"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Dante's Paradiso Cantos XV - XVIII, Summary

Canto XV

At the sphere of Mars, Dante tells us that God has silenced heaven’s music.  He sees what seems to be a shooting star fly off the cross and fall toward Dante.  The shooting star settles in front of Dante, now appearing like a gem, speaks in Latin: “O blood of mine, O grace of God, poured down from above, to whom, as to you, have the gates of heaven ever been opened twice?”  In total joy, the spirit with ardent love blesses God for showing such favor to his descendent.  The spirit has read in the Book of Life of Dante’s salvation and has been with anticipation waiting for him.  He encourages Dante to speak and ask who he is.  Finally Dante does so, referring to him as a “living topaz.”  The spirit identifies himself as the father of Dante’s great-grandfather.  He tells Dante that he lived in a time when Florence was a simpler place, a humbler place, a more virtuous place.  The light rants against the mores and luxuries of Dante’s day, and identifies exemplar citizens of his day.  Citizens were not exiled then as now, and parents were dutiful to their children, instructing them of their origins.  When he was alive, Florence was peaceful, fair, sweet, and its citizens were patriotic and devout.  Finally he gives his name as Cacciaguida.  His wife came from the Po valley and was the source of Dante’s last name.  He was knighted by the Emperor Conrad and went on a crusade to retake the Holy Land, and it was there that he was martyred. 

Canto XVI

Dante (the author) opens with a short digression on the insignificance of noble blood.  He respectfully and joyfully  addresses Cacciaguida, calling him his father.  Dante asks him four questions: who were his ancestors, what was it like in Florence in his day, how many people lived there, and who were the noteworthy people of his day?  Being given these questions, Cacciaguida glows with delight.  Indirectly he says he was born in 1091 when Florence was about a third the size and with a fifth of the population.  But all those that lived there were fit to bear arms and yet still humble artisans.  He refuses to name his ancestry out of modesty and says the town was better with its smaller borders.  It would have kept the grifters out from the nearby towns.  The intermingling between the towns has resulted in an increased population, and that ever since has been the source of the city’s ills.  Cacciaguida goes on to catalogue the great Florentine families and their declines.  He tells Dante that from Dante’s perspective he cannot see the degeneration because one’s life is so brief.  Cacciaguida goes on to directly or indirectly identify some forty families, giving some little tidbit about each.  He ends his discourse with the death of Buondelmonte who abandoned one betrothed for another only to be murdered by the kinsman of the jilted lady at the foot of the statue of Mars.  This is in Cacciaguida’s view, the start of the feuding families and the political strife that has sunk Florence into infighting.  And Cacciaguida concludes that he was there when Florence was a glorious and tranquil place, never fighting between themselves.

Canto XVII

Still at Mars, Dante (the character) with Beatrice’s encouragement wishes to know more about the prophesies he’s heard while traveling through hell and purgatory.  These prophesies, Dante says, were grave, and he would like to prepare himself to face these afflictions.  With plain and clear speech, Cacciaguida with paternal love tells Dante his future.  Looking through God’s sight, Cacciaguida has seen a vision of things in store for Dante.  He has seen that Dante will be forced to flee from Florence in unjust exile and indicates that behind the treachery will be the corrupt Pope.  The city will turn on Dante but ultimately he will get vengeance.  Cacciaguida tells him that everything he holds dear will be left behind, and that he will taste the bitterness of eating another man’s bread.  And the most bitter burden of all will be the abandonment of his supposed friends, so Dante will be left as a party of one.  But a noble Lombard will give him much assistance and support.  This noble Lombard, Cacciaguida foretells, will earn such honor that even his enemies will have to acknowledge his greatness.  Trust him, Cacciaguida finally advises.  He concludes once again that Dante will be vindicated.  Dante responds that he will need to prepare for such a blow and asks his forefather if he thinks it’s wise to tell his tale with absolute truth.  Cacciaguida says to tell the bitter truth no matter who it hurts, and if there are some that don’t like it, then they can go scratch.  Ultimately it will do them good and Dante will gain the highest honors.

Canto XVIII


Still at Mars, while Cacciaguida and Dante ponder what has been said, Beatrice breaks the dour spell with a command to change their thoughts.  She reminds them that God lifts all burdens and that they are in heaven.  When Dante gazes into her beauty, he feels a release and the pull of eternal beauty.  Dante then realizes that his forefather wants to add something else.  He wants to name some of the souls that are on the cross.  He will go one to name eight, each a fitting soldier for the realm of Mars.  With each name a shooting star flies off the cross and propels toward Dante.  But in an instant, Dante finds that he and Beatrice have been transported to Jupiter.  Lights that appear to be birds fly about, singing and morphing into shapes of letters.  The first three letters are in the shape of “D,” “I,” and “L.”  Thirty-five letters fly around, spelling out in Latin the opening sentence from the Book of Wisdom: “Love justice you who love the earth.”  The birds settle all on the last letter, “M,”  and then scatter with a thousand other lights and when all the lights finally settle, they form a pattern of a head and neck of an eagle.  Dante (the author) goes into several digressions: the beauty of the pattern, the source of heavenly justice, and the corruption of papal justice. 


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