond which nothing more can be said:
‘Ma ciò che ’l segno che parlar mi face
fatto avea prima e poi era fatturo
per lo regno mortal ch’a lui soggiace,
 PROPAGANDA IN PARADISO 35

diventa in apparenza poco e scuro,

se in mano al terzo Cesare si mira
con occhio chiaro e con affetto puro;
chè la viva giustizia che mi spira,
li concedette, in mano a quel ch’i’ dico,
gloria di far vendetta alla sua ira.
Or qui t’ammira in ciò ch’io ti replico:
poscia con Tito a far vendetta corse
della vendetta del peccato antico.’
‘ Yet what this banner that I speak about
had done and was to do in every land
that called it lord, the mortal world throughout,
seems but a dim and paltry thing, if scanned
with a clear eye and with a heart entire,
to what it did in the third Caesar’s hand;
for in that hand, the life which I respire,
the Living Justice, granted it to win
the glory of wreaking vengeance for His ire.
Marvel how plea meets counter-plea herein:
for afterward, in Titus’ time it sprang
to avenge the vengeance for the ancient sin.’ 7
In the last three lines Justinian refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Emperor Titus in the year 70. Dante accepts the view of the historian
Orosius that by this act Titus avenged the death of Christ. Justinian, appro-
priately, speaks in legal terms: or qui t’ammira in ciò ch’io ti replico (‘marvel
how plea meets counter-plea herein’). In Roman law a defendant pleading
special circumstances was said to put forward an exceptio. If the plaintiff
countered this, his reply was termed a replicatio. What is in question here
is the guilt attributed to the Jews for the Crucifixion of Christ. The exceptio
that could be put forward was that the Crucifixion was the Atonement for
the Fall. The counter-plea (replicatio) would be that this in no way justified
the execution of an innocent man. Thus, Justinian maintains, the eagle in the
hand of Titus, that is, la viva giustizia (‘the living justice’), justly avenged ‘the
vengeance for original sin’.
This cryptic utterance is clarified in the following canto. Beatrice reads
in Dante’s mind that he is mystified as to how ‘just vengeance’ (atonement
for the sins of mankind) can in its turn be justly avenged. To explain this
she enters first on a discourse concerning the Redemption. Concerning the
apparent paradox in the words of Justinian, she explains that if the nature
assumed by God in the Incarnation is considered, no penalty was ever so just
as the Cross; but if the Person who suffered it is considered, no penalty was
ever so unjust:
352 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Non ti dee oramai parer più forte,

quando si dice che giusta vendetta
poscia vengiata fu da giusta corte.’
‘No longer now should it seem hard to thee
that the just vengeance was by a just court
avenged, as afterwards it came to be.’ 8
Dante has inextricably united belief in the Redemption and belief in the
divine ordainment of the Roman Empire. To unravel them, in his convic-
tion, would be heresy. Both are manifestations of God’s justice.
This is the most powerful and conclusive of all Dante’s pronouncements
on world affairs. Within the logic of his intellectual structure, disregard-
ing inexorable changes in world history, it is unanswerable. There is no
doubt that he believed it but the use he made of it is not contemplative. It is
directed to a purpose: that of leading the world to achieve order and peace.
It is, in other words, propaganda, of a noble kind, but still propaganda. The
cartoon-like gibes at the Ghibellines and Guelfs which also find a place
in Justinian’s speech seem scarcely worthy of that splendid Imperial icon,
making his proclamation from the wall of San Vitale rather than from the
sphere of Mercury, surely the most impressive public-relations speech of all
time.
 CHAPTER 46

The City Walls

T
o live in a walled city is to be embraced. This is a physical sensa-
tion lost to most of us in modern times and to visit a city such as
Carcassonne is to realize that exile was a deprivation of a deeply
physical kind, like being excluded from the arms of a parent. Many who
suffered exile in Dante’s time came to terms with it eventually. One example
was the father of the poet Petrarch, who was exiled from Florence at the
same period as Dante. He made the best of his situation and took employ-
ment as a notary in Provence. His son Francesco recalled in adult life that
he had set eyes on Dante. This was probably in Pisa, between 3 and 32.
We can visualize the group, the boy of eight, looking up at the two exiles, his
father and another man, who must have seemed much older, though this was
not the case.1 Dante had aged quickly as a result of his misfortune. In fact,
he never recovered from it.
Dante suffered not only emotional deprivation; he was deeply scarred
by the humiliation of poverty and loss of public esteem.2 People in such a
position often hug to themselves the comfort of dwelling upon an illustri-
ous ancestry, real or imaginary. His dearest pride and consolation was the
thought of his crusader ancestor, Cacciaguida.3 The three cantos in which
the soul of Cacciaguida is present occupy a central position in Paradiso.4
Canto XVII, which is precisely central, contains some of the most intimate
and personal lines in the entire work.
In the Heaven of Mars Dante has been gazing at a group of lights which
form the pattern of a cross. From its white bars, pricked out with fiery splen-
dours, each one a soul, dancing like particles caught in a beam of sunshine,
there flashes into Dante’s mind a vision of Christ. Dante himself had been
a soldier, in combat in defence of Florence against the Ghibellines, but here
are the warriors of God, saints who died in defence of the Faith. One of
them, like a shooting star, detaches itself from the right arm of the cross,
spinning to the foot, where it glows like flame behind an alabaster screen.
With equal eagerness, Dante recalls, did the soul of Anchises move to greet
his son Aeneas in Elysium.

353
354 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

This comparison is significant. As Aeneas was called to found what would

become the Empire of Rome, so Dante believed himself called to re-estab-
lish Rome in the minds of his contemporaries as the centre of the Christian
world. He is the new Aeneas, as he is the new St Paul: the disclaimer made
with such diffidence to Virgil at the beginning of Inferno 5 is here finally and
totally withdrawn. In astonishment he hears words in Latin issuing from the
light that has come to greet him:
‘O sanguis meus, o superinfusa
gratia Dei, sicut tibi, cui
bis unquam coeli janua reclusa!’
‘O my own blood! O grace of God beyond
all measure poured! To whom else, as to thee,
were Heaven’s gates twice opened ever found?’ 6
The answer to Cacciaguida’s rhetorical question is, of course, St Paul.
Dante looks back at Beatrice and sees in her eyes such joy that he feels he
has plumbed the depth of bliss. The soul continues to speak, in words which
at first soar beyond mortal comprehension. At last his meaning becomes
clear.
The encounter between Dante and his illustrious ancestor is one of the
most poignant moments in the poem. Of all the souls he has met throughout
his journey, this is the one from whom his life-blood flows, through whom
he is intimately linked with the history of Florence. Cacciaguida addresses
him as his ‘blood’, his ‘seed’, his ‘son’, ‘his branch’. Never can derivation have
been more insistently emphasized:
‘O fronda mia in che io compiacemmi
pur aspettando, io fui la tua radice.’
‘O branch of mine, whose coming in delight
I long awaited have, I was thy root.’ 7
Unexpectedly, he asks Dante to pray for his great-grandfather, Cacciaguida’s
own son, who for a hundred years and more has circled the Cornice of Pride
on the Mountain of Purgatory, unexpectedly because there has been no
mention of him before. This request gathers Dante up into the network of
his kin, connecting him closely with the memories of his ancestors.
Cacciaguida begins by telling him of Florence as she once was, enclosed
within her ancient circle of walls, in pace, sobria e pudica (‘at peace, sober
and chaste’), like a stately matron, unadorned with bracelet, tiara, embroi-
dered gown, or costly girdle.8 Dowries did not then impoverish fathers, no
homes were large beyond the needs of a family, no bedrooms were scenes
of wantonness. Men dressed in plain buff coats, girt with leather, fastened
 THE CITY WALLS 355

with bone buckles. Women wore no makeup as they sat contented at their
spindle, tending the cradle, soothing their children, telling them in words
fond parents love to use the tales of Troy, Fiesole and Rome, not deserted in
their beds by husbands travelling for trade to France, and knowing where at
death they would be laid to rest.
In this idyllic picture Dante expresses his longings for a peaceful commu-
nity life, as he imagines it may once have been, now long gone. Into such a
city his ancestor was born:
‘A così riposato, a così bello
viver di cittadini, a così fida
cittadinanza, a così dolce ostello,
Maria mi diè, chiamata in alte grida;
e nell’antico vostro Battisteo
insieme fui cristiano e Cacciaguida.’
‘Into this life, so peaceful and so fair,
where every man was a true citizen,
into a dwelling-place so sweet and dear,
Mary, called by my mother in her pain,
delivered me; in your ancient Baptistery
Cacciaguida I became and Christian.’ 9
The Baptistery in Florence, Dante’s bel San Giovanni, as he called it, was
the hallowed place where his ancestors were christened, where he too was
received into the Faith and where he longed one day to receive the poet’s
laurel crown.10
Addressing his illustrious forebear as ‘father’ and using the honorific
pronoun voi in respect for his rank (a vanity at which Beatrice smiles), he
asks him to tell him yet more about the early years of Florence. Cacciaguida
does so, speaking sweetly and gently, and in a vernacular now out of date.11
He recalls the names of virtuous Florentines long gone, and of Florentines
more recent and depraved. They mean little to us but the list must have been
followed with eager interest when this canto was first read. He attributes the
degeneracy of the city to its growth beyond the early walls and to the pollu-
tion of the original inhabitants by the influx of outsiders from neighbouring
regions:
‘La confusion delle persone
principio fu del mal della cittade,
come del corpo il cibo che s’appone.’
‘Strains intermingled the beginning were
and cause of evil in the city’s life,
as excess food in bodies will incur.’ 12
356 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

From these words it is evident that Dante believed in protecting the purity
of the blood-line, a view which seven centuries later would be termed politi-
cally incorrect, if not racist. All the misfortunes that have befallen Florence
are attributed to the greed and corruption of incomers of base stock.
At last Dante the character summons the courage to question his ances-
tor about his future. What is the meaning of the many grave warnings he
has heard on his journey, while in the company of Virgil? With no oracu-
lar evasion, in plain, precise words, spoken with fatherly love, Cacciaguida
reveals the truth: as Hippolytus was driven from Athens by his cruel and
lying step-mother, so will Dante be driven from Florence. This is already
planned and contrived and will soon be accomplished by one who meditates
upon it where Christ is daily bought and sold, a clear reference to Boniface
VIII:
‘Tu lascerai ogni cosa diletta
più caramente; e questo è quello strale
che l’arco dello essilio pria saetta.
Tu proverai sì come sa di sale
lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
lo scendere e ’l salir per l’altrui scale.’
‘Thou shalt abandon each and every thing
most dear to thee; that shaft’s the first that e’er
the bow of exile looses from the string.
Thou shalt by sharp experience be aware
how salt the bread of strangers is, how hard
the up and down of someone else’s stair.’ 13
Dante had been in exile for over 5 years when he wrote those words. He
expresses not only his own pain but the sorrow of refugees throughout
history and the world over. Peculiar to him is the hatred which Cacciaguida
tells him he will nourish towards his fellow exiles, who will turn against him
and defame him. Dante has never forgiven la compagnia malvagia e scem-
pia … tutta ingrata, matta ed empia (‘the evil and senseless company … all
ungrateful, mad and impious’). Soon they, not Dante, will be put to shame
and of their bestial folly their doings will give proof: bitter words after so
long an interval. His loving forefather congratulates him upon the decision
he will make to form a party by himself. He goes on to predict, as has been
shown,14 the hospitality and protection his beloved descendant will receive
at the court of Verona and the fore-glimpse he will have there of the noble
youth who will grow up to become Can Grande della Scala. It is strange that
Dante makes no mention, neither here nor anywhere in the Commedia, of
Guido Novello da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, the one patron who provided
him with a home of his own, making it possible for his sons and a daughter
 THE CITY WALLS 357

to join him and possibly also his wife, where the bread was surely more
palatable and the stairs at last familiar beneath his feet. It may be that Dante
resented the calls Guido made upon his time, the last of which was destined
to be fatal.
Dante the character is presented as receiving this forecast of his exile
with fortitude, but now he asks advice. If he must leave the place most dear
to him, what must he do not to be driven out also from other places by what
he writes? If he relates what he has seen and heard in Hell, Purgatory and
Paradise, his words will taste to many like bitter herbs; and yet if he is not
faithful to the truth, he will lose the respect of future readers.
Cacciaguida’s advice is forthright; in fact it is a command. Those who are
guilty will indeed find his words offensive, but he has been commanded to
disregard all probable reaction:
‘ma nondimen, rimossa ogni menzogna,
tutta tua vision fa manifesta;
e lascia pur grattar dov’ è la rogna.’
‘nevertheless, give lies the quick despatch;
make thy whole vision freely manifested
and where men feel the itch there let them scratch.’ 15
This last line has given offence to fastidious readers. How could Dante include
such a coarse expression among his illustrious ancestor’s words, evoking as
they do a time when people carried fleas and lice? There is a similar problem,
as has been said, with words he gives to Beatrice. It appears that occasion-
ally Dante loses sight of the characters he creates, putting into their mouths
words of his own which jar, the more so that they are so memorable in their
force and passion. It could, on the other hand, be argued that in this instance
it is perhaps characteristic of a bluff army veteran to speak so crudely.
Dante knew that the Commedia would arouse hostility towards him
(how could it be otherwise?) and that he might even be in some danger.
Nevertheless, he is determined to speak out. As he makes his ancestor fore-
tell:
‘Questo tuo grido farà come vento,
che le più alte cime più percuote;
e ciò non fa d’onor poco argomento.
Però ti son mostrate in queste rote,
nel monte e nella valle dolorosa
pur l’anime che son di fama note.’
‘Thy cry will beat as beats the wind, most rough
against the loftiest tops; this will redound
much to thine honour, and is cause enough
358 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

why, in these wheels, and on the mount, and round

about the dolorous vale, thou hast been shown
only those souls whose fame has made some sound.’ 16
From the fulfilment of this (self-appointed) commission Dante did not
shrink. On the contrary, he fulfilled it with relish.
 CHAPTER 47
Justice Unfathomed

D
ante suffered grave injustice at the hands of his political enemies
and it rankled with him bitterly. He never forgave them but as time
went on he arrived at a concept of ideal justice which brought him
some measure of philosophic and religious peace.
A magnificent heraldic presentation of this ideal occurs in the Heaven of
Jupiter, where a series of lights form one letter after another which spell out
a command in Latin:
DILIGITE JUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM
Love Justice Ye Who Judge the Earth
This brilliant spectacle in the sky may have been suggested to Dante’s imagi-
nation by fireworks, since classical times in use in warfare and continued in
Dante’s time in celebrations of victory and on other festive occasions.
When the final M appears, the initial of Monarchy, which for Dante is
synonymous with Empire, the gothic shape of the letter undergoes a series
of transformations. The lower section, in the shape of the fleur-de-lis of
France, which the Guelf party also displayed on their arms, merges stage by
stage with the upper until the whole finally takes the shape of an eagle, the
emblem of Roman authority, already glorified in the words of Justinian.1
The changes clearly figure the submission of the kingdom of France and
the Guelf powers to become an integral part of a supreme Monarchy.2 In its
final, composite form it represents a concord of just rulers, who maintain the
liberty of the people they judge while accepting one authority, a sovereign
prince embodying the general principles of justice. This notion, expressed by
Dante in his treatise Monarchia, was perceived by him as manifested in the
legal systems of Italian republics and communes. All such systems, however
imperfect, were derived from Roman law, which is to say scritta ragione
(‘written reason’), as he defined it in Il Convivio, God’s gift to mankind of
justice on earth. He displays the notion here in dazzling heraldry.
As he gazes on the blaze of gold against the silvery background of the
planet, to his astonishment the bird’s beak gives voice. This is something
never before described or even imagined:

359
360 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig . Transformations of the Letter ‘M’

 JUSTICE UNFATHOMED 36

Fig 2. Transformations of the Letter ‘M’

362 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

E quel che mi convien ritrar testeso,

non portò voce mai, nè scrisse inchiostro,
nè fu per fantasia già mai compreso;
ch’io vidi e anche udi’ parlar lo rostro,
e sonar nella voce e ‘io’ e ‘mio’,
quand’era nel concetto ‘noi’ e ‘nostro’.
And what my duty now is to relate
was never penned in ink, nor voice could speak,
nor ever fancy frame or contemplate;
for I beheld and heard the eagle’s beak
both ‘I’ and ‘mine’ proclaim, although in truth
in ‘we’ and ‘ours’ its meaning was to seek.3
This is one of Dante’s most exalted concepts. The constellated souls, each
like a ruby reflecting the sun’s rays, all speak as one. Signifying singly the
gradual attempts throughout history to establish justice in the world, they
form together its divine and perfect image. Dante experiences amazement
at this moral miracle.
He eagerly asks the emblem to satisfy il gran digiuno/che lungamente m’ha
tenuto in fame (‘the great fast that has long kept me hungry’), that is, the
desire to comprehend justice.4 The word lungamente (‘for a long time’) is
significant. The story is set in Easter Week, 300. Five years previously, having
attained full citizenship at the age of 30, Dante had entered public life. From
then on, he had concerned himself with the question of just government
in Florence, the ‘Ordinances of Justice’, introduced by Giano della Bella in
293, having recently made the matter one of urgent concern.5 But the great
fast that had long kept him hungry takes the reader beyond the year 300, to
embrace the period of his exile and the composition of the Commedia.
During the time Dante spent in Bologna in the company of Cino da
Pistoia and other legal scholars,6 Dante would have become familiar with
the meanings of iustitia in Roman law: ‘a constant and permanent will to
render to each his own’,7 ‘the precepts of the law are these: to live honestly,
not to harm others and to render each his own’,8 and ‘Law/Right is the art
of the good and equal’.9 It was for him chiefly a cardinal virtue and vir iustus
(‘a just man’) corresponded to the pius Aeneas of the Aeneid.10
In two early allegorical canzoni Dante had lamented the exile of justice
and the inequitable distribution of wealth.11 In Inferno, the word giustizia
is used almost always in the wider sense of the just consequences of sin. No
matter how terrible the punishments, they are justified. The word is some-
times broadened to signify the righteous visitation of divine power upon
sinners and strengthened by the adjectives ‘divine’ and ‘infallible’. This is the
meaning of the first use of the word, found in the inscription on the gateway
to Hell:
 JUSTICE UNFATHOMED 363

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore.

Justice my supernal Maker moved.12
In Purgatorio, as in Inferno, the meaning is usually that of penance, sometimes
extended to convey the rightness of the penance, or what is just and right
in general. On one occasion it is used in the sense of the Last Judgement.
In Paradiso, the word is used once in the sense of rightful possessions, once
in the sense of desire for what is just and once in the sense of the Last
Judgement. In all other nine instances, it signifies God’s justice, described as
‘divine’, ‘sempiternal’ and ‘living’.
This extended range of meaning indicates a deepening over the years
of Dante’s concept of justice. He came to see that in its divine sense it was
unfathomable. This is what the Eagle now tells him: God’s wisdom, being
the archetypal idea of all things possible, remains in infinite excess of all
things created. Thus it is that the mind of humans can penetrate divine
justice only as little as the eye can penetrate the depths of the sea. Even the
vision of the souls in Heaven comes short.
Dante’s eagerness to comprehend is prompted also by a long-held doubt
concerning justice in Heaven. The Eagle reads this in his mind and defines
it. The problem is the case of a man born on the bank of the Indus, who has
never heard of Christ, and who, despite a virtuous life, dies unbaptized and
excluded from beatitude: what can be the justice of this? In reply the Eagle
curtly rebukes Dante for his presumption:
‘Or tu chi se’ che vuo’ sedere a scranna,
per giudicar di lungi mille miglia,
con la veduta corta d’una spanna?’
‘Now who art thou who from thy bench wouldst scan,
thinking to judge a thousand miles away,
with sight that is restricted to a span?’ 13
The minds of earthly creatures are gross, unable to understand that Divine
Goodness is the only source and only measure of justice and that it can itself
be judged only by itself: only God’s will is just and what is just is God’s
will.
The problem of the virtuous unbaptized had troubled many theologians,
including St Thomas Aquinas, and was a matter of recurrent debate. Dante
reflects this concern. He related that great grief filled his heart when he
entered the castle in Limbo, for he knew that noble souls from antiquity
were present there.14 The theme of Virgil’s eventual return to Limbo runs
poignantly through the story, reaching its climax in his sudden departure at
the summit of Mount Purgatory and Dante’s overwhelming grief.15
There is unfinished business here. It is significant that in the preceding
364 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

canto Dante again brought Virgil’s name to the fore when he asked advice
as to how much he should relate of all he had seen when in his company.16
Answering Dante’s unspoken question, the Eagle says that no soul ever
entered Heaven who did not believe in Christ, either before or after His
Crucifixion. Yet many who assert belief will be further from Him at the Last
Judgement than some who never knew Him. There follows a list of unjust
rulers who will find their infamies inscribed in the Book of Judgement and
themselves excluded from Heaven.
In naming them, Dante is following the command of Cacciaguida to
strike out at the highest.17 The Eagle’s long roll-call, from the Emperor
Albert of Austria, Philip IV of France, the quarrelling kings of England
and Scotland, the King of Spain, the King of Bohemia, the King of Naples,
the King of Sicily, the King of the Balearic Islands, the King of Aragon, the
King of Portugal, the King of Norway, the King of Dalmatia, down to an
insignificant French ruler of Cyprus, all condemned by their evil deeds, is a
scorching indictment. As in the canto describing the Cornice of Pride the
acrostic VOM (that is, UOM, meaning ‘man’) joins together 3 stanzas,18 so
here the acrostic LUE (meaning ‘plague’) links another nine, giving once
again sculptural prominence to the lines as though they were embossed on a
monument.
In contrast to the iniquitous rulers (the ‘pestilence’ of Europe), the Eagle
next draws Dante’s attention to six lights which shine, one in the pupil of
its eye, and the other five in the shape of an arch above it.19 All except
one are rulers who delighted in justice. In the pupil is David, the first true
king of the chosen people. First in the arch, nearest to the Eagle’s beak, is
the Emperor Trajan, believed to have been restored to life and converted
by the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great. Next to him is Hezekiah, King
of Judah, who was granted an extended lease of life in response to prayer
and penitence.20 Beside him is the Emperor Constantine, who, despite his
(believed) Donation of the western part of his Empire to the Papacy, dwells
in beatitude undiminished by the evil consequences of his well-intentioned
act. Next is William II, the last of the Norman kings of Sicily, known as
‘William the Good’.
The climax of the six is Rhipeus the Trojan. Here is the complete answer
to Dante’s doubt. An obscure Trojan warrior, slain during the sack of Troy,
described by Virgil in the Aeneid as ‘the most just (iustissimus) of all the
Trojans and the strictest observer of right’,21 is in Heaven. How can this
be?
The legend concerning Trajan was widely believed but the instance of
Rhipeus is Dante’s own invention. The words of St Peter, ‘In every nation
he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness [iustitiam in the Vulgate]
 JUSTICE UNFATHOMED 365

Fig 3. The Eye of the Eagle

is acceptable to God’,22 were deemed to give Scriptural authority for such

a possibility. Dante also has in mind the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas
concerning the salvation of virtuous pagans: God will reveal what is neces-
sary either by instruction or by interior inspiration.
Though not understanding, yet believing, Dante cannot prevent his joy
at the presence in Heaven of both Trajan and Rhipeus from bursting from
his lips: Che cose son queste? (‘What are these things I hear?’) 23 At this all
the souls forming the Eagle flash in bright revelry and in collective voice
explain that both souls left their bodies not as Gentiles but as Christians,
both believers, one in the Crucifixion to come, the other in the Crucifixion
that had come to pass:
‘De’ corpi suoi non uscir, come credi,
gentili, ma cristiani, in ferma fede
quel de’ passuri e quel de’ passi piedi.’
… ‘these put the body off,
not gentiles, as thou deemest, but complete
in Christian faith, clinging as each had scope
to the passion-pierced, to the yet-to-be-passible Feet.’ 24
366 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

God, the Eagle continues, opened the eyes of Rhipeus to our coming
Redemption, rescuing him from the stench of paganism, so that he rebuked
those who perversely clung to it (an inventive extension of Virgil’s words on
Dante’s part). Already possessed of the cardinal virtues, he received by grace
the virtues of Faith, Hope and Love, the three theological virtues that Dante
had seen as figures dancing at the right wheel of the chariot in the Garden of
Eden.25 Why this had come about is one of the mysteries of predestination,
which like divine justice is far removed from mortal gaze and even from the
vision of the souls in bliss:
‘E voi, mortali, tenetevi stretti
a giudicar; chè noi, che Dio vedemo,
non conosciamo ancor tutti li eletti.’
‘And mortals, keep your judgment straitly checked,
for here we see God face to face, and still
we know not all the roll of His elect.’ 26
As the Eagle speaks, the two lights which are the souls of Trajan and Rhipeus,
like two eyes in the same head blinking together, accompany the words with
flicks of flame, another display of divine pyrotechnics.
The question of Virgil is left open. At the Last Judgement he may be
included in the roll of God’s elect. It is not for Dante, or for us, to know. The
blessed souls themselves do not know and such ignorance is sweet to them,
for what God wills they also will, an echo of the words of Piccarda,
‘e la sua voluntade è nostra pace.’
‘and His will is our peace’.27
It is also an anticipation of Dante’s own integration with divine love with
which the Commedia will end.
 CHAPTER 48

Dante and Monasticism

I
n Il Convivio Dante, writing of old age, said those men were wise who
then withdrew from active to religious life: ‘Even those who are married
may so do, since God requires only the profession of the heart.’ This is
perhaps an indication that Dante was considering the possibility of doing
so himself in his final years. There is a tradition that in his youth he became
a novice of the Franciscan Order and later withdrew. However that may be,
the question of monasticism is frequently raised in Paradiso. The first soul
who converses with Dante is Piccarda, a nun who broke her vows, and the
first moral question on which Beatrice instructs him concerns atonement
for broken vows.
According to Catholic faith, as Dante believed it, all the souls in Heaven
are already in the enjoyment of timelessness. Until the Last Judgement,
however, they will also be aware of the joys and sorrows, the sins and virtues
of mortals, both of the past and of the future. In the Heaven of Saturn,
into which Dante and Beatrice ascend from Jupiter, Dante sees a golden
ladder stretching far beyond his sight. Thronging upon it are the souls of
Contemplatives. Jacob’s ladder was quoted by preachers as a figure of monas-
tic life and the souls ‘ascending and descending on it’ were interpreted as
signifying the monks who climbed by contemplation up to God and those
who descended by compassion among men. Owing to their continuing
knowledge of life on earth, they are not withdrawn but deeply incensed by
the corruption of the religious orders of which they were members.
This theme was first introduced in the Heaven of the Sun,1 where
a circle of 2 lights, followed by a second and a third circle, encloses him
and Beatrice, revolving round them three times, singing so sweetly that the
beauty is beyond description. These are the souls of theologians, preachers,
scholars and writers, many of whom disagreed with one another on earth,
perceiving only part of the truth, but who now see it whole and rejoice in
knowing it in harmony together. St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of Dante’s
teachers of Christian doctrine, identifies himself and goes on to relate the
tale of St Francis of Assisi and his heroic espousal of poverty. This leads him

367
368 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

to utter a stern rebuke of both the Franciscan and the Dominican Orders for
their decline from the ideals of their founders. There follows a similar rebuke
from St Bonaventure who deplores the corruption and dissension among
Franciscans.
In the world of monastic discipline which Dante now enters there is first
of all silence. He hesitates to break it. One soul draws near and in answer to
a question Dante asks as to why he, from among so many, has been chosen
to approach him, speaks of the unfathomable depths of predestination and
warns Dante, bidding him also to warn others, against seeking to probe
exalted mysteries. He reveals himself as Peter Damian. Born in Ravenna at
the beginning of the eleventh century, he entered the Benedictine monas-
tery of Fonte Avellana on the slopes of Mount Catria in Umbria, of which in
04 he became Abbot and was later created Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia.
He became a celebrated preacher and a zealous reformer of Church disci-
pline. He is said to have addressed a letter to certain cardinals reproaching
them for their indulgence in costly clothing, fine horses and armed escorts.
There is a tradition that Dante stayed for a time at the monastery on Mount
Catria. If so, he may have heard of the letter, and the words he gives to Peter
Damian are perhaps an echo of it. However this may be, he would have
found the memory of Peter cherished in Ravenna, where Dante wrote this
canto, and if he gave a public reading of it there it would have been received
with particular interest.
Recalling the poverty of the first followers of Christ, Peter Damian
contrasts it with the greed of modern prelates:
‘Venne Cefas e venne il gran vasello
dello Spirito Santo, magri e scalzi,
prendendo il cibo da qualunque ostello.
Or voglio quinci e quindi chi li rincalzi
li moderni pastori e chi li meni,
tanto son gravi, e chi di retro li alzi.
Cuopron de’ manti loro i palafreni,
sì che due bestie van sott’una pelle:
o pazienza che tanto sostieni!’
‘Barefoot and lean came Cephas, came the great
Vessel of the Holy Ghost; and they would sup
at whatsoever house they halted at.
Pastors today require to be propped up
on either side, one man their horse to lead
(so great their weight!) and one their train to loop.
Over their mounts their mantles fall, full-spread;
two beasts beneath a single hide they go.
O patience, is thy meekness not yet fled?’ 2
 DANTE AND MONASTICISM 369

At the conclusion of these words, there is a blaze of light as more and more
souls cluster and circle round. They give vent to such a roar of anger that
Dante almost swoons and has to turn to Beatrice as a little boy runs for
comfort to his mother, something he perhaps remembered from his own
childhood, or seeing his children do. She tenderly restores his confidence
and foretells that before his death he will see the sword of punishment fall.
When Dante wrote these words Boniface VIII had suffered the outrage
at the hands of Philip IV of France that had led to his death and the Curia
had undergone the humiliation of the transference to Avignon. No doubt he
had these events in his mind but he leaves the prophecy undefined. What is
remarkable is the shout of wrath that goes up among the Contemplatives at
the words of Peter Damian, showing that righteous zeal, as well as silence, is
a mark of true spiritual contemplation.
Dante next brings forward St Benedict, ‘the largest and most lustrous of
these pearls’, the founder of monasticism in the Western Church. Together
too approach his brother monks, Romualdus, also of Ravenna, who founded
the Order of Reformed Benedictines in Camaldoli in the eleventh century,
and Maccarius, said to be a founder of monasticism in the East. Identifying
himself, St Benedict tells of his founding of his monastery in Cassino and
in words which echo those of Peter Damian he passes to still more severe
denunciation of the corruption into which his Order has passed:
… ‘mo nessun diparte
da terra i piedi, e la regola mia
rimasa è per danno delle carte.
Le mura che solìeno esser badia
fatte son spelonche, e le cocolle
sacca son piena di farina ria.
Ma grave usura tanto non si tolle
contra ’l piacer di Dio, quanto quel frutto
che fa il cor de’ monaci sì folle;
chè quantunque la Chiesa guarda, tutto
è della gente che Dio dimanda;
non di parenti nè d’altro più brutto.
La carne de’ mortali è tanto blanda,
che giù non basta buon cominciamento
dal nascer della quercia al far la ghianda.
Pier cominciò sanz’ oro e sanz’argento,
e io con orazione e con digiuno,
e Francesco umilmente il suo convento.
E se guardi là il principio di ciascuno,
poscia riguardi là dov’è trascorso,
tu vederai del bianco fatto bruno.’
370 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

… ‘to crown
iniquity, there in my house men sit,
smirching with wasted ink my Rule’s renown.
Dens are the buildings once for abbots fit;
rancid the meal, and the cowls in which they dress
are like so many sacks stuffed full with it.
Gross usury bears lighter the impress
of God’s displeasure than the well-filled purse
which monkish hearts now covet to excess.
Whatever wealth the Church is called to nurse
belongs to those who ask it in God’s name,
not to the families of monks, or worse.
The yielding flesh of man is much to blame:
more than a good beginning was required
ere ever acorn from an oak-tree came.
Peter, to found his house, no wealth desired,
nor I, by fasting and by prayer made rich,
nor Francis, by humility inspired.
If thou wouldst contemplate the point from which
each one set out, and where their followers are,
thou wilt perceive how white has changed to pitch.’ 3
St Benedict, like Beatrice, foresees that God will punish the wrongdoers: the
turning back of Jordan and the drying up of the Red Sea were even greater
miracles than retribution for such avarice would be.
Dante, addressing St Benedict as ‘Father’, had asked if he might behold
him in his true form. This is the only occasion on which he makes such a
request in Paradiso. In reply, St Benedict, addressing him as ‘Brother’, tells
him that his yearning will be granted in the last sphere, as will be the case of
all the blessed:
‘Ivi è perfetta, matura ed intera
ciascuna disianza; in quella sola
è ogni parte là ove sempr’ era,
perchè non è in loco e non s’impola;
e nostra scala infino ad essa varca,
onde così dal viso ti s’invola.’
‘There and there only every longing has
final attainment, perfect, ripe and whole,
and there each part is where it always was,
for it is not in space and has no pole;
wherefore our ladder, at its full extent,
steals from thy view, since yonder is its goal.’ 4
 DANTE AND MONASTICISM 37

Thus St Benedict gives Dante the character a foretaste of the final blessed-
ness in the Empyrean, where there is no finite space and all time is present.
By calling him ‘Brother’, he admits him into their company in anticipation
of the stage when, in the story, Dante himself becomes a Contemplative.
With regard to Dante the man, it may be a hint that in an ideal world
his hope would be one day to be admitted to the contemplative life of the
Benedictine Order. This was possibly in his mind for the years to which he
looked forward, years which he was not to know in this life.
 CHAPTER 49

The Theme’s Great Weight

T
he concluding cantos of Paradiso represent Dante’s literary skills
brought to their highest pitch: variety of narrative, compelling
dialogue, surprise, ethereal pictorial similes, rich and colourful
imagery, visions of the universe, together with startling contrasts in style,
changing suddenly from the sublime to invective. His mind and soul are
represented as growing more exalted the higher he ascends, but Dante the
writer is still a craftsman who is alert to the attention span of his new, select
audience, who, though more responsive, still require variety of narrative and
characterization.
Rising swiftly to the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, Dante enters his own
natal constellation of Gemini:
O gloriose stelle, o lume pregno
di gran virtù, dal quale io riconosco
tutto, qual che sia, il mio ingegno,
con voi nasceva e s’ascondeva vosco
quelli ch’ è padre d’ogni mortal vita,
quand’ io sent’ di prima l’aere tosco;
e poi, quando mi fu grazia largita
d’entrar nell’alta rota che vi gira,
la vostra region mi fu sortita.
A voi divotamente ora sospira
l’anima mia, per acquistar virtute
al passo forte che a sè la tira.
O stars of glory, from whose light on high
a mighty virtue is poured forth, to you
I owe such talents as within me lie;
with you there rose and with you sank from view
he who is father of all life below
when my first breath of Tuscan air I drew,
and when by grace I rose at last into
the lofty sphere in which you circle, then
your region it was granted me to know.

372
 THE THEME’S GREAT WEIGHT 373

To you my soul devoutly sighs, to gain

the power and courage for the hardest step,
which pulls her onwards to itself amain.1
Dante the poet now summons all his innate gifts, derived not only from
his stars but also from the region, Tuscany, where he first drew breath. In so
doing, he reminds his readers that he is no abstract symbol but an individual
self, formed by destiny and environment. He also prepares them for the passo
forte, the most difficult part of his task. To complete it, he needs not only
poetic skill but light to comprehend both spiritual and material truths.
Accordingly, Beatrice first commands him to cast his eyes down towards
the earth. Obediently he retraces with his gaze (for this endowed with
supernatural power) the course he has taken through the seven planetary
spheres, until it rests at last upon our puny globe, l’aiuola che ci fa tanto feroci
(‘the threshing-floor which renders us so fierce’), tal ch’io sorisi del suo vil
sembiante (‘such that I smiled it seemed so base a thing’).2
Like a mother-bird alert on an open spray, awaiting the dawn that it may
feed its young, Beatrice, erect and in suspense, gazes towards the east as the
sky grows more and more resplendent. Suddenly, her face aflame with love
and her eyes filled with joy, she exclaims:
… ‘Ecco le schiere
del triunfo di Cristo e tutto il frutto
ricolto del girar di queste spere!’
… ‘Behold Christ’s hosts in triumph! Lo,
the fruit all garnered here which ripened has
beneath these circling spheres on earth below!’ 3
In the Earthly Paradise Dante had seen the Pageant of the Church
Militant, imaged in symbols in the very scene of man’s Fall.4 So now, in the
Heaven of the Fixed Stars, the highest region visible from earth, he beholds
the Church Triumphant, manifested to him as a myriad of lights which he
defines in a rich and lovely image as the fruits of the circling spheres. They
are all kindled by one sun, as on a clear night the moon smiles on the eternal
nymphs who deck the sky. This is the Redeemer, in whose brilliance Dante
glimpses a shining substance, so bright that his eyes cannot endure it.
This is Dante’s third vision of Christ. The first was in the Garden of Eden,
as the Gryphon; the second was in the Heaven of Mars, where he beheld the
warriors of Christ, including his own ancestor, Cacciaguida.5 Beatrice tells
him that what dazzles him is la sapienza e la possanza (‘the wisdom and the
might’), which opened between Heaven and earth the paths that were so
long desired. At these words, Dante describes what may have been an actual
experience in one of those moments of higher consciousness at which he has
374 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

hinted earlier, and to which a number of references have been made in the
course of the present work:
Come foco di nube si diserra
per dilatarsi sì che non vi cape,
e fuor di sua natura in giù s’atterra
la mente mia così tra quelle dape
fatta più grande, di sè stessa usciò,
e che si fesse rimembrar non sape.
As fire from a cloud must soon explode,
if it dilate and prove untenable,
and downward flies, against its natural mode,
my soul, grown heady with high festival,
gushed and o’erbrimmed itself, and what strange style
it then assumed, remembers not at all.6
Beatrice tells Dante to look back at her and see her as she truly is. Now
that he has looked on Christ he is able to withstand her smile but what she
truly is defeats his powers of description. He is like someone waking from a
dream who tries in vain to recall it. Likewise, in picturing Paradise, he must
leap over much, like one who finds obstructions in a path:
Ma chi pensasse il ponderosa tema
e l’omero mortal che se ne carca
nol biasmerebbe se sott’esso trema.
Non è pileggio da picciola barca
quel che fendendo va l’ardita prora,
nè da nocchier ch’a sè medesmo parca.
But one who called to mind the theme’s great weight,
and mortal shoulder which supports the strain,
if it should shake, would lay no blame on it.
No sea for cockle-boats is this great main
in which my prow now boldly carves its ways,
nor for a pilot sparing toil or pain.7
At the command of Beatrice, Dante turns to behold a garden flowering
in the rays of Christ, like a meadow seen beneath shafts of sunlight strik-
ing through the clouds, the rose in which the divine Word was made flesh,
the lilies for whose fragrance the true path was followed. By these images
Dante signifies that he is granted a vision not only of the light that is Christ
but also of the splendours that are the Virgin Mary, to whom he prays every
morning and evening, the Apostles and the redeemed of the Old and New
Testaments. As he gazes on the Virgin’s light, a brilliant torch descends from
on high, circling about her like a crown. A burst of melody, compared with
 THE THEME’S GREAT WEIGHT 375

which the sweetest ever heard on earth would seem like thunder, accompa-
nies the torch as it swirls round the sapphire light and the sky itself turns
blue. The torch (which is later revealed as the Archangel Gabriel) sings a
joyful greeting:
‘Io sono amore angelico, che giro
l’alta letizia che spira del ventre
che fu albergo del nostro desiro;
e girerommi, donna del ciel, mentre
che seguirai tuo figlio, e farai dia
più la spera suprema perchè li entre.’
Così la circulata melodia
si sigillava, e tutti li altri lumi
facean sonare lo nome di Maria.
‘I am angelic love who circle round
the joy sublime, breathed from the womb wherein
for our desire a shelter once was found.
Thus, heavenly Lady, I will thee entwine
till with thy Son to enter thou hast willed
the highest sphere thy presence makes divine.’
Thus the encircling melody was sealed.
All other lights together sang aloud
and through the sphere the name of Mary pealed.8
The Virgin moves aloft, the other lights reaching up towards her as an infant
stretches out its arms to its mother when it has fed at her breast. Lingering
still in Dante’s sight, they continue singing Regina coeli so sweetly that the
delight has never left him.
What is remarkable is the tender imagery by which Dante conveys these
celestial apparitions. This is no static heraldry or pageantry, but love and
the beauty of the natural world, within the range of human experience: the
mother-bird, fruit harvested, a garden, a rose, lilies, the moon on a clear
night among the stars, shafts of sunlight striking through the clouds on
a flowery meadow, a baby stretching its arms towards its mother. Yet this
vision surpasses anything Dante has been privileged to experience so far.
Souls have descended from the Empyrean to converse with him in the plan-
etary spheres, but here, amid his own constellation, Christ, the Virgin Mary,
the Apostles, the Archangel Gabriel and thousands of redeemed souls have
come to welcome him, a mortal man.
Beatrice too has undergone a change beyond the power not only of
Dante’s words but of all sacred poetry ever written. This must signify that
Beatrice here represents his apprehension of divine truth.9 It may be that his
study of theology carried him beyond doctrine to an intensified awareness of
376 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the divine which exceeded the intellect. It may also be that in his prayers he
sometimes entered an altered state of consciousness. As has been suggested,
it is also possible that such extensions of the mind, associated with physical
ecstasy, were heightened still further by means employed by mystics.
However arrived at, the vision is presented as an actual experience, a state
of being, the theme under whose great weight his mortal shoulder trembles.
This is not surprising. Like divine justice, the Logos is unfathomable.
 CHAPTER 50

Faith, Hope and Love

T
he spotlight is now on Dante the Christian believer. Here the poet
and the character are one, but within the fiction he contrives exalted
communion between himself and three of Christ’s disciples: St
Peter, St James and St John. No more sublime confessors could be imagined.
Beatrice presents her protégé, humbly requesting the saints to test him in his
understanding of Faith, Hope and Love. According to St Thomas Aquinas,
before the soul can attain to participation in the Beatific Vision, these three
theological virtues, mediated by divine light, must first prepare it for this
final goal.
There are perhaps personal implications in the threefold interrogation
that follows. According to an early tradition, Dante was once brought under
enquiry by the Inquisition for heresy. If this is so, or if the tradition merely
represents rumours as to the unorthodoxy of his beliefs, Dante here devises
an opportunity to set the matter right beyond all possible doubt. It has also
been said that he underwent some such formal examination during his
theological studies, possibly during an early period in Bologna, or, as some
commentators have maintained, in Paris. However that may be, the heavenly
Tripos he here creates, not to mention the examiners, surpass those of any
earthly university.
In Il Convivio Dante had used the image of a banquet for the acquisition
of knowledge, expressing his desire to share with others less fortunate than
himself what little he had acquired:
I who am not seated at the table of the blessed, but am fed from the pasture of
the common herd, and at the feet of those who sit at that table am gathering
up of that which falls from them, perceive how wretched is the life of those
whom I have left behind by the sweetness which I taste in that which little by
little I obtain.1
Many years had passed since he wrote those words. Now he gives them in
more exalted form to Beatrice, who thus addresses the saints still assembled
in the Eighth Heaven:

377
378 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘O sodalizio eletto alla gran cena

del benedetto Agnello, il qual vi ciba
sì che la vostra voglia è sempre piena,
se per grazia di Dio questi preliba
di quel che cade della vostra mensa,
prima che morte tempo li prescriba,
ponete mente all’affezione immensa,
e roratelo alquanto: voi bevete
sempre del fonte onde vien quel ch’ ei pensa’.
‘O fellowship of the elect who sup
with Christ the Lamb, Who doth so nourish you
that full to overflowing is your cup,
if God by grace admits this man unto
the broken meats that from your table fall,
before the hour prescribed by death is due,
the boundless measure of his love recall.
Bedew him with some drops! Your fountainhead,
whence comes what he thinks, is perpetual.’ 2
The feast of Il Convivio is here transformed to a celestial banquet, of which
Dante is both creator and participant. He is no longer asking questions,
as previously throughout Paradiso: he is answering them, with clarity and
precision. There is a halt, for the moment, to professions of inability to find
words for what he saw and heard.
The souls respond with joy to the request of Beatrice, flaming like comets,
revolving some slowly and some fast. To enable the reader to visualize the
scene, Dante uses a practical simile drawn from the latest advancement in
mechanical science: the train of wheels of a striking clock, revolving at differ-
ent speeds, a recent invention that had evidently caught his imagination. The
simile is not only vivid: it carries the mind from the Eighth Heaven to earth,
where time is measured and theological belief, an intellectual conviction, is
in conformity with reason and accessible to the senses of mortals.
The soul of St Peter approaches and a brisk question-and-answer
dialogue follows. When Dante argues convincingly for the truth of Christ’s
miracles, all the saints in their whirling circles break into the Te Deum, the
song of salvation written by St Ambrose on the occasion of St Augustine’s
conversion. Dante had heard it indistinctly sung on entering the gateway to
the seven cornices of Purgatory. Now the souls in Heaven sing it in accept-
ing him as truly grasping the foundations of belief, and the light of St Peter,
singing blessings on his soul, circles round him three times.
St James then joins St Peter and the two lights mingle in mutual bliss.
Dante is now to be examined in his understanding of Christian hope.
Beatrice presents him as one abundantly possessed of this second virtue, by
 FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE 379

virtue of which he has been granted his journey:

‘La Chiesa Militante alcun figluolo
non ha con più speranza, com’ è scritto
nel Sol che raggia tutto nostro stuolo:
però li è conceduto che d’Egitto
vegna in Jerusalemme, per vedere,
anzi che ’l militar li sia prescritto.’
‘No child of the Church Militant can vie
with him in hope; this blazoned in the Sun,
the light of all our host, we may descry.
Hence, leave to come from Egypt he has won,
to see Jerusalem, though many a year
his soldiering on earth has yet to run.’ 3
It is hope that has earned for Dante the privilege of ascending to Heaven
in the body, Christian hope arising from faith, hope for mankind, for the
Empire, for Italy, for the regeneration of the Church, and, despite bitter
disappointments, hope still for his honourable recall to Florence. At the
end of his examination by St Peter he has expressed this personal hope in
moving words that show that at the date of writing them he still looked
forward to a day when the Florentines will invite him home to receive the
laurel crown at his font of baptism:
Se mai continga che ’l poema sacro
al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra,
sì che m’ha fatto per più anni macro,
vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi serra
del bel ovile ov’io dormi’ agnello,
nimico ai lupi che li danno guerra,
con altra voce omai, con altro vello
ritornerò poeta, ed in sul fonte
del mio battesmo prenderò ’l cappello.
If it should chance that e’er the sacred song
to which both Heaven and earth have set their hand,
whence I am lean with labouring so long,
should touch the cruel hearts by which I’m banned
from my fair fold where as a lamb I lay,
foe to the wolves which leagued against it stand,
with altered voice, with altered fleece today
I shall return, a poet, at my font
of baptism to take the crown of bay.4
He expressed the same hope when a poet of Bologna, known as Giovanni
del Virgilio, addressed to him a poem in Latin urging him to cease wasting
380 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

his talents by writing in the vernacular on subjects that the unlearned could
not appreciate, and to compose in Latin an epic on a subject that could earn
him a poet’s crown from the University of Bologna. Dante replied, also in
Latin, in the mock pastoral form of an eclogue, promising to send Giovanni
samples of his work and expressing the hope that he would receive the laurel
crown in Florence:
Nonne triumphales melius pexare capillos
et patrio redeam si quando abscondere canos
fronde sub inserta solitum flavescere Sarno?
More glorious, were it not, to groom my hair,
now become white which formerly was fair,
concealed in leaves entwined on Arno’s shore,
when to my homeland I return once more? 5
The intriguing reference to the light shade of Dante’s hair in his youth,
now turned white, echoes the reference in Paradiso to the altro vello (‘altered
fleece’) with which he imagines himself returning to Florence after an
absence of many years, an old man now, white-haired and lean with labour-
ing on his great work. The lines are also evidence that he continued to cher-
ish hope of a recall, until, as will be seen later, something caused him to
relinquish it for ever.
In May 35 an amnesty had been issued by the government of Florence,
offering pardon and freedom of return to exiles under certain conditions.
One, known as the oblatio, was a ceremony in which a malefactor, clothed in
sackcloth, wearing a mitre on his head and carrying a candle, was conducted
to the Baptistery and presented by a sponsor at the altar for official pardon.
Those who had been exiled for political offences were subjected to a modi-
fied but still degrading form of the ceremony and were required to pay a
sum of money. News of this amnesty is said to have been communicated
to Dante by a nephew and by friends. The brother of his wife, Teruccio
di Manetto Donati, a member of a religious order, also wrote urging him
to comply, discreetly concealing from him the conditions of the pardon.
Dante’s answer was gracious but indignant:
Is this, then, the recall of Dante Alighieri to his native city, after the miseries of
almost fifteen years of exile? Is this the reward of innocence manifest to all the
world, and of the sweat and toil of unremitting study? Far be it from one who
has followed philosophy to submit to such humiliation. … Far be it from one
who has preached justice and who has suffered wrong to pay money to those
who wronged him, as though they had been his benefactors.
No, father, not by this path will I return to my native city. If some other can
be found, by you in the first instance and then by others, which does not dero-
 FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE 38

gate from the fame and honour of Dante, that I will tread with no lagging
footsteps. But if by no such path Florence may be entered, then I will enter
Florence never again. Can I not anywhere gaze upon the face of the sun and
the stars? Can I not anywhere contemplate the sweetest truths without first
returning to Florence disgraced, even dishonoured, in the eyes of my fellow-
citizens? Indeed, I shall not lack for bread!6
It was not in sackcloth with a mitre on his head that Dante later visualized
himself, presented by his sponsor Beatrice, to the disciples of Christ before
the assembly of souls in his natal constellation. Yet, even there, he acknowl-
edged a blindness to the truth.
When the soul of St John draws near, a light which seems equal in radi-
ance to the sun itself, Dante commits the error of peering into its depths. St
John rebukes him:
… ‘Perchè t’abbagli
per veder cosa che qui non ha loco?
In terra è ’l mio corpo, e saragli
tanto con li altri, che ’l numero nostro
con l’etterno proposito s’agguagli.
Con le due stole nel beato chiostro
son le due luci sole che saliro;
e questo apporterai nel mondo vostro.’
… ‘Why treatest thou so ill
thy sight, seeking in me what thy world keeps?
Earth in the earth my body lies, and will
so lie with others till our total count
be equal God’s great purpose to fulfil.
Two only who straightway to heaven did mount
in our blessed cloister in both robes are clad.
This truth unto the world shalt thou recount.’ 7
Turning to look once more on Beatrice, Dante finds that he has gone
blind.
The belief in St John’s assumption in the body originated in the Eastern
Church and gained limited credence in the West. St Thomas Aquinas called
it ‘a pious belief ’. It is possible that the painting by Giotto in Santa Croce of
the assumption of St John may have been commissioned by the Florentines
to defy Dante’s refutation of the legend. It would seem that Dante himself
once believed it and here represents himself as blind for having done so.
St John reassures him that his sight will be restored to him by Beatrice, as
St Paul’s sight was restored to him by the hand of Ananias. In the meantime
St John commands him to expound the nature of his love and its origin. In
the question-and-answer dialogue that follows Dante states that God is the
382 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

beginning and end of all his loves and defines the sources of his knowledge
that God is the ultimate good. St John acknowledges that Dante’s love is
based both on revelation and on reason, but goes on to ask what other loves
bind him to the divine. Dante enumerates the blessings by which God has
manifested His goodness:
… ‘l’essere del mondo e l’esser mio,
la morte ch’ el sostenne perch’ io viva,
e quel che spera ogni fedel com’ io,
con la predetta conoscenza viva,
tratto m’hanno del mar dell’amor torto,
e del diritto m’han posto alla riva.
Le fronde onde s’infronda tutto l’orto
dell’ortolano etterno, am’ io contanto
quanto da lui a lor di bene è porto.’
‘The being of the world and my own state,
the death he died that I might live the more,
the hope in which I, by faith, participate,
the living truth which I conveyed before,
have dredged me from the sea of wrongful love
and of the right have set me on the shore.
Thus through the garden of the world I rove,
enamoured of its leaves in measure solely
as God the Gardener nurtures them above.’ 8
At the conclusion of these words, Beatrice and the heavenly choir fill the
heaven with sweet song, chanting ‘Holy, holy, holy’, and Dante’s sight is
restored to him, clearer than ever. A fourth light now blazes brilliantly where
three had been. This is the soul of Adam.
Dante is awed, even more than by the presence of Christ’s disciples. He
knows that the First Ancestor of the human race reads his heart and mind
and begs him to tell him what he would know. The soul quivers in glad
eagerness and speaks. Dante’s unspoken desire is to know how long ago
God set Adam in the earthly Paradise, how long he remained there, what
occasioned God’s great displeasure (in other words, what was the cause of
the Fall) and the language which he spoke. Adam states first the nature of
the Fall. It was not the tasting of the forbidden fruit that incurred exile but
the transgression from the path, the haste to know good and evil. Dante
follows the teaching of Genesis as regards the length of his life: ‘And all the
days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years.’ He also follows
the chronology devised by Eusebius, who puts the birth of Christ 5,98 years
and His Crucifixion 5,232 years after the Creation. In the year 34 Adam was
removed from Limbo by Christ, ‘whence thy lady to thee Virgil sent’.
 FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE 383

The language Adam spoke was something that Dante had already
pondered in his treatise De Vulgari Eloquentia. He said there that it was
Hebrew and that this language was spoken by all Adam’s descendants until
the building of the Tower of Babel. From then on only the sons of Heber
spoke it, from whose name it was called Hebrew, and this, Dante believed,
was the language of Christ. Dante’s opinion then changed and he concluded
that Adam’s language was not a divine creation but the result of human
reason and consequently susceptible of change and decay.
Adam finally answers Dante’s desire to know how long he dwelt in Eden.
Many theologians had meditated upon this and Dante chooses the view of
Petrus Comestor that the duration was six hours, from the first hour to the
seventh, when the sun, having run through a quarter, or 90 degrees of its
circle, moved into its second quadrant. With this disclosure, Adam’s words
come to an end.
The four lights continue to blaze in Dante’s sight and the heavenly choir
rejoice in his enlightenment, singing a hymn of praise to the Three-in-One.
Dante participates in the joy and, as though beholding a smile of all creation,
by ear and eye he draws the inebriate rapture in.
It is at this sublime moment that the writer Dante chooses to place the
most terrible of all his indictments of Pope Boniface VIII.
 CHAPTER 51

Hatred in Heaven

D
ante’s hatred for Boniface VIII reaches an intensity which in
modern terms would be diagnosed as a monomania. It reaches its
highest pitch at a moment of the highest joy. At the conclusion of
the words of Adam, the souls sing so sweet a song of triumph that Dante’s
senses are as though drunk:
O gioia! Oh ineffabile allegrezza!
Oh vita integra d’amore sicura di ricchezza!
Oh santa brama sicura di ricchezza!
Oh joy no tongue can tell! Oh ecstasy!
Oh perfect life fulfilled of love and peace!
Oh wealth past want, that ne’er shall fade nor fly! 1
At this moment Dante the writer sees fit to open the vials of his wrath.
The joyful choirs fall silent, the light of St Peter changes colour and he
speaks in another tone:
… ‘Se io mi trascoloro
non ti maravigliar; chè, dicendo io,
vedrai trascolorar tutti costoro.’
… ‘If I change colour as I do,
marvel not thou, for thou shalt see apace,
while I shall speak, all these change colour too.’ 2
With startling abruptness he launches into a diatribe against his present
successor:
‘Quelli ch’usurpa in terra il loco mio,
il loco mio, il loco mio, che vaca
nella presenza del Figliuol di Dio,
fatt’ ha del cimitero mio cloaca
del sangue e della puzza; onde ’l perverso
che cadde di qua su, là giù si placa.’

384
 HATRED IN HEAVEN 385

‘He that on earth has dared usurp that place

of mine, that place of mine, that place of mine,
which now stands vacant before God’s Son’s face,
has made my burial-ground a running rhine
of filth and blood, which to the Renegade
down there, who fell from here, is anodyne.’ 3
St Peter here gives vent to all Dante’s contempt for Boniface, who gained
by craft the Papal throne, which in God’s sight stands vacant, who by his
avarice and worldly ambition has made the burial-place of St Peter a sewer
of blood and filth, a source of gratification to Lucifer who fell from Heaven
to Hell. The ugly rhymes, with their broad open vowels, vaca, cloaca, placa,
the frenzied triple shriek, il loco mio, il loco mio, il loco mio, the crude imagery
of the sewer, the filth, the stench, belong not to the disciple of Christ but
to the diction of Inferno. Even more startling is the deep red, like clouds at
sunset and sunrise, with which the sky, and Beatrice’s modest visage too, are
suffused in shame, as dark, Dante says, as the eclipse that occurred when
Christ died on the Cross. This verges on profanity, if not on blasphemy.
But St Peter has not finished yet. Looking back to the martyrs among his
early virtuous successors and prophesying the disgrace of the transference
of the Papacy to Avignon, he rails against the avarice of later holders of the
sacred Office and foretells divine retribution:
‘Non fu la sposa di Cristo allevata
del sangue mio, di Lino e quel di Cleto,
per essere ad acquisto d’oro usata:
ma, per acquisto d’esto vivo lieto,
e Sisto e Pio e Calisto e Urbano
sparser lo sangue dopo molto fleto.
Non fu nostra intenzion ch’a destra mano
de’ nostri successor parte sedesse,
parte dall’altra popol cristiano;
nè che le chiavi che mi fuor concesse
divinisser signaculo in vessillo
che contra battezzati combattesse;
nè ch’io fossi figura di sigillo
a privilegi venduti e mendaci,
onde’ io sovente arrosso e disfavillo.
In vesta di pastor lupi e rapaci
si veggion di qua su per tutti i paschi:
o difesa di Dio, perchè pur giaci?
Del sangue nostro Caorsini e Guaschi
s’apparecchian di bere: o buon principio,
a che vil fin convien che tu caschi!
386 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Ma l’alta provedenza che con Scipio

difese a Roma la gloria del mondo
soccorrà tosto, sì com’io concipio.’
‘The blood of Linus, Cletus and myself
was shed to foster her who is Christ’s bride,
not that she should be used for gain of pelf;
rather, to gain this life beatified,
Sixtus, Pius, Calixtus, Urban spilled
their blood and in long torment, weeping, died.
Never by our intention was it willed
that Christendom should sit on either hand
of those who after us our office held;
nor that the keys bequeathed to me should stand
as emblem on a banner waging war
against the baptized in a Christian land;
nor that a signet which my features bore
should seal the lying privileges sold,
whence, coruscating, I blush red the more.
Rapacious wolves in shepherds’ garb behold
in every pasture! Lord, why dost Thou blink
such slaughter of the lambs within Thy fold?
Gascons and Cahorsines prepare to drink
our blood. Beginning that so far didst show,
to what vile ending wast thou doomed to sink!
But Providence, which once through Scipio
the glory of the world and Rome’s renown
secured, will swift lend aid, as I foreknow.’ 4
Denunciation of the clergy was no uncommon theme in Dante’s time or
in later centuries, even long after the Reformation. Just as he set himself to
surpass his classical predecessors in his description of snakes, and in other
tours de force, so now Dante gathers all his mastery of the vernacular he is
creating to surpass all diatribes. It is not only that he gives his words to St
Peter: within the fiction, it is St Peter who commands Dante to report ‘his’
words when, at the end of his privileged journey into Heaven, he shall have
returned to earth:
‘E tu, figluol, che per lo mortal pondo
ancor giù tornerai, apri la bocca,
e non asconder quel ch’io non ascondo.’
‘And thou, my son, whose weight must draw thee down
to earth once more, open thy mouth and speak:
the things which I hide not, see thou make known.’ 5
 HATRED IN HEAVEN 387

He had received a similar command from Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise

and from his ancestor Cacciaguida in the Heaven of Mars. He is now
commanded by St Peter himself. Such is the measure of the aggrandized
role that Dante allots to himself in the sight of Heaven.
He wrote these lines in Ravenna as he approached the end of his great
work. He had many more joyful concepts to communicate, some beyond his
capacity to express. This intrusion of violence into the ethereal reveals an
instability of mood, arising perhaps from the contrast between what could
be and what is and from the disappointment of frustrated hopes. At the
same time, Dante still has faith that the causes of Church and Empire are in
God’s hand. This faith he contrives for Beatrice to express when he ascends
with her into the Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven, the boundary of
space and time and the outermost limit of the created universe that is subject
to change. The first moved of all the spheres, it spins at infinite speed in the
desire of all its parts to be in contact with the Empyrean. Thus its motion
is distributed to the other spheres, by whose motions time is measured. The
whole structure is as ordered and as unquestionable, Beatrice says, as the
truth that two and five are the dividends of ten.
In this context of the perfection of the divinely structured universe,
Beatrice departs temporarily from her ethereal role and, in terms which are
nearer Dante’s than her own, rebukes human avarice and degeneracy:
‘Oh cupidigia che i mortali affonde
sì sotto te, che nessuno ha podere
di trarre gli occhi fuor delle tue onde!
Ben fiorisce nelli uomini il volere;
ma la pioggia continua converte
in bozzacchioni le susine vere.
Fede ed innocenzia son reperte
solo ne’ parvoletti; poi ciascuna
pria fugge che le guance sian coperte.
Tale, balbuziendo ancor, digiuna,
che poi divora, con la lingua sciolta,
qualunque cibo, per qualunque luna.
Tale balbuziendo, ama e ascolta
la madre sua, che, con loquela intera,
disia poi di vederla sepolta.
Così si fa la pelle bianca nera
nel primo aspetto della bella figlia
di quel ch’apporta mane e lascia sera.
Tu, perchè non ti facci maraviglia,
pensa ch ’n terra non è chi governi;
onde si svia l’umana famiglia.’
388 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Cupidity! Thou dost engulf the race

of mortal men so deep, not one may then
above the o’erwhelming waters raise his face.
Fair is the blossom of the will of men,
but the true fruit is swollen and made weak
by drenchings of interminable rain.
In little children only mayst thou seek
true innocence and faith, and both are flown
before the down has grown upon the cheek.
He who the fast-days as a child has known
will every dish in every season have
ere out of baby-talk he scarce has grown;
or who affection to his mother gave
in lisping childhood, learning at her knee,
in manhood longs to see her in her grave.
Thus the white skin of the fair progeny
of him who brings the morn and leaves the night
darkens upon exposure instantly.
And thou, lest thou shouldst marvel at such plight,
reflect: since there be none to govern you,
how can the human household run aright?’ 6
But there is hope. As Beatrice foretold in the Earthly Paradise, a leader will
come who will restore order to Church and Empire, so now she ends her
speech with renewed assurance:
‘Ma prima che gennaio tutto si sverni
per la centesma ch’ è là giù negletta,
raggeran sì questi cerchi superni
che la fortuna che tanto s’aspetta,
le poppe volgerà u’ son le prore,
sì che la classe correrà diretta;
e vero frutto verrà dopo ’l fiore.’
‘Ere January be unwintered, through
the hundredth of a day which men neglect,
these lofty circles shall give vent unto
such roaring, that the storm we long expect
shall whirl the vessels round upon their route,
setting the fleet to sail a course direct;
and from the blossom shall come forth true fruit.’ 7
It is possible that by now Dante the man, though still hopeful, had
resigned himself to a distant fulfilment of his dream of justice and peace.
 CHAPTER 52

The Creation

D
ante’s two visions of God, first as an indivisible point and finally as
three circles, may, like his visions in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars,
represent actual experiences. Many commentators have believed
that this is so. Whether or not this is true (and there is no certainty either
way), Dante the writer remains throughout in conscious poetic control. The
metaphysics of Heaven, the account of the creation of the universe, the river
of time transformed to the Circle of Eternity, the scenic arrangement of the
Blessed in the Celestial Rose, the final vision of the Trinity, all of which, as
he ascends, take the character Dante and, with him, the reader from marvel
to marvel, are deliberately planned and stage-managed by Dante the writer,
the same showman who first led his listeners dentro alle le segrete cose (‘in
among the secret things’).1
The final cantos are also in large part a versification, sometimes word
for word, of texts from which Dante derived his concepts of Heaven and
his belief in the reality of ecstatic contemplation. It may be that he experi-
enced intellectual ebbrezza (inebriation) as a result of reading Aristotle and
St Thomas Aquinas, as well as the mystics, such as Richard of St Victor,
St Bernard and St Augustine. By making Beatrice the exponent of his
rational understanding of their concepts, he gives his mental illumination
an intensely personal visionary dimension.
When he moves up into the Ninth Heaven, which, as it whirls to unite
with the Empyrean, the abode of God, imparts movement to all the other
spheres, he sees reflected in the eyes of Beatrice an indivisible and immeas-
urable point of light. On turning to look at it directly he sees revolving
round it nine circles of flame. These, she informs him, are the orders of
angelic beings.
This vision was shaped by his reading of several authors. Aristotle, for
example, in his Metaphysica speaks of the indivisibility of the Godhead and
writes as follows of the Prime Mover, or God:
The Prime Mover, which causes motion without itself being moved, must be
eternal, must be Essence, and must be Actuality. It must be the first object of

389
390 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

desire and the first object of will. … Without it, good or perfection cannot be
had; it is what it is absolutely, without possibility of being otherwise. … From
a principle of this kind depend the Heaven and all Nature.2
Dante puts that last sentence, word for word, into the mouth of Beatrice:
‘Da quel punto depende il cielo e tutta la natura.’3
It is evident that what he read in the abstract Dante converted to visible
terms, by which he created a diagram of the cosmos for his better under-
standing. He says that he first sees the Point (which is God) reflected in
the eyes of Beatrice, who represents Theology. This is appropriate since he
had found God thus represented in the writings of theologians. By the
nine angelic orders, manifested as fiery circles wheeling round the Point,
he conveys visually the notion of a vast encompassing spiritual order, one
Divine Providence which is operative continuously and variously in the lives
of men. What (in the story) he says puzzles him is the comparative speed at
which the circles rotate about the Point, the inmost being the fastest moving
of the nine. This is the reverse of the speed at which the heavenly spheres
were conceived to circle the earth, the Primum Mobile being the fastest, the
Heaven of the Moon the slowest.
Beatrice tells him that if he will consider the power of each angelic order,
instead of the apparent circumference of each celestial sphere, he will see
that each heaven is controlled by the angelic order most suited to it: the
Seraphim move the Primum Mobile, the Cherubim move the Eighth Circle
and so on down to the angels who move the Heaven of the Moon. Hence,
swiftness and brightness being the measure of the excellence of the angelic
circles, and size the measure of the excellence of the heavenly spheres, the
correspondence between the two spatial presentations can be seen to be
perfect. It would appear that Dante in real life had been bemused by the
theological notion of God as the centre of the universe as well as the all-
embracer. Beatrice’s answer to the apparent contradiction may be Dante’s
own solution. The joyful and triumphant simile by which he conveys his
intellectual illumination seems to suggest this:
Come rimane splendido e sereno
l’emisperio dell’aere, quando soffia
Borea da quella guancia ond’ è più leno,
per che si purga e risolve la roffia
che pria turbava, sì che ’l ciel ne ride
con le bellezze d’ogni sua paroffia;
così fec’io, poi che mi provide
la donna mia del suo responder chiaro,
e come stella in cielo il ver si vide.
 THE CREATION 39

As when the dome of air more lovely grows,

by Boreas serene and shining made,
when from his milder cheek he softly blows,
purging and scattering the murky shade
wherewith the sky was stained until, made clean,
it smiles, with all its pageantry displayed,
so did my understanding there grow keen
soon as I heard her luminous reply,
and, like a star in heaven, the truth was seen.4
When Beatrice has paused, Dante beholds a sparkling of scintillas in each
circle, representing such an increase of angels that their total exceeds by
thousands the figure arrived at by the progressive doubling of the chessboard
squares. In order to convey the idea of innumerableness Dante the writer
has recourse to an ancient Eastern legend, according to which a Brahmin
brought to a king the game of chess, with which he was so delighted that he
offered the Brahmin in return anything he might ask. The Brahmin said he
would take only a grain of wheat, doubled as many times as there are squares
on a chessboard. By geometric progression (i.e.  + 2 + 4 + 8, etc.) the total
goes into millions. At the same time there is a burst of singing as Hosanna
resounds from choir to choir, in glory of the Point which holds them, and
ever shall, in the place where they have ever been. The diagram here comes to
life; the truth is experienced as light and song; Dante the character rejoices,
as does Dante the poet.
Many years before, in Il Convivio, in his role as educator, Dante had
discussed the number of angels in connection with Plato’s theory of ‘ideas’:
There were others, like Plato … who assumed not only that there are as many
Intelligences [angelic beings] as there are movements of the heavens, but also
that as the Intelligences of the heavens are producers of these movements, each
one of its own, so these other Intelligences are producers of everything else,
and exemplars each one of its own species; and Plato called them ‘ideas’.5
He then proceeded to demonstrate by argument that the Intelligences ‘who
live only by contemplation’ are much greater in number than those who
produce the effects that man can apprehend. It is possible therefore that
when Dante came to describe the angelic circles in Paradiso he intended to
convey that those he first beholds are the movers of the heavens, while the
myriad countless sparks which secondly appear are the contemplative angels
of each order. However this may be, it is probable that Dante had long visu-
alized these abstract notions in scenic terms.
When both kinds of each angelic order have manifested themselves,
Beatrice proceeds to name them. Dante had altered his mind since writ-
ing Il Convivio, and had accepted the order attributed to Dionysius the
392 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Areopagite, who, Dante makes Beatrice say, learnt the truth from St Paul
who had been caught up into the Third Heaven. The matter of the angelic
orders is also discussed at length by St Thomas Aquinas in Contra Gentiles
and in the Summa.6
Dante also follows St Thomas in a matter of still greater importance:
does love of God spring from knowledge of Him, or knowledge of Him
from love? The question was much debated. Dante’s approach to God was
through his intellect, as the result of reasoned and objective consideration
of life and reality. He found in St Thomas confirmation that this was funda-
mental to the life of the spirit. Thus he speaks of Beatrice as ‘she who my
mind imparadises’.7 It is his thinking that she raises to Heaven; he is both
learner and lover of divine things. The Empyrean is intellectual light:
‘luce intellettual, piena d’amore;
amor di vero ben, pien di letizia,
letizia che trascende ogni dolzore.’
‘pure intellectual light, fulfilled with love,
love of the true good, filled with all delight,
transcending sweet delight, all sweets above.’ 8
Beatrice has yet to teach him concerning the Creation. The question in
his mind is ‘Why did God create?’ Her answer is that God created not to
increase His good, which cannot be, but in order that His reflected light
might shine back to Him self-existing and in self-awareness. There were no
successive stages in the act of Creation. Time did not exist before ‘the spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters’: the angels, primal matter and
the material heavens all issued simultaneously into being:
Nè prima quasi torpente si giacque;
chè nè prima nè poscia procedette
lo discorrer di Dio sovra queste acque.
Forma e matera, congiunte e purette,
usciro ad esser che non avia fallo,
come d’arco tricordo tre saette.
E come in vetro, in ambra od in cristallo
raggio resplende sì, che dal venire
all’esser tutto non è intervallo,
così ’l triforme effetto del suo sire
nell’esser suo raggiò insieme tutto
sanza distinzione in essordire.
Nor did He lie before this as at ease,
for neither first nor after did proceed
the movement of God’s Spirit on the seas.
 THE CREATION 393

Pure form, pure matter, form and matter wed,

came forth to being without blemish as
three arrows from a three-stringed bow are sped.
And as through crystal, amber, or plain glass
a sunbeam floods its all-pervading fire,
not gradual, but instantaneous,
so the three-fold creation of the Sire
from its beginning without sequences,
rayed into being, instant and entire.9
‘Pure form’ is pure mind, that is, the angels; ‘pure matter’ is the primal stuff of
the elements; ‘form and matter wed’ are the material heavens. In this Dante
is following Aristotle who in De Anima (‘On the Soul’)10 distinguishes
between three orders of existence: form or act, matter or potency, form and
matter combined. He is also repeating, through the words of Beatrice, what
he has caused Aquinas to say in the Heaven of the Sun concerning the
divine creative light which operates on primal matter through the angelic
orders and the spheres that they control, and produces earthly creatures.11
Dante, speaking still through Beatrice, proceeds to correct a number of
errors, which he may himself formerly have held. One is the opinion of St
Jerome who said that angels existed long before the rest of the universe. Dante
here follows St Thomas and considers that he is supported by Scripture; he
also argues independently in terms of reason: how could the movers exist
without function, there being no spheres for them to move? Beatrice tells
him that the rebellious angels fell immediately upon being created. Dante
had already said this in Il Convivio 12 but added there that some were lost
from each order, a statement which he now omits, as he drops all mention
of the neutral angels he had seen in the Vestibule of Hell.13 He may by
then have come to accept that belief in them was heretical. He also makes
Beatrice deny that angels were possessed of memory, as attributed to them
by St Thomas and others. In so doing, Dante follows an earlier concept,
that angels, dwelling with God in eternity, hold the knowledge of past and
future in an enduring present. The souls of the Blessed also see all things
at once, though in Purgatorio they are said to possess memory, intelligence
and will.14 The merit of angels and of men is the willing acceptance of grace,
and the reward of that merit is yet more grace; the root and essence of sin
is pride which refuses the bonds of grace and rebels against the order of the
universe.15
After this imaginative presentation of inherited beliefs, conveyed in radi-
ant words by Beatrice, Dante the writer, still speaking through her, launches
into a sarcastic condemnation of preachers who in their trivial sermons betray
such glorious truths. Although it is appropriate for the figure of theology to
394 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

condemn unworthy preaching, the style of this diatribe, as has been said, is
out of keeping with Beatrice in any of her roles and in irreconcilable conflict
with the idealized portrait of her that follows soon afterwards. The final
words in particular stand out like a sore thumb. The trivial jokes on which
ignorant preachers rely and the sale of pardons without authority delight the
devil hiding in their cowls and make fools of their congregations:
‘Di questo ingrassa il porco sant’Antonio
e altri assai che sono ancor più porci,
pagando di moneta senza conio.’
‘That’s how St Anthony fattens his pig,
as many others do, more pig-like still,
paying with currency not worth a fig.’ 16
This expression of exasperation and contempt would come suitably from
Dante himself. From Beatrice it is as grotesque as a gargoyle.
 CHAPTER 53

The Departure of Beatrice

A
fter her contemptuous speech about facetious clergy, Beatrice, seem-
ing almost to apologize for her digression, reverts to her sublime
function of expounding the infinitude of angels and the unity of
God. For this concept she has recourse to the Book of Daniel:
‘Ma perchè siam digressi assai, ritorci
li occhi oramai verso la dritta strada,
sì che la via col tempo si raccorci.
Questa natura sì oltre s’ingrada
in numero, che mai non fu loquela
nè concetto mortal che tanto vada;
e se tu guardi quel che si rivela
per Daniel, vedrai che ’n sue migliaia
determinato numero si cela.
La prima luce, che tutta la raia,
per tanti modi in essa si recepe.
quanti son li splendori a ch’ i’ s’appaia.
Onde, però che all’atto che concepe
segue l’affetto, d’amar la dolcezza
diversamente in essa ferve e tepe.
Vedi l’eccelso omai e la larghezza
dell’etterno valor, posica che tanti
speculi fatti s’ha in che si spezza,
uno manendo in sè come davanti.’
‘Since of digression we have had our fill,
our eyes upon the straight path let us bend;
as time grows short, our way we must curtail.
The numbers of angelic beings extend
so far beyond the range of mortal mind,
no words or thought have ever reached the end.
And in the book of Daniel thou wilt find,
for all the thousand thousands he there states,
no fixed and final figure is assigned.

395
396 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

The Primal Light the whole irradiates,

and is received therein as many ways
as there are splendours wherewithal it mates.
Since, then, affection waits upon the gaze
and its intensity, diversely bright
therein the sweets of love now glow, now blaze.
Consider well the breadth, behold the height
of the eternal Goodness, seeing that o’er
so many mirrors It doth shed Its light,
yet one abideth as It was before.’ 1
The wonder of the concept of God’s unity in diversity elates both the mind
of Dante the character and Dante the poet, who here merge without distinc-
tion into one and the same, a tendency that increases as Paradiso draws to
its close.
The angelic circles fade one by one from sight. Dante turns once more
to look at Beatrice and finds her so transfigured that, once again, he has
insufficient power to describe her. Many years before, in his canzone inspired
by the donna gentile beginning Amor che nella mente mi ragiona, Dante had
professed his inability to grasp and adequately put into words what Love
conveyed to his mind. The blame for this he attributed to weakness of intel-
lect and faculty of speech which are unable to record all that Love says.
Later, in his commentary on this poem in Il Convivio, he again affirmed this
inability:
… la lingua mia non è di tanta facondia che dir potesse ciò che nel pensiero
mio se ne ragiona.
… my tongue has not such eloquence as to be able to express that which in my thought
is said [about my Lady].2
But in this context, the Lady (the donna gentile) signifies Philosophy, while
in Paradiso Beatrice signifies Theology. It is evident that in Dante’s experi-
ence philosophic truths, no less than theological, had soared beyond the
grasp of his intellect and powers of expression.
They have now left the Primum Mobile and ascended to the Empyrean,
the abode of God, where Dante will behold both hosts of Heaven: the angels
in traditional figuration and the souls of the departed in the semblance of
their earthly bodies. At first unable to bear the radiance that pours in on him
from every side, he cannot discern anything. Beatrice tells him that Divine
Love always thus prepares the soul for the vision of Himself, like a candle
made ready for its flame:
‘per far disposto a sua fiamma il candelo.’
‘so is the candle for its flame made apt.’ 3
 THE DEPARTURE OF BEATRICE 397

A new force now enters him. He describes it as a sense of rising above his
usual power:
… io compresi
me sormontar di sopra a mia virtute.
… I became aware
that I surmounted what my power was.4
This is as close as Dante comes to sharing with us his experience of height-
ened consciousness, an extension of his perceptions beyond the rational. It
may also signify a leap beyond the normal of his imaginative and creative
powers.
He first sees light in the form of a river, flowing between flowery banks,
from which arise vivid sparks. This is yet another recollection of the Book
of Daniel: ‘A fiery stream issued and came forth before him.’ 5 Beatrice tells
him to look his fill at the scene of stupendous beauty, in which the flowers,
like rubies set in gold, with the brilliant sparks diving amongst them and
into the stream, are but shadow-prefaces of what he will next behold. Like
a baby, awakened beyond its usual hour, mouthing hungrily for its mother’s
breast, Dante bends over the stream, filling his eyes to his very eyelids. The
river turns into a circle (a symbol of eternity), so wide that its circumference
would exceed that of the sun, while the sparks and flowers, like people in a
masquerade who tear off their disguise, are changed into the two courts of
Heaven, the angelic and the human.
Dante now utters a prayer for power to say what he then saw, giving
emphasis to the word vidi (‘I saw’) by making it an identical rhyme in three
lines. No longer does he invoke the Muses or Apollo, but God Himself. The
threefold emphasis has been interpreted as an assertion that he did in reality
see what he is about to describe; it may also be an echo of the words of St
John, ‘That which we have seen … we have seen … we have seen … declare
we unto you.’6
Brilliant light shines on the convex surface of the Primum Mobile, which
receives from it all its power of movement as it whirls the circles below
it. Dante beholds thousands and thousands of tiers containing thrones on
which are seated the souls of the Blessed. The whole structure is in the form
of a rose with white petals, spread out before him in the form of an amphi-
theatre, the rings nearest him so wide that he is unable to imagine the extent
of the most distant. Beatrice leads him to the golden centre of the rose and
says:
… ‘Mira
Quanto è ’l convento delle bianche stole!
Vedi nostra città quant’ ella gira,
398 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

vedi li nostri scanni sì ripieni,

che poca gente più ci si disira.’
‘Behold how great the white-robed company!
Look on our city, see its gyres full-spread!
Behold our thrones, that are so nigh complete
few souls they lack for whom they’re covenanted.’ 7
It is now, in a speech already quoted, that Beatrice indicates the empty
throne, marked with a crown, destined for the soul of the Emperor Henry
VII, rejected by Italy, a hungry, petulant infant,8 (in contrast with the other
hungry infant who was Dante as he drank eagerly at the stream). This refer-
ence to the rejection of Henry, a memorial to Dante’s disappointed hopes,
written eight years after the Emperor’s death, is also an expression of his
faith that beatitude would reward the heroic monarch, a coronation more
sublime than his three earthly ones, while retribution awaits two miscre-
ant Popes: Clement V who betrayed him and Boniface VIII who betrayed
Florence. As Beatrice continues:
‘E fia prefetto nel foro divino
allora tal, che palese e coverto
non anderà con lui per un cammino.
Ma poco poi sarà da Dio sofferto
nel santo officio; ch’ el sarà detruso
là dove Simon mago è per suo merto,
farà quel d’Alagna intrar più giuso.’
‘Then o’er the sacred forum will preside
one whose allegiance will be proved infirm,
feigning support, but stepping then aside.
Him in the Holy Office no long term
will God endure, but thrust him down below
where Simon Magus pays his score, to squirm
behind the Anagni man, who’ll deeper go.’ 9
These, though Dante the character does not know it, nor does the reader,
are the last words of Beatrice, in strident and inexplicable conflict with the
idealization to which her persona has so recently been exalted.
Eager, as he was in the Terrestrial Paradise, to enter this new scene of
wonder, Dante lets his gaze range over the spectacle before him. The angels
fly down to the saints as bees to flowers and fly back to God as bees to their
hive, conveying peace and burning love. Their countenances are aflame, their
wings are gold, their raiment as white as snow. For all their thousands, they
present no impediment to Dante’s vision of every detail. The poet Dante
invokes the Trinity, entreating it to shine on those who are tossed on the
 THE DEPARTURE OF BEATRICE 399

tempest of earthly life. Filled with awe, he compares his amazement to the
stupefaction of barbarians from the north seeing Rome and all its wonders.
It is at this stupendous moment, as his creation draws to its sublime close,
that Dante the embittered exile strikes his final and most savage blow at
Florence, ending thereby all possible hope of ever returning:
Io, che al divino dall’umano,
all’etterno dal tempo era venuto,
e di Fiorenza in popol giusto e sano,
di che stupor dovea esser compiuto!
I, coming to holiness from the profane,
to the eternal from the temporal,
from Florence to a people just and sane,
into what stupor, then, must I needs fall! 10
His eyes wander in amazement, ‘now upwards and now down, and now
circlewise’. He turns then to look back at Beatrice, exactly as in the Terrestrial
Paradise he had turned to look back at Virgil, and, exactly in the same way,
he finds her gone. This master stroke of balance is once again evidence of
the perfect control Dante the writer had over the structure of his narrative.
Despite his many misgivings as to the inadequacy of his powers of expres-
sion, this he never loses.
 CHAPTER 54

Approach to the Final Vision

W
ithout a word of farewell, Beatrice has returned to her throne
among the Blessed. Under her guidance as the figure of Theology,
Dante has been granted anticipatory visions of the glory of God.
Now, having been first blinded and then kindled to new sight by the light
of that glory, he has been made apt, like a candle for a flame, to participate
in a vision of the Trinity. In her allegorical function, Beatrice has fulfilled
her task. Dante has passed beyond intellectual comprehension of theology
and is about to enter a mode of contemplation. For this he needs the help
of one who can implore intercession by the Virgin Mary for this ultimate
grace. Dante the poet too needs all his finest skills to take his audience with
him to this final climax.
Beatrice has been replaced by the figure of a venerable elder whose coun-
tenance displays the tenderness of holy love. This is the soul of St Bernard
of Clairvaux, the impassioned promoter of the Second Crusade, in which
Dante’s ancestor Cacciaguida fought and died. A type of the mystical
contemplative, he was known from his sermons and other writings to have
been ardent in his veneration of the Virgin Mary. He was also believed by
some theologians to have had a vision of God while still in his earthly life.
It is for these reasons that Dante has chosen him as his last guide. The
story is now coming full circle: as St Lucy, first commanded by the Virgin
Mary, sent Beatrice to the rescue of Dante, Beatrice now sends St Bernard
to enlighten Dante still further on the ultimate stage of his journey.
Thus to the many paternal figures in the Commedia is now added St
Bernard:
Diffuso era per gli occhi e per le gene
di benigna letizia, in atto pio
quale a tenero padre si convene.
His eyes and face diffused with gladness were,
such kindly piety his air conveyed
such as we see a loving father bear.1

400
 APPROACH TO THE FINAL VISION 40

Like his predecessors in this role, he too addresses Dante as figliuol (‘son’),
the affectionate diminutive of figlio.2 The filial relationship that Dante the
character bears to several figures in the Commedia (Virgil, Brunetto Latini,
Cacciaguida, Statius and Guinizelli) suggests that Dante himself had nostal-
gic memories of his father, and that he looked throughout his life for substi-
tutes for him in older men. If this is so, his father would appear to have been
a just and loving parent, whose loss, together with that of his mother at an
earlier age, left Dante with a permanent sense of orphaned bereavement. His
exile from Florence, which he compared to the betrayal of Hippolytus by
his step-mother Phaedra, was consequently the more wounding.3 Some such
psychological syndrome contributed to the yearning for privileged sonship,
which is so marked a feature of the Commedia. It may even underlie, at a
subconscious level, his longing for the return of an authoritative world ruler
who will one day restore peace and happiness to mankind.
When Virgil suddenly departs in Purgatorio Dante breaks down in a
passion of weeping. The disappearance of Beatrice, on the contrary, occasions
no tears, only bewilderment, as when, having fallen asleep in the Terrestrial
Paradise, he anxiously asks Matilda where Beatrice is, a moment anticipa-
tory of his present startled exclamation:
E ‘Ov’ è ella?’ subito diss’ io.
And ‘She, where is she?’ instantly I said.4
The elder, who has not yet revealed his identity, replies that he has been
sent by Beatrice to bring Dante’s quest to final fulfilment. He instructs him
to look up towards a distant circle, the third from the highest tier, where he
will see her seated on the throne to which merit has assigned her. Dante
does so and, despite the vast space that now separates them, greater than
the distance between the region of thunder and the bottom of the sea, he is
able to see her, crowned and reflecting from herself the light of glory. In the
last words he speaks to her, he expresses his loving gratitude for her guid-
ance and prays that she will continue in her bounty towards him during his
remaining years in the body.5 It is immensely moving that in these last words
he addresses her, for the first time, with the intimate pronoun tu, something
he had not done even in the poems addressed to her in La Vita Nuova.
St Bernard now says who he is. Dante compares his awe and amazement
to the feelings of a pilgrim from a primitive region of Christendom, as it
might be Croatia, who gazes at the veil of St Veronica in Rome, believed to
have been imprinted with the features of Christ when she wiped the sweat
and blood from His face as He passed on His way to Calvary. This relic, an
object of deep veneration, was displayed at St Peter’s during January and
Holy Week. Dante had referred to it in La Vita Nuova 6 in connection with
402 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

his sonnet about pilgrims passing through Florence on their way to Rome.
The two comparisons of his feelings, first to those of barbarians from the
north visiting pagan Rome, and secondly to those of a pilgrim gazing at a
sacred relic in Christian Rome, bring the theme of the divinely ordained
political and spiritual centre of the world into a final focus:
Qual è colui che forse di Croazia
viene a veder la Veronica nostra,
che per antica fama non sen sazia,
ma dice nel pensier, fin che si mostra:
‘Signor mio Gesù Cristo, Dio verace,
or fu sì fatta la sembianza vostra?’
tal era io mirando la vivace
carità di colui che ’n questo mondo,
contemplando, gustò di quella pace.
Like one perhaps who from Croatia came
to see the veil of our Veronica
and held, unsated, by its ancient fame
looks all he may, musing the while with awe:
‘Lord Jesus Christ, true God, this semblance of
Thy face those who beheld Thee truly saw?’,
so I there marvelled at the living love
of him who tasted, while a mortal man,
by contemplation, of that peace above.7
As Beatrice had several times directed Dante’s gaze from her face to the
souls who had come to converse with him, so now St Bernard bids him look
away from him to the highest row where he will see the Mother of God.
This is Dante’s second vision of the Virgin Mary. He had first seen her
as a sapphire light among the Pageant of the Church Triumphant in the
Heaven of the Fixed Stars.8 Now in bodily form, like the other saints, she is
yet conveyed in imagery that shrouds and at the same time reveals her as all
but divine. She is the Queen of Heaven, to whom all the saints are subject,
yet with them she too is one of redeemed humanity:
Io levai gli occhi; e come da mattina
la parte oriental dell’orizzonte
soverchia quella dove ’l sol declina,
così, quasi di valle andando a monte
con li occhi, vidi parte nello stremo
vincer di lume tutta l’altra fronte.
I looked above and, as the orient scene
at dawn exceeds the beauty of the west,
where the declining sun has lately been,
 APPROACH TO THE FINAL VISION 403

so, mounting as from vale to mountain-crest,

these eyes beheld, at the remotest rim,
a radiance surpassing all the rest.9
The radiance is the glory of the Virgin. About her Dante sees more than a
thousand angels with wings outspread, each distinct in brightness and func-
tion, making festival in glad revelry and joyful songs. Beaming out upon
them is the beauty of the Virgin, diffusing joy into the eyes of all the saints.
Once again, Dante the writer renounces all attempt to describe the least
part of such gladness. St Bernard, seeing Dante’s eyes fixed upon the Virgin’s
light, turns his own upon her with an ardour which increases Dante’s still
further.
There is still more to come. First, Dante’s understanding of his vision has
to be set in order. St Bernard, in the role of a dottore (‘teacher’), like a guide
in a sacred edifice, names the figures in the celestial scene.
It is a static scene, like a mosaic or a fresco, such as Dante must often
have contemplated in Ravenna and elsewhere, representing the figures of
the Old and New Covenants, those who believed in Christ to come and
those who believed in Him in His incarnation. It provides an iconic balance
to the Limbo and to the lesser assemblage of rulers in the valley of Ante-
Purgatory. Here in the Empyrean are souls whom Virgil saw drawn by Christ
from Limbo when He descended into Hell. Eve, who inflicted on mankind
the wound that led to the Fall, and Mary who healed it, often coupled in
sermons and homilies, are seen here as the fountain-heads of original sin
and Divine Redemption. The whole assembly represents the fulfilment of
God’s plan for mankind. Those who in one way or another were involved
in the Redemption are named. John the Baptist, the Forerunner, is seated
above a line of three who continued his work of preparing the way: Francis,
the most Christ-like among the saints, Benedict who founded Western
monasticism, seen now by Dante in semblance of bodily form, as he had
promised, and Augustine, eminent among Christian confessors. Adam, the
first to be drawn from Limbo, and Peter the first head of the Church, Moses
the leader of the chosen race, Anna the mother of the Virgin, and all the
others named, as well as the ranks of children, saved by the merits of Christ
alone, form a perfectly balanced arrangement, divided into four sections,
each one of which is a complete semicircle. At the Day of Judgement the
total numbers of believers of the Old and New Dispensation will be equal.
St Bernard draws Dante’s attention to the supreme skill manifested here by
God the Designer:
‘Or mira l’alto proveder divino,
chè l’uno e l’altro della fede
egualmente empierà questo giardino.’
404 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

‘Now marvel at God’s plan, for on each hand

both aspects of the faith will, when complete,
in equal number in the garden stand.’ 10
Into this formal, precise geometrical pattern, Dante introduces a discourse
by St Bernard on predestination and the elective gift of grace, a matter as
inscrutable as divine justice, as if to convey that though the result of God’s
handiwork can be laid out in a diagram, His will eludes all attempts to define
and measure it.
The most important stage in Dante’s vision is now approaching. For the
third time he beholds the Virgin. Poised before her he sees the Archangel
Gabriel, gazing into her eyes, while all the court of Heaven sings ‘Hail, Mary’.
Not only is she supreme among mortals; it was she who set in motion the
whole process of Dante’s awakening to the realities of sin, repentance and
salvation. More than that, she is here called by St Bernard Augusta, which is
to say, the Empress of questo impero giustissimo e pio (‘this most just and holy
empire.’)11 Dante here raises his philosophical belief as to the right order-
ing of the world to the sublime height of the Empyrean, as though God
Himself, Creator and Son of the Empress, were the predestined Emperor,
the veltro and the DVX. To this near-blasphemous climax Dante’s obsession
has now brought him.
St Bernard tells Dante that his entrancement is now drawing to a close:
‘Ma perchè ’l tempo fugge che t’assonna,
qui farem punto, come buon sartore
che com’ elli ha del panno fa la gonna;
e drizzerem li occhi al primo amore,
sì che, guardando verso lui, penetri
quant’ è possibil per lo suo fulgore.’
‘But since the time of thy entrancement doth
grow short, like the good tailor we hear of,
we’ll cut our coat according to our cloth,
and here will stop, to turn our eyes above
that thou, as far as may be, with thy gaze
mayst penetrate into the Primal Love.’ 12
Thus, in simple, homely words, St Bernard bids Dante prepare himself for
the vision of the Trinity.
 CHAPTER 55

The Vision of the Trinity

V
ergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio (‘Virgin mother, daughter of thy
son’): with these celebrated words St Bernard begins his prayer to
the Mother of God. It is a prayer such as St Bernard in life might
have offered, extolling her at once as lowly and yet the most exalted of all
creatures, the mediatrix to whom all mankind should turn, in whom compas-
sion, mercy and all human goodness are combined, who so ennobled human
nature that its Creator did not disdain to become Himself His creature. He
now entreats her to intercede for Dante that he may attain to a vision of
God and that thereafter, under her protection, his affections and impulses
may be directed aright:
‘vedi Beatrice con quanti beati
per li miei preghi ti chiudon le mani.’
‘see Beatrice and all the many blessed
with folded hands my prayers supplicate.’ 1
This is our final sight of Beatrice.
The Virgin, gazing first upon Bernard, shows how welcome his devout
prayer is to her and then turns her eyes to the eternal Light. Dante, now near-
ing the fulfilment of his desire, his sight made clear, penetrates further and
further into the supreme light which in itself is truth. From then onwards,
what he sees surpasses all human speech and even memory fails, as when a
dreamer awakes:
Qual è colui che somniando vede,
che dopo il sogno la passione impressa
rimane, e l’altro alla mente non riede,
cotal son io, chè quasi tutta cessa
mia visione, ed ancor mi distilla
nel core il dolce che nacque da essa.
Così la neve al sol si disigilla;
così al vento nelle foglie levi
si perdea la sentenza di Sibilla.

405
406 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

As from a dream one may awake to find

that passion felt in sleep does not depart,
although all else is cancelled from the mind,
so of my vision now but little part
remains, and yet within me still I know
the sweetness it engendered in my heart.
So the sun melts the imprint on the snow,
even so the Sibyl’s wisdom that was penned
on light leaves vanished on the winds that blow.2
Here, with his use of the present tense, quasi tutta cessa/la mia visione … ed
ancor mi distilla, Dante the character is again merged with Dante the poet.
And it is the poet now who prays that God may grant him power to convey
some small spark of what he saw that those who come after him may have a
clearer understanding of His victory:
O somma luce che tanto ti levi
da’ concetti mortali, alla mia mente
ripresta un poco di quel che parevi,
e fa la lingua mia tanto possente,
ch’ una favilla sol della tua gloria
possa lasciare alla futura gente;
chè per tornare alquanto a mia memoria
e per sonare un poco in questi versi,
più si conceperà di tua vittoria.
O light supreme, by mortal thought unscanned,
grant that Thy former aspect may return;
once more a little of Thyself relend.
Make strong my tongue that in its words may burn
one single spark of all Thy glory’s light
for future generations to discern.
For if my memory but glimpse the sight
of which these lines would now a little say,
more will be comprehended of Thy might.3
Here at last is the unequivocal statement of the ultimate purpose of his
work: to bring men to a better understanding of the glory of God, by which
means, as he said in his ‘epistle’ to Can Grande della Scala, ‘to remove those
living in this life from a state of misery and to bring them to a state of
happiness’.4
In the story, Dante the character undergoes long preparation for this
ultimate vision. Dante the writer had undergone even longer preparation.
For years he had meditated on the writings of the mystics and had perhaps
shared something of their experiences. This is evident not only in Il Convivio.
 THE VISION OF THE TRINITY 407

Even as far back as the days in which he was writing La Vita Nuova, as has
been shown, he had already experienced heightened states of consciousness
in which his intellect could not follow him. He had many predecessors in
this.
The so-called Dionysius in his work Mystical Theology wrote:
My argument now rises from what is below up to the transcendent and the
more it climbs, the more language falters, and when it has passed up and
beyond the ascent, it will turn silent completely, since it will finally be at one
with him who is indescribable.5
Dionysius did not ascribe to himself a personal experience of the divine pres-
ence but he appealed to the witness of those to whom it had been granted,
such as Moses and St Paul. Since Dante, like his contemporaries, believed
that Dionysius was the convert of St Paul, his words held indisputable truth
for him.
There was also Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth-century visionary and
prophet, known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, who wrote letters to Popes and
prelates denouncing their abuses and warning them of wrath to come. She
described one of her visions as follows:
Heaven was opened and a fiery light of the greatest brilliance came down and
filled my whole head, my whole heart, and my whole breast, like a flame, not
so much burning as warming.6
St Bernard said that her gifts were divinely inspired. Her visions were of a
transforming contact with God, providing ineffable knowledge and deep
sense of union. St Augustine believed that visions could be corporeal, spir-
itual or intellectual. In his Confessions he said:
I saw with my soul’s eye … an unchanging Light above that same soul’s eye,
above my mind. With the fine point of the mind we are able to gaze upon
something unchangeable, though hastily and in part.
He believed that such experiences could never be adequately expressed,
but only hinted at through verbal strategies designed to suggest but not to
circumscribe the mystery of God. There occurred special acts of grace, in
which ‘the soul is snatched away from the body’s senses’. At such moments
the soul sees nothing by way of the senses, being totally intent on imagina-
tive or intellectual seeing, the intellectual being the higher:
There the brightness of the Lord is seen, not through a symbolic or corporeal
vision – but through a direct vision … as far as the human mind elevated by
God’s grace can receive it.7
St Augustine’s theories of ecstatic vision had a long-lasting influence on other
mystics, especially on Richard of St Victor, who taught that contemplation
408 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

begins with images formed in the mind, when reason rises from the mate-
rial to an understanding of the spiritual. To progress further, the seeker must
make intense efforts in prayer and meditation. By God’s grace, the human
reason may then succumb to what it beholds of the divine light, when it is
lifted above itself and rapt in ecstasy.8 He wrote also of ‘the free penetration
of the mind, hovering in wonder, into the manifestation of Wisdom’.9 The
ultimate purpose of such contemplation was to increase man’s love of God
and of one’s neighbour.
There can be little doubt that from such writings Dante derived the
belief that it was possible to have a vision of God in the first life, and formed
some of idea of what such a vision could be like. The question still remains:
did he himself experience one? If so, was it an hallucination caused by a
pathological condition induced by prolonged prayer and fasting, or by some
psychedelic stimulus?
There is a striking similarity between Dante’s description of his visions
throughout Paradiso and accounts of experiences resulting from drugs.10 In
a heightened state of consciousness, induced by chemical changes, time is
perceived as an eternal present of infinite duration, reality takes on a sacra-
mental significance, and everything in the universe seems to be grasped in
one single act of comprehension as of an all-enclosing design of interlinked
phenomena. An artist or a poet, endowed naturally with exceptional powers
of vision, especially if stimulated further by artificial means, may become
aware of the glory and wonder of existence to a degree beyond even the
highest art to express. To sustain such an experience, the mind has to remain
concentrated on what it perceives as a divine light which inspires an increas-
ing urge to transcend the limitations of selfhood and achieve unity with the
infinity of God.
Such visions are experienced also by mystics who, with or without the help
of stimulants, are known to have brought about an alteration in conscious-
ness by fasting,11 sleep-deprivation, mortification of the body by flagella-
tion and other disciplines, and by the prolonged repetition of prayers and
chants. Images of precious jewels, colours brilliant beyond the normal and
dazzling light are among the features of pictures that come into their minds.
Vision-inducing arts such as fireworks, pageantry, civic and religious proces-
sions, theatrical spectacles, one scene turning into another, transfiguration,
masquerades, music and dance serve to heighten a sense of the paranormal
and induce a transition from one mode of perception to another.
Visions can, of course, occur, in normal circumstances, spontaneously,
without stimulus of any kind. Those who experience them speak of a sense
of the immanence of the supernatural in all that they behold. An example
occurs in the autobiography of Pamela Hansford Johnson. She describes the
 THE VISION OF THE TRINITY 409

experience as follows:
It was … a radiant late afternoon in Spring. I was looking, lack-lustre, out
of the train windows. Then the glory opened. I can only weakly describe it.
The trees sprang to three times their normal height and burst out in blossom.
… All was a golden enormity, beyond everything I had ever seen or ever can
conceive. Size and gold. A sky golden all over. Familiar and yet unfamiliar,
something of almost insufferable beauty.12
Dante’s intellectual grasp of the meditations of mystics, the tradition of
geometrical images representing the divinity, the symbol of three entwined
circles representing the Trinity in a manuscript entitled Liber Figurarum,
attributed to Joachim of Flora,13 as well as pictorial and sculpted works of
other-world significance provided material for his poetic imagination to
work on. An archetype of all such apprehensions is the vision of Ezekiel:
Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of man …
and I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within
it … and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is
in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round
about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.14
It is also possible that the final canto may be the result of the interaction
of an actual mystical experience with the symbolism of Dante’s allegori-
cal method and his conscious poetic creativeness. As is often the case, the
simplest explanation is perhaps the one from which all the others derive: his
mystic awareness of the divine arose, as he said it did, from his early sight of
a beautiful Florentine girl.
Dante’s vision of the Trinity, the crown and climax of the Commedia, is
presented as two revelations. First he perceives in the Divine Light the form
of all creation. All things that exist in themselves, all aspects of being, all
mutual relations are seen as though bound together in one single volume.
The Universe is in God. Dante is convinced that he saw it because as he
writes he feels such joy, although the memory of it seems as distant as the
25 centuries which divide the present from the voyage of the Argo. What he
next sees eludes his power of words, as if he were an infant, his tongue still
milky at the breast.
Having glimpsed the whole of creation, he beholds the Creator. He sees
three circles of three colours, yet of one dimension. One is reflected from
another, the third, like flame, derives equally from both: thus he perceives
the Three-in-One, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As he gazes, the reflected
circle shows within itself the human form, coloured with the circle’s own
hue. He strives in vain to understand how the human image is united with
the circle that is the Son:
40 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Qual’ è ’l geometra che tutto s’affige

per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritrova,
pensando, quel principio ond’ elli indige,
tal era io a quella vista nova:
veder volea come si convenne
l’imago al cerchio e come s’indova.
As the geometer his mind applies
to square the circle, nor for all his wit,
finds the right formula, howe’er he tries,
so strove I with that wonder – how to fit
the image to the sphere; so sought to see
how it maintained the point of rest in it.15
At this instant a flash of light floods his mind and he understands how the
human and the divine are joined in the Incarnation. Here the highest power
of his imagination failed and he can say only that his will and desire were
moved as in a circle by divine love:
All’alta fantasia qui mancò possa,
ma già volgeva il mio disio e ’l velle,
sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa
l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
High fantasy lost power and here broke off;
and as a wheel in a smooth motion whirs,
my will and my desire were turned above
by love that moves the sun and the other stars.16
Dante is now at one with the universe. The future, his own and that of the
world, is with God and he is content that it is so. His work, concluding, like
Inferno and Purgatorio, with the rhyme-word stelle, significant of destiny, has
come full circle.
 Epilogue

S
oon after Dante wrote the final words of his Commedia peace was
shattered. Trouble sprang up between Venice and Ravenna. Some
Venetian ships were seized by the Ravennese and Venetian sailors
were killed. The Doge of Venice formed an alliance with Rimini and Forlì
and prepared to make war on Ravenna. Dante’s patron, Guido da Polenta,
the lord of Ravenna, was in no position to meet the challenge. He accord-
ingly sent an embassy to negotiate terms. Dante was included, commis-
sioned because of his renown as an orator and his experience in negotiation.
This is an indication of the extent to which Guido called upon his services,
this time with fatal result.
Before leaving, Dante placed the manuscript of his last 3 cantos, of
which he had not had time to make copies, inside a wall-cupboard in the
room where he had been working. His long task was done and his mind
must have felt fulfilled as he set out in aid of his patron.
The delegates travelled to Venice by sea along the Adriatic coast and
were successful in averting war. They (or Dante alone, it is not certain)
returned to Ravenna by land, through the lagoons of Comacchio and across
the northern extremity of the Pineta, the pine forest said to have inspired
the description of the Terrestrial Paradise in Purgatorio. On this journey
Dante caught malaria and arrived home ill. He died during the early hours
of 4 September 32. He was 56 years old.
After the funeral ceremonies, his sons Pietro and Jacopo turned their
minds to setting his papers in order. To their dismay, they were unable to lay
hands on the last 3 cantos of Paradiso. They were certain that their father
had finished the work, but the manuscript did not go beyond Canto XX.
Where was the rest of it? They knew that it was his practice to send batches
of cantos to Can Grande della Scala but enquiries made in that quarter
were fruitless. In a state of desperation they were persuaded by friends to
try to finish Paradiso themselves. They knew their father’s work well and
would later write commentaries on it. They had also tried their hand at verse.
Nevertheless, the task was far beyond their abilities.
After about eight months, Jacopo had a dream one night in which his

4
42 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig 4. Mask of Dante

 EPILOGUE 43

father appeared to him. On being asked by Jacopo if he had finished his

poem, Dante replied, ‘Yes, I finished it.’ He then took his son by the hand
and showed him a room in a house and touched part of the wall, saying:
‘Here is what you have been looking for.’ On waking, Jacopo went with a
friend to the house and there they found, in a recess in a wall, concealed by a
flap of material, a pile of manuscript covered with mildew. They lifted it out
and brushed it clean: it was the missing 3 cantos.
This story was related by Giovanni Boccaccio, the first biographer of
Dante.1 He was a child of eight when Dante died and never even set eyes on
him, but when he began to read the Commedia he was an immediate enthu-
siast. The first version of his biography was brought out in 35, when he
was 38 years old. In preparation he had collected a great deal of what is now
called ‘oral history’. He interviewed Giovanni Villani, the chronicler and a
neighbour of Dante, Cino da Pistoia, Dante’s close friend and fellow poet,
Andrea Poggio, Dante’s nephew, and many others. He travelled to places
mentioned by Dante. He went to Ravenna and talked there with Dante’s
sons and others who had known him in his last years.
It might appear at first sight that Boccaccio’s admiration for Dante
should be taken for granted. What is surprising about it? The answer to this
involves several factors. One is the attitude of the Humanists. Two examples
will suffice: Giovanni del Virgilio, Professor of Rhetoric at the University
of Bologna, and the poet Petrarch. The first is an example of a conven-
tional academic mind. He wrote to Dante while he was living in Ravenna,
reproaching him with wasting his talents on a work of vulgarization. Will he
not write an epic in Latin on a subject likely to win academic approval? If so,
he might even be in the running for an honorary degree at the University of
Bologna.
In Petrarch we have the fastidiousness of a learned poet confronted by
an art very different from his own. Boccaccio, who also admired Petrarch’s
poetry and became a close friend, was dismayed by his reluctance to take a
position concerning the merit of a fellow Tuscan. He sent him a copy of the
entire Commedia, written in his own hand, accompanied by a letter asking
him to read the poem and make his opinion of it known. Petrarch eventu-
ally wrote a letter in which he praised Dante but it was not the enthusiastic
response for which Boccaccio had hoped.
Another factor that deterred public acknowledgement of Dante’s great-
ness was the attitude of the Florentines. They had exiled him, unjustly, and
when a community has committed an injustice towards one of its members
it is not swift to make amends. There were also several affronted families
among them; there were the extremist Guelfs who were opposed to Dante’s
championing of the Empire; and there were the ecclesiastics. In 335 the
44 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Florentine Chapter of the Dominicans forbade the friars to read his works.
Guido Vernani, a learned theologian who taught at Bologna, denounced
him as a vas diaboli and repudiated the Monarchia, which was ceremonially
burned in public.
There were thus many reasons why a man of letters who cared for his
reputation would be evasive on the subject of Dante. Boccaccio was not
evasive. He is an example of the enthusiast who boldly commits himself,
without waiting for a body of opinion to be established, to which he can
with safety add his murmur of assent. He was moved to write his biogra-
phy by a burning sense of indignation against his fellow Florentines,2 who
had made no amends: no statue had been raised, no monument.3 He, with
humility, undertook to make good the omission and to do honour to that
chiarissimo uomo (‘most illustrious man’), who deserved acclamation for his
virtue, his learning and his good deeds, but had received only injustice, exile,
alienation of his property and slander. He prevailed upon the Florentines
to make some recompense to Dante’s daughter, Sister Beatrice, who had
entered a convent in Ravenna, and it was he who went there to present her
with ten gold florins. She was then an elderly woman.
The divulgation of Boccaccio’s biography had its effect. In 373 a petition
was made by the citizens of Florence to the Priors for the establishment of
a year’s daily public lectures on the Commedia. The petition was granted and
Boccaccio was appointed the first official public lecturer on Dante. He was
then 60 years of age. He died before completing the task.
Boccaccio did not take the Commedia seriously as a prophetic work, nor
did he share Dante’s obsessive vision of world order established under the
supreme authority of an Emperor of Europe. The important thing about
Boccaccio’s biography and his Esposizioni, as his lectures have been entitled,
was his immediate recognition of Dante’s living power as a writer and of his
creative mastery of the Tuscan language, particularly his range and diversity
of styles: narrative, dramatic, lyrical, oratorical and vituperative. This is a
view that has survived for 700 years: Dante, the artist and creator of modern
literature. It is for his poetic genius that we still read him and for his vision
of divine love. As the nineteenth-century poet Giosuè Carducci wrote:
Muor Giove, e l’inno del poeta resta.
Jove dies, the poet’s hymn survives.4
To Boccaccio’s generosity and courage, to his ardent dedication we owe
a great deal: not only the copies he made of the Commedia and the informa-
tion he gathered, but especially the example of an independent mind arriv-
ing at its own judgement and not afraid to proclaim it. To Boccaccio also we
owe the adjective divina, which he first applied to the Commedia.
 EPILOGUE 45

Fig 5. Diagram of Inferno

46 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Fig 6. Diagram of Purgatory

 EPILOGUE 47

Fig 7. Diagram of Heaven

 Appendices

. Chronology of Dante’s Life and Works

265 between May

and June Birth of Dante in Florence.
266 January Birth of Beatrice Portinari.
273? Death of Dante’s mother.
274 traditionally
 May First meeting of Dante and Beatrice.
277 Betrothal of Dante and Gemma Donati.
278? Death of Dante’s father.
280–82 Dante composes and circulates his earliest sonnets.
282? Beginning of friendship with Guido Cavalcanti and other
members of the Fedeli d’Amore.
285 Dante takes part in an expedition of Florentine militia in
support of Tuscan Guelfs against the castle of Poggio di
Santa Cecilia, roused to rebellion by Ghibellines.
289  June Battle of Campaldino against the Ghibellines of Arezzo.
Dante fights among the first rank of the cavalry.
3 December Death of Beatrice’s father.
290 8 June Death of Beatrice.
292? Dante first sees the donna gentile looking at him with
compassion from a window. He becomes enamoured and
writes poems about her.
293? Vision of Beatrice in Heaven. Dante resolves to write
no more love poetry concerning Beatrice but to study
philosophy.
294 spring Visit to Florence of Charles Martel, King of Hungary.
294? Dante composes La Vita Nuova.
295 Dante enters political life. He continues to write poetry,
but of philosophical and moral content.

48
 APPENDICES 49

300 May Guelf party in Florence, split into two opposing factions,
known as the Whites and the Blacks, comes to bloodshed.
5 June–5
August Dante holds office as Prior.
August Death of Guido Cavalcanti.
30 autumn Dante and others sent to negotiate with Pope Boniface
VIII concerning the threat to Florence of intervention of
Charles of Valois.
Florence taken over by Charles of Valois, with the conniv-
ance of the Pope, supported by Black Guelfs led by
Corso Donati. White Guelfs, including Dante, are exiled.
Violence and burning of property.
November Dante, returning from Rome, hears of betrayal and joins
fellow exiles at Garganza, near Siena.
302 February Meeting between exiled White Guelfs and exiled
Ghibellines.
June–March Unsuccessful attempts by exiles to return to Florence by
303 force.
303? May, June Dante at court of Bartolommeo della Scala, Verona.
303 September Outrage of Anagni.
2 October Death of Pope Boniface VIII.
304 January Cardinal Niccolò da Prato appointed peacemaker in
Florence; exiles have hopes of returning.
March Death of Bartolommeo della Scala.
Dante in Arezzo, HQ of White Guelfs.
Dante writes letter to Cardinal da Prato on behalf of
fellow exiles.
Cardinal’s attempt at peacemaking fails.
304 20 July Last attempt by exiles to enter Florence by force.
Disastrous defeat.
Dante quarrels with fellow exiles.
304–6 Dante in Bologna; renews contact with Cino da Pistoia.
Dante writes De Vulgari Eloquentia and Il Convivio, both
left unfinished.
306 autumn? Dante begins writing the Commedia.
306–7? Dante in Sarzana, guest of Malaspina family.
307 Dante in Casentino region, guest of Guidi family.
308 November Henry of Luxembourg elected King of the Germans.
3 6 January Henry crowned in Milan with the crown of Charlemagne.
Dante present at ceremony.
Resistance of Florence and allies to Henry’s claim to
authority.
420 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

3–3 Dante writes three letters in support of Henry; probably

suspends work on Inferno during this period.
32 29 June Henry crowned Emperor in Rome.
33 24 August Death of Henry VII.
34 May or June Dante writes letter to Italian cardinals urging support of
Italian successor.
35–6? Dante in Verona as guest of Can Grande della Scala. He
writes part of Purgatorio there.
37? Dante writes Monarchia in challenge to Pope John XXII
and in support of Can Grande as Imperial representative.
39? Dante offered home in Ravenna by Guido Novello
da Polenta. He continues Purgatorio there and begins
Paradiso.
Dante writes address to Can Grande concerning Paradiso;
possibly gives it personally as an oration.
320 20 January Dante in Verona to give lecture entitled De Aqua et Terra.
Exchange of Latin poems with Giovanni del Virgilio. He
has by then completed at least ten cantos of Paradiso.
32 summer–
autumn? Dante finishes Paradiso.
Threat of war between Venice and Ravenna. Dante is
chosen as member of delegation to negotiate with the
Doge on behalf of Guido da Polenta. He travels with
fellow delegates to Venice.
autumn The delegates return to Ravenna. Dante falls ill with
malaria on journey home.
4 September Death of Dante in Ravenna.

2. Guelfs and Ghibellines

The words ‘Guelf ’ and ‘Ghibelline’ are derived from the German names ‘Welf ’ and
‘Weiblingen’. They were first adopted in Italy at the beginning of the thirteenth century
by two leading factions that divided the cities of Lombardy. The overriding contest was
between the Pope and the Emperor in their attempt to maintain control of areas of the
Italian peninsula. Those who supported the policies of the Pope were known as Guelfs;
those who supported the Emperor were known as Ghibellines.
For most of Dante’s lifetime, Florence was under the control of the Guelf party.
Five years before his birth, in 260, a terrible battle had been fought between Guelfs
and Ghibellines, known as the Battle of Montaperti. The Guelfs met with disastrous
defeat, to the extent, Dante said, that the river Arbia ran red with their blood. The
leader of the Ghibellines was Farinata degli Uberti, who alone defied the victors who
had resolved to raze Florence to the ground. This heroic figure appears in Inferno.
In Florence the Guelf party split into two bitterly opposed factions, known as
 APPENDICES 42

Blacks and Whites. Dante was a member of the Whites, said to be the less militant of
the two. On May Day 300 the two parties came into violent conflict which led within
two years to the overthrow of the Whites and to Dante’s exile.

3. List of Popes in Dante’s Lifetime

Clement IV (265–268)
Gregory X (27–276)
Innocent V (February–June 276)
Hadrian V ( July 276)
John XXI (276–277)
Nicholas III (277–280)
Martin IV (28–285)
Honorius IV (285–287)
Nicholas IV (288–292)
Celestine V ( July–December 294)
Boniface VIII (294–303)
Benedict XI (303–304)
Clement V (305–34)
John XXII (36–334)

4. Holy Roman Emperors Referred to by Dante

Charlemagne (800–84)
Otto I (962–973)
Henry II (002–024)
Conrad III (38–52)
Frederick I (52–90)
Henry VI (90–97)
Frederick II (2–250)
Rudolf I (273–29)
Adolf (292–298)
Albert I (298–308)
Henry VII (308–33)

5. The Canzone

A canzone is a poem written to be set to music and sung to the accompaniment of a

musical instrument. Its form is governed by the nature of the tune that is chosen. This
can be of two kinds: () the tune is continuous, without division or repetition, through-
out each stanza; (2) the tune is divided into two melodic sections, termed odi, in which
one of the sections must be and both may be repeated. The transition from the first to
422 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

the second ode is termed a diesis or volta. If the repetition occurs before the diesis, the
stanza is said to have two piedi, followed by a sirma or coda. If the repetition occurs
after the diesis, the stanza is said to have a fronte, followed by two versi.
The rhyme scheme must remain uniform throughout the poem. Lines of any
number of syllables, not exceeding , may be used, but the -syllable line (endecasil-
labo) should predominate.
A canzone may be concluded by a tornata, corresponding to an envoi, in which the
poet personifies the poem and bids it address itself to certain persons.
The nature of the diction that Dante considered suitable for a canzone is defined
by him in De Vulgari Eloquentia (see Chapter 5 of the present work). Dante considered
the canzone the highest form of vernacular poetry and deeply respected its dignity and
complexity, which he regarded as a check on facile versifying.
 Notes

Chapter : The Early Years

. Paradiso XXII, 2–5.
2. Ibid., XV, 33–35.
3. See Figure .
4. See Chapter 49 of the present work.
5. See Figure 2.
6. Inferno XIX, 2.
7. Giovanni Boccaccio, Trattatello in Laude di Dante, trans. Philip H. Wicksteed
(adapted). See also translation by J.G. Nichols, Hesperus Press, 2002.
8. Ricognizione delle Ossa di Dante, Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Serie
Quinta, Volume XVII, Fascicolo , Rome, 923.
9. Ibid., pp 24–25. Petrarch’s cranial capacity has been calculated as ,48 cubic centi-
metres and the probable weight of his brain as ,288 grams.
0. Seymour Kirkup (788–880), an amateur artist, lived in Florence for a time and
was a member of the English colony there. The sketch he made of the portrait
by Giotto was reproduced by chromolithography and published by the Arundel
Society. See Frontispiece.
. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
2. Il Convivio, Book I, Chapter 3. All translations of this work are by W.W. Jackson,
Oxford, Clarendon, 909, with occasional adaptations.
3. The reference to his conception in Inferno VIII, 45, where Virgil exclaims ‘Blessed
is the womb that bare thee!’, is an allusion to his mother but it is scarcely a memory
of her.
4. See Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 24. It is not known who the guardian was. See
also Chapter 8 of the present work, note 32.
5. ‘Io sono stato con Amore insieme’, K. Foster and P. Boyde, Dante’s Lyric Poetry, Oxford,
Clarendon, 967, pp 98–20.
6. ‘E’ m’incresce di me sì duramente’, stanza 5, K. Foster and P. Boyde, Dante’s Lyric
Poetry, pp 56–58.
7. Inferno V, 42.
8. The two elder sisters, Beatrice and Ravignana, were both married during their
father’s lifetime. The younger sisters were named Vanna, Pia, Margarita and
Castoria. The sons were named Manetto, Ricovero, Pigello, Gherardo and Iacopo.
Their mother was Cilia de’ Caponsacchi.

423
424 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

9. La Vita Nuova, Chapters XXXII and XXXIII.

20. This hospital, one of the earliest in Europe, still exists but has been moved to the
Piazza Santa Maria Nuova. The original building, in Via Folco Portinari, is now a
library.
2. The house in Florence said to be Dante’s is a modern reconstruction.
22. His wife may have joined him. There is no proof that she did not.
23. Paradiso XII, 37.
24. Inferno XV, 09. Priscian was a sixth-century grammarian.
25. Of the third century AD.
26. Inferno XV. See also Chapter 7 of the present work.
27. Ibid., 8–85.
28. His name was Belacqua. See Purgatorio IV, 06–35 and Chapter 3 of the present
work.
29. Purgatorio II, 76–33. See also Chapter 32 of the present work.
30. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XII.
3. See also Chapter 5 of the present work.
32. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXXIV.
33. Purgatorio VIII, 28–36.
34. Ibid., 73–75.
35. Purgatorio V, 85–29. See also Chapter 32 of the present work.
36. Inferno XXI, 94–96.
37. See Mauro Cursietti, La Falsa Tenzone di Dante con Forese Donati, Anzio, 995. See
also Chapter 38 of the present work.
38. Born c.230, he died before 300.
39. See Chapter 43 of the present work.
40. The examination of urine had long been employed in diagnosing disease. Urine
could be tested for sugar, an indication of diabetes, and for sexual infections.
Instructions to physicians emphasized the importance of observing the consist-
ency of the urine, the colour and the deposits contained in it. Residue of herbal
potions and narcotics is likely to have been noticeable, and Dante of Maiano’s
advice may be a sly hint to this effect.
4. Born between 250 and 255, he died in 300.
42. Guido Cavalcanti: Rime, edited by Guido Favati, Ricciardi, Milan, 957, p 277. It
was translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante and His Circle, London, Ellis and
Elvey, 892, p 6.
43. Inferno X. See also Chapter 2 of the present work.
44. This is not to say that Virgil is to be identified with Guido Cavalcanti, but Dante’s
grief at the sudden disappearance of Virgil in Purgatorio perhaps evokes his deep
sense of loss at the death of Cavalcanti.
45. Inferno X. See Chapters 3 and 6 of the present work.
46. Purgatorio VI, 6–66.
47. Paradiso IX, 25–36.
48. c.280–348.
49. Cronica I, 9, 5–27.
50. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
5. Inferno XIX, 49–5.
52. In Inferno XVI, 45, Jacopo Rusticucci’s words, la fiera moglie più che altro mi nuoce
 NOTES 425

(‘my fierce wife above all else causes me harm’) are probably a reference to bestial-
ity. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
53. See Figure 6.
54. Inferno XXXIV, 28–69.
55. See Chapter 0 of the present work.
56. Cronica VIII, 76.
57. Boccaccio’s Esposizioni sopra la ‘Commedia’ di Dante Alighieri, a commentary on
Canto V of Inferno.
58. Purgatorio XXIII. See also Chapter 38 of the present work.
59. Paradiso XV, 97–24. See also Chapter 46 of the present work.
60. Early fourteenth century, a contemporary of Dante.
6. Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante and His Circle, pp 333–34.
62. Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Chapter 2: Dante and Guido Cavalcanti
. Il Convivio, Section II, Chapter 2.
2. Purgatorio XXX, 5–7.
3. This particular sonnet may indicate that the tenzone was changing to the vitupera-
tive mode, as in the case of the tenzone between Dante and Forese Donati. (See
Chapter  of the present work.)
4. i.e. in the vernacular.
5. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXV.
6. Ibid., XXX.
7. Purgatorio II, 06–7.
8. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXIV, sonnet beginning Io mi sentii svegliar dentro a lo
core.
9. Ibid., XIV.
0. Purgatorio XXIV, 49–54.
. Inferno XXXI, 36–38.
2. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XX.
3. The words dire and dettare, as Dante uses them in this context, signify ‘to write in
verse’.
4. The Bardi home was situated across the river Arno, near the Rubaconte Bridge.
5. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXX.
6. The custom is found also in Wales.
7. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXIII.
8. Ibid., VIII. On this occasion he seems to have mingled with women mourners or
possibly with women who ministered to the body.
9. Not that the lady is the enemy of reason, as is often wrongly interpreted.
20. See also Chapter 6 of the present work.
2. By ‘mystic’ addition 9 =  + 9 = 0.
22. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
Chapter 3: Disaster
. Giovanni Villani, Cronica VIII, xiii.
2. The canzone beginning Voi ch’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete (‘Ye who by intellect
the third Heaven move’), written while Dante was still torn between his love for
426 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Beatrice and his love for the donna gentile.

3. Paradiso VIII, 37.
4. The names were derived from a conflict in Pistoia, the leaders of two factions being
descended from two wives of the same husband, one of whom was called Bianca.
5. See Chapter  of the present work.
6. A district in the north-west corner of Tuscany, between the Apennines and the
Ligurian border.
7. Inferno X, 22–20.
8. Ibid., 60.
9. Ibid., 63. The meaning has been much disputed. Possibly Dante intended it to be
enigmatic.
0. Inferno XV.
. Purgatorio XXVI.
2. Paradiso XV–XVIII. See also Chapter 8 of the present work.
3. Cronica VIII, 36.
4. Paradiso XV, 09.
5. Inferno XVIII, 28–33, where the rule is ‘keep to the right’. It is not known what
the rule was in Rome 300, but it is likely to have been ‘keep to the left’, as being
convenient for travellers on horseback, armed with swords.
6. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 5.
7. See Figure 3.
Chapter 4: The First Years of Exile
. Spelled Alagna in Dante’s time.
2. It is perhaps the building which has been incorporated into the seventeenth-
century Palazzo Traietto.
3. As was necessary. See also note 22.
4. Purgatorio XX, 73–74.
5. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
6. One of the valleys of Tuscany, watered by the Sieve.
7. See Paradiso XVII, 70–73, where Bartolommeo is referred to as ‘the great Lombard’,
whose courtesy is such that he will bestow gifts before being asked.
8. See Dante e Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio, 965, Introduction by Antonio Scolari,
p xiii.
9. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
0. Ibid.
. Altichiero di Domenico da Zevio (fl.369; d. before 0 April 393), painter of
Verona, a member of the Scala household.
2. See for instance the exchange of sonnets with Aldobrandino of Padua, discussed
in Chapter 5 of the present work. See also the discussion of the erotic canzone in
Chapter 0.
3. Translated from the Latin and quoted by T.S.R. Boase, Boniface the Eighth,
Constable, 933, pp 346–347. It was not the intention of the attackers to cause the
Pope’s death but to force certain concessions from him. Hundleby’s despatch was
dated 27 September, two weeks before the Pope died.
4. The exact date of his birth is not known.
5. Related by the chronicler Giovanni Villani, Cronica VIII, 63.
 NOTES 427

6. Purgatorio XX, 87–90 (Sayers’ translation).

7. The earliest of Dante’s extant letters, it is in Latin. See edition by Paget Toynbee,
Oxford, Clarendon, 920, pp –0. The translation is by Toynbee.
8. Alessandro da Romena, said by Leonardo Bruni to have been elected by the
Florentine exiles as their captain. His name, like that of ‘Brother L.’, is indicated
only by the initial A. This was a convention in official letters. See also note 20.
9. This phrase is a translation of the Latin Preceptis salutaribus moniti, words which
precede the Lord’s Prayer in the Mass.
20. Toynbee, pp –3. This letter is also in Latin.
2. Dante describes himself thus in the headings of four of his letters.
22. The Latin words are equis armisque. Anyone travelling was advised to ride accom-
panied and carrying arms.
23. Clement V (305–34), a native of Gascony. It was during his pontificate that the
Papal see was transferred to Avignon.
24. Paradiso XVII, 69.
25. Ibid., 55–69.
26. 270?–336. His full name was Guittoncino di Francesco dei Sigisbuldi.
27. 34. Readings in the Codex.
28. See Chapter 2 of the present work. The sonnet in question is now attributed to
Terino di Castelfiorentino.
29. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 6. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
30. It was founded in 088.
3. Purgatorio XI, 73–84. See also Chapter 34 of the present work.
Chapter 5: Language and Poetry
. Only three manuscripts of this work, which is unfinished, are known to exist. The
work attracted little attention until 529, when Gian Giorgio Trissino published an
Italian translation of it, which was at first believed to be a fabrication. The Latin
text was not published until 577.
2. His poetry was already known in Bologna. Part of his canzone beginning Donne
ch’avete intelletto d’amore had been copied into a Bolognese official document
dating from 292.
3. It is evident that Dante had no understanding of blindness. Blind people have
‘facial vision’, which prevents them from imagining that things in front of them
are behind them.
4. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter .
5. Paradiso XXVI, 24–38.
6. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter 7. Compare this with Dante’s description
of Venetian sailors repairing their ships, Inferno XXI, 7–5.
7. Ibid., Chapter 9.
8. Derived from the Latin ille est.
9. Derived from the Latin hoc est.
0. Derived from the Latin sic. It is said that Latin had no word for ‘yes’, but there
were several ways of expressing the affirmative. Another form was ita, ‘thus’.
. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter .
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
428 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

4. Ibid., Chapter 3.

5. Ibid., Chapter 5.
6. Ibid., Chapter 4.
7. The Latin words of this phrase, revolventes volumina, evoke the image of an ancient
scroll and also throw light on the words of Dante to Virgil in Inferno I, 84: che m’ha
fatto cercar il tuo volume. This is usually translated as ‘which has made me search
thy volume’, but the word cercare in mediaeval Italian (like circare in Vulgar Latin)
was a term derived from hunting, referring to hounds closing in a circle upon their
prey.
8. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter 6.
9. Ibid., Chapter 3.
20. Guittone of Arezzo (230?–294), a lyric and didactic poet, is the author of a lament
on the defeat of the Florentine Guelfs at the Battle of Montaperti in 260. Dante
began by imitating his style but later disparaged him.
2. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
22. Gallo of Pisa was a contemporary of Bonagiunta of Lucca. Two of his canzoni are
extant.
23. Mino Mocato of Siena has been identified with Bartolommeo Mocati, author of a
canzone found in a manuscript in the Vatican.
24. Inferno XV. See also Chapter 7 of the present work.
25. The original Latin words are: Transeuntes nunc humeros Apennini frondiferos. It is
interesting to find Dante speaking here of the shoulders of the mountains, as he
was to do in Inferno I, 6–7.
26. Sonnet beginning Per quella via che la bellezza corre.
27. His dates are 244–278.
28. He is said to have been a nephew of the Fabbro mentioned in Purgatorio XIV, 00,
a member of the Lambertazzi family, a noble and distinguished soldier, a wise man
and prudent in counsel.
29. Onesto degli Onesti, known as Onesto Bolognese, was born in Bologna around
240. He entered into a tenzone (an exchange of sonnets) with Cino da Pistoia.
30. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter 6. It was believed that the panther by its
fragrant breath attracted other animals to itself in order to devour them.
3. The Latin for hinge is cardo.
32. i.e. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II.
33. Ibid., Book II, Chapter .
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. This is said to be the reason why no musical accompaniment is preserved in manu-
scripts of ballate.
37. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 2. See also Chapter 9 of the present
work.
38. Dante’s original is printed as hoc opus et labor est, probably a scribe’s error, which has
been perpetuated by modern editors.
39. Aeneid VI, 26–29.
40. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 6.
4. Purgatorio XIII, 73–74.
42. Frontinus, of the first century AD, was the author of a manual on the art of war, a
 NOTES 429

surprising work to find on Dante’s reading list at this period.

43. In modern Italian the initial h is silent. In the Florentine accent a hard initial c,
as in casa, is pronounced as an h. This cannot have been the case in Dante’s time,
otherwise he would have excluded it.
44. Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, V, i.
45. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 9.
46. See Appendix 5 of the present work.
Chapter 6: Invitation to a Banquet
. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter 9.
2. Ibid., Section IV, Chapter 6.
3. Ibid., Chapter 25. The word adorna is the feminine form of the adjective adorno. It
could also have been mistaken for a noun, a feminine object adorned.
4. Ibid., Section I, Chapter 3.
5. Guittone of Arezzo had used his Aretine dialect in writing discourses and letters
to public personages. Ristoro, also of Arezzo, wrote a treatise on astronomy in the
same vernacular. Giamboni, a Florentine judge, translated works from Latin and
French into Florentine.
6. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter .
7. Ibid., Chapter 5.
8. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
9. The possibility that such aliens might understand Italian does not occur to him.
0. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter 7. It would seem that Dante believed that the
poems of Homer were composed to be sung.
. Ibid., Chapter 9.
2. Ibid., Chapter 2.
3. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
4. Paradiso VIII, 37.
5. Perhaps because she was still alive.
6. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
7. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XLII.
8. See also Chapter 2 of the present work.
9. Mystical or spiritual.
20. See Chapter 43 of the present work.
2. Il Convivio, Section III, Chapter 9. Dante was probably suffering the results of
uncorrected presbyopia (a decreasing ability of the lens to focus). I am indebted
for this diagnosis to Mr John Keast-Butler, FRCS, who wrote: ‘Normal-sighted
patients are universally presbyopic enough to have anything from moderate to
serious difficulties with close work by the age of 45 or so. Dante seems to me to
describe very accurately what uncorrected presbyopia is like.’
22. He was born at Fergana (in Samarkand), from which his name was derived.
23. There are 20 manuscript copies of this text in Oxford (in the Bodleian Library and
in various college libraries), three in the Cambridge University Library and one in
the British Library.
24. See cover illustration.
25. Inferno I, 72.
26. i.e. Beatrice, of whom he says it is not his purpose to speak further in Il Convivio.
430 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

27. Inferno II, 94–05. Lucia is the celebrated Santa Lucia, whose body has recently
been transferred from Venice to Naples, where she lives on in the famous song.
28. Purgatorio XIX, 25–30.
29. Paradiso XXXII, 36–38. See also Chapter 53 of the present work.
Chapter 7: Main Dishes and Trenchers
. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
2. Purgatorio II, 05–33.
3. See end of Chapter 6 of the present work.
4. Purgatorio IV, 58–84.
5. Lines 27–29, 55–56, 59–62 of the canzone.
6. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
7. Lines 7–72 of the canzone.
8. Inferno II, 97–00.
9. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
0. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
. Grandson of Frederick Barbarossa and son of the Emperor Henry VI and
Constance of Sicily, he was elected Emperor in 22. He died in 250. Known as
the stupor mundi (‘the wonder of the world’), he was admired for his dedication to
the advancement of learning, sciences and arts. His opinion, therefore, was worthy
of respect.
2. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
3. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 7. It is strange that Dante does not know (or has
forgotten) that the Emperor Frederick II derived his definition of nobility from
the supreme authority, Aristotle: ‘ancient wealth and virtue’ (Politics).
4. Inferno IV, 3–33.
5. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 4.
6. Ars Poetica: Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci,/Lectorem delectando pariter-
que monendo (‘He has gained every vote who has mingled profit with pleasure by
equally delighting the reader and instructing him’).
7. Proverbs VIII, 6.
8. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 5.
9. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
2. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
22. Paradiso VI, 34–. See also Chapter 45 of the present work.
23. Chapter I, .
24. Paradiso XVIII, 88–93. See also Chapter 47 of the present work.
25. Inferno, XXXIII, 36–47. See also Chapter 27 of the present work.
26. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 9.
Chapter 8: The True Definition of Nobility
. A central peak in the Tuscan Apennines, north-east of Florence. In Roman law,
under rules formulated during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, those who
found buried treasure by chance were permitted to take half of it, sharing with the
owner of the land upon which it was found, so long as they announced the find.
In contrast those who deliberately sought buried treasure on another’s land could
 NOTES 43

not obtain any right to it: all went to the owner of the land. Historically the rule
was probably established in order to encourage chance finds to be reported (so that
the owner of the land could get something). In Dante’s terms it means that only
chance and not deliberate labour produces such results.
2. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2. By the cominciamenti Dante is probably refer-
ring to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, 5 and 7: Thou shalt not steal. Thou
shalt not covet) and the Twelve Tables of Roman Law (45BC), from which respec-
tively the idea of canon and civil law arose.
3. Inferno I, 00–05. See Chapter 2 of the present work for an interpretation of their
meaning.
4. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2.
5. Inferno I, –3.
6. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 24.
7. Inferno I, 3–60.
8. De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV, Prose 3.
9. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2.
0. See Chapter 9 of the present work.
. Purgatorio XVI, 2–26, 33–38.
2. Lines 74–75 of the canzone.
3. Purgatorio VIII, 6–63.
4. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 5.
5. St Thomas’s words are: Totam Naturam divinam se reputant suo intellectu posse metiri
(‘They consider that all Nature can be measured by their intellect’).
6. There is a delightful glimpse of such a person in E.M. Forster’s short story, ‘Other
Kingdom’: ‘ “Surely” – said Miss Beaumont. She had been learning Latin for not
quite a fortnight, but she would have corrected the Regius Professor.’
7. Mediaeval lawyers divided the text of the Digest into three parts of which the
second was called ‘Infortiatum’.
8. The law quoted by Dante is D.28..2: In eo qui testatur, ejus temporis quo testamentum
facit, integratis mentis, non sanitas corporis exigenda est.
9. Psalm 8, I, 4–6.
20. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 9.
2. Ibid., Chapter 2. The quotation is from St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, XI, 33.
22. Purgatorio XXV, 37–60. See also Chapter 39 of the present work.
23. Paradiso XXVII, 88.
24. Isaiah XI, 2.
25. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2.
26. i.e. impulse. Dante uses this word twice, as though pleased with his knowledge of
it.
27. For the last two quotations, Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 22.
28. Dante himself must have had a guardian after the death of his father. Who it was
we do not know. Brunetto Latini is a possibility. There is an apparent anomaly in
the fact that adolescents who are under restriction until 25 are deemed old enough
to be punished at 4. The explanation lies in the various legal limitations in play.
From infancy (defined as 0–7 in Roman law) until the age of puberty (4 for boys
and 2 for girls) a minor is presumed incapable. From 4 to 25 he is competent in
criminal and civil law, but until he reaches 25 he can be relieved from the effects of
432 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

a bad bargain if the transaction is not overseen by a guardian.

29. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 25.
30. For the last two quotations, ibid., Chapter 26.
3. Lucan said of Cato: ‘It was the unswerving rule of the rigid Cato … not to believe
himself born for himself but for all the world’ (Pharsalia II, 383). See also below
concerning Cato and the Mountain of Purgatory.
32. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 27.
33. Ibid. He has already said that in the same penultimate section he will deal with
the question why poets chose to conceal their true meaning in allegory (Section II,
Chapter ).
34. De Senectute, Chapter 9.
35. A Mediterranean craft of the sort Dante had in mind had a large lateen which was
let down when not in use. Large Atlantic ships have square sails which are furled
up when not in use.
36. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 28.
37. For the last two quotations, ibid.
38. Inferno XXVII, 79–8. See also Chapter 24 of the present work.
39. See Chapter 48 of the present work.
40. Pharsalia II.
4. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 28. In Purgatorio Dante introduces Cato as the
stern guardian of the lower slopes of the mountain. See Chapter 30 of the present
work.
Chapter 9: Injustice and Avarice
. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter 8.
2. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 2.
3. See Chapters  and 40 of the present work.
Chapter 0: Dante the Showman
. A district in the north-west of Tuscany, between the Apennines and the border of
Liguria, ruled over in Dante’s time by the Malaspina family.
2. Inferno XV, 0. He lived from 225 to 294. A renowned professor of jurisprudence
at Bologna University, he was also invited to teach at Oxford.
3. Ibid., XVIII, 48–6.
4. Ibid., XXIII, 03–04.
5. See Chapter 3 of the present work. Cavalcanti may have taken refuge with the
Malaspina family, as Dante did.
6. Formerly an Etruscan town, on the left bank of the river Macra, in ruins in Dante’s
time, though the episcopal see was named after it.
7. Purgatorio VIII, 2–29.
8. Inferno XXIV, 45.
9. See Chapter  of the present work.
0. Ibid.
. See Figure 4. For an English translation of a Latin version see Montague Rhodes
James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Apocalypse of Paul, Oxford, Clarendon,
924, pp 525–555. See also Alison Morgan, Dante and the Medieval Other World,
Cambridge University Press, 990.
 NOTES 433

2. Dante uses this image in Purgatorio, in the purgation of the gluttons (Canto
XXII).
3. Aeneid VI.
4. i.e. St Paul.
5. Inferno II, 32
6. cf. the ghost in Hamlet.
7. Inferno II, 73–75.
8. Ibid., I, 79–80.
9. Ibid., 89.
20. Ibid., III, 2.
Chapter : The Return of Beatrice
. See Dorothy L. Sayers in Introductory Papers on Dante, ‘The Fourfold Interpretation
of the Comedy’, Methuen, 954, p 09.
2. Inferno X, 27–33.
3. See Chapter 46 of the present work.
4. Inferno II, 70.
5. Ibid., 05.
6. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XLI.
7. Ibid., Chapter XLII.
8. Ibid., Chapter XLI.
9. See Chapter 44 of the present work.
0. Ibid.
. Ibid.
2. Paradiso XXX, 6–33 (Sayers’ translation).
3. Ibid., XXXI 79–90.
4. See Chapter 40 of the present work.
Chapter 2: The Story Begins
. De Vulgari Eloquentia. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
2. Ibid.
3. Inferno I, 97–99.
4. Ibid., 00–05.
5. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
6. Ibid.
7. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 4. See also Chapter 8 of the present work.
8. Ibid., Chapter 2. See also Chapter 8 of the present work.
9. The technological information which follows was provided by George McCandless
in a letter to The Times Literary Supplement, 2 July 2002, p 7, replying to an article
by the present author, ‘Dante De-Felted: A Solution to a 700-Year-Old Mystery’,
ibid., 2 June 2002, p 6. For further information, see Dard Hunter, Papermaking:
The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. See also Arsenio Frugoni, ‘Il canto
XXXIII del Purgatorio’ in Nuove letture dantesche, V (969–970), Florence, Le
Monnier, 972, pp 235–253: ‘La carta, chi non lo sa, tra feltro e feltro viene fabbri-
cata’, p 24.
0. Il Convivio, Section III, Chapter 9 (italics added). See also Chapter 6 of the pres-
ent work.
434 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

. Inferno I, 36.

2. Inferno II, 2–26.
3. Ibid., 27–30.
4. Ibid., 40.
Chapter 3: Limbo
. Inferno III, –9.
2. Ibid., 8. In Il Convivio Dante quotes Aristotle as saying, ‘Truth is the good of the
intellect’.
3. Francesco Botticini (446–498). The painting is in the National Gallery, London.
4. A line which T.S. Eliot absorbed into The Waste Land: ‘A crowd flowed over
London Bridge, so many/I had not thought death had undone so many.’
5. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
6. Inferno III, 5.
7. Ibid., III, 84–87.
8. Ibid., 88–89.
9. Ibid., 94–96.
0. Ibid., 02–07.
. Inferno IV, 22.
2. See Chapter 47 of the present work.
3. Inferno IV, 46–50.
4. Ibid., 52–54.
5. Ibid., 80–8.
6. Ibid., 00–02.
7. Aeneid VI, 637–665.
8. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter .
9. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
20. See Chapter 47 of the present work.
Chapter 4: Francesca da Rimini
. As in St Andrew’s Church, East Chesterton, Cambridge, England.
2. Inferno V, –5.
3. Ibid., 9–20.
4. Ibid., 23–24.
5. Ibid., 43–45.
6. Dante had read of her in Histories Against the Pagans by Orosius, from which he is
here quoting.
7. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles was killed at the siege of Troy, but according to a later
tradition, which Dante follows here, he became enamoured of Polyxena, daugh-
ter of King Priam, and was promised her hand on condition that he joined the
Trojans. Tricked by this promise he entered a Trojan temple unarmed and was
assassinated by Paris.
8. Inferno V, 97–99.
9. See Chapters 2 and 39 of the present work.
0. Inferno V, 8–20.
. Ibid., 2–23.
2. Ibid., 27–38.
 NOTES 435

3. Ibid., 42.

4. Ibid., 07.
5. Gianciotto is not mentioned as being awaited in the Circle of Caina when Dante
reaches it. See Chapter 27 of the present work.
6. But see Chapter 43 of the present work.
7. He died in 304, predeceasing his father and his eldest brother.
8. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
Chapter 5: Dante in Danger
. Inferno VI, 4, 8.
2. Purgatorio XXV. See also Chapter 39 of the present work.
3. See Inferno X for Farinata’s foreknowledge. See also Chapter 3 of the present
work.
4. Purgatorio VI, 76–5.
5. See Chapter 49 of the present work.
6. Inferno VII, . The archaic Tuscan verb leppare meant to remove or to escape.
7. In Greek mythology Phlegyas was a king of Boeotia, the son of Mars by a human
mother. His daughter Coronis was loved by Apollo, and Phlegyas in a rage set fire
to Apollo’s temple (Aeneid VI, 68).
8. Luke XI, 27: ‘Blessed is the womb that bare thee.’
9. Inferno VIII, 59–60 (italics added).
0. In Greek mythology Dis was another name for Hades and for the King of the
Underworld, also known as Pluto. Here the name is limited to Nether Hell, distin-
guished from the upper circles by the fact that the sins punished are those in which
the will is actively involved. See Inferno XI and Chapter 6 of the present work.
. Inferno VIII, 02.
2. Pharsalia VI, 508–830.
3. Aeneid VI, 564–565.
4. Theseus, King of Athens, tried to rescue Persephone from Hades. He failed but if
the Furies had killed him then other living men would have been deterred from
entering the Underworld.
5. Inferno IX, 6–63. See also Chapter 8 of the present work.
6. Purgatorio VIII, 9–2.
7. Inferno IX, 9–99. Hercules, as the last of his labours, brought Cerberus out of
Hell, damaging his throat as he did so.
Chapter 6: Dante the Taxonomist
. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
2. Inferno XVII, 64–75.
3. Ibid., XI, 76–78.
4. An example of ‘mystic addition’ is 9 =  + 9 = 0. See also Chapter 2 of the present
work.
5. See William Anderson, Dante the Maker, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 980, pp
284–286.
6. See K.R. Imeson, The Magic of Number, printed privately, distributed by the
Mathematical Association, Chapters III and IV. See also David Well, The Penguin
Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, Penguin, 987.
436 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Chapter 7: Creation of Character

. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
2. Arles in Provence, where many ancient tombs were said to contain the bodies of
Charlemagne’s soldiers killed in battle against the Saracens at Aleschans; Pola, on
the Adriatic coast, was said to contain about 700 tombs of Slavonians.
3. Inferno XIII, 4–6.
4. Ibid., 3–33.
5. In the Aeneid (III, 22 et seq.) Aeneas relates to Dido that soon after setting out
from Troy he came upon a mound on which cornel and myrtle bushes were grow-
ing. Wishing to place some boughs upon an altar he began to tear up the shrubs.
From the roots black blood trickled and a piteous groan was heard from the mound
and the words: ‘Alas! Aeneas, why do you ravage me?’ The voice is that of the soul
of Polydorus.
6. Inferno XIII, 55–72. The meretrice (‘harlot’) is slander.
7. Ibid., 73–75.
8. Cato of Utica, the Stoic who killed himself rather than accept the rule of Caesar, is
seen by Dante as a man of great nobility, whose soul he entrusts with the guardian-
ship of the lower reaches of the Mountain of Purgatory.
9. Inferno XV, 30. The title Ser is an abbreviation of Messer, which was a customary
form of address to a notary.
0. It has been interpreted, for instance, as blasphemy towards the Italian language
because Brunetto wrote his principal work in French. It is said that there is no
evidence that he was a sodomite. It is also pointed out that in his Italian work, Il
Tesoretto, he condemns sodomy as one of the worst sins. Neither objection rules
out the possibility that he was guilty of it himself.
. Inferno XV, 55–60.
2. Fiesole is on a hill about three miles north-east of Florence. It was one of the 2
Etruscan towns.
3. See Cacciaguida’s words on the same subject in Paradiso XVII. See also Chapter
46 of the present work.
4. Inferno XV, 79–87.
5. Ibid., 9–20.
6. The greeting and departure of Brunetto are echoed in the episode of Forese Donati
in Purgatorio XXIII. See Chapter 38 of the present work.
Chapter 8: Down into the Depths
. Inferno I, 77.
2. Ibid., XVI, 09– (italics added).
3. Purgatorio I. See also Chapter 30 of the present work.
4. Inferno XV, 8.
5. Esposizioni, Canto XVI.
6. Cronica XII, 4.
7. Apart, that is, from the mention of the hem of his garment which Brunetto Latini
seizes, and Cato’s command concerning the rush. In De Vulgari Eloquentia Dante
had commented on the variations in dress from region to region. (See Chapter 5 of
the present work.)
8. Inferno XVI, 2.
 NOTES 437

9. See below in this chapter.

0. Inferno XVI, 38–40.
. Boccaccio, in his Esposizioni, says that Guglielmo was a maker of purses (hence his
name Borsiere, from borsa, a purse), who later became a broker of marriages and
other alliances. He made him the subject of a story in his Decamerone (Day , Tale
8).
2. Inferno XVI, 45.
3. Dante’s son Pietro, commenting on this simile, explains that the beaver agitates
the water with its tail, exuding drops of fat and oil, thereby attracting fish. Dante
believed the beaver to be a creature of northern Europe.
4. Said to be an ancestor of Enrico Scrovegni. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
5. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
6. Inferno XVIII, 63.
7. Epistle VI, from Hypsipyle to Jason.
8. Inferno XVIII, 95.
9. Ibid., 00–36.
20. Ibid., 36.
Chapter 9: ‘Him of Alagna’
. See Chapters 3 and 4 of the present work.
2. See Chapter 48 of the present work.
3. Inferno XIX, 7. See also Chapter  of the present work.
4. Ibid., 46–48.
5. Dante believed that Boniface VIII had guilefully persuaded Pope Celestine V to
abdicate.
6. The Italian word orsa means a she-bear.
7. Inferno XXVII, 67–.
8. See also Chapter 24 of the present work.
9. Acts VIII, 9–24.
0. Inferno XIX, 88–89. Dante’s use of the disjunctive pronoun lui is equivalent to
putting it into italics: he is, after all, addressing a former Pope.
. i.e. Judas (Acts I, 3–26).
2. Inferno XIX, 04–.
3. Ibid., 5–7. The primo ricco patre (‘first rich father’) was Pope Sylvester, believed to
have cured Constantine of leprosy, in return for which Constantine endowed the
Church with Imperial dominion in the west when he removed his government to
Byzantium.
4. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
Chapter 20: Virgil and Sorcery
. Inferno XX, 6–8.
2. Ibid., 26–27.
3. Thebaid VIII, 47 et seq.
4. Inferno XX, 37–39.
5. Metamorphoses III, Fable 5, lines 324–33.
6. Pharsalia I, 584–638.
7. Aeneid X, 98–200.
438 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

8. Inferno XX, 6–66. Mount Apennine is not the Apennine range but a spur of the
Rhoetian Alps, near Lake Garda (formerly Benaco).
9. The three dioceses of Trent, Brescia and Verona meet on an island in the lake.
0. Inferno XX, 97–99.
. Aeneid II, 4–9.
2. Inferno XX, 5.
3. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 6.
4. As did Hitler, it has been said. The same has also been alleged of Ronald Reagan.
5. Aeneid X, 98–200.
6. Inferno IX, 23.
7. See Chapter 0 of the present work.
8. Inferno XX, 00–02.
9. Inferno XXI, –3.
20. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
Chapter 2: Devil-Play
. Inferno XXI, 7–5. This may be a sly allusion to corruption in Venice.
2. ‘Evil-Claws’ is a translation of Malebranche, which is the collective name of the
devils in the fifth ditch. St Zita is the patron saint of Lucca. A maidservant, she
died in about 275 and her body is preserved in a tomb in a chapel of the church of
San Frediano.
3. The reference to Bonturo (Dati) is sarcastic, for he was renowned for his corrup-
tion. He was still alive in 300, so the implication is that the demon will be ready
for him when the time comes.
4. Inferno XXI, 42. The word ita, meaning ‘yes’, is a Latinism for the more usual
Italian word sì. It seems to have been current usage in Lucca.
5. The Holy Face (Santo Volto) is a crucifix carved in cedar wood. It was believed
to have been begun by Nicodemus, who fell asleep and woke to find the work
miraculously completed. It was said to have been transferred from the Holy Land
to Lucca in 782. The people of Lucca offered prayers and oblations to it when in
trouble. The words of the demon are thus particularly offensive.
6. The Serchio is a river near Lucca.
7. Inferno XXI, 55–57.
8. Ibid., XVIII 5–26. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
9. See Chapter 29 of the present work.
0. Purgatorio XXIV, 37–48.
. Inferno XXI, 62–63.
2. Ibid., IX 22–27. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
3. Ibid., XXI 87–89.
4. The Pisan fortress of Caprona was seized by Tuscan Guelfs in 289. The implica-
tion is that Dante was among the besiegers.
5. This was mentioned by Virgil as having heralded Christ’s entry into Hell and
caused the landslide between the Sixth and Seventh Circles (Canto XII, 34–45).
6. See Chapter 4 of the present work.
7. Inferno XXI, 25–26.
8. Ibid., XXII, 3–5. Lines 4–5 contain what sounds like a proverbial expression.
9. Count Thibaut V of Champagne, King Thibaut II of Navarre from 253 to 270.
 NOTES 439

20. Dante did not consider Sardinians to be Italians and said that when their own
language died out they took to imitating Latin like apes. (See Chapter 5 of the
present work.) Sardinia, occupied by Saracens for several centuries, was later under
the control of Pisa.
2. Fra Gomita of Gallura, a province of Sardinia, was appointed deputy by Nino
Visconti of Pisa and hanged for corruption. Michele Zanche, Governor of
Logoduro, another Sardinian province, was murdered by his son-in-law, Branca
d’Oria, a scandal to which Dante refers later (Inferno XXVIII). What Michele’s
peculations and pilfering amounted to is not known.
22. Inferno XXII, 8. It is interesting that Dante here uses an address to the ‘reader’,
who is also a listener.
23. In a fable, which Dante here attributes to Aesop, a frog offers to carry a mouse
across a pond, tied to its leg. Half-way across the frog dives and drowns the mouse.
A hawk swoops down and devours them both. In one version, the mouse escapes.
24. Inferno XXIII, 37–5.
25. The monks of Cluny were said to wear lavish robes. Some editors read Cologne, of
which a similar charge was made.
26. The Emperor Frederick II is said to have punished traitors by having them encased
in lead and thrown into a cauldron.
27. Inferno XXIII, 67.
28. Ibid., 77–79.
29. Ibid., 9–93.
30. Ibid., 94–96.
3. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
32. John XI, 49–50.
33. Inferno XXIII, 48.
Chapter 22: A Den of Thieves
. Inferno XXIV, –8.
2. Ibid., 3–33.
3. Pharsalia IX, 708–733.
4. A precious stone, a chalcedony, believed to render the bearer invisible.
5. Inferno XXIV, 06–.
6. Metamorphoses XV, 392–402.
7. Inferno XXIV, 24–26. Vanni Fucci was the illegitimate son of Fucci de’ Lazzari, of
a noble family of Pistoia. Dante takes a sly dig at his illegitimacy by making him
call himself a mule, the hybrid of a horse and an ass.
8. Ibid., 5.
9. Inferno XXV, –3. The gesture called ‘the figs’ is made by placing the tip of the
thumb between the first two fingers, in imitation of the male genitals.
0. Seen in Canto XIV, 43–72.
. Cacus was a giant in mythology, not a centaur. Virgil calls him ‘semi-human’ and
this may have misled Dante. He stole the oxen of Geryon which Hercules was
bringing from Spain as one of his 2 labours, and dragged them backwards to his
den, leaving a misleading set of hoof-prints. Hercules heard them bellowing, killed
Cacus and recovered the herd.
2. Maremma was a swampy district along the coast of Tuscany.
440 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

3. Inferno XXV, 58–66.

4. Ibid., 68–69.
5. Ibid., 78.
6. Metamorphoses IV, 36–379.
7. Inferno XXV, 94–99.
8. Ibid., 79–87 (Sayers’ translation).
9. Ibid., 32.
Chapter 23: Tongues of Fire
. Inferno XXVI, –2.
2. See also Chapter 29 of the present work.
3. Inferno XXVI, 25–32.
4. 2 Kings II, –2, 23–24.
5. Aeneid II, 62–68.
6. Inferno XXVI, 64–69.
7. Ibid., 73–75.
8. This was first noticed by Dorothy L. Sayers. See her article, ‘The Eighth Bolgia’,
first delivered as a lecture in August 946 (Further Papers on Dante, Methuen, 957,
pp 02–8).
9. Inferno XXVI, 79–84.
0. Ibid., 88–93.
. Guillaume de Conches, quoted by J.L. Lowes, The Road to Xanadu, Constable, 95,
p 8.
2. Inferno XXVI, 94–99.
3. Ibid., 06.
4. Ibid., 8–20.
5. Ibid., 39–42.
6. Ibid., 2–24.
7. My discovery of Dante’s source of his tale of the last voyage of Ulysses was first
published in 960: ‘Dante’s Tale of Ulysses’, Annali dell’Istituto Universitario
Orientale, Sezione Romanza, Naples, pp 49–65.
Chapter 24: The Severed Head
. Inferno XXVII, 2.
2. There are three exceptions to this: in Purgatorio XXVI, 40–47 Arnaut Daniel
speaks in Provençal, in XXXIII, 20–22 Beatrice speaks in Latin and in Paradiso XV,
28–30 Dante’s ancestor Cacciaguida greets him in Latin.
3. See Chapter 9 of the present work.
4. Purgatorio V, 85–29.
5. Inferno XXVIII, –6.
6. Ibid., 22–27.
7. Ibid., 30–33. Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, was the leader of a schism within the
followers of the Prophet himself.
8. The Apostolic Brothers preached communal ownership of property and women.
Fra Dolcino was burned alive in 307.
9. Inferno XXVIII, 76–90.
0. Caius Scribonius Curio, said by Lucan to have urged Julius Caesar to cross the
 NOTES 44

Rubicon and so declare war on the Republic.

. Bertran de Born (c.40–25), a Provençal troubadour and warrior.
2. 2 Samuel, XV–XVII.
3. Inferno XXVIII, 8–23.
4. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter .
5. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book II, Chapter 2.
Chapter 25: The Valley of Disease
. Inferno XXIX, 40–45 (Sayers’ translation).
2. Valdichiana is the valley of the river Chiana in Tuscany, then a district infected with
malaria, especially in the summer months. The same was true of the Maremma, a
wild marshy region along the coast of Tuscany. Concerning the island of Sardinia,
of which Dante had no personal experience, early commentators said that the air
was pestilential and that few travellers to the island survived there for more than a
year.
3. Metamorphoses VII, 523–657.
4. Inferno XXIX, 74.
5. Metamorphoses X, 298 et seq.
6. Probably the spring that once rose near the castle of Romena.
7. Identified as Aghinolfo.
8. i.e. Guido, who died in 292. Counterfeiting or corrupting the currency was seen as
a serious crime because it damaged confidence in the State.
9. Genesis XXIX, 6–23.
0. Inferno XXX, 3–32.
. Ibid., 42–48.
Chapter 26: Towering Giants
. La Chanson de Roland. When Charlemagne was returning from fighting the
Saracens in Spain, his rearguard, led by his nephew Roland, was slaughtered at
the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees. With his last breath Roland blew his ivory
horn so loud that Charlemagne heard it eight miles away.
2. Inferno XXI, 28–33.
3. Built in 23 to defend the commune against the attacks of the Florentines and
furnished with 4 towers between 260 and 270. The towers are now reduced
almost to the level of the castle wall.
4. It is now in the Vatican.
5. Genesis III, 7.
6. Genesis VI, 4. Dante would have read these words in the Latin of the Vulgate:
Gigantes autem erant super terram in diebus illis. St Augustine and St Thomas of
Aquinas also refer to giants.
7. De Civitate Dei XVI, 3.
8. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter 7. See also Chapter 5 of the present work.
9. Inferno XXXI, 67.
0. For the building of the Tower of Babel and the consequent confusion of tongues,
see Genesis XI.
. Inferno XXXI, 70–8.
2. Aeneid VI, 582–584.
442 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

3. Carmina III, 4, 5–52.

4. Inferno XXXI, 85–90.
5. Pharsalia IV, 596.
6. Thebaid II, 596.
7. i.e. in Ovid’s greater work, Metamorphoses.
8. Il Convivio, Book IX, 83–84.
9. Inferno XXXI, 5–23, 26.
20. Ibid., 34
2. Ibid., 42–45.
Chapter 27: The Frozen Lake
. See also Inferno XXVI and Chapter 23 of the present work for a reference to the
hatred between Polynices and Eteocles.
2. Inferno XXXII, 4–5.
3. Ibid., 9–2.
4. Printed in some editions as feminine rhymes in -icche.
5. Inferno XXXII, 25–30.
6. King Arthur killed his treacherous nephew Mordred with a single blow of his
lance which let light through his body and his shadow.
7. Inferno XXXII, 58–66. Focaccia, of Pistoia, a traitor.
8. Inferno IV, 56.
9. Ibid., V, 07.
0. See Chapter 4 of the present work.
. Inferno XXXII, 70–72.
2. Ibid., 06–08.
3. Ibid., 85–87.
4. He who betrayed the cause of Charlemagne and brought about the defeat and
death of Roland at Roncevaux.
5. Inferno VIII. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
6. Thebaid VIII, 740–763
7. Inferno XXXIII, –9.
8. Ibid., V, 2–26.
9. Aeneid II, 3–3.
20. Inferno XXXIII, 40–42. Dante here dissociates the image of the wolf from the she-
wolf which represents avarice in Inferno I.
2. Ibid., 5.
22. Ibid., 6–63.
23. Ibid., 64–66.
24. Ibid., 75.
25. Ibid., 76–78. It has been reported recently that the body of Ugolino della
Gherardesca has been exhumed. Examination indicates that his last meals were of
coarse bread only.
26. In De Vulgari Eloquentia Dante had defined Provençal, French and Italian accord-
ing to their affirmatives, as, respectively, the language of oc, the language of oïl and
the language of sì. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
27. Two islands near the mouth of the Arno, then belonging to Pisa.
28. Inferno XXXIII, 79–84.
 NOTES 443

29. Ibid., XXXIV, 38–39.

30.  Maccabees, XVI.
3. Inferno XXXIII, 5–7.
32. Ibid., 8–20.
33. Of the Manfredi family of Faenza, he was a member of the Frati Gaudenti (‘Jovial
Friars’), who have been mentioned in Inferno XXV.
34. Inferno XXXIII, 39–4.
35. Ibid., XXII, 88–89. See also Chapter 2 of the present work.
36. Ibid., XXXIII, 50.
37. Ibid., 5–53.
Chapter 28: Lucifer
. Inferno XXXIV, –3.
2. Ibid., 8.
3. This is the classical name for the King of the Underworld, called by Dante
Beelzebub, Lucifer and Satan. It is also the name for Hades, as Dante uses it in
Inferno VIII.
4. Inferno XXXIV, 22–27.
5. Ibid., 34–36. See Figure 6.
6. i.e. it is about 7.30 pm.
7. Inferno XXXIV, 68–69.
8. Ibid., 82–84.
9. Ibid., 9–93. The protruding legs of Lucifer recall the legs of the Simonists in Canto
XIX.
0. Ibid., 94–96. Terce, the first of the four canonical divisions of the day, lasted from
sunrise (6 am at the equinox) until 9 am. The time was therefore about 7.30 am.
. See Chapter 27 of the present work.
2. Inferno XXXIV, 33–39.
Chapter 29: The Tragedy of Henry VII
. There were seven Electors to the office of Emperor: the Prince-Bishops of Trier,
Mainz and Cologne, the Duke of Saxony, the Count-Palatine of the Rhine, the
Margrave of Brandenburg and the King of Bohemia.
2. By his nephew, from whom he had wrongfully withheld inheritance.
3. Robert, Duke of Calabria, the third son of Charles II of Anjou and Naples, was
King of Naples from 309 to 343. As a leader of the Guelfs he opposed Henry VII,
who proclaimed him a rebellious vassal.
4. So called because it was reinforced by a band of iron and constructed so that it
could be folded.
5. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 4. See also Chapter 7 of the present work.
6. Epistola VII, paragraph 2, addressed to the Emperor. The ‘tribute of Dante’s lips’
signifies a kiss on the ground before the Emperor’s feet.
7. The ‘princes’ were the King of Sicily (Frederick II of Aragon) and the King of
Naples (Robert of Anjou).
8. The cursus is the rhetorical term for the metrical arrangement of the ending of
clauses and sentences in classical Latin prose. The mediaeval cursus, descended
from the classical, is accentual and rhythmical, instead of being metrical, as in the
444 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

prosa numerosa of Cicero. (See The Letters of Dante, ed. Paget Toynbee, Oxford,
Clarendon, 966, pp 224–247.)
9. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter 9.
0. See Chapter 0 of the present work.
. They are said to have been written by Dante on behalf of the Countess, for whom
he acted as secretary. All three, in Latin, are ceremonious replies to epistles from
the Empress. Margaret of Brabant, daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant, married
Henry, Count of Luxembourg, in 292. On his election she accompanied her
husband on his campaign in Italy and died at Genoa on 4 December 3, where
she is buried.
2. The tradition that the Lombards were of Scandinavian origin was recorded by
Paulus Diaconus in his Historia Longobardorum, a work which Dante knew.
3. Epistola V, paragraph 8.
4. Matthew XXII, 2.
5. ‘Then saith Pilate unto him, “Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I
have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” Jesus answered, “Thou
couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” ’
( John XIX, 0–).
6. ‘Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king’ (Peter I, ii,
7).
7. Epistola V, paragraph 0.
8. The Latin adjective scelestus, used here in the superlative, has a very strong denun-
ciatory meaning.
9. Epistola VI, paragraph 5.
20. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
2. Dante at first regarded the sun, the greater light, as the symbol of Papal power, and
the moon, the lesser light, as the symbol of Empire. He later reversed this view in
his political treatise Monarchia.
22. Epistola VI, paragraph 4.
23. Epistola VII, paragraph 2.
24. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
25. See Chapter 4 of the present work.
26. For further information, see W.M. Bowsky, Henry VII in Italy.
Chapter 30: Better Waters
. Inferno XIX, 82–87. Pope Clement V, who came from Gascony (‘the west’), had
intrigued with Philip IV to gain election to the Papacy (then in Avignon), as
Jason had bribed Antiochus Epiphanes to make him High Priest. In a nice touch
of editing, Dante distinguishes between the two Jasons, as though to say, ‘I don’t
mean the leader of the Argonauts, but the one we read about in Maccabees’ (IV, 7
et seq.).
2. See Chapter 23 of the present work.
3. Purgatorio VI, 27–5; Paradiso XXXI, 37–40. See Chapter 49 of the present work.
4. Elected King of the Germans on 20 October 34 and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle
on 25 November.
5. See Chapter 43 of the present work.
6. Purgatorio VII, 96.
 NOTES 445

7. Ibid., I, –6.
8. Metamorphoses V, 294–678.
9. Purgatorio I, 9–2 (italics added).
0. C.S. Boswell, An Irish Precursor of Dante, London, David Nutt, 908.
. Canto III. See also Chapter 3 of the present work.
2. Purgatorio I, 26–27.
3. It is later revealed that the Garden of Eden is situated on the summit of the
Mountain of Purgatory.
4. Inferno XXVI, 27–28.
5. Purgatorio I, 32–33.
6. Ibid., 4–48.
7. Ibid., 7–75.
8. Pharsalia IX.
9. De Officiis I, 3, quoted in Monarchia, Book II, Chapter 5.
20. Purgatorio I, 85–93.
2. Ibid., 0.
22. Ibid., 09.
23. Ibid., 24–27. This is a remarkable mirror-image of the description of Virgil’s
hands spread out on the mire of the Circle of the Gluttons: Lo duca mio distese le
sue spanne (Inferno VI, 25). See Chapter 5 of the present work.
24. See the conclusion of Inferno XXVI.
25. Purgatorio I, 34–36.
Chapter 3: The Morning Sun
. Purgatorio II, 28–30.
2. That is, from the port of Rome (Ostia) to the Mountain of Purgatory, as we later
learn. This is the vessel on which Charon prophesied it would be the destiny of
Dante’s soul to travel (Inferno III, 9–93).
3. Psalm 4.
4. Il Convivio, Section II, Chapter .
5. Purgatorio II, 88–90. See Chapters 5 and 39 of the present work.
6. The exact date of his death is not known.
7. According to Dante’s chronology of his journey.
8. This is a reference to the Papal indulgences granted to pilgrims visiting Rome in
300. (See Chapter 3 of the present work.) The Bull of Jubilee was promulgated on
22 February 300 but extended retrospectively to Christmas Day 299. By the time
of Dante’s vision, set in Easter Week 300, the indulgences had been operative
for three months. The period of waiting that souls have to spend at Ostia may be
associated with the belief that some spirits are earthbound after death.
9. Purgatorio II, 2–4.
0. Ibid., 20–23.
. See Chapter 7 of the present work.
2. Purgatorio III, 25–27. Virgil died in Brindisi, in Apulia, returning from Greece,
where he became ill. His body was taken by order of Augustus to Naples for burial.
His supposed tomb is still to be seen on the road to Pozzuoli.
3. Ibid., 73–78.
4. Ibid., 07–08.
446 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

5. Ibid., 2–23.

6. Dante had read in Brunetto Latini’s Tresor that Manfred had murdered his father,
his brother, his nephew and attempted to murder his great-nephew.
7. She died in Barcelona in 302.
8. The reference is to John VI, 37: ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast
out.’ Manfred has quoted these words in lines 22–23.
9. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
20. He was to consign the Emperor Frederick II to the burning tomb of a heretic in
Hell (Inferno X). It is significant that Manfred avoids mentioning his father.
2. The original word is benegenitus, an unexpected epithet in view of Manfred’s ille-
gitimacy.
22. See Chapter 32 of the present work.
Chapter 32: From Humour to Invective
. For Dante’s study of astronomy, see Chapter 6 of the present work.
2. i.e. the ecliptic, the sun’s path along the Zodiac, which lies mid-way between any
point on earth and its antipodes.
3. Purgatorio IV, 98–99.
4. i.e. the angel who guards the entrance to the seven cornices of Purgatory proper.
See Chapter 33 of the present work.
5. Purgatorio IV, 37–39. The ‘shore’ is that of the river Ganges.
6. Purgatorio V, 0–5.
7. See Chapter  of the present work.
8. Inferno XXVII. See also Chapter 24 of the present work.
9. Dino Compagni, the chronicler, states that the sky was overcast on the day of the
battle (Cronica I, 0).
0. Purgatorio V, 02.
. Ibid., 06–08.
2. Ibid., 30–36.
3. See Chapter 29 of the present work.
4. Including the feud of the Montagues and Capulets.
5. The Italian word bordello, which means brothel, had another meaning, now archaic,
namely ‘hired hand’ or ‘stable-boy’. It is possible that Dante intended a contrast
between donna di provincie (a person) and a lowly member of a household (another
person).
6. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book I, Chapter 5. See also Chapter  of the present work.
7. Sordello here uses the plural pronoun voi, referring to both of them.
8. i.e. round the feet.
9. Purgatorio VII, 6–2.
Chapter 33: Close of Day and a New Dawn
. Inferno IV. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
2. See Chapters 8 and 46 of the present work.
3. Purgatorio VIII, –6.
4. Inferno IX. On both occasions he addresses his listeners in the plural, as an audi-
ence.
5. The blunted swords are usually interpreted as signifying mercy rather than
 NOTES 447

judgement.
6. He was the grandson of Ugolino della Gherardesca. See Inferno XXXIII and
Chapter 27 of the present work.
7. Purgatorio VIII, 58–60.
8. Her second husband was Galeazzo Visconti of Milan. Misfortunes overtook the
Visconti family from 302 onwards.
9. Purgatorio VIII, 76–78.
0. Ibid., 00–03.
. See Chapter 0 of the present work.
2. The valley of the river Macra in Lunigiana.
3. Dante was a guest of the Malaspina family in 306.
4. Tithonus, brother of King Priam of Troy, was the spouse of Aurora, the Dawn,
who obtained for him from the gods the gift of immortality. She forgot, however,
to ask also for perpetual youth, so Tithonus grew older and older.
5. Purgatorio IX, –6. The ‘cold animal’ is the constellation of Scorpio.
6. Paradiso VI and XVIII–XX. See Chapter 47 of the present work.
7. See also Chapter 8 of the present work.
8. Inferno II, 97–08.
9. Virgil’s description of St Lucy as accorta reinforces her association with knowl-
edge.
20. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
2. Purgatorio IX, 2–29.
Chapter 34: Pride and Humility
. 2 Samuel VI.
2. See Chapter 47 of the present work.
3. Dante, misled by painted and sculptured representations, believed the Roman
Imperial standards to be flags showing a black eagle on a gold field, whereas they
were poles surmounted by bronze figures.
4. Nicola Pisani was born about 220 and died before 284. His son Giovanni was
born about 245 and died before 39. See G.H. and E.R. Crichton, Nicola Pisano
and the Revival of Sculpture in Italy, Cambridge University Press, 938.
5. Paradiso XV, 9–96. See Chapter 46 of the present work.
6. Oderisi of Gubbio, whose date of birth is unknown, is said to have died by 299. It
is thought that Dante may have met him during an early visit to Bologna in 287.
The dates of Franco of Bologna are unknown but it is evident that he was younger
than Oderisi; he is believed to have lived into the first decade of the fourteenth
century.
7. Purgatorio XI, 79–8.
8. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXXIV.
9. Purgatorio XI, 9–99.
0. Dante, Faber and Faber, paperback edition, 965, p 46.
. Purgatorio XI, 2–4.
2. Ibid., XII, 2.
3. Niobe, who had 4 children, boasted of her superiority to Latona who had borne by
Jove only Apollo and Diana, who killed her and all her children with their arrows.
Saul, the first king of Israel, was defeated by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa and
448 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

fell upon his sword. Arachne challenged Minerva to a contest in weaving and was
changed into a spider for her presumption. Rehoboam, King of Israel, boasted that
he would prove a greater tyrant than his father Solomon and was obliged to flee
from his people who rebelled against him.
4. Alcmaeon slew his mother Eriphyle, who had betrayed his father for the bribe of
a necklace. Sennacherib of Assyria, oppressor of Jerusalem, defeated by Hezekiah,
was killed by his own sons. Cyrus, the Persian tyrant, murdered the son of Tomyris,
Queen of Scythia, who killed him and threw his head into a vessel of blood.
Holofernes, captain of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, was seduced by Judith, who
cut off his head.
5. Purgatorio XII, 6–63.
6. Ibid., 67.
7. Giotto was born some time between 267 and 275 and died in 337.
8. Purgatorio XII, 7.
9. Ibid., XI, 8–9.
20. See La Vita Nuova, Chapters XI, XXIII, XXVI and XXVIII.
2. Purgatorio XII, 00–05.
Chapter 35: Evil and the Freedom of the Will
. As Virgil told Dante in Inferno I, : là onde invidia prima dipartilla (‘there whence
envy first despatched it’, i.e. avarice). Cf. ‘Through envy of the devil came death
into the world’ (Book of Wisdom II, 24).
2. The Sienese were led by Provenzano Salvani. See Chapter 34.
3. Purgatorio XIV, 6–2. Mount Falterona, on the borders of Romagna, is the source
of the river Arno. Dante has noted Oderisi’s words about pride, but ancor (‘as yet’)
shows that he knows he will win renown.
4. Above Arezzo the Arno makes a bend eastward, passing a few miles to the north
of the city.
5. Purgatorio XIV, 99.
6. Ibid., 09–.
7. Ibid., 86–87.
8. Ibid., XV, 46–5.
9. Ibid., XVI, 46–48. Not much is known of Marco Lombardo. Early commenta-
tors agree that he lived in Venice and was a noble-minded man, though evidently
inclined to wrath.
0. Ibid., 58–63.
. Ibid., 79–84.
2. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2.
3. Purgatorio XVI, 85–93.
4. Ibid., 03–05.
5. Ibid., 27–29.
Chapter 36: Love, Natural and Rational
. Il Convivio, Section III, Chapters 2–3.
2. Purgatorio XVII, 9–96.
3. Ibid., XVIII, 3–5.
4. Ibid., 62–63.
 NOTES 449

5. Ibid., 70–72.
Chapter 37: The Mountain Trembles
. ‘Glory to God in the Highest’ (Luke II, 9).
2. Titus was Roman Emperor from AD 79–8. In AD 70, serving under his father
Vespasian, he besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, thereby avenging, as was believed,
the death of Jesus upon the Jews.
3. Purgatorio XXI, 9–93.
4. Thebaid XII, 86–87: … nec tu divinam Aeneidam tenta/sed longe sequere, et vestigia
adora.
5. Purgatorio XXI, 94–99.
6. Ibid., 2–26.
7. See Chapter 38. See also Chapter 5.
8. A Roman satirical poet, who died aged 80 some time before AD 6. He mentions
Statius in his seventh satire.
9. Inferno IV.
0. Aeneid III, 56–57: quid non mortalia pectora cogis,/auri sacra fames! (‘to what dost
thou not drive the hearts of men, O accursed hunger for gold!’).
. Purgatorio XXII, 6–63.
2. Ibid., 64–73. Statius is here quoting words from Virgil’s fourth eclogue.
3. i.e. Limbo.
4. i.e. the Muses.
5. Inferno IV.
Chapter 38: Dante and Forese Donati
. Purgatorio XXIII, 4–6.
2. Psalm 5, 5: ‘O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall forth thy praise.’ The
words serve as a reminder that the mouth is intended for other things besides
eating and drinking.
3. i.e. the eyes represent the two Os, the line of the cheeks, eyebrows and nose form
the M. See Figure 8.
4. Inferno XV, 24. See Chapter 7 of the present work.
5. See Chapter  of the present work. Forese is said to have been a cousin of Dante’s
wife.
6. Ibid.
7. Forese Donati died in July 296.
8. Purgatorio XXIII, 85–93.
9. The inhabitants of Barbagia, a hilly region in central Sardinia, had the reputa-
tion of living like brute beasts. Dante more than once speaks with contempt of
Sardinia.
0. Purgatorio XXIII, 08.
. See Chapter  of the present work.
2. Purgatorio XXIII, 5–7.
3. See below.
4. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
5. Purgatorio XXIV, 76–80. Dante seems to imply that he will return to the Cornice
of the Gluttons. By ‘the shore’ he probably means the shore of the Mountain of
450 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Purgatory, or possibly the port of Ostia where penitent souls wait to be ferried
across to the southern hemisphere.
6. Metamorphoses XII, 20–535.
7. Judges VII, –7 et seq.
8. Purgatorio XXIV, 33.
9. Daniel X, 6.
20. Matthew V, 6.
Chapter 39: Body and Soul
. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
2. Dante had read the story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses VIII, 45 et seq.
3. Purgatorio XXV, 3–33.
4. Ibid., 58–63. The ‘one wiser than thou art’ is Averroës, the Muslim commentator of
Aristotle, who finding no organ for the intellect which distinguishes man from the
animals stated that man’s rational soul was not individual but universal. His view
was disputed by Aristotle.
5. Purgatorio XXV, 67–75.
6. Ibid., 03–08.
7. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
8. Purgatorio XXVI, 97–99.
9. Ibid., 2–4.
0. i.e. derived from Latin.
. Inferno V. See Chapter 4 of the present work.
2. See Foster and Boyde, Dante’s Lyric Poetry, Volume I, pp 58–75.
3. Purgatorio XXVII, 3–33.
4. Ibid., 52–54.
5. Matthew XXV, 34.
6. In mystical writings, the two wives of Jacob were interpreted as allegories of the
active and contemplative life. Dante’s dream anticipates his coming meeting with
Matilda and Beatrice.
7. Purgatorio XXVII, 27–42.
Chapter 40: The Christian Sibyl
. Spelled ‘Matelda’ in accepted manuscripts. For a discussion of her identity see
Chapter 4, of which see also note 4 for an interpretation of her name.
2. Adapted from the angel’s greeting to Mary: ‘Hail, thou that art highly favoured,
the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women’ (Luke I, 28).
3. Adapted from the four beasts of the Apocalypse, Revelations IV, 6–8, and the four
living creatures of Ezekiel I, 4–4; X, 8–4.
4. The third eye, denoting wisdom, is a Buddhist conception and is also found in the
Western iconographical tradition.
5. The Song of Solomon, IV, 8. The Spouse of Lebanon is an image of the soul
espoused to God.
6. Adapted from Matthew XXI, 9: ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.’
7. Aeneid VI, 883.
8. Purgatorio XXX, 34–39.
 NOTES 45

9. Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae. Aeneid IV, 23

0. Purgatorio XXX, 55–57 (Sayers’ translation).
. Not all manuscripts have the plural but it is now usually accepted.
2. Purgatorio XXX, 99–0 (Sayers’ translation, adapted).
3. Perhaps an allusion to his work La Vita Nuova. See Chapter 2 of the present
work.
4. Beatrice died when she was 24.
5. Purgatorio XXX, 39–45 (Sayers’ translation, adapted).
6. Ibid., XXXI, 34–36.
7. Ibid., 67–69.
8. From the Bull issued on Corpus Christi by Pope Urban in 264.
9. This identification was first pointed out by John D. Sinclair, The Divine Comedy of
Dante Alighieri, II. Purgatorio, John Lane, 948, pp 44–46.
20. Purgatorio XXXII, 48.
2. Matthew III, 5.
22. Epistle to the Romans V, 9.
23. Purgatorio XXXII, 00–02. See also St Bernard’s identification of the Virgin Mary
as ‘Augusta’ (Chapter 53 of the present work).
24. Inferno XIX, 5–7 and Chapter 9 of the present work.
25. Revelations XVII, 3.
26. This represents the removal of the Papacy to Avignon, which occurred in 305.
27. cf. John XVI, 6.
28. The return did not take place until 377, 56 years after Dante’s death.
29. ‘The beast that thou sawest was, and is not’ (Revelations XVII, 8).
30. This would seem to be an admission by Dante that he had once separated the study
of philosophy from that of theology.
3. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
Chapter 4: Who is Matilda?
. Purgatorio I, 7–8.
2. Paradiso XXVI, 24–38.
3. Purgatorio XXVIII, 40–42.
4. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXXIV.
5. Purgatorio XXVIII, 52–57.
6. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XII.
7. Psalm 92, 4.
8. Purgatorio XXVIII, 83–84.
9. Paradiso XXXI–XXXIII.
0. Purgatorio XXI.
. The name appears to be Dante’s invention, formed from two Greek words mean-
ing ‘good knowledge’.
2. Purgatorio XXVIII, 42–44.
3. She now sings Psalm 32,  (in the Vulgate 3, ): ‘Blessed are they [whose transgres-
sions are forgiven and] whose sins are covered.’
4. Purgatorio XXXIII, 8–9. The Italian form of her name, Matelda, has been inter-
preted as an anagram of the Latin words ad letam, ‘to Lethe’, the river into which
she plunges Dante when he is unconscious. This may be so, but her functions are
452 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

more multiple than that.

5. Ibid., 45.
6. A castle situated on a hill, south-west of Reggio dell’Emilia, destroyed in 255.
7. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
8. 849–925.
9. Paradiso XX, 55–57. See also Chapter 47 of the present work.
20. Now in the Vatican. See Figure 9.
2. See Chapter 39 of the present work.
22. Adapted from ‘La Matilda de Dante’, Mélanges … à Rita Lejeune, Duculot, s.d.
Chapter 42: Dante and His Patrons
. Can Francesco della Scala, known as Can Grande, 29–329.
2. See Chapter 29 of the present work.
3. Dante Dictionary, Paget Toynbee, art. Can Grande della Scala, Oxford, Clarendon,
908.
4. Purgatorio XVI, 25–26.
5. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 6.
6. A ruthless tyrant (94–259), guilty of mass atrocities, ruler of the March of
Treviso for over 30 years. Dante places him among the violent in the first zone of
the Seventh Circle of Hell (Inferno XII, 09–0).
7. It is said that relatives of Branca d’Oria threatened to molest Dante in Genoa. See
Chapter 27 of the present work.
8. Inferno I. See Chapter 2 of the present work.
9. Louis was not crowned Emperor in Rome until 328, seven years after Dante’s
death.
0. See Chapter 49 of the present work.
. A reference to Dante’s first visit to Verona in 303, at the invitation of Bartolommeo.
See Chapter 4 of the present work.
2. Paradiso XVII, 79–90. The ‘Gascon’ is Pope Clement V (Bertrand de Goth, a native
of Gascony) who at first supported Henry VII but, yielding to the pressure of
Philip IV of France, later secretly opposed him. This is the first of two mentions of
Henry VII. On both occasions Dante uses the familiar form of his name, Arrigo,
equivalent to our Harry. See also Chapters 29 and 46 of the present work.
3. See Chapter 4 of the present work. In one of his poems Guido quoted the line
from Inferno V, in which Francesca refers to Paolo’s undying love: che mai da me
non fia diviso (‘who never from me will be parted’).
4. It was formerly said that Dante had two daughters, Antonia and Beatrice, but
scholars are now satisfied that only one is known for certain: Antonia, who is
believed to have taken the name of Suor Beatrice when she became a nun.
5. Epistola VIII, ed. Paget Toynbee, Oxford, Clarendon Press, second edition, 966,
pp 2–47.
6. A successor of Can Grande made peace finally in 339, agreeing to accept the title
of Papal instead of Imperial Vicar.
7. See Chapter 29 of the present work.
8. See Chapter 7 of the present work.
9. See Chapter 35 of the present work.
20. See Richard Kay, Dante’s Monarchia, Translated with a Commentary, Introduction,
 NOTES 453

Toronto, 998, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. See also the edition and
translation by Prue Shaw, Cambridge University Press, 995, and Charles Till
Davis, Dante and the Idea of Rome, Appendix II, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 957, pp
263–269.
2. Monarchia, Book I, Chapter 2.
22. Paradiso V, 9–24.
23. See Richard Kay, Dante’s Monarchia, pp xxiii–xxv
24. Guido Vernani, the earliest critic of the work, denounced this argument as vile et
derisibile (‘base and ludicrous’).
25. See Chapter 29 of the present work.
26. Monarchia, Book II, Chapter 3.
27. i.e. the corpus of Papal decrees which are the basis of ecclesiastical law.
28. Monarchia, Book III, Chapter 3.
29. See Chapter 5 of the present work.
30. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 2. See Chapter 8 of the present work.
3. Ibid., Chapter 5. See Chapter 7 of the present work.
32. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
33. Monarchia, Book II, Chapter .
34. Ibid.
Chapter 43: Prelude to Paradiso
. Purgatorio II, –6.
2. Paradiso XXXIII, 45.
3. Ibid., V, 09–.
4. Epistola X, ed. Paget Toynbee, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 920, pp 60–2. The
authenticity of this epistle has been a matter of controversy but the majority of
Dante scholars are convinced that it is genuine. For my reasons for agreeing with
them, see Introduction to Paradise, Penguin Classics, ‘The Epistle to Can Grande’,
revised edition, 2004.
5. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
6. He refers to himself as the speaker, and to his address as ‘the present occasion’.
7. The lecture, entitled Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, was delivered at the church of
Sant’Elena in Verona.
8. Psalm 4 (in the Vulgate 3). See also Chapters 6 and 3 of the present work.
9. i.e. spiritual.
0. Translation by Paget Toynbee.
. Derivationes by Uguccione da Pisa.
2. Still in existence in the theatrical convention of wishing a fellow actor good luck:
‘Break a leg!’ and, in the German equivalent, ‘Hals und Beinbrech!’
3. All the quotations from Paradiso in the oration are in Latin.
4. Paradiso I, –2.
5. See Chapter 6 of the present work.
6. 2 Corinthians XII, 2–4.
7. Matthew XVII, –8.
8. Glaucus, a fisherman of Boeotia, on seeing fish revive in contact with a certain
herb, ate some himself and was moved to plunge into the sea and became a sea-
god. Dante read of him in Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII, 920–968.
454 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

9. Paradiso I, 68–72.

20. Inferno IV, 39–40.
2. London, Folio Society, 2002.
22. The Doors of Perception, Chatto and Windus, 954, p 2. See also Chapter 54 of the
present work.
Chapter 44: Beatrice in Heaven
. See Chapter 40 of the present work.
2. Paradiso I, 36–38.
3. Compare the words of Piccarda, ibid., III, 85.
4. Confessions XIII, 9.
5. Paradiso III, 0–6.
6. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXI.
7. Paradiso III, 2.
8. Purgatorio XXIV. See also Chapter 38 of the present work.
9. Paradiso III, 70–72 (Sayers’ translation).
0. Ibid., 85–87.
. Ibid., IV, 37–48 (Sayers’ translation).
2. Ibid., 8–23 (Sayers’ translation).
3. Paradiso XXVII, 88–89. The archaic word donneare meant ‘to flirt, to play the
gallant, to woo’.
4. Ibid., XXX, 70–72.
5. Il Convivio, Section IV, Chapter 3.
6. Purgatorio XXI, .
7. Paradiso II, 9–2.
8. Paradiso XXVII, XXIX, XXX.
Chapter 45: Propaganda in Paradiso
. Paradiso VI.
2. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ‘Justinian and the Roman
Law’, Volume V, Chapter 44. When Gibbon wrote, there were many legal systems
in Europe that drew directly upon Roman law. Codification has long since changed
that (except for Andorra and San Marino).
3. Beyond the Heaven of the Moon the souls appear only as lights. The human form,
apart from Dante and Beatrice, is not manifested again until they reach the souls
in the Empyrean.
4. Paradiso VI, 0.
5. Ibid., –9 (Sayers’ translation).
6. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
7. Paradiso VI, 82–93 (Sayers’ translation).
8. Ibid., VII, 49–5.
Chapter 46: The City Walls
. This was the only occasion on which Petrarch set eyes on Dante. There was a
difference of about ten years in age between Dante and Petrarch’s father.
2. See Il Convivio, Section I. See also Chapter 6 of the present work.
3. See Chapter  of the present work.
 NOTES 455

4. Paradiso XV–XVII.
5. Inferno II, 32.
6. Paradiso XV, 28–30.
7. Ibid., 88–89.
8. Ibid., 99–02.
9. Ibid., 30–35.
0. Ibid., XXV –9.
. This would naturally occur to the author of De Vulgari Eloquentia. See Chapter 5
of the present work.
2. Paradiso XVI, 67–69.
3. Paradiso XVII, 55–60 (Sayers’ translation).
4. See Chapter 42 of the present work.
5. Paradiso XVII, 27–29 (Sayers’ translation).
6. Ibid., 33–38 (Sayers’ translation).
Chapter 47: Justice Unfathomed
. Paradiso VI. See Chapter 45 of the present work. The command is to love justice,
not merely to enforce it.
2. See Figures –2.
3. Paradiso XIX, 6–2.
4. Ibid., 25–26.
5. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
6. See Chapters 5 and 6 of the present work.
7. Justinian’s Codex, Dig. .. 0pr.
8. Ibid., Dig. ..0..
9. Ibid., Dig. .. pr.
0. See also Patrick Boyde, Human Vices and Human Worth in Dante’s Comedy,
Cambridge University Press, 2000, ‘Justice’, pp 98–224.
. See Chapter 9 of the present work.
2. Inferno III, 4.
3. Paradiso XIX, 79–8.
4. See Chapter 3 of the present work.
5. See Chapters 39 and 40 of the present work.
6. See Chapter 46 of the present work.
7. Ibid.
8. Purgatorio XII, 25–63. See also Chapter 33 of the present work.
9. See Figure 3.
20. 2 Kings XX, –6 and 2 Chron. XXXII, 26.
2. Aeneid II, 426–427.
22. Acts X, 35.
23. Paradiso XX, 82.
24. Ibid., 03–05 (Sayers’ translation).
25. See Chapter 40 of the present work.
26. Paradiso XX, 33–35 (Sayers’ translation).
27. Ibid., III, 85. See also Chapter 44 of the present work.
456 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Chapter 48: Dante and Monasticism

. Paradiso X.
2. Ibid., XXI, 27–35.
3. Ibid., XXII, 73–93.
4. Ibid., 64–69 (Sayers’ translation).
Chapter 49: The Theme’s Great Weight
. Paradiso XXII, 2–23.
2. Ibid., 35, 5.
3. Ibid., XXIII, 9–2.
4. Ibid., XIV. See also Chapter 46 of the present work.
5. See Chapter 40 of the present work.
6. Paradiso XXIII, 40–45 (Sayers’ translation).
7. Ibid., 64–69.
8. Ibid., 03–.
9. In La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXIV, Dante interpreted Beatrice as signifying
Christ.
Chapter 50: Faith, Hope and Love
. Il Convivio, Section I, Chapter .
2. Paradiso XXIV, –9.
3. Ibid., XXV, 52–57.
4. Ibid., –9.
5. Wicksteed and Gardner, Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, Constable, 902, p 54.
6. Epistola IX, in Paget Toynbee (ed), The Letters of Dante, translation by Toynbee,
adapted.
7. Paradiso XXV, 22–29. The ‘two only’ who ascended to Heaven in the body are
Christ and the Virgin Mary.
8. Ibid., XXVI, 58–66.
Chapter 5: Hatred in Heaven
. Paradiso XXVII, –3 (Sayers’ translation).
2. Ibid., 9–2 (Sayers’ translation).
3. Ibid., 22–27 (Sayers’ translation).
4. Ibid., 40–63. ‘Gascons and Cahorsines’ refers to the election of Pope Clement V (a
Gascon) and Pope John XXII (of Cahors).
5. Ibid., 64–66.
6. Ibid., 2–4.
7. Ibid., 42–48. The ‘hundredth of a day’ is the error in the Julian calendar, according
to which the length of the year was 365¼ days. This was too long by  minutes
and 4 seconds, roughly /00 of a day. By Dante’s time January had advanced
more than eight days nearer the end of winter and would eventually have become
‘unwintered’, i.e. become a spring month. Beatrice here, by a rhetorical figure,
substitutes a long period for a short one, as though to say, ‘It will not take till
doomsday.’
 NOTES 457

Chapter 52: The Creation

. Inferno III, 2.
2. Metaphysica VII, 075a, 5–7.
3. Paradiso XXVIII, 4–42.
4. Ibid., 79–87. The ‘milder cheek’ of Boreas is the north-east wind, by which the skies
of Italy are blown clear.
5. Il Convivio, Section II, Chapter 5.
6. Summa Theologiae, Part I, question 08.
7. Paradiso XXVIII, 3.
8. Ibid., XXX, 40–42 (Sayers’ translation).
9. Ibid., XXIX 9–30.
0. De Anima II, ii.
. Paradiso XIII, 52–87.
2. Il Convivio, Section II, Chapter 4.
3. Inferno III, 37–40.
4. Purgatorio XXV, 79–84.
5. See J.D. Sinclair, Paradiso, London, Bodley Head, p 426.
6. Paradiso XXIX, 24–26. St Anthony of Egypt, the hermit (25–356), is said to have
kept herds of swine, fattened on proceeds from the sale of pardons.
Chapter 53: The Departure of Beatrice
. Paradiso XXIX, 27–45. The passage in the Book of Daniel to which Beatrice refers
is the following: ‘The Ancient of days did sit … thousand thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before’ (VII, 9–0).
2. Il Convivio, Section III, Chapter 4.
3. Paradiso XXX, 54.
4. Ibid., 55–56.
5. Daniel VII, 20.
6. John I, –3.
7. Paradiso XXX, 29–32.
8. See Chapter 30 of the present work.
9. Paradiso XXX, 33–4.
0. Ibid., XXXI, 37–40.
Chapter 54: Approach to the Final Vision
. Paradiso XXXI, 6–63.
2. Ibid., 2.
3. See Chapter 46 of the present work.
4. Paradiso XXXI, 64. See also Chapter 40 of the present work.
5. See Chapter  of the present work.
6. La Vita Nuova, Chapter XL.
7. Paradiso XXXI, 03–.
8. See Chapter 50 of the present work.
9. Paradiso XXXI, 8–23.
0. Ibid., XXXII, 37–39.
. Ibid., 7–9. Beatrice has also spoken of Christ as Roman in Heaven. See Chapter
40 of the present work.
458 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

2. Ibid., 39–44.

Chapter 55: The Vision of the Trinity
. Paradiso XXXIII, 38–39.
2. Ibid., 58–66.
3. Ibid., 67–75.
4. See Chapter 43 of the present work.
5. See Bernard and Patricia McGinn, Early Christian Mystics, New York, The
Crossroad Publishing Company, 200, p 3.
6. From the Prologue of a work entitled Scivias (‘Know the Ways of God’). It is
interesting that Hildegard, like other mystics, was knowledgeable about herbs, of
which she names about 40 in her work Liber subtilitatum diversarum naturarum
creaturarum.
7. Confessions VII, 0.
8. Richard, born in Scotland in the twelfth century, entered the hermitage of St
Victor outside Paris, where he became teacher, Sub-prior and finally Prior.
9. Richard of St Victor, Twelve Patriarchs.
0. See Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, Heaven and Hell, in one volume, Chatto
and Windus, 960. See also Chapter 44 of the present work.
. Dante wrote of being macro (‘lean’) from working on his poem (Paradiso XXV, 3).
This is perhaps an allusion to fasting.
2. Pamela Hansford Johnson, Important to Me: Personalia, London, Macmillan, 974,
p 27. A still more remarkable experience is described by Jill Paton Walsh in her
novel Lapsing, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 983, pp 83–85.
3. See Margery E. Reeves. ‘The Liber Figurarum of Joachim of Fiore’, Mediaeval and
Renaissance Studies, Volume II, pp 57–8.
4. Ezekiel I, 26–28
5. Paradiso XXXIII, 33–38 (Sayers’ translation).
6. Ibid., 42–45.
Epilogue
. See Giovanni Boccaccio: Life of Dante, translated by J.G. Nichols, Hesperus Press,
2002.
2. He is said to have been born in Certaldo, a village near Florence.
3. No monument to Dante was raised in Florence until 830. The poet Giacomo
Leopardi composed a reproachful canzone on the subject.
4. The last line of the sonnet ‘Dante’ by Giosuè Carducci (835–907).
 Select Index

Note: Major references are in bold type. Alighieri, Gemma see Donati, Gemma
Alighieri, Jacopo, 7, 50, 9, 206, 32, 33, 4–
Abel, 26, 29 42
Absalom, 204 Alighieri, Lapo, 3
Achaemenides, 95, 96 Alighieri, Pietro, 7, 50, 9, 206, 327, 333, 4
Acheron, river, 23, 25 Alighiero, son of Cacciaguida, 272, 354
Achilles, 28, 32, 57, 93 allegory, 24, 29, 69–70, 73, 95–96, 335–336
Achitophel, 204 Altichiero family tradition, 45
Adam, 52–53, 74, 24, 26, 22, 246, 32, 37, 382– Amata, 24
383, 383, 384, 403 Amphiaraus, 70
Adamo of Brescia, 207–208, 209, 20 Amphion, 27
Aeneas, 80, 9, 07, 08, 20, 27, 28, 42, 72, Anagni, 43; scandal of, 45–47
95, 96, 23, 24, 222, 240, 24, 290–29, 308, Ananias, 39
350, 353, 354, 362, 364 Anastasius, Pope, 45
Aeneid, 60, 78, 9, 7, 27, 40, 42, 70, 7–72, Anaxagoras, 29
93, 95, 23–24 Anchises, 9, 07, 09, 353
Aeolus, 95 Ancona, speech of, 54
Aesop, 7, 93, 79 Angelic Orders, 39–392; infinitude of, 395
Agnello, 87–88 Angiolieri, Cecco, 25
Alagna see Anagni Annas, 82
Alberigo dei Manfredi, 225–226 Anne, St, 74
Albert, Emperor, 236, 364 Antaeus, 25–26, 27
Albertus Magnus, 8, 72, 96 Antenor, 220
Aldobrandesco, Omberto, 272 Anthony, St, of Egypt, 394
Aldobrandini, Tegghiaio, 59 Antiphates, 95
Aldobrandino of Padua, 56 Apennines, 56, 04
Alecto, 43 Apollo, 29, 24, 337, 397
Alessandria, speech of, 54 Aquileia, speech of, 54
Alessandro da Romena, 48, 49 Aquinas, St Thomas, 8, 9, 86, 98, 0, 363, 365,
Alfonso X, King of Spain, 54 367, 377, 389, 392, 393
Alfraganus, 7 Arbia, river, 38, 220, 242
Alichino, 77, 79 Arethusa, 88
Alighieri, Alighiera, wife of Cacciaguida,  Arezzo, 47–48, 49, 50; speech of, 56; 59, 242,
Alighieri, Alighiero, father of Dante, 3; death 279
of, 5; 6; see also Dante Argenti, Filippo, 5, 4, 220
Alighieri, Antonia, 7, 327, 333, 44 Argo, Argonauts, 63, 409
Alighieri, Beatrice, sister of Dante see Aristotle, 8, 7, 72, 78–79, 8, 86, 87, 88, 28–29,
Alighieri, Antonia 45, 47, 338, 389–390, 393
Alighieri, Bella, mother of Dante, 3, 5; see also Arles, 50
Dante Arno, river, 4, 4, 55, 04, 8, 208, 278–279
Alighieri, D(ur)ante see Dante Alighieri Arthurian tales, 53, 0–, 7, 34–35, 37, 29
Alighieri, Francesco, 3, 5, 49, 50, 206 Aruns, 70
Alighieri, Gabriello and Giovanni, 7, 45 Ascanius, 240
Alighieri, Gaetana, 3, 4–5 Asdente, 72

459
460 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Asti, 236 Boniface VIII, Pope, 36, 38, 39–42, 43–44;

astrology, 72, 72 attack upon, 45–47; 92–93, 3, 23, 39,
astronomy, 70–72, 75–76 165–168, 200, 243, 346, 369, 383; St Peter’s
Athene, 93 denunciation of, 384–386; 398
Athens, 356 Bonturo, 75
Augustine, St, of Hippo, 3, 66, 05, 29, 22, Borsiere, Guglielmo, 59
338; quotation, 342; 403, 407 Botticini, Francesco, 23
Augustus, Emperor, 237, 238, 240, 348, 350 Branca d’Oria, 82, 225–226
Austria, 28 Brescia, speech of, 56; 7, 237, 240, 24
Averroes, 9, 29 Briareus, 24
Avicenna, 29 Brunelleschi, Bruno, 25
Bruni, Leonardo, 8, 9, 36
Babel, Tower of, 52, 53, 22, 383 Brutus, Lucius Junius, 28
Baptistery of San Giovanni, –3, 5, 65, 227– Brutus, Marcus Junius, 230–23
228, 355 Buiamonte dei Becchi, 60
Barbariccia, 77, 78, 79 Buonconte da Montefeltro, 9, 200, 260–261
Bardi, Simone, 6 Buondelmonte, 203–204
Battifolle, Countess, 04, 237 Buoso degli Abati, 87, 9
Beatific Vision, 377
Beatrice dei Portinari: CHIEF REFERENCES: 5, Cacciaguida, , 6, 38, , 272, 326–327, 353–358;
6, 7; coincidence with number nine, 4, 28, speaks Latin, 354; 40
148; 18–32; funeral of, 28; 33, 38, 50, 58, 65, 69, Cacus, 87
72, 73, 74, 78; return of, 110–115; 28, 288, 30, Cadmus, 88
304, 306–316, 320; in Heaven, 341–347; smile Caetani, Benedict see Boniface VIII, Pope
of, 342; lowly diction, 346–347; joy of, 354; Cagnazzo, 77, 79
comforts Dante, 369; announces Church Caiaphas, 82
Triumphant, 373–374; changed beyond Caina, 35, 29
words, 375–376; addresses three saints, 377– Calcabrina, 77
378; rebukes avarice, 4, 387–388; prophesies Calchas, 7–72
Benefactor, 388; God reflected in her eyes, Calliope, 29, 245, 337
390; teaches Dante about Creation, 392– Camicion dei Pazzi, 29
393; on trivial sermons, 393–394; departure Camilla, 28
of, 395–399, 400; Dante’s last words to her, Campaldino, battle of, 9, 34, 35, 36, 04
40; last sight of, 405 Canossa, 320, 322
Beatrice, sister of Dante see Alighieri, Capaneus, 45, 86
Antonia Capet, Hugh, 47
Belacqua, 76, 259 Caprona, fortress, 9, 77
Benaco, lake, 70–7 Carcassone, 353
Benedict, St, 369–37, 403 Carducci, Giosuè, 44
Benedict XI, Pope, 47; death of, 49 Carisenda, tower, 25, 26
Benevento, battle of, 44, 8 Casella, 8, 2, 73, 75, 252–253, 29
Benvenuto da Imola, 94 Casentino, speech of, 54; 03, 04, 237
Bergamo, speech of, 54; 7, 24 Cassino, 369–370
Bernard, St, 74, 0, 38, 400–405; paternal Cassius, 230–23
figure, 406 Castel St Angelo, bridge of, 38–39, 62
Bertran de Born, 58, 204–205 Castor and Pollux, 8, 9
Bocca degli Abati, 220 Catalano dei Malavolti, 8, 82
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 3, 6, 7, 6, 22, 50, 03, 6, Cataline, 80, 86
35–37, 44, 58, 43–44 Cato of Utica, 9, 93, 28, 30, 58, 246–249,
Boccasini, Nicholas, Cardinal see Benedict XI, 252–253, 267, 38
Pope Cavalcanti, Cavalcante, 2, 37, 38, 45
Boethius, 7, 66, 73, 78, 84, 85, 8, 56 Cavalcanti, Guido, –2, 3; rebuke by, 7; 8,
Bologna, 49, 50–5; speech of, 54, 57; 65, 83, 87, 9, 20, 2, 27, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36–38, 5, 53, 56, 6,
9, 95, 02, 03, 04, 9, 47, 62, 8, 82, 239, 66, 02, 273; father substitute, 288
24, 377, 43, 44 Celestial Rose, 74, 389
Bonagiunta of Lucca, 24–25, 56, 297 Celestine V, Pope, 4, 23
Bonatti, Guido, 72 Cerberus, 38, 39, 43–44
Bonaventura, St, 368 Charlemagne, 8, 2; iron crown of, 236
 INDEX 46

Charles II of Anjou, 33, 39, 8, 8 handwriting, 9; military experience, 9, 77–
Charles of Valois, 39, 4, 42, 43, 60–6, 92, 234 78; sport, 9–0; enters Fedeli d’Amore, 0–
Charon, 23–24, 32, 40, 94, 247 2; possibility of narcotics, 0, 338–340, 374,
Chiron, 57 408; dress, 6, 58; dislike of ostentation, 6,
Christ, 27, 70, 72, 93, 07, 08, 8, 25, 26, 29, 354–355; screen-love, 2–22; enters politics,
30, 4, 45, 69, 29, 276, 238, 247; vision of, 33–42; office of prior, 35, 65; reverence for
307 (Gryphon), 353, 373–375; 32, 34–35, Rome, 39, 79, 80–8; exile, early years of,
350, 35, 356, 363, 364, 368, 382, 385, 402, 403; 43–49; first refuge in Verona, 45, 65; quarrel
see also Trinity, Vision of with fellow exiles, 49, 356; humour, 54, 85,
Church Militant, 307, 3, 373 258–259; poverty of, 49, 58, 65, 95–0, 274–
Church Triumphant, 373–375 275; Florentine (Tuscan) accent, 55, 5, 58,
Ciacco, 39–40, 4 80–8; chauvinistic attitude to women, 58,
Ciampolo, 78, 79 97–98, 336; insensitivity, 60; eyesight of, 7,
Cianfa dei Donati, 87, 9 77; ‘sixth among such wisdom’, 26; anger,
Cicero, 7, 72, 73, 78, 80, 86, 9, 92, 29, 45, 54, 97, 4, 220; incapacity to express beauty of
56, 64, 95, 248, 337 Beatrice, 4; final prayer to Beatrice, 5;
Cimabue, 273 cruelty of, 4, 225–226; homosexuality, 53–
Cino da Pistoia, 6, 9, 50–5, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 6, 56, 58–59, 296–297; lighting effects, 254,
83, 03, 04, 47, 242, 288, 362, 43 259–260; humiliation and humility, 276–
Circe, 94–95, 96 277, 353; ethereal style, 342, 343; desire for
Ciriatto, 77 knowledge, 345, 346; propaganda in Paradiso,
Clement IV, Pope, 39 348–352; ‘racism’ of, 355–356; exile fully
Clement V, Pope, 66, 202, 234, 235, 238, 24, revealed, 356–358; monasticism, 367–371;
243, 244, 328, 346, 398 fear of roaring, 369; higher consciousness,
Cleopatra, 3 373–374; examination in theology, 378–382;
Cluny, 80 hope of recall to Florence, 379–382; colour
Cocito, river, 25–26, 28 of hair, 380; refusal of amnesty, 380–38;
Colonna family, 45, 24 blind in Heaven, 38–382; longing for father,
Colonna, Sciarra di, 46, 47 connection with ideal of Emperor, 40;
Compagni, Dino, 4, 42 mysticism, 409; vision of Trinity, 409; death
Constantine, Emperor, 08, 68; Donation of, of, 4; last thirteen cantos of Paradiso, 4,
68, 34; 349–350; in Eagle’s eye, 364 42; reputation upon death, 43–44
Copernicus, 70–7 WORKS (chronological):
cor gentile, 0, 20–, 33, 30 early poems, 0–, 3–4, 9–20
Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, 28 La Vita Nuova, 5, 6, 8, 0–, 4, 7, 18–32, 53,
Corpus Christi, festival, 32 64, 66, 69, 70, 7, 74, 98, 0, 2, 3, 7, 3,
courtly love, 0 335, 339, 346, 40–402, 407
Cremona, 236, 240, 24 Pietra poems, 303
Croatia, 40–402 De Vulgari Eloquentia, 50, 5, 52–63, 64, 67,
Crystalline Heaven see Primum Mobile 75, 78, 97, 6, 50, 204, 22, 332, 383
Cunizza da Romano, 2–3 Il Convivio, 5, 8, 29, 30, 39, 55, 64–74, 75–82,
Curio, 203 83–94, 95, 97, 00–0, 02, 03, 04–05, 0,
Cyclops, 95 2, 9, 20, 25, 28, 29, 39, 4, 45, 62,
68, 72, 204, 24, 23, 236, 237, 239, 244, 25;
Damian, Peter, 368–369 nature of love, 285–286; 303, 3, 36, 325, 332,
Daniel, Arnaut, 58, 303 335, 336, 338, 350, 359, 377, 378, 39, 393, 396,
Daniel, Book of, 294, 299, 395, 397 406
D’Annunzio, Gabriele, 37 montanina canzone, 04
Dante Alighieri Commedia, origin of, 05–09; first public
CHIEF REFERENCES: belief in Roman lectures on, 35–37, 43; allegory of, 335–
descent, ; birth under Gemini, , 372–373; 336; aim of, 336, 406; meaning of title, 336;
appearance, 3, 4, 4–42; measurements, Boccaccio’s admiration of, 43–44; adjective
3–4; guardian, 5, 56; education, 5, 7–8, divina, 6, 44; see also Inferno, Purgatorio,
9, 73, 56; memory of parents, 5, 6; first Paradiso
meeting with Beatrice, 6; early love, 7; Inferno, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2, 25, 36–37, 39, 45, 47, 50,
betrothal to Gemma Donati, 7; illness, 77, 79, 82, 84, 85, 86, 9, 02, 03, 05, 07, 08,
6–7; sexual feelings for Beatrice, 6, 345–346; , 3, 25, 40, 49, 83, 233, 237, 238, 243,
drawing and painting, 8–9, 273; music, 8, 2; 245, 334, 337, 34, 348, 354, 363, 40
462 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

letters re Henry VII, 237–24, 243 Ephialtes, 23–24

Purgatorio, 8, 9, 8, 24–25, 27, 47, 60, 74, 86, 88, Erichtho, 42, 73
98, 03, 25, 30, 49, 76, 244, 249; astronomy Esau, 23
of, 258–259; guardian of gate, 269–270; Este, Marquis of, 60, 03, 62
carvings on wall, 27–272; carvings on floor, Eteocles, 93, 27
275; centre of, 28; 334, 336, 337, 34, 346, 348, Euclid, 29
363, 393, 40, 40 Eunoë, river, 38, 39, 322
Paradiso, 7, 3, 6, 33, 38, 68, 74, 8, 88, 98, , Eurydice, 07, 29
2, 3, 4, 23, 25, 30, 49, 244, 245, 327; Eurypylus, 7–72
prelude to, 334–340; public agenda of, 347, Eusebius, 382
348–352, 363; concluding cantos of, 372; 389, Eve, 22, 246, 267
408; missing thirteen cantos, 4–42 Ezekiel, 409
epistle to cardinals, 328 Ezzelino da Romano, 335
Monarchia, 8, 68, 240, 248, 320, 329–333,
335, 338, 350, 359, 44 Fabriano, 9
Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, 335 Fabricius, 80
‘epistle’ to Can Grande, 335–340 Fabruzzo, 57
Dante da Maiano, , 9, 25 Falterona, 83, 278–279
Danube, river, 28 Fano, 202–203
David, King, 80, 204, 364 Farfarello, 77
Decretals, Decretalists, 47, 33, 332 Farinata degli Uberti, 2, 36–38, 45, , 45,
Democritus, 29 50–5
Dido, 32, 222, 308 Fedeli D’Amore, 0–, 4, 52, 77, 33, 52, 339
Diogenes, 29 Feltre, 8
Diomedes, 93 Fieschi, Ottobono, Cardinal see Clement IV,
Dionysius the Areopagite, 338, 39–392, 407 Pope
Dionysius, Cato, 7 Fiesole, 49, 55, 355
Dioscorides, 29, 339 Florence, 4–6; widowed by Beatrice’s death,
‘Dolce stil nuovo’, meaning of, 25 28; 33, 34, 35, 36, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49; speech of,
Dolcino, Fra, 202 54; Dante’s love of, 55; longing to return,
Domnizo, Chaplain to Matilda, 32 65, 66, 04, 27, 39, 40, 55; 159; reproach
Donati, Corso, 35, 39, 4, 42, 43, 47, 77, 92, 343 to, 9–92; resistance to Henry VII, 234–
Donati, Forese, 0, 6, 294–298, 343 242; letter to Florentines, 238–240; target
Donati, Gemma, 7, 30, 43, 50, 9, 327 of reproach, 243–244; 276–277, 279; early
Donati, Nella, 295, 296 history of, 354–355; 362; Florentine voices,
Donati, Piccarda, 297, 343, 344, 366 327–328; final rejection of, 399
Donati, Teruccio di Manetto, 380–38 Focaccia, 29
Donatus, 7 Folgore da San Gimignano, 6–7
donna gentile, 29–30, 65, 69, 70, 72, 73–74, 93– Fonte branda, 208
94, 0, 2, 3, 396 Forlì, 45, 50, 56, 72
D’Ovidio, Francesco, 320–32 Formia, 95
Draghignazzo, 77 France, 7, 39, 45, 47, 355; fleur-de-lis of, 359
Duse, Eleonora, 37 Francesca da Rimini, 6, 133–137, 38, 4, 50,
DXV prophesy, 35–36, 404 220, 327
Francesco d’Accorso, 02
Eagle, Roman, 27, 359, 362–366 Francesco dei Cavalcanti, 87, 89, 9
Earthly Paradise see Garden of Eden Francis, St, 200, 367–368, 403
Edward I, King of England, 39 Franco Bolognese, 5, 272, 273
Electra, mother of Zeus, 28 Frederick II, Emperor, 78, 52–53, 80
Elijah, 92 Frederick of Aragon, 8
Eliot, T.S., 274 Frederick of Austria, 244, 326
Elisei,  French, 53, 66; Old French, 9, 05, 245; 209
Elisha, 92 Frescobaldi, Dino, 9; family of, 42
Empedocles, 29 Frontinus, 6
Empyrean, the, 7–72, 3, 4, 48, 338, 342, 344, Fulcieri da Calboli, 279
387, 389, 392, 396, 403 Furies, the, 42–43
England, 6
English, 67; Early English, 05; fashion, 58 Gabriel, Archangel, 344, 375–376, 404
 INDEX 463

Gaeta, 94–95, 96 Hades, 07, 42

Galen, 29 Hannibal, 80, 25
Galileo, 75–76, 6 Harpies, 5
Galleotto, 34–35 Harrowing of Hell, 26, 30
Gallo of Pisa, 56 Heavenly Messenger, 43–44
Ganelon, 220 Hector, 28
Ganymede, 268 Helen of Troy, 32
Garden of Eden, 95, 5, 48, 96, 306–315, 37, Henry II, King of England, 204
320, 327, 366, 373, 387, 4 Henry III, King of England, 39
Gargagnago, 7 Henry IV, Emperor, 320
Gargonza, 43, 44 Henry VII, Emperor, 8, 76, 234–242, 243,
Gaville, 89, 9 244, 324, 326, 328, 33, 350; throne in Heaven,
Gazata, Sagacio Mucio, 324, 325 398
Gemini, constellation, , 372–373 Heraclitus, 29
Genoa, speech of, 54; 226, 24 Hercules, 25, 240
Gentucca, 76 Hezekiah, 364
Geri del Bello, 206 Higgins, Professor, 54
German, 67; fashion of, 58 Hildegard of Bingen, 407
Germany, 7 Hippocrates, 29
Geryon(e), 57–58, 60, 6, 304 Hippolytus, 356, 40
Gesta Romanorum, 7 Homer, 67, 07, 26–28, 23, 293
Gherardo da Camino, 85–86 Horace, 59, 79, 26–28, 95, 23, 24, 293
Ghisalieri, Guido, 57 Hughes, Ted, 30
Gianni, Lapo, 3, 9, 2, 56 Hundleby, William, 46
Gianni Schicchi, 207, 209 Huxley, Aldous, 339–340
Giano della Bella, 34, 77, 362 Hypsipyle, 63
Gibbon, Edward, 38, 348
Giotto, 4, 8–9, 6, 47, 273, 275, 328, 38 Icarus, 6
Giovanna, lover of Guido Cavalcanti, 3, 27 Ida, Mount, 268
Giovanni del Virgilio, 379–380, 43 Iliad, 93, 220
Giraut de Borneil, 58 Infortiatum, 87
Glaucus, 339 Interminelli, Alessio, 63, 76
God, 72, 74, 80, 8, 87, 88, 89, 9, 93, 04, 06, Istria, speech of, 54
08, 3, 20, 22, 23, 24, 35, 45, 49, 56, 67, Ithaca, 94, 95
69, 85, 200, 245, 39–382, 397, 398, 406, 407,
408, 409; see also Trinity, Vision of James, St, 33, 377, 378–379
Gomita, Fra, 78 Jason, 63
Gottfried von Eschenbach, 23 Jason (Book of Maccabees), 243
Gracchus, Caius and Tiberius, 28 Jerome, St, 393
Graffiacane, 77, 78 Jerusalem, 96, 35
Gratian, 20 Joachim of Flora, 409
Greek, 7–8, 67, 88, 27, 93, 99 John, St, the Apostle, 33, 377; belief in
Gregory I, Pope, 364 assumption of, 38; examines Dante, 382
Gregory VII, Pope, 320, 364 John, St, the Baptist, feast of, 4, 36; 27, 74, 294,
Griffolino of Arezzo, 209 33, 403
Gryphon, the, 307, 30, 3, 32–33 John XXII, Pope, 244, 328–330, 335
Gualdrada, 59 Johnson, Pamela Hansford, 408–409
Guidi family, 04, 208 Joseph, 208
Guido da Castello, 324–325 Judas, 229, 230
Guido del Duca, 279–280, 28 Julia (wife of Pompey), 28
Guido Guerra, 59 Julius Caesar, 28, 70, 203, 248
Guido da Montefeltro, 92–93, 66, 99–200 Justinian, 50, 8, 20, 327, 348, 349–352
Guido Novello da Polenta, 37, 327–328, 333, Juvenal, 29
340, 356–357, 4
Guinevere, 34 Kirkup, Seymour, 4
Guinizelli, Guido, 0, 9, 20, 26, 27, 38, 57, 6,
77, 33, 273, 303, 40 Lagia, lover of Lapo Gianni, 3
Guittone d’Arezzo, 9, 56, 6, 77 Lancelot, 92, 34
464 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Lastra, 49 Medusa, 43

Latin, 7, 20, 67, 68, 03, 05, 3, 7, 27, 237, 245 Megaera, 43
Latini, Brunetto, 8, 9, 38, 56, 50, 153–156, 58; Meleager, 300
father substitute, 288; 295, 298 Menalippus, 22
Latinus, King of Latium, 28, 240 Michael, Archangel, 05–06, 22, 32, 40, 44,
Lausanne, 236 45, 344
Lavinia, 28, 24 Michael Scott, 72
Leah, 305, 322 Milan, speech of, 54; 236
Legenda Aurea, 7 Milotti, Fiduccio, 327
Leo III, Pope, 236 Milton, John, quoted, 2; 253
Lethe, river, 309, 30, 32, 35, 39 Mincio, river, 7
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 49 Minos, 3–32, 35, 40, 70, 94, 200, 247
Libicocco, 77 Mocato, Mino, 56
Limbo, 79, , 20, 122–130, 42, 74, 29, 265, Montaperti, battle of, 36–37, 45, 54, 59, 220,
339, 363, 403 242
Linus, 29 Montefeltre, 8
Lisetta, 56 Montefeltro, Buonconte, Guido da see
Livy, 38, 6, 78, 79, 8 Buonconte da Montefeltro
Loderinto di Landolo, 8 Monteriggioni, castle, 22
Lombaro, Marco see Marco Lombardo Morrone, Pietro see Celestine V, Pope
Lorenzo da Ponte, 25–26 Mosca dei Lamberti, 203
Louis VIII, 33 Moses, 26, 237, 407
Louis of Bavaria, 244, 326 Mucius, 80
Love, personified, 0, 4, 20 Mugello, 44, 45
Lucan, 7, 38, 6, 9, 93, 7, 26–28, 42, 70, 85, Myrrha, 209, 24
88, 23, 24, 25, 229, 245, 248, 293
Lucca, speech of, 56; 75, 76, 77, 24 Narcissuss, 342
Lucia, Lucy, St, 5, 74, 77, –2, 268–269 narcotics, 0, 338–340, 373–374, 376, 408
Lucifer, 5, 23, 40, 227–233, 245, 385 Nasidius, 88
Lucrece, 28 Navarre, 78
Luke, St, 240 Navigatio Brendani see Voyage of St Brendan
Lunigiana, the, 02 Nebuchadnezzar, 338–339
Nessus, 57
Macareus, 95–96 Neutral Angels, 23, 245–246, 293
Maccarius, 369 Niccolo da Prato, Cardinal, 47; letter to, 48–49;
Mahomet, 20, 202, 204, 34 failure of, 49; 77, 242
Malacoda, 76, 77 Nicholas III, Pope, 65–66, 243
Malaspina, Currado, 03, 266, 267–268 Nicholas IV, Pope, 4
Malaspina, Franceschino, 02, 267 Nile, river, 95; valley of, 230
Malaspina, Moroello, 02–04, 267 Nimrod, 22–23, 24
Malatesta, Gianciotto, 33, 36–37, 29 Noah, 26, 224
Malatesta, Paolo, 33–37 Nogaret, Guillaume de, 46, 47
Malatestino, 203
Manfred, King, 8, 255–257 Ocnus, 72–73
Mangona, counts of, 28–29, 220 Oderisi da Gubbio, 8, 5, 272–274, 276
Manto, 70–73 Odysseus, 07; see also Ulysses
Mantua, 70–7, 72, 262–263, 335 Odyssey, 94, 95
Marcia, 93, 28, 248–249 Oedipus, 93
Marco Lombardo, 86, 281–284 Onesto, 57
Marco Polo, 246 Ordelaffi, Scarpetta, 45, 50, 56, 72
Martel, Charles, 33, 66, 68, 73 Orosius, 38, 6, 33, 35
Martianus, Capella, 3 Orpheus, 69–70, 07, 29
Martin IV, Pope, 39 Orsini, Nicholas, Pope see Nicholas III, Pope
Mascheroni, Sassol, 29 Ovid, 7, 6, 69, 7, 26–28, 29, 63, 70, 85,
Matilda, 306, 30, 32, 33, 35, 317–323, 40 88, 195–197, 23, 25, 229, 233, 245, 293
Matteo of Acquasparta, Cardinal, 36
Matthew, St, 338 Padua, 9; speech, of, 54, 56; 24
Medea, 63 Papacy, transference to Avignon, 69, 35, 369,
 INDEX 465

385; greed of, 283, 284 Proverbs, 79–80

Papal Jubilee, 38–39, 62 Psalm 0, 25
paper making, 9–20 Ptolemy, 7, 29
Paris, city of, 377 Ptolemy, captain of Jericho, 225
Paris of Troy, 32 Puccio dei Galigai, 87, 89, 9
Parma, 72, 24 Pythagoras, 3, 48
Parzifal, 23
Paul, St, story of visit to Hell, 105–107; 08, Quadrivium, 7, 8
09, 0, 20, 22, 3, 32, 44, 45, 85, 33;
sight healed by Ananias, 38; 392; Letter Rachel, 305, 322
to Romans, 88; Letter to Corinthians, 338; Raphael, Archangel, 344
Letter to Ephesians, 338, 354 Ravenna, 7, 33, 36, 37, 327–328, 340, 356, 368,
Pavia, 53, 67, 240 387, 403, 4, 43, 44
Penelope, 94, 97 Remigio dei Girolami, 8
Penthesilea, 28 Remus, 7
Pepin, 34 Rhipeus, 364–365
Perini, Dino, 327 Riccobaldo, 32
Peschiera, 7 Richard of St Victor, 338, 407–408
Peter, St, 65, 67, 239, 292, 39, 34, 377; Rimini, 33, 34, 36, 203
examines Dante, 378; denunciation of Rinieri da Calboli, 279
Boniface, 384–486 Robert, King of Naples, 234, 235, 24, 242
Petrarch, Francesco, 50, 57, 353, 43 Roland, 2
Phaedra, 356, 40 Romagna, types of dialect, 56; 65, 04, 8,
Phaethon, 6 99–200, 202, 226
Philip IV, King of France, 4, 45–47, 234, 24, Romagnoles, 280
364, 369 Rome, 38–39; speech of, 54; 355
Philosophy see donna gentile Romualdus, 369
Phlegyas, 40, 4 Romulus, 80, 7
Pia dei Tolomei, 26 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 30
Pier delle Vigne, 50, 151–153 Rossetti, William, 30
Piero da Medicina, 202–203 Rudolph, Emperor, 244, 265
Pietra, poems, 303 Rubican, river, 77, 78
Pietrapana, Mount, 28 Rusticucci, Jacopo, 59, 60
Pilate, 238
Pillars of Hercules, 96, 97 Sabellus, 88
Pisa, baptismal font, , 4; 49; speech of, 54; 56, Sacchetti, Brodario, 206
22; reviled, 224; 24, 242, 279, 353 Saladin, 28
Pisani, Giovanni, Nicola, 242, 27–272 Sallust, 38
Pistoia, 49, 85–86 Salvani, Provenzano, 274, 275
Plato, 29, 344, 39 San Gimignano, 5
Plutus, 40, 44 San Godenzo, 44, 45
Po, river, 33, 7 San Miniato, 276
Poggi, Andrea, 3, 50, 43 San Vitale, 352
Poggi, Leone, 3 San Zeno, church of, 5
Pola, 50 Sapia, 278
Polynices, 93, 27 Sardinia, speech, of, 54; 78, 226
Polyphemus, 95 Sarzana, 36, 02, 03, 04, 237
Pompey, 28, 70, 248 Satan see Lucifer
Poppi, castle, 04, 237, 260 Scala, Bartolommeo della, 45, 47, 50, 65, 324
Portinari, Folco, 6; death of, 6, 28 Scala, Can Grande della, ‘epistle’ to, 70, 8,
Portinari, Manetto, Ricovero, 6 335–340; 24, 280, 324–329, 348, 356, 406, 4
Portinari, Beatrice see Beatrice dei Portinari Scarmiglione, 77
Potiphar, 208 Scipio Africanus, 28, 25
Prato, speech of, 54; 9, 92 Screen-Love, 20, 2–22
Primum Mobile, 70, 73, 387, 390, 396 Scrovegni Chapel, 9, 47
Priscian, 7, 56 Scrovegni, Enrico, 45, 46, 47
Provençal, 2, 9, 53, 66, 77, 05, 204, 245 Scrovegni, Rinaldo, 47, 60–6
Provence, 0, 7, 33, 353 Semiramis, 32
466 DANTE: THE POET, THE POLITICAL THINKER, THE MAN

Seneca, 29 Veltro, enigma of, 79, 83–84, 118–120, 73, 36,
Serchio, river, 75 404
Serego–Alighieri, descendants, 7 Venedico di Caccianemico, 02, 62
Shakespeare, William, 62, 274 Venetia, 65, 8
Siena, 4, 7, 43; speech of, 56; 59, 242 Vengeance, the Just, 35–352
Signorelli, Luca, 7 Venice, speech of, 55; 75, 299, 4
Simon de Brie see Martin IV, Pope Ventura, Guglielmo, 38
Simon Magus, 66 Vercelli, 24
Simon de Montfort, 39 Vernani, Guido, 332, 44
Sinon, the Greek, 208, 20 Verona, 5, 45, 47, 50; speech of, 54; 56, 66, 9,
Socrates, 29 56, 7, 335
Solomon, 8 Vicenza, speech of, 56; 24
Sordello, 2, 3, 244, 262–264, 265–266 Vieri dei Cerchi, 35
Spain, 6 Villani, Giovanni, 4, 5, 38, 05, 58, 43
Spoleto, speech of, 54 Virgil: CHIEF REFERENCES: 5, 7, 2, 38, 60, 6,
Statius, 7, 6, 63, 70, 24, 289–293, 299, 300– 74, 78, 79, 84, 9, 07, 08; mediaeval view of,
302, 304, 32, 35, 38, 40; see also Virgil 08–09; 0, , 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 2,
Susa, 236 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, 39,
Sychaeus, 32 40, 4, 42, 43, 44; lists the sins, 45–47;
5–52; 57, 58, 59; and sorcery, 69–73;
Tambernic, Mount, 28 76, 77; slides down slope with Dante,
Tarquinius Superbus, 28 79–80; his smile, 84; care for Dante, 84;
Tessa, Mona, 6 encouragement of Dante, 84; addresses
Thaïs, 64 horned flame, 93–94; his Lombard speech,
Thales, 29 99; reproach to Dante, 209; reassurance
Thebaid, 27, 22, 290, 29, 293 of Dante, 2; addresses Nimrod, 23; long
Thebes, 27 speech to Cato of Utica, 247–249; washes
Theodoric, 327 Dante’s face, 249; casts no shadow, 254;
Thibaut, King, 78 addresses souls, 255; reveals himself to
Tiberius, 350 Sordello, 263–264; brief speech to guardian,
Tiresias, 70 269; defines love, 286–288; revealed to
Tisiphone, 43 Statius, 290–293; 299, 300, 364; farewell of,
Tithonus, 268 305, 306–307; 36, 34, 354, 356, 364; salvation
Titus, Emperor, 35 of, 366; departure of, 399; 40
Torquatus, 80 Virgin Mary, 27, 47, 74, 76, 80, , 3; compline
Towcester, 4 hymn to, 265; 294, 34, 374–375, 400, 402–
Tractatus de Herbis, 339 403; as Augusta, 404; St Bernard’s prayer
Trajan, 27, 364–366 to, 405
Trent, speech of, 54; 7 Visconti, Nino, 22, 266–267
Treviso, speech of, 56 Vitaliano, 60
Trinity, Vision of, 408, 409–40 Viterbo, 24
Tristan, 32 Voyage of St Brendan, 23, 245, 246
Trivium, 7
Troy, 07, 72, 95, 208, 220, 355, 364 William II of Sicily, 364
Turin, speech of, 54; 236
Turnus, 240 Zama, battle of, 25
Tuscan, 55–56, 5, 99 Zanche, Michele, 78, 226
Tuscany, 47, 55, 65, 04, 85, 279–280 Zandonai, Riccardo, 37
Zeno, 29
Ubaldini, Ruggieri, Archbishop, 200, 22, 224
Uberti, Lapo degli, 45
Ugolino della Gherardesca, 50, 220–223; sons
and grandsons of, 222–223; 233
Ulysses, 07, 50, 193–198, 99, 246, 249

Valerius, 38
Vanni Fucci, 85–87, 90, 9