Authors: Dante
47.
Zephyr is the west wind. For the association of Dominic with the west and Francis with the east, see Bertoldi (Bert.1913.1), p. 47, n. 27, adding the details that for Dante, the Florentine, the main Dominican
church (S. Maria Novella) was situated in the western part of the city, while the main Franciscan church (S. Croce) was located in eastern Florence.
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49–51.
Torraca (comm. to vv. 56–57) thinks that the waves are found on the surface of the Ebro, the river running two miles from Dominic’s native city, an argument contested vigorously by Bertoldi (Bert.1913.1), pp. 45–46, who supports the early commentators’ belief that the reference is to the Atlantic Ocean. Others specify the Bay of Biscay. After Scartazzini (comm. to vv. 49–51), however, the ruling understanding is that the passage refers to this smaller body of water.
The sun hides itself from human sight when, at or near the summer solstice, it sets beyond the sight of those on land, because it has moved so far out over the Atlantic. For Dante, we must remember, to the west of the Gates of Hercules lies “the world where no one lives” (
Inf.
XXVI.117).
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52.
Calaruega (“Calaroga,” in Dante’s Italian), a small town in Castile, “fortunate” in having been the birthplace of Dominic.
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53–54.
“The royal arms of Castile show a castle in the second and third quarters, and a lion in the first and fourth. Thus on one side of the shield the lion is subdued by the castle, and on the other subdues it” (Oelsner, comm. to these verses). The images represent the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, respectively.
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55.
The vocabulary of feudal times (
drudo
, “vassal”) combines with that of erotic poetry (
amoroso
, “loving”) to interrupt the military associations of Dominic, and eventually presents him, like Francis, as a “husband” (see verse 61,
sponsalizie
, “nuptials”). The word
drudo
, a triple hapax, that is, a word appearing once in each
cantica
(see Hollander [Holl.1988.3] for a listing of all examples of this phenomenon in the poem), occurs previously in
Inferno
XVIII.134 and
Purgatorio
XXXII.155, in both cases referring to a male partner in an illicit sexual liaison, in the first case, the man sleeping with the whore Thaïs; in the second, the giant beating his harlot, the Church in its Avignonian captivity. Thus its context in the poem works against those who would read Dante’s treatment of Dominic as sugar-coated (see the note to verse 57).
The new interpretation of the second scene offered by Bognini (Bogn.2007.1) does not change the valence of the preceding remark, but does alter the identities of the “actors” in the pageant in
Purgatorio
XXXII. In a new (and entirely convincing) reading of the major characters in that
scene, Bognini demonstrates that the whore is Ezechiel’s Jerusalem and thus Dante’s Florence, while the giant reflects Goliath as Robert of Anjou, the king of Naples and the Guelph leader in Italy, prime enemy of Henry VII.
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56.
If Francis is presented as a lover, Dominic is (here) presented as a fighter, but even here he is first described (verse 55) as
l’amoroso drudo
. See the note to verse 55.
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57.
Spiazzi (Spia.1989.1), pp. 339–41, thinks that the word
crudo
(cruel) is uncalled for, and he sets off on a lengthy defense: St. Dominic was in fact, and despite his crusading spirit, the most mild-mannered person imaginable. However, others take this verse at face value, and see its pertinence to Dominic’s labors against the Cathars (e.g., Ghisalberti [Ghis.2002.1], pp. 184–86), during the period 1203 to 1210, when Dominic moved from preaching and debate to more violent means; but even Ghisalberti insists on the predominance of the “sweet” approach. Others have been less tolerant of Dominic’s behavior. This is the last of thirteen appearances of the adjective
crudo
in the poem (leaving to one side the related words
crudele, crudeltà
, etc.); in none of the preceding dozen presences of the word does it have a mitigated meaning. As a result, the motives of those who argue for such mitigation here seem suspect. Dominic, as presented by Dante, is a tough warrior whom he goes out of his way also to present as a “lover.”
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58–60.
The embryonic mind of Dominic was so powerful that it could send concepts (or at least images) to the mother who was bearing him. In this way he lent his mother the gift of prophecy. The early commentators are frequently misled, and think the reference of “lei” is not to the mother but to Dominic’s
mente
in the preceding line, thus making a prophet of
him
. However, legend has it that, before his birth, his mother had a dream of a black-and-white dog who carried a torch in its mouth, which set fire to the whole world. That is what most of its interpreters today believe is referenced in the line, the mother’s vision of her unborn son’s wide effect on humanity. Since the colors of the habits of the Dominicans are black and white and since an easily available pun (
Domini canes
= the dogs of God) was in circulation at the time and was included in the first official “Life” of Dominic (by Teodorico d’Appoldia), the dream became a permanent piece of Dominican lore.
Frequent in discussions of this passage are citations of Isaiah 49:1, “Dominus ab utero vocavit me” (The Lord has called me from the womb); but see also Luke 1:15, “Spiritu Sancto replebitur adhuc ex utero matris suae” (and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his
mother’s womb), describing John the Baptist, referred to by Di Biase (Dibi.1992.1), p. 40n. (first cited by Tommaseo [comm. to vv. 58–60]).
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63.
A difficult line to translate convincingly, partly because the noun
salute
has different meanings in Dante. In Dominic’s case, he will find
salvation
in his faith; he cannot “save” her, but he does keep her
safe
from heresy. Vellutello’s gloss (comm. to vv. 61–66) has guided us as far as the sense is concerned: “because he saved the Faith, battling for it against heretics, and she in turn kept him safe.”
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64–66.
A woman present at the baptismal ceremony, the child’s godmother, answers (saying “I do”) for the child when the priest asks whether he or she wishes to be baptized.
Dominic’s godmother dreamed that he appeared with a bright star in his forehead that illumined the world; his “heirs” are, obviously, his fellow Dominicans.
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67–69.
The riddling diction yields its meaning after only a little effort. As Tozer (comm. to this tercet) unravels it: “An inspiration from Heaven (
Quinci
) was communicated to his parents to name him by the possessive adjective (viz.
Dominicus
) derived from the name of the Lord (
Dominus
), who possessed him entirely.”
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67.
The word
costrutto
has caused a certain difficulty. In modern Italian it means “sense, meaning,” but that meaning is not easily assigned to the word here. Tozer (comm. to vv. 67–69) sorts things out as follows: “… ‘that he might be in name what he was in reality’;
costrutto
: ‘the form of his name’; similarly in
Purg.
XXVIII.147
costrutto
means ‘a form of words’ or ‘sentence’: and in
Par.
XXIII.24
senza costrutto
is ‘without putting it into words.’ ”
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68.
From the Empyrean (and not this heaven of the Sun), the text suggests, the Holy Spirit inspired the baby’s parents to call him “Dominicus” (
Domini
-cus—the Latin for his name, Domenico [from the possessive form of the noun
Dominus
, the Lord]).
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71–75.
This is the first set of the so-called Cristo rhymes. There will be three others, occurring in
Paradiso
XIV.104–108, XIX.104–108, and XXXII.83–87. For a valuable early study of this phenomenon, see
Francesco D’Ovidio (Dovi.1901.1). It is clear that, for Dante’s purposes, no other word is good enough to rhyme with “Christ,” who is the Word. For the next tercet that contains the word
Cristo
four times, see
Paradiso
.
Porena (comm. to vv. 73–78) holds that D’Ovidio was correct to argue that the word
Cristo
is allowed to rhyme only with itself because, as a penitential gesture, Dante wants to undo the scabrous act he had perpetrated when, in one of his sonnets attacking Forese Donati’s behaviors, he had rhymed the name of the Lord with
tristo
(distraught) and
malo acquisto
(ill-gotten gains).
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71–72.
The chore given Dominic to perform can hardly fail to remind a Christian reader of the task that Adam and Eve were given and failed to perform, to dress and keep the garden. See Genesis 2:15.
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74–75.
What exactly was Christ’s “first counsel” to his followers? In the past one hundred years there has been continuing and uncertain discussion of this seemingly simple question. But it was not always thus. Almost every early commentator seizes on the same biblical passage, Matthew 19:21, Christ’s advice to the rich young man to sell all that he possesses, give the proceeds to the poor, and then follow Him. For a summarizing sense of nearly six hundred years of near-total agreement, see Oelsner (comm. to verse 75): “The counsel of poverty (Matth. 19:21, whence the phrase ‘counsels of perfection’). Thomas Aquinas, while distinguishing between the
precepts
and the
counsels
of Christ, says that the latter may all be reduced to three—Poverty, Continence, and Obedience. The first counsel, then, is Poverty.”
The problem of the precise reference in verse 75 is complicated by the neighboring presences of two instances of the adjective
primo
(first). Are they used as synonyms, in both cases having a temporal relevance, or not? We think that they are, and thus have translated as we have (“since the first love manifest in him / was for the initial precept taught by Christ”). Some, however, believe that the first
primo
is temporal, that the second has to do with order of importance, that is, the most important of Christ’s teachings, which would offer a bit more latitude as one searched through the Gospels. If we are correct, what then is “the initial precept” taught by Jesus? (Salsano, “consiglio,”
ED
II [1970], p. 159b, understands
consiglio
to equate with “precetto divino.”) That can in fact be the first Beatitude. Or, if Oelsner (see above) is correct, and Dante’s sense of the word
consiglio
flows through St. Thomas’s distinction between it and “precept,” then the first “counsel” may indeed be thought of as accepting poverty, first among the three “counsels” of Christ, poverty, continence, obedience. Either way, poverty
is the issue focal to this line. This seems more than acceptable, since Dominic is presented as parallel in his virtues to Francis (Grandgent [comm. to verse 75] points out that vv. 73–75 of both cantos thus deal with poverty), since Dominicans as well as Franciscans took vows of poverty, and since the next tercet, although also less clear than some might like, would seem to associate him both with Francis and with poverty as well.
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76–78.
“For this have I come”: See Mark 1:38, “ad hoc enim veni,” as Jesus announces his intention to preach. The baby Dominic’s closeness to the earth reminds us of the similar association of Francis, indelibly associated with the dust at the end of his life (
Par.
XI.115–117). Poverty and humility, more usually associated with Francis, are both present in this vignette, as preconditions for Dominic’s preacherly calling.
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80–81.
Bosco/Reggio (comm. to these verses) say that Dante, in the life of Dominic by Theodoric of Appoldia, could have read that his mother’s name, Giovanna, meant “grace of God” or “full of grace.” Theodoric’s source (and Dante’s) may have been, says Torraca (comm. to vv. 79–81), Uguccione da Pisa.
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