Authors: Dante
142–143.
See Moore (Moor.1903.1), pp. 95–101, for an extended presentation of what still coincides with the “standard” interpretation of this problematic expression. He shows that the Julian calendar, itself developed to adjust “seasonal slippage” of considerable extent, mismeasured the solar year by the one-hundredth part of a day. Richard Kay (Kay.2003.2) argues that, on the contrary, Dante refers to the hundredth part of a degree of sidereal movement.
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144.
For medieval views that the stars were involved in shaping these major human events, see Woody (Wood.1977.1).
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145–148.
The word
fortuna
, as only several earlier commentators have pointed out (e.g., the Anonimo Fiorentino and Tommaseo, both to vv. 145–148 [although both eventually hedge their bets]), here nearly certainly has the meaning “storm at sea.” In the nineteenth century, beginning with Andreoli (comm. to vv. 145–147), that became the dominant reading (and see Hollander [Holl.1969.1], pp. 181n., 190). Tommaseo (comm. to these verses) had previously cited an analogous passage (
Purg.
XXXII.116), “come nave in fortuna” (like a ship tossed in a tempest), which might have offered a clue to others. Perhaps the vastly different context of that passage (the nascent Church is being attacked by Roman emperors) is responsible for the failure of attention. However, for a recent and differing opinion, see Prandi (Pran.1994.1), p. 120, who does not consider pertinent the meteorological meaning of
fortuna
in this occurrence of the word; the same may be said of Antonelli (Anto.2002.1), pp. 422–23.
For notice of a similar and entirely relevant passage, see Scott (Scot.1996.1), p. 100, in his discussion of
Purgatorio
VI.76–78, pointing to
Epist
. VI.3: “… When the throne of Augustus is vacant, the whole world goes out of course, the helmsman and rowers slumber in the ship of Peter, and unhappy Italy, forsaken and abandoned to private control, and bereft of all public guidance, is tossed with such buffeting of winds and waves as no words can describe, …” (tr. P. Toynbee). See Tommaseo (comm. to these verses [and see the note to verse 148]), citing an earlier form of the image in a discussion of empire in
Convivio
IV.v.8. Kleinhenz (Klei.1986.2), pp. 229–30, thinks that the prophecy is of “a powerful temporal ruler.” Vazzana (Vazz.1989.1), p. 726,
sees the storm at sea as representing the next and very angry emperor, “un nuovo Scipione, salvatore armato” (a new Scipio, a savior in arms).
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146.
For some of the earlier presences (there are six of them in all) of the word
poppa
, signifying “poop deck,” see the note to
Purgatorio
XXX.58. And here
prora
, of which this is the fifth and final appearance (see
Inf.
VIII.29 and XXVI.141;
Purg.
XXX.58;
Par.
XXIV.68), joins its naval counterpart for a shared final appearance.
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148.
The canto ends with a corrective return to the image of failed fruition (found in verse 126). We are promised that the eventual imperial reemergence, latent in history (one perhaps thinks of the model represented by
kairos
, the “fullness of time” in the coming of Christ during the
Pax romana
), will be, amazing even to Dante, fulfilled before our very eyes. This underlying reference had already been precisely expressed in
Convivio
IV.v.8: “Nor was the world ever, nor will it be, so perfectly disposed as at the time when it was guided by the voice of the one sole prince and commander of the Roman people [Augustus], as Luke the Evangelist testifies. Since universal peace reigned everywhere, which it never did before nor ever shall again, the ship of human society was speeding on an even course directly toward its proper port” (tr. R. Lansing). This is, “reading Dante through the lens of Dante” (see the last paragraph of the note to vv. 67–72), perhaps the single best gloss to this difficult passage, even if it appears to have been cited only by Tommaseo (see the note to vv. 145–148). Much has recently been written about Dante’s rejection of the values he espoused in his earlier works, particularly
Convivio
(see the notes to
Par.
VIII.34–39 and XVIII.91–93). While it seems nothing less than obvious, to any sort of objective examination that this is true, it surely needs also to be observed that such retrospective change of heart is not total. These notes refer to the minor works frequently, and to the
Convivio
most frequently (roughly one hundred times). In some respects it was the pre-study for
Paradiso
(see the note to
Par.
III.91–96), embodying several of its major themes and images (centrally, the intellectual banquet [the “bread of angels”]). Thus, while some of its matter may have been “heretical” from the standpoint of the author of the later poem, many of its judgments, particularly in the fourth treatise, in which the
Convivio
changed its course dramatically, now embracing Roman history as one of its new themes, are exactly as we find them in
Paradiso
(see Hollander [Holl.2001.1], pp. 86–90).
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1–3.
This retrospective opening tercet reminds us that, if humanity is in parlous condition (cf.
Par.
XXVII.127–141, Beatrice’s lament for our lost innocence), the protagonist’s guide has prophesied better times to come (
Par.
XXVII.142–148). Dante’s gaze, in this canto, will also reflect a double focus, first fixing on Beatrice’s mirroring eyes, and then behind him on what they reflect, God and the angels, themselves as seen, we are perhaps to understand, reflected on the convex outer surface of the Crystalline Sphere (see the note to vv. 13–15).
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2.
Contini (Cont.1968.1), p. 1002, insists on the importance of the word “vero” (true) and the concept of truthfulness to this canto; it is, in his opinion, its “parola chiave”; indeed a major portion of his
lectura
(pp. 1002–12) is a meditation in this vein.
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3.
See Bosco/Reggio (comm. to this verse), who claim that we may read Beatrice here either allegorically (as “Theology”) or literally (as herself). They, doubtless wisely, prefer the second understanding; nonetheless, some readers may find it a bit disquieting to discover intelligent critics even raising the possibility, so near the final vision, of “poets’ allegory” being used as an interpretive tool for what the poet presents as being both actual and experienced.
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4–9.
This return to the conditions of the experiment alluded to in the second canto (see the note to
Par.
II.94–105) shows how captious some readers are in their insistence that Dante deliberately presents that experiment as being literally impossible. Such a reader will once again object that, if the flame is behind the subject’s back, it cannot be reflected in a mirror set directly in front of him. And once again a less positivistic reader will realize that, if the flame is, for instance, only a few centimeters above the observer’s head (as it is in the reproduction of a fifteenth-century illustration of the experiment [see Boyd.1995.1, p. 15)]), the result will be as Dante says. In any case, this is a poem and not a physics lab. And yet we should realize that Dante only says “behind” (
dopo, retro
) the observer, without in any way suggesting that the flame might not be visible from a point directly in front of him.
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4.
A
doplerus
was a torch formed by twisting two candles together. Picone (Pico.2002.7), p. 433, adduces Guinizzelli’s previous use (in the
third stanza of his
canzone
“Al cor gentil,” well known to Dante) of a slightly different Italian form,
doplero
.
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8–9.
See Bosco/Reggio (comm. to these verses). In our translation we have not followed their suggestion that the only exact “fit” would be between a note that is sung and also played in instrumental accompaniment. Aside from Gabriele (comm. to verse 9), who shrugs the verse away with the description “a very ugly comparison,” most commentators struggle with these lines, until Porena (comm. to these verses) sees that all previous attempts at suggesting resemblance (e.g., singing with its accompaniment, song with its meter, words with their music, etc.) are not as precise as the image to which this musical analogue is likened, the reflection of a thing in a mirror.
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10–12.
Psaki (Psak.1995.1), p. 426, is eloquent defending Dante’s right to present Beatrice’s sexual being as somehow
still
being a part of her attraction for him. The problem with her argument is that this text is clearly past-oriented, the verb
fece
(past definite) in evident contrast with the present tense of Dante’s coinage
imparadisa
(imparadises). The girl toward whom he had been drawn sexually had turned out to be valuable for other and (in this poem) better reasons.
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12.
For this use of the word
corda
(cord, here translated “snare”) as having only metaphorical valence as a “simbolo di virtù” (symbol of virtue), see Padoan (Pado.1974.1), p. 177n. He says that this usage is found also at
Inferno
XVI.106 (the famous, or infamous, “cord” that holds Dante’s garments together and is used by Virgil as an invitation and challenge to Geryon) and
Purgatorio
VII.114 (where Pedro III of Aragon is “girt with the cord of every virtue,” perhaps the only occurrence in which Padoan’s formulation really works). However, it is not clear that the word in any of these appearances has only a metaphorical sense.
In the thirteen presences of the word
corda
in the poem, five times it refers to a bowstring; three times, to the strings of musical instruments; once, to the cords on a whip. That leaves one other form of
corda
that seems identical with (or at least highly similar to) Padoan’s three:
Paradiso
XXVI.49, the cords (
corde
) of love that draw us after it. And that seems to be the same (or a closely related) meaning as is found here.
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13–15.
Exactly what Dante sees reflected in Beatrice’s eyes is a matter of considerable dispute, although some commentators have possibly begun to sever the Gordian knot. Torraca (comm. to this tercet) was perhaps the
first to realize that God and his angels have not descended to this sphere from the Empyrean, if without specifying how it is exactly that they are seen here. Sapegno (comm. to vv. 13–16) improves that formulation, insisting that the protagonist sees God and the angels in the Empyrean
through
the perfectly transparent sphere of the Primum Mobile. This view has the benefit of keeping God and his angels where they belong (in the “tenth heaven”), but does not do very well by the poet’s insistence that he saw them “in quel volume” (in [or “on”] that revolving sphere). The fullest and best discussion of the problem, one that is aware of the pitfalls into which all his precursors have slipped, is that of Siro Chimenz (comm. to this tercet). He gets all the details right, but in the end confesses that he simply cannot come up with a solution. See the note to the opening tercet of this canto for an attempt at a resolution: Dante portrays the surface of the Primum Mobile as where the highest realities of all, God and His angelic partners in creation, are visible. In support of this hypothesis, we might consider the fact that the introductory simile itself speaks of a reflection (in Beatrice’s mirroring eyes). That, in turn, may be considered (if this hypothesis is correct) a reflection of a reflection. Possible confirmation is found in
Paradiso
XXX.106–108, where the Rose is presented as a self-reflection off the convex surface of the Primum Mobile.
Bosco/Reggio (comm. to this tercet) point out that the commentators are confused by this apparently simple utterance. How can God and the angels be present
in the Crystalline Sphere
anytime one looks intently into it? It is not easy to see how or why they, Bosco/Reggio continue, would now or ever descend to this sphere (despite, they might have added, the descent of the Church Triumphant in Canto XXIII), nor how any other hypothesis might account for the apparition (e.g., a vision, an allegory, some sort of unusual perception). Our hypothesis is as follows: Dante looks from a mirror (Beatrice’s eyes) into a second “mirror” (the convex
surface of the Crystalline Sphere) where first the Point and then the angelic circlings are what he sees, painted, as it were, upon the surface of this Primum Mobile, the circling of which moves all the universe by its influence. Cf.
Paradiso
I.1–3: “La Gloria di colui che tutto move / per l’universo penetra, e risplende / in una parte più e meno altrove” (The glory of Him who moves all things / pervades the universe and shines / in one part more and in another less). God’s glory is to be considered as completely penetrating and at the same time visible here, in the first and purest sphere (and reflected least clearly of all by earth, spiritually even “denser” than the Moon, itself a less than perfect mirror, as we learned in
Paradiso
II). Seeing this highest and purest “universe,” God and his angels, on the surface of the Crystalline Sphere, the protagonist experiences the “copy” as though it were actually present. For possible confirmation of this view, see the note to
Paradiso
XXX.103–108.
Mellone (Mell.1989.1), pp. 733–34, demonstrates the congruence between the language of Alfragano (whose view is accepted and cited by Giovanni di Sacrobosco) and that of Dante here. Alfragano presents the earth as a tiny point in relation to even the smallest star that can be seen from earth. In Mellone’s judgment, Dante has deliberately misapplied the astronomer’s picture of our physical universe to God’s spiritual one.
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