>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).

Dear Pat,

The passage in question, if whe are speaking of the whole episode of
Dante(-pilgrim)'s first encounter with Vergil, does by no means limit
Vergil's authority to the "literary". Right after having addressed Vergil as
the one and only one to whom he owes his "bello stilo", D-pilgrim also
implores the famoso saggio's help against the she-wolf, usually interpreted
as representing avarice, and Vergil replies with a long speech (If
1,91-129), where he prophesies on the historic role of the she-wolf
(specifically for the history of Italy) and her future defeat by the
"Veltro", explains the necessity for D-pilgrim to take his "altro viaggio"
through Hell and Purgatory, and describes his own role as a guide who will
lead D-pilgrim through these realms, but will have to leave him at the
threshold of Paradise, because the divine emperor "non vuol che 'n sua
citta' per me si vegna". Endowed with the gift of prophecy (a gift which, it
is true, is shared also by some of the damned of Hell) and assigned the role
of D-pilgrim's guide through the two lower realms of the Other World, Vergil
is certainly more than a "literary mentor".

Also I don't think that your way of opposing "literary" vs. "spiritual" is
fully appropriate when trying to understand Vergil's role in the Comedy,
because you risk to miss his political, ethical and philosophical dimension.
More appropriate seems the traditional approach to interpret D-pilgrim's
journey and his guides by associating his itinerary with the notion of the
'two paradises' or 'felicities' and the two 'ways' to reach them, as
explained by Dante in the last chapter of _De monarchia_ (III, xv, 8s.) and
in a similar way earlier in the _Convivio_ (IV, xvii, 9ss.). From the
two-fold nature of man, to share his body with the corruptible world and his
soul with the incorruptible, D derives man's providential role to reach
different aims, i.e. felicity in this life and felicity of eternal life
(beatitudo huius vite, beatitudo vite eterne), metaphorized as earthly
Paradise and heavenly Paradise and defined as "operatio proprie virtutis"
the first, whereas the latter is the "fruitio divini aspectus ad quam
propria virtus ascendere non potest, nisi lumine divino adiuta". Of the two
ways or means (media) to reach these respective aims, the first (according
to the Convivio: the vita activa) has been disclosed to man and mankind by
the "philosophica documenta", and here man procedes by operating his natural
'moral and intellectual virtues', guided by the Emperor; whereas the second
(according to the Convivio: the vita contemplativa) had been disclosed "per
documenta spiritualia que humanam rationem transcendunt", consists in
operating the three 'theological virtues' and is guided by the Pope. If we
apply this concept to D-pilgrim's journey to earthly and heavenly Paradise
and to his respective guides, we can see Vergil as representant of natural
reason and virtue and as the poet of the Roman Empire, as opposed to
Beatrice who represents the Church and divine grace. The parallel might even
extend further, because the natural "virtutes morales et intellectuales" of
the first way are obviously the eleven 'ethical' (cf. Conv. IV, xvii) and
five 'dianoetical' (cf. Eth. Nic. VI, 1ss.) virtues in the tradition of
Aristotle, sixteen virtues in all, and D-pilgrim, too, has to pass through a
number of nine (in Hell) and seven (in Purgatory) = sixteen regions under
the guidance of Vergil to reach earthly Paradise; whereas the three
'theological virtues' infused by grace are faith, hope and love and can be
associated with the nine heavenly spheres and the three times three angelic
rulers of these spheres through which D-pilgrim ascends under the guidance
of Beatrice to enjoy the "fruitio divini aspectus" from which Vergil is
excluded. In any case, notwithstanding his limitations -- some of which he
very clearly states himself --, Vergil is far more for Dante-pilgrim (and
for Dante-author, too) than just a literary mentor.

>
>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.
> 

As cited above, the distinction between the "philosophica documenta" (based
on natural reason, 'humana ratio que per phylosophos tota nobis innotuit" Mn
III, xv, 9) and "documenta spiritualia" (revealed by supernatural grace, "a
Spiritu Sancto qui per prophetas et agiographos, qui per coecternum sibi Dei
filium Iesum Christum et per eius discipulos supernaturalem veritatem ac
nobis necessariam revelavit", ibd.) applies to the difference between the
works of Vergil (or Aristotle), on one hand, and the biblical Psalms, on the
other.

>
>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. 

I wouldn't say that it was a borrowing rather from this than from that
source.  Much more important for medieval Christianity than the Vision of
Tondalus was the Vision of St. Paul (which itself, in its medieval
redactions, did already draw from Vergil). Dante inserts himself into both
traditions, Classical and Christian, Aeneas and Paul, and cites them both at
the beginning of his journey (If 2,10ss). It is true that as models of
literary style, medieval Christian visions had little to offer. But to
prefer Vergil as a stylistic model over them (again: a preference which
Dante does not express or imply in his first encounter with Vergil) does not
yet make Dante to be a pre- or proto-humanist of the kind of Petrarch.

>
>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?

I wouldn't say that his claim in Inf. 1,85ss. is incorrect, but as I said in
my earlier message it is difficult to understand. If there is a certain
element of provocation in Vergil's role, an element apt to probe the
reader's judgement, I would see it less on the level of stylistic imitation,
but rather in the general choice of Vergil as a guide in Hell and Purgatory.
Notwithstanding the many good reasons for this choice and the
appropriateness under many respects, it seems to me that this choice points
to the fictional character of Dante's journey (although many would disagree
on this point), and the fact that Vergil is an ancient Pagan excluded from
the beatific vision -- rather than a saint or the archangel who (in the
apocryphal Visio Pauli) guides St. Paul -- certainly helps or should help
the reader to make his own understanding of the things described less
dependent on this guide's explanations. While D-pilgrim depends on
explanations of this kind and has no other sources at hand to consult, the
reader (or at least the reader who is doctrinally prepared and has access to
other sources) should rather try to view things from the perspective of
D-author, which is not necessarily the same.

>
>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, I know that some commentators have started the game long ago, and that
some enjoy it, but I myself have never found it very helpful to ask why
Dante does *not* mention a certain person in the Other World. He has given
us enough (and maybe more than enough) to digest by presenting all the
persons which in fact he did present, so maybe we should not expect to learn
much by engaging ourselves with the question why he did not include this or
that person. Also the numerical parallel between the verses If 1,61ss. and
Pd 33,64-66 does not strike me as being significant. The latter simile is
clearly reminiscent of Aen. III, 443ss., not of descriptions in Ovid or
Petronius, and rather than seeing it as an epitaph for Vergil, I would see
it as one of the many (and here as the last one) points of self-comparison
with the ancient predecessor (for another, yet only implicit point of
self-comparison with the Sibyl see If 28,1-6 and Aen. VI, 625ss). What
regards the Judeo-Christian tradition of the _Oracula sibyllina_, this
tradition had certainly shaped the medieval and Dante's own understanding of
Vergil's Sibyl, but it is not clear to me how it might be involved in
Dante's use of the simile in question, except that this simile refers
precisely to the Vergilian passage which, with its notion of a Sibyll
writing 'notes and names' on leaves and disposing her writings "in numerum",
was probably one of the main starting points for the Judeo-Christian
_Oracula sibyllina_.

  Otfried (still hoping that other Dantists will join in)

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