The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) ๐
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Dante Alighieriโs Divine Comedy is considered one of the greatest works in world literature, and it established the standardized Italian language that is used today. Writing between 1308 and 1320, Dante draws from countless subjects including Roman Catholic theology and philosophy, the struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, Greek mythology, and geocentric cosmology to answer the age-old question: what does the afterlife look like? Danteโs vision of the answer, this three-volume epic poem, describes in great detail the systematic levels in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.
The poem opens with Danteโs deathโnot his actual death that would come shortly after his workโs completion, but his fictional deathโwhere the author is found wandering in a dark forest. Blocked from climbing towards the bright light by a she-wolf, a leopard, and a lion, he is forced to walk further into the darkened valley and towards the gates of Hell. Dante and his guides must then travel through the nine circles of Hell, seven terraces of Purgatory, and nine spheres of Heaven to experience divine justice for earthly sins so that he may reach the Empyrean and receive Godโs love. On his journey, he will learn that one must be consciously devoted to the path of morality and righteousness, else one find oneself on a path towards sin.
This production is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellowโs blank verse translation. Longfellow succeeds in capturing the original brilliance of Danteโs internal rhymes and hypnotic patterns while also retaining accuracy. It is said that the death of his young wife brought him closer to the melancholy spirit of Danteโs writing, which itself was shaped by his wounding exile from his beloved Florence in 1302.
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- Author: Dante Alighieri
Read book online ยซThe Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) ๐ยป. Author - Dante Alighieri
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Since God has pardoned me, I am no longer troubled for my past errors, on account of which I attain no higher glory in Paradise. She had tasted of the waters of Lethe, and all the ills and errors of the past were forgotten. Purgatorio XXXIII 94:โ โ
โโโAnd if thou art not able to remember,โ
Smiling she answered, โrecollect thee now
How thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe.โโโ
Hugo of St. Victor, in a passage quoted by Philalethes in the notes to his translation of the Divina Commedia, says:โ โ
โIn that cityโ โโ โฆ there will be Free Will, emancipated from all evil, and filled with all good, enjoying without interruption the delight of eternal joys, oblivious of sins, oblivious of punishments; yet not so oblivious of its liberation as to be ungrateful to its liberator. So far, therefore, as regards intellectual knowledge, it will be mindful of its past evils; but wholly unmindful, as regards any feeling of what it has passed through.โ
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The spirit of Folco, or Folchetto, of Marseilles, as mentioned later in this canto; the famous Troubadour whose renown was not to perish for five centuries, but is small enough now, save in the literary histories of Millot and the Benedictines of St. Maur. โฉ
The Marca Trivigiana is again alluded to, lying between the Adige, that empties into the Adriatic south of Venice, and the Tagliamento to the northeast, towards Trieste. This region embraces the cities of Padua and Vicenza in the south, Treviso in the centre, and Feltro in the north. โฉ
The rout of the Paduans near Vicenza, in those endless quarrels that run through Italian history like the roll of a drum. Three times the Paduan Guelphs were defeated by the Ghibellinesโ โin 1311, in 1314, and in 1318, when Can Grande della Scala was chief of the Ghibelline league. The river stained with blood is the Bacchiglione, on which Vicenza stands. โฉ
In Treviso, where the Sile and Cagnano unite. โฉ
Riccardo da Camino, who was assassinated while playing at chess. He was a son of the โgood Gherardo,โ and brother of the beautiful Gaja, men tioned Purgatorio XVI 40. He succeeded his father as lord of Treviso; but carried on his love adventures so openly and with so high a hand, that he was finally assassinated by an outraged husband. The story of his assassination is told in the Hist. Cartusiorum in Muratori, XII 784. โฉ
A certain bishop of the town of Feltro in the Marca Trivigiana, whose name is doubtful, but who was both lord spiritual and temporal of the town, broke faith with certain gentlemen of Ferrara, guilty of political crimes, who sought refuge and protection in his diocese. They were delivered up, and executed in Ferrara. Afterward the Bishop himself came to a violent end, being beaten to death with bags of sand. โฉ
Malta was a prison on the shores of Lake Bolsena, where priests were incarcerated for their crimes. There Pope Boniface VIII imprisoned the Abbot of Monte Cassino for letting the fugitive Celestine V escape from his convent. โฉ
This โcourteous priestโ was a Guelph, and showed his zeal for his party in the persecution of the Ghibellines. โฉ
The treachery and cruelty of this man will be in conformity to the customs of the country. โฉ
Above in the Crystalline Heaven, or Primum Mobile, is the Order of Angels called Thrones. These are mirrors reflecting the justice and judgments of God. โฉ
The Balascio (in French rubi balais) is supposed to take its name from the place in the East where it was found.
Chaucer, Court of Love, 78:โ โ
โNo saphire of Inde, no rube riche of price,
There lacked then, nor emeraude so grene,
Balais Turkis, ne thing to my devise
That may the castel maken for to shene.โ
The mystic virtues of this stone are thus enumerated by Mr. King, Antique Gems, p. 419:โ โ
โThe Balais Ruby represses vain and lascivious thoughts, appeases quarrels between friends, and gives health of body. Its powder taken in water cures diseases of the eyes, and pains in the liver. If you touch with this gem the four corners of a house, orchard, or vineyard, they will be safe from lightning, storms, and blight.โ
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Joy is shown in heaven by greater light, as here on earth by smiles, and as in the infernal regions the grief of souls in torment is by greater darkness. โฉ
In Him thy sight is; in the original tuo veder sโ inluia, thy sight in-Hims-itself. โฉ
There is a similar passage in one of the Troubadours, who, in an Elegy, commends his departed friend to the Virgin as a good singer.
โHe sang so well, that the nightingales grew silent with admiration, and listened to him. Therefore God took him for his own service.โ โโ โฆ If the Virgin Mary is fond of genteel young men, I advise her to take him.โ
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