Kleinhenz Dante and the Bible

Dante and the Bible: Intertextual Approaches to the Divine ComedyAuthor(s): Christopher KleinhenzSource: Italica, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 225-236Published by: American Association of Teachers of ItalianStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/478622 .

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Dante and the Bible: Intertextual Approaches to the Divine Comedy*

CHRISTOPHER KLEINHENZ

T he importance of the Bible-the book of the Middle Ages-in the shaping of medieval thought and culture is clear and obvious. That

the Bible had a demonstrable influence on Dante, the greatest poet of the Middle Ages and, perhaps, of all time, is equally evident. In Dante's mind, of course, Virgil's Aeneid is a fairly close second, assuming in the economy of the poem the role of a "secular scripture" with a stature and importance eclipsed only by Holy Scripture. The patterns of typology, allegory, and Providential history found in the tradition of biblical hermeneutics form the intellectual, literary, and theological bases of the Divine Comedy. Indeed, in composing his magnum opus to conform to that special kind of allegory (the so-called "allegory of theologians"), Dante has followed the Bible closely, choosing, as Charles Singleton so aptly put it, to "imitate God's way of writing."' The rich and complex relationship between Dante and the Bible has been studied by numerous critics over the last century,2 and even the earliest commentators on the poem were sensitive to those passages which displayed Scriptural origin or influence.3

My purpose in this essay is not to enter into the long debate over the nature of allegory in the Comedy, nor to deal comprehensively with the sort of figural or typological structures at work in the poem. Rather, I intend to treat in very specific terms the general nature of the Bible's "influence" on the Comedy. My primary interest here is in how Dante uses the biblical text as an integral part of his own text, in how meaning in the Comedy may be either generated or enhanced by a consideration of the larger referential context provided by the Bible. This

*I wish to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who have read this essay and made valuable suggestions for its improvement: John McGalliard, Louis Rossi, and Linda Sokolowski. Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the first conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (Iowa State University, September, 1985), the 19th Annual Medieval Conference (SUNY-Binghamton, October, 1985), and the winter meeting of the Dante Society of America (Chicago, December, 1985).

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226 CHRISTOPHER KLEINHENZ

investigation into the intertextual relationship between the Bible and the Divine Comedy will be limited to those instances in which Dante either cites directly or overtly refers to specific passages in the Vulgate. The essay divides into two parts: 1) a consideration of the six basic types of biblical "citation" in the Divine Comedy to show how an intertextual approach to and appraisal of these moments may aid our general understanding of Dante's poem, and 2) an application of this sort of reading to one specific passage to demonstrate its potential value in the attempt to resolve a longstanding crux in Dante criticism.

There are essentially six types of biblical reference in the Comedy: 1) exact citation of the Latin text; 2) slightly modified citation of the Latin text; 3) incomplete citation of the Latin text. Categories four through six are the same as these except that they comprise those citations in an Italian translation or paraphrase. One of many examples of direct citation of the Latin text is the verse from Matthew-"Venite benedicti Patris mei" (Matthew 25:34)4--with which Christ will summon the blessed at the time of the Last Judgment. Dante incorporates these exact words in Purgatory 27 (v. 58), by having the angel speak them to Dante the Pilgrim, Virgil, and Statius after the three wayfarers have passed through the wall of fire on the seventh terrace and prior to their admittance to the earthly paradise at the top of the mountain. Once in the garden they will witness the triumphal procession of the Church, which culminates in the advent of Beatrice who comes as Christ will come at the end of time. The use of the verse from Matthew at this crucial juncture-after purification and before entry to Eden-recalls to the reader the final advent and office of Christ, thus setting the stage for the analogous advent of Beatrice and focusing attention on her pronouncement of judgment on Dante the Pilgrim.'

An example of slightly modified citation occurs just a few cantos later in the Purgatory (30:19),6 where with the words "Benedictus qui venis" all of the participants in the triumphal procession announce the advent of Beatrice. The verse in the gospel on which this one is modeled-"Benedictus qui venit" (Matthew 21:9)-signals the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Through his slight but significant modification-venis for venit-Dante makes the phrase more direct and personal, and, even more importantly, by retaining the masculine inflection of benedictus, he stresses the important analogy between Christ and Beatrice, which is present throughout the entire episode and which lies at the heart of Dante's conception of Beatrice.

I term the third type of citation "incomplete," for Dante gives only part-generally the first line--of the Latin text and expects the reader to fill in the missing portion. One well-known example occurs near the beginning of the Purgatory (2:46, 48): as the ship guided by the angel approaches the shore of the Mountain, all the souls are singing "In


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Dante and the Bible 227

exitu Isriiel de Aegypto" and, as Dante specifies, "con quanto di quel salmo e poscia scripto." Although presenting only the first verse of the 113th Psalm, Dante the Poet makes it clear that the entire psalm was sung, and consequently the reader must fill in the omitted text for himself and consider, therefore, the meaning and implications of the entire Psalm in both the immediate and the more general context of the poem. As Charles Singleton notes, "the song is appropriate to the time of the journey, since this is Easter Sunday morning, and Exodus signifies ... Passover and Easter."7 Moreover, in the Letter to Can Grande, Dante employs the 113th Psalm to illustrate the polysemous nature of the Bible, and this Psalm presents best the notion of liberation--"the passing of the sanctified soul from the bondage of the corruption of this world to the liberty of everlasting glory"-and thus provides the most succinct statement of the movement of the poem as a whole.s

These three categories of Latin citations have their vernacular counterparts, which are far more numerous. Indeed, the text of the Comedy is studded with examples of Italian translations and paraphrases of biblical words, phrases, or entire verses. On the purgatorial terrace of wrath the examples of the opposing virtue-gentleness-are presented to the Pilgrim in vivid, ecstatic visions. The example from the life of Mary concerns her discovery of Jesus in the temple disputing with the doctors:

Ive mi parve ...

... vedere in un tempio piut persone; e una donna, in su l'entrar, con atto

dolce di madre dicer: "Figliuol mio, perche hai tu cosi verso noi fatto?

Ecco, dolenti, lo tuo padre e io ti cercavamo." (Purg. 15:85-92)

Mary's words are an exact translation of the biblical text: "Fili, quid fecisti nobis sic? ecce pater tuus et ego dolentes quaerebamus te" (Luke 2:48).

At times, however, Dante's purpose in incorporating exact citations in the vernacular is not immediately obvious, and thus the meaning of these more "allusive" references must be clarified in context. For example, in Inferno 10, Farinata degli Uberti, the great Ghibelline warlord, addresses Dante as a fellow citizen of Florence, stating that he has recognized him through his Tuscan speech: "La tua loquela ti fa manifesto" (10:25). As most commentators on the poem indicate, this phrase translates the words spoken to Peter after he has denied Christ for the third time-"Loquela tua manifestum te facit" (Matthew


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26:73). However, these commentators do not generally provide any further gloss. Dante's careful and deliberate manner of composing the Comedy would suggest that this reference is intentional and not merely casual. But how does this reference function here? What, if any, additional meaning is generated? We must first remember that in the gospel account the servant maid is able to identify Peter as a Galilean byhis speech, by his accent which is different from the Judean, and thus the important connection is made between one's manner of speaking and one's native city-a connection which Dante will make repeatedly. Significantly, in the Bible the local accent serves to differentiate Peter's speech from that of the others, while in the Comedy Dante's Tuscan speech ironically aligns him with Farinata. In their original context the words in the gospel refer to a double betrayal, of Christ by Peter who denies him three times and of Peter by his speech. By employing these exact words, Dante may have intended to create an atmosphere of betrayal and denial, for in the Inferno the sin of heresy is presented in terms of death and denial-the denial of the immortality of the soul.9 Furthermore, we find in this episode the related notions of civic pride (as manifested in the identification of the Pilgrim through his local speech), of the betrayal of the civitas-Florence, whose destruction was so strongly opposed by Farinata-and of blind loyalty to a political party (which led Farinata to a rejection or denial of God).

Another example of this sort of exact, but allusive citation is Dante's use of the word "perizoma" in Inferno 31 (v. 61) to describe the covering afforded the giant Nimrod by the side of the pit of Hell, in which he stands. The term "perizoma" is a hapax in the poem and has its direct source in the passage from Genesis (3:7), in which perizomata designates the "aprons" Adam and Eve fashioned to hide their nakedness after the Fall. Through this particular use of perizoma Dante is able to link in the verbal construct of the Comedy Nimrod to Adam and to suggest that the fall of man is analogous to the loss of a pure language. Just as Adam and Eve's transgression resulted in banishment from the Garden of Eden, a punishment charged with both individual significance and universal consequences, the effect of Nimrod's insubordination in building the Tower of Babel was the confusion of his own speech and that of the world's languages. Pride then has made the creature rebel against his Creator with the result being the double loss of innocence and a single, divine language.10

In the category of slightly modified vernacular citations of the biblical text, we find the expanded paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of Purgatory 11. Each of the seven tercets begins with the Italian equivalent of the Latin; for example, the first verse-"O Padre nostro, che ne' cieli stai" (11:l)-corresponds to "Pater noster, qui es in coelis" (Matthew 6:9). The remaining verses of each tercet then provide an interpretive commentary. However, Dante modifies one verse


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slightly by changing "Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie" (Luke 11:3) to "Da oggi a noi la cotidiana manna" (11:13). The substitution of manna for panem accords well with the purgatorial context, for these souls do not need earthly food, but do require spiritual sustenance-manna-, that special grace given to them by God.

Modification can also assume the form of paraphrase and/or condensation. On the terrace of envy disembodied voices shout out the examples of the opposing virtue-love-and one of these-"Amate da cui male aveste" (Purg. 13:36)--captures the essence, if not the exact words of the verse in Matthew: "Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite his qui oderunt vos; et orate pro persequentibus, et calumniantibus vos" (5:44).

In the category of incomplete vernacular citation I offer the reference to the temperance of Daniel found among the examples of that virtue on the terrace of the gluttons in Purgatory: "E Daniello/dispregi6 cibo e acquist6 savere" (22:146-147). As I have argued elsewhere, this verse serves to define the textual boundaries of Dante's reference, both as a terminus a quo ("dispregi6 cibo"-Daniel's refusal to consume Nebuchadnezzar's delicacies) and as a terminus ad quem ("acquist6 savere"-lhis ability to interpret dreams), thus establishing the importance to his purpose of the entire passage and focusing attention on the central, omitted portion." The middle section of the passage treats both the struggle between Daniel and the king's well-nourished offspring for the honor of possessing the fairer and fatter faces and the more general question of the relative worth of earthly food versus spiritual food, topics which relate to and comment on the events in cantos 23 and 24 of the Purgatory.

In addition to these six types of verbal citation, there is another large and more difficult to define category of biblical reference in the Comedy, namely Dante's imitative prophetic voice which permeates the poem and gives it its special tone and character. On numerous occasions, Dante consciously incorporates biblically-inspired imagery as an integral part of his prophetic-apocalyptic vision. For example, toward the end of Paradise 27 after Peter's stinging rebuke of the corrupt Papacy, Beatrice inveighs against the evils wrought by cupidigia and refers to the deleterious effect of the continual rain: "la pioggia continua converte/in bozzacchioni le sosine vere" (27:125-126). She concludes her diatribe on the errant condition of humanity with the vague prophecy of redemption which will follow the storm:

... la fortuna che tanto s'aspetta, le poppe volgerA u' son le prore, si che la classe correrA diretta;

e vero frutto verra dopo '1 fiore. (27:145-148)




With the advent and assistance of a powerful temporal ruler mankind will be able to set itself on the proper course which will lead to a state of justice. Present in the language of this prophecy is the image of the Flood, that cleansing force which alternately punishes the wicked and spares the just. As Noah found refuge in the ark, so will just humanity find salvation in the redirection of their buoyant vessels-the classe-which become the modern equivalents of the ark. But considerations of this sort stray from the purpose of this essay.

With these several categories of biblical citation in mind, I would like to discuss in specific terms the passage found in Inferno 8 which presents the encounter between Dante and Filippo Argenti, a Florentine of the Adimari family who is being punished in the marsh of the river Styx for the sin of anger.12 This exciting, action-packed episode begins when the two wayfarers-Dante the Pilgrim and his guide Virgil-are traversing the Styx in the boat steered by Phlegyas. Filippo Argenti suddenly rises from the muddy depths and challenges Dante with the intemperate question: "Chi se' tu che vieni anzi ora?" (33). Dante replies brusquely: "S'i' vegno non rimango,/ma tu chi se' che si se' fatto brutto?" (34f). Filippo replies: "Vedi che son un che piango" (36). The remainder of the episode follows:

E io a lui: "Con piangere e con lutto, spirito maladetto, ti rimani; ch'i' ti conosco, ancor sie lordo tutto." 39

Allor distese al legno ambo le mani; per che '1 maestro accorto lo sospinse, discendo: "Via costA con li altri cani!" 42

Lo collo poi con le braccia mi cinse; basciommi '1 volto e disse: "Alma sdegnosa, benedetta colei che 'n te s'incinse! 45

Quei fu al mondo persona orgogliosa; bontA non 6 che sua memoria fregi: cosi s' l'ombra sua qui furiosa. 48

Quanti si tegnon or la sii gran regi che qui staranno come porci in brago, di se lasciando orribili dispregi!" 51

E io: "Maestro, molto sarei vago di vederlo attuffare in questa broda prima che noi uscissimo del lago." 54

Ed elli a me: "Avante che la proda ti si lasci veder, tu sarai sazio: di tal disio convien che tu goda." 57

Dopo ci6 poco vid'io quello strazio far di costui a le fangose genti, che Dio ancor ne lodo e ne ringrazio. 60




Tutti gridavano: "A Filippo Argenti!" e '1 fiorentino spirito bizzarro in se medesmo si volvea co' denti. 63

The intense drama is accentuated by the rapid verbal exchanges and by the fact that there are three interlocutors and as many lines of force in operation here for the first time in the Inferno, a drama which we might represent in a "triangular" manner:13

Dante - Virgil

Filippo

A sense of mystery prevails, for we remain ignorant of Filippo's identity until the chorus of sinners yells his name at the conclusion of the episode. The Pilgrim's quick and harsh rebuke of Filippo and his eagerness to see him "dunked deep in this slop" smack of personal vendetta, of Dante's extreme hatred toward his fellow townsman. Bits and pieces of unrecorded and perhaps imaginary Florentine history, gleaned from the remarks of the early commentators on Dante's poem and from the stories of Boccaccio (Decameron IX:8) and Sacchetti (Trecentonovelle CXIV), would suggest that the Poet's animosity is grounded on historical events: among the possibilities are: 1) that Filippo once gave Dante a slap in a quarrel; 2) that one of Filippo's brothers assumed possession of Dante's property following his exile; and 3) that Filippo's family energetically opposed any possibility that the exiled poet might one day return to Florence.14 However, beyond the Pilgrim's visual recognition of Argenti no other distinctive personal element is present in the text. It has been argued as well that Filippo serves here as a representative of that new class of Florentines, those whom Dante held responsible for the social and political problems of his native city.'s And the Pilgrim's reaction here would then be directed more toward the social class than toward the individual.

Dante's violent outburst at the sight of Filippo causes Virgil to embrace the Pilgrim and to praise him for his words: "Alma sdegnosa,/benedetta colei che 'n te s'incinse!" (40f) Encouraged by these words of high praise, the Pilgrim then expresses his desire to see Filippo punished more severely, and, according to his wise guide, "di tal disio convien che tu goda" (57). In response to the torment inflicted on Filippo by the other sinners and by himself ("in s6 medesmo si volvea co' denti," 63), the voice of Dante the Poet enters the text to add that he still praises and thanks God for it: "Dio ancor ne lodo e ne ringrazio" (60). Critical opinion on this episode is divided: some critics have called




the Pilgrim's outburst a prime example of ira bona (= righteous indignation), while others have termed it ira mala ( = sinful wrath). Has Dante the Pilgrim demonstrated the proper response to sin-bona ira, as St. Thomas'7 calls it-by recognizing and rebuking it for the evil that it is? Or has he rather given himself over to wrath and thus become guilty of the sin punished in this circle? Given his reaction to the sinners encountered in the three previous circles-he faints out of pity for the plight of lustful Francesca, he weeps for the fate of Ciacco the glutton, and his heart was "pierced through" (compunto, Inf. 7:36) and saddened by the sight of the avaricious and prodigal-I think it would be surprising if the Pilgrim suddenly and inexplicably knew how to treat a sinner in an appropriately detached manner, if he knew at this early point in his long journey how to recognize sin and judge sinners.

However, let us assume for a moment that Dante may have learned something about sin and that his initial response to Filippo is correct. Does he desire vengeance to correct the vice and maintain justice? '8 Or does he rather desire further revenge to inflict personal injury on Filippo? Do Virgil's laudatory remarks cause the Pilgrim to become overconfident, to cross over the fine line dividing ira bona from ira mala, and therefore to desire that additional punishment be meted out to Filippo Argenti? And how should we interpret Dante the Poet's words-"Dio ancor ne lodo e ne ringrazio" (60)? Is the Pilgrim's desire for additional punishment justified? St. Thomas reminds us that, while we "can and ought to be like God in desiring good, yet the manner of our desiring cannot be entirely his."'9 Or rather, is the Poet simply confessing that he still suffers from ira mala, at least vis-fa-vis the Adimari family? And Cacciaguida's negative remarks on the Adimari in Paradise 16 would corroborate this attitude of the Poet:

L'oltracotata schiatta che s'indraca dietro a chi fugge, e a chi mostra '1 dente o ver la borsa, com'agnel si placa,

giA venia sii, ma di picciola gente. (115-18)

Or perhaps we should note the distinction between the voice of the Poet and that of the Pilgrim, and the different motivation and level of understanding in the two moments-then and now? The superior, retrospective judgment of the Poet properly expresses pleasure at the sight of evil punished, whereas the Pilgrim's desire for punishment is not wholly justifiable. On the matter of ira bona versus ira mala, Gregory the Great notes the limitations of both when he states that "anger through zeal (ira per zelum) blurs the vision of reason, whereas anger through vice blinds it."20

In order to judge the appropriateness of Virgil's words of praise for Dante, we must ask the question: is Virgil always right? At the end of


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this canto Dante's guide will find himself in a difficult position, denied access to the City of Dis, an unexpected situation which he is powerless to overcome. In cantos 21-23 Virgil will be duped by the graftors. Indeed, that Virgil is not always right in the Comedy should lead us to suspect that perhaps here, too, his words of praise for the Pilgrim-which are, moreover, couched in uncharacteristic biblical language-are perhaps not entirely justified. This suspicion is confirmed when we investigate the biblical analogue to these verses, and this investigation will point up the value of the sort of intertextual reading of the Divine Comedy and the Bible suggested in this essay.

As many critics have noted, Virgil's words of praise--"benedetta colei che 'n te s'incinse" (45)-roughly translate those addressed to Jesus in Luke-"Beatus venter qui te portavit" (11:27). And these commentators believe that with them Virgil pays Dante a very great and richly deserved compliment. However, virtually all critics have ignored a crucial element in their comparative reading of the passages, and it is this element which in my opinion clarifies and perhaps ultimately determines the meaning of the episode in this canto. What the critics have failed to consider is the rest of the biblical allusion, for this suggests that Virgil's praise is wrong and, consequently, that Dante's reaction to Filippo Argenti in this canto is equally wrong. The text in the gospel of Luke (11:27) is as follows: "Factum est autem, cum haec diceret: extollens vocem quaedam mulier de turba, dixit illi: Beatus venter qui te portavit, et ubera quae suxisti." Jesus replies sharply to the woman's words by saying: "Quinimmo beati qui audiunt verbum Dei, et custodiunt illud." (11:28) These seeming words of praise are not appreciated, nor are they appropriate to the occasion. Indeed, any force they might have had is undercut by Jesus himself, who reprimands the woman for her sentimental effusion and cautions her-and the others in the crowd-regarding the proper response to God's word. If this praise is inappropriate to Jesus, does it not logically follow that, given the parallel context evoked by the reference, it would be equally inappropriate to Dante the Pilgrim? Are Virgil's words then really complimentary? Or do they rather serve the higher purpose of Dante the Poet by highlighting their mistaken nature and that of the response? Dante the Pilgrim's response first to Filippo Argenti's and then to Virgil's verbal stimuli is no different from his response to the sinners encountered in the previous cantos: he responds in a direct and personal way, having not yet learned to deal with the reality of sin in a detached, impersonal manner.

The education of the Pilgrim is a long and laborious one, accomplished gradually in the course of his journey through the three realms of the afterlife. To expect him to be this knowledgeable so soon after a series of failures is unrealistic and ignores the basic logical


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premise of the poem: that knowledge is gained gradually, and only after full experience can the Pilgrim react to a sinner in a proper way, as he demonstrates, for example, in his dealings with Frate Alberigo in Inferno 33. While the Pilgrim's first response to Filippo Argenti might possibly be justifiable in very general terms, his desire for further punishment-a response motivated and encouraged by Virgil's praise-is not, and this, in turn, reveals his failure, at least at this early point in his journey, to understand the nature of sin. The consummate care with which Dante the Poet constructs his poem, the complete control he exercises over his personae and the action of his eschatological drama, and the incredible richness of meaning that emerges from his direct and allusive use of/reference to other texts would argue that here, too, the poet intended his readers to look beyond the literal, to consider this passage in light of the whole, larger context established by this biblical reference, and thus to grasp the true meaning of the episode. By applying this sort of intertextual reading to the episode in canto 8 of the Inferno, we are able to view an old crux in Dante criticism-the ira bona/ira mala controversy-in a new light and perhaps even to resolve it. After reading and considering the allusion to Luke in extenso, readers of the Divine Comedy should understand that Dante the Poet's use and evocation of this biblical source is intended to suggest strongly: 1) that Virgil's words of praise are not properly motivated; 2) that in his response to Filippo Argenti and to Virgil's words Dante the Pilgrim manifests the characteristics of ira mala-not ira bona-; and 3) that he thus falls victim yet another time to the snare of sin, yielding, as he did with Francesca, to his passions, to the excessive attraction of the human and earthly, albeit here in a totally different context, one of anger and rage and not of carnal passion.

As a complement to the more general considerations on the intertextuality of the Divine Comedy and the Bible, the specific analysis of Inferno 8 indicates that much work remains to be done in the investigation and appraisal of their vital and dynamic relationship. Further research in this (relatively speaking) underdeveloped area promises to yield many rewards and valuable critical insights. As a sensitive reader of the Bible, Dante shaped his own "new scripture" on the old in innovative and imaginative ways, ways which we are continuously discovering, even now over six and one half centuries after the Divine Comedy was written.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison


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NOTES

'Charles S. Singleton, Dante Studies 1: Commedia: Elements of Structure (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1954) 15.

2See, among others: Celestino Cavedoni, Raffronti tra gli autori biblici e sacri e la Divina commedia (Citta di Castello: Lapi, 1896); A. C. Charity, Events and Their Afterlife: The Dialectics of Christian Typology in the Bible and Dante (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1966); Johan Chydenius, The Typological Problem in Dante (Helsingfors: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1958); Pompeo Giannantonio, Dante e l'allegorismo (Firenze: Olschki, 1969); Robert Hollander, Allegory in Dante's "Commedia" (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969); Giulio Marzot, I1 linguaggio biblico nella Divina commedia (Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1956); Giuseppe Mazzotta, Dante, Poet of the Desert: History and Allegory in the "Divine Comedy" (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1979); Nicol6 Mineo, Profetismo e apocalittica in Dante (Catania: Universita di Catania, 1968); Edward Moore, Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896); Jean Pepin, Dante et la tradition de l'allgorie (Montr6al: Institut d'6tudes medi6vales, 1970); Gian Roberto Sarolli, Prolegomena alla "Divina commedia" (Firenze: Olschki, 1971).

3For example, Guido da Pisa, Pietro di Dante, and Giovanni Boccaccio. 4All passages from the Bible follow the Vulgate. SFor a full treatment of this episode see, among others, Charles S. Singleton, Dante

Studies 2: Journey to Beatrice (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1958) esp. 72-85. 6All passages from the Comedy follow the text established by Giorgio Petrocchi, La

commedia secondo l'antica vulgata, 4 vols., Societa Dantesca Italiana, Edizione Nazionale (Milano: Mondadori, 1966-67).

7Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy. Purgatorio: 2: Commentary, tr. Charles S. Singleton (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973) 31.

8This is the anagogical meaning according to the Letter to Can Grande: "si ad anagogicum, significatur exitus animae sanctae ab huius corruptionis servitute ad aeternae gloriae libertatem" (7:116-119). Text from Dantis Alagherii, Epistolae. The Letters of Dante, emended text with Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Indices, and Appendix on the Cursus, by Paget Toynbee, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966).

9Cf. Virgil's description of the heretics (Inf. 10:13-15): "Suo cimitero da questa parte hanno/con Epicuro tutti suoi seguaci,/che l'anima col corpo morta fanno."

1'For a full treatment of this point see my article, "Dante's Towering Giants: Inferno XXXI," Romance Philology 27 (1974): 269-285.

"For a full treatment of this point see my article, "Food for Thought: Purgatorio XXII, 146-147," Dante Studies 95 (1977): 69-79.

'2For this canto as for most of the cantos of the Comedy a large body of criticism has grown up over the centuries. Among the works I have consulted are all the major early (Guido da Pisa, Benvenuto da Imola, Ottimo, Pietro di Dante, Anonimo Fiorentino, et al.) and modern commentators (Sapegno, Momigliano, Casini, Grandgent, Singleton, Sinclair, Gmelin, Scartazzini, Bosco-Reggio, et al.), as well as the following general letture or specific studies of this canto: Mario Apollonio, "I1 canto VIII dell'Inferno," Nuove letture dantesche, vol. I (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1966) 209-35; Emilio Bigi, "Moralita e retorica nel canto VIII dell'Inferno," Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 154 (1977): 346-67; Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, "The Wrath of Dante," Speculum 13 (1938): 183-93; Umberto Bosco, I1 canto VIII dell"'Inferno" (Roma: Signorelli, 1951); Amerindo Camilli, "Quattro chiose all'Inferno, " Lettere italiane 4.2 (1952): 127-29; Gino Casagrande, "Dante e Filippo Argenti: Riscontri patristici e note di critica semantica," Studi danteschi 51 (1978): 221-54; Daniel J. Donno, "Dante's Argenti: Episode and Function," Speculum 40 (1965): 611-25; Fiorenzo Forti, "Filippo Argenti," Enciclopedia dantesca 2:873- 76; Rocco Montano, "I modi della narrazione




in Dante," Convivium 26 (1958): 546-67 (esp. 55 if); Paolo Nicosia, "Il piiu calunniato dei personaggi danteschi ovvero il canto della vendetta," Alla ricerca della coerenza: Saggi d'esegesi dantesca (Messina-Firenze: D'Anna, 1967) 135-67; A. Novara, "Canto ottavo," Lectura Dantis genovese (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1904) 299-326; Filippo Piemontese, "Filippo Argenti fra storia e poesia," Studi sul Manzoni e altri saggi (Milano: Marzorati, 1952) 169-85; Giovanni Pischedda, "Motivi provinciali nel canto VIII dell'Inferno," Dante e la tematica medioevale (L'Aquila: Japadre, 1967) 35-40; Luigi Pietrobono, "I1 canto VIII dell'Inferno," L'Alighieri 1.2 (1960): 3-14, and 11 poema sacro. Saggio d'una interpretazione generale della "Divina commedia": Inferno, vol. 2 (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1915) esp. 13-37; Ettore Romagnoli, "Il canto VIII dell'Inferno," Letture dantesche, ed. Giovanni Getto (Firenze: Sansoni, 1955) 133-50; Mario M. Rossi, "I1 canto VIII dell'Inferno e la sua problematica," Le parole e le idee 3.3-4 (1961): 109-32; Edoardo Sanguineti, "Dante, Inferno VIII," Ilrealismo di Dante (Firenze: Sansoni, 1966) 31-63; Marino Szombathely, 11 canto VIII dell' "Inferno" (Torino: Societa Editrice Internazionale, 1959); Giuseppe Toffanin, "I1 canto VIII dell'Inferno," Lectura Dantis Scaligera: Inferno (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1960).

13Borgese, "The Wrath of Dante" 184 remarks the novelty of this manner of presentation: "Structurally, Dante proves able for the first time to handle three persons at once: Argenti, Vergil, and himself. Thus far he had not surpassed the flat or Byzantine technique of straight dialogue between himself and Vergil, or between himself and a shade, or between Vergil and an official of the underworld. Even in the most elaborate episode of the preceding cantos, Vergil acted simply as stage director, introducing the Dante-Francesca dialogue, during which the most pertinent reason for the famed silence of Paolo is the inability of the poet to manage a third personage. Now, in the eighth canto, it is as if he at one stroke had achieved in his dramatic technique a transition like that from the two-actor to the three-actor performance in Greek tragedy."

14For an overview of these stories see, among others, Donno, "Dante's Argenti" 613f, and Forti, "Filippo Argenti" 873f.

15The political overtones in the conflict between Filippo Argenti and Dante are stressed by Pietrobono, "I1 canto VIII" 3-14, and II poemna sacro 20-27. See also Bigi, "Moralita e retorica" 349.

16This topic is discussed or touched upon in most of the works cited above in note 12. In addition, see Antonietta Bufano and Fausto Montanari, "Ira," Enciclopedia dantesca 3:513- 16.

17Summa Theologiae 2.2ae, quaes. 158, art. 1-8, esp. art. 1, resp. 2: "Ad secundum dicendum quod ira dupliciter se potest habere ad rationem. Uno quidem modo antecedenter, et sic trahit rationem a sua rectitudine, unde habet rationem mali. Alio modo consequenter, prout scilicet appetitus sensitivus movetur contra vitia secundum ordinem rationis: et haec ira est bona, quae dicitur ira per zelum." Dante shows his awareness of this distinction when he has the angel on the terrace of anger say "Beati/pacifici, che son sanz'ira mala" (Purg. 17:68f).

18In St. Thomas' words (Summa 2.2ae, quaes. 158, art. 1, resp. 3): "Ad tertium dicendum quod appetere vindictam propter malum ejus qui puniendus est illicitum est; sed appetere vindictam propter vitiorum correptionem et bonum justitiae conservandum laudabile est."

19Summa 2.2ae, quaes. 158, art. 1, resp. 4: ". . .Deo assimilari possumus et debemus in appetitu boni; sed in modo appetendi ei omnino assimilari non possumus." Translation follows text of Thomas Gilby, O.P., Summa Theologiae, vol. 44 (New York and London: McGraw-Hill and Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1972) 54.

20Summa 2.2ae, quaes. 158, art. 1, resp. 2: "Unde Gregorius ibidem dicit quod ira per zelum turbat rationis oculum, sed ira per vitium excoecat." Translation follows Gilby.



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