< > I ED presupposto - Dizionario italiano-inglese WordReference Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Paradiso) Bj Return Book ) I _£ PDF/ePub canto XXl] Commentaries region of the Apennines, containing peaks over 2,000 metres high. One of these, the Cimonc, is not far from Florence. U. 109-10: "And where they shape their skyline humpback-wise is Catria": The hog-backed ridge, named Catria, is in the Umbrian region of the mountain range. On its north-eastern slope was the Benedictine hermitage of Fonte Avellana. 11.121-3: " Therein as Peter Damian I was known" etc: This is a vexed passage and some commentators have believed that two dilfcre.it persons are referred to here. Peter Damian was in the habit of signing himself Peter the Sinner ("Petrus Peccator"), but there was another Peter (Pietro degli Onesti), a contemporary of Peter Damian, who also called himself Peter the Sinner. He founded the church of Santa Maria del Porto, near Ravenna, where his tomb may be seen with its legend "Petrus Peccans". On the other hand, Peter Damian is said to have spent two years at the monastery of Pomposa (on a small island at the mouth of the river Po), which was known as the convent of Santa Maria. It is to this, probably, (rather than to the church of Santa Maria del Porto) that 11. 122-3 refer. 11. 125-6: "... the Hat which passing downwards ever sinketh tower": Peter Damian refers here to his appointment as Cardinal in 105,7. He died in 1072. (The Cardinal's hat was not instituted until 1252.) U. 127-9: "Barefoot and lean came Cephas, came the great Vessel of the Holy Ghost" etc.: Peter Damian recalls the simplicity of life of St Peter and St Paul as they went about preaching (cf. the commands of Christ, Luke x. 5-8). The contrast between the extravagant luxury of prelates and the simple lives of the Apostles was a frequent theme in mediaeval polemical writing directed against clerical abuses. Heaven of Saturn - Beatrice Reassures Dante CANTO XXII The Stoky. Dante turns in terror to Beatrice who reassures him and bids him look round again towards the souls in Saturn. One who draws close reveals himself to be St Benedict, the founder of the monastery at Monte Cassino. Like St Peter Damian, he too rebukes the laxity and corruption of monastic life, and predicts the coining of a time of regeneration. Rising to the heaven of the fixed stars, Dante finds he has entered his native sign of Gemini. Bending his gaze downwards, he is able to contemplate all seven planets beneath him and to discern the inhabited portion of the globe. Filled with a serene sense of the tatter's insignificance, he turns once more to gaze into the lovely eyes of Beatrice. 248 O'erwhelmed with awe and terror, to my guide I turned, just as a little boy will run Seeking protection at his mother's side. Swiftly, as though she comforted a son, Pallid, aghast and gasping in his fear, Yet ever by her voice to reason won. She said: "Thou knowest thou art in Heaven here. Thou knowest in Heaven all is holiness, And zeal the source of every deed soe'er. How singing had transformed thee, thou mayst guess; Or, had I smiled, couldst thou have borne it, say, Moved as thou art by sound of righteousness? Hadst thou but heard the boon for which they pray. The vengeance yet to come thou now wouldst know Thou wilt behold it ere thy dying day. The sword of God falls neither swift nor slow Save to those eager to see justice done, Or who in guilt and fear await the blow. Now turn aside and over others run Thy glance; souls of great lustre thou wilt see. If thou but let thy will and mine be one." So I looked back as she directed me. And saw a hundred little spheres, whose rays Gave beauty to each other mutually. 249 ±1__D_ _g.....|i presupposto - Dizionario italiano-inglese WordReference ■ archive.org apulia - Cerca con Google O [h 3 I The comedy of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Para.. Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Paradiso) 0J Return Book ) (± PDF/ePub canto xxn] The Soul of St Benedict Approaches - 33 I was as one who in his heart gainsays The thrust of his desire, fearing the shame Of being importunate, and silent stays. 38 Moving towards me, from those pearls there came The largest and most lucent, to fulfil My silent longing to enquire its name. 31 From deep within it, this was audible: "If thou, as I, our burning love didst know, Thy inmost thoughts would be expressible. 34 But, lest by tarrying thou shouldst prove slow To reach thy lofty goal, I will reply Before thou ask, to what concerns thee so. 37 Cassino on a spur of hill doth lie, About whose summit, once, there dwelt a herd Of people pagan and perverse. There I, 40 The first, bore up the tidings of the Word Which came on earth that truth might be revealed And power to rise above on man conferred. 43 Such was the grace illuminating me That I reclaimed the neighbouring villages From wrongful worship and impiety. 46 These other flames were all contemplatives, Warmed by the sun that kindles bounteously The flowers and the fruits of holiness. 49 Here Romualdus, here Maccarius see, And here my brothers who, in cloisters pent, From every worldly taint kept their hearts free." 33 I answered him: "Thy words' fond sentiment And the bright radiance which yonder glows, Of favours yet to come seem argument; 33 Whereat, as to their full extent a rose Unfolds its petals, warmed beneath the sun. So now my confidence dilates and grows. 3» Father, I pray thee, reassure thy son: Can I behold thee as thou truly art, With face uncovered? May such grace be won?" 250 He Rebukes the Degenerate Monks "Thy yeanling, brother," thus he did impart, "In the last sphere will be vouchsafed, even as Mine own will be, with those of every heart. There and there only every longing has Final attainment, perfect, ripe and whole, And there each part is where it always was. For it is not in space and has no pole; Wherefore our ladder, at its full extent. Steals from thy view, since yonder is its goal. But Jacob, in the vision which was sent Of angel figures moving up and down. Saw where the ladder's loftiest section went. No foot stirs now to reach the rungs; to crown Iniquity, there in my house men sit Smirching with wasted ink my Rule's renown. Dens arc the buildings, once for abbots fit; Rancid the meal, and the cowls in which they dress Are like so many sacks stuffed full with it. Gross usury bears lighter the impress Of God's displeasure than the well-filled purse Which monkish hearts now covet to excess. Whatever wealth the Church is called to nurse Belongs to those who ask it in God's name. Not to the families of monks, or worse. The yielding flesh of man is much to blame: More than a good beginning was required Ere ever acorn from an oaktree came. Peter, to found his house, no wealth desired. Nor I, by lasting and by prayer made rich. Nor Francis, by humility inspired. If thou wouldst contemplate the point from which Each one set out, and where their followers are, Thou wilt perceive how white has changed to pitch. Jordan turned back, the waters fled; by far The greater marvels these, which God once willed. Than 'twere these evil doings to debar." 25.1 ED I 0 vJR presupposto - Dizionario italiano-inglese WordReference Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Paradiso) canto xxn] The Souk Withdraw - Ascent to Eighth Heaven 97 Thus he concluded and the voice was stilled. Collegiate to collegium withdrew, Which like a wlurlwind sped, its task fulfilled. ioo After them, my sweet Lady, as they flew, Impelled me by one sign along the stair. My nature vanquished by her power anew. :o3 On earth, where Nature speeds men everywhere. Aloft and down, no race or swiftest heat Comparison with my ascent could bear. io6 Reader, I tell thee, as I hope to meet The triumph of God's holy ones again, Whence, weeping for my sins, my breast 1 beat, 109 Thrust thou thy finger in the flame - for pain Thou'lt snatch it out, but not so fast as I Saw and was in the Heaven of the Twain. i« O stars of glory, from whose light on high A mighty virtue poureth forth, to you I owe such genius as doth in me lie; 113 With you there rose and sank again from view He who is father of all life below When my first breath in Tuscany I drew; n8 And when grace was vouchsafed to me to go Within the heavenly circle of your course. Your region I was granted then to know. mi To you my soul devoutly breathes, her source Of strength and power for the hardest phase Of all her journey towards which now she draws. 114 Beatrice began: "Before long thou wilt raise Thine eyes and the Supreme Good thou wilt sec; Hence thou must sharpen and make clear thy gaze ii7 Before thou nearer to that Presence be, Cast thy look downward and consider there How vast a world I have set under thee, 130 So that thy heart, taking its utmost share Of joy, may greet the host which triumphing Exultant comes through this ethereal sphere. 2S2 (Gemini) - Dante Looks at Earth - Commentaries So with my vision I went traversing 133 The seven planets till this globe I saw, Whereat I smiled, it seemed so poor a thing. Highly I rate that judgement that doth low 136 Esteem the world; him do I deem upright Whose thoughts are fixed on things of greater awe. 1 saw Latona's daughter all in light, 139 Without those markings I did once expound As matter rare and dense, as I thought right. Thy child's aspect, Hyperion, I found 141 I could endure, and saw how, moving near. Thine, Maia, and thine, Dione, ringed him round. Above them I beheld the tempering sphere 143 Of Jove, between his offspring and his sire; How their positions changed, to me was clear. All seven being displayed, I could admire 148 How vast they are, now swiftly they are spun. And how remote they dwell. I saw entire The threshing-floor, whereon fierce deeds are done; 131 Wheeling with the eternal Gemini, Down hills I traced the course the rivers run. Then gazed upon her beauty, eye to eye. 134 The Images. The Heaven of Saturn: see Canto xjri, under Images. Dante's bewilderment at the great cry of the contemplatives: At the conclusion of St Peter Damian's words, a great cry of wrath goes forth from all the other souls. Dante, bewildered and terrified, turns to Beatrice for reassurance. Allegorically, his bewilderment signifies his (and possibly our) misunderstanding of the contemplative life. He had not expected that these souls would voice such vehement concern about the corruption of the monastic ideal on earth; but absorption in the vision of God does not detach the soul from zealous care for the life of the Church Militant. The Heaven of the Fixed Stars: In the story, as Dante and Beatrice rise beyond the seventh and outermost of the planets, they enter the firmament or heaven of the fixed stars. This is the eighth and last of the astronomical spheres. The part of it which Dante enters is, appropriately, that which is constellated by Gemini, the stars under whose sign he was bom. At this point, he retraces with his gaze (for it is endowed with supernatural acuity and power) the course he has taken through the seven planetary spheres, until it rests at last upon 353 wm. m it m c presupposto - Dizionario italiano-inglese WordReference ii archive.org apulia - Cerca con Google 6 o| & I The comedy of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Para.. Alighieri, the Florentine. Cantica III, Paradise (II Paradiso) Eľ Return Book J (i PDF/ePub canto XXIl] Commentaries the puny semblance of our little globe. Allegorically, it is after passing through a period of spiritual contemplation (the Heaven of Saturn) that man can see the world in its true proportions. Notes. L 9: "And zeal the source of every deed soe'er": The life of contemplation does not detach the souls' interest from the life of the Church on earth; "righteous zeal is itself a mark of true spiritual contemplation" (Sinclair). 11. 13-15: "Hadst thou but heard the boon for which they pray" etc.: The great cry of the contemplatives which startled Dante was a prayer for retribution upon the evil-living monks and prelates. I. 15: "Thou wilt behold it ere thy dying day": The vengeance referred to may be the attack upon Pope Boniface VIII at Anagni, or the humiliation of the Roman Curia by the transfer of the Papal Court to Avignon; or it may be the coming retribution for which Dante longed and which he still hoped to see realized by the power of the "Five-hundred-ten and-tive God-sent" (see Purg. xxxiii. 43-4 and note). II. 25-7: 1 was as one who in his heart gainsays etc.: Dante, as if by instinct, behaves fittingly in the presence of St Benedict, for it was part of the Benedictine Rule that "a monk restrain his tongue from speaking, and, keeping silence, do not speak until he is spoken to". 1. 29: "The largest and most lucent": This is the soul of St Benedict, the founder of monasticism in the Western Church. He was bom of a noble family in Umbria in the year 480. On being sent to school in Rome, he fled in horror from the undisciplined life of his companions and lived for three years in a cave in the Abruzzi. The monks of a neighbouring monastery elected him as their abbot but, on growing restive under his severe rule, they tried to poison him. He left them and in 528 went to Monte Cassino, where he founded his famous monastery on the site of an ancient temple of Apollo. He died at Monte Cassino in 543. I. 49: Romualdus: St Romualdus (960-1027) founded the Order of Camaldoli or Reformed Benedictines. After a vision of monks climbing a ladder to heaven all dressed in white garments, he changed the Camaldolese Benedictine habit from traditional black to white. His monastery is mentioned in Purg. v. 96. Maccarius: of the several saints called by the name of Maccarius, the one to whom Dante is most probably alluding here is St Maccarius the Younger, of Alexandria, who is said to be the founder of monasticism in the East, as St Benedict was in the West. II. 59-60: "Can I behold thee as thou truly art, with face uncovered?": Dante, in the heaven of the contemplatives, asks whether he may behold a soul in its essence. The question is one which belongs to the contemplative life. 1. 62: "In the last sphere": i.e. in the Empyrean, the abode of God. There Dante will behold all the saints in that aspect which they will have after the Last Judgement (see Cantos xxx-xxxiii). 254 Commentaries U. 64-7: "There and there only every longing has final attainment, perfect, ripe and whole" etc.: In the Empyrean, all longing is fulfilled, because the will of the souls is in accord with the will of God; every part of the Empyrean, which is motionless, is where it has always been trom eternity, for it does not exist in space (but in the mind of God) and docs not revolve (as do the other tune heavens). U. 70-72: "But Jacob, m the vision which was sent" etc.: Compare Gen. xxviii. 12: "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it." I. 75: ,.. my Rule's renown": St Benedict's Rule of Monks (Regula Mcmachorum). It is interesting that Dante here makes St Benedict connect the image of Jacob's ladder with the discipline of his Order, for that is exactly what St Benedict himself does in the preamble to the central chapter of his Rule, No. 7, De Humilitate. (I am indebted to Father Albéric Stacpoole, o.s.b., for this observation.) 1L 79-81: "Gross usury bears lighter the impress" etc.: We have seen in Hell how Dante rates the sin of usury (cf. Canto xvii. 37-78). It is a sin against Nature and against the labour that should have cultivated its resources; yet even that is less displeasing to God than the avarice of priests and friars who appropriate to themselves the revenues of the Church (the tithes quae sunt pauperum Dei, cf. Canto xii. 91-3 and note). II. 85-7: "The yieldingfiesh of man is much to blame": etc.: i.e. man is easily corrupted. It is not enough to start him off on the right road; much more is needed if he is not to stray. Many oak-trees are planted in good soil which succumb to bad weather before they bear acorns. 11. 88-90: "Peter, to found his house, no wealth desired": The reference here may be to St Peter Damian and not to the Apostle as is generally believed. 1. 98: Collegiate to "collegium" withdrew: The soul of St Benedict withdrew to the great company of contemplative spirits, which returned upwards whence it had descended. 1. in: the Heaven of the Twain: Le. the Constellation of Gemini. Dante and Beatrice have risen to the eighth sphere, the heaven of the fixed stars. U. IIJ-17: With you there rose and sank again from view etc: Dante was bom under the sign of Gemini, that is, between 21 May and 21 June. 1. 13 5: Whereat I smiled, it seemed so poor a thing: Dante is probably recalling the appearance of the earth as it seemed to Scipio as he looked down on it from the Galaxy, in Cicero's Sonmium Scipionis. He may also have in mind the following passage from the Apocalypse of St Paul (fourth century): "And I looked down from heaven upon the earth and beheld the whole world as it was as nothing in my sight" (M.R. James, translation from the Latin text, p. 525). I. 139: Latona's daughter: Dante now sees the other side of the moon on which he assumes there are no markings. He is partly right, as we 55 _