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August 25, 2010
Danteblogging - Purgatory Canto II
Purgatory Canto II
Canto II begins with much astronomy, situating Mount Purgatory for the informed medieval reader -- all of whom believed, of course, in a spherical world hanging at the center of the cosmos. Jerusalem was at the center of the inhabitable land mass and directly antipodeal to Mount Purgatory. The Pillars of Hercules were 90 degrees west of Jerusalem and the mouth of the Ganges 90 degrees east (neat, if inaccurate). No one who survives this course will ever believe in the Flat Earth Theory, concocted in the 19th century.
Across the waters of Ocean Dante sees the angelic opposite of Charon bringing souls to Mount Purgatory. Esolen has a graceful little note: The details of this scene echo and, as it were, correct those of the crossing of Acheron Inf 3.82-120)--boat, waters, pilot, speed, instruments, attitude of passengers." I like that "correct" - a good word for Purgatory.
Most importantly for readers and interpreters of Dante, the souls are singing the Psalm 113, In exitu Israel de Aegypto, "When from the land of Egypt Israel came." This is the very verse Dante explicated for Cangrande della Scala, lord of Verona, in the letter dedicating the Paradiso to him. Dante lays out four levels of polysemous meaning for the Big Dog: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.
So in the first 50 lines of the Canto we're going to get to discuss medieval cosmology and medieval hermeneutics. Does it get better than that?
Here's the letter, in Latin and English.
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Posted by CrankyProfessor at August 25, 2010 8:09 AM