Dante Alighieri (35 page)

DANTE ALIGHIERI

From the painting by Andrea del Castagno
,
in the Museo Nazionale at Florence

 

    
¹
i.e. Beatrice.

    
²
Vita di Dante
, ed. Macrì-Leone, § 13, pp. 63-4.

    
³
Bk. ix. ch. 136.

    
⁴
The title
Divina Commedia
, as appears from this statement, was not Dante's own. It probably had its origin in Dante's own description of the poem as “lo sacrato poema ” (
Par
. xxiii. 62) and “il poema sacro ” (
Par
.xxv. 1). It occurs in some of the oldest manuscripts of the poem, and in Boccaccio's
Life of Dante
(§ 14). The first printed edition bearing this title is the Venice one of 1555; in a previous edition, with the commentary of Landino (Florence, 1481), the epithet “divine” is applied to Dante himself, but not to the poem; which, however, had been styled “opus divinissimum” by the Florentine Coluccio Salutati eighty years before (see F. Novati,
Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati
, vol. iii. p. 371). In the earliest printed editions the title is simply “La Commedia di Dante Alighieri”.

    
⁵
Trans. by Latham (with modifications).

    
⁶
Cf.
Vita Nuova,
§ 30, 11. 9-10;
Convivio
, ii. 15, 11. 30-6.

    
⁷
This date has been disputed by some authorities in favour of the year 1301, on the ground that Dante in
Purg
. i. 19-21 makes Venus a morning star at Easter, which she was in 1301, whereas actually at Easter in 1300 she was an evening star. This argument, however, has now been disposed of, for it has recently been discovered that in the almanack which there is every reason to believe Dante made use of, by a curious mistake, Venus is shown as a morning star at Easter in 1300 (see Boffito e Melzi d' Eril,
Almanack Dantis Aligherii
, Florence, 1908, pp. xiv-xv; and E. Moore,
Studies in Dante
, iii. 172-5).

    
⁸
For details of the chronology of the poem, see E. Moore,
Time-References in the Divina Commedia
(though the conclusions there arrived at are not by any means universally accepted).

    
⁹
See below, p. 253.

    
¹⁰
These three steps are symbolical of the state of mind with which penance is to be approached, and denote respectively, according to the interpretation of Maria Rossetti, “candid confession, mirroring the whole man; mournful contrition, breaking the hard heart of the gazer on the Cross; love, all aflame, offering up in satisfaction the life-blood of body, soul, and spirit” (
Shadow of Dante
, p. 112)

    
¹¹
For an excellent account of Dante's Purgatory, see P. Perez,
I setti cerchi del Purgatorio
(Verona, 1867).

    
¹²
An epicycle is a small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle, along which it travels. In the solar system the path of the Moon about the Earth forms an epicycle in respect of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

    
¹³
Vita di Dante
, ed. Macri-Leone, § 14, pp. 68-70 (trans. by Bun-bury).

    
¹⁴
This story is given both in the
Vita di Dante
and in the
Comento
; in the latter (
Lezione
33) the name of Boccaccio's informant is given, not as Pier Giardino, but as Ser Dino Perini of Florence, who is supposed to be the individual who figures in Dante's Latin Eclogues under the name of Meliboeus (see below, p. 254).

    
¹⁵
Comento
, ii. 129-32 (trans. by Bunbury); cf.
Vita di Dante
, ed. cit. § 14, PP 65-7.

    
¹⁶
“The furthest realms I sing, conterminous with the flowing universe, stretching afar for spirits, paying the rewards to each after his merits,” etc.

    
¹⁷
Vita di Dante
, ed. cit. § 15, pp. 71-2 (trans, by Wicksteed). This information was obviously derived by Boccaccio from a passage in the suspect) letter of Frate Ilario (see above, p. 92 note).

    
¹⁸
See E. Moore,
Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Divina Commedia
; and Colomb de Batines,
Bibliografia Dantesca
(Parte iv.).

    
¹⁹
At first sight it might appear as if the popularity of the poem had decreased since the invention of printing; but it must be borne in mind that a manuscript “edition” consisted of
one copy only
, whereas a printed edition may consist of hundreds or even thousands of copies.

    
²⁰
See Paget Toynbee,
Dante in English Literature
, vol. i. pp. 129-30,

    
²¹
Tutte le opere di Dante Alighieri
,
nuovamente rivedute nel testo dal
Dr. E. Moore;
con Indice dei Nomi Propri e delle Cose Notabili compilatoda
Paget Toynbee (Clarendon Press).

    
²²
La
Commedia di Dante Alighieri. Il testo Wittiano riveduto da
Paget Toynbee (‘Per il sesto centenario del viaggio di Dante MCCC. . . MDCCCC ' (Methuen and Co.).

    
²³
La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri nuovamente riveduta nel testo dal
Dr. E. Moore,
con indice dei nomi propri compilato da
Paget Toynbee (Clarendon Press).

    
²⁴
See Paget Toynbee,
The Earliest Editions of the Divina Commedia printed in England
, in
Athenceum
, 2 Jan. 1904.

    
²⁵
.See Paget Toynbee,
Dante in English Literature
, vol, i. pp. 1 ff.

    
²⁶
See above, p. 215.

    
²⁷
See Paget Toynbee,
English Translations of Dante in the Eighteenth Century
, in
Modern Language Review
, vol. i, pp. 9-24.

    
²⁸
Including bastard
terza rima
, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, heroic couplets, and rhymed quatrains.

    
²⁹
Including bastard
terza rima
, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, heroic couplets, and Marvellian stanzas.

    
³⁰
Including bastard
terza rima
, six-line stanzas, nine-line stanzas, and heroic couplets.

    
³¹
For details, see Paget Toynbee,
Chronological List of English Translations from Dante, from Chaucer to the Present Day
, in
Annual Report of the Cambridge
(U.S.A.)
Dante Society
for 1906; see also
English Translations of Dante
'
s Works
, in
Bulletin Italien
, tom. vi. pp. 285-8 (1906).

    
³²
Translations (three of the
Commedia
, and one of the
Inferno
) by Americans are included in the record.

    
³³
Paradiso
, xvii. 119-20:—

    
³⁴
See
Appendix
D, where the titles of the printed editions of the early commentaries referred to above are given
in extenso
.

    
³⁵
See Luigi Rocca,
Di alcuni Commenli della Divina Commedia composti nei primi vent
'
anni dopo la morte di Dante
. Firenze, 1891, pp. 43-77. The identification of this work as a translation of the commentary of Graziolo de' Bambaglioli is due to Dr. Moore (see his
Studies in Dante
, vol. iii. p. 345
n
.2).

    
³⁶
See
Appendix
D.

    
³⁷
See Rocca,
op
.
cit
. pp. 63 ff. Another authority, F. P. Luiso, holds that the
Chiose
printed by Lord Vernon were not written in that shape by Jacopo di Dante, but are a distorted translation of a Latin original. He considers, on the other hand, that the Latin
Chiose di Dante le quali fece el figliuolo co le sue mani
, preserved in a MS, in the Laurentian library at Florence, of which he published a portion (on the
Purgatorio
) at Florence in 1904, represent the work of Jacopo, and were written probably in his father's lifetime, and were possibly to some extent inspired by the poet himself. See, however, an article by M. Barbi in
Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana
, N.S. xi. pp. 195-229 (1904).

    
³⁸
See Moore,
Studies in Dante
, vol. iii. pp. 349, 357, 363.

    
³⁹
See Colomb de Batines,
Bibliografia Dantesca
, vol. ii. p. 300.

    
⁴⁰
See
Appendix
D. Some authorities, including Selmi, think that this commentary was written in Dante's lifetime, before 1320; Rocca, however, shows (
op. cit
. pp. 109-10, 117), that it must have been written later than 1321, the date of Dante's death, and before 1337.

    
⁴¹
See
Appendix
D.

    
⁴²
See Rocca,
op
.
cit.
, pp. 127-227.

    
⁴³
See Rocca,
op
.
cit
. pp. 228-342.

    
⁴⁴
See
Appendix
D.

    
⁴⁵
See Rocca,
op
.
cit
. pp. 343-407.

    
⁴⁶
See Paget Toynbee,
Boccaccio
'
s Commentary on the Divina Commedia
, in
Modern Language Review
, vol. ii. pp. 97-120.

    
⁴⁷
See Batines,
op
.
cit
. vol. iii. p. 315.

    
⁴⁸
See Paget Toynbee,
Benvenuto da Imola and his Commentary on the Divina Commedia
, in
Dante Studies and Researches
, pp. 216-37. M. Barbi has recently shown that the Latin commentary which passes under the name of Stefano Talice da Ricaldone is little more than a transcription of Benvenuto's lectures at Bologna. See
Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana
, N.S. xv. pp. 213-36 (1908).

    
⁴⁹
The reading of the date of the completion of the commentary in the colophon at the end of the
Paradiso
is uncertain; but at any rate the work was not completed before 1393, for in the comment on
Paradiso
, vi. 1-9, Buti gives a list of Emperors, which he concludes with these words: “lo centesimo tredecimo è ora Vinceslao re di Boemia . . . lo quale non è anco coronato, benchè corra 1393 dalla incarnazione”.

    
⁵⁰
See
Appendix
D.

    
⁵¹
The MS. from which Fanfani, the editor, printed the commentary professes to have been written in 1343, but this date, which appears to have been added by a later hand, is obviously incorrect, for the author borrows freely from Boccaccio's commentary, which was not begun till thirty years afterwards.

    
⁵²
A copy of this commentary was presented in 1443 by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to the University of Oxford, where it was seen in the public library a hundred years later by John Leland, the antiquary, during his tour through England in 1536-42. The commentary was accompanied by a prose translation of the
Commedia
in Latin (begun in January 1416 and completed in May of the same year). It was probably a MS. of this translation which was seen by Leland in the Cathedral library at Wells (founded and endowed by Bishop Bubwith) during the tour above-mentioned (see G. L. Hamilton's notes on Serravalle in
Annual Report of the Cambridge
(U.S.A.)
Dante Society
, 1902 ; and Paget Toynbee,
Dante in English Literature
, vol. i. pp. xviii. 21-2, 29-30). Only three complete MSS. of Serravalle's work are known ; one of these is in the Vatican, another in the British Museum, and a third in the Escorial (see A. Farinelli,
Dante in Ispagna
, p. 70
n
).