Dante and the early astronomers

by M. A. Orr

• “Teneva il sole il cerchio di merigge.”
• Purg. xxxiii. 104.

• “The sun was holding the meridian circle.”

• “Fatto avea di là mane e di qua sera
• Tal foce quasi, e tutto era là bianco
• Quello emisperio, e l’ altra parte nera.”
• Par. i. 43-45.

• “Almost that passage had made morning there
• And evening here, and there was wholly white
• That hemisphere, and black the other part.”

• “Dall’ ora ch’io avea guardato prima
• Io vidi mosso me per tutto l’arco
• Che fa del mezzo al fine il primo clima;
• Si ch’io vedea di là da Gade il varco
• Folle d’Ulisse. e di qua presso il lito
• Nel qual si fece Europa dolce carco;
• E più mi fora discoperto il sito
• Di questa Aiuola, ma il sol procedea
• Sotto i miei piedi un segno e più partito.”
• Par. xxvii. 79-87.

• “Since the first time that I had downward looked
• I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
• Which the first climate makes from midst to end;
• So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses
• Past Gades, and this side well nigh [454] the shore
• Whereon became Europa a sweet burden;
• And of this threshing-floor the site to me
• Were more unveiled, but the sun was preceding
• Under my feet, a sign and more removed.”

2. THE INFERNO.

Using the above table as a guide, we may now see how Dante uses the movements of the heavenly bodies both for time and direction, and we shall discover how long his journey takes.

Dante has spent a night in a dark forest. The moon was then full; but we only learn this later, when Virgil reminds him of it, and he himself mentions it to Forese, when talking in the Purgatorio. At dawn he finds himself at the foot of a hill on which are already shining the first rays of the morning sun—the planet which leads all aright by every path. The sun rises: it is in Aries, consequently the moon, being full, must be in Libra, and must have set as the sun rose, i.e. at about 6 a.m. Virgil appears, rescues the poet from three terrible beasts, and announces that he has come to conduct him through Hell and Purgatory, and to lead him to Beatrice, who will guide him to Paradise.