Chapter II
CHAPTER II
The Divina Commedia—Its origin, subject, and aim—Date of composition—Scheme of the poem—Boccaccio’s story of the lost cantos—Why it was written in Italian—Dante and his rimes—Manuscripts and printed editions—English editions and translations—Commentaries.
DIVINA COMMEDIA.—At the close of the Vita Nuova Dante says that “a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw things which made me resolve to speak no more of this blessed one,1 until I could more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this, I study to the utmost of my power, as she truly knows. So that, if it shall please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to say of her what was never said of any woman.” This promise to say of Beatrice what had been said of no other woman Dante fulfilled in the Divina Commedia, the central figure of which is Beatrice glorified.
“Several years after the composition of the Vita Nuova,” says Boccaccio, “Dante, as he looked down from the high places of the government of the commonwealth of Florence wherein he was stationed, and observed over a wide prospect, such as is visible from such elevated places, what was the life of men, and what the errors of the common herd, and how few, and how greatly worthy of honour, were those who departed therefrom, and how greatly deserving of confusion those who sided with it, he, condemning the pursuits of such as these and commending his own far above theirs, conceived in his mind a lofty thought, whereby at one and the same time, that is in one and the same work, he purposed, while giving proof of his own powers, to pursue with the heaviest penalties the wicked and vicious, and to honour with the highest rewards the virtuous and worthy, and to lay up eternal glory for himself. And inasmuch as he had preferred poetry to every other pursuit, he resolved to compose a poetical work; and after long meditation beforehand upon what he should write, in his thirty-fifth year he began to devote himself to carrying into effect that upon which he had been meditating, namely, to rebuke and to glorify the lives of men according to their different deserts. And inasmuch as he perceived that the lives of men were of three kinds—namely, the vicious life, the life abandoning vices and making for virtue, and the virtuous life—he divided his work in wonderful wise into three books comprised in one volume, beginning with the punishment of wickedness and ending with the reward of virtue; and he gave to it the title of Commedia. Each of these three books he divided into cantos, and the cantos into stanzas. And he composed this work in rime in the vulgar tongue with so great art, and with such wondrous and beautiful ordering, that never yet has any one been able with justice to find fault with it in any respect. How subtly he exercised the poet’s art in this work may be perceived by all such as have been endowed with sufficient understanding for the comprehension of it. But inasmuch as we know that great things cannot be accomplished in a brief space of time, so must we understand that so lofty, so great, and so deeply thought out an undertaking as was this of describing in verses in the vulgar tongue all the various actions of mankind and their deserts, could not possibly have been brought to completion in a short time, especially by a man who was the sport of so many and various chances of fortune, all of them full of anguish and envenomed with bitterness, as we have seen Dante was; he, therefore, from the hour when he first set himself to this lofty enterprise down to the last day of his life (notwithstanding that meanwhile he composed several other works) continually laboured upon it.”2
Villani, whose chronicle repeatedly echoes the Commedia, gives the following account of the poem :—
“Dante also wrote the Commedia, in which in polished rime, treating of grave and subtle questions of moral and natural philosophy, astrology, and theology, with beautiful and wonderful figures, similes, and poetical devices, he discoursed in a hundred capitoli or cantos of the nature and condition of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, in as lofty a style as language will allow, as may be gathered from the poem itself by any one who has sufficient understanding. Albeit in the Commedia he took delight in scolding and crying out, after the fashion of poets, perhaps somewhat more than is altogether seemly; but maybe his exile was the cause of this.”3
In his letter to Can Grande, in which he dedicates to him the Paradiso, Dante gives his own explanation of the subject and aim of the poem, and of the reasons why he called it a comedy.
“The subject of this work,” he writes, “must be understood as taken according to the letter, and then as interpreted according to the allegorical meaning. The subject, then, of the whole work, taken according to the letter alone, is simply a consideration of the state of souls after death; for from and around this the action of the whole work turns. But if the work is considered according to its allegorical meaning, the subject is man, liable to the reward or punishment of justice, according as through the freedom of the will he is deserving or undeserving. . . . The aim of the work is to remove those living in this life from a state of misery and to guide them to a state of happiness. . . . The title of the book is ‘Here beginneth the Comedy4 of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth, but not by character’. And for the comprehension of this it must be understood that . . . comedy is a certain kind of poetical narrative which differs from all others. It differs from tragedy in its subject matter,—in this way, that tragedy in its beginning is admirable and quiet, in its ending or catastrophe foul and horrible. . . . Comedy, on the other hand, begins with adverse circumstances, but its theme has a happy termination. . . . Likewise they differ in their style of language, for tragedy is lofty and sublime, comedy lowly and humble. . . . From this it is evident why the present work is called a comedy. For if we consider the theme, in its beginning it is horrible and foul, because it is Hell; in its ending fortunate, desirable, and joyful, because it is Paradise; and if we consider the style of language, the style is lowly and humble, because it is the vulgar tongue, in which even housewives hold converse.” 5
The form of Dante’s poem (or vision, as he claims it to have been) is triple, the three divisions corresponding with the three kingdoms of the next world, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Each division or cantica contains thirty-three cantos (with an introductory one to the first cantica). The opening canto of the Inferno forms an introduction to the whole poem, which thus contains a hundred cantos, the square of the perfect number ten.6 These contain in all, 14,233 lines, namely, 4,720 in the Inferno, 4,755 in the Purgatorio, and 4,758 in the Paradiso.
Dante places the date of the action of the poem in the Jubilee year 1300.7 Thus he describes his vision as having taken place “midway upon the pathway of our life” (Inferno, i 1), that is, in his thirty-fifth year, the days of our life, according to the Psalmist, being “three-score years and ten,” and Dante having been born in 1265.
As regards the duration of the action of the poem there is considerable difference of opinion. The most probable estimate, on the whole, seems to be that which puts it at seven days. Of these, twenty-four hours would be occupied in traversing Hell (i.e. from nightfall on the evening of Good Friday, 8 April, 1300, until shortly after sunset on Easter-eve); four days in traversing Purgatory (i.e. one day in Ante-Purgatory, two days in Purgatory proper, and one day in the Earthly Paradise at the summit of the mountain of Purgatory) ; and one day in traversing Paradise; the remaining time being occupied by the passage from Hell to Purgatory, and from Purgatory to Paradise.8
The dates of the completion of the several parts of the poem have not been fixed with any certainty, but the following limitations may be accepted:—The Inferno must have been completed after 20 April, 1314, the date of the death of Pope Clement V, because of the allusion to that event in the nineteenth canto (11. 76-87); and not later than 1319, since it is referred to as finished in a Latin poem addressed to Dante in that year by a Bolognese professor, Giovanni del Virgilio, as well as in Dante’s poem in reply.9 The Purgatorio must have been completed not later than 1319, since it is alluded to as finished in the same poems. The Paradiso must have been completed after 7 August, 1316, the date of the accession of Pope John XXII, since that Pope is alluded to in the twenty-seventh canto (11. 58-59); its latest limit is fixed by the date of Dante’s death, 14 September, 1321.
The scheme of the Commedia is briefly as follows:—
Inferno. The Hell of Dante consists of nine concentric circles, of which the first and uppermost is co-extensive with the hemisphere of the Earth, which forms, as it were, a cover to it. The remaining circles successively diminish in circumference, forming roughly a sort of immense inverted cone or funnel, the lowest point of which is the centre of the Earth and of the Universe (Inf. xxxii. 73-4; xxxiv. 110-11). Each of the nine circles is presided over by one or more demons or evil spirits, and in each a distinct class of sinners is punished. Hell, as a whole, may be divided into two principal parts, which comprise four regions. Of these two parts, the first, in which sins of incontinence are punished, forming what may be described as Upper Hell, lies outside the City of Dis, which begins at the sixth circle; the other, or Lower Hell, in which sins of malice are punished, is situated within the City of Dis.
Upper Hell consists of the first five circles, which are contiguous. These are arranged as follows:—On the upper confines of the abyss, above the first circle, is a region which forms, as it were, an Ante-hell, where are placed those who did neither good nor evil, the neutrals, who were not “worthy” to enter Hell proper (iii. 16-69). In the first circle, or Limbo (under the guardianship of Charon, the ferryman, who conveys the souls of the damned across the river Acheron), are placed unbaptized infants, and the good men and women of antiquity ; these are free from torture (iii. 70-iv. 151). At the entrance to the second circle (where the lustful are punished) is stationed Minos, the judge, who assigns to each soul its station and punishment; here begin the torments of Hell (v. 1-142). Circles two to five are appropriated to sins of incontinence; viz. gluttony in circle three (presided over by Cerberus) (vi. 1-111);avarice and prodigality in circle four (presided over by Pluto or Plutus) (vii. 1-66); wrath in circle five (under the guardianship of Phlegyas, ferryman of Styx) (vii. 100-63). Then come the walls of the City of Dis, which form the division between Upper and Lower Hell (viii. 67-ix. 105). Within these walls (guarded by the Furies) lies the sixth circle, where heretics are punished (ix. 106-xi. 9). After this circle comes a deep descent (xii. 10), and the second region is reached, which contains the three rounds of the seventh circle (under the guardianship of the Minotaur), appropriated to three classes of violence, viz. against God, Nature, or art, (e.g. blasphemers, sodomites, usurers), against self or one’s possessions (e.g. suicides, spendthrifts), against one’s neighbour or his possessions (e.g. tyrants, murderers, robbers) (xii. 11-xvii. 78). After a still more precipitous descent (xvi. 114), comes the third region, comprising the ten pits of the eighth circle, called Malebolge (under the guardianship of Geryon), appropriated to ten classes of fraud, viz. seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, soothsayers, barrators, hypocrites, thieves and robbers, evil counsellors, schismatics, and, lastly, falsifiers (comprising alchemists, personaters, coiners, liars) (xviii. 1-xxx. 148) ; these pits lie concentrically one below another on a slope, like the rows of an amphitheatre, and are divided from each other by banks, crossed at right-angles by radial bridges of rock, resembling the transverse gangways of a theatre. Below Malebolge is a third abyss (xxxi. 32), at the bottom of which lies the fourth or frozen region, consisting of an immense lake of ice formed by the frozen waters of the river Cocytus, and comprising the four divisions of the ninth circle (under the guardianship of the Giants), appropriated to four classes of traitors, and named respectively Caina (after Cain), where are those who have betrayed their kindred; Antenora (after Antenor of Troy), where are those who have betrayed their country; Tolomea (after Ptolemy of Jericho), where are those who have betrayed their guests and companions ; and Giudecca (after Judas Iscariot), where are those who have betrayed their benefactors (xxxi. 11-xxxiv. 69). In the last of these, in the nethermost pit of Hell, is fixed Lucifer (xxxiv. 20-67). Down through Hell, from end to end, flows the infernal stream, under the various names of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus.
Purgatorio. Purgatory, the place of purgation and of preparation for the life of eternal blessedness (Purg. i. 4-6), according to Dante’s conception, consists of an island-mountain, formed by the earth which retreated before Lucifer as he fell from Heaven into the abyss of Hell (Inf. xxxiv. 122-6). This mountain, which has the form of an immense truncated cone, rises out of the ocean in the centre of the southern hemisphere, where, according to the Ptolemaic system of cosmography followed by Dante, there was nothing (except of course, in Dante’s view, the mountain of Purgatory) save a vast expanse of water. The mountain is the exact antipodes of Jerusalem (Purg. ii. 3; iv. 68; xxvii . 2), the central point of the northern hemisphere (Inf. xxxiv. 114) where Christ suffered for the sin of Adam (Purg. xxvii. 2), committed in the Garden of Eden (i.e. the Terrestrial Paradise at the summit of the mountain). The lower part of the mountain is not a department of Purgatory proper, but forms an Ante-purgatory, where are located the spirits of those who died without having availed themselves of the means of penitence offered by the Church. These are divided into four classes, viz. those who died in contumacy of the Church, and only repented at the last moment; those who in indolence and indifference put off their repentance until just before their death; those who died a violent death, without absolution, but repented at the last moment; and, lastly, kings and princes who deferred their repentance owing to the pressure of temporal interests, these last being placed in a valley full of flowers (Purg. ii. i-viii. 139). Purgatory proper, which is entered by a gate guarded by an angel, consists of seven concentric terraces, each about seventeen feet wide (x. 22-4; xiii. 4-5), which rise in succession with diminished circuit (xiii. 4-6) as they approach the summit, where is situated the Terrestrial Paradise. The ascent to the gate of Purgatory is by three steps of diverse colours, the first being of polished white marble; the second of rock, almost black, rough and burnt as with fire, and marked across its length and breadth, in the shape of a cross; the third and topmost of porphyry of a bright blood-red colour.10 The threshold of the gate, whereon is seated the guardian angel, is of adamantine rock (ix. 76-105). The terraces within the gate are connected by steep and narrow stairways, the steps of which become successively less steep as each terrace is surmounted. Each of the seven terraces or circles corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins, from the traces of which the soul is there purged. The seven terraces, together with Ante-purgatory and the Terrestrial Paradise, form nine divisions, thus corresponding to the nine circles of Hell, and the nine spheres of Paradise.
At the foot of the mountain is stationed Cato of Utica as guardian (i. 31); at the entrance to Purgatory proper, and at the approach to each of the terraces, stands an angel, who chants one of the Beatitudes to comfort those who are purging them of their sins. In the first circle, where the sin of pride is purged, the angel of humility sings Beati pauperes spiritu (xii. 110). In the second circle, where the sin of envy is purged, the angel of charity sings Beati misericordes (xv. 38). In the third circle, where the sin of wrath is purged, the angel of peace sings Beati pacifici (xvii. 68). In the fourth circle, where the sin of sloth is purged, the angel of the love of God sings Beati qui lugent (xix. 50). In the fifth circle, where the sin of avarice is purged, the angel of justice sings Beati qui sitiunt justitiam (xxii. 5). In the sixth circle, where the sin of gluttony is purged, the angel of abstinence sings Beati qui esuriunt justitiam (xxiv. 151). In the seventh circle, where the sin of lust is purged, the angel of purity sings Beati mundo corde (xxvii. 8). The system of purgation is explained by Dante as follows :—Love exists in every creature, and as, if rightly directed, it is the spring of every good action, so, if ill directed, it is the spring of every evil action ; love may err through a bad object (thus giving birth to pride, envy, anger), through defect of vigour in pursuit of good (thus giving birth to sloth), through excess of vigour in the same (thus giving birth to avarice, gluttony, lust). The manner of purgation is threefold, consisting in, firstly, a material punishment intended to mortify the evil passions and incite to virtue; secondly, a subject for meditation, bearing on the sin purged, and its opposite virtue, with examples of persons conspicuous for the one or the other drawn from sacred and profane history; thirdly, a prayer, whereby the soul is purified and strengthened in the grace of God.11
In the Terrestrial Paradise are two streams, which both issue from one source, Lethe and Eunoë, the former of which washes away the remembrance of sin, while the latter strengthens the remembrance of good deeds (xxviii. 121-9).
Paradiso. According to Dante’s conception, which is based upon the Ptolemaic system, the Universe consists of nine spheres or Heavens, concentric with the Earth, round which they revolve, it being fixed at the centre (Convivio, iii. 5, 11. 57-8). The Earth is surrounded by the spheres of air and fire, the latter being in immediate contact with that of the Moon (Purg. xviii. 28; Par. i. 115 ; Conv. iii. 3, 11 11-13), which is the lowest of the nine Heavens. Beyond the Heaven of the Moon come in order those of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, and last of all that of the Primum Mobile or First Movement. Each of these Heavens revolves with a velocity which increases in proportion to its distance from the Earth. Each of the planets revolves in the epicycle12 of its own Heaven, except the Sun, which revolves round the Earth. The Primum Mobile (or Crystalline Heaven) governs the general motion of the Heavens from East to West, and by it all place and time are ultimately measured (Par. xxvii. 115-20; xxviii. 70-1; Conv. ii. 6, ll. 145-7; ii. 15, ll. 12-13).
Each of the Heavens is presided over by one of the Angelic Orders, and exercises its special influence on earthly affairs (Par. ii. 127-9; Conv. ii. 2, ll. 62-3; ii. 5, ll. 21-4; ii. 6, ll. 105-16.) The three lowest Heavens are allotted to the souls of those whose life on Earth was rendered imperfect through their having yielded to the temptations of the world. The next four are allotted to the souls of those whose actions were wholly directed by virtuous motives. The last two Heavens have no special occupants assigned to them, but serve apparently as common places of meeting, the one to the blessed spirits, the other to Angels. Finally, beyond and outside of all the other Heavens lies the Empyrean, an incorporeal and motionless Heaven, where is neither time nor place, but light only (Par. xxvii. 106-20; xxx. 39); this is the special abode of the Deity and resting-place of the Saints (Conv. ii. 4, ll. 28-30). The latter, arranged in the form of the petals of a white Rose, gaze upon the beatific vision of the Deity, who is surrounded by the nine orders of the three Angelic Hierarchies.
Each of the first seven spheres or Heavens is representative of, and corresponds to, one of the seven Liberal Arts, the other three corresponding to Natural, Moral and Divine Science (or Theology) respectively (Conv. ii. 14, 11. 48-64). The general scheme of Dante’s Paradise is as follows:—The first Heaven, that of the Moon, which is presided over by Angels, and is representative of Grammar, is tenanted by the spirits of those who failed to keep their holy vows (Par. ii. 34-v. 84). The second Heaven, that of Mercury, which is presided over by Archangels, and is representative of Logic, is tenanted by the spirits of those who for the love of fame wrought great deeds upon Earth (v. 85-vii.). The third Heaven, that of Venus, which is presided over by Principalities, and is representative of Rhetoric, is tenanted by the spirits of those who upon Earth were lovers (viii-ix.). The fourth Heaven, that of the Sun, which is presided over by Powers, and is representative of Arithmetic, is tenanted by the spirits of those who loved wisdom (x.-xiv. 78). The fifth Heaven, that of Mars, which is presided over by Virtues, and is representative of Music, is tenanted by the spirits of those who fought for the faith (xiv. 79-xviii. 51). The sixth Heaven, that of Jupiter, which is presided over by Dominions, and is representative of Geometry, is tenanted by the spirits of those who loved justice (xviii. 52-xx.). The seventh Heaven, that of Saturn, which is presided over by Thrones, and is representative of Astrology, is tenanted by the spirits of those who lived in contemplation of holy things (xxi.-xxii. 99). The eighth Heaven, that of the Fixed Stars, is presided over by Cherubim, and is representative of Natural Science (xxii. 100-xxvii. 87). The ninth Heaven, that of the Primum Mobile, or the Crystalline Heaven, is presided over by Seraphim, and is representative of Moral Science (xxvii. 88-xxix.). The tenth Heaven, that of the Empyrean, is representative of Divine Science, and is the abode of the Deity and of the Spirits of the Blessed. The latter, as already mentioned, are arranged in the petals of a vast white Rose, which, according to Dante’s description, resembles a kind of amphitheatre, the centre being formed of a sea of light. On the highest tier, at the point where the light is most dazzling, is seated the Virgin Mary. Next below Mary sits Eve, and below Eve, on the third tier, sits Rachel, with Beatrice at her side; and on successive tiers below them are Sarah, Rebekah, Judith, Ruth, and other Hebrew women. On the opposite side, facing Mary, on the same tier, is seated St. John the Baptist, below whom on successive tiers are St. Francis, St. Benedict, St. Augustine, and others. These two lines (from Mary downwards on one side, and from the Baptist downwards on the other) form, as it were, a wall, which divides the Rose into two parts. In one part are the seats (all filled) of those who believed in Christ to come (i.e. those who lived under the Old Testament dispensation); in the other are the seats (only partially filled) of those who believed in Christ already come (i.e. those who lived under the New Testament dispensation), and who, when all the seats are filled, will be equal in number to those on the opposite side. The lowest tiers are filled by infants, who were saved, not by their own merits, but through baptism by the merit of Christ (xxx.-xxxiii.).
Boccaccio tells a story of how at Dante’s death the last thirteen cantos of the Paradiso were not to be found, so that it was supposed that he had left his great work unfinished, until the whereabouts of the missing cantos was miraculously revealed to his son, Jacopo, in a vision:—
“The friends Dante left behind him, his sons and his disciples, having searched at many times and for several months everything of his writing, to see whether he had left any conclusion to his work, could in nowise find any of the remaining cantos; his friends generally being much mortified that God had not at least lent him so long to the world, that he might have been able to complete the small remaining part of his work; and having sought so long and never found it, they remained in despair. Jacopo and Piero were sons of Dante, and each of them being a rhymer, they were induced by the persuasions of their friends to endeavour to complete, as far as they were able, their father’s work, in order that it should not remain imperfect; when to Jacopo, who was more eager about it than his brother, there appeared a wonderful vision, which not only induced him to abandon such presumptuous folly, but showed him where the thirteen cantos were which were wanting to the Divina Commedia, and which they had not been able to find.
“A worthy man of Ravenna, whose name was Pier Giardino, and who had long been Dante’s disciple, grave in his manner and worthy of credit, relates that after the eighth month from the day of his master’s death, there came to his house before dawn Jacopo di Dante, who told him that that night, while he was asleep, his father Dante had appeared to him, clothed in the purest white, and his face resplendent with an extraordinary light; that he, Jacopo, asked him if he lived, and that Dante replied: ‘Yes, but in the true life, not our life ’. Then he, Jacopo, asked him if he had completed his work before passing into the true life, and, if he had done so, what had become of that part of it which was missing, which they none of them had been able to find. To this Dante seemed to answer: ‘Yes, I finished it’; and then took him, Jacopo, by the hand, and led him into that chamber in which he, Dante, had been accustomed to sleep when he lived in this life, and, touching one of the walls, he said: ‘What you have sought for so much is here’; and at these words both Dante and sleep fled from Jacopo at once. For which reason Jacopo said he could not rest without coming to explain what he had seen to Pier Giardino, in order that they should go together and search out the place thus pointed out to him, which he retained excellently in his memory, and to see whether this had been pointed out by a true spirit, or a false delusion. For which purpose, though it was still far in the night, they set off together, and went to the house in which Dante resided at the time of his death. Having called up its present owner, he admitted them, and they went to the place thus pointed out; there they found a mat fixed to the wall, as they had always been used to see it in past days; they lifted it gently up, when they found a little window in the wall, never before seen by any of them, nor did they even know that it was there. In it they found several writings, all mouldy from the dampness of the walls, and had they remained there longer, in a little while they would have crumbled away. Having thoroughly cleared away the mould, they found them to be the thirteen cantos that had been wanting to complete the Commedia.”13
The missing cantos, adds Boccaccio, were at once sent to Can Grande della Scala, to whom Dante had been in the habit of sending every few cantos of his poem, as he finished them, in order that Can Grande might see them before they were submitted to any one else.
Boccaccio is responsible for another interesting anecdote14 about the Commedia, which, if we are to accept it as authentic, shows how the Florentines, by exiling Dante, were very near depriving the world of one of its most precious treasures.
“It should be known,” he says, “that Dante had a sister, who was married to one of our citizens, called Leon Poggi, by whom she had several children. Among these was one called Andrea, who wonderfully resembled Dante in the outhne of his features, and in his height and figure; and he also walked rather stooping, as Dante is said to have done. He was a weak man, but with naturally good feelings, and his language and conduct were regular and praiseworthy. And I having become intimate with him, he often spoke to me of Dante’s habits and ways; but among those things which I delight most in recollecting, is what he told me relating to that of which we are now speaking. He said then, that Dante belonged to the party of Messer Vieri de’ Cerchi, and was one of its great leaders ; and when Messer Vieri and many of his followers left Florence, Dante left that city also and went to Verona. And on account of this departure, through the solicitation of the opposite party, Messer Vieri and all who had left Florence, especially the principal persons, were considered as rebels, and had their persons condemned, and their property confiscated. When the people heard this, they ran to the houses of those proscribed, and plundered all that was within them. It is true that Dante’s wife, Madonna Gemma, fearing this, by the advice of some of her friends and relations, had withdrawn from his house some chests containing certain precious things, and Dante’s writings along with them, and had put them in a place of safety. And not satisfied with having plundered the houses of the proscribed, the most powerful partisans of the opposite faction occupied their possessions,—some taking one and some another,—and thus Dante’s house was occupied.
“But after five years or more had elapsed, and the city was more rationally governed, it is said, than it was when Dante was sentenced, persons began to question their rights, on different grounds, to what had been the property of the exiles, and they were heard. Therefore Madonna Gemma was advised to demand back Dante’s property, on the ground that it was her dowry. She, to prepare this business, required certain writings and documents which were in one of the chests, which, in the violent plunder of effects, she had sent away, nor had she ever since removed them from the place where she had deposited them. For this purpose, this Andrea said, she had sent for him, and, as Dante’s nephew, had entrusted him with the keys of these chests, and had sent him with a lawyer to search for the required papers; while the lawyer searched for these, he, Andrea, among other of Dante’s writings, found many sonnets, canzoni, and such similar pieces. But among them what pleased him the most was a sheet in which, in Dante’s handwriting, the seven first cantos of the Commedia were written; and therefore he took it and carried it off with him, and read it over and over again; and although he understood but little of it, still it appeared to him a very fine thing; and therefore he determined, in order to know what it was, to carry it to an esteemed man of our city, who in those times was a much celebrated reciter of verses, whose name was Dino, the son of Messer Lambertuccio Frescobaldi.
“It pleased Dino marvellously; and having made copies of it for several of his friends, and knowing that the composition was merely begun, and not completed, he thought that it would be best to send it to Dante, and at the same time to beg him to follow up his design, and to finish it. And having inquired, and ascertained that Dante was at this time in the Lunigiana, with a noble man of the name of Malaspina, called the Marquis Moroello, who was a man of understanding, and who had a singular friendship for him, he thought of sending it, not to Dante himself, but to the Marquis, in order that he should show it to him : and so Dino did, begging him that, as far as it lay in his power, he would exert his good offices to induce Dante to continue and finish his work.
“The seven aforesaid cantos having reached the Marquis’s hands, and having marvellously pleased him, he showed them to Dante; and having heard from him that they were his composition, he entreated him to continue the work. To this it is said that Dante answered: ‘I really supposed that these, along with many of my other writings and effects, were lost when my house was plundered, and therefore I had given up all thoughts of them. But since it has pleased God that they should not be lost, and He has thus restored them to me, I shall endeavour, as far as I am able, to proceed with them according to my first design.’ And recalling his old thoughts, and resuming his interrupted work, he speaks thus in the beginning of the eighth canto: ‘My wondrous history I here renew’.” 15
The question as to why Dante, a man of great learning, chose to write the Commedia in Italian, instead of in Latin, exercised the minds of many wise men of his day, Boccaccio tells us. His own opinion on the subject he gives as follows:—
“In reply to this question,” he says, “two chief reasons, amongst many others, come to my mind. The first of which is, to be of more general use to his fellow-citizens and other Italians; for he knew that if he had written metrically in Latin as the other poets of past times had done, he would only have done service to men of letters, whereas, writing in the vernacular, he did a deed ne’er done before, and there was no bar in any incapacity of the men of letters to understand him; and by showing the beauty of our idiom and his own excelling art therein, he gave delight and understanding of himself to the unlearned who had hitherto been abandoned of every one. The second reason which moved him thereto was this. Seeing that liberal studies were utterly abandoned, and especially by princes and other great men, to whom poetic toils were wont to be dedicated, wherefore the divine works of Virgil and the other illustrious poets had not only sunk into small esteem, but were well-nigh despised by the most; having himself begun, according as the loftiness of the matter demanded, after this guise—
‘Ultima regna canam, fluido contermina mundo,
Spiritibus quae lata patent, quae praemia solvunt
Pro meritis cuicumque suis,’ etc.,16
he left it there ; for he conceived it was a vain thing to put crusts of bread into the mouths of such as were still sucking milk ; wherefore he began his work again in style suited to modern senses, and followed it up in the vernacular.”17
The skill exhibited by Dante in the management of the rhymes in his poem, which consists of considerably over fourteen thousand lines, is very remarkable. According to the author of the commentary known as the Ottimo Comento, who was a contemporary of Dante, the poet boasted that he had never been trammelled in his composition by the exigencies of rhyme. “I, the writer,” says the commentator, “heard Dante say that never a rhyme had led him to say other than he would, but that many a time and oft he had made words say in his rhymes what they were not wont to express for other poets.”
Another commentator, Benvenuto da Imola, in connection with Dante’s extraordinary facility in the matter of rhymes, repeats a quaint conceit, which had been imagined, he says, by an ardent admirer of the poet:—”When Dante first set about the composition of his poem, all the rhymes in the Italian language presented themselves before him in the guise of so many lovely maidens, and each in turn humbly petitioned to be granted admittance into this great work of his genius. In answer to their prayers, Dante called first one and then another, and assigned to each its appropriate place in the poem ; so that, when at last the work was complete, it was found that not a single one had been left out.”
The statistics as to the editions, manuscript and printed, of the Divina Commedia are interesting. The known manuscripts number between five and six hundred,18 giving an average of about four a year for the 150 years between the date of Dante’s death (1321) and that of the first printed edition (1472). None of these dates earlier than fourteen or fifteen years after Dante’s death, of whose original manuscript not a trace has yet been discovered. Of printed editions there are between three and four hundred, giving an average of less than one a year for the 430 years between the date of the first edition (1472) and the latest.19 The earliest probably is that printed at Foligno in 1472, in which year editions appeared also at Mantua and at Jesi. Two editions were printed at Naples shortly after, one in 1474, the other in 1477. A Venetian edition appeared also in 1477; a Milanese in 1477-78; and a second Venetian in 1478. The first Florentine edition (with the commentary of Cristoforo Landino) did not appear until 1481. At least six other editions were printed in Italy in the fifteenth century. In the next century two editions were printed at the famous Venetian press of Aldus, one in 1502 (in which the well-known Aldine anchor began to be used for the first time), the other in 1515. The first edition printed outside Italy was the counterfeit of the first Aldine, which appeared at Lyons in 1502 or 1503. Three other editions were printed in the sixteenth century at Lyons, viz. in 1547, 1551, and 1571. No other edition appeared outside Italy for nearly two hundred years, till 1768, when an edition was published at Paris. An edition with the imprint London, but actually printed at Leghorn, appeared in 1778. The earliest specimen of any length of the Italian text of the Commedia printed in England was a passage of twenty-seven lines—a curiosity of misprinting—from the last canto of the Inferno (xxxiv. 28-54), inserted by Thomas Heywood, the dramatist, in the seventh book of his Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels, which was published in 1635.20 More than a hundred years later Giuseppe Baretti printed selections from the sixth canto of the Inferno, the eighth of the Purgatorio, and the thirty-third of the Paradiso, in his Italian Library (published in London in 1757). Not long afterwards (in 1782) William Hayley printed the first three cantos of the Inferno, with a translation in terza rima, in the notes to the third Epistle, in his Essay on Epic Poetry. This was followed by the complete text of the Inferno, which accompanied the first issue of Cary’s Hell, published in London in two volumes in 1805-6. Two complete English editions of the Commedia (the first of the whole poem) were printed in London in 1808. The first (perhaps) of these, in three volumes 16mo, edited by G. B. Boschini, and dedicated to the Ladies Elizabeth and Emily Percy, daughters of the second Duke of Northumberland, contained the text only without notes. The other, in three volumes 12mo, dedicated respectively to the Countess of Lonsdale, the Countess of Dartmouth, and Mrs. Pilkington, was edited by Romualdo Zotti, who supplied notes in Italian, selected and abbreviated from various Italian commentaries. Two other editions were printed in London in 1819; one in three volumes 16mo, edited by S. E. Petronj; the other in three volumes 12mo, a reissue, with the notes recast, of Zotti’s edition of 1808. In 1822-23 was published the diminutive edition of the Commedia, in two volumes 32mo (dated respectively 1823 and 1822), dedicated to the second Earl Spencer, the great book collector, which forms part of the well-known series of “Diamond Classics” issued by William Pickering, and printed by Corrall, this being the first complete edition of the Commedia issued in England in which no foreigner’s name appears. In 1824 a French translation of the Inferno, dedicated to the Princess Augusta, second daughter of George III, by J. C. Tarver, accompanied by the Italian text, was printed at Windsor, of which a second impression, with a reconstructed title-page, was issued in 1826. In 1826-27 John Murray published the first instalment, in two volumes 8vo, of Gabriele Rossetti’s famous Comento Analitico on the Commedia, consisting of the text of the Inferno, with the commentary. The work, the first volume of which is dedicated to John Hookham Frere, and which numbers among its subscribers Brougham, Scott, Isaac D’Israeli, Henry Hallam, and Samuel Rogers, is announced on the title-page as being in six volumes, but no more than the first two ever saw the light. In 1827 appeared the first English printed edition of the Commedia complete in one volume. The text, beautifully printed by the Whittinghams at their Chiswick Press, was edited by Pietro Cicchetti. The editor claims that this volume, which is in 12mo, and consists of 610 pages, is the first single-volume of the Commedia in this small format—a claim which shows that his acquaintance with the bibliography of the subject was limited, since at least half a dozen single volume editions in small format were published in Italy and France during the sixteenth century. In 1839 and 1840 two single-volume editions were published in Edinburgh in 24mo, neither of which, singularly enough, is in the British Museum. In 1842-43 was published in London by Pietro Rolandi, in four volumes 8vo, under the editorship of Giuseppe Mazzini, Ugo Foscolo’s edition of the Commedia, containing the Italian text and various illustrative matter, the first instalment of which had been published by Pickering during Foscolo’s lifetime in 1825. In 1849 the well-known translation of the Inferno by John A. Carlyle, accompanied by the Italian text, was published by Chapman and Hall; and from this date onwards English editions of the Commedia or of one or other of the divisions of the poem, for the most part accompanied by translations, have followed each other fast, the grand total at the present date amounting to twenty-six, exclusive of reprints and reimpressions. The most important text of the Commedia published in England is that included in the volume, known as the Oxford Dante, issued at Oxford in 1894 (second edition, 1897; third edition, 1904), which contains the whole of the works of Dante.21 Two editions of the text alone were published in 1900 (one in London,22 the other at Oxford)23 in commemoration of the six hundredth anniversary of Dante’s journey through the three kingdoms of the other world. The latest of all are the beautiful edition, in three volumes (Inferno, 1902; Purgatorio, 1904; Paradiso, 1905), printed at the Ashendene Press by C. H. St. John Hornby; and the sumptuous reprint, in one large folio volume, of the text of the Oxford Dante (comprising the whole works) issued from the same press in 1909.24
The Commedia has been translated, in whole or in part, into almost every known literary language. Besides English, there are versions of the whole poem in Bohemian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Roumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Welsh. The Inferno has been rendered into Hebrew; and various selections into Armenian, Basque, Icelandic, Norwegian, Sanskrit, and even Volapiik. Versions in French, Spanish, and Catalan were already in existence in the fifteenth century, and a Latin translation was made as early as the fourteenth century, in 1381 as is supposed. The first German translation of the Commedia did not appear until the eighteenth century, in 1767-69, 2 several years after the completion of the earliest English version.
Renderings of detached passages from the Commedia occur in English literature within sixty years or so of Dante’s death, in the works of Chaucer, who introduces a translation of St. Bernard’s prayer to the Virgin, from the thirty-third canto of the Paradiso, in the Prologue to the Second Nun’s Tale; and in the Monk’s Tale a rendering of the story of Ugolino, from the thirty-third canto of the Inferno; besides shorter passages in others of the Tales, and in Troilus and Cressida, the Legend of Good Women, and elsewhere.25 With the exception of a few lines by Sir John Harington and Milton, the first English translation from the Commedia, other than mere incidental renderings, was the version of the Ugolino episode, published by Jonathan Richardson, the artist, in 1719 in his Discourse on the Dignity, Certainty, Pleasure and Advantage of the Science of a Connoisseur. The same piece was translated by the poet Gray some twenty years later; and five more versions of it appeared before the end of the eighteenth century. The earliest recorded English translation of the whole poem was one by William Huggins, the translator of Ariosto, who at his death in 1761 left the work in manuscript, with directions that it should be printed and published, which, however, was never done. About the same time Dr. Burney made a translation of the Inferno, which likewise never saw the light. In 1782 William Hayley published his terza rima translation of the first three cantos of the Inferno mentioned above.26 In the same year appeared the first complete English translation (that is, the first published translation) of the Inferno. This was by Charles Rogers, in blank verse. Rogers’ version was followed in 1785 by a rendering, in six-line stanzas, by Henry Boyd, who seventeen years later, in 1802, published a translation of the whole of the Commedia in the same metre—the first complete English version to see the light.27 In 1805 Cary published the first instalment of his famous blank verse translation, consisting of the first seventeen cantos of the Inferno, the other seventeen cantos being published in the following year. A fourth translation of the Inferno, in blank verse, by Nathaniel Howard, appeared in 1807; and a fifth, also in blank verse, by Joseph Hume, in 1812. In 1814 was published the first edition of Cary’s translation of the whole of the Commedia, of which a second edition was issued in 1819, and a third in 1831. In 1833 Ichabod Charles Wright published a translation of the Inferno, in bastard terza rima, which was followed by the Purgatorio in 1836, and the Paradiso in 1840, in the same metre. In 1844 appeared the fourth, and last edition corrected by himself, of Cary’s translation. Since that date twenty other English translations of the Commedia have been published. Of these, nine are in terza rima, four in blank verse, five in prose, one in heroic couplets, and one in nine-line stanzas. There have been, besides, eighteen independent translations of the Inferno alone, of which eight are in terza rima, five in blank verse, three in prose, one in rhymed quatrains, and one in Spenserian stanzas. Also there have been six independent translations of the Purgatorio, three in prose, one in Marvellian stanzas, one in octosyllabic terza rima, and one in blank verse; and one independent translation, in prose, of the Paradiso. Reckoning the totals for each cantica of the poem, this gives in all forty-four English translations of the Inferno, twenty-nine of the Purgatorio, and twenty-four of the Paradiso. A classification of these according to metre gives, for the Inferno, seventeen in terza rima, twelve in blank verse, eight in prose, and seven in what, for convenience, may be called experimental metres;28 for the Purgatorio, ten in terza rima, eight in prose, five in blank verse, and six in experimental metres ;29 for the Paradiso, nine in terza rima, six in prose, five in blank verse, and four in experimental metres.30
From these figures it appears that during the last century and a quarter the Commedia has been translated into English on an average once in about every five years. If the independent translations of the several divisions of the poem be included in the reckoning, it will be found that an English translation of one or other of the three cantiche has been produced on an average once in about every sixteen months of the same period.
Next after the Ugolino episode, from the thirty-third canto of the Inferno, of which there are altogether more than seventy English versions, the two most popular passages of the Commedia with English translators have been the episode of Francesca da Rimini, from the fifth canto of the Inferno, and the first two terzine of the eighth canto of the Purgatorio. Of the Francesca da Rimini episode there are twenty-three separate versions independent of translations of the Inferno, of which only one belongs to the eighteenth century, as against seven of the Ugolino. The most famous version is that by Lord Byron, in “third rhyme,” to use his own term, which was composed in 1820, but not published until ten years later. Of the first six lines of the eighth canto of the Purgatorio, the last line of which is famous in English literature as having inspired the first line of Gray’s Elegy, there are sixteen independent translations. Among these are versions by Peacock in Headlong Hall (1816); by Byron in the third canto of Don Juan (1821); and by Samuel Rogers in his Italy (1830).
This record31 constitutes a remarkable tribute on the part of the English-speaking32 races to the transcendent genius of Dante. Not as yet, it seems, need Dante fear
“Di perder viver tra coloro
Che questo tempo chiameranno antico,” 33
as he expressed it to the spirit of his ancestor Cacciaguida six hundred years ago.
Commentaries on the Commedia began to make their appearance in Italy at a very early date. Four at least, on the Inferno, were written within three or four years of Dante’s death; viz. one, in Latin, by Graziolo de’ Bam-baglioli (d. before 1343), Chancellor of Bologna, composed in 1324 (published in 1892 by Antonio Fiammazzo),34 of which an Italian translation (published in 1848 by Lord Vernon)34 was made in the fourteenth century35; one, in Italian, by Dante’s son, Jacopo (d. before 1349), written before 1325 (published by Lord Vernon in 1848),36 which is considered by some to be earlier than that of Graziolo37; one, in Latin, by Guido da Pisa, written probably about 1324 (as yet unpublished)38, of which a fourteenth century Italian translation exists (also unpublished)39; and one, in Italian, by an anonymous author, probably a native of Siena, written between 1321 and 1337 (published in 1865 by Francesco Selmi).40 The first commentary on the whole of the Commedia was written in Italian between 1323 and 1328 by Jacopo della Lana (d. after 1358), of Bologna; this was first printed in the edition of the Commedia published at Venice by Vendelin da Spira in 1477, in which, however, it was erroneously attributed to Benvenuto da Imola; it was printed a second time in the following year in the edition of the Commedia published by Nidobeato at Milan; and was reprinted at Milan in 1865, and at Bologna in 1866-7, by Luciano Scarabelli.41 Lana’s commentary, of which more than sixty MSS. are known, was twice translated into Latin in the fourteenth century, the author of one of these versions being Alberico da Rosciate (d. 1354), a celebrated lawyer of Bergamo.42 Eight more commentaries belong to the fourteenth century ; viz. that known as the Ottimo Comento, written in Italian by Andrea Lancia (c. 1290–c. 1360), a Florentine notary, about 1334 43 (published in 1827-9 by Alessandro Torri)44; the Latin commentary of Dante’s son, Pietro (d. 1364), written in 1340-1, which exists in two different forms,45 only one of which has been published (by Lord Vernon in 1845)44; that written in Latin by an unknown monk of Monte Cassino not earlier than 1350 (published in 1865)44; the unfinished commentary in Italian on the Inferno, comprising the first sixteen cantos and part of the seventeenth, written by Boccaccio (1313-1375) for the purpose of his public lectures on Dante in Florence between 1373 and 1375 46 (first published in 1724 by Lorenzo Ciccarelli)44; the Latin commentary (of which a fourteenth century Italian version exists in MS.) 47 composed between 1373 and 1380 by Benvenuto da Imola (c. 1338-1390), part of which he delivered as public lecturer on Dante at Bologna in 1375 48 (published in 1887 by William Warren Vernon, under the editorship of G. F. Lacaita)44; the Italian commentary, formerly attributed to Boccaccio, composed in 1375 (published in 1846 by Lord Vernon)44; that in Italian by Francesco da Buti (1324-1406), of which the first draft appears to have been completed in 1385, and which was finally completed in 1395,49 composed for delivery as public lectures at Pisa (published in 1858-62 by Crescentino Giannini)50; and the commentary in Italian, written at the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century51 by an unknown Florentine (commonly referred to as “Anonimo Fiorentino”) (published in 1866-74 by Pietro Fanfani).50
To the beginning of the fifteenth century belongs the Latin commentary written by Giovanni dei Bertoldi (c. 1350-1445), commonly known as Giovanni da Serravalle, Bishop of Fermo, which was composed between February 1416 and January 1417. This commentary52 (published at Prato in 1891)53 has a special interest for Englishmen as having been written (during the Council of Constance, 1414-1418) at the instigation of two English Bishops, Nicholas Bubwith, of Bath and Wells, and Robert Hallam, of Salisbury, by one who had himself been in England,54 and who made, for the first time, the explicit statement that Dante visited this country and studied at Oxford—55 a statement (unhappily not otherwise authenticated) prompted probably by a desire to please his English colleagues, one of whom, Hallam, had been Chancellor of the University of Oxford.56 Three other commentaries belong to this century, one, on the Inferno only, by Guiniforto delli Bargigi (1406-c. 1460), of Pavia, written about 1440 (published in 1838 by G. Zacheroni)57; another, in Latin, by Stefano Talice da Ricaldone (d. c. 1520), written in 1474, and supposed at one time to have been delivered as lectures at Saluzzo,58 but now regarded as a more or less faithful transcription of Benvenuto da Imola’s lectures at Bologna59 (privately printed, by order of the King of Italy, at Turin in 1886; published in 1888 at Milan under the editorship of V. Promis and C. Negroni)53; and the third, in Italian, written in 1480 by Cristoforo Landino (1434-1504), of Florence, which first saw the light in the celebrated first Florentine edition of the Commedia (published in 1481),60 and has many times been reprinted.61
In the sixteenth century the only commentaries of importance were those (in Italian), of Alessandro Vellutello (c. 1519–c. 1590), of Lucca, first published at Venice in 1544,62 and three times reprinted63; of Giovan Battista Gelli (1498-1563), of Florence, whose lectures on the Commedia before the Florentine Academy (delivered at various times between 1541 and 1563) were successively printed at Florence in a series of issues between 1547 and I561,64 and have recently (1887) been collected and published by C. Negroni65; and of Bernardino Daniello (d. c. 1560), of Lucca, whose commentary was printed at Venice in 1568,62 and has not been reprinted.
In the seventeenth century, during which only three editions of the Commedia were printed in Italy,66 as against some forty in the previous century, the interest in Dante was at its lowest ebb. It is not surprising, consequently, that during this period no commentaries on the poem were produced. In the eighteenth century, however, when a marked reaction took place, two notable commentaries made their appearance which retained their popularity down to the middle of the next century. The earlier of these, by Pompeo Venturi (1693-1752), a Jesuit of Siena, was first published at Lucca in 1732, and was reprinted more than twenty times in the next hundred years (between 1739 and 1850).67 The other was the celebrated commentary of Lombardi, first published at Rome in 1791, with the title La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri novamente correta spiegata e difesa da F.B. L. M. C. (i.e. Francesco Baldassare Lombardi, Minor Conventuale), a voluminous work, which has been seven times reprinted in full,68 and four times in an abbreviated form.69 To the eighteenth century also belong the valuable indices to the Commedia, the first of their kind, compiled by Giovanni Antonio Volpi (1686-1766), of Padua, which were first published in the third volume of the edition of the poem issued at Padua in 1726-27,70 and have been many times reprinted.
In the nineteenth century commentaries on the Commedia began to abound. The best known of the earlier ones are, that of Niccolò Giosafatte Biagioli (1772-1830), first published in Paris in 1818-19, and reprinted more than a dozen times between 1819 and 1868 71; and the still more popular commentary of Paolo Costa, first published at Bologna in 1819-21, which has been reprinted more than thirty times.72 Others worthy of mention belonging to the first half of the century are the once famous “Comento analitico” of Gabriele Rossetti (1783-1854), projected in six volumes, but of which only the first two volumes (on the Inferno) were published (London, 1826-27) ;73 the commentary projected by Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) in five volumes, of which only one, containing the Discorso sul testo, appeared in his lifetime (London, 1825), the remaining portion of the work so far as completed being published twenty years later (London, 1842-43) under the editorship of Mazzini; and that of Niccolò Tommaseo, first published at Venice in 1837, and several times reprinted.74 Of more recent Italian commentaries the following may be mentioned, all of which more or less hold their own at the present day; viz. those of Brunone Bianchi (Florence, 1854, 1857, 1863, etc.; tenth edition, 1890) (based on that of Costa, of which Bianchi had previously published several editions, with additions of his own); Pietro Fraticelli (Florence, 1852, 1860, 1864, etc.; reprinted eight or nine times before 1900) (based on Venturi, Lombardi, Costa, and Bianchi); G. A. Scartazzini (Leipzig, 1874-90; minor editions, Milan, 1893, 1896, 1903); and Tommaso Casini (Florence, 1887, 1889, 1892, etc.; fifth edition, 1903); to which may be added those of Antonio Lubin (Padua, 1881) ; Giuseppe Campi (Turin, 1888-93); Giacomo Poletto (Rome, 1894); and Francesco Torraca (Rome-Milan, 1905-7).
English commentaries, like English translations, came late into the field. The earliest made their appearance in the form of notes to the translations of Henry Boyd (1785, 1802), H. F. Cary (1805-6, 1814, 1819, 1831, 1844), Nathaniel Howard (1807), Joseph Hume (1812); I. C. Wright (1833-40, 1845, 1854), and John Dayman (1843, 1865).75 The first English commentary properly so called was that published anonymously in London in 1822 by John Taaffe, an Irishman domiciled in Italy, under the title of A Comment on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, in the publication of which Byron and Shelley interested themselves, but of which only the first portion (on Inferno, i.-viii.) ever saw the light.76 Among recent commentaries in the form of notes to translations of the Commedia, the most important are those of C. B. Cayley (1855),77 J. W. Thomas (1859-66), H. W. Longfellow (1865-7),78 A. J. Butler (1880-92),79 E. H. Plumptre (1886-87), F. K. H. Haselfoot (1887),80 and C. E. Norton (1891-92)81; and of commentaries proper, W. W. Vernon’s “Readings” on the Inferno (1894), Purgatorio (1889), and Paradiso (1900)82; and H. F. Tozer’s “English Commentary on the Divina Commedia” (1901).83
Other works on the Commedia (or including the Commedia) which should be mentioned here are, the Vocabolario Dantesco of L. Blanc (Leipzig, 1852), translated into Italian by G. Carbone (Florence, 1859) 84; the Dizionario della Divina Commedia of Donato Bocci (Turin, 1873); the Dizionario Dantesco of Giacomo Poletto (Siena, 1885-7) ; the Concordance of the Divina Commedia of E. A. Fay (Boston, Mass. 1888) ; the Enciclopedia Dantesca of G. A. Scartazzini (Milan, 1896-8); the Dante Dictionary of Paget Toynbee (Oxford, 1898); and the Indice dei Nomi Propri e delle Cose Notabili of the same author, appended to the Oxford Dante (Oxford, 1894).85
DANTE ALIGHIERI
From the painting by Andrea del Castagno, in the Museo Nazionale at Florence
1i.e. Beatrice.
2 Vita di Dante, ed. Macrì-Leone, § 13, pp. 63-4.
3 Bk. ix. ch. 136.
4 The title Divina Commedia, as appears from this statement, was not Dante’s own. It probably had its origin in Dante’s own description of the poem as “lo sacrato poema ” (Par. xxiii. 62) and “il poema sacro ” (Par.xxv. 1). It occurs in some of the oldest manuscripts of the poem, and in Boccaccio’s Life of Dante (§ 14). The first printed edition bearing this title is the Venice one of 1555; in a previous edition, with the commentary of Landino (Florence, 1481), the epithet “divine” is applied to Dante himself, but not to the poem; which, however, had been styled “opus divinissimum” by the Florentine Coluccio Salutati eighty years before (see F. Novati, Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, vol. iii. p. 371). In the earliest printed editions the title is simply “La Commedia di Dante Alighieri”.
5Trans. by Latham (with modifications).
6 Cf. Vita Nuova,§ 30, 11. 9-10; Convivio, ii. 15, 11. 30-6.
7 This date has been disputed by some authorities in favour of the year 1301, on the ground that Dante in Purg. i. 19-21 makes Venus a morning star at Easter, which she was in 1301, whereas actually at Easter in 1300 she was an evening star. This argument, however, has now been disposed of, for it has recently been discovered that in the almanack which there is every reason to believe Dante made use of, by a curious mistake, Venus is shown as a morning star at Easter in 1300 (see Boffito e Melzi d’ Eril, Almanack Dantis Aligherii, Florence, 1908, pp. xiv-xv; and E. Moore, Studies in Dante, iii. 172-5).
8 For details of the chronology of the poem, see E. Moore, Time-References in the Divina Commedia (though the conclusions there arrived at are not by any means universally accepted).
9 See below, p. 253.
10 These three steps are symbolical of the state of mind with which penance is to be approached, and denote respectively, according to the interpretation of Maria Rossetti, “candid confession, mirroring the whole man; mournful contrition, breaking the hard heart of the gazer on the Cross; love, all aflame, offering up in satisfaction the life-blood of body, soul, and spirit” (Shadow of Dante, p. 112)
11 For an excellent account of Dante’s Purgatory, see P. Perez, I setti cerchi del Purgatorio (Verona, 1867).
12 An epicycle is a small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle, along which it travels. In the solar system the path of the Moon about the Earth forms an epicycle in respect of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
13 Vita di Dante, ed. Macri-Leone, § 14, pp. 68-70 (trans. by Bun-bury).
14 This story is given both in the Vita di Dante and in the Comento; in the latter (Lezione 33) the name of Boccaccio’s informant is given, not as Pier Giardino, but as Ser Dino Perini of Florence, who is supposed to be the individual who figures in Dante’s Latin Eclogues under the name of Meliboeus (see below, p. 254).
15 Comento, ii. 129-32 (trans. by Bunbury); cf. Vita di Dante, ed. cit. § 14, PP 65-7.
16 “The furthest realms I sing, conterminous with the flowing universe, stretching afar for spirits, paying the rewards to each after his merits,” etc.
17 Vita di Dante, ed. cit. § 15, pp. 71-2 (trans, by Wicksteed). This information was obviously derived by Boccaccio from a passage in the suspect) letter of Frate Ilario (see above, p. 92 note).
18 See E. Moore, Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Divina Commedia; and Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia Dantesca (Parte iv.).
19 At first sight it might appear as if the popularity of the poem had decreased since the invention of printing; but it must be borne in mind that a manuscript “edition” consisted of one copy only, whereas a printed edition may consist of hundreds or even thousands of copies.
20 See Paget Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, vol. i. pp. 129-30,
21 Tutte le opere di Dante Alighieri, nuovamente rivedute nel testo dal Dr. E. Moore; con Indice dei Nomi Propri e delle Cose Notabili compilatoda Paget Toynbee (Clarendon Press).
22 La Commedia di Dante Alighieri. Il testo Wittiano riveduto da Paget Toynbee (‘Per il sesto centenario del viaggio di Dante MCCC. . . MDCCCC ’ (Methuen and Co.).
23 La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri nuovamente riveduta nel testo dal Dr. E. Moore, con indice dei nomi propri compilato da Paget Toynbee (Clarendon Press).
24 See Paget Toynbee, The Earliest Editions of the Divina Commedia printed in England, in Athenceum, 2 Jan. 1904.
25.See Paget Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, vol, i. pp. 1 ff.
26 See above, p. 215.
27 See Paget Toynbee, English Translations of Dante in the Eighteenth Century, in Modern Language Review, vol. i, pp. 9-24.
28 Including bastard terza rima, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, heroic couplets, and rhymed quatrains.
29 Including bastard terza rima, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, heroic couplets, and Marvellian stanzas.
30 Including bastard terza rima, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, and heroic couplets.
31 For details, see Paget Toynbee, Chronological List of English Translations from Dante, from Chaucer to the Present Day, in Annual Report of the Cambridge (U.S.A.) Dante Society for 1906; see also English Translations of Dante’s Works, in Bulletin Italien, tom. vi. pp. 285-8 (1906).
32 Translations (three of the Commedia, and one of the Inferno) by Americans are included in the record.
33 Paradiso, xvii. 119-20:—
“To be as one forgotten among those
Who shall regard as ancient these our days.”
34 See Appendix D, where the titles of the printed editions of the early commentaries referred to above are given in extenso.
35 See Luigi Rocca, Di alcuni Commenli della Divina Commedia composti nei primi vent’anni dopo la morte di Dante. Firenze, 1891, pp. 43-77. The identification of this work as a translation of the commentary of Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli is due to Dr. Moore (see his Studies in Dante, vol. iii. p. 345 n.2).
36 See Appendix D.
37 See Rocca, op. cit. pp. 63 ff. Another authority, F. P. Luiso, holds that the Chiose printed by Lord Vernon were not written in that shape by Jacopo di Dante, but are a distorted translation of a Latin original. He considers, on the other hand, that the Latin Chiose di Dante le quali fece el figliuolo co le sue mani, preserved in a MS, in the Laurentian library at Florence, of which he published a portion (on the Purgatorio) at Florence in 1904, represent the work of Jacopo, and were written probably in his father’s lifetime, and were possibly to some extent inspired by the poet himself. See, however, an article by M. Barbi in Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana, N.S. xi. pp. 195-229 (1904).
38 See Moore, Studies in Dante, vol. iii. pp. 349, 357, 363.
39 See Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia Dantesca, vol. ii. p. 300.
40 See Appendix D. Some authorities, including Selmi, think that this commentary was written in Dante’s lifetime, before 1320; Rocca, however, shows (op. cit. pp. 109-10, 117), that it must have been written later than 1321, the date of Dante’s death, and before 1337.
41 See Appendix D.
42 See Rocca, op. cit., pp. 127-227.
43 See Rocca, op. cit. pp. 228-342.
44 See Appendix D.
45 See Rocca, op. cit. pp. 343-407.
46 See Paget Toynbee, Boccaccio’s Commentary on the Divina Commedia, in Modern Language Review, vol. ii. pp. 97-120.
47 See Batines, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 315.
48 See Paget Toynbee, Benvenuto da Imola and his Commentary on the Divina Commedia, in Dante Studies and Researches, pp. 216-37. M. Barbi has recently shown that the Latin commentary which passes under the name of Stefano Talice da Ricaldone is little more than a transcription of Benvenuto’s lectures at Bologna. See Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana, N.S. xv. pp. 213-36 (1908).
49 The reading of the date of the completion of the commentary in the colophon at the end of the Paradiso is uncertain; but at any rate the work was not completed before 1393, for in the comment on Paradiso, vi. 1-9, Buti gives a list of Emperors, which he concludes with these words: “lo centesimo tredecimo è ora Vinceslao re di Boemia . . . lo quale non è anco coronato, benchè corra 1393 dalla incarnazione”.
50 See Appendix D.
51 The MS. from which Fanfani, the editor, printed the commentary professes to have been written in 1343, but this date, which appears to have been added by a later hand, is obviously incorrect, for the author borrows freely from Boccaccio’s commentary, which was not begun till thirty years afterwards.
52 A copy of this commentary was presented in 1443 by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to the University of Oxford, where it was seen in the public library a hundred years later by John Leland, the antiquary, during his tour through England in 1536-42. The commentary was accompanied by a prose translation of the Commedia in Latin (begun in January 1416 and completed in May of the same year). It was probably a MS. of this translation which was seen by Leland in the Cathedral library at Wells (founded and endowed by Bishop Bubwith) during the tour above-mentioned (see G. L. Hamilton’s notes on Serravalle in Annual Report of the Cambridge (U.S.A.) Dante Society, 1902 ; and Paget Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, vol. i. pp. xviii. 21-2, 29-30). Only three complete MSS. of Serravalle’s work are known ; one of these is in the Vatican, another in the British Museum, and a third in the Escorial (see A. Farinelli, Dante in Ispagna, p. 70 n).
53 See Appendix D.
54 In his comment on Inferno, xx. 126, he says he passed through the Straits of Gibraltar “quando redibam de regno Anglie ”.
55 See above, p. 93.
56 From 1403 to 1405.
57 See Appendix D. Zacheroni unfortunately did not print Guiniforto’s work in full, all the theological portions of the commentary being omitted.
58 See vol. i. pp. xiii, xvi, of the Milan edition (1888) of the commentary.
59 See the article by M. Barbi referred to above (p. 223 n. 7), and also Rocca, op. cit. p. 137.
60 See Appendix D. This edition, a copy of which was sold recently for £ 1000, was illustrated with plates from designs by Botticelli.
61 No less than fifteen times in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, viz. at Brescia in 1487, and at Venice in 1484, 1491 (two editions), 1493, 1497, 1507, 1512, 1516, 1520, 1529, 1536, 1564, 1578, 1596 (the commentary of Vellutello being printed with it in the last three editions).
62 See Appendix D.
63 At Venice, in the so-called “edizioni del naso” (from the big-nosed portrait of Dante), in 1564, 1578, 1596.
64 See Batines, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 655-60.
65 See Appendix D. It appears from a remark of Gelli that his contemporary Pier Francesco Giambuilari (1495-1555), who published in 1544 a work De’l sito, forma, e misure dello inferno di Dante, also wrote a commentary on part of the Commedia. In his Lettura Terza, Lezione Prima, Gelli quotes Giambullari’s opinion, “secondo che scrive in uno comento ch’ egh faceva sopra questo poeta, non condotto da lui se non a pochi canti del Purgatorio, per esserci stato tolto con non piccola perdita de la morte ” (ed. Negroni, vol. i.p. 318). This commentary has not been preserved,
66 Vicenza, 1613; Padua, 1629; Venice, 1629.
67 Three editions have been printed at Venice (1739, 1751, 1772), one at Verona (1749), nine at Florence (1771, 1813, 1819, 1821, 1826, 1827, 1830, 1837, 1839), four at Bassano (1815, 1820, 1826, 1850), two at Leghorn (1817, 1818), one at Pisa (1819), one at Turin (1830), one at Palermo (1834), and one at Paris (1841).
68 Two more editions were printed at Rome (1815, 1820), one at Padua (1822), two at Florence (1830, 1838), one at Naples (1830), and one at Prato (1847).
69 These were issued respectively at Rome (1806, 1810), Jena (1807), and Naples (1839).
70 The indices are there described as “indici ricchissimi, che spiegano tutte le cose difficili, e tutte l’ Erudizioni di esso Poema, e tengono la vece d’ un’ intero Comento “.
71 Six editions were printed at Milan (1819, 1820, 1829, 1838, 1845, 1851), eight at Naples (1838, 1845, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1860, 1862, 1868), and one at Palermo (1856).
72 Three more were printed at Bologna (two in 1826, one in 1832-3), nine at Milan (1827, 1840, 1850, 1855, 1857, 1862, 1863, 1873, 1888), nine at Florence (1827, 1830, 1836, 1839, 1840-2, 1844, 1846, 1847, 1849), four at Naples (1830, 1837, 1839, 1849-50), one at Monza (1837), two at Colle (1841, 1844), one at Voghera (1841-2), two at Prato (1850, 1852), and three at Venice (two in 1852, one in 1856-7).
73 In this work Rossetti developed his extravagant theories as to the esoteric anti-papal significance of the Commedia, which he afterwards more fully expounded in his works Sullo Spirito Antipapale che produsse la Riforma (London, 1832), and Il Mistero dell’ Amor Platonico del Medio Evo (London, 1840).
74 At Milan, in 1854, 1856, 1865, 1869.
75 See Paget Toynbee, Chronological List of English Translations from Dante, in Annual Report of the Cambridge (U.S.A.) Dante Society, 1906.
76 See Paget Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, vol. ii. pp. 340 ff.
77 Issued as a supplement to his translation (1851-4).
78 Frequently reprinted.
79 Second editions, 1891 (Paradiso), 1892 (Purgatorio).
80 Second edition, 1899.
81 Second edition, 1902.
82 Second editions, 1897 (Purgatorio), 1906 (Inferno), 1909 (Paradiso).
83 See Chronological List of English Translations from Dante (loc. cit.).
84 Often reprinted,
85 Second edition, 1897; third edition, 1904.