Paradiso (The Divine Comedy series Book 3)

by Dante

  Bosco/Reggio (comm. to this tercet) point out that the commentators are confused by this apparently simple utterance. How can God and the angels be present in the Crystalline Sphere anytime one looks intently into it? It is not easy to see how or why they, Bosco/Reggio continue, would now or ever descend to this sphere (despite, they might have added, the descent of the Church Triumphant in Canto XXIII), nor how any other hypothesis might account for the apparition (e.g., a vision, an allegory, some sort of unusual perception). Our hypothesis is as follows: Dante looks from a mirror (Beatrice’s eyes) into a second “mirror” (the convex surface of the Crystalline Sphere) where first the Point and then the angelic circlings are what he sees, painted, as it were, upon the surface of this Primum Mobile, the circling of which moves all the universe by its influence. Cf. Paradiso I.1–3: “La Gloria di colui che tutto move / per l’universo penetra, e risplende / in una parte più e meno altrove” (The glory of Him who moves all things / pervades the universe and shines / in one part more and in another less). God’s glory is to be considered as completely penetrating and at the same time visible here, in the first and purest sphere (and reflected least clearly of all by earth, spiritually even “denser” than the Moon, itself a less than perfect mirror, as we learned in Paradiso II). Seeing this highest and purest “universe,” God and his angels, on the surface of the Crystalline Sphere, the protagonist experiences the “copy” as though it were actually present. For possible confirmation of this view, see the note to Paradiso XXX.103–108.

  Mellone (Mell.1989.1), pp. 733–34, demonstrates the congruence between the language of Alfragano (whose view is accepted and cited by Giovanni di Sacrobosco) and that of Dante here. Alfragano presents the earth as a tiny point in relation to even the smallest star that can be seen from earth. In Mellone’s judgment, Dante has deliberately misapplied the astronomer’s picture of our physical universe to God’s spiritual one. [return to English / Italian]

  14. For the word volume, see the note to Paradiso XII.122. Here it evidently refers to the revolving sphere of the Primum Mobile itself, although that interpretation is not widely shared. [return to English / Italian]

  15. Mellone (Mell.1989.1), pp. 734–35, politely but firmly (and correctly) dismisses those Dantists (most significantly Bruno Nardi) who believe that this giro is in fact found in (or simply is) the Empyrean, rather than referring to the Crystalline Sphere itself. In fact, we should probably understand that it is the Crystalline Sphere. It is true that Dante once refers to the Empyrean as a giro, but he probably should not have (see the note to Par. IV.34). [return to English / Italian]

  16–21. The point is so terribly bright that whoever looks at it must close his eyes, so terribly small that the tiniest star in our sky would seem large as the Moon if placed beside it.

  On the relation between what Dante sees here and the earth-centered Aristotelian universe, see Cornish (Corn.2000.2), pp. 108–18. [return to English / Italian]

  22–39. See the note to Paradiso III.51 for the apparent contradiction here, in that “the nine ranks of angels, each associated with one of the planetary spheres, rotat[e] around the point that represents the Godhead faster the nearer they are to that point,” while in the lower universe the spheres rotate more slowly the closer they are to their center. Beatrice determinedly resolves this issue at vv. 58–78. [return to English / Italian]

  22–24. Cf. Paradiso X.67–69, Dante’s description of the Moon’s halo. [return to English / Italian]

  25–27. In earth-centered astronomy, we learn that the Primum Mobile, the outermost sphere, rotates the fastest (see Par. XXVII.99). Now we learn that the first ring of angels, the Seraphim, rotates even more quickly. If we reflect only a moment, what seems an inverse relation between these two universes is in fact one of parallelism when considered from the perspective of the Empyrean’s God-centered astronomy. In such a view, the closer a sphere is to God, the faster it rotates on its axis, no matter where that axis is.

  Between vv. 99 and 126 we shall hear the names of the angelic bands in descending order, exactly as they are presented anonymously here. Looking back from there, we can add to the highest rank, the Seraphim, the names of Cherubim, Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. [return to English / Italian]

  27. For mondo as meaning not “world” but “universe,” see (as Poletto [comm. to vv. 22–27] advises) Convivio III.v.3, where Dante rehearses the difference between these two meanings of the word. [return to English / Italian]

  28–30. Surely a highly competitive candidate in any annual “Worst Tercet in the Divine Comedy” contest, this terzina does possess the merit of a matter-of-fact tone that encourages the reader to take Dante’s celestial reportage at face value by suggesting that a certain value lies in prosaic verse. [return to English / Italian]

  31–33. The seventh circle out from the Godhead is that of the Principalities, one of the orders that Dante had misplaced in the Convivio. See the note to Paradiso VIII.34–39. Were we able to see a rainbow as an entire circle, it still would not be large enough to contain the arc made by this angelic order. For the varying “size” of these angelic bands, see vv. 64–66. And for Dante’s previous reference to Iris, see Paradiso XII.12 (and the note to Par. XII.11–18). [return to English / Italian]

  34–36. The eighth and ninth circles, containing respectively the Archangels and the Angels, round out the assemblage, each rotating still more slowly around the Point. [return to English / Italian]

  37–39. The Seraphim, associated with love, are here presented as associated with knowledge (they are “entruthed”). At verse 45, however, they will again be associated with love. And see the note to verse 72. [return to English / Italian]

  41–42. As was first pointed out by Daniello (comm. to vv. 40–45), this statement reflects a passage in Aristotle’s Metaphysics. And see Singleton (comm. to these verses): “This clearly reflects Aristotle’s statement in the Metaphysics summarizing his speculations on the unmoved mover as final cause and supreme good. In the Latin translation of Aristotle known to Thomas Aquinas this reads (Metaphys. XII, 7, 1072b): ‘Ex tali igitur principio dependet caelum et natura.’ (It is on such a principle, then, that the heavens and the natural world depend.) Aquinas, in his commentary on this point in the Metaphysics, states (Exp. Metaphys. XII, lect. 7, n. 2534): ‘Hence it is on this principle, i.e., the first mover viewed as an end, that the heavens depend both for the eternality of their substance and the eternality of their motion. Consequently the whole of nature depends on such a principle, because all natural things depend on the heavens and on such motion as they possess.’ ”

  See Vasoli (Vaso.1972.1), pp. 44–50, for a discussion of the neoplatonizing elements in Dante’s emanationist view of God’s stellar creations and their effect on the lower world. This is, according to Vasoli, not really Aristotelian at all, but essentially and clearly neoplatonic, “closer to Avicenna’s metaphysical imagination than to the texts of [Aristotle’s] De caelo, …” (p. 47). [return to English / Italian]

  41. The point about this punto is that in the Empyrean it is both a mathematically unlocatable and tiny point, a speck, containing everything, and/or an unimaginably large space in which everything that exists in the lower spheres—as a reflection of this point—truly exists. See Paradiso XXXIII.85–87. [return to English / Italian]

  43–45. Love may or may not “make the world go round,” but it certainly is the motive force of the universe. The Seraphim’s love of God, Aristotle’s unmoved mover, imparts motion to everything beneath Him. [return to English / Italian]

  46–57. These four tercets are the protagonist’s only words in this sphere, and once again indicate that his intelligence is still earthbound. See Tozer’s recapitulation (comm. to vv. 46–57): “Dante here states the difficulty which he feels, viz. that, whereas in the world of sense the spheres move more swiftly in proportion to their distance from the centre, i.e., the earth, the celestial circles which he is now contemplating
move more swiftly in proportion to their nearness to the centre, i.e., God. As the latter of these systems is the pattern of the former, it would be natural that they should correspond.” That is to say, the physics of the highest heavens is counter to expectation; the smallest circle runs fastest, the most distant, slowest, the exact opposite of what the protagonist experienced as he moved upward and outward from the earth. As Beatrice will explain, that inverse ratio is puzzling only to an earthling; the spiritual physics that she explains is only (super)natural. See the note to vv. 25–27. [return to English / Italian]

  52–54. The protagonist refers to the Primum Mobile as a “temple” and to its “boundary,” the Empyrean, in terms of love and light, its two most notable characteristics, as we shall see. [return to English / Italian]

  55–57. See the note to Paradiso XXVII.109 for discussions of Dante’s possible “anticipation” of modern cosmic theory, in particular, the hypersphere. He wants to know the relationship between the actual universe and the spiritual one.

  Pietro di Dante (Pietro1, comm. to vv. 70–78) was the first among many to cite Boethius, Cons. Phil. (III.m9), already cited by Dante at Convivio III.ii. 17; the last lines of this poem, a favorite during the Middle Ages, contain the phrase te cernere finis cited in the Epistle to Cangrande (Epist. XIII.89). [return to English / Italian]

  58–60. Dante, through Beatrice’s characterization of his question, is revealed as not yet being capable of confronting the counterintuitive relations between the physical universe and its spiritual substrate. [return to English / Italian]

  64–78. See Tozer’s paraphrase (comm. to vv. 64–78): “The argument is as follows:—In the material universe the size of the spheres [i.e., their circumference] corresponds to the amount of divinely infused power (virtute) which they possess, and which is diffused by them throughout their whole range (per tutte lor parti), i.e., from sphere to sphere and to the earth (ll. 64–66). A larger amount of the benefits thus communicated and received below (maggior bontà) is the result of a larger amount of salutary influence (maggior salute), and the larger amount of salutary influence is contained in a larger body—supposing always that that body has complete receptive power throughout (ll. 67–69). Consequently, the ninth sphere, or Primum Mobile, which is the largest, is also the highest in its nature of all the spheres; and thus it corresponds to the first and highest circle of the angels, that of the Seraphim (ll. 70–72). Hence, if you estimate the angelic circles, not by their size, as you see them, but by the rank and relative power of the spirits which compose them, you will perceive that each material Heaven corresponds exactly to the Order of Intelligences that guides it, the wider sphere to the superior, the narrower to the inferior power.” [return to English / Italian]

  72. Those who believe that Dante is either “Franciscan,” privileging love over knowledge, or “Thomist,” placing knowledge higher than love, find here only one of several clear indications that he wants to combine intellect and will in a common activity, “loving-knowledge” or “knowing-love,” that bridges this divide. This has been apparent since we encountered a similar formulation lying behind the harmonious presentation of these two fraternal communities in the heaven of the Sun. And see the note to vv. 37–39. [return to English / Italian]

  79–87. The four main winds were, in Dante’s day and for centuries after, portrayed as faces. Boreas, the north wind, blows straight ahead or from his left (from the northeast) or from his right (from the northwest). This last was considered the mildest of these three winds, swelling up his right cheek and clearing out the night sky. However, there is some disagreement on this point. Those who find Dante’s source in the Tresor of Brunetto Latini (I.cvi.14) maintain that the passage refers to the northeast wind.

  Tommaseo (comm. to vv. 79–81) locates a source in Boethius (Cons. Phil. I.m3.1–10). [return to English / Italian]

  87. Not so much a developed simile as a simple comparison, this verse equates Beatrice’s fairly lengthy and complex explanation (vv. 61–78) and the clear light from a star (in a sky that has been rid of its obscuring clouds by the wind, if we remember the first simile, vv. 79–84). All that complexity—two dozen verses of it—yields to the simplest illustration of the protagonist’s new comprehension. [return to English / Italian]

  88–90. Pleased with Beatrice’s explanation, the angelic circles (in the Empyrean, we remember) throw out sparks (i.e., the angels themselves, each order keeping to its circle) like molten iron.

  For Dante’s previous use of this image, see Paradiso I.60. [return to English / Italian]

  91–93. See Longfellow (comm. to verse 93) for the reference: “The inventor of the game of chess brought it to a Persian king, who was so delighted with it, that he offered him in return whatever reward he might ask. The inventor said he wished only a grain of wheat, doubled as many times as there were squares on the chess-board; that is, one grain for the first square, two for the second, four for the third, and so on to sixty-four. This the king readily granted; but when the amount was reckoned up, he had not wheat enough in his whole kingdom to pay it.”

  One commentator (Oelsner [comm. to verse 93]) reports that this number is greater than 18,000,000,000,000,000,000. The reader will want to remember that such an astoundingly high figure is the result of simple doubling; the result of squaring (unless one begins with one [what the king should at least have offered as his counterproposal]) would be beyond astronomical.

  This anecdote, deriving from the East, has several potential European intermediaries, as has been duly noted (e.g., among others, Peire Vidal, as reported by Torraca [comm. to these verses]; but see Ledda [Ledd..2002.1], p. 297n., for fuller documentation). The question of Dante’s direct knowledge of Arabic material has focused, in the last century, on the Libro della scala, the account of the Prophet’s night journey to another world. Theodore Silverstein (Silv.1952.1) for a while seemed to have silenced those who argued, encouraged by two books by Asín Palacios (Asin.1919.1 and Asin.1927.1), that there was a direct relationship between the Arabic Libro della scala and the Commedia. His book is still most valuable, although it has often been forgotten in the rekindled debate. Silverstein examined critically Asín’s evidentiary procedures and found them deeply flawed, pointing out that more likely sources are to be found in familiar Jewish and Christian texts. However, a new stage in the debate was initiated by Cerulli (Ceru.1949.1), who produced a palliative argument in support of a basic relationship between Dante’s poem and Arabic sources (see the discussion of his book by Nardi [Nard.1960.4].) More recently, as respected a critic as Maria Corti (Cort.1995.1) attempted to resuscitate Asín Palacios’s thesis; but see Chiamenti (Chia.1999.3) for an effective debunking of her effort. For more recent support of at least the thrust of Asín Palacios’s views, see Schildgen (Schi.2002.1). And for an enthusiastic return to most of the original positions of Asín, see Carlo Saccone (Sacc.2002.1). [return to English / Italian]

  94–96. The angelic choruses, responding to one another, sing glory to God while remaining fixed eternally in their circles.

  For the program of song in the last cantica, see the note to Paradiso XXI.58–60. [return to English / Italian]

  95. Poletto (comm. to vv. 94–96) points out that Dante here uses the Scholastic Latin term ubi (“where,” with the sense of “place”), which he had three times previously “translated” into Italian (dove); see, among the forty appearances of that word in Paradiso, only those occurring at III.88, XII.30, XXII.147, and XXVII.109 (this fourth added by Bosco/Reggio [comm. to vv. 95–96]). [return to English / Italian]

  97–129. Beatrice here details the order of the angelic hierarchy, an order at variance from the one Dante had presented in Convivio (II.v.7–11). For the source of that celestial plan, see the note to vv. 130–135 (and see the discussion in Pasquazi [Pasq.1972.1], pp. 375–78).

  While he substantially alters his ordering of the angelic hierarchy from his presentation in Convivio, Dante remains firmly in disagreement with St. Thomas
about a crucial detail, as Scott (Scot.2004.2), p. 109, takes care to point out. In the Summa contra Gentiles (III.1xxx.11), Thomas said that the angelic order of the Virtues was alone responsible for the movement of all the heavenly spheres, while Dante, first in Convivio (II.v.6) and then here, carefully associates a particular order of angels with a particular sphere, and goes on to say that the various angelic orders are the causes of the movements of the corresponding heavenly spheres (Conv. II.v.13; vv. 127–129). [return to English / Italian]

  98–102. The Seraphim and Cherubim, associated primarily with love and with knowledge, respectively, are seen as hurrying in their circling in order to resemble God more closely. [return to English / Italian]

  103–114. Four tercets are devoted to completing the discussion of the highest group of angels, adding one other to the Seraphim and Cherubim, the Thrones. [return to English / Italian]