Chapter XIX: Introduction (14)

Mr. Wicksteed suggests reading “elevatio” instead of “declinatio,” and apparently deletes the “non,”[632] and Dr. Moore seems to read the same way,[633] for both agree in interpreting as follows:—the author is stating an argument that the elevation of land (in only one hemisphere) might be due to the moon’s coming nearer to Earth in one part of her orbit, owing to its eccentricity; to which he replies that if that were the cause the elevation would be greater in the south than here in the north, because the moon is nearer to the earth when she goes south.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [632] Note on this passage in “Temple” Dante.

[633] _Studies in Dante_, ii. p. 339. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is supposed to imply a belief that the moon is always in perigee[634] when south of the equator, whereas the fact that her perigee revolves all round the zodiac was as well known to Ptolemy and Alfraganus as it is to modern astronomers. The interpretation therefore convicts the author of the _Quæstio_ of so serious and inexplicable a blunder that these commentators find themselves obliged to consider it as evidence either that it was not written by Dante, or that his knowledge of astronomy was much less extensive than has been supposed. It is suggested that there may have been a popular fallacy in his time that the moon was like the sun in this respect—although to know that the sun has a perigee, and that it is situated in the south, requires some acquaintance with astronomy! However, Dr. Moore has searched Alfraganus and other works in vain to find a suggestion of this kind.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [634] Nearest Earth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(The dotted line represents the southern half of the deferent).]

Yet an explanation and a source of this statement is not far to seek, and instead of proving ignorance it indicates that the author of the _Quæstio_ knew his Alfraganus well. The passage is evidently slightly corrupt, but the clue to its meaning lies in the word “eccentricity.” In two other places of the _Quæstio_ the moon’s eccentric “orbis” is alluded to,[635] but if we translate this as “orbit” we shall be introducing modern ideas which meant nothing to Dante or his contemporaries. According to Alfraganus and Ptolemy the moon’s orb or sphere[636] was eccentric, but this was not the main cause of her varying distance from Earth. It was the revolution of her epicycle round its centre C, which caused her to move continually from apogee M to perigee P; and as the whole epicycle was meanwhile revolving on the deferent round C, and these two periods were not quite equal, the moon was as often in the perigee of her epicycle when it was south as when it was north. But besides this, the deferent, being eccentric to Earth, had also a perigee and apogee; and Alfraganus says that _the perigee of the eccentric is always in the south_. “Saturnus, Jupiter, atque Mars eccentricorum suorum absidas summas et imas habent declinatas a zodiaco, illas ad boream, hasce ad austrum, secundum eandem semper deflexus mensuram: _quedadmodum res in Luna obtinet_.”[637]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [635] _Qu._ vii. 4, 6, and xxiii. 52.

[636] “Orbis” and “sphæra” are used indifferently by Alfraganus to indicate the celestial spheres: thus, in ch. xii. he says “_Orbes_, qui stellarum omnes motus complectantur, numero esse octo,” and on the next page, “unamquamque harum _sphærarum_ octo.”

[637] “The upper and lower apsides of the eccentrics of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, have a certain declination from the zodiac, the former to the north, the latter to the south, the amount always remaining constant: _and it is just the same with the moon_.” _El. Ast._ xviii. par. 6. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The upper and lower apsides are defined in chapter xii. as the positions of apogee and perigee respectively.[638]

In this quotation the word “declinatas” also supplies us with the meaning of Dante’s “declinatio,” which need not be changed for “elevatio.” He is using it in the astronomical sense of position north or south, like Alfraganus and modern astronomers, and it refers here to the “declinet” of five lines earlier. “Luna ... tantum _declinet_ per zodiacum ab æquinoctiali _versus polum antarcticum_ quantum versus arcticum.”[639]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [638] In the edition of Golius ch. vii. par. 5, the position of greatest distance is called the perigee, of least the apogee, but this mistake is corrected in the next paragraph.

[639] “The moon’s declination in the zodiac from the equator towards the south pole is as great as towards the north.” _Qu._ xx. 61-63. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is only necessary to delete “quod” and “non potuit,” and the whole passage becomes clear and, from the point of view of mediæval astronomy, correct. The author has shown that the moon cannot be supposed to exert any preponderating influence in the northern hemisphere, because her declination south is equal to that in the north. Nor is it of any use, he adds, to say that this declination (south) results from her approaching the earth more nearly on her eccentric orb (see diagram);[640] for (although this does imply an unequal influence) if the elevating influence came from the moon, it would act more powerfully in the south than here in the north, since the nearer an agent is the more powerfully it acts.

He goes on to say that the same reasoning rules out the planetary spheres, and here Alfraganus still supports him, for Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are said to have the perigees of their eccentrics in the south, just like the moon, while those of Venus and Mercury are continually changing.[641]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [640] The deferent was the equator of her orb or sphere.

[641] Ristoro also defines apogee and perigee (“auge” and “opposito d’auge”) as effects of movements on an epicycle, and says that the deferent is “declined” from the ecliptic (“declinato della via del sole,”) part being north and part south, but he does not say whether its perigee is north or south. _Comp. del Mondo._ I. xii. xiv., and III. vii. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the Primum Mobile, or ninth sphere, it is uniform throughout, and consequently quite uniform in virtue, therefore there is no reason why it should elevate land here rather than elsewhere. Since, then, there are no more moving bodies except the star sphere, or eighth heaven, it must be from this that the lifting power proceeds. And it is specially adapted to exercise such an influence since it contains a number of stars, all of which have different “virtues.” Without repeating Ristoro’s naïve assertions about the greater number and the upright positions of the northern constellations, our author bids us remark that star differs from star, constellation from constellation, and that their influences are also diverse, so that those in the north have different virtues from those in the south. The lifting virtue which raises the land must reside in those stars which are between the equator and 67° north, since those are above the habitable earth; but we do not know the nature of the force they exercise, whether it attracts the land as a magnet attracts iron, or forces it up by generating underground vapours, such as have raised some mountains (Aristotle had said in his _Meteorologica_ that volcanic hills were formed by pent-up winds beneath them).

After so elaborate a search for a power capable of raising land only in the north and not in the south, we naturally inquire why in the east and not in the west? But to this we only receive the reply that there was not enough material to go round, and that we must not ask presumptuous questions. Let us seek to approach divine and immortal things as nearly as is possible to human nature, but leave those which are too high for us.

This somewhat lengthy description of the contents of the _Quæstio_ has been given because, even if it is not Dante’s work, it illustrates well the current ideas concerning the Cosmos, its form and forces. So many of the ideas, however, and even the expressions find parallels in the unquestioned writings of Dante, that the internal evidence for its genuineness is strong.[642]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [642] For a thorough discussion of this question see Moore’s _Studies in Dante_ ii. pp. 303-374. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

In his poems Dante is faithful to his own descriptions of the universe in prose, and in the visionary journey of the _Divine Comedy_ he passes successively through all the spheres which are enumerated in the _Convivio_ and the _Quæstio_. The central sphere of earth, the lowest of all the elements, “il suggetto dei vostri elementi,”[643] is completely traversed, from side to side, and on the further side is seen the vast sphere of ocean which envelopes three-quarters of the earth. The Mountain which the poet has placed here (his only innovation) rises out of the water towards the heavens higher than any other, “inverso il ciel più alto si dislaga,”[644] and in climbing it he reaches that region in the sphere of air into which no cold exhalations can rise from earth or sea, neither the “secco vapor”[645] which causes wind and earthquake, nor the “esalazion dell’ aqua”[646] from which are formed rain and hail, cloud and dew. Hot exhalations ascend to the sphere of fire, there to become meteors or comets (see p. 103); but the cold vapours rising as high as they can towards the sun which draws them up (“retro il calor”[647]), are unable to ascend beyond the Gate of Purgatory.[648] Therefore Purgatory is exempt from all changes except those caused by that which heaven receives from itself into itself. This was ingeniously conjectured by Venturi to be light, since there is change of day and night in Purgatory; but from the context it seems clear that human souls are meant. Souls come forth from their Creator, whose special abode is the heaven of heavens, and return thither after purification. And it was the rising of the purified soul of Statius, ready to return to heaven, which had been the cause of that trembling of the Mountain of which he is here speaking.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [643] “The foundation of your elements.” _Par._ xxix. 51.

[644] “Rises highest towards heaven out of the sea.” _Purg._ iii. 15.

[645] “Dry vapour.”

[646] “Exhalations from the water.”

[647] “Behind [_i.e._ following] the heat.”

[648] _Purg._ xxviii. 97-99 and xxi. 52-53. The gate is meant by “i tre gradi” (“the three steps”), and “ove si serra” (“where it is locked”). See _Purg._ ix. 76, 106-108. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

After learning this, Dante is surprised to find, on the summit of the Mountain, that his brows are caressed by a gentle breeze which comes from the east and bends all the trees of the Forest in one direction. Matilda tells him that it is true no atmospheric changes are felt on this Mountain, and it was for this that it was made to rise so high, so that man in the Garden of Eden, on the top of the Mountain, should be untroubled by the disturbances which occur lower down: what he feels now is no fluctuating wind. On this lofty mountain, remote from any other land in the midst of the hemisphere of sea, he feels for the first time the revolution of the atmosphere uninterruptedly following the movement of the celestial spheres.

The idea that Eden was on a lofty mountain, secure from stormy weather, and inaccessible to fallen man, was a familiar one with mediæval writers: it was sometimes located on Adam’s Peak in Ceylon, and Bede thought it might rise as high as the moon, but Albertus Magnus says this was only meant figuratively. But the connection with Purgatory, and the thought that here the movement of the heavens might be felt as a soft breeze, is, so far as I know, all Dante’s own.

In all the _Divine Comedy_ there is no more beautiful allegory than this. Man in the age of innocence, man to-day when purified from sin, is already partly in heaven, though he still walks the earth. And like many another allegory of Dante’s, it follows naturally from the science of his day. Aristotle had said that the upper air “flows in a circle, because it is drawn along with the circulation of the Whole,” and Aquinas:—

“Thus the air which exceeds the greatest altitude
of the mountains flows round, but the air which is
contained within the altitude of the mountains is
impeded from this flow by the immoveable parts of
Earth.”

_Purg._ xxviii. 103-108 is almost a poetical paraphrase of this:—

“ ... In circuito tutto quanto
L’aer si volge con la prima volta,
Se non gli è rotto il cerchio d’alcun canto:
In questa altezza, che tutta è disciolta
Nell’ aer vivo, tal moto percote
E fa sonar la selva, perch ’è folto.”[649]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[649]
“ ... The universal atmosphere
Turns in a circuit with the primal motion,
Unless the circle is broken on some side:
Upon this height, that all is disengaged
In living ether, doth this motion strike,
And make the forest sound, for it is dense.”
(_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The whole body of the air, everywhere in the world, is turning with the First Revolution (the Primum Mobile), wherever it is not interrupted by any obstruction (of hills etc.); and as at this height the Mountain is altogether free and open to the pure air, this motion strikes the thick forest and makes it murmur.[650]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [650] Scartazzini takes the passage as referring to Eden only, and interprets that all the air _here_ is moving evenly and noiselessly unless it meets with any obstacle _such as this forest_, when a murmuring sound results. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

From this region of pure air, Dante rises with Beatrice through the sphere of Fire, into which already in a dream he had been rapt, on the first night in Purgatory, by the Eagle with golden feathers, when the burning heat of the dream-fire roused him from his sleep.[651] Now he feels no heat, but is amazed at the vast extent of light, greater than any river or lake ever seen on earth, and at the same moment he begins to hear the music of the eternal spheres,[652] for he is approaching the heaven of the moon.

In each one he hears it until the seventh is reached, but here, in pity for his mortal senses, which are not yet strong enough to bear so much divine beauty, not only does Beatrice forbear to smile, but the sweet symphonies of heaven are silent.[653]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [651] _Purg._ ix. 30-33.

[652] _Par._ i. 76-81.

[653] _Par._ xxi. 58-63. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did Dante then, in spite of Aristotle, believe in the music of the spheres? Perhaps the fact that only the _Commedia_, of all his works, makes mention of it indicates that he only thought of it as a poetical fiction, an allegory? Yet it was fully believed in by many in his day, although opinions varied greatly as to what note each planet sang. The favourite idea among Greek and Latin writers seems to have been that the notes made up a musical scale, the lowest sphere sounding forth the lowest note, and the star sphere its octave; but others thought that only the seven planets took part in the harmony, corresponding with the seven strings of the lyre: the moon being at the shortest distance from Earth, was the shortest string and gave the highest note, Saturn was the longest and gave the deepest.

Our own Milton, when he prays, “Ring out, ye crystal spheres,” bids the Primum Mobile join in, as well as the star sphere:

“And with your nine-fold harmony
Make up full concert to the angelic symphony.”[654]

And Shakespear lets every separate star swell the chorus:

“There’s not the smallest orb which thou beholdest
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.”[655]

In the same spirit, but more literally perhaps than these, are we to understand the music of Dante’s spheres, which accompanies the singing of the angels:—

“Il cantar di quei che notan sempre
Dietro alle note degli eterni giri.”[656]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [654] _Hymn on the Nativity._

[655] _Merchant of Venice._

[656]
“The song of those who sing for ever
After the music of the eternal spheres.”
_Purg._ xxx. 92, 93. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. DIMENSIONS AND PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE.

We have seen that Dante believed the circling of the nine moving spheres and their epicycles to be the immediate cause of the movements which he saw in stars and planets. If we ask what were his ideas with regard to their sizes and distances the question is easily answered.

It is a curious fact that although our ideas about the size of anything we see depend upon the distance at which it appears to be, and no one can say how far away the sun looks, most of us nevertheless have a quite definite idea as to how large it looks, about the size of a dinner-plate, a cart-wheel, &c. Cleomedes, in the days of Augustus, quotes Lucretius and the Epicureans as believing that the sun is no larger than it looks, _that is a foot in diameter_; and he rightly remarks, amongst other arguments to the contrary, that if it were only that size it would be invisible unless nearer than the tops of the mountains, yet we see islands and hills projected against it when rising, which shows that its distance is greater. Dante twice quotes the same fallacy, as an instance of the folly of trusting to the impression of our senses, when not corrected by reason, and he tells us what he believes the true size of the sun to be.

In _Conv._ IV.[657] he says:—

“Thus we know that to most people the sun appears
to be a foot wide in diameter; and this is so
utterly false that according to the investigation
and discovery made by human reason with her
attendant arts, the diameter of the sun’s body is
five times that of the earth’s, and a half besides.
For whereas the earth has a diameter of six
thousand five hundred miles, the diameter of the
sun, which when measured by sense-impressions seems
to be a foot in extent, is thirty-five thousand,
seven hundred and fifty miles.”
(See also _Ep._ x. 42-46).

When speaking of the planet Venus he says she is “far off from us, being distant even when she is nearest to us one hundred and sixty-seven times the distance of the distance of the centre of the earth from us, which is three thousand two hundred and fifty miles.”[658]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [657] _Conv._ IV. viii. 51-64.

[658] _Conv._ II. vii. 104-108. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercury is spoken of in the _Paradiso_ as a small star, “Questa picciola stella,”[659] and in _Conv._ II.[660] Dante says:—“Mercury is the smallest star in the sky; for the length of its diameter is not more than 232 miles, according to Alfraganus, who says that it is one twenty-eighth of the diameter of the earth,[661] which is six thousand five hundred miles.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [659] “This small star.” _Par._ vi. 112.

[660] _Conv._ II. xiv. 92-98.

[661] The Frankfort printed edition and some Latin MSS of Alfraganus agree with this: the edition of Golius gives ¹/₁₈. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is only in the last passage that our poet quotes his authority, but in the others also the diameter or the semi-diameter of the earth is used as the unit of measure, and it is the same as that given by Alfraganus; so are the sizes of Mercury and the Sun, and the least distance of Venus is the value given by Alfraganus for the greatest distance of Mercury, which he asserted to be equal. It seems quite clear, therefore, that the figures given in the tables on pp. 189-90 represent Dante’s belief as to the dimensions of the Universe. These passages also are another proof that Dante had not studied Ptolemy’s own work, for Ptolemy had said that the distances of Venus and Mercury could not be accurately known.[662]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [662] _Almagest_, Bk. IX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

We do not expect exact measures of distance in Dante’s descriptions of his soaring flight through the spheres, but he so constantly speaks of the marvellous speed with which he passes from star to star that we are not required to ignore the stupendous distances between. The one indication he does give us of the space which separates him from earth is full of poetry and symbolic meaning: I refer to Folco’s words in the heaven of Venus:—

“Questo cielo, in cui l’ombra s’appunta
Che il vostro mondo face” ...[663]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[663]
“This heaven, where ends the shadowy cone
Cast by your world.”
_Par._ ix. 118, 119. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the last of the three heavens in which Dante has met spirits whose lives did not reach the perfection of the saints in higher heavens, but were marred by broken vows, earthly ambition, earthly love; and here he is reminded that he has not yet soared high enough to be beyond reach of the cone of shadow thrown by the earth. This is another allegory resting on what was to the poet an astronomical fact. For Earth’s shadow was said by Ptolemy and Alfraganus to extend to 268 times the distance of her semi-diameter, and the distance of Venus from Earth varied, according to Alfraganus, between 167 and 1120 times this unit, while the next planet, the sun, at his least distance was 1120 units distant (the same as Venus’ greatest). Therefore the spheres of Venus and the two nearer planets Mercury and the Moon, were all within reach of Earth’s shadow, but the sun and the rest were far beyond it.[664] Venus and Mercury themselves never could be actually touched by the shadow like the moon, however, because they keep too near the sun for Earth to interpose herself between them and the source of light.

(Though the length of the shadow thrown by Earth is nearly accurate, see pp. 191-92, the planets are a great deal further than Alfraganus supposed; for the least distance of Venus is nearly 6000 times Earth’s semi-diameter, and the least distance of Mercury 12,000).

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [664] Rabbi Abraham ben Chija, in his _Sphæra Mundi_, written about 1100 A.D., says that Earth’s shadow extends as far as the distance of Mercury, not of Venus (Delambre, _Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne_, and Dreyer, _Planetary Systems_); but this does not agree with the figures given by Alfraganus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Except for this we have only the passage in the _Paradiso_ already referred to, where Dante, standing among the stars of Gemini, found the sphere above him too distant to be seen, but turning his gaze downwards was able to survey all the planets and the earth at the centre of the World. He knew very well that at a distance from Earth 20,000 times her own semi-diameter it would be impossible to see her as a disc,[665] far less to distinguish oceans and continents, hills and river-mouths. It would in fact be like looking at an object one foot in diameter at a distance of two miles. But as we have before observed, his power of vision here was more than human: at every step in this marvellous journey it had grown clearer and stronger, and in the fourth heaven he had been able to look on spirits which shone in the sun more brilliantly than the sun itself, although on earth no eye can look upon the sun.[666]

In the Empyrean, distinctions of space, and impediments to vision vanished altogether.[667]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [665] Her diameter would look no larger than the diameter of Saturn, as we see it when nearest to him; but like Saturn she would be visible as a bright point, because shining by reflected sunlight. Ancient and mediæval astronomers never realized this, however, but thought of Earth as a dark body, receiving light but giving none.

[666] _Conv._ II. xiv. 126, 127; _Par._ x. 40-42, 48.

[667] _Par._ xxii. 67; xxxi. 19-24; xxx. 118-123. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

With regard to the physical nature of the heavenly bodies, Dante and his contemporaries had no means whatever of investigation, and could only profess ignorance or accept one or other of the guesses of their predecessors. Some of the Greek philosophers, as we saw, guessed that the planets were worlds somewhat like the earth, others thought they were composed of fire or of air. But the general belief in the thirteenth century was that planets and spheres alike were composed of a kind of celestial matter, called by Aristotle and the Greeks “æther,” by the Arabs “al-acir,” an immortal substance which had neither heaviness nor lightness, and was altogether distinct from any of the four elements existing below the sphere of the moon. Beatrice speaks of “this sphered ether,” “questo etera tondo.” _Par._ xxii. 132.

Dante’s description of this celestial substance when he first enters the ethereal world is one of the finest instances of his faithfulness to the teachings of astronomy as he had learned it, combined with poetical imagination, and at the same time his power of using material facts (as he conceived them) to present an allegory of the deepest religious mysteries. If we merely listen to the magic of the words, an impression is conveyed of something mysteriously beautiful and dazzling, unlike anything known on earth; but if we look into the meaning, we find that the globe of the moon has just those strange, contrasting qualities, just the colour and the form which a sphere of ether may be imagined to have. It is white and rounded like a pearl, “polished” as Plato said of the universal orb, it is thick and shining, soft as cloud but hard as diamond; and it offers no more resistance to Dante as he enters into it than does water to a ray of light.[668]

Then follows a discussion concerning the substance not only of the moon but of all the heavenly bodies. On hearing that he has reached the boundaries of the immortal world, and has entered “la prima stella,”[669] Dante eagerly enquires of Beatrice what are those dark markings in the body of this planet which are seen from Earth and have given rise to the fable of Cain. She smiles a little, and bids him tell her first what is his own opinion. He advances the theory which he had taught in the _Convivio_, viz. that the parts of the moon which look dark to us are less dense than the rest, and therefore the rays of the sun when striking them are not stopped and reflected back to us; hence the brightness is less than in other parts of her surface.

“L’ombra ch’ è in essa, ... non è altro che rarità
del suo corpo, alla quale non possono terminare
i raggi del sole e ripercuotersi così come nell’
altre parti.”[670]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [668] _Par._ ii. 25-45.

[669] “The first star.”

[670] “The shadow which is in her is nothing but rare parts of her substance, which cannot stop the rays of the sun and reflect them back like the other parts.” _Conv._ II. xiv. 72-76. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This explanation seems to have been first suggested by Averroës, the Arab philosopher and astronomer of Cordova, who was known in the Middle Ages as “The Commentator,” from his famous commentary of Aristotle. The suggestion occurs in his _De Substantia Orbis_, and as it follows a quotation from Aristotle (to the effect that the moon is more nearly related to Earth in her nature than to the stars), it was believed by many to be originally due to Aristotle himself.

The strange circumstance that the moon alone, among all the heavenly bodies, appeared to have dark shadows on her bright face, had roused much curiosity already among the Greeks; and Plutarch, in his dialogue “On the Face in the Moon,” mentions the different explanations suggested in his day. Some thought that the polished surface of the moon reflected, like a mirror, parts of the earth; the Stoics said that air was enclosed within her globe of fire and obscured it in certain places, but this view was rejected with contumely by Plutarch.

“It is a slap in the face to the moon when they
fill her with smuts and blacks, addressing her in
one breath as Artemis and Athena, and in the very
same describing a caked compound of murky air and
charcoal fire, with no kindling or light of its
own, a nondescript body smoking and charred like
those thunderbolts which the poets address as
lightless and sooty!”[671]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [671] Plutarch, _On the Face in the Moon_, translation by Prickard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The third hypothesis, which was favoured by most of the speakers in the dialogue, was that the moon was not a star at all, but a kind of more beautiful Earth; and it was even suggested that men might dwell on her who thought their world the only place fit for human beings, looking down with contemptuous pity on our Earth, as a sort of sediment and slime of the Universe, appearing through damps and mists and clouds, a place “unlighted, low, motionless,” entirely incapable of supporting moving breathing warm-blooded animals!

This was not a view which could possibly be held by mediæval Christians, and in a treatise on Aristotle’s _De Cœlo_, attributed to Albert of Saxony, we find others put forward. The author disproves the old theory of a mirror-like moon reflecting parts of Earth, and also another that the moon draws up cold vapours which are seen like clouds on her surface, and upon which she is nourished—for how should an eternal heavenly body need nourishment?—and finally he expounds the theory of “The Commentator,” with which he agrees. The markings are rare parts of the moon’s substance, which cannot shine so brightly as the denser parts, and this varied surface he compares with alabaster, in which “the dense and not translucent part is very white, while that which is translucent like glass is obscure and tends to blackness. And if,” he adds, “it is asked why the moon is thus dissimilar in her parts, the reply is that this is her nature.”[672]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [672] See Paget Toynbee, _Le Teorie Dantesche sulle Macchie della Luna_, in _Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana_, vol. xxvi. pp. 156-161. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This theory was perhaps the most popular one with mediæval scholars, though there was some difference of opinion as to whether the dense or the rare parts of the moon were those that showed dark. Ristoro perhaps alludes to it, in the passage where he speaks of the moon’s markings, but in a very confused way, and the contrast of “polished” and “rugged” surface is what he chiefly lays stress upon.

After upholding this theory in the _Convivio_, Dante rejects it in the _Paradiso_: perhaps because it was more or less bound up with the idea that the moon was partly of an earthy nature, and this was inconsistent with the other theory of Aristotle, so popular among classical writers, that all within and above the sphere of the moon was eternal and heavenly. He is evidently very anxious to convince us of the falsity of his old belief, for he is not content with a simple assertion, but lets Beatrice reason like a learned doctor, using arguments which would appeal to his readers, drawn now from experiments which might be used in a school, and now from the accepted astrological beliefs of the day.

First she reminds him that the numerous stars scattered over the surface of the eighth sphere differ in brightness, like the different parts of the moon’s surface, but they differ in the quality (colour?) of their light, as well as the quantity, and we know that there are essential differences between them, because their “virtues” are different. It cannot be, therefore, that they differ simply in density or rarity of their substance.

Then she shows that in no circumstances is the theory of varying density in different parts of the moon capable of explaining the observed variety of brightness. For if the parts which look dark are less dense than others, either they must be so right through the planet, or there must be an alternation of dense and rare matter in those parts, like fat and lean in a material body, one behind the other like pages in a book. (The double metaphor is characteristic of Dante.) Now if the first be true, the sunlight would shine through the moon is those parts, during an eclipse;[673] and if the second, the sun’s rays must penetrate to the lower-lying denser part, and be reflected thence just as from the dense parts of the moon’s surface. A possible objection that in that case the reflecting surface would be further away, and therefore appear fainter, may be disproved by an experiment. Take two mirrors and place them at an equal distance from you; place a third between them but further away, face the three mirrors, and place a light behind you so that it may be reflected from them all: the distant one will appear smaller, but no less bright than the two near ones. This reasoning is perfectly sound.

Then follows the explanation for which all this is a preparation. It involves an exposition of ultimate causes which we need not enter into here: for the present we need only say that difference of brightness is not caused by differences of much or little of the same substance. There are intrinsic differences between star and star, and between different parts of the moon,[674] but all are manifestations of divine intelligence; just as the different members and faculties of a human body are manifestations of a human soul.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [673] Albert of Saxony notes this objection, but says the rarity is not sufficiently great to make these parts transparent.

[674] This is in agreement with modern belief. Some parts of the moon’s surface reflect sunlight less well than others, and therefore look dark, just as a peaty soil looks darker than limestone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The diversity of the celestial matter is also touched upon in the _Convivio_, where it is said that the epicycle of Venus is “not of the same essence as that which carries it [the deferent or large sphere], although it is more nearly of one nature with it than with the rest.”[675] Differences of colour are indicated in the glowing masses of the planets, which are entered by Dante and Beatrice. As with the moon, they do not merely alight upon the surface, but penetrate the planetary ether. “Quel ch’ era _dentro_ al sol,”[676] “Nel profondo Marte,”[677] “La temprata stella sesta, che _dentro a sè_ m’avea ricolto.”[678] Mercury is called a pearl—“la presente margarita”[679]—while Mars is “questo fuoco,”[680] and the astronomer poet says he knew the planet by its burning smile, for it seemed to him even more ruddy than its wont.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [675] _Conv._ II. iv. 94-96.

[676] “That which was _within_ the sun [_sc._ the spirits].” _Par._ x. 41.

[677] “In the depths of Mars.” _Par._ xiv. 100, 101.

[678] “The temperate sixth star, which _within itself_ had received me.” _Par._ xviii. 68, 69.

[679] “The present pearl.” _Par._ vi. 127.

[680] “This fire.” _Par._ xvi. 38.

“Ben m’ accors’ io ch’ io era più levato,
Per l’affocato riso della stella,
Che mi parea più roggio che l’usato.”[681]

[681]
“Well was I ’ware that I was more uplifted
By the enkindled smiling of the star
That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.”
_Par._ xiv. 85-87. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

And when, without being conscious of any movement, he found that the red light shining on Beatrice had turned to purest white, like a blush fading from a fair face, he knew that the sixth star (Jupiter) had received him within itself.

“E quale è il trasmutare in picciol varco
Di tempo, in bianca donna, quando il volto
Suo si discarchi di vergogna il carco,
Tal fu negli occhi miei, quando fui volto,
Per lo candor della temprata stella
Sesta, che dentro a sè m’avea ricolto.”[682]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[682]
“And such as is the change, in little lapse
Of time, in a pale woman, when her face
Is from the load of bashfulness unladen,
Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned,
Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star,
The sixth, which to itself had gathered me.”
_Par._ xviii. 64-69. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This contrast between the colours of Jupiter and Mars is referred to more than once. In _Par._ xxvii., the flaming spirit of St. Peter, flushed with righteous indignation, becomes brilliant as the planet Jupiter, and red as Mars:—

“E tal nella sembianza sua divenne,
Qual diverrebbe Giove, s’egli e Marte
Fossero augelli, e cambiassersi penne.”[683]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[683]
“He in semblance such became
As Jove might be, if he and Mars were birds,
And interchanged their plumes.”
_Par._ xxvii. 13-15. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

And when Dante looks down upon the seven planets he sees

“il temperar di Giove
Tra il padre e il figlio.”[684]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [684] “The temperate light of Jove, between his father and his son.” _Par._ xxii. 145-146. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

To understand which we must turn to the oft-quoted fourteenth chapter of the second treatise in the _Convivio_. Here we find that Jupiter “moves between two heavens” which “are antagonistic to its excellent temperateness, that is to say the heavens of Mars and that of Saturn,”[685] and Dante quotes Ptolemy as saying that Jupiter is a star of temperate constitution, between the cold of Saturn and the heat of Mars.

It seems that these ideas of cold and heat, as applied to the planets, were taken literally, not merely as poetical descriptions of colour, nor of astrological significance; for Dante says explicitly in the same chapter of the _Convivio_ that Mars is hot like fire, that this is the cause of his colour,[686] and that he dries up and burns things.[687]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [685] _Conv._ II. xiv. 196-198.

[686] _Cf._ Ristoro, _Comp. del Mondo_, III. iii.

[687] _Conv._ II. xiv. 161-165. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Similarly he appears to have believed that Saturn and the moon were literally of a cold nature. “Quel pianeta che conforta il gelo,”[688] in _Canzone_ xv. is doubtless Saturn; and the chill of the hour before dawn is described as due not only to loss of heat by the earth but sometimes also to the influence of the cold moon or of Saturn.[689]

Besides her shadowy markings, the moon had another peculiarity which distinguished her from all other heavenly bodies, for she was the only planet then known to vary in apparent size and shape “according to the way in which the sun looks upon her.”[690] She was therefore a very dark body, though it was believed that she had some light of her own, and Dante argues in favour of this that she does not become totally invisible during an eclipse.[691] This was a very natural conclusion: it would not readily occur to anyone that the reddish light of the eclipsed moon is sunlight refracted (_i.e._ bent out of its direct course) in passing through the earth’s atmosphere.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [688] “The planet that strengthens the cold.” _Canz._ xv. 7.

[689] _Purg._ xix. 1-3.

[690] _Conv._ II. xiv. 78, 79.

[691] _De Mon._ III. iv. 140-142. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun, although the astrologers made him not very much larger than the brightest fixed stars and the largest planets, was much brighter and hotter than any, and it was universally agreed that all obtained their light from him. Even if, like the Moon, they had some light of their own, and did not only reflect like mirrors, this inherent light had originally come from the sun and was but absorbed sunlight.[692] We meet constantly with this idea in Dante’s works. In one of his Odes the sun is said to “donar luce alle stelle;”[693] in the _Convivio_ he says, “Il sole ... di sensibile luce sè prima, e poi tutti i corpi celestiali ed elementali allumina.”[694] The Morning Star is described as deriving her beauty from the sun;[695] and after the sun has set he shines forth again in the light of all the stars.[696]

So also says Brunetto Latini, “Sans faille li solaus est fondemenz de toutès lumieres et de toute chalor.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [692] See quotations from Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon in Moore’s _Studies_, iii. p. 45, _note_.

[693] “Bestow light on the stars.” _Canz._ xix. 117.

[694] “The sun illumines first himself and then all celestial and elemental bodies with visible light.” _Conv._ III. xii. 54-56.

[695] _Par._ xxxii. 107, 108.

[696] _Par._ xx. 1-6; compare xxiii. 28-30. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. INFLUENCE OF THE SPHERES ON HUMAN AFFAIRS.

If we are to believe a fifteenth century biographer, we have so far omitted to mention Dante’s greatest claim to be considered a proficient in astronomy. “He foretold,” says Filelfo, “many of the calamities of Florence, the wars of Italy, and other political changes, all of which would have been impossible without an accurate knowledge of the movements of the celestial bodies.”

Filelfo was a poet, and his authority for this surprising statement can be no other than that on which, Dr. Moore says, he mainly depends, and which seldom or never fails him, “his own most airy and lively imagination unembarrassed by any references to documents.”[697] The prophecies of the _Divina Commedia_ are obviously written after the events, and in no single instance are they supposed to have any connection with the art of the astrologers. On the contrary, it is remarkable how very little we find in Dante’s writings about the fate-predicting and character-reading which passed as the chief part of astronomy with the large majority of his contemporaries, and played a considerable part even in the scientific writings of his fellow authors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [697] Moore, _Dante and his early Biographers_, p. 95. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not that he disbelieved in the art: it would have been almost a miracle if he had. The astrologers in the fourth Bolgia were punished with other soothsayers not because they deceived credulous clients, but because they had desired to look too deeply into the future,[698] which was impiety. For this reason the learned Michael Scot, the honoured of Popes, was there, as well as poor Asdente, and Guido Bonatti, and Aruns who from his solitary cave had watched the stars, and prophesied the victories of Cæsar over Pompey.[699] This orthodox sentiment that “judicial astronomy,” was apt to be a snare, and lead to practices condemned by the Church, may have been one reason for Dante’s avoidance of it; but we cannot read his works without feeling that it was the beauty of the skies, and the keen desire to understand the structure of the universe which inspired him to study astronomy, and that he had no superstitious fear of the heavenly bodies, no greedy wish to make use of his knowledge to pry into the future. There is no evidence that he was acquainted with the details of astrology. The few allusions made in his works to special effects of certain stars or planets are only to those most familiarly known, and parallel instances might be found to many of them in modern poems. With this difference, however, that to-day they are figures of speech: with Dante they represented facts. Venus was to him in serious truth “la stella d’amor,”[700] “lo bel pianeta che ad amar conforta,”[701] and exercised a real power over Folco[702] and Cunizza,[703] and his own heart.[704] He even tells us, in serious prose, that it is the planet and not the whole sphere, which is the source of this influence, and that it is borne to us upon her rays.[705] So also the moon has a special influence, which is communicated by her rays.[706]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [698] _Inf._ xx. 38.

[699] _Inf._ xx. 115-118, 46-51.

[700] “The star of love.” _Canz._ xv. 4.

[701] “The fair planet which incites to love.” _Purg._ i. 19.

[702] _Par._ ix. 94-96.

[703] _Par._ ix. 32, 33.

[704] _Conv._ II. _Canz._ 1-6.

[705] _Conv._ II. vii. 88-100.

[706] _De Mon._ III. iv. 139, 140. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

To the strong star of Mars the noble warlike nature of Can Grande was partly due;[707] Jupiter is a temperate star, not only in the purity of his colour, but his influence is felt where justice is worked on earth.[708] Saturn’s influence is modified when he shines in Leo,[709] the sun has special powers in Aries,[710] and to his presence in Gemini at the time of Dante’s birth the poet attributes his literary gift.[711] In _Inf._ xxvi. 23, he again suggests that his mental powers may be due to the influence of a good star, and Brunetto Latini bids him follow his star.[712]

Dante also quotes Albumassar, and Seneca, and the events of his own day, to show that those fiery vapours, meteorites, portend the death of kings and the downfall of states, adding that this is because they are effects of the sovereignty of Mars.[713] This passage explains why the warrior Malaspina is called a vapour drawn by Mars from Valdimagra, which in the tempest of battle at Piceno shall suddenly split the clouds and deal death to the combatants.[714]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [707] _Par._ xvii. 76-78.

[708] _Par._ xviii. 115-117.

[709] _Par._ xxi. 13-15.

[710] _Par._ i. 40-42; _Canz._ xv. 41.

[711] _Par._ xxii. 112-117. The Ottimo, commenting this passage, says that Gemini “is the house of Mercury, who signifies, according to the astrologers, literature, science, and learning. And in this direction it disposes those who are born when it is in the ascendant, and more powerfully if the sun is in it.”

[712] _Inf._ xv. 55.

[713] _Conv._ II. xiv. 170-180.

[714] _Inf._ xxiv. 145-150. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The results of the right disposition of sphere with sphere are spoken of in _Canz._ xix. 77-79; all the nine were in perfect accord when Beatrice, herself a nine or miracle of perfection, was to be born;[715] and every star rained its light and its virtue into her beautiful eyes.[716] There is also a charming sonnet, in which the poet tells us how all the seven planets influence his lady.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [715] _V. N._ xxx. 22-24.

[716] _Ball._ vi. 11, 12.

“Da quella luce che il suo corso gira
Sempre al volere dell’ empiree sarte,
E stando regge tra Saturno e Marte,
Secondo che l’astrologo ne spira;
Quella che in me col suo piacere aspira,
D’essa ritragge signorevol arte:
E quei che dal ciel quarto non si parte
Le dà l’effetto della mia desira.
Ancor quel bel pianeta di Mercuro
Di sua virtute sua loquela tinge,
E ’l primo ciel di sè già non l’è duro.
Colei, che ’l terzo ciel di sè costringe
Il cor le fa d’ogni eloquenza puro;
Così di tutti e sette si dipinge.”[717]

[717]
“From that bright star which moveth on its way
For ever at the Empyrean’s will,
And between Mars and Saturn ruleth still,
E’en as the expert astrologer doth say,
She who inspires me with her beauty’s ray
Doth subtle art of sovereignty distil;
And he whose glory doth the fourth heaven fill
Gives her the power my longing soul to sway.
And that fair planet known as Mercury
Colours her speech with all its virtue rare,
And the first heaven its boon does not deny.
She who the third heaven ruleth as her share
Makes her heart full of utterance pure and free;
So all the seven to perfect her agree.”
_Sonnet_ xxviii. (_Plumptre_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In more serious vein is the discourse in _Par._ ii. on the different virtues of the different stars;[718] and this should be compared with passages in the _Quæstio_ and the _Convivio_. “Sciendum quod licet cœlum stellatum habeat unitatem in substantia, habet tamen multiplicitatem in virtute,”[719] sounds like an echo of the words of Beatrice:

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [718] _Par._ ii. 64-72, 130 to end.

[719] “It should be borne in mind that although the starry heaven has unity in substance it nevertheless has multiplicity in virtue.” _Qu._ xxi. 12-14.

“Così l’intelligenza sua bontate
Multiplicata per le stelle spiega,
Girando sè sopra sua unitate.”[720]

[720]
“ ... E’en so
The intellectual efficacy unfolds
Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars,
On its own unity revolving still.”
_Par._ ii. 136-138. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

And when comparing Nobility with the star-spangled sky, our author says:

“Tante sono le sue stelle che nel cielo si
stendono, che certo non è da maravigliare, se molti
e diversi frutti fanno nella umana Nobiltà, _tante
sono le nature e le potenze di quelle, in una
sotto una semplice sustanza comprese e adunate_,
nelle quali siccome in diversi rami fruttifica
diversamente.”[721]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[721]
“So many are the stars which spread themselves over
her sky, that surely we cannot wonder if they make
many and diverse fruits grow on human nobility, _so
many are their natures and potencies, concentrated
and united in one simple substance_; and on them
as on diverse branches she bears fruit in diverse
ways.”
_Conv._ IV. xix. 45-52. (_Jackson_).

See also _Conv._ IV. xxi. 62-66.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The author goes on to say in the _Quæstio_ that the many and diverse stars which we see in the eighth heaven were placed there in order that it might pour down diverse virtues, and that he who perceives this not, let him know that he is outside the pale of philosophy.[722] In another place he tells us that the nearer a star is to the mid-circle of the star sphere, the greater is its virtue:[723] he no doubt means, not the celestial equator, but the zodiac (or more exactly the ecliptic), since this was the mid-circle of the star sphere, parallel to which its slow revolution of 36,000 years was made. This would agree with the view of the astrologers, who paid more attention to the constellations of the zodiac than to any others.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [722] _Qu._ xxi. 17-19.

[723] _Conv._ II. iv. 75-77. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

But we may search all Dante’s works in vain for any reference to the “houses” or “aspects” of the planets, or for any information about the masculine and feminine, mobile and stable, signs. All such things, which seemed to most writers of his day quite as important as the periods of the planets or the positions of the signs, he entirely ignores. Among the circumlocutions by which he describes the signs, such as “the fair nest of Leda,” or “the sign that follows Taurus,” we never find “the house of Saturn,” or “the sign in which Mars is mildest.” Leo is called Mars’ own Lion, probably because the “leo audax et ferox” of bestiaries agreed with the fiery colour and nature of Mars:[724] astrologically, his signs were Scorpio and Aries. It is quite astonishing that among all the characteristics of the planets and spheres mentioned in _Convivio_ II. chapters xiv. and xv., only two relate to astrology, namely, the temperate disposition of Jupiter between the hot Mars and cold Saturn, and the power of Mars to draw up the hot vapours which become meteors and portend the deaths of kings. All the rest—the markings and phases of the moon, the small size and proximity to the sun of Mercury, the beauty of Venus and her appearance alternately as morning and evening star, the brilliance of the sun and his capability of giving light to all the stars, the position of the sphere of Mars midway between those of the other planets, the purity of Jupiter’s colour, the slow movement and distance of Saturn—all these are purely astronomical, to use the modern distinction. So also are the characters of the star sphere—the thousand and twenty-two visible stars, and the indistinguishable stars of the Galaxy, the pole we see and the other which remains hidden, the conspicuously swift diurnal movement and the almost imperceptible secular revolution of 36,000 years. Of the Primum Mobile it is remarked that it controls the movement of all the rest, and of the Empyrean that it is full of peace.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [724] But see Tozer’s _English Commentary on Dante’s Divina Commedia_, note on _Par._ xvi. 37. “In mediæval astrology Mars was one of the Lords of the Lion.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The symbolism of the spheres assigned in Paradise to the different saints is partly drawn from astrological ideas, for in Venus Dante meets the lovers, in Mars the warriors, in Jupiter the just rulers. But those who were not eternally faithful to their vows are in the moon because she has the lowest sphere,[725] the contemplative saints are in the highest planet, the theologians who enlightened the faithful are in the sun, and the ambitious are in the little planet which ever keeps closest to the sun. The heaven of “many and diverse stars” shows the poet a host of saints, and the Primum Mobile, which controls the movement of the other spheres, reveals to him the Angels who direct them.

It seems, then, that Dante was not interested in technical astrology, and had never made a study of it; and I think we may adduce this additional evidence that he had not learned astronomy in a university, or under Cecco d’Ascoli. It is only necessary to look at the list of books prescribed at Bologna[726] to feel sure that Dante had not taken a regular course there. The list, it is true, belongs to a somewhat later time, but there is no reason to suppose that astrology became of more importance in the late fourteenth century than at its beginning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [725] _Par._ iii. 55-57.

[726] See p. 202. ------------------------------------------------------------------------