Chapter 20

[184]SeeThe New Teaching, edited by Prof. John Adams (Hodder and Stoughton, 1918, 10/6), pp. 9, 11. This work came into the writer’s hands after the virtual completion of the present essay; but it sums up so compactly the point of view of the modern principles he desired to illustrate, that he has found occasion to refer to it with some frequency.[185]Cf.The New Teaching, p. 64, where Prof. J. Adams says of the study of English Literature: “the radical difference between the old teaching and the new is that we have passed from books about books to the books themselves.”[186]SeeLa Poesia di Dante, pp. 14, 15.[187]See H. O. Taylor,The Mediaeval Mind. Mr. Taylor heads his 43rd and last chapter “The Mediaeval Synthesis: Dante.” See Vol. II, p. 534; andDante and Mediaeval Thought, in the present volume, p. 80.[188]Par.xxv. 3;Conv.III, ix. 146sqq.; p. 285, Oxf. Ed.; p. 226sq., Bemporad.[189]Federzoni,Vita di Beatrice Portinari, 2nd Ed., p. 14; and belowDante and Casentino, pp. 148sq.[190]Inf.xv. 82-85.[191]Conv.II, xiv. (xiii.), pp. 265-7, Oxf. Ed.; pp. 193-7, Bemporad.[192]Benedetto Croce (op. cit.) has much to say on the power of Dante’s poetic genius to transmute the intractable and unpoetical scholastic and didactic matter. See esp. pp. 67, 161.[193]Dante and Aquinas, p. vii;cf.and pp. 226sqq., and esp. p. 232.[194]Wicksteed,loc. cit.[195]Purg.xxvii. 140, 142. The English renderings are mainly from Tozer’s Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.[196]Epist.x. (xiii.), p. 416, Oxf. Ed.; p. 439, Bemporad. “Locutio vulgaris in qua et muliercule communicant.”[197]Epist.x. (xiii.) 265sqq.; p. 417, Oxf. Ed.; p. 440, Bemporad.[198]Inf.i. 113sq.[199]Inf.i. 118-120.[200]See esp. Luke vii. 18-23, where, in answer to a question from the Baptist’s disciple, He gives a “demonstration” of Messianic works, and says “Go and describe what you have seen.”[201]Not only in the formally “didactic passages” does he act—in Croce’s words, “like a master who knows, and is bent on making it clear to the pupil.”Op. cit., p. 121.[202]Purg.i. 71.[203]Purg.v. 61sqq.[204]Purg.xxvii. 142.[205]Par.xxxi. 85.[206]Purg.xxvi. 13.[207]Purg.xxiii. 73sqq.[208]Purg.xxi. 61sqq.[209]Mme. Montessori’s earlier utterances were justly criticised for a too thoroughgoing individualism that claimed to have rung the death-knell of the “class system.” The individualist attitude and the collective have each a place in the New Teaching, though the former tends to be emphasised most. The characteristic Montessorian expression of the social instinct is the “Silence Game.” SeeThe New Teaching, pp. 15, 16, 22.[210]Op. cit., p. 234.[211]Purg.x. 31sqq.[212]Purg.xii. 16sqq.[213]Very little transpires as to the office and function of those Angels except in the matter of removal of the P’s from the forehead of penitents as they mount up to the successive Terraces. InPurg.xvi. 142-5, there is a glimpse of their usefulness, where Marco Lombardo is reminded of the boundary of his “beat” by the nearness of the Angel of the Anger-Terrace. “L’Angelo è i’vi!”[214]Purg.ii. 30.[215]Purg.xvi. 76-78. For this reference and several others the writer is indebted to an illuminating article on “La Pedagogia in Dante Alighieri,” by Sac. Dott. Fernando Cento inIl VIº Centenario Dantesco, March, 1916.[216]Purg.iv. 88-95.[217]Purg.xii. 110; xv. 38; xvii. 68 etc.[218]Inf.xxx. 136sqq.[219]Par.xxxiii. 58sqq.[220]Purg.xviii. 141.[221]Purg.xix. 1sqq.[222]Purg.xix. 28.[223]Purg.xxvii. 88sqq.[224]As in the case last quoted, or e.g. inPurg.xvii. 40sqq.:Come si frange il sonno, etc., where the sleep is broken by the sudden striking of a light upon the sleeper’s eyes.[225]Purg.xxvii. 112.[226]Inf.xxvi. 7.[227]See pp. 95sqq.[228]p. 120sq.[229]p. 121. He goes on: “Perciò i concetti esposti vi si rivestono d’immagini corpulenti e fulgidissimi.”[230]Croce, p. 135.[231]Par.i. 100.[232]Strictly, fromInf.i. 112 toPurg.xxvii. 142; Virgil disappears,Purg.xxx. 49.[233]Purg.xxi. 33.[234]Purg.xxi. 103;cf.i. 125; xix. 85sqq., etc.[235]Gerus. Lib.xvii. 63.[236]Purg.xvi. 77.[237]Inf.ii. 1-5.[238]Inf.i. 77-78;Purg.xxvii. 35-36.[239]Op. cit., p. 37.[240]Inf.xvii. 79sqq.[241]Purg.xxvii. 22sqq.[242]Homer,Od.xx. 18. Dante,Inf.xxvi. 56sqq.;Purg.xix. 22;Par.xxvii. 83.[243]Purg.iv. 89sqq.[244]Inf.xi. 10-66; xii. init.[245]Purg.xvii. 88-139.[246]Cf.The New Teaching, p. 40, where Prof. Adams remarks, “The postponing of grammar studies to a comparatively late stage in school life is one of the most striking recognitions of the elementary psychological truths that underlie the principles of teaching.”[247]Purg.xviii. esp. 40-43.[248]Acts i. 1.[249]Inf.iv. 13-15;cf.Inf.xvii. 79 (above), andPurg.xxvii. 46.[250]Inf.iv. 14.[251]Purg.iii. 7-9.[252]New Teaching, p. 153 (Dr. Rouse).[253]Inf.xiii, 28sqq.;Aen.iii. 22sqq.[254]Inf.xii. 114.[255]Purg.xxv. 25sqq.[256]Purg.xv. 76-78.Cf.Purg.xviii. 46-48.[257]Purg.xxvii. 139sqq.[258]Inf.i. 122sqq.[259]The New Teaching, pp. 20, 26 (Prof. Adams).[260]Purg.xxvii. 139-142.[261]There is some reason (see below, pp. 121sqq.) for attributing to a common origin some of the points of resemblance which are noted in the body of this Essay. Professor Foligno, however, like Dr. Parodi (see below, pp. 133sq.) is convinced of the fallaciousness of all arguments hitherto adduced in favour of direct contact of Dante with Moslem sources—and, in particular, of the reasoning of Professor Asín (p. 133).[262]The Gospel of Barnabas.Edited and translated from the Italian MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg. Oxford: 1907.[263]On this subject, see below, pp.[264]See Introduction to Oxford Ed., pp. xiii.sq.and xliii.[265]As for instance in his definition of the word “Pharisee,” “farisseo propio uolle dire cercha DIO nella linggua di chanaam” (Barnabas, 157ᵇ).[266]Par.i. 56-7.Cf.Barn.40ᵃ,sq.[267]Purg.xxviii. 94, etc.,cf.Barn.41ᵇ-43ᵇ.[268]Barn.189ᵃ,cf.(for angels) Canz. iv. 24, 25,Par.xx. 102.[269]Barn.189ᵃ,Koran, Surah xlvii. Theoriginalsource is perhapsGen.ii. 10sqq.[270]Purg.xxviii. 25sqq.[271]Barn.187ᵃ, 189ᵃ.[272]Purg.xxvii. 134.[273]Purg.xxviii. 36.[274]Purg.xxviii. 41, 42.[275]V.E.i. 7, 10-11. Oxf. p. 382; Bamp. p. 324.[276]185ᵃ.[277]185ᵇ.[278]Par.xxxi. 97; xxxii. 39.[279]Par.xxiii. 71, 72.[280]190ᵃ.[281]Par.xxvi. 64-66.[282]185ᵇ.[283]Par.iii. 70sqq.[284]Barn.189ᵇ.[285]Par.iii. 65.[286]Par.iii, 82-85. A reviewer of the Oxford Edition (Guardian, Aug. 21st, 1907) points out a further significant resemblance betweenPar.xxxi. 7sqq.andBarn.56ᵇ, where it is said of the angels that, “chome appe uenirano intorno per circuito dello nontio di DIO.”[287]Barn.111ᵃ,cf.190ᵇ.[288]111ᵃ.[289]iiiᵇ, 190ᵇ.[290]190ᵇ.[291]Cf.E. Blochet,Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie, Paris, 1901, p. 193: “Ce qui distingue surtout laDivine Comédiede toutes les autres formes de la Legende de l’ Ascension, ce qui la rende même supérieure aux livres religieux de toutes les epoques et de tous les pays, c’est que le poête a su décrire aussi completement le bonheur éternel du Paradis que les tortures infinies du Malebolge.”[292]E.g. in the Motalizite Sect (seeEncycl. Brit.vol. xvi, p. 592).[293]149ᵇsqq.[294]146ᵇ-149ᵃ.[295]Studies in Dante, Series II.[296]146ᵇ.[297]147ᵃ.[298]148ᵃ.[299]148ᵇ.[300]43ᵃ.[301]Inf.xiv. 85sqq.; xxxiv. 130.[302]Inf.ix. 85.[303]Inf.ix. 66 and 76sqq.[304]149ᵇ.[305]150ᵃ.[306]Barn.113ᵃ,cf.Inf.xxxii. 22sqq.[307]Barn.63ᵃ: Dante,Inf.iii. 103.[308]In 23ᵃ, 81ᵃ, 225ᵇ. It is characteristic of the MS. that the three passages furnish as many different spellings of the last word:bugiari,bugiardiandbuggiardi! Cf.Inf.i. 72.[309]Inf.i. 47;Barn.62ᵇ.[310]85ᵇ and 87ᵃ.[311]A little earlier (76ᵇ) he has what seems to be a quotation from memory of Lev. xxvi. 11, 12; the Law of the Jubilee is to be found, of course, in the chapter immediately preceding.[312]Antiquorum habet(Coqueline, iii. 94).[313]E.g. Cron. Astense (Muratori, R. S. I., tom. xi. p. 192): Jacobus Cardinalis (in Raynald, tom. iv. sub an. 1300): Villani, viii. 36.[314]Another point that might have been adduced is the counsel “habbandonare il perchè,”Barn.95ᵇ;cf.Purg.iii. 37.[315]Inf.iv. 67sqq.Here, standing apart, but near the heroes and heroines of ancient Rome, Dante places the Moslem champion Saladin (ib.129).[316]Inf.xxviii. 35.[317]Prof. N. Tamassia,S. Francesco d’ Assisi e la sua Leggenda, p. 88.[318]Including (38ᵇ) a striking statement of the impossibility of penitence (and therefore of absolution) to one meditating fresh sin:cf.Dante,Inf.xxvii. 118sq.[319]Introduction to Oxford Edition, p. xxxiv.[320]La Escatologia musulmana en la “Divina Commedia.”Discorso leído en el acto de su recepción, par D. Miguel Asín Palacios ... Madrid, Estanislao Maestre, 1919.[321]Les sources Orientales de la Divina Comédie.Paris, E. Blochet. Paris, Maisonneuve, 1901.[322]Koran, chap. xvii. (xv.) init. “Praise be unto him who transported his servant by night, from the sacred temple of Mecca to the further temple of Jerusalem, the circuit of which we have blessed, that we might shew him some of our signs; for God is he who heareth and seeth.” (Sale’s translation). On this passage a most elaborate story was built up by subsequent legend-makers.[323]Ireland is undoubtedly the focus in Europe of legendsPersianin origin. Appropriate to our subject are not only the St. Brendan Legend, but also the Purgatory of St. Patrick and the Descent of St. Paul. Blochet,op. cit., p. 117sqq.[324]Ib.p. 161.[325]Ib.p. 172.[326]Bulletino della Società dantesca italiana, Nov. Ser., fasc. 4, (Dec., 1919), pp. 163-181.[327]See above, p. 131, note 4.[328]Bulletinout supra, p. 166.[329]Bulletinout supra, esp. p. 181. Ma il meglio sarà contentarsi di meditare sull’ affinità delle menti umane e sulla verosimiglianza che cause simili producano, in luoghi diversi, effetti non troppo dissimili.[330]Dr. Parodi’s view would probably be like that of Gherardo de’ Rossi about the vision of Alberic, which he quotes on p. 163: that theMiradj“possa aver all’ Omero italiano suggerito l’ idea dellaCommediacome un pezzo di marmo potrebbe somministrare ad uno scultore l’ idea d’ una statua.”[331]Inf.iv. 129, 143-4.[332]Par.x. 136-8.[333]Par.xxv. 2.[334]Ep.x. (Oxford Ed.), xiii. (Bemporad), 87sqq.See Sir T. W. Arnold, “Dante and Islam,”Contemp. Review, Aug., 1921, to which the present writer owes most of the substance of this paragraph and what follows.[335]Arnold, p. 205-6.[336]Ib.p. 206-7.[337]Conv.I, iii.; Oxf. Ed., p. 240; Bemporad, p. 151sq.[338]Purg.xiv. 16sqq.[339]Inf.xxx. 64sqq.[340]Purg.xiv. 46sqq.[341]Villani, v. 37.[342]Inf.xvi. 37.[343]Purg.xiv. 43.[344]Inf.x. 85.[345]Par.xi. 106.[346]Vill.vii. 131;Dino, i. 9.[347]Leonardo Bruni Vita di Dante. Dove mi trovai non fanciullo nelle armi, e dove ebbi temenza molta....[348]Inf.xxx. 37sqq.Perhaps of English extraction: in a document at Ravenna he is described as “de Anglia.”[349]Inf.iv. 106sqq.[350]Inf.iv. 48.[351]Inf.iv. 42.[352]Inf.iv. 118.[353]Inf.xxx. 78.[354]It is strange to find even in so recent a work as Mr. Tozer’s Prose Translation of theDivine Comedy, reference still made to the fountain of the name inSiena. The context is all in favour of a spring near Romena.

[185]Cf.The New Teaching, p. 64, where Prof. J. Adams says of the study of English Literature: “the radical difference between the old teaching and the new is that we have passed from books about books to the books themselves.”

[186]SeeLa Poesia di Dante, pp. 14, 15.

[187]See H. O. Taylor,The Mediaeval Mind. Mr. Taylor heads his 43rd and last chapter “The Mediaeval Synthesis: Dante.” See Vol. II, p. 534; andDante and Mediaeval Thought, in the present volume, p. 80.

[188]Par.xxv. 3;Conv.III, ix. 146sqq.; p. 285, Oxf. Ed.; p. 226sq., Bemporad.

[189]Federzoni,Vita di Beatrice Portinari, 2nd Ed., p. 14; and belowDante and Casentino, pp. 148sq.

[190]Inf.xv. 82-85.

[191]Conv.II, xiv. (xiii.), pp. 265-7, Oxf. Ed.; pp. 193-7, Bemporad.

[192]Benedetto Croce (op. cit.) has much to say on the power of Dante’s poetic genius to transmute the intractable and unpoetical scholastic and didactic matter. See esp. pp. 67, 161.

[193]Dante and Aquinas, p. vii;cf.and pp. 226sqq., and esp. p. 232.

[194]Wicksteed,loc. cit.

[195]Purg.xxvii. 140, 142. The English renderings are mainly from Tozer’s Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[196]Epist.x. (xiii.), p. 416, Oxf. Ed.; p. 439, Bemporad. “Locutio vulgaris in qua et muliercule communicant.”

[197]Epist.x. (xiii.) 265sqq.; p. 417, Oxf. Ed.; p. 440, Bemporad.

[198]Inf.i. 113sq.

[199]Inf.i. 118-120.

[200]See esp. Luke vii. 18-23, where, in answer to a question from the Baptist’s disciple, He gives a “demonstration” of Messianic works, and says “Go and describe what you have seen.”

[201]Not only in the formally “didactic passages” does he act—in Croce’s words, “like a master who knows, and is bent on making it clear to the pupil.”Op. cit., p. 121.

[202]Purg.i. 71.

[203]Purg.v. 61sqq.

[204]Purg.xxvii. 142.

[205]Par.xxxi. 85.

[206]Purg.xxvi. 13.

[207]Purg.xxiii. 73sqq.

[208]Purg.xxi. 61sqq.

[209]Mme. Montessori’s earlier utterances were justly criticised for a too thoroughgoing individualism that claimed to have rung the death-knell of the “class system.” The individualist attitude and the collective have each a place in the New Teaching, though the former tends to be emphasised most. The characteristic Montessorian expression of the social instinct is the “Silence Game.” SeeThe New Teaching, pp. 15, 16, 22.

[210]Op. cit., p. 234.

[211]Purg.x. 31sqq.

[212]Purg.xii. 16sqq.

[213]Very little transpires as to the office and function of those Angels except in the matter of removal of the P’s from the forehead of penitents as they mount up to the successive Terraces. InPurg.xvi. 142-5, there is a glimpse of their usefulness, where Marco Lombardo is reminded of the boundary of his “beat” by the nearness of the Angel of the Anger-Terrace. “L’Angelo è i’vi!”

[214]Purg.ii. 30.

[215]Purg.xvi. 76-78. For this reference and several others the writer is indebted to an illuminating article on “La Pedagogia in Dante Alighieri,” by Sac. Dott. Fernando Cento inIl VIº Centenario Dantesco, March, 1916.

[216]Purg.iv. 88-95.

[217]Purg.xii. 110; xv. 38; xvii. 68 etc.

[218]Inf.xxx. 136sqq.

[219]Par.xxxiii. 58sqq.

[220]Purg.xviii. 141.

[221]Purg.xix. 1sqq.

[222]Purg.xix. 28.

[223]Purg.xxvii. 88sqq.

[224]As in the case last quoted, or e.g. inPurg.xvii. 40sqq.:Come si frange il sonno, etc., where the sleep is broken by the sudden striking of a light upon the sleeper’s eyes.

[225]Purg.xxvii. 112.

[226]Inf.xxvi. 7.

[227]See pp. 95sqq.

[228]p. 120sq.

[229]p. 121. He goes on: “Perciò i concetti esposti vi si rivestono d’immagini corpulenti e fulgidissimi.”

[230]Croce, p. 135.

[231]Par.i. 100.

[232]Strictly, fromInf.i. 112 toPurg.xxvii. 142; Virgil disappears,Purg.xxx. 49.

[233]Purg.xxi. 33.

[234]Purg.xxi. 103;cf.i. 125; xix. 85sqq., etc.

[235]Gerus. Lib.xvii. 63.

[236]Purg.xvi. 77.

[237]Inf.ii. 1-5.

[238]Inf.i. 77-78;Purg.xxvii. 35-36.

[239]Op. cit., p. 37.

[240]Inf.xvii. 79sqq.

[241]Purg.xxvii. 22sqq.

[242]Homer,Od.xx. 18. Dante,Inf.xxvi. 56sqq.;Purg.xix. 22;Par.xxvii. 83.

[243]Purg.iv. 89sqq.

[244]Inf.xi. 10-66; xii. init.

[245]Purg.xvii. 88-139.

[246]Cf.The New Teaching, p. 40, where Prof. Adams remarks, “The postponing of grammar studies to a comparatively late stage in school life is one of the most striking recognitions of the elementary psychological truths that underlie the principles of teaching.”

[247]Purg.xviii. esp. 40-43.

[248]Acts i. 1.

[249]Inf.iv. 13-15;cf.Inf.xvii. 79 (above), andPurg.xxvii. 46.

[250]Inf.iv. 14.

[251]Purg.iii. 7-9.

[252]New Teaching, p. 153 (Dr. Rouse).

[253]Inf.xiii, 28sqq.;Aen.iii. 22sqq.

[254]Inf.xii. 114.

[255]Purg.xxv. 25sqq.

[256]Purg.xv. 76-78.Cf.Purg.xviii. 46-48.

[257]Purg.xxvii. 139sqq.

[258]Inf.i. 122sqq.

[259]The New Teaching, pp. 20, 26 (Prof. Adams).

[260]Purg.xxvii. 139-142.

[261]There is some reason (see below, pp. 121sqq.) for attributing to a common origin some of the points of resemblance which are noted in the body of this Essay. Professor Foligno, however, like Dr. Parodi (see below, pp. 133sq.) is convinced of the fallaciousness of all arguments hitherto adduced in favour of direct contact of Dante with Moslem sources—and, in particular, of the reasoning of Professor Asín (p. 133).

[262]The Gospel of Barnabas.Edited and translated from the Italian MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg. Oxford: 1907.

[263]On this subject, see below, pp.

[264]See Introduction to Oxford Ed., pp. xiii.sq.and xliii.

[265]As for instance in his definition of the word “Pharisee,” “farisseo propio uolle dire cercha DIO nella linggua di chanaam” (Barnabas, 157ᵇ).

[266]Par.i. 56-7.Cf.Barn.40ᵃ,sq.

[267]Purg.xxviii. 94, etc.,cf.Barn.41ᵇ-43ᵇ.

[268]Barn.189ᵃ,cf.(for angels) Canz. iv. 24, 25,Par.xx. 102.

[269]Barn.189ᵃ,Koran, Surah xlvii. Theoriginalsource is perhapsGen.ii. 10sqq.

[270]Purg.xxviii. 25sqq.

[271]Barn.187ᵃ, 189ᵃ.

[272]Purg.xxvii. 134.

[273]Purg.xxviii. 36.

[274]Purg.xxviii. 41, 42.

[275]V.E.i. 7, 10-11. Oxf. p. 382; Bamp. p. 324.

[276]185ᵃ.

[277]185ᵇ.

[278]Par.xxxi. 97; xxxii. 39.

[279]Par.xxiii. 71, 72.

[280]190ᵃ.

[281]Par.xxvi. 64-66.

[282]185ᵇ.

[283]Par.iii. 70sqq.

[284]Barn.189ᵇ.

[285]Par.iii. 65.

[286]Par.iii, 82-85. A reviewer of the Oxford Edition (Guardian, Aug. 21st, 1907) points out a further significant resemblance betweenPar.xxxi. 7sqq.andBarn.56ᵇ, where it is said of the angels that, “chome appe uenirano intorno per circuito dello nontio di DIO.”

[287]Barn.111ᵃ,cf.190ᵇ.

[288]111ᵃ.

[289]iiiᵇ, 190ᵇ.

[290]190ᵇ.

[291]Cf.E. Blochet,Les sources orientales de la Divine Comédie, Paris, 1901, p. 193: “Ce qui distingue surtout laDivine Comédiede toutes les autres formes de la Legende de l’ Ascension, ce qui la rende même supérieure aux livres religieux de toutes les epoques et de tous les pays, c’est que le poête a su décrire aussi completement le bonheur éternel du Paradis que les tortures infinies du Malebolge.”

[292]E.g. in the Motalizite Sect (seeEncycl. Brit.vol. xvi, p. 592).

[293]149ᵇsqq.

[294]146ᵇ-149ᵃ.

[295]Studies in Dante, Series II.

[296]146ᵇ.

[297]147ᵃ.

[298]148ᵃ.

[299]148ᵇ.

[300]43ᵃ.

[301]Inf.xiv. 85sqq.; xxxiv. 130.

[302]Inf.ix. 85.

[303]Inf.ix. 66 and 76sqq.

[304]149ᵇ.

[305]150ᵃ.

[306]Barn.113ᵃ,cf.Inf.xxxii. 22sqq.

[307]Barn.63ᵃ: Dante,Inf.iii. 103.

[308]In 23ᵃ, 81ᵃ, 225ᵇ. It is characteristic of the MS. that the three passages furnish as many different spellings of the last word:bugiari,bugiardiandbuggiardi! Cf.Inf.i. 72.

[309]Inf.i. 47;Barn.62ᵇ.

[310]85ᵇ and 87ᵃ.

[311]A little earlier (76ᵇ) he has what seems to be a quotation from memory of Lev. xxvi. 11, 12; the Law of the Jubilee is to be found, of course, in the chapter immediately preceding.

[312]Antiquorum habet(Coqueline, iii. 94).

[313]E.g. Cron. Astense (Muratori, R. S. I., tom. xi. p. 192): Jacobus Cardinalis (in Raynald, tom. iv. sub an. 1300): Villani, viii. 36.

[314]Another point that might have been adduced is the counsel “habbandonare il perchè,”Barn.95ᵇ;cf.Purg.iii. 37.

[315]Inf.iv. 67sqq.Here, standing apart, but near the heroes and heroines of ancient Rome, Dante places the Moslem champion Saladin (ib.129).

[316]Inf.xxviii. 35.

[317]Prof. N. Tamassia,S. Francesco d’ Assisi e la sua Leggenda, p. 88.

[318]Including (38ᵇ) a striking statement of the impossibility of penitence (and therefore of absolution) to one meditating fresh sin:cf.Dante,Inf.xxvii. 118sq.

[319]Introduction to Oxford Edition, p. xxxiv.

[320]La Escatologia musulmana en la “Divina Commedia.”Discorso leído en el acto de su recepción, par D. Miguel Asín Palacios ... Madrid, Estanislao Maestre, 1919.

[321]Les sources Orientales de la Divina Comédie.Paris, E. Blochet. Paris, Maisonneuve, 1901.

[322]Koran, chap. xvii. (xv.) init. “Praise be unto him who transported his servant by night, from the sacred temple of Mecca to the further temple of Jerusalem, the circuit of which we have blessed, that we might shew him some of our signs; for God is he who heareth and seeth.” (Sale’s translation). On this passage a most elaborate story was built up by subsequent legend-makers.

[323]Ireland is undoubtedly the focus in Europe of legendsPersianin origin. Appropriate to our subject are not only the St. Brendan Legend, but also the Purgatory of St. Patrick and the Descent of St. Paul. Blochet,op. cit., p. 117sqq.

[324]Ib.p. 161.

[325]Ib.p. 172.

[326]Bulletino della Società dantesca italiana, Nov. Ser., fasc. 4, (Dec., 1919), pp. 163-181.

[327]See above, p. 131, note 4.

[328]Bulletinout supra, p. 166.

[329]Bulletinout supra, esp. p. 181. Ma il meglio sarà contentarsi di meditare sull’ affinità delle menti umane e sulla verosimiglianza che cause simili producano, in luoghi diversi, effetti non troppo dissimili.

[330]Dr. Parodi’s view would probably be like that of Gherardo de’ Rossi about the vision of Alberic, which he quotes on p. 163: that theMiradj“possa aver all’ Omero italiano suggerito l’ idea dellaCommediacome un pezzo di marmo potrebbe somministrare ad uno scultore l’ idea d’ una statua.”

[331]Inf.iv. 129, 143-4.

[332]Par.x. 136-8.

[333]Par.xxv. 2.

[334]Ep.x. (Oxford Ed.), xiii. (Bemporad), 87sqq.See Sir T. W. Arnold, “Dante and Islam,”Contemp. Review, Aug., 1921, to which the present writer owes most of the substance of this paragraph and what follows.

[335]Arnold, p. 205-6.

[336]Ib.p. 206-7.

[337]Conv.I, iii.; Oxf. Ed., p. 240; Bemporad, p. 151sq.

[338]Purg.xiv. 16sqq.

[339]Inf.xxx. 64sqq.

[340]Purg.xiv. 46sqq.

[341]Villani, v. 37.

[342]Inf.xvi. 37.

[343]Purg.xiv. 43.

[344]Inf.x. 85.

[345]Par.xi. 106.

[346]Vill.vii. 131;Dino, i. 9.

[347]Leonardo Bruni Vita di Dante. Dove mi trovai non fanciullo nelle armi, e dove ebbi temenza molta....

[348]Inf.xxx. 37sqq.Perhaps of English extraction: in a document at Ravenna he is described as “de Anglia.”

[349]Inf.iv. 106sqq.

[350]Inf.iv. 48.

[351]Inf.iv. 42.

[352]Inf.iv. 118.

[353]Inf.xxx. 78.

[354]It is strange to find even in so recent a work as Mr. Tozer’s Prose Translation of theDivine Comedy, reference still made to the fountain of the name inSiena. The context is all in favour of a spring near Romena.

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