The poem consists of three books, divided, like Dante's Commedia, into one hundred Cantos; but the extra Canto has by Palmieri been assigned to the last instead of the first Cantica. The title Città di Vita was given to it, because Palmieri designed to bring the universe into consideration under the aspect of spiritual existence. The universe, as he conceived it, is the burgh in which all souls live. His object was to show how free-will is innate in men, who have the choice of good and evil, of salvation or perdition, in this life. The origin of evil he relegates to that prehistoric moment of Lucifer's revolt, when the third class of angels refused to side with either God or Devil. In the first book, then, he describes how these angels are transmitted from the Elysian fields to earth, in order that they may become men, and in their mortal body be forced to exercise their faculty of election. In the second book he treats of the way of perdition. In the third book he deals with the way of salvation. Following Dante's precedent in the choice of Virgil, he takes the Sibyl for his guide upon the beginning of this visionary journey.
The heretical portions of the Città di Vita are Cantos v. ix. x. xi. of the first Cantica. These deal with the original creation of angelic essences, and with the transit of the indeterminate angels to our earth. Regarding the universe from the Ptolemaic point of view, Palmieri conceives that these angels, who inhabit the Elysian fields beyond the utmost verge of the stellar spheres, proceed on their earthward journey through the several planets, till they reach our globe, which is the center of the whole. On their way, they gradually submit to animal impressions and prepare themselves for incarnation, according to that conception which made the human soul itself in a certain sense corporeal. It is here that Palmieri adjusts the theory of planetary influences to his theory of free will. For he supposes that the angels assimilate the qualities of the planetary spheres as they pass through them, being attracted by curiosity to one planet rather than another. At the same time they undergo the action of the three superior elements, which fits them for their final reception into an earthly habitation. After this wise he ingeniously combined his theories of the Creation, the Fall, and Free-will, with Averroistic doctrines of intermediate intelligences and speculations collected from Platonistic writings.
The path of the descending angels is, to quote the words of Dati, "in a straight line beneath the first point of Cancer to the cave of earth, in which line there are ten gates, for each of the planets to wit, and for the three super-terrestrial elements each his gate. The whole of this vast body of the universe is by our poet called the City of Life, forasmuch as in this universe all creatures live. And this journey of the souls from Elysium to their bodies is performed in one year." It will be observed that Palmieri affected the precision of his master Dante. Having thus conducted the soul to earth, he is no less definite in his description of the two ways, which severally lead to damnation and salvation. In the second Cantica, he employs the space of a whole year compressed into one night, in passing through the eighteen mansions of the passions of the flesh, fortune and the mind. For this journey he has the guidance of an evil spirit. Afterwards, in the third Cantica, he employs the same space of one year compressed into a single day, in traversing the twelve mansions of civil virtue and purgation, through which the soul arrives at beatific life. In this voyage he is guided by a good angel. It is not necessary to enter further into the calculations whereby Palmieri adjusts the chronology and cosmography of his vision to the Ptolemaic theory of the universe.
Though the material of the poem is thus curious, and the structure thus ingenious, it does not rise in style above the level of the works of Frezzi and Uberti ([see above vol. iv. chap. 3]). In order to give the reader a specimen of its composition, I will extract a passage from Cantica I. Canto v., which concerns the Divine Being and the Creation of Angels:
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Sopra ogn'altro potere è questo tale, che come e' vuole in tutto può giovare, sanza potenza di voler far male. Tal carità volendo ad altri dare la gloria in sè, (?) di se stesso godeva, degnò co' cieli ancor la terra fare. Et perchè cosa far non si poteva che eterno bene in ciel sempre godesse, se sempre quel goder non intendeva; Intelligenza bisognò facesse con lume di ragione et immortale, ad chi l'eterno ben tutto si desse. Creatura fè per questo rationale, l'angelo et l'huomo acciò che 'l somme bene godessono intendendo quel che e' vale. Da 'ntenderlo et amar di ragion vene volerlo possedere, et con letitia per sempre usar sanza timor di pene. Ad questo Idio creò la gran militia del celestiale exercitio et felice, che 'n parte cadde per la sua malitia. |
INDEX.
In the following Index the volume on the '[Age of the Despots]' is referred to as Vol. I., that on the 'Revival of Learning' as Vol. II., that on the '[Fine Arts]' as Vol. III., and the two Volumes on 'Italian Literature' as Vols. [IV.] and V.