Endnotes
ENDNOTES
[1] In 1.26.23 Dante also speaks of “some kind star or better grace.”
[2] On no fewer than four occasions does Dante refer to the canto as a compositional unit: 1.20.1–3; 3.5.16, 139; 3.8.10.
[3] I count a total of thirteen such addresses to the reader: 1.8.94–96; 1.9.61–63; 1.16.124–136; 1.20.19–24; 1.22.118; 1.25.46–48; 1.34.22–24; 2.8.19–21; 2.9.70–72; 2.10.106–111; 2.17.1–9; 2.29.97–105; 2.31.124–126; 2.33.136–141; 3.2.1–18; 3.5.109–114; 3.10.7–27; 3.22.106–111; 3.23.64–69. Although an address to the reader by definition involves a self-conscious employment of the principles of art to stimulate the reader’s interest or engage his or her sympathies, in five cases (1.9.61–63; 2.8.19–21; 2.9.70–72; 2.29.97–105; 2.33.136–141) Dante explicitly calls attention to the exercise of his art: in the first two, in order to announce a hidden sense; in the last two, in order to refer to the requirements of composition; and in the middle one to declare an artistic intention.
[4] The same holds for the examples of humbled pride sculpted on the ground. There “the living seemed alive, the dead seemed dead” (2.12.67).
[5] Dante also employs an acrostic in the sphere of Jupiter, where he denounces unjust rulers (3.19.115–141).
[6] In a perhaps related vein, at several points of 1.14, Dante imitates the convoluted style of Pier della Vigna.
[7] For summaries of Dante’s journey, see 1.1.112–123; 2.23.118–131; 2.26.58–60; 3.33.22–24. Perhaps because neither Aeneas nor Paul traveled through Purgatory, Guida del Duca can say to Dante: “Such a thing has never been before” (2.14.15).
[8] In 2.15.117 Dante terms his visions of the examples of gentleness “not-false errors.” Perhaps the term applies to the fictional elements in the poem as a whole.
[9] Dante stresses several times that Beatrice sent Virgil. See 1.12.88–89; 2.1.52–54; 2.7.22–24; 3.26.120; 3.31.79–81
[10] See also 3.25.49–50, where Dante calls Beatrice the one “who had led my feathered wings to such high flight.”
[11] See also 3.25.40–42, where St. James says to Dante that “of His grace our Emperor now wills that you confront His nobles and resort to His most secret halls before death’s chills.” For other references to the grace operative in Dante, see 2.8.65–66; 2.14.14–15, 79–80; 2.20.42; 2.23.41–42; 2.26.59; 3.10.82–87; 3.32.145–150.
[12] See 1.3.91–93; 2.2.91–92; 2.21.23–24; 2.24.76–81; 2.32.100–102; 3.10.85–90.
[13] There are also five minor invocations. See 1.32.10–12; 2.29.37–42; 3.18.82–87; 3.22.121–123; 3.30.97–99.
[14] See 3.23.62 for a similar expression.
[15] Dante’s claim to present his lived experience as he remembers it strains credulity to the breaking point, of course, in 1.16.124–136 and 1.28.112–117.
[16] For similar instances, see 2.18.127–129 and 2.24.100–108.
[17] Dante makes a like statement in 3.23.64–66.
[18] These facts help to explain why Dante considers his own previous works worthy of quotation three times (2.2.112; 2.24.51; 3.8.37) and of allusion once (2.23.115–117).
[19] A similar claim is implicit in 1.24.85–90. Here Dante may have in mind his more incredible subject matter rather than his greater technical skill. At the conclusion of this episode he strangely excuses himself for the “straying” of his pen (1.25.144).
[20] See also 2.10.21; 2.13.10–12.
[21] See also 2.11.37–45; 2.18.106–111; 2.19.76–78.
[22] See also 2.6.34–48; 2.15.76–78; 2.18.46–48, 73–75.
[23] Whereas in this canto Dante places Manto, for whom Mantua was named, in the ditch of diviners, in 2.22.113 he inexplicably puts her in Limbo. Given Dante’s revision of Virgil, one wonders whether this self-revision was merely a slip or a deliberate self-irony.
[24] In like manner, in 1.31.103–105 Dante has his Virgil correct the Aeneid’s description of the giant Briareus.
[25] There are two minor exceptions to this rule. See 1.12.14 and 1.17.43.
[26] Similarly, when Virgil has disappeared from the scene, Statius will still follow Dante. See 2.33.14–15, 133–135.
[27] From a purely literary point of view, the famous add interest to the work, as Cacciaguida recognizes in 3.18.28–33.
[28] Likewise, St. Peter Damian would have Dante warn the world against searching out the secrets of divine providence (3.21.97–99), and St. John would have him suppress the superstition that he was taken bodily into Heaven (3.25.127–129).
[29] For such vaticinia ex eventu, see 1.6.64–75; 1.10.77–81; 1.15.61–78; 1.24.142–151; 2.8.133–139; 2.11.139–141; 3.17.43–99.
[30] See 1.1.100–111; 2.33.43–45; 3.9.139–142; 3.22.14–15; 3.27.63, 142–148.