The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

believe that thou seest my joy in God, even as I see it, I am pleased; and this also is dear to me, that thou seest in God, that I believe it.”

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Convito, III 14:⁠—

“The first agent, that is, God, sends his influence into some things by means of direct rays, and into others by means of reflected splendor. Hence into the Intelligences the divine light rays out immediately; in others it is reflected from these Intelligences first illuminated. But as mention is here made of light and splendor, in order to a perfect understanding, I will show the difference of these words, according to Avicenna. I say, the custom of the philosophers is to call the Heaven light, in reference to its existence in its fountainhead; to call it ray, in reference to its passing from the fountainhead to the first body, in which it is arrested; to call it splendor, in reference to its reflection upon some other part illuminated.”

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If men lived isolated from each other, and not in communities. ↩

Aristotle, whom Dante in the Convito, III 5, calls “that glorious philosopher to whom Nature most laid open her secrets”; and in Inferno IV 131, “the master of those who know.” ↩

The Jurist, the Warrior, the Priest, and the Artisan are here typified in Solon, Xerxes, Melchisedec, and Daedalus. ↩

Nature, like death, makes no distinction between palace and hovel. Her gentlemen are born alike in each, and so her churls. ↩

Esau and Jacob, though twin brothers, differed in character, Esau being warlike and Jacob peaceable. Genesis 25:27:⁠—

“And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.”

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Romulus, called Quirinus, because he always carried a spear (quiris), was of such obscure birth, that the Romans, to dignify their origin, pretended he was born of Mars. ↩

Convito, III 3:⁠—

“Animate plants have a very manifest affection for certain places, according to their character; and therefore we see certain plants rooting themselves by the waterside, and others upon mountainous places, and others on the slopes and at the foot of the mountains, which, if they are transplanted, either wholly perish, or live a kind of melancholy life, as things separated from what is friendly to them.”

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Another allusion to King Robert of Sicily. Villani, XII 9, says of him:⁠—

“This King Robert was the wisest king that had been known among Christians for five hundred years, both in natural ability and in knowledge, being a very great master in theology, and a consummate philosopher.”

And the Postillatore of the Monte Cassino Codex:⁠—

“This King Robert delighted in preaching and studying, and would have made a better monk than king.”

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The Heaven of Venus is continued in this canto. The beautiful Clemence here addressed is the daughter of the Emperor Rudolph, and wife of Charles Martel. Some commentators say it is his daughter, but for what reason is not apparent, as the form of address would rather indicate the wife than the daughter; and moreover, at the date of the poem, 1300, the daughter was only six or seven years old. So great was the affection of this “beautiful Clemence” for her husband, that she is said to have fallen dead on hearing the news of his death. ↩

Charles the Lame, dying in 1309, gave the kingdom of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Robert, Duke of Calabria, thus dispossessing Carlo Roberto (or Caroberto), son of Charles Martel and Clemence, and rightful heir to the throne. ↩

Unknown to me by name. ↩

The region here described is the Marca Trivigiana, lying between Venice (here indicated by one of its principal wards, the Rialto) and the Alps, dividing Italy from Germany. ↩

The hill on which stands the Castello di Romano, the birthplace of the tyrant Ezzelino, or Azzolino, whom, for his cruelties, Dante punished in the river of boiling blood, Inferno XII 110. Before his birth his mother is said to have dreamed of a lighted torch, as Hecuba did before the birth of Paris, Althaea before the birth of Meleager, and the mother of St. Dominic before the birth of

“The amorous paramour
Of Christian Faith, the athlete consecrate,
Kind to his own and cruel to his foes.”

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Cunizza was the sister of Azzolino di Romano. Her story is told by Rolandino, Liber Chronicorum, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script., VIII 173. He says that she was first married to Richard of St. Boniface; and soon after had an intrigue with Sordello, as already mentioned, Note 614. “Afterwards she wandered about the world with a soldier of Treviso, named Bonius, taking much solace,” says the old chronicler, “and spending much money,”⁠—multa habendo solatia, et maximas faciendo expensas. After the death of Bonius, she was married to a nobleman of Braganzo; and finally and for a third time to a gentleman of Verona.

The Ottimo alone among the commentators takes up the defence of Cunizza, and says:⁠—

“This lady lived lovingly in dress, song, and sport; but consented not to any impropriety or unlawful act; and she passed her life in enjoyment, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes,”

—alluding probably to the first verse of the second chapter:⁠—

“I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure; and, behold, this is also vanity.”

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Of the influences of the planet Venus, quoting Albumasar, as before, Buti says:⁠—

“Venus is cold and moist, and of phlegmatic temperament, and signifies beauty, liberality, patience, sweetness, dignity of manners, love of dress and ornaments of gold and silver, humility