Authors: Dante
94–96.
The angelic choruses, responding to one another, sing glory to God while remaining fixed eternally in their circles.
For the program of song in the last
cantica
, see the note to
Paradiso
XXI.58–60.
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95.
Poletto (comm. to vv. 94–96) points out that Dante here uses the Scholastic Latin term
ubi
(“where,” with the sense of “place”), which he had three times previously “translated” into Italian (
dove
); see, among the forty appearances of that word in
Paradiso
, only those occurring at III.88, XII.30, XXII.147, and XXVII.109 (this fourth added by Bosco/Reggio [comm. to vv. 95–96]).
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97–129.
Beatrice here details the order of the angelic hierarchy, an order at variance from the one Dante had presented in
Convivio
(II.v.7–11). For
the source of that celestial plan, see the note to vv. 130–135 (and see the discussion in Pasquazi [Pasq.1972.1], pp. 375–78).
While he substantially alters his ordering of the angelic hierarchy from his presentation in
Convivio
, Dante remains firmly in disagreement with St. Thomas about a crucial detail, as Scott (Scot.2004.2), p. 109, takes care to point out. In the
Summa contra Gentiles
(III.1xxx.11), Thomas said that the angelic order of the Virtues was alone responsible for the movement of
all
the heavenly spheres, while Dante, first in
Convivio
(II.v.6) and then here, carefully associates a particular order of angels with a particular sphere, and goes on to say that the various angelic orders are the causes of the movements of the corresponding heavenly spheres (
Conv
. II.v.13; vv. 127–129).
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98–102.
The Seraphim and Cherubim, associated primarily with love and with knowledge, respectively, are seen as hurrying in their circling in order to resemble God more closely.
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103–114.
Four tercets are devoted to completing the discussion of the highest group of angels, adding one other to the Seraphim and Cherubim, the Thrones.
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103–105.
These other “loving spirits” (we note that both Seraphim
and
Cherubim are here associated, along with the Thrones, with loving [see the note to vv. 109–111]).
This tercet is problematic. But see Torraca’s solution (comm. to this tercet): The causal clause does not clarify the reason for the name “Thrones” (as most assume), but relates to God’s having completed the first triad of angels when He created the Thrones. Bosco/Reggio (comm. to verse 105) uneasily accept this saving understanding of what they consider an “infelice terzina” (infelicitous tercet).
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104.
The Thrones convey the judgments of God below, as Dante has explained in
Paradiso
IX.62. It seems possible that Dante thought of these first three orders as being particularly related to the Trinity, Love, Knowledge, and Divine Judgment, related to, in order, the Spirit, the Wisdom, and the Power of God. On the other hand, like the Trinity itself, each of the Persons (and each order of angels) has a triune identity along with its individual primary characteristic. There were in fact quite elaborate systems available relating each of the three main groups of angels to each of the three Persons of the Trinity.
Carroll (comm. to vv. 97–105) has a different understanding of the first three orders: “The Thrones are, as they are called elsewhere, ‘mirrors’ (
Par.
IX.61–63) by which the Divine judgments are flashed throughout the universe. These judgments, however, descend to the Thrones through the Seraphim and Cherubim, that is, through love and knowledge. The Thrones, therefore, are the
terminus
, so to speak, of the love and knowledge of God issuing in judgment. ‘The Seraphim,’ says Bonaventure, ‘contemplate the goodness of God, the Cherubim the truth, the Thrones the equity’ (
Compend. Theol. Veritatis
, II.12; St. Bernard,
De Consideratione
, V.4–5); and this equity contains the goodness and truth, the love and light, which flow down through the two higher Orders.”
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105.
The past definite tense of the verb
terminare
here is used in a dialectal form (as is
vonno
, with which it rhymes, in verse 103). In
De vulgari eloquentia
(I.xiii.2), Dante had disparaged this (Pisan) dialectal form of the past definite ending (
-onno
), as commentators (beginning with Andreoli [comm. to vv. 104–105]) have taken pleasure in pointing out. While both these words are forced by rhyme with (the apocopated form of
possono
)
ponno
, it seems evident that Dante enjoyed being forced into this “ungrammatical” posture (i.e., presenting himself as employing a surprisingly low vernacular). See the note to
Paradiso
XVII.127–129.
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106–108.
Now all three comprising the highest angelic triad are identified, not with love for, but with knowledge of, God.
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109–111.
This tercet offers apparent aid and comfort to those who propose a “Dominican” Dante, one who values knowledge over love. However, here the poet is saying that knowledge precedes love temporally, not that it is better than it. Clearly, we are meant to understand that, in a Christian soul, they work together. If not, the poet would have found a way to present the Cherubim as the highest order of angels.
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112–114.
See Grandgent (comm. to verse 114): “These are the ‘steps’: Grace begets good will, Grace and good will constitute desert, desert determines the degree of sight, and sight is the source of love.” He goes on by referring the reader to
Paradiso
XXIX.61–66 and Thomas,
ST
, I, q. 62, a. 4.
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115–126.
Where six tercets were lavished upon the first triad, the second two (Dominions, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels) receive only four altogether.
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115–120.
For a celebration of Dante’s wildly innovative use of metaphor in this passage, see “Un esempio di poesia dantesca (il canto XXVIII del
Paradiso
),” in Contini (Cont.1976.1), p. 213.
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116–117.
Unlike earthly springtimes, condemned to experience the mortal cycle when Aries becomes a constellation of the night sky in autumn, signaling the end of fruitfulness for the agricultural year, this “spring” is everlasting.
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118–120.
Scott (Scot.2004.2), p. 384, cites Bemrose (Bemr.1983.1), p. 85, n. 20, for the observation that, as far as he has found, no one before Dante had apparently ever joined the nine ranks of angels to nine particular spheres.
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118.
The word
sberna
we have translated as “sings” because to do it justice would have taken several words. It has been used in the last canto (
Par.
XXVII.141) with a slightly different spelling and where it means “unwinters,” as it also does here, but with the further latent sense of “to sing like birds welcoming the springtime.”
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121–123.
The second triad, composed of orders that have feminine nouns representing them in Latin and in Italian (Dominions, Virtues, Powers) are referred to as
dee
(goddesses).
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124–126.
The third triad (Principalities, Archangels, Angels) terminates this catalogue.
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127–129.
All these angelic orders look up; nonetheless, they have their effects below, all created things being affected by them.
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128.
The first commentator to object to the standard understanding of the verb form
vincon
as being not from
vincere
(conquer) but from
vincire
(bind) was apparently Torraca (comm. to vv. 127–129). Most contemporary commentators, if not all, accept his reading, as do we.
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130–135.
Dante had perhaps followed Gregory (
Moralia
XXXII.48) indirectly by following the version (Seraphim, Cherubim,
Powers, Principalities
, Virtues,
Dominions, Thrones
, Archangels, Angels) found in Brunetto Latini,
Tresor
(I.xii.5). (Oelsner [comm. to verse 133] was apparently the first commentator to discuss Dante’s reliance here on Brunetto.) Gregory,
in the
Homiliae
(XXXIV), had only two orders at variance from Dionysius’s, the order Dante employs here. See Tozer (comm. to verse 130): “Dionysius the Areopagite, the convert of St. Paul at Athens (Acts 17:34), was the reputed author of the
De Caelesti Hierarchia
, … In reality that work seems to have been written in the fifth or sixth century. It was translated from the original Greek into Latin by John Scotus Eriugena (Cent. IX), and became the textbook of angelic lore in the middle ages. The names of the Orders were derived from Scripture, for five of them, viz. Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, and Principalities, occur in St. Paul’s Epistles (cp. Romans 8:38 [Vulg.]; Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16), and the remaining four, viz. Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, and Angels, in other parts of the Bible; but the system which Dante here gives was due to the work just mentioned.” For Dante’s own earlier version, which is probably much more on the poet’s mind than Gregory’s, see
Convivio
II.v.7–11. This is a large “oops!” that has Dante laughing at himself even more than Gregory might be imagined as doing.
For an essay in English on the importance of Dionysius for Dante, see Gardner (Gard.1913.1), pp. 77–110. For the commentary to this canto that is fullest in terms of reference to the actual texts of Dionysius, see Aversano (Aver.2000.2), pp. 135–41.
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131.
Aversano (Aver.2000.2), p. 138, points out that Dante’s use of this term,
contemplar
, which surely has no need of any particular “source,” nonetheless reflects Dionsysius’s frequent use of it as a “technical term” for the highest form of contemplation.
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133–135.
Seem (Seem.2006.1), p. 79, points out that Isidore, who appears conjointly with Solomon in the heaven of the Sun, must similarly be laughing at himself, for he had expressed the opinion that Solomon was damned (
PL
XLII, p. 459).
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135.
Has Dante forgotten himself again? (See the note to
Par.
IX.119–123.) Porena (comm. to vv. 130–135) thinks Dante has nodded here. Bosco/Reggio (comm. to vv. 134–135) deal with the problem by claiming, less than convincingly, that the poet really meant Heaven in general, and not the Primum Mobile. The only way around the obstacle is to insist that Gregory, passing through this heaven on his way to his seat in the Rose, saw the image of the nine angelic orders present on this sphere as Dante did (see the note to vv. 13–15); however, this seems a forced argument.
Are we faced with another inconsistency that the poet would have cleared up had he lived long enough?
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136–139.
Beatrice concludes her lengthy speech, begun at verse 61. If, she advises Dante, it was a mortal, Dionysius, who informed humankind of these things, we earthlings should remember that he got his information from St. Paul (see Acts 17:34), who had himself been here. For the significance of Dante’s preference for Dionysius over Gregory (the authority of Pauline direct experience as told to a truthful
scriptor
as opposed to later gatherings of an encyclopedic kind), see Picone (Pico.2002.7), pp. 437–38, and Moevs (Moev.2005.1), p. 162.
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1–6.
Alison Cornish (Corn.1990.1 [repr. Corn.2000.2, pp. 119–41]) has furnished a bravura performance on this opening simile, connecting its consideration of a single moment separating two very different states (balance/imbalance) to the moment separating God’s creation of the angels from that of their first choices. See also Moevs (Moev.2005.1), pp. 151–60.
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