Dante’s Purgatorio XXXII and XXXIII: A Survey of Christian History
- Dante’s Purgatorio XXXII and XXXIIIA Survey of Christian History*
Professor of English, Cornell University
NOTES
* This paper was presented at the meeting of the Mediaeval Academy of America at Los Angeles, California, 15 April 1972; and at a seminar entitled ‘The Æsthetics of Difficult Literature in the Middle Ages, Part II,’ sponsored by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, 3 November 1973. My present documentation is intended to be suggestive rather than complete.
1. ‘Dante’s “dxv” and “Veltro”,’ Traditio 17 (1961) 185–254, especially pp 187–98; abridged, though with some additions, as ‘Dante’s dxv,’ in Dante: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. John Freccero (Twentieth Century Views; Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1965) 122–40, especially pp 123–8.
2. Seventeen examples of this monogram are reproduced in ‘Dante’s “DXV” and “Veltro” ’ at p 188, with a bibliography of further examples on pp 252–4; an interesting addition to the list is cited in ‘Dante’s DXV,’ 123 n1.
3. For a more detailed treatment and full documentation, see ‘Dante’s “DXV” and “Veltro”,’ 193–221; abridged in ‘Dante’s DXV,’ 127–37.
4. See also ‘Dante’s “DXV” and “Veltro”,’ 220–1.
5. All quotations of the Purgatorio are from La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata, ed. Giorgio Petrocchi (Le opere di Dante Alighieri, Edizione Nazionale a cura della Società Dantesca Italians, 7; Milan, 1966–7), III.
6. Opera omnia in universum Vetus et Novum Testamentum, on Apocalypse 13:1 (Lyon 1645) VII fol. 403v
7. Jerome, Comm. in Zachariam prophetam I (PL 25, col. 1429); repeated for example in Biblia cum glosis ordinarijs et interlinearibus … (Venice 1495) fol. 959V, marginal gloss, and by Hugh of St Cher, Opera v fol. 214r. This group of four basic emotions is found in Cicero, Tusc. Disp. IV, VI, 11 et passim, and Vergil, Aen. VI 733: ‘Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque …” (‘Hence they fear and desire, grieve and rejoice …’). It is frequent in patristic literature, particularly in Jerome; see Harald Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics: A Study on the Apologists, Jerome and Other Christian Writers (Göteborg 1958) 331–46.
8. For example Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II q. 23, a. 4, Opera omnia (Rome 1882–1948) VI 177: ‘Sic igitur patet quod in concupiscibili sunt tres coniugationes passionum: scilicet amor et odium, desiderium et fuga, gaudium et tristitia. Similiter in irascibili sunt tres: scilicet spes et desperatio, timor et audacia, et ira …’ (‘So therefore it is clear that in the concupiscible part there are three pairs of emotions: namely love and hate, desire and aversion, joy and sorrow. Likewise there are three groups in the irascible part; namely hope and despair, fear and daring, and anger …’) See also q. 23 a. 1 (VI 173); and q. 25 a. 4 (VI 187).
9. For example, Hugh of St Cher, Opera VII fol. 404V; ps.-Albertus Magnus, In Apoca-lypsim B. Joannis, ed, A. Borgnet, B. Alberti Magni … opera omnia (Paris 1890–9) XXXVIII 671; and ps.-Aquinas, Expositio I in Apocalypsim, ed. S. Fretté and P. Maré, Thomae Aquinatis … opera omnia (Paris 1874–89) XXXI 632
10. Nat. hist. XII, v, 22, ed. Karl Mayhoff (Bibl. Teubneriana; Leipzig 1870–1906) II 284; repeated by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum naturale XIV 13 (Nuremberg [cl480]), and by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De rerum proprietatibus XVII 61 (Frankfurt 1601) 838, who says that the upper branches of the fig-tree of India ‘in altum valde se extendunt’ (‘extend themselves to a very great height’). For further references, see Thomas Malvenda, De Paradiso voluptatis XVI (Rome 1605) 40–1.
11. For example Pliny, Nat. hist. XII, V, 23 (ed. cit. II 284); Vincent and Bartholomaeus, loc. cit; and Thomas of Cantimpré, De naturis rerum v ‘De ficu,’ ms Paris, Bibl. nat. lat. 14720, fol. 130V: ‘Fructum gignit coctum sole, predulci sapore. Harum [i.e., ficuum] cibo Indi sapientes vivunt, sed incomparabiliter dulciorum.’ (‘It bears fruit ripened by the sun, extremely sweet in taste. The wise men of India live by the nourishment of these [i.e., figs], but incomparably sweeter ones.’)
12. Ibid., fol. 130V
13. For this concept generally, see...
