INDEX.

(Pages 1 to 206 are in Part I.: 207 onwards, in Part II.)

Footnotes:

[1] “The fair things that Heaven holds.” Inferno XXXIV. 137, 138.

[2] Greek gnomon, an interpreter. A pole set up in order to show the length of shadow thrown by the sun.

[3] Greek planetes, a wanderer. This name was originally given to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and also to sun and moon, for it indicated all the known heavenly bodies which changed their places among the stars. In modern usage it is not applied to the sun, but only to his satellites, of which many more are now known.

[4] Fractions omitted.

[5] Conv. IV., xxiii. 56, 57.

[6] Dr. C. Hose, in “Travel and Exploration,” for Feb. 1910, quoted in “Nature,” Feb. 17, 1910.

[7] Journal of the British Astronomical Association, June 24, 1909, report of a lecture on Chinese astronomy by E. B. Knobel, F.R.A.S.

[8] Acts, xvii. 28.

[9] The Phainomena of Aratos, done into English verse by Robert Brown, lines 1-13.

[10] Ibid., 373-382.

[11] Ptolemy says he made a few changes, as his predecessors had done. (Delambre, Histoire de l’Astronomie Ancienne, ii. 261).

[12] Origine de tous les cultes, ou Religion universelle, by C. F. Dupuis.

[13] Journal of the British Astronomical Association, “The Oldest Astronomy,” July 1898, June 1899, April 1904 May 1909; The Observatory, December 1898; Knowledge, October 1904; and elsewhere.

[14] The Phainomena of Aratos, by Robert Brown. See also his Eridanus, River and Constellation; Primitive Constellations, and other works.

[15] We are not sure what limits Aratus intended to set in the south to Centaur and Argo, and notably to the River Eridanus, which used to flow beneath the Sea-Monster (Cetus), joining the Water poured out by Aquarius. It changed its bed (like the Euphrates, of which it is perhaps the heavenly counterpart), and now has left the Sea-Monster high and dry, while on its ancient banks a chemist’s furnace and a sculptor’s workshop have been set up.

The Celestial Equator of Aratus fails to agree with the Equator of b.c. 2084, not only in passing over the head of Orion, instead of through his belt, as Brown himself points out, but also in running through the eye of the Bull, instead of his “crouching legs alone,” so this part is altogether too far north. The Equator some 1200 years later agreed better here, and equally well elsewhere, except in the opposite part of the sky where it was then too northerly for Aratus, leaving Corvus to the south of the line. Much the same may be said about the tropical circles. Either Aratus was careless, or the globe from which he took his descriptions was incorrect: in any case, there results an uncertainty of many centuries and many degrees in date and latitude.

[16] Epping and Strassmeier, Astronomisches aus Babylon, Kugler’s Babylonische Mondrechnung, and Babylonische Sternkunde. Schiaparelli’s two monographs on Babylonian Astronomy, from which much of the information here given is derived, are chiefly based on these works.

[17] King, History of Sumer and Akkad, p. 246.

[18] Schiaparelli, L’ Astronomia nell’ Antico Testamento, chap. vii.; Wellhausen, History of Israel, chap. iii.

[19] Sayce and Bosanquet identify Dilgan with Capella, not with part of Aries, and consider that a date of about b.c. 2000 is indicated—(Monthly Notices xxxix, 454). But in any case the method of calendar formation is the same.

[20] Sayce and Bosanquet understand Capella here also.

[21] If Taurus was originally considered the first constellation of the zodiac, instead of Aries, of which there are some indications, the change may well be explained by this change of method. It does not necessarily imply that the equinox was in Taurus when our zodiac was invented. It was near ω Arietis in b.c. 1000.

[22] A Babylonian treatise on astronomy recently published by the trustees of the British Museum supports Kugler’s view that truly scientific methods were not adopted before the sixth century b.c. This treatise formed the subject of a lecture given by Mr L. W. King before the Society of Biblical Archæology on Feb. 19, 1913.

[23] Gen. i. 6, 7; vii. 11.

[24] Ezek. xxxii. 18, 24.

[25] De Cœlo I. 3, and II. 1.

[26] But see note, pp.[75, 76].

[27] His life was saved by his illustrious pupil, Pericles, of whom the story is told that on one occasion, just as his army was embarking for an expedition, the sun was eclipsed, and his pilot was terrified. Pericles snatched off his cloak, and held it so as to hide himself from the man’s eyes. “Is that terrible? is that an evil omen?” he cried. “Then do not fear the disappearance of the sun, for it is just the same, only the thing that hides it is larger than my cloak.”

[28] Some late followers said that Pythagoras, alone amongst men, could hear the music of the spheres.

[29] See Heath’s Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 187-189 and 251, 252. I very much regret that as Mr. Heath’s book was only published this year, I have been unable to make use of it while writing of early Greek astronomy. I can now only advise any readers who may be interested in my brief sketch of this period to read Mr. Heath’s history, where they will find the opinions of modern writers summarized and discussed, and also the full text (in English) of the most ancient and reliable sources of information. It is a great encouragement to find that my statements are in agreement with his in nearly all essential points, but readers will mark the following important differences:—

1. Anaximander’s heavens are said to have been spherical, not hemispherical, and this seems to be clearly proved by the evidence quoted from ancient writers.

2. Anaxagoras, not Thales, is said to have been the first to explain correctly the cause of solar eclipses and of the moon’s phases, viz. that the moon is an opaque body, shining only by reflected sunlight, and periodically hiding the sun from us when she passes in front of it. Mr. Heath regards the authorship of Anaxagoras as conclusively proved: readers will be able to judge of this from his quotations. Personally they seem to me to prove no more than that Anaxagoras agreed with others on this point, and was the first to express it clearly in writing. It is difficult to see why Mr. Heath denies that Parmenides held the same views before Anaxagoras: Parmenides’ own words seem to prove it, and his theory that the moon was composed of air and fire mingled is rather in favour of it than otherwise. He surely meant that the moon was not wholly bright, like the sun; yet that she had some light of her own must have seemed evident from the faint illumination we see during total lunar eclipses and on the part of her surface not lighted by the sun. (See Dante’s views, [p. 402 of this book].)

The connection between her phases and her distance from the sun in the sky is so extremely obvious that I can hardly think the Greeks drew no inference from it until the fifth century b.c., and I cannot see why we should refuse to credit Thales with the discovery attributed to him that her light came in some way from the sun. Gruppe acutely observes that the reason why Thales’ pupil Anaximander did not accept the true explanation of lunar phases and solar eclipses may have been because he felt it necessary to have a theory which would apply equally well to eclipses of the moon; and as he believed in a flat earth he could not advocate the true explanation here. This was why he invented a new theory (viz. that both sun and moon were fire shining through holes in hollow rings, and that the occasional stopping up of these holes caused both lunar and solar eclipses, and also the lunar phases).

But Parmenides had learned the Pythagorean doctrine of Earth’s spherical form, hence he was able to accept the older theory that the moon obtains her light from the sun, and sometimes eclipses the sun by her opaque spherical body, for he could have added that the moon is eclipsed in like manner by the opaque spherical body of the earth.

[30] I follow the translation of Jowett.

[31] Compare Par. vii. 64-66.

[32] See his famous description of the eight spheres, on each of which stands a siren, singing, while the whole system turns upon a diamond spindle, the end of which rests upon the knees of Necessity. This book was not known in the Middle Ages.

[33] ειλλομενη.

[34] The period in which a planet is seen to revolve round the zodiac, and return to the same star, varies greatly, because complicated by its retrograde movements; but if the average of a sufficient number of periods be taken, it coincides for Mercury and Venus with the sidereal year; for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, with the period in which each is actually revolving round the sun (its “sidereal period”).

[35] Geminus.

[36] This varying velocity is due to the fact that all celestial orbits are not true circles, but ellipses, which was first discovered by Kepler (1609 a.d.).

[37] De Cœlo II. 10.

[38] Thus, (he adds) time also is threefold, for we have Beginning, Middle, and End. Therefore we apply three to Divine things, and also in common speech we call two “both,” and only say “all” when we reach three, following Nature’s law. The Pythagoreans say “The all and all things are bounded by the number three.”—De Cœlo I. 1.

[39] Par. iv. 1-3.

[40] [See p. 75, note].

[41] Conv. II. iii. 59-65.

[42] It is also mentioned in a compilation of philosophers’ opinions, probably made in the fifth century a.d. by Stobæus, who is very likely quoting Plutarch.

[43] [See page 101].

[44] Indian astronomers also refused to accept the doctrine of Aryabhata. Varâha Mihira (sixth century a.d.) says:—“Others maintain that the earth revolves and not the sphere: if that were the case, falcons and other birds could not return from the ether to their nests.”

[45] Spheres all centring in one point.

[46] Mahaffy, The Progress of Hellenism in Alexander’s Empire, p. 119.

[47] [See p. 26].

[48] Almagest, Bk. viii.

[49] Greek peri near, apo away from, ge Earth.

[50] Syntaxis, book VII.; Delambre, Histoire de l’Astronomie Ancienne Vol. II. page 247 (1817 edition).

[51] Venus had passed her “inferior conjunction with the sun” on Sept. 15.

[52] It amounts to 5 degrees of longitude in 300 years.

[53] This is evident from the way he treats them, picking up an epicycle or a deferent just as best suits the purpose in hand and explaining sometimes that either would answer equally well.

[54] Taken from the Almagest catalogue, as given in Delambre’s History.

[55] Fifteen stars.

[56] Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy, p. 196.

[57] The changing latitudes of the planets, for instance, which gave Ptolemy much trouble, are much more easily explained when it is granted that they partly depend upon Earth’s motion in an orbit whose plane is slightly inclined to the planes of their orbits.

[58] It therefore really approached more nearly the sidereal year, although the cycle was based on the tropical year.

[59] De Mon. II. vii., “Temple Classics” edition.

[60] De Senectute.

[61] The average year was the same, 365¼ days, in the old 8-year cycle of the Greeks, and also in the Calippic cycle, which did not come into practical use. The average year of the Metonic cycle was longer, and therefore departed further from the true tropical year.

[62] [See p. 45].

[63] Ezekiel, v. 5.

[64] Arabic gib = Latin sinus, a fold; i.e. the chord folded in two.

[65] The Arabian mile was equal to 4000 “black cubits,” and if this is the Egyptian and Babylonian cubit, the values are rather too large, being in round numbers 26,500 and 8,500 English miles, instead of 25,000 and 8000.

[66] The Catalogue of Hipparchus is said to have contained 1080 stars, but Ptolemy’s has only 1022.

[67] Earth’s diameter, and even Earth’s distance from the sun, is too small a unit. Light, travelling 186,000 miles a second, takes 4¼ years to reach us from the nearest star.

[68] It is impossible to measure the diameter of any star, even with the help of the most powerful telescopes, but in the case of a double star at a known distance the movement of the components as they travel round their common centre of gravity enables us to determine the gravitational force they exercise on each other, and thus their combined mass; and their spectra give some idea of their density. For instance, the mass of the double star Alpha Centauri is nearly twice that of our sun; and as the components appear to be about equal to each other, and both show a spectrum resembling that of the sun, we may conclude that Alpha Centauri consists of two stars, each of which has about the same diameter as our sun. Arcturus has a diameter far greater, some say ten times, some not less than twenty-five times as great as the sun!

[69] The mean length of Earth’s shadow (which varies a little with her distance from the sun,) is 857,000 miles, or 216 times her semi-diameter.

[70] It was also translated from Arabic into Latin at Toledo, in 1175.

[71] Paradise Lost, II. 418

[72] Paradise Lost, VIII. 34-38.

[73] Paradise Lost, VIII. 77-84.

[74] All quotations from Salimbene’s Chronicle are taken from Coulton’s From Saint Francis to Dante.

[75] Croniche Fiorentine, Bk. VII. par. 80.

[76] Inf. xx. 118.

[77] V. E., I. xii. 20-35.

[78] Villani, Croniche Fiorentine, VI. 1 and 24.

[79]

“That other, round the loins So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot, Practised in every sleight of magic wile.” Carey.

[80] Boccaccio’s Vita di Dante; Translation from Toynbee’s Dante Alighieri (Oxford Biographies), pp. 92, 93.

[81] Inf. xv. 23 et seq.

[82] Inf. xv. 119.

[83] “If thou follow thy star,” Inf. xv. 55.

[84] “First refuge,” Par. xvii. 70.

[85] Par. xvii. 71, 72.

[86] Imbriani, Dante a Padova.

[87] “Torno a Ravenna e de lì non mi parto (I am going back to Ravenna, and shall not leave it again), is a line in the Acerba which Cecco d’ Ascoli puts into the mouth of Dante, as though from a letter written to himself from the divine poet at the time” (about the year 1319). Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, by Wicksteed and Gardner, p. 84.

[88] Inf. xxxi. 136-141.

[89] Conv. II. xiii. 22-26.

[90] Conv. III. ix. 146-157.

[91] Conv. II. xv. 73-77.

[92] Conv. II. iii. 36-52, V. N. xxx.

[93] Averroës, in his commentary on Aristotle’s De Cœlo, says that the ancients believed the eighth, or starry, heaven, to be the outermost, but that Ptolemy assumed a ninth, “because he said that he had discovered a slow motion along the signs of the zodiac in the fixed stars.” Albertus Magnus, in his De Cœlo et Mundo, Book II., says also that the ancients, including Aristotle, believed that there were only eight heavens, but that Ptolemy, so far as he can understand, believed in ten, on philosophical not mathematical grounds (compare Conv. II. iii. 40, 41). Albertus accepted the theory of “trepidation,” and thought this was the only movement which ought to be assigned to the star sphere; there remained, therefore, two motions, which affect all the planetary spheres and the star sphere, for which two more spheres must be assumed, a ninth sphere for precession, and a tenth, the primum mobile, for the diurnal motion. Outside all was the Empyrean. Dante never mentions trepidation, and evidently did not believe in it: he needed only nine moving spheres, therefore, but counts the Empyrean as a tenth heaven.

[94] Conv. II. xiv. 198-202. Ibid. 249-253.

[95] “Ptolemy says in the book above cited.”

[96] Par. xiii. 1-13.

[97] See Schiaparelli’s letter in Lubin’s Dante e gli Astronomi Italiani. The name is, however, also used as a sub-title in the printed edition of Christmann, Frankfort, 1590, which was based not on the translation of Gerard but of Johannes Hispalensis of Seville; and Toynbee thinks that this Frankfort edition represents most nearly the version of Alfraganus used by Dante. It is the only one of the five printed editions which gives the same figure for the diameter of Mercury as that quoted by Dante. See Toynbee, “Dante’s Obligations to Alfraganus” in Romania xxiv. 95, and Moore, Studies in Dante iii. p. 3, note.

[98] “That glorious philosopher to whom Nature most fully revealed her secrets,” Conv. III. v. 54-56; “almost divine,” Conv. IV. vi. 133; “supreme and highest authority,” Ibid. 52.

[99] Moore, Studies in Dante I. (Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante), from which much of the information in this chapter has been taken.

[100] Conv. II. iii. 19-21.

[101] Conv. III. v. 62-65.

[102] “My master.”

[103] Conv. III. v. 32.

[104] Inf. ii. 76-78; Par. xxii. 134-138.

[105] Conv. ii. xiv. 174-176.

[106] Phaëthon, Conv. II. xv. 53-55, Purg. xxix. 118-120; Latona, Purg. xx. 130-132; the Horses of the Sun, Conv. IV. xxiii. 134-139, etc., etc.

[107] Conv. III. v. 115-117.

[108] “A man of supreme excellence.” Conv. II. v. 21, 22.

[109] Conv. III. xiv. 76-79.

[110] Par. iv. 22-24, 49-60.

[111] Conv. III. xi. 39; Inf. iv. 137.

[112] Conv. III. xi. 22-33; II. xiv. 144-147; III. v. 29-44; III. xi. 41-47.

[113] Conv. II. xiv. 34, 35.

[114] Conv. II. xv. 56.

[115] Qu. xviii. 38, 39.

[116] Conv. III. ii. 37.

[117] Conv. II. xv. 77, II. xiv. 32.

[118] Conv. II. xiv. 170-174.

[119] Inf. iv. 80, 81, 90, 131-144.

[120] “The advocate of the Christian centuries.” (Par. x. 199). Orosius is also mentioned by name in Conv. III. xi. 27; V. E. II. vi. 84; and De Mon. II. ix. 26.

[121]

“He who is nearest to me on the right My brother and master was, and he Albertus Is of Cologne, I Thomas of Aquinum.” (Par. x. 97-99).

[122] Toynbee, Dante Dictionary; the source also of many other details given in this chapter.

[123] Albert in Conv. III. v. 113-115, vii. 26-28; IV. xxiii. 125-6; Aquinas in Conv. II. xv. 125-6; IV. viii. 3-6, xv. 125-130, xxx. 26-30; De Mon. II. iv. 5-8; and see Purg. xx. 69.

[124] V. E., I. xiii. 1-11.

[125] Inf., xxxii. 81, and x. 85, 86.

[126] Purg., iii. 112-129.

[127] “Replied after this fashion.”

[128] Li Louvres dou Trésor, Chabaille, Paris 1863.

[129] Ibid.

[130] “Here beginneth the book of the Composition of the World together with its Causes: written by Ristoro of Arezzo in that most noble city.”

[131] “Here endeth this book, in the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and eighty-two. Rudolph Emperor at this date. Martin IV. resident Pope.” Amen.

[132] “Alfraganus said in the 8th chapter”; “Alfraganus bears witness in the 22nd chapter of his book.”

[133] “The famous Ptolemy.”

[134] “Who was a very great teacher of astrology.”

[135] “An Arabian philosopher of Baghdad, 1058-1111.”

[136] “The uncovered earth,” i.e. not hidden under the ocean.

[137] Bk. VI. cap. xi.

[138] Conv. I. i. 125, 126. Compare Conv. IV. xxiv. 1-13.

[139] V. N. ii. 9-12, xxx. 13-24.

[140] V. N. ii. 1-12.

[141] V. N. xlii. 47.

[142] V. N. xxx. 1-6.

[143] V. N. xlii. 30.

[144] Conv. II. xiii. 22-26.

[145] Son. xxxvi. 2; Canz. xx. 89.

[146] Canz. xix. 117; Canz. ix. 16, 17.

[147] Canz. xx. 89; Son. xxviii. 11.

[148] Son. xxviii.; Canz. xv. 4, 7.

[149] Canz. xv. 3, 29, 41.

[150] Son. xxviii. 2.

[151] Son. xxviii. Canz. xix. 77, Ball. vi. 11, 12, Canz. xv. 41., Son. xxvi. 14.

[152] Conv. I. i. 111-113 and 125-127.

[153] Conv. I. i. 67-86.

[154] “As the Philosopher says at the beginning of the First Philosophy, ‘All men naturally desire to have knowledge.’ The reason of this may be that everything, being impelled by foresight belonging to its own nature, tends to seek its own perfection. Wherefore inasmuch as knowledge is the final perfection of our soul in which our final happiness consists, all men are naturally subject to the desire for it.” Conv. I. i. 1-11.

[155]

“Oh ye whose intellectual ministry Moves the third heaven.”—Carey.

[156] “The sun sees not, though circling all the world.”

[157] The spherical form of Earth, and the action of gravity at the earth’s surface, were commonplaces with the Greeks, as we have seen in Part I. of this book. Posidonius, Strabo, and other classical writers speak of the tides as following the revolution of the heavens, and having periods similar to those of the moon; Albertus Magnus and Aquinas ascribe them to the influence of the moon, and so does Dante himself in Par. xvi. 83.

[158] See Moore, Studies in Dante, II. “The Genuineness of the Quæstio de Aqua et Terra,” for a complete discussion of the question.

[159] V. N. xliii. 3-7.

[160] Conv. II. xiv. 244-217. “It is noble and lofty because of its noble and lofty subject, which is the movement of the heavens; it is lofty and noble because of its certainty, which is without flaw.”

[161] [See p. 156].

[162] “The great wheels,” “eternal wheels,” “starry wheels.”

[163] “Swift, almost as the heaven ye behold.” Par. ii. 21.

[164] “Against the course of the sky.” Par. vi. 2.

[165]

... “That sphere, Which aye in fashion of a child is playing.” Purg. xv. 2, 3. (Longfellow).

[166] “Under a poor sky.” Purg. xvi. 2.

[167]

“And as advances, bright exceedingly, The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed, Light after light, to the most beautiful.” Par. xxx. 7-9. (Longfellow).

[168]

“As at evening hour Of twilight, new appearances through heaven Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully descried.” Par. xiv. 70-72. (Carey).

[169] In Kenneth Grahame’s delightful book, full of sympathy with Nature, The Wind in the Willows. The moon rose when it was “past ten o’clock,” and “sank earthwards reluctantly and left them” before dawn.

[170] H. G. Wells, The Time Machine.

[171] Inf. xv. 18, 19; Purg. xviii. 76-81; Purg. x. 14, 15, Cf. ix. 44.

[172] Purg. xxix. 53, 54.

[173] Qu. xx. 61-63.

[174] “Now she shines on one side, and now on the other, according to the way the sun looks upon her.” Conv. II. xiv. 77-79.

[175]

“At what times both the children of Latona, Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales, Together make a zone of the horizon, As long as from the time the zenith holds them In equipoise, till from that girdle both Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance, So long, her face depicted with a smile, Did Beatrice keep silence.” Par. xxix. 1-8.

[176] “Many moons.” Canz. xx. 89.

[177] “And the first heaven is not grudging to her.”—Sonetto xxviii.

[178] Purg. xix. 1, 2.

[179] Inf. xx. 127-129.

[180] Purg. ix. 1-9.

[181] Conv. IV. xvi. 89-93.

[182] Inf. x. 80.

[183] Inf. xx. 126.

[184] Purg. xxix. 78; Ep. vi. 54.

[185] Par. xxiii. 26.

[186] Par. x. 67; xxii. 139; xxix. 1.

[187] Purg. xxiii. 120.

[188] Purg. xx. 132.

[189] Par. ii. 25-36.

[190] De Mon. I. xi. 35-37.

[191] Par. x. 67-69; and Purg. xxix. 78.

[192] Purg. xxix. 53, 54; and Par. xxiii. 26.

[193] “And this moon, because of her inferiority, is rightly called feminine.”

[194] Ecl. ii. 1-4.

[195] Purg. iv. 62, 63; Purg. iv. 59; and xxix. 117, 118; Par. i. 38; Canz. xix. 114; Par. xxii. 116.

[196] “The perfection and beauty of his shape.” Canz. xix. 76.

[197] V. N. xlii. 29; Canz. ix. 2; Conv. II. xiv. 126, 127; Purg. xvii. 52, 53; Par. i. 54; and x. 48, etc.

[198] Inf. i. 17, 18.

[199]

“O pleasant light, my confidence and hope! Conduct us thou,” he cried, “on this new way.” Purg. xiii. 16, 17. (Carey).

[200] Par. xxii. 55, 56; Inf. vii. 122; De Mon. II. i. 37-39; and Par. ii. 106-108; Canz. xi. 37; Conv. III. xii. 59, 60, etc. etc.

[201] Canz. ix. 5.

[202] Inf. i. 41-43.

[203] Purg. xix. 10, 11.

[204] Par. xxiii. 1-9.

[205] Inf. ii. 127-129.

[206] De Mon. II. i. 36-41.; Canz. ix.

[207] Canz. xix. 96-114.

[208] Ep. v. 10; and vii. 19, 20, 25.

[209] “A sun rose upon the world.” Par. xi. 50.

[210] Par. xi. 52-54.

[211] “O sun that healest all imperfect vision,” Inf. xi. 91.

[212] “The sun of my eyes.” Par. xxx. 75 (See also Par. iii. 1-3).

[213] Conv. III. xii. 52-63.

[214] “The Sun of the angels.” Par. x. 53.

[215] “That Sun which enlightens all our company.” Par. xxv. 54.

[216] “The Sun which satisfies it.” Par. ix. 8.

[217] “I have lost the sight of that high Sun whom thou desirest.” Purg. vii. 25, 26. Compare Par. xxx. 126; xv. 76; xviii. 105.

[218] “The path of the sun.” Purg. xii. 74.

[219] “Shining more brightly and with slower steps, the sun had gained the circle of midday.” Purg. xxxiii. 103, 104.

[220] “Nine times already since my birth had the heaven of light returned to the selfsame point almost, as concerns its own revolution.”
V. N. ii. 1-4. (Rossetti).

[221] “I have dwelt with Love since my ninth revolution of the sun.” Son. xxxvi. 1, 2.

[222] [See diagram on p. 276].

[223]

“O glorious stars ... With you was born, and hid himself with you, He who is father of all mortal life, When first I tasted of the Tuscan air.” Par. xxii. 112-117. (Longfellow).

At this date the sun entered the constellation of Gemini on June 1 (Old Style), but was in the sign from May 11 to June 11, and it is always to the signs that Dante refers in the Divine Comedy. The anonymous fourteenth century commentator known as “l’Ottimo” interprets this passage as indicating the time “between the middle of May and the middle of June.”

[224]

“Ere January be unwintered wholly By the centesimal on Earth neglected.” Par. xxvii. 142-143. (Longfellow).

[225]

“In that part of the youthful year wherein The sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers, And now the nights draw near to half the day.” Inf. xxiv. 1-3. (Longfellow).

[226] “Night that opposite to him revolves.” (Longfellow).

[227]

“The Scales, that from her hands are dropped When she reigns highest.” Purg. ii. 5, 6. (Carey).

[228]

“And he: Now go, for the sun shall not lie Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram With all his four feet covers and bestrides. Before that such a courteous opinion ...” Purg. viii. 133-136. (Longfellow).

[229] “I have come to that part of the wheel.” Canz. xv.

[230] Like all mediæval writers, Dante includes the sun and moon among the seven planets. The others do not cast perceptible shadows, except Venus and Jupiter at their brightest.

[231]

“I to that point in the great wheel have come, Wherein the horizon, when the sun doth set, Brings forth the twin-starred heaven to our sight; And Love’s fair star away from us doth roam, Through the bright rays obliquely on it met In such wise that they veil its tender light; That planet which makes keen the cold of night Shows himself to us in the circle great, Where each star of the seven casts little shade.” (Plumptre).

[232] “The Wheel which, when the sun sets, brings forth for us on the horizon the jewelled sky.”

[233] Sulla Data del Viaggio Dantesco p. 90, note.

[234] Comparing Conv. II. ii. 12, xiii. 49-52, and IV. i. 60-62, we learn that in August 1293 (vide infra, p. 314), Dante first became acquainted with the Lady Philosophy; that in the early part of 1296 he was completely under her spell; and that some time afterwards she for a while estranged herself from him.

[235]

“Scattered and faded now is all the foliage Which had burst forth, beneath the power of Aries, To beautify the world, the grass is withered.” Canz. xv. 40-42.

[236]

“This everlasting spring Nocturnal Aries never can despoil.” Par. xxviii. 116-117.

[237]

“Thereafterward a light among them brightened So, that if Cancer one such crystal had Winter would have a month of one sole day.” Par. xxv. 100-102. (Longfellow).

[238] Ep. ix. 46-49.

[239] Inf. iii. 23.

[240] Inf. xvi. 82, 83.

[241] “Resounded through the air without a star.” Inf. iii. 23.

[242] “The fair things that heaven holds.” Inf. xxxiv. 137, 138.

[243] Purg. viii. 85.

[244] Purg. xxvii. 89, 90.

[245] “Beautiful stars,” Inf. xvi. 83.

[246] “Thence issuing we beheld again the stars.”

[247] “Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.”

[248] “The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”

[249] Purg. ix. 4; Purg. viii. 89; Purg. i. 25; Par. xxiii. 26.

[250] Par. ii. 130, 142-144.

[251] Par. x. 76.

[252] Par. xxi. 28-33.

[253] Inf. ii. 55.

[254] Par. xxv. 70. See also Conv. II. xvi. 4-12, where the writings of Boëthius and Cicero, and all instructive books, are called stars full of light.

[255] Par. xxiv. 147.

[256]

“Even as remaineth splendid and serene The hemisphere of air, when Boreas Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest, Because is purified and resolved the wrack That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs With all the beauties of its pageantry: Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady Had me provided with her clear response, And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.” Par. xxviii. 79-87. (Longfellow).

[257] “The shining star.” Par. xxiii. 92.

[258]

“O Trinal Light, that in a single star Sparkling upon their sight so satisfies them, Look down upon our tempest here below!” Par. xxxi. 28-30. (Longfellow).

[259] Purg. xxix. 91.

[260]

“Of those long hours wherein the stars above Wake and keep watch, the third was almost nought.” V. N. iii. 81, 82. (Rossetti).

[261] Inf. vii. 98, 99.

[262]

“Like unto stars neighbouring the stedfast poles.” Par. x. 78.

[263] Purg. viii, 86, 87.

[264] “These stars all revolve round the same point, and the nearer a star is to this point, the smaller is the circle that it makes, and the slower its motion appears.” El. Ast. cap. ii.

[265] Purg. i. 22-27.

[266]

“My insatiate eyes Meanwhile to heaven had travelled, even there Where the bright stars are slowest, as a wheel Nearest the axle.” Purg. viii. 85-87. (Carey).

[267]

“And he to me: The four resplendent stars Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low, And these have mounted up to where those were.” Purg. viii. 91-93. (Longfellow).

[268] Conv. II. xv. 10-14, and 96-104.

[269] “The glorious Lady.”

[270] V. N. ii. 9-15.

[271]

“I say that the starry heaven displays a multitude of stars to us, for as the Sages of Egypt have perceived, including the last star which appears to them in the south, they reckon one thousand and twenty-two starry bodies, of which I am now speaking.”

Conv. II. xv. 18-22. (Jackson).

[272]

“You are to know that the Sages measured the places of all the fixed stars as accurately as possible with their instruments, as far south as they could see in the third climate.... The number of all the stars which he was able to measure is one thousand and twenty-two.”

[273]

“We see in it (the starry heaven) a difference in the magnitude of the stars and in their light.”

Qu. xxi. 19-21.

[274]

“Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you Which in their quality and quantity May noted be of aspects different.” Par. ii. 65-66. (Longfellow).

[275] “The Ram.” Purg. viii. 134; Par. xxix. 2.

[276] “The sign which follows Taurus,” Par. xxii. 110, 111; “The eternal Twins,” xxii. 152; “The fair nest of Leda,” xxvii. 98.

[277] “The Balance.” Purg. ii. 5.

[278] “The cold creature.” Purg. ix. 5.

[279] “The Goat of the sky.” Par. xxvii. 69.

[280] “The celestial Carp.” Purg. xxxii. 54.

[281] Purg. iv. 61.

[282] “The burning Lion’s breast.” Par. xxi. 14.

[283] “Greater Fortune.”

[284]

“Gems ... set in the shape of that cold animal Which with its tail doth smite amain the nations.” (Longfellow).

[285] Par. xiii. 11, 12.

[286]

“A voice, That made me seem like needle to the star, In turning to its whereabout.” Par. xii. 29, 30. (Carey).

[287] “The needle which guides mariners, for by the virtue of the heavens it is attracted and turned towards that star which is called the North Star.” Composizione del Mondo, Bk. VII. part iv. ch. 2.

[288] Inf. xxvi. 127-129.

[289] Purg. i. 30.

[290] Purg. i. 26.

[291] Purg. viii. 89.

[292] “Four bright stars, four sacred lights.”

[293]

“We are nymphs here, and in heaven we are stars.” Purg. xxxi. 104-106.

[294] Purg. xxxi. 111.

[295] Antonelli thinks the four stars were α and β Crucis, α and β Centauri, all of which had been mentioned by Ptolemy, and all lie near the circle which marks the limit of circumpolar stars in the supposed latitude of Purgatory (32° south). The three stars he says were ζ Navis, Canopus, and Achernar:—Antonelli, Accenni alle Dottrine Astronomiche nella Divina Commedia.

[296] Inf. xi. 113, 114; Purg. i. 30.

[297]

“The Wain, that in the bosom of our sky Spins ever on its axle, night and day.” Par. xiii. 7-9. (Carey).

[298]

“Fled is every bird that seeks the warmth, From European lands which never lose The seven cold stars.” Canz. xv. 27-29.

[299]

“Seven cold oxen.” De Mon. II. ix. 96.

[300]

“To duty there Each one convoying, as that lower doth The steersman to his port.” Purg. xxx. 4-6. (Carey).

[301] Purg. xxx. 1-3.

[302]

“If the barbarians coming from some region That every day by Helice is covered, Revolving with her son whom she delights in, Beholding Rome and all her noble works Were wonder-struck....” Par. xxxi. 31-35. (Longfellow).

[303] “Those under the sway of the seven cold oxen.”

[304] I do not know whether this comparison originated with Dante, but it was well known to Spanish sailors two centuries later. In the Arte of Navigation which was “Englished out of the Spanyshe,” by Richard Eden in 1561, Beta and Gamma of Ursa Minor are referred to as “two starres called the Guardians, or the mouth of the horne.”

[305] Par. xiii. 1-28.

[306] Par. viii. 52, 53.

[307] Par. v. 136, 137.

[308] Par. viii. 16.

[309] Par. x. 76, 40-42.

[310] Par. xiv. 97-101.

[311] Par. xv. 13, 14.

[312] Par. xxi. 32, 33; xxiii. 26, 27.

[313] Par. xxii 23; xxiv. 11, 12.

[314] Par. viii. 20, 21; and xxviii. 100-102.

[315]

“Saw I many little flames From step to step descending and revolving, And every revolution made them fairer.” Par. xxi. 136-138. (Longfellow).

Compare 80, 81 and 39; and Par. xxiv. 10, 11.

[316]

“As soon as singing thus those burning Suns Had round about us whirled themselves three times, Like unto stars neighbouring the steadfast poles.” Par. x. 76-78. (Longfellow).

[317] Par. xxi. 80, 81; xii. 3; xviii. 41, 42.

[318] Par. xxiv. 22-24, x. 73, and many others.

[319]

“What time abandoned Phaëton the reins, Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched.” Inf. xvii. 107-108. (Longfellow).

[320]

“Even as, distinct with less and greater lights, Glimmers between the two poles of the world The Galaxy that maketh wise men doubt, Thus constellated in the depths of Mars Those rays described the venerable sign That quadrants joining in a circle make.” Par. xiv. 97-102. (Longfellow).

[321] “The Galaxy, that is, the white circle commonly called St. James’s Way.”

[322] “And in the Galaxy this heaven has a close resemblance to Metaphysics. Wherefore it must be known that the Philosophers have had different opinions about this Galaxy. For the Pythagoreans affirmed that the sun at one time wandered in its course, and in passing through other regions not suited to sustain its heat, set on fire the place through which it passed; and so these traces of the conflagration remain there. And I believe that they were influenced by the fable of Phaëton, which Ovid tells at the beginning of the second book of the Metamorphoses. Others (as for instance Anaxagoras and Democritus) said that the Galaxy was the light of the sun reflected in that region. And these opinions they confirmed by demonstrative reasons. What Aristotle may have said about it cannot be accurately known, because the two translations give different accounts of his opinion. And I think that any mistake may have been due to the translators, for in the New Translation he is made to say that the Galaxy is a congregation, under the stars of this part of the heaven, of the vapours which are always being attracted by them; and this opinion does not appear to be right. In the Old Translation he says that the Galaxy is nothing but a multitude of fixed stars in that region, stars so small that they are not separately visible from our earth, but the appearance of whiteness which we call the Galaxy is due to them. [And it may be that the heaven in that part is more dense, and therefore retains and reproduces that light] and this opinion Avicenna and Ptolemy appear to share with Aristotle. Therefore, since the Galaxy is an effect of those stars which cannot be perceived except so far as we apprehend these things by their effect, and since Metaphysics treats of primal substances which in the same way we cannot apprehend except by their effects, it is plain that there is a close resemblance between the starry heaven and Metaphysics.”

Conv. II. xv. 44-86. (Jackson).

[323] “That most brilliant star, Venus.” Conv. II. iv. 88.

[324] “The brightness of her appearance, which is more lovely to behold than that of any other star.” Conv. II. xiv. 112, 113.

[325]

“Sweet colour of oriental sapphire, Which was gathering in the serene aspect Of the sky, pure even to the first circle, To my eyes restored delight, So soon as I had come forth from that dead air, Which had troubled eyes and breast. The fair planet that inspires love Was making all the orient smile, Veiling the Fishes which were in her train.”

Alternative rendering of the first three lines:—

“Sweet colour of oriental sapphire, Which was diffused over the tranquil scene, From mid-heaven even to the first circle.” Purg. i. 13-21.

[326] First, or prime, circle.

[327] Conv., II. iv. 1-3.

[328] Literally, “was assembling,” or “was being collected.”

[329] “From the middle.”

[330] “Of the air.”

[331] “From the east there shone upon the Mountain Cytherea, who in the flame of love seems to be always burning.” Purg. xxvii. 94-96.

[332] “Veiling the Fishes” (the zodiacal constellation).

[333] “Her appearance, now in the morning, and now in the evening.” Conv. II. xiv. 114, 115.

[334]

“The star That woos the sun, now following, now in front.” Par. viii. 11-12. (Longfellow).

[335]

“I saw how move themselves, Around and near him, Maia and Dione.” Par. xxii. 143-144.

[336]

“That fair planet, Mercury.” Son. xxviii. 9.

[337] “Mercury ... as it moves is more veiled by the rays of the sun than any other star.” Conv. II. xiv. 99-100.

[338]

... “The sphere That veils itself from men in alien rays.” Par. v. 128, 129.

[339] “This Fire.” Par. xvi. 38.

[340] “The burning smile of the star.” Par. xiv. 86.

[341] “Mars shows red.” Purg. ii. 14.

[342]

“This Mars ... his heat is like the heat of a fire ... his colour is as if he were on fire.” Conv. II. xiv. 162-165.

[343] “Sweet star.” Par. xviii. 115.

[344] “The torch of Jove.” Par. xviii. 70.

[345] “Amongst all the stars it shows white, as if silveredover.” Conv. II. xiv. 202-204.

[346]

“Jupiter Seemed to be silver there with gold inlaid.” Par. xviii. 95-96. (Longfellow).

[347] “One is the slowness of its movement through the twelve signs; for twenty-nine years and more, according to the writings of the astrologers, are required for its revolution: the other is that it is high above all other planets.” Conv. II. xiv. 226-231.

[348] Par. xxi. 18.

[349] Par. xxi. 25.

[350] Par. xxi. 13.

[351] “Circling the world.” Par. xxi. 26.

[352] “Beneath the burning Lion’s breast.” Par. xxi. 14.

[353] Purg. ii. 13-15.

[354]

“Towards us came the being beautiful, Vested in white, and in his countenance Such as appears the tremulous morning star.” Purg. xii. 88-90. (Longfellow).

[355] “He who drew beauty from Mary, as the Morning Star does from the Sun.”
Par. xxxii. 107, 108.

[356] “All the seven.” Son. xxviii. 14, and Par. xxii. 148.

[357] “The oblique circle which carries the planets.”

[358] Par. xvi. 34-39.

[359] “About a year.”

[360] “Three,” for “thirty.”

[361] Conv. II. vii. 88, 89.

[362] “The star of Venus had twice revolved in that circle of hers which makes her appear as evening and morning star, according to her two seasons, since the translation of that holy Beatrice who lives in heaven with the angels and on earth in my soul, when that Gentle Lady, of whom I made mention at the end of the ‘New Life,’ appeared first before my eyes, escorted by Love, and took some place in my mind.” Conv. II. ii. 1-12.

[363] “Venus [ambitum epicycli peragit] anno Persico 1, mensibus 7, et diebus prope 9,” that is, the period of Venus on her epicycle is 365 + 210 + 9 = 584 days nearly, according to Alfraganus. The modern mean value is also 584 days.

[364] See Lubin’s Dante e gli Astronomi Italiani. The period of 225 days may be easily deduced from Ptolemy’s system, for it is the time in which the epicycle of Venus would make an absolute revolution round its centre, the diameter becoming parallel to its former position. But the Greeks invariably reckoned the period as the time in which it revolved relatively to Earth, that is 584 days.

[365] Ep. viii. 158, 159.

[366]

“The while, little by little, as I thought, The sun ceased, and the stars began to gather.” V. N. xxiii. 176, 177. (Rossetti).

See also the prose description just before, lines 35-37.

[367] Par. xxix. 97-102.

[368] Par. xxvii. 35, 36.

[369] Par. xxv. 118-121.

[370] Qu. xx. 3-5, 26-29.

[371] “Blazing brilliantly like comets.” Par. xxiv. 12.

[372] Inf. xxviii. 16-17; Purg. iii. 112-132.

[373] V. E. II. vi. 48.

[374] “I, who saw it clearly.”

[375] Naturales Quæstiones, Bk. I.

[376] Conv. II. xiv. 168-171, and Purg. v. 37.

[377] Par. xv. 16-18.

[378] “Some ignorant people think that they are stars which fall from heaven and vanish.” Comp. del Mondo, VII. v.

[379] “Early in the night.”

[380] “Midnight.” Purg. v. 38.

[381]

“Vapours enkindled saw I ne’er so swiftly At early nightfall cleave the air serene, Nor, at the set of sun, the clouds of August, But upward they returned in briefer time, And on arriving with the others, wheeled Towards us.” Purg. v. 37-41. (Longfellow).

(By “vapours that cleave the clouds of August,” flashes of lightning without thunder are meant. Aristotle believed both these and meteorites to be ignited vapours).

[382]

“As through the pure and tranquil evening air There shoots from time to time a sudden fire, Moving the eyes that steadfast were before, And seems to be a star that changeth place, Except that in the place where it is kindled Nothing is missed, and this endureth little.” Par. xv. 13-18. (Longfellow).

[383] “The star.”

[384] As this is the value given by Alfraganus, we must here understand Arabian miles. The distances from Rome to the north and south pole are therefore probably equal to 3500 to 9750 English miles, and both are a little too large, because the half circumference of Earth is too large. The proportion is about right, however, for Rome is nearly three times as far from the south pole as the north, her latitude being 42° N. Alfraganus placed her in the fifth climate, at the northern boundary of which he said the pole was elevated 43½°.

[385] Qu. xix. 36.

[386] Adopting the reading of Dr. Moore: “nella mezza terra, alla mezza terza,” that is, “at the equator at middle-tierce.” See Studies in Dante III. 107, 108.

[387] “For now, after what has already been said, the rest may be understood by whomsoever has a noble mind, to which it is well to leave a little labour.” (Cf. Par. x. 22-25).

[388] Purg. xiv. 148-151.

[389] “O unspeakable Wisdom who hast thus ordained, how poor is our intellect to understand Thee! And you, for whose benefit and pleasure I am writing, in what blindness you live, not lifting up your eyes to these things, but keeping them fixed on the slough of your folly.”

[390] “And the sky revolves like a mill-stone.” El. Ast. ch. vii.

[391] “There the sky will revolve, with all its stars,
mill-stone fashion.” Comp. del Mondo. I. xxiii.

[392] “It follows that Maria must see this sun ‘circling the world’ like a mill.” Conv. III. v. 142-147.

[393] “A winding path, which the learned call a spiral.”

[394] “Lucan, who was well known to Dante, had observed that shadows cast by the sun in the southern hemisphere travel to the right instead of to the left, and fall southwards when with us they fall to the north.” Moore, Studies in Dante i. p. 239.

[395]

“If their pathway were not thus inflected, Much virtue in the heavens would be in vain, And almost every power below here dead.” Par. x. 16-18. (Longfellow).

[396]

“And now remain, reader, on your bench, thinking over this!” Par. x. 22, 23.

[397] Thus Petrarch: “Le stelle vaghe e lor viaggio torto.” (“The wandering stars and their winding way.”) Sonetto de Morte di Madonna Laura.

[398] Cf. Conv. III. v. 76, 191.

[399]

“Which always remains between the sun and the winter.” Purg. iv. 81.

[400] Studies in Dante iii. p. 166.

[401] Purg. xxi. 46-48; Purg. xix. 38.

[402] Purg. xxviii. 143.

[403] “The land where shadows are lost.” Purg. xxx. 89.

[404] “The great dry land.” Inf. xxxiv. 113.

[405] “The unpeopled world.” Inf. xxvi. 117.

[406] “Behind the sun.” Ibid.

[407] Conv. III. v. 117, 118.

[408] Refraction makes the pole visible a little before one reaches the equator, but such refinements need not be considered in dealing with a popular work like the Convivio.

[409]

“There riseth up from Ethiopia’s sands A wind from far-off clime which rends the air, Through the sun’s orb that heats it with its ray. The sea it crosses; thence, o’er all the lands Such clouds it brings that but for wind more fair O’er all our hemisphere ’twould hold its sway; And then it breaks and falls in whitest spray Of frozen snow and pestilential showers.” Canz. xv. 14-21. (Plumptre).

[410] “Now heats it.”

[411] “This hemisphere.”

[412] Just as in Par. xxviii. 80.

[413] Qu. xix. 53-57, and repeated in xxi. 36-40.

[414] Luke xxiii. 44.

[415] Par. xxix. 97-102.

[416] Dante believed the death of Christ to have taken place when it was noon in Jerusalem. Conv. IV. xxiii. 105-106.

[417] Purg. iv. 137-139.

[418] Purg. xxvii. 1-5.

[419] Orosius says: “Europæ in Hispania occidentalis oceanus termino est, maxime ubi apud Gades insulas Herculis columnæ visuntur.... Asia ad mediam frontem orientis habet in oceano Eoo ostia fluminis Gangis.”

[420] Qu. xix. 38-52.

[421] Moore, Studies in Dante iii. p. 124.

[422]

“The strait pass, where Hercules ordained The boundaries not to be o’erstepped by man.” Inf. xxvi. 107-109. (Carey).

[423] Inf. xxvi. 106-142.

[424] Ptolemy’s Geography, Bk. I.

[425] [See p. 176].

[426] Esdras II. vi. 42.

[427] Beazley, Dawn of Geography iii. 28, 29.

[428] Corvino and Marco Polo made the voyage in the same year, 1292, but in reverse directions.

[429] Purg. iii. 25.

[430] Purg. xv. 1-6.

[431] Purg. iv. 68-71; xxvii. 1-5.

[432] Purg. xxviii. 142. Opinions differed as to its exact site, and some placed it in the ocean beyond the eastern limit of the habitable earth. In V. E. I. viii. 6-10, Dante says that the root of the human race was planted in eastern lands, but this refers to Adam’s home after the expulsion from Paradise.

[433] Par. xxx. 1-3.

[434] Par. ix. 82-87.

[435] Conv. III. vi. 7-32.

[436] Conv. IV. xxiii. 50 to end.

[437] Comp. del Mondo, I. xxii.

[438] “The sixth hour, that is, the middle of the day, is the most noble of all the day, and the most virtuous.”

[439] Luke xxiii. 44-46. Dante understands this to mean that death took place at about the sixth hour, not the ninth.

[440]

“From the first hour to that which cometh next (As the sun changes quarter) to the sixth.” Par. xxvi. 141-142. (Carey).

[441] It is easily seen that this is correct, if we divide the 360° of the moon’s path through the zodiac by the 27 days and eight hours in which she traverses it, and returns to the same star. Brunetto Latini says “La lune s’esloigne dou Soleil chascun jor xiii degrez po s’en faut,” but he is wrong, having apparently forgotten that the sun is also moving in the same direction, at the average rate of nearly 1° daily.

[442] Inf. xxix. 11.

[443] Purg. xxiii. 5, 6.

[444] Par. xxxii. 139.

[445] “Midway in the journey of our life.” Inf. i. 1.

[446] “The sweet season.” Inf. i. 43.

[447]

“Aloft the sun ascended with those stars That with him rose when Love Divine first moved Those its fair works.” Inf. i. 38-40. (Carey).

[448] “Those stars.”

[449] Purg. xi. 108; Conv. II. xv. 12-14.

[450] Conv. III. vi. 28-30.

[451] On the day of the spring equinox the sun rises and sets a few minutes after six o’clock, because we set our clocks not by the real sun but the more convenient “mean sun.”

[452] The clock-hours in this column are not to be regarded as if taken from a railway time-table! Sunrise is at 6 a.m. within a few minutes only, for the reasons above stated, viz.: our clocks are regulated by the “mean” sun, and it is not necessarily the exact day of the equinox when the vision begins.

[453] Or “almost at late midnight.”

[454] Or “nigh me:” “presso” may mean either.

[455] “The Lady who rules here.” Inf. x. 80.

[456] “Lower Hell.” Inf. viii. 75.

[457] Cf. Par. ii. 48-51.

[458] The retardation is not likely to be more than the average of 50 minutes, and may be less, because the moon is in Libra, and therefore going south. This tends to diminish the interval between one moonset and the next in the northern hemisphere, just as the days get shorter when the sun goes south in autumn.

[459] Some think the interval between this reference and the last almost too short, but the words do not indicate that Malacoda spoke on the stroke of seven! and the moon may have set at about 6.30.

[460] “Darkness of Hell.” Purg. xvi. 1.

[461] “The fair planet which kindles love.”

[462] “Departed, as he came, swiftly.”

[463] If the meaning is that the sun is now 50° above the horizon, this would indicate a later hour, nearing midday, for the sun does not rise vertically in this latitude, and reaches only 58° at noon at the time of the equinox. But the first explanation is the more probable.

[464] “The shore.”

[465] [See table on p. 361].

[466] “We must not assume, as some commentators have done, that the signs rise at equal intervals of two hours, although each circles the star sphere in 24 hours. [See fig. 46], where the dotted line shows how e.g. Cancer, circling parallel with the celestial equator, will rise at a point considerably north of east, and having had to traverse more than 90 degrees since Aries rose due east, will not rise until about 7 hours later, i.e. 1 p.m. Conversely Scorpio, following Libra, will rise south of east, and a little less than 2 hours later. The moon’s retardation, therefore, is less in this part of the zodiac than it would otherwise be, and the hour is probably nearer eight than nine.”

[467] “Superlatively obscure.”

[468] “Out of the arms of her lover.”

[469] “Cold creature.”

[470] “The climax of the day.”

[471] See Moore, Studies in Dante iii. pp. 75-84, for a detailed discussion of this passage. Several commentators have held that lines 1 to 6 describe the dawn of day elsewhere; and it is true that it would be nearly 6 a.m. and Pisces would be on the horizon in Italy when the hour was nearly 9 p.m. in Purgatory.

[472] “Vespers there.”

[473] “Here.”

[474] See for instance the “Carte Pisane,“ and the Central Mediterranean map of Vesconte, dating from about 1300 and 1311 respectively, in Beazley’s Dawn of Geography, iii. Latitudes and longitudes are not given, but from certain centres lines radiate to all points of the compass, like great spiders’ webs.

[475] De Mon. II. iii. 87-90. etc.

[476] “It is bounded on the east and north by the Tyrrhenian sea, which lies towards the port of Rome,” Moore, Studies in Dante iii. p. 72.

[477] Purg. xxxii. 56, 57.

[478]

“My more than father said unto me, Son, Come now, because the time that is ordained us More usefully should be apportioned out.” Purg. xxiii. 4-6. (Longfellow).

[479] Purg. xxi. 20-27.

[480] Purg. xiii. 22-23.

[481] On an Astronomical Point in Dante’s Purgatorio, by P. H. Cowell, F.R.A.S., The Observatory, December 1906.

[482] “That circles opposite to him.” Purg. ii. 4.

[483] The signs follow one another on the meridian at intervals of exactly 2 hrs.

[484] “At the hour.”

[485] “I turned to the east.”

[486] “Pure and ready to rise to the stars.” Purg. last line.

[487] “The climax of the day.”

[488] It has been suggested to read the line Par. i. 44. “Tal foce; e quasi tutto là era bianco,” transferring the “quasi” (almost) so that the meaning should be “almost was wholly white that hemisphere,” and to interpret that it is now morning of the day following the events in the last Canto of the Purgatorio. But if so, Dante would have spent a whole night in the Earthly Paradise without mentioning it, or explaining this long delay after he had become “pure and ready to rise to the stars.” (For the meaning of “foce,” the “passage,” see later, [p. 400]).

[489] Par. i. 46, 47.

[490]

“Love that rules the heavens, with thy light Thou didst raise me.” Par. i. 74, 75.

[491] “Turned her eyes again towards heaven.”

[492] “Beatrice gazed upwards, and I at her.”

[493]

“Turned again with yearning to that part where the world is most living.” Par. v. 86, 87.

[494] Inf. i. 38-40.

[495] Conv. II. iv. 52-62.

[496] “That part.”

[497] “He who is father of all mortal life.” Par. xxii. 116; see also De Mon. I. ix. 6, 7.

[498] See Par. x. 7-21.

[499] Longfellow says:—“Looking down from the terrace of Monte Cassino upon the circular threshing-floor of stone in a farm lying below, I first felt the aptness of Dante’s phrase. This very scene may have suggested it to him.”

[500]

“So my lady stood, erect and intent, turned towards that place under which the sun shows least haste.” Par. xxiii. 10-12.

[501] See Par. iv. 34-39.

[502] Purg. xxix. 12 and 34.

[503] “Region.”

[504] Par. xxiii. 29, 30.

[505] Par. xxvii. 64-66.

[506] Compare Purg. xv. 1-5, where the course the sun still has to run between vespers and sunset is described as equal to the space between the third hour and sunrise.

[507]

“The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud, To me revolving with the eternal Twins, Was all apparent made from hill to harbour.” Par. xxii. 151-3. (Longfellow).

[508] Della Valle boldly assumes that they were over the same meridian, by a poetical licence, although at the same time the sun was in a different sign. Dante only mentions the latter fact, he thinks, in order to show that he was a few degrees north of the sun (Gemini being more northerly than Aries); therefore he could see over the edge, as it were, of the sun-lighted hemisphere of Earth. This is desperately subtle.

It is, however, the only way in which the passages can be reconciled with his further assumption, shared by some other commentators, that Dante, in his flight through the spheres, simply ascended without any movement in longitude except that he was carried round by the daily revolution of the spheres. All the planets, therefore, were ranged one above the other, in the sign of Gemini, and it was always noon on the earth below his feet, since that was the hour at which he ascended from the Earthly Paradise, and his movement was the same as the sun’s. (Here Della Valle is inconsistent, however, for he maintains that the ascent was made in the early morning.) But this is a very artificial conceit, and not indicated by Dante. He implies that Beatrice, in leading him to each sphere, chose the part of it which he was to enter (see Par. xxvii. 102), and he tells us that Saturn was in Leo, Venus in Pisces, and the sun in Aries.

[509] Il Paradiso di Dante dichiarato ai giovani, by Angelo de Gubernatis.

[510] “From the hills to the river-mouths.”

[511] “Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” Par. last line.

[512] Alfraganus, as we saw, gives the daily movement of the sun eastward in the zodiac as about 59 minutes of arc. (A degree contains 60 minutes).

[513] Purg. xxv. 2, 3.

[514] Inf. xi. 113; Purg. i. 21, xix. 4-6.

[515] Inf. i. 38-40.

[516] Par. i. 38, 39.

[517] “That part.”

[518] “Those stars.”

[519] Par. x. 7-33.

[520] Par. xxvii. 86, 87.

[521] Purg. i. 21.

[522] Purg. xxvii. 95.

[523] “The Lion’s breast.” Par. xxi. 14.

[524] “The Lion’s Heart.”

[525] “Beneath the breast.”

[526] Cf. Purg. xxxii. 56, 57, where the sun is spoken of as under another star.

[527] “To his Lion has come.” Par. xvi. 37, 38.

[528] “Sometimes by Saturn.”

[529] “With a better course and better star.” Par. i. 40.

[530] “Rises upon mortals.” Par. i. 37.

[531] Inf. x. 100-105.

[532] Conv. IV. xxiii. 96-98.

[533] Moore, Studies in Dante iii. p. 146.

[534] [See p. 177].

[535] V. N. xliii. 1-11.

[536] Exactly at midday, moreover, according to one system then in vogue, though it seems to have been more usual to begin the day at sunrise.

[537] “A thousand two hundred and one, added to sixty-six.”

[538] “Midway in the journey of our life.”

[539] “The highest point,” the “summit.”

[540] “Until the summit of my life.” Conv. I. iii. 24, 25.

[541] “Youth.”

[542] “Is in truth the summit of our life.”

[543] Farinata alludes to the two Guelf banishments of 1248 and 1260. Inf. x. 42-50.

[544] Conv. I. iii. 22-24; Inf. xxiii. 94, 95, etc.

[545] V. N. ii. 1-15.

[546] V. N. xxx. 4-13.

[547] Purg. xxx. 124, 125; Cf. Conv. IV. xxiv. 11-13.

[548] Imbriani: Quando nacque Dante? and Che Dante probabilissimamente nacque nei MCCCLXVII.

[549] Purg. ii. 91-103.

[550] For this point and a full discussion of the date, especially from the astronomical data, see Angelitti’s Sulla Data del Viaggio Dantesco, and Sull’ anno della Visione Dantesca, and Moore’s “The Date assumed by Dante for the Vision of the ‘Divina Commedia,’” Studies in Dante III.

[551] “This hundredth year.” Par. ix. 40.

[552] Purg. viii. 74.

[553] Par. xvii. 80, 81.

[554]

“Up starting suddenly he cried out: How Saidst thou? ‘he had?’ Is he not still alive? Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?” Inf. x. 67-69.

[555] Toynbee’s Dante Dictionary, under “Cavalcanti.”

[556] Moore, Studies in Dante III. p. 146.

[557] “The Astronomy of Dante,” in Studies III., and Time References in the Divina Commedia.

[558] Note on Purg. i. 19-21 in the “Temple” edition of Dante.

[559] Par. Lost vii. 375-378.

[560] [See p. 407].

[561] Preface to Almanach Dantis Aligherii, Boffito and Melzi d’ Eril.

[562] It is important to observe that this suits the description of the “Lion’s breast” better than the 20th and 21st degrees (Almanach positions for 1301), if Dante, as usual in the Divina Commedia, identifies the constellation with the sign.

[563] The middle of March.

[564] This was written in 1910.

[565]

“Oh ye whose intellectual ministry Moves the third heaven.” (Carey).

[566] Conv. II. iii. 8-14.

[567] Par. x. 1-12.

[568] Inf. iv. 131.

[569] Conv. III. v. 54-56.

[570] Conv. III. v. 29-52. See Part I. of this book Pythagoras and his Followers, and Plato, for a description of their astronomical systems.

[571] See Part I. “[Aristotle].”

[572] “And that outside the latter there was no other.” Conv. II. iii. 24, 25.

[573] “This entirely mistaken opinion of his.” Ibid. 28.

[574] “According to Ptolemy and according to Christian Truth, nine is the number of the moving heavens.” V. N. xxx. 16-18.

[575] “Roughly speaking.” Conv. II. iii. 36-48.

[576] “All bodies.” Ep. x. 445.

[577] “These vast bodies.” Par. viii. 99.

[578] “Material circles” (here compared with the Angels, who are purely spiritual). Par. xxviii. 64.

[579] “The greatest body.” Par. xxx. 39.

[580] Purg. iii. 29, 30.

[581] “This rounded ether.” Par. xxii. 132.

[582] Par. xxiii. 112-117.

[583] Conv. II. iv. 1-13.

[584] Conv. II. iii. 52-65.

[585] Conv. II. iv. 13-16, 30-32. See also Ep. x. 448-452.

[586] “And Aristotle also, to one who rightly understands him, seems to mean the same thing, in his first book of The Heaven and the Earth.” Conv. II. iv. 32-34.

[587] [See p. 97].

[588] The Convivio of Dante, “Temple” Edition, note on II. iv.

[589] “Firm and fixed and not moveable, from any point of view.” Conv. II. iv. 50, 51.

[590] Conv. II. iv. 68-75.

[591] Conv. II. iv. 78-104.

[592] “That circle of hers which makes her appear as evening and morning star, according to the two different periods.” Conv. II. ii. 3-5.

[593] “Third epicycle.”

[594] Conv. II. xv. 132-155.

[595] “That one which sweeps the whole of the rest of the universe along with it.” Par. xxviii. 70, 71.

[596] Toynbee, “Dante’s Obligations to Alfraganus in Vita Nuova and Convivio,” in Romania xxiv. 95.

[597] Conv. II. xv. 108-118.

[598] “The first star.” Par. ii. 30.

[599] “The second realm.” Par. v. 93.

[600] “The third heaven.” Par. viii. 37.

[601] “The fourth family.” Par. x. 49.

[602] “The fifth threshold.” Par. xviii. 28.

[603] “More lofty.” Par. xiv. 85.

[604] “Sixth star.” Par. xviii. 68, 69.

[605] “The seventh splendour.” Par. xxi. 13.

[606] “The eighth sphere.” Par. ii. 64.

[607] “The swiftest heaven.” Par. xxvii. 99.

[608] “The greatest body.” Par. xxx. 39. Compare V. N. xlii. 47. “Oltre la spera che più larga gira,” (“beyond the sphere which has the largest circle).”

[609] “The heaven of pure light.” Par. xxx. 39.

[610] “The last sphere.” Par. xxii. 62.

[611]

“ ... Within that one alone Is every part where it has always been; For it is not in space, nor turns on poles.” Par. xxii. 65-67. (Longfellow.)

[612] “This is the sovereign edifice of the world, in which all the world is enclosed, and beyond which is naught; and it exists not in space, but received form only in the Primal Mind, which the Greeks call Protonoe.” See also Ep. x. 442-447.

[613] “Last sphere.”

[614] “The first heaven.” Purg. xxx. 1.

[615] “The first circle.” Par. iv. 34.

[616] “First heaven.” Qu. iv. 7.

[617] Par. vii. 130-132 compared with 67, 68. See also Par. i. 64 and 76.

[618] Ep. x. 435-437.

[619]

“O Lady of Virtue, thou alone through whom The human race exceedeth all contained Within the heaven that has the lesser circles.” Inf. ii. 76-78. (Longfellow).

[620] Par. vii. 124-143. Compare with Plato’s account of the creation of living beings (Part I., Plato).

[621] Par. i. 115, 117; De Mon. I. xv. 38-41; and III. vii. 30, 31, etc.

[622] Par. i. 92, 130-134.

[623] “This earth, together with the sea, is the centre of heaven.” (Conv. III. v. 63-65.)

[624] “It is agreed among learned men that earth and water together form a globe.” (El. Ast. iii.).

[625] Qu. xviii. 28-54. This may be compared with Par. xxix. 13-18.

[626] Qu. xv. 10, 11.

[627] [See p. 134].

[628] [See p. 247].

[629] “Or nearly.” Qu. xix. 61-63.

[630] Compare with Conv. II. vii. 88-100, where the poet says that the influence from each sphere comes on the rays of the planet in that sphere, also De Mon. III. iv. 139, 140.

[631] “Nor does it avail anything to say that that declination could not take place because of approaching nearer the earth through eccentricity; for if this elevating virtue were in the moon, since agents act the more powerfully the nearer they are, she would elevate there rather than here.” Qu. xx. 65-71.

[632] Note on this passage in “Temple” Dante.

[633] Studies in Dante, ii. p. 339.

[634] Nearest Earth.

[635] Qu. vii. 4, 6, and xxiii. 52.

[636] “Orbis” and “sphæra” are used indifferently by Alfraganus to indicate the celestial spheres: thus, in ch. xii. he says “Orbes, qui stellarum omnes motus complectantur, numero esse octo,” and on the next page, “unamquamque harum sphærarum octo.”

[637] “The upper and lower apsides of the eccentrics of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, have a certain declination from the zodiac, the former to the north, the latter to the south, the amount always remaining constant: and it is just the same with the moon.” El. Ast. xviii. par. 6.

[638] In the edition of Golius ch. vii. par. 5, the position of greatest distance is called the perigee, of least the apogee, but this mistake is corrected in the next paragraph.

[639] “The moon’s declination in the zodiac from the equator towards the south pole is as great as towards the north.” Qu. xx. 61-63.

[640] The deferent was the equator of her orb or sphere.

[641] Ristoro also defines apogee and perigee (“auge” and “opposito d’auge”) as effects of movements on an epicycle, and says that the deferent is “declined” from the ecliptic (“declinato della via del sole,”) part being north and part south, but he does not say whether its perigee is north or south. Comp. del Mondo. I. xii. xiv., and III. vii.

[642] For a thorough discussion of this question see Moore’s Studies in Dante ii. pp. 303-374.

[643] “The foundation of your elements.” Par. xxix. 51.

[644] “Rises highest towards heaven out of the sea.” Purg. iii. 15.

[645] “Dry vapour.”

[646] “Exhalations from the water.”

[647] “Behind [i.e. following] the heat.”

[648] Purg. xxviii. 97-99 and xxi. 52-53. The gate is meant by “i tre gradi” (“the three steps”), and “ove si serra” (“where it is locked”). See Purg. ix. 76, 106-108.

[649]

“ ... The universal atmosphere Turns in a circuit with the primal motion, Unless the circle is broken on some side: Upon this height, that all is disengaged In living ether, doth this motion strike, And make the forest sound, for it is dense.” (Longfellow).

[650] Scartazzini takes the passage as referring to Eden only, and interprets that all the air here is moving evenly and noiselessly unless it meets with any obstacle such as this forest, when a murmuring sound results.

[651] Purg. ix. 30-33.

[652] Par. i. 76-81.

[653] Par. xxi. 58-63.

[654] Hymn on the Nativity.

[655] Merchant of Venice.

[656]

“The song of those who sing for ever After the music of the eternal spheres.” Purg. xxx. 92, 93. (Longfellow).

[657] Conv. IV. viii. 51-64.

[658] Conv. II. vii. 104-108.

[659] “This small star.” Par. vi. 112.

[660] Conv. II. xiv. 92-98.

[661] The Frankfort printed edition and some Latin MSS of Alfraganus agree with this: the edition of Golius gives ¹/₁₈.

[662] Almagest, Bk. IX.

[663]

“This heaven, where ends the shadowy cone Cast by your world.” Par. ix. 118, 119. (Longfellow).

[664] Rabbi Abraham ben Chija, in his Sphæra Mundi, written about 1100 a.d., says that Earth’s shadow extends as far as the distance of Mercury, not of Venus (Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne, and Dreyer, Planetary Systems); but this does not agree with the figures given by Alfraganus.

[665] Her diameter would look no larger than the diameter of Saturn, as we see it when nearest to him; but like Saturn she would be visible as a bright point, because shining by reflected sunlight. Ancient and mediæval astronomers never realized this, however, but thought of Earth as a dark body, receiving light but giving none.

[666] Conv. II. xiv. 126, 127; Par. x. 40-42, 48.

[667] Par. xxii. 67; xxxi. 19-24; xxx. 118-123.

[668] Par. ii. 25-45.

[669] “The first star.”

[670] “The shadow which is in her is nothing but rare parts of her substance, which cannot stop the rays of the sun and reflect them back like the other parts.” Conv. II. xiv. 72-76.

[671] Plutarch, On the Face in the Moon, translation by Prickard.

[672] See Paget Toynbee, Le Teorie Dantesche sulle Macchie della Luna, in Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, vol. xxvi. pp. 156-161.

[673] Albert of Saxony notes this objection, but says the rarity is not sufficiently great to make these parts transparent.

[674] This is in agreement with modern belief. Some parts of the moon’s surface reflect sunlight less well than others, and therefore look dark, just as a peaty soil looks darker than limestone.

[675] Conv. II. iv. 94-96.

[676] “That which was within the sun [sc. the spirits].” Par. x. 41.

[677] “In the depths of Mars.” Par. xiv. 100, 101.

[678] “The temperate sixth star, which within itself had received me.” Par. xviii. 68, 69.

[679] “The present pearl.” Par. vi. 127.

[680] “This fire.” Par. xvi. 38.

[681]

“Well was I ’ware that I was more uplifted By the enkindled smiling of the star That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.” Par. xiv. 85-87. (Longfellow).

[682]

“And such as is the change, in little lapse Of time, in a pale woman, when her face Is from the load of bashfulness unladen, Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned, Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star, The sixth, which to itself had gathered me.” Par. xviii. 64-69. (Longfellow).

[683]

“He in semblance such became As Jove might be, if he and Mars were birds, And interchanged their plumes.” Par. xxvii. 13-15. (Carey).

[684] “The temperate light of Jove, between his father and his son.” Par. xxii. 145-146.

[685] Conv. II. xiv. 196-198.

[686] Cf. Ristoro, Comp. del Mondo, III. iii.

[687] Conv. II. xiv. 161-165.

[688] “The planet that strengthens the cold.” Canz. xv. 7.

[689] Purg. xix. 1-3.

[690] Conv. II. xiv. 78, 79.

[691] De Mon. III. iv. 140-142.

[692] See quotations from Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon in Moore’s Studies, iii. p. 45, note.

[693] “Bestow light on the stars.” Canz. xix. 117.

[694] “The sun illumines first himself and then all celestial and elemental bodies with visible light.” Conv. III. xii. 54-56.

[695] Par. xxxii. 107, 108.

[696] Par. xx. 1-6; compare xxiii. 28-30.

[697] Moore, Dante and his early Biographers, p. 95.

[698] Inf. xx. 38.

[699] Inf. xx. 115-118, 46-51.

[700] “The star of love.” Canz. xv. 4.

[701] “The fair planet which incites to love.” Purg. i. 19.

[702] Par. ix. 94-96.

[703] Par. ix. 32, 33.

[704] Conv. II. Canz. 1-6.

[705] Conv. II. vii. 88-100.

[706] De Mon. III. iv. 139, 140.

[707] Par. xvii. 76-78.

[708] Par. xviii. 115-117.

[709] Par. xxi. 13-15.

[710] Par. i. 40-42; Canz. xv. 41.

[711] Par. xxii. 112-117. The Ottimo, commenting this passage, says that Gemini “is the house of Mercury, who signifies, according to the astrologers, literature, science, and learning. And in this direction it disposes those who are born when it is in the ascendant, and more powerfully if the sun is in it.”

[712] Inf. xv. 55.

[713] Conv. II. xiv. 170-180.

[714] Inf. xxiv. 145-150.

[715] V. N. xxx. 22-24.

[716] Ball. vi. 11, 12.

[717]

“From that bright star which moveth on its way For ever at the Empyrean’s will, And between Mars and Saturn ruleth still, E’en as the expert astrologer doth say, She who inspires me with her beauty’s ray Doth subtle art of sovereignty distil; And he whose glory doth the fourth heaven fill Gives her the power my longing soul to sway. And that fair planet known as Mercury Colours her speech with all its virtue rare, And the first heaven its boon does not deny. She who the third heaven ruleth as her share Makes her heart full of utterance pure and free; So all the seven to perfect her agree.” Sonnet xxviii. (Plumptre).

[718] Par. ii. 64-72, 130 to end.

[719] “It should be borne in mind that although the starry heaven has unity in substance it nevertheless has multiplicity in virtue.” Qu. xxi. 12-14.

[720]

“ ... E’en so The intellectual efficacy unfolds Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars, On its own unity revolving still.” Par. ii. 136-138. (Carey).

[721] “So many are the stars which spread themselves over her sky, that surely we cannot wonder if they make many and diverse fruits grow on human nobility, so many are their natures and potencies, concentrated and united in one simple substance; and on them as on diverse branches she bears fruit in diverse ways.”
Conv. IV. xix. 45-52. (Jackson).
See also Conv. IV. xxi. 62-66.

[722] Qu. xxi. 17-19.

[723] Conv. II. iv. 75-77.

[724] But see Tozer’s English Commentary on Dante’s Divina Commedia, note on Par. xvi. 37. “In mediæval astrology Mars was one of the Lords of the Lion.”

[725] Par. iii. 55-57.

[726] [See p. 202].

[727] De Mon. II. ii. 15-18, 25, 26, 36-38; III. ii. 30-32; xvi. 91-101;
Ep. v. 133-135; Par. ii. 121, viii. 97-99.

[728] Ep. v. 124, 125.

[729] Par. ii. 127, 128.

[730] Par. ii. 130-132; xiii. 73-75; viii. 127, 128; i. 41, 42. Ristoro of Arezzo uses the same expression, Comp. del Mondo, Bk. VII. part I. chapter 2.

[731] Purg. vi. 100; xx. 13, 14; xxxiii. 40-45.

[732] Par. vii. 133-141; xiii. 65, 66;
Conv. III. xv. 159-161; II. xv. 152-154; IV. xxiii. 50-52.

[733] Conv. II. xiv. 28-30; IV. ii. 58-61; Par. xxvi. 128, 129.

[734] Par. viii. 127-135.

[735] Par. iv. 49-60.
See also Ecl. ii. 16, 17; and
Conv. IV. xxi. 17-19, 25-27.

[736] De Mon. II. ii. 21-23; Cf. Par. xiii. 64-78.

[737] “This carries fire towards the moon, this compresses and binds Earth together.” Par. i. 115, 117. See also De Mon. III. vii. 30, 31, and I. xv. 38-41; Conv. III. iii. 10-13; Qu. xviii. 11, 12, and many others.

[738]

“The fire doth upward move By its own form, which to ascend is born, Where longest in its matter it endures.” Purg. xviii. 28-30. (Longfellow).

[739] Inf. xxxii. 8, and 74; xxxiv. 110, 111. See also Par. xxxiii. 22, 23; Inf. ix. 28, 29; Qu. iii. 6-9, etc.

[740] De Mon. I. xv. 46-48; Qu. xii. 39-42.

[741] “The point towards which weights are drawn from every direction.” Inf. xxxiv. 110-111.

[742] “Laboriously and painfully.” Inf. xxxiv. 78.

[743] “Panting like a tired man.” Inf. xxxiv. 83.

[744] Qu. xvi. 54, 55.

[745] This is nowhere stated, but everywhere taken for granted, and in Conv. II. xiv. 211 the circle is said to be the most perfect of figures.

[746] “Oh ye whose intellectual ministry moves the third heaven.” Conv. II. canzone; and Par. viii. 37.

[747] Conv. II. v. 119-126.

[748] “Although they did not think of them as philosophically asPlato.” Conv. II. v. 5-37, 94, 95; vi. 154-159.

[749] Par. ii. 127-129, 142-144.

[750] Conv. II. v. and vi.

[751] Par. viii. 34-37.

[752] Cf. Par. xxviii. 98 to end, with
Conv. II. vi. 43-55, 106-109.

[753] Par. xxviii. 34-39, 64-75.

[754]

”In one God I believe, Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens, With love and with desire, Himself unmoved.” Par. xxiv. 130-132. (Longfellow).

[755] Conv. II. iv. 13-30;
Ep. x. 442-452, and 472-488;
Par. i. 121-123.

[756] Probably equal to 26,500 English statute miles.

[757] 300 English statute miles.

[758] Conv. IV. ix. 23-25.

[759] Compare with Dante’s accurate descriptions a poem by Kipling in “A School History of England”:—

“South and far south below the line Our Admiral leads us on. Above, undreamed-of planets shine.” (!)

Transcriber’s Notes:

Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved.

The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.

Typographical errors have been silently corrected.

The table “TIME REFERENCES IN THE DIVINE COMEDY” on pages 358-366 has been reformatted from horizontal to vertical inorder to better fit the small-screen format.