Divine Comedy: Inferno. A Study Help

DANTE'S LIFE

Dante Alighieri was born to a Guelph family in Florence in 1265. The Guelph was the party of the small nobility and of the artisans, while the Ghibelline was the party of of the feudal nobility. The Guelphs and the Ghibellines were opposing political factions of German origin. The names were used to designate, respectively, the papal party and the imperial party during the long period of struggle for supremacy between popes and emperors.

In his youth Dante attended "the schools of the philosophers and those of the religious orders", as he tells us in his Convivio. The reference is certainly to the Dominican School of Santa Maria Novella where the works of Thomas Aquinas were studied, and to the Franciscan School of Santa Croce where the works of Bonaventure were read. He also tells us what were his preferred readings during this time, namely Boethius' On Consolation of Philosophy and Cicero's Laelius, or on Friendship.

At the age of twentyfour Dante participated as an assault cavalry man, for Guelph Florence, in the battle of Campaldino against the Ghibelline cities of Arezzo , Pisa and Siena lead by Buonconte da Montefeltro. About this time he also begins his political career. This is an extremely important period for the formation of Dante.

THE YEARS 1295-1302

The years between 1295 and 1302 are a period in which Dante is totally involved in the political life of Florence. In 1295 he becomes a member of the Council of the Captains of the People and serves in that capacity for one year. In 1296 he delivers a speech to the Council of the Onehundred, having been elected as a member of that Council. A couple of years later he is sent as Florence ambassador to San Gimignano, to perorate the cause of the Guelphs. In the meantime, with the Ghibellines permanently defeated, the Guelphs in Florence split into two groups, the Whites who were interested in conserving the independence of the city, and the Blacks who wanted to put Florence under the dominion of Pope Boniface the VIII. Dante is a White and strongly opposes the Pope's aims. In 1301 Boniface the VIII decides to send to Florence Charles of Valois, brother of the king of France, Philip IV (Philip the Fair), extensibly as a peacemaker between the two Florentine factions, but in reality with the clear purpose of helping the Blacks obtain power. Together with two other people, Dante is sent to Rome as ambassador in order to gain information from Boniface the VIII himself about his true intentions. In the meantime, in Florence,a quarrel breakes out between the Blacks and the Whites, and Charles of Valois helps the Blacks to gain control of Florence. Dante is accused and condemned in absentia. He becomes aware of the sentence against him in Siena on his way back from Rome. Of course he doesn't continue towards Florence. At the beginning of March a new sentence is issued against him: this time he is condemned to be burnt at the stake if he is ever caught, and all his possesions are confiscated. So begins the long exile which will keep the Poet away from his beloved city forever.

THE EXILE

Dante doesn't describe anywhere in his works the terrible feeling he must have felt when he received the condamnation to death and banishment. In his Convivio, however, we read the following: "Since it was the pleasure of the citizens of the most beautiful and famous daughter of Rome, Florence, to cast me out of her sweet bosom [...], I have wandered like a beggard, in almost all regions where this language of ours is spoken, showing against my will the wounds of Fortune, which frequently are ascribed unjustly to the wounded one. Truly I have been a ship without sail, brought to various ports and shores by the dry wind of painful poverty". Not much is known about his life in exile. We know that he was in Verona as the guest of Bartolomeo della Scala and of his son first, and later of Cangrande della Scala to whom, as a sign of affection and gratitude, Dante will dedicate his Paradiso. He travels to Bologna and other places, and spends some time in Lucca, where as we read in the Comedy he meets Gentucca, a kind lady whom perhaps he loved and who protected him. Boccaccio and Giovanni Villani,the historian of Florence, tell us that Dante traveled also to Paris, but we are unsure for lack of documents. In May 1315 an amnesty was declared in Florence: by paying a certain sum of money and publicly admitting his guilt and asking for forgiveness, Dante could return home. But he refused to accept the humiliating and unjust conditions. In October of the same year his previously decreed condemnation to death is renewed. Dante spent the last years of his life in Ravenna as a guest of Guido Novello da Polenta, Lord of that city and and son of a brother of Francesca da Rimini--the lady lover immortalized by Dante in the fifth Canto of Inferno. In 1321 Dante is sent to Venice as ambassador on behalf of Guido Novello. Upon returning from Venice, in the night between the 13th and 14th of S eptember, Dante dies at the age of fifty six. He was buried there, in Verona, in the church of Saint Francis. The sepulchral monument erected to him in the Florentine church of Santa Croce (the equivalent of London's Westminister Abbey) is actually a cenotaph, or an empty tomb. The various attempts of the city of Florence to regain the mortal remains of her son have always failed--and for Dante perhaps justly so!

MINOR WORKS IN LATIN

DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA

De vulgari eloquentia (On the Vulgar Language) is a work written in 1308 about the Italian language. Of course, "vulgar" here means "Italian". This treatise was to consist of four books, but only the first and part of the second were actually completed. In the work Dante envisions a common language for all of Italy based on the best qualities of each dialect spoken at Dante`s time. What Dante wants is an over-local and over-regional language, and hence an element capable of uniting the whole Peninsula in a common bond; a language propounded first and formost by the example of the poets. Therefore the Vulgari eloquentia is also a manual on rhetoric for the use of Italian, aimed at the learned persons who at present may be composing their works in Latin. The title De vulgari eloquentia comes from a passage in his Convivio (I, xix, 3) where Dante specifically mentions the treatise On the vulgar language that he will soon be writing. Therefore the points in common between this work in Latin and his Convivio, in Italian, are numerous and extremely important.

DE MONARCHIA

De monarchia (On World Government), is a treatise in three books, written probably during the time of Henry the VII's descent into Italy (1310-13) . Dante fervently hoped that the Holy Roman Emperor would put an end to the strife between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines and restore peace to Italy. In the first book of the World Government Dante takes into consideration the idea of a universal monarchy which, according to him, is necessary for the wellbeing of the people. In the second book, he states that it belongs by right to the Roman people. In the third that such a right comes from God and not from the Pope. Dante's universal monarchy is not conceived as a fusion of all states into one state only, but as supreme order of all states as a guarantee of a common norm of life under universal justice and freedom.

QUAESTIO DE AQUA ET TERRA

The Quaestio is a philosophical-scientific thesis sustained in Verona in 1320 during an occasional stay of Dante at the court of Cangrande della Scala. In this work the author demonstrates that in no place on earth can water be higher than the level of the earth itself.

THE EGLOGHE

The Eclogues are two poetical compositions addressed to Giovanni del Virgilio, a professor at the University of Bologna. In 1319 Giovanni del Virgilio wrote to Dante showing sincere admiration for his genious, but blaming him for writing in Italian, and suggesting to him that he write a treatise on contempory history in Latin, as this would be a sure way for him to acquire fame. Dante answers Giovanni's eclogues between 1319 and 1320. Answering in the pastoral allegorical form used by Giovanni, Dante's Eclogues propound his fervid hope to receive fame and the poetical laurel precisely from his poetry written in Italian. The Eclogues are therefore important because, once again, they show us --and the learned people of the time--Dante's clear-cut consciousness that the Italian language, mostly through his own experience and example, has come of age.

EPISTLES or LETTERS

Of the Letters written by Dante only thirteen are extant and pertain to the period of his life that goes from about 1304 to 1319. Of particular interest is the one written to Henry VII of Luxemburg on the occasion of his coming to Italy. It is Dante`s cherished hope that Henry might unify and bring peace to Italy and to his beloved Florence. Also noteworthy is the one written to his "florentine friend" in which he refuses to accept the humiliating conditions set by Florence for his return from exile. Finally, very interesting is the letter to Cangrande della Scala, his Veronese friend and patron to whom the Paradiso is dedicated. In this letter Dante expounds on the four levels of interpretation which should be applicable to the Divine Comedy. (More on this later).

MINOR WORKS IN ITALIAN

RIME

The Rime (Rhymes), a collection of some numerous poetical compositions, some belonging to the New Life period and spirit. Others belong to the realistic taste of a certain period of Dante's life and his poetic exchange with other poets of his time. They are poems written in a period that spans from his first youthful compositions to the years 1307-8 when he begins writing his masterpiece. These do include the poems already selected by Dante and incorporated in the Vita Nuova. Sometimes the Rhymes are also called <Canzoniere>, but this title is not quite right because, after Petrarch's experience, the title of "canzoniere" conveys the idea of unitariness in composition, which is not the case in Dante's Rhymes.

LA VITA NUOVA

La Vita Nuova (the New Life), is a booklet of memories. The title is found in Latin, vita nova at the very beginning of the work. The expression <vita nova> in Italian, is also found in a line of Purgatorio (XXX, 115) on Beatrice's lips while she is accusing Dante of having gone astray during his youth. The New Life is the history of Dante's ideal love for Beatrice, and at the same time a document of his literary formation and the attainment of full maturity within the "school" of the "sweet new style" poets, as we shall see later. The booklet is written, or better, composed after Beatrice's death, between 1292 and 1293. It is a work of poetry and prose. The prose is intended to explain its 31 poems, written earlier and now organized in this ideal and real history. It contains 42 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue. Beatrice is first of all a real person: she was 25 when she died, in 1290. Dante had met her when both were nine. Now after some 18 years (nine + nine), Beatrice appears in the New Life as a figure between reality and art, and becomes his poetic inspiration. The New Life is a 'composite' work in which Dante exalts Beatrice as the giver of "beatitude" and hence salvation. So that she bestows salvific power on him and on all men she looks upon. When Dante realizes this, he promises at the end of the work that some day he will write of her something as nobody has ever written of any other woman. Obviously the allusion is to the Divine Comedy. As such the Vita Nuova is ideally linked more than any other of his works to the masterpiece. But before he is able to fulfill his promise, Dante must study and prepare himself for the awesome task awaiting him: "After this [...] there appeared to me a marvelous vision in which I saw things which made me decide to write no more of this blessed one [i.e. Beatrice], until I could do so more worthy. And to this end, I apply myself as much as I can [...]. I hope to write of her what has never been composed in rhyme of any other woman" (Vita Nuova,XLII).

CONVIVIO

The Convivio, or Banquet, is a kind of philosophical and scientific work written in a commentary style and composed between 1304 and 1308. The original plan called for fifteen books: one of introduction and fourteen more of literary and allegorical comments to as many philosophical canzoni on the subjects of love and virtue. Most of the canzoni to be commented in the Convivio had been written by Dante before 1304. He wrote only four books, and the work remains incomplete. Dante explains the meaning of three canzoni according to a fourfold system of interpretation: literal, allegorical, moral and anagogic--a system used also for the interpretation of the Divine Comedy, as we shall see later. The title of the work is metaphoric and suggests an ideal banquet. The Convivio, with other works written during this period, must be considered a part of the fulfillment of the promise that Dante had made at the end of the Vita Nuova. But there is more: at the beginning of the Convivio Dante fervently glorifies and ennobles the vulgar language as the "the new light, the new sun which will rise whereas the old [Latin language] will set; and it will give light to those who are in obscurity and darkness" (I, x, 5). Moreover, as it has been mentioned above, in the Convivio Dante announces that soon he will write a treatise on the vulgar language, in Latin, and therefore written for the learned who might want to use the light of the new sun. Dante is thoroughly convinced of the "great goodness" of the new language which is capable of expressing "very lofty and very new ideas, conveniently, sufficiently and fittingly" (Convivio, I, x), therefore he intends to perorate its cause on both fronts, Latin and Italian, and as strongly as he can.

THE "SWEET NEW STYLE" EXPERIENCE

The expression "sweet new style" is coined by Dante in a passage of Purgatory (XXIV, 57) and refers to a "school" of Italian poets whose "father" was the Bolognese Guido Guinizzelli. He died in 1276 when Dante was only eleven years of age. In the Comedy Dante calls Guinizzelli "the father of me and of the others--those, my betters--who ever used sweet and gracious rhymes of love" (Purgatorio, XXVI, 97-99). Among "the others" in the "school" there is the Florentine and Dante's good friend Guido Cavalcanti. Dante is much indebted to both Guidos for his literary growth. Cavalcanti is only ten years older than Dante, and dies in 1300. Generally the lyric poetry of Cavalcanti is and remains concerned with the psychology of love. The effects of love in Cavalcanti's poetry bear heavily upon the poet's soul; he remains entangled in the snares of love and cannot districate himself from the torment that this love produces in him. Because of the impossibility to obtain the real woman, the poet is land locked in his anguish and turmoil, without ever the hope of being redeemed from it.

During his first sweet new style experience, Dante follows the conception of love held by Cavalcanti. However, at a certain moment in his life and growth, Dante rediscovers, so to speak, the idea underlying the basic love conception expounded by Guinizzelli, and writes chapter XVIII of Vita Nuova.

Guinizzelli had defined very well the poetics of the "sweet new style". In his philosophical canzone on love (Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore) the first Guido is able to fuse Love and the gentle heart into a new unity, natural and necessary to each other. Also, and more importantly, in Guinizzelli's poem the lady assumes the qualities of an angel from heaven. She passes through the streets, inspiring noble sentiments in men, bestowing on them "salute", that is deliverance from evil. Therefore the true sweet new style poet will renounce to any idea of correspondence of love on the part of the lady, and will only be interested in singing the praise for this woman, a real woman sent from heaven to show a "miracle" on earth.

Dante totally embraces Guinizzelli's concept that love and the noble heart are one thing only, making direct references to it in the Vita Nuova, in the Convivio, in De vulgari eloquentia, and finally also in the famous episode of Paolo and Francesca in the fifth canto of Inferno. In addition, and again more importantly, Dante takes certain attributes given to the woman by Guinizzelli in his canzone (such as, addressing God, the poet will say "she appeared as an Angel from Your Kingdom./ Don't blame me if I fell in love with her"), re-elaborates and refines them in such a way that he arrives at a new and unique awareness, by which--as he tells us--he feels "impelled to take up a new and nobler theme than before". So he writes Chapter XVIII of Vita Nuova where he states that while once the aim of his love was the expectation of the greeting from his beloved, now he feels a joy that cannot fail him, and that the joy simply comes to him in writing words of praise for his lady, without ever expecting any reward whatsoever from her. This is the "new theme". In fact, this is almost "too lofty of a theme", and Dante confesses that he is almost afraid to enter upon it. Chapter XVIII of the Vita Nuova becomes , then, the starting point which serves as a prelude to the last chapter of the work, with Dante's expressed promise that we have mentioned above. Of course, it is also the starting point in Dante's long voyage which will culminate, at the end of his Paradiso, in the vision of the glory of this lady, that is "the blessed Beatrice, who beholds the face of Him Who is blessed forever", as the Poet tells us at the very end of the New Life.

THE
D I V I N E C O M E D Y

TITLE AND PLAN

The Divine Comedy is a poem in the "vulgar language". It consists of one hundred cantos. There are about 15,000 lines of eleven syllables each, organized in tercets, or groups of three lines, each connected by rhyme with the next group. The rhyme pattern is therefor as follows: A B A, B C B, C D C, D E D, etc. The Divine Comedy is divided in three "cantiche": Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), Paradiso (Paradise). Each cantica contains thirty-three cantos, plus one canto of introduction to the whole at the beginning of Inferno, so that the first cantica has a total of 34 cantos. It is evident at once that the insistence on the number three is the large scheme of Dante's masterpiece. In addition, we also find multiples of "three" within each cantica: Hell has nine circles, Purgatory nine terraces, Paradise nine heavens. "Three" is a number with a typically symbolic meaning relating to the divine Trinity. (Here it is perhaps good to call back to mind some of the numbers, as for instance "nine", we have encountered in the Vita Nuova).

Dante called his masterpiece simply "Comedia" (Comedy),as opposed to "tragedy", twice in Hell and once in his famous letter to Cangrande--the content of this letter will be examined below. The adjective "divine" was first used by Boccaccio. It became part of the title much later, and precisely with an edition by Ludovico Dolce published in Venice by Giolito de' Ferrari in 1555. The epithet "divine" has been used ever since. In De vulgari eloquentia (II, iv) Dante says that tragedy uses a high style, and comedy uses a low style. Moreover,in accordance with medieval rhetorical theories, contrary to "tragedy", "comedy" has a sad beginning and a happy ending, portrays people of humble conditions, and uses frequently criticism and censure. In fact, in his letter to Cangrande Dante justifies the title of Comedia given to his masterpiece precisely on the basis of its plot line: a horrible beginning and a happy ending. Dante Says: "In fact, at the beginning the subject matter is horrible and frightening because it deals with Hell, at the end happy desirable and pleasant because it deals with Paradise. And the style is low and humble, because it is written in the vulgar language, which is the language used [by all] including women of humble conditions" (xiii, 31).

DATE OF COMPOSITION, FIRST COMMENTARIES AND EDITIONS

As mentioned above, during the years 1304-1307/8 Dante is totally taken in the writing of De vulgari eloquentia and of the Convivio which are both unfinished, and by very much. It is therefore credible that at this time Dante abandons writing the two treatises because of the new impelling desire he feels to begin writing the Comedy. It is generally agreed among scholars, infact, that Dante begins his masterpiece around 1307. We know that the cantiche were circulated separately and at different times, with the entire Paradiso after Dante's death--although a group of Cantos were known earlier, as Boccaccio informs us. There is a good probability that Inferno was completed around 1310, Purgatorio around 1315 and Paradiso not much before Dante's death. We do not have an autograph of the Comedy. The earliest comment we have is of Inferno, in Latin and written around 1324, while soon after we have the comment to the entire Comedy written by Iacopo della Lana. Other comments were written in the XIV century. For our purpose it will be sufficient to mention that Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the first "life" of Dante, and that he also handed down to us his public lectures to the first 17 cantos of Inferno read in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito in 1373-74. The first edition of the Commedia was printed in Foligno in 1472, and soon after another edition was also printed in Venice and another in Mantova.

DANTE'S "MARVELLOUS VISION" AND SOME OF ITS ANTECEDENTS

Dante's Divine Comedy is a narrative poem about his voyage into the Afterlife. There is nothing new about this. Narrations of visions and voyages into the Beyond are common in the Middle Ages. The genre of vision and prophesy is part of the medieval conception of life and derives from biblical and classical texts. In fact, the two veins of the genre derivation are made clear by Dante at the very beginning of Inferno(II, 13-28). Here Dante recalls to mind the basic and significant texts of this tradition: on one side St. Paul's ascent to the third heaven described in the Bible (2 Cor. 12:2-4), on the other Aeneas' descent into the world of the dead described by Virgil in the Aeneid (Bk. VI). But both in the Bible and in the classics there are also other examples, including St. John the Divine's Revelation, Lucan's Pharsalia, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, to mention only a few. In addition, a very large body of "visionary" literature--too large to mention here--had developed in the Middle Ages, not only in Latin but in the vulgar languages as well, including Italian. Much of this material was known to Dante and, as one would expect, it constitutes part of his literary heritage. It would be gratuitous, however, to try to indicate this or that "visionary" work as a source for the Divine Comedy, as has been done sometimes in the past. Dante's masterpiece stands out as powerful and unique, and a comparison would be totally unjustified.

DANTE'S "SOURCES"

It could be said that Dante's Divine Comedy is based and develops along three lines; or, better, it follows a kind of a triple parameter: on one side it is delineated by the Bible; on another side it is sustained by the doctrine of the Schoolmen, by their theological and philosophical tenets based chiefly on the authority of the Church Fathers and of Aristotle; and, finally, on the last side it is supported by the classics authors. The Bible (Ancient and New Testaments) is the fundamental text of Dante's culture. And it couldn't be otherwise, as in the medieval Christian civilization perspective the Bible represents the only document directly inspired and communicated by God to man. Among the Church Fathers and the Schoolmen we must mention first and foremost St. Augustine (345-430) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274). Among the Latin classics a special place hold Horace (65-8BC), Ovid (43BC-17AD), Lucan (39-65) and particularly Virgil (70-19BC). It is interesting, indeed, that in Canto IV of Inferno Dante mentions all these names. These are the great poets assembled in the "splendid school" of the noble castle of Limbo. Dante is invited to join them and so he becomes "sixth among such intellects" (Inferno 4,102). In the group there is also "Homer, the supreme poet". Dante, like many others of his time, did not know Greek, nor did he know the works of Homer directly. And yet, he has no doubt in assigning supremacy to him. Of course, among the classics Dante is partial--so to speak--to Virgil, and for reasons that go beyond Virgil's poetic value; that is to say not only because Virgil is the "light and honor of all other poets" and not only because he is Dante's "master" and "author", but because Virgil is the poet of Rome and has written the Aeneid, the history of Aeneas, founder of the Eternal City, in accordance with God's wishes to create a Roman Empire for the diffusion of His Word.

DANTE'S CONCEPTION OF THE UNIVERSE

As other medieval men, Dante follows the so-called Ptolemaic System. The Greek mathematician astronomer and geographer Ptolemy (127-151) had developed a cosmological system in which the earth was placed, motionless, at the center of the universe with all celestial bodies revolving around it. This system is called geocentric, or earth-centered, and will dominate astronomy until the 16th century. The Ptolemaic system, then, represented the globe-shaped earth as stationary in the center of the world, with moon, sun and stars revolving about it at a uniform rate. From the center outward the elements were earth, water, air, fire, and a fifth luminiferous essence called aether. In the aethereal region are nine concentric crystalline spheres, with each carrying a heavenly body, rotating around earth. These nine spheres contain, in ascending order, the following heavenly bodies: The Moon, Mercury, Venus, The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, The Fixed Stars. The last sphere is called "Primum Mobile". The "Primum Mobile" is the largest sphere and, obviously, the farthest away from earth. It takes the movement from God and imparts it to all the spheres below. Beyond this there is the Empyrean, the seat of God, of the angelic orders, and of the blessed in Paradise.

Originally, at the time of creation, earthly surface appeared delimited by two hemispheres, with the southern part covered by land and the northern part covered only by water. Then Lucifer, or Satan, who had rebelled against God, was thrown from Heaven and fell on the southern hemisphere. When Lucifer was falling, the land there "for fear of him, made of the sea a veil and came to our hemisphere" (Inferno XXXIV, 123-124), that is, the land withdrew under the surface of the waters and emerged in our, the northern, hemisphere. Lucifer fell into the waters and went all the way down to the center of earth. At the same time, the land under water in Lucifer's path--"in order, perhaps, to avoid contact with him"--recoiled and re-emerged on the southern hemisphere, and formed the cone-shaped mountain of Purgatory, while the empty space left behind, from the surface to the center of earth, became the funnel-shaped pit of Hell.

Earth, then, is conceived by Dante, as a perfect sphere, motionless and suspended in the void. At the center of the northern hemisphere, or land surface, Dante locates Jerusalem, midway between the mouth of the Ganges and the source of the Ebro rivers, its two extreme points, respectively, east and west, 180 away from each other. The Mountain of Purgatory and Jerusalem are also 180 away from each other, and share the great meridian circle which cuts the equator at a right angle and passes through the poles. Taking Jerusalem as a point of reference, it then follows that its east horizon coincides perfectly with Purgatory's west horizon, and its west horizon is one and the same with Purgatory's east horizon. Therefore, when it is noon in Jerusalem, it will be midnight on the mountain of Purgatory, sunset at the mouth of the Ganges and sunrise at the source of the Ebro.

THE SOCIO-POLITICAL DIMENTIONS

Florence, as other cities of Tuscany and the rest of northern Italy, had organized as a free commune, or city state, at the beginning of the 12th century. In Italy, during the period of formation and growth the city states fought against the feudal families in the countryside in order to consolidate and expand their influence and dominion. In addition, they had to fight also against the invading army of Frederick I, Barbarossa, and subsequently against, or in favor of the Ghibellines, and against, or in favor of the Guelfs. At Dante's birth Italy was already experiencing the bitter and bloody division between these two factions which, as it has been mentioned earlier, came to represent, respectively, the party of the Emperor and that of the Pope. That is, during this period Italian cities aligned themselves behind the banner representing the Emperor, or behind the banner representing the Pope: the two supreme moral authorities of western Christianity!

At the same time, during Dante's years, Florence was experiencing a tremendous demographic growth, due to an influx of people from the countryside. This was also true of other communes in Italy, but Florence's importance grew vis-a-vis her neighbouring cities in Tuscany and other cities in Italy and abroad. Around 1300 Florence is one of the three largest cities in Italy, with a population of more than 100.000 persons living within the city walls. In fact, in order to accommodate all the new comers, the city had to expand beyond its first circle of walls, into a second and a third. In Florence the construction of the third circle of walls had been approved by the city in 1284, before Dante reached his twentieth birthday, and the building of it continued throughout the Poet's lifetime. This is a period of transition, a period in which profound changes are taking place in the lifes of people. The old feudal system had been replaced, more or less rapidly, by the new more open and more dynamic bourgeois and pre-capitalistic system. Toward the end of the century, Italian cities were at the center of an inter continental commercial system that span "Overmountains"--that is into the central and northern European countries--and Overseas. In France alone, in the period 1260-1270, there were some twenty large Florentine companies doing business. At the beginning of the new century, the Florentine Banks of the Peruzzis and of the Bardis were dealing in money and instruments of credit all over Europe at an unprecedented rate. The Bardi Bank alone, in 1318, just a few years before Dante's death, had an account balance of almost one million gold florins--a pretty sum when we think that ten years later the city of Florence was proposing to buy the whole city of Lucca for the sum of 80.000 gloden florins! By now Florence had total economic independence, and in fact she had had it for some time, if already by 1255 we find an epigraph inscribed in stone on the Palace of the Podesta which reads that the City "possesses the sea, possesses the land, possesses the whole world"--a phrase that Dante will appropriate and use in Inferno in a bitter sarcasm against Florence!

The fast demographic growth of the city created a number of inevitable social conflicts among its population. Conflicts between the rich and the poor, between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, between the old inhabitants of the city and the newcomers. Dante is strongly opposed to all these changes, and he is definitely for old times when, according to him, there was justice and morality. In canto XV of Paradiso, through his great grandfather's mouth, he will describe the Florence that is still contained within its first circle of walls in a nostalgic reminiscence of the good old times, times when the citizens lived in happy families and in a just civic society--as against present times when women are abandoned by husbands who are going abroad in search of new business. The city is not what it used to be, because "newcomers to the city and fast gain have created excess and arrogance in Florence" (Inferno XVI, 73-75).

The above are just minute examples of what we find in the Comedy. Practically every Florentine--and non Florentine--Dante meets throughout his voyage becomes a splendid occasion for him to lash out against present social, moral and political decadence of Florence and Italy. Florence has become the city of Satan because it coins and exports the accursed Florin corrupting the whole world (Paradiso IX). But to Dante the decadence of Florence is connected to the general decadence of Italy, where chaos, injustice, hate, violence, wars and moral corruption are rampant. These are the problems that characterize the ethical and political situation of medieval Italy. According to Dante, at the basis of this situation there is the clash between the Pope and the Emperor. It is they who bear the responsibility because they have divided and politicized Italian cities for their own gain. More specifically and first of all is the fact that the last Emperors have not conformed with the function established by God--that of keeping in check the cities and the regions under their control. The weakness of the imperial power has made possible the corruption of the Church which has unduly appropriated to itself the temporal power belonging, by God's right, to the Emperor. So both the Pope and the Emperor have failed their missions--spiritual and temporal, respectively--entrusted separately to each by God for the happiness and wellbeing of the people (Purgatorio VI).

INTERPRETATION OF THE COMEDY AS A WHOLE

As it was mentioned above, Dante dedicated his Paradise to his Veronese patron Cangrande della Scala, as a sign of gratitude and of friendship. The presentation was accompanied by a letter which sets the basic guidelines for the interpretation of the Comedy. In the letter to Cangrande Dante states that his Commedia is polysemous, that is, it has not just a single sense, but several. He then exemplifies the concept of polysemy by offering an interpretation of a Psalm in accordance to a fourfold system of interpretation: literal, allegorical, moral and anagogical. In fact, as we will recall, he had proposed the same system of interpretation in his Convivio. Soon after, in his letter, Dante restricts his definition by stating that the last three adjectives (allegorical, moral and anagogical) could all be put under one name and "may all be called allegorical, since all of them differ from the literal meaning" (¶ 7),as the etymology of the word "allegory" [from the Greek alleon = 'other' or 'different'] indicates. Therefore in the Comedy we can basically think of two meanings: a literal meaning and an allegorical meaning. This applies to the work globally, as well as to each single part. Obviously, this does not imply that every single line and every single word should be interpreted both literally and allegorically. For every line and every word there will always be a literal meaning, but not always an allegorical interpretation.

Taken literally, then, the subject of the Comedy, Dante says, "is the state of souls after death". Taken allegorically, "the subject is man in his merits and demerits he has acquired through the excercize of his free will, and therefore earning just rewards or becoming liable of just punishments" (¶ 8). Obviously the man Dante is talking about is Everyman. It is Dante as the agent of the Comedy, that is to say Dante the Wayfarer, as the fundamental participant in the voyage. Dante has become conscious of his misery and sin and, through an act of his free will, has decided to free himself from sin. So he undertakes the voyage not as a passive spectator, but as an "actor" and participant who will recognize sin in Hell, who will atone sins together with the souls of Purgatory, and who will finally become purified in Paradise. In addition, in the letter to Cangrande Dante tells us that the Comedy deals with moral philosophy or ethics, that it "has been conceived not for the sake of speculation, but for action" (¶ 16). He also tells us that the end of the Comedy "is to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and to lead them to the state of happiness" (¶ 15). Therefore, Dante's voyage becomes a paradigmatic example valid for every man.

DATE OF THE VOYAGE

Dante envisions his voyage as taking place in 1300. This date is established by internal inferences. The Poet, in fact, does not give the precise date, nor does he mention the month or the day. Some commentators believe that the voyage began on Good Friday which, in the year 1300, fell on the 8th of April. Others believe that it was begun on March 25th, a day in which, according to medieval tradition, coincided with the creation of Adam and the death of Christ. Dante takes seven days to accomplish his voyage.

Since Dante began writing the Comedy around 1307-8, that is some seven/eight years after the voyage was to have taken place, he was able to make "prophesies" and predictions of "future" events in the Poem that actually had already happened. This gave Dante the opportunity to also use stratagems or tricks as he does in Hell with his archenemy Pope Boniface the VIII who died in 1303. (See Inferno XIX, 51 ff).

THE CONCEPT OF "CONTRAPASSO" OR COUNTER-PENALTY

The concept of "contrapasso" or counter-penalty is a principle used by Dante by which punishment is imposed to the soul in Hell or Purgatory. The punishment is commensurate with the sins committed by the respective individual on earth. The idea of "contrapasso" is not an invention of Dante. It is the old moral-juridical principle of retribution embodied in the expression "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" which was first formulated in the Old Testament books of Exodus (21:23ff.) Leviticus (24:17-20) and Deuteronomy (19:21).

In the Comedy the actual word "contrapasso" is used by Bertrand de Born who is punished in Canto XXVIII of Hell among the Sowers of Scandal and Schism. Bertrand says: " Because I divided those so joined / I carry, alas, my brains severd / from its source which is within my trunk. / It is thus observed in me the law of counter-penalty" (139-142). As in life Bertrand de Born, with his evil counsel,had caused enmity and division between Henry III and his father Henry II of England (that is, causing a severance within the body of a family), so now in Hell Betrand's headless trunk moves around "carrying its severed head by the hairs as if it were a lantern" (Inferno XXVIII 119-122).

DANTE'S GUIDES

In the Comedy we have several persons who guide Dante throughout his voyage. These include, in ascending order, Virgil, Statius, Matelda, Beatrice, St. Bernard; with Virgil and Beatrice as the most important.

VIRGIL. Virgil, in the Comedy, symbolizes human reason, the rational faculty as the first and basic guide for man's ethical life, the principle that makes man distinguish between right and wrong. Virgil, a pre-Christian author, was regarded in the Middle Ages as a sage. For Dante he is "the light" and the guide that gives hope (Purgatorio 4 and 6). Also in his fourth Eclogue Virgil had written symbolically of the coming of a wonder child and of the return to the golden age, a period of justice and universal peace. In the Middle Ages this was interpreted as prophetic of the coming of Christ. Of course, Virgil had also written the Aeneid celebrating the founding of the Roman Empire and Rome's contribution to universal civilization and justice. In fact when Virgil appears to Dante, at the beginning of the Comedy, he stresses these fundamental notions: he lived in Rome under the Empire, and was the poet of Aeneas, the righteous man destine by divine Providence to lay the basis of the Roman Empire. Dante greets Virgil as his master and his author; "master" because of the "noble style", or tragic style that Dante had used in his great allegorical and doctrinal canzoni; "author", in the precise sense of the word explained by Dante himself in the Convivio, namely "as a person worthy of being believed and obeyed" (Convivio IV, v, 5). So, guided by Virgil Dante will regain control of his own actions, in a sense of morality and justice, through a decision of his own will, in order to understand sin fully and completely--because for Dante, and for Everyman, this is the only way to re-acquire moral freedom.

BEATRICE. Beatrice, in the Comedy, symbolizes divine knowledge, or theology. After the rational level--with Virgil as a guide--whereby Dante has reached the highest achievement that man as man can reach, with Beatrice we climb to a higher, metaphysical level in which her voice will be necessary in the explanation of phenomena which are beyond the comprehension of human reason. Beatrice appears to Dante at the top of Purgatory, in Earthly Paradise. At her appearance, she dramatically reproaches Dante for having followed the wrong way after her death. After Beatrice's rebuke, Dante recognizes his past sins and is taken by a strong sentiment of repentance and shame. Here a full catharsis has taken place and Dante is totally cleansed, and therefore he is immersed in Lethe, the Purgatorial river of classical recollection whose waters cause forgetfulness of the past. After this Matelda leads Dante to drink of the waters of Eunoe, the river that restores the "memory of the good", the final step in the ritual of purification. Dante is now "pure and prepared to climb into the stars" with Beatrice as guide.

I N F E R N O

a simplified sketch of Inferno
(Numbers refer to Circles [2] and Rings [7.1-3 / 9.1-4]or Pouches [8.1-10])

Jerusalem
†
__________________________________________________________________________________________
ANTE-HELL
________________________________________________________________________________________
NEUTRALS
______________________________________________________________________________________
A C H E R O N

1. LIMBO
===========================================
2. THE LUSTFUL
________________________________________________________________________________
3. THE GLUTTONS
______________________________________________________________________________
4. THE AVARICIOUS AND PRODIGALS
____________________________________________________________________________
5. THE WRATHFUL AND SULLEN
__________________________________________________________________________
S T Y X

6. HERETICS

7.1 VIOLENT: against their neighbors
____________________________________________________________________
7.2 VIOLENT: against themselves and their possessions
__________________________________________________________________
7.3 VIOLENT: against God

8.1 FRAUD: panderers and seducers
______________________________________________________________
8.2 FRAUD: flatterers
____________________________________________________________
8.3 FRAUD: simonists
__________________________________________________________
8.4 FRAUD: deviners,astrologers,magicians
________________________________________________________
8.5 FRAUD: barrators
______________________________________________________
8.6 FRAUD: hypocrites
____________________________________________________
8.7 FRAUD: thieves
__________________________________________________
8.8 FRAUD: fraudolent counselors
________________________________________________
8.9 FRAUD: sower of discord
______________________________________________
8.10 FRAUD: falsifiers

C O C Y T U S

9.1 TREACHERY: of kin / CAINA
__________________________________________
9.2 TREACHERY: of homeland or party / ANTENORA
________________________________________
9.3 TREACHERY: of guests / PTOLOMEA
______________________________________
9.4 TREACHERY: of benefactors / JUDECCA

L
U
C Center of earth // Lucifer's navel ---------- I
F
E
R

INFERNO: STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The topographic structure of Hell.
As it has been mentioned, Hell is in the form of a huge funnel-shaped cavity under ground, beneath Jerusalem, and going all the way to the center of Earth (See sketch on previous page). It was created by Lucifer when he was thrown out of Heaven. Hell consists of nine concentric "circles" or regions diminishing in circumference as they descend toward the center. These are preceded by a vestibule, called Ante-Inferno and separated from Inferno proper by the river Acheron. Inferno proper is divided in an upper and a lower zone. The lower zone is envisioned by Dante much like a fortified city and is divided from the upper part by a marsh-like moat--called Styx--and a high wall. It is called the City of Dis, Dis being another name for Satan, and contains four circles. The other five circles make up the upper part. Each of the nine circles is designed for a particular sin, with the lightest sins near the top. The moral structure of Hell.
To begin with, the moral structure of Hell is, first of all, characterized in accordance to two particular beliefs of Dante. One, the fact that he has a strong contemptuous attitude against those who "lived without blame and without praise", the cowardly, the neutrals, those lacking the courage to do neither good nor bad. Dante cannot stand them, and believes that they cannot even deserve to be in Hell proper. Therefore he puts them in a region apart. Two, the fact that he placed in Limbo (which in the official church view was reserved for only the unbaptized and for the just people of the Old Testament who believed in the coming of Christ) also those worthy Pagans who lived before the coming of Christ. This is a place particularly for pre-Christian poets and, of course, is Virgil's permanent abode. With the exclusion of these two large groups then, the whole moral structure of Hell follows basically a division into two main categories. In upper Hell are punished the so-called sins of incontinence, the lack of moderation or control in the natural appetite. So, in the four circles after Limbo are punished, in an increasing order of sinfulness, the lustful, the gluttons, the horderers-and-squanderers, and the wrathful. In lower Hell are punished sins of malice or the evil intent. And, again in an increasing order of sinfulness, we have the heretics, the violent (subdivided into three rings), the fraudulent (subdivided into ten "pouches"), and finally the traitors (subdivided into four zones). Inferno: Content Summary (See Sketch of Inferno).

[Canti I-III]. The poem begins with the story of how one day Dante got lost in a dark forest. While he is in the process of climbing up a hill he meets three beasts which impede his passage and thrust him back where he came from. At this point the Latin poet Virgil appears and encourages Dante to follow him. He will guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory, and then someone else will come to lead him through Paradise. The two poets begin the journey and soon arrive in front of Hell's door. They enter and find a group of souls, the Cowardly, who are obliged to run continually after a flag. [Canti IV-VIII]. Further on the two Poets cross the river Acheron and reach the first (1) Circle of Hell where Limbo is located. This is the zone reserved for those who died without having been baptized and for the ancient Poets. Their "punishment" is only spiritual: they long to see God and will never be satisfied. At the beginning of the second (2) Circle is Minos who judges all incoming souls and sends them to their appropriate Circle. Soon after, blown about by a continuous storm, are condemned the Lustful. Here Dante has his great encounter with the two lovers Paolo and Francesca. In the third (3) Circle, under an incessant cold rain, are the Gluttons tormented by the monster Cerberus. Here Dante hears from Ciacco the first prophesy concerning him and Florence. Another monster, Pluto, is the guardian of the next (4) Circle where, in two separate groups, are the Hoarderers and the Squanderers, pushing with their breasts big boulders in semicircles. Continuing their voyage the two Poets descend into the fifth (5) Circle which is located in a marsh called Styx. Here are condemned the Wrathful, some half-immersed in the muddy waters, some totally immersed in it. [Canti IX-XVII]. At the walls of the City of Dis, Dante and Virgil are impeded passage by the demons who are guarding it. A heavenly Messanger is required to help them enter. So they reach the sixth (6) Circle where are condemned the Arch-Heretics in uncovered flaming tombs. They cannot see the present, although can see the future. Dante meets here the Ghibelline Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti, father of his dear friend Guido. The seventh (7) Circle is for the Violent and is subdivided into three rings: (7.1) The first ring punishes the Violent against neighbors who are in a river of boiling blood. (7.2) In the second ring are punished the Violent against themselves or suicides who are here transformed into trees; and also the Violent against their own possessions who are torn apart by hungry bitches. (7.3) The third ring hosts three types of violent: a) the Blasphemers, or violent against God; b) the Sodomites, or violent against Nature; c) the Usurers, or violent against Art. Here, among the sodomites, Dante has a memorable encounter with his "mentor" Brunetto Latini. [Canti XVII-XXX]. The two Poets descend into the eighth (8) Circle, reserved for the Fraudulent. This is the most complex of all the Circles of Hell. It is called Malebolge (Evil-pouches) and is subdivided into ten "pouches". These are divided from each other by big walls and connected by a series of bridges. In each pouch is condemned a specific type of fraudulent sinners. (8.1) The first pouch punishes the Panderers and Seducers who are scourged by horned demons. (8.2) The second is reserved for the Flatterers who are immersed in excrements. (8.3) The third is for Simonists who are condemned head down into holes in the rock. (8.4) In the fourth pouch are the Soothsayers who have their heads turned backward. (8.5) The fifth pouch is for the Barrators who are condemned into boiling pitch. (8.6) In the sixth are the Hypocrites who walk slowly covered with caps of lead. (8.7) The seventh pouch is dedicated to the Thieves who are bitten by serpents. (8.8) In the eighth pouch are condemned the Fraudolent Counselors who are totally enclosed in tongue-like flames. (8.9) Here in the ninth pouch are the Sowers of Discord who are condemned to be wounded again and again by demons. (8.10) The last pouch is reserved for Falsifiers who are subdivided in their turn into four groups [(8.10.1) Falsifiers of metals; (8.10.2) Falsifiers of persons; (8.10.3) Falsifiers of coins; (8.10.4) Falsifiers of words], each group subject to a different punishment. [Canti XXXI-XXXIII]. The ninth (9) Circle, which is the large well of the Giants, is reached by Dante and Virgil with the help of one of the Giants, Anteo. He takes the two Poets on his hands and deposit them into this frozen lake which is called Cocito. The lake is frozen by the movement of Lucifer's wings. Lucifer is located in the central point of the Circle which is also the center of earth. Here in Cocito's ice are punished the Traitors, and are separated into four zones. (9.1) The first zone is called Caina, and is for Traitors of relatives. (9.2) The second zone is called Antenora, and is for Traitors of Country. (9.3) The third zone is called Tolomea, and is for Traitors of guests. (9.4) The fourth and last zone, called Judecca, is reserved for Traitors against their benefactors. Here is Lucifer, King of Hell, with his three heads and three mounths chewing three traitors: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. [Canto XXXIV]. At this point Dante and Virgil begin their exit from Hell. They descend down Lucifer's body, then turn around and ascend through a "hole built by nature" to the southern hemisphere, arriving at the shore of the Mountain of Purgatory, and seeing "once more the stars".

READING DANTE"S INFERNO
Cantos' Line Synopsis and Notes

Canto lines
S U M M A R Y <>N O T E S<>

CANTO 1

1-12
Midway in "our life's journey" Dante realizes that he has strayed from the true path into a dark forest. The first Canto is a canto of introduction to the whole Comedy. Midway of our life is 35 years. Therefore we are in 1300. The dark forest is symbolic of sin

13-30
The Mount of Joy. Dante tries to get out of the forest and arrives at the foot of a mountain illuminated by the sun. The sun (=Sun) is symbolic of God.

31-60
Here three beasts impede Dante's ascent: (1) a Leopard, (2) a Lion, (3) a She-wolf. The beasts drive him back where he came from. The beasts are symbolic of (1) Malice and fraud, (2) Violence and ambitions, (3) Incontinence.

61-99
Here a figure appears to Dante. It is the shade of Virgil. It is he who will lead Dante from error. But there cannot be a direct ascent. Dante must take another way. Virgil is the symbol of human reason. He is Dante's first guide.

100-136
Virgil tells Dante that he must first descend into HELL. Then he must go through PURGATORY. And finally he can ascend to PARADISE. Virgil tells Dante that for Paradise there will be another guide. The descent into Hell is symbolic of the recognition of sin. The ascent through Purgatory means renounciation of sin and atonement. The other guide will be Beatrice.

CANTO 2

1-9 Evening is approaching. Dante invokes the Muses and "the high genius" to help him.	Invocation of the Muses is traditional in poetry.
10-42 Dante is following Virgil and finds himself tired and full of doubts: how can he be worthy of such a vision? He is not Aeneas, he is not St. Paul!	Dante is fully aware of his sins and feels unworthy of the voyage to salvation. For Aeneas' and St. Paul's voyages, see above.
43-126 Virgil conforts Dante and explains how Beatrice descended to him (Virgil) in LIMBO and told him of her concern for Dante. Beatrice has been sent with the prayers of (1) the Virgin Mary, (2) Saint Lucia, and (3) Rachel [Jacob's wife].	Beatrice symbolizes the Science of Revelation (or Theology). The other three women are symbolic of (1) divine grace, (2) divine light, (3) contemplative life. For Jacob's second wife Rachel, see Genesis 29:16ff.
127-142 Dante resumes courage, expresses gratitude to Beatrice and to Virgil and follows him, ready to begin the difficult journey.	Virgil is "guide and master" and Dante will follow him throughout Inferno and a good part of Purgatorio.

CANTO 3

1-21 The gate of Hell is always open. The inscription above the gate warns whoever enters to leave all hopes. Dante is afraid, but Virgil tells him to leave all hesitation. The two Poets enter.	The inscription and the rest of the Canto characterize the basic atmosphere of Hell, and the initial reaction of Dante.
22-69 Dante soon hears the cries of anguish of the souls in torment.These are the souls of the Cowardly who in life neither practiced good or evil. Now they intermingle with the neutral angels.	The Cowardly must race eternally pursuing a banner that runs forever before them. In turn, they are pursued by wasps and hornets which sting and push them on. This is their contrapasso, a concept in the Comedy by which the punishment fits the crime
[59-60]. Dante recognizes one of them. It is the shade of Pope Celestine the V.	Celestine became Pope in August 1294 and resigned in December of the same year.
70-120 The two Poets, without speaking to any of the souls there, move on to pass ACHERON. For the crossing they must use the services of Charon.	Acheron is the first of the four rivers of Hell. These will be expained by Virgil later in Canto 14. Charon is the boatman who must ferry the souls to the other side of the river and to punishment.
121-136 There is an earthquake, wind and a lightning; a brilliant red light overcomes Dante who falls "like a man seized by sleep"	Earthquakes, from Aristotle's time, were believed to be caused by land-locked winds or vapors escaping violently from underground.

CANTO 4

1-24 A big thunder awakens Dante. He looks around and realizes that he is inside Hell, and precisely in its first circle which is called Limbo	The first Circle: Limbo.
25-45 Virgil tells Dante that in LIMBO are the souls of children who died before they were baptized, and of virtous Pagans who lived before Christ.	The "punishment" of the souls in Limbo is that they have an insatiable desire to see God.
46-63 Virgil tells Dante that Christ entered into LIMBO "and liberated the shades of our first fathers": Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, and many others; "and He made them blessed".	Christ descent into Limbo is known as the Harrowing of Hell. The descent of Christ was witnessed by Virgil who "was a new arrival in this state". Virgil died in 19 B.C., and Christ died in 33 A.D., therefore Virgil had been there some 50 years.
64-105 In a second zone of LIMBO Dante sees a great dome of light. A voice is heard welcoming back Virgil (Again, this is his place). Soon appear HOMER, HORACE, OVID, LUCAN. They greeted Virgil and invited Dante into their ranks, so that he "was the sixth among such intellects" (l. 102).	Dante did not know Greek nor the works of Homer directly. But he knew well most of the works of the other poets mentioned. Dante is already conscious that he will be a great luminary in the field of poetry, in the same rank with the poets mentioned here.
106-141 With the poets Dante enters into the Citadel of Limbo where he sees many great spirits of Pagan antiquity, gathered on a green and all illuminated	The Citadel of Limbo. The light is the symbol of Human Reason, the highest state man can achieve without God.

CANTO 5

1-24 Dante and Virgil enter into the second Circle. There they meet MINOS, the judge of Hell who assigns each soul its place of eternal punishment.	SECOND CIRCLE -- The beginning of Hell proper.
25-45 The two Poets find themselves on a dark ledge swept by a continuous whirlwind which spins within it the souls of the Lustful or carnal sinners	Contrapasso: as the Lustful in life were swept by the wind of passion, now they are condemned to be swept eternally by a great whirlwind.
46-72 Among the list of the carnal sinners are: Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Paris, Tristan, ..."and more than a thousand shades" (ll. 67-68).	Semiramis, Queen of Assyria (1356-1314 B.C.).Dido founder of Carthage and lover of Aeneas (Aeneid, books I and IV).Cleopatra Queen of Egypt, mistress first of Julius Caeser and then of Mark Antony.Helen, wife of the King of Sparta, Menelaus; she was abducted and became the mistress of Paris; and this led to the Trojan War.Tristan, hero of a medieval Romance and lover of Yseult, wife of Tristan's uncle.
73-142 Dante sees Paolo and Francesca swept together by the wind. In love's name he calls them and asks them to tell their own sad story. They pause from their eternal flight to come to him, and FRANCESCA tells Dante their story while Paolo weeps at her side. Dante is striken by pity for them, faints and "fell as a dead body falls" (l. 142).	The story of Paolo and Francesca takes exactly the second half of the Canto. In lines 100-106 Dante uses the vocabulary used in the tenets of the Sweet New Style. But the emphasis here is on the fair body and on his beauty. Therefore the "episode" of Paolo and Francesca can be understood as Dante's rejection of those tenets.

CANTO 6

1-33 Dante recovers and finds himself in the Third Circle. A storm of putrefaction falls constantly Stinking snow, dark and cold rain and hail mix in the mud. Here are the Gluttons and their bestial guardian Cerberus who is barking, doglike, and tearing the souls with his claws.	THIRD CIRCLE. Contrapasso here is complex: the Gluttons here are condemned in all five senses. Taste and smell by the mud in which they lie; sight by the darkness; hearing by the barking of Cerberus; touch by the rain and the mud in which they must wallow.
34-57 One of the shades asks Dante whether he recognizes him. Dante doesn't, and he reveals himself as Ciacco.	Ciacco was a Florentine of Dante's time, well known for his gluttony, as Boccaccio tells us. Boccaccio speaks of him also in Decameron IX, 8.
58-76 At the asking, Ciacco "prophesises" the Florentine historical events after 1300. He tells Dante that the citizens of the "divided city will come to blood and the party of the woods will chase away the other party". But then within three years the other party will prevail again, with the help of a powerful person, and will inflict heavy penalty on its enemies.	On May Day 1300 the Whites (the party of the woods, because originally from the country) defeated the Blacks. But in less than three years, in April 1302, the banished Blacks returned to power with the help of Pope Boniface VIII. Because of this Dante had to go into exile.
77-93 Dante asks Ciacco about some politically famous Florentines of the past. Ciacco tells Dante that he will meet them further down in Hell "among the blackest souls". They are Farinata,Teggiaio, Rusticucci and Mosca. At the end of their conversation, Ciacco begs Dante to recall him to men's memory when he returns to the "sweet world", after his voyage.	Farinata degli Uberti is among the Heretics in Canto 10, Tegghiaio Aldobrandini and Jacopo Rusticucci are among the Sodomites in Canto XVI, and Mosca dei Lamberti is punished among the Sowers of Scandal in Canto XXVIII. The memory of the "sweet world" is the idea of wanting to be remembered on earth. It is common to many sinners of Hell and constitutes one of the leit-motifs of the Inferno.
94-115 Dante asks Virgil whether after Judgment Day the damned souls will suffer more, less or the same. Virgil answers that they will suffer more.	The Aristotelian doctrine that full perfection lies in the union of body and spirit was accepted by Medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, and hence also by Dante. After Judgment Day body and spirit will be reunited and hence perfection will be regained. Therefore the pains will also increase.

CANTO 7

1-15 PLUTUS, gardian of the Fourth Circle, tries to impede Virgil's and Dante's passage by howling some incomprehensible words. But Virgil commands him to be quite as Dante's voyage has been willed by Above. So the ferocious beast quietes down and falls to the ground.	In Canto 3 (94-96) and in Canto 5 ( 22-23) Virgil had already warned, respectively, Charon and Minos not to attempt to impede Dante's "fated voyage, as it has been willed Above" Here we have two contrasting concepts: (1) the idea that Dante's voyage is wanted by God, for the ultimate salvation of all mankind, and (2) the attempted impediment of his voyage by the inhabitants of Hell. [More on this later].
16-66 The two Poets descend into the Fourth Circle where they see a great number of people in two opposite groups, each occupying opposite halves of the Circle: the Avaricious on one side, the Prodigals on the other. They are pushing with their chests big boulders, in semi circles. When they meet, they utter reciprocal insults, turn around and continue pushing the other way, and so on. Many of the avaricious sinners in their lives on earth were popes, cardinals and clerics.	FOURTH CIRCLE. The Avaricious and the Prodigals are at opposite ends of a scale measuring and concerned with worldly goods. Their contrapasso is the following: as in life they had been excessively preoccupied in their hearts in the futile handling of worldly possessions, so now they have to push weights with their chests in a likewise futile "round dance".
67-96 Dante wants to know from Virgil what is Fortune who "clutches the world's wealth"; and the master explains that Fortune is a celestial Intelligence ordained by God to govern wordly goods and to distribute them, without concern about human complaints and beyond the prevention of human wits, as human wisdom cannot oppose her force.	Dante's conception of Fortune as a divine Intelligence in charge of the world's wealth goes counter-current to the tradition which saw Lady Luck as a blindfolded, capricious female turning the Wheel at random. Here Dante seems to correct a passage in his Convivio (IV,xi,6) where he states that wordly goods are imperfect and unjustly distributed. It is interesting to note that later on, in the Italian Humanism, a new conception will slowly come into being whereby man with his virtù can control and overcome Fortune [see Machiavelli]..
97-108 It is now past midnight and begins the second day into the voyage. Dante and Virgil descend into the marsh-like river called Styx, where the Fifth Circle is located.	FIFTH CIRCLE. Contrapasso: as the Wrathful were overtaken by various degree of wrath in life and vented or not their rage, so now they are immersed to various degrees in the marsh..
109-130 In the muddy Styx are immersed the Wrathful, some half way, some totally immersed. Those partially immersed tear each other to pieces. The others sigh making the waters above them bubble, as if they were gurgling words in their throat. In the meantime, Dante and Virgil had circled quite a bit around the Styx when they arrive at the foot of a tower.	The episode of the Wrathful which begins here will continue into next Canto VIII--as Dante tells us at the beginning of that Canto. It is relevant to note that up to now the "episodes" have been restrained, so to speak, within each Canto. From now on, while the subject matter is becoming increasigly more complex, single Cantos will not be sufficient to contain the "episodes" any more. Of course, this also means that Dante has begun perfecting his poetical skill.

CANTO 8

1-30 A swift vessel comes toward Dante and Virgil. It is navigated by the wrathful guardian of the Fifth Circle, Phlegyas. He is going to ferry the two Poets across the marsh.	Phlegyas is guardian of the Styx and also the symbol of rage.
31-64 During the crossing, a "muddy" wrathful and bizarre soul tries to stop the boat and talk to Dante. He is rejected and rebuked by the Wayfarer who expresses the desire to see this soul undergo greater torments. So as it happens a group of souls jump on him and identify him as FILIPPO ARGENTI.	We know nothing about Filippo Argenti, except what we are told by early commentators and by Boccaccio in his Decameron (IX,8) where Filippo is portrayed as an arrogant and irascible person. Critics have generally reproached Dante's fierce attitute of scorn against Filippo. But we have to remember that Filippo had stood up before Phlegyas' boat in an attempt to stop Dante's voyage. Again, this is an act of impediment of the "fated journey" and, as we have seen before, cannot be allowed. Here Dante doesn't need Virgil's help. He can address the impediment himself, but will have Virgil's full approval.
65-81 In the meantime Virgil and Dante are approaching the walls of the City of Dis. Phlegyas shows them the gate and shouts at them to get off his boat.	Dis is both the name of the lower realm of Hell, as well as another name for Satan, the king of Hell.
82-130 A great multitude of demons gather at the gate of Dis trying to impede Virgil's and Dante's entrance.	Virgil tries to calm them down but he cannot.

CANTO 9

1-33 Seeing all those demons and that it is impossibile for his guide to do anything, Dante is taken by deep fear. Virgil tries to comfort him by telling him that once before he himself went all the way down to the bottom of Hell, and hence he knows the way.	This Canto is strictly connected with Canto 8. Here, however, in the emotional crescendo, Dante becomes for the first time unsure of his guide.
34-60 At this moment Dante sees the three Furies appear to strengthen defence of the City. They make frightening gestures and threaten to call on Medusa to turn Dante into a stone. So Virgil makes Dante turn his back to the wall and tells him to keep his eyes shut	The three Furies are the guardians of the City of Dis. Medusa is one of the three Gorgon sisters. She has serpents for hair.
61-109 Virgil cannot overcome this impediment. Therefore the coming of a celestial Messanger will be necessary. He arrives, forces the doors open with a little wand, reproaches the wall defenders for having tried to obstruct heavenly justice, and turns back as fast as he has come. So Dante and Virgil can finally enter into the City of Dis.	Here Virgil, as symbol of human reason, fails. This is the strongest impediment to the journey so far. Virgil reassurance to Dante that he knows the way,is of no use here. To open the way is necessary not simply human Reason, but the intervention of Grace.
110-130 Once inside the City, Dante sees everywhere uncovered tombs inside of which there are hot flames and growing laments. Virgil informs Dante that inside those sepulchers are condemned the arch-Heretics.	Inquisition tribunals to conduct inquests against suspected heretics were set up in 1233. Perhaps through analogy with Roman law on treason, burning at the stake was considered a fitting punishment for heretics. In reality burning of heretics was not a common practice in the Middle Ages.

CANTO 10

1-21 The burning coffins of the Sixth Circle are uncovered. Dante asks Virgil if he could see the souls inside. Virgil answers that after Judgment Day, those coffins will all be shut with souls and bodies inside. He also tells Dante that here are punished Epicurus and his followers, that is to say all those who believe that the individual soul dies with the body.	SIXTH CIRCLE. The Heretics. In the Middle Ages the Greek philosopher Epicurus had become the symbol of all skeptical persons who denied the immortality of the soul.
22-51 One of the shades has recognized Dante to be a Florentine by the way he speaks and asks him to stop a while. He is Farinata degli Uberti, also Florentine. Farinata and Dante have a rather brief and cutting exchange, belonging as they do to differing political parties. In the exchange are encapsulated the political fortunes of Guelfs and Ghibellines during a couple of scores, before and after the middle of the Century.	Farinata was born to the noble family Degli Uberti, and became leader of the Ghibelline party in 1239. He helped to expel the Guelfs from Florence in 1248, but the Guelfs returned twice, in 1251 and 1266. Farinata is only concerned with politics.
52-72 While Dante is having his exchange with Farinata, another shade rises all of a sudden from the coffin and wants to know from Dante where is his son. He is Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, father of Dante's dear friend Guido. Dante's answer is misunderstood by Cavalcante who now believes that his son is dead, and falls back into his coffin.	Dante's friend, Guido Cavalcanti, was a famous poet of the "Sweet New Style". He was born around 1250 and died in August 1300. Thus, in the fictional time of Dante's voyage, Guido is still alive. In contrast to Farinata, Cavalcante is only concerned with family.
73-93 After the "interruption" of Cavalcanti, the partisan exchange between Dante and Farinata continues. Then Farinata makes a prophesy about the political future of Florence after 1300 when the Guelfs will be expelled again from Florence. This, of course, involves Dante's own exile	By interjecting family feeling (Cavalcante's story) into a political discourse (Farinata's concern), Dante seems to tell us that family is the small fundamental nucleus of a civilized state.
94-120 Dante is confused by the fact that Farinata can see the future and Cavalcanti has no idea of the present. Farinata explains to him that the souls here can see the future, but as it approaches and becomes present their knowledge is totally lost. Therefore, he says, at the end of times, when future will be no more, also their knowledge will be totally in vain. Dante now understands and asks Farinata to tell Cavalcante that his son is still alive. Then Farinata mentions to Dante that among his group there is also Frederick II.	The idea that knowledge in these souls will be, at the end of times, totally extinct, is part of the contrapasso. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1215 to 1250, was well known for his efforts to reunite the Empire. He was also one of the poets in his famous Sicilian School at his court.

>

CANTO 11

1-13 The two Poets arrive at the edge of the Sixth Circle. The stench that comes from the Circle below is so strong that they decide to stop a while by a coffin in order to get somewhat accostumed to the smell. In the coffin there is the soul of Pope Anastasius II.	Pope Anastasius II (496-498) was considered by all historians up to the XVI century as a follower of an heretical doctrine, later disproved. Dante may have confused him with Emperor Anastasius I (491-518) whose heretical inclination stirred religious unrest throughout the Empire.
13-90 In order not to waste time, Virgil begins to explain to Dante how lower Hell is organized. He tells his pupil that there are three more Circles below: one for sinners of Violence and two for sinners of Fraud. Dante has some doubts and asks Virgil why the sinners they met in the upper part of Hell are not punished within the City of Dis. Virgil reminds him of what Aristotle said in his Ethics, namely that Incontinence is less offensive to God and therefore deserves a lesser punishment than Violence and Fraud.	The moral order of Hell and the distribution of sinners within it have been discussed in the Introduction to Inferno.(See above) The Ethics here is a reference to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. In Dante's times Aristotle was known to Europe only in Latin translations.
95-115 Dante has one more doubt: why should usury be a kind of violence against God? Virgil again reminds him of what Aristotle said in his Physics: Nature is the daughetr of God and Art imitates Nature, therefore Art is the granddaughter of God . Usury is an unnatural use of Nature because the usurer earns his living not through work--as Genesis teaches--but without any effort, through gains made from interest on money loaned to the less fortunate. Usury therefore offends both Art and Nature and, of course, God.	The reference here is to Aristotle's Physics "not many pages from the beginning". In fact here Virgil is referring to Chapter 2 of Book II where Aristotle sets forth the principle explained. In Genesis 3:17 and 19 is written that man must earn his bread