Dante Alighieri The Complete Guide

Dante Alighieri
The Complete Guide
Contents
1
Main article
1.1
Dante Alighieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1
Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2
Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.5
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
Works in Latin
11
2.1
''De vulgari eloquentia'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.1.1
Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.1.2
Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.1.3
Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.1.4
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
2.1.5
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
2.1.6
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
''De Monarchia'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
2.2.1
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
2.2.2
Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
2.2.3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
2.2.4
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
2.2.5
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
''Eclogues' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
2.3.1
13
2.2
2.3
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Works in Italian
14
3.1
''La Vita Nuova'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
3.1.1
History and context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
3.1.2
Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
3.1.3
Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
3.1.4
Cultural references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
3.1.5
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
3.1.6
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
ii
CONTENTS
3.1.7
3.2
3.3
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
''Le Rime'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
3.2.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
3.2.2
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
''Convivio'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
3.3.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
3.3.2
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
3.3.3
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
Divine Comedy
18
4.1
''Divine Comedy'' (''Divina Commedia'') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
4.1.1
Structure and story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
4.1.2
Earliest manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
4.1.3
Earliest printed editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
4.1.4
Thematic concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
4.1.5
Theories of inuence from Islamic philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
4.1.6
Literary inuence in the English-speaking world and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
4.1.7
In the arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
4.1.8
Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
4.1.9
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
4.1.10 Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
4.1.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
''Inferno'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
4.2.1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
4.2.2
Nine circles of Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
4.2.3
Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
4.2.4
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
4.2.5
Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
4.2.6
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
''Purgatorio'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
4.3.1
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
4.3.2
Ante-Purgatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
4.3.3
Seven terraces of Purgatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
4.3.4
The Earthly Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
55
4.3.5
The Purgatorio in the arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
4.3.6
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
4.3.7
Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
4.3.8
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
''Paradiso'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
4.4.1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
4.4.2
The Spheres of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
4.4.3
The Empyrean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
66
4.2
4.3
4.4
CONTENTS
4.4.4
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
67
4.4.5
Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
67
4.4.6
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
68
Verses from the Divine Comedy
69
5.1
Pap Satn, pap Satn aleppe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
5.1.1
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
5.1.2
Possible explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
5.1.3
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
5.1.4
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
Raphl ma amche zab almi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
5.2.1
Context and content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
5.2.2
Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
5.2.3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
5.2
iii
Characters in the Divine Comedy
72
6.1
Alichino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
6.1.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
6.1.2
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
Barbariccia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
6.2.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
Ciampolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
6.3.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
6.3.2
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
Cocytus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
6.4.1
In literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
6.4.2
In The Divine Comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
6.4.3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
Corso Donati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
6.5.1
Bologna and Pistoia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
6.5.2
Leader of the Black Guelphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
6.5.3
Plots against the Black Guelphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
6.5.4
In literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
6.5.5
Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
6.5.6
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
Dis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
6.6.1
Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
6.6.2
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
6.6.3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
Eunoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
6.7.1
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
6.7.2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
iv
CONTENTS
6.8
Forese Donati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
6.8.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
Malacoda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
6.9.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
6.10 Malebranche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
6.10.1 In The Divine Comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
6.10.2 In popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.10.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.10.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.10.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.11 Malebolge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.11.1 The Malebranche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
6.11.2 The Ten Bolgias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
80
6.11.3 Sources and external links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81
6.12 Piccarda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81
6.12.1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81
6.13 Satan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81
6.13.1 Description of the Ninth Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
6.13.2 Contrapasso: The Poetic Justice of Satan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
6.13.3 Religious signicance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
6.13.4 Eects of Dantes Satan on the Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
6.13.5 Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
6.13.6 Works cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
6.14 Scarmiglione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
6.14.1 In popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
6.14.2 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
6.14.3 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
6.9
Insights into the Divine Comedy
85
7.1
''Contrapasso'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
85
7.1.1
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
85
List of cultural references in ''Divine Comedy'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
86
7.2.1
A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
86
7.2.2
B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
92
7.2.3
C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
94
7.2.4
D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
7.2.5
E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.2.6
F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.2.7
G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.2.8
H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.2.9
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.2
7.2.10 J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
CONTENTS
7.2.11 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.2.12 L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.2.13 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.2.14 N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.2.15 O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.2.16 P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2.17 Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.2.18 R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.2.19 S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2.20 T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.2.21 U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.2.22 V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.2.23 W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.2.24 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.2.25 Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.2.26 Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.2.27 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.2.28 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8
In popular culture
8.1
134
Dante Alighieri and the ''Divine Comedy'' in popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

8.1.1
Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.1.2
Animations, comics, and graphic novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.1.3
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.1.4
Digital arts and computer games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.1.5
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.1.6
Movies and television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.1.7
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.1.8
Radio shows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.1.9
Sculpture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.1.10 Visual arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

8.1.11 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
8.1.12 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.1.13 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.1.14 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.1.15 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.2
8.3
Dante crater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

8.2.1
Satellite craters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.2.2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Dante Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

8.3.1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.3.2
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
vi
CONTENTS
8.4
Italian battleship ''Dante Alighieri'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

8.4.1
Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.4.2
Construction and service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.4.3
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.4.4
Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.4.5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.4.6
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
People in Dantes life

9.1
9.2
9.3
151
Alighiero di Bellincione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

9.1.1
Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
9.1.2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Jacopo Alighieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

9.2.1
Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
9.2.2
Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
9.2.3
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Guido Cavalcanti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

9.3.1
Historical background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.3.2
The politics of Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.3.3
Dolce stil novo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3.4
Early poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3.5
Poetic maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
9.3.6
Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.3.7
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.3.8
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.3.9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.3.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

9.4
9.5
Brunetto Latini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

9.4.1
Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.4.2
Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.4.3
The Divine Comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.4.4
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.4.5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.4.6
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.4.7
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Beatrice Portinari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

9.5.1
Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.5.2
Beatrice and Dante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.5.3
In popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
9.5.4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
9.5.5
Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CONTENTS
10 Further reading
vii
162
10.1 Allegory in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

10.1.1 Four types of interpretation or allgoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.1.2 History of allegory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.1.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
10.1.4 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
10.1.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
165
11.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

11.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
11.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Chapter 1
Main article
1.1 Dante Alighieri
Early life
Dante was born in Florence, Republic of Florence,

For other uses, see Dante present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is generally believed to be around
1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic alluDurante degli Alighieri (Italian: [durante de al- sions in the Divine Comedy. Its rst section, the Inferno,
ijri]), simply called Dante (Italian: [dante], UK begins, Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita (Midway
/dnti/, US /dnte/; c. 1265 1321), was a major upon the journey of our life), implying that Dante was
Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, around 35 years old, since the average lifespan accordoriginally called Comeda (modern Italian: Commedia) ing to the Bible (Psalm 89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and
and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely con- since his imaginary travel to the nether world took place
sidered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian in 1300, he was most probably born around 1265. Some
verses of the Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy also
language and a masterpiece of world literature.[1]
provide a possible clue that he was born under the sign of
In the late Middle Ages, the overwhelming majority of Gemini: As I revolved with the eternal twins, I saw repoetry was written in Latin, and therefore accessible vealed, from hills to river outlets, the threshing-oor that
only to auent and educated audiences. In De vulgari makes us so ferocious (XXII 151154). In 1265, the sun
eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular), however, was in Gemini between approximately May 11 and June
Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature. He 11.[3]
himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works
such as The New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, although highly unorthodox,
set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. As a
result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing
the national language of Italy. Dantes signicance also
extends past his home country; his depictions of Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven have provided inspiration for a
large body of Western art, and are cited as an inuence
on the works of John Milton, Georey Chaucer and Lord
Alfred Tennyson, among many others. In addition, the
rst use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or
the terza rima, is attributed to him.
Dante redirects here.
(disambiguation).
Dante has been called the Father of the Italian language

and one of the greatest poets of world literature.[2] In
Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta (the
Supreme Poet) and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, and Boccaccio
are also called the three fountains or the three crowns.
1.1.1
Portrait of Dante, from a fresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence
Life
Dante claimed that his family descended from the an1
2
cient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relative
he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei
(Paradiso, XV, 135), born no earlier than about 1100.
Dantes father, Alaghiero[4] or Alighiero di Bellincione,
was a White Guelph who suered no reprisals after the
Ghibellines won the Battle of Montaperti in the middle
of the 13th century. This suggests that Alighiero or his
family may have enjoyed some protective prestige and
status, although some suggest that the politically inactive
Alighiero was of such low standing that he was not considered worth exiling.[5]
CHAPTER 1. MAIN ARTICLE

take any part in public life, one had to enroll in one of the
citys many commercial or artisan guilds, so Dante entered the Physicians and Apothecaries Guild. In the following years, his name is occasionally recorded as speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic. A
substantial portion of minutes from such meetings in the
years 12981300 was lost during World War II, however,
so the true extent of Dantes participation in the citys
councils is uncertain.
Gemma bore Dante several children. Although several

others subsequently claimed to be his ospring, it is likely
Dantes family had loyalties to the Guelphs, a political that only Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia were his
alliance that supported the Papacy and which was in- actual children. Antonia later became a nun, taking the
volved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who name Sister Beatrice.
were backed by the Holy Roman Emperor. The poets
mother was Bella, likely a member of the Abati family.[4]
She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Education and poetry
Alighiero soon married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo
Cialu. It is uncertain whether he really married her, Not much is known about Dantes education; he presumsince widowers were socially limited in such matters, but ably studied at home or in a chapter school attached to a
this woman denitely bore him two children, Dantes church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studhalf-brother Francesco and half-sister Tana (Gaetana). ied Tuscan poetry and that he admired the compositions
When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage to of the Bolognese poet Guido Guinizelliwhom in PurGemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Do- gatorio XXVI he characterized as his fatherat a time
nati, member of the powerful Donati family.[4] Contract- when the Sicilian school (Scuola poetica Siciliana), a culing marriages at this early age was quite common and in- tural group from Sicily, was becoming known in Tuscany.
volved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed be- His interests brought him to discover the Provenal poetry
fore a notary. But by this time Dante had fallen in love of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, and the Latin
with another, Beatrice Portinari (known also as Bice), writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and
whom he rst met when he was only nine. Years after his especially Virgil.
marriage to Gemma he claims to have met Beatrice again; Dante said he rst met Beatrice Portinari, daughter of
he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never mentioned Folco Portinari, at age nine, and claimed to have fallen
Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his mar- in love with her "at rst sight", apparently without even
riage is not known: the only certain information is that, talking with her. He saw her frequently after age 18, ofbefore his exile in 1301, he had three children (Pietro, ten exchanging greetings in the street, but never knew her
Jacopo and Antonia).[4]
well. In eect, he set an example of so-called courtly
love, a phenomenon developed in French and Provenal
poetry of prior centuries. Dantes experience of such love
was typical, but his expression of it was unique. It was
in the name of this love that Dante left his imprint on
the dolce stil novo (sweet new style, a term which Dante
himself coined), and he would join other contemporary
poets and writers in exploring never-before-emphasized
aspects of love (Amore). Love for Beatrice (as Petrarch
would show for Laura somewhat dierently) would be
his reason for poetry and for living, together with political passions. In many of his poems, she is depicted
as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritual instruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge in Latin literature. The Convivio chronicles his having read Boethius's
De consolatione philosophiae and Ciceros De Amicitia.
He then dedicated himself to philosophical studies at reDante in Verona, by Antonio Cotti
ligious schools like the Dominican one in Santa Maria
Novella. He took part in the disputes that the two prinDante fought with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of cipal mendicant orders (Franciscan and Dominican) pubCampaldino (June 11, 1289).[6] This victory brought licly or indirectly held in Florence, the former explaining
about a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To the doctrines of the mystics and of St. Bonaventure, the
1.1. DANTE ALIGHIERI
Illustration for Purgatory (Purgatorio) by Dor
Statue of Dante at the Uzi, Florence
latter expounding on the theories of St. Thomas Aquinas.

At 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino
da Pistoia and soon after Brunetto Latini; together they
became the leaders of the dolce stil novo. Brunetto later
received special mention in the Divine Comedy (Inferno,
XV, 28) for what he had taught Dante: Nor speaking less
on that account I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who
are his most known and most eminent companions. Some
fty poetical commentaries by Dante are known (the so- Illustration for Paradiso (of The Divine Comedy) by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Dor
called Rime, rhymes), others being included in the later
Vita Nuova and Convivio. Other studies are reported,
or deduced from Vita Nuova or the Comedy, regarding
1294 he was among the escorts of Charles Martel of Anpainting and music.
jou (grandson of Charles I of Naples, more commonly
called Charles of Anjou) while he was in Florence. To
further his political career, he became a pharmacist. He
Florence and politics
did not intend to practice as one, but a law issued in
1295 required nobles aspiring to public oce to be enFurther information: Guelphs and Ghibellines
rolled in one of the Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri,
so Dante obtained admission to the Apothecaries Guild.
Dante, like most Florentines of his day, was embroiled This profession was not inappropriate, since at that time
in the GuelphGhibelline conict. He fought in the books were sold from apothecaries shops. As a politician
Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Flo- he accomplished little, but held various oces over some
rentine Guelphs against Arezzo Ghibellines;[6][7] then in years in a city rife with political unrest.

the citys government had treated the Popes ambassadors
badly a few weeks before, seeking independence from papal inuence. It was believed that Charles had received
other unocial instructions, so the council sent a delegation to Rome to ascertain the Popes intentions. Dante
was one of the delegates.
Exile and death
Illustration for Paradiso (of The Divine Comedy) by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Dor
Dante Alighieri, detail from Luca Signorelli's fresco, Chapel of

San Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral
After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided

into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guel Bianchi)
Dantes party, led by Vieri dei Cerchiand the Black
Guelphs (Guel Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although the
split was along family lines at rst, ideological dierences
arose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine aairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the
Whites wanting more freedom from Rome. The Whites
took power rst and expelled the Blacks. In response,
Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip
IV of France, was expected to visit Florence because the
Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany. But
Pope Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates and

asked Dante alone to remain in Rome. At the same time
(November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois entered Florence
with the Black Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many of their enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed, and
Cante de' Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed podest of
the city. In March 1302, Dante, a White Guelph by aliation, along with the Gherardini family, was condemned
to exile for two years and ordered to pay a large ne.[8]
Dante was accused of corruption and nancial wrongdoing by the Black Guelphs for the time that Dante was
serving as city prior (Florences highest position) for two
months in 1300.[9] The poet was still in Rome in 1302
where the Pope, who had backed the Black Guelphs, had
suggested that Dante stay. Florence under the Black
Guelphs therefore considered Dante an absconder.[10]
Dante did not pay the ne, in part because he believed
he was not guilty and in part because all his assets in
Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was
condemned to perpetual exile; if he returned to Florence
without paying the ne, he could have been burned at
the stake. (In June 2008, nearly seven centuries after his
death, the city council of Florence passed a motion rescinding Dantes sentence.)[11]
He took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to
regain power, but these failed due to treachery. Dante,
bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, also
grew disgusted with the inghting and ineectiveness of
his erstwhile allies and vowed to become a party of one.
He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala,
then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later he is supposed
to have lived in Lucca with a woman called Gentucca,
who made his stay comfortable (and was later gratefully
mentioned in Purgatorio, XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and
1310, and other sources even less trustworthy took him to
Oxford: these claims, rst occurring in Boccaccio's book
on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired by
readers who were impressed with the poets wide learning
and erudition. Evidently, Dantes command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile and when
he was no longer busy with the day-to-day business of
Florentine domestic politics, and this is evidenced in his
prose writings in this period, but there is no real evidence
that he ever left Italy. Dantes Immensa Dei dilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg conrms his residence
beneath the springs of Arno, near Tuscany in March
A recreated death mask of Dante Alighieri in Palazzo Vecchio,

Florence
1311.
In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of
Luxembourg marched into Italy at the head of 5,000
troops. Dante saw in him a new Charlemagne who
would restore the oce of the Holy Roman Emperor
to its former glory and also retake Florence from the
Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian
princes, demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs.
Mixing religion and private concerns in his writings,
he invoked the worst anger of God against his city and
suggested several particular targets that were also his
personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote
De Monarchia, proposing a universal monarchy under
Henry VII.
At some point during his exile, he conceived of the Comedy, but the date is uncertain. The work is much more
assured and on a larger scale than anything he had produced in Florence; it is likely he would have undertaken
such a work only after he realized his political ambitions,
which had been central to him up to his banishment, had
been halted for some time, possibly forever. It is also noticeable that Beatrice has returned to his imagination with
renewed force and with a wider meaning than in the Vita
Nuova; in Convivio (written c.130407) he had declared
that the memory of this youthful romance belonged to the
past.
Statue of Dante in the Piazza di Santa Croce in Florence, Enrico

Pazzi, 1865
in 1314 or early 1315. Speaking of Virgil, Francesco

notes in appreciative words that Dante followed the Roman classic in a poem called Comedy and that the setting of this poem (or part of it) was the underworld; i.e.,
hell.[12] The brief note gives no incontestable indication
that he himself had seen or read even the Inferno or that
this part had been published at the time, but it indicates
composition was well under way and that the sketching
of the poem might have begun some years before. (It
has been suggested that a knowledge of Dantes work also
underlies some of the illuminations in Francesco da Barberinos earlier Ociolum [c. 130508], a manuscript
that came to light only in 2003.[13] ) We know that the Inferno had been published by 1317; this is established by
quoted lines interspersed in the margins of contemporary
dated records from Bologna, but there is no certainty as to
whether the three parts of the poem were each published
in full or, rather, a few cantos at a time. Paradiso seems
to have been published posthumously.
In Florence, Baldo d'Aguglione pardoned most of the
White Guelphs in exile and allowed them to return. However, Dante had gone too far in his violent letters to Arrigo
(Henry VII) and his sentence was not revoked.
In 1312 Henry assaulted Florence and defeated the Black

Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante was involved. Some say he refused to participate in the asAn early outside indication that the poem was under way sault on his city by a foreigner; others suggest that he
is a notice by Francesco da Barberino, tucked into his had become unpopular with the White Guelphs, too, and
Documenti d'Amore (Lessons of Love), written probably that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed.
6
Henry VII died (from a fever) in 1313, and with him any
hope for Dante to see Florence again. He returned to
Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to
live in certain security and, presumably, in a fair degree
of prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dantes Paradise (Paradiso, XVII, 76).
In 1315, Florence was forced by Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military ocer controlling the town) to grant
an amnesty to those in exile, including Dante. But for
this, Florence required public penance in addition to a
heavy ne. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile.
When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dantes death sentence was commuted to house arrest on condition that he
go to Florence to swear he would never enter the town
again. He refused to go, and his death sentence was conrmed and extended to his sons. He still hoped late in
life that he might be invited back to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly a form of
death, stripping him of much of his identity and his heritage. He addressed the pain of exile in Paradiso, XVII
(5560), where Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather,
warns him what to expect:

As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it as
if he had already accepted its impossibility (in Paradiso,
XXV, 19):
Alighieri accepted Prince Guido Novello da Polentas invitation to Ravenna in 1318. He nished Paradiso, and
died in 1321 (aged 56) while returning to Ravenna from
a diplomatic mission to Venice, possibly of malaria contracted there. He was buried in Ravenna at the Church
of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco).
Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice, erected a tomb for
him in 1483.
Dantes tomb in Ravenna, built in 1780
On the grave, some verses of Bernardo Canaccio, a friend

of Dante, dedicated to Florence:
parvi Florentia mater amoris
Florence, mother of little love
Legacy
The rst formal biography of Dante was the Vita di Dante
(also known as Trattatello in laude di Dante), written after
1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio;[14] Although several statements and episodes of it have been deemed unreliable
on the basis of modern research, an earlier account of
Dantes life and works had been included in the Nuova
Cronica of the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.[15]
Mural of Dante in the Uzi Gallery, by Andrea del Castagno, c.
1450
Florence eventually came to regret Dantes exile, and the

city made repeated requests for the return of his remains.
The custodians of the body in Ravenna refused, at one
7
The Divine Comedy describes Dantes journey through
Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise
(Paradiso); he is rst guided by the Roman poet Virgil
and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love (and of another of his works, La Vita Nuova). While the vision of
Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for most modern readers, the
theological niceties presented in the other books require a
certain amount of patience and knowledge to appreciate.
Purgatorio is arguably the most lyrical of the three, referencing more contemporary poets and artists than Inferno;
Paradiso is the most heavily theological, and the one in
which, many scholars have argued, the Divine Comedy's
most beautiful and mystic passages appear (e.g., when
Dante looks into the face of God: all'alta fantasia qui
manc possa"at this high moment, ability failed my
capacity to describe, Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).
Cenotaph in Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
point going so far as to conceal the bones in a false wall

of the monastery. Nonetheless, a tomb was built for him
in Florence in 1829, in the basilica of Santa Croce. That
tomb has been empty ever since, with Dantes body remaining in Ravenna, far from the land he had loved so
dearly. The front of his tomb in Florence reads Onorate
l'altissimo poetawhich roughly translates as Honor the
most exalted poet. The phrase is a quote from the fourth
canto of the Inferno, depicting Virgils welcome as he returns among the great ancient poets spending eternity in
limbo. The ensuing line, L'ombra sua torna, ch'era dipartita (his spirit, which had left us, returns), is poignantly
absent from the empty tomb.
On April 30, 1921, in honor of the 600th anniversary
of Dantes death, Pope Benedict XV promulgated an encyclical named In praeclara summorum, calling him one
of the many celebrated geniuses of whom the Catholic
faith can boast and the pride and glory of humanity.[16]
In 2007, a reconstruction of Dantes face was undertaken
in a collaborative project. Artists from Pisa University
and engineers at the University of Bologna at Forl constructed the model, portraying Dantes features as somewhat dierent from what was once thought.[17][18]
Dante, poised between the mountain of purgatory and the city of

Florence, displays the incipit Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra
vita in a detail of Domenico di Michelinos painting, Florence,
1465.
With its seriousness of purpose, its literary stature and

the rangeboth stylistic and thematicof its content,
the Comedy soon became a cornerstone in the evolution
of Italian as an established literary language. Dante was
more aware than most early Italian writers of the variety
of Italian dialects and of the need to create a literature
and a unied literary language beyond the limits of Latin
writing at the time; in that sense, he is a forerunner of the
Renaissance, with its eort to create vernacular literature
in competition with earlier classical writers. Dantes indepth knowledge (within the limits of his time) of Roman
antiquity, and his evident admiration for some aspects of
pagan Rome, also point forward to the 15th century. Ironically, while he was widely honored in the centuries after
his death, the Comedy slipped out of fashion among men
of letters: too medieval, too rough and tragic, and not
stylistically rened in the respects that the high and late
Renaissance came to demand of literature.
A celebration was held for the 750th anniversary of his

birth, in 2015.[19][20]
He wrote the Comedy in a language he called Italian,
in some sense an amalgamated literary language mostly
based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, but with some
1.1.2 Works
elements of Latin and other regional dialects. He deliberately aimed to reach a readership throughout Italy inSee also Works by Dante Alighieri
cluding laymen, clergymen and other poets. By creat-
8
ing a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he
established that the Italian language was suitable for the
highest sort of expression. In French, Italian is sometimes
nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the rst (among
others such as Georey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break free from standards of publishing in only
Latin (the language of liturgy, history and scholarship in
general, but often also of lyric poetry). This break set a
precedent and allowed more literature to be published for
a wider audience, setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future. However, unlike Boccaccio, Milton
or Ariosto, Dante did not really become an author read all
over Europe until the Romantic era. To the Romantics,
Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare, was a prime example of the original genius who sets his own rules, creates
persons of overpowering stature and depth, and goes far
beyond any imitation of the patterns of earlier masters;
and who, in turn, cannot truly be imitated. Throughout
the 19th century, Dantes reputation grew and solidied;
and by 1865, the 600th anniversary of his birth, he had
become established as one of the greatest literary icons
of the Western world.

to Cangrande I della Scala, the progression of the pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression
of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrims moral
confusion and ends with the vision of God.
Statue of Dante Alighieri in Verona
Dante Alighieri, attributed to Giotto, in the chapel of the Bargello

palace in Florence. This oldest picture of Dante was painted just
prior to his exile and has since been heavily restored.
New readers often wonder how such a serious work may

be called a "comedy". In the classical sense the word
comedy refers to works which reect belief in an ordered
universe, in which events tend toward not only a happy
or amusing ending but one inuenced by a Providential
will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this
meaning of the word, as Dante himself wrote in a letter
Dantes other works include Convivio (The

Banquet),[21] a collection of his longest poems with an
(unnished) allegorical commentary; Monarchia,[22] a
summary treatise of political philosophy in Latin which
was condemned and burned after Dantes death[23][24] by
the Papal Legate Bertrando del Poggetto, which argues
for the necessity of a universal or global monarchy in
order to establish universal peace in this life, and this
monarchys relationship to the Roman Catholic Church
as guide to eternal peace; De vulgari eloquentia (On the
Eloquence of Vernacular),[25] on vernacular literature,
partly inspired by the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal
de Bezaudun; and La Vita Nuova (The New Life),[26]
the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who also
served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy.
The Vita Nuova contains many of Dantes love poems
in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vernacular
had been regularly used for lyric works before, during all
the thirteenth century. However, Dantes commentary
on his own work is also in the vernacularboth in the
Vita Nuova and in the Convivioinstead of the Latin
that was almost universally used. References to Divina
Commedia are in the format (book, canto, verse), e.g.,
(Inferno, XV, 76).
1.1.3
Notes
[1] Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon.

[2] Haller, Elizabeth K. (2012). Dante Alighieri. In Matheson, Lister M. Icons of the Middle Ages: Rulers, Writers,
Rebels, and Saints 1. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. p.
244. ISBN 978-0-313-34080-2.
[3] His birth date is listed as probably in the end of May by
Robert Hollander in Dante in Dictionary of the Middle
Ages, volume 4. According to Boccaccio, the poet himself
said he was born in May. See Alighieri, Dante in the
Dizionario Biograco degli Italiani.
[4] Chimenz, S.A. Alighieri, Dante. Dizionario Biograco
degli Italiani (in Italian) (Enciclopedia Italiana). Retrieved
2016-03-07.
[5] Santagata, Marco (2012). Dante: Il romanzo della sua
vita. Milan: Mondadori. p. 21. ISBN 978-8804620266.
[6] Davenport, John (2005). Dante: Poet, Author, and Proud
Florentine. Infobase Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 978-14381-0415-7. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
[7] Guelphs and Ghibellines. Dante Alighieri Society of
Massachusetts. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
[8] Dino Compagni, Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne' tempi
suoi
[9] Robert Harrison, Dante on Trial, NY Review of Books,
19 Feb 2015, pp. 36-37
[10] Harrison, p. 36.
[11] Malcolm Moore Dantes infernal crimes forgiven, Daily
Telegraph, June 17, 2008. Retrieved on June 18, 2008.
[19] Messaggio del Santo Padre al Presidente del Ponticio

Consiglio della Cultura in occasione della celebrazione
del 750 anniversario della nascita di Dante Alighieri.
Press.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2015-0504. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
[20] Translator. Microsofttranslator.com. Retrieved 201510-21.
[21] Banquet. Dante online. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
[22] Monarchia. Dante online. Retrieved September 2,
2008.
[23] Anthony K. Cassell The Monarchia Controversy. The
Monarchia stayed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
from its inception until 1881.
[24] Giuseppe Cappelli, La divina commedia di Dante
Alighieri, in Italian.
[25] De vulgari Eloquentia.
September 2, 2008.
Dante online.
Retrieved
[26] New Life. Dante online. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
1.1.4 References
Allitt, John Stewart (2011). Dante, il Pellegrino (in
Italian) (Edizioni Villadiseriane ed.). Villa di Serio
(BG).
Teodolinda Barolini (ed.). Dantes Lyric Poetry: Poems of Youth and of the 'Vita Nuova'. University of
Toronto Press, 2014.
[12] See Bookrags.com and Tigerstedt, E.N. 1967, Dante;

Tiden Mannen Verket (Dante; The Age, the Man, the
Work), Bonniers, Stockholm, 1967.
Gardner, Edmund Garratt (1921). Dante. London:

Oxford University Press. OCLC 690699123. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
[13] Fabio M. Bertolo (2003). LOciolum ritrovato di

Francesco da Barberino. SpoliaJournal of Medieval
Studies. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
Hede, Jesper (2007). Reading Dante: The Pursuit

of Meaning. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN
9780739121962.
[14] Dante Alighieri. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved

May 2, 2010.
[15] Vauchez, Andr; Dobson, Richard Barrie; Lapidge,
Michael (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 1517.; Caesar,
Michael (1989). Dante, the Critical Heritage, 1314(?)
1870. London: Routledge. p. xi.
[16] "In praeclara summorum: Encyclical of Pope Benedict
XV on Dante. The Holy See. Retrieved Nov. 7, 2014.
[17] Pullella, Philip (January 12, 2007). Dante gets posthumous nose job 700 years on. Statesman (Reuters). Retrieved November 5, 2007.
[18] Benazzi, S (2009). The Face of the Poet Dante Alighieri,
Reconstructed by Virtual Modeling and Forensic Anthropology Techniques. Journal of Archaeological Science 36
(2): 278283. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.09.006.
Miles, Thomas (2008). Dante: Tours of Hell:

Mapping the Landscape of Sin and Despair. In
Stewart, Jon. Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Traditions. Ashgate. pp. 223236. ISBN
9780754663911.
Raa, Guy P. (2009). The Complete Danteworlds: A
Readers Guide to the Divine Comedy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226702704.
Scartazzini, Giovanni Andrea (18741890). La
Divina Commedia riveduta e commentata (4 volumes). OCLC 558999245.
Scartazzini, Giovanni Andrea (18961898). Enciclopedia dantesca: dizionario critico e ragionato di
quanto concerne la vita e le opere di Dante Alighieri
(2 volumes). OCLC 12202483.
10
Scott, John A. (1996). Dantes Political Purgatory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania

Press. ISBN 9780585127248.
Seung, T. K. (1962). The Fragile Leaves of the Sibyl:
Dantes Master Plan. Westminster, MD: Newman
Press. OCLC 1426455.
Toynbee, Paget (1898). A Dictionary of the Proper
Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante.
London: The Clarendon Press. OCLC 343895. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
Whiting, Mary Bradford (1922). Dante the Man and
the Poet. Cambridge: W. Heer & Sons. OCLC
224789.
Gunon, Ren (1925). The Esoterism of Dante,
trans. by C. B. Berhill, in the Perennial Wisdom
Series. Ghent, N.Y.: Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 1996. viii, 72 p. N.B.: Originally published
in French, entitled L'Esoterisme de Dant, in 1925.
ISBN 0-900588-02-0
1.1.5
External links
Dante Alighieri at DMOZ

Works by Dante Alighieri at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Dante Alighieri at Internet
Archive
Works by Dante Alighieri at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Dante Alighieri. Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Dante Museum in Florence: his life, his books
and a history & literature blog about Dante
The World of Dante multimedia, texts, maps,
gallery, searchable database, music, teacher resources, timeline
The Princeton Dante Project texts and multimedia
The Dartmouth Dante Project searchable database
of commentary
Dante Online manuscripts of works, images and text
transcripts by Societ Dantesca Italiana
Digital Dante Divine Comedy with commentary,
other works, scholars on Dante
Open Yale Course on Dante by Yale University
DanteSources project about Dantes primary sources
developed by ISTI-CNR and the University of Pisa
Works Italian and Latin texts, concordances and frequency lists by IntraText
Chapter 2
Works in Latin
2.1 ''De vulgari eloquentia''
2.1.2 Content
De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the vernacular)

is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although
meant to consist of four books, its writing was abandoned
in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly after Dante went into exile; internal evidence points to a date between 1302 and 1305.
In the rst book, Dante discusses the relationship between
Latin and vernacular, and the search for an illustrious vernacular in the Italian area; the second book is an analysis of the structure of the canto or song (also spelled
"canzuni" in Sicilian), which is a literary genre developed
in the Sicilian School of poetry.
In the beginning, Dante tackles the historical evolution

of language, which he thinks was born unitary and, at a
later stage, was separated into dierent idioms because
of the presumptuousness demonstrated by humankind at
the time of the building of the Tower of Babel. He
compiles a map of the geographical position of the languages he knows, dividing the European territory into
three parts: one to the east, with the Greek languages;
one to the north, with the Germanic languages, which he
believed included Magyar and Slavic languages; one to
the south, separated into three Romance languages identied by their word for 'yes: oc language, ol language
and s language. He then discusses gramatica grammar,
which is a static language consisting of unchanging rules,
needed to make up for the natural languages. In chapters ten to fteen of the rst book, Dante writes about his
search for the illustrious vernacular, among the fourteen
varieties he claims to have found in the Italian region. In
the second book, Dante deals with literary genres, specifying which are the ones that suit the vernacular.
Latin essays were very popular in the Middle Ages, but

Dante made some innovations in his work: rstly, the subject (writing in vernacular) was an uncommon topic in
literary discussion at that time. Also signicant was how
Dante approached this theme; that is, the argument for
giving vernacular the same dignity and legitimacy Latin
was typically given. Finally, Dante wrote this essay in
order to analyse the origin and the philosophy of the vernacular, because, in his opinion, this language was not 2.1.3 Models
something static, but something that evolves and needed
a historical contextualisation.
Dante takes inspiration from rhetorical essays in Latin,
Occitan, Sicilian, and Italian, and from philosophical
readings. The main classical rhetorical texts from which
he drew information were the Ars Poetica by Horace, the
Rhetorica ad Herennium by an anonymous author, and De
Inventione by Cicero. About the philosophical works, it
2.1.1 Structure
is important to know that Dante read not only rst hand
texts, but also summaries that sometimes were not of the
Dante interrupted his work at the fourteenth chapter of original work, but of an intermediary one. The inuence
the second book, and though historians have tried to nd a and importance of the contribution of the Sicilian lanreason for this, it is still not known why Dante so abruptly guage is emphasized by his assertion that the rst hunaborted his essay. Indeed it is an unnished project, and dred and fty years of Italian poetry was written in Sicilso information about its intended structure is limited. ian.
Though at some point, Dante mentions a fourth book in
which he planned to deal with the comic genre and the
mediocre style, nothing at all is known about the third
book. It is thought, however, that the rst book was meant
to be a sort of preface to the following three books, and
so shorter than the others.
The major Occitan work that inuenced Dante was probably Razos de trobar by the Catalan troubadour Raimon
Vidal de Bezaudun and the Vers e regles de trobar, an
amplication of Vidals manual, by Jofre de Foix.[1][2]
Both of these works were Occitan manuals of grammar for troubadour poetry. They implicitly and explic-
11
12
itly defended Occitan as the best vernacular for song and
verse, prompting Dante to come to the defence of his
beloved Tuscan tongue. The popularity of both singing
and composing in Occitan by Italians prompted Dante to
write: A perpetuale infamia e depressione delli malvagi
uomini d'Italia, che commendano lo volgare altrui, e lo
loro proprio dispregiano, dico...,[3] meaning To the perpetual shame and lowness of the wicked men of Italy, that
praise somebody elses vernacular and despise their own,
I say... ( Convivio, treatise I, XI )
CHAPTER 2. WORKS IN LATIN
2.2 ''De Monarchia''
De Monarchia (pronounced Monrkia) is a Latin treatise

on secular and religious power by Dante Alighieri. With
this text, the poet intervened in one of the most controversial subjects of his period: the relationship between
secular authority (represented by the Holy Roman Emperor) and religious authority (represented by the Pope).
Dantes point of view is known on this problem, since
during his political activity he had fought to defend the
Directly or indirectly, Dante came to read Saint Au- autonomy of the city-government of Florence from the
gustine's works, the De Consolatione Philosophiae by temporal demands of Pope Boniface VIII. The work was
[1]
Bothius, Saint Thomas Aquinas's works and some banned by the Catholic church in 1585.
encyclopedic dictionaries like the Etymologiae by Isidore
of Seville and the Livre du Tresor by Brunetto Latini. He
takes also inspiration from Aristotelian philosophy, and 2.2.1 Date
in Dantes work are traceable some references to texts
According to most accepted chronology, De Monarchia
by representatives of what is sometimes referred to as
was composed in the years 1312-13, that is to say the time
Radical Aristotelianism.
of Henry VII of Luxemburg's journey to Italy; according to another, the date of composition has to be brought
back to at least 1308; and yet another, moves it forward
2.1.4 Notes
to 1318, shortly before the authors death in 1321.
[1] Ewert, 357.
[2] Weiss, 160 n1.
2.2.2 Argument
It is made up of three books, but the most signicant is

the third, in which Dante most explicitly confronts the
subject of relations between the Pope and the Emperor.
Dante rstly condemns the theocratic conception of the
2.1.5 Sources
power elaborated by the Roman Church with the theory
of the sun and the moon and solemnly conrmed by the
Graham-Leigh, Elaine. The Southern French Nobilpapal bull Unam sanctam of 1302. The theocratic conity and the Albigensian Crusade. Woodbridge: The
ception assigned all power to the Pope, making his auBoydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84383-129-5
thority superior to that of the Emperor: this meant that
Ewert, A. Dantes Theory of Language. The Mod- the Pope could also legitimately intervene in the matters
ern Language Review, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jul., 1940), usually in the sphere of secular authority.
pp 355366.
Against this theocratic conception, Dante expressed his
need for another strong Holy Roman Emperor and pro Weiss, R. Links between the Convivio and the posed the idea that man essentially pursues two ends: the
'De Vulgari Eloquentia'. The Modern Language Re- happiness of earthly life and that of eternal life. Dante
view, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Apr., 1942), pp 156168.
argues that to the Pope is assigned the management of
mens eternal life (though he still recognizes this as the
Dante Alighieri, De vulgari eloquentia, edited and higher of the two), but to the Emperor is assigned the task
translated by Steven Botterill. Cambridge: Cam- of leading men towards earthly happiness. From this he
bridge University Press, 1996.
derives the autonomy of the temporal sphere, under the
Emperor, from the spiritual sphere, under the Pope - the
pontis authority should not inuence that of the Em2.1.6 External links
peror in their competing tasks.
[3] Graham-Leigh, 32 and n130.
Dante wanted to demonstrate that the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were both human and that both derived their power and authority directly from God. To
De vulgari eloquentia in Latin.
understand this it is necessary to think that man is the
only thing to occupy an intermediate position between
An English Translation.
corruptibility and incorruptibility. If it is considered that
De Vulgari Eloquentia public domain audiobook at man is only made up of two parts, that is to say the soul
LibriVox
and the body, he is corruptible - only in terms of the
De vulgari eloquentia on Latin Wikisource.
2.3. ''ECLOGUES'
soul is he incorruptible. Man, then, has the function of
uniting corruptibility with incorruptibility. The Pope and
Emperor were both human, and no peer had power over
another peer. Only a higher power could judge the two
equal swords, as each was given power by God to rule
over their respected domains.
2.2.3
References
[1] Gagarin, Michael. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient

Greece and Rome, Volume 7. p. 359.
2.2.4
See also
Separation of church and state

List of authors and works on the Index Librorum
Prohibitorum
2.2.5
External links
Online text (original)

Italian translation
English translation
De Monarchia public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Return of Dante: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.
The Independent. 19 June 2008. Retrieved 200806-19.
2.3 ''Eclogues'
The Eclogues are two Latin hexameter poems in the
bucolic style by Dante Alighieri, named after Virgil's
Eclogues. The two poems are the 68-verse Vidimus in
migris albo patiente lituris and the 97-verse Velleribus
Colchis prepes detectus Eous. They were composed between 1319 and 1320 in Ravenna, but only published for
the rst time in Florence in 1719.
2.3.1
External links
Italian Wikisource has original text related to this

article: Eclogues
Eclogues public domain audiobook at LibriVox
13
Chapter 3
Works in Italian
3.1 ''La Vita Nuova''
3.1.1 History and context
Vita Nuova redirects here. For the British technology Referred to by Dante as his libello, or little book, The
New Life is the rst of two collections of verse written by
company, see Vita Nuova Holdings.
La Vita Nuova (pronounced [la vita nwva]; Italian for Dante in his life. La Vita Nuova is a prosimetrum, a piece
which is made up of both verse and prose, in the vein of
Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
Dante used each prosimetrum as a means for combining
poems written over periods of roughly ten years - La Vita
Nuova contains his works from before 1283 to roughly
1293.
The rst full translation into English was by Joseph Garrow and it was published in 1846.[3]
3.1.2 Structure
Henry Holiday's Dante meets Beatrice at Ponte Santa Trinit is
inspired by La Vita Nuova (Beatrice is in white).
La Vita Nuova contains 42 brief chapters (31 for

Guglielmo Gorni) with commentaries on 25 sonnets, one
The New Life) or Vita Nova (Latin title) is a text by ballata, and four canzoni; one canzone is left unnished,
interrupted by the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dantes
Dante Alighieri published in 1295. It is an expression of
the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, lifelong love.
a combination of both prose and verse. Besides its con- Dantes two-part commentaries explain each poem, plactent, it is notable for being written in Italian, rather than ing them within the context of his life. The chapLatin; with Dantes other works, it helped to establish the ters containing poems consist of three parts: the semiTuscan dialect as the standard for the Italian language.[1] autobiographical narrative, the lyric that resulted from
The prose creates the illusion of narrative continuity bethose[4]circumstances, and brief structural outline of the
tween the poems; it is Dantes way of reconstructing him- lyric. The poems present a frame story, recounting
self and his art in terms of his evolving sense of the lim- Dantes love of Beatrice from his rst sight of her (when
itations of courtly love (the system of ritualized love and he was nine and she eight) all the way to his mourning afart that Dante and his poet-friends inherited from the ter her death, and his determination to write of her that
Provenal poets, the Sicilian poets of the court of Freder- which has never been written of any woman.
ick II, and the Tuscan poets before them). Sometime in
his twenties, Dante decided to try to write love poetry that
was less centered on the self and more aimed at love as
such: he intended to elevate courtly love poetry, many of
its tropes and its language, into sacred love poetry. Beatrice for Dante was the embodiment of this kind of love
transparent to the Absolute, inspiring the integration of
desire aroused by beauty with the longing of the soul for
divine splendor.[2]
Each separate section of commentary further renes

Dantes concept of romantic love as the initial step in a
spiritual development that results in the capacity for divine love (see courtly love). Dantes unusual approach to
his piece drawing upon personal events and experience, addressing the readers, and writing in Italian rather
than Latin marked a turning point in European poetry, when many writers abandoned highly stylized forms
of writing for a simpler style.
14
3.1. ''LA VITA NUOVA''
3.1.3
Personality
Dante wanted to collect and publish the lyrics dealing

with his love for Beatrice, explaining the autobiographical context of its composition and pointing out the expository structure of each lyric as an aid to careful reading. Though the result is a landmark in the development
of emotional autobiography (the most important advance
since Saint Augustine's Confessions in the 5th century),
like all medieval literature it is far removed from the modern autobiographical impulse. However, Dante and his
audience were interested in the emotions of courtly love
and how they develop, how they are expressed in verse,
how they reveal the permanent intellectual truths of the
divinely created world and how love can confer blessing
on the soul and bring it closer to God.
The names of the people in the poem, including Beatrice herself, are employed without use of surnames or any
details that would assist readers to identify them among
the many people of Florence. Only the name Beatrice
is used, because that was both her actual name and her
symbolic name as the conferrer of blessing. Ultimately
the names and people work as metaphors.
15
the poem.
Vladimir Martynov's 2003 opera Vita Nuova premiered
in the U.S. on February 28, 2009 at the Alice Tully Hall,
performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
In the movie Hannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Inspector Pazzi see an outdoor opera in Florence based on
Dantes La Vita Nuova, called Vide Cor Meum. This was
specially composed for the movie, and is based on the
sonnet A ciascun'alma presa, in chapter 3 of La Vita
Nuova.
Several lines from La Vita Nuova are heard being read
from a cassette player in a zoo by the head zoo keeper in
the 1982 movie Cat People.
The author Allegra Goodman wrote a short story entitled
La Vita Nuova, published in the May 3, 2010 issue of
The New Yorker, in which Dantes words (in English) are
interspersed throughout the piece.
The nal Mission in the game Devil May Cry 4 is entitled
La Vita Nuova
In chapter XXIV, I Felt My Heart Awaken (Io mi senti' 3.1.5 Notes

svegliar dentro a lo core, also translated as I Felt a Loving Spirit Suddenly), Dante accounts a meeting with
[1] See Lepschy, Laura; Lepschy, Giulio (1977). The Italian
Love, who asks the poet to do his best to honour her.
Language Today. or any other history of Italian language.
Dante does not name himself in La Vita Nuova. He refers
to Guido Cavalcanti as the rst of my friends, to his own
sister as a young and noble lady... who was related to me
by the closest consanguinity, to Beatrices brother similarly as one who was so linked in consanguinity to the
glorious lady that no-one was closer to her. The reader is
invited into the very emotional turmoil and lyrical struggle of the unnamed authors own mind and all the surrounding people in his story are seen in their relations to
that minds quest of encountering Love.
La Vita Nuova is essential for understanding the context
of his other works principally La Commedia.
[2] Beatrice. Treccani. Retrieved 16 September 2015.

[3] Havely, Nick (2013). Dantes British Public: Readers
and Texts. Oxford University Press. p. 232. ISBN
0191034371. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
[4] Until ch. 31, the outlines appear following the poem.
Starting in ch. 31, containing the third canzone, which
follows Beatrices death; Dante says he will make the canzone appear more widow-like by placing the structural
division before the poem. Dante maintains this order for
the remainder of the book (Musa 63).
[5] Frederick S. Clarke. Cinefantastique 31.7-11, p. 30
3.1.4
Cultural references
The Henry Holiday painting Dante meets Beatrice at Ponte 3.1.6 Bibliography
Santa Trinita (1883) is inspired by La Vita Nuova, as
Dante (2012). Vita Nova. Translation and introducwas Dante Gabriel Rossetti's The Salutation of Beatrice
tion by Andrew Frisardi. Evanston, IL: Northwest(1859).
ern University Press. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-8101On p. 99 of D. M. Thomas's The White Hotel, the protag2721-0.
onist is reading The New Life on a train. This reference
symbolizes Lisas desire for enlightenment at the time of
Dante (1992). Vita Nuova. Translated by Mark
her journey.
Musa. Oxford: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19A modied version of the opening line of the works In954065-5.
troduction was used on the television show Star Trek:
Voyager in the episode "Latent Image" (1999).[5] The
Frisardi, Andrew (2013). The Young Dante and the
Doctor is concerned with a moral situation and Captain
One Love. London: Temenos Academy. p. 48.
Janeway reads this book and leaves the Doctor to discover
ISBN 978-0956407887.
16
3.1.7
CHAPTER 3. WORKS IN ITALIAN
External links
3.3 ''Convivio''
La Vita Nuova (HTML): translations and original

Convivio (The Banquet)[1] is a work written by Dante
text
Alighieri roughly between 1304 and 1307. This unn Dantes Vita Nova: An Introductory Note, a Pref- ished work of Dante consists of four trattati, or books":
ace, and an Excerpt by Andrew Frisardi, from Po- a prefatory one, plus three books that each include a canzone (long lyrical poem) and a prose allegorical interpreetry Daily.
tation or commentary of the poem that goes o in multiple thematic directions.
The Convivio is a major stage of development for Dante,

The New Life at Project Gutenberg, translated by very dierent from the visionary world of the Vita
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1899.
nuova (although like the earlier work it too is a medium
for the authors evolving sense of artistic vocation and
The New Life, translated by A. S. Kline
philosophical-spiritual quest). This dierence is reected
in how the two works use the prosimetrum format: in the
The New Life, translated by Charles Eliot Norton
Vita Nova there is a complex interrelation and intertwining between the prose and the poetry, while in the Con (Italian) La Vita Nuova (PDF)
vivio large blocks of prose have an autonomous existence
apart from the poems; the content of the poetry is not am La vita nuova public domain audiobook at LibriVox plied or edited in the prose so much as commented upon
prosaically, to serve as points of departure for the various
subjects that the Convivio discusses. Dante himself tells
us that the prose of the Convivio is temperate and virile,
3.2 ''Le Rime''
in contrast to the fervid and passionate prose of the Vita
Nova; and that while the approach to this in the work of
For the poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Co- his youth was like dreaming the Convivio approaches it
leridge, see The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
subjects soberly and wide awake, often modeling its style
on Scholastic authors.
Le Rime (The Rhymes) are a group of lyric poems by The Convivio is a kind of vernacular encyclopedia of the
Dante Alighieri written throughout his life and based knowledge of Dantes time; it touches on many areas of
on the poets varied existential and stylistic experiences. learning, not only philosophy but also politics, linguisThey were not designed as a collection by Dante himself, tics, science, and history. The treatise begins with the
but were collected and ordered later by modern critics.
prefatory book, or proem, which explains why a book
like the Convivio is needed and why Dante is writing it
in the vernacular instead of Latin. It is one of Dantes
early defenses of the vernacular, expressed in greater detail in his (slightly earlier) linguistic treatise De vulgari
eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular). Books 2
and 3 form a unit, both focusing on Dantes new love
after the death of Beatricehis love for Lady Philosophy, the most beautiful and dignied daughter of the
Emperor of the universe, as he calls her. Book 2 dis3.2.1 References
cusses allegory and Lady Philosophy (in connection with
[1] Sheehan, Donald (1967). A Reading of Dantes Rime the canzone Voi che ntendendo il terzo ciel movete [You
who move the third heaven with an act of the intellect],
petrose". Italica 44 (2): 14462. JSTOR 477749.
which opens the book), and also brings such subjects as
[2] Sturm-Maddox, Sara (1987). The Rime Petrose and the astronomy, angelology, and the souls immortality. Book
Purgatorial Palinode. Studies in Philology 84 (2): 119 3 is a hymn of praise for philosophy, launched by an alle363. JSTOR 4174263.
gorical interpretation of Dantes great canzone Amor che
ne la mente mi ragiona (Love, who speaks to me in my
mind). In this book, Dante asserts that true philosophy
3.2.2 External links
cannot arise from any ulterior motives, such as prestige
or moneyit is only possible when the seeker has a love
Italian Wikisource has original text related to this of wisdom for its own sake. Book 4 is by far the longest
of the Convivio, and is noticeably distinct from the two
article: Le Rime
books that precede it. The subject of book 4 is the nature
Canzoniere public domain audiobook at LibriVox
of nobility. It opens with the longest canzone of the ConA subsection of the collection is a group of four poems
known as the Rime Petrose, love poems dedicated to a
woman called Petra, composed around 1296.[1] Stylistically those poems are regarded as a transition between the
love lyric of La Vita Nuova and the more sacred subject
matter of the Divine Comedy.[2]
3.3. ''CONVIVIO''
vivio, Le dolci rime damor (Those sweet poems of love),
which is explicitly about gentilezza or nobility, as well as
a condemnation of avarice, asserting that reason and the
spirit of acquisition are mutually incompatible. The rst
half of book 4s thirty chapters are dedicated to debunking the false idea of nobility as an inherited trait, one restricted to the aristocracy, while the nal fteen chapters
delineate what true nobility consists ofthe perfection of
a thing according to its natureand how nobility manifests in people at various stages of life. The Convivio, in
its autobiographical passages and in the trajectories of its
lines of thought, gives us a rich portrait of Dante himself,
of great importance for an understanding of his work as
a whole, especially the Divine Comedy.
3.3.1
References
[1] Banquet. Dante online. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
3.3.2
Bibliography
Frisardi, Andrew (2013). The Quest for Knowledge

in Dantes Convivio. London: Temenos Academy.
p. 52. ISBN 978-0992604646.
3.3.3
External links
Etext of English translation by Richard Lansing,

Brandeis University
Translation by Philip Henry Wickstool at the
Internet Archive
The Convivio public domain audiobook at LibriVox
17
Chapter 4
Divine Comedy
4.1 ''Divine Comedy''
Commedia'')
(''Divina
The Divine Comedy redirects here. For other uses, see

The Divine Comedy (disambiguation).
La commedia redirects here. For other uses, see
Commedia (disambiguation).
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [divina
Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the

entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the
city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's
fresco
First edition to name the poem Divina Comedia, 1555
kommdja]) is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, begun

c. 1308 and completed 1320, a year before his death in
1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of
Italian literature[1] and is seen as one of the greatest works
of world literature.[2] The poems imaginative vision of
the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view
as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th
century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in
which it is written, as the standardized Italian language.[3]
It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and
Paradiso.
On the surface, the poem describes Dantes travels
through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven;[4] but
at a deeper level, it represents, allegorically, the souls
journey towards God.[5] At this deeper level, Dante draws
on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica
of Thomas Aquinas.[6] Consequently, the Divine Comedy
has been called the Summa in verse.[7]
The work was originally simply titled Comeda and the
word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The rst
printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that
of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,[8] published in
1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
18
4.1. ''DIVINE COMEDY'' (''DIVINA COMMEDIA'')
19
Purgatory (Purgatorio) illustration by Gustave Dor

Paradise (Paradiso)
The Divine Comedy illustration by Gustave Dor
4.1.1
Structure and story
The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that

are divided into three canticas (Italian plural cantiche)
Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso
(Paradise) each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural
canti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the
poem and generally considered to be part of the rst cantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the rst two cantos serve as
a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening
two cantos of each cantica serve as prologues to each of
the three canticas.[9][10][11]
Detail of a manuscript in Milans Biblioteca Trivulziana (MS

1080), written in 1337 by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino,
showing the beginning of Dantes Comedy.
The number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of canticas and their
lengths. Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima,
20
CHAPTER 4. DIVINE COMEDY
is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the

lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme
aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....
Written in the rst person, the poem tells of Dantes journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from
the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after
Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil
guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dantes
ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was
a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and
admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable
courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dantes earlier work La Vita Nuova.
The structure of the three realms follows a common
numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: 9 circles
of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; 9 rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the Garden
of Eden crowning its summit; and the 9 celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the Empyrean containing the
very essence of God. Within each group of 9, 7 elements
correspond to a specic moral scheme, subdivided into
three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven deadly
sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant
and the excommunicated by the church. The core seven
sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of
love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), decient
love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride).
In central Italys political struggle between Guelphs and
Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor.
Florences Guelphs split into factions around 1300: the
White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante was among
the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the LordMayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under
Charles of Valois entered the city, at the request of Pope
Boniface VIII, who supported the Black Guelphs. This
exile, which lasted the rest of Dantes life, shows its inuence in many parts of the Comedy, from prophecies of
Dantes exile to Dantes views of politics, to the eternal
damnation of some of his opponents.
The last word in each of the three canticas is stelle
(stars).
Inferno
Gustave Dor's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861

1868); here Charon comes to ferry souls across the river Acheron
to Hell.
beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade,

and unable to nd the straight way (diritta via) also
translatable as right way to salvation (symbolized by
the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a low place (basso
loco) where the sun is silent ('l sol tace), Dante is at last
rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey
to the underworld. Each sins punishment in Inferno is a
contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, in Canto XX, fortune-tellers and soothsayers must
walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is
ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:
they had their faces twisted toward their
haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
... and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path.[1]
1. ^ Inferno, Canto XX, lines 1315 and
3839, Mandelbaum translation.
Main article: Inferno (Dante)

The poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the
year 1300, halfway along our lifes path (Nel mezzo del
cammin di nostra vita). Dante is thirty-ve years old, half
of the biblical lifespan of 70 (Psalms 89:10, Vulgate), lost
in a dark wood (understood as sin),[12][13][14] assailed by
Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul

seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent,
and the malicious.[15] These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dantes Hell: Upper Hell,
outside the city of Dis, for the four sins of indulgence

(lust, gluttony, avarice, anger); Circle 7 for the sins of violence; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of malice (fraud
and treachery). Added to these are two unlike categories
that are specically spiritual: Limbo, in Circle 1, contains
the virtuous pagans who were not sinful but were ignorant
of Christ, and Circle 6 contains the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ. The
circles number 9, with the addition of Satan completing
the structure of 9 + 1 = 10.[16]
21
love that is either not strong enough (Sloth) or love that
is too strong (Lust, Gluttony, Greed). Below the seven
purges of the soul is the Ante-Purgatory, containing the
Excommunicated from the church and the Late repentant
who died, often violently, before receiving rites. Thus the
total comes to nine, with the addition of the Garden of
Eden at the summit, equaling ten.[21]
Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the Christian life.

Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singing In exitu Israel de Aegypto. In his Letter to Cangrande, Dante
explains
that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers
Purgatorio
both to the redemption of Christ and to the conversion
of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state
Main article: Purgatorio
[22]
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil as- of grace. Appropriately, therefore, it is Easter Sunday
when Dante and Virgil arrive.
The Purgatorio is notable for demonstrating the medieval
knowledge of a spherical Earth. During the poem, Dante
discusses the dierent stars visible in the southern hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various
timezones of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says,
sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River Ganges, and
sunrise in Purgatory.
Paradiso
Main article: Paradiso (Dante)
After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through
Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by

Agnolo Bronzino, painted c. 1530
cend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory

on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island,
the only land in the Southern Hemisphere, created by
the displacement of rock which resulted when Satans fall
created Hell[17] (which Dante portrays as existing underneath Jerusalem[18] ). The mountain has seven terraces,
corresponding to the seven deadly sins or seven roots of
sinfulness.[19] The classication of sin here is more psychological than that of the Inferno, being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from
Christian theology, rather than from classical sources.[20]
However, Dantes illustrative examples of sin and virtue
draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on
contemporary events.
Love, a theme throughout the Divine Comedy, is particularly important for the framing of sin on the Mountain of
Purgatory. While the love that ows from God is pure, it Paradiso, Canto 3: Dante and Beatrice speak to Piccarda and
can become sinful as it ows through humanity. Humans Constance of Sicily, in a fresco by Philipp Veit
can sin by using love towards improper or malicious ends
(Wrath, Envy, Pride), or using it to proper ends but with the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. These are concentric
22
and spherical, as in Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio
were based on dierent classications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues
and the three theological virtues.
4.1.2 Earliest manuscripts
According to the Italian Dante Society, no original

manuscript written by Dante has survived, although there
are many manuscript copies from the 14th and 15th cen[24]
The rst seven spheres of Heaven deal solely with the turies more than 825 are listed on their site.
cardinal virtues of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and
Temperance. The rst three describe a deciency of one
of the cardinal virtues the Moon, containing the in- 4.1.3 Earliest printed editions
constant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and
thus lack fortitude; Mercury, containing the ambitious,
who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; and
Venus, containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked Temperance.
The nal four incidentally are positive examples of the
cardinal virtues, all led on by the Sun, containing the prudent, whose wisdom lighted the way for the other virtues,
to which the others are bound (constituting a category on
its own). Mars contains the men of fortitude who died
in the cause of Christianity; Jupiter contains the kings
of Justice; and Saturn contains the temperate, the monks
who abided by the contemplative lifestyle. The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the xed stars that contain
those who achieved the theological virtues of faith, hope
and love, and represent the Church Triumphant the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and
carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle,
or Primum Mobile (corresponding to the Geocentricism First printed edition, 11 April 1472.
of Medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is
the Empyrean, which contains the essence of God, completing the 9-fold division to 10.
Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the
Church, including Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Saint
Peter, and St. John. The Paradiso is consequently more
theological in nature than the Inferno and the Purgatorio. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he
receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to
see, and thus the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is
Dantes personal vision.
The Divine Comedy nishes with Dante seeing the Triune
God. In a ash of understanding that he cannot express,
Dante nally understands the mystery of Christ's divinity
and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with Gods
love:[23]
But already my desire and my will

were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love which moves the sun and the other
stars.[1]
1. ^ Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, lines 142

145, C. H. Sisson translation.
Illustration of Lucifer in the rst fully illustrated print edition.

Woodcut for Inferno, canto 33. Pietro di Piasi, Venice, 1491.
The rst printed edition was published in Foligno, Italy,

by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi
on 11 April 1472.[25] Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen
still survive. The original printing press is on display in
the Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno.
4.1.4
23
Thematic concerns
The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an

allegory: each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternative meanings. Dantes allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the
poem see the Letter to Cangrande[26] he outlines other
levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the
moral, the literal, and the anagogical.
The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex,
with mathematical and numerological patterns arching
throughout the work, particularly threes and nines, which
are related to the Trinity. The poem is often lauded for its
particularly human qualities: Dantes skillful delineation
of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and
Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dantes
use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in
her introduction to her translation of the Inferno, allows
Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader
in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his
poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the
utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety.[27]
Dante called the poem Comedy (the adjective Divine
was added later in the 16th century) because poems in
the ancient world were classied as High (Tragedy) or
Low (Comedy).[28] Low poems had happy endings and
were written in everyday language, whereas High poems
treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante was one of the rst in the Middle
Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of
humanity, in the low and vulgar Italian language and
not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic.
Boccaccio's account that an early version of the poem was
begun by Dante in Latin is still controversial.[29][30]
Scientic themes
Although the Divine Comedy is primarily a religious
poem, discussing sin, virtue, and theology, Dante also
discusses several elements of the science of his day (this
mixture of science with poetry has received both praise
and blame over the centuries[31] ). The Purgatorio repeatedly refers to the implications of a spherical Earth, such
as the dierent stars visible in the southern hemisphere,
the altered position of the sun, and the various timezones
of the Earth. For example, at sunset in Purgatory it is
midnight at the Ebro, dawn in Jerusalem, and noon on
the River Ganges:[32]
Just as, there where its Maker shed His
blood,
the sun shed its rst rays, and Ebro lay
beneath high Libra, and the ninth hours rays
were scorching Ganges waves; so here, the sun
Albert Ritter sketched the Comedys geography from Dantes Cantos: Hells entrance is near Florence with the circles descending to Earths centre; sketch 5 reects Canto 34s inversion as
Dante passes down, and thereby up to Mount Purgatorys shores
in the southern hemisphere, where he passes to the rst sphere of
Heaven at the top.
stood at the point of days departure when

Gods angelhappyshowed himself to us.[1]
1. ^ Purgatorio, Canto XXVII, lines 16,
Mandelbaum translation.
Dante travels through the centre of the Earth in the Inferno, and comments on the resulting change in the direction of gravity in Canto XXXIV (lines 76120). A
little earlier (XXXIII, 102105), he queries the existence
of wind in the frozen inner circle of hell, since it has no
temperature dierentials.[33]
Inevitably, given its setting, the Paradiso discusses
astronomy extensively, but in the Ptolemaic sense.
The Paradiso also discusses the importance of the
experimental method in science, with a detailed example
in lines 94105 of Canto II:
Yet an experiment, were you to try it,
could free you from your cavil and the source
of your arts course springs from experiment.
Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them
at equal distance from you; set the third
midway between those two, but farther back.
Then, turning toward them, at your back have
placed
a light that kindles those three mirrors and
returns to you, reected by them all.
Although the image in the farthest glass
will be of lesser size, there you will see
that it must match the brightness of the rest.[1]
1. ^ Paradiso, Canto II, lines 94105, Mandelbaum translation.
A briefer example occurs in Canto XV of the Purgatorio (lines 1621), where Dante points out that both theory and experiment conrm that the angle of incidence is
24
equal to the angle of reection. Other references to science in the Paradiso include descriptions of clockwork
in Canto XXIV (lines 1318), and Thales theorem about
triangles in Canto XIII (lines 101102).
Galileo Galilei is known to have lectured on the Inferno, and it has been suggested that the poem may
have inuenced some of Galileos own ideas regarding
mechanics.[34]
4.1.5
Theories of inuence from Islamic

philosophy
been transmitted to Dante. Even so, while dismissing

the probability of some inuences posited in Palacios
work,[42] Gabrieli conceded that it was at least possible,
if not probable, that Dante may have known the Liber
scalae and have taken from it certain images and concepts of Muslim eschatology. Shortly before her death,
the Italian philologist Maria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dantes mentor
Brunetto Latini met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who
had translated the Kitab al Miraj from Arabic into Latin.
Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy
of that work to Dante.[43] Ren Gunon, a Su convert
and scholar of Ibn Arabi, rejected in The Esoterism of
Dante the theory of his inuence (direct or indirect) on
Dante.[44]
In 1919, Miguel Asn Palacios, a Spanish scholar and

a Catholic priest, published La Escatologa musulmana
en la Divina Comedia (Islamic Eschatology in the Divine Comedy), an account of parallels between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy. Palacios ar- 4.1.6
gued that Dante derived many features of and episodes
about the hereafter from the spiritual writings of Ibn
Arabi and from the Isra and Mi'raj or night journey of
Muhammad to heaven. The latter is described in the
Hadith and the Kitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in
1264 or shortly before[35] as Liber Scalae Machometi,
The Book of Muhammads Ladder), and has signicant
similarities to the Paradiso, such as a sevenfold division
of Paradise,[36] although this is not unique to the Kitab al
Miraj.
Literary inuence in the Englishspeaking world and beyond
Some supercial similarities[37] of the Divine Comedy

to the Resalat Al-Ghufran or Epistle of Forgiveness of AlMa'arri have also been mentioned in this debate. The Resalat Al-Ghufran describes the journey of the poet in the
realms of the afterlife and includes dialogue with people
in Heaven and Hell, although, unlike the Kitab al Miraj,
there is little description of these locations,[38] and it is
unlikely that Dante borrowed from this work.[39][40]
Dante did, however, live in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world,
encouraged by such factors as Averroism (Averrois,
che'l gran comento feo Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144,
meaning Averrois, who wrote the great comment) and
the patronage of Alfonso X of Castile. Of the twelve
wise men Dante meets in Canto X of the Paradiso,
Thomas Aquinas and, even more so, Siger of Brabant
were strongly inuenced by Arabic commentators on
Aristotle.[41] Medieval Christian mysticism also shared
the Neoplatonic inuence of Sus such as Ibn Arabi.
Philosopher Frederick Copleston argued in 1950 that
Dantes respectful treatment of Averroes, Avicenna, and
Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a
considerable debt to Islamic philosophy.[41]
Although this philosophical inuence is generally acknowledged, many scholars have not been satised that
Dante was inuenced by the Kitab al Miraj. The 20th
century Orientalist Francesco Gabrieli expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack
of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have
A detail from one of Sandro Botticelli's illustrations for Inferno,

Canto XVIII. Silverpoint on parchment, completed in pen and ink.
1480s
The Divine Comedy was not always as well-regarded as

it is today. Although recognized as a masterpiece in
the centuries immediately following its publication,[45]
the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment,
with some notable exceptions such as Vittorio Aleri;
Antoine de Rivarol, who translated the Inferno into
French; and Giambattista Vico, who in the Scienza nuova
and in the Giudizio su Dante inaugurated what would
later become the romantic reappraisal of Dante, juxtaposing him to Homer.[46] The Comedy was rediscovered in the English-speaking world by William Blake
who illustrated several passages of the epic and the

romantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such
as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, C. S. Lewis
and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration. The
poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was its rst American translator,[47] and modern poets, including Seamus
Heaney,[48] Robert Pinsky, John Ciardi, W. S. Merwin,
and Stanley Lombardo, have also produced translations
of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyond Pushkin's
translation of a few tercets,[49] Osip Mandelstam's late
poetry has been said to bear the mark of a tormented
meditation on the Comedy.[50] In 1934, Mandelstam
gave a modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine
Conversation on Dante.[51] In T. S. Eliots estimation,
Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them.
There is no third.[52] For Jorge Luis Borges the Divine
Comedy was the best book literature has achieved.[53]
English translations
Main article: English translations of Dantes Divine
comedy
New English translations of the Divine Comedy continue
to be published regularly. Notable English translations of
the complete poem include the following.[54]
25
Main article: Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular
culture
The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for
countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are
many references to Dantes work in literature. In music,
Franz Liszt was one of many composers to write works
based on the Divine Comedy. In sculpture, the work of
Auguste Rodin includes themes from Dante, and many
visual artists have illustrated Dantes work, as shown by
the examples above. There have also been many references to the Divine Comedy in cinema and computer
games.
4.1.8 Gallery
4.1.9 See also
Allegory in the Middle Ages
List of cultural references in Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
Book of Arda Viraf
A number of other translators, such as Robert Pinsky,

4.1.10
have translated the Inferno only.
4.1.7
In the arts
Footnotes
[1] For example, Encyclopedia Americana, 2006, Vol. 30. p.

605: the greatest single work of Italian literature;" John
Julius Norwich, The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius
of a People, Abrams, 1983, p. 27: his tremendous poem,
still after six and a half centuries the supreme work of Italian literature, remains after the legacy of ancient Rome
the grandest single element in the Italian heritage;" and
Robert Reinhold Ergang, The Renaissance, Van Nostrand,
1967, p. 103: Many literary historians regard the Divine
Comedy as the greatest work of Italian literature. In world
literature it is ranked as an epic poem of the highest order.
[2] Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon. See also
Western canon for other canons that include the Divine
Comedy.
[3] See Lepschy, Laura; Lepschy, Giulio (1977). The Italian
Language Today. or any other history of Italian language.
[4] Peter E. Bondanella, The Inferno, Introduction, p. xliii,
Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003, ISBN 1-59308-051-4:
the key ction of the Divine Comedy is that the poem
is true.
[5] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on page 19.
[6] Charles Allen Dinsmore, The Teachings of Dante, Ayer
Publishing, 1970, p. 38, ISBN 0-8369-5521-8.
Rodin's The Kiss represents Paolo and Francesca from the

Inferno.[55]
[7] The Fordham Monthly Fordham University, Vol. XL,

Dec. 1921, p. 76
26
[8] Ronnie H. Terpening, Lodovico Dolce, Renaissance Man

of Letters (Toronto, Bualo, London: University of
Toronto Press, 1997), p. 166.
[9] Dante The Inferno A Verse Translation by Professor
Robert and Jean Hollander page 43
[10] Epist. XIII 43 to 48
[11] Wilkins E.H The Prologue to the Divine Comedy Annual
Report of the Dante Society, pp. 17.
[12] Inferno, la Divina Commedia annotata e commentata da
Tommaso Di Salvo, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1985. Abebooks.it. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
[13] Lectura Dantis, Societ dantesca italiana
[14] Online sources include , , , Archived copy. Archived
from the original on 2 December 2009. Retrieved 1
December 2009., , and Archived 4 March 2016 at the
Wayback Machine.
[15] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on page 75.
[30] Peri, Hiram (1955). The Original Plan of the Divine

Comedy. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 18 (3/4): 189210. doi:10.2307/750179. JSTOR
750179.
[31] Michael Caesar, Dante: The Critical Heritage, Routledge,
1995, pp 288, 383, 412, 631.
[32] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on p. 286
[33] Dorothy L. Sayers, Inferno, notes on page 284.
[34] Mtholyoke.edu Mark Peterson Sheds New Light on Discovery by Galileo, College Street Journal, 8 March,
2002. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
[35] I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, Histoire
d'une traduction, in Le Livre de l'chelle de Mahomet,
Latin edition and French translation by Gisle Besson and
Michle Brossard-Dandr, Collection Lettres Gothiques,
Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.
[17] Inferno, Canto 34, lines 121126.
[36] See the English translation of the Kitab al Miraj.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080319003125/http:
//www20.brinkster.com/gurupak/Miraaj%20-%
20The%20Ascension%20to%20Heaven.htm.
Retrieved June 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
[18] Richard Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, The Dante Encyclopedia, p. 475, Garland Publishing, 2000, ISBN 08153-1659-3.
[37] William Montgomery Watt and Pierre Cachia, A History

of Islamic Spain, 2nd edition, Edinburgh University Press,
1996, pp. 125126, ISBN 0-7486-0847-8.
[19] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, pp. 6567

(Penguin, 1955).
[38] Dionisius A. Agius and Richard Hitchcock, The Arab Inuence in Medieval Europe, Ithaca Press, 1996, p. 70,
ISBN 0-86372-213-X.
[16] Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, Divine Comedy, Notes to

Dantes Inferno
[20] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, Introduction, p. xiv (Penguin, 2007).

[21] Carlyle-Oakey-Wickstead, Divine Comedy, Notes on
Dantes Purgatory.
[22] The Letter to Can Grande, in Literary Criticism of Dante
Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), 99
[23] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXXIII.
[39] Kmil Kln and G. Brackenbury, Introduction to Risalat

ul Ghufran: A Divine Comedy, 3rd ed, Al-Maaref Printing
and Publishing House, 1943, p. 8.
[40] The theory receives little credence, according to Watt
and Cachia, p. 183.
[41] Frederick Copleston (1950). A History of Philosophy,
Volume 2. London: Continuum. p. 200.
[24] Elenco Codici. Danteonline.it. Retrieved 5 August

2009.
[42] Francesco Gabrieli, New light on Dante and Islam, Diogenes, 2:6173, 1954
[25] Christopher Kleinhenz, Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia,

Volume 1, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-93930-5, p.
360.
[43] Errore.
[26] Epistle to Can Grande. faculty.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
[45] Chaucer wrote in the Monks Tale, Redeth the grete poete of Ytaille / That highte Dant, for he kan al devyse /
Fro point to point; nat o word wol he faille.
[27] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, Introduction, p. 16 (Penguin,

1955).
[44] Guenon, Ren (1925). The Esoterism of Dante.
[46] Erich Auerbach,Dante: Poet of the Secular World. ISBN

0-226-03205-1.
[28] Ancient History Encyclopedia.

[29] Boccaccio also quotes the initial triplet:"Ultima regna
canam uvido contermina mundo, / spiritibus quae lata
patent, quae premia solvunt /pro meritis cuicumque suis.
For translation and more, see Guyda Armstrong, Review
of Giovanni Boccaccio. Life of Dante. J. G. Nichols,
trans. London: Hesperus Press, 2002.
[47] Irmscher, Christoph. Longfellow Redux. University of

Illinois, 2008: 11. ISBN 978-0-252-03063-5.
[48] Seamus Heaney, Envies and Identications: Dante and
the Modern Poet. The Poets Dante: Twentieth-Century
Responses. Ed. Peter S. Hawkins and Rachel Jaco. New
York: Farrar, 2001. 239258.
4.2. ''INFERNO''
[49] 'Dante in Russia' in The Dante encyclopedia by Richard

H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini,
[50] Marina Glazova, Mandelstam and Dante: The Divine
Comedy in Mandelstams poetry of the 1930s Studies in
East European Thought, Volume 28, Number 4, November 1984.
[51] James Fenton, Hell set to music, The Guardian, 16 July
2005
[52] T. S. Eliot (1950) Dante. Selected Essays, pp. 199237.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
[53] Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions. Ed. Eliot
Weinberger. Trans. Esther Allen et. al. New York:
Viking, 1999. 303.
[54] A comprehensive listing and criticism, covering the period 17821966, of English translations of at least one of
the three books (cantiche; singular: cantica) is given by
Gilbert F. Cunningham, The Divine comedy in English:
a critical biography 17821966. 2 vols., Barnes & Noble, NY; esp. v.2 pp.59.
[55] Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette (1999). Rodin:The
Gates of Hell. Paris: Muse Rodin. ISBN 2-901428-69X.
4.1.11
External links
Princeton Dante Project Website that oers the

complete text of the Divine Comedy (and Dantes
other works) in Italian and English along with audio
accompaniment in both languages. Includes historical and interpretive annotation.
The Comedy in English: trans. Cary (with Dor's
illustrations) (zipped HTML downloadable from
Project Gutenberg), Cary/Longfellow/Mandelbaum
parallel edition, trans. James Finn Cotter
(Italian) Full text of the Commedia:
Dante Dartmouth Project: Full text of more than
70 Italian, Latin, and English commentaries on
the Commedia, ranging in date from 1322 (Iacopo
Alighieri) to the 2000s (Robert Hollander)
On-line Concordance to the Divine Comedy
A Dictionary of the Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee, London, The Clarendon Press (1898).
Online manuscript codices: Phillips 9589
27
World of Dante Multimedia website that oers Italian text of Divine Comedy, Allen Mandelbaums
translation, gallery, interactive maps, timeline, musical recordings, and searchable database for students and teachers by Deborah Parker and IATH
(Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities) of the University of Virginia
Images of the 1564 edition of Divine Comedy
First edition to contain both the commentaries
by Landino and Vellutello published by Francesco
Sansovino
bilingual (Italian and English)Divine Comedy in pdf
format in Online Library of Liberty
More images of the Divine Comedy by selecting the
Heaven & Hell subject at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University
Library
Mapping Dante: A Study of Places in the Commedia Digital interactive map with the geographical
references of the Divine Comedy
Audio
Lino Pertiles reading, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University.
Divine Comedy public domain audiobook at
LibriVox (English) and (Italian)
Readings of the complete Italian Divina Commedia
in MP3 format by Iacopo Vettori
4.2 ''Inferno''
Dantes Inferno redirects here. For other uses, see
Dantes Inferno (disambiguation).
Inferno (pronounced [infrno]; Italian for Hell) is the
rst part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem
Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso.
The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell,
guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem,
Hell is depicted as nine circles of suering located within
the Earth; it is the realm...of those who have rejected
spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or
malice against their fellowmen.[1] As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward
God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.[2]
Danteworlds, multimedia presentation of the Divine

Comedy for students by Guy Raa of the University 4.2.1
of Texas
Introduction
28
Canto I from the Inferno, the rst part of The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri.
Gustave Dor's engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861

1868); here, Dante is lost in Canto 1 of the Inferno
Cantos I II
The poem begins on the night of Maundy Thursday on
March 24 (or April 7) 1300 A.D., shortly before dawn of
Good Friday.[3][4] The narrator, Dante himself, is thirtyve years old, and thus halfway along our lifes path
(Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita) half of the Biblical lifespan of seventy (Psalm 89:10, Vulgate; Psalm
90:10, KJV). The poet nds himself lost in a dark wood
(selva oscura), astray from the straight way (diritta via,
also translatable as right way) of salvation. He sets
out to climb directly up a small mountain, but his way
is blocked by three beasts (a lonza [usually rendered as
"leopard" or "leopon"],[5] a lion, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade. The three beasts, taken from the Jeremiah
5:6, are thought to symbolize the three kinds of sin which
bring the unrepentant soul into one of the three major
divisions of Hell. According to John Ciardi, these are
incontinence (the she-wolf); violence and bestiality (the
lion); and fraud and malice (the leopard);[6] Dorothy L.
Sayers assigns the leopard to incontinence and the shewolf to fraud/malice.[7] It is now dawn of Good Friday,
April 8, with the sun rising in Aries. The beasts drive him
back despairing into the darkness of error, a deep place
(basso loco) where the sun is silent (l sol tace). However,
Dante is rescued by the shade of the Roman poet Virgil,
the symbol of human reason (Canto I).
gil but hesitates; Virgil explains how he has been sent

by Beatrice, the symbol of Divine Love. Beatrice has
been sent with prayers from the Virgin Mary (symbolic of
compassion) and of Saint Lucia (symbolic of illuminating
Grace). Rachel, symbolic of the contemplative life, also
appears in the heavenly scene recounted by Virgil. The
two of them then begin their journey to the underworld
(Canto II).
Vestibule of Hell
Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription ending with the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne
speranza, voi ch'intrate", most frequently translated as
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.[nb 1] Dante and
his guide hear the anguished screams of the Uncommitted. These are the souls of people who in life took no
sides; the opportunists who were for neither good nor
evil, but merely concerned with themselves. Among these
Dante recognizes a gure implied to be Pope Celestine
V, whose cowardice (in selsh terror for his own welfare) served as the door through which so much evil entered the Church.[8] Mixed with them are outcasts who
took no side in the Rebellion of Angels. These souls
are forever unclassied; they are neither in Hell nor out
of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron. Naked
On the evening of Good Friday, Dante is following Vir- and futile, they race around through the mist in eter-
4.2. ''INFERNO''
nal pursuit of an elusive, wavering banner (symbolic of
their pursuit of ever-shifting self-interest) while relentlessly chased by swarms of wasps and hornets, who continually sting them.[9] Loathsome maggots and worms at
the sinners feet drink the putrid mixture of blood, pus,
and tears that ows down their bodies. This symbolizes
the sting of their guilty conscience and the repugnance of
sin. This may also be seen as a reection of the spiritual
stagnation they lived in.
Gustave Dor's illustration of Canto III: Arrival of Charon.
29
Overview
Virgil proceeds to guide Dante through the nine circles
of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre
of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. The sinners of each circle are punished for eternity in a fashion
tting their crimes: each punishment is a contrapasso, a
symbolic instance of poetic justice. For example, later in
the poem, Dante and Virgil encounter fortune-tellers who
must walk forward with their heads on backward, unable
to see what is ahead, because they tried to see the future through forbidden means. Such a contrapasso functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as
the fullment of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life.[11] People who sinned, but prayed for
forgiveness before their deaths are found not in Hell but
in Purgatory, where they labour to be free of their sins.
Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and
are unrepentant. Allegorically, the Inferno represents the
Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is.
Dantes Hell is structurally based on the ideas of Aristotle,
but with certain Christian symbolisms, exceptions, and
misconstructions of Aristotles text.[12] Dantes three
major categories of sin, as symbolized by the three
beasts that Dante encounters in Canto I, are Incontinence,
Violence and Bestiality, and Fraud and Malice.[12][13] Sinners punished for incontinence the lustful, the gluttonous, the hoarders and wasters, and the wrathful and
sullen all demonstrated weakness in controlling their
appetites, desires, and natural urges; according to Aristotles Ethics, incontinence is less condemnable than malice or bestiality, and therefore these sinners are located
in four circles of Upper Hell (Circles 2-5). These sinners endure lesser torments than do those consigned to
Lower Hell, located within the walls of the City of Dis,
for committing acts of violence and fraud the latter of
which involves, as Dorothy L. Sayers writes, abuse of
the specically human faculty of reason.[13] The deeper
levels are organized into one circle for violence (Circle 7)
and two circles for fraud (Circles 8 and 9). As a Christian,
Dante adds Circle 1 (Limbo) to Upper Hell and Circle
6 (Heresy) to Lower Hell, making 9 Circles in total; incorporating the Vestibule of the Futile, this leads to Hell
containing 10 main divisions.[13] This 9+1=10 structure
is also found within the Purgatorio and Paradiso. Lower
Hell is further subdivided: Circle 7 (Violence) is divided
into three rings, Circle 8 (Simple Fraud) is divided into
ten bolgia, and Circle 9 (Complex Fraud) is divided into
four regions. Thus, Hell contains, in total, 24 divisions.
After passing through the vestibule, Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river
Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by
Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a
living being. Virgil forces Charon to take him by means
of another famous line: Vuolsi cos col dove si puote /
ci che si vuole (It is so willed there where is power to
do / That which is willed),[10] referring to the fact that
Dante is on his journey on divine grounds. The wailing and blasphemy of the damned souls entering Charons
boat contrast with the joyful singing of the blessed souls
arriving by ferry in the Purgatorio. The passage across
the Acheron, however, is undescribed, since Dante faints
and does not awaken until he is on the other side (Canto
III).
First Circle (Limbo)
4.2.2
Nine circles of Hell
Dante wakes up to nd that he has crossed the Acheron,

and Virgil leads him to the rst circle of the abyss: Limbo,
where Virgil himself resides. The rst circle contains
the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, although
30

Saladin, a Muslim military leader known for his struggle
against the Crusaders as well as his generous, chivalrous,
and merciful conduct.
Dante next encounters a group of philosophers, including Aristotle with Socrates and Plato at his side, as
well as Democritus, Diogenes (either Diogenes the
Cynic or Diogenes of Apollonia), Anaxagoras, Thales,
Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno (either Zeno of Elea
or Zeno of Citium). He sees the scientist Dioscorides;
the mythical Greek poets Orpheus and Linus; and Roman statesmen Marcus Tullius Cicero and Seneca. Dante
sees the Alexandrian geometer Euclid and Ptolemy, the
Alexandrian astronomer and geographer, as well as the
physicians Hippocrates and Galen. He also encounters
Avicenna, a Persian polymath, and Averroes, a medieval
Andalusian polymath known for his commentaries on
Aristotles works. Dante and Virgil depart from the four
other poets and continue their journey (Canto IV).
The Harrowing of Hell, in a 14th-century illuminated

manuscript, the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry
Although Dante implies that all virtuous non-Christians

nd themselves here, he later encounters two (Cato of
Utica and Statius) in Purgatory and two (Trajan and
Ripheus) in Heaven. In Purg. XXII, Virgil names several
additional inhabitants of Limbo who were not mentioned
in the Inferno.[18]
not sinful, did not accept Christ. Dorothy L. Sayers

writes, After those who refused choice come those without opportunity of choice. They could not, that is, choose Second Circle (Lust)
Christ; they could, and did, choose human virtue, and for
that they have their reward.[14] Limbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus, the guiltless damned are punished by living in a decient form
of Heaven. Without baptism (the portal of the faith
that you embrace)[15] they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. When
Dante asked if anyone has ever left Limbo, Virgil states
that he saw Jesus (a Mighty One) descend into Limbo
and took Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, and Rachel (see
Limbo of the Patriarchs) into his all-forgiving arms and
transported them to Heaven as the rst human souls to be
saved. The event, known as the Harrowing of Hell, would
have occurred in A.D. 33 or 34.
Dante encounters the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and
Lucan, who include him in their number and make him
sixth in that high company.[16] They reach the base of
a great Castle the dwelling place of the wisest men
of antiquity surrounded by seven gates, and a owing brook. After passing through the seven gates, the
group comes to an exquisite green meadow and Dante
encounters the inhabitants of the Citadel. These include
gures associated with the Trojans and their descendants (the Romans): Electra (mother of Troys founder
Dardanus), Hector, Aeneas, Julius Caesar in his role as
Roman general (in his armor, falcon-eyed),[17] Camilla,
Penthesilea (Queen of the Amazons), King Latinus and
his daughter, Lavinia, Lucius Junius Brutus (who overthrew Tarquin to found the Roman Republic), Lucretia,
Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia Africana. Dante also views
Gustave Dor's depiction of Minos judging sinners at the start of

Canto V.
Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and enter the Second Circle the rst of the circles of Incontinence where
the punishments of Hell proper begin. It is described as
a part where no thing gleams.[19] They nd their way
hindered by the serpentine Minos, who judges all of those
condemned for active, deliberately willed sin to one of the
lower circles. Minos sentences each soul to its torment by
wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number
of times. Virgil rebukes Minos, and he and Dante continue on.
In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust.
4.2. ''INFERNO''
31
These carnal malefactors[20] are condemned for letting

body
their appetites sway their reason. These souls are buffrom which I was torn unshriven to my doom.
feted back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent
Love, which permits no loved one not to love,
storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to
took me so strongly with delight in him
blow one about needlessly and aimlessly: as the lovers
that we are one in Hell, as we were above.
drifted into self-indulgence and were carried sway by
Love led us to one death. In the depths of Hell
their passions, so now they drift for ever. The bright,
Cana waits for him who took our lives.
voluptuous sin is now seen as it is a howling darkness
This was the piteous tale they stopped to tell.[1]
[21]
of helpless discomfort. Since lust involves mutual in1. ^ Inferno, Canto V, lines 100-108, Ciardi
dulgence and is not, therefore, completely self-centered,
translation.
Dante deems it the least heinous of the sins and its pun[21][22]
ishment is the most benign within Hell proper.
The
ruined slope[23] in this circle is thought to be a reference Francesca further reports that she and Paolo yielded to
to the earthquake that occurred after the death of Christ. their love when reading the story of the adultery between Lancelot and Guinevere in the Old French romance Lancelot du Lac. Francesca says, "Galeotto fu
'l libro e chi lo scrisse" (Canto V, line 137). The word
Galeotto means "pander" but is also the Italian term
for Gallehaut, who acted as an intermediary between
Lancelot and Guinevere, encouraging them on to love.
John Ciardi renders line 137 as That book, and he who
wrote it, was a pander.[24] Inspired by Dante, author
Giovanni Boccaccio invoked the name Prencipe Galeotto
in the alternative title to The Decameron, a 14th-century
collection of novellas. The English poet John Keats, in
his sonnet On a Dream, imagines what Dante does not
give us, the point of view of Paolo:
... But to that second circle of sad hell,
Where mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the
aw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kissd, and fair the form
I oated with, about that melancholy storm.[25]
As he did at the end of Canto III, Danteovercome by
pity and anguishdescribes his swoon: I fainted, as if
I had met my death. / And then I fell as a dead body
falls[26] (Canto V).
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Third Circle (Gluttony)
In this circle, Dante sees Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra,

Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and many others who were overcome by sexual love during their life.
Dante comes across Francesca da Rimini, who married
the deformed Giovanni Malatesta (also known as Gianciotto) for political purposes but fell in love with
his younger brother Paolo Malatesta; the two began
to carry on an adulterous aair. Sometime between
1283 and 1286, Giovanni surprised them together in
Francescas bedroom and violently stabbed them both to
death. Francesca explains:
In the third circle, the gluttonous wallow in a vile, putrid slush produced by a ceaseless, foul, icy rain"a great
storm of putrefaction[27] as punishment for subjecting
their reason to a voracious appetite. Cerberus (described
as "il gran vermo", literally the great worm, line 22), the
monstrous three-headed beast of Hell, ravenously guards
the gluttons lying in the freezing mire, mauling and aying them with his claws as they howl like dogs. Virgil
obtains safe passage past the monster by lling its three
mouths with mud.
Love, which in gentlest hearts will soonest

bloom
seized my lover with passion for that sweet
Dorothy L. Sayers writes that the surrender to sin which

began with mutual indulgence leads by an imperceptible
degradation to solitary self-indulgence.[28] The gluttons
grovel in the mud by themselves, sightless and heedless of
32

which marked the start of Dantes long exile from the city.
These events occurred in 1302, prior to when the poem
was written but in the future at Easter time of 1300, the
time in which the poem is set[30] (Canto VI).
Fourth Circle (Greed)
The third circle, illustrated by Stradanus
In Gustave Dor's illustrations for the fourth circle, the weights

are huge money bags
The Fourth Circle is guarded by a gure Dante names

as Pluto: this is Plutus, the deity of wealth in classical
mythology (he is a distinct gure from Pluto (Dis), the
classical ruler of the underworld, though the two are often conated).[nb 2] At the start of Canto VII, he menaces
Virgil and Dante with the cryptic phrase Pap Satn, pap
Satn aleppe, but Virgil protects Dante from him.
Cerberus as illustrated by Gustave Dor
their neighbors, symbolizing the cold, selsh, and empty

sensuality of their lives.[28] Just as lust has revealed its
true nature in the winds of the previous circle, here the
slush reveals the true nature of sensuality which includes
not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other
kinds of addiction.[29]
In this circle, Dante converses with a Florentine contemporary identied as Ciacco, which means hog.[30]
A character with the same nickname later appears
in The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio.[31] Ciacco
speaks to Dante regarding strife in Florence between
the White and Black Guelphs, which developed after the Guelph/Ghibelline strife ended with the complete
defeat of the Ghibellines. In the rst of several political prophecies in the Inferno, Ciacco predicts the expulsion of the White Guelphs (Dantes party) from Florence by the Black Guelphs, aided by Pope Boniface VIII,
Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated

from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth
circle. They include the avaricious or miserly (including many clergymen, and popes and cardinals),[32] who
hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered
them. The hoarders and spendthrifts joust, using as
weapons great weights that they push with their chests:
Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls,
far more than were above: they strained their
chests
against enormous weights, and with mad howls
rolled them at one another. Then in haste
they rolled them back, one party shouting out:
Why do you hoard?" and the other: Why do
you waste?"[1]
1. ^ Inferno, Canto VII, lines 2530, Ciardi
translation.
Relating this sin of incontinence to the two that preceded
it (lust and gluttony), Dorothy L. Sayers writes, Mutual indulgence has already declined into selsh appetite;
now, that appetite becomes aware of the incompatible
and equally selsh appetites of other people. Indierence
4.2. ''INFERNO''
33
becomes mutual antagonism, imaged here by the antagonism between hoarding and squandering.[33] The contrast between these two groups leads Virgil to discourse
on the nature of Fortune, who raises nations to greatness
and later plunges them into poverty, as she shifts those
empty goods from nation unto nation, clan to clan.[34]
This speech lls what would otherwise be a gap in the
poem, since both groups are so absorbed in their activity
that Virgil tells Dante that it would be pointless to try to
speak to them indeed, they have lost their individuality
and been rendered unrecognizable[35] (Canto VII).
Fifth Circle the actively wrathful ght each other viciously on the surface of the slime, while the sullen (the
passively wrathful) lie beneath the water, withdrawn into
a black sulkiness which can nd no joy in God or man or
the universe.[33] At the surface of the foul Stygian marsh,
Dorothy L. Sayers writes, the active hatreds rend and
snarl at one another; at the bottom, the sullen hatreds lie
gurgling, unable even to express themselves for the rage
that chokes them.[33] As the last circle of Incontinence,
the savage self-frustration of the Fifth Circle marks the
end of that which had its tender and romantic beginnings
in the dalliance of indulged passion.[33] (Canto VII).
Fifth Circle (Wrath)
Phlegyas reluctantly transports Dante and Virgil across

the Styx in his ski. On the way they are accosted by
Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a prominent family.
When Dante was forced to leave Florence, Argenti took
all his property. When Dante responds In weeping and in
grieving, accursed spirit, may you long remain,[36] Virgil
blesses him with words used to describe Christ himself
(Luke 11:27). Literally, this reects the fact that souls in
Hell are eternally xed in the state they have chosen, but
allegorically, it reects Dantes beginning awareness of
his own sin[37] Just as Argenti seized Dantes property, he
himself is seized by all the other wrathful souls. (Canto
VIII).
The fth circle, illustrated by Stradanus
Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by

Stradanus. There is a drop from the sixth circle to the three rings
of the seventh circle, then again to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy ninth circle.
Entrance to Dis Cantos VIIIIX: In the distance,

Dante perceives high towers that resemble ery red
In the swampy, stinking waters of the river Styx the mosques. Virgil informs him that they are approaching
The Barque of Dante by Eugne Delacroix
34
the City of Dis. Dis, itself surrounded by the Stygian
marsh, contains Lower Hell within its walls.[38] Dis is one
of the names of Pluto, the classical king of the underworld, in addition to being the name of the realm. The
walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. Virgil is unable
to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and Dante is
threatened by the Furies (consisting of Alecto, Megaera,
and Tisiphone) and Medusa. An angel sent from Heaven
secures entry for the poets, opening the gate by touching
it with a wand, and rebukes those who opposed Dante.
Allegorically, this reveals the fact that the poem is beginning to deal with sins that philosophy and humanism
cannot fully understand. Virgil also mentions to Dante
how Erichtho sent him down to the lowest circle of Hell
to bring back a spirit from there.[37]

the next circle, is therefore an oence against both; it is
a kind of blasphemy, since it is an act of violence against
Art, which is the child of Nature, and Nature derives from
God.[45]
Virgil then indicates the time through his unexplained
awareness of the stars positions. The Wain, the Great
Bear, now lies in the northwest over Caurus (the northwest wind). The constellation Pisces (the Fish) is just appearing over the horizon: it is the zodiacal sign preceding
Aries (the Ram). Canto I notes that the sun is in Aries,
and since the twelve zodiac signs rise at two-hour intervals, it must now be about two hours prior to sunrise: 4:00
A.M. of Holy Saturday, April 9 (Canto XI).[45][46]
Seventh Circle (Violence)
Sixth Circle (Heresy)

In the sixth circle, Heretics, such as Epicurus and his followers (who say the soul dies with the body)[39] are
trapped in aming tombs. Dante holds discourse with
a pair of Epicurian Florentines in one of the tombs:
Farinata degli Uberti, a famous Ghibelline leader (following the Battle of Montaperti in September 1260, Farinata strongly protested the proposed destruction of Florence at the meeting of the victorious Ghibellines; he died
in 1264 and was posthumously condemned for heresy
in 1283); and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph who
was the father of Dantes friend and fellow poet, Guido
Cavalcanti. The political aliation of these two men allows for a further discussion of Florentine politics. In
response to a question from Dante about the prophecy
he has received, Farinata explains that what the souls in
Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future,
not from any observation of the present. Consequently,
when the portal of the future has been shut,[40] it will no
longer be possible for them to know anything. Farinata
explains that also crammed within the tomb are Emperor
Frederick II, commonly reputed to be an Epicurean, and
Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, to whom Dante refers to as il
Cardinale (Canto X).
Dante reads an inscription on one of the tombs indicating
it belongs to Pope Anastasius II although some modern scholars hold that Dante erred in the verse mentioning
Anastasius ("Anastasio papa guardo, / lo qual trasse Fotin
de la via dritta", lines 8-9), confusing the pope with the
Byzantine emperor of the time, Anastasius I.[41][42][43][44]
Pausing for a moment before the steep descent to the foulsmelling seventh circle, Virgil explains the geography and
rationale of Lower Hell, in which the sins of violence (or
bestiality) and fraud (or malice) are punished. (Virgils
explanation of Hells organization is explained above.) In
his explanation, Virgil refers to the Nicomachean Ethics
and the Physics of Aristotle, with medieval interpretations. Virgil asserts that there are only two legitimate
sources of wealth: natural resources (Nature) and human labor and activity (Art). Usury, to be punished in
The Seventh Circle, divided into three rings, houses the

Violent. Dante and Virgil descend a jumble of rocks
that had once formed a cli to reach the Seventh Circle
from the Sixth Circle, having rst to evade the Minotaur
(L'infamia di Creti, the Infamy of Crete", line 12); at the
sight of them, the Minotaur gnaws his esh. Virgil assures
the monster that Dante is not its hated enemy, Theseus.
This causes the Minotaur to charge them as Dante and
Virgil swiftly enter the seventh circle. Virgil explains the
presence of shattered stones around them: they resulted
from the great earthquake that shook the earth at the moment of Christs death (Matt. 27:51), at the time of the
Harrowing of Hell. Ruins resulting from the same shock
were previously seen at the beginning of Upper Hell (the
entrance of the Second Circle, Canto V).
Ring 1: Against Neighbors: In the rst round
of the seventh circle, the murderers, war-makers,
plunderers and tyrants are immersed in Phlegethon,
a river of boiling blood and re. Ciardi writes,
as they wallowed in blood during their lives, so
they are immersed in the boiling blood forever,
each according to the degree of his guilt.[48] The
Centaurs, commanded by Chiron and Pholus, patrol the ring, shooting arrows into any sinners who
emerge higher out of the boiling blood than each
is allowed. The centaur Nessus guides the poets along Phlegethon and points out Alexander the
Great, Dionysius (either Dionysius I or Dionysius
II, or both; they were bloodthirsty, unpopular tyrants
of Sicily), Azzolino (the cruelest of the Ghibelline
tyrants), Obizzo d'Este, and Guy de Montfort. The
river grows shallower until it reaches a ford, after which it comes full circle back to the deeper
part where Dante and Virgil rst approached it; immersed here are tyrants including Attila, King of the
Huns (agello in terra, scourge on earth, line 134),
Pyrrhus (either the bloodthirsty son of Achilles or
King Pyrrhus of Epirus), Sextus, Rinier da Corneto,
and Rinier Pazzo. After bringing Dante and Virgil to the shallow ford, Nessus leaves them to re-
4.2. ''INFERNO''
35
Harpies in the wood of the suicides, from Inferno XIII, by

Gustave Dor, 1861
Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, / Wherein the boiled

were uttering loud laments. / People I saw within up to the
eyebrows...[47]
turn to his post (Canto XII). This passage may have

been inuenced by the early medieval Visio Karoli
Grossi.[nb 3]
Ring 2: Against Self: The second round of the seventh circle is the Wood of the Suicides, in which the
souls of the Suicides are transformed into gnarled,
thorny trees and then fed upon by Harpies, hideous
clawed birds with the faces of women; the trees are
only permitted to speak when broken and bleeding.
Dante breaks a twig o one of the trees and from the
bleeding trunk hears the tale of Pietro della Vigna, a
powerful minister of Emperor Frederick II until he
fell out of favor and was imprisoned and blinded. He
subsequently committed suicide; his presence here,
rather than in the Ninth Circle, indicates that Dante
believes that the accusations made against him were
false.[49] The Harpies and the characteristics of the
bleeding bushes are based on Book 3 of the Aeneid.
According to Dorothy L. Sayers, the sin of suicide
is an insult to the body; so, here, the shades are deprived of even the semblance of the human form.
As they refused life, they remain xed in a dead
and withered sterility. They are the image of the
self-hatred which dries up the very sap of energy
and makes all life infertile.[49] The trees can also
be interpreted as a metaphor for the state of mind in
which suicide is committed.[50]

Dante learns that these suicides, unique among
the dead, will not be corporally resurrected
after the Final Judgement since they threw
their bodies away; instead, they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses
hanging from the thorny limbs. After Pietro
della Vigna nishes his story, Dante notices
two shades (Lano da Siena and Jacopo Sant'
Andrea) race through the wood, chased and
savagely mauled by ferocious bitchesthis is
the punishment of the violently proigate who,
possessed by a depraved passion...dissipated
their goods for the sheer wanton lust of wreckage and disorder.[49] The destruction wrought
upon the wood by the proigates ight and
punishment as they crash through the undergrowth causes further suering to the suicides,
who cannot move out of the way (Canto XIII).
Ring 3: Against God, Art, and Nature: The
third round of the seventh circle is a great Plain
of Burning Sand scorched by great akes of ame
falling slowly down from the sky, an image derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.
19:24.) The Blasphemers (the Violent against God)
are stretched supine upon the burning sand, the
Sodomites (the Violent against Nature) run in circles, while the Usurers (the Violent against Art,
which is the Grandchild of God, as explained in
Canto XI) crouch huddled and weeping. Ciardi
36

writes, Blasphemy, sodomy, and usury are all unnatural and sterile actions: thus the unbearing desert
is the eternity of these sinners; and thus the rain,
which in nature should be fertile and cool, descends
as re.[51] Dante nds Capaneus stretched out on
the sands; for blasphemy against Jove, he was struck
down with a thunderbolt during the Siege of Thebes;
he is still scorning God in the afterlife. The overow of Phlegeton, the river of blood from the First
Round, ows boiling through the Wood of the Suicides (the second round) and crosses the Burning
Plain. Virgil explains the origin of the rivers of Hell,
which includes references to the Old Man of Crete
(Canto XIV).
Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaio Aldobrandiall Florentines much admired by

Dante. Rusticucci blames his savage wife
for his torments. The sinners ask for news of
Florence, and Dante laments the current state
of the city. At the top of the falls, at Virgils
order, Dante removes a cord from about his
waist and Virgil drops it over the edge; as if
in answer, a large, distorted shape swims up
through the lthy air of the abyss (Canto XVI).
The creature is Geryon, the Monster of Fraud;
Virgil announces that they must y down from
the cli on the monsters back. Dante goes
alone to examine the Usurers: he does not
recognize them, but each has a heraldic device emblazoned on a leather purse around his
neck (On these their streaming eyes appeared
to feast..[55] The coats of arms indicate that
they came from prominent Florentine families; they indicate the presence of Catello di
Rosso Giangliazzi, Ciappo Ubriachi, the Paduan Reginaldo degli Scrovegni (who predicts
that his fellow Paduan Vitaliano di Iacopo Vitaliani will join him here), and Giovanni di
Buiamonte. Dante then rejoins Virgil and,
both mounted atop Geryons back, the two begin their descent from the great cli in the
Eighth Circle: the Hell of the Fraudulent and
Malicious (Canto XVII).
Brunetto Latini speaks with Dante in Canto XV, an engraving by

Gustave Dor.
Protected by the powers of the boiling rivulet,

Dante and Virgil progress across the burning
plain. They pass a roving group of Sodomites
and Dante, to his surprise, recognizes as Ser
Brunetto Latini. Dante addresses Brunetto
with deep and sorrowful aection, paying
him the highest tribute oered to any sinner in the Inferno",[52] thus refuting suggestions that Dante only placed his enemies in
Hell.[53] Dante has great respect for Brunetto
and feels spiritual indebtedness to him and
his works (you taught me how man makes
himself eternal; / and while I live, my gratitude for that / must always be apparent in
my words),[54] Brunetto prophesies Dantes
bad treatment by the Florentines. He also
identies other sodomites, including Priscian,
Francesco d'Accorso, and Bishop Andrea de'
Mozzi (Canto XV).
A Gustave Dor wood engraving of Geryon, Canto XVII.
The Poets begin to hear the waterfall that

plunges over the Great Cli into the Eighth
Circle when three shades break from their
company and greet them. They are Iacopo
Geryon, the winged monster who allows Dante and Virgil to descend a vast cli to reach the Eighth Circle, was
traditionally represented as a giant with three heads and
4.2. ''INFERNO''
three conjoined bodies.[56] Dantes Geryon, meanwhile,
is an image of fraud[57] (Canto XVII), combining human, bestial, and reptilian elements: Geryon is a monster with the general shape of a dragon but with the tail of
a scorpion, hairy arms, a gaudily-marked reptilian body,
and the face of a just and honest man.[58] In relation to
the beasts Dante encounters in Canto I, the spotted body
is reminiscent of the leopard; the hairy paws evoke the
lion; and the human face symbolizes the human nature of
fraud.
Eighth Circle (Fraud)
See also: Malebolge
Dante now nds himself in the Eighth Circle, called
Malebolge (Evil Ditches): the upper half of the Hell
of the Fraudulent and Malicious. The Eighth Circle is a
large funnel of stone shaped like an amphitheatre around
which run a series of ten deep, narrow, concentric ditches
or trenches called bolgie (singular: bolgia). Within these
ditches are punished those guilty of Simple Fraud. From
the foot of the Great Cli to the Well (which forms the
neck of the funnel) are large spurs of rock, like umbrella
ribs or spokes, which serve as bridges over the ten ditches.
Dorothy L. Sayers writes that the Malebolge is the image of the City in corruption: the progressive disintegration of every social relationship, personal and public.
Sexuality, ecclesiastical and civil oce, language, ownership, counsel, authority, psychic inuence, and material
interdependence all the media of the communitys interchange are perverted and falsied.[59]
Illustration by Sandro Botticelli: Dante and Virgil visit the rst

two Bolgie of the eighth circle
Bolgia 1 Panderers and seducers: These sinners

make two les, one along either bank of the ditch,
and march quickly in opposite directions while being whipped by horned demons for eternity. They
deliberately exploited the passions of others and so
drove them to serve their own interests, are themselves driven and scourged.[59] Dante makes reference to a recent trac rule developed for the Jubilee
37
year of 1300 in Rome.[59] In the group of panderers,
the poets notice Venedico Caccianemico, a Bolognese Guelph who sold his own sister Ghisola to the
Marchese d'Este. In the group of seducers, Virgil points out Jason, the Greek hero who led the
Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece from Aetes,
King of Colchis. He gained the help of the kings
daughter, Medea, by seducing and marrying her only
to later desert her for Creusa.[59] Jason had previously seduced Hypsipyle when the Argonauts landed
at Lemnos on their way to Colchis, but abandoned
her, alone and pregnant[60] (Canto XVIII).
Bolgia 2 Flatterers: These also exploited other
people, this time abusing and corrupting language to
play upon others desires and fears. They are steeped
in excrement (representative of the false atteries
they told on earth) as they howl and ght amongst
themselves. Alessio Interminei of Lucca and Thas
are seen here.[59] (Canto XVIII).
Bolgia 3 Simoniacs: Dante now forcefully expresses his condemnation of those who committed
simony, or the sale of ecclesiastic favors and ofces, and therefore made money for themselves out
of what belongs to God: Rapacious ones, who take
the things of God, / that ought to be the brides of
Righteousness, / and make them fornicate for gold
and silver! / The time has come to let the trumpet
sound / for you; ....[61] The sinners are placed headdownwards in round, tube-like holes within the rock
(debased mockeries of baptismal fonts), with ames
burning the soles of their feet. The heat of the re is
proportioned to their guilt. The simile of baptismal
fonts gives Dante an incidental opportunity to clear
his name of an accusation of malicious damage to
the font at the Baptistery of San Giovanni.[62] Simon
Magus, who oered gold in exchange for holy power
to Saint Peter and after whom the sin is named, is
mentioned here (although Dante does not encounter
him). One of the sinners, Pope Nicholas III, must
serve in the hellish baptism by re from his death in
1280 until 1303the arrival in Hell of Pope Boniface VIIIwho will take his predecessors place in
the stone tube until 1314, when he will in turn be replaced by Pope Clement V, a puppet of King Philip
IV of France who moved the Papal See to Avignon,
ushering in the Avignon Papacy (1309-77). Dante
delivers a denunciation of simoniacal corruption of
the Church (Canto XIX).
Bolgia 4 Sorcerers: In the middle of the bridge

of the Fourth Bolgia, Dante looks down at the souls
of fortune tellers, diviners, astrologers, and other
false prophets. The punishment of those who attempted to usurp Gods prerogative by prying into
the future,[63] is to have their heads twisted around
38

dente (a shoemaker and soothsayer from Parma).
Virgil implies that the moon is now setting over the
Pillars of Hercules in the West: the time is just after
6:00 A.M., the dawn of Holy Saturday (Canto XX).
Dantes guide rebus Malacoda and his ends between Bolgie 5

and 6, Canto 21
Punishment of sorcerers and diviners in the Fourth Bolgia, Canto
XX, illustrated by Stradanus.
on their bodies; in this horrible contortion of the human form, these sinners are compelled to walk backwards for eternity, blinded by their own tears. John
Ciardi writes, Thus, those who sought to penetrate
the future cannot even see in front of themselves;
they attempted to move themselves forward in time,
so must they go backwards through all eternity; and
as the arts of sorcery are a distortion of Gods law,
so are their bodies distorted in Hell.[64] While referring primarily to attempts to see into the future
by forbidden means, this also symbolises the twisted
nature of magic in general.[63] Dante weeps in pity,
and Virgil rebukes him, saying, Here pity only lives
when it is dead; / for who can be more impious than
he / who links Gods judgment to passivity?"[65] Virgil gives a lengthy explanation of the founding of
his native city of Mantua. Among the sinners in
this circle are King Amphiaraus (one of the Seven
Against Thebes; foreseeing his death in the war, he
sought to avert it by hiding from battle but died in
an earthquake trying to ee) and two Theban soothsayers: Tiresias (in Ovids Metamorphoses III, 324331, Tiresias was transformed into a woman upon
striking two coupling serpents with his rod; seven
years later, he was changed back to a man in an identical encounter) and his daughter Manto. Also in
this bolgia are Aruns (an Etruscan soothsayer who
predicted the Caesars victory in the Roman civil
war in Lucans Pharsalia I, 585-638), the Greek augur Eurypylus, astrologers Michael Scot (served at
Frederick IIs court at Palermo) and Guido Bonatti
(served the court of Guido da Montefeltro), and As-
Bolgia 5 Barrators: Corrupt politicians, who

made money by tracking in public oces (the political analogue of the simoniacs), are immersed in
a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the sticky
ngers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals.[66]
They are guarded by demons called the Malebranche
(Evil Claws), who tear them to pieces with claws
and grappling hooks if they catch them above the
surface of the pitch. The Poets observe a demon
arrive with a grafting Senator of Lucca and throw
him into the pitch where the demons set upon him.
Virgil secures safe-conduct from the leader of the
Malebranche, named Malacoda (Evil Tail). He
informs them that the bridge across the Sixth Bolgia is shattered (as a result of the earthquake that
shook Hell at the death of Christ in 34 AD) but
that there is another bridge further on. He sends a
squad of demons led by Barbariccia to escort them
safely. Based on details in this Canto (and if Christs
death is taken to have occurred at exactly noon),
the time is now 7:00 A.M. of Holy Saturday.[67][nb 4]
The demons provide some savage and satirical black
comedy in the last line of Canto XXI, the sign
for their march is provided by a fart: and he had
made a trumpet of his ass.[69] (Canto XXI). One
of the grafters, an unidentied Navarrese (identied by early commentators as Ciampolo) is seized
by the demons, and Virgil questions him. The sinner
speaks of his fellow grafters, Friar Gomita (a corrupt
friar in Gallura eventually hanged by Nino Visconti
(see Purg. VIII) for accepting bribes to let prisoners
escape) and Michel Zanche (a corrupt Vicar of Logodoro under King Enzo of Sardinia). He oers to
lure some of his fellow suerers into the hands of the
4.2. ''INFERNO''
demons, and when his plan is accepted he escapes
back into the pitch. Alichino and Calcabrina start a
brawl in mid-air and fall into the pitch themselves,
and Barbariccia organizes a rescue party. Dante and
Virgil take advantage of the confusion to slip away
(Canto XXII).
Bolgia 6 Hypocrites: The Poets escape the pursuing Malebranche by sliding down the sloping bank
of the next pit. Here they nd the hypocrites listlessly walking around a narrow track for eternity,
weighted down by leaden robes. The robes are brilliantly gilded on the outside and are shaped like a
monks habit the hypocrites outward appearance
shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under
that show lies the terrible weight of his deceit,[70]
a falsity that weighs them down and makes spiritual
progress impossible for them.[71] Dante speaks with
Catalano dei Malavolti and Loderingo degli Andal,
two Bolognese brothers of the Jovial Friars, an order that had acquired a reputation for not living up
to its vows and was eventually disbanded by Papal
decree.[71] Friar Catalano points out Caiaphas, the
High Priest under Pontius Pilate who counseled the
Pharisees to crucify Jesus for the public good (John
11:49-50). He himself is crucied to the oor of
Hell by three large stakes, and in such a position
that every passing sinner must walk upon him: he
must suer upon his body the weight of all the
worlds hypocrisy.[70] The Jovial Friars explain to
Virgil how he may climb from the pit; Virgil discovers that Malacoda lied to him about the bridges
over the Sixth Bolgia (Canto XXIII).
39
thieves are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards,
who curl themselves about the sinners and bind
their hands behind their backs. The full horror of
the thieves punishment is revealed gradually: just
as they stole other peoples substance in life, their
very identity becomes subject to theft here.[72] One
sinner, who reluctantly identies himself as Vanni
Fucci, is bitten by a serpent at the jugular vein,
bursts into ames, and is re-formed from the ashes
like a phoenix. Vanni tells a dark prophecy against
Dante (Canto XXIV). Vanni hurls an obscenity at
God and the serpents swarm over him. The centaur Cacus arrives to punish the wretch; he has a
re-breathing dragon on his shoulders and snakes
covering his equine back. (In Roman mythology,
Cacus, the monstrous, re-breathing son of Vulcan,
was killed by Hercules for raiding the heros cattle; in Aeneid VIII, 193-267, Virgil did not describe
him as a centaur). Dante then meets ve noble
thieves of Florence and observes their various transformations. Agnello Brunelleschi, in human form, is
merged with the six-legged lizard that is Cianfa de'
Donati. Buoso degli Abati rst appears as a man,
but exchanges forms with Francesco dei Cavalcanti,
who bites Buoso in the form of a tiny reptile. Puccio Sciancato remains unchanged for the time being
(Canto XXV).
The Thieves tortured by Serpents: engraving by Gustave Dor

illustrating Canto XXIV of the Inferno.
Dante and Virgil observe the false counsellors, Canto XXVI
Bolgia 7 Thieves: Dante and Virgil leave the bolgia of the Hypocrites by climbing the ruined rocks
of a bridge destroyed by the great earthquake, after which they cross the bridge of the Seventh Bolgia to the far side to observe the next chasm. The
pit is lled with monstrous reptiles: the shades of
Bolgia 8 Counsellors of Fraud: Dante addresses

a passionate lament to Florence before turning to
the next bolgia. Here, the fraudulent advisers or evil
counsellors move about, hidden from view inside individual ames. These are not people who gave false
40

advice, but people who used their position to advise
others to engage in fraud.[73] Ulysses and Diomedes
are punished together within a great double-headed
ame; they are condemned for the stratagem of the
Trojan Horse (resulting in the Fall of Troy) persuading Achilles to sail for Troy (causing Deidamia to
die of grief), and for the theft of the sacred statue of
Pallas, the Palladium (upon which, it was believed,
the fate of Troy depended). Ulysses, the gure in
the larger horn of the ame, narrates the tale of his
last voyage and death (Dantes invention). He tells
how, after his detainment by Circe, his love for neither his son, his father, nor his wife could overpower
his desire to set out on the open sea to gain experience of the world / and of the vices and the worth of
men.[74] As they approach the Pillars of Hercules,
Ulysses urges his crew:
Brothers, I said, o you, who having
crossed
a hundred thousand dangers, reach the west,
to this brief waking-time that still is left
unto your senses, you must not deny
experience of that which lies beyond
the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled.
Consider well the seed that gave you birth:
you were not made to live your lives as brutes,
but to be followers of worth and knowledge.[1]
1. ^ Inferno, Canto XXVI, lines 112-120,
Ulysses tells how he and his men traveled south
across the equator, observed the southern stars,
and found that the North Star had sunk below
the horizon; they sight Mount Purgatory in the
Southern Hemisphere after ve months of passage (Canto XXVI). Dante is approached by
Guido da Montefeltro, head of the Ghibellines
of Romagna, asking for news of his country.
Dante replies with a tragic summary of the current state of the cities of Romagna. Guido then
recounts his life: he advised Pope Boniface
VIII to oer a false amnesty to the Colonna
family, who, in 1297, had walled themselves
inside the castle of Palestrina in the Lateran.
When the Colonna accepted the terms and left
the castle, the Pope razed it to the ground and
left them without a refuge. Guido describes
how St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order, came to take his soul to Heaven, only to
have a devil assert prior claim. Although Boniface had absolved Guido in advance for his evil
advice, the devil points out the invalidity: absolution requires contrition, and a man cannot
be contrite for a sin at the same time that he is
intending to commit it[75] (Canto XXVII).
Bolgia 9 Sowers of Discord: In the Ninth Bol-
gia, the Sowers of Discord are hacked and mutilated for all eternity by a large demon wielding a
bloody sword; their bodies are divided as, in life,
their sin was to tear apart what God had intended to
be united;[76] these are the sinners who are ready to
rip up the whole fabric of society to gratify a sectional egotism.[77] The souls must drag their ruined
bodies around the ditch, their wounds healing in the
course of the circuit, only to have the demon tear
them apart anew. There are divided into three categories: (i) religious schism and discord, (ii) civil
strife and political discord, and (iii) family disunion,
or discord between kinsmen. Chief among the rst
category is Muhammad, the founder of Islam: his
body is ripped from groin to chin, with his entrails
hanging out. Dante apparently saw Muhammad as
causing a schism within Christianity when he and his
followers splintered o.[77][78] Dante also condemns
Muhammads son-in-law, Ali, for schism between
Sunni and Shiite: his face is cleft from top to bottom. Muhammad ironically tells Dante to warn the
schismatic and heretic Fra Dolcino. In the second
category are Pier da Medicina (his throat slit, nose
slashed o as far as the eyebrows, a wound where
one of his ears had been), the Roman tribune Gaius
Scribonius Curio (who advised Caesar to cross the
Rubicon and thus begin the Civil War; his tongue
is cut o), and Mosca dei Lamberti (who incited
the Amidei family to kill Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti, resulting in conict between Guelphs and
Ghibellines; his arms are hacked o). Finally, in
the third category of sinner, Dante sees Bertrand
de Born (1140-1215). The knight carries around
his severed head by its own hair, swinging it like a
lantern. Bertrand is said to have caused a quarrel between Henry II of England and his son Prince Henry
the Young King; his punishment in Hell is decapitation, since dividing father and son is like severing
the head from the body.[77] (Canto XXVIII).
Bolgia 10 Falsiers: The nal bolgia of the
Eighth Circle, is home to various sorts of falsiers. A disease on society, they are themselves aficted with dierent types of aictions:[79] horrible
diseases, stench, thirst, lth, darkness, and screaming. Some lie prostrate while others run hungering
through the pit, tearing others to pieces. Shortly
before their arrival in this pit, Virgil indicates that
it is approximately noon of Holy Saturday, and he
and Dante discuss one of Dantes kinsmen (Geri de
Bello) among the Sowers of Discord in the previous ditch. The rst category of falsiers Dante encounters are the Alchemists (Falsiers of Things).
He speaks with two spirits viciously scrubbing and
clawing at their leprous scabs: Griolino d'Arezzo
(an alchemist who extracted money from the foolish Alberto da Siena on the promise of teaching him
to y; the Bishop of Siena, Albertos reputed father,
had Griolino burned at the stake) and Capocchio
4.2. ''INFERNO''
(burned at the stake at Siena in 1293 for practicing
alchemy) (Canto XXIX). Suddenly, two spirits
Gianni Schicchi and Myrrha, both punished as Evil
Impersonators (Falsiers of Persons)run rabid
through the pit. Schicchi sinks his tusks into Capocchios neck and drags him away like prey. Griolino
explains how Myrrha disguised herself to commit
incest with her father King Cinyras, while Schicchi impersonated the dead Buoso di Donati to dictate a will giving himself several protable bequests.
Dante then encounters Master Adam of Brescia,
one of the Counterfeiters (Falsiers of Money):
for manufacturing Florentine orins of twenty-one
(rather than twenty-four) carat gold, he was burned
at the stake in 1281. He is punished by a loathsome
dropsy-like disease, which gives him a bloated stomach, prevents him from moving, and an eternal, unbearable thirst. Master Adam points out two sinners of the fourth class, the Perjurers (Falsiers of
Words). These are Potiphar's Wife (punished for
her false accusation of Joseph, Gen. 39:7-19) and
Sinon, the Achaean spy who lied to the Trojans to
convince them to take the Trojan Horse into their
city (Aeneid II, 57-194); Sinon is here rather than in
Bolgia 8 because his advice was false as well as evil.
Both suer from a burning fever. Master Adam and
Sinon exchange abuse, which Dante watches until he
is rebuked by Virgil. As a result of his shame and
repentance, Dante is forgiven by his guide. Sayers
remarks that the descent through Malebolge began
with the sale of the sexual relationship, and went
on to the sale of Church and State; now, the very
money is itself corrupted, every armation has become perjury, and every identity a lie[79] so that
every aspect of social interaction has been progressively destroyed (Cantos XXX).
41
and nal Circle of Hell. The classical and biblical
Giantswho perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual aws lying behind acts of treachery[80] stand perpetual guard inside the well-pit, their legs embedded in
the banks of the Ninth Circle while their upper halves rise
above the rim and can be visible from the Malebolge.[81]
Dante initially mistakes them for great towers of a city.
Among the Giants, Virgil identies Nimrod (who tried
to build the Tower of Babel; he shouts out the unintelligible Raphl mai amcche zab almi); Ephialtes (who
with his brother Otus tried to storm Olympus during the
Gigantomachy; he has his arms chained up) and Briareus
(who Dante claimed to have challenged the Gods); and
Tityos and Typhon, who insulted Jupiter. Also here is the
Giant Antaeus, who did not join in the rebellion against
the Olympian Gods and therefore is not chained. At Virgils persuasion, Antaeus takes the Poets in his large palm
and lowers them gently to the nal level of Hell (Canto
XXXI).
Ninth Circle (Treachery)
Dante speaks to the traitors in the ice, Canto 32.
Titans and giants, including Ephialtes on the left, in Dor's illustrations.
Central Well of Malebolge Dante and Virgil approach

the Central Well, at the bottom of which lies the Ninth
At the base of the well, Dante nds himself within a large

frozen lake: Cocytus, the Ninth Circle of Hell. Trapped
in the ice, each according to his guilt, are punished sinners
guilty of treachery against those with whom they had special relationships. The lake of ice is divided into four concentric rings (or rounds) of traitors corresponding, in
order of seriousness, to betrayal of family ties, betrayal of
community ties, betrayal of guests, and betrayal of lords.
This is in contrast to the popular image of Hell as ery;
as Ciardi writes, The treacheries of these souls were denials of love (which is God) and of all human warmth.
Only the remorseless dead center of the ice will serve to
express their natures. As they denied Gods love, so are
they furthest removed from the light and warmth of His
Sun. As they denied all human ties, so are they bound
only by the unyielding ice.[82]
Round 1 Cana: this round is named after Cain,
42

who killed his own brother in the rst act of murder
(Gen. 4:8). This round houses the Traitors to
their Kindred: they have their necks and heads out
of the ice and allowed to bow their heads, allowing some protection from the freezing wind. Here
Dante sees the brothers Alessandro and Napoleone
degli Alberti, who killed each other over their inheritance and their politics some time between 1282
and 1286. Camiscion de' Pazzi, a Ghibelline who
murdered his kinsman Ubertino, identies several
other sinners: Mordred (traitorous nephew of King
Arthur); Vanni de' Cancellieri, nicknamed Focaccia
(a White Guelph of Pistoia who killed his cousin,
Detto de' Cancellieri); and Sassol Mascheroni of the
noble Toschi family of Florence (murdered a relative). Camicion is aware that, in July 1302, his
relative Carlino de' Pazzi would accept a bribe to
surrender the Castle of Piantravigne to the Blacks,
betraying the Whites. As a traitor to his party, Carlino belongs in Antenora, the next circle downhis
greater sin will make Camiscion look virtuous by
comparison.[83]
Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, at the Muse

des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris, which depicts Ugolino della
Gherardescas story from Canto XXXIII. Imprisoned for treachery, Ugolino starves to death with his children, who, before dying,
beg him to eat their bodies.
Round 2 Antenora: the second round is named

after Antenor, a Trojan soldier who betrayed his city
to the Greeks. Here lie the Traitors to their Country: those who committed treason against political
entities (parties, cities, or countries) have their heads
above the ice, but they cannot bend their necks.
Dante accidentally kicks the head of Bocca degli
Abati, a traitorous Guelph of Florence, and then
proceeds to treat him more savagely than any other
soul he has thus far met. Also punished in this
level are Buoso da Duera (Ghibelline leader bribed
by the French to betray Manfred, King of Naples),
Tesauro dei Beccheria (a Ghibelline of Pavia; beheaded by the Florentine Guelphs for treason in
1258), Gianni de' Soldanieri (noble Florentine Ghibelline who joined with the Guelphs after Manfreds
death in 1266), Ganelon (betrayed the rear guard
of Charlemagne to the Muslims at Roncesvalles),
and Tebaldello de' Zambrasi of Faenza (a Ghibelline
who turned his city over to the Bolognese Guelphs
on Nov. 13, 1280). The Poets then see two heads
frozen in one hole, one gnawing the nape of the
others neck (Canto XXXII). The gnawing sinner
tells his story: he is Count Ugolino, and the head he
gnaws belongs to Archbishop Ruggieri. In the most
pathetic and dramatic passage of the Inferno",[84]
Ugolino describes how he conspired with Ruggieri
in 1288 to oust his nephew and take control over
the Guelphs of Pisa. However, as soon as Nino was
gone, the Archbishop, sensing the Guelphs weakened position, turned on Ugolino and imprisoned
him with his sons and grandsons in the Torre dei
Gualandi. In March 1289, the Archbishop condemned the prisoners to death by starvation.
Round 3 Ptolomaea: the third region of Cocytus
is named after Ptolemy, who invited his father-inlaw Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet
and then killed them (1 Maccabees 16).[85] Traitors
to their Guests lie supine in the ice while their tears
freeze in their eye sockets, sealing them with small
visors of crystaleven the comfort of weeping is
denied them. Dante encounters Fra Alberigo, one
of the Jovial Friars and a native of Faenza, who asks
Dante to remove the visor of ice from his eyes. In
1285, Alberigo invited his opponents, Manfred (his
brother) and Alberghetto (Manfreds son), to a banquet at which his men murdered the dinner guests.
He explains that often a living persons soul falls to
Ptolomea before he dies (before dark Atropos has
cut their thread.[86] ) Then, on earth, a demon inhabits the body until the bodys natural death. Fra
Alberigos sin is identical in kind to that of Branca
d'Oria, a Genoese Ghibelline who, in 1275, invited
his father-in-law, Michel Zanche (seen in the Eighth
Circle, Bolgia 5) and had him cut to pieces. Branca
(that is, his earthly body) did not die until 1325,
but his soul, together with that of his nephew who
assisted in his treachery, fell to Ptolomaea before
Michel Zanches soul arrived at the bolgia of the Barrators. Dante leaves without keeping his promise to
4.2. ''INFERNO''
clear Fra Alberigos eyes of ice (And yet I did not
open them for him; / and it was courtesy to show him
rudeness.[87] (Canto XXXIII).
Round 4 Judecca: the fourth division of Cocytus,
named for Judas Iscariot, contains the Traitors to
their Lords and benefactors. Upon entry into this
round, Virgil says "Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni"
(The banners of the King of Hell draw closer).[88]
Judecca is completely silent: all of the sinners are
fully encapsulated in ice, distorted and twisted in every conceivable position. The sinners present an image of utter immobility: it is impossible to talk with
any of them, and so Dante and Virgil quickly move
on to the centre of Hell.
Satan in the Inferno is trapped in the frozen central zone in the

Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto XXXIV (Gustave Dor)
Center of Hell See also: Dantes Satan

In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing
the ultimate sin (personal treachery against God), is the
Devil, referred to by Virgil as Dis (the Roman god of the
underworld; the name Dis was often used for Pluto in
antiquity, such as in Virgils Aeneid). The arch-traitor,
Lucifer was once held by God to be fairest of the angels
before pride caused his rebellion against God and resulted
in his expulsion from Heaven. Lucifer is a giant, terrifying beast trapped waist-deep in the ice, xed and suering. He has three faces, each a dierent color: one red
(the middle), one a pale yellow (the right), and one black
(the left):
...he had three faces: one in front bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the rst;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat
white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending,
ows.[1]
43
1. ^ Inferno, Canto XXXIV, lines 3945,
Dorothy L. Sayers notes that Satans three faces are
thought by some to suggest his control over the three
human races: red for the Europeans (from Japheth), yellow for the Asiatic (from Shem), and black for the African
(the race of Ham).[89] All interpretations recognize that
the three faces represent a fundamental perversion of the
Trinity: Satan is impotent, ignorant, and full of hate, in
contrast to the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving
nature of God.[89] Lucifer retains his six wings (he originally belonged to the angelic order of Seraphim, described in Isaiah 6:2), but these are now dark, bat-like,
and futile: the icy wind that emanates from the beating
of Lucifers wings only further ensures his own imprisonment in the frozen lake. He weeps from his six eyes,
and his tears mix with bloody froth and pus as they pour
down his three chins. Each face has a mouth that chews
eternally on a prominent traitor. Marcus Junius Brutus
and Gaius Cassius Longinus dangle with their feet in the
left and right mouths, respectively, for their involvement
in the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. an act
which, to Dante, represented the destruction of a unied
Italy and the killing of the man who was divinely appointed to govern the world.[89] In the central, most vicious mouth is Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed
Christ. Judas is receiving the most horrifying torture of
the three traitors: his head is gnawed inside Lucifers
mouth while his back is forever ayed and shredded by
Lucifers claws. According to Dorothy L. Sayers, just as
Judas gures treason against God, so Brutus and Cassius
gure treason against Man-in-Society; or we may say that
we have here the images of treason against the Divine and
the Secular government of the world.[89]
At about 6:00 P.M. on Saturday evening, Virgil and Dante
begin their escape from Hell by clamoring down Satans
ragged fur, feet-rst. When they reach Satans navel, the
poets pass through the center of the universe and of gravity from the Northern Hemisphere of land to the Southern Hemisphere of water. When Virgil changes direction
and begins to climb upward towards the surface of the
Earth at the antipodes, Dante, in his confusion, initially
believes they are returning to Hell. Virgil indicates that
the time is halfway between the canonical hours of Prime
(6 a.m.) and Terce (9 a.m.)that is, 7:30 A.M of the
same Holy Saturday which was just about to end. Dante
is confused as to how, after about an hour and a half of
climbing, it is now apparently morning. Virgil explains
that as a result of passing through the Earths center into
the Southern Hemisphere, which is twelve hours ahead of
Jerusalem, the central city of the Northern Hemisphere
(where, therefore, it is currently 7:30 P.M.).
Virgil goes on to explain how the Southern Hemisphere
was once covered with dry land, but the land recoiled in
horror to the north when Lucifer fell from Heaven and was
replaced by the ocean. Meanwhile, the inner rock Lucifer
44
displaced as he plunged into the center of the earth rushed

upwards to the surface of the Southern Hemisphere to
avoid contact with him, forming the Mountain of Purgatory. This mountainthe only land mass in the waters of
the Southern Hemisphererises above the surface at a
point directly opposite Jerusalem. The poets then ascend
a narrow chasm of rock through the space contained between the oor formed by the convex side of Cocytus and
the underside of the earth above,[90] moving in opposition to Lethe, the river of oblivion, which ows down
from the summit of Mount Purgatory. The poets nally
emerge a little before dawn on the morning of Easter Sunday (April 10, 1300 A.D.) beneath a sky studded with
stars (Canto XXXIV).
4.2.3
Gallery
4.2.4
See also

Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy in popular
culture
Dantes Satan
List of cultural references in The Divine Comedy
4.2.5
Footnotes
Notes
[1] There are many English translations of this famous line.
Some examples include
All hope abandon, ye who enter here - Henry Francis
Cary (18051814)
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!
Wadsworth Longfellow (1882)
- Henry
Leave every hope, ye who enter! - Charles Eliot

Norton (1891)
Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Robert M.

Durling (1996)
Verbatim, the line translates as Leave (lasciate) every
(ogne) hope (speranza), ye (voi) that (ch') enter (intrate).
[2] Mandelbaum, note to his translation, p. 357 of the Bantam Dell edition, 2004, says that Dante may simply be preserving an ancient conation of the two deities; Peter Bondanella in his note to the translation of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, The Inferno: Dante Alighieri (Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003), pp. 202203, thinks Plutus is meant,
since Pluto is usually identied with Dis, and Dis is a distinct gure.
[3] The punishment of immersion was not typically ascribed
in Dantes age to the violent, but the Visio attaches it to
those who facere praelia et homicidia et rapinas pro cupiditate terrena (make battle and murder and rapine because of worldly cupidity). Theodore Silverstein (1936),
Inferno, XII, 100126, and the Visio Karoli Crassi,
Modern Language Notes, 51:7, 449452, and Theodore
Silverstein (1939), The Throne of the Emperor Henry in
Dantes Paradise and the Mediaeval Conception of Christian Kingship, Harvard Theological Review, 32:2, 115
129, suggests that Dantes interest in contemporary politics would have attracted him to a piece like the Visio.
Its popularity assures that Dante would have had access
to it. Jacques Le Go, Goldhammer, Arthur, tr. (1986),
The Birth of Purgatory (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, ISBN 0-226-47083-0), states denitively that (we
know [that]") Dante read it.
[4] Allen Mandelbaum on Canto XXI, lines 112-114: the
bridges of Hell crumbled 1266 years agoat a time ve
hours later than the present hour yesterday. Dante held
that Christ died after having completed 34 years of life on
this earthyears counted from the day of the Incarnation.
Luke arms that the hour of His death was the sixththat
is, noon. If this is the case, then Malacoda is referring to
a time which is 7 A.M., ve hours before noon on Holy
Saturday.[68]
References
Leave all hope, ye that enter - Carlyle OkeyWicksteed (1932)
[1] John Ciardi, The Divine Comedy, Introduction by

Archibald T. MacAllister, p. 14
Lay down all hope, you that go in by me. - Dorothy

L. Sayers (1949)
[2] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on page 19.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here - John Ciardi

(1954)
[3] Hollander, Robert (2000). Note on Inferno I.11. In

Robert and Jean Hollander, trans., The Inferno by Dante.
New York: Random House. p. 14. ISBN 0-385-49698-2
Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Charles S.

Singleton (1970)
No room for hope, when you enter this place - C. H.
Sisson (1980)
Abandon every hope, who enter here. - Allen Mandelbaum (1982)
Abandon all hope, you who enter here. - Robert
Pinsky (1993)
Abandon every hope, all you who enter - Mark Musa
(1995)
[4] Allen Mandelbaum, Inferno, notes on Canto I, pg. 345

[5] Allaire, Gloria (7 August 1997). New evidence towards
identifying Dantes enigmatic lonza". Electronic Bulletin
of the Dante Society of America denes lonza as the
result of an unnatural pairing between a leopard and a lioness in Andrea da Barberino Guerrino meschino.
[6] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto I, pg. 21
[7] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto I.
4.2. ''INFERNO''
[8] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto III, pg. 36

[9] Dorothly L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto III
[10] Inferno, Canto III, lines 95-96, Longfellow translation
[11] Brand, Peter; Pertile, Lino (1999). The Cambridge History of Italian Literature (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 6364. ISBN 0-521-66622-8. Retrieved
2016-03-07.
[12] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XI, pg. 94
[13] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XI, pg. 139
[14] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto IV
[15] Inferno, Canto IV, line 36, Mandelbaum translation.
45
[41] Richard P. McBrien (1997). Lives of the Popes: The Pontis from St. Peter to John Paul II. HarperCollins. pp.
8283. ISBN 978-0-06-065304-0. Retrieved 8 March
2013.
[42] Alighieri, Dante (1995). Dantes Inferno. Translated by
Mark Musa. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-25320930-6. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
[43] Hudson-Williams, T. (1951).
Dante and the
Classics.
Greece & Rome 20 (58):
3842.
doi:10.1017/s0017383500011128.
Dante is not
free from error in his allocation of sinners; he consigned
Pope Anastasius II to the burning cauldrons of the
Heretics because he mistook him for the emperor of the
same name
[44] Seth Zimmerman (2003). The Inferno of Dante Alighieri.

iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4697-2448-5. Retrieved 8 March
2013.
[18] Purgatorio, Canto XXII, lines 97-114
[45] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XI.
[46] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XI, pg. 95
[20] Inferno, Canto V, line 38, Longfellow translation.
[47] Inferno, Canto XII, lines 101-103, Longfellow translation.
[21] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto V, pg. 101-102
[48] John Ciardi, Inferno, Canto XII, pg. 96
[22] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto V, pg. 51
[49] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XIII.
[23] Inferno, Canto V, line 34, Mandelbaum translation.
[50] Wallace Fowlie, A Reading of Dantes Inferno, University

Of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 224.
[16] Inferno, Canto IV, line 103, Ciardi translation.
[24] Inferno, line 137, Ciardi translation

[25] John Keats, On a Dream.
[51] John Ciardi, Inferno, Canto XIV, pg. 112
[26] Inferno, Canto V, lines 141-142, Mandelbaum translation.
[52] John Ciardi, Inferno, Canto XV, pg. 119
[27] John Ciardi, Inferno, Canto VI, pg. 54
[53] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XV.
[28] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VI.
[54] Inferno, Canto XV, lines 8587, Mandelbaum translation.
[29] John Ciardi, Inferno, Introduction, p. xi.
[55] John Ciardi, Inferno, Canto XVII, line 56

Of Chicago Press, 1981, pp. 5152.
[56] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XVII.
[31] Giovanni Boccaccio, ''The Decameron'', Ninth Day,

Novel VIII. Stg.brown.edu. Archived from the original
on October 18, 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-22.

[58] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XVII, pg. 138
[32] Inferno, Canto VII, line 47, Mandelbaum translation.
[59] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XVIII.
[33] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VII, pg. 114
[60] Inferno, Canto XVIII, line 94, Mandelbaum translation.
[34] Inferno, Canto VII, lines 7980, Mandelbaum translation.
[61] Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 26, Mandelbaum translation
[35] Inferno, Canto VII, lines 54, Mandelbaum translation.
[62] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XIX.
[36] Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 3738, Mandelbaum translation.
[63] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XX.

[64] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XX, pg. 157
[37] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto VIII.

[65] Inferno, Canto XX, lines 28-30, Mandelbaum translation.
[38] Allen Mandelbaum, Inferno, notes on Canto VIII, pg. 358
[66] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXI.
[39] Inferno, Canto X, line 15, Mandelbaum translation.
[40] Inferno, Canto X, lines 103108, Mandelbaum translation.
[67] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXI, pg. 171

[68] Allen Mandelbaum, Inferno, notes on Canto XXI
46
[69] Patterson, Victoria. Great Farts in Literature. The Nervous Breakdown. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
[70] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXIII, p. 180
[71] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIII
[72] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIV.

Dantes Divine Comedy: Full text paraphrased in
modern English verse by Scottish author and artist
Alasdair Gray
Audiobooks: Public domain recordings from LibriVox (in Italian, Longfellow translation); some additional recordings
[73] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVI.

[74] Inferno, Canto XXVI, lines 98-99.
[75] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVII.
[76] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXVIII, pg. 217
Secondary materials
A 72-piece art collection featured in Dantes Hell
Animated and Inferno by Dante lms.
[77] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXVIII.

Wikisummaries summary and analysis of Inferno
[79] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXIX.

Comedy for students by Guy Raa of the University
of Texas
[80] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXI.

[81] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXII.
[82] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXXII, pg. 248
[83] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on XXXII
[84] John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXXIII, pg. 256
[85] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXIII.
[86] Inferno, Canto XXXIII, line 125, Ciardi translation
[87] Inferno, Canto XXXIII, lines 149-150, Mandelbaum
translation.
[88] Inferno, Canto XXXIV, line 1, Mandelbaum translation
Dantes Places: a map (still a prototype) of the

places named by Dante in the Commedia, created
with GoogleMaps. Explanatory PDF is available for
download
Dantes Inferno on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen
now)
See more Dantes Inferno images by selecting the
""Heaven & Hell subject at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University
Library
[89] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XXXIV.

[90] Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander, The Inferno, notes
on Canto XXXIV, pg. 641.
4.3 ''Purgatorio''
For other uses, see Purgatorio (disambiguation).

Purgatorio (pronounced [puratrjo]; Italian for
"Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso.
Texts
The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an
Dantes Divine Comedy presented by the Electronic allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of
Literature Foundation. Multiple editions, with Ital- Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, except for
ian and English facing page and interpolated ver- the last four cantos at which point Beatrice takes over as
Dantes guide.
sions.
Purgatory in the poem is depicted as a mountain in the

Southern Hemisphere, consisting of a bottom section
(Ante-Purgatory), seven levels of suering and spiritual
growth (associated with the seven deadly sins), and nally
the Earthly Paradise at the top. Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life.[1] In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples
of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and
in the Church. The poem outlines a theory that all sins
arise from love either perverted love directed towards
others harm, or decient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
Plan of Mount Purgatory. As with Paradise, the structure is of

the form 2 + 7 + 1 = 10, with one of the ten regions dierent in
nature from the other nine
4.3.1
Canto I: Dante begins the Purgatorio by invoking the Muses
Now I shall sing the second kingdom

there where the soul of man is cleansed,
made worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Background
Main article: Inferno (Dante)

As described in the Inferno, the rst twenty-four hours
of Dantes journey took place on earth and started on
the evening of Maundy Thursday, 24 March (or 7 April)
1300 (Inf. I and II), and the next full day (Good Friday) was spent exploring the depths of Hell with Virgil
as a guide (Inf. III-XXXIV.69). Dante and Virgil
spent the next day ascending from Hell to see the stars
(Inf. XXXIV.70-139). They arrive at the shore of the
Mountain of Purgatorythe only land in the Southern
Hemisphereat 6 AM on the morning of Easter Sunday,[2] which is 6 PM on Sunday evening in Jerusalem,
since the two points are antipodal. Dante describes Hell
as existing underneath Jerusalem, having been created
by the impact of Lucifer's fall; the Mountain of Purgatory was created by a displacement of rock caused by the
same event.[3] The Purgatorio picks up where the Inferno
left o, describing Dantes three-and-one-day trip up the
mountain that ends with Dante in the Earthly Paradise at
the time of noon on Wednesday, March 30 (or April 13).
4.3.2
47
Ante-Purgatory
Shore of the Island (Cantos I II)
Here from the dead let poetry rise up,

O sacred Muses, since I am yours.
Here let Calliope arise...[4]
At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil meet Cato,
a pagan who has been placed by God as the general
guardian of the approach to the mountain (his symbolic
signicance has been much debated). The Purgatorio demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a spherical
Earth,[5][6] with Dante referencing the dierent stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere, the altered position of
the sun, and the various timezones of the Earth. For
instance, at the start of Canto II, the reader learns that
it is dawn in Purgatory; Dante conveys this concept by
explaining that it is sunset at Jerusalem (antipodal to
the Mount of Purgatory), midnight (six hours later) over
India on the River Ganges (with the constellation Libra
overhead there), and noon (six hours earlier) over Spain.
The journey is conceived as taking place during the vernal
equinox, when the days and nights are of the same length.
By now the sun was crossing the horizon
of the meridian whose highest point
covers Jerusalem; and from the Ganges,
night, circling opposite the sun, was moving
together with the Scales that, when the length
of dark defeats the day, desert nights hands;
so that, above the shore that I had reached,
the fair Auroras white and scarlet cheeks
were, as Aurora aged, becoming orange.[7]
In Purg. I.4-9, with the sun rising on Easter Sunday,

Dante announces his intention to describe Purgatory by
invoking the mythical Muses, as he did in Canto II of the In a contrast to Charon's ferry across the Acheron in the
Inferno:
Inferno, Christian souls are escorted by an Angel Boat-
48
Purgatorio, Canto II: Christian souls arrive singing, escorted by

an angel
Pia de' Tolomei (La Pia) in a painting by Stefano Ussi, Canto V.
man from their gathering place somewhere near Ostia,

the seaport of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, through
the Pillars of Hercules across the seas to the Mountain
of Purgatory. The souls arrive singing In exitu Israel de
Aegypto[8] (Canto II). In his Letter to Cangrande, Dante
explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers
both to the redemption of Christ and to the conversion
of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state
of grace.[9]
The Excommunicate
The poets begin to climb in the early hours of morning. On the lower slopes (designated as Ante-Purgatory
by commentators), Dante and Virgil encounter two main
categories of souls whose penitent Christian life was delayed or decient: the excommunicate and the late repentant. The former are detained at the base of the cli for a
period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy.
The excommunicate include Manfred of Sicily. Manfred explains that prayer from those currently alive and
in the grace of God may reduce the amount of time a
soul spends in purgatory.[10] The meeting with Manfred
is over by about 9 AM.[11] (Canto III).
Dante and Virgil meet Sordello, in a sculpture by Cesare Zocchi,

Canto VII.
The Late-Repentant
The Late-Repentant includes (1) those too lazy or too preoccupied to repent (the Indolent), (2) those who repented
at the last minute without formally receiving last rites, as
a result of violent deaths, and (3) the Negligent Rulers.
These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their
genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount
of time equal to their lives on earth. The lazy include
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
49
Belacqua (possibly a deceased friend of Dante), whom

Dante is relieved to discover here, rather than in Hell.
The meeting with Belacqua is over by noon (Canto IV).
Those not receiving last rites include Pia de' Tolomei of
Siena, who was murdered by her husband, Nello della
Pietra of the Maremma (Canto V):
may you remember me, who am La Pia;
Siena made, Maremma unmade me:
he who, when we were wed, gave me his pledge
and then, as nuptial ring, his gem, knows
that.[12]
Also in this category is the troubadour Sordello who, like
Virgil, is from Mantua. When Sordello discovers the
great poets identity, he bows down to him in honour.
This helps keep Virgil in the foreground of the poem,
since (as a resident of Limbo) Virgil is less qualied as
a guide here than he was in Hell.[1] As a resident of
Purgatory, Sordello is able to explain the Rule of the
Mountain: that after sunset souls are literally incapable
of climbing any further. Allegorically, the sun represents
God, meaning that progress in the penitent Christian life
can only be made through Divine Grace[1] Virgils conversation with Sordello ends as the sun is moving down- The Gate of Purgatory, painted by William Blake, Canto 9.
ward, that is, after 3 PM[13] (Cantos VI to VII).
It is sunset, so Dante and his companions stop for the
night in the beautiful Valley of the Princes where they
meet persons whose preoccupation with public and private duties hampered their spiritual progress, particularly
deceased monarchs such as Rudolph, Ottokar, Philip the
Bold, and Henry III (Cantos VII and VIII). John Ciardi writes that these Negligent Rulers are elevated above
their negligent subjects because their special duties made
it dicult for them to think about the welfare of their
own souls.[14] Dante also speaks with the souls of contemporary Italian statesmen Currado Malaspina and Nino
Visconti, the latter being a personal friend whom Dante
rejoices at not having found among the damned.
As night approaches, the souls sing the Compline hymns
Salve Regina and Te lucis ante terminum. Dantes beautiful description of evening in this valley was the inspiration
for a similar passage in Byron's Don Juan:[15]
Dante falls asleep at 8:30 PM; his dream takes place just
before the dawn of Easter Monday[16] and he awakens
just after 8 AM.[17] Waking, Dante nds that he has been
carried up to the gate of Purgatory proper. This gate
has three steps: polished white (reecting the purity of
the penitents true self), black (the colour of mourning;
cracked in the shape of a Christian cross), and red (symbolising the blood of Christ and the restoration of true
life)[18][19] (Canto IX).
wounds, when thou shalt be within.[20] With the passage

of each terrace and the corresponding purgation of his
soul that the pilgrim receives, one of the P"s will be
erased by the angel granting passage to the next terrace.
The angel at Peters Gate uses two keys, silver (remorse)
and gold (reconciliation) to open the gate both are necessary for redemption and salvation.[18]
4.3.3 Seven terraces of Purgatory

After passing through the gate of Purgatory proper, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the mountains seven
terraces. These correspond to the seven deadly sins or
seven roots of sinfulness":[21] Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth,
Avarice (and Prodigality), Gluttony, and Lust. The classication of sin here is more psychological than that of the
Inferno, being based on motives, rather than actions.[22]
It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather
than from classical sources.[23] The core of the classication is based on love: the rst three terraces of Purgatory relate to perverted love directed towards actual harm
of others, the fourth terrace relates to decient love (i.e.
sloth or acedia), and the last three terraces relate to excessive or disordered love of good things.[21] Each terrace
purges a particular sin in an appropriate manner. Those in
Purgatory can leave their circle voluntarily, but will only
do so when they have corrected the aw within themselves
that led to committing that sin.
The gate of Purgatory, Peters Gate, is guarded by an

angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter P (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dantes
forehead, bidding him take heed that thou wash / These The structure of the poetic description of these terraces
50
is more systematic than that of the Inferno, and associated with each terrace are an appropriate prayer and
beatitude.[24] Robert Hollander describes the shared features of all the terraces as "(1) description of the physical aspect of the terrace, (2) exemplars of the virtue that
counters the sin repented here, (3) description of the penitents, (4) recitation of their sins by particular penitents,
(5) exemplars of the vice, (6) appearance to Dante of the
angel representing the countering virtue.[25]
First terrace (Pride)
Dantes rst example of humility is taken from the Annunciation.

Relief in Auch Cathedral, Canto 10.

gil see beautiful sculptures expressing humility, the opposite virtue. The rst example is of the Annunciation to
the Virgin Mary, where she responds to the angel Gabriel
with the words Ecce ancilla Dei (Behold the handmaid of
the Lord, Luke 1:38[27] ). An example of humility from
classical history is the Emperor Trajan, who, according
to a medieval legend, once stopped his journey to render
justice to a poor widow (Canto X).
Also associated with humility is an expanded version of
the Lords Prayer:
Our Father, You who dwell within the
heavens
but are not circumscribed by them out of
Your greater love for Your rst works above,
Praised be Your name and Your omnipotence,
by every creature, just as it is seemly
to oer thanks to Your sweet euence.
Your kingdoms peace come unto us, for if
it does not come, then though we summon all
our force, we cannot reach it of our selves.
Just as Your angels, as they sing Hosanna,
oer their wills to You as sacrice,
so may men oer up their wills to You.
Give unto us this day the daily manna
without which he who labors most to move
ahead through this harsh wilderness falls back.
Even as we forgive all who have done
us injury, may You, benevolent,
forgive, and do not judge us by our worth.
Try not our strength, so easily subdued,
against the ancient foe, but set it free
from him who goads it to perversity.[28]
After being introduced to humility, Dante and Virgil
meet the souls of the proud, who are bent over by the
weight of huge stones on their backs. As they walk
around the terrace, they are able to prot from the
sculpted examples of humility. The rst of these souls
is Omberto Aldobrandeschi, whose pride lies in his descent (I was Italian, son of a great Tuscan: / my father was Guiglielmo Aldobrandesco[29] ), although he is
learning to be more humble[30] (I / do not know if you
have heard his name[31] ). Oderisi of Gubbio is an example of pride in achievements he was a noted artist of
illuminated manuscripts.[30] Provenzano Salvani, leader
of the Sienese Ghibellines, is an example of pride in dominating others[30] (Canto XI).
Building the Tower of Babel was, for Dante, an example of pride.

Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Canto 12.
The rst three terraces of Purgatory relate to sins caused

by a perverted love directed towards actual harm of others.
In Canto XIII, Dante points out, with frank selfawareness,[32] that pride is also a serious aw of his own:
I fear much more the punishment below;
my soul is anxious, in suspense; already
I feel the heavy weights of the rst terrace[33]
The rst of the sins is pride; Dante and Virgil begin to After his conversations with the proud, Dante notes furascend this terrace shortly after 9 AM.[26] On the ter- ther sculptures on the pavement below, this time illusrace where proud souls purge their sin, Dante and Vir- trating pride itself. The sculptures show Satan (Lucifer),
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
51
the building of the Tower of Babel, King Saul, Niobe, to train it.[36] This results in audible, rather than visual,
Arachne, King Rehoboam, and others.
examples here (Canto XIII).
The poets reach the stairway to the second terrace at
noon.[34] As they ascend, an angel brushes Dantes forehead with his wings, erasing the letter P (peccatum)
corresponding to the sin of pride, and Dante hears the
beatitude Beati pauperes spiritu (Blessed are the poor in
spirit, Matthew 5:3[35] ) (Canto XII).
Second terrace (Envy)
Cain's jealousy of his brother Abel is Dantes Biblical example of

envy. Painting by James Tissot, Canto 14.
Dantes classical example of generosity is the friendship between
Orestes and Pylades. According to Cicero's De Amicitia, Pylades
pretended to be Orestes in order to save his friend from execution,
Canto 13.
Envy is the sin that looks with grudging hatred upon

other mens gifts and good fortune, taking every opportunity to run them down or deprive them of their
happiness.[36] (This in contrast to covetousness, the excessive desire to have things like money.[21] ) As one of
the envious souls on this terrace says:
My blood was so are with envy that,
when I had seen a man becoming happy,
the lividness in me was plain to see.[37]
On entering the terrace of the envious, Dante and Virgil
rst hear voices on the air telling stories of generosity, the
opposite virtue. There is, as in all the other terraces, an
episode from the life of the Virgin Mary; this time, the
scene from the Life of the Virgin is the Wedding at Cana,
in which she expresses her joy for the newly married couple and encourages Christ to perform his rst miracle.
There is also Jesus saying Love your enemies.[38] A
classical story shows the friendship between Orestes and
Pylades.[36]
The souls of the envious include Guido del Duca, who

speaks bitterly about the ethics of people in towns along
the River Arno:
That river starts its miserable course
among foul hogs, more t for acorns than
for food devised to serve the needs of man.
Then, as that stream descends, it comes on curs
that, though their force is feeble, snap and snarl;
scornful of them, it swerves its snout away.
And, downward, it ows on; and when that
ditch,
ill-fated and accursed, grows wider, it
nds, more and more, the dogs becoming
wolves.
Descending then through many dark ravines,
it comes on foxes so full of deceit
there is no trap that they cannot defeat.[39]
The voices on the air also include examples of envy. The
classical example is Aglauros, who, according to Ovid,
was turned to stone because she was jealous of Hermes'
love for her older sister Herse. The Biblical example is
Cain,[40] mentioned here not for his act of fratricide, but
for the jealousy of his younger brother Abel that led to it
(Canto XIV).
The souls of the envious wear penitential grey cloaks,[36] As he is leaving the terrace, the dazzling light of the terand their eyes are sewn shut with iron wire, resembling races angel causes Dante to reveal his scientic knowlthe way a falconer sews shut the eyes of a falcon in order edge, observing that the angle of incidence is equal to
52
the angle of reection[41] as theory and experiment will

show[42] (Canto XV).
Third terrace (Wrath)
nor covered them with such rough-textured

stu
as smoke that wrapped us there in Purgatory;
my eyes could not endure remaining open;[48]
Marco Lombardo discourses with Dante on free will a
relevant topic, since there is no point being angry with
someone who has no choice over his actions[47] (Canto
XVI). Dante also sees visions with examples of wrath,
such as Procne, Haman and Lavinia.
The prayer for this terrace is the Agnus Dei: "Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis... dona nobis
pacem" (Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of
the world, have mercy upon us... grant us peace) The
poets leave the third terrace just after nightfall[49] (Canto
XVII).
The stoning of Saint Stephen provides an example of wrath, as

well as of meekness, its opposite virtue. Painting by Rembrandt,
Canto 15.
On the terrace of the wrathful, which the poets reach at

3 PM[43] examples of meekness (the opposite virtue) are
given to Dante as visions in his mind. The scene from
the Life of the Virgin in this terrace of purgation is the
Finding in the Temple. Whereas most parents would be
angry at their child for worrying them, Mary is loving
and understanding of Christs motives behind his threeday disappearance. In a classical example, the wife of
Peisistratos wanted a young man executed for embracing
their daughter, to which Peisistratos responded: What
shall we do to one who'd injure us / if one who loves
us earns our condemnation?"[44] Saint Stephen provides
a Biblical example, drawn from Acts 7:5460[45] (Canto
XV):
Next I saw people whom the re of wrath
had kindled, as they stoned a youth and kept
on shouting loudly to each other: Kill!
Kill! Kill! I saw him now, weighed down by
death,
sink to the ground, although his eyes were bent
always on Heaven: they were Heavens gates,
Praying to his high Lord, despite the torture,
to pardon those who were his persecutors;
his look was such that it unlocked
compassion.[46]
While staying on the fourth terrace, Virgil is able to explain to Dante the organization of Purgatory and its relationship to perverted, decient, or misdirected love.
The three terraces they have seen so far have purged the
proud (he who, through abasement of another, / hopes
for supremacy[50] ), the envious (one who, when he is
outdone, / fears his own loss of fame, power, honor, favor; / his sadness loves misfortune for his neighbor.[51] ),
and the wrathful (he who, over injury / received, resentful, for revenge grows greedy / and, angrily, seeks out anothers harm.[52] ). Decient and misdirected loves are
about to follow. Virgils discourse on love concludes at
midnight[53] (Cantos XVII and XVIII).
Fourth terrace (Sloth)

On the fourth terrace we nd souls whose sin was that of
decient love that is, sloth or acedia. Since they had
failed in life to act in pursuit of love, here they are engaged in ceaseless activity. The examples of sloth and of
zeal, its opposite virtue, are called out by these souls as
they run around the terrace. A scene from the life of the
Virgin outlined in this terrace is the Visitation, with Mary
going in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. These examples also include episodes from the lives Julius Caesar
and Aeneas. This activity also replaces a verbal prayer for
this terrace. Since the formerly slothful are now too busy
to converse at length, this section of the poem is a short
one.
Allegorically, spiritual laziness and lack of caring lead to

sadness,[54] and so the beatitude for this terrace is Beati
qui lugent (Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
The souls of the wrathful walk around in acrid smoke, comforted, Matthew 5:4[55] ) (Canto XVIII and XIX).
which symbolises the blinding eect of anger:[47]
Dantes second nights sleep occurrs while the poets are
Darkness of Hell and of a night deprived
of every planet, under meager skies,
as overcast by clouds as sky can be,
had never served to veil my eyes so thickly
on this terrace, and Dante dreams shortly before Tuesdays dawn[56] of a Siren, symbol of disordered or excessive love represented by greed, gluttony and lust. The
dream ends in the light of the sun, and the two poets climb
toward the fth terrace[57] (Canto XIX).
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
Fifth terrace (Avarice)
The souls on the fth terrace lie face-downward, Canto 19.
53
O Avarice, my house is now your captive:
it tracs in the esh of its own children
what more is left for you to do to us?
That past and future evil may seem less,
I see the eur-de-lis enter Anagni
and, in His vicar, Christ made prisoner.
I see Him mocked a second time; I see
the vinegar and gall renewed and He
is slain between two thieves who're still alive.
And I see the new Pilate, one so cruel
that, still not sated, he, without decree,
carries his greedy sails into the Temple.[59]
Templars being burned for heresy at the instigation of Philip IV

of France. In Dantes view, this was a political action motivated
by avarice,[60] Canto 20.
On the last three terraces are those who sinned by loving

These events include Charles II of Naples selling his
good things, but loving them in an excessive or disordered
daughter into marriage to an elderly and disreputable
way.
man,[61] and Philip IV of France (the eur-de-lis) arOn the fth terrace, excessive concern for earthly goods resting Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 (a pope destined
whether in the form of greed, ambition or extravagance for Hell, according to the Inferno, but still, in Dantes
is punished and puried. The avaricious and prodigal lie view, the Vicar of Christ[61] ). Dante also refers to the
face-down on the ground, unable to move. Their prayer is suppression of the Knights Templar at Philips instigaAdhaesit pavimento anima mea, taken from Psalm 119:25 tion in 1307, which freed Philip from debts he owed
(My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me ac- to the order. Following the exemplars of avarice (these
cording to thy word,[58] ), which is a prayer expressing are Pygmalion, Midas, Achan, Ananias and Sapphira,
the desire to follow Gods law Dante meets the shade of Heliodorus, Polymestor, and Crassus), there is a sudPope Adrian V, an exemplar of desire for ecclesiastical den earthquake accompanied by the shouting of Gloria
power and prestige, who directs the poets on their way in excelsis Deo. Dante desires to understand the cause of
(Canto XIX).
the earthquake, but he does not question Virgil about it
The scene from the life of the Virgin, used here to counter (Canto XX).
the sin of avarice, is the humble birth of Christ. Further down the terrace, Hugh the Great personies greed
for worldly wealth and possessions. He bemoans the way
that, in contrast, avarice has motivated the actions of his
successors, and prophesies events which occurred after
the date in which the poem is set, but before the poem
was written:
The other, who once left his ship as prisoner
I see him sell his daughter, bargaining
as pirates haggle over female slaves.
In a scene that Dante links to the episode where Jesus

meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus,[62] Dante
and Virgil are overtaken by a shade who eventually reveals himself as the Roman poet Statius, author of the
Thebaid. Statius explains the cause of the earthquake:
there is a tremor when a soul knows that it is ready to
ascend to heaven, which he has just experienced. Dante
presents Statius, without obvious or understandable basis, as a convert to Christianity; as a Christian, his guidance will supplement Virgils[62] Statius is overjoyed to
nd himself in the company of Virgil, whose Aeneid he
so greatly admired (Canto XXI).
54
Dante follows Virgil and Statius upward. Statius explains that he was not avaricious but prodigal, but that
he converted from prodigality by reading Virgil, which
directed him to poetry and to God. Statius explains how
he was baptized, but he remained a secret Christian
this is the cause of his purgation of Sloth on the previous
terrace. Statius asks Virgil to name his fellow poets and
gures in Limbo, which he does[63] (Canto XXII)
possible for bodiless souls to have the gaunt appearance

of the souls being starved here. In explaining, Statius discourses on the nature of the soul and its relationship to
the body (Canto XXV).
Seventh terrace (Lust)
Sixth terrace (Gluttony)
The Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths is a classical example of gluttony. Painting by Piero di Cosimo, Canto 24.
It is between 10 and 11 AM,[64] and the three poets begin to circle the sixth terrace where the gluttonous are
purged, and more generally, those who over-emphasised
food, drink, and bodily comforts.[65] In a scene reminiscent of the punishment of Tantalus, they are starved in the
presence of trees whose fruit is forever out of reach.[65]
The examples here are given by voices in the trees. The
Virgin Mary, who shared her Sons gifts with others at the
Wedding at Cana, and John the Baptist, who only lived on
locusts and honey (Matthew 3:4[66] ), is an example of the
virtue of temperance.[65] A classical example of the opposite vice of gluttony is the drunkenness of the Centaurs
that led to the Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths.[65]
The prayer for this terrace is Labia mea Domine (Psalm
51:15: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare
your praise[67] ) These are the opening words from the
daily Liturgy of the Hours,[68] which is also the source of
prayers for the fth and seventh terraces (Cantos XXII
through XXIV).
Here Dante also meets his friend Forese Donati and
his poetic predecessor Bonagiunta Orbicciani. Bonagiunta has kind words for Dantes earlier poem, La Vita
Nuova, describing it as the dolce stil novo ("sweet new
style").[69] He quotes the line Ladies that have intelligence of love,[70] written in praise of Beatrice, who he
will meet later in the Purgatorio:
Ladies that have intelligence of Love,
I of my lady wish with you to speak;
Not that I can believe to end her praise,
But to discourse that I may ease my mind.
I say that when I think upon her worth,
So sweet doth Love make himself feel to me,
That if I then should lose not hardihood,
Speaking, I should enamour all mankind.[71]
Climbing to the seventh terrace, Dante wonders how it is
Virgil, Dante, and Statius beside the ames of the seventh terrace,
Canto 25.
The terrace of the lustful has an immense wall of

ame through which everyone must pass. Souls repenting of misdirected sexual desire (both heterosexual and
homosexual) run through the ames calling out examples of lust (Sodom and Gomorrah and Pasipha) and of
chastity and marital delity (the Virgin Marys chastity).
As a prayer, they sing the hymn Summae Deus Clementiae[72] (God of Supreme Clemency) from the Liturgy of
the Hours (Cantos XXV and XXVI).
As they circle the terrace, the two groups of penitents
greet each other in a way Dante compares to ants:
There, on all sides, I can see every shade
move quickly to embrace another shade,
content they did not pause with their brief
greeting,
as ants, in their dark company, will touch
their muzzles, each to each, perhaps to seek
news of their fortunes and their
journeyings.[73]
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
55
Beatrice Addressing Dante, by William Blake, showing the

chariot triumphal bearing Beatrice and drawn by the Grin,
as well as four of the ladies representing virtues, Canto 29.
4.3.4 The Earthly Paradise
Dante dreams of Leah picking owers, symbol of the active (nonmonastic) Christian life, Canto 27.
Among the ames, which he dare not enter, are the poets
of love Guido Guinizelli and Arnaut Daniel, with whom
Dante speaks. By reminding Dante that Beatrice can be
found in the Earthly Paradise on the other side, Virgil
nally persuades Dante to pass through the intense re
(Cantos XXVI and XXVII).
On the stairs to the Earthly Paradise, night falls for
the third time, and Dante dreams of Leah and Rachel.
They are symbols of the active (non-monastic) and contemplative (monastic) Christian lives, both of which are
important[74] (Canto XXVII):
".. in my dream, I seemed to see a woman

both young and fair; along a plain she gathered
owers, and even as she sang, she said:
Whoever asks my name, know that I'm Leah,
and I apply my lovely hands to fashion
a garland of the owers I have gathered.
To nd delight within this mirror I
adorn myself; whereas my sister Rachel
never deserts her mirror; there she sits
all day; she longs to see her fair eyes gazing,
as I, to see my hands adorning, long:
she is content with seeing, I with labor.[75]
At the summit of Mount Purgatory is the Earthly Paradise

or Garden of Eden.[76] Allegorically, it represents the
state of innocence that existed before Adam and Eve fell
from grace the state which Dantes journey up Mount
Purgatory has been recapturing.[76] Here Dante meets
Matilda, a woman whose literal and allegorical identity
is perhaps the most tantalizing problem in the Comedy.[76] Critics up to the early twentieth century have
connected her with the historical Matilda of Tuscany,[77]
but others suggested a connection with the dream of Leah
in Canto XXVII.[78] However, Matilda clearly prepares
Dante for his meeting with Beatrice,[76] the woman to
whom (historically) Dante dedicated his previous poetry,
the woman at whose request (in the story) Virgil was
commissioned to bring Dante on his journey,[79] and the
woman who (allegorically) symbolizes the path to God[80]
(Canto XXVIII).
With Matilda, Dante witnesses a procession which
forms an allegory within the allegory, somewhat like
Shakespeare's play within a play. It has a very dierent style from the Purgatorio as a whole, having the form
of a masque, where the characters are walking symbols
rather than real people. The procession consists of (Canto
XXIX):
twenty-four elders[81] (a reference to Revelation
4:4[82] ), representing the 24 books of the Hebrew
Bible, as classied by Jerome[83]
four animals with six wings as plumage[84] (a
reference to Revelation 4:68[85] ), a traditional representation of the four Evangelists[83]
a chariot triumphal on two wheels,[86] bearing
Beatrice, which is drawn by
a grin,[87] representing the conjoined divinity and
humanity of Christ[83]
56
three circling women coloured red, green, and

white,[88] representing the three theological virtues:
Love, Hope, and Faith, respectively[83]
four other women[89] dressed in purple,[90] representing the four cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, and Fortitude[83]
two elders, dierent in their dress,[91] representing
the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles[83]
four of humble aspect,[92] representing the general
epistles[83]
when all the rest had passed, a lone old man,[93]
representing the Book of Revelation[83]
Matilda helps Dante pass through the River Lethe, Canto 31.
Dante and Matilda (formerly called Dante and Beatrice) by John

William Waterhouse, 1915.
The appearance of Beatrice,[94] and a dramatic reconciliation scene between Beatrice and Dante, in which she
rebukes his sin (Cantos XXX and XXXI), help cover
the disappearance of Virgil, who, as a symbol of nonChristian philosophy and humanities, can help him no
further in his approach to God[95] (and in the rest of the
Divine Comedy, Beatrice is Dantes guide):
But Virgil had deprived us of himself,
Virgil, the gentlest father, Virgil, he
to whom I gave my self for my salvation;
and even all our ancient mother lost
was not enough to keep my cheeks, though
washed
with dew, from darkening again with tears.[96]
Dante then passes through the River Lethe, which erases
the memory of past sin (Canto XXXI),[97] and sees an
allegory of Biblical and Church history. This allegory includes a denunciation of the corrupt papacy of the time: a
harlot (the papacy) is dragged away with the chariot (the
Church) by a giant (the French monarchy, which under
King Philip IV engineered the move of the Papal Seat to
Avignon in 1309)[98] (Canto XXXII):
Just like a fortress set on a steep slope,

securely seated there, ungirt, a whore,
whose eyes were quick to rove, appeared to me;
and I saw at her side, erect, a giant,
who seemed to serve as her custodian;
and they again, again embraced each other.[99]
Finally, Dante drinks from the River Euno, which restores good memories, and prepares him for his ascent to
Heaven (described in the Paradiso). As with the other
two parts of the Divine Comedy, the Purgatorio ends on
the word stars (Canto XXXIII):
From that most holy wave I now returned
to Beatrice; remade, as new trees are
renewed when they bring forth new boughs, I
was
pure and prepared to climb unto the stars.[100]
4.3.5 The Purgatorio in the arts

Main article: Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular
culture
The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for
countless artists for almost seven centuries. While references to the Inferno are the most common, there are
also many references to the Purgatorio. Franz Liszt's
4.3. ''PURGATORIO''
Symphony to Dantes Divina Commedia (1856) has a
Purgatorio movement, as does Robert W. Smith's The
Divine Comedy (2006). Chaucer and others have referenced the Purgatorio in their writing. Many visual
artists have depicted scenes from the Purgatorio, including Gustave Dor, John Flaxman, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
John William Waterhouse, and William Blake.
57
[14] John Ciardi, Purgatorio, notes on Canto VII, pg. 343

[15] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto VIII.
[16] Purgatorio IX.13
[17] Purgatorio IX.44
[18] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto IX.
[19] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto IX.
4.3.6
See also
Divine Comedy
Inferno
Paradiso
List of cultural references in Divine Comedy
4.3.7
Footnotes
[1] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto VII.
[20] Purgatorio, Canto IX, lines 113114, Longfellow translation.

[21] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, pp. 6567
(Penguin, 1955).
[22] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, p. 15 (Penguin, 1955): Hell is concerned with the fruits, but Purgatory with the roots, of sin.
[23] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, Introduction, p. xiv (Penguin, 2007).
[24] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, p. 61 (Penguin, 1955): it is only to be expected that [Purgatory]
should be more highly and more serenely organised than
Hell.
[2] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto I: Thus

behind all the references that the canto makes to regeneration and rebirth there is the realization that all life and all
redemption depends upon Christs Resurrection from the
dead.
[25] Robert Hollander, Purgatorio, Introduction, pg. xxvii
[3] Inferno, Canto 34, lines 121-126, Mandelbuam translation

This was the side on which he fell from Heaven; / for fear
of him, the land that once loomed here / made of the sea
a veil and rose into / our hemisphere; and that land which
appears / upon this side perhaps to ee from him / left here
this hollow space and hurried upward.
[28] Purgatorio, Canto XI, lines 121, Mandelbaum translation.
[4] Purgatorio, Canto I, lines 49, Hollander translation.
[31] Purgatorio, Canto XI, line 5960, Mandelbaum translation.
[5] Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, The Dante

Encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0-81531659-3, pp. 328330 (EARTH, GLOBE).
[6] John Brian Harley and David Woodward, The History
of Cartography, Humana Press, ISBN 0-226-31633-5, p.
321.
[7] Purgatorio, Canto II, lines 19, Mandelbaum translation.
[8] Psalm 114 (Psalm 113 in the Latin Vulgate): When Israel
came out of Egypt (NIV).
[9] The Letter to Can Grande, in Literary Criticism of Dante
Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), 99.
[10] Purgatorio III.140-145
[11] Purgatorio III.15-16
[12] Purgatorio, Canto V, lines 133136, Mandelbaum translation.
[13] Purgatorio VII.43
[26] Purgatorio X.14-15

[27] Luke 1:38, KJV.
[29] Purgatorio, Canto XI, line 5859, Mandelbaum translation.

[30] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XI.
[32] Guy P. Raa, The Complete Danteworlds: A Readers

Guide to the Divine Comedy, University of Chicago Press,
2009, ISBN 0-226-70270-7, p. 164.
[33] Purgatorio, Canto XIII, lines 136138, Mandelbaum
translation.
[34] Purgatorio XII.81
[35] Matthew 5:3 NIV.
[36] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XIII.
[37] Purgatorio, Canto XIV, lines 8284, Mandelbaum translation.
[38] Matthew 5:44. Holy Bible, New International Version.
Biblica, Inc. 2011 [1973].
[39] Purgatorio, Canto XIV, lines 4354, Mandelbaum translation.
[40] Purgatorio, Canto XIV, line 133, Mandelbaum translation: Whoever captures me will slaughter me, cf Genesis
4:14 (NIV): whoever nds me will kill me.
58
[41] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto XV.

[42] Purgatorio, Canto XV, line 21, Dorothy L. Sayers translation, 1955.
[43] Purgatorio XV.1-6
[44] Purgatorio, Canto XV, lines 104105, Mandelbaum translation.
[45] Acts 7:5460, NIV.
[46] Purgatorio, Canto XV, lines 106114, Mandelbaum translation.
[47] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XVI.
[48] 'Purgatorio, Canto XVI, lines 17, Mandelbaum translation.
[71] La Vita Nuova, Section XIX, lines 18, translated by

Charles Eliot Norton.
[72] Summae Deus Clementiae.
[73] Purgatorio, Canto XXVI, lines 3136, Mandelbaum
translation.
[74] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXVII.
[75] Purgatorio, Canto XXVII, lines 97108, Mandelbaum
translation.
[76] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXVIII.
[77] Binyon, Lawrence (1978). ""Argument, Canto XXVIII.
In Paolo Milano. The portable Dante (Rev. ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0140150323.
[49] Purgatorio XVII.70-72
[78] Mark Musa, ed. (1995). The portable Dante. New York,
N.Y.: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140231145.
[50] Purgatorio, Canto XVII, lines 115116, Mandelbaum

translation.
[79] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto II.

translation.
translation.
[80] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXX.

[81] Purgatorio, Canto XXIX, line 83, Mandelbaum translation.
[82] Revelation 4:4, NIV.
[53] Purgatorio XVIII.76-78
[83] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXIX.
[54] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Cantos XVIII and

XIX.
[84] Purgatorio, Canto XXIX, lines 92105, Mandelbaum

translation.
[55] Matthew 5:4 NIV.
[85] Revelation 4:4:68, NIV.
[56] Purgatorio XIX.1-6
[57] Purgatorio XIX.38-39

[58] Psalm 119:25, KJV. In the Vulgate, this is Psalm 118:25.
[59] Purgatorio, Canto XX, lines 7993, Mandelbaum translation.

translation.
translation.
[60] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto XX: At

every point in canto 20, avarice is identied as the driving
force in the ambition of the Capetian dynasty.
[61] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XX.
[90] Purgatorio, Canto XXIX, line 131, Longfellow translation.
[62] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXI.

[63] Robert Hollander, Purgatorio, outline of Canto XXII
[64] Purgatorio XXII.115-126
[65] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXII.
[66] Matthew 3:4, NIV.
[67] Psalm 51:15, NIV. In the Vulgate, this is Psalm 50:17.
[68] Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Catholic Dictionary, 2nd ed., Our
Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2002, p. 415, ISBN 0-87973390-X.
[69] Purgatorio, Canto XXIV, line 57, Longfellow translation
[70] Purgatorio, Canto XXIV, line 51, Longfellow translation.

translation.
translation.
[94] John Laskin, The Entrance of Beatrice in Dantes Purgatorio: Revelation, Duality and Identity, Carte Italiane, 1(14),
1994, p. 120: Virgil slips unnoticed ostage while our
attention is cleverly diverted to the visual splendor of the
'cloud of owers eect.
[95] Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto XXX and
XXXI.
4.4. ''PARADISO''
[96] Purgatorio, Canto XXX, lines 4954, Mandelbaum translation.

[97] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, p. 68 (Penguin, 1955).
[98] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXXII.
[99] Purgatorio, Canto XXXII, lines 148153, Mandelbaum
translation.
[100] Purgatorio, Canto XXXIII, lines 142145, Mandelbaum
translation.
4.3.8
59
Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio.
It is an allegory telling of Dantes journey through
Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolises theology.
In the poem, Paradise is depicted as a series of concentric spheres surrounding the Earth, consisting of the
Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile and nally, the
Empyrean. It was written in the early 14th century. Allegorically, the poem represents the souls ascent to God.
4.4.1 Introduction
External links
World of Dante, multimedia website with text, translation, maps, and searchable database for students
and teachers, at University of Virginia
Princeton Dante Project, website with complete text
of Dantes works in Italian and English, incl. audio,
at Princeton University
Dante Dartmouth Project, text of more than 70 Italian, Latin, and English commentaries on the Commedia, from 1322 (Iacopo Alighieri) to the 2000s
(Robert Hollander)
trans. Carys translation, with Dor's illustrations, at The Paradiso assumes the medieval view of the Universe, with the
Project Gutenberg
Earth surrounded by concentric spheres containing planets and
stars.
Danteworlds, multimedia presentation of the Divine The Paradiso begins at the top of Mount Purgatory, called
the Earthly Paradise (i.e. the Garden of Eden), at noon
Comedy by Guy Raa of the University of Texas
on Wednesday, March 30 (or April 13), 1300, following
Easter Sunday. Dantes journey through Paradise takes
approximately twenty-four hours, which indicates that the
4.4 ''Paradiso''
entire journey of the Divine Comedy has taken one week,
Thursday evening (Inferno I and II) to Thursday evening.
For other uses, see Paradiso (disambiguation).
Paradiso (pronounced [paradizo]; Italian for "Paradise" After ascending through the sphere of re believed
to exist in the earths upper atmosphere (Canto I),
Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres
of Heaven, to the Empyrean, which is the abode of God.
The nine spheres are concentric, as in the standard medieval geocentric model of cosmology,[1] which was derived from Ptolemy. The Empyrean is non-material. As
with his Purgatory, the structure of Dantes Heaven is
therefore of the form 9+1=10, with one of the ten regions
dierent in nature from the other nine.
During the course of his journey, Dante meets and converses with several blessed souls. He is careful to say that
these all actually live in bliss with God in the Empyrean:
Dante and Beatrice speak to the teachers of wisdom Thomas

Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Peter Lombard and Sigier of Brabant
in the Sphere of the Sun (fresco by Philipp Veit), Canto 10.
But all those souls grace the Empyrean;

and each of them has gentle life though some
sense the Eternal Spirit more, some less.[2]
However, for Dantes benet (and the benet of his reador "Heaven") is the third and nal part of Dante's ers), he is as a sign[3] shown various souls in planetary
60
and stellar spheres that have some appropriate connotation.

While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were
based around dierent classications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues
(Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the
three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity).
4.4.2
The Spheres of Heaven
Dante and Beatrice speak to Piccarda and Constance (fresco by

Philipp Veit), Canto 3.
On visiting the Moon, Beatrice explains to Dante the reasons for

its markings, Canto 2.
Dantes nine spheres of Heaven are the Moon, Mercury,

Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars,
and the Primum Mobile. These are associated by Dante
with the nine levels of the angelic hierarchy. Dante also
relies on traditional associations, such as the one between Venus and romantic love. The rst three spheres
(which fall within the shadow of the Earth) are associated with decient forms of Fortitude, Justice, and
Temperance. The next four are associated with positive
examples of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance; while Faith, Hope, and Love appear together in the
eighth sphere.
First Sphere (The Moon: The Inconstant)

On visiting the Moon, Beatrice explains to Dante the reasons for the markings on its surface, describing a simple
scientic experiment in optics. She also praises the experimental method in general (Canto II):
Yet an experiment, were you to try it,
could free you from your cavil, and the source
of your arts course springs from
experiment.[4]
The waxing and waning of the moon is associated with

inconstancy.[5] Consequently, the sphere of the Moon is
that of souls who abandoned their vows, and so were decient in the virtue of fortitude (Canto II). Here Dante and
Beatrice meet Piccarda, sister of Dantes friend Forese
Donati, who died shortly after being forcibly removed
from her convent. They also meet Constance of Sicily,
who (Dante believes) was forcibly removed from a convent to marry Henry VI (Canto III).[6] Beatrice discourses
on the freedom of the will, the sacredness of vows, and
the importance of not collaborating with force (Canto
IV):
for will, if it resists, is never spent,

but acts as nature acts when re ascends,
though force a thousand times tries to compel.
So that, when will has yielded much or little,
it has abetted force as these souls did:
they could have ed back to their holy
shelter.[7]
Beatrice explains that a vow is a pact drawn between a

man / and God,[8] in which a person freely oers up his
free will as a gift to God. Vows should therefore not be
taken lightly, and should be kept once given unless keeping the vow would be a greater evil, as with Jephthah's and
Agamemnon's sacrice of their daughters (Canto V).[9]
4.4. ''PARADISO''
61
Third Sphere (Venus: The Lovers)
The planet Venus (the Morning and Evening Star) is traditionally associated with the Goddess of Love, and so
Dante makes this the planet of the lovers, who were decient in the virtue of temperance (Canto VIII):
The world, when still in peril, thought that,
wheeling,
in the third epicycle, Cyprian
the fair sent down her rays of frenzied love,
.. and gave the name of her
with whom I have begun this canto, to
the planet that is courted by the sun,
at times behind her and at times in front.[13]
Dante meets the Emperor Justinian in the Sphere of Mercury,

Canto 5.
Second Sphere (Mercury: The Ambitious)

Because of its proximity to the sun, the planet Mercury
is often dicult to see. Allegorically, the planet represents those who did good out of a desire for fame,
but who, being ambitious, were decient in the virtue of
justice. Their earthly glory pales into insignicance beside the glory of God, just as Mercury pales into insignificance beside the sun.[9] Here Dante meets the Emperor
Justinian, who introduces himself with the words Caesar Illustration for Paradiso by Gustave Dore.
I was and am Justinian,[10] indicating that his personality remains, but that his earthly status no longer exists
in Heaven[11] (Canto V). Justinian recounts the history
of the Roman Empire, mentioning, among others, Julius
Caesar and Cleopatra; and bemoans the present state of
Italy, given the conict between Guelphs and Ghibellines,
and the involvement of the yellow lilies of France[11]
(Canto VI):
For some oppose the universal emblem
with yellow lilies; others claim that emblem
for party: it is hard to see who is worse.
Let Ghibellines pursue their undertakings
beneath another sign, for those who sever
this sign and justice are bad followers.[12]
Folquet de Marseilles bemoans the corruption of the Church, with

the clergy receiving money from Satan (miniature by Giovanni di
Paolo), Canto 9.
Dante meets Charles Martel of Anjou, who was known

to him,[14] and who points out that a properly functioning
By association, Beatrice discourses on the Incarnation society requires people of many dierent kinds. Such
and the Crucixion of Christ, which occurred during Ro- dierences are illustrated by Cunizza da Romano (lover
man times (Canto VII).
of Sordello), who is here in Heaven, while her brother
62
Ezzelino III da Romano is in Hell, among the violent of

the seventh circle.[15]
The troubadour Folquet de Marseilles speaks of the temptations of love, and points out that (as was believed at
the time) the cone of the Earths shadow just touches
the sphere of Venus. He condemns the city of Florence
(planted, he says, by Satan) for producing that damned
ower (the orin) which is responsible for the corruption
of the Church, and he criticises the clergy for their focus
on money, rather than on Scripture and the writings of
the Church Fathers (Canto IX):
Your city, which was planted by that one
who was the rst to turn against his Maker,
the one whose envy cost us many tears
produces and distributes the damned ower
that turns both sheep and lambs from the true
course,
for of the shepherd it has made a wolf.
For this the Gospel and the great Church Fathers
are set aside and only the Decretals
are studied as their margins clearly show.
On these the pope and cardinals are intent.
Their thoughts are never bent on Nazareth,
where Gabriels open wings were reverent.[16]
King Solomon
Dionysius the Areopagite, confused here with
Pseudo-Dionysius
Orosius
Boethius
Isidore of Seville
Bede
Richard of Saint Victor
Siger of Brabant
This list includes philosophers, theologians and a king,
and has representatives from across Europe. Thomas
Aquinas recounts the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and
his love for Lady Poverty (Canto XI):
Fourth Sphere (The Sun: The Wise)

Beyond the shadow of the Earth, Dante deals with positive examples of Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and
Fortitude. Within the Sun, which is the Earths source
of illumination, Dante meets the greatest examples of
prudence: the souls of the wise, who help to illuminate
the world intellectually[17] (Canto X). Initially, a circle
of twelve bright lights dance around Dante and Beatrice.
These are the souls of:[17]
St. Francis, whose life is recounted by Aquinas (painting by

Jusepe de Ribera), Canto 11.
Dante and Beatrice meet twelve wise men in the Sphere of the
Sun (miniature by Giovanni di Paolo), Canto 10.
Thomas Aquinas
Albertus Magnus
Gratian
Peter Lombard
Between Topinos stream and that which

ows
down from the hill the blessed Ubaldo chose,
from a high peak there hangs a fertile slope;
from there Perugia feels both heat and cold
at Porta Sole, while behind it sorrow
Nocera and Gualdo under their hard yoke.
From this hillside, where it abates its rise,
a sun was born into the world, much like
this sun when it is climbing from the Ganges.
Therefore let him who names this site not say
Ascesi, which would be to say too little,
but Orient, if he would name it rightly.[18]
4.4. ''PARADISO''
63
Twelve new bright lights appear, one of which is St.

gleams so that even sages are perplexed;
Bonaventure, a Franciscan, who recounts the life of St.
so, constellated in the depth of Mars,
Dominic, founder of the order to which Aquinas bethose rays described the venerable sign
longed. The two orders were not always friendly on earth,
a circles quadrants form where they are
and having members of one order praising the founder
joined.[22]
[19]
of the other shows the love present in Heaven (Canto
XII). The twenty-four bright lights revolve around Dante Dante says that sages are perplexed by the nature of
and Beatrice, singing of the Trinity, and Aquinas explains the Milky Way, but in his Convivio, he had described its
the surprising presence of King Solomon, who is placed nature fairly well:
here for kingly, rather than philosophical or mathematical
wisdom (Cantos XIII and XIV):
What Aristotle said on this matter cannot
be known with certainty.. In the Old TransMy words did not prevent your seeing
lation he says that the Galaxy is nothing but a
clearly
multitude of xed stars in that region, so small
that it was as a king that he had asked
that we are unable to distinguish them from
for wisdom that would serve his royal task
here below, though from them originates the
and not to know the number of the angels
appearance of that brightness which we call
on high or, if combined with a contingent,
the Galaxy; this may be so, for the heaven in
necesse ever can produce necesse,
that region is denser, and therefore retains and
or si est dare primum motum esse,
throws back this light. Avicenna and Ptolemy
or if, within a semicircle, one
seem to share this opinion with Aristotle.[23]
[20]
can draw a triangle with no right angle.
Dante meets his ancestor Cacciaguida, who served in
the Second Crusade.[24] Cacciaguida praises the twelfthcentury Republic of Florence, and bemoans the way in
which the city has declined since those days (Cantos XV
and XVI). The setting of the Divine Comedy in the year
1300, before Dantes exile, has allowed characters in the
poem to foretell bad things for Dante.[25] In response
to a question from Dante, Cacciaguida speaks the truth
bluntly. Dante will be exiled (Canto XVII):
You shall leave everything you love most
dearly:
this is the arrow that the bow of exile
shoots rst. You are to know the bitter taste
of others bread, how salt it is, and know
how hard a path it is for one who goes
descending and ascending others stairs.[26]
The souls in the Fifth Sphere form a Greek cross, which Dante
compares to the Milky Way, Canto 14.
Fifth Sphere (Mars: The Warriors of the Faith)

The planet Mars is traditionally associated with the God
of War, and so Dante makes this planet the home of
the warriors of the Faith, who gave their lives for God,
thereby displaying the virtue of fortitude.[21] The millions
of sparks of light that are the souls of these warriors form
a Greek cross on the planet Mars, and Dante compares
this cross to the Milky Way (Canto XIV):
As, graced with lesser and with larger
lights
between the poles of the world, the Galaxy
However, Cacciaguida also charges Dante to write and

tell the world all that he has seen of Hell, Purgatory, and
Heaven.[25] Finally, Dante sees some other warriors of the
Faith, such as Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, Charlemagne,
Roland, and Godfrey of Bouillon (Canto XVIII).
Sixth Sphere (Jupiter: The Just Rulers)
The planet Jupiter is traditionally associated with the king
of the gods, so Dante makes this planet the home of the
rulers who displayed justice.[27] The souls here spell out
the Latin for Love justice, ye that judge the earth, after
which the nal M of that sentence is transformed into
the shape of a giant imperial eagle[27] (Canto XVIII):
DILIGITE IUSTITIAM were the verb
and noun that rst appeared in that depiction;
64

which, even as we climb the steps of this
eternal palace, blazes with more brightness
were it not tempered here, would be so brilliant
that, as it ashed, your mortal faculty
would seem a branch a lightning bolt has
cracked.[33]
An imperial eagle. The souls forming the nal M of TERRAM

transform themselves into this shape, Canto 18.
QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM followed after.

Then, having formed the M of the fth word,
those spirits kept their order; Jupiters
silver, at that point, seemed embossed with
gold.[28]
Present in this sphere are David, Hezekiah, Trajan (converted to Christianity according to a medieval legend),
Constantine, William II of Sicily, and (to Dantes amazement) Ripheus the Trojan, a pagan saved by the mercy of
God.[29] The souls forming the imperial eagle speak with
one voice, and tell of Gods justice[30] (Cantos XIX and
XX).
Seventh Sphere (Saturn: The Contemplatives)
The sphere of Saturn is that of the contemplatives, who
embody temperance.[31] Dante here meets Peter Damian,
and discusses with him monasticism, the doctrine of
predestination, and the sad state of the Church[32] (Cantos XXI and XXII). Beatrice, who represents theology,
becomes increasingly lovely here, indicating the contemplatives closer insight into the truth of God:
Looking down from the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, Dante sees the
humble planet that is the Earth, Canto 22.
Eighth Sphere (The Fixed Stars: Faith, Hope, and

Love)
The sphere of the Fixed Stars is the sphere of the church
triumphant.[34] From here (in fact, from the constellation
Gemini, under which he was born), Dante looks back on
the seven spheres he has visited, and on the Earth (Canto
XXII):
Dante and Beatrice meet Peter Damien, who tells of his life, and
discusses predestination (miniature by Giovanni di Paolo), Canto
21.
She did not smile. Instead her speech to

me
began: Were I to smile, then you would be
like Semele when she was turned to ashes,
because, as you have seen, my loveliness
My eyes returned through all the seven

spheres
and saw this globe in such a way that I
smiled at its scrawny image: I approve
that judgment as the best, which holds this
earth
to be the least; and he whose thoughts are set
elsewhere, can truly be called virtuous.[35]
Here, Dante sees the Virgin Mary and other saints (Canto
XXIII). St. Peter tests Dante on faith, asking what it is,
and whether Dante has it. In response to Dantes reply,
4.4. ''PARADISO''
St. Peter asks Dante how he knows that the Bible is true,
and (in an argument attributed to Augustine[36] ) Dante
cites the miracle of the Churchs growth from such humble beginnings (Canto XXIV):
Say, who assures you that those works
were real?
came the reply. The very thing that needs
proof no thing else attests these works to you.
I said: If without miracles the world
was turned to Christianity, that is
so great a miracle that, all the rest
are not its hundredth part: for you were poor
and hungry when you found the eld and sowed
the good plant once a vine and now a thorn.[37]
65
bring
the heart to turn to God; the worlds existence
and mine, the death that He sustained that I
might live, and that which is the hope of all
believers, as it is my hope, together
with living knowledge I have spoken of
these drew me from the sea of twisted love
and set me on the shore of the right love.
The leaves enleaving all the garden of
the Everlasting Gardener, I love
according to the good He gave to them.[41]
St. Peter then denounces Pope Boniface VIII in very
strong terms, and says that, in his eyes, the Papal See
stands empty (Canto XXVII).
St.
James, who questions Dante on hope (painting by
Rembrandt), Canto 25.
St. James[38] questions Dante on hope, and Beatrice Dante and Beatrice see God as a point of light surrounded by
angels (illustration by Gustave Dor), Canto 28.
vouches for his possession of it (Canto XXV):
There is no child of the Church Militant
who has more hope than he has, as is written
within the Sun whose rays reach all our ranks:
thus it is granted him to come from Egypt
into Jerusalem that he have vision
of it, before his term of warring ends.[39]
Finally, St. John questions Dante on love. In his reply,
Dante refers back to the concept of twisted love discussed in the Purgatorio[40] (Canto XXVI):
Thus I began again: My charity
results from all those things whose bite can
Ninth Sphere (The Primum Mobile: The Angels)

The Primum Mobile (rst moved sphere) is the last
sphere of the physical universe. It is moved directly by
God, and its motion causes all the spheres it encloses to
move[42] (Canto XXVII):
This heaven has no other where than this:
the mind of God, in which are kindled both
the love that turns it and the force it rains.
As in a circle, light and love enclose it,
as it surrounds the rest and that enclosing,
66

only He who encloses understands.
No other heaven measures this spheres motion,
but it serves as the measure for the rest,
even as half and fth determine ten;"[43]
The Primum Mobile is the abode of angels, and here

Dante sees God as an intensely bright point of light surrounded by nine rings of angels (Canto XXVIII). Beatrice
explains the creation of the universe, and the role of the
angels, ending with a forceful criticism of the preachers
of the day (Canto XXIX):
into Itself with such a salutation,

to make the candle ready for its ame.[46]
Dante sees an enormous rose, symbolising divine love,[45]
the petals of which are the enthroned souls of the faithful (both those of the Old Testament and those of the
New). All the souls he has met in Heaven, including Beatrice, have their home in this rose.[45] Angels y around
the rose like bees, distributing peace and love. Beatrice now returns to her place in the rose, signifying that
Dante has passed beyond theology in directly contemplating God,[47] and St. Bernard, as a mystical contemplative,
now guides Dante further (Canto XXXI).
Beatrice criticises the preachers of the day, suggesting that a sinister bird (a winged demon) nests in the preachers cowl (miniature by Giovanni di Paolo), Canto 29.
Christ did not say to his rst company:

'Go, and preach idle stories to the world;
but he gave them the teaching that is truth,
and truth alone was sounded when they spoke;
and thus, to battle to enkindle faith,
the Gospels served them as both shield and
lance.
But now men go to preach with jests and jeers,
and just as long as they can raise a laugh,
the cowl pus up, and nothing more is asked.
But such a bird nests in that cowl, that if
the people saw it, they would recognize
as lies the pardons in which they conde.[44]
4.4.3
The Empyrean
From the Primum Mobile, Dante ascends to a region

beyond physical existence, the Empyrean, which is the
abode of God. Beatrice, representing theology,[45] is here
transformed to be more beautiful than ever before, and
Dante becomes enveloped in light, rendering him t to
see God[45] (Canto XXX):
Like sudden lightning scattering the spirits
of sight so that the eye is then too weak
to act on other things it would perceive,
such was the living light encircling me,
leaving me so enveloped by its veil
of radiance that I could see no thing.
The Love that calms this heaven always welcomes
The three circles of the Trinity (illustration by John Flaxman),

Canto 33.
St. Bernard further explains predestination, and prays

to the Virgin Mary on Dantes behalf. Finally, Dante
comes face-to-face with God Himself (Cantos XXXII
and XXXIII). God appears as three equally large circles
occupying the same space, representing the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit:[48]
but through my sight, which as I gazed
grew stronger,
that sole appearance, even as I altered,
seemed to be changing. In the deep and bright
essence of that exalted Light, three circles
appeared to me; they had three dierent colors,
but all of them were of the same dimension;
one circle seemed reected by the second,
as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third
seemed re breathed equally by those two
circles.[49]
Within these circles Dante can discern the human form
of Christ. The Divine Comedy ends with Dante trying
to understand how the circles t together, and how the
humanity of Christ relates to the divinity of the Son but,
as Dante puts it, that was not a ight for my wings.[50] In
a ash of understanding, which he cannot express, Dante
4.4. ''PARADISO''
67
does nally see this, and his soul becomes aligned with [18] Paradiso, Canto XI, lines 4354, Mandelbaum translation.
Gods love:[48]
But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love which moves the sun and the other
stars.[51]
[19] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XI.

[20] Paradiso, Canto XIII, lines 94102, Mandelbaum translation.
[21] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XIV.
See also
[22] Paradiso, Canto XIV, lines 97102, Mandelbaum translation.
Divine Comedy
[23] Dante Alighieri, Convivio, Book II, Chapter 14, Richard

Lansing translation.
4.4.4
Inferno
Purgatorio
Theological virtues
[24] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XV.

[25] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XVII.
[26] Paradiso, Canto XVII, lines 5560, Mandelbaum translation.
Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture
[27] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XVIII.
[28] Paradiso, Canto XVIII, lines 9196, Mandelbaum translation.
4.4.5
Footnotes
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Chapter V, Cambridge
University Press, 1964.
[2] Paradiso, Canto IV, lines 3436, Mandelbaum translation.
[29] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XX.

[30] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XIX.
[31] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXI.
[32] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXII.
[33] Paradiso, Canto XXI, lines 412, Mandelbaum translation.
[3] Paradiso, Canto IV, line 38, Mandelbaum translation.

[4] Paradiso, Canto II, lines 9496, Mandelbaum translation.
[34] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXIII.
[5] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto II.
[35] Paradiso, Canto XXII, lines 133138, Mandelbaum translation.
[6] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto III.
[36] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXIV.
[7] Paradiso, Canto IV, lines 7681, Mandelbaum translation.
[37] Paradiso, Canto XXIV, lines 103111, Mandelbaum

translation.
[8] Paradiso, Canto V, lines 2829, Mandelbaum translation.
[38] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXV.
[9] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto V.

[10] Paradiso, Canto VI, line 10, Mandelbaum translation.
[39] Paradiso, Canto XXV, lines 5257, Mandelbaum translation.
[11] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto VI.
[40] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXVI.
[12] Paradiso, Canto VI, lines 7681, Mandelbaum translation.
[41] Paradiso, Canto XXVI, lines 5556, Mandelbaum translation.
[13] Paradiso, Canto VIII, lines 13, 912, Mandelbaum

translation.
[42] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXVII.
[14] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto VIII.
[43] Paradiso, Canto XXVII, lines 109117, Mandelbaum

translation.
[15] Inferno, Canto XII, line 109, Mandelbaum translation:

That brow with hair so black is Ezzelino.
[44] Paradiso, Canto XXIX, lines 109120, Mandelbaum

translation.
[16] Paradiso, Canto IX, lines 127138, Mandelbaum translation.
[45] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXX.
[17] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto X.
[46] Paradiso, Canto XXX, lines 4654, Mandelbaum translation.
68
[47] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXXI.

[48] Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXXIII.
[49] Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, lines 112120, Mandelbaum
translation.
[50] Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, line 139, C. H. Sisson translation.
[51] Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, lines 142-145, C. H. Sisson
translation.
4.4.6
External links
Princeton Dante Project Website that oers the
complete text of the Divine Comedy (and Dantes
other works) in Italian and English along with audio
accompaniment in both languages. Includes historical and interpretive annotation.
Dantes Divine Comedy presented by the Electronic
Literature Foundation. Multiple editions, with Italian and English facing page and interpolated versions.
The Comedy in English: trans. Cary (with Dor's
illustrations) (zipped HTML downloadable from
Project Gutenberg), Cary/Longfellow/Mandelbaum
parallel edition
Audiobooks: Public domain recordings from LibriVox (in Italian, Longfellow translation); some additional recordings
Comedy for students by Guy Raa of the University
of Texas
Dantes Places: a map (still a prototype) of the
places named by Dante in the Commedia, created
with GoogleMaps. An explanatory PDF is available
for download at the same page
Gustave Dore - Paradiso Complete 18 hi-res pics album
Chapter 5
Verses from the Divine Comedy

5.1 Pap Satn, pap Satn aleppe
2. That the line is just the beginning of something

else ("Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began...).
3. It is an expression of anger ("And said: Be silent,
thou accursed wolf / Consume within thyself with
thine own rage.").
4. That it has the eect of a threat to Dante (And that
benignant Sage, who all things knew, / Said, to encourage me: Let not thy fear / Harm thee; for any
power that he may have / Shall not prevent thy going
down this crag.").
5.1.2 Possible explanations

The earliest interpretations
Some interpretations from the earliest commentators on
the Divine Comedy include:
Plutus in Divine Commedia, portrayed by Gustave Dor
Pap Satn, pap Satn aleppe is the opening line of

Canto VII of Dante Alighieri's Inferno. The line, consisting of three words, is famous for the uncertainty of its
meaning, and there have been many attempts to interpret
it. Modern commentators on the Inferno view it as some
kind of demonic invocation to Satan.[1][2]
5.1.1
Text
The line is a shout by Pluto. Pluto (also identied with

Plutus and Hades) was originally the Roman god of
wealth and the underground, but in the Inferno, Dante
has made Pluto into a repulsive demon who guards the
fourth circle, where souls are punished who have abused
their wealth through greed or improvidence.[3] The full
strophe, plus the following four, which describes Dantes
and Virgils entire meeting and confrontation with Pluto
reads:
The scant information that can be gleaned from the text
is this:
1. Virgil understands the meaning ("And that benignant Sage, who all things knew..."), and is replying.
69
The word pap" (or pape) might be a rendering of Latin papae, or from Greek (papa).
Both words are interjections of anger or surprise, attested in ancient authors (comparable to the English
"damn!", or just "oh!").[5][6]
The word aleppe could be an Italian version of the
word for alef, the Hebrew letter ( a) (compare
Phoenician alep and Greek alpha) The consonant
shift here is comparable to that in Giuseppe, the Italian version of the name Joseph. In Hebrew, alef also
means number one or the origin that contains everything. It may also be interpreted as a metaphor
for the head, the rst and foremost. This was
an attribute for God in late medieval expressions,
meaning the majesty (of God). Alef was also
a medieval interjection (like Oh God!").[5][6]
The word Satan comes from the Hebrew word
( ha-Satan), which translated literally means
the adversary. The meaning of the words then becomes, "Oh (pap), our foremost (aleppe) enemy of
God/demon (ha-Satan), as aleppe is the rst letter of
the alphabet (aleppe)!", which is "Oh, Satan, o Satan,
god, king!". Thus, the sentence would be a mixture
of Greek and Latin.[6]
70
The prayer theory
CHAPTER 5. VERSES FROM THE DIVINE COMEDY
5.1.3 Sources
This article is partially translated from the
Italian Wikipedia.
The word pap" might come from Latin Pape, an old

Roman term for emperor, or father. The double mention of pap" together with Satan (here interpreted as
the fallen angel Satan) and the break (the comma) in the
hendecasyllable, gives it a tone of a prayer or an invocation to Satan, although there is no apparent verb. It might
be also an invocation of the evil within the intruders.
[1] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell: notes on Canto VII, Penguin,

1949, ISBN 0-14-044006-2.
Domenico Guerris theory
[3] Bjrkesson, Ingvar (2006). Den gudomliga komedin (Divine Comedy), comments by Ingvar Bjrkesson. Levande
Litteratur (in Swedish). Natur och Kultur. p. 425. ISBN
978-91-27-11468-5. Missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
Domenico Guerri researched medieval glossaries thoroughly in 1908, and interpreted it as Oh Satan, oh Satan,
God, which he wrote was meant as an invocation against
travellers.[7]
Abboud Rashids theory
[2] Mark Musa, Inferno: notes on Canto VII, Penguin, 2002,

ISBN 0-14-243722-0.
[4] Italian text from Princeton Dante Project.

[5] Vittorio Sermonti, Inferno, Rizzoli 2001, p. 134.
[6] Berthe M. Marti, A Crux in Dantes Inferno, Speculum,
Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan 1952), pp. 6770.
[7] Domenico Guerri, Di alcuni versi dotti nella Divina Commedia, Citt di Castello, 1908
Abboud Abu Rashid, the rst translator of the Divine [8] Philip K. Hitti, Recent Publications in Arabic or Dealing
Comedy into Arabic (19301933), interpreted this verse
with the Arabic World, Journal of the American Oriental
as a phonetic translation of the spoken Arabic, "Bab AlSociety, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Dec 1934), pp. 435438.
Shaytan, Bab Al-Shaytan, Ahlibu!", meaning "The door
[9] Ernesto Manara, in Il Propugnatore, 1888.
of Satan, the door of Satan, proceed downward!". According to some scholars, although Dante did not speak [10] Benvenuto Cellini (tr. Julia Conaway Bondanella and
Peter E. Bondanella), My Life, Oxford University Press,
Arabic, he could have drawn some inspiration from Is[8]
2002, ISBN 0-19-282849-5, p. 262 and note on p. 438.
lamic sources. Doubts arise, however, because the
meaning of this interpretation does not really match the
reaction of Dante and Virgil (anger and fear), nor Virgils
answer.
The full Divine Comedy at Wikisource
The Hebrew theory
Some commentators[9] claim that the sentence is phoenetic Hebrew, "Bab-e-sciatan, bab-e-sciatan, alep!". This
would be the opposite of the sentence that Jesus spoke in
the Gospel according to St Matthew 16:18, "...and the
gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. The meaning of this utterance would be that Hell (Satan) has
conquered.[6]
The French theories

There are also two suggestions of translations from
French. The rst reads: "Pas paix Satan, pas paix Satan, l'pe" (No peace Satan, no peace Satan, to the
sword). The second is: "Paix, paix, Satan, paix, paix,
Satan, allez, paix!" (Peace, peace, Satan, peace, peace,
go, peace!"). The latter phrase can be interpreted as Satan, make peace!".[6] Benvenuto Cellini, in his autobiography, reports hearing the phrase in Paris, transliterating
it as Phe phe, Satan, phe phe, Satan, al, phe and interpreting it as Be quiet! Be quiet Satan, get out of here
and be quiet.[10]
Pictures from Divine Comedy by Gustave Dor
5.2 Raphl ma amche zab almi

Raphl mai amcche zab almi is a verse from
Dantes Inferno, XXXI.67. The verse is shouted out by
Nimrod, one of the giants who guard the Ninth Circle of
Hell. The line, whose literal meaning is uncertain (it is
usually left untranslated as well), is usually interpreted as
a sign of the confusion of the languages caused by the fall
of the Tower of Babel.
5.2.1 Context and content

The biblical character Nimrod is portrayed as a giant
in the Inferno, congruent with medieval traditions of
giants.[1] That he is the biblical character also is indicated
by the (hunters) horn which hangs across his chest: Nimrod is a mighty hunter before God. With other mythological giants, Nimrod forms a ring surrounding the central pit of Hell, a ring that Dante from a distance mistakes as a series of towers which he compares to those
5.2. RAPHL MA AMCHE ZAB ALMI

of Monteriggioni (4045). When Nimrod speaks this,
his only line in the poem, Virgil explains that every language is to him the same / as his to othersno one knows
his tongue (8081).
5.2.2
Interpretation
Early commentators of Dante generally agreed already

that there was no possible translation.[2] Critics have
noted, though, that there are possible comparisons with
magic formulae, with their mixtures of Hebrew-, Greek, and Latin-looking words, and suggestions of angelic
and demoniac names. Such formulae were often interspersed with psalmsNimrods line ends with almi, and
its rhyme word in line 69 is salmi, psalms.[3]
Later critics typically read the senseless[4] verse as a
sign of incomprehensibility, of the tendency of poetic language to displace language from the register of its ordinary operation.[5] The line is compared to "Pap Satn,
pap Satn aleppe", another untranslatable verse from the
Inferno (VII.1) spoken by an angry demon[3] (Plutus),
both of which are, according to one critic, intended primarily to represent the mental confusion brought about
by the sin of pride.[6]
Denis Donoghue warns, however, that Virgil may be too
quick with his criticism: Virgil is not a patient critic,
though his morality is impressive; he should have attended
to the fury in Nimrods words, if it is fury, and not to the
words. Rather than gibberish, Donoghue suggests it is
probably another version of King Lears 'matter and impertinency mixed, reason in madness.'"[7][8] Eric Rabkin
reads the line as an example of metalinguistic discourse
(which treats language as subject, material, [and] context):
In saying "'He hath himself accused,'" Virgil is making Nimrods language the subject of
his own language; in creating this nonsense utterance, the poet Dante is using language as
material to be shaped into his poem; and in
having the incomprehensible statement made
meaningful to Dante by his mentor-poet Virgil, the text elliptically comments on its own
context, on its existence as poetry that has the
eect of creating order and palpable reality
even where such reality may to ordinary or unblessed mortals be unapparent.[9]
5.2.3
References
[1] Alighieri, Dante; Bjrkesson, Ingvar (2006). Den gudomliga komedin (Divine Comedy), comments by Ingvar
Bjrkesson. www.nok.se. Levande Litteratur (in Swedish)
(Natur och Kultur). p. 425. ISBN 978-91-27-11468-5.
[2] Mandelbaum, Allen (2004). The Divine Comedy of Dante
71
Alighieri: Inferno. Bantam. pp. 38788. ISBN 978-0553-21339-3.

[3] Austin, H.D. (1940). Notes to the Divine Comedy (A
Supplement to Existing Commentaries)". PMLA 55 (33):
660713. doi:10.2307/458732. JSTOR 458732.
[4] Kleiner, John (1998). Mismapping the Underworld.
Dante Studies 107: 131. JSTOR 40166378.
[5] Heller-Roazen, Daniel (1998). The Matter of Language: Guilhem de Peitieus and the Platonic Tradition. Modern Language Notes 113 (4): 85180.
doi:10.1353/mln.1998.0056. JSTOR 3251406.
[6] Kleinhenz, Christopher (1974). Dantes Towering Giants: Inferno xxxi. Romance Philology 27: 26985.
[7] Kleinhenz, Christopher (1980). Plutus, Fortune, and
Michael: The Eternal Triangle. Dante Studies 98: 35
52. JSTOR 40166286.
[8] Donoghue, Denis (1977). On the Limits of a Language.
The Sewanee Review 85 (3): 37191. JSTOR 27543259.
[9] Rabkin, Eric S. (1979). Metalinguistics and Science Fiction. Critical Inquiry 6 (1). JSTOR 1343087.
Chapter 6
Characters in the Divine Comedy

6.1 Alichino

Read everything about Alichino and Malebranche
in Divine Comedy at Wikisource, canto XXII and
XXIII
6.2 Barbariccia
For the character from the Final Fantasy video game
series, see Barbariccia (Final Fantasy).
Alichino trying to catch the escaping sinner Bonturo Dati
Alichino is one of the devils in the Inferno of Dante

Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Alichino is a member of the
Malebranche, whose mission is to guard Bolgia Five in the
Eighth Circle, the Malebolge. Alichinos name is commonly regarded as a garbled version of the Italian word
for harlequin, Arlecchino, perhaps for his ying attempt to
catch Bonturo Dati in his escape (see picture). His most,
and only, signicant contribution to the plot is when he
persuades the other devils to leave Bonturo Dati alone.
Bonturo is supposed to summon other sinners from the
lake of boiling pitch (that don't dare to appear when the
devils are near), on request by Dante (who wants to speak
with them). But Bonturo doesn't call at his friends. Instead, he fools the devils and escapes back to the lake, and
Alichino tries in vain to catch him. This causes a ght between Alichino and Calcabrina, which causes them to fall
into the lake. The other devils put the blame on Virgil
and Dante, though and hunt them vexed.
Barbariccia is one of the demons in the Inferno of Dante

Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Barbariccia is one of the
Malebranche, whose mission is to guard Bolgia Five in
the Eighth Circle, the Malebolge. Barbariccias name
means curly beard in Italian (from barba=beard, and
riccia=curly). Barbariccia seems to be the most important devil after Malacoda as he becomes the provost
of nine other devils, when Malacoda commands them to
escort Dante and Virgil, which can be read out of the following text (the speaker is Malacoda):
I send in that direction some of mine
To see if any one doth air himself;
Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious.
Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,
Began he to cry out, and thou, Cagnazzo;
And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo,
And tusked Ciriatto and Graacane,
And Farfarello and mad Rubicante;
Search ye all round about the boiling pitch;
Let these be safe as far as the next crag,
That all unbroken passes o'er the dens. [1] (Inferno, Canto
XXI, Line 115-126)
The following strophes depict when Bonturo fools the

Barbariccia seems also to have a specicity among the
devils:
other nine devils, according to:
6.1.1
References
[1] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy/
Inferno/Canto_XXII
Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain,

One of the sinners would display his back,
And in less time conceal it than it lightens.
As on the brink of water in a ditch
72
6.4. COCYTUS
The frogs stand only with their muzzles out,
So that they hide their feet and other bulk,
73
6.3.1 References

So upon every side the sinners stood;
But ever as Barbariccia near them came,
Original text and commentaries across centuries of
Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew.[2] (Inferno,
Canto 22, line 48 and following, from Dartmouth
Canto XXII, Line 22-30)
Dante Project.
He is also the most serious and dutiful of the devils, since
he allows Dante and Virgil to speak to the sinner (Bonturo
Dati) that Graacane caught, and order the devils to save
Alichino and Calcabrina when they fall into the lake of 6.4 Cocytus
boiling pitch:
6.2.1
References
[1] Wikisource:The Divine Comedy/Inferno/Canto XXI

[2] Wikisource:The Divine Comedy/Inferno/Canto XXII
6.3 Ciampolo
Cocytus (/ko-kats/) or Kokytos, meaning the river

of wailing (from the Greek , lamentation), is
a river in the underworld in Greek mythology. Cocytus
ows into the river Acheron, across which is the underworld, the mythological abode of the dead. There are
ve rivers encircling Hades. The River Styx is perhaps
the most famous; the other rivers are Phlegethon, Lethe
and Acheron.
6.4.1 In literature
The Cocytus river was one of the rivers that surrounded
Hades. Cocytus, along with the other rivers related to
the underworld, was a common topic for ancient authors.
Of the ancient authors, Cocytus was mentioned by Virgil,
Homer, Cicero, Aeschylus, Apuleius and Plato, among
others.[1]
Cocytus also makes an appearance in John Milton's epic
poem Paradise Lost. In Book Two, Milton speaks of Cocytus, named of lamentation loud / Heard on the rueful
stream.[2]
It is also mentioned in William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and in Rick Riordan's The House of Hades.
Ciampolo escapes back into the pitch
Cocytus also appears in Friedrich Schiller's poem

Gruppe aus dem Tartarus": Hohl sind ihre Augen
ihre Blicke/ Sphen bang nach des Cocytus Brcke
Ciampolo (also Giampolo, John Paul) is the accepted

6.4.2
name of a character in Dante's Divine Comedy.
Ciampolo appears in Canto XXII of the Inferno, where he
is a grafter in the fth ditch of the eighth circle. Ciampolo
is hooked by the devils (the Malebranche, Evil Claws)
that patrol that ditch, and pulled out of the boiling pitch
where the grafters are immersed, which represents their
sticky ngers and corrupt deals. Threatened by the devils,
Ciampolo tells Dante the identity of some of the other
grafters punished there. Ciampolo eventually tricks the
devils, and makes his escape back to the boiling pitch.
Dante does not identify Ciampolo by name, but his name
was provided by early commentators. Nothing else is really known about him other than the information provided
by Dante: that he was born in Navarre, that his father was
a wastrel, and that he served King Theobald II of Navarre.
In The Divine Comedy
Main article: Divine Comedy

In Inferno, the rst cantica of Dante's Divine Comedy,
Cocytus is the ninth and lowest circle of The Underworld. Dante and Virgil are placed there by the giant
Antaeus. There are other Giants around the rim that are
chained; however Antaeus is unchained as he died before
the Gigantomachy. Cocytus is referred to as a frozen lake
rather than a river, although it originates from the same
source as the other infernal rivers, the tears of a statue
called The Old Man of Crete which represents the sins of
humanity. Dante describes Cocytus as being the home of
traitors and those who committed acts of complex fraud.
Depending on the form of their treachery, victims are
buried in ice to a varying degree, anywhere from neck-
74
CHAPTER 6. CHARACTERS IN THE DIVINE COMEDY
6.5 Corso Donati

Corso Donati was a leader of the Black Guelph faction
in 13th- and early 14th- century Florence.
6.5.1 Bologna and Pistoia
Dantes Cocytus, as illustrated by Gustave Dor (1832-1883).
high to completely submerged in ice. Cocytus is divided

into four descending rounds, or sections:
In the late thirteenth century, power in Florence and the

other Tuscan cities was divided between the Podest, an
outsider who served as chief magistrate, and the guildmasters; Corso served as Podest of Bologna in 1283 and
1288, and of Pistoia in 1289. In 1289, as captain of the
people in Pistoia, he led a group of soldiers in a cavalry
charge at the Battle of Campaldino, in which the Guelphs
defeated the Ghibellines and cemented their control over
Florence.[1]
6.5.2 Leader of the Black Guelphs
Caina, after the Biblical Cain; traitors to blood rel- In 1293, the merchants of Florence, led by Giano della
Bella, prevented the nobility from taking the oce of
atives.
guildmaster; Corso led the noble faction which aligned
Antenora, after Antenor from the Iliad; traitors to with the working class against the merchants. In 1294
country.
Corso was acquitted of killing a man in a ght; an angry mob came to della Bella seeking justice after the
Ptolomea, after Ptolemy, governor of Jericho, who acquittal, but he sent them away whereupon they rioted
murdered his guests (1 Maccabees); traitors to and della Bella was exiled as having caused the riot. At
guests. Here it is said that sometimes the soul of that time, the Cerchi family, leaders of the merchant faca traitor falls to Hell before Atropos cuts the thread, tion who had long feuded with the Donati, became aland their body is taken over by a end.
lied with the White Guelphs while the Donati allied with
the Black Guelphs, similar factions which had arisen in
Judecca, after Judas Iscariot; traitors to masters and Pistoia. The leaders of both Guelph factions, includbenefactors.
ing Corso, were exiled by the merchants in 1300, but
the White Guelphs were soon allowed to return. Corso
Dantes Satan is at the center of the circle buried waist- and the Black Guelphs petitioned Pope Boniface VIII for
high in ice. He is depicted with three faces and mouths. aid, and returned to Florence with Charles of Valois in
The central mouth gnaws Judas. Judas is chewed head November 1301, killing or exiling many White Guelphs.
foremost with his feet protruding and Satans claws tear- One of the exiled was the famous poet Dante Alighieri,
ing his back while those gnawed in the side mouths, who by marrying Gemma Donati had become a distant
Brutus and Cassius, leading assassins of Julius Caesar, relative of Corso.
are both chewed feet foremost with their heads protruding. Under each chin Satan aps a pair of wings, which
only serve to increase the cold winds in Cocytus and further imprison him and other traitors. Dante and his guide
Virgil proceed then to climb down Satans back and into
Purgatory, though Dante is at rst confused at their turning round, but Virgil explains it is due to the change in
forces as they pass through the centre of the Earth.
6.4.3
References
[1] KOKYTOS. Theoi Project. Retrieved 2009-12-08.

[2] Milton, John (2005). Paradise Lost. New York: W. W.
Norton & Company. p. 591.
6.5.3 Plots against the Black Guelphs

Beginning in February 1303, Corso broke with the other
Black Guelphs and joined the Cavalcanti, a family of
White Guelphs, in calling for the examination of the nances of his former allies. This led to a new eruption
of ghting in which forces from Lucca temporarily controlled Florence. Donati was one of twelve prominent
Florentine citizens summoned by Pope Benedict XI in
1304 in an attempt to bring peace to the city; the White
Guelphs and some Ghibellines were restored, although
the Ghibellines were expelled again in 1306.
In 1308 Corso was accused of plotting to overthrow the
Florentine commune and take power as lord of the city
6.6. DIS
75
with the aid of his father-in-law Uguccione della Faggiuola, a Ghibelline, and was condemned as a rebel and
a traitor; he died on October 6, 1308 while attempting to
ee the city after having been besieged in his house by an
angry mob.[2][3][4][5]
6.5.4
In literature
He is discussed prominently in several contemporary histories: Niccol Machiavelli's History of Florence, the
Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani, and the Cronica delle
cose occorrenti ne' tempi suoi of Dino Compagni. Dantes
Divine Comedy, which was written after Donatis death
but set prior to it in 1300, includes a scene in which
Corsos brother Forese indirectly describes Corso as the
one who bears the greatest blame for the downfall of
Florence and foresees him being dragged by a beast into
hell.[6] In the Divine Comedy, Corsos sister Piccarda is
the rst person Dante meets in Paradise. Corso Donati
is also the subject of a play by nineteenth-century writer
Carlo Marenco, who was inspired by Dantes works.
6.5.5
[4] Catholic Encyclopedia: Florence.

[5] Toynbee, Paget Jackson (1898), A Dictionary of Proper
Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante, The
Clarendon Press, p. 176.
[6] Purgatorio XXIV 7987. The canto does not mention
Corso by name, but he is stated to be the subject in the
summaries of the canto from both The Princeton Dante
Project and the Harvard Classics edition of Dante.
6.6 Dis
Buildings
The two towers of Corso Donati
Two buildings owned by and named after Corso, the torri

Corso Donati or towers of Corso Donati, still stand in
Piazza San Pier Maggiore in Florence.
6.5.6
out of Florence, and section 96: How Corso Donati, the

Great and Noble Citizen of Florence, Died.
References
Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by

Stradanus. There is a drop from the sixth circle to the three rings
of the seventh circle, then again to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy ninth circle.
In Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, the City of Dis

(in Italian, la citt ch'ha nome Dite, the city whose name
is Dis)[1] encompasses the sixth through the ninth circles
of Hell.[2]
In ancient Roman mythology, Dis Pater (Father Dis) is

the ruler of the underworld and is named as such in the
sixth book of Virgil's "Aeneid", one of the principal inuences on Dante in his depiction of Hell (the god was
[2] Machiavelli, Niccol (1901), History of Florence and of
also known as Pluto, a name not used by Virgil in the
the Aairs of Italy, M. W. Dunne. English translation by
Aeneid). The hero Aeneas enters the desolate halls and
Hugo Albert Rennert, Dunne, 1901. Chapter V.
vacant realm of Dis[3] with his guide, the Sibyl, who cor[3] Nuova Cronica VIII. See especially section 8: How the respond in The Divine Comedy to Dante as the speaker
great man of the people, Giano della Bella, was driven of the poem and his guide, Virgil.
[1] Donati Family, Joseph P. Byrne, Medieval Italy:An
Encyclopedia, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, (Routledge,
2004), 630.
76
6.6.1
Description
The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels, the Furies,

and Medusa. Dante emphasizes the character of the place
as a city by describing its architectural features: towers,
gates, walls, ramparts, bridges, and moats. It is thus an
antithesis to the heavenly city, as for instance described
by St. Augustine in his book City of God.[4] Among
these structures are mosques, the worship places of the
most dangerous enemies of medieval Christendom.[5] In
Dantes schematics of Hell, some Muslims and Jews are
placed among the heretics. The presence of mosques
probably also recalls the reality of Jerusalem in Dantes
own time, where gilded domes dominated the skyline.[6]
[7] VV. 2224, as cited by Storey, The Dante Encyclopedia,

p. 307.
[8] Storey, The Dante Encyclopedia, p. 307.
6.7 Eunoe
For other uses, see Euno and Eunoe (wife of Bogudes).
Eunoe (Greek: ) is a feature of Dante's Divine
Comedy created by Dante as the fth river of the dead
(taking into consideration that Cocytus was described as
a lake rather than a river). In the Purgatorio, the second
cantica of Dantes poem, penitents reaching the Garden
of Eden at the top of Mount Purgatory are rst washed in
the waters of the river Lethe in order to forget the memories of their mortal sins. They then pass through Eunoe
to have the memories of their good deeds in life strengthened.
Punished within Dis are those whose lives were marked

by active (rather than passive) sins are heretics, murderers, suicides, blasphemers, usurers, sodomites, panderers,
seducers, atterers, Simoniacs, false prophets, barrators,
hypocrites, thieves, fradulent advisors, sowers of discord,
falsiers, and traitors. Sinners unable to control their passions oend God less than these, whose lives were driven
by malizia (malice, wicked intent):
Upon completing his or her sentence in Purgatory, a soul
is washed in the rivers Lethe and Eunoe (in that order) by
Matilda. It is unclear who Matilda was in real life, but,
Of every malice (malizia) gaining the hanonetheless, her function is to cause the penitent to forget
tred of Heaven, injustice is the goal; and every
his or her sins (now that these sins have been purgated)
such goal injures someone either with force or
and then sip from the waters of Eunoe so that the soul
[7]
fraud.
may enter heaven full of the strength of his or her lifes
good deeds.
There is perhaps a distinction between malizia as the
characteristic of circles seven and eight, and the matta In Purg. XXXIII, in the concluding lines of that canto
bestialitade, inhuman wickedness, of circle nine, which and of the entire cantica, Dante makes particular refer[1]
punishes those who threaten the most basic civic, famil- ence to the dolce ber (sweet draught ) of Eunoe when
he explains that he wished he possessed greater space to
ial, and religious foundations of happiness.[8]
write of the water that ne'er would satiate me.[1]
6.6.2
See also
Pandmonium
6.6.3
References
[1] Inferno 8.68. Citations from The Divine Comedy, unless

otherwise noted, are those of H. Wayne Storey, entry on
Dis, in The Dante Encyclopedia (Routledge, 2010), pp.
306307.
[2] Inferno 9.106 to 34.81.
[3] Domos Ditis uacuas et inania regna (Aeneid 6.269).
[4] Storey, The Dante Encyclopedia, p. 306.
The word eunoe is one of Dantes many neologisms presumably derived from Greek "eu-, meaning good and
noe, meaning mind.
6.7.1 See also

Other mythological rivers borrowed by Dante from Greek
lore:
Acheron, separating the Vestibule from Hell proper;
Dante crosses with the help of Charon (Inf. III)
Styx, the Fifth Circle, containing the Wrathful and
the Sullen; Dante crosses in Phlegyas' ski (Inf. VIIVIII)
[5] Peter Bondanella, The Inferno: Dante Alighieri, note to

the translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Fine
Creative Media, 2003), pp. 206207.
Phlegethon, the Seventh Circle, Ring 1, containing

the Violent Against Others (Inf. XII)
[6] Anthony K. Cassell, The Tomb, the Tower and the Pit:
Dantes Satan, in Dante: Dante and Interpretation (Routledge, 2003), p. 204.
Cocytus, the Ninth Circle, the frozen lake of ice containing various traitors and, nally, Satan himself
(Inf. XXXI-XXXIV)
6.9. MALACODA
Lethe, in the Earthly Paradise atop the Mountain of
Purgatory; Dante, held in the arms of Matilda, is
immersed in the Lethe so that he may wipe out all
memory of sin (Purg. XXXI). The Lethe it is mentioned in Inf. XXXIV.130 as owing down to Hell
to be frozen in the ice around Satan, the last lost
vestiges of the sins of the saved[2]
77
6.9 Malacoda
Euno is also the name of a nymph reported in Greek

mythology; Euno
6.7.2
References
[1] Purgatorio, Canto XXXIII, line 138, Longfellow translation

[2] John Ciardi, Purgatorio, notes on Canto XXVII, pg. 535
6.8 Forese Donati

Forese Donati (died 1296), brother of Corso and
Piccarda Donati, was a childhood friend of Dante
Alighieri. In their youth, Forese and Dante exchanged
a series of playful sonnets called tenzone, which take the
form of a series of exchanged insults.
In the Divine Comedy Dante encounters Forese on the
sixth terrace of Purgatory, where the gluttonous are punished by being forced to starve for food and drink while
passing past them, similar to the punishment of Tantalus.
Dante barely recognizes Foreses emaciated face and his
friends state causes him great grief. He expresses surprise at Foreses salvation - he had died ve years before
- and at his quick advancement through the terraces of
Purgatory. Forese praises his wife Nella, whose prayers
have allowed him to pass quickly through Purgatory.
Forese maligns the provocatively-dressed Florentine
women and predicts that more restrictive dress codes
will soon be enforced in Florence. Dante tells Forese of
his journey through Hell and Purgatory, accompanied by
Virgil, and asks about Foreses sister Piccarda. Forese informs Dante that Piccarda is now in Heaven, and goes on
to identify other prominent personages on the terrace of
the gluttons. Before leaving Dante, Forese predicts the
coming death of his brother Corso and his descent into
Hell.
6.8.1
References
Alighieri, Dante. Purgatorio. Trans. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. New York: Anchor
Books, 2003.
Terrace 6: Gluttony. Danteworlds from the University of Texas at Austin. Accessed 29 March 2008
<>.
Malacoda and his squadron of Malebranche threaten Virgil and

Dante in the fth Bolgia, portrayed by Gustave Dor.
Malacoda is a character in Dante Alighieri's Inferno

(Cantos 21-2), where he features as the leader of the
Malebranche, the twelve demons who guard Bolgia Five
of Malebolge, the eighth circle of Hell. The name Malacoda is roughly equivalent to bad tail or evil tail in
Italian. Unlike other characters such as Geryon, which
are based on mythical characters, Malacoda was invented
by Dante and is not a mythological reference.
He with his ends guard the grafters, caught in boiling
pitch to represent their sticky-ngered deals, torturing
with grappling hooks whoever they can reach. Dante and
Virgil gain a safe conduct from him (Malacoda) and he
allows the poets to cross to the next Bolgia. However,
Malacoda lies to the poets about the existence of bridges
over the sixth Bolgia, making him less a help and more an
impediment. In the Inferno it does not state whether or
not Malacoda chases the poets after his demons Grizzly
(Barbariccia) and Hellken (Alichino) fall into the boiling
pit of pitch. All the Inferno states is that the poets were
being chased by the ends before they escaped by sliding
down a bank to the next Bolgia. Malacoda and his ends
cannot leave the fth Bolgia of the grafters. It is said in
the Inferno:
For the providence that gave them (the ends)
the fth pit to govern as the ministers of its will
takes from their souls the power of leaving it.
Malacoda also gives the reader the time by telling how
long time it was since Bolgia Six passages collapsed;
And then to us: 'You can't continue farther
down this ridge, for the sixth arch
lies broken into pieces at the bottom.
If you desire to continue on,
78

then make your way along this rocky ledge.
Nearbys another crag that yields a passage.
Yesterday, at a time ve hours from now,
Divine Comedy who guard Bolgia Five of the Eighth Circle (Malebolge). They gure in Cantos XXI, XXII, and
XXIII. Vulgar and quarrelsome, their duty is to force the
corrupt politicians (barrators) to stay under the surface of
a boiling lake of pitch.
it was a thousand two hundred sixty-six years

since the road down here was broken.
6.10.1 In The Divine Comedy
When Dante and Virgil meet them, the leader of the

Malebranche, Malacoda (Evil Tail[1] ), assigns a troop
to see if anyone is out to take the air.
to escort the poets safely to the next bridge. Many of the
Go with them -- they won't hurt you. [1] (Inbridges were destroyed in the earthquake that happened at
ferno, Canto XXI, 106-117.)
the death of Christ, which Malacoda describes, enabling
the time this takes place to be calculated. The troop hook
Dante assumes that the crucixion of Jesus took place and torment one of the barrators (identied by early comin year 34, when a great earthshake came. It happened mentators as Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters
12 o'clock am (midnight). according to the Gospel of and then tricks the Malebranche in order to escape back
Luke, and that means that the time for Dante would be into the pitch. The demons are dishonest and malicious:
the promise of safe conduct the poets have received turns
approximately 7 o'clock am in the Holy Saturday.[2]
out to have limited value (and there is no next bridge),
so that Dante and Virgil are forced to escape from them.
I'm sending some men of mine along that way
6.9.1
References
[1] http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/dante/campuscgi/
mpb/GetCantoSection.pl
Within the Inferno, the demons provide some moments

of satirical black comedy. There are twelve Malebranche
named in the poem:
[2] Bjrkesson, Ingvar (2006). Den gudomliga komedin (Divine Comedy), comments by Ingvar Bjrkesson. Levande
978-91-27-11468-5.
6.10 Malebranche
Rubicante redirects here. For the character from the Final Fantasy video game series, see Rubicante (Final FanDante (blue) and Virgil (red) in three scenes with the Maletasy).
The Malebranche (Italian pronunciation: [malebrake]; branche, portrayed by Giovanni di Paolo.
Alichino (derived from Arlecchino, the harlequin)
Barbariccia (Curly Beard)
Cagnazzo (Nasty Dog[2] )
Calcabrina (possibly Grace Stomper[2] )
Ciriatto (Wild Hog[2] )
Draghignazzo (Big Nasty Dragon[2] )
Farfarello (possibly Goblin[2] )
Graacane (Dog Scratcher[2] )
Libicocco (possibly Libyan Hothead[2] )
The Malebranche threaten Virgil and Dante, portrayed by
Gustave Dor.
Evil Claws[1] ) are the demons in the Inferno of Dante's
Malacoda, the leader (Evil Tail[1] )

Rubicante (possibly Red-faced Terror[2] and a reference to Cante de' Gabrielli, who as Podest of
Florence condemned Dante to exile)
6.11. MALEBOLGE
Scarmiglione (possibly Trouble Maker[2] )
79
6.11 Malebolge
The last of these, for example, is introduced by Dante in This article is about the location in Inferno. For the
programming language, see Malbolge. For the character
lines 100105 of Canto XXI:
from Spawn comics, see Malebolgia.
They bent their hooks and shouted to each
other:
And shall I give it to him on the rump?
And all of them replied, Yes, let him have it!
But Malacoda, still in conversation
with my good guide, turned quickly to his
squadron
and said: Be still, Scarmiglione, still!"[3]
In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy,

Malebolge is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means evil ditches. Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into
ten concentric circular trenches or ditches. Each trench
is called a bolgia (Italian for pouch or ditch). Long
causeway bridges run from the outer circumference of
Malebolge to its center, pictured as spokes on a wheel.
At the center of Malebolge is the ninth and nal circle of
It is common among commentators on the Inferno to in- hell.
terpret these names as garbled versions of the names of
ocials contemporary to Dante.[1][4] For example, Bar- In Dantes version of hell, categories of sin are punished in
bariccia may suggest the Ricci family of Florence, or the dierent circles, with the depth of the circle (and placement within that circle) symbolic of the amount of punBarbarasi of Cremona.[2]
ishment to be inicted. Sinners placed in the upper circles of hell are given relatively minor punishments, while
sinners in the depths of hell endure far greater torments.
6.10.2 In popular culture
As the eighth of nine circles, Malebolge is one of the
worst places in hell to be. In it, sinners guilty of simMain article: Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular
ple fraud are punished (that is, fraud that is committed
culture
without particularly malicious intent, whereas Malicious
or compound fraud fraud that goes against bond of
love, blood, honor, or the bond of hospitality would
be punished in the ninth circle). Sinners of this category
6.10.3 See also
include counterfeiters, hypocrites, grafters, seducers, sorcerers and simonists.
Dante and his guide, Virgil, make their way into Malebolge by riding on the back of the monster Geryon, the
Malebranche in the Italian Wikipedia
personication of fraud, who possesses the face of an
honest man 'good of cheer,' but the tail of a scorpion,
who ies them down through the yawning chasm that sep6.10.4 References
arates the eighth circle from the seventh circle, where the
violent are punished. Dante and Virgil plan on cross[1] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell: notes on Cantos XXI and XXII,
ing Malebolge by way of the system of bridges, but nd
Penguin, 1949, ISBN 0-14-044006-2.
their path disturbed by many broken ledges and collapsed
[2] Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, The Dante bridges that were destroyed during the Harrowing of Hell.
Encyclopedia: Devils, pp. 301303, Taylor & Francis, They must then cross some of the bolgias on foot and
even rely on demons to guide them. Eventually, they
2000, ISBN 0-8153-1659-3.
make it to the inner ledge where after a brief look at
[3] Inferno, Canto XXI, lines 100105, Mandelbaum transla- the giants, the babbling Nimrod to the hostile Ephialtes
tion.
and heavily chained Briareus, Virgil convinces the giant
Antaeus to lower them down to the ninth circles frozen
[4] Bjrkesson, Ingvar (2006). Den gudomliga komedin (Di- lake, Cocytus.
vine Comedy), comments by Ingvar Bjrkesson. Levande
978-91-27-11468-5. Missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
6.10.5
External links
6.11.1 The Malebranche

Main article: Malebranche (Divine Comedy)
Dantes meeting with them at Wikisource, canto Thirteen demons known as the Malebranche, Evil
XXI and XXII.
Claws, guard the fth bolgia of the Malebolge.
80

their positions in life to gain personal wealth or other advantages for themselves) are punished by being thrown
into a river of boiling pitch and tar. In addition, should
any of the grafters try to escape the pitch, a horde of
demons (Malebranche, meaning evil claws) armed
with grappling hooks and barbs stands guard over them,
ready to tear them to pieces.
The Malebranche threaten Virgil and Dante in the fth Bolgia,

portrayed by Gustave Dor.
Bolgia Six: Hypocrites are punished in this circle. They

are forced to wear heavy lead robes as they walk around
the circumference of their circle. The robes are golden
and resemble a monks cowl but are lined with heavy lead,
symbolically representing hypocrisy. Also, Caiphas, the
Pharisee who insisted on the execution of Jesus, is crucied in this circle, staked to the ground so that the ranks
of the lead-weighted hypocrites march across him.
Bolgia Seven: This bolgia houses the souls of thieves.
The bolgia is also lled with serpents, dragons and other
vengeful reptiles that torture the thieves endlessly. The
bites of some of the snakes cause the thieves to spontaneously combust, only to regenerate their bodies for further torment in a few moments. They are pursued by the
monstrous ery Cacus. Other thieves are denied human
forms and appear as reptiles themselves, and can only assume their true shape if they steal a human shape from
another sinner; this involves a very painful transformation for both souls involved.
Their leader is Malacoda (evil tail), while the

others are Scarmiglione (rue-haired), Barbariccia
(curly beard), Alichino (derived from Arlecchino, the
harlequin), Calcabrina (one who walks on the frost),
Cagnazzo (bad dog), Libicocco (a possible mix of
libeccio and sirocco), Draghignazzo (maybe from drago,
dragon, and sghignazzo, guaw), Ciriatto (possibly little pork), Graacane (scratch dog), Farfarello
(possibly goblin) and Rubicante (possibly red or raBolgia Eight: In this trench, the souls of Deceivers who
bid). One of the thirteen was thus not named. They try
gave false or corrupted advice to others for personal benand trick Virgil and Dante by telling them of a path which
et are punished. They are constantly ablaze, appearing
does not really exist.
as nothing so much as living, speaking tongues of ame.
6.11.2
The Ten Bolgias
The ten ditches of the Malebolge, in descending order,

are listed thusly:
Bolgia One: Panderers and Seducers are punished here.
They are forced to march, single le around the circumference of their circle, constantly lashed by horned
demons.
Bolgia Two: Sinners guilty of excessive attery are punished in this bolgia, immersed forever in a river of human
excrement, similar to what their atteries were.
Bolgia Nine: Sinners who, in life, promoted scandals,

schism, and discord are punished here; particularly those
who caused schism within the church or within politics.
They are forced to walk around the circumference of the
circle bearing horrible, disguring wounds inicted on
them by a great demon with a sword. The nature of the
wound mirrors the sins of the particular soul; while some
only have gashes, or ngers and toes cut o, others are decapitated, cut in half (as schismatics), or are completely
disemboweled. Among those who are tormented here is
Bertran de Born, who carries around his severed head like
a lantern.
Bolgia Ten: Falsiers, those who attempted to alter

things through lies or alchemy, or those who tried to
pass o false things as real things, such as counterfeiters of coins, are punished here. This bolgia has four subdivisions where specic classes of falsiers (alchemists,
impostors, counterfeiters, and liars) endure dierent deBolgia Four: Astrologists, seers, sorcerers and others grees of punishment based on horrible, consumptive diswho attempted to pervert Gods laws to divine the future eases such as rashes, dropsy, leprosy and consumption.
are punished here. Their heads have been twisted around The lower edge of Malebolge is guarded by a ring of titans
to face backwards, and thus they are forced to walk back- and earth giants, many of whom are chained in place as
wards around the circumference of their circle for all of punishment for their rebellion against God. Beyond and
time.
below the giants lies Cocytus, hells nal depth.
Bolgia Three: Simonists (sinners guilty of selling church
oces for personal gain) are punished here. They are
turned upside down in large baptismal fonts cut into the
rock, with their feet set ablaze by oily res. The heat of
the ames burns according to the guilt of the sinner.
Bolgia Five: Grafters (peculators, extortionists, blackmailers and unscrupulous businessmen: sinners who used
6.13. SATAN
6.11.3
81
Sources and external links
to actually recognize Piccarda as the woman he knew. In

higher spheres, souls become so beautiful they cease to
Allen Mandelbaum's translation of the Inferno, pub- resemble their earthly selves. Piccarda is the only person
lished by the University of California Press in 1980 Dante will recognize, unaided, in Heaven.
Dantes Inferno: Circle 8 summary at the Univer- Dante asks Piccarda if she does not long to be placed
higher in Heaven. Her answer (she does not wish to be
sity of Texas
higher) highlights another important point. According to
Piccarda, blessed souls long only for what they have, and
so their wills are entirely in agreement with that of God.
6.12 Piccarda
If they desired to be higher in heaven, then their wish
would dier from Gods will, which is an impossibility.
Though they know there are others in higher spheres of
Heaven, they rejoice in their placement.
6.12.1 References
Alighieri, Dante. Paradiso. Trans. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. New York: Doubleday,
2007. ISBN 0-385-50678-3
6.13 Satan
Dante and Beatrice speak to Piccarda and Constance in

Paradiso, Canto 3.
Piccarda Donati was a 13th-century Italian noblewoman. She appears as a character in Dante's classic
Divine Comedy.
Piccarda, sister of Corso Donati and of Dantes friend
Forese Donati, is the rst character Dante encounters in
Paradise. She is on the Sphere of the Moon, the lowest sphere of Heaven. Piccarda explains to Dante that
her placement is due to vows neglected and, in part, no
longer valid. When she was alive, Piccarda, a nun, was
forcibly removed from her convent by her brother Corso,
in order to marry her to a Florentine man and further her
familys political interests. She died soon after her wedding. In her acquiescence to her brothers wishes, though
forced, she neglected her vows to God.
Through Dantes encounter with Piccarda, we rst begin
to learn about the nature of Heaven. For example, we
learn that souls in Heaven become much more beautiful
than they were on Earth; in fact, it takes Dante a while
In Dantes Inferno, Satan is portrayed as a giant demon,

frozen mid-breast in ice at the center of Hell. Satan has
three faces and a pair of bat-like wings axed under each
chin. As Satan beats his wings, he creates a cold wind
which continues to freeze the ice surrounding him, and
the other sinners in the Ninth Circle. The winds he creates are felt throughout the other circles of Hell. Each
of his three mouths chews on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius.
Scholars consider Satan to be a once splendid being (indeed the most perfect of Gods creatures) from whom all
personality has now drained away. [1] Satan, also known
as Lucifer, was formerly the Angel of Light and once tried
to usurp the power of God. As punishment, God banishes Satan out of Heaven to an eternity in Hell as the
ultimate sinner. Dante illustrates a less powerful Satan
than most standard depictions; he is slobbering, wordless,
and receives the same punishments in Hell as the rest of
the sinners. In the text, Dante vividly illustrates Satans
grotesque physical attributes.
The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous / From
his mid-breast forth issued from the ice; /And
better with a giant I compare / Than do the giants with those arms of his; / Consider now how
great must be that whole, / Which unto such a
part conforms itself. / Were he as fair once, as
he now is foul, / And lifted up his brow against
his Maker, / Well may proceed from him all
tribulation. / O, what a marvel it appeared to
me, / When I beheld three faces on his head! /
The one in front, and that vermilion was;[2]
82

of intellect; the substance of evil, the loss of humanity,
intelligence, good will, and the capacity to love.[4] Satan
stands at the center because he is the epitome of Dantes
Hell.
He wept with all six eyes, and the tears fell over his
three chins mingled with bloody foam. The teeth of each
mouth held a sinner, kept as by a ax rake: thus he held
three of them in agony.
6.13.3 Religious signicance
Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of

Hell, Inferno, Canto 34.
6.13.1
Description of the Ninth Circle
Dantes Hell is divided into nine circles, the ninth circle being divided further into four rings, their boundaries
only marked by the depth of their sinners immersion in
the ice; Satan sits in the last ring, Judecca. It is in the
fourth ring of the ninth circle where the worst sinners, the
betrayers to their benefactors, are punished. Here, these
condemned souls, frozen into the ice, are completely unable to move or speak and contorted into all sorts of fantastical shapes as a part of their punishment.
Dantes Satan remains a common image in popular portrayals. The answer to the question of how Satan wound
up in the bottom of the pit in Dantes Inferno lies in Christian theological history. Some interpretations of the Book
of Isaiah, combined with apocryphal texts, explain that
Satan was cast from Heaven, and fell to earth.[5] Satan,
the angel, was enamored of his own beauty, power, and
pride, and attempted to usurp Gods divine throne:
I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the
stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the
heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.[6]
This immediately backred on Satan. God sentenced him

as a betrayer and banished him from Heaven. Dante uses
this idea to create a physical place Satan created after his
impact with the earth. According to Dante, the pit the
Pilgrim climbs down to reach the center of Hell is literally
Unlike many other circles of Dantes Hell, these sinners
the hole that Satan made when he fell to earth. The extra
remain unnamed. Even Dante is afraid to enter this last
earth formed Mount Purgatory on the other side of the
circle, as he nervously proclaimed, I drew behind my
Earth.
leaders back again.
William O'Grady has pointed out that those frozen in the
Uncharacteristically of Dante, he remains silent in Satans
ice perversely imitate God in the sense of being unmoved
presence. Dante examines the sinners who are covered
movers, but rather than moving by attracting us towards
wholly by ice, / showing like straw in glass- some lying
them, they move us by repelling us away from them, as
prone, / and some erect, some with the head towards us,
evil was understood to do in scholastic philosophy. Thus
/ the others with the bottoms of the feet; another like a
since they wanted to be God, Dante makes them godlike
bow bent feet to face. This circle of Hell is a complete
but at the farthest distance removed from God.[7]
separation from any life and for Dante, the deepest isolation is to suer separation from the source of all light
and life and warmth. [1]
6.13.4 Eects of Dantes Satan on the Renaissance
6.13.2
Contrapasso: The Poetic Justice of

As opposed to the popular conception of the era, which
Satan
The reason for Satans eternal punishment was his desire

to be as powerful as the Divine. When Satan was cast
out of Heaven, he excavated the underworld cosmos in
which the damned are held.[3] Satans punishment is the
opposite of what he was trying to achieve, power and a
voice over God. Satan also is in many ways, the antithesis of Virgil; for he conveys at its sharpest the ultimate and
universal pain of Hell; isolation.[1] It is Virgil, Dantes
guide through Hell, who tells Dante that the inhabitants
of the infernal region are those who have lost the good
viewed Satan as an all-dominating beast of Hell, Dante

gives the portrayal of Satan as simply another victim of
Hells tortures. He places Satan trapped within the ice,
stripped of voice and power and thus sets forth a new conception of who and what Satan is.
The demonstration of this eect can be seen in the comparison of two paintings done during the Renaissance era.
The rst is the work of Giotto di Bondone (12671337),
the Last Judgment found in the Arena Chapel in Padua,
and the other is the work of Nardo di Cione (13501357).
Giotto gives Satan a very dominant role in Hell and por-
6.14. SCARMIGLIONE
83
[7] http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/files/6413/9657/8694/
sjc_review_vol37_no1_1986.pdf
6.13.6 Works cited

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno of Dante. Trans.
Robert Pinsky. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus,
Giroux, 1994.
Cassell, Anthony K. The Tomb, the Tower, and the
Pit: Dantes Satan. Italica 56.4 (1979): 331-351.
JSTOR. 27 Jan. 2007 <http://www.jstor.org>.
"Circle 9, Cantos 31-34. Dantes Worlds. University of Texas at Austin. 27 Jan. 2007.
Cunningham, Lawrence S. Satan: a Theological
Meditation. Theology Today 51 (1994). 27 Jan.
2007.
Foster, Micheal, comp. Sandro Botticelli, the Drawings for the Divine Comedy. London: Royal
Academy of Arts, 2000.
Freccero, John. The Sign of Satan. MLN 80
(1965): 11-26. JSTOR. 27 Jan. 2007.
2. William Blake depicting Dantes Satan
trays him to be most violent and gruesome. His depiction of Satan is representative of the popular conception
before Dante and is in great contrast with the other two
images of Satan. In both Ciones work, Satan is given
three heads, each of which are consuming a body, just as
Dante wrote in the Inferno. The other characteristics that
the artist draws from Dantes Satan is that Satans lower
body portion is strictly conned and he is given less power
than he is in Giottos Last Judgment. A clear depiction of
Dantes nine circles of Hell is also found in Ciones work,
represented in the Cappella Strozzi of the Santa Maria
Novella in Florence. Through this art-work and others
of the Renaissance period, one can discover how much
of an inuence Dante had in the understanding of Satan
and Christian Mythology.
6.13.5
Footnotes
[1] Jaco, pg. 143

[2] Dante canto XXXIV in the translation by Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow..
[3] Cunningham, pg. 2
[4] Cunningham, pg 2
[5] Pagels, Elaine. The Origin of Satan. Vintage. 1996.
[6] The Holy Bible Revised Standard Edition, Isaiah 14:13-14
Gilbert, Allan. Dante and His Comedy. New York,

NY: New York University P, 1963.
Jaco, Rachel, ed. Dante. Cambridge UP, 1963.
Klonsky, Milton, comp. Blakes Dante, the Complete Illustrations to the Divine Comedy. New York,
NY: Harmony Books, 1980.
Korchak, Michael. "Portrayal of Heaven and Hell
Through Art. Boston College. 27 Jan. 2007.
Paolucci, Anne. Dantes Satan and Miltons Byronic Hero"" Italica 41 (1965): 139-149. JSTOR.
27 Jan. 2007.
"Satan: an Instrument for Dante and Milton. 27
Jan. 2007.
Scott, John A. Understanding Dante. Notre Dame,
IN: University of Notre Dame P, 2004.
The Holy Bible Revised Standard Edition. 1962.
World Publishing Company. Cleveland.
Vittorini, Domenico. The Age of Dante. Syracuse,
NY: Syracuse UP, 1957.
6.14 Scarmiglione
Scarmiglione is one of the twelve named Malebranche in
the 8th Circle of Hells 5th Gulf, where corrupt politicians
are immersed in burning pitch, the Malebolge, from the
Inferno of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
84
6.14.1
In popular culture
Final Fantasy series:

In the Dawn of Souls and 20th anniversary remakes of Final Fantasy I, Scarmiglione is the
name of an optional boss.
In Final Fantasy IV, Scarmiglione is the name
of the Fiend of Earth
In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years,
Scarmiglione is again a boss.
In Dissidia, Scarmiglione is a summon.
In the 2012 video game Resident Evil: Revelations,
Scarmiglione is a large, hulking shark-based creature.
The card game Yu-Gi-Oh! features a series of cards
called Burning Abyss, one of which is known as
Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.
6.14.2
See also
Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture

Malebranch in the Italian Wikipedia
6.14.3
External links
Dantes Inferno
Services.com
Information
at
Brainstorm-
Dantes Inferno -- more information @ Geocities.com
Chapter 7
Insights into the Divine Comedy

7.1 ''Contrapasso''
of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her

life.[5]
The word contrapasso can be found in Canto XXVIII of
the Inferno, in which the decapitated Bertran de Born declares: Cos sosserva in me lo contrapasso (XXVIII,
142)[6] which Longfellow translates: Thus is observed
in me the counterpoise[7] De Born is in the 9th Bolgia
of schismatics, for (Dante believes) causing the rebellion
of Henry the Young King against his father, Henry II of
England.[8] He is decapitated there as a contrapasso for
his (supposed) act of political decapitation in undermining a rightful head of state.[8]
Dante inherited the idea and the name of contrapasso
from theological (Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica)
and literary (Medieval visions, such as Visio Pauli, Visio
Alberici, and Visio Tungdali) sources.[1]
7.1.1 Notes
[1] Enciclopedia Dantesca, Biblioteca Treccani, 2005, vol. 7,
article Contrapasso.
[2] Mark Musa, commentary notes in The Divine Comedy.
Volume 1: Inferno. Penguin Classics: 1984, pp. 37-38.
The contrapasso of the sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets,

illustrated by Stradanus.
[3] Inferno, Canto XX, lines 1415, Mandelbaum translation.
[1]
Contrapasso (or, in modern Italian, contrappasso),

from the Latin contra and patior, suer the opposite":
refers to the punishment of souls in Dante's Inferno, by
a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin
itself.[2] A similar process, though a penitential one, occurs in the Purgatorio.[2]
One of many examples of contrapasso occurs in the 4th
Bolgia of the 8th circle of Hell (Inferno, Canto XX),
where the sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets have
their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, so
that they found it necessary to walk backward, / because
they could not see ahead of them.[3] While referring primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden
means, this also symbolises the twisted nature of magic
in general.[4] Such a contrapasso functions not merely
as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fullment
85
[4] Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto XX.

[5] Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, The Cambridge History of
Italian Literature, 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press,
1999, ISBN 0-521-66622-8, pp. 63-64.
[6] Princeton Dante Project (2.0)". Etcweb.princeton.edu.
Retrieved 2013-08-09.
[7] Dante; Poetry of Dante Alighieri; full text of Dantes Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, at. Everypoet.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
[8] Mark Musa, commentary notes in The Divine Comedy.
Volume 1: Inferno. Indiana University Press, 1996, ISBN
0-253-32968-X, p. 380.
86
CHAPTER 7. INSIGHTS INTO THE DIVINE COMEDY
Dante, poised between the mountain of purgatory and the city

of Florence, a detail of a painting by Domenico di Michelino,
Florence 1465.
7.2 List of cultural references in

''Divine Comedy''
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is a long allegorical poem in three parts (or canticas): the Inferno (Hell),
Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise), and 100
cantos, with the Inferno having 34, Purgatorio having 33,
and Paradiso having 33 cantos. Set at Easter 1300, the
poem describes the living poets journey through hell,
purgatory, and paradise.
Throughout the poem, Dante refers to people and events
from Classical and Biblical history and mythology, the
history of Christianity, and the Europe of the Medieval
period up to and including his own day. A knowledge of
at least the most important of these references can aid in
understanding the poem fully.
For ease of reference, the cantica names are abbreviated
to Inf., Purg., and Par. Roman numerals are used to identify cantos and Arabic numerals to identify lines. This
means that Inf. X, 123 refers to line 123 in Canto X (or
10) of the Inferno and Par. XXV, 27 refers to line 27 in
Canto XXV (or 25) of the Paradiso. The line numbers
refer to the original Italian text.
Boldface links indicate that the word or phrase has an entry in the list. Following that link will present that entry.
7.2.1
Abbagliato: See Spendthrift Club.

Abel: Biblical second son of Adam and brother of
Cain.
Raised by Jesus from Limbo into Paradise.
Inf. IV, 56.
Abraham the Patriarch: Important biblical gure.
Inf. IV, 58.
Abraham Sacricing Isaac by Laurent de La Hyre, 1650
Absalom and Ahitophel: Absalom was the rebellious son of King David who was incited by Ahitophel, the kings councilor.
Bertran de Born compares his fomenting
with the malicious urgings of Ahitophel.
Inf. XXVIII, 136138.
Achan: Ancient Israelite who stole community
property during Joshuas conquest. He was stoned
to death for the theft. (Joshua 7:126)
Cited by souls on the terrace of the greedy as
an example of greed. Purg. XX, 109111.
Acheron: The mythological Greek underworld river
over which Charon ferried souls of the newly dead
into Hades.
The melancholy shore encountered. Inf.
III, 7178.
Formed from the tears of the statue of the Old
Man of Crete. Inf. XIV, 94116.
Achilles: The greatest Greek hero in the Trojan
War. An account well known in the Middle Ages
has him killed by Paris after having been lured with
the promise of Priam's daughter Polyxena.
Found amongst the sexual sinners. Inf. V, 65.
Remembered by Virgil for having been educated by Chiron. Inf. XII, 71.
His abandonment of Deidamia and his only
son, at the urging of Ulysses, to go to the war
against Troy. Inf. XXVI, 6162.
Statius identies himself in Purgatory as the
author of the Achilleid, an unnished epic
poem on the life of Achilles. Purg. XXI, 92.
Acre: Ancient city in Western Galilee, it was the last
Christian possession in the Holy Land, nally lost in
1291. Inf. XXVII, 86.
7.2. LIST OF CULTURAL REFERENCES IN ''DIVINE COMEDY''
87
Ad vocem tanti senis (To the voice of such a great

elder)
Latin line used to maintain the rhyme scheme
with neighboring Latin quotations. Purg.
XXX, 18.
Adam: According to the Bible, the rst man created
by God.
His evil seed. Inf. III, 115117.
Our rst parent, raised by Jesus from
Limbo into Paradise. Inf. IV, 55.
Dante sees the tree in the Garden of Eden Aeneas ees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria
which caused the fall of Adam and Eve. (See Borghese, Rome
Genesis 3.) Purg. XXXII, 3739.
Adam of Brescia: See Master Adam.
Adhaesit pavimento anima mea": (My soul
cleaveth unto the dust.) (Psalm 119:25; 118:25 in
the Vulgate.)
Recited penitentially by prostrate souls on the
terrace of greed in Purgatory. Purg. XIX, 73.
Aegina: A Greek island between Attica and Argolis
in the Saronic Gulf. According to tradition it was
named by its ruler Aeacus son of Zeus and
Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus after
his mother. In Ovid's Metamorphoses (VII, 501
660), Aeacus, tells of a terrible plague inicted by
a jealous Juno (Hera), killing everyone on the island but Aeacus; and how he begged Jupiter (Zeus)
to give him back his people or take his life as well.
Jupiter then turned the islands ants into a race of
men called the Myrmidons, some of whom Achilles
Albertus Magnus (fresco, 1352, Treviso, Italy) by Tommaso da
ultimately led to war against Troy.
" all Aeginas people sick when the air
was so infected received their health again
through seed of ants., compared with the
spirits languishing in scattered heaps of the
tenth Malebolge. Inf. XXIX, 5865.
Modena (13261379)
Aeneas: Hero of Virgil's epic poem Aeneid, his descent into hell is a primary source for Dantes own
journey.
Son of Anchises, ed the fall of Troy. Inf. I,
7475.
Father of Sylvius", journey to Hades, founder
of Rome. Inf. II, 1327.
Alexander the Great, mosaic detail, The National Archaeological
When Dante doubts he has the qualities for his Museum of Naples, 1st century BCE
great voyage, he tells Virgil I am no Aeneas,
no Paul". Inf. II, 32
Founder of Gaeta. Inf. XXVI, 93.
Seen in Limbo. Inf. IV, 122.
Romes noble seed. Inf. XXVI. 60.
Aeolus: Ruler of the winds in ancient Greek mythol-
88

ogy. Purg. XXVIII, 21.
Aesop: A semi-legendary Greek fabulist of whom

little reliable is known. A famous corpus of fables is
traditionally assigned to him.
His fable of the Frog and the mouse is mentioned. Inf. XXIII, 46.
Africanus: Agnomen of Publius Cornelius Scipio
Africanus (236183 BCE), the Roman general who
defeated the Carthaginian general Hannibal in the
Second Punic War.
His triumphant reception in Rome mentioned.
Purg. XXIX, 116.
Agathon: Greek poet of the 5th century BCE.
Resident of Limbo. Purg. XXII, 107.
Agapetus: Pope from 535 to 536.
In the Heaven of Mercury, the soul of the Emperor Justinian credits Agapetus with correcting him of heretical beliefs. Par. VI, 1318.
Aglauros: Athenian princess who envied her sisters
love aair with Hermes. When she attempted to
block Hermes access, he changed her to stone.
Her voice is heard in Purgatory on the terrace
of the envious as a lesson in envy. Purg. XIV,
139.
Agnus Dei: Liturgical anthem addressed to Jesus
as Lamb of God. Sung while the Eucharistic bread
is being divided. It ends with Dona nobis pacem.
(Grant us peace.)
Sung by souls in the terrace of the angry in
Purgatory. Purg. XVI, 1621.
Ahasuerus: Ancient King of Persia according to the
Book of Esther. He married Esther, whose father
was Mordecai. Haman, the prime minister, became
enraged at Mordecai for refusing to bow in his presence. Haman then plotted a pogrom of the Jews in
the kingdom. The plot was discovered, and Ahasuerus had Haman executed.
Dante has a vision of the execution as he departs the terrace of the angry in Purgatory.
Purg. XVII, 2530.
Ahitophel: See Absalom.
Cited as his own analogy by Bertran de Born.
Inf. XXVIII, 137.
Alardo: See Tagliacozzo.
Alba: Town in Latium near Rome which founded
the Latin League in the early years of Rome.
According to the soul of the Emperor

Justinian, the eagle of Roman glory rested in
Alba for three centuries. Par. VI, 3739.
Albert I of Germany: Roman-German King (1298
1308) from the Habsburg family. He was King during the events of the Comedy.
Dante refers to him as German Albert (Alberto tedesco) and condemns him for failing
to come south and curb violent conict in Italy.
Purg. VI, 97151.
Alberto da Casalodi: Guelph count of Brescia, he
was Signore of Mantua during the feuding between
Guelphs and Ghibellins. He was ousted in 1273 by
his advisor Pinamonte dei Bonacolsi.
His foolishness (la mattia da Casalodi) in
trusting Pinamonte. Inf. XX, 9596.
Alberto da Siena: See Griolino of Arezzo.
Albertus Magnus (c. 11971280): Dominican friar,
scholar, and teacher of Thomas Aquinas.
Standing to the right of Thomas Aquinas in the
sphere of the Sun. Par. X, 989.
Alcmaeon: Son of Eriphyle, who presumed herself
worthy to wear jewelry designed for the gods. Her
presumption resulted in her husbands death. Alcmaeon murdered his mother in revenge.
Eriphyle is depicted on the pavement in Purgatory as an example of arrogance. Purg. XII,
50.
Beatrice cites Alcmaeons act of murder as a
moral failure. Par. IV, 100105.
Tegghiaio Aldobrandi: Florentine son of the famous Aldobrando degli Adimari, he was podest of
Arezzo in 1256 and fought at the battle of Montaperti in 1260, where his warnings against attacking
the Senese forces went unheeded, and the Florentines were annihilated.
One of a group of famous political Florentines, who were so worthy whose minds
bent toward the good, asked about by Dante
of Ciacco. Inf. VI, 7781.
One of a group of three Florentine sodomites
who approach Dante, and are much esteemed
by him (see Jacopo Rusticucci). Inf. XVI,
190.
Cryptically described as he, la cui voce nel
mondo s dovria esser gradita (whose voice
the world above should have valued), probably an allusion to his councils at Montaperti.
Inf. XVI, 4042.
Alecto: see Erinyes.

Alexander the Great: King of Macedon (356323
BCE) and the most successful military commander
of ancient history
Probably the tyrant pointed out by Nessus.
Inf. XII, 107.
Apocryphal story of his adventures in India
provide a simile for the punishment of the violent against God in Inf. XIV, 3136.
Ali: Cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and
one of his rst followers. Disputes over Alis succession as leader of Islam led to the split of Islam
into the sects of Sunni and Shi'a.
He walks and weeps in front of Muhammed.
Inf. XXVIII, 3133.
Amphiaraus: Mythical king of Argos and seer, who
although he had foreseen his death, was persuaded
to join the Seven against Thebes expedition. He was
killed while eeing from pursuers, when Zeus threw
a thunderbolt, and the earth opened up and swallowed him.
The story of his death is told. Inf. XX, 3139.
Anagni: ancient town in central Italy. Birthplace of
Pope Boniface VIII.
In 1303, Philip IV of France invaded Italy and
captured Boniface at Anagni. Purg. XX, 86.
Pope Anastasius II: Pope who Dante perhaps mistakenly identied with the emperor Anastasius I and
thus condemned to hell as a heretic. Anastasius I
was a supporter of Monophysitism, a heresy which
denied the dual divine/human nature of Jesus.
Dante and Virgil take shelter behind Anastasius tomb and discuss matters of theology. Inf
XI, 4111.
89
with Catalano dei Malavolti, he shared the position of governor of Florence. Loderingo is extolled for his fortitude in dying by his friend, the poet
Guittone d'Arezzo.
Among the hypocrites. Inf. XXIII, 103109.
Andrea de' Mozzi: Chaplain of the popes Alexander
IV and Gregory IX, he was made bishop of Florence
in 1287 and there remained till 1295, when he was
moved to Vicenza, only to die shortly after.
One of a group of sodomites identied by
Brunetto Latini to Dante. Brunetto (i.e.
Dante) blasts him with particular harshness,
calling him tigna. Inf. XV, 110114.
Angiolello di Carignano: See Malatestino.
Annas: The father-in-law of Caiaphas, he also is
called High-Priest. He appears to have been president of the Sanhedrin before which Jesus is said to
have been brought.
Among the hypocrites, he suers the same
punishment as Caiaphas. Inf. XXIII, 121
122.
Antaeus: Son of Neptune and Gaia. A giant whose
invincible strength came from contact with the earth.
Hercules killed him by lifting him from the earth and
crushing him.
Lowers Dante and Virgil onto the surface of
Cocytus. Inf. XXXI, 112145.
Antigone and Ismene: Theban princesses and
daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta who appear in several ancient plays.
Residents of Limbo. Purg. XXII, 110111.
500 428 BCE): Greek
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (c. 215 163 BCE): Last

powerful Seleucid king, he is famous principally for
his war against the Maccabees.
Encountered by Dante in Limbo. Inf. IV,

137.
Just as he sold the High Priesthood to Jason,

Philip IV of France sold the papacy to
Clement V. Inf. XIX, 8687.
Anchises: Father of Aeneas by Aphrodite. In the

Aeneid he is shown as dying in Sicily.
Apollo: Greek god who led the Muses, the goddesses who inspired literature and arts.
Father of Aeneas. Inf. I, 74, Purg. XVIII,

137.
Dante invokes Apollo to inspire and guide his

writing at the opening of the Paradiso. Par. I,
13, Par. II, 8.
Anaxagoras (c.
philosopher.
Loderingo Andal (c. 12101293): Of a prominent Ghibelline family, he held many civic positions. In 1261 he founded the Knights of Saint
Mary or Jovial Friars, a religious order recognized
by Pope Clement IV. Its mission was to promote
peace between warring municipal factions, but its
members soon succumbed to self-interest. Together
Apulia: A region in southeastern Italy bordering the

Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto
in the south. In the Middle Ages, it referred to all
of southern Italy. The barons of Apulia broke their
promise to defend the strategic pass at Ceperano
90

for Manfred, the son of Frederick II, and allowed
Charles of Anjou to pass freely into Naples. Manfred was subsequently killed (1266) at the Battle of
Benevento, a crucial blow to the Ghibelline cause.
Arachne: In Greek mythology, a woman who

challenged Athena to a contest of skill in weaving. Athena destroyed her work and converted the
woman into a spider.
Its fateful land as battleground, and Apulias

betrayal. Inf. XXVIII, 721.
Depicted on the pavement in Purgatory as an

example of arrogance. Purg. XII, 43.
Aquarius: The eleventh sign of the zodiac. When

the sun is in Aquarius (between January 21 and
February 21), the days start to visibly grow longer
and day and night begin to approach equal length.
Inf. XXIV, 13.
Arcolano of Siena: A member of the Maconi family, he was a member of the notorious Sienese
Spendthrift Club. He fought in the Battle of Pieve
al Toppo in 1288, where according to Giovanni Boccaccio, he preferred to die in battle rather than live
in poverty.
Probably Lano, one of two spendthrifts (the
other being Jacomo da Sant' Andrea) whose
punishment consists of being hunted by female
hounds. Inf. XIII, 115129.
Arethusa: In Greek mythology she was a nymph
daughter of Nereus. Running away from a suitor,
Alpheus, she was transformed by Artemis into a
fountain.
Her transformation, as described in Ovid's
Metamophoses (V, 572641), is compared to
the fate of the thieves. Inf. XXV, 9799.
Geryons adornments, compared to her weavings. Inf. XVII, 1418.
Filippo Argenti: A Black Guelph and member of
the Adimari family, who were enemies of Dante.
Inf. VIII, 3166.
Argia: Ancient Theban woman, sister of Deipyle
and wife of Polynices.
Argus: Giant of ancient Greek mythology with multiple eyes.
St. Thomas Aquinas from the Demido Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli
Thomas Aquinas: Dominican theologian considered

to be one of the greatest scholars of the Church.
Dante claims that he was murdered by Charles
of Anjou. Purg. XX, 69.
He introduces wise men in the sphere of the
Sun. Par. X, 98138.
He eulogises St. Francis. Par. XI, 37117.
He condemns Dominicans who have strayed
from the true Dominican charism. Par. XI,
124139.
Compared to the eyes on the four allegorical

beasts in the Pageant of the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX, 94.
Ariadne: Daughter of Minos, king of Crete, who
helped Theseus kill the Minotaur, the ospring of
Ariadnes mother Pasipha and a bull.
Referred to as the sister of the Minotaur. Inf.
XII, 20.
Aristotle: 4th-century BCE Greek philosopher
whose writings were a major inuence on medieval
Christian scholastic philosophy and theology, particularly on the works of Thomas Aquinas.
As il maestro di color che sanno (the master of those who know) he is among those encountered by Dante in Limbo. Inf. IV, 131.
91
His Nicomachean Ethics quoted by Virgil.

Inf. XI, 7984.
His Physics, referred to by Virgil. Inf. XI,
101104.
Mentioned by Virgil as one who would if
reason couldhave been content. Purg. III,
43.
Argives: People of Argos, or more generally all
Greeks Inf. XXVIII, 84.
Arles: City in the south of France and supposed location of the tombs of Charlemagne's soldiers who
fell in the battle of Roncesvalles.
Simile for the tombs in the sixth circle. Inf.
IX, 112.
Arno: River which runs through Florence.
Subject of a discourse on the vices of the people of Tuscany. Purg. XIV, 1666.
Aruns: In Lucan's epic poem Pharsalia, he is
the Etruscan seer who prophesies the Civil war,
Caesar's victory over Pompey, and its ending in 48
BCE.
Seen among the seers. Dante mentions his
cave, which he locates (erroneously) near
Luni. Inf. XX, 4651.
Asdente: See Mastro Benvenuto.
Asperges me (Thou shalt sprinkle me): Psalm
51:9 (Psalm 50:9 in the Vulgate Bible). Opening of
the Asperges, a hymn sung during the sprinkling of a
congregation with Holy Water. Thou shalt sprinkle
me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt
wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
Dante hears the hymn when he is carried
through the River Lethe. Purg. XXXI, 97
99.
Athamas: See Hera.
Athena: Greek Goddess of Wisdom. Pallas is a
widely used epithet for her.
In Purgatory, she is depicted in a pavement carving casting Briareus from Olympus.
Purg. XII, 31.
As the goddess of wisdom, she propels his
metaphorical sailing ship in the heavens. Par.
II, 8.
Athens: Major Greek city of antiquity.
Commended by Dante as an example of good
government. Purg. VI, 139.
Attila meeting Pope Leo from the Chronicon Pictum, c. 1360.
Attila the Hun (c. 406453): King of the Huns,

known in Western tradition as the Scourge of God.
Pointed out by Nessus. Inf. XII, 133134.
Confused by Dante with Totila who destroyed
Florence in 542. Inf. XIII, 149.
Augustus (63 BCE 14 CE): The Roman Emperor
under whom Virgil found fame as a poet.
Called the good Augustus by Virgil. Inf. I,
71.
Augustus took charge of Virgils physical and
literary remains after his death. My bones
were buried by Octavian. Purg. VII, 6.
His triumphant chariot compared to the chariot in the Pageant of the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX, 116.
Aurora: Roman goddess of dawn
Used as a poetic reference to sunrise in Purgatory. Purg. II, 8.
Ave: Ave gratia plena, Dominus tecum. (Hail,
highly favored one, the Lord is with you.) Words
addressed by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary,
announcing the birth of Jesus.
Words seen in a wall carving depicting the
Annunciation. Purg. X, 40.
Ave Maria: Prayer to the Virgin Mary.
Sung by Piccarda in the Heaven of the Moon.
Par. III, 122.
Averroes (1126December 10, 1198): AndalusianArab philosopher, physician, and famous commentator (il gran comento) on Aristotle.
92

144.
Heard by Dante as he passed upward out of the

terrace of the prideful. Purg. XII, 110.
Avicenna (9801037):
Persian physician,
philosopher, and scientist. He wrote commentaries on Aristotle and Galen.
Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata": Blessed are they

whose sins are covered. (Psalm 32:1; Psalm 31:1 in
the Latin Vulgate.)

143.
Sung by Matilda as she conversed with Dante

in Terrestrial Paradise. Purg. XXIX, 13.
Azzo VIII: Lord of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio

from 1293 until his death in 1308. He was rumoured
to have murdered his father Obizzo II d'Este.
Baptist: See John the Baptist.
The gliastro who killed Obizzo. Inf. XII,

112.
7.2.2
Bacchus: The Roman name of the Greek god

Dionysus, protector of wine.
Born in the Thebes. Inf. XX, 59.
Barbarossa: Frederick I Barbarossa, Holy Roman
Emperor (11551190). He captured Milan in his
Italian campaign in 1154. Purg. XVIII, 119.
Barrators: Those who have committed the sin of
barratry.
The barrators, are found in the fth pouch
in a lake of boiling pitch guarded by the
Malebranche. Inf. XXIXXII.
Barratry: The sin of selling or paying for oces
or positions in the public service or ocialdom (cf.
simony).
The meeting of Dante and Beatrice, Henry Holiday
Beatrice (12661290): Dantes idealised childhood

love, Beatrice Portinari. In the poem, she awaits the
poet in Paradise, replaces Virgil as Dantes guide,
and conducts him through the heavens. She symbolises Heavenly Wisdom.
The worthier spirit who Virgil says will act
as Dantes guide in Paradise. Inf. I, 121123.
One of the sins of ordinary fraud punished in

the eighth circle. Inf. XXI, 60.
Asks Virgil to rescue Dante and bring him on

his journey. Inf. II, 5374.
Beati misericordes": Blessed are the merciful.

(Mat 5:7)
Asked by Lucia to help Dante. Inf. II, 103

114.

terrace of the envious. Purg. XV, 38.
Beati mundo corde": Blessed are the pure in
heart. (Mat 5:8).
When Dante appears upset by Farinata's

prophecy on his future exile, Virgil intervenes
and explains to him that Beatrice, quella il cui
bell' occhio tutto vede (one whose gracious
eyes see everything), will eventually clarify
all. Inf. X, 130132.
Sung by an angel before Dante passed upward

out of the terrace of the lustful. Purg. XXVII,
8.
Virgil, speaking with Chiron, alludes to Beatrice as she who has entrusted Dante to him.
Inf. XII, 88.
Beati pacici": Blessed are peacemakers. (Mat

5:9)
Speaking with Brunetto Latini Dante alludes

to her as the woman who shall fully explain the
sense of Brunettos prophecy regarding his exile from Florence. Inf. XV, 90.

terrace of the angry. Purg. XVII, 6869.
Beati pauperes spiritu": Blessed are the poor in
spirit. (Mat 5:3)
Virgil uses the promise of meeting Beatrice to

encourage Dante to enter the re of Purgatory.
Purg. XXVII, 36.

Dante meets Beatrice in Purgatory. Purg.
XXX, 31.
Saint Bede: English monk, and scholar, whose bestknown work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
(The Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
gained him the title The father of English history".
Encountered in the Fourth Sphere of Heaven
(The sun). Par. X, 130131.
Belacqua: Personal acquaintance of Dantes, perhaps Duccio di Bonavia, a music instrument maker
noted for his laziness.
93
The lord of Hautefort. Inf. XXIX, 29.
Guido Bonatti: A prominent 13th-century astrologer, and a staunch Ghibelline, he is famous for
having boasted of being responsible for the Senese
victory at Montaperti in 1260.
Among the soothsayers. Inf. XX, 118.
Bonaventure: Franciscan theologian.
He eulogised St. Dominic. Par. XII, 31
105.
Dante encounters him in Ante-Purgatory,

waiting a lifetime because he waited to his
deathbed to repent. Purg. IV, 106135.
Belisarius: (c. 500565) Roman general who served
under the Emperor Justinian and regained much of
Italy for the Empire.
Commended by the soul of Justinian in
Heaven. Par. VI, 2527.
Benedictus qui venis (Blessed are you who
come) Variation of Benedictus qui venit
(Blessed is he who comes), sung in the Sanctus of
the Latin Mass. The phrase comes from the Gospel
of Mark (Mark 11:10), when the crowds welcome
Jesus into Jerusalem.
Sung by angels in the Pageant of the Church
Triumphant, welcoming Beatrice to the procession. Purg. XXX, 19.
Mastro Benvenuto: Nicknamed Asdente (toothless), he was a late 13th-century Parma shoe- Pope Boniface VIII, fresco by Giotto di Bondone
maker, famous for his prophecies against Frederick
II. Dante also mentions him with contempt in his
Convivio, as does Salimbene in his Cronica, though
Buonconte: Son of military strategist Guido da
with a very dierent tone.
Montefeltro, he helped expel the Guelph party from
Arezzo in 1287. His army was defeated by Guelphs
Among the soothsayers. Inf. XX, 118120.
from Florence at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289.
Dante fought for Florence in the battle. Buoncontes
Gualdrada Berti: Daughter of Bellincione Berti dei
body was not found after the battle.
Ravignani, from about 1180 wife to Guido the Elder of the great Guidi family, and grandmother
of Guido Guerra. The 14th-century Florentine
chronicler Giovanni Villani remembers her as a
model of ancient Florentine virtue.
The good Gualdrada. Inf. XVI, 37.
Bertran de Born (c. 1140 c. 1215): French soldier
and troubadour poet, and viscount of Hautefort, he
fomented trouble between Henry II of England and
his sons.
Among the sowers of discord, where he carries
his severed head (although he died a natural
death). Inf. XXVIII, 118142.
Dante encounters Buonconte waiting to enter Purgatory among the souls who died violent deaths and repented in the nal moments.
Purg. V, 85125.
Pope Boniface VIII (c. 12351303): Elected in
1294 upon the abdication of Celestine V, whom
he promptly imprisoned. He supported the Black
Guelphs against Dantes party the White Guelphs
(see Guelphs and Ghibellines). He was in conict
with the powerful Colonna family, who contested
the legitimacy of Celestines abdication, and thus
Bonifaces papacy. Wishing to capture the impregnable Colonna stronghold of Palestrina, he sought
94

advice from Guido da Montefeltro, oering in advance papal absolution for any sin his advice might
entail. He advised Boniface to promise the Colonnas amnesty, then break it. As a result, the Collonas surrendered the fortress and it was razed to the
ground.
One who tacks his sails. Inf. VI, 68.
Depicted on the pavement in Purgatory being

hurled from Olympus as an exemplar of arrogance. Purg. XII, 28.
Agnello Brunelleschi: From the noble Florentine
Brunelleschi family, he sided rst with the White
Guelphs, then the Blacks. A famous thief, he was
said to steal in disguise.
Referred to ironically using one of the ocial

papal titles servo de' servi (Servant of His
servants). Inf. XV, 112
Accused of avarice, deceit and violating the
lovely Lady (the church). Inf. XIX, 5257.
Pope Nicholas III prophesies his eternal
damnation among the Simoniacs. Inf. XIX,
7677.
The highest priest may he be damned!".
Inf. XXVII, 70.
The prince of the new Pharisees.
XXVII, 85.
Inf.
His feud with the Colonna family and the advice of Guido da Montefeltro. Inf. XXVII,
85111.
Treatment at the hands of Philip IV of France
compared to a new crucixion of Jesus.
Purg. XX, 8593.
Among the thieves, he merges with Cianfa

Donati to form a bigger serpent. Inf. XXV,
68.
Brutus, Lucius Junius: Traditionally viewed as the
founder of the Roman Republic, because of his role
in overthrowing Tarquin, the last Roman king.
Brutus, Marcus Junius (died 43 BCE): One of the
assassins of Julius Caesar, with whom he had close
ties. His betrayal of Caesar was famous (Et tu
Brute) and along with Cassius and Judas, was one
of the three betrayer/suicides who, for those sins,
were eternally chewed by one of the three mouths
of Satan. Inf. XXXIV, 5367.
Bulicame: Spring near Viterbo renowned for its reddish colour and sulphurous water. Part of its water
was reserved for the use of prostitutes. Inf. XIV,
7983.
Guglielmo Borsiere, a pursemaker accused of

sodomy (see Sodom), who made a joke that was the
7.2.3
subject of the Decameron (i, 8).
A sodomite mentioned in the seventh circle,
round 3 by Jacopo Rusticucci as having spoken to him and his companions of the moral
decline of Florence, generating great anguish
and inducing Rusticucci to ask Dante for corroboration. Inf. XVI 6772.
Caccia d'Asciano: See Spendthrift Club.

Venedico and Ghisolabella Caccianemico:
Venedico (c. 1228 c. 1302) was head of
the Guelph faction in Bologna, he was exiled three
times for his relationship with the marquess of
Ferrara, Obizzo II d'Este.
Martin Bottario: A cooper of Lucca who held various positions in the government of his city. He died
in 1300, the year of Dantes travel.
Found among the panders, he confesses that he

prostituted his sister Ghisolabella to Obizzo.
Inf. XVIII, 4066.
Probably the elder of Saint Zita" who is

plunged into a lake of boiling pitch with the
other barrators by a Malebranche. Inf.
XXI, 3554.
Cacus: A mythological monster son of Hephaestus,

he was killed by Heracles for stealing part of the
cattle the hero had taken from Geryon. Dante, like
other medieval writers, erroneously believes him to
be a Centaur. According to Virgil he lived on the
Aventine.
Brennus: Gaulic king who invaded Rome and held

the city for ransom in the 4th century BCE.
He was the last successful foreign invader of
the city until the 5th century CE. Par. VI, 44.
Briareus: Son of Uranus and Gaia and one of the
Hekatonkheires (hundred-handed)
Bound in the Well of the Giants in Hell. Dante
asks Virgil to point him out. Inf. XXXI, 97
105.
As guardian of the thieves he punishes Vanni

Fucci. Inf. XXV, 1733.
Cadmus: Mythical son of the Phoenician king
Agenor and brother of Europa, and legendary
founder of Thebes. Cadmus and his wife Harmonia
are ultimately transformed into serpents. (See also
Hera.)
95
Calchas: Mythical Greek seer at the time of the

Trojan war, who as augur at Aulis, determined the
most propitious time for the Greek eet to depart for
Troy.
With Eurypylus, he set the time to cut the
cables. Inf. XX, 110111.
Calliope: The Muse of epic poetry.
Invoked by Dante at the beginning of the Purgatorio. Purg. I, 9.
Camilla: Figure from Roman mythology and
Virgil's Aeneid (VII, 803; XI), was the warriordaughter of King Metabus of the Volsci, and ally of
Turnus, king of the Rutuli, against Aeneas and the
Trojans, and was killed in that war.
Cadmus ghting the dragon. Side A of a red-gured calix-krater

found in Sant'Agata de' Goti (Campania), c. 350340 BCE.
From Paestum.
His transformation in Ovid's Metamophoses

(IV, 562603) is compared to the fate of the
thieves. Inf. XXV, 9799.
Caecilius: Roman poet of the 2nd century BCE.
Cahors: Town in France that was notorious for the
high level of usury that took place there and became
a synonym for that sin.
Mentioned as being punished in the last circle.
Inf. XI, 50.
Cain: The son of Adam and brother of Abel. He
murdered his brother out of envy.
A popular tradition identied the Moon's dark
spots as the marks on Cains face mentioned in
Genesis 4:15. Inf. XX, 126, Par. II, 4951.
The outermost ring of Cocytus, where the
treacherous to kin are punished, is named
Cana. Inf. XXXII, 58.
He is an example of envy. His voice is heard
on the terrace of the envious saying, Everyone
who nds me will slay me. (Gen 4:14) Purg.
XIV, 133.
Caiaphas: The Jewish High Priest during the governorship of Pontius Pilate of the Roman province of
Judea, who according to the Gospels had an important role in the crucixion of Jesus.
Among the hypocrites, his punishment is to be
crucied to the ground while the full rank of
the sinners tramples him. Inf. XXIII, 110
20.
One of those who died for Italy.

106108.
Inf. I,

Cangrande della Scala (12901329): Ghibelline
ruler of Verona and most probable gure behind the
image of the hound (il Veltro). Inf. I, 101111.
Capaneus: In Greek mythology, in the story of
the Seven Against Thebes he deed Zeus who then
killed him with a thunderbolt in punishment.
Found amongst the violent against God. Inf.
XIV, 4672.
His pride is compared with that of Vanni
Fucci. Inf. XXV, 15.
Capocchio: Burned at the stake for alchemy in 1293.
Among the falsiers of metal (alchemists),
sitting with Griolino of Arezzo, propping
each other up, as they frantically scratch at the
scabs covering their bodies. Inf. XXIX, 73
99.
Agrees with Dante about the vanity of the
Sienese, giving as examples four of the members of the Sienese Spendthrift Club, then
identies himself. Inf. XXIX, 124139.
He is dragged, with his belly scraped along the
ground, by the tusks of Schicchi. Inf. XXX,
2830.
Caprona: Fortress on the Arno near Pisa, in 1289,
it was besieged by a Tuscan Guelph army. The
Ghibellines surrendered, and were allowed, under
truce, to leave the castle, passing through (with trepidation) the enemy ranks. Capronas fall along with
the Guelph victory in the same year at Campaldino
represented the nal defeat of the Ghibellines.
Dantes reference to Caprona in the Inferno, is used
to infer that he took part in the siege.
96

Dantes fear for his safe passage through
threatening devils, is compared to the fear of
the surrendering soldiers at Caprona. Inf.
XXI, 8896.
Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti: (died c. 1280) Father

of Guido Cavalcanti, his shade appears to Dante,
alongside the shade of Farinata degli Uberti. Inf.
X 5272.
Cardinal Virtues: The foundations of a moral life,

attainable by all, regardless of religion. They include
Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude.
Guido Cavalcanti (c. 12551300): First Florentine

poet of Dolce Stil Novo, close friend of Dante and
son of Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti. Inf. X, 5663,
Purg. XI, 9798.
They appear symbolically as four stars visible

from Purgatory. Purg. I, 37; VIII, 91.
Virgil denes Prudence as the power that
counsels and keeps the threshold of assent.
Purg. XVIII, 6263.
Casella: Florentine composer and singer (died before 1300) and friend of Dantes, who set at least
one poem from Dantes Convivio to music. Purg.
II.
Cassius: The most senior of Julius Caesar's assassins, Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman politician and soldier.
Along with Brutus and Judas, he was one
of the three betrayer/suicides who, for those
sins, were eternally chewed by one of the three
mouths of Satan. Inf. XXXIV, 5367.
Castel Sant'Angelo: A Papal castle in Rome with
bridge attached. Inf. XVIII, 2833.
Catalano dei Malavolti (c. 12101285): From a
powerful Guelph family of Bologna, he was podest
in several towns, including Florence, and governor
of his city. He was commander of the infantry in the
Battle of Fossalta in 1249, when the Ghibellines suffered a crushing defeat. He later became a member
of the Knights of St. Mary, founded by Loderingo
degli Andal.
Among the hypocrites. Inf. XXIII, 76144.
Catiline: a Roman politician of the 1st century BCE
who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an
attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in
particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.
Probably Pistoia's seed, which Pistoia surpasses in wickedness. Inf. XXV, 12.
Cato the Younger (9546 BCE) : Politician and
statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a Stoic.
His crossing of the Libyan desert in 47 BCE
provides a simile for the hot sands of the seventh circle. Inf. XIV, 1415.
The patriarch who resides at the base of
Mount Purgatory and functions as gate-keeper
for Purgatory. Purg. I, 31.
Francesco de' Cavalcanti: Nicknamed Guercio

(one-eyed or squinter), he was murdered for unknown reasons by the inhabitants of the village of
Gaville, near Florence. Reportedly his death started
a bloody feud between his family and the villagers,
leaving most of the inhabitants of Galville dead.
Among the thieves, as a blazing little serpent, he attacks the soul of Buoso Donati,
causing it to transform into a serpent, and himself to transform back into human form. Inf.
XXV, 82151.
Cecina: See Maremma.
Pope Celestine V: A hermit named Pietro da Morrone, he abdicated the Papacy in 1294 after only ve
months. His successor, Boniface VIII, immediately
jailed him and two years later apparently murdered
him.
Is perhaps the person whose shade Dante
meets in the Ante-Inferno, where those who
lived sanza 'nfamia e sanza lodo (without
praise and blame) dwelt, and referred to as the
one, Che fece per viltate il gran riuto (who
made, through cowardice, the great refusal).
Inf. III, 60.
Of whom Boniface says, I possess the power
to lock and unlock Heaven; for the keys my
predecessor did not prise are two. 'Inf.
XXVII, 105.
Centaurs: In Greek mythology, a race part Man and
part horse, with a horses body and a human head
and torso.
Supervising the punishment of the violent.
Their leader Chiron appoints one of their
number, Nessus, to guide the poets. Inf. XII,
55139.
The only one not with the violent is Cacus,
who supervises the thieves. Inf. XXV, 28
30.
Cited as examples of gluttony in Purgatory by
a voice hidden in a tree of temptation, because
of their drunken behavior at the marriage feast
of Hippodamia. Purg. XXIV, 121123.
Ceperano: See Apulia.
97
Charybdis: In Greek mythology, a sea monster who

swallows huge amounts of water three times a day
and then spouts it back out again, forming an enormous whirlpool. Mentioned frequently by classical
writers.
Used in a simile to describe the punishment
of the greedy and prodigal in the fourth circle.
Inf. VII, 22.
Charon: The mythological Greek gure who ferried
souls of the newly dead into Hades over the underworld river Acheron. Inf. III, 82129.
Cerberus, picture by William Blake (18th century)
Cerberus: In Greek mythology, he was the threeheaded dog who guarded the gate to Hades. In the
Aeneid, Virgil has the Sibyl throw a drugged honey
cake into Cerberus mouths; in the Inferno, Dante
has Virgil throw dirt instead.
Encountered In the third circle. Inf. VI, 13
33.
Example of divine punishment. Inf. IX, 98.
Cesena: City on the Savio River during Dantes
time, though free, its politics were controlled by
Guido da Montefeltro's cousin Galasso da Montefeltro. Inf. XXVII, 5254.
Charles the Lame: Son of Charles of Anjou and
King of Naples (12851309)
Forced to marry o his daughters like slaves
for political alliances. Purg. XX, 7981.
Charles of Anjou (also Charles I of Sicily) (1227
1285): Son of Louis VIII of France, he was one of
the most powerful rulers of his age and the undisputed head of the Guelph faction in Italy. His
dream of building a Mediterranean Empire was
wrecked by the Sicilian Vespers.
Dante probably alludes to the Byzantine
money that it was believed Nicholas III had
taken with the promise to hinder Charles plans
against Constantinople. Inf. XIX, 989.
Defeated Conradin at Tagliacozzo in 1268 and
became King of Sicily. Purg. XX, 68.
According to Dante, responsible for the death
of Thomas Aquinas. Purg. XX, 69.
Charles of Valois: (12701325) Second son of
Philip III of France. Invaded Italy and took Florence in 1301, placing the Black Guelphs in power.
Subsequently Dante was exiled from Florence.
Compared to Judas. Purg. XX, 7078.
Chiron: Leader of the centaurs, legendary tutor of

Achilles. Inf. XII, 65.
Ciacco (pig): Nickname, for a Florentine contemporary of Dante, perhaps well known as a glutton,
and probably the same who appears in Boccaccio's
Decameron (IX, 8).
Central gure of canto VI, he voices the rst
of many prophecies concerning Florence. Inf.
VI, 3799.
Ciampolo di Navarra: Utterly unknown to sources
other than Dante, this Ciampolo (i.e. Jean Paul) appears to have been in the service of Theobald II,
king of Navarre.
Among the barrators. Inf. XXII, 31129.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (c. 106 c. 43 BCE):
Roman statesman and author.
141.
Cimabue: Florentine painter (c. 12401302)
Mentioned in Purgatory as a famous painter.
Purg. XI, 94.
Circe: Mythical daughter of Helios, god of the Sun,
and sister of Aeetis, king of Colchis. She was an
enchantress who lived near the Gulf of Gaeta, who
turned the crew of Odysseus into pigs on their journey home from the Trojan war. But Odysseus, with
the help of Hermes, forced her to release his men
from her spell (Ovid, Met. XIV, 435440). She
fell in love with Odysseus and he stayed with her for
another year and in some accounts, she had a son
Telegonus with Odysseus, who was to accidentally
kill him.
It is said, by Ulysses (Odysseus), that she beguiled him. Inf. XXVI, 9092.
The people of Tuscany fall into vice, as if under her spell. Purg. XIV, 42.
Cirra: Town in ancient Greece near Parnassus. Par.
I, 36.
98
Pope Clement V (12641314): Born in France as

Bertran de Goth, he was made archbishop of Bordeaux by Pope Boniface VIII. He was elected pope
in 1305 and was remarkable for his dissolution of
the Templars and his de facto move of the Papal See
from Rome to Avignon (See Avignon Papacy). He
was thought to have negotiated with Philip IV of
France for his papacy, becoming a puppet of the
French monarchy.
One uglier in deeds a lawless shepherd
from the west, whose damnation among the
Simoniacs is foretold by Pope Nicholas III.
Inf. XIX, 7987.
Cocytus: The river of lamentation, in Greek

mythology, it was the river on whose banks the dead
who could not pay Charon wandered. It owed into
the river Acheron, across which lay Hades. In the Inferno it is a frozen lake forming the ninth circle and
the bottom of Hell.
Is shut in by cold. Inf. XXXI, 121122.
Described. Inf. XXXII, 2239.
Frozen by apping of the wings of Dis. Inf.
XXXIV, 4652.
Colchis: Ancient kingdom at the eastern end of
the Black Sea. According to ancient Greek legend,
Jason and the Argonauts sailed there in search of the
Golden Fleece.
Dante compares the voyage to his journey
through the heavens. Par. II, 1618.
Conradin: (12521258) King of Sicily until 1258,
when he was defeated and deposed by Charles of
Anjou. Purg. XX, 68.
The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur, Roy Miles Gallery,

London
Cleopatra (6930 BCE): Queen of Egypt, lover of

Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Like Dido, she
killed herself for love.
Clio: The Muse of History.
Mentioned by Virgil as Statius inspiration in
writing the Thebaid. Purg. XXII, 58.
Clotho: The Fate who determines the lifespan of
each mortal by measuring out thread and then cutting it.
Virgil cites her as the reason Dante is yet alive.
Purg. XXI, 2527.
Cluny: A Benedictine monastery founded in 909,
in Burgundy. The elegant robes of the Cluniacs are
described with irony in a letter of Saint Bernard, a
Cistercian, to his nephew Robert, who had left the Constantine the Great
(mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, c. 1000)
Cistercians to join the Cluniacs.
The cloaks and cowls of the hypocrites are
compared to the Cluniac robes. Inf. XXIII,
613.
Constance (Constanza): Queen of Sicily in the 12th

century and mother of Emperor Frederick II.

Dante accepts a story that Constance had taken
monastic vows and was later forced to renounce them. She appears among the inconstant in the Heaven of the Moon. Par. III,
109120.
Constantine the Great (272337): The famous
Roman Emperor who passed the Edict of Milan in
313 and converted to Christianity. According to medieval legend, Constantine was inicted with leprosy
because of his persecution of Christians, and in a
dream was told to seek out Pope Silvester on Mount
Soracte, who baptised and cured him. According
to the forged document, the Donation of Constantine, Constantine gave to the Pope the power to rule
over Rome and the Western Roman Empire, which
Dante sees as the source of the corruption of the Papacy.
Blamed for the dower that you bestowed upon
the rst rich father!", Inf. XIX, 115117.
Guido da Montefeltro compares Silvester
being sought by Constantine to cure his leprosy, with himself being sought by Boniface to
ease the fever of his arrogance. Inf. XXVII,
9495.
99
Cunizza da Romano (1198c. 1279): sister of

Ezzelino III da Romano. Par. IX, 1366.
Gaius Scribonius Curio: A distinguished orator, and
supporter of Pompey the Great, he switched his support to Julius Caesar after Caesar paid his debts.
Lucan (Phars I 270290) has Curio urge Caesar persuasively, to quickly cross the Rubicon and invade
Rome.
Among the sowers of discord, he is pointed
out by Pier da Medincina, his tongue having
been slit, who once was so audacious in his
talk!". Inf. XXVIII, 91111.
Cyclops: Children of Uranus and Gaia, they were
giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead. In Roman mythology, they helped Vulcan
make thunderbolts for Zeus.
The others who Zeus may tire making
thunderbolts. Inf. XIV, 55.
Cytherea: Alternative name for Aphrodite or
Venus, the goddess of love. Also, the planet Venus.
In his last night in Purgatory, Dante dreams as
the planet is rising. Purg. XXVII, 9496.
In converting to Christianity, Constantine reversed the ight of the Roman eagle. Par. VI,
1.
Cornelia Africana (c. 190 100 BCE): daughter of 7.2.4
Scipio Africanus Major, and mother of Tiberius and
Gaius Gracchus.

128.
Corneto: See Maremma.
Cronus: In Greek mythology, King of Crete during
the Golden Age. He had several children by Rhea,
but swallowed them at birth because he had learned
from his parents Gaia and Uranus, that he was destined to be overthrown by a son. However, Rhea
managed to save Zeus who eventually fullled that
prophecy.
The Death of Dido by Joshua Reynolds 1781
Under his rule, the world lived chastely. Inf.
XIV, 96.
Rhea protects Zeus from him. Inf. XIV, 100
102
Crassus: Roman general who amassed the largest
fortune in Roman history. He died in a battle
with the Parthians. A story later circulated that the
Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth.
Cited on the terrace of the greedy as an example of greed. Tell us, Crassus, because you
know: How does gold taste?" Purg. XX, 116
117.
Daedalus: In Greek mythology, he was a legendary

inventor and craftsman. He designed the Labyrinth,
and fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus,
enabling them to y.
Mentioned by Griolino of Arezzo. Inf.
XXIX, 116.
Daniel: Protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. He and his companions fasted rather
than incur ritual delement when they ate in the
court of the king of Babylon.
100

Nebuchadnezzars troubled dream in the
biblical book of Daniel. Par. IV, 1315.
Bonturo Dati (d. 1324): Head of the popular faction
in Lucca, he expelled his enemies in 1308 assuming
the government of the city, boasting he would put an
end to barratry. He is famous for provoking with
his jeers in 1313 a war with Pisa, that has been remembered in Faida di Comune by Giosu Carducci.
Sarcastically and ironically said that all Luccans but he are guilty of barratry. Inf. XXI,
41.
King David: Biblical king of the Jews. His
counselor Ahitophel, incited Davids son Absalom
against him.
Diogenes, Detail of Rafaello Santis The School of Athens

(1510), Vatican collection

Inf. IV, 58.
His sons rebellion, and the urgings of Ahitophel is compared by Bertran de Born to his
own urgings of Prince Henry against his father
Henry II of England. Inf. XXVIII, 1348.
Appears depicted in a wall carving as the
humble psalmist, leading the procession of
the Ark to Jerusalem. Purg. X, 64.
Decii: Three generations of men in a Patrician Roman family, who each answered the call to arms and
died in battle.
Mentioned as exemplars of Roman virtue in
the days of the Roman Republic. Par. VI, 47.
Deianira: Wife of Heracles, she was abducted by
the centaur Nessus, but Heracles shot him with a
poisoned arrow. She was tricked by the dying Nessus into believing that a love potion could be made
from his blood, which she later gives to Heracles poisoning him. Inf. XII, 68.
Deidamia: Mythical daughter of Lycomedes, king
of Scyros, she gave birth to Achilles' only son,
Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, but died of grief when,
because of the urgings of Odysseus (Ulysses),
Achilles left her to go to the war against Troy.
Even dead she laments Achilles still. Inf.
XXVI, 6162.
Saint Dominic presiding over an auto de fe, Pedro Berruguete,

1475
A voice in Purgatory cites Daniel as an example in the virtue of temperance. Purg. XXII,
146147.
Dante compares Beatrices solution of
his mental doubts to Daniels solution of
Deipyle: Ancient Greek wife of Tydeus and mother

of Diomedes.
Delectasti": (Quia delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua": For thou hast given me, O Lord, a delight in thy doings.) Psalm 92:5 (91:5 in the Latin
Vulgate)

Quoted by Matilda as the reason she smiled
broadly at Dante in Terrestrial Paradise.
Purg. XXVIII, 7681.
Democritus (c. 460 370 BCE): Pre-Socratic
Greek philosopher.
Encountered by Dante in Limbo, che 'l
mondo a caso pone (who ascribes the world
to chance). Inf. IV, 136.
101
Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 c. 90): Greek

physician and author of a work on the medicinal
properties of plants, hence Dantes description of
him as il buono accoglitor del quale"/"the good collector of the qualities.
139140.
Deus, venerunt gentes": (O God, the heathen

have come.) Incipit of Psalm 79 (Psalm 78 in the
Vulgate)
Dis: Another name for Pluto, the Roman god of

the underworld, used by Dante as both the name of
Satan and his realm.
Chanted as a lamentation over the Church by

the women representing the Three Theological Virtues and Cardinal Virtues. Purg.
XXXIII, 16.
First glimpse of the crimson city. Inf VIII,

6775.
Diana: Greco-Roman goddess, known as the virgin

goddess.
Cited as an example of sexual abstinence by
souls on the terrace of the lustful. Purg.
XXV, 130132.
Dido: Queen of Carthage. In Virgil's Aeneid, she
becomes the lover of Aeneas despite a vow of eternal delity to her dead husband Sichaeus. Consequently, as colei, che s ancise amorosa (she who
killed herself from love), Dante places her amongst
the sexual sinners. Inf. V, 612.
Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412 323 BCE): Greek
philosopher.
137.
Diomedes: Mythical king of Argus, he participated
in the expedition against Troy, where his prowess
is extolled in the Iliad. A great friend of Odysseus
(Ulysses), he was his companion in many feats, most
notably the theft of Troys Palladium and the ruse
of the Trojan Horse.
Among the advisors of fraud, he is punished
with Ulysses for the sins they both committed
at Troy. Inf. XXVI, 5263.
Dante refused entry. Inf VIII, 76130.

The city dolente (of sorrowing). Inf IX, 32.
Entrance. Inf IX, 73133.
Spoils taken from by Jesus. Inf. XII, 38
39.
Pointed out by Virgil. Inf. XXXIV, 20.
Fra Dolcino: In 1300 he headed the Apostolic
Brothers, a reformist order which, inspired by the
example of St. Francis renounced all worldly possessions. He and his followers were condemned
as heretics by Clement V, and ed into the hills
near Novara. Facing starvation they surrendered and
Dolcino was burned at the stake in 1307.
Among the sowers of dissension,
Muhammad, says to Dante: tell Fra
Dolcino to provide himself with food, if he
has no desire to join me here quickly. Inf.
XXVIII, 2263.
Saint Dominic: Founder of the Dominican Order.
He is eulogised by Bonaventure. Par. XII,
31105.
Domitian: Roman Emperor (8196). His religious
policies resulted in persecution of Christians and
Jews.
Statius relates how witnessing the persecution
helped to convert him to Christianity. Purg.
XXII, 8287.
Dionysius the Areopagite (. c. 50): Athenian

judge who was converted to Christianity and became a bishop of Athens. As was common in the
Middle Ages, Dante has confused him with PseudoDionysius, the anonymous 5th-century author of
Celestial Hierarchy.
Buoso Donati: Of the noble Florentine Black

Guelph Donati family, he was one of those who accepted the peace between the factions proposed by
Cardinal Latino in 1280 . He died around 1285.
Identied in the Heaven of the Sun by Thomas

Aquinas. Par. X, 1157.
Among the thieves, he is transformed into a

serpent by Francesco de' Cavalcanti. Inf.
XXV, 82151.
Dionysius the Elder: Tyrant of Syracuse (405367

BCE.
His impersonation by Gianni Schicchi described. Inf. XXX, 4345.
102
Cianfa Donati: Of the Donati family, he is known

to have acted as advisor to the Capitano del popolo
in 1281. In 1289 he is reported as already dead.
Among the thieves, he appears as a six-footed
serpent, attacks and melds with Agnello
Brunelleschi. Inf. XXV, 4378.
Forese Donati (?1296): A Florentine poet, friend
of Dante, and relative of Dantes wife, Gemma
Alighieri.
Among the gluttons, he predicts disaster for
Florence and for his brother, Corso Donati.
Purg. XXIII, 42 XXIV, 99.
Notes that the prayers of his surviving wife
Nella have greatly reduced his stay in PurgaThe Furies hector Orestes, in Orestes Pursued by the Furies by
tory. Purg. XXIII, 7693.
Piccarda Donati: Sister of Forese Donanti, already
dead at the time setting of the Comedy.
In Purgatory, Dante asks Forese Donati where
his dead sister is and learns that she is in triumph. Purg. XXIV, 1016.
Dragon
Allegorical representation of the Islamic conquests of Christian territory in the Pageant of
Church History. Purg. XXXII, 130135.
7.2.5
Eagle: Bird which appeared on the Standard of the

Roman Legions and symbolized the authority of the
empire.
An eagle appears twice in the Pageant of
Church History. It rst represents the persecution of the early Church by the Roman
Empire. Purg. XXXII, 109117. Then
it returns, representing connection of the
Church and Empire starting with the Emperor
Constantine I. Purg. XXXII, 124129.
Ebro: River in Spain.
Used as a reference to the time of day. Dante
considered it to be 6 hours ahead of Purgatory.
Purg. XXVII, 23.
Ecce ancilla Dei: Behold the handmaid of God.
(In the original Vulgate: Ecce ancilla Domini.)
Response of the Virgin Mary to the angel Gabriel
when he announced that she would be the mother of
Jesus.
Words seen in a wall-carving depicting the
Annunciation. It is a visual representation of
humility. Purg. X, 44.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1862
Electra: Mother of Dardanus founder of Troy and

ancestor of Aeneas.
Seen in Limbo with her many comrades.
Inf. IV, 1218.
Elijah and Elisha: Elijah was an Old Testament
Biblical Prophet who ascends into heaven in a chariot of re, and Elisha was his disciple and chosen successor who witnessed Elijahs ascent. Elisha
curses some youths for ridiculing him, who are then
eaten by bears (2 Kings 2:2324; 112)
Elijahs ery ascent, as witnessed by he who
was avenged by bears (Elisha), is described.
Inf. XXVI, 349.
Empedocles (c. 490 c.
Presocratic philosopher.
430 BCE): Greek

138.
Ephialtes: Son of Poseidon and Iphimedeia,
Ephialtes was a giant who attempted to scale Mt.
Olympus by piling mountains on each other.
Seen chained in the Well of the Giants. Inf.
XXXI, 82111.
Epicurus was an Ancient Greek philosopher who
was the founder of Epicureanism, one of the most
popular schools of Hellenistic Philosophy, which
had many followers among Florentine Guibellines.
His teaching that the greatest pleasure is merely the
absence of pain was viewed as heresy in Dantes day
because this greatest good could be attained without
reference to a god or an afterlife.
Epicurean heretics and their punishment. Inf.
X.

Erard de Valry: See Tagliacozzo.
Erichtho: According to a story in Lucan's
Pharsalia, she was a sorceress sent to the underworld by Sextus Pompeius to divine the outcome
of the upcoming battle of Pharsalia between his father, Pompey the Great, and Julius Caesar.
She sent Virgil to the innermost circle of hell
not long after his death. Inf. IX, 2229.
Erinyes: (also known as the Furies). In Greek
mythology, they were Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, three female personications of vengeance.
They appear and threaten Dante with the head
of the Medusa. Inf. IX, 3472.
Erysichthon: Ancient King of Thessaly who cut
down a grove of trees sacred to Demeter. Her revenge was to give him insatiable hunger which eventually caused him to consume his own esh.
Seeing fasting souls in Purgatory on the terrace of the gluttonous, Dante is reminded of
Erysichthons story. Purg. XXIII, 2527.
103
Euryalus: Friend of Nisus, he is a Roman mythological who appears in the Aeneidone of those who
died for Italy. Inf. I, 1068
Eurypylus: Mythical son of Telephus, he was a
member of the Greek army that conquered Troy. It
is told that while the eet was at Aulis he was sent
to the Delphic Sibyl to ask for a favourable wind.
Seen among the seers, with Calchas, he set
the time to cut the cables. Inf. XX, 10613.
Ezekiel: Jewish Prophet and author of a book of the
Old Testament.
The four beasts of his vision (Ezekiel 1:128)
appear as allegories of the four Gospels in the
Pageant of the Church Triumphant. Purg.
XXIX, 100102.
Ezzelino da Romano III (11941259): Leader of the
Ghibellines in Northern Italy, known for his cruelties against the citizens of Padua.
Eteocles and Polynices: Mythical sons of Oedipus 7.2.6 F

and Jocasta, they succeeded their father as kings of
Fabii: Roman family of the Republican Age.
Thebes. Eteocles refusal to share the throne led to
the war of the Seven against Thebes, in which the
Cited as examples of dedication to the public
two brothers killed each other. Their enmity in life
life and to the glory of ancient Rome. Par.
was such that Statius (Thebais XII, 429 .) says
VI, 47.
even the ames of their shared funeral pyre were divided.
Fabricius: Caius Fabricius, famous Roman hero of
the 3rd century BCE. He is remembered for his fru The separateness of the ames of Ulysses
gality and his refusal to accept substantial bribes
and Diomedes are compared to their funeral
from Pyrrhus.
ames. Inf. XXVI, 524.
Cited by Hugh Capet, who is repenting on the
Euclid (c. 365 275 BCE): Greek mathematician,
terrace of the greedy, as an example of life
now known as the father of geometry".
without greed. Purg. XX, 2527.
142.
Eunoe: River originating in Terrestrial Paradise
which shares a common source with the River
Lethe. To drink from the Eunoe is to recall to memory all the good deeds of ones life after losing all
memory in the River Lethe.
Not found in classical sources, the Eunoe is
a creation of Dante. The word means good
knowledge in Greek. Purg. XXXIII, 127
145.
Euripides: Greek playwright of the 5th century
BCE.
Falterona: Mountain in the Apennine Range

Mentioned as the source of the Arno River.
Purg. XIV, 16.
Farinata degli Uberti (d. 1264): Leader of the

Florentine Ghibellines famous for his defeat of the
Guelphs (Dantes faction), at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, causing the Guelphs to be exiled
from Florence, though he was able to argue successfully against the destruction of the city. Farinata
was posthumously condemned as a heretic during
the Franciscan inquisition of 1283. To make peace
between the Black and White Guelphs, Cavalcante
de' Cavalcanti, let his son Guido Cavalcanti, the
future poet, marry Farinatas daughter.
104

Speaks to Dante and points out Rahab. Par.
IX, 67142.
Rampino Foresi: See Vanni Fucci.
Forl: City in Romagna. In 1282, under Guido
da Montefeltro, it withstood a combined siege by
French and Guelph forces, dealing the French a
crushing defeat. After 1300 it was ruled by the
Ordela.
The city that stood long trial. Inf. XXVI,
435.
Fortuna: In Dantes cosmology, a power created by
god to guide the destinies of man on earth (H. Oelsner, P.H. Wicksteed and T. Okey The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Vol I, p. 79). Inf. VII, 61
96, XV, 916.
Fortuna major: gure formed by a combination of
the last stars of Aquarius and the rst of Pisces.
Used by geomancers for divination.
Visible before dawn in Purgatory. Purg. XIX,
4.
Fox: Animal often used to symbolize deceit or cunning.
Farinata degli Uberti, as depicted by Andrea del Castagno. Villa

Carducci, Florence.
Found among the Epicurean heretics. Inf. X,
2251, 73123.
Predicts Dantes diculty in returning to Florence after his exile. Inf. X, 7981.
Explains that the damned can see the future
but not the present. Inf. X, 97108.
In the Pageant of Church History, a fox,

representing the early Christian heresies, leaps
into the Chariot which represents the Church.
Purg. XXXII, 118123.
Francesca da Rimini: See Paolo and Francesca.
Francesco d'Accorso: Eminent jurist of Bologna
who taught law at the universities of Bologna and
Oxford. Son of the great Florentine jurist Accorsio
da Bagnolo, author of the Glossa Ordinaria on the
Corpus Iuris Civilis.
Brunetto Latini to Dante. Inf. XV, 110.
Fiumicello: Tributary of Phlegethon. Inf. XIV,

77.
Fleur-de-lis: Flower symbolizing the French crown.
Purg. XX, 86.
Florence: Dantes home city. He was exiled from
Florence in 1302 and never returned. The Comedy
was composed during the period of exile.
Condemned with angry sarcasm for its bad
government. Purg. VI, 127151.
Folquet de Marseilles (c. 11651231): Troubadour,
then Cistercian monk, and later Bishop of Toulouse.
Pointed out by Cunizza da Romano. Par. Francis of Assisi, late 13th century
IX, 3742.

Saint Francis of Assisi (11821226): Son of a
wealthy merchant, he spurned his fathers riches and
founded the Franciscan Order, formally recognized
by Pope Honorius III in 1223.
Arrives to bring Guido da Montefeltro into
Heaven, but is forestalled. Inf. XXVII, 112
4.
Eulogised by Thomas Aquinas. Par. XI, 37
117.
Franco Bolognese: 14th-century manuscript illuminator.
Mentioned as the student of Oderisi of Gubbio.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor: Was renowned
for his Epicurean lifestyle, and alleged to have punished traitors by cloaking them in leaden capes and
placing them into boiling cauldrons.
Among the Epicurean heretics. Inf. X, 119.
His capes compared to those of the hypocrites.
Inf. XXIII, 66.
His government of Italy viewed favorably.
Purg. XVI, 115120.
Vanni Fucci: Nicknamed Bestia, for his brutality, he
was the Illegitimate son of Fuccio de' Lazzari. He
took part in the vicious struggles that divided his city
Pistoia, siding with the Black Guelphs, repeatedly
sacked the houses of his political enemies. In 1293,
he stole the reliquary of San Jacopo from the sacristy
of the Cathedral of Pistoia, for which crime the innocent Rampino Foresi was arrested and nearly executed, before the guilt of Fucci and his accomplices
was discovered.
Among the thieves, like the mythical phoenix,
he is burned to ashes and restored. Inf.
XXIV, 97118.
Refers to himself as a mule meaning bastard (mul ch'i' fui). Inf. XXIV, 125.
Prophesies the triumph in Florence of the
Black Guelphs over the Whites. Inf. XXIV,
143151.
Swears against God while performing an obscene gesture (a g, the insertion of a thumb
between the rst and second ngers of a closed
st). Inf. XXV, 118.
Furies: see Erinyes.
7.2.7
Gabriel: One of the Archangels of Christian tradition. He was the angel who announced the conception of Jesus to the Virgin Mary.
105
Beatrice tells Dante that Gabriel may be depicted in human form, but that this form is
an accommodation to the limits of the human
imagination. Par. IV, 47.
Galen (131201): Ancient Greek physician.

143.
Ganymede: Young Trojan prince abducted by Zeus
in the form of an eagle and carried to Olympus to
serve as cupbearer in the court of the gods.
Dante compares himself to Ganymede when
he dreams in his rst night in Purgatory that he
is carried by an eagle into the heavens. Purg.
IX, 2233.
Garisenda: A 160-foot leaning tower in Bologna
built in the 12th century.
Comparable in size to the giant Antaeus. Inf.
XXXI, 136.
Geomancer: interpreter of patterns formed by
tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. Purg. XIX,
3.
Geri del Bello: A second cousin of Dante. Apparently he was killed by the Sacchetti family and
avenged by the Alegheri in 1310, with the feud continuing until 1342.
Of whom Dante says "a spirit born of my
own blood his death by violence for which
he still is not avenged. Inf, XXIX, 1836.
Geryon: In Greek mythology, son of Chrysaor and

Callirhoe, was a winged giant. The tenth labour of
Herakles was to steal his cattle. In Medieval times,
he was viewed as an example of treacherous deception, which may explain Dantes choice of him as an
emblem of fraud.
Guardian of the eighth circle, summoned by
Virgil, he is encountered in close association
with the usurers. Inf. XVI, 10636.
La era con la coda aguzza, che passa i monti,
e rompe i muri e l'armi! ... colei che tutto 'l
mondo appuzza!" (The beast who bears the
pointed tail, who crosses mountains, shatters
weapons, walls! the one whose stench lls
all the worlds!"). Inf. XVII, 127.
Carries Virgil and Dante on his back. Inf.
XVII, 79136.
Sets down Virgil and Dante in the eighth circle.
Inf. XVIII, 1920.
106

Sung by souls in Purgatory when a soul becomes free to ascend into Paradise. Purg.
XX, 136.
Fra Gomita: Chancellor of Nino Visconti and Governor of the giudicato of Gallura, in Sardinia at
the time a possession of Pisa. He accepted a bribe to
let escape a group of Viscontis enemies who were
in his custody. For this he was hanged.
Among the barrators with Michel Zanche,
a dir di Sardigna le lingue lor non si sentono
stanche (their tongues are never too tired to
speak of their Sardinia). Inf. XXII, 8190.
Gratian:
12th-century
Camaldolese monk.
canon
lawyer
and
Pointed out by Thomas Aquinas in the sphere

of the Sun. Par. X, 104.
Pope Gregory: Gregory I the Great (590604).
Geryon in a Gustave Dor wood engraving of for The Divine

Comedy.
Before Dante passes through the re of Purgatory, Virgil reminds him that he was safe even
while riding Geryon. Purg. XXVII, 23.
Gideon: Hero of ancient Israel. According to Judges
7:47, he selected the best warriors by the way they
drank their water.
Cited as examples of temperance and gluttony by a voice hidden in a tree of temptation.
Purg. XXIV, 124126.
Giotto: Florentine painter. (1266/71337)
Mentioned in Purgatory as the most famous
painter of the day. Purg. XI, 95.
Giovanni di Buiamonte dei Becchi: Florentine
banker, he had held several important oces which
earned him a knighthood.
The sovereign cavalier, whose future damnation as a usurers is alluded to by Reginaldo
Scrovegni. Inf. XVII, 723.
Glaucus: Ancient Greek mortal changed into an immortal sea god by eating magical reeds at the seashore.
Dante claims that he experiences a similar loss
of mortality looking on Beatrice. Par. 1, 64
69.
Gloria in excelsis Deo: Glory to God in the Highest. Opening of a canticle sung in morning prayer
services and at the beginning of the Latin Mass.
According to Medieval legend, when Pope

Gregory prayed for the Emperor Trajan, the
emperor was raised from the dead and converted to Christianity. Purg. X, 75.
Grin: Legendary creature with the body of a lion
and the head and wings of an eagle.
In the allegorical Pageant of the Church Triumphant, a grin representing Christ draws
a chariot representing the Church. Dante
chose a grin because its two noble natures
(lion and eagle) correspond to the two natures
(divine and human) of Christ. Purg. XXIX,
106114.
Griolino of Arezzo: He duped Alberto da Siena
saying, that for money, he would teach him to y.
As a result, Griolino was burned at the stake for
heresy by the Bishop of Siena, who favored Alberto,
who was perhaps the Bishops illegitimate son.
Among the falsiers of metal (alchemists),
sitting with Capocchio, propping each other
up, as they frantically scratch at the scabs covering their bodies. Inf. XXIX, 7399.
He introduces himself. Inf. XXIX, 10920.
Referred to as the Aretine, he identies
Schicchi and Myrrha. Inf. XXX, 3145.
Guelphs and Ghibellines: Factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
in Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries. After the Guelphs nally defeated the Ghibellines in
1289 at Campaldino and Caprona, (Dante apparently fought for the Guelphs at both), they began
to ght among themselves. By 1300, Dantes city,
Florence, was divided between the Black Guelphs,

who continued to support the Papacy, and White
Guelphs, Dantes party. That year the Whites defeated the Blacks and forced them out of Florence,
however, in 1302, the Blacks, with the help of Pope
Boniface VIII, were victorious and the Whites, including Dante, were banished from Florence. Inf.
VI, 6072.
Florence the divided city. Inf. VI, 61.
White Guelphs, party of the woods. Inf. VI,
65.
Black Guelphs, prevail with help of Boniface.
Inf. VI, 689.
Rivalry. Inf X.
Black and White Guelphs, one after the other,
will hunger after Dante. Inf. XV, 7172.
The expulsion of the White Guelphs from Florence is prophesied: Fiorenza rinnova gente e
modi. Inf. XXIV, 14350.
Guido del Cassero: See Malatestino.
Guido Guerra (c. 12201272): Member of one of
the greatest Tuscan families, he was one of the leaders of the Guelph faction in Florence, under whose
banners he fought the disastrous battle of Montaperti in 1260. Exiled following the triumph of the
Ghibellines, he returned to Florence in 1267 when
the Guelphs retook control of the city.
107
Among the fraudulent counsellors.
XXVII, 4132.
Inf.
He made a bloody heap out of the French.

Inf. XXVII, 435.
Guido da Polenta: The powerful aristocratic ruler of
Ravenna and Cervia, the former town taken by him
in 1275 and the latter shortly after. He was father
of Francesca da Rimini, and grandfather of Guido
Novello da Ravenna, who was to give Dante hospitality in his last years. The coat of arms of his family
contained an eagle.
The eagle of Polenta. Inf. XXVII, 402.
Robert Guiscard (c. 10151085): One of the most
remarkable of the Norman adventurers who conquered Southern Italy and Sicily. He was count
(10571059) and then duke (10591085) of Apulia
and Calabria after his brother Humphrey's death.
His warring in Apulia. Inf. XXVIII, 134.
Guittone: Italian poet of the generation before
Dante. Purg. XXVI, 55, 124.
Guy de Montfort: Son of Simon de Montfort, 6th
Earl of Leicester (1208 August 4, 1265) who was
leader of the baronial opposition to king Henry III of
England. Simon was killed at the battle of Evesham
and Guy revenged his death by killing the kings
nephew, another Henry, in a church in Viterbo.

by him (see Jacopo Rusticucci). Inf. XVI,
190.
7.2.8 H
In sua vita fece col senno assai e con la spada
Hadrian V: Pope for 38 days in 1276.
(In his life he did much with the senses and
the sword). Inf. XVI, 379.
Dante encounters him repenting for his greed
in the terrace of the greedy. Purg. XIX, 88
Guido Guinizelli: Italian poet (c. 12301276).
145.
Dante considered him the founder of his style of poetry (Dolce Stil Novo).
Hannibal: Ancient military leader of Carthage, who
led an invasion of Arabs over the Alps into Italy in
Dante meets him on the terrace of lustful.
the Second Punic War in the late 3rd century BCE.
Purg. XXIV, 73135.
Guido da Montefeltro (12231298): Renowned
leader of the Ghibellines of Romagna. As ruler of
Forl, in 1282, he defeated a French force, which
was besieging the city. In 1296 he retired from military life and entered the Franciscan order. Pope
Boniface VIII, in 1297, asked his advice on how
to capture Palestrina, the impegnable stronghold of
the Colonna family, oering in advance papal absolution for any sin his advice might entail. He advised Boniface to promise the Colonnas amnesty,
then break it. As a result, the Collonas surrendered
the fortress and it was razed to the ground. Dante
also mentions him in the Convivio, where he curiously extols his piety and sanctity.
His defeat cited as a triumph of the early Roman Republic. Par. VI, 4951.
Harpies: Monsters from Greek mythology with human female faces on the bodies of birds.
Tormentors of the suicides in the seventh circle, round 2. Their description is derived from
Virgil (Aeneid iii, 209 on), which tells how
they drove the Trojans from the Strophades.
Inf. XII, 1015 & 101.
Hector: The greatest Trojan warrior, in the Trojan
War.
108

Helicon: Mountain in Boeotia sacred to the Muses.
Purg. XXIX, 40.
Heliodorus: Minister to Seleucus IV, Hellenistic
ruler of the Seleucid Empire. According to II Maccabees 3:2128, he was sent to Jerusalem to plunder
the treasury of the Temple, but was turned back by
supernatural gures, including a man mounted on a
horse.
A medieval depiction of a Harpy.

Hecuba: Wife of Priam king of Troy, mother of
Hector, Paris, Polyxena and Polydorus. Captured
after the fall of Troy, she went mad after seeing
her daughter Polyxena, sacriced on the tomb of
Achilles and the corpse of her son Polydorus, murdered by Polymestor, King of Thrace (Euripides,
Hecuba, Ovid Metamorphoses XIII, 429575). According to Ovid she growled and barked like a mad
dog.
Her fury at the deaths of Polyxena and Polydorus. Inf, XXX, 1321.
Heliotrope stone: Also called bloodstone, is dark

green with spots of red. In the Middle Ages the red
spots were thought to be the blood of Jesus, and it
was believed to have miraculous powers, including
making its wearer invisible. Boccaccio writes about
it in his Decameron (VIII, 3). Inf. XXIV, 93.
Hellespont: Narrow strait connecting the Black Sea
with the Aegean Sea and separating Europe from
Asia Minor. In Herodotus account of the Persian
Wars, Xerxes, king of the Persians, spanned the
Hellespont with a bridge to invade Greece. When
a storm destroyed the bridge, the king ordered his
soldiers to og the waters as punishment.
Dante compares the narrow Lethe River to the
narrow Hellespont. Purg. XXVIII, 7072.
The ancient towns of Abydos and Sestos
were on the shores of the Hellespont. Purg.
XXVIII, 74.
Henry of England (Arrigo d'Inghilterra): Henry III
(12161272)
Dante sees him in the Valley of the Princes,
waiting as a late-repenter to enter Purgatory.
Purg. VII, 130.
Heraclitus (c. 535 c. 475 BCE): Greek Presocratic
philosopher.
138.
Helen, detail from an Attic red-gure krater, c. 450440 BCE,

Louvre (G 424)
Helen: Wife of the Spartan king Menelaus and lover

of the Trojan Paris, her abduction caused the Trojan
War.
Found amongst the sexual sinners. Inf. V, 64
5.
Hera (Juno in Roman mythology): Greek goddess,

she is the wife of Zeus (Jupiter). A jealous goddess,
she often sought revenge against Zeus many lovers.
One of those was Semele, who was the daughter
of Cadmus, King of Thebes and the mother of
Dionysus by Zeus. One of Heras many acts of revenge against Semele, was to cause Athamas, husband of Semeles sister Ino, to be driven mad. Mistaking Ino, holding their two infant sons Learchus
and Melicertes, for a lioness and her cubs, he killed
Learchus, and Ino still holding Melicertes jumped
o a cli into the sea. (Ovid, Metamorphoses IV,
416542). Another lover of Zeus, and victim of
Hera was Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus
(see Aegina above).
109
Her revenge against Aeginas people. Inf.

XXIX, 5865.
Her (Junos) revenge against Semeles Theban
family. Inf. XXX, 112.
Heracles (Latin: Hercules): Son of Zeus and
Alcmene, he is probably the most famous Hero of
Greek mythology. Of his many achievements, the
most famous are the Twelve Labours.
His victory over Cacus. Inf. XXV, 2933.
Ulysses recounts his passing the Pillars of
Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, where
Hercules set up his boundary stones that men
might heed and never reach beyond. Inf.
XXVI, 1089.
Icarus and Daedalus by Charles Paul Landon

Homer: Greek poet credited with the authorship of
the epic poems the Iliad, which tells the story of the
Trojan War, and the Odyssey, which tells the story
of the Greek hero Odysseus' adventures returning
from that war.
Encountered in Limbo, leading, as lord, the
three Latin poets Horace, Ovid and Lucan.
Inf. IV, 8390.
Homer anked by Dante (left) and Virgil. Detail of fresco, by

Raael, in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace,
1511.
Hippocrates (c. 460 380 BCE): Ancient Greek

physician, often called the father of medicine..
143.
Dante identies St. Luke in the Pageant of
the Church Triumphant as a disciple of Hippocrates. Ancient tradition holds that Luke
was a physician. Purg. XXIX, 137.
Holofernes: According to the Book of Judith, an Assyrian general who invades Israel. He is killed by
Judith, who seduces him in his tent.
The lord of song incomparable who like an

eagle soars above the rest. Inf. IV, 956.
The poets ask Dante to join their ranks, Inf.
IV, 100102.
Dante and Virgil leave the company of the poets. Inf IV, 148.
Horace: Latin lyric poet.
One of a group of classical poets (see Homer)
encountered in Limbo. Inf. IV, 89.
Hugh Capet: (c. 939996) First King of the Franks
and founder of the Capetian Dynasty.
Dante encounters him on the terrace of the
greedy, where Hugh laments the greed of his
successors to the French throne. Purg. XX,
34123.
110
Hypsipyle: Queen of Lemnos, she was seduced and

abandoned by Jason while en route to the Colchis
with the Argonauts.
Pitied by Virgil for Jasons actions.
XVIII, 8895.
Inf.
7.2.9
Encountered in the Fourth Sphere of Heaven

(The sun). Par. X, 1301.
Ismenus and Asopus: Rivers in Boeotia in Greece,
where festivals for Dionysus were held. Purg.
XVIII, 91.
Israel: One name given to the biblical patriarch
Jacob.
Inf. IV, 59.
Icarus: In Greek mythology, the son of the inventor Daedalus. They escaped from imprisonment in
Crete using wings of feathers and wax invented by 7.2.10 J
Daedalus. However, Icarus ew too near the sun,
the wax melted, and he fell to his death.
Jacopo da Santo Andrea: Notorious spendthrift
from Padua. He may have been executed by
Used as a simile for fear in Inf. XVII, 109
Ezzelino da Romano in 1239.
11.
One of two spendthrifts (the other called
Ilium: See Troy.
Lano is probably Arcolano of Siena) whose
punishment consists of being hunted by female
In te, Domine, speravi (In Thee, o Lord, have I
hounds. Inf. XIII, 115129.
hoped): Incipit of Psalm 31 in Latin (Psalm 30 in
the Vulgate Bible)
First nine verses of the psalm sung by the
angels when Dante meets Beatrice. Purg.
XXX, 8284.
In exitu Isrel de Aegypto": (When Israel came
out of Egypt): Latin incipit of Psalm 114 (Psalm
113 in the Vulgate Bible).
Sung by souls arriving in Purgatory. Purg. II,
46.
Ino: See Hera.
Alessio Interminelli: Member of a White Guelph
noble family of Lucca. He probably died in 1295.
Found among the atterers. Inf. XVIII, 115
26.
Iphigenia:
In Greek legend, daughter of
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Her father intended to sacrice her in order to placate the gods
who withholding winds to carry the Greek eet to
Troy.
Beatrice cites the vow to sacrice Iphigenia as
an example of an injudicious vow that never
Jason delivering the Golden Fleece to Pelias, the king of Iolcos.
should have been kept. Par. IV, 6872.
Isaac: The biblical father of the patriarch Israel.
Inf. IV, 59.
Isidore of Seville: Archbishop of Seville, and one of
the great scholars of the early Middle Ages.
Jason: Greek mythological hero who led the

Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece.
Found among the Seducers, for his seduction
and abandonment of Hypsipyle and Medea.
Inf. XVIII, 8399.

The Argonauts voyage compared to a voyage
into the mysteries of the heavens. Par. II, 16
18.
Jason: Brother of the High Priest of Israel Onias III,
he succeeded his brother in c. 175 BCE. According
to 2 Maccabees he obtained his oce by bribing the
Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Pope Clement V is compared to him. Inf.
XIX, 8587.
Jephthah: Judge in ancient Israel who made a careless vow to oer up a sacrice of thanksgiving
for victory in battle and accidentally committed his
daughter to that sacrice. The story appears in
Judges 11.
Beatrice cites Jephthah as an example of poor
judgment. Par. IV, 6468.
Jerusalem: Location of the Temple of Solomon and
site of Jesus crucixion. Considered in the Middle Ages as the geographical center of the inhabited
world.
Hell is located directly below Jerusalem. Inf.
XXXIV, 112.
Purgatory is a mountain at the antipodes of
Jerusalem. Inf. XXXIV, 118126, Purg.
IV, 6771.
Jesus: Central gure of Christianity. According to
Christian legend, in what is called the Harrowing of
Hell, he descended into Hell after his death and rescued certain souls from Limbo.
111
In Florence, the rst patron gave way to him.
Inf. XIII, 143144.
The currency which bears his seal. Inf.
XXX, 74.
A voice in Purgatory on the terrace of
the gluttonous cites John as an example in
Temperance. Purg. XXII, 151154.
John the Evangelist: The name used to refer to the

author of the Gospel of John. He is also traditionally
identied with John the Apostle and the author of
the Book of Revelation.
Dante interprets a passage of Johns Revelation
(17:13) as a prophecy on the future corruption of the Roman Curia. Inf. XIX, 106108.
Johns vision (Rev. 4:611) of four beasts in
the heavenly court draws from a vision of similar beasts by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:1
21). The beasts appear as allegories of the four
Gospels in the Pageant of the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX, 103105.
Jordan: River on the border of Israel.
Crossed by ancient Israelites led by Joshua after an older, less eager generation had died o.
Mentioned as a lesson in sloth. Purg. XVIII,
133135.
Jove: See Zeus.
Jubilee: The rst Jubilee of the Roman Catholic
church took place in 1300. Inf. XVIII, 2833.
Judas Iscariot: Disciple who betrayed Jesus.
Virgil describes witnessing his descent into

Hell. Inf. IV, 5263.
Virgil's visit to Judas circle. Inf. IX, 25

27.
Took spoils from Dis in the Harrowing of Hell.

Inf. XII, 3839.
The transgressing soul replaced by Saint

Matthias. Inf. XIX 9496.
Unlike the souls being punished for simony,

Jesus asked no gold from Saint Peter in exchange for his oce. Inf. XIX, 9093.
Along with Brutus and Cassius, one of the

three betrayer/suicides who, for those sins,
were eternally chewed by one of the three
mouths of Satan. Inf. XXXIV, 5367
In his only appearance in the Comedy, he is

seen in the form of a Grin in the Pageant
of the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX,
106114.
Jocasta: Wife and mother of Oedipus, ancient king
of Thebes. They had two sons, Polynices and
Eteocles. Statius Thebaid tells the story of the family conict.
Mentioned as the subject of Statius work.
Purg. XXII, 5557.
John the Baptist: The desert prophet, who baptised
Jesus. He became the patron saint of Florence,
displacing the Roman Mars, and his image was
stamped on the cities gold coin, the orin.
Julia : Daughter of Julius Caesar and wife of

Pompey.
128.
Julius Caesar (10044 BCE): The celebrated Roman
dictator and military commander.
Virgil's remembers him (erroneously) as ruler
of Rome at his birth. Inf. I, 70.
Encountered by Dante in Limbo, armato
con li occhi grifagni (falcon-eyed and fully
armed). Inf. IV, 123.
112

On arrival in Limbo, he informed Virgil about
Statius poetic accomplishments.
Purg.
XXII, 1315.
7.2.11 K
Kill! Kill!" (Martira, martira!"): The martyrdom
of St. Stephen by an angry mob. He died without
anger as he was stoned to death. His last words were
a prayer for forgiveness for his enemies. (Acts 7:58
60)
Seen in a vision by Dante as he enters the terrace of the angry in Purgatory. Purg. XV,
106114.
7.2.12 L
Denarius commemorating Julius Caesar for his success during
the Gallic Wars.
Advised by Curio to lead his army across the

Rubicon, which is considered an act of war
against the Roman Republic. Inf. XXVIII,
97-99.
Souls in the terrace of sloth cite his campaigns
in France and Spain as an inspiring example of
energy. Purg. XVIII, 101.
His sexual relations with Bithynian King
Nicomedes mentioned on the terrace of the
lustful. Purg. XXVI, 77. (See Suetonius,
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar, 49.)
His unlawful entry into Rome cited as the
beginning of the Roman Empire which ultimately brought an imperial peace to the world.
Par. VI, 5587.
Juno: See Hera.
Justinian: Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus, an
emperor of Byzantium, known as the last Roman
emperor. A saintly man respected for his law reforms.
Laba ma, Domine": Abbreviation of Domine,

labia mea aperies; et os meum annunciabit laudem
tuam. (O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth
shall proclaim thy praise.) (Psalm 51:15; Ps 50:15
in the Vulgate.) Verse recited at the beginning of
the rst monastic prayer oce of the day.
Chanted in penitence by souls on the terrace
of the gluttonous in Purgatory. Purg. XXIII,
1012.
Lacedaemon: Also known as Sparta, a leading city
in ancient Greece.
Dante commends Lacedaemon as an example
of orderly government. Purg. VI, 139.
Lachesis: One of the three Fates in Greco-Roman
mythology. With a measuring rod, she measures out
the life-span of every mortal.
Mentioned with reference to death. Purg.
XXV, 79.
Laertes: Mythical father of Odysseus (Ulysses), he
was one of the Argonauts. In the Odyssey he takes
part in the massacre of Penelope's suitors.
His mending [Italys] bridle. Purg. VI, 88

93.
Not even Ulysses love for his father (and wife

and son) was enough to overrule his desire to
gain experience of the world and of the vices
and the worth of men. Inf. XXVI, 9499.
Encountered in the Second Sphere: Mercury,

as an unnamed holy form [concealed] within
his rays. Par. V, 115139.
Lancelot: Central gure of the Arthurian legend.

Reading tales of his amorous adventures led Paulo
and Francesca astray.
His discourse on the history of Rome. Par.

VI, 1111.
His description of the souls in Mercury. Par.
VI, 11242.
Juvenal: Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, Roman poet of
the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.
Inf. V, 128.
Lano: See Arcolano of Siena.
Brunetto Latini: Famous Florentine Guelph politician and writer, friend and teacher of Dante till his
death in 1294.

Encountered by Dante among the sodomites
in the seventh circle. The meeting between
Dante and Brunetto is one of the most important in the Inferno, as Brunetto is given the key
role of prophesying the future exile of Dante.
Dante extols his encyclopaedia, Li Livres dou
Tresor, of which Dante has Brunetto say: Sieti raccomandato il mio Tesoro, nel qual io
vivo ancora. Inf. XV, 22124.
Lateran Palace: The principle papal residence, from
the beginning of the 4th century, until the beginning
of Avignon Papacy, in 1305.
Used by Dante to allude to Bonifaces warring against Christians, rather than Jews or
"Saracens". Inf. XXVII, 86.
Latinus: The Latian king and one of a group of
gures associated with the history of Troy, Virgil's
Aeneid, and the history of Rome encountered by
Dante in Limbo. Inf. IV, 121128.
Lavinia: Daughter of Latinus and Amata and wife
of Aeneas.
One of a group of gures associated with the
history of Troy, Virgil's Aeneid, and the history of Rome encountered by Dante in Limbo.
Inf. IV, 121128; Par. VI, 3.
Dante has a vision of Lavinia mourning for her
mother Amata, who committed suicide after
inciting a war between the Latins and the Trojans. The vision comes as Dante departs the
terrace of the angry in Purgatory. Purg. XVI,
3439.
Lawrence: Deacon in the Church in Rome, martyred in 258. According to tradition, he was tied
to a grate and burned to death.
Beatrice cites Lawrence as an example of a
steadfast will. Par. IV, 83.
Leah: Sister to Rachel, rst wife of Jacob, and
mother of six of the tribes of ancient Israel. She
was the less attractive of the two sisters, but Jacob
was tricked into marrying her rst. (Gen 29:1625)
In a dream, Dante sees her gathering owers.
Purg. XXVII, 97108.
Leander: Ancient Greek youth who carried on a love
aair with Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, who lived
on the opposite shore of the Hellespont. Each night
he would swim across the strait to be with her.
Dante compares the Lethe River to the Hellespont, and his desire for Matilda to that of Leander for Hero.
Learchus: See Hera.
113
Lethe: One of the rivers of Hades in Greek mythology. To drink its waters is to forget everything. In
the Comedy, its source is in Terrestrial Paradise at
the top of Purgatory. When it reaches the base of
the mountain, it ows down a narrow passageway to
the center of the earth.
Its location is asked about and given. Inf.
XIV, 130138.
Probably the little stream Dante hears at the
center of the earth. Inf. XXXIV 130132.
Guido Guinizelli tells Dante that even Lethe
will not erase his memory of their conversation. Purg. XXVI, 106108.
Dante arrives at its banks. Purg. XXVIII, 25.
Matilda explains that its source is miraculous
because there is no rain in Terrestrial Paradise. Purg. XXVIII, 121133.
Dante must repent of his indelity to Beatrice
before he is allowed to drink from the Lethe
and forget the act. Purg. XXX, 142145.
Matilda bears Dante through the Lethe.
Purg. XXXI, 9496.
Dante sees the source of the Lethe in
Terrestrial Paradise. Purg. XXXIII, 123.
Levi: Son of Jacob and Leah and eponymous forebear of a tribe of ancient Israel. The tribe of Levi
was responsible for duties of worship and did not receive a tribal homeland.
Dante refers to the clergy as Levis sons.
Purg. XVI, 131.
Libra: Constellation of the zodiac. During the
events of the Comedy, it would be highest in the sky
at about 1 A.M.
Used to indicate the time of day.
XXVII, 3.
Purg.
Limbo: The rst circle of Dantes Hell and the

scene of Inf. IV. It is a kind of antechamber in
which the souls of the good who died before Jesus
spend eternity with no punishment other than the
lack of the divine presence. In Dantes version, gures from Classical antiquity signicantly outnumber those from the Old Testament.
Linus: Mythical son of Apollo who taught music to
Orpheus.
141.
Livy (c. 59 BCE 17 CE): The famous Roman historian author of the monumental Ab Urbe Condita,
telling the history of Rome from the origins down to
his own times.
114

The historian who does not err.
XXVIII, 12.
Inf.

128.
Lombards: Germanic tribe who invaded Italy in the

6th century BCE and established a kingdom in the
northern part of the peninsula.
Cited as a reason for the end of Roman monarchy. Par. VI, 41.
The conquering Lombards were Arian Christians in belief, where they came into conict
with the Catholic Church in Rome. Par. VI,
9495.
Peter Lombard (c. 10901160): Theologian and
Bishop; author of The Sentences, a famous medieval
textbook of theology.
Pointed out by Thomas Aquinas in the sphere
of the Sun. Par. X, 107.
Lucan (3965): Latin poet, whose Pharsalia, an
epic poem on the civil war between Julius Caesar
and Pompey, is an important source for Dante. Like
Seneca he was forced to commit suicide by Nero for
his participation in the Pisonian conspiracy.
The serpents in the Malebolge comes from his
Pharsalia (IX, 710 ). Inf. XXIV, 8590.
His description in Pharsalia (IX, 761804) of
the deaths and transformations of Sabellus
and Nasidiusis is compared with the transformations of the thieves and sinners in the Malebolge. Inf. XXV, 9496.
Lucca: A Tuscan city of considerable importance
in the Middle Ages; generally Guelph, it was traditionally an ally of Florence and an enemy of Pisa.
Dante, through the words of a devil, accuses
its magistrates of being all corrupt: torno ... a
quella terra, che n' ben fornita: ogn'uom v'
barattier, ... del no, per li denar, vi si fa ita"
Inf. XXI, 3942.
Lucia of Syracuse: (Saint Lucy) 4th-century martyr
saint associated with light and those, like Dante, who
suered from poor eyesight. She symbolises Illuminating Grace in the poem.
Serves as an intermediary between the gentle
lady (see Mary) and Beatrice. Inf. II, 97
108.
Lifts Dante in his sleep to the Gate of St. Peter
in Purgatory. Purg. IX, 55.
Lucretia: Legendary woman in the history of the
Roman Republic, whose rape by the son of king
Tarquinius Superbus was revenged by Brutus when
he overthrew the king.
Luke: Writer of the third Gospel. Luke includes a

story of the resurrected Jesus quietly joining two disciples as they walked the road to Emmaus. (Luke
24:1327)
When Statius joins Virgil and Dante as they
walked in Purgatory, Dante compares the
meeting to the event in Luke. Purg. XXI, 7
13.
Lycurgus: Ancient king of Nemea. According
to Statiuss Thebaid (V.499730), Lycurgus received Hypsipyle and her two sons as refugees from
Lemnos and put his own son in her care. When she
accidentally permitted the Lycurgus son to die of a
snakebite, the enraged king wanted to kill her. Her
two sons rushed to her side to protect her.
Mentioned by Dante. Purg. XXVI, 9496.
7.2.13 M
Paolo Malatesta: See Paolo and Francesca.
Malatesta da Verucchio: Founder of the powerful
Malatesta family, he and his son Malatestino, were
Guelph rulers of Rimini from 1295, who killed
the chief members of the rival Ghibelline family, the Parcitati, including their leader Montagna
de' Parcitati. Malatesta had two other sons
Giovanni, who married Guido da Polenta's daughter Francesca, and Paolo who became her lover (see
Paolo and Francesca).
The old masti of Verucchio. Inf. XXVII,
468.
Malatestino: Son of Malatesta da Verrucchio, after his fathers death in 1312, he became Signore
of Rimini. He had two nobles of Fano, Guido del
Cassero and Angiolello di Carignano, drowned, after he had summoned them to a parley at Cattolica.
The new masti of Verruchio. Inf. XXVII,
468.
The foul tyrant and traitor who sees only
with one eye, his betrayal of Guido and Angiolello. Inf. XXVIII, 7690.
Malebolge (evil-pouches): The eighth circle of
Dantes hell, it contains ten trenches wherein the ten
types of ordinary fraud are punished.
Encountered. Inf. XVIII.

Described as a funnel consisting of concentric
and progressively lower ditches. Inf. XXIV,
3440.
Its nal cloister lled with lay brothers.
Inf. XXIX, 402.
Malebranche (evil-claws): In the Inferno, it is the
name of a group of demons in the fth pouch of
the Malebolge. They are led by Malacoda (eviltail), who assigns ten of his demons to escort
Dante: Alichino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo (big dog),
Barbariccia (leads the ten), Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto, Graacane (dog-scratcher) Farfarello and Rubicante. Another Malebranche is
Scarmiglione.
The daughter of Tiresias is listed as a resident in Purgatory. Purg. XXII, 113.

Mantua: An important and ancient city in
Lombardy. Its name is probably of Etruscan origin.
Birthplace of Virgil. Inf. I, 69.
Beatrice addresses Virgil as courteous Mantuan spirit. Inf. II, 58.
Virgil tells Dante of the origin of the name of
Mantua and about its foundation. Inf. XX,
5899.
Sordello addresses Virgil as Mantuan.
Purg. VI, 74.
Marcia: Wife of Cato the younger.
Encountered. Inf. XXI, 29XXIII, 56.

A demon is described plunging a barrator
into a boiling lake of pitch and returning to
Lucca for more. Inf. XXI, 2946.
Their using prongs to keep the sinner submerged is compared to cooking meat in a pot.
Inf. XXI, 5557.
Escort assigned. Inf. XXI 118123.
Scarmiglione. Inf. XXI, 100105.
Barbarariccias remarkable trumpet.
XXI, 136XXII, 12.
115
Inf.
The demons escort Dante, guarding the shore

as they go. A sinner is dragged ashore, attacked by the demons and is questioned but
escapes, and two demons ght and fall into the
boiling pitch. Inf. XXII, 13151.
Dante and Virgil escape their pursuit. Inf.
XXIII 1356.
Malacodas lie is discovered. Inf. XXIII 140
1.
Manfred: King of Sicily from 1258 to 1266.
Encountered as an excommunicate in Purgatory, where he waits 30 years for each year of
his excommunication. Purg. III, 112.
Manibus, oh, date lilia plenis. (O, give lilies
by the handful.): Quotation from Virgils Aeneid
(VI.883).
Sung by angels in the Pageant of the Church
Triumphant, welcoming Beatrice to the procession. Purg. XXX, 21.
Manto: Mythical daughter of Tiresias, from her father she inherited the power of prophecy.
Seen among the seers. Inf. XX, 527.
Virgil tells how Manto travelled till she arrived in the spot that was to be called after her
Mantua. Inf. XX, 5893.

128.
Permanently separated from her husband, who
guards the entrance to Purgatory. Purg. I, 79.
Maremma: Area consisting of part of southern
Tuscany (and partly coincident with the province
of Grosseto) and some part of northern Latium (a
bordering region of the province of Viterbo). in
Dantes time it was a desolate marshland, plagued
by malaria.
Identied as between Cecina and Corneto.
Inf. XIII, 79.
Reputation for snakes. Inf. XXV, 1920.
Sickness from July until September.
XXIX, 468.
Inf.
Mars: In Roman mythology, the god of war.

As ei per questo//sempre con l'arte sua la far
trista (he who with this art always will make it
[Florence] sad) he is identied as the patron of
Florence before John the Baptist. Inf. XIII,
1434.
Depicted in a pavement carving in Purgatory
casting Briareus from Olympus. Purg. XII,
31.
Marsyas: Ancient Greek who challenged Apollo
to a contest of musical performance judged by the
Muses. After Marsyas lost, Apollo ayed him to
death.
Dante metaphorically asks Apollo to treat him
like Marsyas, by removing his soul from the
body in order to write about the heavens. Par.
I, 1921.
Charles Martel of Anjou (12711295): son of
Charles II of Naples.
116

In the sphere of Venus, he discusses degeneracy among noble families, and denounces confusion of vocations. Par. VIII, 31148.
His prophecy. Par. IX, 19.
Pope Martin IV: Pope from 1281 to 1285. According to Dante, he died after a gluttonous feast of eels
and wine.
Dante sees him in the terrace of the gluttons,
repenting of his excess. Purg. XXIV, 2225.
Mary: The mother of Jesus.
Probably the gentle lady, who takes pity on
Dante and calls on Lucia to ask Beatrice to
help him. Inf. II, 949.
Souls in Purgatory call on Mary to pray for
them. Purg. XIII, 50.
Souls on the terrace of sloth quote her haste
(Luke 1:39) as a spiritual lesson. Purg.
XVIII, 99100.
The soul of Hugh Capet on the terrace of greed
cites her poverty as a spiritual lesson. Purg.
XX, 1924.
Called the only bride the Holy Spirit has
known in reference to the Incarnation. Purg.
XX, 9798.
Guido Reni's archangel Michael (in the Capuchin church of Sta.
Her call for more wine at the marriage at Cana Maria della Concezione, Rome) trampling Satan
(John 2:3) was for decorum and not because
she wanted more wine. Lesson in temperance
How he became an apostle is contrasted with
heard spoken from the tree on the terrace of
the Simoniacs. Inf. XIX, 946.
the gluttonous. Purg. XXII, 142144.
Cited as an example in sexual abstinence by
souls on the terrace of the lustful. Purg.
XXV, 128.
Medea: Mythical daughter of Aeetes, king of

Colchis, she helped Jason get the Golden Fleece,
but was abandoned by him. She took revenge by
killing their two children.
Master Adam: Possibly an Englishman, who came

to Bologna by way of Brescia. He was employed
by the Guidi, counts of Romena, to counterfeit the
Florentine orin. Stamped with the image of John
the Baptist, the orin contained 24 karats of gold.
His contained 21, for which crime he was burned at
the stake in 1281.
For her also is Jason punished. Inf. XVIII,

96.
Among the falsiers, he points out two liars,

Potiphars wife and Sinon, with whom he exchanges insults. Inf. XXX, 49129.
Matilda: Sole permanent resident of Terrestrial
Paradise.
Dante encounters her gathering owers on the
banks of the River Lethe. Purg. XXVIII, 40.
Saint Matthias: After Judas' betrayal and suicide,
he took his place as one of the twelve apostles (Acts
of the Apostles I:2326). Late legends state he was
either crucied in Colchis or stoned by the Jews.
Medusa (also known as the Gorgon): In Greek

mythology, a female monster whose gaze could turn
people to stone. See Erinyes.
Megaera: See Erinyes.
Meleager: Ancient Greek hero who died when his
mother completed the burning of a stick. Purg.
XXV, 22.
Melicertes: See Hera.
Metellus: Lucius Caecilius Metellus, tribune of
the plebs 49 BCE, resisted Julius Caesar when he
wanted to plunder the treasury.
Mentioned in connection with the Tarpeian
Rock. Purg. IX, 138.
Michael: Archangel

Defeated Satan. Inf. VII 112.
Souls in Purgatory call on him to pray for
117
Chanted by souls waiting to enter Purgatory.
Purg. V, 24.
Beatrice tells Dante that Michael may be depicted in human form, but that this form is
Modicum, et non videbitis me; et iterum, modicum, vos videbitis me. (In a little while, you will
not see me; and in a little while, you will see me
again.) Spoken by Jesus to his disciples at the Last
Supper. John 16:16.
Michal: daughter of King Saul and wife of King

David.
Quoted by Beatrice before her departure with

Dante into Paradise.
Depicted as an example of arrogance in a wall

carving in Purgatory. Purg. X, 68.
Mongibello: Sicialian name for Mount Etna, though

to be Vulcan's furnace.
Midas: legendary Phrygian king who greedy asked

that all he touched be turned to gold.
Cited by souls in the terrace of the greedy as an
example of the tragedy of greed. Purg. XX,
103105.
Minerva: Roman goddess of wisdom, equivalent to
the Greek goddess Athena.
Minos: A semi-legendary king of Crete, son of
Zeus and Europa. In The Divine Comedy, he sits
at the entrance to the second circle in the Inferno,
which is the beginning of Hell proper. Here, he
judges the sins of each dead soul and assigns it to its
rightful punishment by indicating the circle to which
it must descend. He does this by circling his tail
around his body the appropriate number of times.
Encountered by Dante. Inf. V, 424.
Sends suicides to their appointed punishments.
Inf. XIII, 96.
Amphiaraus falls down to him. Inf. XX, 35
6.
He can also speak, to clarify the souls location
within the circle indicated by the wrapping of
his tail. Inf. XXVII, 1247.
Who cannot mistake, condemns Griolino
of Arezzo to the tench pouch. Inf. XXIX,
11820.
Virgil not bound by Minos because he resides
in Limbo. Purg. I, 77.
Minotaur: In Greek mythology, a creature that was
half man and half bull. It was held captive by King
Minos of Crete, inside the Labyrinth, an elaborate maze designed by Daedalus. It was slain by
Theseus.
Guards the seventh circle. Inf. XII, 1127.
Miserere: (Have mercy.) Incipit of Psalm 51
(Psalm 50 in the Vulgate Bible.) It is one of the
Seven Penitential Psalms.
The sooty forge. Inf. XIV, 56.

Mosca de' Lamberti: Ghibelline who in 1215 rekindled feuding with the Guelphs by urging the killing
of the Guelph Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonte, for
breaking a marriage engagement.
Found among the Sowers of Scandal and
Schism in the eighth circle, Ninth Pouch. He
was a seed of evil for the Tuscans. Inf.
XXVIII, 1069.
Moses
Inf. IV, 57.
Mucius: Gaius Mucius Scaevola, ancient Roman
soldier from a noteworthy family. When captured
by enemies, he held his right hand in a re to show
his steadfast willingness to give his life for Rome.
Mentioned by Beatrice as an example of a constant will in the face of adversity. Par. IV, 84.
Muhammad (c. 570632): The founder of Islam.
Found among the sowers of dissension, he
points out his son-in-law Ali, and through
Dante, warns Fra Dolcino. Inf. XXVIII, 22
63.
Muses: In Greek and Roman mythology, the inspiring goddesses of song, poetry and art. It was a standard literary device to invoke their aid when undertaking a dicult writing task.
Dante invokes them nine times in the Comedy.
Inf. II, 79, Purg. I, 7, Purg. XXII, 58,
Purg. XXIX, 37, Par. II, 8.
Myrrha: In Greek Mythology mother of Adonis,
who in disguise committed incest with her father
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, X, 298502)
118

Among the falsiers, taking anothers shape,
she loved her father past the limits of just
love. Inf. XXX, 3741.
7.2.14
Ninus: Mythical king of Assyria and eponymous founder of Nineveh, he was the husband of
Semiramis.
Remembered as predecessor of Semiramis on
the throne of Assyria. Inf. V, 59.
Nasidius: See Sabellus and Nasidius.

Neptune: God of the sea. Inf. XXVIII, 83.
Niobe: Queen of Thebes, whose seven sons and

seven daughters were killed by Apollo and Diana after Niobe boasted she was superior to their mother
Latona.
Neque nubent": (Nor do they marry.) (Mat

22:30)
Quoted by the penitent soul of Pope Hadrian
V in Purgatory to show that worldly honors do
not transfer there. Dante had done him reverence on learning his identity. Purg. XIX,
137.
Nessus: See Centaur.
Depicted in the pavement carvings in Purgatory as an example of arrogance. Purg. XII,

37.
Nisus: Son of Hyrtacus and friend of Aeneas and
Euryalus. He was mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid.
One of those who died for Italy. Inf. I, 106
108
Noah
Niccol: See Spendthrift Club.

Nicholas: Saint and Bishop of Myra in the 4th century CE. One legend about Nicholas is that he rescued three young poor girls from a life of prostitu7.2.15
tion by a secret gift of dowries.
Cited by Hugh Capet, who is repenting the terrace of the greedy, as an example of generosity. Purg. XX, 3133.
Pope Nicholas III (c. 12201280): Born Giovanni
Gaetano Orsini from an eminent Roman family, he
was made cardinal by Innocent IV and became pope
in 1277, where he distinguished himself for his ability as a politician.
Punished among the Simoniacs for his
nepotism. He prophesies to Dante the arrival in Hell of the popes Boniface VIII and
Clement V. Inf. XIX, 31120.
Nimrod: Great-grandson of Noah. According to
Genesis, he was a mighty hunter and King of Shinar. Legends about him have him in charge of building the Tower of Babel.
Encountered chained in the Well of the Giants, where he speaks only gibberish. Inf.
XXXI, 5881.
exemplar of arrogance. He is shown at the foot
of the Tower of Babel. Purg. XII, 34.
Mentioned by Adam as he explains the extinction of his own language occurring before
Nimrods aborted construction project. Par.
XXVI, 124.
Nino de' Visconti: See Ugolino della Gherardesca.

Inf. IV, 56.
Obizzo II d'Este: Marquess of Ferrara in 1264

1293 and a leading Guelph. Popular tradition had
it that he was killed by his son, Azzo VIII.
The marquis for whom Venedico Caccianemico admits to have procured his sister
Ghisolabella. Inf. XVIII, 557.
Octavian: see Augustus.
Oderisi of Gubbio: 13th-century manuscript illuminator. None of his works survive.
Encountered in Purgatory among the prideful.
Purg. XI, 79.
Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology): King of
Ithaca, he was the son of Laertes, husband of
Penelope and father of Telemachus. Known for his
guile and resourcefulness, he is the hero of Homer's
Odyssey, and a major character in the Iliad. During the Trojan War, with Diomedes, he stole the
Palladium and conceived the trickery of the Trojan
horse. He was famous for the twenty years it took
him to return home from the war.
Among the advisors of fraud, he (Ulysses) is
punished with Diomedes for the sins they both
committed at Troy. Inf. XXVI, 5263.
At Virgil's urging, he (Ulysses) speaks about
his journey after leaving Circe. Inf. XXVI,
79142.
119
Mentioned by the siren who tempts Dante in a

dream. Purg. XIX, 22.
Found among the Epicurean heretics. Inf. X,

120.
Oh, my son, why have you done this to us?":

Marys speaks to her young son Jesus when he
remained in Jerusalem without their knowledge or
permission. (Luke 2:48)
Ovid: Latin poet, whose Metamorphoses, is Dantes

principle, mythological source.
Seen in a vision by Dante as an example of

patience as he enters the terrace of the angry
in Purgatory. Purg. XV, 89.
His descriptions of the transformations

Cadmus and Arethusa in the Metamorphoses
are compared to the transformations of the

OMO": Letters seen formed by the eyes and nosebridge of an emaciated human face. Homo in
Latin means human, and in Italian the word is
7.2.16
Uomo.
Dante sees the letters in the faces of the fasting
souls on the terrace of the gluttonous. Purg.
XXIII, 3133.
Sinibaldo degli Ordela: Head of the noble Ordela family and ruler of Forl and the surrounding
territory in Romagna from the end of the 13th century. His coat of arms contained a green lion.
Forl beneath green paws. Inf. XXVII 43
5.
Orestes: Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Orestes avenged his fathers murder by killing his
mother. He refused to let his friend Pylades take
the blame for the act.
I am Orestes is heard by souls in the terrace
of the envious as a lesson in generosity. Purg.
XIII, 33.
Paulus Orosius (c. 385420): Historian and
theologian; associate of St. Augustine.
Not named, but called that defender of the
Christian days who helped Augustine by his
history by Thomas Aquinas in the sphere of
the Sun. Par. X, 11820.
Orpheus: Mythical Greek singer and poet who, like
Dante, descended into the underworld.
140.
Ottokar II, King of Bohemia (12531278) and enemy of German King Rudolf I
Dante sees them side-by-side in the Valley of
the Princes. Both are late-repenters, waiting
to enter Purgatory. Purg. VII, 97100.
Ottaviano degli Ubaldini (c12101250): Cardinal
and prominent Ghibelline who was the only supporter of their cause at the Papal Court at the time
of the Battle of Montaperti (see Farinata).
Maghinardo Pagani da Susinana: Signore of Faenza

on the river Lamone, and Imola on the river Santerno. Ghibelline by birth, he was a Guelph in
Florence. His coat of arms was a white lion on a
blue eld.
The young lion of the white lair. Inf. XXVI,
4951.
Pageant of Church History: Elaborate allegorical
representation of the history of the Christian Church
which Dante witnesses in Purgatory. Purg. XXXII
& XXXIII.
The allegorical events involve the Chariot from
the Pageant of the Church Triumphant and
represent the troubles of the Church in its rst
1300 years.
An Eagle (the Bird of Jove) attacks the
Chariot (the Church), representing the persecutions of Christians by various Roman Emperors. Purg. XXXII, 109117.
A malnourished Fox, representing the various
early heresies of the Church, leaps onto the
Chariot until it is chased away by my Lady.
The eagle returns and covers the chariot
with its feathers, representing the alliance of
Church and Roman Empire beginning with the
Emperor Constantine I. Purg. XXXII, 124
129.
A dragon cuts the chariot in half with its tail
and drags away half, representing the Islamic
conquests during the early centuries of Islam.
The chariot is covered and choked with weeds,
representing the institutional corruptions of
the church and the confusion of temporal and
spiritual authorities. Purg. XXXII, 136141.
A harlot appears in the chariot, accompanied
by an amorous giant. The harlot, an allusion to Revelation 17, represents the corrupted
120

church, while the giant represents Philip IV of
France, who removed the papacy from Rome
to Avignon in France in 1307. Purg. XXXII,
142160.
Pageant of the Church Triumphant: Elaborate

allegorical representation of the Church Triumphant
which Dante witnesses in Purgatory. Purg. XXIX
& XXX.
The allegorical procession includes:
Seven large candelabras emitting rainbow
smoke, representing the Seven Gifts of the
Holy Spirit. Purg. XXIX, 4360.
Twenty-four elders dressed in white, repre- Joseph Anton Koch, Paolo and Francesca discovered by Giosenting the 24 books of the Old Testament. vanni, 18051810
Purg. XXIX, 8287.
Four beasts with multiple wings and eyes
(Lion, Ox, Eagle, & Angel), representing the
four Gospels. Ancient tradition associates
the four beasts seen in the visions of Ezekiel
(Ezekiel 1:414) and John (Revelation 4:68)
to the four Gospels. Purg. XXIX, 88105.
A Grin drawing a chariot, representing
Christ leading the Church. Purg. XXIX,
106114.
A group of three women dancing beside the
right wheel, representing the Three Theological Virtues. Purg. XXIX, 121129.
A group of four women dancing beside the
left wheel, representing the Four Cardinal
Virtues. Purg. XXIX, 130132.
Saint Luke, dressed as a physician, and Saint
Paul, bearing a sword. Purg. XXIX, 133
141.
The four authors of the "General Epistles. Finally, the author of the Apocalypse. Purg.
XXIX, 142144.
Palladium: A statue of Pallas Athena. Since it
was believed that Troy could not be captured while
it contained this statue, Odysseus (Ulysses) and
Diomedes stole it during the Trojan War (Aeneid II,
228240).
Its theft is one of the things for which Ulysses
and Diomedes are punished. Inf. XXVI, 63.
Pallas: Legendary ancient Roman youth who

bravely fought and died for the liberties of early
Rome. His story is recounted in the Aeneid, Book
X.
Cited by the soul of Emperor Justinian as the
rst example of the virtuous Roman. Par. VI,
3436.
Paolo and Francesca: Brother and wife, respectively, of Giovanni Malatesta. The pair were lovers
and reputedly killed by Giovanni. Francesca was the
daughter of Guido da Polenta.
Found among the sexual sinners. Inf. V, 73
138.
Montagna de' Parcitati: Of the noble Parcitati family, he was head of the Ghibelline faction in Rimini
till Malatesta da Verrucchio assumed control of
the town in 1295. Montagna was rst jailed and
then treacherously murdered by Malatesta and his
son Malatestino.
His abuse by the "mastis of Verruchio. Inf.
XXVII, 47.
Paul: One of the apostles of Jesus.
Recalled by Dante as Gods Chosen Vessel
(Acts 9:15) for an ecstatic journey to the third
Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:24). Inf. II, 28
32.
Appears bearing the Sword of the Spirit
(Heb 4:12) in the Pageant of the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX, 139141.
Paris: Trojan, son of Priam and Hecuba, brother
of Hector, and abductor of Helen.
Parnassus: Mountain in Greece near Delphi associated with Apollo and the Muses.
Statius drank in the cave of Parnassus as
he learned poetry from reading Virgil. Purg.
XXII, 65.
Dante asks Apollo to grant him inspiration
from both peaks of Parnassus to undertake
writing the Paradiso. Par. I, 1618.
121
Pasipha: Wife of King Minos of Crete and mother

of the Minotaur. According to Virgils Eclogue VI,
4560, she conceived by a bull while hiding inside a
hollow wooden cow.
Cited penitentially by souls on the terrace of
the lustful. Purg. XXVI, 41.
Paternoster: The Lords Prayer taught by Jesus to
his disciples.
Dante is asked to say the prayer when he returns home to assist the passage of souls in
Purgatory. Purg. XXVI, 130132.
Penelope: Faithful wife of Odysseus (Ulysses) king
of Ithaca, refusing the many suitors who invaded
her home, she waited twenty years for him to return
home from the Trojan War.
Not even Ulysses love for his wife (and son
and father) was enough to overrule his desire
to gain experience of the world and of the
vices and the worth of men. Inf. XXVI, 94
99.
Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons, she fought on
for Troy during the Trojan War.
Perillus: See Sicilian bull.
Pelorus: northeast promontory of Sicily.
Mentioned as severed from the Apennine
Range. Purg. XIV, 32.
Persius: Aulus Persius Flaccus. Roman writer of the
1st century BCE
Saint Peter: One of the apostles of Jesus, and rst
pope.
la porta di San Pietro (the gateway of Saint
Peter). Inf. I, 133.
In contrast to the Simoniacs, he paid no gold,
to become head of the church, nor did he ask
for any from Saint Matthias to make him an
apostle. Inf. XIX, 9096.
Souls in Purgatory call on Peter to pray for
Par XXIV, Dantes Examination of Faith
by St. Peter; his presence rst described
by Beatrice: And she: 'O eternal light of
the great man/ To whom Our Lord entrusted
the same keys/ Of wondrous gladness that he
brought below'. (trans. by Cotter, ln. 3436).
St. Peter, oil on panel by Francesco del Cossa (1473), Pinacoteca

di Brera, Milan
St. Peters Pine Cone: A colossal bronze pine cone

cast in the 1st or 2nd century CE in Rome. Originally located in the Campus Martius, it is now located in a courtyard in the Vatican Museum.
Dante compares it to the dimensions of
Nimrods head. Inf. XXXI, 59.
Phaton: In Greek mythology, the son of Helios, the
sun god. To prove his paternity, he asked his father
to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun for one
day. Unable to control the horses, Phaton almost
destroyed the earth, but was killed by Zeus.
Used as a simile for fear in Inf. XVII, 106
108.
Used as a reference to the sun. Purg. IV, 73.
Philip IV of France (12681314): King from 1285,
122

his reign is memorable for many reasons. In particular he is famous for having shattered the temporal
ambitions of the popes.
In the sphere of the moon, she explains to

Dante the varieties of blessedness among those
in Paradise. Par. III, 34120.
Probably an allusion to the accusation that

Clement V had got his ponticate by promising to pay Philip. Inf. XIX, 87.
Pier da Medicina: Apparently a political intriguer in

Romagna, of whom little is known. Early commentators say he sowed discord between the Malatesta
and Polenta families.
Phlegethon: River of re, in Greek mythology,

one of the rivers of Hades.
Boiling river of blood. Inf. XII, 4748.
Encountered and described. Inf. XIV, 7690.
Identied as the red stream boiling. Inf.
XIV, 130135.
Its deafening roar compared to the waterfall near the monastery of San Benedetto
dell'Alpe. Inf. XVI, 91110
Phlegra: In Greek mythology, the site of Zeus's
defeat of the Giants (Gigantes) at the end of the
Gigantomachy. Inf. XIV, 58.
Phlegyas: In Greek mythology he was the ferryman
for the souls that cross the Styx. Inf. VIII, 1024.
Phoenix: Mythical bird, which at the end of its lifecycle, burns itself to ashes, from which a reborn
phoenix arises.
Foretells the betrayal and doom of Guido

and Angiolello, and points out Curio. Inf.
XXVIII, 6399.
Pier della Vigna (c. 11901249) Minister of
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. He fell from
favour in 1347 and subsequently committed suicide.
Punished amongst the suicides in Inf. XIII,
28108.
Pier Pettinaio: (11801289) Sienese comb-seller remembered for his piety and honesty. Siena established a festival in his memory.
Sapia, a woman among the envious in Purgatory, says that his prayers have assisted her.
Purg. XIII, 128.
Pierides: Daughters of Pierus, king of ancient
Macedon, who entered into a contest with the
Muses.
Mentioned in Purgatory. Purg. I, 11.
Its description here is derived from Ovid's

Metamorphoses (XV, 392407). Inf. XXIV,
107111.
Pilate: Roman governor of Judea, responsible for

the crucixion of Jesus.
Pholus: A wise Centaur and friend of Herakles.

Inf. XII 72.
Philip IV of France compared to Pilate in his

humiliation of Pope Boniface VIII. Purg. XX,
91.
Photinus, a deacon of Thessalonica.

Anastasius.
See
Pia de' Tolomei: A Sienese woman allegedly murdered by her husband, Paganello de' Pannocchieschi, who had her thrown from a window in
Maremma.
She asks for Dantes prayers when he encounters her waiting to enter Purgatory among souls
who died suddenly and unprepared. Son Pia,
Siena mi f, disfecemi Maremma. (I am
Pia. Siena made me; Maremma unmade me.)
Purg. V, 130136.
Pias story is the theme of an opera by
Donizetti.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Pia in 1868.
Piccarda: Sister of Dantes friend Forese Donati
who failed to carry out her lifelong monastic vow
.
Pillars of Hercules: Name given to the promontories

the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe and Monte Hacho near Ceuta in Africa that ank the entrance
to the Strait of Gibraltar. According to legend,
Heracles (Hercules), on his way to steal the cattle
of Geryon split a mountain in half, thereby forming
the Strait of Gibraltar and connecting the Atlantic
Ocean to the Mediterranean. The pillars marked
the western boundary of the classical world, beyond
which it was not safe to sail.
Ulysses describes sailing past these boundary
stones to the see the world which lies beyond
the sun. Inf. XXVI 106116.
Pinamonte dei Bonacolsi: An able and shrewd
politician he took advantage of the ghts between Guelphs and Ghibellins that were dividing
Mantua to establish himself in 1273 as supreme
ruler of the city, founding a Signoria that was kept
by his family till 1328.

His deviousness in ousting Alberto da Casalodi. Inf. XX, 9596.
Pisistratus: Athenian tyrant of the 6th century BCE.
His wife angrily demanded the life of a young man
seen embracing their daughter in public. Pisistratus
refused to succumb to anger and gives a mild reply.
Seen by Dante in a vision as he enters the terrace of the angry in Purgatory. Purg. XV,
94105.
Pistoia: A Tuscan town which in Dantes time had
lost much of its autonomy, becoming a sort of
Florentine dependency.
Vanni Fucci prophesies the exile of the Black
Guelphs from the town. Inf. XXIV, 143.
123
Polynices: See Eteocles

Polyxena: Trojan daughter of Priam and Hecuba.
In some accounts, Achilles fell in love with her, and
was killed while visiting her. At the demand of
Achilles ghost, Polyxena is sacriced on Achilles
tomb.
With whom Achilles nally met lovein his
last battle. Inf. V, 65.
Her death helps drive Hecuba mad with fury.
Inf. XXX, 1618.
Pompey: Pompey the Great (106 BCE - 48 BCE).
Famous patrician Roman general.
Invective against the town. Inf. XXV, 1012.
Cited as a virtuous Roman in the days of the

Roman Republic. Par. VI, 52.
Plato: Greek philosopher and teacher of Aristotle.

In Dantes day, his writings were less inuential than
those of his student.
Priam: King of Troy, husband of Hecuba, father of

Hector and Paris.

134.
Mentioned by Virgil as one who would if
reason couldhave been content. Purg. III,
43.
Beatrice corrects Dantes mistaken ideas about
the eternal destiny of souls which he gathered
from Platos Timaeus. Par. IV, 2963.
Plautus: Roman poet of the 2nd century BCE.
Plutus: In Greek mythology, he was the personication of wealth. Dante almost certainly conated
him with Pluto, the Roman god of the Underworld.
He is found in the fourth circle of Dantes hell, in
which the greedy and prodigal are punished. Inf.
VII, 115.
Pola: Italian seaport (now part of Croatia) famed for
its Roman necropolis.
Simile for the tombs in the sixth circle. Inf.
IX, 112.
King when Troy was brought down. Inf.

XXX, 15.
Asked Sinion to tell the truth about the Trojan
horse. Inf. XXX, 114.
Priscian: Eminent Latin grammarian active in 500s
who wrote the Institutiones grammaticae, extremely
popular in the Middle Ages.
Brunetto Latini to Dante. Inf. XV, 109.
Proserpina: Roman goddess whose story is the myth
of springtime. She was the daughter of Ceres and
wife of Pluto, king of the underworld. In Greek
mythology her name is Persephone.
Queen of never-ending lamentation. Inf.
IX, 44.
Moon goddess whose face is kindled once a
month. Inf. X, 79.
When Dante sees Matilda gathering owers
in Terrestrial Paradise, he is reminded that
Proserpina was doing the same when he was
abducted by Pluto. Purg. XXVIII, 4951.
Polycletus: Ancient Greek sculptor, famous for his

realism.
Ptolemy (c.
85165): Greek geographer,
astronomer, and astrologer. His geocentric theory
of the universe was the standard astronomical
model of Dantes day.
Wall carvings in Purgatory compared to his

work. Purg. X, 32.

142.
Polydorus: See Hecuba.

Polymestor: Ancient king of Thrace. He killed
Polydorus, young son of the Trojan King Priam,
to steal the treasure that the boy possessed.
Puccio Sciancato: Of the noble Ghibelline Florentine Galigai family, he was exiled in 1268 after the
Guelphs triumph, but accepted the peace brokered
in 1280 by Cardinal Latino to reconcile the factions.
He was nicknamed Sciancato (lame).
124

Among the thieves. Inf. XXV, 148150.
Pygmalion: Ancient King of Tyre. He murdered his

uncle and brother-in-law to obtain their wealth.
Remembered as an example of greed by souls
in the terrace of the greedy. Purg. XX, 103
105.
Pyrrhus: Either Achilles's son Neoptolemus, killer
of Priam and many other Trojans, or Pyrrhus of
Epirus, could be intended, although the latter was
praised by Dante in his Monarchy (II, ix, 8).
Pyrrhus of Epirus cited as an early enemy of
Rome. Par. VI, 44.
7.2.17
Qui lugent": (Who mourn) An abbreviation

of Beati qui lugent quoniam ipsi consolabuntur.
(Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted) (Mat 5:4; 5:5 in the Vulgate)
Spoken by an angel as Dante passes out of the
terrace of the slothful. Purg. XIX, 50.
Quintius: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (520430
BCE). Ancient Roman noble who assumed dictatorial powers in a crisis and then promptly relinquished
them to return to his farm. The city of Cincinnati,
Ohio, is named in his honor.
Cited as an exemplar of ancient Roman virtue.
Par. VI, 4647.
7.2.18
Rachel: Sister to Leah, second wife of Jacob, and

mother of six of the tribes of ancient Israel, including Joseph and Benjamin. She was the more attractive of the two sisters, but Jacob was tricked into
marrying her second. (Gen 29:1625) She symbolises the contemplative life in the Comedy.
Companion of Beatrice in Heaven. Inf. II,
102.
Inf. IV, 60.
In a dream, Dante hears Leah mention her
beautiful sister. Purg. XXVII, 103108.
Rehoboam: King of ancient Israel. He was the son
of Solomon and succeeded him on the throne. Because of his oppressive taxation, the northern tribes
revolted and formed an independent kingdom.
Depicted on the pavement in Purgatory as example of arrogance. Purg. XII, 46.
Rejoice, you who have overcome. (Godi tu che

vinci!"): A paraphrase combining Rejoice and be
exceeding glad, (Mat 5:12) with To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life (Rev 2:7).
Heard by Dante in Purgatory as he departs the
terrace of the envious. Purg. XV, 39.
Rhea: See Cronus.
Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo: Highwaymen
who lived in Dantes day. Pazzo was excommunicated by Pope Clement IV, in 1268
Richard of St. Victor: One of the most important 12th-century mystic theologicans. A Scot, he
was prior of the famous Augustinian abbey of SaintVictor in Paris from 1162 until his death in 1173.
His writings on mystical contemplation won him the
title Magnus Contemplator, the great contemplator.
He whose meditation made him more than
man. Par. X, 130.
Rubaconte: Former name of the bridge now known
as Ponte alle Grazie in Florence. Located at the foot
of a hill.
Compared to the path of ascent in Purgatory.
Purg. XII, 102.
Rudolf I, King of the Romans (12731291).
Dante sees him in the Valley of the Princes,
waiting to enter Purgatory. Rudolph is described as he who neglected that which he
ought to have done, perhaps a reference to his
failure to come to Italy to be crowned Emperor
by the Pope. Purg. VII, 9196.
Ruggiere degli Ubaldini: See Ugolino della Gherardesca.
Jacopo Rusticucci: Florentine Guelph of Guido
Cavalcanti's guild, active in politics and diplomacy.
by him. Inf. XVI, 190.
Blames his wife for his sin: '"e certo fu la era
moglie pi ch'altro mi nuoce. Inf. XVI, 43
5.
Questions Dante about Borsiere's reports of
the moral decay of Florence, which have
caused great anguish for him and his companions. Inf. XVI, 6672.
125
Represents (with the other two sodomites)

past civic virtue, providing an opportunity for
Dante to rail against La gente nuova e i sbiti
guadagni (newcomers and quick gains), as
the cause of Florentine decadence. Inf. XVI,
735.
7.2.19
Sabellus and Nasidius: Two soldiers of Cato's army

in Lucan's poem Pharsalia (IX, 761804), who
are bitten by snakes, while marching in the Libyan
Desert, after which their bodies transform. Sabellus transforms into a rotting formless mass; Nasidius swells, then bursts.
Their cruel fate is compared to that of the
Sabine Women: Young women abducted by Roman
youths in the early days of Rome. Par. VI, 41.
Gustave Dor's depiction of Satan from John Miltons Paradise
Saladin: 12th-century Muslim leader renowned for
his military prowess, generosity, and merciful attitude to his opponents during the Crusades.
129.
Salve Regina: Hymn to the Virgin Mary used in
evening services. The song addresses Mary from
the vale of tears.
Sung at sunset by souls in waiting to enter Purgatory in the Valley of the Princes. Purg.
VII, 83.
Samaria: Region north of Jerusalem and west of the
Jordan River. According to John 4:428, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well. Their dialogue is about spiritual thirst.
Dantes eagerness to learn the meaning of the
earthquake in Purgatory is compared to spiritual thirst. Purg. XXI, 14.
Sardinia: Italian Island north of Tunisia and south of
Corsica. In Dantes time it was plagued by malaria.
Sickness from July until September.
XXIX, 4648.
Inf.
Sannella: (Simonetti della Sannella) Italian noble

family, latter known as Simonetti, one of the ancient
Florentine families from the time of Cacciaguida.
Mentioned together with other noble families, such as: Arca, Soldanier, Ardinghi, and
Bostichi Par. XVI.
Lost.
Sapphira: early Christian woman who died along

with her husband after they confessed to withholding money promised to the Church. (Acts 5:111)
Cited as an example of greed by souls on the
terrace of the greedy. Purg. XX, 112.
Satan: Biblical angel who embodies evil and is the
greatest foe of God and mankind.
Encountered frozen in Cocytus at the center
of the earth. Inf. XXXIV, 2867
Depicted in a pavement carving falling from
heaven as an exemplar of arrogance. Purg.
XII, 25.
Saturn: Seventh and outermost planet in the
geocentric planetary theory in Dantes day.
Known as the cold planet, it and the moon
draw heat away from the earth at night. Purg.
XIX, 12.
Saul: First king of ancient Israel. He died by falling
on his own sword after losing a battle at Gilboa.
exemplar of arrogance. Purg. XII, 40.
Gianni Schicchi: Disguised as the Florentine Buoso
Donati, who had just died, he dictated a new will,
bequeathing to himself Donatis best mare.
With his tusks he drags o Capocchio, after
which Griolino of Arezzo tells of Schicchis
impersonation. Inf. XXX, 2245.
126
Scipio: Roman general (236183 BCE) who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama.
The giant Antaeus lived in the valley where
the battle of Zama was fought. Inf. XXXI,
115.
Cited as a hero of the Roman Republic. Par.
VI, 52.
Scorpius: Constellation in the form of a Scorpion
and sign of the Zodiac.
Dante sees stars at dawn in the form of an
animal that assails with its tail. Purg. IX, 5.
Scorpius is on the meridian line when Dante
enters the terrace of the lustful. Hence is it 2
P.M. in Purgatory. Purg. XXV, 3.
Michael Scot (c. 11751234): Scottish mathematician, philosopher, alchemist and astrologer, honoured by popes and emperors, especially Frederick
II, he developed a popular reputation as a magician
and seer.
Damned among the soothsayers. Of him it is
said che veramente de le magiche frode seppe
'l gioco. Inf. XX, 115117.
Second Punic War: The second of the wars fought
between Carthage and Rome (219202). According
to Livy, Hannibal sent to Carthage a pile of gold
rings from the ngers of thousands of slaughtered
Romans.
The long war where massive mounds of rings
were battle spoils. Inf. XXVIII, 1012.
Semele: See Hera.
Semiramis: Legendary gure who was, in Dantes
day, believed to have been sexually licentious after
the death of her husband Ninus.
Found amongst the sexual sinners. Inf. V, 52
60.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c.
4 BCE 65
CE): Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist,
forced to commit suicide by Nero for his participation in the Pisonian conspiracy, called morale
(moral), by Dante.
141.
Serchio: A river near Lucca.

Leisurely oating on ones back in this river is
contrasted, by the Malebranche, with the different kind of swimming by the barrators in
the lake of boiling pitch. Inf. XXI, 49.
Seven Deadly Sins: A list developed by Christian
moralists of the principal vices. They include Pride
(superbia), Greed (avaritia), Lust (luxuria), Envy
(invidia), Gluttony (gula), Anger (ira), and Sloth
(acedia).
Dantes Purgatory is structured in seven levels
where souls are purged of these vices before
entering Paradise. Virgil explains them in order of ascent.
Pride is hope of excellence through the abasement of another. Purg. XVII, 115117.
Envy is love of misfortune of another when
the other excels. Purg. XVII, 118120.
Anger is seeking anothers harm after being
injured by another. Purg. XVII, 121123.
Sloth is love for the Good which is slack.
Purg. XVII, 130132.
Greed, Gluttony & Lust are excessive selfabandonment (troppo sabbandona) to the
lesser goods of possessions, food & drink, and
sexual desire. Purg. XVII, 136139.
Sextus Pompeius: Son of Pompey the Great and opponent of Julius Caesar, portrayed by Lucan as a
cruel pirate (Pharsalia VI, 420422).
Shepherd: reference to the Pope as chief shepherd
of the Christian ock.
Criticized for failure to distinguish spiritual
and secular powers. He can chew the cud
(has wisdom) but does not have cleft hooves
(have both spiritual and temporal authorities).
See Lev 11:3. Purg. XVI, 9899. He also
has joined the sword to the shepherds crook.
Purg. XVI, 109110.
Sichaeus: First husband of Dido and ruler of Tyre,
he was murdered by Didos brother.
It is remembered that Dido ruppe fede al
cener di Sicheo. Inf. V, 62.
Sennacherib: King of Assyria (705681 BCE). According to II Kings, he led a failed siege against
Jerusalem where his army was wiped out by plague
sent by God. He then was murdered by his own sons.
Sicilian bull: A brazen gure of a bull used as an

instrument of torture. The echoing screams of its
victims, roasting inside, were thought to imitate the
bellowing of a bull. It was created by Perillus for the
tyrant Phalaris. Its creator was also its rst victim.

It would always bellow with its victims voice.

Inf. XXVII, 712.

Silvester I: A saint, he was Pope from 314 to 335. In
the Middle Ages, supported by a forged document
called the "Donation of Constantine", it was believed that he had baptized Constantine and cured
him of leprosy, and as a result, that he and his successors had been granted rule over Rome and the
Western Roman Empire. For Dante, this event was
the beginning of the ever increasing worldly wealth
and power of the papacy, and the corruption that
went along with it.
The rst rich father!" Inf. XIX, 117.
Guido da Montefeltro compares Silvester
being sought by Constantine to cure his leprosy, with himself being sought by Boniface to
ease the fever of his arrogance. Inf. XXVII,
9495.
Simon Magus: The magician (or proto-Gnostic) of
Samaria. In the Acts of the Apostles (8:924) he is
rejected by the apostle Peter for trying to buy the
ability to confer the Holy Spirit. From his name is
derived the word Simony.
His followers fornicate for gold and silver.
Inf. XIX, 14.
Simonides: Greek poet of the 5th century BCE.
Simony: Sin of selling or paying for oces or positions in the church hierarchy (cf. barratry).
One of the sins of ordinary fraud punished in
the eighth circle. Inf. XI, 59.
Dante arrives in the 3rd Bolgia of the eighth
circle where the Simoniacs are set upsidedown in rock pits, with their exposed feet in
ames. Inf. XIX, 1117.
Sinon: In Virgils Aeneid, he was a Greek warrior
during the Trojan War, who, having pretended to
change sides, convinced the Trojans to bring the
Trojan Horse into Troy, thus allowing the Greek soldiers hidden within it to climb out after dark, open
the gates to the city, and let in the Greek army, who
then captured the city.
127
Sitiunt": (They thirst.) Abbreviation of Beati

qui esuriunt et sitiunt iustitiam quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. (Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satised.) One of the Beatitudes preached by Jesus in
Matthew 5.
Heard by Dante as he departed the terrace of
the greedy in Purgatory. Purg. XXII, 6.
Socrates: Greek philosopher.
134.
Reginaldo Scrovegni: One of the richest Paduan
bankers. In expiation of his fathers sin, his son Enrico commissioned the Cappella degli Scrovegni in
1300 that was frescoed by Giotto.
Among the usurers. Inf. XVII, 6475.
Sodom: Biblical city, which during the Middle
Ages, became associated in Christian thinking with
the "sin" of homosexuality. Sodomy, like usury,
was viewed as a sin against nature.
Used to locate the sodomites as being punished
in the last ring of the seventh circle. Inf. XI,
50.
Sodom and Gomorrah is recited penitentially by one group on the terrace of the lustful.
Purg. XXVI, 40.
Solomon: Biblical king; son of King David; proverbially the wisest of men.
Not named, but called the high mind blessed
to know to such great depths, no second ever
rose who saw so much by Thomas Aquinas
in the sphere of the Sun. Par. X, 109114.
Spendthrift Club (Brigata Spendereccia): A group
of rich young Sienese nobles, devoted to squandering their fortunes on foolish extravagances and entertainments. Arcolano of Siena was a member.
Among the falsiers, he is one of two liars

pointed out by Master Adam. inf. XXX 98.
Four of its members described by Capocchio:

Stricca, Niccol", Caccia d'Asciano and
Abbagliato. Inf. XXIX, 125132.
Siren: Seductive chimera, half-woman and halfbird, who lures sailors to shipwreck on rocks with
her singing.
Sordello: 13th-century Italian troubadour, born in

Goito near Virgils home town Mantua.
Appears to Dante in a dream. Purg. XIX,

733.
Beatrice tell Dante that other women are
sirens on his spiritual journey. Purg. XXXI,
44.
In Purgatory he personies patriotic pride.

Purg. VI, 74.
Statius: Publius Papinius Statius (c. 45 c. 96).
Roman poet of the Silver Age and author of the Silvae, the Achilleid and the Thebais.
128

Dante and Virgil encounter him in the level
of Purgatory reserved for the avaricious, and
he accompanies them on the rest of their trip
through Purgatory. Purg. XXIXXXIII.
In a story created by Dante, Statius tells how
reading Virgil converted him to Christianity.
There is no historical evidence that Statius was
a Christian. Purg. XXII, 6491.
Stricca: See Spendthrift Club.

Strophades: See Harpies.
Styx: One of the rivers encircling Hades in the
Aeneid (VI, 187, 425).
Encountered and described. Inf. VII, 100
129.
Summae Deus clementiae": (God of highest
mercy.) Latin monastic hymn sung on Saturday
mornings. Its third verse calls on God to consume
our loins with a re of divine love.
Sung by souls on the terrace of the lustful in
Purgatory. Purg. XXV, 121.
Tiresias appears to Odysseus during the nekyia of Odyssey xi, in
Swallow (Rondinella): Songbird. According to this watercolor with tempera by the Anglo-Swiss Johann Heinrich
Ovid, Philomela, a princess from Athens, was raped Fssli, c. 178085
by Tereus and then transformed into a songbird, generally identied as a nightingale.
Dante mentions the birds song as a harbinger
of dawn in Purgatory. Purg. IX, 14.
Sylvius: See Aeneas.
Syrinx: Mythological Greek nymph who, escaping
her sexual delement, ed to a river and was converted into a hollow reed which sang as the wind
blew.
Alluded by Dante as the musical reason for his
sleep in Paradise. Purg. XXXII, 66.
7.2.20
Tagliacozzo: Site of a defeat by Manfred's nephew

Conradin, by Charles of Anjou, who, following the
advice of his general Erard (Alardo) de Valery,
surprised Conradin, with the use of reserve troops.
Where old Alardo conquered without
weapons. Inf. XXVIII, 178.
Tarpeian Rock: cli on the Capitoline Hill in Rome,
where an ancient temple to Saturn was located.
Compared to the gate of Purgatory. Purg. IX,
135.
Aeneas defeats Turnus, Luca Giordano, 16341705, The genius

of Aeneas is shown ascendant, looking into the light of the future,
while that of Turnus is setting, shrouded in darkness.
Tarquin: Last king of Rome, he was overthrown by

Lucius Junius Brutus, considered the founder of
the Republic.
Taurus: Zodiac constellation in the form of a bull.
When Dante enters the terrace of the lustful
in Purgatory, Taurus is on the meridian line.
129
Hence it is 2 P.M. in Purgatory. Purg. XXV,

3.

137.
Te Deum laudamus: We praise Thee, O God. Ancient Latin hymn sung in the morning monastic ofces. Also sung in special occasions of celebration.
Thaumas: Greek sea god, whose daughter is Iris, the

goddess of rainbows.
Heard by Dante as he enters Purgatory. Purg.

IX, 141.
Te lucis ante: To Thee before the close of day.
Latin hymn sung at Compline, the nal monastic
prayer oce of the day.
Souls in the Valley of the Princes sing the
hymn at the end of the day. Purg. VIII, 13
17.
Telemachus: Son of Odysseus (Ulysses) and
Penelope, he plays an important role in the Odyssey.
In the lost Telegony he appears to have married
Circe and been granted immortality.
Not even Ulysses love for his son (and wife
and father) was enough to overrule his desire
to gain experience of the world and of the
vices and the worth of men. Inf. XXVI, 94
9.
Temple: reference to the Templars, a military order
founded during the Crusades.
Forcibly dissolved in 1307 by Philip IV of
France to obtain their vast wealth. Purg. XX,
9193.
Terence: Publius Terentius Afer. Roman playwright
of the 2nd century BCE.
Terrestrial Paradise: According to the Comedy, Terrestrial Paradise is the Garden of Eden where the
original man and woman rst lived. (Gen 2 & 3) It
is located at the top of the mountain of Purgatory.
The events of Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII in
the Purgatorio take place there.
Thebes: City of Ancient Greece.
Statius tells Dante and Virgil that he composed the Thebaid, an epic poem on the history of Thebes. I sang of Thebes. Purg.
XXI, 92.
Thas: A courtesan in Terence's Eunuchus. Perhaps
misled by Cicero's commentary (De amicitia XXVI,
98), he places her among the atterers.
Virgil contemptuously calls her puttana
(whore). Inf. XVIII, 127135.
Thales (c. 635 543 BCE): Greek philosopher.
Statius comments that rainbows do not occur

in Purgatory. Purg. XXI, 5051.
Themis: Greek goddess of divine justice and one of
the Oracles of Delphi.
Beatrice compares her own obscure oracles
about the future to those of Themis or the
Sphinx. Purg. XXXIII, 47.
Theobald V of Champagne (c. 12381270): The eldest son of Theobald IV of Champagne, on his death
in 1253 he succeeded him as Count of Champagne
and, as Theobald II, king of Navarre. He died childless in 1270.
The good king Theobald (buon re
Tebaldo). Inf. XXII, 52.
Theological Virtues: Virtues granted to believers by
Gods grace. They include Faith, Hope and Love.
Symbolized by three stars visible from
Purgatory. Purg. VIII, 93.
Symbolized by three women dancing at the
right wheel of the chariot in the Pageant of
the Church Triumphant. Purg. XXIX,
121129.
Theseus: Legendary king of Athens who visited the
underworld and, in the version used by Dante, was
rescued by Herakles.
His name invoked by the Erinyes. Inf. XI,
54.
The Duke of Athens who killed the
Minatour. Inf. XII, 17.
Helped to defeat drunken Centaurs at
Hippodamias wedding feast. Purg. XXIV,
23.
Thetis: Noble ancient Greek woman.
Peleus and mother of Achilles.
Wife of

Thisbe: In a tale by Ovid (Metamorphoses IV,55
166), Thisbe and Pyramus are lovers in ancient
Babylon separated by a wall.
Dante alludes to them when a wall of re separates him from Beatrice. Purg. XXVII, 37
39.
Thymbraeus: An epithet of Apollo derived from the
town Thymbra, where there was a temple dedicated
to him.
130

In Purgatory, Thymbreaus (Apollo) is depicted on the pavement casting Briareus from
Olympus. Purg. XII, 31.
Tiber: River which runs through Rome and empties

into the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Souls bound for Purgatory wait on the seashore
for the angelic ferry. Purg. II, 101.
Tigris and Euphrates: Rivers in the Middle East.
According to Genesis 2, they had their origins in the
Garden of Eden.
Dante compares these two rivers to the two
rivers he sees in Terrestrial Paradise. Purg.
XXXIII, 112.
Timaeus: A dialogue of Plato where the celestial
source and destiny of the human soul are discussed.
Beatrice corrects Dante of mistaken ideas he
drew from this dialogue. Par. IV, 2263.
Tiresias: A mythical blind soothsayer who was
transformed into a woman and then back into a man,
seven years later. He has an important role in classical literature, including the Odyssey.
His double transformation is told. Inf. XX,
405.
Father of Manto. Inf. XX, 58, Purg. XXII,
113.
Tisiphone: see Erinyes.
Tithonus: Trojan lover of Eos, Titan of the Dawn.
Mentioned in reference to dawn in Purgatory.
Purg. IX, 1.
Titus: Roman Emperor (7981). As a general, he
completed the campaign to put down a Jewish revolt
and recapture Jerusalem in 70 CE. Par. VI, 9293.
Tomyris: Queen of the Massagetae in the 6th century BCE. According to Herodotus, Cyrus the Great
led a failed invasion of her lands. After his defeat
and death in battle, Tomyris plunged his severed
head into a wineskin lled with blood.
Cyrus death is depicted on the pavement in
Purgatory as an example of arrogance. Purg.
XII, 56.
Torquatus: Titus Manlius Torquatus, Consul and
Dictator in Rome during the 4th century, BCE.
Cited as an example of the noble Roman. Par.
VI, 46.
Tours: City in France. Pope Martin IV was treasurer of the church there when he was elected pope
in 1281.
Trajan: Roman Emperor (98117) at the height
of the Empire. According to Medieval legend, he
was posthumously converted to Christianity by Pope
Gregory the Great.
Appears depicted in a wall carving as an exemplar of humility, granting justice to a widow.
Purg. X, 7393.
Troy: Also called Ilium, the site of the Trojan
War, described in Homer's Iliad, and the home of
Aeneas. The Greeks were victorious by means of
the wooden Trojan Horse, which the Greeks left as
a gift for the Trojans. The Trojans brought the
horse through the gates into their walled city, and
the Greek soldiers who had hid inside the horse were
able to open the gates and let in the rest of the Greek
army.
Aeneas escape. Inf. I, 73.
That horses fraud that caused a breach. Inf.
XXVI, 5860.
Trojan (meaning perhaps, through Aeneas,
their Samnite descendants) wars in Apulia.
Inf. XXVIII, 79.
Statius tells Dante and Virgil that he was from

the age of Titus. Purg. XXI, 82.
The pride of Troy dared all but was destroyed. Inf. XXX, 1315.
Tityas: Son of Gaia. Tityus was a giant killed by

Zeus for attacking Leto.
Destruction of Troy depicted on the pavement in Purgatory as an example of arrogance.

Purg. XII, 61.

XXXI, 124.
Tobit: Protagonist of the ancient Jewish book of the
same name. Tobit is conducted on a journey by the
Archangel Raphael.
Beatrice tells Dante that Raphael may have appeared in human form, but that this form is
Tullio/Tully: See Cicero.

Turnus: A chieftain of the Rutuli whose conict
with Aeneas is the subject of the second half of the
Aeneid, at the end of which he was killed by Aeneas
in single combat (Aeneid II, 919) one of those
who died for Italy. Inf. I, 106108.
Tristan: Hero of medieval French romance, he was a
Cornish Knight of the Round Table, and adulterous
lover of Isolde.

Tuscany: region of Italy where Florence is located.
Typhon: Son of Tartarus and Gaia. Typhon was a
giant with a hundred serpent heads.
XXXI, 124.
7.2.21
Ugolino della Gherardesca: Leader of one of two

competing Guelph factions in Pisa. In 1288 he conspired with the Archbishop Ruggiere degli Ubaldini
to oust the leader of the other faction, his grandson
Nino de' Visconti. Ugolino was, in turn, betrayed
by Ruggiere and imprisoned with several of his sons
and grandsons. They all died of starvation in prison.
Found with Ruggiere amongst those damned
for treason. Inf. XXXII, 124XXXIII 90.
Ulysses: See Odysseus.
Usury: The practice of charging a fee for the use
of money; viewed by the medieval church as a sin
because it went contrary to the idea that wealth is
based on natural increase, which was believed to be
a gift from God.
Explained by Virgil to Dante. Inf. XI, 97
111.
131
Varro: Either Publius Terentius Varro or Lucius

Varius Rufus. Both were Roman writers of the 1st
century BCE.
Venerable Bede: See Saint Bede.
Venetian Arsenal: Shipyard and naval depot for
Venice, built c. 1104, in Castello sestiere, it was one
of the most important shipyards in Europe, and was
instrumental in maintaining Venice as a great naval
power.
Described. Inf. XXI, 715.
Veni, sponsa, de Libano (Come with me from
Lebanon, my spouse.) (Song of Solomon 4:8)
Sung by the elders representing the books of
the Old Testament in the Pageant of the
Church Triumphant. Purg. XXX, 1012.
Venite, benedicti Patris mei. (Come, blessed of
my Father.) (Mat 25:34)
Sung by an angel as Dante nishes the last purgation. Purg. XXVII, 58.
Venus: Roman goddess of love. In Greek mythology
she was known as Aphrodite.
Dante compares the loving eyes of Matilda to
those of Venus inspired by her son Cupid.
The usurers are punished in the seventh circle

Inf. XVII, 3475.
Vespers: Evening monastic prayer service. As a reference to a period of time, Vespers is 3 P.M. to 6
P.M.
Urania: The ancient Muse of Astronomy. She became the Muse of poets describing sacred themes.
Used to indicate the time of day. Purg. III,

25; XV, 6; XV, 139.
Dante invokes her in Purg. XXIX, 41.
7.2.22
Vinum non habent": They have no wine. (John

2:3) Words spoken by Mary to Jesus at the wedding
feast at Cana to prompt him to supply more wine for
the feast.
Heard by souls in the terrace of the envious as
a lesson in generosity. Purg. XIII, 29.
Virum non cognosco": (I have not known a man.)
The Virgin Marys response to the angels announcement of the virgin birth of her son Jesus.
Recited penitentially by souls on the terrace of
the lustful in Purgatory. Purg. XXV, 128.
Volto Santo (Holy face) of Lucca: An early
Byzantine crucix made of very dark wood, greatly
venerated as having been miraculously created.
Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia by

Jean-Baptiste Wicar, Art Institute of Chicago
Used by the Malebranche to mock the

pitch-blackened face and body of one of the
barrators (perhaps Bottario). Inf. XXI, 46
8.
132
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (October 15, 70 7.2.24 X

19 BCE): Latin poet. He serves as Dantes guide
through the Inferno and Purgatorio. In the ab- 7.2.25 Y
sence of texts of Homer, the readers in the Middle
Ages considered Virgils Aeneid to be the great 7.2.26 Z
epic poem of the Classical world. In Dantes time,
many believed that Virgil had predicted the arrival
Michel Zanche (d. 1290): Governor of the
of Christianity in lines from his Eclogue IV: at the
giudicato of Logudoro, in Sardinia. He adminisboys birth in whom/the iron shall cease, the golden
tered the province for King Enzo, son of the Emrace arise (trans John Dryden). This made him
peror Frederick II. When Enzo was made prisoner
doubly suited to his role as guide. He also symbolin 1249, his wife divorced and married Zanche. The
ises Reason. Virgil accompanies Dante from Inf. I,
latter ruled Logudoro till 1290, when he was mur61 to Purg. XXX, 54.
dered by his son-in-law Branca Doria.
Sudden appearance. Inf. I, 613
The light and honor of all other poets (Mandelbaum). Inf. I, 82
Dantes inspiration. Inf. I, 8587
Oers to be Dantes guide. Inf. I, 1124
In Purgatory, the poet Statius claims that Virgils Aeneid was his poetic inspiration. It was
my mother and my nurse. Purg. XXI, 97
98.
In a story created by Dante, Statius relates
how reading Virgils Eclogue IV helped to convert him to Christianity. Per te poeta fui,
per te cristiano. (Through you I became a
poet; through you a Christian.) There is no
evidence that Statius was a Christian. Purg.
XXII, 6493.
Departs from Dante without saying farewell.
Purg. XXX, 4954.
Vitaliano del Dente: Paduan banker, he was podest
of Vicenza in 1304 and of Padua in 1307.
His future damnation as a usurer is foretold
by Reginaldo Scrovegni. Inf. XVII, 689.
Vulcan: In Roman mythology, blacksmith of the
gods and, with the help of the Cyclops, maker of
thunderbolts for Jove.
From whom Jove took in wrath the keenedged thunderbolt. Inf. XIV, 527.
7.2.23
Among the barrators. Inf. XXII, 8890.

Zion: Mountain in Jerusalem where Solomons
Temple was constructed.
Used as a metonym for Jerusalem. Purg. IV,
69, 75.
Zeno of Elea (c. 490 c.
presocratic philosopher.
430 BCE): Greek

138.
Zeus (also Jove or Jupiter): Chief god of Classical
mythology.
Deed by Capaneus, he kills him with a thunderbolt Inf XIV, 4375.
An Eagle (the bird of Jove), representing
the Roman Empire, attacks the young Church
in the Pageant of Church History. Purg.
XXXII, 109117.
Saint Zita (c. 12151272): Canonized in 1696, she
is the Patron saint of all maids and domestics. In
her city, Lucca, she was already, in life, an object
of popular devotion and reputed a saint. In Dantes
time, her fame had already made her a sort of patron
saint of her city. The Elders of Saint Zita were ten
citizens of Lucca who, along with the chief magistrate, were the rulers of the city.
An elder of Saint Zita (perhaps Bottario) is
plunged into a lake of boiling pitch with the
barrators. Inf. XXI, 3554.
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (12781305).

Dantes sees him with his father Ottokar II
in the Valley of the Princes. He is a laterepenter waiting to enter Purgatory. Purg.
VII, 102.
7.2.27 References
Dante
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Inferno, translated by Allen Mandelbaum, (Bantam Classics 1982) ISBN 0-553-21339-3.

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, bilingual edition with commentaries and notes,
J. A. Carlyle, P.H. Wicksteed and T. Okey
(translators), H. Oelsner, (notes), Temple
Classics, 3 vols. 18991901. Republished by
Vintage (July 12, 1955). ISBN 0-394-701267.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry F. Cary. The Harvard Classics. Vol. XX. (New York: P.F. Collier &
Son, 190914). Also: Kessinger Publishing
(January 2004). ISBN 0-7661-8184-7.
The Inferno, bilingual edition with commentaries and notes, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander (New York: Doubleday, 2000). ISBN 0-385-49697-4.
The Divine Comedy of Dante, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow (translator), Kessinger
Publishing (June 30, 2004). ISBN 1-41915994-1. Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise.
Fay, Edward Allen. Concordance of the Divina
Commedia, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Dante Society, 1888) ISBN 0-8383-0183-5.
Jaco, Rachel (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to
Dante (Cambridge: University, 1993) ISBN 0-52142742-8.
Lansing, R., The Dante Encyclopedia, Garland; 1
edition (April 6, 2000). ISBN 0-8153-1659-3.
Ryan, Christopher. The Theology of Dante in Jaco (1993) pp. 136152.
Toynbee, Paget. Concise Dictionary of Proper
Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante
(Oxford: University, 1914) ISBN 0-87753-040-8.
Bosco-Reggio, La Divina Commedia, Inferno (Milano, Le Monnier 1988) ISBN 88-00-41242-4
Vittorio Sermonti, Inferno di Dante (Milano, Rizzoli
2001) ISBN 88-17-86068-9
Giovanni Andrea Scartazzini La Divina Commedia
riveduta e commentata - (18741890, 4 vol.)
Giovanni Andrea Scartazzini Enciclopedia dantesca: dizionario critico e ragionato di quanto concerne la vita e le opere di Dante Alighieri - (1896
1898, 2 vol.)
7.2.28
External links
Parker, Deborah World of Dante Website with

searchable database of cultural references in the Divine Comedy.
133
Chapter 8
In popular culture
8.1 Dante Alighieri and the ''Divine Comedy'' in popular culture
foreign campaigns have used Dantes gure and his

works. Some recent examples are the Telecom Italia
mobile and Foxy spots.
8.1.2 Animations, comics, and graphic
The works of Dante Alighieri particularly the Divine

novels
Comedy, widely considered his masterpiece have been
a source of inspiration for various artists since their pub(Alphabetical by title)
lications in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Some
notable examples are listed below.
In the 1946 Merrie Melodies cartoon Book Revue,
starring Day Duck, the Big Bad Wolf falls into the
Hell depicted in Dantes Inferno after hearing Frank
Sinatra singing.
The short animation, Dantes Hell Animated (2014),
featuring Eric Roberts as Dante, is based on Dino di
Durante's original paintings of Dantes Inferno.
Dantes Inferno: The Graphic Novel (2012) by
Joseph Lanzara utilizes the 1857 illustrations by
Gustave Dor from Dantes Divine Comedy in the
form of a comic book inspired by the poem.[1]
The main antagonist of the rst anime adaptation of the anime/manga series Fullmetal Alchemist
(2001) is a woman named Dante, who controls seven
homunculi (which are featured in all versions of Fullmetal Alchemist) that are named after the seven
deadly sins and each of which represent one of the
seven terraces of purgatorio. They also suer deaths
or injuries similar to the punishment associated with
the terrace each is named after. The Gate in this series is visually represented by Rodin's sculpture The
Gates of Hell.
Eagle-eyed viewers of Code Geass R2s rst episode
may have spotted that Lelouch is reading Dantes
Divina Commedia (Purgatorio Canto XXII) while
Rollo gives him a lift.[2]
Dante of Erminio Blotta, at Bd. Oroo, Rosario
8.1.1
Advertising
Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy appear in

many ads, as the book Dante & la pubblicit (of
Delio De Martino, Levante editori, Bari, 2013) displays. From late 1800 until today many Italian and
134
In an episode of the animated comedy series

Futurama titled "Hell is Other Robots (1999)", the
character Bender is dragged to robot hell, the entrance of which is hidden in an abandoned carnival
ride called Inferno. In a musical sequence, the levels of hell are described, each level complete with
ironic punishments.
8.1. DANTE ALIGHIERI AND THE ''DIVINE COMEDY'' IN POPULAR CULTURE

Jimbo in Purgatory: being a mis-recounting of
Dante Alighieris Divine Comedy in pictures and
un-numbered footnotes, a 33-page graphic novel by
Gary Panter, an adaptation of Dantes Purgatorio
(melded with Boccaccios Decameron and a bit of
Canterbury Tales, John Milton, John Dryden, and
pop culture references).
DC/Vertigo comics Kid Eternity (which premiered
in Hit Comics #25, published by Quality Comics in
December 1942.), in which Kid and his companion
Jerry Sullivan travel to a Dante-inspired Hell to free
a partner of Kids. The structure of the comic also
draws features from Dantes Inferno.
DC/Vertigo comics's Lucifer, based on characters
from Neil Gaimans The Sandman, featuring aspects
of a Dante-inspired Hell and Heaven, particularly
the Primum Mobile and Nine sections of Hell.
Mickeys Inferno is a comic book adaptation written by Guido Martina and drawn by Angelo Bioletto featuring classic Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck published by the then-Italian Disney comic book licensee Mondadori in the monthly Topolino from
Oct. 1949 to March 1950. An English-language
version appeared in Walt Disneys Comics and Stories #666 [March 2006].
The visual novel and anime series Umineko no Naku

Koro ni contains several elements from the Divine
Comedy, including two characters named Beatrice
(as the Golden Witch), Virgilia (as the Endless
Witch) and the Stakes (Seven Deadly Sins).
The anime adaptation has an ending theme entitled La Divina Tragedia ~Makyoku~, named
after the title La Divina Comedia. Makyoku
is the opposite of Shinkyoku, Divine Comedy's Japanese title.
The
fourth
Uncanny
X-Men
Annual,
Nightcrawlers Inferno, chronicles the descent of Doctor Strange and the X-Men into a
facsimile of Hell based on Dantes Inferno, to
rescue Nightcrawler from an illusion created by
his adopted mother, who blames him for the death
of his adopted brother (Unaware of the fact that
Nightcrawler only killed his brother because the
other man had become a murderer).[4]
In Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 5 Calcabrina
brainwashes the sta of the Jean Grey School of
Higher Learning.
The Cartoon Networks miniseries Over the Garden Wall took a lot of inspiration from the novel,
as both started with the protagonist (Dante/Wirt
and Greg) lost in a dark place (A Jungle/The Unknown).
Norm Feuti referenced Inferno in his comic strip

Retail on December 8, 2007; Cooper places a
plague with inscription Lasciate ogne speranza, voi
8.1.3
ch'intrate over the stockroom door.[3]
The anime, Saint Seiya, more specically in the arc
Hades Inferno has, not only personages, but all the
structure of the hell based on the circles of Dante,
but here being called the 9th Prisons.
135
Architecture
The Danteum is an unbuilt monument designed by

the Italian modernist architect Giuseppe Terragni at
the behest of Benito Mussolini's fascist government.
The Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires, completed in

1923, was designed in accordance with the cosmol An issue of the rst volume of comic book adaptaogy of Dantes Divine Comedy, motivated by Italian
tions of Star Trek by DC Comics, Hell in a Handarchitect Mario Palanti's admiration for Dante.[5]
basket, involves Captain Kirk and his crew being
subjected to a telepathic hallucination of Hell, as described in The Divine Comedy, when an ill telepath
who was recently reading the book generates an il- 8.1.4 Digital arts and computer games
lusion that turns the entire Enterprise- save for the
bridge, due to its distance from him- into Hell, forc- Digital Arts
ing the senior sta to descend through a Hell pop iDante: interactive version of the poem for the
ulated by crewmembers who have subconsciously
iPad and iPhone featuring fully colorized illustra'judged' themselves to nd the telepath so that Spock
tions from Gustave Dor, 3D reconstructions of key
can mind-meld with him and restore his sense of reenvironments, iconic maps of Hell, Purgatory and
ality.
Paradise
Ty Templeton parodied Dante in his Stigs Inferno
The Inferno embedded operating system takes its
(1985-1986).
name and the names of many of its components
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic series features a
from the Divine Comedy, such the Dis virtual maheavily Dante-inspired Hell, including the woods of
chine, its implementation of the 9P protocol (Styx),
Suicide, the Malebolge, and the City of Dis. Lucifer
the main programming language Limbo, and the
Charon web browser. This was allegedly because
is also imprisoned in Hell.
136
CHAPTER 8. IN POPULAR CULTURE

Ken Thompson was reading the Commedia while
working on the design of Inferno.
Games
Pandemonium, the highest-level zone in the Anarchy
Online expansion Shadowlands, is split into four
parts, each named after one of the four parts of the
Ninth Circle.
In Bayonetta, they used many references to the Divine Comedy. Rodin, one of Bayonettas allies,
owns a store called Gates of Hell. There are also
three realms that the witch can travel between; they
are called Purgatory, Paradiso and Inferno.
Rodins name on its own is a reference as well, after
the sculptor Auguste Rodin, who sculpted a statue
based on Inferno called the Gates of Hell.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn
of Sorrow feature several spear-wielding ying
demons named after the Malebranche: Cagnazzo,
Scarmaglione, Rubicant, Draghignazzo, Barbariccia
and Malacoda. Rubicant and Scarmaglione are mistranslated as Lubicant and Skull Millione.
Beyond Software wrote Dantes Inferno in 1986 for
the Commodore 64.
Dantes Inferno is a 2010 action-adventure video
game developed by Visceral Games and published
by Electronic Arts for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation
3 consoles. The game was also developed by
Articial Mind and Movement for release on the
PlayStation Portable. The story is loosely based on
Dantes Inferno.
Dantes Inferno: An Animated Epic is a directto-DVD animated lm released on February
9, 2010. The lm is a spin-o from the above
video game.
Dantes Inferno is a series of six comic books
based on the above video game. Published
by WildStorm from December 2009 through
May 2010, the series was written by Christos
Gage with art by Diego Latorre.
In Day of the Tentacle, when you play as Bernard you
can tell the Novelty Goods Salesman that he looks
like Dante Alighieri.
In Descent II, the rst level is titled Ahayweh Gate,
an acronym for the words at the gate of Hell, All
Hope Abandon Ye Who Enter Here.
In the game Devil May Cry, the protagonists name
is Dante, his brother is Vergil, and Dantes partnerin-crimes name is Trish, a derivative of the name
Beatrice.
Devil May Cry 3: Dantes Awakening, a video game

in the Devil May Cry series, is very loosely based on
the Divine Comedy by the use of allusions, including
the games protagonist Dante, and other characters
like Vergil and Cerberus. Many of the enemies are
named after the Seven Deadly Sins, such as Hell
Pride or Hell Lust.
In Devil May Cry 4, when the player dies the screen
will shatter and read 'Abandon all hope...'. A portion titled 'The Ninth Circle' is designed around a
massive statue of a devil. One of the characters
in the game, Agnus, is named after the Agnus Dei,
prayer for the Third Terrace of Purgatory in the Divine Comedy. Also the game has special mode where
one of the protagonists must progress through 101
stages. On the Xbox 360 version the player receives
a gaming achievement for every ten levels completed
up to the ninth. These achievements are named after the nine circles of hell. The games references to
Dantes works go beyond the Divine Comedy, since
the last mission is called La Vita Nuova.
In DmC Devil May Cry, Limbo City (named after
the rst circle of the Inferno) is the main location of
the games events. The city appears as a dreary landscape, but transforms into a twisted, chaotic parody
of itself whenever Dante is caught in the sight of one
of the citys demonic security cameras.
The third episode of the video game Doom, appropriately called Inferno, takes place in Hell, in such
places as Limbo and Dis.
The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons named
some levels of the Nine Hells after locations in
Dantes Inferno. The game also borrowed the name
malebranche for one diabolical race, although the
original write-up mistranslated that word as evil
horn.[6]
The Planescape setting, in particular, borrows
many elements from the book (some wholesale, some piecemeal), and much of the expanded cosmology, with dimensions for the
dead based on alignment and most dimensions
having many separate layers, are inspired by
those seen in the Inferno.
The cross-genre role-playing game Shadowrun features Dantes Inferno as the most popular club in
the Seattle metroplex. The club is nine stories tall
and the bottommost oor is a private oor marked
Hell.
Europa Universalis 3 features advisors that the
player hires to his court - the Philosophers portrait
is modeled after Dante.
In Fallout 3, there is a bar called The 9th Circle in
the city of Underworld. The bars bouncer is named

Charon; a robot guarding the city is named Cerberus.
Final Fantasy IV features four Elemental Lords
named Rubicante, Scarmiglione, Barbariccia, and
Cagnazzo, after members of the Malebranche. A
mid-game boss, Calcabrina, also has the name of a
Malebranche demon. Also, there exists a superboss
in the DS version named Geryon.
Final Fantasy V features yet another Malebranche,
Farfarello.
Also, Final Fantasy VI's nal boss resembles a
colossal mass of Satan entrapped to his waist (Hell),
humans, animals and machinery (Purgatory), and
a strange but yet angelic duo of celestial entities
atop the totem of non-existence (Heaven), with the
insane Kefka as the deity of magic and death ying above who tells the players that life is meaningless once they scale his tower of destruction. In
the French localization of the series as a whole, the
recurring summon Ifrits ultimate attack is directly
named after the Divine Comedy.
In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, the nal level
takes place in Hell and is appropriately named
Lous Inferno, a possible reference to Dante.
Halo 3: ODST contains many references to the
poem. For example, the Rookie is called into Section Nine, which is very icy and cold, similar to the
ninth ring of Hell. In addition, the players guide
through the end of the game is called Vergil. Further, there are characters in the game that correspond to each of the sins.
137
The music in the nal chapter has a choir eerily

singing lines from Inferno, and the nal boss actually quotes it before entering his chamber.
In Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation,
Judecca, Levi Tolar's personal unit, uses attacks
named after the four zones of the ninth circle of
Hell.
Tamashii no Mon (translation: Gate of Souls) is
a computer game developed by Koei and released
on the PC98 computer system in 1994. It is an adventure that closely follows Dantes journey through
Inferno.
In The Last Remnant, there is a boss that is loosely
based on the Gates of Hell. The background music
that plays while ghting this boss is also called The
Gates of Hell.
In 1999s Theme Park World, the advisor says,
Abandon hope all ye who enter here, at the start
of Halloween World. This is a reference to Inferno.
In Wild Arms 2, there is a gang called Cocytus, whose members are named Caina, Antenora,
Ptolomea, and Judecca.
In World of Warcraft, a sign before the entrance to
Deadwind Pass states, Abandon All Hope, Ye Who
Enter Here.
The trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh! recently released
a series of cards known as Burning Abyss. All
cards in the series are based on the Eighth Circle of
Hell and the Malebranche, including Dante, Virgil,
and Beatrice.
In the 1995 computer adaptation of Harlan Ellison's

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Dantes Divine
8.1.5 Literature
Comedy is the book that contains a hidden mirror in
the Lords Bedroom in Teds Scenario.
Georey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400) is responsible
for a number of translations and adaptations of, and
Pathways into Darkness features a level called Lasexplicit references to, Dantes work.[7]
ciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate, the phrase
written above the gate of Hell in the original Italian
version of the Inferno.
In Persona 3 FES, areas are called Malebolge, Cocytus, Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, Judecca, and
Empyrean.
The fth act of Rainbow Six: Vegas takes place in
a casino that is under construction called Dantes.
The rst chapter is called Hells Gate.
The 2012 game Resident Evil: Revelations references Dantes Inferno extensively, as a bioterrorist organization, Il Veltro, believes society has
degraded into a living version of the nine circles.
Verses of the poem are provided at the start of each
level. A number of enemies in the game are named
after the Malebranche also featured in the poem.
A Complaynt to His Lady, an early short

poem, is written in terza rima, the rhyme
scheme Dante invented for the Comedy.
Anelida and Arcite ends with a compleynt
by Anelida, the lover jilted by Arcite; the
compleynt begins with the phrase So thirleth
with the poynt of remembraunce and ends
with Hath thirled with the poynt of remembraunce, copied from Purgatory 12.32, la
punctura di la rimembranza.
The House of Fame, a dream vision in three
books in which the narrator is guided through
the heavens by an otherworldly guide, has been
described as a parody of the Comedy. The narrator echoes Inferno 2.32 in the poem (2.58892).
138

The Monks Tale from The Canterbury Tales
describes (in greater and more emphatic detail) the plight of Count Ugolino (Inferno, cantos 32 and 33), referring explicitly to Dantes
original text in 7.2459-62.
The beginning of the last stanza of Troilus and
Criseyde (5.1863-65) is modelled on Paradiso
12.28-30.[8]
John Milton nds various uses for Dante, whose

work he knew well:[9]
Milton refers to Dantes insistence on the separation of worldly and religious power in Of
Reformation, where he cites Inferno 19.115117.
Beatrices condemnation of corrupt and neglectful preachers, Paradiso 29.107-9 (so that
the wretched sheep, in ignorance, / return from
pasture, having fed on wind) is translated
and adapted in Lycidas 125-26, The hungry
Sheep look up, and are not fed, / But swoln
with wind, and the rank mist they draw, when
Milton condemns corrupt clergy.
The title of Honor de Balzac's work La Comdie
humaine (the Human Comedy, 1815-1848)
is usually considered a conscious adaptation of
Dantes.,[10] whilst Dante himself features as a
character in the 1831 novel Les Proscrits from that
work.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who translated the
Divine Comedy into English, also wrote a poem titled Mezzo Cammin (Halfway, 1845), alluding to the rst line of the Comedy,[11] and a sonnet
sequence (of six sonnets) under the title Divina
Commedia (1867), published as yleaves to his
translation.[12]
Samuel Beckett in his non-ction essay Dante...

Bruno. Vico.. Joyce, published in "Our Exagmination Round His Factication for Incamination
of Work in Progress" (1929), compares Joyces reassessments of the conventions of the English language to Dantes departure from Latin and synthesis
of Italian dialects in the Divine Comedy.[18]
Turkish poet Cahit Stk Taranc's famous poem
"Otuz Be Ya" (lit. "Thirty Five Years") is beginning
with the verses which contains a citation of Inferno:
"Ya otuz be! Yolun yars eder / Dante gibi ortasndayz mrn" ("Age thirty ve! It is half of way / We
are in the middle of life like Dante") winned the Best
Turkish Poem Prize in 1946.[19]
Primo Levi cites Dantes Divine Comedy in the chapter called Canto of Ulysses in his novel Se questo
un uomo (If This Is a Man) (1947), published in the
United States as Survival in Auschwitz, and in other
parts of this book; the res of Hell are compared to
the real threat of the res of the crematorium.[20]
Malcolm Lowry paralleled Dantes descent into hell
with Georey Firmins descent into alcoholism in
his epic novel Under the Volcano (1947). In contrast
to the original, Lowrys character explicitly refuses
grace and chooses hell, though Firmin does have a
Dr. Virgil as a guide (and his brother, Hugh Firmin,
quotes the Comedy from memory in ch. 6).[21]
Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote extensively about
Dante,[17][22] included two short texts in his
Dreamtigers (El Hacedor, 1960): Paradiso, XXXI,
108 and Inferno, I, 32, which paraphrase and
comment on Dantes lines.[23][24]
Poet Derek Walcott, in 1949, publishes Epitaph for
the Young: XII Cantos, which he later acknowledged
as deliberately inuenced by Dante.[17]
Karl Marx uses a paraphrase of Purgatory (V, 13) to

conclude the preface to the rst edition of Das Kapital (1867), as a kind of motto: Segui il tuo corso,
e lascia dir le genti (follow your own road, and let
the people talk).[13]
James Merrill published his Divine Comedies, a collection of poetry, in 1976; a selection in that volume,
The Book of Ephraim, consists of conversations
held, via the Ouija board, with dead friends and spirits in 'another world.'"[25]
In E. M. Forster's novel Where Angels Fear to Tread

(1905), the character of Gino Carella, upon rst
introducing himself, quotes the rst lines of Inferno[14] (the novel includes several references to
Dantes La Vita Nuova as well).[15]
Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote a

modern sequel, Inferno (1976), in which a science
ction author dies during a fan convention and nds
himself in Hell, where Benito Mussolini functions as
his guide. They wrote a subsequent sequel to their
own work, Escape from Hell (2009).[26][27]
T. S. Eliot cites Inferno, XXVII, 61-66, as an epigraph to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
(1915).[16] Eliot cites heavily from and alludes to
Dante in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917),
Ara vus prec (1920), and The Waste Land (1922).[17]
First begun in 1916, Ezra Pound's Cantos take the
Comedy as a model.[17]
Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills (1985) uses Dantes Inferno as a model for the trek made by two young
black poets who spend the days before Christmas
doing odd jobs in an auent African American
community. The young men soon discover the price
paid by the inhabitants of Linden Hills for pursuing
the American dream.[28]

Author Monique Wittig's Virgile, Non (published in
English as Across the Acheron, 1985) is a lesbian
feminist retelling of the Divine Comedy set in the
utopia/dystopia of second-wave feminism.
Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho (1991) begins
with the words Abandon all hope ye who enter
here.[29]
The character of Beatrice in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is the deceased love of the
narrator. She is an allusion to Beatrice Portinari.
The main characters of Stephen King's Wizard and
Glass (1997) have to cross a door within a building reminiscent of the palace of the Wizard from
the lm The Wizard of Oz: The sign on this door
wasn't from the movie, and only Susannah knew it
was from Dante. Abandon hope, all ye who enter
here, it said.[30]
Mark E. Rogers used the structure of Dantes hell
in his 1998 comedic novel Samurai Cat Goes to
Hell (the last book in the Samurai Cat series),
and includes a gate to hell whose inscription reads
YOU'VE HAD YOUR FUN / YOU'VE MADE
YOUR BED / YOU'RE BOUND FOR HELL /
NOW THAT YOU'RE DEAD / ABANDON ALL
HOPE YE THAT ENTER HERE.[31]
Irish poet Seamus Heaney publishes a poem on the
front page of the Irish Times (18 January 2000) that
begins with a translation of Paradiso 33.58-61.[32]
The Amber Spyglass (2000) by Philip Pullman includes several references to Dantes vision of hell,
including the concept of Harpies, an ascent along
the inty steps in the Eighth Circle of Hell (Inferno,
Canto XXVI); and the two main characters emerging from their experience of hell back onto the earth
to look at the stars (last line of Inferno).
Nick Tosches's In The Hand of Dante (2002) weaves
a contemporary tale about the nding of an original
manuscript of the Divine Comedy with an imagined
account of Dantes years composing the work.[33]
Inferno by Peter Weiss (written in 1964, published
in 2003) is a play inspired by the Comedy, the rst
part of a planned trilogy.[34]
The Dante Club is a 2003 novel by Matthew Pearl
that tells the story of various American poets translating The Divine Comedy in post-civil war Boston,
who must also investigate murders being committed
based on the punishments in the text, due to their
desire to protect Dantes reputation and the fact that
only they have the necessary expertise to understand
the murderers motivations.[33]
139
scar Esquivias in his trilogy of novels Inquietud en

el Paraso (2005), La ciudad del Gran Rey (2006)
and Viene la noche (2007) shows his personal vision
of Dantes Divine Comedy.[35]
Pope Benedict XVI said that part of his rst
encyclical, Deus caritas est (2006), was inspired by
Canto XXXIII of Paradise.[36]
In the novel The Tenth Circle (2006) by Jodi Picoult,
the main characters comic strip, The Tenth Circle, is based on the Inferno [37]
Dante himself is a character in The Master of Verona
(2007), a novel by David Blixt that combines the
people of Dantes time with the characters of Shakespeares Italian plays.[38]
Robert Penn Warren references Dantes Divine
Comedy on the opening page of his novel All the
Kings Men with a line from Purgatory, III: Mentre
che la speranza ha or del verde, meaning As long
as hope still has its bit of green.
Paul Thigpens novel My Visit to Hell is an extended
parable about hell in which he borrows the moral
topography of . . . Dantes 'Inferno.'" It is an adaptation of his earlier novel, Gehenna, published in
1992, and what Thigpen refers to as the latest addition to a genre of such literature known as tours
of hell." His contemporary interpretation produces
more impact with its explicit references to historical
gures and issues reective of todays culture.[39]
S.A. Alenthonys novel The Infernova is a parody
of the Inferno as seen from an atheists perspective,
with Mark Twain acting as the guide.[40]
Wayne Barlowe's book, Barlowes Inferno (1998),
containing paintings of Hell and an accompanying
narrative, is partially inspired by Dantes Inferno.
Dan Brown's Robert Langdon thriller "Inferno" was
inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy. It was released on May 14, 2013.
Sylvian Reynards's Gabriels inferno (2012) a modern day version of Dante and Beatrice, with many
references to Dante. These books are based on the
forbidden love between a Dante specialist/lecturer
and a student. Romance novels. Gabriels inferno,
Gabriels rapture and Gabriels redemption. First
book published in 2012.[41]
In 2004 and 2005, Giulio Leoni publishes two crime 8.1.6 Movies and television
novels, I delitti del mosaico and I delitti della luce
(Also see Animations, comics and graphic novels)
respectively, in which Dante is an investigator.[33]
140
Films
The 1911 silent lm, L'Inferno, was directed by
Giuseppe de Liguoro, starred Salvatore Papa and
released on DVD in 2004, with a soundtrack by
Tangerine Dream.
The 1924 silent lm, Dantes Inferno, directed by
Henry Otto, features the 1911 lm, L'Inferno.
The 1935 motion picture, Dantes Inferno directed
by Harry Lachman, written by Philip Klein, and
starring Spencer Tracy, is about a fairground attraction based on Inferno. The lm features a 10-minute
fantasy sequence visualizing Dantes Inferno.
The Swedish 1972 comedy The Man Who Quit
Smoking (Mannen som slutade rka), directed by
Tage Danielsson, is partly inspired by The Divine
Comedy. For example, the main character is named
Dante Alighieri and goes through a personal hell.
The 1975 Pier Paolo Pasolini lm Sal, or the 120
Days of Sodom is set in four segments inspired by
Dantes Divine Comedy: the Anteinferno, the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of
Blood.
Stan Brakhage's eight-minute hand-painted lm,
The Dante Quartet (1987), is inspired by the Divine
Comedy.
Peter Greenaway adapted Cantos I to VIII for BBC
Two as A TV Dante (19871990).
In the 1990 lm Jacobs Ladder, the lms namesake
character can be seen reading through a compilation
of The Divine Comedy during one scene.

Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 lm Notre musique is structured in three parts, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
respectively, alluding to the Divine Comedy.
In 2003, Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, references
the ninth circle of Hell when speaking to Barbossas
cursed pirates.
The rst scene of the movie Clerks II (2006) is titled
Dantes Inferno.
The lm Dantes Inferno (2007) is based on Sandow
Birk's contemporary drawings of the Divine Comedy. The lm accurately retells the original story, but
with the addition of more recent residents of Hell
such as Adolf Hitler and Boss Tweed.
In the movie The Bucket List, businessman Edward
Cole (Jack Nicholson) asks if his employees have
ever read the Divine Comedy during a board meeting.
In the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009),
Buck warns the troupe, Abandon hope, ye who enter here!"
The lm Pandorum (2009) makes several allusions
to The Divine Comedy.
The short documentary Dantes Inferno Abandon All Hope (2010) is based on Gustave Dore's
lithographs of the Divine Comedy and the 1911 silent
lm, L'Inferno.
A 3D live-action lm trilogy based on the three
parts of the Divine Comedy produced by a company
known as Master Films Productions is in the works.
It is directed by Boris Acosta, and involves people
who have worked on lms such as The Lord of the
Rings.
Krzysztof Kielowski planned to create a new trilogy

inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy after nishing The Three Colors Trilogy (19931994). This intention, however, was abandoned after his death in
In Ghostbusters II, the mayor of New York makes
1996 until Tom Tykwer decided to shoot the lm
mention of the city being sucked down into the
Heaven in 2002, using Kieslowskis original screententh level of Hell.
play. In 2005, Bosnian director Danis Tanovi directed L'Enfer (Hell) based on Kieslowskis screenplay sketches. The screenplay was completed by Television
Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Kieslowskis screenwriter.
Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother (2010) recites part of the Divine Comedy in episode 22 of the
The motion picture Se7en (1995) stars Brad Pitt and
5th season.
Morgan Freeman as two detectives who investigate
a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven
Various episodes of Mad Men refer to Dantes levels
deadly sins. This lm makes many references to
of Purgatory and Hell:
Dantes Divine Comedy.
When Don and Betty separate, Don moves
Liar Liar (1997) has the character Fletcher Reed deto a furnished apartment on "Waverly and
scribe himself as descending into the seventh circle
Sixth"
(as he tells the cab driver in the Seaof Hell, which is the circle of self-inicted pain.
son 4 episode, "The Summer Man"). In The
The lm Hannibal (2001) features quotes from
Summer Man, Don works to curtail his alDantes Divine Comedy with reference to Averros'
coholism, which according to the Purgatorio,
eternal damnation.
would place him on the sixth terrace, reserved
141
for the gluttonous who over-emphasized food,

drink, and bodily comforts.[42]
Mad Men's season six premiere, "The Doorway", features Don Draper reading The Inferno while lying on a Hawaiian beach with
his wife. It is later shown the book was given
to him by a woman with whom Don is having
an aair (the wife of his friend and downstairs
neighbor, Dr. Rosen).
Franz Liszt's Symphony to Dantes Divina Commedia

(completed 1856) has two movements: Inferno
and Purgatorio. A concluding Magnicat is included at the end of the Purgatorio movement
and replaces the planned third movement, which
was to be called Paradiso (Liszt was dissuaded by
Richard Wagner from his original plan). Liszt also
composed a Dante Sonata (started 1837, completed
1849).
The 2005 4th season of the BBC drama series

Messiah: The Harrowing focuses on a serial killer
who takes inspiration from Inferno to punish his or
her victims.
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky's 1876 Francesca da Rimini (subtitled Symphonic Fantasy After Dante) is
a symphonic poem based on an episode in the fth
canto of the Inferno.
Various episodes of The Sopranos refer to the

Dantes circles of Hell. For example:
Giacomo Puccini's 1918 one-act opera Gianni

Schicchi is drawn from a brief reference to the title
character in the Inferno.
In "Whoever Did This" (2002), a TV journalist reports how a boom microphone accidentally knocked Uncle Junior down nine, no
seven steps at the courthouse where Juniors
Racketeer Inuenced and Corrupt Organizations Act trial was being held.
In "Join the Club" (2006), Tony has a recurring
coma-dream in which he checks into Room
728 (i.e., level seven) at the Omni hotel in
Costa Mesa, using the identity of non-maa
civilian Kevin Finnerty. When the hotel elevator is out of commission, Tony descends a red
staircase, slips, and falls to level ve. Tonys
surgeon, Dr. Plepler, tells Tonys wife, sisters
and daughter they're lucky Tonys at a Level 1
trauma center. (Level one is Limbo[43] ).
The Insurance Appraiser in the Season 5 episode
Basic Story of Community recites from Paradiso,xvii.58 as he climbs the short staircase in the
entrance of Greendale Community College: And
you shall nd that salt is the taste of another mans
bread, and hard is the way up and down another
mans stairs.
In the Tenth season of Criminal Minds, The case in
the second episode, Burn, tracks the actions of a
serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the punishment in each circle of Hell .
In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 13
episode Theatre Tricks, Dantes Inferno was the
chosen play of an interactive theatre group where an
actress ended up raped on stage during the Second
Circle (Lust).
8.1.7
Music
In Claudio Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo, the

title character is bombarded with the famous line
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate[44] as he attempts to enter the underworld.
Henry Barraud's cantata for ve voices and 15 instruments, La divine comdie, based on Dantes text
and composed in 1972.
The name of the early 1980s Minimal Electronic
band Nine Circles originates from Dantes Nine
Circles of Hell.[45]
American Metal band Anthrax on their debut album
Fistful of Metal contains the song Howling Furies.
The opening line is Abandon all hope for those who
enter.[46]
Singer-songwriter Toni Childs' song, I've Got
Many Rivers (to Cross)" refers obliquely to the ve
rivers of Hell as they appear in the Inferno.
F.M. Einheit of Einstrzende Neubauten and
Andreas Ammer collaborated on an experimental
recording called Radio Inferno, a radio play adaptation of the Comedy.
Tangerine Dream has released albums setting all the
three parts of The Divine Comedy to music: Inferno
is a recording of a live performance at the St Marien
zu Bernau Cathedral in 2001, and Purgatorio is a
studio album from 2004.
The band STYX is named after the river of death
found in Greek mythology and in Dantes Inferno.
Folk singer Loreena McKennitt's song Dantes
Prayer, the nal track on her 1997 album The Book
of Secrets, is based on Dantes work.
Canadian post-rock group as the Poets Arm
took their name from a passage in the Inferno.
Asaki's rst album, Shinkyoku, is also the name of
the Comedy in Japanese Kanji.
The Bright River is a hip-hop retelling of the Inferno
by a traditional storyteller, Tim Barsky, with a live
soundtrack performed by hip-hop and klezmer musicians.
142
In Weezer's album Make Believe, released May 10,
2005, there is hidden text in the pictures. The text
reads Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita.
The song Roll Right on the album Evil Empire by
Rage Against the Machine contains the refrain 'Send
'em to tha seventh level!' referencing the seventh
circle (or level) of Hell, where the violent are held.
German Dark Electro band yelworC has made two
albums of a trilogy based on the three canticas of
the Divine Comedy, so far 'Trinity' and 'Icolation'.
Australian goth-electro band The Tenth Stage has
a self-titled track (2006) that describes the singers
descent past the nine stages of Dantes poem to a
10th stage of Hell.
Technical death metal guitarist Fredrik Thordendal
(from the Swedish Death metal band Meshuggah)
used quotes from the Divine Comedy in the song
Dantes Wild Inferno from his solo album Sol
Niger Within.
The song Canto IV (Limbo)" from Progressive music group Discipline's album Unfolded Like Staircase describes the sorrow of those souls whose never
knew a deity.
New Jersey band The Gaslight Anthem referenced
the Comedy in their song The Navesink Banks
from the album Sink or Swim with the opening line,
All hope abandoned, ye who enter here.
Italian progressive rock band Metamorfosi has released two concept albums based on the Divine Comedy, Inferno (in 1972) and Paradiso (2004).
Dantes work provided a name for the Irish band The
Divine Comedy (1989).
The video for Depeche Mode song "Walking In My
Shoes" (1993), directed by Anton Corbijn, was inspired by the Comedy.
Milla Jovovich's 1994 debut album was called The
Divine Comedy.
Metal band Iced Earth's album Burnt Oerings
(1995) contains the epic song "Dantes Inferno.
Norwegian Black metal band Ancient's second album The Cainian Chronicle (1996) contains the song
At The Infernal Portal (Canto III).
Zao refer to the Divine Comedy on their 1999 album
Liberate Te Ex Inferis, covering the rst ve circles
of the Inferno.
Punk singer Mike Watt's third solo album, The Secondmans Middle Stand (2004), is a concept album
that derives its structure from The Divine Comedy

The fth song, I Found Away, on American punk
rock band Alkaline Trios sixth album, Agony &
Irony, includes the opening lines of The Divine
Comedy read by English musician Douglas P.
The rst song on metal band Decadence's debut album (2005), Wrathfull and Sullen, is inspired by
the fth level of Hell.
Robert W. Smith's The Divine Comedy (CD, 2006)
is a four-movement symphony for wind ensemble
that depicts four stages of Dantes journey in a tone
poem-like symphonic structure. The movements are
The Inferno, Purgatorio, The Ascension, and
Paradiso.
Indie band Murder By Death's album In Bocca al
Lupo (2006) is a concept album partially based on
the poem.
Thrash metal band Sepultura's tenth album, Dante
XXI (2006), is based on The Divine Comedy.
Professor Fate's album Inferno (2007) was inspired
by the Comedy.
Finnish rock band HIM's album Venus Doom (2007)
consists of nine songs represent the nine circles of
hell as described by Dante.
Dutch composer Louis Andriessen's 2008 lm
opera in ve parts La Commedia incorporates texts
from Vondel and the Old Testament, in addition to
The Divine Comedy. The 5 parts are The City of
Dis, or The Ship of Fools, Racconto dall'Inferno,
Lucifer, The Garden of Delights, and Luce
Etterna.[47]
American composer Daniel Bukvich composed a
three-movement suite called (Divina Comedia) in
2009, for choir and mixed percussion.
The Finnish progressive rock magazine Colossus and
Musea records produced three multi-disc boxsets
dedicated to each of the canticas of the Divine
Comedy - Inferno (2008), Purgatorio (2009) and
Paradiso (2010) - with the participation of several
bands such as Yesterdays, Little Tragedies, Nathan
Mahl and Phideaux.
On his album Human the Death Dance (2007)
American underground hip-hop artist Sage Francis
uses stanzas from Dantes Inferno sung in Italian
during the chorus of the song Black Out on White
Night.
In Green Days album 21st Century Breakdown
there is a song called Christians Inferno that depicts
one of the protagainsts of the album doing the same
as Dante

Austrian gothic metal band Dreams of Sanity's al- 8.1.9
bum Komdia is partially based on The Divine Comedy.
143
Sculpture
American hardcore punk band AFI has a song on

their fourth album whose chorus uses a line from
the Inferno: Beyond and to all time I stand
American post-hardcore band Alesana's fourth album, A Place Where the Sun Is Silent is primarily
based on the Inferno.
Mexican death metal band Transmetal released El
Inerno de Dante in 1993. It was also released as
Dantes Inferno in an English version of the album.
Laudi alla Vergine Maria is Movement 3, for
womens voices, of Giuseppe Verdis Quattro Pezzi
Sacri (Four Sacred Pieces, 1888). The text is taken
from the opening lines of Canto 33 of Paradiso.
Italian power metal band Luca Turillis Rhapsody's
rst album Ascending to Innity includes a song titled Dantes Inferno.
British rapper and saxophonist Soweto Kinch's album The Legend of Mike Smith is based on the Inferno, and includes songs named for the nine circles
of hell.
American progressive metal band Symphony X's
2015 album Underworld is based on the Inferno.
Inferno is a progressive/psychedelic rock album by Rodin's The Gates of Hell, Muse Rodin.
Pietro Cottone, neuroscientist and musician. Inferno is a concept album based on Dantes symbolic journey into Hell. In Inferno a voice recites
Auguste Rodin's sculptural group, The Gates of Hell,
verses from the rst Cantica of the Divine Comedy.
draws heavily on the Inferno. The component sculpInferno was released in 2015, during the 750th anture, Paolo and Francesca, represents Francesca da
niversary of Dantes birth.
Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, whom Dante meets in
Canto 5.[48] The version of this sculpture known as
Composer Robert Kyr is composing a new cantata
The Kiss shows the book that Paolo and Francesca
based on Dantes Paradiso from the Divine Comwere reading. Other component sculptures include
edy, on a libretto by Dante translator Robin KirkUgolino and his children (Canto 33) and The Shades,
patrick, commissioned by the University of Notre
who originally pointed to the phrase "Lasciate ogne
Dame. The premiere will take on October 8 and 9,
speranza, voi ch'intrate" (Abandon all hope, ye who
2016, at the University of Notre Dame.
enter here) from Canto 3.[48] Sculptures of Grief
and Despair cannot be assigned to particular sections of the Inferno, but are in keeping with the over8.1.8 Radio shows
all theme. The famous component sculpture The
Thinker, near the top of the gate, represents Dante
In the fourth series of Bleak Expectations, the second
himself.[48] Like The Kiss, it was also produced as
episode spoofs Dantes Inferno. The underworld is dean independent work.
picted as a resting place for all souls before they enter
their respective heavens or hells. Pip is guided through
the underworld by Virgil Grimpunch when he goes there
to bring her soul back after going into a near death expe- 8.1.10 Visual arts
rience while in Parliament. He nds her in Elysium with
Giovanni di Paolo illuminated in 1441 Dantes ParAchilles.
adiso.
Inferno Revisited, a modernised interpretation of Dante
Sandro Botticelli made the most famous set of ilwritten by Peter Howell, was rst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 17 April 1983.
lustrations during the Renaissance for a manuscript
144

four frescoes in the Dante Room of the Villa Massimi.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, the prolic 19th century academic artist, painted Dante And Virgil In
Hell in 1850.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Dantes Vision of Rachel
and Leah (1855) references Dantes dream in Purgatorio XXVII.
Dante and Beatrice (1884) by Henry Holiday
Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian British paintings relating to Dante include: Dante and Beatrice (1884)
by Henry Holiday; Dantes Dream (1871) and Beata
Beatrix (1872), both by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Gustave Dor made the most famous illustrations in
the 19th century.
Franz von Bayros, mainly known for his erotic drawings, illustrated a 1921 edition.
Salvador Dal made a series of prints for the Comedy
in 1950-51 .[17]
Elisabeth Sonrel, scenes from Dante Alighieris and his Divine

Comedy, la vita
of the Divine Comedy commissioned by Lorenzo

Pierfrancesco de' Medici; Botticelli also designed
a series of illustrations for the 1481 edition of the
poem.[49] Another interesting series was done by
Stradanus.
Giovanni Britto illuminated a commentary La Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione
written by Alessandro Vellutello and printed in 1544
by Francesco Marcolini.
John Flaxman's illustrations were inuential across
Europe in the Eighteenth century because of their
radically minimalist style.
Eugne Delacroix made his name with The Barque
of Dante (1822), a painting depicting Dante and Virgil crossing the river Styx.
Before his death in 1827, William Blake, the
English poet and painter, planned and executed several watercolour illustrations to the Divine Comedy, including The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The
Harpies and the Suicides. Though he did not nish the series before his death, they remain a highly
powerful visual interpretation of the poem.
Joseph Anton Koch illustrated Dantes Divine
Commedy and painted in the peroid 1824-1829 the
Jennifer Stranges collection of drawings and sculpture titled Inspired by Dante; an artists journey
through the Divine Comedy is a contemporary collection of works that have been exhibited in the
United States and Italy. Online image gallery with
text, translation and commentary.
British artist Tom Phillips illustrated his own translation of the Inferno, published in 1985, with four
illustrations per canto.
Graba' made a cycle La Divina Commedia consisting
of 111 paintings in 2003 exhibited in the Art Hall
Sint-Pietersabdij in Ghent.
British artist Guy Denning's on line Dante project
follows on from his exhibition of his Inferno paintings in Bologna in 2011.
Dantes Inferno 60-piece art collection (2012) by
Dino di Durante.
8.1.11 Miscellaneous
Asteroid 2999 Dante is named after the poet, as is a
lunar crater.[50]
Dante Alighieri Academy - a publicly funded
Catholic high school in Toronto, Ontario.
Shortly after the launch of the Google Plus social network, McSweeneys published a piece called
"Dante Alighieris Google+ Circles"
Above the door to The Daily Show studio is a sign
which reads Abandon all news, ye who enter here,
a reference to the similar inscription on the gates of
Hell in the Inferno.
8.1.12
See also
Malebolge
8.1.13
Notes
145
[17] Havely, Nick (2007). Dante. Blackwell. p. 222. ISBN

978-0-631-22852-3.
[18] Beckett, Samuel (1972). Our Exagmination Round
His Factication for Incamination of Work in Progress.
New Directions Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-81120446-0.
[1] Lanzara, Joseph (2012). Dantes Inferno: The Graphic

Novel. New Arts Libra. ISBN 978-0-9639621-1-9.
[19] Taranc, Cahit Stk (2015). Otuz Be Ya. Can Pub.

ISBN 9755100172.
[2] http://animanachronism.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/
lelouchs-little-light-reading/
[20] Schwarz, Daniel R. (2000). Imagining the Holocaust.

Macmillan. pp. 8485. ISBN 978-0-312-23301-3.
[3] http://retailcomic.com/comics/december-8-2007/
[21] Asals, Frederick (1997). The Making of Malcolm Lowrys

Under the Volcano. U of Georgia P. pp. 202, 23132.
ISBN 978-0-8203-1826-4.
[4] X-Men Annual #4. Marvel Masterworks Resource

Page. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
[5] Restauran el Palacio Barolo, una joya de la arquitectura.
Clarin.com. 2003-10-18. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
[22] Menocal, Maria Rosa (1991). Writing in Dantes Cult of

Truth: From Borges to Boccaccio. Duke UP. p. 132. ISBN
978-0-8223-1117-1.
[6] Gygax, Gary (1977). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Monster Manual. TSR Games. p. 22. ISBN 0-93569600-8.
[23] Borges, Jorge Luis; Mildred Boyer; Harold Morland;

Miguel Engudanos (1985). Dreamtigers. University of
Texas Press. pp. 43, 50. ISBN 978-0-292-71549-3.
[7] All Chaucer references in David Wallace, Dante in English, in Jaco, Rachel (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 23758.
ISBN 0-521-42742-8. 237-40.
[24] Ward, Philip (1978). The Oxford Companion to Spanish

Literature. Clarendon Press. p. 265.
[8] Benson, Larry D. (1987). The Riverside Chaucer.

Houghton Miin. p. 1058. ISBN 0-395-29031-7.
[9] All Milton references in David Wallace, Dante in English, in Jaco, Rachel (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 23758.
ISBN 0-521-42742-8. 241-44.
[10] Robb, Graham. Balzac: A Life. New York: Norton, 1996.
P. 330.
[11] Axelrod, Steven Gould; Camille Roman; Thomas J. Travisano (2003). The New Anthology of American Poetry:
Traditions and Revolutions, Beginnings to 1900. Rutgers
UP. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-8135-3162-5.
[12] Gary Scharnhorst, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807
1882), in Haralson, Eric L.; John Hollander (1998).
Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century. Taylor & Francis. pp. 26569. ISBN 978-1-57958008-7. p. 269.
[13] Preface to the rst edition"; Marx, Karl; Ben Fowkes;
Ernest Mandel; David Fernbach (1976). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Penguin Classics. p. 93. ISBN
978-0-14-044568-8.
[25] Vendler, Helen (1979-05-03). James Merrills Myth: An

Interview. The New York Review of Books (New York)
26 (7).
[26] David Wallace, Dante in English, in Jaco, Rachel
(1993). The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP. pp. 23758. ISBN 0-521-42742-8. 255.
[27] Niven, Larry; Jerry Pournelle (2008). Inferno. Macmillan. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-7653-1676-9.
[28] David Wallace, Dante in English, in Jaco, Rachel
(1993). The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP. pp. 23758. ISBN 0-521-42742-8.
[29] Murphet, Julian (2002). Bret Easton Elliss American Psycho: A Readers Guide. Continuum International. pp. 23
24. ISBN 978-0-8264-5245-0.
[30] King, Stephen (2003). The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and
Glass. Signet. p. 666. ISBN 0-451-21087-5.
[31] Rogers, Mark E. (1998). Samurai Cat Goes to Hell.
Macmillan. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-312-86642-6.
978-0-631-22852-3.
978-0-631-22852-3.
[14] Forster, E.M. (2008). Where Angels Fear to Tread. BiblioBazaar. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-554-68727-8.
[34] "Inferno by Peter Weiss. The Complete Review. 2008.

[15] Summers, Claude J. (1987). E.M. Forster. Frederick Ungar A Book. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8044-6893-0.
[35] Fernando Castanedo (2006). Dante en Burgos (1936)".

El Pas, 21 January 2006. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
[16] Fowlie, Wallace (1981). A Reading of Dantes Inferno.

Chicago: U of Chicago P. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-22625888-1.
[36] Dante Inuences Benedict XVIs First Encyclical: Pope

Points to Divine Comedy". Zenit: The World Seen from
Rome. 2006-01-23. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
146
[37] Picoult, Jodi (2006-03-17). Book 13: The Tenth Circle.

[38] Wisniewski, Mary (2007-11-04). "'Master' class; Chicago
actor gives readers a delightful romp through the backstory
of Romeo & Juliet". Chicago Sun-Times. pp. B9.
[39] Thigpen, Paul (2007). My Visit to Hell. Realms, a Strang
Company. ISBN 978-1-59979-093-0.
[40] Alenthony, S.A. (2009). The Infernova. Blackburnian
Press. ISBN 978-0-9819678-9-9.
. The Facebook page for The World of Dante (www.

worldofdante.org), this page allows everyone to post
on current topics related to Dante in contemporary
culture and media and in current scholarship.
The blog Italy Today with Dante oers commentary on contemporary Italian and American society
through the lens of Dantes poem.
8.2 Dante crater
[41] Reynard, Sylvian (2012). Gabriels inferno, Gabriels rapture and Gabriels redemption. Canada (Author location) Toronto (book location): Berkeley publishing group.
ISBN 978-0-4252659-6-3.
[42] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto XXII.
[43] Dantes Inferno - Descriptions of the Levels. 4.degreez.
com/mis/dante-inferno-information.html. Retrieved 2
July 2012.
[44] Abandon hope all ye who enter
[45] Interview by Alain Rodriguez (Vivante Records)". Nine
Circles. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 2 image
[46] http://www.metrolyrics.com/
howling-furies-lyrics-anthrax.html
[47]
[48]
[49]
[50]
Dante is a lunar crater that is located on the far side of the

Moon. It lies in the northern hemisphere exactly opposite
Louis Andriessen - La Commedia - Opera. boosey.com. the prime meridian facing the Earth. The nearest craters
of note are Larmor to the north and Morse to the southLe Normand-Romain, Antoinette (1999). Rodin:The east. To the southwest is the oddly shaped Buys-Ballot.
Gates of Hell. Paris: Muse Rodin. ISBN 2-901428-69- This crater is overlain by part of the ray system radiating
X.
from Larmor Q to the northwest. The rim of Dante is
circular but somewhat eroded. The fresh crater Dante G
Botticellis Designs. Renaissance Dante in Print (1472
is attached to the exterior along the east-southeastern rim.
1629). Retrieved 2010-04-14.
The interior oor of this crater is uneven and marked by
Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet several small impacts.
Names: Prepared on Behalf of Commission 20 Under
the Auspices of the International Astronomical Union.
Springer. p. 247. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
The crater lies within the Freundlich-Sharonov Basin.
8.2.1 Satellite craters

8.1.14
Further reading
By convention these features are identied on lunar maps

by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that
is closest to Dante.
Griths, Eric; Matthew Reynolds (2005). Dante in

English. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-042388-5. An essay and anthology about translations of Dantes
works into English and other literary works inu- 8.2.2 References
enced by him.
Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA
Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP1097.
Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dantes
Works in Contemporary Culture. A website designed to archive occurrences of Dante and his
works in popular and contemporary culture of the
twentieth century and beyond.
Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
8.4. ITALIAN BATTLESHIP ''DANTE ALIGHIERI''
147
Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Whos

Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 978-0936389-27-1.
McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). Lunar
Nomenclature. Jonathans Space Report. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). Report on Lunar
Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU. Space Science Reviews
12 (2): 136186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M.
doi:10.1007/BF00171763.
Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observers Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521-33500-3.
Rkl, Antonn (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4.
Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Dante Park and the poets statue.
Common Telescopes (6th revised ed.). Dover. ISBN
978-0-486-20917-3.
Coordinates: 404619N 735857W / 40.77194N
Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming 73.98250W
the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780-521-62248-6.
Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. 8.3.2
Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1.
External links
NYC PARKS INFORMATION
8.3 Dante Park

Dante Park or Dante Square is a park in front of
Lincoln Center in New York City, New York.
That Statue of Dante in the Heart of Manhattan,

by Tiziano Thomas Dossena, Bridgepugliausa.it,
2011
The park was established by Italian-Americans in honor

of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Carlo Barsotti, editor of the paper Il Progresso Italo-Americano, originally
wanted to gather funds for a much more substantial statue 8.4 Italian
battleship
''Dante
to be placed in Times Square around 1912. Because of
Alighieri''
fundraising diculties, by 1921, the 600th anniversary of
Dantes death, a smaller statue was completed by Ettore
Ximenes and placed in the location at Broadway at West Dante Alighieri was the rst dreadnought battleship built
64th Street.
for the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy). Completed
A statue of the same casting is featured at Meridian Hill in 1913, she was the rst battleship built with her main
armament in triple-gun turrets.[Note 1] The ship served as
Park in Washington, DC.
a agship during World War I, but saw very little action
other than the Second Battle of Durazzo in 1918 where
she did not engage enemy forces. She never red her guns
8.3.1 References
in anger during her career. Dante Alighieri was retted
Bill Morgan. Literary Landmarks of New York in 1923, stricken from the Navy List in 1928 and subse(Universe: New York, 2002), p. 128.
quently sold for scrap.
148

the turrets were superring.[3] While the later classes of
battleships and battlecruisers designed for the Imperial
Russian Navy shared the turret layout of the Dante
Alighieri, all surviving evidence shows that the Russians
decided on this layout for their own reasons.[5]
Sources disagree regarding these guns performance, but
naval historian Giorgio Giorgerini claims that they red
452-kilogram (996 lb) armor-piercing (AP) projectiles
at the rate of one round per minute and that they had
a muzzle velocity of 840 metres per second (2,800 ft/s)
which gave a maximum range of 24,000 meters (26,000
yd).[6][Note 2]
Right elevation and plan of Dante Alighieri from Brasseys

Naval Annual 1923; the shaded areas are armored
8.4.1
Description
Dante Alighieri was designed by Rear Admiral Engineer

Edoardo Masdea, Chief Constructor of the Regia Marina, based on the ideas of General Vittorio Cuniberti
who advocated a battleship with main guns of a single
caliber and optimized for broadside re. In addition, the
ships superstructure and funnels were to be kept to a
minimum.[2]
The dreadnought was 158.4 meters (519 ft 8 in) long at
the waterline, and 168.1 meters (551 ft 6 in) overall. The
ship had a beam of 26.6 meters (87 ft 3 in), and a draft
of 8.8 meters (28 ft 10 in). She displaced 19,552 tonnes
(19,243 long tons) at normal load, and 21,600 tonnes
(21,300 long tons) at deep load.[3] Dante Alighieri had
two rudders, one behind the other,[4] and a crew of 31
ocers and 950 enlisted men.[3]
Dante Alighieri in 1919
The ships secondary armament consisted of twenty 50caliber 120-millimeter (4.7 in) guns. Eight of these guns
were tted in twin-gun turrets abreast the forward and
aft main gun turrets while the remaining 12 guns were
mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull. These guns
could depress to 10 degress and had a maximum elevation of +15 degrees; they had a rate of re of six shots
per minute. They could re a 22.1-kilogram (49 lb) highexplosive projectile with a muzzle velocity of 850 meters
per second (2,800 ft/s) to a maximum distance of 12,000
yards (11,000 m). For defense against torpedo boats,
Dante Alighieri carried thirteen 50-caliber 76 mm (3.0
in) guns mounted on the turret tops. These guns had the
same range of elevation as the secondary guns, although
their rate of re was higher at 10 rounds per minute. They
red a 6-kilogram (13 lb) AP projectile with a muzzle
velocity of 815 meters per second (2,670 ft/s) to a maximum distance of 10,000 yards (9,100 m).[8][Note 3] The
ship was also tted with three submerged 45-centimeter
(18 in) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and the third
in the stern.[2]
The ship was propelled by four propeller shafts driven

by Parsons steam turbines. Steam for the turbines was
provided by 23 Blechynden water-tube boilers, seven of
which burned oil and the remaining 16 burned a mixture of oil and coal. The boilers were widely separated
in two compartments, each with two funnels, and the turbines were positioned between the two center turrets.[4]
Designed to reach a maximum speed of 23 knots (43
km/h; 26 mph) from 35,000 shaft horsepower (26,000
kW),[2] Dante Alighieri failed to reach this goal on her
sea trials. The ship only made a maximum speed of 22.83
knots (42.28 km/h; 26.27 mph) using 32,190 shp (24,000
kW).[3] The ship could store a maximum of 3,000 tonnes
(3,000 long tons) of coal and an unknown quantity of
fuel oil[2] that gave her a range of 4,800 nautical miles
(8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph), and
1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 22 knots (41 km/h;
Dante Alighieri had a complete waterline armor belt that
25 mph).[3]
had a maximum thickness of 254 millimeters (10.0 in).
The ships armored deck was 38 mm (1.5 in) thick.
The main turrets were protected by a maximum of 254
Armament
millimeters of armor while the secondary turrets and
Dante Alighieri's main armament consisted of a dozen 46- the casemates had 98 millimeters (3.9 in) of armor.
caliber 305-millimeter (12 inch) guns,[4] in four triple- The conning tower had walls 305 millimeters (12.0 in)
gun turrets positioned on the ships centerline. None of thick.[3]
8.4. ITALIAN BATTLESHIP ''DANTE ALIGHIERI''
8.4.2
Construction and service
149
[2] Friedman provides a variety of sources that show armorpiercing shell weights ranging from 416.92 to 452.32 kilograms (919.16 to 997.2 lb) and muzzle velocities around
861 metres per second (2,820 ft/s).[7]
[3] Sources disagree as to the type of 120 mm gun used
aboard Dante Alighieri. Gardiner & Gray maintain that
they were the older 40-caliber guns and replaced in 1915
with the newer 50-caliber guns,[3] but Preston[2] and
Friedman say that they were 50-caliber guns from the
beginning.[9]
8.4.4 Footnotes
[1] Giorgerini, p. 268
Dante Alighieri in Taranto
[2] Preston, p. 175
Dante Alighieri, named after the medieval Italian poet,

was the only battleship ever named for a poet.[10] She
was laid down at the naval shipyard in Castellammare di
Stabia on 6 June 1909, launched on 20 August 1910, and
completed on 15 January 1913.[3] The ship was used to
evaluate Curtiss oatplanes in 191314.[11] When Italy
entered World War I in May 1915, Dante Alighieri was
the agship of the 1st Battle Squadron based at Taranto
and remained with the squadron through 1916. For the
rest of the war, the ship was assigned to the Southern
Adriatic and Ionian Sea forces.[2] Under the command of
Vice Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the ship was positioned to intercept any Austro-Hungarian ships based at
Cattaro if they sortied to attack the Allied ships bombarding Durazzo on 2 October 1918. The Austro-Hungarians
remained in harbor and Dante Alighieri did not re her
guns during the battle.[12]
King Victor Emmanuel III entertained delegates to the
Genoa Conference aboard Dante Alighieri in 1922.[13]
The ship was retted in 1923 with a tripod foremast,
an aircraft ying-o platform on Turret No. 3, and her
forward funnels was made taller to reduce smoke interference with the bridge.[4] She tested a new re-control
system in 1924 at ranges up to 26,000 meters (28,000
yd); her new tripod mast was not sturdy enough for the
weight of the system, but it was judged to be successful and subsequently installed in the Conte di Cavourclass battleships.[14] That same year, the ship transported
Benito Mussolini to Palermo, Sicily.[15] The Italian economy had been weakened by ghting World War I, and by
the late 1920s, it could no longer aord to maintain a sizable eet. As a result, Admiral Sechi decided to scrap
Dante Alighieri and the salvaged battleship Leonardo da
Vinci to reduce the naval budget.[16] The ship was stricken
on 1 July 1928 and was subsequently scrapped.[3]
8.4.3
Notes
[1] Although Dante Alighieri was laid down and launched before the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Viribus Unitis, the
latter ship was completed rst.[1]
[3] Gardiner & Gray, p. 259

[4] Hore, p. 174
[5] McLaughlin, pp. 20915
[6] Giorgerini, pp. 268, 276
[7] Friedman 2011, pp. 23334
[8] Giorgerini, pp. 268, 27777
[9] Friedman 2011, pp. 24041
[10] Sandler, p. 102
[11] Cernuschi & O'Hara, p. 62
[12] Halpern, p. 175
[13] Fink, p. 41
[14] Friedman 2008, p. 262
[15] Dickie, p. 152
[16] Goldstein & Maurer, p. 226
8.4.5 References
Cernuschi, Enrico; O'Hara, Vincent (2007).
Search for a Flattop: The Italian Navy and
the Aircraft Carrier 19072007.
In Jordan,
John. Warship 2007. London: Conway. ISBN
1-84486-041-8.
Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra: A History of
the Sicilian Maa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN 1-4039-7042-4.
Fink, Carole (February 1986). Italy and the Genoa
Conference of 1922. The International History Review (Taylor & Francis) 8 (1): 4155.
Friedman, Norman (2008). Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era.
Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN
978-1-59114-555-4.
150
Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of

World War One. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK:
Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1984). Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships: 19061921.
0-85177-245-5.
Giorgerini, Giorgio (1980). The Cavour & Duilio
Class Battleships. In Roberts, John. Warship IV.
London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 26779.
ISBN 0-85177-205-6.
Goldstein, Erik; Maurer, John H. (1994). The
Washington Conference, 192122: Naval Rivalry,
East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor.
Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 0-7146-45591.
Halpern, Paul S. (1994). A Naval History of World
War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 1-55750-352-4.
Hore, Peter (2005). Battleships. London: Lorenz
Books. ISBN 0-7548-1407-6.
McLaughlin, Stephen (2003). Russian & Soviet
Battleships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute
Press. ISBN 1-55750-481-4.
Preston, Antony (1972). Battleships of World War
I: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Battleships of
All Nations 19141918. New York: Galahad Books.
ISBN 0-88365-300-1.
Sandler, Stanley (2004). Battleships: An Illustrated
History of their Impact. Weapons and Warfare.
Santa Barbara, California: ABC Clio. ISBN 185109-410-5.
Whitley, M. J. (1998). Battleships of World War II.
1-55750-184-X.
8.4.6
External links
page from Warships on the web

page in Russian Language
Chapter 9
People in Dantes life

9.1 Alighiero di Bellincione
Ravenna, where he may have lived with his father. Dante

died in 1321, and Jacopo sent a copy of the Divine Com[1] edy to Guido da Polenta, the lord of the city. In 1325, he
Alighiero di Bellincione or Alaghiero di Bellincione
(ca. 1210not after 1283) was the father of Dante returned to Florence, where he took minor orders, making it possible for him to become a canon in Verona. At
Alighieri.
home, he took charge of his familys nancial aairs; in
1343, he was able to retake possession of his fathers conscated property.
9.1.1 Life
He died in 1348.
Alighiero was born around 1210, the son of Bellincione
di Alighiero. He was a member of the Guelph party
and was probably a moneylender.[1] Alighieros rst wife 9.2.2 Works
was Bella and the couple had one child, Dante, in 1265.
After Bellas death, Alighiero married his second wife,
The Dottrinale has 60 chapters in seven-syllable
Lapa Cialu, in 1270 or 1271 and they had two children,
rhyming couplets; each chapter consists of ten stanFrancesco and Gaetana (Tana), who were Dantes halfzas. It treats matters of astronomy and astrology,
brother and half-sister, respectively.[1][2] Alighiero died
faith, the virtues of the Church and the State, love
sometime between 1281 and 1283.[3]
and hate, family, human beauty, and free will. The
work is inspired by ancient authors, and sometimes
imitates Dante. Divided into two sections, the Dot9.1.2 References
trinale rst deals with the physical order, and then
the moral.
[1] Barnes, John C. (2000). Alighieri Family. In Lansing,
Richard. The Dante Encyclopedia. New York: Garland.
p. 2124.
The Commento is virtually a terzina-by-terzina commentary of the text of the Inferno, which is the rst
of the three parts of the Divine Comedy. [Dantes
poem is in terza rima, the form he created as the
poems poetic vehicle. The forms three-line stanzas are called terzinas.] Jacopo was one of the very
rst to write a work of this kind. By 1340, less than
two decades after Dantes death, six major commentaries were enlightening, guiding, and informing
the works ever-larger readership. (See Hollanders
Dante and his commentators in The Cambridge
Companion to Dante). The Commento accompanied
the copies of the Comedy sent to Guido da Polenta.
[2] Wilson, A. N. (2011). Dante in Love. New York: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-374-13468-6.
[3] Wilson, A. N. (2011). Dante in Love. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-374-13468-6.
9.2 Jacopo Alighieri

Jacopo Alighieri (12891348) was an Italian poet, the
son of Dante Alighieri, whom he followed in his exile. Jacopos most famous work is his sixty-chapter Dottrinale.

9.2.1
Biography
Works by Jacopo Alighieri at Project Gutenberg
Born in 1289 in Florence, Jacopo was the son of Dante

Alighieri and his wife, Gemma di Manetto Donati.
He was exiled from Florence with his father and brothers
Giovanni and Pietro in 1315. He subsequently traveled to
151
Works by or about Jacopo Alighieri at Internet

Archive
Chiose alla cantica dell'Inferno (Florence, 1848)
152
CHAPTER 9. PEOPLE IN DANTES LIFE
Il dottrinale di Jacopo Alighieri (Citt di Castello, accompanying return to study, and to interpretation and
1895)
emulation of the classics, known as a revival of antiquity.
New secular and humanistic views laid the foundations
Jacopos Inferno commentary, on the Dartmouth for modern life in Western Civilization. As Jacob BurckDante Project site
hardt, Swiss historian and author of The Civilization of
the Renaissance in Italy wrote, It was not the revival of
antiquity alone, but its union with the genius of the Ital9.3 Guido Cavalcanti
ian people which achieved the conquest of the western
world. In sum, Cavalcanti lived during and helped shape
this time of great innovation that was spurred on by a desire to explore, create and experiment with new things.
9.3.2 The politics of Florence

Cavalcanti was the son of Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a
Guelph whom Dante condemns to torment in the sixth
circle of his Inferno, where the heretics are punished. Unlike Dante, Guido was an atheist. As Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron, VI, 9) wrote during the generation after Cavalcantis death, "Si diceva tralla gente volgare che
queste sue speculazioni erano solo in cercare se trovar si
potesse che Iddio non-fosse" (People commonly said his
speculations were only in trying to nd that God did not
exist).
During his lifetime, Florence was politically torn by the
struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions
supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman
Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and
13th centuries. Although the struggle for power between
the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had originally
arisen with the Investiture Conict of the 11th century, it
was subsequently fed by a desire of either the Papacy or
Holy Roman Emperor either to share in or to control the
economic boom that was taking place in the leading cities
of northern Italy during this time.
Guido Cavalcanti and Virgil in a scene from the Inferno
Guido Cavalcanti (between 1250 and 1259 August

1300[1] ) was an Italian poet and troubadour, as well
as an intellectual inuence on his best friend, Dante
Alighieri.[2]
9.3.1
Historical background
Cavalcanti was born in Florence at a time when the

comune was beginning its economic, political, intellectual and artistic ascendancy as one of the leading cities
of the Renaissance. The disunited Italian peninsula was
dominated by a political particularism that pitted citystates against one another, often with this factionalism
contributing to the fractious and sometimes violent political environments of each comune. The domination of
medieval religious interpretations of reality, morality and
society were challenged by a rise of a new urban culture
across Europe that gradually supplanted rural, local, ecclesiastical and feudal ways of thinking. There was an
The division between Guelphs and Ghibellines was especially important in Florence, although the two sides
frequently rebelled against each other and took power in
many of the other northern Italian cities as well. Essentially the two sides were now ghting either against German inuence (in the case of the Guelphs), or against
the temporal power of the Pope (in the case of the Ghibellines). In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers, while the Ghibellines tended to be noblemen. After the Guelphs nally defeated the Ghibellines in 1289 at Campaldino and
Caprona, Guelphs began to ght among themselves. By
1300 Florence was divided into the Black Guelphs and
the White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the
Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal inuence,
As part of a political reconciliation, Guido married Beatrice the daughter of Ghibelline party leader Farinata degli
Uberti. In June 1300, when the Florentines had become tired of brawling between the Ghibellines and the
Guelphs, the leaders of both factions were exiled and
9.3. GUIDO CAVALCANTI
153
Cavalcanti was amongst them. He was sent to Sarzana, canti was a central part of this accomplishment.
where, after only a few months he decided to try to return to Florence. He died of fever (probably malaria) in
August of the same year on his journey home.
It is interesting to note that Guidos marriage to Beatrice
degli Uberti should not be seen in the context of modern relationships where people marry each other for love,
but rather in the context of his own age, when marriage
was often motivated by business and/or political interests.
As such, Guidos poetry, which dwells on love, should be
seen as a philosophical exploration of love and not as that
of a husband bound into and seeking satisfaction outside
a marriage made for political purposes.
9.3.4 Early poetry
In one of his earlier poems, Guido transforms the imagery

of n'amor, with its beautiful ladies and armed knights,
into an idea that love has a philosophical component related to human intelligence and moral purity by equating
it with a wise heart. He then proceeds to create a series of
images of natures serene beauty, which he then explains
9.3.3 Dolce stil novo
are all transcended by his ladys beauty, grace and noble
Cavalcanti was a part of the Tuscan poetic movement heart; i.e., her emotions that are pure, based on wisdom,
known as the Dolce stil novo (Sweet New Style), whose something he is incapable of.
members are referred to by their Tuscan name, the stil- In this simple, but beautiful sonnet, we have, then, both
novisti. The formative inuences on the stilnovisti came something emblematic of the best poetry of the Dolce stil
from two main sources.
novo, while at the same an example of Cavalcantis poFirst, there was the poetry of the troubadour and etic idiom that is at once powerful, persuasive and, here,
trobairitz, who began the tradition of courtly love, known melliuous.
by its then contemporary term, as n'amor in the ducal
and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne
and ducal Burgundy, at the end of the eleventh century.
Based on the Occitan language of south France, this
courtly poetry, which was a part of Occitan literature,
spread throughout all European cultivated circles in the
12th and 13th centuries. (Many of its poets can be found
here in this list of troubadours and trobairitz.)
Second, there was the poetry of the Sicilian School, which
was a small community of Sicilian, and to a lesser extent, mainland Italian poets gathered around Frederick
II, most of them belonging to his court, the Magna Curia.
Headed by Giacomo da Lentini, they produced more than
three-hundred poems of courtly love between 1230 and
1266, the experiment being continued after Fredericks
death by his son, Manfredi. This school included Enzio,
king of Sardinia, Pier delle Vigne, Inghilfredi, Stefano
Protonotaro, Guido and Odo delle Colonne, Rinaldo
d'Aquino, Giacomino Pugliese, Arrigo Testa, Mazzeo
Ricco, Perceval Doria, and Frederick II himself.
The poets of Stilnovismo included the early forerunner
Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcanti and Dante, plus Cino
da Pistoia, Lapo Gianni, Gianni Alfani, and Dino Frescobaldi. Far from being a derivative school of poetry that
mimicked its French and Sicilian poetic ancestors, Stilnovismo brought an originality to and completely transformed the poetry of courtly love in that: 1) It was an urban poetry of the Tuscan commune, not of an aristocratic
court. 2) It explored the philosophical, spiritual, psychological and social eects of love. 3) It championed the
Tuscan vernacular. 4) It did all this while expressing the
heart and mind of the poet in original verse that utilized
the sonnet, ballata and canzone forms of poetry. Caval-
The crowning achievement of Cavalcantis poetic youth is

his canzone Io non pensava che lo cor giammai in which
he embodies his philosophical thoughts in a vernacular
masterpiece. An analysis of two passages from this ftysix line poem reveals his core ideas on love.
Inuenced by Averros, the twelfth century Islamic
philosopher who commented on Aristotle, Cavalcanti
saw humans with three basic capacities: the vegetative,
which humans held in common with plants; the sensitive, which man shared with animals; and, the intellectual,
which distinguished humans from the two lower forms.
Averros maintained that the proper goal of humanity was
the cultivation of the intellect according to reason. Further, Averros maintained that the intellect was part of a
universal consciousness that came into the body at birth
and returned to the universal consciousness after death.
As such, it meant there was no afterlife, and, as well,
the thing that gives an individual his or her identity was
not the intellect, but the sensitive faculty, the appetites
and desires of the body. Hence, the goal for Averros
and Cavalcanti was the perfection of the sensitive capacity through reason in order to achieve a balance between
the bodys physical desires and the intellect. This balance
was considered the buon perfetto, the good perfection.
Guido thought this balance could not be achieved, which
is why he speaks of tormented laments that makes his
soul cry, that make his eyes dead, so he can feel neither
peace nor even rest in the place where I found love and
my Lady.
This passage explains the conict between the sensitive
and intellectual, as Guidos heart shivers as his our lowly
minds couldn't sustain what our intellects saw. All this is
driven by the lofty beauty of his lady.
154

portrayal of Beatrice (Vita Nuova), but Cino da Pistoia
is able to write poetry in which there is a remarkable
psychological interest in love, a more tangible presence
of the woman, who loses the abstract aura of Guinizzelli
and Guidos verse (Giudice-Bruni), and Guido Cavalcanti interprets love as a source of torment and despair
in the surrendering of self to the beloved. An example in
kind, and one of Guidos most widely read lyrics is a sonnet entitled Voi che per gli occhi mi passaste il core (Transl.
You, Whose Look Pierced through My Heart), dedicated,
to his beloved Monna (lady) Vanna:
Although there are many poems that exemplify Cavalcantis poetic maturity, Certe mie rime a te mandar
vogliendo is unparalleled in its originality, for here Guido
adapts his medium of love to speak of his inner psychological state and the uncertainty of Dantes reaction in
9.3.5 Poetic maturity
this example of occasional poetry. This is creativity at
Cavalcanti is best remembered for belonging to that small its highest, for Cavalcanti transforms the medium into a
but inuential group of Tuscan poets that started what is unique response to a real world problem.
now known as Dolce Stil Novo, to which he contributed Guido tells Dante of how desire, how wanting has ruthe following (note: translations provided in parenthe- ined his heart. He dramatically reinforces his condition
ses do not match the titles by which are widely known through the appearance of Lovethe medieval and Rein English manuals but are meant to be a more literal naissance view of Love as Cupid matured into a grown
rendering of the Italian originals): Rosa fresca novella manin the guise of death, as if Guido is indeed on the
(New, Fresh Rose), Avete in vo' li or e la verdura verge of leaving this world. Love then warns him not to
(You Are Flowers in the Meadow), Bilt di donna (A send this poem to Dante, who is not ready to deal with
Womans Beauty), Chi questa che vn (Whos This Lady Guidos condition, given the depth of friendship Dante
That Comes My Way), Li mie' foll'occhi (My Crazy feels for him. Love also acknowledges that what he makes
Eyes), L'anima Mia (My Soul), Guido Orlandi, Da humanity suer is unjust, In sum, because of the love
pi a uno (From Many to One), In un boschetto (In A he has felt in life, Guido is ruined, and because of the
Grove), Per ch'io no spero (Because I Do Not Hope), depth of friendship Dante holds for him, Guido fears he
Voi che per gli occhi mi passaste il core (see below), may be ruined as well, seeing him in such a state.
and Donna me prega (A Lady Asks Me), a masterpiece of lyric verse and a small treatise on his philosophy of love. Starting from the model provided by the Poetic masterpiece Donna me prega
French troubadours, they took Italian poetry a step further and inaugurated the volgare illustre, that higher stan- Through his study of Averros, and perhaps due to his nadard of Italian language that survives almost unchanged tive temperament, Cavalcanti held the pessimistic view
to the present day. The founder of this school, Guido that humans were limited in the sort of ultimate attainGuinizzelli, a law professor at Bologna's University wrote ment they could achieve. The intellect could never be
the rst poem of this kind, a poem whose importance brought into a harmony based on reason with bodily dedoes not so much lie in its literary merits but in outlin- sires. This anity for the ideas of Averros would have
ing what would be the fundamentals of the Stil Novo pro- lent to his reputation that he was an atheist.
gram, which was further perfected by a second generation The crowning achievement of Guidos poetic career is
of poets, including Dante, Cino da Pistoia, Lapo Gianni, his masterpiece, the philosophical canzone Donna me
and Guido himself. As Dante wrote in his De Vulgari prega (A lady asks me). It is a full-edged treatise of
Eloquentia, I, XIII, 4:
his personal thoughts and beliefs on love. Through it, he
Cavalcanti e la Brigata Godereccia in a medieval miniature.
Sed quanquam fere omne Tusci in suo turpiloquio sint

obtusi, nunnullos vulgaris excellentiam cognovisse sentimus, scilicit Guidonem, Lapum, et unum alium, Florentinos et Cynum Pistoriensem (...) (Although most
Tuscans are overwhelmed by their bad language, we think
that someone has experimented with the excellence of
high vernacular, namely Guido, Lapo and another [i.e:
Dante himself], all from Florence, and Cino da Pistoia.
transforms all that came before him and inuenced him:

courtly love, the troubadours, the Sicilian School and his
peers of the Dolce stil novo.
Guido says he was prompted to write it by his mistress,

according to a formula very widespread in the tradition
of love poetry. As such, Guidos doctrine draws on the
greatest medieval poets or scholars, such as Chrtien de
Troyes and Brunetto Latini. There are several hints to
Scholars have commented on the Dolce stil novo with the Roman de la Rose, then considered the Bible of
Dante as probably the most spiritual and platonic in his courtly love. For example, in the famous line a man who
9.3. GUIDO CAVALCANTI

does not experience it [love] cannot picture it, a common
axiom variously quoted from the troubadours to Dantes
Vita Nuova. Donna me prega, a remarkable anatomy
of love, is divided into ve stanzas of fourteen variously
rhymed lines of eleven syllables each. The subject is divided into eight chapters dealing with
1. Where love is located in the human body
2. What causes it
155
l'uno a l'altro Guido / la gloria de la lingua (Purgatory XI,
97-8): the verse of the latter, younger Guido (Cavalcanti)
has surpassed that of the former, (Guido) Guinizzelli,
the founder of Dolce Stil Novo. Dante sees in Guido
his mentor; his meter, his language deeply inspire his
work (cfr. De Divina Eloquentia), though Guidos esthetic materialism would be taken a step further to an entirely new spiritual, Christian vision of the gentler sex,
as personied by Beatrice whose soul becomes Dantes
guide to Paradise.
Guidos controversial personality and beliefs attracted

the interest of Boccaccio, who made him one of the
4. His power (what it can do or cause)
most famous heretical characters in his Decameron, helping popularise the belief about his atheism. Cavalcanti
5. His essence (what it is made of)
would be studied with perhaps more interest during the
6. His motions (or alterations it causes in the human Renaissance, by such scholars as Luigi Pulci and Pico
della Mirandola. By passing to Dantes study of the Italbody or mind)
ian language, Guidos style has inuenced all those who,
7. What makes us call it love
like cardinal Pietro Bembo, helped turn the volgare illustre
into todays Italian language.
8. The possibility of probing its eects using our sight.
Cavalcanti was to become a strong inuence on a number
In short, the sensitive, like the rational soul is located in of writers associated with the development of Modernist
the brain, but does not produce love-feelings unless the poetry in English. This inuence can be traced back to
eyes meet those of a particular woman who has exclusive the appearance, in 1861, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's The
anity to him. This complies with Aristotle's theory of Early Italian Poets, which featured translations of works
cause and eect, whereby no eect can proceed from an by both Cavalcanti and Dante.
object if the object has not the potential to accomplish The young Ezra Pound admired Rossetti and knew his
it. When a womans look meet the eyes of a man, the Italian translations well, quoting extensively from them
potential for love grows into passion, a spirit or uid that in his 1910 book The Spirit of Romance. In 1912, Pound
possesses all his faculties. Such a passion needs more and published his own translations under the title The Sonmore love to satisfy its ever-growing appetite, until (when nets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti and in 1932, he
desire outstrips human limits) he is led to insanity and published the Italian poets works as Rime. A reworked
death.
translation of Donna me prega formed the bulk of Canto
3. What his faculties (virtues) are
XXXVI in Pounds long poem The Cantos. Pounds

main focus was on Cavalcantis philosophy of love and
light, which he viewed as a continuing expression of a
pagan, neo-platonic tradition stretching back through the
troubadours and early medieval Latin lyrics to the world
of pre-Christian polytheism. Pound also composed a
three-act opera titled Cavalcanti at the request of Archie
While this has very little to do with modern psychology,
Harding, a producer at the BBC. Though never performed
Guidos philosophy of spiritelli was part of the guiding
in his lifetime, excerpts are available on audio CD.
principles of Arabic medicine, considered very advanced
at Dantes times. The merit of such philosophy in Cav- Pounds friend and fellow modernist T. S. Eliot used an
alcantis verse is its ability to describe what goes through adaptation of the opening line of Perch'i' no spero di
the poets mind in a very detailed, personal manner, cre- tornar giammai (Because I do not hope to turn again)
ating sensuous, autobiographic poetry. This is revolu- to open his 1930 poem Ash Wednesday.
tionary compared to the rhetoric and academic-seeming
manner of the Sicilian and Neo-Sicilian Schools that had
preceded the Dolce Stil Novo and, perhaps, a sign of the 9.3.7 See also
changing times.
This highly philosophical canzone was extremely inuential, and it was commented upon by authors including
Dino del Garbo, pseudo-Giles, Giles of Rome, Marsilio
Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Iacopo Mini, and Fracesco
de Vieri (see Enrico Fenzi, La canzone d'amore di Guido
Cavalcanti e i suoi antichi commenti, Melangolo, 1999).
Italian literature
9.3.6
Legacy
Cavalcanti is widely regarded as the rst major poet of 9.3.8 Notes

Italian literature: Dante calls him mentor. In the Commedia he says through Oderisi da Gubbio that "...ha tolto [1] Sources are divided between 27, 28 and 29 August.
156
[2] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100502/
Guido-Cavalcanti
9.3.9
References
Cavalcantis Rime in original Italian available

through Wikisource.
Maria Corti, La felicit mentale. Nuove prospettive
per Cavalcanti e Dante, Turin, Einaudi, 1983.
Tobias Eisermann, Cavalcanti oder die Poetik der
Negativitt, Band 17 in Romanica et Compara- Dante and Virgil interview Brunetto among the sodomites, from
Guido da Pisa's commentary on the Commedia, c. 1345
tistica: Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Studien, herausgegeben von Richard Baum und Willi
Hirdt, Tbingen: Stauenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr
GmbH, 1992; ISBN 3-923721-67-6
Giudice, A. and Bruni, G. Problemi e scrittori della
9.4.1
letteratura italiana. Turin, Paravia, 1973.
Life
Dante, Divina Commedia, ed. Natalino Sapegno.

Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1982.
Brunetto Latini was born in Florence in 1220 to a Tuscan noble family, the son of Buonaccorso Latini. He be AA.VV., Antologia della poesia italiana, ed C.Segre
longed to the Guelph party. He was a notary and a man of
and C. Ossola. Turin, Einaudi, 1999
learning, much respected by his fellow citizens and famed
for his skill as an orator. He expounded the writings of
Migliorini, B. Storia della lingua Italiana. Florence,
Cicero as guidance in public aairs.
Sansoni, 1987
He was of sucient stature to be sent to Seville on an
Dante, Vita Nuova. Milan, Garzanti, 1982.
embassy to Alfonso el Sabio of Castile to seek help for
Florence against the Sienese; the mission was unsuccess Guido Cavalcanti, The Complete Poems, edited and ful. On his return from Spain, travelling along the Pass
translated by Marc Cirigliano. New York, Italica of Roncesvalles, he describes meeting a student from
Press, 1992; ISBN 978-0-934977-27-2
Bologna astride a bay mule, who told him of the defeat
of the Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti. As a result,
Guido Cavalcanti, Complete Poems, translated by Latini was exiled from his native city. He took refuge for
Anthony Mortimer. Oneworld Classics.
some years (12611268) in France working as a notary in Montpellier, Arras, Bar-sur-Aube and Paris.
In 1269, when the political situation allowed, he returned
to Tuscany and for some twenty years held successive
high oces.[1] In 1273 he was appointed as Secretary
Works written by or about Guido Cavalcanti at to the Council of the Florentine Republic. In 1280, he
Wikisource
contributed to the temporary reconciliation between the
Guelph and Ghibelline parties, and in 1284 presided over
Some translations
the conference in which an attack on Pisa was agreed. Finally, in 1287, he was elevated to the dignity of prior Alphabetical index of the rhymes (Italian)
one of 12 magistrates established through the constitution
of 1282.
9.3.10
External links
9.4 Brunetto Latini

Brunetto Latini (c. 12201294) (who signed his name
Burnectus Latinus in Latin and Burnecto Latino in Italian)
was an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, and statesman. Latini was Dantes guardian after the death of
Dantes father.
Giovanni Villani says that he was a great philosopher and

a consummate master of rhetoric, not only in knowing
how to speak well, but how to write well. He was the
author of various works in prose and verse.[1] He died in
1294, leaving a daughter Bianca Latini who had married
Guido Di Filippo De' Castiglionchi in 1284. His tomb
can be found in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence, to the left of the high altar.
9.4. BRUNETTO LATINI
157
Latini wrote in Latin. There is a portrait of Latini in the
Bargello in Florence, once reputed to be by Giotto, beside
the one of Dante. In a wood engraving, Gustave Dor envisages the same scene from Inferno XV, 1861.
Canto XV
Dante places Latini within the third ring of the Seventh
Circle, the Circle of the Violent, with the blasphemers,
suicides, proigates and sodomites, and writes of the
clerks and great and famous scholars, deled in the world
by one and the same sin.
Dantes treatment of Latini, however, is commendatory
beyond almost any other gure in the 'Inferno'. He calls
the poet a radiance among men and speaks with gratitude
of that sweet image, gentle and paternal, / you were to
me in the world when hour by hour / you taught me how
man makes himself eternal. Dante addresses Latini with
the respectful pronoun voi; Latini uses the informal tu,
as perhaps was their custom when they spoke together in
Florence. The portrait is drawn with love, pathos and a
dignity that is more compelling given the squalor of the
punishment.
Livres dou Tresor
9.4.2
Works
While in France, he wrote his Italian Tesoretto and in

French his prose Li Livres dou Trsor, both summaries of
the encyclopaedic knowledge of the day.[1] The latter is
regarded as the rst encyclopedia in a modern European
language. The Italian 13th-century translation known as
Tesoro was misattributed to Bono Giamboni. He also
translated into Italian the Rettorica and three Orations
by Cicero. The Italian translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is often misattributed to Brunetto Latini:
it is a work of Taddeo Alderotti instead.
9.4.3
The Divine Comedy
Latini was Dantes guardian after the death of his father. Early Dante commentators spoke of Brunetto as his
teacher, as does Dante himself. Vittorio Imbriani took
issue with that concept, saying Brunetto was far too busy
a man to have been a mere teacher. Dante immortalized
him in the Divine Comedy (see Inferno, XV.82-87). It
is also believed that there was an intellectual and aectionate bond between the elderly man and the young poet.
It was perhaps Latini who induced Dante to read Cicero
and Boethius, after the death of Beatrice.
Many of the characters in Dantes Inferno are also mentioned in the legal and diplomatic documents Brunetto
Latini asks rst, humbly, if he may keep Dante company,

letting his group run on. Dante oers to sit down with him
but that would only increase Latinis penalty; he and the
other souls are doomed to keep moving aimlessly around
the arena.
Latini proceeds in obscure imagery to foretell Dantes future. The malicious ingrates who of old descended from
Fiesole, will be his enemies. They are reputed blind,
avaricious, envious and proud. Let him beware, he warns,
not to be stained by them. Mark Musa suggests that in this
speech between the two there is sexual imagery indicative
of the act of sodomy .[2]
According to John D. Sinclair, Dante respected Latini immensely but nonetheless felt it necessary to place him with
the sodomites since, according to Sinclair, such behaviour
by Latini was well known in Florence at the time. The
squalor of Latinis sin and penalty is nevertheless painful
for Dante to visualise.
Other critics point to the fact that, outside of the Divine
Comedy, Latini is nowhere else accused of sodomy or
homosexual relations - and indeed he seemingly condemns it himself in the Tesoretto. Some therefore have
suggested perhaps that Latini is placed in Canto XV for
being violent against art and against his vernacular (Latini
wrote in French instead of Florentine, which Dante championed as a literary language in De Vulgari Eloquentia);
or perhaps also to demonstrate and underline that even
the greatest of men may be guilty of private sins. Neither
objection rules out the possibility that he was guilty of the
perceived sin himself; and given the setting and context,
it is dicult to see that there can be any doubt, particularly following the discovery in recent years of a love
158
poem, S'eo son distretto inamoratamente which Latini of his guides in the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commemay have sent to a man, Bondie Dietaiuti.[3][4]
dia) in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four cantos
of Purgatorio. There she takes over as guide from the
Latin poet Virgil because, as a pagan, Virgil cannot en9.4.4 Notes
ter Paradise and because, being the incarnation of beatic
love, as her name implies, it is Beatrice who leads into the
[1] Chisholm 1911.
Beatic vision.
[2] Musa, Mark (1971), Dantes Inferno, Notes, Canto XV,
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, p. 127, hardcover
[3] Whos Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to
World War II. Routledge; London. 2002, p. 257. ISBN
0-415-15983-0
[4] Dante Encyclopedia. Routledge; London. 2010. ISBN
9780203834473
9.4.5
References
Scholars have long debated whether the historical Beatrice is intended to be identied with either or both of
the Beatrices in Dantes writings. She was apparently the
daughter of the banker Folco Portinari, and was married
to another banker, Simone dei Bardi. Dante claims to
have met a Beatrice only twice, on occasions separated
by nine years, but was so aected by the meetings that he
carried his love for her throughout his life.
9.5.1 Biography
Life
This article incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. The tradition that identies Bice di Folco Portinari as the
(1911). "Latini, Brunetto". Encyclopdia Britan- Beatrice loved by Dante is now widely, though not unaninica 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
mously, accepted by scholars. Boccaccio, in his commentary on the Divine Comedy, was the rst one to explicitly
This article incorporates text from a publication now
refer to the young woman; all later references are depenin the public domain: Gardner, Edmund Garratt
dent on his unsubstantiated identication. Clear docu(1910). "Brunetto Latini". In Herbermann, Charles.
ments on her life have always been scarce, helping make
Catholic Encyclopedia 9. New York: Robert Appleeven her existence doubtful. The only hard evidence is
ton.
the will of Folco Portinari from 1287 which says " ..item
d.
Bici lie sue et uxoris d. Simonis del Bardis reliquite
Barbara Reynolds, Dante: The poet, the political
...,
lib.50
ad oren"essentially a bequest to his daughthinker, the man, New York, 2006
ter who was married to Simone dei Bardi. Folco Porti Whos Who in Gay and Lesbian History from An- nari was a rich banker, born in Portico di Romagna. He
tiquity to World War II. Routledge; London. 2002. moved to Florence and lived in a house near Dante where
ISBN 0-415-15983-0. |rst1= missing |last1= in he had six daughters. Folco also gave generously to found
the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.
Authors list (help)
9.4.6
Sources
9.5.2 Beatrice and Dante
Napolitano, David (2013).

Brunetto Latinis Dante and Beatrice redirects here. For the painting by
Tesoro in print (PDF). Ex Historia 5: 1947. ISSN Henry Holiday, see Dante and Beatrice (painting).
2041-0824.
9.4.7
External links
Website on Brunetto Latino
9.5 Beatrice Portinari

Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari[1] (pronounced Italian: [be.atrite], 12661290) was a Florentine woman
who has been commonly identied as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also commonly identied with the Beatrice who appears as one
According to Dante, he rst met Beatrice when his father took him to the Portinari house for a May Day party.
At the time, Beatrice was eight years old, a year younger
than Dante. Dante was instantly taken with her and remained so throughout her life even though she married
another man, banker Simone dei Bardi, in 1287. Beatrice died three years after the marriage in June 1290 at
the age of 24. Dante continued to hold an abiding love
and respect for the woman after her death, even after he
married Gemma Donati in 1285 and had children. After
Beatrices death, Dante withdrew into intense study and
began composing poems dedicated to her memory. The
collection of these poems, along with others he had previously written in his journal in awe of Beatrice, became
9.5. BEATRICE PORTINARI
159
La Vita Nuova.
Dante and Beatrice, by Henry Holiday. Dante looks longingly

at Beatrice (in center) passing by with friend Lady Vanna (red)
along the Arno River
According to the autobiographic La Vita Nuova, Beatrice and Dante met only twice during their lives. Even
less credible is the numerology behind these encounters,
marking out Dantes life in periods of nine years. This
amount of time falls in line with Dantes repeated use of
the number three or multiples of, derived from the Holy Beatrice used to pray at Santa Margherita de' Cerchi where she
Trinity. It is more likely that the encounters with Beat- is interred
rice that Dante writes of are the two that fulll his poetic
vision, and Beatrice, like Petrarchs Laura, seem to blur
own room, I fell to thinking of this most courtethe line between an actual love interest and a means emous lady, thinking of whom I was overtaken by
ployed by the poet in his creations.
a pleasant slumber, wherein a marvelous vision
Following their rst meeting, Dante was so enthralled by
was presented to me: for there appeared to be
Beatrice that he later wrote in La Vita Nuova: Ecce Deus
in my room a mist of the colour of re, within
fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi (Behold, a dethe which I discerned the gure of a Lord of
ity stronger than I; who coming, shall rule over me.) Interrible aspect to such as should gaze upon
deed, Dante frequented parts of Florence, his home city,
him, but who seemed there-withal to rejoice
where he thought he might catch even a glimpse of her.
inwardly that it was a marvel to see. Speaking
As he did so, he made great eorts to ensure his thoughts
he said many things, among the which I could
of Beatrice remained private, even writing poetry for anunderstand but few; and of these, this: I am
other lady, so as to use her as a screen for the truth.
thy Lord. In his arms it seemed to me that a
Dantes courtly love for Beatrice continued for nine years,
person was sleeping, covered only with a crimbefore the pair nally met again. This meeting occurred
son cloth; upon whom looking very attentively,
in a street of Florence, which she walked along dressed in
I knew that it was the Lady of the Salutation,
white and accompanied by two older women. She turned
who had deigned the day before to salute me.
and greeted him, her salutation lling him with such joy
And he who held her held also in his hand a
that he retreated to his room to think about her. In doing
thing that was burning in ames, and he said
so, he fell asleep, and had a dream which would become
to me Behold thy heart. But when he had
the subject of the rst sonnet in La Vita Nuova.
remained with me a little while, I thought that
he set himself to awaken her that slept; after
In this dream, a mighty gure appeared before him, and
the which he made her to eat that thing which
spoke to him. Although he could not make out all the gamed in his hand; and she ate as one fearing.[2]
ure said, he managed to hear "Ego dominus tuus", which
means I am your Lord. In the gures arms was Beatrice, sleeping and covered by a crimson cloth. The gure
awoke Beatrice, and made her eat Dantes burning heart.
An English translation of this event, as described in La
Vita Nuova, appears below:
And betaking me to the loneliness of mine
This was the last encounter between the pair, since Beatrice died eight years later at the young age of twenty-four
in 1290.
The manner in which Dante chose to express his love for
Beatrice often agreed with the Middle Ages concept of
courtly love. Courtly love was a secret, unrequited and
160
Tomb of Beatrice in Santa Margherita de' Cerchi.
highly respectful form of admiration for another person.

Yet it is still not entirely clear what caused Dante to fall
in love with Beatrice. Since he knew very little of the real
Beatrice, and that he had no great insight to her character,
it is perhaps unusual that he did. But he did, and there are
clues in his works as to why:
She has ineable courtesy, is my beatitude, the destroyer of all vices and the queen
of virtue, salvation.
Beatrice appears to Virgil at the start of Inferno, in an illustration

by Gustave Dor.
donna della mia mente, which means the glorious lady

of my mind.
Dante saw Beatrice as a saviour, one who removed all

evil intentions from him. It is perhaps this idea of her 9.5.3
being a force for good that he fell in love with, a force
which he believed made him a better person. This is certainly viable, since he does not seem concerned with her
appearanceat least not in his writings. He only once
describes her complexion, and her emerald eyes.
In popular culture
Inuence on Dantes work

Beatrices inuence was far from simple inspiration. She
appeared as a character in his two greatest worksLa
Vita Nuova and Divine Comedy.
She rst appeared in La Vita Nuova, which Dante wrote
in about 1293. The book was lled with poems about
Beatrice, and entirely complimentary to her; she was de- Painting by Elisabeth Sonrel, depicting Dantes three meetings
scribed as gentilissima and benedetta (meaning most with Beatrice: at the May Day party, on a Florentine street, and
in the Earthly Paradise
kind and blessed respectively).
Having already referred to Beatrice as his salvation, this
idea is further touched upon in Divine Comedy, where she
appears as a guide through Heaven and caused his trip
through the afterlife so he might see what awaits him.
Here she is described as being maternal, radiant and
comforting.
Although they converse in personal terms, this is no more
than the imagination of Dante. Since their relationship
had no contact, the Beatrice of his works was shaped entirely by his own mind. He once called her La gloriosa
Beatrice Portinari has been immortalized not only in

Dantes poems but in paintings by Pre-Raphaelite masters and poets in the nineteenth century.
Subjects taken from Dante Alighieris La Vita Nuova
(which Rossetti had translated into English) and mostly
the idealisation of Beatrice Portinari had inspired a great
deal of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's art in the 1850s, in particular after the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal. He
idealised her image as Dantes Beatrice in a number of
paintings, such as "Beata Beatrix".
9.5. BEATRICE PORTINARI

Beatrice has also been immortalised in space, as asteroid
83 Beatrix is named in her honour.
The Dante Alighieri Academy Beatrice Campus, a
Catholic high school in Toronto, Canada is named after
Portinari.
In A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler,
Snickets love interest is named Beatrice, after Portinari.
The relationship between the characters is very similar to
that of Beatrice and Dante.
In the animated miniseries, Over the Garden Wall, the
woods called the Unknown is implied multiple times
throughout the series to be some form of afterlife. Here,
the main characters Wirt and Greg are guided through the
Unknown by a bluebird named Beatrice.
9.5.4
References
[1] Dante Alighieri on the Web. Greatdante.net. Retrieved

2013-09-04.
[2] , Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova, as translated by Dante
Gabriel Rossetti via The Project Gutenberg ebook.
9.5.5
Further reading
Conway, James. Beatrice and Other Allegorical Characters of Dante Alighieri, The American
Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII, 1892.
Frisardi, Andrew. The Young Dante and the One
Love: Two Lectures on the Vita Nova. Temenos
Academy, 2013. ISBN 978-0-9564078-8-7.
161
Chapter 10
Further reading
10.1 Allegory in the Middle Ages
thesizing agent that brings together a whole image.[1]
10.1.1 Four types of interpretation or allgoria

There were four categories of interpretation (or meaning)
used in the Middle Ages, which had originated with the
Bible commentators of the early Christian era.[2]
1. The rst is simply the literal interpretation of the
events of the story for historical purposes with no
underlying meaning.
2. The second is called typological: it connects the
events of the Old Testament with the New Testament; in particular drawing allegorical connections
between the events of Christs life with the stories of
the Old Testament.
3. The third is moral (or tropological), which is how
one should act in the present, the moral of the
story.
4. The fourth type of interpretation is anagogical, dealing with the future events of Christian history,
heaven, hell, the last judgment; it deals with prophecies.
Noah and the baptismal ood of the Old Testament (top panel)
is typologically linked with (it pregures) the baptism of Jesus
in the New Testament (bottom panel).
Thus the four types of interpretation (or meaning) deal

with past events (literal), the connection of past events
with the present (typology), present events (moral), and
Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the future (anagogical).[2]
the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions into what
would become recognizable as medieval culture. Peo- Dante describes interpreting through a four-fold
ple of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cul- method (or allegory of the theologians) in his epistle
tural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their in- to Can Grande della Scala. He says the senses of his
stitutions and ideas, and so allegory in medieval litera- work are not simple, but:
ture and medieval art was a prime mover for the synthesis and transformational continuity between the ancient Old and New Testaments
world and the new Christian world.[1]
People of the Middle Ages did not see the same break
between themselves and their classical predecessors that
modern observers see; rather, they saw continuity with
themselves and the ancient world, using allegory as a syn-
Medieval allegory began as a Christian method for synthesizing the discrepancies between the Old Testament
and the New Testament.[1] While both testaments were
studied and seen as equally divinely inspired by God, the
162
10.1. ALLEGORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Old Testament contained discontinuities for Christians
for example the Jewish kosher laws.[1] The Old Testament
was therefore seen in relation to how it would predict the
events of the New Testament, in particular how the events
of the Old Testament related to the events of Christs life.
The events of the Old Testament were seen as part of the
story, with the events of Christs life bringing these stories to a full conclusion. The technical name for seeing
the New Testament in the Old is called typology.
163
gures and morals.[2] For example, one bestiary compares
stags with people devoted to the Church, because (according to medieval zoology) they leave their pastures for
other (heavenly) pastures, and when they come to broad
rivers (sin) they form in line and each rests its head on the
haunches of the next (supporting each other by example
and good works), speeding across the waters together.[3]
10.1.2 History of allegory

Late Antiquity
Christ rises from the tomb, alongside Jonah spit onto the beach,
a typological allegory.
The early allegorizing trait in the interpretation of the

Hebrew Bible gures prominently in the massive oeuvre
of a prominent Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, Philo Judaeus (c. 20 BCE c. 50 CE), whose allegorical reading of the Septuagint synthesized the traditional Jewish
narratives with Platonism. Philos allegorizing, in which
he continued an earlier tradition, had little eect in later
Jewish thought, in part because the Jewish culture of
Alexandria dispersed by the fourth century.[4]
One example of typology is the story of Jonah and the

whale from the Old Testament.[1] Medieval allegorical
interpretation of this story is that it pregures Christs
burial, with the stomach of the whale as Christs tomb.
Jonah was eventually freed from the whale after three
days, so did Christ rise from his tomb after three days.
Thus, whenever one nds an allusion to Jonah in Medieval
art or literature, it is usually an allegory for the burial and
resurrection of Christ.
Christian writers such as Origen (184/185 253/254)

took up the allegorized interpretations and began to read
the Old Testament as a series of pregurations of the New
Testament,[4] in a time when rhetorical training was common, when the classics of mythology were still standard
teaching texts, when the Greek and Roman pantheon of
gods were still visible forms (if not always fully recognized by the more learned populace), and when the new
religions such as Christianity adopted or rejected pagan
Another common typological allegory is with the four elements by way of allegoresis (the study and interpretamajor Old testament prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, tion of allegory).
and Daniel. These four prophets pregure the four Apos- Prudentius wrote the rst surviving Christian purely alletles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There was no end gorical freestanding work, Psychomachia (Soul-War),
to the number of analogies that commentators could nd about AD 400.[1] The plot consists of the personied
between stories of the Old Testament and the New.
good virtues of Hope, Sobriety, Chastity, Humility, etc.
There also existed a tradition in the Middle Ages of ghting the personied evil vices of Pride, Wrath, Pamythographythe allegorical interpretation of pagan ganism, Avarice, etc. The personications are women,
myths.[2] Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses were because in Latin words for abstract concepts have femstandard textbooks throughout the Middle Ages, and each inine grammatical gender; an uninformed reader of the
work might take the story literally as a tale of many angry
had a long tradition of allegorical interpretation.
women ghting one another, because Prudentius provides
no context or explanation of the allegory.[1]
An illustrative example can be found in Siena
In this same period of the early 5th century three other
in a painting of Christ on the cross (Sano di
authors of importance to the history of allegory emerged:
Pietros Crucix, 15th c). At the top of the
Claudian, Macrobius and Martianus Capella. Little is
cross can be seen a bird pecking its own breast,
known of these authors, even if they were truly Chrisblood pouring forth from the wound and feedtian or not, but we do know they handed down the ining its waiting chicks below. This is the pelican
clination to express learned material in allegorical form,
whose story was told by the Roman naturalist
mainly through personication, which later became a
Pliny the Elder. Thus by analogy to a "pagan"
standard part of medieval schooling methods.[2]
source, Christ feeds his own children with his
own blood.
Claudians rst work In Runum attacked the ruthless
Runus and would become a model for the 12th century
Mediaeval philosophers also saw allegory in the natural Anticlaudianus, a well known allegory for how to be an
world, interpreting animals, plants, and even non-living upstanding man. As well his Rape of Prosperpine served
things in books called bestiaries as symbols of Biblical up a litany of mythological allegories, personications,
164
CHAPTER 10. FURTHER READING
and cosmological allegories.[2]

[5]
Neoplatonist commentators
used allegory as a
rhetorical, philosophical and religious devise in reading
Ancient mythology, Homer,[6] and Plato.[5]
Macrobius wrote Commentary of the Dream of Scipio,
providing the Middle Ages with the tradition of a favorite
topic, the allegorical treatment of dreams.[2]
progress of biblical history from the Fall of

Adam to Apocalypse).
Pearl. A plot based on an anagogical allegory;
a dreamer is introduced to heavenly Jerusalem.
Focus on the meaning of death. A religious
response to Consolation of Philosophy.
Lastly Martianus Capella wrote De nuptiis Philologiae et 10.1.3 See also

Mercurii (Marriage of Philology and Mercury), the ti Allegory in Renaissance literature
tle referring to the allegorical union of intelligent learning
with the love of letters. It contained short treatises on the
Allegorical interpretations of Plato
"seven liberal arts" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music) and thus became a
Pardes (Jewish exegesis)
standard textbook, greatly inuencing educators and stu Raulfs ttr
dents throughout the Middle Ages.[2]
Boethius, perhaps the most inuential author of Late Antiquity, rst introduced readers of his work Consolation 10.1.4 Notes
of Philosophy to the personied Lady Philosophy, the
source of innumerable later personied gures (such as [1] William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman (2001). Discovering the Middle Ages. The Teaching Company. ISBN
Lady Luck, Lady Fortune, etc.)[2]
1-56585-701-1
Early Middle Ages
[2] Stephen A. Barney (1989). Allegory. Dictionary of the

Middle Ages. vol-1. ISBN 0-684-16760-3
After Boethius there exists no known work of allegorical literature until the 12th century. Although allegorical
thinking, elements and artwork abound during this period, it was not until the rise of the medieval university in
the High Middle Ages that sustained allegorical literature
appears again.[2]
[3] The Book of Beasts, trans. T. H. White
High and Late Middle Ages
[4] Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages,

1993:40.
[5] Florin Calian (2013).Clarications of Obscurity: Conditions for Procluss Allegorical Reading of Platos Parmenides Obscurity in Medieval Texts (Krems: Institut fr
Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frhen Neuzeit)
[6] Robert Lamberton (1989). Homer the Theologian: Neo-
The earliest works were by Bernard Silvestris

platonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic
Tradition (London: University of California Press).
(Cosmographia, 1147), and Alanus ab Insulis (Plaint
of Nature, 1170, and Anticlaudianus) who pioneered
the use of allegory (mainly personication) for abstract
10.1.5 References
speculation on metaphysics and scientic questions.
The High and Late Middle Ages saw many allegorical
works and techniques. There were four 'great' works from
this period.[2]
The Four Great Medieval Allegories
Le Roman de la Rose. A major allegorical
work, it had many lasting inuences on western literature, creating entire new genres and
development of vernacular languages.
The Divine Comedy. Ranked amongst the
greatest medieval works, both allegorically and
as a work of literature; was (and remains)
hugely popular.
Piers Plowman. An encyclopedic array of
allegorical devices. Dream-vision; pilgrimage; personication; satire; typological story
structure (the dreamers progress mirrors the
Stephen A. Barney (1989). Allegory. Dictionary

of the Middle Ages. vol-1. ISBN 0-684-16760-3
William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman (2001).
Discovering the Middle Ages. The Teaching
Company. ISBN 1-56585-701-1
Sylvia Huot. Allegorical Play in the Old French
Motet. Stanford, 1997.
Chapter 11
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licenses
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168
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II, GoShow, Bswag99, EdwardWilsonLee, Dexbot, DR FUZZYBOTTOM, Tbonetb5, Lugia2453, Frosty, Corinne, Slaavs, Nickmcgoo11,
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Inferno (Dante) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)?oldid=729975970 Contributors: William Avery, Andrewman327,
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Profvladthethird, EdwardWilsonLee, Davidlwinkler, Natuur12, Mogism, HerrBrown, Jamesx12345, Little green rosetta, Jixie101, NC4PK,
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user 31lk45mnzx90, Evi1unicorn, ElizabethABarrett, Islamthetruth123, MRD2014, Gonzales John, Sarr Cat, Underscorre, Charwowk,
NPham2005, KasparBot, EVDiam, IvanScrooge98, Lr0^^k, Amy Kat, SniperHawk61, BigBlueYoyo, AJHend22, Baking Soda, GapedButt, Tseung Kwan O, Jujutsuan, KLOWNNEDGARALANPOE, Not LaminateCash and Anonymous: 631
Purgatorio Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatorio?oldid=730307188 Contributors: SimonP, Dcoetzee, Tpbradbury, Maximus
Rex, Wetman, Ellsworth, Rlquall, Lacrimosus, Danh, Oskar Sigvardsson, YUL89YYZ, Number 0, Woohookitty, BD2412, DePiep, Cfortunato, Rpeate, Wavelength, Rtkat3, RussBot, Pigman, Kufat, Hmains, PersonDude, Sadads, Nicknimh, Huon, Jlarson, John, Sailko,
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Arsten, Nungalpiriggal, MeanMotherJr, Nathanielrst, Choor monster, Shearyer, Andrewc2323, Tophet, Gonzales John, Maslachak96,
IvanScrooge98, Jujutsuan and Anonymous: 48
Paradiso (Dante) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradiso_(Dante)?oldid=730019940 Contributors: Tpbradbury, Icairns,
Woohookitty, DePiep, Cfortunato, Baryonic Being, Nihiltres, Bgwhite, Rtkat3, RussBot, DVD R W, Onebravemonkey, Hmains, Sadads,
TheLeopard, John, Sailko, RandomCritic, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Alekjds, Nono64, Molly-in-md, GrahamHardy, Hugo999, Deor, TXiKiBoT, Townlake, Finnrind, Radagast3, StAnselm, Palmamod, Randy Kryn, ImageRemovalBot, Mild Bill Hiccup, Niceguyedc, Holothurion,
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Micheymouseee, KasparBot, Jack Gaines, IvanScrooge98, Karlfonza, Jujutsuan and Anonymous: 28
Pap Satn, pap Satn aleppe Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pap%C3%A9_Sat%C3%A0n%2C_pap%C3%A9_Sat%C3%
A0n_aleppe?oldid=713403043 Contributors: Michael Hardy, Yossarian, Koavf, SmackBot, Kintetsubualo, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger,
Headbomb, Adavidb, Radagast3, Addbot, Webwizard, Killy mcgee, Yobot, Citation bot, FrescoBot, Stikko, Elemeno22, Axel Kockum,
GoingBatty, Helpful Pixie Bot, Regulov, Leontopodium alpinum, Hmainsbot1, Manybytes, MagicatthemovieS, Onuphriate, Vanished user
31lk45mnzx90, Niceguy149 and Anonymous: 10
11.1. TEXT
169
Raphl ma amche zab almi Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raph%C3%A8l_mai_am%C3%A8cche_zab%C3%AC_almi?

oldid=712352710 Contributors: Merovingian, Rjwilmsi, Koavf, Nerrolken, Cratylus3, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Dsp13,
Vranak, Radagast3, Drmies, SchreiberBike, Fyrael, Ironholds, Citation bot, Axel Kockum, GoingBatty, Brownie Charles, 570ad, Helpful Pixie Bot, Rayadverb, Hamish59, Napalatt, Vanished user 31lk45mnzx90 and Anonymous: 2
Alichino (devil) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alichino_(devil)?oldid=656797065 Contributors: Malcolma, Cydebot, Treybien,
TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Rettetast, Radagast3, Goustien, Addbot, Jezhotwells, FrescoBot, Fortdj33, E-Soter, Axel Kockum, Vorsgald
and Anonymous: 1
Barbariccia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbariccia?oldid=707827033 Contributors: Gilgamesh~enwiki, Colonies Chris,
Addshore, Cydebot, Treybien, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Gavia immer, Keith D, Steel1943, Radagast3, Goustien, FrescoBot, Fortdj33,
Intelligentsium, Axel Kockum, AvicAWB, ChrisGualtieri and Anonymous: 1
Ciampolo Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciampolo?oldid=685772530 Contributors: Paul A, Tabletop, BD2412, Crystallina,
SmackBot, JennyRad, Sailko, Equendil, Cydebot, SummonerMarc, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Cdf333fad3a, Froggy88, Plinth molecular
gathered, Adavidb, Reverse Gear, Elriana, Mild Bill Hiccup, Xme, Addbot, Electron, Amirobot, The Almightey Drill and Anonymous: 5
Cocytus Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus?oldid=727865681 Contributors: The Anome, Andre Engels, Shsilver, Atlan,
Tucci528, DopeshJustin, Angela, Bogdangiusca, Emperorbma, Mirv, Square1ace, UtherSRG, GreatWhiteNortherner, Snobot, DocWatson42, TOttenville8, Bacchiad, Ellsworth, Sam Hocevar, El-Ahrairah, Dbachmann, RoyBoy, Jojit fb, SnowFire, Maikeru, Kelly Martin,
Sburke, Daniel Lawrence, Aloerman, FlaBot, Mitsukai, YurikBot, Shimirel, Hairy Dude, Royalbroil, Deucalionite, Mieciu K, Drboisclair, Deville, SmackBot, DracoLord Haven, Kimon, DarkAdonis255, Reycount, Tenka Muteki, Tragic Taco, SashatoBot, Ser Amantio di
Nicolao, Arctic-Editor, Archiesteel, DangerousPanda, Cydebot, EdenMaster, Thijs!bot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, D, AntiVandalBot,
Ingolfson, T@nn, Klausok, Cocytus, LittleOldMe old, MercuryBlue, Ja 62, Barbaking, Erik the Red 2, EmxBot, Lethesl, ClueBot, Gits
(Neo), Narom, Niceguyedc, Excirial, Uhhlive, Catalographer, BodhisattvaBot, Addbot, ColinMB, Legobot, Heisenbergthechemist, Ayrton
Prost, JackieBot, Xqbot, Erud, Omnipaedista, Masterknighted, Virgilio Marone, Whisky drinker, Axel Kockum, ZroBot, ClueBot NG,
Calidum, Ctrt12, Biggs Pli, Gre regiment, Mark viking and Anonymous: 69
Corso Donati Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corso_Donati?oldid=712696115 Contributors: Rayc, SmackBot, Cydebot, Headbomb, Waacstats, Fabrictramp, David Eppstein, Kansas Bear, Icarusgeek, Jameslionelprice, GaMip, Addbot, Yobot, Citation bot 1, Hellknowz, RjwilmsiBot, Look2See1, Rococo1700 and KasparBot
Dis (Divine Comedy) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dis_(Divine_Comedy)?oldid=700379896 Contributors: Robbot, AlainV,
Gwalla, Jason Quinn, Ellsworth, DreamGuy, President Rhapsody, VolatileChemical, Rtkat3, GeoCapp, Garion96, SmackBot, OrphanBot, Kid Charlemagne~enwiki, Ceoil, Esrever, Jimd, Picaroon, Iokseng, Cydebot, Flowerpotman, Meladina, Headbomb, Cynwolfe, TheAllSeeingEye, Nyttend, Zerokitsune, Rei-bot, Planet-man828, Mtys, Techdawg667, Jumbolino, Holothurion, Desdaemona,
Robek2020, PeterAS, Errolhunt, Addbot, Viking59, Mintrick, Dantai2000, Ixtreon, Erik9bot, FlameHorse, Jesse V., Axel Kockum, Stenvenhe, Wagwanshcake, ThomasHarrisGrantsPass, Beebeecee, --MULLIGANACEOUS-- and Anonymous: 32
Eunoe Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunoe?oldid=730029408 Contributors: Bgwhite, RussBot, Malcolma, Nae'blis, SmackBot,
Basseq, Ww2censor, Kid Charlemagne~enwiki, SQGibbon, Arthology, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Station1, Zetud, Yobot,
Erik9bot, JSquish, Godsy and Anonymous: 5
Forese Donati Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forese_Donati?oldid=713994899 Contributors: FlaBot, GoodDay, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Waacstats, David Eppstein, Survivalism, Addbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, RjwilmsiBot, Look2See1, VIAFbot, KasparBot and Anonymous: 3
Malacoda Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacoda?oldid=707185458 Contributors: FlaBot, Rtkat3, RussBot, Apokryltaros,
PTSE, WolfgangFaber, Cydebot, Alaibot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Geekdiva, Radagast3, Goustien, Snigbrook, Zaharous, Addbot, Citation bot, SnorlaxMonster, SassoBot, Jonesey95, Rameshngbot, Ale And Quail, John of Reading, Mzilikazi1939, Axel Kockum, GoingBatty,
Stenvenhe, Helpful Pixie Bot, Samuele Madini and Anonymous: 15
Malebranche (Divine Comedy) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebranche_(Divine_Comedy)?oldid=728988782 Contributors:
Wetman, Wikky Horse, RobbieNewton, Sailko, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Nick Number, Steel1943, Radagast3, Goustien,
XLinkBot, Addbot, Citation bot, SnorlaxMonster, Omnipaedista, FrescoBot, Tehae, Axel Kockum, GoingBatty, Helpful Pixie Bot, AndyDeCarlo, IvanScrooge98 and Anonymous: 9
Malebolge Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebolge?oldid=712122196 Contributors: Damian Yerrick, Geogre, Tom harrison,
Jonathan Drain, Shenme, Sumergocognito, Afowler, Czolgolz, Jibbley, Etacar11, Graham87, BD2412, JIP, FlaBot, Greengobo, Quuxplusone, Hairy Dude, Retodon8, Jlittlet, Pigman, Cajunstrike, Veledan, Apokryltaros, Pegship, Mike Selinker, Nscheey, Fplay, Afasmit,
Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Scray, T-borg, Mechagodzilla, Phoenixrod, SamSandy, MetaruKoneko, Cydebot, Richhoncho, Daa89563,
TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Alphachimpbot, Wumbo, Sophie means wisdom, Gavia immer, Wasell, AdamantBMage, Razorthe6249th,
Remember the dot, Philip Trueman, Fanofranz, Radagast3, Mhockey, Editor2020, Role playah, Addbot, Mintrick, Glenfarclas, Mr Hart,
LucienBOT, Fama Clamosa, Ale And Quail, Tehae, Beyond My Ken, Ajraddatz, Axel Kockum, Pokbot, ClueBot NG, Cntras, Theopolisme,
MusikAnimal, BiGGieBoYn8, Posieissilly, Dieelmaus and Anonymous: 56
Piccarda Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccarda?oldid=713987474 Contributors: FeanorStar7, BD2412, SmackBot, SMasters,
Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Waacstats, David Eppstein, Sbowers3, Pedro Felipe, Survivalism, Addbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Micione, D'ohBot, Look2See1, Helpful Pixie Bot, Khazar2, KasparBot and Anonymous: 1
Dantes Satan Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante{}s_Satan?oldid=713788372 Contributors: Fishal, Danski14, Riana, Stefanomione, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, Mitsukai, Bgwhite, Rsrikanth05, AppaAliApsa, SmackBot, OrphanBot, Kurtle, Majora4, Kejood, Cydebot, Warhorus, Treybien, Alaibot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Jman8088, Johnbod, Rebeccapoole, IllaZilla, Dante hero, Elriana, Planetman828, Radagast3, Kutera Genesis, Matrix1001, R.myriam, Sun Creator, Aaron north, DrOxacropheles, Addbot, Tassedethe, Ulric1313,
Ron Ead, Mathonius, Kwiki, LittleWink, Nemesis the Fourth, Plagatus Proeliator, PBS-AWB, Ncboy2010, NLinpublic, Petrb, ClueBot
NG, Flax5, MeanMotherJr, MagicatthemovieS, Julietdeltalima, SSTyer and Anonymous: 78
Scarmiglione Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarmiglione?oldid=630780384 Contributors: Kzhr, Gilgamesh~enwiki, Mandarax,
FlaBot, SmackBot, OtakuMan, SamSandy, Cydebot, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Synthebot, Radagast3, Goustien, Addbot, AnomieBOT,
Mr Hart, DrilBot, Updatehelper, Axel Kockum, Stawberriegummi, Twilightstorm and Anonymous: 6
170
Contrapasso Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapasso?oldid=713204598 Contributors: Wereon, Gracefool, The Land,

Goochelaar, Kbh3rd, Qwertyus, Sbrools, Ice Man~enwiki, Nikkimaria, SmackBot, Reedy, Bluebot, Rrburke, Ourai, RhythmEater, Cydebot, Nabokov, Philanderos, Headbomb, J.delanoy, Im9today, Radagast3, Ri3mannZeta, ClueBot, Kathleen.wright5, Otolemur crassicaudatus, MystBot, Addbot, Spykesinmahshoe, Ronhjones, 5 albert square, Ron Ead, Capricorn42, Omnipaedista, AnotherOnymous, Fortdj33,
FoxBot, Lotje, Sicsemperhomme, Caronte10, Pokbot, ClueBot NG, Helpful Pixie Bot and Anonymous: 39
List of cultural references in Divine Comedy Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy?
oldid=727063245 Contributors: John K, Charles Matthews, Adam Bishop, Raul654, Wetman, Lowellian, Stewartadcock, Flauto Dolce, Varlaam, JoJan, Jkl, Dbachmann, Paul August, Kiand, Sietse Snel, Filiocht, Cmdrjameson, I9Q79oL78KiL0QTFHgyc, Wikipedius, Spangineer, P Ingerson, Ceyockey, Dejvid, Woohookitty, PoccilScript, TheoClarke, Tokek, Gallaghp, Graham87, BD2412, Josh Parris, Ketiltrout,
Rjwilmsi, Koavf, NatusRoma, Malachias111, Str1977, Vilcxjo, Gdrbot, Sortan, Rtkat3, RussBot, Conscious, Gaius Cornelius, Ravenous,
Anomalocaris, Aldux, Emersoni, Ospalh, Supspirit, Pegship, Igin, Open2universe, Peyna, NielsenGW, Curpsbot-unicodify, DavidRKelly,
Ephilei, Attilios, SmackBot, Edgar181, Hmains, Jero77, Chris the speller, TimBentley, Roscelese, Colonies Chris, CARAVAGGISTI,
Lox, John, Mrf, Carnby, Stattouk, Heran et Sang'gres, Sailko, Neddyseagoon, Frecks, Iridescent, JoeBot, CmdrObot, Basawala, Cydebot, Ntsimp, Barticus88, Mbvigil, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, Froggy88, Ludde23, Nick Number, Widefox, Guy Macon, Noroton, DuncanHill, Semioli, TheAllSeeingEye, Frotz, RP88, CommonsDelinker, VirtualDelight, Polenth, Johnbod, Zerokitsune, Kenneth M Burke,
Berthold Werner, Etrusco2010, Steven J. Anderson, Strangerer, Tomaxer, Mai-Sachme, Radagast3, Hertz1888, Fratrep, Vanished user
ewsn2348tui2f8n2o2utjfeoi210r39jf, Fuddle, Altzinn, Randy Kryn, Geometricks, ImageRemovalBot, SlackerMom, Mild Bill Hiccup,
Niceguyedc, CohesionBot, SchreiberBike, SiegfreidZ, Lightbot, QuadrivialMind, CountryBot, Yobot, Bunnyhop11, Fraggle81, Dwp7k,
MikeKn23, Cyprian56, J04n, FrescoBot, SuperJew, Fat&Happy, Just a guy from the KP, Lotje, Superk1a, John of Reading, AleksandrGertsen, Helpful Pixie Bot, BG19bot, Davidiad, RichardMills65, Basemetal, Khazar2, Hmainsbot1, Mogism, Choor monster, Lemnaminor,
Marcus Antonius Felix, Pankarth, ThomasRayGarcia, Michael0986 and Anonymous: 23
Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy in popular culture Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri_and_the_Divine_
Comedy_in_popular_culture?oldid=715765882 Contributors: Jeandr du Toit, Altenmann, JackofOz, Djryan, Keith Edkins, Technogeek, Chuuumus, EliasAlucard, Ahkond, Xezbeth, Andrew Maiman, Goochelaar, Stbalbach, Technomad, Wareh, Thanos6, Giraedata, DreamGuy, Wtmitchell, Jstrange1265, Firsfron, Woohookitty, FeanorStar7, LOL, Stefanomione, Deltabeignet, BD2412, DePiep,
Rjwilmsi, Koavf, Drrngrvy, Alejo2083, Ground Zero, Bgwhite, DaveR, Tenebrae, Anomalocaris, Welsh, Todeswalzer, Elkman, Nikkimaria, Che829, Luisedgarf, SmackBot, M.luke.myers, Wehwalt, Anastrophe, Wakuran, Evanreyes, Trystan, Portillo, Madeofstars, Chris
the speller, DStoykov, OrangeDog, Sadads, Colonies Chris, Oatmeal batman, Sgt Pinback, Samineru, Ryan Roos, NickPenguin, Salamurai,
Sailko, The Man in Question, Neddyseagoon, Jax0m, Drjon, Agent 86, Iridescent, Dclayh, Drwarpmind, Angeldeb82, CRGreathouse,
CmdrObot, Tanthalas39, SamSandy, ScarletSpiderDave, ShelfSkewed, Stormwyrm, Cydebot, Warhorus, Tkynerd, TonyTheTiger, Headbomb, JustAGal, ISNorden, Jedcred, Band geek13, ReviewDude, Widefox, Palpo, Glacierfairy, Vendettax, Pixelface, Narssarssuaq, Supernumerary, MegX, Geniac, Metakraid, Mr.Kite, JamesBWatson, Twsx, LeaHazel, Froid, Mbardoe, Tjwells, Wikianon, S3000, Legolas, Keith D, Cold Skin~enwiki, TheGreenFaerae, Warren67, Rachelskit, Cutterlm, Foober, Johnbod, Zerokitsune, Artipol, Nikki311,
Seventypercent, Atama, OsirisV, Nateskate99c, Andylong, Boombaard, Borat fan, Signalhead, Deor, Ldshield, MayumiTsuji, Seraphim,
Kdlowe, Vgranucci, Brokenwit, Jre58591, Bernstein2291, Radagast3, SieBot, StAnselm, AlphaPyro, WereSpielChequers, Kipukatehgreat, PookeyMaster, KathrynLybarger, Deltora fan, Werldwayd, JL-Bot, Randy Kryn, Jwk3, ClueBot, Kezspez, SubZeroSilver, Drmies, Niceguyedc, McMarcoP, Arjayay, Holothurion, Aaronkavo, TobiasPersson, Horror Punk Ed, LanceCougar595C, P Majum, Myspace69, PeterAS, Sythe2o0, DMNA, Addbot, Willking1979, SiegfreidZ, TriiipleThreat, Tassedethe, Clarkejl, Lightbot, Yobot, Vegetariani, Dwp7k, AnomieBOT, SentientWAFFLE, Rockypedia, Panther991, Citation bot, Chtellez, LilHelpa, Micione, Molie5726, Dunc0029,
Adrignola, Sesu Prime, FrescoBot, Fortdj33, Citation bot 1, DrilBot, Spidey104, Shaitte, Weedle McHairybug, Antique Military Ries,
RjwilmsiBot, Esoglou, EmausBot, John of Reading, FreshCorp619, Diiscool, GoingBatty, Klantry01, Benedoceridebes, ZroBot, Lol lee
lol, AndrewOne, Zeta1127,89thLegion, SeekTrueWisdom, ClueBot NG, Nick O'Demus 1979, Jakeybean, Helpful Pixie Bot, Mjsam18, PhnomPencil, Tatiana Matlina, Argento Surfer, Dpitts387, SilverBullitt, Hmainsbot1, Mogism, Inayity, Dristarg, Ghisela, Abalcio, Aapse,
BigFilmNerd, Srs53, DupreDuper, RalphLoizzo, Robevans123, Kwonk, TheHeroOfCanton42, Monkbot, Silas Haslam, Mickymoo555,
OsizUrUnkle, Muscimolo and Anonymous: 252
Dante (crater) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_(crater)?oldid=724241740 Contributors: Tedernst, RJHall, RussBot, Bluebot,
Oloferne, Cydebot, Alaibot, Jstuby, Headbomb, MER-C, Skeptic2, Johnbod, Broadbot, Addbot, Amirobot, I dream of horses, Tom.Reding,
SporkBot, Khazar2, Dexbot and Anonymous: 5
Dante Park Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Park?oldid=727922495 Contributors: Klemen Kocjancic, Pharos, Alansohn,
Bjones, Tne80, SmackBot, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, PRRfan, Aekent, Headbomb, Jllm06, The Anomebot2, Transpoman, Lightbot,
DrilBot, SFK2, Epicgenius, Caliae19, BD2412bot and Anonymous: 3
Italian battleship Dante Alighieri Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_battleship_Dante_Alighieri?oldid=708930956 Contributors: Topbanana, Rich Farmbrough, Russ3Z, Bellhalla, GraemeLeggett, Hawkeye7, Attilios, Rcbutcher, Il palazzo, Derekbridges, Ala.foum,
Sambot, Andrwsc, Haus, Bobamnertiopsis, Cydebot, Aldis90, Headbomb, Fetchcomms, Hello32020, Parsecboy, STBotD, TXiKiBoT,
SpellingGuru, Lightmouse, Maralia, MBK004, Sturmvogel 66, Addbot, Mdnavman, Lightbot, Luckas-bot, Jackie, GrouchoBot, RedBot,
Full-date unlinking bot, Trappist the monk, Beyond My Ken, GA bot, ZroBot, Hazard-Bot, FAM1885, JustSomePics, BattyBot, Xhemilja,
MrLinkinPark333, Monkbot, Llammakey and Anonymous: 5
Alighiero di Bellincione Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alighiero_di_Bellincione?oldid=627158593 Contributors: AnomieBOT,
Diiscool, Why should I have a User Name? and Anonymous: 1
Jacopo Alighieri Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_Alighieri?oldid=720021377 Contributors: William Avery, Alekjds, Johnpacklambert, Akarkera, Icarusgeek, Addbot, Green Cardamom, RjwilmsiBot, Captain Assassin!, TSoules, Jay8g, KasparBot and Anonymous: 3
Guido Cavalcanti Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Cavalcanti?oldid=724038761 Contributors: Charles Matthews, JackofOz, Robodoc.at, Gnossie, Jason Quinn, Curtsurly, D6, Discospinster, Number 0, Paul August, Aranel, CanisRufus, Wareh, Filiocht,
Wikipedius, Pretender, Ceyockey, Woohookitty, FeanorStar7, TheoClarke, Stefanomione, Graham87, BD2412, Jorunn, Angusmclellan,
ABot, FlaBot, Kummi, YurikBot, RussBot, Schoen, Tony1, Syrthiss, Crisco 1492, Homagetocatalonia, Attilios, SmackBot, Srnec, Trystan, Betacommand, Inarcadiaego, KaiserbBot, SashatoBot, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Special-T, Chicheley, Cydebot, Warhorus, Thijs!bot,
Massimo Macconi, NSCResearch, Midgrid, CommonsDelinker, Nono64, Johnbod, DorganBot, VolkovBot, Wassermann~enwiki, Brandon
Christopher, Struway, Shakko, Maderibeyza, LarRan, Llywelyn2000, Drmies, Howdoesitee, Timothy Neilen, Addbot, Broletto, Lightbot,
Luckas-bot, Victoriaearle, KamikazeBot, Tristan noir, Xqbot, TechBot, Walter J. Rotelmayer, J04n, FrescoBot, Mudbringer, Davide41,
11.2. IMAGES
171
JMMuller, Sordello da Goito, Marco polo 52, EmausBot, WikitanvirBot, GoingBatty, TRSupersour, ZroBot, Jenks24, SporkBot, Helpsome, Lmabr, Wikitonykline, Signore dei Benelli, Animus93, N0n3up, Ptolemaios and Anonymous: 28
Brunetto Latini Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunetto_Latini?oldid=719981776 Contributors: Deb, Olivier, RodC, Rbraunwa,
Wetman, Pibwl, Diderot, ClockworkLunch, Rdsmith4, Frehorse, Bill Thayer, Espoo, ASK~enwiki, Woohookitty, FeanorStar7, Stefanomione, BD2412, Kbdank71, Jorunn, Cfortunato, FlaBot, YurikBot, Rtkat3, Ugur Basak, Asarelah, Contaldo80, Jack Upland, Attilios,
Bluebot, Cloj, Lute88, CmdrObot, Gregbard, Funnyfarmofdoom, Cydebot, Warhorus, Galassi, Thijs!bot, Fayenatic london, RR, Waacstats, Nev1, Snowbot, Alcmaeonid, Oiophron~enwiki, StAnselm, Callelinea, Justin W Smith, Fadesga, RogDel, MystBot, Addbot, Manuel
Trujillo Berges, Kisbesbot, Lightbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, JackieBot, Piano non troppo, Bolinda, Clubender, Xqbot, Lele
giannoni, GrouchoBot, EmausBot, ZroBot, PBS-AWB, Bamyers99, Og of Bashan, Marcocapelle, Caypartisbot, Breakfast with Proust,
VIAFbot, Melonkelon, Mana Most, DavidBrooks-AWB, Federico Leva (BEIC), KasparBot and Anonymous: 43
Beatrice Portinari Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Portinari?oldid=683510488 Contributors: The Anome, RodC, Jerzy,
Dimadick, Phil Boswell, Xiaopo, Goethean, Wereon, Cantara, Ferkelparade, Stern~enwiki, JKnight, JoJan, Vanished user 1234567890,
Klemen Kocjancic, EliasAlucard, Kwamikagami, Visualerror, Wareh, 96T, Bantman, Grenavitar, Ylem, Stefanomione, Cuchullain, Kbdank71, The jt, Ghepeu, Partenope, FlaBot, Jaraalbe, Bgwhite, EamonnPKeane, YurikBot, Nautilus43, MosheA, Trovatore, Krea, Crisco
1492, Calvin08, TheMadBaron, Contaldo80, Whobot, F. Cosoleto, Attilios, SmackBot, Aelfthrytha, Portillo, Bluebot, B00P, Rorybowman, Dzhatse, Elendils Heir, Derek R Bullamore, Srah, Ceoil, Sailko, Fernando S. Aldado~enwiki, The Man in Question, Hvn0413,
Fona Fett, Eastfrisian, JeW, Jetman, Joseph Solis in Australia, Switchercat, Mika1h, Kenshin pk2, Cydebot, JamesAM, Thijs!bot, Missvain, Bookworm857158367, Rothorpe, Waacstats, Gwern, Divmazie, CommonsDelinker, Robespierre2, J.delanoy, Johnbod, Bdodo1992,
Cabias, Deor, VolkovBot, TXiKiBoT, Tovojolo, Otaku JD, Snowbot, SieBot, Bede735, Randy Kryn, ClueBot, LUUSAP, TheOldJacobite,
Jameslionelprice, Webbbbbbber, Shoemakers Holiday, Addbot, Wran, Sardonyx wolfess, Mikea524, Lihaas, Tassedethe, Lightbot, Luckasbot, Yobot, Legobot II, Dwp7k, AnomieBOT, ArthurBot, LilHelpa, AmHaArez, Micione, Omnipaedista, Zosterops, Skyerise, Pikiwyn,
RjwilmsiBot, EmausBot, FreshCorp619, ZroBot, Grp1italian, Polisher of Cobwebs, ClueBot NG, BG19bot, Gallina3795, Tanimichan,
TheGnerd, VIAFbot, Julian Felsenburgh, DupreDuper, DavidLeighEllis, Frandiscast, Teessideangel2012, Grammarhog, KasparBot and
Anonymous: 92
Allegory in the Middle Ages Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_in_the_Middle_Ages?oldid=728435152 Contributors: SimonP, Heron, D, Charles Matthews, Tpbradbury, Yudel, Wetman, Stewartadcock, Stbalbach, Wareh, Thu, Rje, Pharos, Grenavitar, Mel
Etitis, Flowerparty, Aethralis, BirgitteSB, Elizabeyth, SmackBot, Junedodge, Jero77, Colonies Chris, KaiserbBot, JonHarder, Kyoko,
Freederick, Nehrams2020, WeggeBot, Aristophanes68, Agne27, Thijs!bot, Headbomb, Agrestis, Ringsjodjuren, Cynwolfe, Pyrospirit,
JingaJenga, Deor, Rei-bot, FinnWiki, StAnselm, Martarius, SummerWithMorons, Jan1nad, Cmchenry72, Addbot, Hda3ku, Yobot, Citation bot, J04n, Omnipaedista, Little grape, Green Cardamom, Jandalhandler, John of Reading, Gfoley4, AndrewOne, Liz Henderson,
Snotbot, Widr, Wrathofjames, Gordon Davy, PlatonPlotin, Pepesia, JohnD'Alembert, Inallegory and Anonymous: 38
11.2 Images
File:046CupolaSPietro.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/046CupolaSPietro.jpg License: CC BY-SA
3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: MarkusMark
File:1K002578_Divine_Comedy_Giovanni_di_paolo.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/1K002578_
Divine_Comedy_Giovanni_di_paolo.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/
record.asp?MSID=6468&CollID=58&NStart=36 Original artist: Giovanni di Paolo
File:Abraham.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Abraham.jpg License:
Public domain
Contributors:
Web Gallery of Art:
<a href='http://www.wga.hu/art/l/la_hire/abraham.jpg' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img
alt='Inkscape.svg' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/20px-Inkscape.svg.png' width='20'
height='20'
srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/30px-Inkscape.svg.png
1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/40px-Inkscape.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='60' data-leheight='60' /></a> Image <a href='http://www.wga.hu/html/l/la_hire/abraham.html' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img alt='Information icon.svg'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/20px-Information_icon.svg.png' width='20'
height='20' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/30px-Information_icon.svg.png
1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/40px-Information_icon.svg.png 2x' data-lewidth='620' data-le-height='620' /></a> Info about artwork Original artist: Laurent de La Hyre
File:Aeneas{}_Flight_from_Troy_by_Federico_Barocci.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/
Aeneas%27_Flight_from_Troy_by_Federico_Barocci.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Web Gallery of Art, Uploaded to
en.wikipedia 03:45 28 Jul 2004 by en:User:Wetman. Original artist: Federico Barocci
File:Aeneas_and_Turnus.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Aeneas_and_Turnus.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: http://imagencpd.aut.org/4DPict?file=20&rec=34.891&field=2 06/12/2008 Original artist: Luca Giordano
File:AlbertusMagnus.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/AlbertusMagnus.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: First uploaded by sv:Anvndare:Lamr to Swedish Wikipedia as sv:Bild:AlbertusMagnus.jpg Original artist: Tommaso da
Modena
File:AlessandroSorrentinoXXXIII_ParadisoDante.ogg
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/
AlessandroSorrentinoXXXIII_ParadisoDante.ogg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors: http://www.alessandrosorrentino.it/Danctis.htm
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File:Ambox_important.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:Antonio_Cotti_-_Dante_a_Verona.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Antonio_Cotti_-_Dante_
a_Verona.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Christies, LotFinder: entry 5279504 (sale 5860, lot 551, 11 December 2009, London)
Original artist: Antonio Maria Cotti (1840 1929)
File:Attila-PopeLeo-ChroniconPictum.jpg
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Attila-PopeLeo-ChroniconPictum.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Chronicon Pictum, facsimile edition stored at the
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172
File:BS_Bismarck.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/BS_Bismarck.png License: GFDL Contributors:

Cropped from a previous version of File:Bb bismarck.png [] Original artist: User:Anynobody
File:Beatrice_Addressing_Dante_(by_William_Blake).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Beatrice_
Addressing_Dante_%28by_William_Blake%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: selbst gescannt Original artist: William Blake
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File:Boschsevendeadlysins.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Boschsevendeadlysins.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, painting by Hieronymus Bosch Original artist:
Hieronymus Bosch (circa 14501516)
File:Byzantinischer_Mosaizist_um_1000_002.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Byzantinischer_
Mosaizist_um_1000_002.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM,
2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Byzantine mosaicist, ca. 1000
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File:Cathdrale_d'Auch_12.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Cath%C3%A9drale_d%27Auch_12.
jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Vassil
File:Cerbere.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Cerbere.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http:
//www.scathach.de/dore/dante/dante04.htm (taken from fr:) Original artist: Gustave Dor
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Contributors: [1] from [2] Original artist: William Blake
File:Chiesa_di_Santa_Margherita_dei_Cerchi,_Firenze.JPG Source:
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provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original artist: No machine-readable author provided. Javier Carro assumed
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File:Coat_of_arms_Holy_See.svg Source:
cense: Public domain Contributors:
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Bruno Bernhard Heim, Heraldry in the Catholic Church: Its Origin, Customs and Laws (Van Duren 1978 ISBN 9780391008731), p. 54;
Original artist: F l a n k e r
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Earth_and_Moon.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Crystal_Clear_app_Login_Manager_2.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Crystal_Clear_app_Login_
Manager_2.png License: ? Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:DVinfernoBrunettoLatiniAccostsDante_m.jpg
Source:
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DVinfernoBrunettoLatiniAccostsDante_m.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Pantheon Books edition of Divine Comedy
Original artist: scanned, post-processed, and uploaded by Karl Hahn
File:DVinfernoCiampoloDemonAlichino_m.jpg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/
DVinfernoCiampoloDemonAlichino_m.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Pantheon Books edition of Divine Comedy
File:DVinfernoForestOfSuicides_m.jpg
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artist: scanned, post-processed, and uploaded by Karl Hahn
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Pantheon Books edition of Divine Comedy Original
File:DVinfernoThievesTorturedBySerpents_m.jpg
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DVinfernoThievesTorturedBySerpents_m.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Pantheon Books edition of Divine Comedy
File:Dante,_Commedia,_1472_-_Bacheca_palazzo_Trinci.jpg Source:
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Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Dante03.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Dante03.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http:
//www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bronzino/4/dante.html Original artist: Agnolo Bronzino
11.2. IMAGES
173
File:DanteAligheriDrawing.jpg
Source:
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License:
Public domain Contributors:
http://archive.org/details/brasseysnavala1923brasuoft Original artist:
Unknown<a
href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img
alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.
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width='20'
height='11'
srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png
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File:DanteFresco.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/DanteFresco.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Web Gallery of Art: <a href='http://www.wga.hu/art/a/andrea/castagno/2_famous/7dante.jpg' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img
alt='Inkscape.svg' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/20px-Inkscape.svg.png' width='20'
height='20' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/30px-Inkscape.svg.png 1.5x, https://
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Inkscape.svg/40px-Inkscape.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='60' data-le-height='60'
/></a> Image <a href='http://www.wga.hu/html/a/andrea/castagno/2_famous/7dante.html' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img alt='Information
icon.svg'
src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/20px-Information_icon.svg.png'
width='20' height='20' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/30px-Information_
icon.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/40px-Information_icon.svg.png
2x' data-le-width='620' data-le-height='620' /></a> Info about artwork Original artist: Andrea del Castagno
File:Dante_Alighieri.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Dante_Alighieri.png License: PD-US Contributors:
Source: Europeana 1914 - 1918; photo was originally published in the New York Times, 1917, vol.5 n.17. Original artist: ?
File:Dante_Alighieri01.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Dante_Alighieri01.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original artist: No machinereadable author provided. JoJan assumed (based on copyright claims).
File:Dante_Alighieri_Florence_Firenze_JBU01.JPG Source:
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Alighieri_Florence_Firenze_JBU01.JPG License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Jrg Bittner (Unna)
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License: Public domain Contributors: Naval History and Heritage Command. link Original artist: Commander H.L. Pence, USN.
File:Dante_Alighieri_de_perfil.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Dante_Alighieri_de_perfil.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original artist:
No machine-readable author provided. Rosarinagazo assumed (based on copyright claims).
File:Dante_Luca.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Dante_Luca.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: [1] Original artist: Luca Signorelli
File:Dante_Pd10_BL_Yates_Thompson_36_f147.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Dante_Pd10_
BL_Yates_Thompson_36_f147.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.
asp?MSID=6468&CollID=58&NStart=36 Original artist: Giovanni di Paolo
File:Dante_alighieri,_Palazzo_dei_Giudici.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Dante_alighieri%2C_
Palazzo_dei_Giudici.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright
claims). Original artist: No machine-readable author provided. Sailko assumed (based on copyright claims).
File:Dante_and_Virgilio_(Trento).JPG Source:
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File:Dante_and_beatrice.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Dante_and_beatrice.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: Unknown Original artist: Henry Holiday
File:Dante_crater_2034_med.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Dante_crater_2034_med.jpg License: CC0 Contributors: Reprocessed Lunar Orbiter 2 image rotated and cropped in Gimp.
Original artist: James Stuby based on NASA image
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File:Dantes_tomb_ravenna.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Dantes_tomb_ravenna.jpg License: CC
BY 3.0 Contributors: Own work. Note: this photograph was tweaked a little bit to remove a man standing in the door post. Original artist:
User:Husky
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jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library [2] Original artist: John
Flaxman
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vase)
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Atene.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Divina_Comedia_First_Edition_1555.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Divina_Comedia_
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Public domain Contributors: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=6468&CollID=58&NStart=36 Original artist: Giovanni di Paolo
174
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36 Original artist: Giovanni di Paolo
File:Emblem_of_the_Papacy_SE.svg Source:
svg License: Public domain Contributors:
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File:Coat of arms Holy See.svg Original artist: Cronholm144 created this image using a le by User:Hautala - File:Emblem of Vatican City
State.svg, who had created his le using PD art from Open Clip Art Library and uploaded on 13 July 2006. User talk:F l a n k e r uploaded
this version on 19 January 2007.
File:Eugne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_006.jpg Source:
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A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_006.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Eugne Delacroix
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Original artist: ?
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Contributors: Bibliothque nationale de France Original artist: Bartolomeu Velho
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%281861-1946%29_crowned.svg License: CC BY-SA 2.5 Contributors:
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artist: ?
File:Gianciotto_Discovers_Paolo_and_Francesca_Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/3/31/Gianciotto_Discovers_Paolo_and_Francesca_Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: PD painting Original artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
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File:Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg
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Original artist: ?
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File:GustaveDoreParadiseLostSatanProfile.jpg
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File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Gustave_Dore_Inferno1.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno25.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Gustave_Dore_Inferno25.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno32.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Gustave_Dore_Inferno32.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
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File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno_Canto_21.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Gustave_Dore_Inferno_
Canto_21.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
11.2. IMAGES
175
File:Gustave_Dore_XIV.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Gustave_Dore_XIV.jpg License: Public

domain Contributors: Gustave Dore Original artist: Gustave Dore
File:Gustave_Dor_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_22_(Canto_VII_-_Hoarders_and_Wasters).jpg
Source:
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VII_-_Hoarders_and_Wasters%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: [From the Title Page:]
Dantes Inferno
translated by
The Rev. Henry Francis Cary, MA
from the original of
Dante Alighieri
and illustrated with the designs of
M. Gustave Dor
New Edition
With Critical and Explanatory notes, Life of Dante, and Chronology
Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
New York, London and Paris
The book was printed c. 1890 in America. Original artist: Gustave Dor
File:Gustave_Dor_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_65_(Canto_XXXI_-_The_Titans).jpg
Source:
https://upload.
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The_Titans%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: [From the Title Page:] Dantes Inferno translated by The Rev. Henry Francis
Cary, MA, from the original of Dante Alighieri, and illustrated with the designs of M. Gustave Dor, New Edition, With Critical and
Explanatory notes, Life of Dante, and Chronology. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. New York, London and Paris The book was printed c.
1890 in America. Original artist:
Gustave Dor (1832 1883)
File:Gustave_Dor_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_7_(Beatrice).jpg Source:
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commons/7/79/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_7_%28Beatrice%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Dantes Divine Comedy: Hell - Purgatory - Paradise. Illustrations by Gustave Dor, Translation by Henry W. Longfellow, Published
by Arcturus Books, 2007. Original artist:
Gustave Dor (1832 1883)
File:Gustave_Dor_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_9_(Canto_III_-_Charon).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/3/32/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_9_%28Canto_III_-_Charon%29.jpg License:
[From the Title Page:]
Dantes Inferno
translated by
The Rev. Henry Francis Cary, MA
from the original of
Dante Alighieri
and illustrated with the designs of
M. Gustave Dor
New Edition
With Critical and Explanatory notes, Life of Dante, and Chronology
Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
New York, London and Paris
The book was printed c. 1890 in America. Original artist: Gustave Dor
File:Harpyie.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Harpyie.JPG License: Public domain Contributors:
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Original artist: Jacob van Maerlan
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Contributors: scan from original book Original artist: Dante Alighieri, Albert Ritter (Hrsg)
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176
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?
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Original artist: Charles Paul Landon
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University: Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection
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Contributors: Cornell University: Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection
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Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection
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11.2. IMAGES
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wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Michelangelo_Caetani%2C_Map_of_Hell%2C_1855_Cornell_CUL_PJM_1071_03.jpg License:
Public
domain Contributors: Caetani, Michelangelo. La materia della Divina commedia di Dante Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole da Michelangelo
Caetani. Montecassino: Monaci benedettini di Montecassino. Plate IV
Cornell University: Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection Original artist: Michelangelo Caetani
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Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole da Michelangelo Caetani. Montecassino: Monaci benedettini di Montecassino. Plate IV
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commedia di Dante Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole da Michelangelo Caetani. Montecassino: Monaci benedettini di Montecassino. Plate
IV
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File:Michelangelo_Caetani,_The_Ordering_of_Purgatory,_1855_Cornell_CUL_PJM_1071_05.jpg
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Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole da Michelangelo Caetani. Montecassino: Monaci benedettini di Montecassino. Plate IV
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Caetani. Montecassino: Monaci benedettini di Montecassino. Plate IV
File:Michelino_DanteAndHisPoem.jpg
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File:Normal_Dante_LROC.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Normal_Dante_LROC.jpg License:
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Original artist: ?
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Original artist: ?
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Original artist: ?
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Tkgd2007
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11.2. IMAGES
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Dante Alighieri The Complete Guide

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Dante Alighieri

The Complete Guide

''De vulgari eloquentia'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

''La Vita Nuova'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

History and context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

''Divine Comedy'' (''Divina Commedia'') . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Structure and story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Earliest printed editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Theories of inuence from Islamic philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Literary inuence in the English-speaking world and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nine circles of Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Seven terraces of Purgatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Earthly Paradise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Purgatorio in the arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Spheres of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Verses from the Divine Comedy

Pap Satn, pap Satn aleppe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Raphl ma amche zab almi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Context and content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Characters in the Divine Comedy

In The Divine Comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bologna and Pistoia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Leader of the Black Guelphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Plots against the Black Guelphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.10.1 In The Divine Comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.10.2 In popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.10.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.10.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.11.1 The Malebranche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.11.2 The Ten Bolgias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.11.3 Sources and external links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.13.1 Description of the Ninth Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.13.2 Contrapasso: The Poetic Justice of Satan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.13.3 Religious signicance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.13.4 Eects of Dantes Satan on the Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.13.6 Works cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.14.1 In popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.14.2 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.14.3 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Insights into the Divine Comedy

List of cultural references in ''Divine Comedy'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dante Alighieri and the ''Divine Comedy'' in popular culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Animations, comics, and graphic novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Digital arts and computer games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Movies and television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Radio shows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

8.1.10 Visual arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Dante crater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Satellite craters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Dante Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Italian battleship ''Dante Alighieri'' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Construction and service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

People in Dantes life

Alighiero di Bellincione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Jacopo Alighieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Guido Cavalcanti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Historical background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

The politics of Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Dolce stil novo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153