Here is another example of how Benvenuto da Imola, a Dante scholar from c.1380, is far above most of the current incorrect and at times damaging scholarship on Dante. This is about who can read Paradiso or not, in Dante's own words.
After the dense opening of Canto I in Paradiso, Dante opens the Canto II with the following two tercets:
O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,
desiderosi d’ascoltar, seguiti
dietro al mio legno che cantando varca,
tornate a riveder li vostri liti:
non vi mettete in pelago, ché forse,
perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.
And directly stating: all of you who are in little boats at this point, GO BACK. You are not ready. And WHEN you lose me, you might even remain lost, confused, or perhaps even worse, construct distorted theology in your mind.
Benvenuto da Imola's commentary is refreshingly clear and direct on the essential meaning here:
"First, he addresses the less knowledgeable, who are many in number, and he wishes to express this succinctly: O you of little understanding, who have read my Inferno and Purgatorio, return to their subject matter and do not involve yourselves in this Paradiso."
Imola then continues:
"Tornate a riveder li vostri liti—return to the shores of the aforementioned two books, where the waters are shallow, unlike the depths this small boat now navigates.
He further excludes them from studying this book: Non vi mettete in pelago—do not venture into the open sea with your little boat.
And here is the reason: Chè forse, perdendo me—for if you lose sight of me, unable to follow— rimarreste smarriti—with your limited intellect, you would fail to grasp my profound subject and might stray from the path of true faith."
Imola even anticipates the failures of many current scholars today, 650 years later, interpreting the "seguiti" as the verb "follow me" instead of the participle "having followed me".
Here is a Penguin Classics version (Mark Musa) doing exactly this, stating:
"It is the reader who now occupies the little boat, and Dante recommends careful attention lest the little boat stray from the wake of the Poet's ship."
This is not accurate. Dante directly says "go back, if the boat is little." And separates readers between those with a bigger boat (having absorbed the anagogical layers of Eden e.g.), from those who need more time discerning canticle one and two, before they have developed the necessary and required perception and skills. Dante's argument is that it is likely damaging to read Paradiso before this level is reached, and likely why he made Canto I so hard to discern.
So once again, we are recovering lost treasures and better commentaries from several centuries ago.
Let the Age of Restoration continue, and bring forth a New Renaissance!
After the dense opening of Canto I in Paradiso, Dante opens the Canto II with the following two tercets:
O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,
desiderosi d’ascoltar, seguiti
dietro al mio legno che cantando varca,
tornate a riveder li vostri liti:
non vi mettete in pelago, ché forse,
perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.
And directly stating: all of you who are in little boats at this point, GO BACK. You are not ready. And WHEN you lose me, you might even remain lost, confused, or perhaps even worse, construct distorted theology in your mind.
Benvenuto da Imola's commentary is refreshingly clear and direct on the essential meaning here:
"First, he addresses the less knowledgeable, who are many in number, and he wishes to express this succinctly: O you of little understanding, who have read my Inferno and Purgatorio, return to their subject matter and do not involve yourselves in this Paradiso."
Imola then continues:
"Tornate a riveder li vostri liti—return to the shores of the aforementioned two books, where the waters are shallow, unlike the depths this small boat now navigates.
He further excludes them from studying this book: Non vi mettete in pelago—do not venture into the open sea with your little boat.
And here is the reason: Chè forse, perdendo me—for if you lose sight of me, unable to follow— rimarreste smarriti—with your limited intellect, you would fail to grasp my profound subject and might stray from the path of true faith."
Imola even anticipates the failures of many current scholars today, 650 years later, interpreting the "seguiti" as the verb "follow me" instead of the participle "having followed me".
Here is a Penguin Classics version (Mark Musa) doing exactly this, stating:
"It is the reader who now occupies the little boat, and Dante recommends careful attention lest the little boat stray from the wake of the Poet's ship."
This is not accurate. Dante directly says "go back, if the boat is little." And separates readers between those with a bigger boat (having absorbed the anagogical layers of Eden e.g.), from those who need more time discerning canticle one and two, before they have developed the necessary and required perception and skills. Dante's argument is that it is likely damaging to read Paradiso before this level is reached, and likely why he made Canto I so hard to discern.
So once again, we are recovering lost treasures and better commentaries from several centuries ago.
Let the Age of Restoration continue, and bring forth a New Renaissance!
