An earlier version of portions of this essay was presented at the 24th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 4, 1989. Conversations with Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta provided the original impetus for the project and encouragement at subsequent stages, and the essay profited enormously from suggestions offered by Professors Alice Colby-Hall and Thomas D. Hill. In addition, I have been especially grateful for the late Professor R. E. Kaske's criticisms of an early draft of this project, and for his judicious prodding at all stages of the graduate work I completed under his supervision.

¹ All citations from Dante's text are drawn from La Divina Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata (ed. Giorgio Petrocchi, 4 vols., Società Dantesca Italiana; Milan 1966–67).Google Scholar

² E.g., Bigi, E. in Letture dantesche (ed. Getto, G.; Florence 1955–61) 2.16.Google Scholar

³ Grabher, C., ed., La Divina Commedia (16th ed. Milan 1959) 12; W. Vernon, ed., Readings on the Purgatorio of Dante Chiefly Based on the Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola (3rd ed. London 1907) 1.35.Google Scholar

⁴ The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton 1957) 486–95.Google Scholar

⁵ Dante, Poet of the Desert (Princeton 1979) 46–47.Google Scholar

⁶ For patristic evidence for this practice and a discussion of the church's protests against extension to other dates, see DThC 2.212–13.Google Scholar

⁷ Summa 3a, q. 69, a. 7. All Aquinas citations are drawn from his Opera omnia (edd. Fretté, S. E. and P. Maré; Paris 1874–89).Google Scholar

⁸ DThC 2.292.Google Scholar

⁹ For further substantiation of this interpretation, and references to relevant patristic and modern sources, see: Singleton, C. S., ‘In Exitu Israel de Aegypto,’ 78th Annual Report of the Dante Society (1960) 1–24; Mazzotta, Dante 37–38; de Lubac, H., Corpus mysticum (2nd ed. Paris 1949) 205.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See Maurus, Hrabanus, Comm. in Matth. (PL 107.773); Glossa ordinaria (PL 114.82); Anselm of Laon, Enarr. in Matth. 3 (PL 162.1266).Google Scholar

¹¹ The Resurrection of the Body (trans. Joselyn, M.; Notre Dame 1964) 139.Google Scholar

¹² Other biblical sources for this tradition include Eccl. 9.8, Ps. 104(103).1–2, Isa. 61.10, Eccli. 15.5, Zach. 3.4, Rom. 13.13–14, 2 Cor. 5.3.Google Scholar

¹³ Civ. Dei 13.23. (All Civ. Dei quotations are from CCL 47–48.) Cf. Rupert of Deutz, who tells of Christ discarding the sordid vesture of mortality in order to clothe himself in the glory of the Resurrection — all of this occurring at Easter (PL 167.324). Later, Rupert applies to the church the text ‘Induit me vestimento salutis, et indumento laetitiae circumdedit me’ (PL 167.1352): ‘Nudata fueram in Adam, foliis ficus pudenda contexeram; tunicis pelliceis misere operta, de paradise ejecta fueram. Hic autem Dominus et Deus meus, pro foliis sicut vestimento salutis, et pro pruritu libidinis prima baptismatis et remissionis peccatorum stola induit me, et pro pellicia mortalitatis, tunica resurrectionis et immortalitatis stola secunda circumdedit me.’ Jerome writes of the ‘stolam, quam Adam peccando perdiderat; stolam, quae in alia parabola indumentum dicitur nuptiale, id est vestem Spiritus sancti, quam qui non habuerit, non potest regis interesse convivio.’ Epist. 21.23 (ed. Hilberg, I.; Leipzig 1910–18) 1.127.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Gregory of Nyssa, De baptismo (PG 46.418–19). I quote the Latin translation provided in this edition.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ps.-Clement, Constitutiones apostolicae 3.15, 16 (PG 1.797); Epiphanius, Adversus haereses 79 (PG 42.744).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ambrose, De mysteriis 7.34 (PL 16.399); Augustine, Serm. 120, 223 (PL 38.677, 1092). Among earlier records of this practice, see Ps.-Dionysius, , De eccles. hierarchia 2 (PG 3.404); Gregory of Nazianze, Orat. 40 (PG 36.393); Chrysostomus, In Gen., homil. 39 (PG 53.368).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Pp. 137, 139. See also Wilhelm Bousset, D., Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (Berlin 1906) 319.Google Scholar

¹⁸ DThC 2.253.Google Scholar

¹⁹ See the funeral rite for Misenus in Aeneid 6.230–31: ‘spargens rore levi … lustravitque viros.’Google Scholar

²⁰ See also Purg. 1.5, 66; Purg. 2.122.Google Scholar

²¹ For the latter two traditional meanings, see Raw, C. B., ‘As Dew in Aprille,’ Modern Language Review 55 (1960) 411–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²² PL 181.250.Google Scholar

²³ ‘In pulvere enim habitant, quorum mens in terrenis cogitationibus moratur. Sed quomodo tales ad laudens Creatoris expergisci possint, aperitur; quia ros tuus, quo lavas ab hoc pulvere, ros lucis est, id est gratia tua, per quam cor a terrenis cogitationibus mundas, illuminatrix est. Pulvis namque cogitationum carnalium excaecat mentem, sed ros gratiae supervenientis illuminat eam’ (PL 181.251).Google Scholar

²⁴ Biblia Sacra cum glossis, interlineari et ordinaria, et moralitatibus Nicolai Lyrani (Venice 1588) 4 fol. 50^r; Jerome (PL 24.303); Haymo of Auxerre (PL 116.842).Google Scholar

²⁵ ‘Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sim. Et rursum circumdabor pelle mea, et in carne mea videbo Deum meum. Quem visurus sum ego ipse, et oculi mei conspecturi sunt, et non alius.’Google Scholar

²⁶ Hervé of Bourgdieu (PL 181.250); Jerome (PL 24.303); Haymo of Auxerre (PL 116.842); Denis the Carthusian (15th cent.) 8.518.Google Scholar

²⁷ Apoc. 21.4 has ‘ab’ for ‘ex.’Google Scholar

²⁸ Ps. 114.8 is somewhat similar to these texts, but its wording does not so much resemble Dante's, and to my knowledge no commentary on the Isaiah or Apocalypse verses makes reference to it.Google Scholar

²⁹ PL 17.937. He interprets Apoc. 7.17 similarly (PL 17.847).Google Scholar

³⁰ In the next several paragraphs, all PL citations refer to commentaries on the Isaiah or Apocalypse verses in question, unless otherwise noted. For the most explicit references to the two eras, see especially: Nicholas of Lyre, 4 fol. 48^v; Haymo of Auxerre (PL 116.838; 117.1193); Hervé of Bourgdieu (PL 181.242); Denis the Carthusian (15th cent.) 8.511 and 14.1.285.Google Scholar

³¹ Augustine devotes a long passage to demonstrating that, despite the obscurity of much of the Bible's final book, Apoc. 21.4 refers unquestionably to the immortality of the saints after the final judgment: ‘Et in hoc quidem libro, cuius nomen est apocalypsis, obscure multa dicuntur, ut mentem legentis exerceant, et pauca in eo sunt, ex quorum manifestatione indagentur cetera cum labore; maxime quia sic eadem multis modis repetit, ut alia atque alia dicere videatur, cum aliter atque aliter haec ipsa dicere vestigetur. Verum in his verbis, ubi ait: Absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum, et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus, tanta luce dicta sunt de saeculo futuro et de inmortalitate atque aeternitate sanctorum (tunc enim solum atque ibi solum ista non erunt), ut nulla debeamus in litteris sacris quaerere vel legere manifesta, si haec putaverimus obscura’ (Civ. Dei 20.17). Here Augustine treats the Resurrection by implication, and the following commentators on the three scriptural sources mention the resurrection of the body or some aspect of the new bodies explicitly: Tertullian, De resurrectione carnis (PL 2.880); Ambrose (PL 17.937); Bede (PL 93.194); Glossa ordinaria and Nicholas of Lyre 4 fol. 48^v, 6 fol. 271^r-v; Haymo of Auxerre (PL 117.1193); Anselm of Laon (PL 162.1575); Hervé of Bourgdieu (PL 181.241); Hugh of St. Cher, Opera omnia in universam Sanctam Scripturam (Postillae in totam Bibliam) (Venice 1669) 7 fol. 424^r; Tichonius (PLS 1.622). Commenting on ‘praecipitabit mortem in sempiternum’ (Is. 25.8) and especially ‘et mors ultra non erit’ (Apoc. 21.4), some identify death as the cause (or the major causa) of weeping: Glossa ordinaria 6 fol. 271^v; Richard of Victor, St. (PL 196.861); Martin of Laon (PL 209.405); Hugh of Cher, St., loc. cit. Note a relevant connection between tears, plants, and eternal life in Bruno of Asti (PL 165.644): ‘Qui enim seminant in lacrymis, in gaudium metent vitam aeternam.’Google Scholar

³² Glossa ordinaria 6 fol. 251^v; Anselm of Laon (PL 162.1575). In a similar instance, the blind man who regains his sight by washing mud from his eyes in the pool of Siloam performs a cleansing that, according to Augustine, constitutes holy baptism for that man and prefigures the illumination of baptism that future believers receive (In Joa. 44.2, PL 35.1714). The ritual cleansing that Dante undergoes purposes similarly to benefit his vision.Google Scholar

³³ Sanguineti, Lett. Class. 3.264–65; cf. Paparelli, G., ‘Il canto I del “Purgatorio,”’ in Purgatorio: Letture degli anni 1976–'79 (Casa di Dante in Roma; Rome 1981) 16.Google Scholar

³⁴ 54, 58, 106.Google Scholar

³⁵ Anselm of Laon (PL 162.1525); Glossa ordinaria 6 fol. 271^v; Richard of Victor, St. (PL 196.861); Hugh of Cher, St., Opera 7 fol. 423^r. Bede writes of a time when ‘nulla remaneant vestigia vetustatis’ (PL 93.194).Google Scholar

³⁶ Nicholas of Lyre, Bibl. Sac. 1 fol. 271^r.Google Scholar

³⁷ The thematics of return from exile in Purg. 1 and 2 are also supported by this tradition. Alcuin writes: ‘Sed quae sunt hae lacrimae?… Hae autem lacrimae filiorum tunc abstergendae erunt, cum de exsilio ad patriam redierint’ (PL 100.1134). See also Glossa ordinaria 6 fol. 252^r; Martin of Laon (PL 209.345).Google Scholar

³⁸ Note that there is still plenty of weeping ahead for these penitents; the imagery of transition from tempus flendi to tempus ridendi, like that of the resurrection here and in baptism generally, celebrates an event of the Judgment long before it actually occurs.Google Scholar

³⁹ Marbode of Rennes writes that the sapphire ‘tollit ex oculis sordes.’ See Liber de lapidum naturis (PL 171.1744, 1771–72) and discussions by Raimondi, E., ‘Il Canto I del “Purgatorio”’ (Florence 1963) 11, and Paparelli, ‘Canto I’ 15–16.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Scholars who have found these lines awkward include Pézard, A., ‘Le Chant deuxième du Purgatoire,’ in Letture del ‘Purgatorio’ (ed. Vettori, V.; Milan 1965) 38–39; and Flora, F., ‘Il canto II del Purgatorio,’ in Letture dantesche (Florence 1958) 23–24, who says the image ‘non sembra poeticamente persuasiva.’Google Scholar

⁴¹ What Momigliano, A. terms the ‘ampiezza di respiro’ attained by canto two's opening description of the passage of time follows from the magnitude of the historical transition effected by canto one's closing ritual: La Divina Commedia (Florence 1957) 280. Montanari, F. remarks that the sun and earth are depicted as part of a giant clock here: ‘Il canto secondo del Purgatorio,’ Humanitas 10 (1955) 359. For arguments that the first and central brightness perceived traversing the sea is the angel's face, see La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con il commento di Tommaso Casini (ed. Barbi, A.; 6th ed. Florence 1959) 351, and Singleton, ed., The Divine Comedy (Bollingen 80; Princeton 1973) 2/2.28.Google Scholar

⁴² For Marbode of Rennes, the color of the sky in the sapphire signifies a specific relation between earthly objects and the sky: ‘Saphirus coeli colorem habet. Significat illos qui adhuc in terra positi coelestibus intendunt.’ Cited in Paparelli, ‘Canto I’ 16.Google Scholar

⁴³ Div. Com. 2/2.8.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Mazzotta, Dante 43.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ PL 24.290–91.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Facies mortis and facies diaboli: Glossa ordinaria 4 fol 48^v; Jerome (PL 24.290–91). Facies mortalitatis: Hervé of Bourgdieu (PL 181.241). Original Sin: Remigius of Auxerre (PL 116.837); Hervé of Bourgdieu, loc. cit.; Denis the Carthusian (15th cent.) 8.511.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ‘Educit carcere vinctos obstructasque fores et vincula tacta resolvit, placatumque Deum reddit, precibusque faventem.’ Marbode of Rennes, loc. cit. Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See especially the following (some of whom discuss the vision of God in their gloss on the verse preceding or following the one mentioning tears): Hugh of St. Cher, Opera 7 fol. 424^r; Primasius Adrumetanus (PL 68.854); Bede (PL 93.154, 194); Bruno of Asti (PL 165.644); Richard of Victor, St. (PL 196.861); Nicholas of Lyre, Bib. Sac. 4 fol. 48^v; 6 fol. 251^v, 271^v. Of these, Richard of St. Victor, Nicholas of Lyre, and Hugh of St. Cher make reference to the face of God or man.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ See Isa. 25.6, 7, 10.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ E.g., Foffano, F., ‘Sulla soglia del Purgatorio,’ Rivista d'Italia 11 (1909) 213.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Although the earliest commentators sometimes took ‘prima gente’ as a reference to the ancient Romans or to the golden age of Saturn, they and modern scholars also commonly interpret it as a reference to Adam and Eve. See Barbi, , Div. Com. 2.341; Kantorowicz, King's Two Bodies 469; Paparelli, ‘Canto I’ 19.Google Scholar

⁵² Aquinas, Summa 3a, q. 8, a. 3. The humana universitas, Dante's rather unorthodox substitute for the conventional notion of the mystical body, is discussed by Kantorowicz, , King's Two Bodies 456. Dante's baptizer, Vergil, is also pagan, but Prof. Dino Cervigni assures me that medieval theologians often accepted as valid baptisms administered by pagans.Google Scholar

⁵³ Momigliano writes: ‘il secondo canto non si può separare dal primo: è questo uno dei tanti argomenti che si possono addurre contro il tentativo di frangere l'unità poetica della Commedia …’ Div. Com. 271.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ ‘Casella's Song,’ Dante Studies 91 (1973) 73–80. For the link between Casella's song and Boethian consolation, see also Montanari, , Humanitas 10.363; Tonelli, L., ‘Il canto II del “Purgatorio,”’ Giornale dantesco 34 (1931) 160. Singleton (Div. Com. 2/2.40) argues against any such allegorical resonances in Casella's song, saying that ‘it is simply a love song’; in doing so he ignores Dante's explicit request for a song that will ‘consolare’ (109).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See Benvenuto, and Buti, G., cited in Barbi, loc. cit. Google Scholar

⁵⁶ E.g., Grabher, Div. Com. 2.1. Cf. references to morta gente and scritta morta in Inf. 8.85, 127.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ For a brief discussion of the canticum novum, with particular regard for iconographic tradition, see Robertson, D. W., A Preface to Chaucer (Princeton 1962) 127–30.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Augustine, De pecc. mer. et remiss. 1.27 (PL 44.139): ‘Totius Ecclesiae vox est…. Omnium membrorum Christi vox est’; Primasius Adrumetanus (PL 63.833); Bruno of Asti (PL 165.681); Martin of Laon (PL 209.331). Ps.-Aquinas, Opera omnia 31.535. All bibliographical references accompanying my discussion of the new song refer to commentaries on Apoc. 5.9 (‘et cantant novum canticum …’), unless otherwise indicated.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ps.-Aug., De cant. nov. 2 (PL 40.679–81).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Ibid. 677 (very first words of the treatise): ‘Omnis qui baptismum Christi desiderat, vitam novam concupiscit’; Haymo of Auxerre (PL 117.1020); Anselm of Laon (PL 162.1521); Glossa ordinaria 6 fol. 248^v; Martin of Laon (PL 209.331).Google Scholar

⁶¹ Robertson, , Preface 128.Google Scholar

⁶² Jerome (PLS 1.131); Victorinus (PL 5.131, 328); Ps.-Augustine (PL 35.2424); Ps.-Augustine, De cant. novo (PL 40.679); Primasius Adrumetanus (PL 68.833); Ps.-Bede (PL 100.1122); Haymo of Auxerre (‘Redemisti nos Deus, quia captivi tenebamur a diabolo’; PL 117.1020); Bruno of Asti (PL 165.681).Google Scholar

⁶³ Ps. 113; see Ps. 95.1 and 143.9, and Robertson, Preface 127.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ ‘Numquid aliud coelum respicio quam antea, aut sidera in novum splendorem micantia,’ 678–79.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ PL 17.810.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Of the new song, Ps.-Aquinas writes: ‘Novus rex, nova lex, novus dux, nova lux, nova sunt omnia’ (Opera omnia 32.166).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Cf. the ‘legge’ (89) that now prevents Marcia from influencing Cato.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ In Ps. 66 (PL 36.807–8).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ De cant. novo 2 (PL 40.679).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Commedia: Elements of Structure (Dante Studies 1; Cambridge 1954) 18–29.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Robertson, Preface 243.Google Scholar

⁷² Another dream vision in which the new song is characterized by the unity of its singers is the Middle English Pearl. In it, the multitude of pearl maidens sing ‘in fere’ (Hillmann translates ‘in unison’) when they sing the ‘note ful nwe’ that is the ‘nwe songe’ (879–84). As in Dante, the new song is sung in the context of the daily arrival of new souls (847). (Quotations from Gordon, E. V. edition, Oxford 1953.)Google Scholar

⁷³ Barlozzini, G., Il Canto II del Purgatorio (Lectura Dantis Romana; Turin 1965) 17; Singleton, Div. Com. 2/2.32; Tonelli, ‘Canto II’ 146.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ He writes, for example, of Ps. 130: ‘In isto psalmo commendatur nobis humilitas servi Dei et fidelis, cujus voce cantatur, quod est universum corpus Christi, saepe enim admonuimus Charitatem vestram, non quasi unius hominis cantantis vocem accipi debere, sed omnium qui sunt in Christi corpore. Et quia in illius corpore sunt omnes, tanquam unus homo loquitur: et ipse est unus qui et multi sunt…. Hoc autem templum Dei, hoc corpus Christi, haec congregatio fidelium unam vocem habet, et tamquam unus homo cantat in Psalmo. Ejus vocem jam in multis psalmis audivimus: audiamus et in isto. Si volumus, nostra vox est …’ Enarr. in Ps. 130 (PL 37.1704–5).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ In Ps. 62 (PL 36.749).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Of Ps. 37 he writes (PL 36.400): ‘Si ergo ipse dixit Jam non duo sed una caro (Matt. 19.6), quid mirum si una caro, una lingua, eadem verba, tamquam unius carnis, capitis, et corporis?… una tamen vox, ubi non scriptum est quando dicat corpus, quando caput; … Sed neque cum corporis voces audieritis, separetis caput, neque, cum capitis voces audieritis, separetis corpus, quia jam non duo sed una caro.’ On Ps. 61: ‘Unus enim homo cum capite et corpore suo Jesus Christus, salvator corporis et membra corporis, duo in carne una, et in voce una …’ (PL 36.730). On Ps. 101: ‘Ita enim erunt duo et in voce una, et in illa una voce jam non mirabimur nostram vocem…. Dignatus est enim habere nos membra’ (PL 37.1295). He connects the una vox with the cantica graduum in a passage that could be of some relevance for Dante's treatment of ascent (PL 37.1630): ‘Ascendat ergo iste cantator; sed de unoquoque corde vestrum cantet hic homo, et unusquisque sit iste homo. Cum enim dicitis illud singuli, quia omnes unum estis in Christo, unus homo illud dicit.’ See also: In Ps. 140 (PL 37.1817), 69 (PL 36.866); In Joh. 12 (PL 35.1489); Serm. 28.4 (CCL 41.370); De pecc. mer. et remiss. 1.27 (PL 44.139).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ See Eusebius of Caesaria, In Ps. 70 (PG 23.788); Clement of Alexandria, Cohort, ad gent. (PG 8.200); and c. 4 of Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians (discussion and references in Mersch, Corps mystique du Christ 1.301).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Lombard, Peter, Comm. in Ps. (PL 191.62). He continues: ‘Materia itaque hujus libri est totus Christus, scilicet sponsus et sponsa.’ Cf. PL 191.1017. Aquinas writes: ‘Materia hujus libri est Christus et membra ejus’ (In Ps. 18.228). Cf. Alcuin, , Expositio in Psalmos poenitentiales (PL 100.579); Honorius Augustodunensis, Expositio in Ps. (PL 172.271–72). For more on this tradition and a fuller listing of patristic sources, see Mersch, , Corps mystique du Christ 2.145–47.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ De Sanctis, F., Storia della letteratura italiana (5th ed. Bari 1954) 221–22; Marti, M., Il canto II del ‘Purgatorio’ (Florence 1963) 29; Russo, V., ‘Il canto II del “Purgatorio”,’ Nuove letture dantesce 3 (1969) 242.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Dante's use of ad una voce both as a key phrase thematically and as an allusion to a specific body of tradition parallels his handling of similar key words in Purg. 1–2 and elsewhere. In canto two's episode of Casella's song, the words consolare (109), dolcemente (113), and dolcezza (114) present that song as representative of both the dolce stil nuovo and Boethian tradition, while in canto one the word rider (20) applied to the sky signals the cosmic overtones of the ritual transition from tempus flendi to tempus ridendi, and repetition of occhi and vista underscores the social implications of the cleansing of Dante's eyes and face for the newly redeemed.Google Scholar

⁸¹ He calls the Incarnation and Resurrection together ‘that total event which so sanctified the human body that a philosophical poet could find our body in the eternal world beyond, and find it there in all reality — find it there before it could really be there, for the day of our resurrection is not yet come when Dante visits the three realms beyond’: Commedia, Elements of Structure (Dante Studies 1; Cambridge 1954) 75.Google Scholar

⁸² One of the extraordinary challenges of Dante research, already evident from our analysis of the ritual that concludes canto one, is the need to account sufficiently for the multiple sources of his imagery.Google Scholar

⁸³ ‘Quid ergo faciunt in aere terrena tot corpora, cum a terra sit aer tertius? Nisi forte, qui per plumarum et pennarum levitatem donavit avium terrenis corporibus ut portentur in aere, immortalibus factis corporibus hominum poterit donare virtutem, que etiam in summo caelo valeant habitare’ (Civ. Dei 22.11).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ For a brief discussion of the qualities of the resurrected body, see ‘Resurrection,’ New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1967–79); DThC 3.1887–88 (1900–1).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ignoring the role of flight metaphors in resurrection apologetics, Benvenuto insists that mortal pelo refers to the plumage of a bird rather than the body of man. See Vernon, , Readings 1.53.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ ‘Poi, come più e più verso noi venne / l'uccel divino, più chiaro appariva: / per che l'occhio da presso nol sostenne …’ (2.37–39). Singleton (Div. Com. 2/2.28) notes that the first of the lights Dante sees approaching is the angel's face; cf. the illumination of Cato's face, to which Dante responds similarly: ‘Li raggi de le quattro luci sante / fregiavan si la sua faccia di lume, / ch'i’ 'l vedea come 'l sol fosse davante’ (1.37–39). The glorification of the face, of course, is one of the most traditional features of the resurrected body, based in part on exegetical interpretations of the Transfiguration; see Gregory, , Moralia in Job 32.6 (PL 76.640); DThC 3.1881–82.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ ‘Casella's Song’ 76.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Surnaturel (Paris 1946) 376–81.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ ‘Di alcune metafore controverse nell'opera di Dante,’ Giornale dantesco 33 (1930) 136–37. Austin was the first scholar to show how the tradition of the shed scoglio pertained specifically to the serpent's eyes. He quotes a line from the Trésor that calls the scoglio (escaille) a ‘nue,’ but does not notice the connection with the nebbia removed from Dante's eyes or with the other imagery of the eyes in canto one.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ We have already noticed how the tension between the songs recalls the singing contest featured in canto one's prologue. The losers of that contest were turned into ‘Piche misere’ for their pride; canto two's concluding simile ‘turns’ the audience for Casella's song into frightened doves who flee ‘sanza mostrar l'usato orgoglio’ (126).Google Scholar

⁹¹ Civ. Dei 13.18.Google Scholar

⁹² Civ. Dei 13.24. Cf. Serm. 264 (PL 38. 1217); and Jerome, In Isaiam 16.58 (PL 24.575).Google Scholar

⁹³ A representative explanation is from Vernon, Readings 17: ‘Cato must have been standing close to the cavernous opening by which the Poets issued from Hell; for as soon as Dante had taken in all the beauty of dawning day, and of the four still shining stars, he turned back towards the North and became aware that Cato was standing beside him.’ Other scholars circumvent the difficulty by stating merely that this is the realm of mystery and the supernatural: Barbi, Div. Com. 2.347; Momigliano, Div. Com. 278; Sansone, Letture e studi danteschi (Bari 1975) 117; Singleton, Div. Com. 2/2.21.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ ‘Sed necesse est, inquiunt, ut terrena corpora naturale pondus vel in terra teneat vel cogat ad terram et ideo in caelo esse non possint…. sed quia et ad hoc respondendum est uel propter Christi corpus cum quo ascendit in caelum uel propter sanctorum qualia in resurrectione futura sunt, intueantur paulo adtentius pondera ipsa terrena. Si enim ars humana efficit, ut ex metallis, quae in aquis posita continuo submerguntur, quibusdam modis uasa fabricata etiam natare possint: quanto credibilius et efficacius occultus aliquis modus operationis Dei …’ (Civ. Dei 13.18).Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Cf. Theophilus, of Antioch, , Ad Autolycum 1.7 (PG 6.1036); Tertullian, references and discussion in DThC 1.987.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Singleton has already shown how Dante first invokes the metaphor of pilgrimage in the first cantos of Purgatorio. Com.: Elem. of Struct. 22–23. For Purg. 1–2 as the first locus of successful conversion in the Commedia, see his ‘In Exitu Israel de Aegypto,’ 78th Annual Report of the Dante Society of America (1960), 1–3.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ In the absence of any logical, scientific reason why some of the attempted embraces in the Commedia fail and others do not, I conclude with Russo (‘Canto II’ 252–54) that the success or failure of each is dictated by poetic considerations. Cf. Inf. 8.40–42; Purg. 6.75; 21.130–36.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Russo, , ‘Canto II’ 240–41.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Piers Plowman and Njálssaga, for example, offer an especially striking division between ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’ sections. Scholarship on Piers Plowman suggests such a relation between its Visio and Vita, with the tearing of the pardon as a transition: see Carruthers, M., ‘Time, Apocalypse, and the Plot of Piers Plowman,’ in Acts of Interpretation: The Text in Its Contexts; Essays on Medieval Literature in Honor of E. Talbot Donaldson (edd. Carruthers, M. and E. Kirk; Norman, Okla. 1982) 70–73; Kaske, R. E., ‘Holy Church's Speech and the Structure of Piers Plowman,’ in Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour of Rossel Hope Robbins (ed. Rowland, B.; London 1974) 320–27; Lawlor, J., ‘Piers Plowman: the Pardon Reconsidered,’ Modern Language Review 45 (1950) 456; Schroeder, M., ‘Piers Plowman: The Tearing of the Pardon,’ Philological Quarterly 49 (1970) 8–18; Trower, K., Temporal Tensions in the Visio of Piers Plowman,’ Medieval Studies 35 (1973) 390. For discussion of a similar structure in Njálssaga, see Allen, R., Fire and Iron: Critical Approaches to Njáls Saga (Pittsburgh 1971) 204; Löunroth, L., Njáls Saga: A Critical Introduction (Berkeley 1976) 142–49.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Representative are: Ps.-Augustine, De cant. novo 677; Bede (PL 93.146); Bruno of Asti (PL 165.681); Hugh of St. Cher, Opera omnia 6 fol. 334^r.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Jerome (PLS 1.1331); Victorinus (PL 5.328); Primasius Adrumetanus (PL 68.833).Google Scholar

¹⁰² The Eucharist, Scripture's most potent symbol of the church's mystical body, enacts both a temporal boundary and a figural bond between the covenants. Abbo Sangermanensis characterizes history's nexus in the Last Supper thus (Serm. 2; PL 132.765): ‘In ista die cessavit Vetus Testamentum, et accepit finem lex Judaeorum. Et in ista die incipit Novum Testamentum, hoc est Evangelium. Et hodie incoepit religio Christianorum in ipsa coena Domini.’ Peter Lombard also comments on the Eucharist's mediation between the covenants (Collect. in epist. Pauli, PL 191.1299): ‘Ibi enim lapis reprobatus, quem gessit angulus, mira praestans in oculis nostris, panem supercaelestem cum typico agno conjunxit, finiens testamentum vetus et inchoans novum. Per agnum etenim qui in veteri lege solemnis erat hostia, et panem qui novae legis sacramenti forma est, duo testamenta figuravit, atque illa duo conjungens, praedictorum testamentorum consonantiam declaravit.’ Some sources identify the New Testament itself with the Eucharist, as de Lubac notes (Corpus mysticum 217): ‘L'Eucharistie en elle-měme, et non plus seulement dans son effet, se trouve aussi mainte fois désignée par les vocables qui servent d'ordinaire à désigner le Nouveau Testament. C'est qu'alors on la considère d'une façon explicite comme faisant partie de ce Nouveau Testament, ou měme comme en constituant le cœur. Sanguis Christi, novum testamentum.’ Thus widespread medieval tradition compares the relationship between the old and new covenant to that between shadow and body: ‘umbra legis erat, corpus est Christi’ (Ps.-Primasius, In Coloss., PL 68.656). The word corpus, says de Lubac, ‘embrasse en certains cas toute la réalité sacramentaire de la nouvelle économie, sans pour autant contenir d'allusion précise à une présence “corporelle.” Comme veritas, il doit alors se comprendre par son contraste avec les mots umbra et figura, opposant à la vacuité des cérémonies judaïques, dont toute la valeur était figurative, la plénitude évangélique, qui est la plénitude měme du Christ’ (Corpus mysticum 217; cf. his Histoire et esprit: l'intelligence de l'Écriture d'après Origène [Paris 1930] 222–27). Cf. also Hilary, , De Trinitate 5.17 (PL 10.139); Ambrose, De mysteriis (PL 16.405); Jerome, , In Tit. 1 (PL 26.569); Fulgentius, Epistola (PL 65.432–33); Aquinas, Summa 1a 2ae, q. 107, a. 2. The shadow/body antithesis came to be equated with that between shadow and light, so that the emphatic, simultaneous appearance of corporeal and light imagery after the gloom of hell is theologically precise. See Spitz, H., ‘Licht,’ in his Die Metaphorik des geistigen Schriftsinns: Ein Beitrag zur allegorischen Bibelauslegung des ersten christlichen Jahrtausends (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 12; Munich 1972) 46–56.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ For other examples, see Haubrichs', W. analysis of architectonic textual structures that intersect and overlap in the body of Christ, in Ordo als Form: Strukturstudien zur Zahlenkomposition bei Otfrid von Weissenburg und in karolingischer Literatur (Hermaea germanistische Forschungen N.F. 27; Tübingen 1969), esp. 90–91, 106–8, 115–17, 181–84, 207–8, 256, 326. Also see my ‘Minor mundus: The Figurative Use of the Body in Pearl (diss. Cornell 1988) 107–32 and passim. Canto two's astronomical opening, which Sapegno, N. compares to the first of Dante's stony rimes (‘Io son venuto al punto de la rota’), provides a geometrical basis for the body imagery here akin to that in the texts featured in the above studies: La Divina Commedia (Florence 1956–57) 2.14. As Cicchitto, P. L. observes, the two circles described here intersect at right angles to form a cross: ‘Il canto II del Purgatorio’ (Lectura Dantis Romana; Turin 1964) 10–14. Also, a passage in the Monarchia shows Dante's awareness of the connection between this figure of the horizon between two hemispheres and man's body: ‘Ad huius autem intelligentiam sciendum quod homo solus in entibus tenet medium corruptibilium et incorruptibilium; propter quod recte a phylosophis assimilatur orizonti, qui est medium duorum emisperiorum’ (ed. Vinay, G. [Florence 1950] 278–80). Eliade, M., who has studied body-centered cosmography cross-culturally, observes that centers of the universe characteristically constitute points of intersection between hell, earth, and heaven like this one; see his Images et symboles: essais sur le symbolisme magico-religieux (Paris 1952) 50–52. Thus we also find a similar use of the geometry of the circle, cross, and hemisphere in the description of solar movement in Par. 1.37–54, at the poem's other nexus between cosmic regions.Google Scholar