La Divina Commedia

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La Divina Commedia

• Michelangelos Last Judgment

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Inferno 1

• Canto 1Midway in lifes journey reprises life
  as a pilgrimage midway in his life i.e. the
  year 1300 Jubilee Year! Instant connection to
  pilgrimage- Dante is 35 years old he finds
  himself on the wrong side of a mountain- in a
  dark wood- he looks back like someone who has
  just escaped a shipwreck! - then who appears but
  Virgil! Virgil who told Aeneass story will
  guide Dante through this journey!

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Dante lost in the Dark Wood
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Inferno 2

• -Dante tells us that Aeneas is the chosen father
  of Rome
• - then he tells us of Pauls journey
• - but Dante protests I am not Aeneas - I am not
  Paul instantly signaling that his journey will
  also be like theirsremember that chronologically
  Dante has not yet journeyed to Rome from when
  he will start his pilgrimage to the City of God
  he must first go to the earthly city in his
  temporal life and then from there (per Augustine)
  can he undertake the journey to City of God)
  reminding us of their journeys
• this vision then is a vision of that journey and
  we shall see to what it is connected when Dante
  asks why me
• The answer A Lady in Heaven .. una donna wants
  this so the donna turned to Lucia and Lucia in
  turn asked Beatrice to go save Dante and Beatrice
  descended into Limbo to get Virgil out and to
  save Dante from the three beasts of temptation
  and send him on his journey.

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The Darkening Skyof the First Night
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Inferno 3

• First stop the Gates of Hell people waiting
  for the boat to go to their respective
  punishments .. those who cannot get aboard the
  shadow of that soul, who in his cowardice, made
  the Great Denial - 2 interpretations Pilate
  or Celestine V who abdicated- does the
  interpretation matter? Pilates inaction led to
  the crucifixion Celestinos inaction led to
  abuse of the papacy they can indeed be figura
  of each other Dante neednt name the Great
  denial for the meaning is the same.

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The doomed souls about to cross Acheron
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Inferno 4

• - Limbo the poets .. Dantes characterisation
  of Virgil as a virtuous poet who regrets having
  died before the birth of Christ (Canto 1, 69 I
  was born late )and the good Brutus who
  overthrew Tarquin .. later well see what he
  thinks of the other Brutus!

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Homer, the Classic Poets
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Inferno 5

• -This is where we see what he thinks of Dido ..
  she is in the circle of the lustful .. and we
  also start to understand what he was getting at
  in the Vita Nuova with amore a morteThis is
  one of the steps where we will start to see that
  the pilgrimage is one to divine love as opposed
  to earthly AMOR

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Paolo and Francesca
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Inferno 18

• Mention of the Jubilee, called by Boniface in
  return for indulgences, and the bridge to Castel
  SantAngelo

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Castel SantAngelo and the Ponte SantAngelo
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Inferno 19

• Dante talks to one of the sinners and the sinner
  thinks its Boniface!the sinner is Pope
  Nicholas III- Rome referred to as that sweet
  Lady la bella donna l. 57 the rhetorical
  question - how much cash did Jesus ask from
  Peter? -Dante berates Constantines donation
  its great you were converted but what a fee!
  Here is where Dante places Clement (l. 82)

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The Simoniac Popes
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Boniface VIII
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Inferno 27

• Rome of the New PhariseesGuido da Montefeltro
  counsellor to Boniface VIII - recounts how
  Boniface relied on the power of Peter to pardon
  Montefeltro in advance for a sin that Boniface
  was asking him to commit i.e. tricking the
  Colonna out of their castle so that the Pope
  could destroy it - this is the Rome of the New
  Pharisees and it figures prominently throughout
  Hell

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Prenestina stronghold of the Colonna
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Inferno 31

• In describing one of the Giants he says he was a
  high as the giant pine cone in St. Peters 3159
  In Dantes time this stood outside the Basilica
  (its now inside the Vatican walls)

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Inferno 34

• The worst sin of all (Inf.1832) Betrayal of
  the Empire Dante places Brutus and Cassius
  side by side with Judas Iscariot betrayal of the
  Empire betrayal of Christ

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Purgatorio

• Reversal of Infernal journey
• Starts with an image taken from pilgrimage
  (pilgrimage to Jerusalem (rememeber the figural
  connection to Rome)

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Purgatorio 1 in exitu Israel de Aegypto
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Purgatorio 6

• - bemoans an Italy as a ship unpiloted
• 78 Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello, nave
  sanza nocchiere in gran tempesta, non donna di
  province, ma bordello!
• beseeches the Emperor to come into Italy and fix
  things esp. the Church!
• 105 come see how the Garden of the Empire goes
  to seed - come see your stricken Rome, that weeps
  alone a widow

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Purgatorio 16

• 94 Men need a Monarch over them who sees at
  least the towers of the True City .. yet no one
  is leading not the shepherd he is a sheep
  himself (i.e. the pope) Rome used to shine when
  her rod made the world good refers to two suns
  i.e. sees Empire and Papacy as equal lights ..
  n.b. this is before Monarchia

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Purgatorio 22

• 145 Romes noble blood

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Purgatorio 29

• Dante hears cries of Hosanna typically
  signaling the arrival of Christ in Jerusalem and
  then Beatrice arrives

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The heavenly procession
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Purgatorio 32

• Rome as Babylon but Beatrice says she will take
  Dante to Heaven . i.e. to that Rome where Christ
  is a Roman (l. 102)

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The harlot and the Giant
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Paradiso
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Paradiso 6

• Justinian
• 1. "After Constantine turned back the eagle
  against the course of heaven which it followed
  behind the man of old who wed Lavinia,
• (The eagle, symbol of Roman power, had moved
  westward first with Aeneas, Lavinias husband
  then Constantine returned it east when he founded
  Constantinople in 330. )
• 57. Then as that age dawned in which Heaven
  planned the whole world to its harmony, Caesar
  came, and by the will of Rome, took it in hand.
• ( i.e. Julius Caesar preparing the way for the
  peace that will be brought about under Caesar
  Augustus)

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Justinian in the Ravenna Mosaics6th century in
the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.
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Paradiso 9

• 125 the Holy land (which seems to have slipped
  from the Popes memory139 But the Vatican
  and the other chosen parts of Holy Rome that have
  been, from the first, them cemetery of those
  faithful hearts, that followed Peter and were his
  soldiery, shall soon be free of this adultery.
  per Folquet of Marseilles

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Paradiso 15

• 126 Cacciaguida (and ancestor of Dantes) I
  served with Conrad in the Holy Land against the
  evil creed whose followers take from you
  because your shepherd sins what is yours by
  right

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Cacciaguida
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Paradiso 24

• 63 Dante to St. Peter as it was set down by the
  pen of your dear brother, who, with you, set Rome
  on the road that leads to glorys crown
  (reference to the anonymous letter to the
  Hebrews, which Dante attributes to St. Paul )

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Paradiso 27

• l. 25 - St. Peter that usurper has made a sewer
  of my sepulcher, a flow of blood and stink
• l. 62 Yet the high Providence that stood with
  Rome and Scipio for the glory of the world will
  once again, and soon be seen to come.

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Paradiso 31

• 34 If the Barbarians looking at Rome, were
  stupefied to see her works in those days when the
  Lateran outshone all else built by humanity, ,
  what did I feel on reaching such a goal (i.e.
  heaven)Dante makes a direct comparison to the
  pagans arriving in Rome and his arriving in
  Heaven
• 104 As a stranger from afar .. comes to see
  our Veronica, and awed by its ancient fame, can
  never look his fill, but says to himself as long
  as it is displayed My Lord, Jesus Christ, true
  God, and is this then the likeness of thy living
  flesh portrayed? just so did I gaze on the
  living love of him who in this world, through
  contemplation, tasted the peace which ever dwells
  above (i.e. St. Bernard of Clairvaux who was
  afforded a glimpse of heaven) now Dante will turn
  his eyes for his vision of God

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Final Image of Rome

• Christian Rome versus Pagan Rome
• Veronica and the Madonna versus La Lupa

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Conclusion

• Thus Dantes three part journey shows us
• Hell - Rome abandoned Rome as BabylonPurgatory
  Rome remedied - a strong Monarchy, Eagle over
  the harlot
• Paradise Rome fulfilled Rome where Christ is
  a Roman heaven
• His pilgrimage therefore goes from the Rome of
  this world to the Rome of Heaven.
• His pilgrimage has been spurred by Beatrice who
  was seeing in him a misdirection of his love
  towards courtly love but turning away from
  courtly love to higher love has allowed him the
  vision to see that politics cannot be only about
  temporal things but that politics and empire must
  be about fulfilling their spiritual significance
• Parallel structurelove temporal love ------gt
  spiritual lovepolitics temporal empire -------gt
  spiritual empire