and his companion in battle, retiring
and his companion in battle, retiring
with him to become a monk.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere of Mars.
5KHD
The sister of Saturn (Cronus) whom he married.
swallowed his children to avoid them
dethroning him. Enraged she bore
Jupiter at night in Arcadia and he was 1377
carried to Crete and hidden in the cave of Dicte. The armed Curetes
(Corybantes) stood round his golden
cradle clashing weapons to hide his
cries. She gave Cronus a stone
wrapped in swaddling clothes which
he swallowed thinking it was Jupiter
(Zeus).
5LFKDUGRI6W9LFWRU
The Augustinian mystic (died 1173),
and friend of Saint Bernard who wrote a treatise called 'H&RQWHPSODWLRQH.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere of Prudence.
5LPLQLVHH 0DODWHVWD
5LSKHXV
A Trojan, who was killed at the fall of
Troy. Virgil in Aeneid ii 426 et seq.
1378
says ‘he the most just of the Trojans, who never wavered from right, though
the gods did not recognise his
righteousness.’
Dante connects this incident with Acts
x 34 ‘God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness is accepted
with Him.’
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of Jupiter.
Paradiso Canto XX:73-148. Aquinas
suggests that the good unbeliever will
receive inspiration, or a teacher, from
God to achieve his conversion. This
opens the door to the virtuous Pagans,
but note Paul’s weeping over Virgil’s
tomb (traditionally), which suggests
Virgil could not be saved in this way.
Dante struggled with the whole
concept, regarding its natural justice.
1379
5REHUWVHH *XLVFDUG
5REHUW
'XNH
RI
&DODEULD
DIWHUZDUGV.LQJRI1DSOHV
The son of Charles II of Naples, and brother of Charles Martel. After Charles Martel’s early death, Robert
ousted the son Caroberto from the
throne of Naples, in 1309 after the date
of the Vision. Robert and his brothers
Louis and John were hostages in Spain
after the release of their father Charles
in 1288 (see the entry for Charles II)
until 1295. Robert was accompanied
back to Italy by certain greedy
Catalonian adventurers who he have
office to when he succeeded to the
throne of Naples, and their greed made
they and him detested in Apulia. He
was shipwrecked in 1301.
1380
Robert I, the son of Hugh Capet,
whom he succeeded in 996.
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. He is mentioned.
5RODQGVHH2UODQGR
5RPDQR&XQL]]DGD
The sister of Ezzolino the tyrant. She was born in the castle of Romano
between Venice and the sources of the
Brenta and Piave. She was famous for
her love affairs, had four husbands and
many paramours, of whom Sordello
was one. In 1265 (when she was about
67 years old) and the last survivor of
her father’s family, in the house of
Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, she executed a deed of manumission
liberating her father’s serfs. She died
in Florence in 1279 or 1280. Dante
suggests she was a penitent.
1381
Paradiso Canto IX:1-66. She is in the third Heaven of those who yielded to
earthly love.
5RPDQR(]]ROLQRGD
5RPHR
Romeo of Villeneuve (1170-1250) was
the seneschal, or chamberlain of Count
Raymond Berenger IV of Provence, who died in 1245 leaving his lands to
his youngest daughter Beatrice, whom he had made heiress under Romeo’s
guardianship. According to the legend
Romeo (which simply means SLOJULP)
came to Raymond’s court, managed
his business, and arranged the
marriages of Raymond’s four
daughters. The Provençal Barons
persuaded Raymond to demand
account of Romeo, at which he asked
for his mule, staff and scrip, and
1382
vanished, as poor as he had come. The story is probably fable.
The eldest daughter Margaret married
Louis IX of France, Eleanor married
Henry III of England, Sancha married Richard of Cornwall, titular King of
the Romans, and Beatrice, who
inherited, married Charles of Anjou,
King of Naples and Sicily, and,
through her inheritance, King of
Provence, in Dante’s view a fitting
revenge on the Provençal barons!
Paradiso Canto VI:112-142. He is in the second sphere, of Mercury, and of
those who were ambitious for honour.
5RPXDOGXV
A member of the Onesti family of
Ravenna. He was a monk of Camaldoli
in the Casentino district, who saw a
vision of the heavenly ladder, and
founded the Camaldolese Order, a
1383
white-robed stricter branch of the
Benedictines. He died in 1027.
Paradiso Canto XXII:1-99. He is in the seventh sphere.
5RPXOXVRU4XLULQXV
The founder and first king of Rome
(the city was traditionally founded on
21st April 753BC, Roman dates were
recorded from the founding of the city,
DE XUEH FRQGLWD). He was the brother
of Remus, and the son of Mars and Ilia, called JHQLWRU, father, of the
Roman people. The two brothers were
reared by a she-wolf. Romulus united
the Latins and Sabines (‘The Rape of
the Sabine Women’) He was received
into the company of the gods, as
Quirinus and worshipped by the
Romans. The name Rome derives
from the Etruscan JHQVUXPD.
1384
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of a great man born from obscure
origins.
5XELFDQWH
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth circle, the fifth
chasm, of the barrators.
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. The other demons urge him on.
5XGROSKRI+DSVEXUJ(PSHURU
The Emperor (1273-1291) who served
under Ottocar II, King of Bohemia
(1253-1278), but asserted his
supremacy, when elected Emperor.
Ottakar paid homage, but refused to return Imperial lands, and died at the
battle of the Marchfeld near Vienna in
1278. Ottocar’s son Wenceslas II
(1278-1305) (QRW the earlier king and
Saint) was allowed to retain Bohemia
and Moravia, but had to give up
1385
Austria and Styria (Rudolph’s sons
Albert and Rudolph were invested with these), Carinthia and Carniola.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the negligent rulers.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. His
daughter
Clemenz
married
5XJJLHULVHH 8EDOGLQL
5XVWLFXFFL-DFRSR
A Florentine who was driven to
immoral practices by an unhappy
marriage.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante asks after him.
Inferno Canto XVI:1-45. He is in the seventh circle for sodomy.
1386
A Moabite woman, the wife of Boaz,
and great grandmother of David. See the Book of Ruth.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven, below the Virgin.
6DEHOOLXV
Sabellius (3rd century). The Sabellian
heresy identified the Son with the
Father as one Person differing only in
name. (It is later called
Patripassianism ie. the Father suffers,
and Modalism)
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He is mentioned.
6DEHOOXV
Lucan, in Pharsalia ix 763 and 790, tells of the two soldiers of Cato’s army who were stung by snakes while
marching across Libya. Sabellus
melted, while the other swelled.
1387
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. The story is mentioned.
6DFKHWWLRI)ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned.
6DODGLQ
The Sultan or Soldan, Salhad-din,
1137-1193 AD, the Kurdish founder of
the Ayyubid Dynasty of Egypt. He
took Jerusalem in 1187AD, after
defeating the Christians earlier at the
battle of 7KH +RUQV RI +DWWLQ. He is
Dante’s type of Islamic nobility and
magnificence. (See Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe’
for an image of how Saladin was
perceived in terms of chivalry.)
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. He is among the heroes and heroines in
Limbo.
1388
The daughter of Herodias, who was
married to Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of
Galilee, who was therefore Salome’s
stepfather. She danced before him and
he granted her a request. Her mother
Herodias whom John the Baptist had reproved for marrying Herod, her
previous husband Philip’s brother,
took her revenge by telling Salome to
ask for his head. Herod reluctantly
fulfilled the wish, and Salome danced
naked, holding the Baptist’s head on a
dish. See Mark vi 21-28.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:100-136. The incident is alluded to.
6DOWHUHOOR/DSR
A corrupt political lawyer, exiled with
Dante and the Whites in 1302.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
1389
The leading Ghibelline among the
Sienese, at Montaperti, in 1260, where
the Florentines were defeated. He was
the strongest advocate for the
destruction of the city at the
subsequent council, held at Empoli,
after the battle. He is said to have once
humbled himself by dressing as a
beggar to procure the money to
ransom a friend imprisoned by Charles
of Anjou. He was defeated and killed at Colle, in Valdelsa, in June 1269,
leading a mixed body of Tuscan
Ghibellines and foreign mercenaries.
He was captured by French cavalry
under Guy de Montfort, and murdered by an exiled Guelph of the Tolomei
family. ‘Siena’s plain’ is the famous
piazza known as the Campo in front of
the palace of the Commune.
1390
Purgatorio Canto XI:118-142. He is among the proud.
6DPDULD7KH:RPDQRI
$ woman of Samaria, who came to
draw water at the well, to whom Christ
offered water, even though the Jews
and Samaritans had no dealings with
each other. ‘Whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him, shall never
thirst.’ See John iv 7-15.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:1-33. She is mentioned.
6DPXHO
The prophet. The son of Elkanah and
Hannah, called by God. See First
Samuel iii.
Paradiso Canto IV:1-63. He exists with God in the Empyrean.
1391
GDXJKWHU
RI
6DQQHOODGHOODRI)ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned.
6DSLDGH¶6DUDFLQL
A noble lady of Siena, the wife of
Viviano dei Saracini, lord of
Castiglioncello. She was on of the
Guelph exiles, at Colle in the Val
d’Elsa, who watched the rout of the
Sienese
Ghibellines,
under
Provenzan Salvani, who died there, on June 11th 1269. In 1265 she had
assisted her husband in founding a
hospice for travellers, and, after his
death in 1269, gave his castle to the
commune of Siena. Piero Pettignano, a Franciscan, who was beatified, prayed
1392
for her. The Sienese purchased the harbour of Talamone in 1303, for 8000
florins from the Abbot of San
Salvatore, hoping to create a viable
port. Talamone is on the Tyrrhenian
Sea, southwest of the Sienese
Maremma. It consumed vast sums of
money, but could not be kept clear,
and was in an unhealthy area, which
caused the death of a number of the
admirals (contractors) directing the
dredging. Previously, in 1295, the
Sienese had spent money, searching, in
vain, for the stream of Diana, that was
supposed to flow beneath the city.
Purgatorio Canto XIII:85-154. She is among the envious in Purgatory.
6DSSKLUD
She and her husband Ananias sold possessions but kept back part of the
price when other followers of Christ
sold everything and gave everything
1393
into common ownership, to allow distribution according to need. They
were rebuked by Peter for hypocrisy and died. See Acts iv 32-37 and V 1-11.
Purgatorio Canto XX:97-151. She is mentioned.
6DUDK
The wife of Abraham. An ancestress of Christ. See Genesis.
Paradiso Canto XXXII:1-36. She is seated in Heaven, below the Virgin.
6DUGDQDSDOXV
King of Assyria, the type of luxury.
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. He is mentioned.
6DWDQ'LV/XFLIHU
The rebellious angel, identified with
Dis, and with Lucifer ‘the son of
morning’ (an incarnation of Dionysus
1394
and the other consorts of the pre-Christian great Goddess, and sharing
her ‘star’ Venus) who was banished
from Heaven for his pride, and in his
fall penetrated into the cavern of Hell,
and threw up behind him the Mountain
of Purgatory. He tempted Christ in the
wilderness, see Matthew iv.
Inferno Canto VIII:64-81. The city of Dis is his city of the dead.
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. His throne is in the ninth, the smallest circle, in the last
ring, the Giudecca, of Cocytus.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. The poets are set down in the Ninth Circle
that swallowed him.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:1-54. Lucifer’s banners (his wings) advance, in a
parody of a Latin hymn by Fortunatus
(6th century), 9H[LOOD UHJLV SURGHXQW.
His red, yellow and black faces
indicate Hate, Powerlessness, and
Ignorance, contrasted to the attributes
1395
of the Holy Trinity, namely Love, Power, and Wisdom. He is triple-faced
as a representative of the pagan triple-
Goddess. The three winds produced by
his wings are lust, pride and avarice.
He is identified with Dis.
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139. He is also called Beelzebub. Virgil, carrying
Dante, clambers downwards on
Satan’s body, towards his thighs, and
then at the centre of the earth reverses.
The poets now climb again upwards,
through a tunnel under the hemisphere
of the earth opposite Jerusalem, to
emerge at the foot of the Mountain of
Purgatory. They move from evening to
dawn of Easter Monday, since the
opposite hemisphere is twelve hours
behind Jerusalem. The little stream,
they climb up alongside, is Lethe,
which takes away the memory of sin
and evil.
1396
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the roadway.
Paradiso Canto IX:127-142. Identified by Dante with Mars, the patron god of Florence.
Paradiso Canto XIX:1-90. He fell through desiring what he did not have,
and ought not to have, at that time: by
anticipating knowledge and God’s
Will.
Paradiso Canto XXIX:1-66. Pride was the source of his fall, and he is
imprisoned at the base of the universe.
6DWXUQ
The son of heaven and Earth and ruler
of the Golden Age. He was dethroned
by his three sons. Warned of this he
devoured his offspring at birth (see
Goya’s painting of the Giant) but Rhea
hid Jupiter on Ida.
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120. He ruled Crete in the Golden Age.
1397
Paradiso Canto XXI:1-51. His was the Golden Age. Saturn signifies duty,
control and constriction in Astrology,
and placed in the fire-sign Leo, noted
for its expansiveness, and pride, Dante
indicates the need for temperance and
moderation, the one force balancing
the other, in a golden mean.
Paradiso Canto XXII:100-154. The father by Rhea of Jupiter (and of
Ceres-Demeter, Juno-Hera, Dis-Hades and Neptune-Poseidon)
6DXO
The son of Kish, and the first King of
Israel, anointed so by Samuel at Mizpeh. See First Samuel. He was
defeated by the Philistines at Mount
Gilboa, and fell on his sword. (First
Samuel xxxi 1-4) David’s lament on Saul says ‘Ye mountains of Gilboa, let
there be no dew, neither let there be
rain upon you’ (Second Samuel i. 21)
1398
His
daughter was Michal.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the roadway.
6FDHYROD
Paradiso Canto IV:64-114. Caius Mucius Scaevola, an early Roman who
demonstrated the strength of will of
the Roman people, and their disregard
for their own lives, to his enemies, by
setting his right hand in the coals. He
had penetrated the enemy lines to kill
Lars Porsena, King of Clusium, but
killed the king’s secretary sitting
beside him instead. He was afterwards
called Scaevola, ‘left-handed’. He
signifies constancy in later art. See
Livy 2:12-13.
6FDOD$OEHUWRGHOOD
Lord of Verona, and father of
Can Grande della Scala, he died the 1399
year after the Vision in 1301, having appointed his deformed and depraved,
illegitimate son Guiseppe to the abbacy of San Zeno.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He
is mentioned.
6FDOD%DUWRORPPHRGHOOD
Lord of Verona, his arms a ladder
surmounted by the imperial eagle.
Dante took refuge with him sometime
between the summer of 1302 and
Bartolommeo’s death in March 1304.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. He is mentioned.
6FDOD&DQ*UDQGHGHOOD
Inferno Canto I:61-99. Francesco (1291-1329), probably the
‘Greyhound’ of Canto I, Dante’s
patron at Verona to whom the Paradiso
was dedicated and who sheltered him
from 1316. He received the last
1400
thirteen Cantos of the Paradiso, left unfinished at Dante’s death, from
Dante’s son Jacopo. He was born in
Verona (between Feltre in Venetia and
Montefeltro in Romagna VHH Canto I).
He became lord of Verona in 1311,
was an Imperial Vicar, and in 1318 the
head of the Ghibelline party. He was
an art patron, and kept a civilised and
stately court. His elder brother was
Bartolommeo, who Dante took refuge with around 1303. Can Grande was
one of the great military men of his
age. In 1311 he showed his mettle by
recovering Brescia and taking
Vicenza.
Paradiso Canto XVII:1-99. He is mentioned as being nine years old
(nine years and one month in April
1300).
1401
The illegitimate, deformed, and
depraved son of Alberto della Scala who held the abbacy of San Zeno from
1291 to 1314. Dante may have known
him during his stay in Verona in 1303-
4.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He
is mentioned.
6FDUPLJOLRQHDGHPRQ
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. A demon guarding the eighth circle, the fifth
chasm, of the barrators.
6FKLFFKL*LDQQL
A Florentine of the Cavalcanti family,
known for his powers of mimicry. He
was induced by Buoso Donati’s son, Simone, to impersonate his dead father
and dictate a will in his favour,
acquiring, in the process, the beautiful
1402
mare known as the GRQQDGHOODWRUPD, the Lady of the Herd.
Inferno Canto XXX:1-48. He is a rabid spirit in the tenth chasm.
6FLDQFDWR3XFFLR
Puccio Sciancato, ‘The Lame’, de’
Galigai A noble Florentine, and a
thief.
Inferno Canto XXV:79-151. He is in the eighth circle.
6FLSLR$IULFDQXV
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. Publius Cornelius Scipio, who conquered
Hannibal at the battle of Zama near Carthage in 202 BC. He received the
title Africanus. He opposed the razing
of Carthage in 146 BC when the
Carthaginian survivors of the Third
Punic War were sold into slavery. He
was ultimately accused of high treason
by Cato the Elder, the censor, and
1403
others, and died in self-imposed exile in 183 BC.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132. His
Triumph is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of Imperial history.
6FRUQLJLDQL)DULQDWDGH¶
The son of Marzucco, whose father showed great fortitude when his son
was murdered by pardoning the
murderers.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the late-repentant.
6FRUQLJLDQL0DU]XFFRGH¶
The father of Farinata who showed great fortitude when his son was
murdered, by pardoning the murderers.
He was a Pisan noble who became a
Franciscan friar.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is mentioned.
1404
Michael Scot of Balwearie (c1109-
1250) studied at Oxford, Paris and
Toledo. He followed the Emperor
Frederick II to his court, though he died in Scotland. He was a translator
of Aristotle, and a famous astrologer.
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. He is in the eighth circle.
6FURYLJQL5LQDOGRGHJOL
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. A Paduan usurer, said to have been the father of
Enrico who had the Madonna of the
Arena built at Padua (c1303) and was
painted by Giotto, offering up a model of the chapel, in Giotto’s fresco of the
Last Judgement. The family arms were
‘an azure sow on field argent’.
1405
daughter of Cadmus of Thebes, loved by Jupiter, and destroyed by Juno who tricked her into asking Jupiter to make
love to her in the guise in which he
made love to Juno herself. His divine
fire killed Semele. Their child was the
‘twice born’ Dionysus-Bacchus. See
Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 261.
Paradiso Canto XXI:1-51. She is mentioned.
6HPLUDPLV
Sammuramat, Queen of the New
Assyrian Empire, ruled 810-805 BC,
whose policies were successful during
the minority of her son Abadnirari III.
She was supposed to have succeeded
her husband Shamshi-Adad V, Ninus,
(according to Orosius). Though Dante
is correct in believing that the
Assyrians held Egypt (the Soldan’s
1406
land) it was not till much later under Esarhaddon. She surrounded Babylon
with brick walls, and was the
ancestress of Polydaemon. Ovid in the Metamorphoses links her to the
Babylonian goddess Dercetis
worshipped in Syria as Atargatis, who
was half-woman and half-fish and
identified with Aphrodite by the
Greeks. Semiramis was her daughter,
and was said to have been cast out at
birth, and tended by doves. Fish and
doves were sacred to Dercetis who
was the consort of the Babylonian
great god Adad.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. Dante takes her as a type of licentiousness, has her
ruler of Egypt (the Sultan’s land) and
has her rule over many languages,
presumably a reference to Babylon’s
identification with the Tower of Babel.
1407
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Roman
philosopher, moralist and senator, d.65
AD. He was a member of Zeno’s Stoic school, and tutor to the Emperor Nero
who drove him to commit suicide.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of wise men in
Limbo.
6HQQDFKHULE
King of Assyria was defeated by
Hezekiah, King of Judah and killed by
his own sons. See Second Kings xix
37.
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. He is depicted on the roadway.
6H[WXV,6DLQWDQG3RSH
Saint Sixtus or Sextus I, Pope (115-
125).
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
1408
Paradiso Canto XXXIII:49-145. The Sibyl at Cumae, the oracular voice of
Apollo, wrote her oracles on leaves, which the wind scattered. See Aeneid
iii 441 and vi 74.
6LFKDHXV
The husband of Dido,
and a
Phoenician of Sidon, whom his
brother, Pygmalion King of Tyre, killed, out of greed for gold. Roused
by a vision of the dead Sychaeus, Dido
fled from Sidon and founded Carthage
in North Africa. See Virgil’s Aeneid I
340.
Paradiso Canto IX:67-126 Dido’s love for Aeneas wrongs the memory of Sychaeus. See Virgil’s Aeneid I 720.
1409
Sigier (d. c. 1283) a professor in the
University of Paris, where the ‘straw-
littered’ Rue du Fouarre ran close to
the river in the Latin Quarter, and was
the centre of the Arts Schools at Paris.
He disputed with the mendicant
orders, and Aquinas was one of his opponents. He was driven from his
University chair, and was assassinated,
or executed, at the papal Court at
Orvieto.
Paradiso Canto X:130-148. He is in the fourth sphere of Prudence.
6LJQD%RQLID]LRGD
The Guelph, Fazio de’ Mori Ubaldini
da Signa, held several Florentine
offices from 1310 inwards. He was a
fierce opponent of the Whites.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. He is mentioned.
1410
Simon of Samaria (Simon the
Sorcerer) who was rebuked by
Saint Peter for thinking that ‘the gift of God may be purchased with money’ in
Acts viii 9-24. The Simonists or
Simoniacs, guilty of trading in holy
offices, derive their name from him.
Inferno Canto XIX:1-30. They are punished in the eighth circle.
Paradiso Canto XXX:97-148. He is mentioned.
6LPRQLGHV
The Greek lyric poet (c556-467BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
6LQRQ
A Greek, who allowed himself to be
captured by the Trojans, and lied to
them, convincing them to admit the
Wooden Horse into Troy.
1411
See Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid ii 57 et seq. (Dante, as a Tuscan
considers himself of Trojan descent
and opposed to the Greeks.)
Inferno Canto XXX:91-129. He is in the tenth chasm.
1412
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. The Sirens were the daughters of Acheloüs,
companions of Proserpine, who were changed to birds in order to search for
her over the seas. They inhabited three
small rocky islands off Campania from
which they lured sailors to destruction
by their sweet songs. They had the
heads of women and the bodies of
birds. They lured Ulysses’s sailors towards them. He resisted by having
his ears plugged with wax, and having
himself tied to the mast. See Homer’s
Odyssey XII, and Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, V 552 and XIV 88.
Purgatorio Canto XXXI:43-69. The Siren is mentioned, as the voice of
temptation.
Paradiso Canto XII:1-36. They are mentioned.
1413
6L]LLRI )ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned.
6RFUDWHV
The Greek philosopher, 470?-399BC.
He was born after the Persian defeat at
Platea in 479, and in the flowering of
Athenian splendour. His greatest pupil
was Plato who in his dialogues portrays Socrates critical and
analytical style of philosophy. Socrates
fought at Potidaea and in other actions
of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta.
His philosophy according to Plato was
noted for his use of inductive
arguments and the search for universal
definitions, and his use of the
1414
conversational ‘dialectic’ to explore ideas. He died in prison, after drinking
hemlock, being charged with the
corruption of the State. See Plato, The
Apology, Crito, etc.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the philosophers in Limbo.
6ROGDQLHUL*LDQQLGH¶
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned.
Gianni was a Ghibelline who
nevertheless became leader of the
Guelph commons of Florence, when
they rebelled against the government
of Guido Novello, and the Ghibelline
nobles after Manfred’s defeat at Benevento in 1265.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth Circle.
1415
The King of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba, so wise, before
Christianity, that there was a debate,
here resolved, as to whether as a Jew
he was damned or saved. See First
Kings iii 12.
Paradiso Canto X:100-129. He is in the fourth sphere of Prudence.
Paradiso Canto XIII:1-51. He is unequalled in earthly wisdom, ‘the
understanding heart’.
Paradiso Canto XIII:91-142. He chose as his gift, practical Wisdom. See First
Kings iii 5-15.
6RORQ
Appointed Archon of Athens in
594BC and given dictatorial powers to
serve as ‘conciliator’. He made laws
that brought about the emancipation of
the individual, who became a member
of the polity rather than his clan, and
1416
promoted trades and crafts. The laws were codified and each citizen was
allowed to bring his case to court. The
peasants were emancipated and the
aristocracy curtailed. The Constitution
was reformed providing for a Popular
Assembly and Court elected by the
people (in cross-class phyles) who also
elected their Council of 400. The
Archons and Treasurer were elected
from the members of the first class by
the Popular Assembly. The new laws
unfortunately created internal division.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. He is an archetypal lawgiver.
6RUGHOOR
Sordello, the poet, was born at Goito
near Mantua c1200, and wrote in the
Provençal language. He carried on an
affair with Cunizza da Romano,
Ezzelino III’s sister, and wife of Count Ricciardo di San Bonifazio, while
1417
staying at Treviso, and was obliged to flee to Provence in 1229. Sordello had
abducted her for political reasons at
her brother’s request. He returned in
1265 as a knight in the service of
Charles of Anjou, and received possessions in the Kingdom of Naples.
He died a violent death some time
after June 1269. His finest poem,
written about 1240, is a SODQK (lament)
on the death of Blacatz, a Provençal
baron, in the service of Count
Raymond Berenger IV, in which her rebukes the kings and princes of
Europe, and tells them to eat the dead
man’s heart, and be inspired to valiant
action. Sordello inspires Dante to a
similar invective.
Purgatorio Canto VI:49-75. He is one of the late-repentant.
1418
The monstrous daughter of Typhon
and Echidne with woman’s head,
lion’s body, serpent’s tail, and eagle’s
wings.Themis was the goddess of Justice, daughter of Heaven and Earth,
with oracular powers, and the Sphinx
was her oracular priestess, who set
Oedipus the famous riddle ‘ What goes on four legs in the morning, two at
midday, and three in the evening?’
which he answered correctly with
‘Mankind’. Themis in anger at the
riddle being solved sent a wild beast to
ravage the countryside. Dante says
1DLDGHV instead of /DLDGHV for
Oedipus the son of Laius, following a
textual corruption of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses (corrected by
Heinsius) in VII 759 et al where the
story is referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. She is mentioned.
1419
The poet Publius Papinius Statius,
born at Naples c50AD, not Toulouse,
and died there c96AD. He lived at
Rome in Vespasian’s and Domitian’s
reigns, and dedicated his 7KHEDLG to
the latter, an epic about the War of the
Seven against Thebes. His $FKLOOHLG,
dealing with the Trojan War, was left
unfinished. His shorter poems the
6LOYDH were unknown to Dante.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. He
accompanies the Poets through the rest
of Purgatory.
6WHSKHQ6DLQW
Purgatorio Canto XV:82-145. The first Christian Martyr who was stoned to
death. See Acts vii 54-60.
1420
Stephen Ouros II (1275-1321) of
Servia, called Rascia from its capital.
He issued counterfeit Venetian coins.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example of poor kingship.
6WULFFDRI6LHQD
A member of the %ULJDWD
6SHQGHUHFFLD, the Spendthrift Brigade,
a club founded by twelve wealthy
Sienese, in the second half of the
thirteenth century, who vied with each
other in squandering their money on
riotous living. Stricca was a noted
spendthrift.
Inferno Canto XXIX:121-139. He is in the tenth chasm.
6\OYHVWHU6DLQWDQG3RSH
Inferno Canto XIX:88-133. The Pope, Sylvester I, who according to the
forged document of the Middle Ages
1421
called the Donation of Constantine,
received temporal power in Italy from
the Emperor Constantine. Dante
regarded this as a fatal confusion of
the temporal and spiritual spheres.
Inferno Canto XXVII:58-136. He lived on Mount Soracte, and was summoned
by Constantine, to cure his leprosy.
6\OYHVWHU 6LOYHVWUR IROORZHU RI 6W
)UDQFLV
He was a priest of Assisi, a kinsman of
Saint Clare, and the only ecclesiastic among the first Franciscans. He is
supposed to have tried to cheat Francis
over some stone for his church, and
was overcome by his unworldly
generosity.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
6\UHQ7KH
1422
Mercury lulled Argus, by telling her tale. She was pursued by Pan, and
turned into a reed. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses i 568 et seq.
6\FKDHXV6LFKDHXV
The mythical husband of Dido, Queen of Carthage. See Virgil’s Aeneid.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is referred to as Dido’s husband.
7DGGHR$OGHURWWL
Taddeo (Thaddeus) was a writer on
medicine who made a poor translation
of Aristotle’s (WKLFV into Italian. He died in 1303.
Paradiso Canto XII:37-105. He is mentioned.
1423
The head of the Ghibellines in Arezzo,
who drowned in the Arno, while
pursuing or being pursued by the
Bostoli, a family of exiled Aretine
Guelphs who had taken refuge in the
Castel di Rondine, after the battle of
Campaldino in 1289.
Purgatorio Canto VI:1-24. He is with the late-repentant.
7DUTXLQ
Inferno Canto IV:106-129. The second of the two Etruscan Kings of Rome of
that name, Tarquin the Tyrant,
Tarquinius Superbus, who was
expelled from Rome in a rising led by
Junius Brutus in 510BC.
7HJJKLDLRVHH $OGREUDQGL
7HOHPDFKXV
The son of Ulysses.
1424
Inferno Canto XXVI:85-142. He is mentioned indirectly.
7HUHQFH
The Roman playwright and comic poet
(195-159BC).
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
7KDLV
Inferno Canto XVIII:100-136. A character in Terence’s play Eunuchus.
Thraso, her lover, sent her a slave girl
as a present by his servant Gnaso, and
when asked she gave this flattering
reply via Gnaso. Cicero quotes it in De Amicitia 38. Dante turns it into direct
question and answer.
7KDOHV
The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of
Miletus. He is said to have died shortly
before the fall of Sardis in 546/5 BC.
1425
The early scientific work ascribed to him included an almanac and the
introduction of the Phoenician practice
of navigating by Ursa Minor, the Little
Bear. He postulated a primary element
of matter, and chose ZDWHU. He
therefore raised the issue of the One
and the Many, and is the first
individual philosopher of Ionia, the
cradle of Western thought.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the philosophers in Limbo.
7KHPLV
Themis was the goddess of Justice,
daughter of Heaven and Earth, with
oracular powers. The Sphinx was her oracular priestess, who set Oedipus the famous riddle ‘ What goes on four legs
in the morning, two at midday, and
three in the evening?’ which he
answered correctly with ‘Mankind’.
Themis in anger at the riddle being
1426
solved sent a wild beast to ravage the countryside. Dante says 1DLDGHV
instead of /DLDGHV for Oedipus the son
of Laius, following a textual
corruption of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
VII 759 et al where the story is
referred to.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:1-57. She is mentioned.
7KHVHXV
Legendary king of Athens who killed
the Minotaur, aided by Ariadne the daughter of King Minos of Crete. He also made an unsuccessful attempt to
rescue Proserpine. He was punished, by being placed in Hades, and, in the
version of myth Dante follows, was
rescued by Hercules.
Inferno Canto IX:34-63. The Furies
seek a fuller revenge than they were
able to take on Theseus, for his
attempted rescue of Persephone.
1427
Inferno Canto XII:1-27. The killer of the Minotaur.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:100-154. He
was present at the battle of the Lapiths
and Centaurs.
7KHWLV
The sea goddess, the daughter of
Nereus and Doris. The wife of Peleus,
and mother of Achilles.
Purgatorio Canto IX:34-63. She hid her son Achilles on Scyros to try and save him from his fate at Troy.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. She is in Limbo. One of the people celebrated
by Statius in his epic poetry.
7KLEDXW,,.LQJRI1DYDUUH
Teobaldo II, Thibaut V Count of
Champagne, King of Navarre (1253-
1270), son of the poet-king Thibaut I
mentioned by Dante in his 'H9XOJDUL
(ORTXHQWLD.
1428
Inferno Canto XXII:31-75. He is
Ciampolo’s master.
7KLVEH
A Babylonian girl, who in Ovid’s story
(Metamorphoses IV 55-166) kills
herself, when she finds that Pyramus,
her lover, has, in turn, killed himself.
He wrongly believes that a lion has
savaged and taken her, on reaching
their meeting place. The mulberry tree
under which they were to meet has red
fruit thereafter, its leaves and roots
being soaked with his blood. The story
is one of true love, and Shakespeare
used it as a basis for the ending of
Romeo and Juliet, despite his
unfortunate ridiculing of the story in
The Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45. The story is mentioned.
1429
Didymus ‘twin’, doubting Thomas, the
apostle who needed physical
verification of the resurrection. (See
Verrochio’s wonderful bronze in
Florence which Leonardo may have
had a hand in.)
Mentioned. His feast day is December
21st.
7KRPDV$TXLQDV6DLQW
The ‘Angelic Doctor’ of theology, and
medieval philosopher (c1225-1274).
He entered the Dominican order, and sought to achieve a synthesis between
Aristotelian philosophy and Christian
thought. There was an erroneous
tradition that he was poisoned in the
Abbey of Fossanuova, at the
instigation of Charles of Anjou, while travelling to the Council of Lyons in
1274.
1430
Purgatorio Canto XX:43-96. His death is mentioned.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. He
recommended sobriety to women and
young people, quoting Valerius
Maximus II i. 3 ‘9LQL XVXV ROLP
URPDQLVIHPLQLVLJQRWXVIXLW: the use of
wine was once unknown to young
Roman women.’
Paradiso Canto X:64-99. He is in the fourth sphere of Prudence. He was the
pupil of Albertus Magnus, and with him ‘christianised’ Aristotle. Aquinas completed the work in 6XPPD FRQWUD
*HQWLOHV, and 6XPPD 7KHRORJLFD. A
man of sweetness and holiness he was
canonized in 1323, two years after
Dante’s death, and influenced Dante
greatly.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. Paradiso
Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
1431
The third Caesar (14-37AD) in whose
reign Christ
was crucified. He
campaigned against the German tribes.
He stifled the conspiracy of Sejanus,
who was executed, and, embittered,
retired to Capri in 27AD and died at
Misenum.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of Imperial history.
7LUHVLDV
The Theban seer. He spent seven years
in the form of a woman after striking a
pair of coupling snakes. On striking
them again he was changed back. He
was therefore called upon, by Jupiter,
to judge an argument, between himself
and Juno, as to whether men or women
get the most pleasure from
lovemaking. Deciding in favour of
women, and so Jupiter, Juno struck
him blind, Jupiter giving him the
1432
power of prophecy to compensate for his blindness.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses III 324-
332.
Inferno Canto XX:31-51. He is in the eighth circle.
7LWKRQXV
The son of Laomedon, and husband of
Aurora, the goddess of the dawn. His wife gained eternal life for him, but
not eternal youth. Dante makes the
lunar aurora his mistress, while the
solar aurora is his wife. See Ovid’s
Metamorphoses IX 421.
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. He is mentioned.
7LWXV
The Roman Emperor (79-81 AD), son
of Vespasian, who captured Jerusalem
and destroyed and looted the Temple
1433
in 70AD. The eruption of Pompeii occurred in his reign.
Purgatorio Canto XXI:76-136. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of Imperial history.
Dante’ views him as having revenged
the death of Christ, which was in turn God’s vengeance on Mankind for the
sin of the Fall.
7LW\XV7LW\RV
A Giant, hurled into Tartarus beneath
Mount Etna, by Jupiter.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He helps guard the central pit.
7RELW
Archangel Raphael helped his son Tobias to cure his blindness. See O.T.
Apocrypha, the Book of Tobit.
1434
The Scythian queen whose son was
murdered by Cyrus, the Persian King, and who in turn murdered Cyrus,
throwing his head into a cauldron of
blood, saying ‘6DWLDWHVDQJXLQHTXHP
VLWLVWL FXLXV SHU DQQRV WULJLQWD
LQVDWLDELOLV SHUVHYHUDVWL’ ‘Be sated
with the blood you thirsted for, that
you insatiably persisted in drinking for
thirty years.’ (Orosius ii 7, ch 6).
Purgatorio Canto XII:1-63. She is depicted on the roadway.
7RUTXDWXV
Titus Manlius Torquatus ,dictator and
consul 353-340BC.
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Mentioned in the summary of Imperial history.
7RVLQJKL'HOOD7RVDRI)ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
1435
Mentioned indirectly.
7UDMDQ(PSHURU
Adopted Emperor (98-117AD), after
the mutiny of the Praetorian Guard
(97). The first Emperor of Provincial
origin. He was given the title 2SWLPXV
by the Senate in 117. He oversaw the
greatest extent of the Roman Empire,
conquering Dacia, Armenia, Assyria,
Mesopotamia, and Arabia. Dante gives
the popular story of Trajan and the
widow derived from the )LRUH GL
)LORVRIL. Pope Gregory supposedly interceded on his behalf through
prayer, to bring about Trajan’s
deliverance from hell, to allow him
time for repentance.
Purgatorio Canto X:73-96. The story is depicted on the frieze.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of Jupiter.
1436
Paradiso Canto XX:73-148. He returned from hell to his body at
Gregory’s intercession which was
SUHGHVWLQHGand then was saved at the
second death.
7UDYHUVDUL3LHUR
A Ghibelline of Ravenna, (c1145-
1225), and the most distinguished
member of the Traversara family. He
was repeatedly Podestà of Ravenna.
From a family of noble Ghibellines,
Pier’s son Paolo turned Guelph on his
father’s death, and the family
influence declined until the Traversari
were virtually extinct by 1300.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
7ULEDOGHOOR7HEDOGHOOR
One of the Zambrasi of Faenza who
had a spite against the Ghibelline
Lambertazzi, a Bolognese family,
1437
opened the gate to their enemies, the Geremei, a Bolognese Guelph family,
after the Lambertazzi had taken refuge
in Faenza in 1280.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is in the Ninth Circle.
7ULVWUDP7ULVWDQ
The legendary lover of Isolde (Iseult)
in the Medieval stories centred around
King Arthur. The type of the great lover. (See Gottfried Von Strassburg’s
Tristan). He was Tristan of Lyonesse,
one of King Arthur’s knights who
loved Iseult (Yseult) the wife of King
Mark of Cornwall, who subsequently
killed him.
Inferno Canto V:52-72. He is a carnal sinner in Limbo.
7XOO\&LFHUR
Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43BC, the
Roman orator and statesman, born at
1438
Arpinum of a wealthy family. He was elected Consul in 63BC, and supported
Pompey. His writings were influential on medieval thinking.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the group of wise men in
Limbo.
7XUQXV
Inferno Canto I:100-111. The young king of the Rutulians, an Italian people
with their capital at Ardea, south of
Rome, not far from modern Anzio. His
death at the hands of Aeneas is described in Book XII of the Aeneid
and concludes the work. Also see
Ovid, The Metamorphoses Book XV.
Aeneas married Lavinia, Turnus’s intended bride.
7\GHXV
He killed Menalippus, in the war of
the Seven against Thebes, though
1439
Menalippus’s head was brought to him
he gnawed at the skull, in a frenzy of
rage. See Statius, The Thebaid viii.
Inferno Canto XXXII:70-123. He is mentioned.
7\SKRHXVRU7\SKRQ
A Giant, hurled into Tartarus beneath
Mount Etna, by Jupiter.
Inferno Canto XXXI:97-145. He helps guard the central pit.
Paradiso Canto VIII:31-84. He is mentioned in connection with Sicily.
8EDOGLQL2WWDYLDQRGHJOL&DUGLQDO
Cardinal Ottiaviano degh Ubaldini
who died in 1273 was known simply
as ‘the Cardinal’. He is reported to
have rejoiced at the outcome of
Montaperti, the only one at the Papal
Court to do so, and to have said: ‘If I
have a soul, I have lost it a thousand
1440
Ghibellines.’ The Ghibellines were
often unfairly accused of heresy for
political reasons. Dante seems to
assess individuals purely on spiritual
grounds.
Inferno Canto X:94-136. He is among the heretics in the Sixth Circle.
8EDOGLQL
5XJJLHUL
GHJOL
$UFKELVKRSRI3LVD
In 1288 Ugolino della Gherardesca A leading Guelph of Pisa, who led one
party
while
his
grandson
Nino de’ Visconti led the other, intrigued with Ruggieri, the
Archbishop, the nephew of Cardinal
Ottaviano degh Ubaldini, and leader of the Ghibellines in Pisa, who was
supported by the Lanfranchi,
Sismondi, Gualandi and other families, and Nino was expelled. The
Archbishop however betrayed him and
1441
had Ugolino and four of his sons and grandsons (his sons were Gaddo, and
Uguccione, his grandsons Nino, called
Brigata, and Anselmuccio or ‘little
Anselm’) imprisoned in the Torre dei
Gualandi in July 1288. When
Guido da Montefeltro took command of the Pisan forces, in March 1289, the
keys were thrown into the river Arno
and the prisoners left to starve to
death, even a priest being denied them.
The tower was known afterwards as
the 7RUUH GHOOD )DPH, the Tower of
Famine. (See Blake’s tempera
illustration ‘Ugolino with his sons and
grandsons in Prison’, Private
Collection.) Ugolino had previously
acquired a reputation by the surrender
of certain castles to the Florentine and
Lucchese after the defeat of the Pisans
by the Genoese at Meloria in 1284.
(The islands of Caprara and Gorgona
mentioned, north-west of Elba, and
1442
south-west of Livorno respectively, were held by Pisa at the time.)
Inferno Canto XXXIII:1-90. He is in the Ninth Circle.
8EDOGLQL8EDOGLQRGDOOD3LODGHJOL
A member of the Tuscan Ghibelline
family, and brother to Cardinal
Ottaviano, father of Archbishop
Ruggieri of Pisa, and uncle of
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:1-33. He is among the gluttonous.
8EDOGLQL8JROLQRG¶$]]RGHJOL
A wealthy nobleman of Faenza. He
married Beatrice Lanzia the daughter
of Provenzan Salvani and died in 1293
at a great age.
Purgatorio Canto XIV:67-123. He is mentioned.
1443
Bishop of Gubbio 1160, selected a
hermitage site on the mountain nearby,
but was unable ever to retire there.
Paradiso Canto XI:43-117. He is mentioned.
8EEULDFKLRI)ORUHQFH
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. The Florentine Ubbriachi family were
Ghibellines. Their arms were ‘a goose
argent upon field gules’.
8EHUWL)DULQDWDGHJOL
The head of the Uberti clan from 1239,
who supported the Ghibellines,
Dante’s party, annihilated the
Florentine Guelfs at the battle of
Montaperti (a village near Siena, no a
hill near the River Arbia) on
September 4th 1260. Farinata opposed
the destruction of Florence urged by
the Sienese, and Pisans, but after the
1444
final triumph of the Guelfs in 1266, the family were excluded from
amnesty, and banished forever. When
Arnolfo di Cambio built the Palazzo
Vecchio in Florence he was forbidden
to build where the rebel Uberti houses
had stood. Farinata died around 1264.
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Dante enquires of him.
Inferno Canto X:22-51. Farinata is in the Sixth Circle as a heretic, and
recalls the overthrow of his Guelf
enemies in 1248 and 1260, and their
return in 1251 and 1266. The Uberti
were forbidden to return, even after the
pacification in 1280.
Inferno Canto X:73-93. He prophesies Dante’s failed attempt to return from
exile, and then explains the knowledge
the dead have of the world above,
having prophetic vision, but unable to
see things that actually happen, once
they are dead.
1445
Paradiso Canto XVI:88-154. The family and its pride mentioned.
8EHUWLQRRI&DVDOH
Ubertino (1259-1138) leader of the
6SLULWXDOV, the party of strict
observance within the Franciscan
Order.
Paradiso Canto XII:106-145. He is mentioned.
8JKLRI)ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned.
8JR0DUTXLVRI7XVFDQ\
Hugo of Brandenburg, Imperial Vicar
of Tuscany for Otho III, died on
Saint Thomas’s day. He had created many knights of the families who all
retained his coat of arms (barry white
1446
and red with divers charges). The
Della Bella had a gold border to the arms.
Mentioned.
8JROLQR
VHH
8JXFFLRQHGHOOD*KHUDUGHVFD
8O\VVHV
The Greek hero, from Ithaca, the son
of Laërtes ( or by repute Sisyphus, and
the great-grandson of Mercury through
his mother Anticlea, daughter of the
thief Autolycus. He was noted for his
cunning and intelligence. See Homer
The Iliad, and The Odyssey, and
Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII and XIV.
He discovered Achilles hiding on Scyros, where his mother Thetis had 1447
concealed him, at the court of Lycomedes, and took him to the
Trojan War. Deidamia fell in love with him , and bore him a son, and died of
grief when he left. Ulysses stole the
Palladium, a wooden statue of Pallas
Athene, the safety of which guaranteed
the safety of Troy, and he invented the
Trojan Horse, by which the Greeks
entered Troy. However Troy’s
destruction led to Aeneas’s
wanderings and the later founding of
Rome, by Romulus. Dante is in that sense a Trojan descended from
Aeneas, and therefore hostile to
Greeks, and vice versa.
Inferno Canto XXVI:43-84. He is in the eighth circle, eighth chasm.
makes a last voyage, Of Dante’s
invention, to the Mount of Purgatory,
in the southern hemisphere, via
1448
Gibraltar and the Atlantic, where he is wrecked.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. The
Siren’s song seduced his sailors, and drove his ship off course. He resisted
by having himself tied to the mast, and
filling his ears with wax. See Homer’s
Odyssey XII.
Paradiso Canto XXVII:67-96. His voyage beyond Cadiz is mentioned.
8UDQLDWKH0XVH
One of the Nine Muses, the mother of
Linus the poet by Apollo (though some say otherwise). She was later the
Muse of Astronomy, and heavenly
things, including the music of the
spheres.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:37-61. Dante invokes her aid.
8UEDQ,6DLQWDQG3RSH
Saint Urban I, Pope (222-230 AD).
1449
Paradiso Canto XXVII:1-66. He died for the faith.
8]]DK
Purgatorio Canto X:46-72. Uzzah is referred to indirectly. He was the son
of Abinadab who, when King David
danced before the Ark of the
Covenant, put his hand out to steady it,
because the oxen shook it, and God
struck him down, and he died there.
See Second Samuel vi 6.
9DOERQD/L]LRGL
9DOpU\VHH $ODUGR
9DQQLVHH )XFFL
1450
Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus, the
Roman author of epics and satires (82-
36BC)
Purgatorio Canto XXII:94-114. He is in Limbo.
9HFKLHWWLRI)ORUHQFH
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. One of the ancient Guelph families. The Vecchio.
9HQHGLFRVHH &DFFLDQLPLFR
9HQXV&\WKHUHD$SKURGLWH
The daughter of Jupiter and Dione, and the goddess of Love. As Cytherea she
sprang from the sea-foam near that
Aegean island. (See Botticelli’s
painting The Birth of Venus, Uffizi
Gallery, Florence). She is the mother
of Cupid, mother of Aeneas by
Anchises, lover of Mars and Adonis, and the dove is her sacred bird. As the
1451
planet Venus, she is the morning and evening star, and an incarnation of
Ashtaroth, or Ishtar, the Assyro-
Babylonian goddess. Her attributes,
assumed from that goddess, were
inherited by the Virgin Mary. She is VWHOODPDULV, the star of the sea etc.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114. The planet is called, Cytherea.
138.Cupid accidentally wounded her, making her fall in love with Adonis.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses X 524-
735.
Paradiso Canto VIII:1-30. She is called the Cyprian, the island of
Cyprus being sacred to her. Dione is her mother, Cupid her son.
Dione’s daughter.
1452
Saint Veronica gave her handkerchief
to Christ to wipe his brow as he carried the Cross, and when he
returned it to her it was said to carry
the imprint of his features. It was
exhibited at Rome each year at New
Year and Easter.
Paradiso Canto XXXI:94-142. It is mentioned.
9HUUXFFKLRVHH 0DODWHVWD
9LJQH3LHURGHOOH
Chancellor of the Two Sicilies, and
minister to the Emperor Frederick II.
(c1190-1249) He recast the laws, and
was in Frederick’s confidence until
1247, when he was accused of plotting
with Pope Innocent IV, was blinded,
and imprisoned, subsequently
1453
committing suicide. He was born in poverty in Capua. He was a poet, and
said to have composed the first Italian
sonnet. He was compared, at the
height of his power, to St Peter,
holding the keys of punishment and
mercy.
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78. He is in the seventh circle.
9LUJLO
Publius Vergilius Maro, the Roman
poet, born at Andes near Mantua
70BC, author of the Aeneid, and
Dante’s guide from Inferno I to
Purgatorio XXX. Julius Caesar died
too early to be his patron, in 44BC.He
is the type of Human Philosophy,
which guides the mind from
unworthiness to bliss. Virgil wrote the
pastoral Eclogues, the philosophic
Georgics, and the epic Aeneid, based
on models provided by Theocritus,
1454
Hesiod and Homer. He died 19BC and was buried at Naples. The Aeneid, the
story of Aeneas, provided the link to
Dante between the Greek world of
Homer and Troy, and the Roman
Empire.
Inferno Canto I:61-99. He meets Dante and becomes his guide. His position is
amongst the virtuous pagans, and he
must turn back from Paradise.
Inferno Canto XIII:31-78. In Aeneid iii 22, Virgil gives the episode of
Polydorus from
which Dante
developed the wood of suicides.
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. Virgil’s biographers, Suetonius and Donatus,
record that Augustus ordered Virgil’s body moved from Brindisi
(Brundisium) in southeast Italy, where
he died on an abortive journey to
Greece, back to Naples (Parthenope).
In La Pia’s words to Dante there is an echo of the lines on Virgil’s tomb, at
1455
Naples, ‘0$178$ 0( *(18,7 &$/$%5, 5$38(5( 7(1(7 181& 3$57+(123(
&(&,1, 3$6&8$ 585$ '8&(6¶ µMantua bore me, Calabria took me, Naples
holds me: I sang of pastures, farms,
and heroes.’
Purgatorio Canto VI 25-48. See Aeneid vi 372 where Aeneas, in the underworld, guided by the Sibyl,
meets his pilot Palinurus, who,
drowned at sea, and not properly
buried, cannot cross the Acheron for a
hundred years. He entreats Aeneas to
carry him across, at which the Sibyl
tells him: ‘Cease to imagine that
divine decree can be altered by
prayer.’ Virgil explains that the words
were uttered in a Pagan world, where
Christian prayer had as yet no efficacy,
since they were not uttered from a
state of grace.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:25-54. Statius refers to the lines from the Aeneid iii
56-57: ‘TXLG QRQ PRUWDOLD SHFWRUD
1456
FRJLV $XUL VDFUD IDPHV: why do you not drive the human heart, accursed
greed for gold?’ Though Statius
suffers for his prodigality, not avarice,
he was alerted to his sin by all the
dimensions of the power of gold.
Purgatorio Canto XXII:55-93. Statius
refers to Virgil’s Eclogue iv 5-7, The
Golden Age renews. (‘,DP QRYD
SURJHQLHVFDHORGHPLWWLWXUDOWR: Now a
new race descends from the high
heavens.’)
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:115-142. He
speaks to Dante for the last time, is
still present, but silent, in Canto XXIX
55-56, and Dante mourns his loss in
Canto XXX 46-59. He crowns Dante
as king and bishop over himself i.e.
Dante is beyond earthly temporal and
spiritual power and in the primal realm
beyond the worldly institutions of
Empire and Church.
1457
Purgatorio Canto XXX:1-48. Those in the chariot repeat words from Aeneid
vi 884, ‘0DQLEXV R GDWH OLOLD SOHQLV :
Give lilies from full hands! I too shall
scatter scarlet flowers...’ the words
said by Anchises regarding the funeral of Iulus (Ascanius) his grandson.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:49-81. Just prior to the appearance of Beatrice,
Dante’s guide in Paradise, Virgil, has
turned back towards Limbo, his
guidance no longer needed, or
possible. Dante’s last words directed
towards him, though he has already
departed, are a quotation from his own
Aeneid.
9LVFRQWL*DOHD]]RRI0LODQ
He married Beatrice d’Este, after the death of her first husband Nino de’
Visconti of Pisa. His arms were a
viper.
1458
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. He is alluded to.
9LVFRQWL1LQR
Nino Visconti of Pisa, judge of
Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions of
Sardinia (Cagliari, Logodoro, Gallura,
and Arborea) which belonged at the
time to Pisa. He hanged Friar Gomita
who took bribes to release prisoners
etc. He married Beatrice d’Este,
daughter of Obizzo d’Este II of Ferrara, by whom he had a daughter
Giovanna, voted a pension by the Guelphs in 1328. After Nino’s death
Beatrice married Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, a separate branch. The
Milanese Visconti suffered misfortune
in 1302. The arms of the Milanese
Visconti was a viper, that of Nino, a
cock.
Giovanna
married
Riccardo da Cammino of Treviso. The arrangements for Beatrice’s marriage
1459
were in progress at easter 1300, and the wedding took place in the June.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. Gomita is in the eighth circle.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84. Nino is with the negligent rulers.
9LVGRPLQLRI)ORUHQFH
An ancient Florentine family. See the
Mentioned indirectly.
9LWDOLDQR GHO 'HQWH RU GL -DFRSR
9LWDOOLDQL
Inferno Canto XVII:31-78. One of these Paduan usurers may be intended
here.
9XOFDQ
The son of Juno, who was the god of
fire and the blacksmith of the gods,
and with the Cyclopes forged Jupiter’s 1460
lightning bolt in the fires of Mount Aetna on Sicily.
:HQFHVODXV.LQJRI%RKHPLD
Ottocar’s son Wenceslas II (1278-1305)(QRW the earlier king and Saint)
was allowed to retain Bohemia and
Moravia, after his father’s death, but
had to give up Austria and Styria
(Rudolph I’s sons Albert and Rudolph were invested with these), Carinthia
and Carniola. He was seemingly noted
for his sybaritic ways. He was still
alive at the time of the Vision.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is mentioned, unfavourably.
Paradiso Canto XIX:91-148. He is held as an example of poor kingship.
:LOOLDPRI2UDQJH
The hero of French Romance,
historically one of Charlemagne’s
1461
knights, who, after fighting the Saracens, retired to die as a monk in
812.
Paradiso Canto XVIII:1-57. He is in the Fifth Sphere of Mars.
:LOOLDP,,.LQJRI6LFLO\
William, the Good, Norman King of
Sicily and Naples (1166-1189), the last
king of the House of Tancred, reigning
over ‘The Two Sicilies’. He was the
nephew of the Empress Constance. He
is considered a model ruler by Dante.
Paradiso Canto XX:1-72. He is in the sixth sphere of Jupiter.
:LOOLDP0DUTXLVRI0RQWIHUUDW
William Longsword, Marquis of
Montferrat and Canavese (1254-1292),
one of the most powerful and active
warrior lords of his age. He also ruled
Tortona, Pavia and Vercelli. He
favoured Charles of Anjou but turned 1462
against him, joined by several towns including Alessandria in Piedmont.
Alessandria rebelled against William
himself in 1290. He was captured by
the citizens, and exhibited in an iron
cage until his death seventeen months
later in 1292. His son John tried to
avenge him, but failed, though causing
great suffering in Alessandria, and
Canavese, which was part of its
territory.
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. He is one of the negligent rulers.
;HU[HV
King of Persia (495-465BC) who
crossed the Hellespont, the modern
Dardanelles, at the gateway to the
Black Sea, by a bridge of boats, and
returned, having lost an army and a
navy, defeated by the Greek Alliance.
See Orosius ii 9,10.
1463
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138. He is mentioned.
Paradiso Canto VIII:85-148. The type of the military leader.
=DQFKH0LFKHO
The Vicar in Logodoro, Sardinia, of
Enzio, the natural son of Frederick II,
who made Enzio King of Sardinia. He
married Adelasia di Torres, mistress of
Logodoro and Gallura (northwest and
northeast respectively). Enzio was
captured by the Bolognese in 1249,
and died a prisoner in 1271. Adelasia
divorced him and married Zanche,
who governed corruptly till his murder
by his son-in-law Branca d’Oria, about 1290.
Inferno Canto XXII:76-96. He is in the eighth circle.
Inferno Canto XXXIII:91-157. His
murderer Branca is in the ninth.
1464
This is not Zeno the Eleatic
philosopher, but Zeno of Cittium
c.310BC, the founder of the Stoic
school of which Seneca was a
member.
Inferno Canto IV:130-151. He is among the philosophers in Limbo.
=HQR$EERWRI6DQ
Gherardo II (d 1187), Abbot of the
church and monastery of San Zeno in
Verona, who lived during the reign of
Frederick Barbarossa.
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:112-145. He
is among the Slothful.
=LWD6DQWD
Inferno Canto XXI:31-58. The patron saint of Lucca. The cathedral there has
a crucifix with the face of Christ, VDQWR
YROWR, supposed to have been carved by
Nicodemus, and finished by the
1465
Angels. Its help was invoked in times of need. (The River Serchio flows a
few miles north)
1466
1RWHVWR'DQWHV,QIHUQR
InfNote 1. Structure ........................................... 1467
InfNote 2. Chronology, See also the
Chronology of the Purgatorio and Paradiso....... 1479
InfNote 3. The Salvation of Italy.......................1486
InfNote 4. Ciacco’s prophecy in Canto VI. ....... 1489
InfNote 5. Arles and Pola. ................................. 1493
InfNote 6. Sodom and Cahors. ..........................1495
InfNote 7. The Old Man of Crete. .....................1495
InfNote 8. The Origins of Florence. ..................1496
InfNote 9. Vanni Fucci’s prophecy....................1497
InfNote 10. Montereggione and the bronze
pine-cone of St Peter’s....................................... 1499
,QI1RWH6WUXFWXUH
The regions of Dante's Hell are
subdivided, mirroring his descent
with Virgil, as follows. The
conception derives from Aristotle,
Cicero, and Christian teachings.
1467
There are WZHQW\IRXU divisions in all. There are WKUHH major groupings
divided into VHYHQ
Circles,
consisting of those who failed to
exercise self-control (Circles 2-5),
the violent (Circle 7), and the
fraudulent and traitorous (Circles 8-
9). $GGHGWR these are the Heathen
(Circle 1), the Heretics (Circle 6)
and, outside the Acheron, the
spiritually neutral. There are thus
QLQH Circles, plus the region this
side of Acheron, making WHQ major
divisions. This pattern of WKUHH,
divided to make VHYHQ, augmented
to QLQH and then WHQ, is the
fundamental architecture of Hell,
and
Paradise. The
keynote of Hell is Charity or Pity, of
the Purgatorio, Hope, and of the
Paradiso, Faith.
1468
Canto III. This side of Acheron. The Dark Plain.
The spiritually neutral, who lived
'without praise or blame' and the
angels who 'were neither faithful nor
rebellious'. Their punishment is to '
have no hope of death' and to 'envy
every other condition than their
own'.
Canto IV. The First Circle. Limbo.
The Heathens.
Those who lived before Christianity
or were unbaptised. Their
punishment is 'without hope to live
in desire'
Canto V. The Second Circle. Hell
proper. The first division of those
1469
lacking self-restraint. The Carnal sinners.
The carnal sinners, blown endlessly
though the air in darkness.
Canto VI. The Third Circle. The
second division of those lacking
self-restraint. The Gluttonous.
The gluttons, drenched in hail, snow
and dark water.
Canto VII. The Fourth Circle. The
third division of those lacking self-
restraint. The Avaricious and the
Prodigal.
The misers and the spendthrifts,
endlessly rolling heavy weights.
1470
Canto VII. The Fifth Circle. The Styx. The fourth division of those
lacking self-restraint. The Angry
and the Sullen.
The angry and sullen, sunk in the
Stygian marsh. On top are the
wrathful struggling with each other,
below under the bog are the sullen
and lazy who 'sigh and make it
bubble at the surface'.
Cantos IX and X. The City of Dis
(Lucifer, Satan). The Sixth Circle.
The Heretics.
The Heretics and their followers,
incarcerated in red-hot tombs.
Canto XII. The Seventh Circle of
the Violent. The First Round. The
1471
River of Blood. The Violent against others.
The violent against others, the
murderers, tyrants, and assassins,
sunk in the River of Blood. They are
guarded by Centaurs.
Canto XIII. The Seventh Circle of
the Violent. The Second Round. The
Wood of Suicides. The Violent
against themselves.
The suicides, transformed to trees
which bleed etc.
Cantos XIV-XVII. The Seventh
Circle of the Violent. The Third
Round. The Plain of Burning Sand.
The violent against God and Nature.
1472
blasphemers, lying supine on the
burning sand. The violent against
Nature, the sodomites, roaming the
sand. The violent against Nature and
Art, the usurers, crouched on the
sand.
Canto XVIII. The Eighth Circle of
the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The
First Chasm. The pimps and
seducers.
The pimps and seducers scourged
by horned Demons.
Canto XVIII. The Eighth Circle of
the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The
Second Chasm. The flatterers.
The flatterers, smeared with filth
and excrement.
1473
Canto XIX. The Eighth Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Third
Chasm. The Simonists, those who
sell spiritual offices.
The Simonists, the soles of their feet
seared endlessly with fire.
Canto XX. The Eighth Circle of the
Fraudulent. Malebolge. The Fourth
Chasm. The augerers, diviners,
astrologers and prophets.
The augerers, their faces twisted
round, forced to walk backwards.
Cantos XXI-XXIII. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge.
The Fifth Chasm. The Barrators,
who exploited their public office.
1474
peculators covered in boiling pitch,
and guarded and tormented by
Demons.
Canto XXIII. The Eighth Circle of
the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The
Sixth Chasm. The hypocrites.
The hypocrites, weighed down with
cloaks of gilded lead.
Cantos XXIV-XXV. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge.
The Seventh Chasm. The thieves.
The thieves, in the ditch of dragons
and serpents.
Cantos XXVI-XXVII. The Eighth
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge.
1475
counsellors.
The evil counsellors, wrapped in
flames of conscience.
Canto XXVIII. The Eighth Circle of
the Fraudulent. Malebolge. The
Ninth Chasm. The sowers of
discord.
The sowers of dissension, discord,
scandal, sectarianism and schism.
Their bodies are split or mutilated in
some way reflecting their sin.
Cantos XXIX-XXX. The Eight
Circle of the Fraudulent. Malebolge.
The Tenth and last Chasm. The
forgers.
1476
The forgers and falsifiers in things, actions and words, tormented by
disease and putrefaction.
Canto XXXII. The Ninth Circle of
the Treacherous. Cocytus. The
Central Pit or Well. The First Ring.
Caïna. Treachery against kin.
The traitors to their kin, frozen in
the ice. The ring is named after
Cain, who murdered Abel.
Canto XXXII-XXXIII. The Ninth
Circle of the Treacherous. Cocytus.
The Central Pit or Well. The Second
Ring. Antenora. Treachery against
country.
The traitors to their city or country,
frozen in the ice. The ring is named
1477
after Antenor who was supposed to have betrayed Troy to the Greeks.
Canto XXXIII. The Ninth Circle of
the Treacherous. Cocytus. The
Central Pit or Well. The Third Ring.
Ptolomaea. Teachery against friends
and guests.
The treacherous to friends and
guests, frozen in the ice. The ring is
named after Ptolemy the murderer
of Simon Maccabeus.
Canto XXXIV. The Ninth Circle of
the Treacherous. The Central Pit or
Well. The Fourth and Last Ring.
The Judecca. The traitors to their
lords and benefactors.
The betrayers of their masters and
benefactors, fixed solid under the
1478
ice. The winged form of the Arch Traitor Satan at the centre, towards
whom all streams of Guilt flow,
frozen from the chest downwards.
The ring is named after Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ.
,QI1RWH &KURQRORJ\ 6HH DOVR
WKH&KURQRORJ\RIWKH3XUJDWRULR
The Vision is set in , when
Dante was WKLUW\ILYH, in the middle
of a seventy-year life-span (Inf I:1,
Inf XVIII:28-33, Inf XXI:112-114,
Purg II:98-99, Par IX: 40). It is
(DVWHU. The poem begins at the
6SULQJ (TXLQR[ and the sun’s
position remains fixed throughout,
in Aries, as according to medieval
tradition it was at the Creation. (Inf
I:38-40, Par X:7-33, Par I:37-44).
1479
The Inferno begins on the evening prior to *RRG)ULGD\ (Inf XXI:112-114) at the IXOOPRRQ (Inf XX:124-
127, Inf XXI:112-114, Purg IX:1-9).
The full set of conditions is
imaginary, not corresponding to the
actual equinox of 1300.
With the sun at the equinox, the
following signs will rise during the
GD\:
6XQULVH, 6-8am $ULHV
8-10am 7DXUXV
10-12noon
*HPLQL
12-2pm &DQFHU
2-4pm /HR
4-6pm, 6XQVHW
9LUJR
The following signs will be rising in
the east and setting in the west
during the QLJKW:
5LVLQJ 6pm /LEUD
8pm 6FRUSLR
10pm
6DJLWWDULXV
12midnight &DSULFRUQ
2am $TXDULXV
4am
3LVFHV
6HWWLQJ 6pm $ULHV
8pm 7DXUXV
10pm
*HPLQL
1480
2am /HR
4am
9LUJR
Canto I.
Inferno Canto I:1-60.The poem opens on the evening prior to Good
Friday in the dark wood. Dante
witnesses the dawn of Good Friday
at 6am on the equinox with the sun
rising in Aries. He meets Virgil and travels with him until the evening of
Good Friday.
Canto II.
Inferno Canto II:1-42. The canto starts at the evening of Good Friday.
Canto VII:97-99
Inferno Canto VII:67-99. At this point in the Fifth Circle it is past
midnight since the stars of Libra
(The scales of Justice) that were
1481
ascending in the evening sky are now falling from the mid-heaven. It
is now Saturday pre-dawn.
Canto XI:112-114
Inferno Canto XI:94-115. At the end of the canto, before the descent to
the Seventh Circle, Pisces, the Fishes, is visible on the horizon and
must have risen in the east at 4am
some time before. Bootës, or the
Wain, is (correctly: see a star chart
for the northern hemisphere in
April, or observe it) in the north-
west. (Caurus is the north-west
wind). It is therefore near dawn of
Saturday.
Canto XX:124-129
Inferno Canto XX:100-130. At the end of the canto, in the Fourth
Chasm of the Eighth Circle, the
1482
moon is about to set over the Pillars of Hercules in the West. Being full
it will have set at dawn on Good
Friday and now a day later will set
after dawn. Dante does take account
of the moon’s daily movement (See
Purg IX:1-11). The moon moves
about 12 degrees a day, relative to
the ‘fixed’ stars, which equates to
48 minutes, and has not yet set,
though it is touching the horizon, so
subject to Dante’s astronomical
sources, it is approximately 6.45am
on Saturday morning, possibly a
little earlier.
Canto XXI:112-114
Inferno Canto XXI:97-139. At this point of the Fifth Chasm of the
Eighth Circle it is five hours earlier
than the time of Christ’s death, at
noon, so it is 7am Saturday. (At the
1483
Easter of the year 1300 =1266+34
full years from the crucifixion on
Good Friday, supposing Christ to be
incarnated in December of BC1 and
to die at age 33, celebrating the
anniversary of his 33rd year in
December 33AD)
Canto XXIX:10
Inferno Canto XXIX:1-36. The moon is at nadir, in the Tenth
Chasm, and allowing for its daily
movement it is therefore
approximately 1pm on the Saturday.
Canto XXXIV:67
Inferno Canto XXXIV:55-69. It is 6pm Saturday and night is falling as
the poets leave Hell by clambering
down Satan’s sides then turning and
climbing up to the little sphere
which marks the reverse side of the
1484
deepest point of the Judecca. This takes them an hour and a half until
7.30SP Saturday.
Canto XXXIV:94-97 and 103-118
Inferno Canto XXXIV:70-139. It is morning on the opposite side of the
earth to Jerusalem, and HYHQLQJ LQ
+HOOLVGDZQWKHUH. It is now mid-
tierce, the middle of the first of the
four canonical divisions of the day.
At the equinox each takes three
hours, so tierce is 6am to 9am and
we may take it that it is now 7.30DP
Sunday as the poets begin their
ascent by the channel cut there by
the River Lethe. Their ascent to the
foot of Mount Purgatory takes them
all this Sunday and Sunday night, so
that they complete it just before
dawn on the morning of Easter
Monday.
1485
There are various interpretations of
Dante’s imagery, for example that
the leopard (panther) represents
Florence and worldly pleasure, lust
or envy; the lion the Royal House of
France, and ambition or pride; the
she-wolf the Papacy, and avarice.
Lust, pride and avarice are the three
roots of sin. The imagery of the
three animals may come from
Jeremiah (v.6). The she-wolf, the
Papacy, made many alliances.
The Greyhound (9HOWUR) has been
suggested to be Can Grande della
Scala, born in Verona, between
)HOWUR in Venetia and MonteIHOWUR
in Romagna, the great Ghibelline
leader. Dante’s later patron, he may
have been regarded by Dante as the
deliverer who would restore
1486
Imperial power, reinstitute Roman law, eliminate avarice, bring peace,
and establish a reformed order of
things.
Dante, whose father Aldighiero was
a Guelf, and supporter of the
papacy, traced his ancestry back to
Cacciaguida, a crusader under Emperor Conrad III, and identified
with the Romans who had allied
Florence to Imperial Rome. He was
of the SRSXOR YHFFKLR, the SRSXOXV,
the old inhabitants, not the SOHEV,
from Fiesole etc. Dante’s
opposition however to the
dishonesty and corruption of the
Papacy under Boniface VIII aligned
him with the Ghibelline pro-
Imperial cause, and opposed him to
the pro-Papacy Guelfs. The
Florentine families also split
between the local Bianchi (white)
1487
and Neri (black) factions. Dante’s family belonged to the Bianchi.
Ultimately the Bianchi combined
with the old half-suppressed
Ghibelline party, and the Neri
aligned with the Papacy, claiming to
represent the old Guelph traditions
of Florence.
Dante’s personal ideals when fully
developed were for an apolitical
Church, and an earthly Empire, both
enfranchised by God, supreme in
their own spheres, one of spiritual
and the other temporal power. He
was therefore opposed to the Guelf
principles of his father (the
Ultramontanism of Gregory VII and
Innocent III), and to the democracy
and plutocracy of Florence. He was
equally opposed to the supremacy of
State over Church asserted by the
Emperors Henry IV and Frederick
1488
II, by Henry II of England, and Philip the Fair of France. Dante
therefore found himself ‘a party of
one’ caught in the cross-currents of
his time, supporting an autocratic
view of the Imperial State, and a
desire for a reformed, spiritual
Papacy.
An alternative candidate for ‘the
Greyhound’ is Uguccione della
Faggiuola, head of the Ghibelline
forces at Lucca in 1315 when the
Guelphs were driven out, and at the
siege of Montecatini (within ten
miles of Florence) where he gained
a decisive victory. However
Uguccione was eclipsed by 1316.
,QI1RWH &LDFFR¶V SURSKHF\ LQ
&DQWR9,
1489
Inferno Canto VI:64-93. Ciacco prophesies the events in Florence
between April 1300, the date of the
vision, and April 1303. Pope
Boniface the VII exerted pressure
on Florence to accept his authority.
Dante was at Rome in May 1300,
and returned quickly to Florence
where he was appointed to the
electoral body. Boniface then gave
support to the Black (Neri) Guelphs
against the White (Bianchi)
Ghibellines who insisted on church
reforms, and political liberty. The
Whites lead by Vieri de’ Cerchi,
were ‘the party of the woods’ since
the Cerchi came from the wooded
Val di Sieve in the Mugello.
The city expelled both Corso
Donati, the leader of the Blacks, and the Cerchi (who included Dante’s
friend, the poet Guido Cavalcanti.)
1490
This action, that Dante supported, led to life-long enmity against him.
Corso Donati went to Rome, and
allied himself to the Pope.
Boniface VII allied himself in turn to Philip the Fair, Philip the IVth, of France against the Empire of
Albert of Hapsburg. (‘King of the Romans’), Dante called this the
alliance of the new Pilate and the
New Pharisees, or the giant and the
harlot (the Papacy) embracing.
Charles of Valois, the French king’s brother, crossed the Alps in August
of 1301, and after treating with
Florence, entered the city peaceably
on November 1st. The banished
Blacks followed him in large
numbers. Corso Donati returned on
November 5th. The houses of the
Whites were sacked and burned, and
the Prior, the magistrates were
1491
deposed. The Bianchi, the Whites were condemned and exiled. Dante
was aligned with a weak Ghibelline
party supporting a weak and
uncommitted Imperial presence, and
opposed by a strong Guelf party
(aligned with France, and therefore
a caricature of Dante’s Ghibelline
beliefs) supporting a corrupt
Papacy. What Dante desired was a
reformed Papacy in the spiritual
sphere, balanced with a strong
Imperial presence derived from
Roman Imperial history in the
secular sphere. In different times he
would have been a Guelph like his
father in spirit, DQG a supporter of
the Ghibelline Empire in secular
practice. In April 1302 he heard that
he had been exiled with the Whites,
the Ghibellines. He never returned
to Florence.
1492
In March 1303 the exiled Whites under Scarpetta degh Ordelaffi
(strangely a papal vicar, indicating a
growing rift between Boniface and
the French) tried to force an entry
into Florence. It failed and many
were taken prisoner and beheaded.
France, the ‘giant’, had triumphed,
and his ‘paramour’ Boniface VII
died in October 1303, his policy
having led to Italian disaster.
See also Vanni Fucci’s prophecy.
,QI1RWH$UOHVDQG3ROD
Inferno Canto IX:106-133. Dante compares the plain of Dis full of
heretic tombs with Arles and Pola.
Arles, in Provence, in southern
France, at the mouth of the River
Rhone, has at Aleschans (Les
Alyscamps) rows of tombs, the
1493
graves of Charlemagne’s warriors, according to legend, buried there
after the rout at Roncesvalles (See
‘The Song of Roland’), and of the
Christian dead from the battle of
Aleschans where the Saracens
defeated William of Orange. (See
Van Gogh’s painting ‘Les
Alyscamps’, Niarchos Collection,
Athens, and his letter to Theo,
no559, Nov 1888, where he talks of
‘rows of old Roman tombs’.)
Pola (modern Pula) is a seaport,
at the southern tip of Istria (modern
Istra), that promontory, once
belonging to Venice, and hence part
of Italy, that hangs down into the
Adriatic to the East of the Golfo di
Venezia. The promontory on the
East is bounded by the Gulf of
Quarnaro (modern Kvarner). It is
said that numbers of Slavonians
1494
were brought there for burial, and it has Roman remains.
,QI1RWH6RGRPDQG&DKRUV
Inferno Canto XI:1-66. The city of Sodom represented unnatural vice
(Genesis XIX), while Cahors in
Guyenne (on the River Lot) in
southern France was notorious for
its usurers, in the Middle Ages, so
that ‘Caorsinus’ was a synonym for
‘usurer’.
,QI1RWH7KH2OG0DQRI&UHWH
Inferno Canto XIV:73-120. An allegory of human history. The
concept is from Daniel ii. 32. The
four metals are the four ages of
man: gold, silver, bronze, and iron
(See also Ovid’s Metamorphoses I).
The iron and clay feet, are secular
and spiritual authority, the latter
1495
foot being the one humanity looks to for support, but weakened and
corrupted by temporal power. Crete
in Virgil’s Aeneid iii 104-5 is the
‘cradle of our (Roman) race’ traced
back via Troy to Teucer. Damietta
stands for Egypt, superseded by
Rome. The golden age alone was
free of tears.
,QI1RWH 7KH 2ULJLQV RI
)ORUHQFH
Inferno Canto XV:43-78. According to tradition Catiline was besieged,
by Caesar, in Fiesole (Faesulae), in the hills, three miles north-west of
Florence. When the town fell a new
town was established, in the valley,
by the River Arno. The inhabitants
were a mixture of Fiesolans and
Roman soldiers. The Florentine
commoners (Whites) were held to
1496
be descended from the Fiesolans, the nobility (Blacks) from the
Romans. This was regarded as a
source of the future conflicts. Dante
was for a reformed Papacy and a
strong (Holy Roman) Empire, and
was active in the expulsion of both
Whites and Blacks from Florence,
he was therefore opposed by both
parties, though ostensibly a
Ghibelline (his father having been a
Guelf) and courted and vilified by
both. Dante is reconciled to this, and
Farinata’s, prophecy, of a troubled exile.
,QI1RWH
9DQQL
)XFFL¶V
SURSKHF\
Vanni Fucci prophesies the defeat of the Ghibelline Whites (Bianci) by
the Black Guelph (Neri) faction.
1497
Pistoia in May 1301. Dante was one
of those who voted for the
expulsions. In November 1301 the
Blacks entered Florence, aided by
Charles de Valois, and in April 1302
made the city drive out the Whites
(changing the people, and its laws).
Pistoia became a rallying point for
the Whites in Tuscany, until their
defeat by the Florentine and
Lucchese Guelfs, under
Moroello Malaspina, Marquis of Giovagallo in Valdimagra (the
extremity of Lunigiana). Piceno’s
field is the area between Serravalle
and Montecatini. Malaspina took
Serravalle in 1302, and reduced
Pistoia in 1306. Pistoia was said to
have been founded by the remnants
of Catiline’s army, leading to
Dante’s comment in the next Canto
1498
(‘you outdo your seed in evil-
doing’)
See also Ciacco’s Prophecy
,QI1RWH 0RQWHUHJJLRQH DQG
WKHEURQ]HSLQHFRQHRI6W3HWHU¶V
Giants appear like the twelve turrets
of the castle of Montereggione eight
miles north-west of Siena, between
it and San Gimignano. They were
the monstrous sons of Earth and
Tartarus, with many arms, and
serpent feet, who made war against
the gods, scaling heaven by piling
mountains on one another (Mount
Pelion on Mount Ossa, and both on
Olympus.). They were overthrown
by Jupiter’s thunderbolts and buried
under Sicily.
Inferno Canto XXXI:46-81. The bronze pine-cone, to which Dante
1499
compares the size of Nimrod’s head, once on the top of the Mausoleum
of Adrian and then moved to the
Vatican Gardens, stood in front of
St Peter’s, and was between seven
and eight feet high.
1500
PurgNote 1. Structure ........................................ 1502
PurgNote 2. Chronology, See also the
Chronology of the Inferno and Paradiso............ 1507
PurgNote 3. The planet Venus and the
Southern Cross...................................................1516
PurgNote 4. Dawn in Purgatory.........................1517
PurgNote 5. The singing in Purgatory, the
Psalms and Beatitudes. ...................................... 1518
PurgNote 6. The sun’s position south of the
equator...............................................................1526
PurgNote 7. Dante’s speech concerning the
state of Italy.......................................................1527
PurgNote 8. The three stars. ..............................1529
PurgNote 9. Dante’s three dreams. ....................1530
PurgNote 10. The Gate of Purgatory. ................1532
PurgNote 11. The public records and the
standard measure. .............................................. 1533
PurgNote 12. The letters OMO..........................1534
PurgNote 13. The Divine Pageant. ....................1534
PurgNote 14. The Mystic Tree. .........................1539
PurgNote 15. The Church past, present and
future. ................................................................1540
1501
The pattern of WKUHH, divided to
make VHYHQ, augmented to QLQH and
then WHQ, is the fundamental
architecture of Hell, Purgatory and
Paradise. (The keynote of Hell is Charity or Pity, of the Purgatorio,
Hope, and of the Paradiso, Faith.)
When Satan fell into Hell, he threw
up behind him the mountain if
Purgatory, at the opposite side of the
earth to Jerusalem.The ascent of
Purgatory is an ethical journey to
recover the life of Eden, the Garden
of Eden and Earthly Paradise. Cato,
the embodiment of moral virtue, is
the guardian of the Mount, and
Virgil, the embodiment of human
philosophy is the guide. The Earthly
Paradise is the goal, where Beatrice
1502
will appear to point the way onward, beyond the ethical towards spiritual
Revelation.
There are VHYHQ circles of
purgation of the deadly sins,
arranged in WKUHH groupings,
consisting of (see Canto XVII) those
arising from a perverse desire to see
others fail or suffer, namely pride,
envy, and anger (Circles 3-5); that
arising from inadequate desire,
namely spiritual and intellectual
sloth (Circle 6); and those arising
from excessive desire, namely
avarice, gluttony, and lust (Circles
7-9). $GGHG to these are the
excommunicated, at the base of the
mountain, and the late-repentant
below the gate. There are therefore
QLQH major divisions, plus the
Earthly Paradise, beyond Purgatory
1503
proper, at its summit, making WHQ in all.
Cantos III and IV. The
Excommunicates. Those disobedient
against the Church.
They must wait for thirty times the
period of their disobedience before
ascending the mountain.
Cantos IV-VI. The Late-repentant.
They must live excluded from
purgation for as long as they were
impenitent on earth, unless aided by
the prayers of souls in grace.
Cantos X-XII. The Proud.
They are bent, in humility, under the
burden of huge stones.
Cantos XIII-XIV. The Envious.
1504
Their eyelids are sealed, and they lean together in supportive love.
Cantos XV-XVI. The Angry.
They are covered in a dark fog.
Canto XVII. The structure of
Purgatory.
Virgil explains the nature of
defective, excessive and perverted
love.
Canto XVIII. The Slothful.
They run in a great throng, to
demonstrate new fervour.
Cantos XIX-XXI. The Avaricious
(and the Prodigal).
They lie bound and motionless, as in
life they were bound to earthly
things.
1505
Gluttonous.
They are wasted by hunger.
Cantos XXV-XXVI. The Lustful.
They exist in the flames of
purgation.
Canto XXVII. Through the flames.
Virgil’s Departure.
Virgil sends Dante forward to meet
Matilda in the Garden of Eden.
Cantos XXVIII-XXIX. Dante and
Matilda.
The Divine Pageant.
Cantos XXX-XXXIII. The meeting
with Beatrice.
Lethe. Beatrice. Dante’s
purification.
1506
WKH&KURQRORJ\RIWKH,QIHUQRDQG
Dante and Virgil reach the
Mountain of Purgatory at dawn on
Easter Monday.
Canto I:19-21 and 107-117
Purgatorio Canto I:1-27. They reach the base of the mountain near
sunrise (19-21) and it is near 6am as
they leave &DWR (107-117).
Canto II:55-57 and 67-68
Purgatorio Canto II:46-79.The stars have vanished (55-57) but there are
no shadows yet (67-68). The light of
the rising sun in Aries has blotted out Capricorn in the mid-heaven
1507
which is ninety degrees from it on the zodiac.
Canto III:16-26
Purgatorio Canto III:1-45. The sun is up, and it is Vespers (3pm-6pm)
the last of the four divisions of the
day, that is evening, in Italy, when it
is dawn in Purgatory.
Canto IV:15 and 137-139
Purgatorio Canto IV:1-18. The conversation with Manfred ends at about 9.20am, since the sun has
climbed fifty degrees.
Purgatorio Canto IV:88-139. The conversation with Belacqua takes Dante to noon in Purgatory, where
the midday sun is in the QRUWK. It is
sunrise on the Ganges, and sunset in
Spain. (In Dante’s geography
Jerusalem is the centre, with the
1508
Gibraltar at the extreme west, and
Rome midway between Jerusalem
and Gibraltar.)
Canto VI:51
Purgatorio Canto VI:49-75. The poets are on the east of the
mountain, and the sun disappears
behind the mountain, so that Dante
casts no shadow.
Canto VII:43
Purgatorio Canto VII:40-63.The day is declining as Virgil talks to
Canto VIII:1-18 and 43-51
Purgatorio Canto VIII:1-45. The souls sing their hymn at sunset (1-18: sunset of Easter Monday)......
1509
Purgatorio Canto VIII:46-84 and the poets descend after sunset (they
cannot ascend, see VII:58-59)
Canto IX:1-12 and 44
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. It is just after 8.30pm on the Monday
evening when Dante falls asleep (1-
12). Full moon and PRRQVHW was at
VXQULVH on the Friday morning, so
three days have passed (sunrise in
Hell is sunset in Purgatory!). The
moon moves 12 degrees, which
equates to 48 minutes a day, so it is
now approximately 2 and a half
hours after VXQVHW, and it is
PRRQULVH in Purgatory, that is
about 8.30pm, and the moon on the
zodiac has passed through
Libra and is in Scorpio. The first stars of Scorpio and the lunar aurora
are on the horizon.
1510
Purgatorio Canto IX:34-63 He is carried to the Gate by Lucia, and wakes after 8am on Tuesday
morning (44).
Canto X:13-16
Purgatorio Canto X:1-45. It is moonset on Tuesday morning. The
moon retardation now, after three
and a half days, equates to about 42
degrees, or three hours so it is about
9am.
Canto XII:80-81
Purgatorio Canto XII:64-99. The sixth handmaiden (or hour that
serves the day) is returning,
indicating that it is noon on
Tuesday, since sunrise was at 6am.
Canto XV:1-9 and 139
1511
Purgatorio Canto XV:1-36. It is 3pm, Vespers, (1-9), i.e. as much of
the sun’s course is left to run on the
zodiac before sunset (nominally at
6pm at the equinox) as it passes in
the first three hours of the day
between 6am and 9am. The poets
are heading due west, and have
reached the northern quarter of the
mount from the east. It is still
evening at line 139.
Canto XVII:12 and 70-75
Purgatorio Canto XVII:1-39. It is just after sunset on the Tuesday
evening at the base of the
mountain(12) and sets for the poets
at the fourth circle.
Canto XVIII:76-81
Purgatorio Canto XVIII:76-111.
Moonrise was at 9.12pm or so, and
1512
now, at midnight on the Tuesday the moon is in the east in Sagittarius.
Canto XIX:1-6 and 37-39
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. It is some time (4am or so) before dawn
when the last stars of Aquarius and
the first of Pisces have risen (making the sign called Fortuna
Major) (1-6).
Purgatorio Canto XIX:37-69. It is daylight of the Wednesday morning
when Dante wakes and the poets
travel west with the risen sun behind
them.
Canto XXII:115-120
Purgatorio Canto XXII:115-154. It is after 10am in the sixth circle (four
handmaidens of the sun have retired
i.e. hours of the day, the fifth is in
place. Sunrise is 6am).
1513
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:91-133.
Dante casts a shadow, and they are
well to the west.
Canto XXV:1-3
Purgatorio Canto XXV:1-79. It is after 2.0pm Wednesday. Taurus the Bull rises at 8.00am at the equinox
and will be on the meridian six
hours later, i.e. at 2.0pm. Its
opposite sign Scorpio will be at the
nadir.
Canto XXVI:1-9
Purgatorio Canto XXVI:1-66. Dante walks due south with the sun on his
right (due west) near sunset.
Canto XXVII:1-6 and 61-69 and 94-
96 and 109-114 and 133
1514
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:1-45.The sun sets at approx. 6pm Wednesday
at the base of the mountain.(1-6).
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:46-93. The sun sets higher up on the mountain
where the poets are (61-69).
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114.
Before sunrise on Thursday, Dante
sees Leah in his vision (94-96), and wakes at dawn (109-114).
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:115-142.
The sun shines full on their faces as
they enter the Earthly Paradise,
facing east, from the west (133).
Canto XXXIII:103-105
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:103-145.
It is noon Thursday as they reach
the source of Lethe.
1515
WKH6RXWKHUQ&URVV
Purgatorio Canto I:1-27. Venus is taken as being in Pisces at the time
of the Creation, with the sun in
Aries. Pisces was the sign of the
spring equinox during the Christian
era. Venus is depicted in that
position in the Collegiate Church at
San Gimignano. The four stars of
the Southern Cross (Note: Dante’s
obvious knowledge of it, but the
freshness of that knowledge,
suggests a recent report of its
existence from a voyage south of
the equator after 1300.) represent
the four Cardinal moral virtues:
Prudence, Justice, Temperance and
Fortitude. The SULPD JHQWH may be
Adam and Eve, driven out of the 1516
uninhabited world.
Purgatorio Canto I:28-84. Only part of the Wain, the constellation
Bootës, is ever visible in the
southern hemisphere, and it is never
visible from Purgatory (latitude 32
degrees south, as Jerusalem,
opposite it, is approximately 32
degrees north).
3XUJ1RWH'DZQLQ3XUJDWRU\
Purgatorio Canto II:1-45. Purgatory and Jerusalem are on the great circle
that forms the horizon at dawn and
the zenith meridian at noon for both
places. It is midnight on the Ganges
in India, sunset (notionally 6pm at
the equinox) at Jerusalem, and dawn
(notionally 6am) on the Mountain of
Purgatory. Night falls on the Ganges
1517
with Libra rising, since the sun is
rising in the opposite sign of Aries
at the Visionary equinox. Libra falls
from night’s hand at the autumn
equinox when the sun enters and
blots out the constellation, and the
days become shorter.
3XUJ1RWH 7KH VLQJLQJ LQ
3XUJDWRU\ WKH 3VDOPV DQG
%HDWLWXGHV
Purgatorio Canto II:46-79. ‘,Q H[LWX
,VUDHO GH $HJ\SWR¶. Dante indicated
the meaning of this Psalm 114,
when ‘the mountains skipped like
rams’ as being ‘the exit of the
sanctified soul, from the slavery of
this corruption, to the liberty of
eternal glory.’ See Epistle to Can
Grande della Scala X 7, Convitio ii.
I:63-65.
1518
Purgatorio Canto V:1-63. The 0LVHUHUH is a setting of Psalm 51, a
psalm of repentance (‘wash me and
I shall be whiter than snow’)
beginning: ‘Have mercy upon me, O
God,’
Purgatorio Canto VII:64-136. The 6DOYH 5HJLQD (6DOYD 5HJLQD PDWHU
PLVHULFRUGLDH) is the antiphon sung
after Vespers, invoking the aid of
the Virgin.
Purgatorio Canto VIII:1-45. 7HOXFLV
DQWH WHUPLQXP is the Ambrosian
hymn sung at Compline, the last
office of the day.
Purgatorio Canto IX:106-145. 7H
'HXP /DXGDPXV is the Ambrosian
hymn sung at Matins and on solemn
occasions. Saint Ambrose (c340-
397AD) Bishop of Milan, opposed
the Arian heresy, and chose simple
metres to create hymns to help the
1519
uneducated understand the orthodox faith. (The favourite Ambrosian
stanza, is an unrhymed, four line
stanza, of iambic dimeters).
‘%HDWLSDXSHUHVVSLULWX, Blessed are
the poor in spirit for theirs is the
kingdom of Heaven’, the First
Beatitude from the Sermon on the
Mount, see Matthew v 3.
Purgatorio Canto XV:37-81. µ%HDWL
PLVHULFRUGHV, Blessed are the
merciful for they shall obtain
mercy’, the Fifth Beatitude from the
Sermon on the Mount Matthew v 7.
For the words ‘Rejoice you who
conquer’ refer to Matthew v 12,
Romans xii 21 and Revelation ii 7.
Purgatorio Canto XVI:1-24. The prayer from the Latin Mass, ‘$JQXV
'HL TXL WROOLV SHFFDWD PXQGL
PLVHUHUH QRELV GRQD QRELV SDFHP:
1520
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy on us,
give us peace.’ See John i 29.
Purgatorio Canto XVII:40-69. The Third Beatitude from the Sermon on
the Mount Matthew v 5, is spoken,
not sung. ‘%HDWLSDFLILFL: blessed are
the meek’ (for they shall inherit the
earth.)
Purgatorio Canto XIX:37-69. The Second Beatitude from the Sermon
on the Mount Matthew v 4, is
affirmed by the Angel of Zeal.
‘%HDWL TXL OXJHQW: blessed are they
that mourn’ (for they shall be
comforted.)
Psalm 119 v25. ‘$GKDHVLWSDYLPHQWR
DQLPD PHD, my soul cleaveth unto
the dust, quicken thou me according
to thy word.’
1521
‘*ORULD LQ H[FHOVLV 'HR SD[
KRPLQLEXV ERQDH YROXQWDWLV: Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill to all men.’ See
Luke ii 8-14.
‘6LWLXQW¶: in the Fourth Beatitude
from the Sermon on the Mount,
Matthew v 6,‘%HDWL TXL HVXULXQW HW
VLWLXQW MXVWLWLDP: Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness.’
‘/DELD PHD 'RPLQH: O Lord open
thou my lips (and my mouth shall
shew forth thy praise).’ Psalm 51
verse 15. A verse of the 0LVHUHUH,
see above.
Purgatorio Canto XXIV:100-154. A second reference, see above, to the
Fourth Beatitude from the Sermon
1522
‘Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.’
The Matin hymn, with its opening
words, as given prior to the revision
of the Breviary by Pope Urban VIII
in 1631: ‘6XPPDH'HXV&OHPHQWDH:
God of supreme mercy,’ which
contains a prayer for protection
against lustfulness.
‘%HDWLPXQGRFRUGH: Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see
God.’ The Sixth Beatitude from the
Sermon on the Mount, Matthew v 8.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:46-93. The division of the sheep and goats at
the last day, when the King shall say
to the sheep on the right: ‘9HQLWH
EHQHGLFWL SDWULV PHL: Come, ye
1523
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.’ Matthew
xxv 34.
Purgatorio Canto XXVIII:52-138.
‘'HOHFWDVWL PH 'RPLQH LQ IDFWXUD
WXD: For, thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work.’ Psalm 92 v4
is spoken by Matilda.
‘%HDWL TXRUXP WHFWD VXQW SHFFDWD:
Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered.’
Psalm 32 verse 1.
‘Blessed art thou among women’
are the words of the Angel Gabriel,
and of Elizabeth, to Mary. See Luke i 28 and 42.
Purgatorio Canto XXX:1-48. The Elder representing the books of
Solomon sings ‘9HQL VSRQVD GH
1524
Lebanon, my spouse, with me from
Lebanon.’ from the Song of
Solomon iv 8. Dante mentions that
the Saints will sing $OOHOXLD, on the
Day of Judgement, an un-translated
Hebrew word used as a chant of
praise, taken over from synagogue
usage (the Hebrew KDOOHOX\DK
meaning ‘praise ye Jehovah’)
Those in the chariot, sing the
Benedictus, prescribed for Lauds,
the first day-hour, by St Benedict:
‘%HQHGLFWXVTXLYHQLW: Blessed is he
that comest in the name of the
Lord.’ See Matthew xxi 9, Mark xi
9, Luke xix 38, John xii 13.
Psalm 31 lines 1-8. ‘,Q WH 'RPLQH
VSHUDYL: In thee, O Lord, do I put
my trust, let me never be
1525
ashamed...thou hast set P\IHHW in a large room.’
‘$VSHUJHV PH: Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash
me, and I shall be whiter than
snow.’ Psalm 51 verse 7.
Psalm 79. ‘'HXVYHQHUXQWJHQWHV: O
God, the heathen are come into
thine inheritance; thy holy temple
have they defiled..’
3XUJ1RWH 7KH VXQ¶V SRVLWLRQ
VRXWKRIWKHHTXDWRU
Purgatorio Canto IV:52-87. The sun, regarded as a planet, by Dante,
here, is a mirror (VSHFFKLR) that
reflects the light from the divine
source towards the earth below. It is
in Aries, at the equinox, but Virgil
1526
explains that if it were in Gemini, the Twins, its (June) arc being
higher in the sky would take it even
nearer the north (Orse= the Great
and Little Bears, Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor). The poets, south of the
equator, looking east, see the sun,
rising towards the north, the
converse of what is seen in the
diametrically opposite hemisphere
of Jerusalem, where the sun will be
to the south, towards Arabia. The
VWUDGD, is the ecliptic, the path of the
sun. The equator is equidistant
between Mount Zion at Jerusalem,
and the Mount of Purgatory.
3XUJ1RWH 'DQWH¶V VSHHFK
FRQFHUQLQJWKHVWDWHRI,WDO\
Purgatorio Canto VI:76-151. Dante laments the state of Italy. The
German Emperor Albert is absent, 1527
and indifferent. The power Justinian
had to enforce the Roman Law has
lapsed. The clergy have usurped
secular power (the ‘people who
should be obedient’). Feuding is
rife. Every petty partisan is a
Marcellus, an opponent of Caesar and the Empire. Florence is treated
with irony and sarcasm, as a role
model of how to sway backwards
and forwards with the current,
unstable and sick, like a patient
tossing on a bed trying to find
comfort. Dante shows his firm
political stance, in favour of a strong
Empire, enforcing the Roman legal
code, with state and church
separated, the Church handling
spiritual, and the state, secular
matters.
1528
The four bright stars of the
Southern Cross signified the four Cardinal moral virtues Prudence,
Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.
The constellation of the Southern
Cross is now, after 6pm, low to their
southeast, and obscured by the
shoulder of the Mount. The three
glowing stars that have risen signify
Faith, Hope and Charity, the three
Cardinal theological virtues, the
keynotes to the three portions of the
Comedy, but the ascent only
continues in the morning when the
other four are again in the sky,
indicating the force of the moral
virtues in the practical life. It is not
clear whether the three stars were
intended to indicate a real star
grouping, known to Dante, low to
1529
Southern Pole, where the Southern
Cross was just before dawn: none is
an obvious candidate. (Note also:
The Southern Cross is never visible
in the northern latitudes if that is
what is meant by GLOjin line 92)
3XUJ1RWH'DQWH¶VWKUHHGUHDPV
Purgatorio Canto IX:1-33. Dante is carried upwards by Lucia, and
dreams he is being carried by an
eagle, as Ganymede was by Jupiter.
The eagle in the medieval Bestiaries
flies into the circle of fire in its old
age, its feathers are consumed, and
it falls blinded into a fountain,
where it is renewed. It is a symbol
therefore of baptismal regeneration
through Divine Grace. Ganymede
was a son of Tros, and an ancestor
1530
of Aeneas, linking the regeneration to Roman law and justice.
Purgatorio Canto XIX:1-36. Dante dreams of the Siren, Sensual
Pleasure, the basis of the three sins
remaining to be purged, avarice,
gluttony and lust. The lady who
comes to warn him is the light of
reason. Ulysses’s sailors, and thus Ulysses himself, were drawn out of
their way by the Sirens, but he, like
Dante, resisted their lure.
Purgatorio Canto XXVII:94-114.
Dante dreams of Leah, the symbol of teh active life, who talks of
Rachel her sister the symbol of the contemplative life. See Genesis xxix
and xxx. Matilda and Beatrice are their equivalents in the Paradiso, as
Martha and her sister Mary are in
Luke’s Gospel x 39-42. The active
1531
life, the way of service is good, but the way of contemplation is greater.
3XUJ1RWH 7KH *DWH RI
3XUJDWRU\
Purgatorio Canto IX:64-105. The Gate of Purgatory has been
interpreted as an allegory of the
Sacrament of Penance. The Angel is
the priestly confessor, while the
three steps are the three stages of the
Sacrament, Repentance, Confession,
and Forgiveness. Repentance is cool
marble, Confession rough and
scorched, and breaking the
stubbornness of the heart, and
Forgiveness red with Christ’s blood.
The adamantine threshold is the
rock of the Church with its power to
forgive sin, and the firmness and
constancy of the confessor.
1532
Purgatorio Canto IX:106-145. The Angel inscribes seven letter 3’s on
Dante’s forehead representing the
seven capital sins, SHFFDWD FDSLWDOL,
to be purged on the Mount. The
Angels’s silver key is experience by
which the confessor judges the
penitent’s repentance and
worthiness, the golden key is the
absolution he grants. His robes are
ashen with the colour of humility,
with which the confessor undertakes
his role.
3XUJ1RWH 7KH SXEOLF UHFRUGV
DQGWKHVWDQGDUGPHDVXUH
In 1299 Messer Niccola Acciaiuoli,
and Messer Baldo d’Aguglione stole
a page of the public records of
Florence, containing evidence of a
shadowy transaction that they, and
the Podestà, had been involved in.
1533
Durante de’ Chiramontesi, officer of
the customs for salt, reduced the
standard measure.
3XUJ1RWH7KHOHWWHUV202
Purgatorio Canto XXIII:1-36. The circles of the eyes stand LQVLGH the
legs of the letter M, formed from the
sides of the head, the forehead, and
the nose. In the emaciated faces
Dante sees, the sunken circles of the
eyes accentuate the sharp outhne of
the M.
3XUJ1RWH7KH'LYLQH3DJHDQW
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:37-61. The seven candlesticks are the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit. Dante
employs the imagery of Revelation i
12, 20 and iv 5. According to Isaiah
(Vulgate xi 2,3) the gifts are
1534
Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, Pity and Fear of
the Lord. The senses are not
individually deceived by their
‘proper’ objects - colour, sound,
savour, scent, texture, according to
$ULVWRWOH, but can be deceived by the ‘common’ objects of the senses -
motion, number, shape and size.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:61-81. The seven banners are the seven
sacraments, or the working of the
seven gifts. The rainbow may have
been suggested by Revelation iv 3.
The ten paces are probably the Ten
Commandments.
Purgatorio CantoXXIX:82-105. The twenty-four elders are the books of
the Old Testament (the twelve
minor prophets counted as one, First
and Second Kings as one, and the
same with Samuel, Chronicles, and
1535
garments are emblematical of Faith:
see Hebrews xi. The basic concept
is from Revelation iv 4. The lily
crowns (fleur-de-luce is iris, but the
French royal emblem is equated
with a lily) suggest purity of faith
and teaching.
The four beasts are described in
Ezekiel i 4-14 and Revelation iv 6-9. Their faces of man, lion, ox and
eagle represent Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John (and incidentally the
four fixed Zodiacal signs of
Aquarius, Leo, Taurus, and
Scorpio). The green leaves indicate
Hope. See I Timothy i 1. The six
wings are the six laws (according to
Pietro di Dante) Natural, Mosaic,
Prophetic, Evangelical, Apostolic,
and Canonical. The eyes indicate
knowledge of past and future. John
1536
says the beasts have six wings, Ezekiel four. Dante follows
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:106-132.
The two wheels of the Church’s
chariot are the contemplative and
active life (or the Old and New
Testaments, or the Franciscan and
Dominican orders, or all three in
simultaneous and complex
allegory.). The Grifon is Christ, half
eagle and half lion in his divine
golden, and human red-and-white
aspects. The wings are Mercy, and
Truth or Justice. See Psalms 36
verses 5 7, and 10, and 57 verses 1
and 11. The three theological virtues
Faith in white, Hope in green, and
Charity in red, dance by the right
hand wheel (They are also perhaps
the Three Graces, Giving, Receiving
and Thanking), Charity gives them
1537
their measure, See First Corinthians xiii 13 ‘but the greatest of these is
Charity,’ while sometimes Faith
leads.
The four moral or cardinal
virtues Prudence, Justice, Fortitude
and Temperance, are by the left
wheel. Prudence has the three eyes,
which see Past, Present and Future,
and the purple dress of the four
moral virtues is that of the Imperial
Law.
Purgatorio Canto XXIX:133-154.
The depiction of the Books of the
New Testament continues. The two
aged men are Luke, considered as the author of Acts. Paul calls him
‘the beloved physician’ in
Colossians iv 14, and he is regarded
as a spiritual Hippocrates. Paul is shown with the sword of his
martyrdom, and of the spirit, see
1538
Ephesians vi 17 ‘the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.’
Behind them come James, Peter,
John and Jude, the authors of the four catholic, canonical Epistles.
Finally comes John the Divine, the author of Revelation, the visionary
Apocalypse. (There are alternative
interpretations.)
The roses, and other crimson
flowers, they wear represent
Charity, where the Old Testament
Elders wore white lilies representing
Purity.
3XUJ1RWH7KH0\VWLF7UHH
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:37-63. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil, see Genesis ii 9, is the symbol
of the temporal power, of the
Empire and obedience to it, since
the prohibition to eat of it was the
1539
origin of law and duty. Justice is maintained when the Church
follows Christ (the Grifon) by not usurping the temporal power of the
Empire, and vice versa. The chariot
pole is the Cross, which, legend has
it, was taken from the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. It
links Church and Empire. The
Empire blossoms in purple after the
advent of Christianity (the sun,
shining from Aries at the Nativity).
3XUJ1RWH 7KH &KXUFK SDVW
SUHVHQWDQGIXWXUH
%HDWULFH, Divine Philosophy and
Heavenly Wisdom, is seated at the
root of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil, which is Rome,
the seat of the Empire, and in the
shadow of the new foliage that
1540
united to the Empire. She watches
over the chariot of the Church,
attended by the Virtues, who still
guard the Seven Gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
Purgatorio Canto XXXII:100-160.
The HDJOH
represents the ten
Imperial persecutions of the Church
instigated by the Emperors from
Nero to Diocletian. See also Ezekiel
xvii 3.
The YL[HQ represents the heresies of
the early Church, suppressed by the
writings of the Fathers etc.
The VHFRQG GHVFHQW RI WKH HDJOH
represents the Donation of
Constantine, whereby temporal and spiritual powers were confused, the
Church acquiring its earthly riches.
See the entry for Constantine.
1541
The GUDJRQ represents the Islamic schism, its form suggested by
Revelation xii 3, or possibly
The fresh feathers covering the
chariot are those of temporal power
and worldly wealth (increased by
the Carlovingian Emperors) and the
Church becomes transformed into a
0RQVWHU with the seven capital sins
as LWV KHDGV (suggested by
Revelation xvii 3).
The :KRUH is the corrupted
Papacy under Boniface VIII, and Clement V.
The *LDQW is the French dynasty,
Philip the Fair specifically. His feud with Boniface ended in the death of
the Pope, and he connived with
Clement V at transferring the Papal
Court to Avignon. If 'DQWH here
represents Florence and Italy, then
1542
the Pope was punished, and the Whore scourged, for her aspirations
in Italy, that is for turning her eye
towards him.
Beatrice implies that the Church is
no longer recognisable as the
Church of God, but nothing can
save the guilty from God’s
vengeance (Dante says no VRS will
help: referring to the custom where
a murderer could escape vendetta if
he contrived to eat a sop of bread
and wine at the murdered person’s
grave, within nine days after the
murder. The family kept watch to
prevent it.)
Emperor Frederick II (d1250) was regarded by Dante as the last
true Emperor before 1300, despite
the reigns of Rudolf, Adolphus, and
Albert, so that the throne is empty.
1543
But a new heir to the HDJOH of Empire (Henry VII in 1308) will
soon arrive, and a new leader (the
Roman letters for five-hundred, ten
and five, DXV, rearranged, stand
for GX[, a leader), Dante’s
‘greyhound’ perhaps (Can Grande
or Henry of Luxembourg) will rise
to ride Italy of the corrupt Papacy,
the :KRUH, and the false French
Empire, the *LDQW.
The tree has been twice spoiled,
once by Adam in the Garden of Eden, by taking the apple, secondly
by the wood, the chariot pole, being
taken to form the Cross.
Purgatorio Canto XXXIII:58-102. It is EODVSKHP\ to usurp the Imperial
prerogatives as the Empire is
divinely ordained, and is a sin
comparable in its disobedience with
1544
Adam’s disobedience in eating the apple.
The height, and inverted cone of
WKH WUHH, signifies the power and
extent of the Empire, and its Divine
origin.
1545
WR
'DQWHV
3DUDGLVR
ParNote 1. Structure .......................................... 1546
ParNote 2. Chronology, See also the
Chronology of the Inferno and the Purgatorio... 1548
ParNote 3. Four circles in three crosses............. 1552
ParNote 4. Dante is lifted towards the
Heavens. ............................................................1553
ParNote 5. The Three Mirrors experiment......... 1554
ParNote 6. The Divine Influence.......................1554
ParNote 7. The Singing in Paradise...................1557
ParNote 8. Justininian’s speech concerning the
Empire. ..............................................................1558
ParNote 9. The Sun’s movement.......................1563
ParNote 10. Ancient Florence............................1565
ParNote 11. Cacciaguida’s unfolding of
Dante’s fate........................................................1569
ParNote 12. The Julian Calendar.......................1570
ParNote13. The Chessboard. .............................1570
ParNote14. The Angelic Hierarchies.................1571
ParNote15. The Oriflamme. ..............................1573
3DU1RWH6WUXFWXUH
The pattern of WKUHH, divided to
make VHYHQ, augmented to QLQH and
then WHQ, is the fundamental
1546
architecture of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. (The keynote of Hell is
Charity or Pity, of the Purgatorio,
Hope, and of the Paradiso, Faith.)
Dante follows the earth-centred
Ptolemaic view of the solar system, and the order of the planets is as our
own with the earth and sun
interchanged i.e. from the earth
outwards, Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The
other planets were not known.
The Paradisial planetary orbits,
through which Dante ascends, are
concentric spheres, arranged in
WKUHH groups, divided into VHYHQ
spheres. These are the LQIUDVRODU,
where Dante meets spirits weakened
by some impairment of faith, hope,
or love, namely (Spheres 1-3) of the
Moon (Inconstancy), Mercury
(Ambition), and Venus( Earthly
1547
Love); the VRODU (Sphere 4) that of the Sun (Prudence) the leader of the
cardinal virtues; and the VXSUD
VRODU spheres of the remaining
cardinal virtues (Spheres 5-7)
namely Mars (Fortitude), Jupiter
(Justice) and Saturn (Temperance).
This pattern of seven is augmented
to QLQH by the addition of the Stellar
Heaven of souls, and the Primum
Mobile of the Angels.
Finally all symbolic places and
times are subsumed in the ultimate
vision of the Empyrean, the place of
God and all spirits, in the eternal,
completing the WHQfold structure.
3DU1RWH &KURQRORJ\ 6HH DOVR
WKH&KURQRORJ\RIWKH,QIHUQRDQG
WKH3XUJDWRULR
Canto I:43-44
1548
Paradiso Canto I:37-72. Dante will rise into Heaven at midday on
Thursday (in Purgatory, it is
midnight at Jerusalem). He then
goes round the world with the day,
so that, for him, it remains mid-day,
and no ‘earth-time’ passes. The sun
is in Aries throughout, since it is at
the equinox.
Canto XXII:97-120 and 127-154
Beatrice raises Dante into his sun-
sign of Gemini. He looks down,
from the sphere of Saturn, on earth
and the preceding spheres, and sees
the earth from ‘ridge to river-mouth’
from Jerusalem to the Ganges. (It is
noon at Jerusalem, sunset on the
Ganges).
Canto XXVII:79-87
1549
Dante, in Gemini, is separated from
the sun, in Aries, by the sign of
Taurus. It is now sunset over
Jerusalem. (Jupiter snatched Europa
from Phoenician Tyre, the modern
Lebanon, at the longitude of
Jerusalem) Dante looking down sees
from the dark of sunset at Jerusalem
to sunlit Gibraltar.
The action of the Divine Comedy
has therefore taken a week, as
follows:
Prior to the Poem: Dante spends
Thursday night in the wood.
Inferno: From Good Friday
am, in Italy, to Easter Monday am,
at the foot of the mountain of
Purgatory, opposite Jerusalem.
Purgatorio: From Monday am to
noon on Thursday, on the mountain,
1550
and in the Earthly Paradise (six hours).
Paradiso:
From Thursday
noon, in Purgatory, to Thursday
noon, over Italy ( Midnight in
Jerusalem to the following sunset in
Jerusalem.)
There is a switch in time from
Inferno time to Purgatory time, of
twelve hours, at the end of the
Inferno, and a change in position
from Purgatory opposite Jerusalem,
to a position over Italy, occupying
eighteen hours of earth-time, during
the Paradiso, which compensates for
the twelve hours gained, and takes
the time from midday at Jerusalem
(morning in Italy) at the start of the
poem, to evening in Jerusalem
(noon in Italy) at the end.
1551
FURVVHV
Paradiso Canto I:37-72. At the equinox, at sunrise, the celestial
circles of the Ecliptic, and the
Equinoctial and Equatorial colures,
cross the celestial circle of the
Horizon at the same point. Each of
the three then forms a cross with the
Horizon. Allegorically, God most
influences the world through the
four Cardinal virtues (Temperance,
Fortitude, Justice, and Prudence)
when they are joined to form the
three theological virtues (Faith,
Hope and Charity). The happiest
constellation is Aries, the sign in
which the Sun was at the Creation.
1552
WKH+HDYHQV
Paradiso Canto I:73-99. Dante is lifted into the Heavens at noon.
See Second Corinthians xii 2. The
soul is a new creation of God’s, not
generated by nature.
According to Aristotle, God causes the eternal movement of the
celestial spheres through the love
and longing he inspires in the
universe.
The sphere of fire surrounds the
sphere of air with ‘a second
atmosphere’. Air is relatively light,
and fire absolutely light.
The seven planetary spheres
produce divine harmonies like the
seven strings of a lyre (expressly
rejected by Aristotle).
Paradiso Canto I:100-142. The Empyrean which is not spatial does
1553
not move, and has no poles, It surrounds the 3ULPXP 0RELOH, the
ninth heaven, the outermost and
swiftest of the spheres, with light
and love.
3DU1RWH 7KH 7KUHH 0LUURUV
H[SHULPHQW
Brightness is the ratio of the
quantity of light reaching the eyes to
the apparent size of the object.
These both diminish as the square of
the distance, so the brightness
remains constant. This ignores
absorption by the medium, and the
reflective capability of a coarse
surface like the moon.
3DU1RWH7KH'LYLQH,QIOXHQFH
Paradiso Canto II:106-148. Beatrice explains the diffusion of the Divine
Spirit from the Empyrean where all
1554
space is KHUH and time is QRZ, and where God is, and the Angels, and
Blessed spirits WUXO\ DUH
(as
opposed to merely PDQLIHVWLQJ
themselves) down to the lowest
sphere of the Moon. The Primum
Mobile, or ninth Heaven, where the
Angels PDQLIHVW themselves (in
symbolic meeting) contains all
Nature. It receives the Divine
influence and communicates it
downwards to the eighth sphere of
the Stellar Heavens, where the
Blessed Souls are all PDQLIHVWThe
Stellar Heaven divides it among the
stars. Each of the seven lower
Heavens (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon, in
the Ptolemaic system) likewise
receives the influence from the
sphere above, and passes it to the
sphere below (as in the emanations
1555
of medieval mysticism). See the
General Structure, Note 1, for the attributes of the spheres. Each of the
lower spheres virtue and motion
derives from an Angelic presence,
which is melded to each planetary
body, and the mingled virtue of
Angel and planet shines throughout
that sphere. The Stellar Heaven is,
likewise, animated by the deep spirit
of the Cherubim. Each Angel is
connected with its sphere, but still
distinct within it. The combination
is an alloy, a union, a mingling, a
melding. The virtue that shines there
is likewise the personality of the
Angel mingled with the creative and
inspirational power of God.
Groups of blessed spirits PDQLIHVW
themselves in the lower spheres as
symbolic meeting places with
Dante, appropriate to them.
1556
Note that in Hell spirits are fixed in their location, below Limbo,
‘unable to go forward, or to go
back’: in Purgatory they progress
through time, until the will is free:
and in Paradise they are free and
timeless, but manifest in the
appropriate sphere, ‘all places being
Paradise that are in Heaven’. The
journey therefore allows increasing
degrees of freedom, until freedom
itself becomes an irrelevance within
God’s will.
3DU1RWH 7KH 6LQJLQJ LQ
3DUDGLVH
Paradiso Canto III:97-130. Piccarda
sings the ‘$YH0DULD: Hail Mary¶
From hereon the singing in Paradise
is such that though Dante hears it,
he cannot remember or describe it
1557
until he reaches the Stellar Heaven, when Mary is again the theme....
5HJLQD &RHOL ODHWDUH: O Queen of
Heaven: the Easter antiphon of the
Blessed Virgin is sung by the
Apostles in the Stellar Heaven.
3DU1RWH -XVWLQLQLDQ¶V VSHHFK
FRQFHUQLQJWKH(PSLUH
Paradiso Canto VI:1-111. Aeneas, coming from Troy, landed in Italy,
took Lavinia as his bride, and fought
Turnus. Aeneas was allied with
Evander, whose kingdom was based
on the seven hills of the site of
Rome. Evander’s son and heir
3DOODV led these allies and was
killed by Turnus, and avenged by
Aeneas.
Aeneas founded his kingdom at
Lavinium, and it was transferred by
1558
his son Ascanius (Iulus) to $OED
/RQJD where it remained for PRUH
WKDQ WKUHH KXQGUHG \HDUV till in
the reign of Tullus Hostilius (670-
638BC) Alba fell to Rome, when
the WKUHH Curiatii, the Alban
champions, were defeated by the
survivor of the WKUHH Horatii, the
Roman champions. Rome had been
founded by Romulus, an Alban
outcast, on the Palatine, one of the
seven hills, and the Romans made
wives of the 6DELQHZRPHQ
Under Romulus DQG KLV VL[
VXFFHVVRUV Rome’s power grew
until Sextus Tarquinius, son of the
last king, raped /XFUHWLD, and the
monarchy was ended in 510BC.
Rome then became supreme in Italy.
Lucius 4XLQWLXV Cincinnatus (from
FLQFLQQXV, a FXUO) called from the
plough to the dictatorship conquered
1559
the Aequiana in 458BC. One of the
)DELL, and Titus Manlius
7RUTXDWXV, distinguished
themselves against %UHQQXV and his
Gauls (390BC etc). The 'HFLL, three
generations, died fighting against
the Latins in 340BC, the Samnites
in 295BC and Pyrrhus the Greek
invader in 280BC. The greatest of
the )DELL, Quintus )DELXV Maximus
Cunctator, defeated +DQQLEDO, who
FURVVHG WKH $OSV in 218BC, and
6FLSLR Africanus the Elder, DER\RI
VHYHQWHHQ, saved his father’s life, at
the defeat of Ticinus. He forced
Hannibal’s withdrawal from Italy.
(Dante calls the northern Africans
$UDEV)
3RPSH\ who conquered the east
and defeated Marius celebrated a
triumph, when QRW\HWWZHQW\ILYH,
in 81BC. The Romans reduced
1560
ZKLFK
RYHUKDQJV
)ORUHQFH, and was the refuge of
Catiline.
-XOLXV &DHVDU campaigned in
Gaul (58-50BC), crossed the
5XELFRQ between Ravenna and
Rimini, in 49BC, leaving his
province, without the Senate’s
permission, and precipitating a Civil
War. He overcame opposition in
6SDLQ, and besieged Pompey at
'\UUDFKLXP, defeating him at
Pharsalia in 7KHVVDO\. Pompey
escaped to Egypt, where he was
murdered by Ptolemy. Caesar
crossed the Hellespont, took (J\SW
from 3WROHP\ and gave it to
Cleopatra, subdued -XED, King of
Numidia, who had protected his
opponents after Pharsalia, and
returned to Spain in 45BC to fight
3RPSH\¶VVRQV.
1561
Octavian (later Augustus) his
adopted son defeated Mark Antony
at 0RGHQD in 43BC. He then
defeated %UXWXV and &DVVLXV, the
leaders of the assassination plot,
with Antony’s help, at Philippi in 42
BC, and Lucius, Antony’s brother at
3HUXJLD in 41BC. At Actium in
31BC he defeated Antony, who
committed suicide, &OHRSDWUD his
consort dying by the sting of a YLSHU
(asp)
Augustus was master of the
Empire to the UHPRWHVW HQGV RI
(J\SW and the gates of the 7HPSOH
RI -DQXV were FORVHG for the third
time in Roman history to signal the
Empire at peace.
&KULVW ZDV ERUQ, and FUXFLILHG
in the reign of Tiberius, Augustus’s
successor, and the sin of the Fall
1562
thereby avenged. Jerusalem fell to Titus and the sin of killing Christ
was avenged on the Jews, with the
destruction of the Temple.
The Church was defended by
Charlemagne against the Lombard
king Desiderius whom he dethroned
in 774AD.
3DU1RWH7KH 6XQ¶VPRYHPHQW
The Equatorial Circle, a circle
projected from the earth’s equator
onto the Heavens, and the Ecliptic
(Zodiac), the path of the sun against
the ‘fixed’ stars, cross at the
Equinoctial points (the first point of
Aries, and the first point of Libra, at
the Creation, with precession, the
‘wobble’ of the earth on its axis,
ignored. The Spring equinox in fact
now falls in Pisces due to
precession, and will move into
1563
Aquarius.). The Equinoxes, of equal day and night, fall in Spring and
Autumn, at latitudes away from the
equator and poles. The daily
apparent movement of the sun and
the planets is parallel to the equator
(i.e. at ninety degrees to the plane of
the earth’s axis) and the apparent
annual movement against the stars is
along the Ecliptic. From mid-winter
to mid-summer the Sun rises a little
earlier and further to the north than
the day before, and from mid-
summer to mid-winter a little later
and further south, so travelling a
progressive spiral. Dante describes
the movement to reach the Spring
Equinox in Aries, round which the
Divine Comedy is constructed.
1564
Paradiso Canto XV:88-148. The Badia, the belltower, from which the
ancient canonical hours were rung
(WLHUFH at nine, QRQHV at twelve) was
close to the ancient circle of walls,
within which, in Cacciaguida’s time Florence was still enclosed. The
second circle of walls was built in
1173, the third circle which is still
intact in part, was built at the
beginning of the fourteenth century.
Paradiso Canto XVI:1-45. The Patron Saint of the city was John the
Baptist. An annual race was run along the Corso. Of the six sections
into which Florence was divided,
the VHVWR of 6DQ 3LHUR was the last
to be entered. The Elisei house was on the right.
Paradiso Canto XVI:46-87. The statue of Mars stood by the northern
1565
end of the Ponte Vecchio, in the south of the city by the Arno, and
the Baptistery in the north, marking
the old boundaries. New families
filtered in from the towns of the
Contado. In the eleventh century,
Galuzzo and Trespiano were the
southern and northern limits of
Florentine territory, which did not
include Aguglione or Signa.
Simifonti was a fortress in the
Valdelsa destroyed by the
Florentines in 1202. The Conti
sold their castle at
Montemurlo, between Pistoia and
Prato, to Florence in 1254 being
unable to defend it from the
Pistoians. Acone was probably in
the Val de Sieve. Luni was on the
Macra, the northern boundary of
Tuscany. Urbisaglia was in the
March of Ancona. Chiusi, is ancient
1566
Clusium, in the malarial Val di Chiana. Sinaglia is on the seashore
north of Ancona.
Cacciaguida mentions the great families of ancient Florence. The
gate of St Peter was where the
Cerchi lived in Dante’s time. They had purchased the houses over the
gate before 1300, which had
belonged to the Ravignani, from
whom the Conti Guidi
were
descended through
Bellincion Berti’s daughter
Gualdrada. The Pigh arms were barred with ermine=YDLU. The
Chiaramontesi lived in the Saint Peter quarter. One of the family, in
Dante’s time, IDOVLILHG the measures
for the issue of salt to the
Florentines. The Calfucci were a branch of the Donati. The Uberti
1567
were once the dominant Florentine family. Their pride was exhibited by
Farinata. The JROGHQEDOOV were the device of the Lamberti, of whom
Mosca was one. The ancestors of the Visdomini and Della Tosa
families while having WKHUHYHQXHV
RI WKH %LVKRSULF of Florence in
their hands were accused of
perverting them to their own uses
whenever the See was vacant. The
Della Pera in Dante’s time had dwindled to the extent that it
seemed incredible a gate of the city
had been named after them. The
Uccellini and Gherardini were
associates of the Amidei. $VVRFLDWHV
were members of a family who
joined the tower-club of another for
the purposes of its military
maintenance, and were legal
consorts of that family. These were
1568
ceased to act with their true family,
and were therefore regarded as no
longer belonging to it. The old
VWDQGDUG of Florence carried white
lilies on a red field. The Ghibellines
maintained this, but the Guelphs
adopted a red lily on a white field in
1251.
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&DFFLDJXLGD¶V
XQIROGLQJRI'DQWH¶VIDWH
Cacciaguida reveals Dante’s fast approaching exile from Florence,
engineered by Rome. Dante was
sentenced with four others to fine
and banishment January 27th 1302.
With fifteen others, he was
sentenced to death by burning, on
March 10th. The Whites were
expelled from Florence on April
1569
4th, Between June 8th 1302 and June 18th 1303 he broke away from
them (becoming ‘a party of one’) in
disgust and took refuge with
at
Verona.
3DU1RWH7KH-XOLDQ&DOHQGDU
Paradiso Canto XXVII:97-148. The Julian calendar (rectified in 1752)
made the year 11 minutes 14
seconds too long, roughly a
hundredth of a day. In Dante’s time
January began a little later in the
real year each time, and so
eventually it would fall outside
winter altogether.
3DU1RWH7KH&KHVVERDUG
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:58-93. The old tale has a reward being
demanded of an amount of corn
1570
equal to that obtained by placing one ear on the first of the sixty-four
squares of the chessboard, and then
doubling the amount of the previous
square, at each new square. The
number obtained is 2 to the power
63 plus one, which is about 18.5
million million million.
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7KH
$QJHOLF
+LHUDUFKLHV
Paradiso Canto XXVIII:94-139. The Angels are divided in three
Hierarchies, each of three orders,
here they are three triplets of circles.
In the first triplet, Seraphs with their
wings, and Cherubs with their eyes
emphasise movement towards God
(Love) and insight into His being
(Knowledge). Thrones signify the
Power of God, manifested through
the Angels and drawing them
1571
towards Him, they are the mirrors of his judgments, and also represent
his steadfastness. Joy is connected
with the Seraphim, and trust in
God’s power with the Thrones. In
the second triplet, the Dominions
are an image of God’s dominion, the
Virtues indicate Divine strength and
fortitude, while the Powers
represent Divine power and majesty.
In the third, outermost triplet,
Principalities, or Princedoms,
Archangels and Angels are
concerned with the things of this
world, love of the Holy Spirit, and
communication of the gifts of God
to man. The Angels is a term
applied collectively to all the nine
Hierarchies, signifying ‘messengers’
and the higher Angels can execute
the functions of the lower, while
having their special additional
1572
qualities. So Christ is the Angel of the Great Counsel.
The circles of the Angels are in
reverse order to the spheres
surrounding Earth, the outermost,
and fastest sphere to Earth,
corresponding to the highest virtue,
and therefore matching the
innermost circle of the Angels
concentrated on God.
3DU1RWH7KH2ULIODPPH
Dante refers to the Oriflamme,
DXUHD IODPPD, which was the
standard given to the ancient Kings
of France by the Angel Gabriel,
representing a flame on a golden
ground. Those who fought under it
were invincible. The golden glow of
the Virgin’s Oriflamme is in
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contrast that of invincible peace not of war.
1574