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In a message dated 97-07-26 13:47:51 EDT, you write: > >In Inferno 1.86ff, Dante tells Virgil > > > > tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi > > lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore. > > > > You alone are he from whom I took > > the fair style that has done me honor. [Singleton] > > > >I can't claim more than a passing familiarity with Dante's early poetry, > >but I don't really see the connection. Any suggestions? (Hollander's > >remarks on the "tragic" style of the Commedia are good, but don't really > >address the question of Dante's early style.) > > 1) I always assumed an important aspect of the passage is that Dante honors Virgil (who can not be saved) as a literary mentor rather than a spiritual mentor. So it might be a way of introducing the idea that Virgil is limited (too limited to be saved) and Dante can learn only certain things from him (because Virgil is limited). In being questioned by James in Paradiso, Dante says he learned the theological virtue of hope from the Psalmist (and not from Virgil). In modern terms, one might say a gifted writer (Virgil) is not necessarily a person of faith in Christian terms or a redeemable person in Christian terms. 2) I hope Otfried can explain the nuances of stilo. If Dante borrowed the idea of an afterworld journey from Aeneid 6, rather than from, say, the Visions of Tondalus, this may suggest that Petrarch was not the first writer to prefer Roman works to those written during the middle ages. 3) The point came up earlier that one cannot always believe what Dante says, especially in Inferno. Was his style actually honored before he wrote the Commedia? If he sometimes says things that are incorrect in the Inferno, must we take at face value the claim that his style is based upon Virgil's style? 4) One puzzle to me is why the Sibyl of Cumae is mentioned at all, why she turns up in Paradiso 33 (in a simile), and why the lines on which she is mentioned match the lines on which Virgil is introduced. I think it was lines 64-66 of each canto. Wicksteed mentions that the Sibyl of Cumae appears in Aeneid. But she also appears in Metamorphoses, Satyricon, and City of God. Is her name mentioned as a sort of epitaph for lost Virgil? Is it because Augustine said she had prophesied the coming of Christ? pat sloane %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%