1910 Articles

Dante: Purgatorio (XIII, 49 ff.)

Ford, J. D. M.

Dante, on his way through the second circle of Purgatory, that of the envious, encounters souls who utter the words italicized above, words which form their prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary, to the Archangel Michael, to St. Peter and to all the Saints. It has generally been assumed that the words are part of the Litany of the Saints. Thus Scartazzini (Leipzig ed. of the Purgatorio) gives the note: “queste anime cantano le litanie de' Santi, nelle quali all' invocazione di Maria si fa succedere quella dell' Arcangelo Michele.
… Le anime che qui piangono l’invidia, hanno in dispregio i miseri spartimenti delle eredità terrene, pensano alla celeste eredità partecipata, e non diminuita, da' figliuoli di Dio, e a tutti i posseditori di quella eredità si raccomandono amorosamente colle Litanie de’ Santi,” etc. Scartazzini, following Perez (Sette Cerchi, p. 146), is interpreting the present passage in view of a later one, Purgatorio XV, 49 ff., which deals with the idea that through community of enjoyment the amount of heavenly bliss is not in any way diminished. Now, it seems just a trifle far-fetched fetched to find any necessary connection between these two passages.