[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.