The Portable Dante (90 page)

3
. The Fixed Stars (the eighth heaven) was believed to move from west to east one degree in 100 years (or one-twelfth of a degree in eight years and 4 months), a phenomenon known now as precession of the equinoxes.

4
. In this passage Dante mentions the three physiological spirits, the vital, the animal, and the natural, taking his categories from Albertus Magnus (
De Spiritu et Respiratione).
These spirits had substance; the vital originating in the heart, becoming natural in the liver, and animal in the brain. They were all three ruled by the soul.

5
. Latin for “Here is a God stronger than I who comes to rule over me.”

6
. One of the
spiriti sensitivi,
emanations of the
spirito animate
that act as vehicles for the senses. The spirits of sight traveled to the object and back to the eyes, carrying the image.

7
. Latin for “Now your bliss has appeared.”

8
. Latin for “Alas, wretch, for I shall be disturbed often from now on!”

9
. These words appear not in Latin but in Italian; an allusion to the
Iliad,
XXIV 258-259 (regarding Hector), which Dante knew from his reading of Aristotle. Homer had not yet been translated into Latin, and Dante did not know Greek.

10
. The canonical hours of the day began at six in the morning.

11
. The first of three visions in the
Vita nuova.
(Cf.
Ezekiel
1-3.)

12
. Latin for “I am your master.”

13
. Latin for “Behold your heart.”

14
. The hours of the night began at six P.M. It was between nine and ten P.M.

15
. Lyric poets accustomed to debate problems of love in verse.

16
. The Italian troubadours invented the sonnet form, still a mode of debate in which the problem is set forth in a
proposta,
inviting a
risposta
(using the same rhymes) from another poet. Together the two sonnets formed a
tenzone,

17
. The poet Guido Cavalcanti (1259?-1300), who died in exile after banishment by Dante’s own party and with his consent. Cf.
Inferno
X, 58-111;
Purgatory
XI, 97.

18
. The identity of his beloved.

19
. The Virgin Mary.

20
. This pretended devotion to another woman was a common device of the troubadour poets.

21
. The
sirventes
in Provençal poetry was a political poem; in Italy it became narrative, often characterizing individuals in a critical or satiric manner. No trace of Dante’s
serventese
has been found.

22
. This is a
sonetto doppio
(or
rinterzato)
in which six seven-syllable lines are inserted among the usual eleven-syllable lines, each rhyming with the line preceding. Another
sonetto doppio
appears in
chapter VIII
.

23
. Quoted in Latin from the
Lamentations of Jeremiah
1:12: “All ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.”

24
. Her honor preserved in the minds of men.

25
. A traveler who has left his proper home behind:

26
. For these spirits, see notes to II.

27
. The Virgin Mary.

28
. Latin for “My son, it is time to do away with our false ideals.”

29
. Latin for “I am like the center of a circle equidisdant from all points on the circumference; you, however, are not.”

30
. The
ballata
was poetry set to music, meant to be sung during dance. It begins with a
ripresa
to be repeated as a refrain, followed by one or more stanzas whose last lines rhyme with one of the lines of the
ripresa.

31. He invites the reader to hold this passage in mind until he comes to the explanation in XXV. Cf.
Convivio
III 9.

32
. Latin for “Names are the consequences of things”: a common gloss on civil law. Cf.
Genesis
2:19-20.

33
. Another military term, common to the troubadour lyric. Cf. “foe” and “defense” in XIII.

34
. Weddings were regulated by the city of Florence, whose rules allowed an invited guest to bring a friend.

35
. Cf. II, XI. He was unable to see Beatrice except through the eyes of Love.

36
. On the verge of the Unknown. Cf.
Inferno
XXVI, 90-142, Ulysses’s account of going to his death beyond the gates of Hercules;
Hamlet,
III, 1: “The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.”

37
. This passage is notable for its terms of warfare, a convention for the lover being tested in his loyalty.

38
. A poem of Provencal origin consisting of a number of stanzas identically structured. Dante considered it the noblest form of poetry and wrote of it in detail in his
De vulgari eloquentia
(II). It was later diversified and perfected by Petrarch. This canzone
(“Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore”)
is Dante’s most famous because of its mention in
Purgatory
XXIV, 49-63, as a model of the
“dolce stil novo.”

39
. Several interpretations of this controversial line arc offered: He expects not to be saved; he anticipates the death of Beatrice and his subsequent languishing in a hell on earth without her; he anticipates his descent into hell in a future work of imagination, like the
Divine Comedy.

40
. The color of dawn, denoting ideal perfection in a philosophic sense.

41
. The flame of desire is struck in the eyes; its goal is the mouth from which issues the greeting of the lady. Cf.
Convivio
III 8.

42
. The final stanza serves as messenger, technically named an
envoi, congedo,
or
commiato.

43
. Professing to aim to a select audience was a common stance in troubadour poetry.

44
. Dante here echoes the first line of Cavalcanti’s most famous canzone,
“Donna mi prega.”

45
. Guido Guinizzelli, the forerunner of Dante, who formulated the doctrine of the gracious heart in his most famous
canzone
“Al
cor gentil ripara sempre Amore.”
Guinizzelli like Dante changed his style from describing conventionally the sensual effects of love to exploring the intellectual aspects of it originating in nobility of character. Dante refers to Guinizzelli in
De Vulgari Eloquentia
I, 15;
Convivio
IV, 20;
Purgatory
XXVI, 97-99; he echoes this
canzone
again in
Inferno
V, 100.

46
. Of
Idea
—eternal form. Cf.
Convivio
II, I and III, 7.

47
. Cf. the Aristotelian principle of causation from
De anima
II, 2: The perfection of the thing is its realization in nature (entclechy) in virtue of which it attains its fullest function. According to Guinizzelli’s poem, the phenomenon is like a bird finding its home and renewing itself in the greenness of the woods.

48
. The father of Beatrice, usually identified as Folco Portinari, who died in 1289 leaving six daughters and five sons, all of whom were mentioned in his will, including Beatrice.

49
. The two sonnets together, question and answer, form a
contrasto.

50
. These phenomena are reminiscent of events that accompanied the death of Christ (Matthew 27:51-54; Luke 23:44), and of Revelation 6:12-14.

51
. Latin for “Hosanna in the highest,” the greeting given to Christ when he entered Jerusalem. Cf. Mark 11:10; Matthew 21:9;
Purgatory
XI, 11; XX, 136.

52
. Said below to be a “close relative,” perhaps a younger sister.

53
. The longest poem in the
Vita nuova,
this is the centerpiece of the work; i.e., it is preceded by fifteen poems and followed by fifteen and is separated from the other two
canzoni
by four poems each. The six stanzas each have fourteen lines, lines 9 and 11 being settenary. There is no
commiato.

54
. Guido Cavalcanti; cf. III and XXX. No Joan (Giovanna) has been found in the poems of Cavalcanti, although a
ballata
begins
“Fresca rosa novella, piacente Primavera.”

55
. Latin for “I am the voice crying in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord.” Cf. Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23.

56
. The familiar name of Beatrice. This is the only time Dante names her while she is alive. A fictitious name to conceal the identity of the lady was called a
senhal
in troubadour poetry.

57
. He speaks also of Beatrice, just identified as Love. This passage is extremely important as an example of early literary criticism.

58
. Aristotle, known to Dante through Latin translations and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

59
. Didactic poets who disseminated their ideas through the medium of love poetry, writing in the learned tongue.

60
. Dante argues from a Scholastic position for poetic license in the formation of vernacular verse, composed within certain limitations
(secundum aliquant proportionem).
Unless writing in Latin grammar and meter, a poet technically was not called a poet.

61
.
’In lingua d’oco e in quella di
si,’ referring to Languedoc and the Italian vernacular. Dante understood Provençal (Languedoc) to be that language spoken in southern Europe, which used the Latin
hoc
for the word “yes.” Old French
(langue d’ oïl),
spoken in northern France, used
oil (hoc
+
ille).
Italian used si from the Latin sic. Cf.
Inferno
XXXIII, 80.

62
. Dante later expanded his categories to include the defense of the community, virtue, and morality. Cf.
De Vulgaris Eloquentia
II, 2.

63
. Latin for “Aeolus, for to you.”

64
. Latin for “Yours, O queen, is the task of determining your wishes; mine is the right to obey orders,” speaking of Juno
(Aeneid
I, 65, 76-77).

65
. Latin for “You hardy Trojans” (
Aeneid
III, 94); Phoebus is speaking in his role as the sun.

66
. Latin for “Much, Rome, do you owe, nevertheless, to the civil war” (
Pharsalia
I, 44); addressed in the original to the emperor.

67
. Latin for “Tell me, Muse, of the man” (
Ars Poetica
141-142). In this passage, Horace translates the first two verses of Homer’s
Odyssey,
making his memory of Homer’s words the object of his speech.

68
. Latin for “Wars against me I see, wars are preparing, he says” (
Remedia Amoris
2). For a mention of all four of these poets together, see
Inferno
IV, 79-90.

69
. Dante invites us to find this meaning not only in his own figures or personifications but in the way they link with the figures of the four poets cited.

70
. “
Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare,
“ Dante’s most famous sonnet, in which Love’s personification in Beatrice brings out her miraculous curative powers. Cf.
Convivio
III, 7.

71
. Some editions begin a new chapter here, adding one more to the total.

72
. But for one seven-syllable line (11), this poem could be a sonnet, being made up of one stanza of fourteen verses. According to the
Vita nuova’s
symmetrical scheme, a sonnet is called for in this position.

73
. Latin for “How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How has she become a widow, she that was great among the nations!” from the Lamentations to Jeremiah 1:1.

74
. In order to make a connection between Beatrice’s death and the number nine, Dante used his knowledge of the Ptolemaic-based work
Elementa Astronomica
by Alfraganus (cf.
Convivio
II, 5), which revealed that for Arabs, day began at sunset rather than sunrise. Beatrice died on June 8, 1290; according to the Arabian system the first hour of the night in Italy was the first hour of day June 9.

75
. June would be the ninth month in the Syrian system, Tixryn, a two-month period the first part of which corresponded to the Roman October.

76
. No foreign calendar was required to make the connection between 1290 and the number nine. It had been reached ten times (ten being the perfect number according to St. Thomas) in the thirteenth century of the Christian era.

77
. Cf.
Convivio
II, 3. In Ptolemy’s system the ninth heaven is the
primum mobile.
The tenth heaven (corresponding to the perfect number) is the motionless Empyrean.

78
. As they were at the birth of Christ. Cf.
Paradise
VI, 55-56.

79
. Florence. By “princes of the land” Dante may mean Florentines or he may have been addressing a wider audience. A 1314 letter addressed to the Italian cardinals meeting in Carpentras uses the same quotation from Jeremiah.

80
. Latin for “How doth the city sit solitary.”

81
. Dante’s letter, the first part of which is quoted in the Latin of the Vulgate (from Lamentations of Jeremiah) was all in Latin.

82
. Guido Cavalcanti. Cf. III, XXIV. Dante implies that it was Cavalcanti who encouraged him to turn to the vernacular Italian for literary purposes.

83
. An attribute of the Virgin Mary. Cf.
Luke
1:28; Petrarch,
canzone
366, 40-42.

84
. The other
canzoni.

85
. Believed to be the brother of Beatrice (cf. XXXIII: “grieves as a brother”).