Contrapasso

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CONTRAPASSO

 

L. Faibisoff (Toronto, CMS)

Last update: May 1st, 2019

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Main References to Contrapasso in Dante’s Works (and sources)

  1. Thomas Aquinas (1265-74). “Videtur quod iustum sit simpliciter idem quod contrapassum. Judicium enim divinum est simplicter justum. Sed haec est forma divini iudicii ut secundum quod aliquis fecit patiatur, secundum illud Matth. VII, vers. 2: In quo judicio judicaveritis, judicabimini; et in qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis. Ergo justum est simpliciter idem quod contrapassum.” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae IIa-IIae, Quaestio 61, article 4)
  2. Dante, Inferno 6, 53-57: per la dannosa colpa de la gola,/come tu vedi, a la piggia mi fiacco./E io anima trista non son sola,/ché tutte queste a simil pena stanno per simil colpa.
  3. Dante, Inferno 26, 55-57: Rispuose a me: Là dentro si martira/Ulisse e Diomede, e così insieme/a la vendetta vanno come a l’ira
  4. Dante, Inferno 28, 139-142: Perch’io parti’ così giunte persone,/partito porto il mio cerebro, lasso!,/dal suo principio ch’è in questo troncone./Così s’osserva in me lo contrapasso (Also see, Inferno 105-108; Inferno 20, 38-39; Purgatorio 11, 52-54).

 

Main Definitions in Dante Studies

  1. Guido da Pisa (1327). “Qui separate alios, seu amicitia seu parentela coniunctos, caput a corpore portat divisum […] et sic observatur in eo contrapassus [sic], quia debet recipere id quod fecit.”
  2. Pietro Alighieri (1340-44). “Post hec auctor intelligendis est loqui de dictis vulnerationibus harum animarum potius per hanc rationem, quod pena sit conformis delicto, quam per allegoriam”
  3. Anonimo Fiorentino (c. 1400). “Egli è differenza fra giustizia e contrapasso: giustizia si dice quando l’uomo ha morto et egli è poi morto; in qualunque modo muoia si dice giustizia. Contrapasso ha in se più severità e ragione; ché vuole che nella esecuzione della giustizia tutte le cose occorrano che sono occorse nella offesa; ché vuole che l’uomo omicida sia morto quell’ora del dì ch’elli uccise, per il modo, et in quel luogo, et con quelli ordini, et similia.”
  4. Cristoforo Landino (1481). “Come verbi gratia chi taglia la mano a uno vuole tal legge che a lui similmente sia tagliato la mano. Et questo così punito in latino e contrapassus, perché ha patito alloncontro quello che havea inferito ad altri.”
  5. Lodovico Castelvetro (1570). “con quella misura, che io ho misturato ad altrui, ora è rimisurato a me, e questa è la legge della pena del pari, che si domanda in latino poena talionis.”
  6. Niccolò Tommaseo (1854). “Questa legge in tutti quasi i supplizii di Dante s’osserva.”
  7. Giovanni Andrea Scartazzini (1874). “la legge del taglione, che vuole che tal sia punito qual fece […] Secondo questa legge Dante distribuisce nel suo Inferno tutte le pene.”
  8. Francesco D’Ovidio (1906). “[…] le pene infernali rimbeccano direttamente le colpe, o per analogia o per contrasto […] or quasi taglione or quasi sarcasmo della giustizia divina sia attuato in modo quasi sempre necessariamente imperfetto […]”
  9. Carlo Steiner (1921). “da contrapati; parola che esprime il rapporto che corre tra il castigo in quanto è effetto della colpa. Questo rapporto domina l’oltretomba dantesca nei due regni dell’Inferno e del Purgatorio, e consiste particolarmente nel rapporto per analogia o per contrasto, tra la natura del castigo e quella del peccato.”
  10. A. Scartazzini and G. Vandelli (1929). “E intesa così largamente, la parola contrapasso esprime il concetto fondamentale a cui sono informate le pene dell’Inferno e del Purgatorio dantesco. E in questo è compreso anche il concetto biblico della pena, quello del taglione.”
  11. Natalino Sapegno (1955-57). “la norma per cui la pena si adegua con esatta proporzione alla colpa. Il termine era usato dagli scholastici e traduceva un vocabolo di Aristotele.”
  12. Giorgio Padoan (1967). “il tipo di punizione ha attinenza, per analogia o per contrasto, con la colpa commessa.”
  13. Teodolinda Barolini (2000). “… contrapasso [is] the principle whereby the punishment fits the crime. For Dante, the contrapasso frequently takes the form of literalizing a metaphor … punishment is not something inflicted by God but the consequence, indeed the enactment, of the sin itself […] Overall, Dante effectively uses the contrapasso to deflect any sense of randomness or arbitrariness and to suffuse his text with a sense of God’s order and justice.”
  14. Davide Bolognesi (2010). “… il contrapassum (inteso come principio retributivo della pena) non è semplicemente una conseguenza del peccato, ma piuttosto (inteso come concetto che presiede alla dinamica commutativa) viene a chiarire il background logico, la premessa su cui Dante sviluppa la nona bolgia quale luogo deputato a raccogliere i responsabili di una colpa specifica. In altre parole, il contrapassum, dal punto di vista dell’invenzione poetica, è una causa, non una conseguenza; e logicamente precede la colpa, non la segue. Perciò dico che la parola contrapasso è portata necessariamente da Dante in punta di canto: perché rivela quasi l’ipoteso, il laboratorio del suo lavoro poetico, e la premessa concettuale di questa sezione del poema.”
  15. Justin Steinberg (2014). “the ‘contrapasso’ should not be considered the ‘law’ of Dante’s justice as he evokes it precisely to demonstrates the limits of that law, especially in extreme and unprecedented cases.”

Annotated Bibliography

19th century

Tommaseo, Niccolò. La Comedia di Dante Allighieri col comento di N. Tommaseo. Naples: Cioffi, 1839. 208.

Tommaseo’s note to the terzina in Inferno where Bertran utters the word ‘contrapasso’ was influential established a long tradition of considering the contrapasso as the general ‘law’ of the Commedia that governs all the punishments of Hell and the penances of Purtagory.

Scartazzini, Giovanni Andrea. La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri riveduta nel testo e commentate da G. A. Scartazzini, I. L’Inferno. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1874. 338

Scaratazzini’s note was also influential and further established the contrapasso as the lex talionis which governs all of the Commedia.

1900s

D’Ovidio, Francesco. Nuovi studi danteschi. Il Pugatorio e il suo preludio. Milan: Hoepli, 1906. 197-208.

D’Ovidio affirms earlier notes that the punishment corresponds directly to the sin either by analogy or contrast while maintaining that the application of the contrapasso is not always perfect.

Filomusi Guelfi, Lorenzo. Studi su Dante. Città di Castello: Lapi, 1908. 331-340.

This chapter marks the beginning of the fundamental debate in modern Dante studies regarding Dante’s intended meaning in his use of the word ‘contrapasso.’ Filomusi Guelfi asserts that, in his use of the word contrapasso, Dante did not intend the restricted, lex talionis sense of the word, correctly pointing out that, in the Summa, Aquinas actually goes on later to reject the proposition that the contrapassum is “simply” divine judgement (“[…] probat non quodlibet iustum esse contrapassum,” Summa IIa-IIAB, quaestio 6, article 4 s. c.). Filomusi Guelfi concludes that it would have been a considerable diversion from Aquinas if Dante had intended his contrapasso to be extended from the specific commutative case of Bertran to the rest of Hell and to Purgatory as a fundamental principle of justice. Placing the word in the mouth of Bertran de Born, Filomusi argues, Dante intended a broader, metaphorical meaning, not the true philosophical/theological sense of the word.

1920s

Steiner, Carlo. La Divina Commedia commento da Carlo Steiner. Turin: Paravia, 1921. [repr. 1960] 370.

See Steiner’s note to Inferno 28, lines 139-142, which asserts the fundamentality of the contrapasso as a general law of the Commedia.

D’Ovidio, Francesco. “Così si osserva in me lo contrapasso.” In L’ultimo volume dantesco. Rome: A.P.E., 1926.

D’Ovidio responds in this essay to Filmusi Guelfi (1908), acknowledging that for Aquinas the contrapasso is strictly speaking a form of divine justice rendered commutatively. However, D’Ovidio maintains that contrapasso in the Inferno is not simply metaphorical because it is seen there to be inflicted on the bodies and souls of the damned. The lex talionis, D’Ovidio maintains, is a precondition of Dante’s poetics.

1950s

Vazzana, Steno. Il contrapasso nella Divina Commedia. Rome: M. Ciarnna, 1959.

Vazzana presents a series of readings and interpretations of the individual ‘contrapassi’ of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

 

1960s

Nicolai, Giovanni. “Il canto delle ‘ombre triste smozzicate’.” In Letture dell’“Inferno,” edited by Vittorio Vettori. Milan: Marzorati, 1963. 230-255.

In this essay, Niccolai reads and interprets the law of contrapasso in canto 28 through verse 6 of canto 29 (“là giù tra l’ombre triste smozzicate”), arguing the entire canto is structured around a sense of mercy (‘la pietade’).  Nicolai focuses in particular on the word ‘triste,’ which appears 3 times with reference to the ‘ombre smozzicate’ of canto 28 (v. 26, “’l tristo sacco”; v. 111 “come persona trista e matta”; v. 120 “la trista greggia”). Dante uses the word ‘triste’ not in the simple sense of ‘dolore’, but rather something so painful that it voids every other thought. Appearing 37 times in Inferno, Niccolai argues, Dante’s uses the word always in conjunction with his sense of commiseration for the sinners’ plight – that is, where divine justice rouses Dante the man’s sense of pity. Nicolai shows how Dante’s sense of mercy for the sinners of canto 28 gradually increases as he encounters them.

 

1970s

Pasquazi, Silvio. In Enciclopedia dantesca, edited by Umberto Bosco, s.v. “Contrapasso.” Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1970 (various reprints). Web: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/contrapasso_(Enciclopedia-Dantesca)/

In this often-cited entry, Pasquazi defines contrapasso as Dante’s application of the ancient juridical/moral principle of the lex talionis (as formulated in Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19). It is understood by Dante’s early commentators to function either by analogy or contrast and is the rule applied, not always perfectly, to all the punishments of Hell and Purgatory.

Norton, Glyn. “‘Contrapasso’ and the Archetypal Metamorphoses in the Seventh ‘Bolgia’ of Dante’s Inferno.” Symposium 25 (1971): 162-170.

This essay considers the nature of retribution in the seventh Bolgia, reading the metamorphosis and transmutation of serpents as manifestations of the contrapasso there.

Fineo, S. “Il contrapasso nei sommersi.” In Idem, Studi danteschi, Florence: Le Monnier, 1972. 49-48.

A consideration of the significance of the contrapasso in four cases where sinners are “submerged”: 1) the slothful in the Styx, Inferno 8; 2) homicides in a river of blood, Inferno 12; 3) barraters in thick tar, Inferno 22; and 4) traitors in ice, Inferno 32.

Trovato, Mario. “Il contrappasso nell’ottava bolgia.” Dante Studies 94 (1976): 47-60. Web: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40166207?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

This essay offers an analysis of the meaning of the contrapasso in the Ulysses episode (Inferno 26).

1980s

Cassell, Anthony K. Dante’s Fearful Art of Justice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.

Cassell maintains that the contrapasso (“the justice of retaliatory punishment”) is at the center of the Commedia, both poetically and philosophically. The author reasserts the idea that Dante’s primary source was Aquinas’ Summa and the idea of the lex talionis. As “rigida giustizia,” Cassell argues, Dante intends readers to consider contrapasso as a reflection of a form of justice which is lacking in mercy.

Gross, Kenneth. “Infernal Metamorphoses: An interpretation of Dante’s ‘Counterpass’.” Modern Language Notes 100, 1 (1985): 42-69. Web: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2905667?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Gross cautions the use of the term ‘contrapasso’ to refer to Dante’s entire theory of punishment and the structure of the Commedia given that Dante chose to put the word in the mouth of a damned soul. The author points out that Aquinas chose to render the Greek phrase meaning “he who has suffered something in return” with the Latin word ‘contrapassum,’ joining the prefix contra with the noun passum (step) instead of passio (suffering). Thus, Gross interprets Bertran’s evocation of the word in Inferno 28 specifically as ‘counterpass.’ Infernal punishment does not so much correct sin as perpetuate the spiritual disorder which constitutes sin. Thus, in the mouth of Bertran, ‘contrapasso’ literally means something like “step away from,” reflecting a misunderstanding of his condition. Gross then considers Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and finds the poet’s treatment of the principle of symbolic change reflect in Dante’s ‘counterpass.’ Finally, Gross provides close analyses of Inferno 24 and 21 to demonstrate his thesis regarding the ‘counterpass.’

Abrams, Richard. “Against the Contrapasso. Dante’s heretics, schismatics and others.” Italian Quarterly 27 (1986): 5-19.

In this article, Abrams reads the contrapasso as an illusion of the damned who proclaim themselves victims of a vengeful, anthropomorphic God. That is, the author argues that contrapasso is not so much an interpretative category as it is indicative of the illusion under which sinners continue to labour in the afterlife. The author applies this idea to readings of the heretics in Inferno 10 and finally of Betran de Born in Inferno 28, who cites contrapasso as his own explanation for the divine judgement of an external God.

Artom, Menachem Emanuel. “Precedenti biblici e talmudici del ‘contrapasso.’ In Dante e la Bibbia, edited by G. Barblan. Florence: Olschki, 1988. 55-62.

Artom mines Old Testament and Talmudic passages for some specific notions regarding contrapasso, finding in particular that especially in the Talmud the lex talionis is valid not only for punishment but also for reward. For the most part, the Talmud deals primarily with contrapasso in life and, in particular, with reference to how to proceed when a woman is suspected of adultery. That is, it infrequently discusses the contrapasso in the afterlife. Discussions of the lex talionis in the afterlife appear after the compilation of the Talmud. Artom concludes by suggesting that further study is needed regarding the precise influence of the idea of contrapasso in Jewish literature on the Christian notion and on Dante in particular.

1990s

Casagrande, Gino. “‘Per la dannosa colpa de la gola’. Note sul contrapasso di Inferno VI.” Studi Danteschi 62 (1990): 39-52.

Beginning with a review of how ancient and modern commentators have understood the contrapasso in Inferno 6 (gluttony), Casagrande provides a close reading of some moments in that canto that help to explain the relationship between the sin of gluttony and its punishment as well as the allegorical meaning.

Lucchesi, Valerio. “Giustizia divina e linguaggio umano. Metafore e polisemie del contrapasso dantesco.” Studi Danteschi 63 (1991): 53-126.

Lucchesi contributes to the debate regarding the meaning of Dante’s term contrapasso, arguing for the instability of the concept as apparent in Aquinas. The author presents case studies of the semantic particulars of five specific sins and punishments – deceit, anger, pride, theft, fraud. Contrapasso, Lucchesi argues, may be generally understood as the transfer of the abstract sin into a concrete punishment. Polysemy surrounding sin and punishment in Inferno accounts for the signification of contrapasso. Lucchesi also provides a useful discussion of many of the scholarly preconceptions associated with the word and some of the ways in which the concept has and has not been studied.

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “Metaphor and Justice.” In Dante’s Vision and the Circle of Knowledge, idem. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. 75-95.

Mazzotta reads the ‘contrapasso,’ in reference to Bertran de Born in particular, as the ethical principle of justice establishing the symmetrical relationship between the sin and the punishment. Bertran’s punishment, Mazzotta argues, depends on reparative justice, which properly belongs in the sphere of commutative justice. The contrapasso here is considered a reflection of forms of divine justice before the coming of Christ.

Marchesi, Simone. “The ‘Knot of Language’: Sermocinatio and Contrapasso for the Rhetoricians in Dante’s Inferno.” Romance Languages Annual 1997 9 (1998): 254-259.

Marchesi considers the particular contrapasso of Pier de la Vigna as offering a key to understanding Dante’s conception of rhetoric.

2000s

Armour, Peter. “Dante’s Contrapasso. Contexts and texts,” Italian Studies 55 (2000): 1-20.

This is an important contribution with helpful bibliography on the critical history of the term ‘contrapasso.’ Armour briefly summarizes the history of the term beginning with Dante’s early commentators who regarded Dante’s use of it as synonymous with ‘taglione.’ It was only in the nineteenth century, the author argues, that the term was extended to other episodes of the Commedia and became a ‘law’ of divine justice and of Dante’s poetic invention. The author also comments on the tendency to regard contrapasso as identical to the biblical lex talionis and a vigorous consideration of the debate surrounding Aquinas’ use of the term as well Albertus Magnus’ commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics. Armour also comments on the effective extension of the term as a critical category from the mouth of Bertran de Born into all the canticles of the Commedia, arguing that the Dante’s single use of the term in fact restricts the doctrine to the punishment of sin alone, omitting the positive elements of just retribution and the rewarding of the good. The main categories and subdivisions of sin in Inferno are identified in Virgil’s outline of Hell in Inferno XI; such labels, Armour argues, do not necessarily need to be deduced by readers based on a device attached precisely to each sin in the Inferno.

Pertile, Lino. “Contrapasso.” In The Dante Encyclopedia, edited by Richard Lansing, s.v. “Contrapasso.” London and New York: Routledge, 2000. 219-222.

Pertile defines the contrapasso as the principle of justice that determines the precise from of “suffering, either permanent (Hell) or transient (Purgatory), which each soul (excepting those in Limbo) must undergo as punishment or therapy for a particular sin”. Further, Pertile considers the contrapasso a structuring device that gives order to the Commedia at the narrative level. Pertile sees suffering in Hell as retributive and eternal while in Purgatory, it is remedial and lasts only as long as it takes the soul to correct itself. Strictly speaking, Pertile adds, there is no contrapasso in Paradise even though the principle is present in the sense that the souls of the blessed are placed in degrees of proximity to God according to their individual merits. Arguing that punishment, for Dante, is the fulfillment of freely chosen destiny by each soul during life, Pertile maintains that Dante translated the term, ultimately deriving from the biblical lex talionis, into the vernacular from Thomas Aquinas.

Barolini, Teodolinda. “Medieval Multiculturalism and Dante’s Theology of Hell.” In The Craft and the Fury: Essays in Memory of Glauco Cambon, edited by Joseph Francese. West Lafayette, IN: Bordighera Press, 2000. 82-102. Web: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwiJ8PDxqqnfAhWGiIsKHVNABKgQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpdfs.semanticscholar.org%2F9322%2F4208248a22fb6cc086c2c98e9e4238c7f759.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3pcyrLRVn9oK8oY2efHhsJ

Barolini discusses Dante’s system of classification of sins and some of the traditions to which he was indebted, arguing finally that Dante’s theology of hell is “laid out by Aristotle, parsed by Aquinas, [… and] most spiritually attuned to Augustine.” There is a succinct discussion of contrapasso and the ways in which some of Dante’s visionary precursors treated the concept at pages 87-89 (Apocalypse of Paul, Aeneid, Vision of Tundale, Enchiridion). The discussion throughout is more generally on Dante’s organization of Hell as based on his threading together of classical and Christian traditions. Barolini also cautions against the overly simplistic scholarly consideration that hell and heaven are eternal which purgatory is temporal. Following Boethius, Barolini argues, Dante recognizes a difference between “perpetual endlessness and eternal timelessness.”

Scholl, Dorothea. “Dante und das Groteske.” Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch 77 (2002): 73-105.

Although the term does not appear unto 1480, popularized by the discovery of the decorations of the Domus Aurea in Rome, Scholl heuristically applies the term to Inferno in order to examine the ‘grotesque’ bodies of Dante’s Commedia. For Scholl, the grotesque body is an expression of contrapasso (which Scholl regards as the law by which every sinner must suffer according to the sins he committed in life).

Cardellino, Lodovico. “Il ‘contrapasso’ e il taglione.” In Dante e la Bibbia. Bornato in Franciacorte: Sardini, 2007. 97-105.

Providing a concise review of earlier scholarship on the matter, Cardellino reads against the scholarship on the mechanism of contrapasso, stating that the contrapasso does not so much represent a divine justice that works by analogy or by contrast – i.e., the punishment of sinners according to their sin – as it does the eternal continuation of sinners’ earthly sins. In Inferno, the damned forever suffer the sin to which they had dedicated themselves in life. In Purgatorio, the earthly life of sinners is made up for in their glorification of God. That is, souls in Purgatory experience much the same continuation of transgression in their earthly life as do those in Hell.

Gambale, Giacomo. “Dante, l’Epistula Iacobi, e il De peccato linguae. Per una lettura filosofica di Inferno XXVI.” Studi Danteschi 74 (2009): 179-198.

This article offers a close-reading considering the figure of Ulysses in Inferno 26 and the connection between Ulysses’ shrewd speech/tongue and the flame of fire in which he is wrapped in conjunction with the “Epistle of James.” There, the tongue is described as a small helmsman who guides a ship through diverse situations as well as a flame that can contaminate the body and ignite the course of one’s life. Gambale considers some of the nuanced interpretations of the Epistle in Dante and elsewhere in order to situate the meaning of ‘pravum consilium’ alongside Ulysses’ contrapasso. Ulysses’ sin is of the tongue and, having corrupted the essential purpose of words, he is condemned by means of the flame to control his tongue and to anonymity.

2010s

Bolognesi, Davide. “Il contrapasso come chiasma. Appunti su Inferno 28.” L’Alighieri n.s. 36, (2010): 5-20. Web: https://www.torrossa.com/resources/an/2631744

This article, often-cited particularly in Italian scholarship, cautions against a reading of the contrapasso as the generative principle of punishment in the Commedia. Instead, Bolognesi argues it is important to read contrapasso in its proper context where it is uttered in the ninth bolgia of Inferno XVIII, which concerns commutative, not retributive justice (even Dante’s earliest commentators seem to read Dante’s contrapasso with reference to a model of commutative justice as explained in Nicomachean Ethics 5). Bolognesi provides a comprehensive commentary on scholarly tendencies regarding contrapasso.

Belliotti, Raymond Angelo. “The Notion of Desert and the Law of ‘Contrapasso.’ In Dante’s Deadly Sins: Moral Philosophy in Hell. Oxford: Blackwell, 2011. 73-103, esp. 81-87.

The essay considers contrapasso in terms of moral desert; that is, sins constitute punishment, or punishment is an internal, inherent part of the deeds themselves. Retributive action in the afterlife is a reflection of sinners’ decisions during life. The author suggests that Dante’s law of contrapasso can be understood as Dante’s belief that in both life and the afterlife sinners become their sins. For example, readers of the Commedia come to understand the nature of sinners in life based on their sufferings in the afterlife. Their punishment reflects their characters and their transgressions.

Kirkham, Victoria. “Contrapasso: The long wait to Inferno 28.” Modern Language Notes 127, 1 (2012): 1-12. Web: Project Muse, doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/mln.2012.0028

This article considers Dante’s long anticipation of the word ‘contrapasso’ in Inferno 28, arguing that Dante’s reserve in his use of the term signals his accentuation of the importance of numerological progression. Delay was a poetic strategy intended to emphasize the importance of the number 28, which in Neoplatonic numerology is a number of ‘perfection.’ Further, the author examines the symbolic progression from the Neoplatonic ‘perfect’ number 6 to 28 as a deliberate strategy throughout the Inferno. The number 28 signals liminal moments in not only Inferno but also Paradiso, and Dante’s precise placement of the word ‘contrapasso’ indicate his intentionally ‘perfect’ description of infernal justice.

Pertile, Lino. “Ciacco, Brunetto and the Voice of God.” In Legato con amore in un volume. Essays in Honour of John A. Scott, edited by John J. Kinder and Diana Glenn. Florence: Olschki, 2013. 157-174.

The contribution considers the contrapasso of the gluttons in Inferno 6, in particular, the connection between their sin and their punishment (pp. 165-169).

Castelli, Daniela. “L’errore rigorista e la ‘fisica dell’anima’ in una Commedia senza lex talionis.” Studi Danteschi 78 (2013): 154-95.

Employing the term lex talionis as equivalent to ‘contrapasso,’ the author contextualizes Dante’s law of retaliation within Christian and pre-Christian apocalyptic traditions, as well as the literature of mercy. Castelli argues that the system of justice in the Commedia and its mechanism of justice (lex talionis, or contrapasso) is neither arbitrary nor retributive. Rather, both are characteristic of a tradition of mercy which, beginning with Plato and developed by Aristotle, Cicero, Plotinus, Augustine, and Boethius, holds that the ‘weight’ of the soul (pondus animae) is what moves it toward its appropriate location. Thus, it is not the extrinsic justice of the Commedia which places sinners in their respective locations in Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Rather, from an axiological point of view, souls are naturally and necessarily pushed toward the locus to which they are entitled.

Steinberg, Justin. “Dante’s Justice? A Reappraisal of the Contrapasso.” L’Alighieri n.s. 44 (2014): 59-74. Web: https://www.academia.edu/10659378/Dantes_Justice_A_reappraisal_of_the_contrapasso

This essay questions a commonplace in the field of Dante studies that describes the ‘contrapasso’ as the alignment of sin and punishment. Steinberg suggests that Dante intended it to be limited to the punishments in Inferno 28 where sins against the public body are extreme and unprecedented. With a focus on tensions that arise in that canto between public and private justice, the author traces the idea of contrapasso in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and its commentaries by Albertus Magus and Thomas Aquinas. In these texts, retributive justice is deemed imperfect and limited in that it was a form of private reparation and did not take into account ‘public’ crimes. Thus, Steinberg argues that, in Inferno 28, Dante questions the limited nature of the lex talionis, or ‘tit-for-tat justice’ as sufficient punishment for the transgression of divine order and extreme crimes against the ‘state.’ As a consequence, the contrapasso is not so much the general law of Dante’s justice, as it is demonstrative of the limits of the law.

Affatato, Rosa. “Contrapasso e conoscenza allegorica nel ‘Purgatorio’ secondo alcuni commenti alla ‘Divina Commedia’ tra XIV e XV secolo.” Critica Letteraria 43, 168-169 (2015): 563-583.

This article traces fourteenth- and fifteenth-century commentators who considered Dante’s contrapasso not as a law (lex talionis), but rather as the relationship between actions on earth and those after life. Until as late as 1481, the contrapasso was understood as a logic of exchange (vd. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 5). That is, the contrapasso is the value of sinners’ actions in life, extended into the afterlife. The author considers contrapasso specifically in Purgatorio, which, she argues, recalls a basic relationship between sin and punishment in Inferno, but is more nuanced with its added element of prayer and its efficacy in the context of eternal divine judgment. Unlike in Inferno, where divine judgement is eternal, in Purgatorio sinners, through prayer, can “pay off” their sins as valued by divine justice. Finally, the author considers the allegorical implications of contrapasso in Purgatorio where, as Beatrice explains to Dante, to understand the allegorical as opposed to the literal meaning of contrapasso, is to possess divine knowledge.

Maglio, Gianfranco. “Ordine e giustizia in Dante.” In Ordine e giustizia in Dante. Il percorso filosofico e teologico, edited by Gianfranco Maglio. Assago and Padova: Wolters Kluwer-CEDAM, 2015. 85-193.

This book considers “justice” in Dante’s oeuvre as an interpretative category within a medieval vision of the world and of history. Within this vision, the human and the divine are expressions of a fundamentally theological order (see especially, pp. 132-73). Thus, the author argues that within the schema of divine justice, Dante takes the fundamentally theological (rather than the juridical) sin into consideration when constructing the contrapasso of sinners. Further, Maglio reports a difference between contrapasso as evident in Inferno, where punishment is eternal, and contrapasso in Purgatorio, where punishment is provisional and didactic. If the contrapassi of Inferno are deliberately distinct from those of Purgatorio, Maglio suggests that the rewards of Paradiso are attributed to blessed souls based on similar criteria. The degree of blessedness that souls enjoy in Paradiso has a direct, proportional relationship with the virtue they exercise in life. Thus, the exercise of an imperfect form of virtue entails the enjoyment of proportional blessedness within the appropriate sphere of heaven.

 

How to quote this paper:

L. Faibisoff. “ISCAD Annotated Bibliography: Contrapasso.” International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante. Website, May 2019. Online: https://dante.medieval.utoronto.ca/contrapasso/

 

Visibile Parlare

ISCAD ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

VISIBILE PARLARE

 

L. Faibisoff (Toronto, CMS)

 

Last update: May 1st, 2019

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Main References to Visibile Parlare in Dante’s Works (and sources)

  1. Augustine, De doctrina christianaiii.4: “Signorum igitur, quibus inter se homines sua sense communicant, quaedam pertinent ad oculorum sensum […] nam cum innuimus non damus signum nisi oculis eius quem volumus per hoc signum voluntatis nostrae participem facere […] et sunt haec omnia quasi quaedam verba visibilia.”
  2. Dante, Purgatorio 10, 94-96. “Colui che mai non vide cosa nova / produsse esto visibile parlare, / novello a noi perché qui non si trova.”
  3. Dante, Purgatorio 12, 22-24. “sì vid’io lì, ma di miglio sembianza / secondo l’artificio, figurato / quanto per via di fuor del monte avanza.”

Main Definitions in Dante Studies

  1. Anonymus Lombardus (c. 1325). “Hic loquitur [de] deo, cui nichil est novum; et eciam videbatur vidua supradicta loqui cum Traiano imperatore, et in aliis predictis istoriis inibi figuratis et inscultis videbantur homines loqui. Ideo appellat visibile parlare, quod novum est nobis; non enim ex visu auditum precipimus, ad quod quis loquitur; set ibi perceperunt Virgilius et Dante loquelas illas solum per visum.”
  2. Iacopo della Lana (1324-1328). “Cioè che Dio ordinòe essere in quello luogo quelle immagini, per le quali con la vista si discernesse lo suo parlare, e dice nova, cioè che in lo mondo si ode lo parlare, ma in quello luogo lo parlare si vede.”
  3. Francesco da Buti (1385-95). “Lo parlare, seconda natura, è udibile; ma non visibile: questo era visibile, perché finge che fusse scolpito nel marmo che è sopra natura, e questo non può fare se non Iddio.”
  4. Cristoforo Landino (1481). “chiama parlare visibile, che una statua sia sculpita con tale artificio, che ne’ gesti dimostri quello, che direbbe, se parlassi. È adunque parlar visibile, perché vedendo e gesti et non udendo la voce intendevano. Ma questo parlare che non è Nuovo a Dio, chome già è decto, è nuovo a noi mortali, perchè tra noi non si truova. Et per figura qui toccha quello, che in cielo ci adiverà nuovo. Imperochè l’uno vederà el conceptro dell’altro sanza udire el suon della lingua.”
  5. Gabriele Trifone (1525-1541). “chiama questo vesibile parlare, che senz’essere scritto intenda e legga e veda le parole apartenenti a queste sopradette istorie; e ciò dice per darne ad intendere com’era possible che, senza esser scritto, legesse o vedesse le parole che parean dir quelle figure.”
  6. A. Scartazzini (1899). “Parlare visibile, così detto perché le sculture che il Poeta aveva sotto gli occhi eranso sì perfettamente condotte, che il loro parlare si vedeva, non si sentiva.” (in Enciclopedia Dantesca, s. v. ‘visibile’)
  7. Francesco Torraca (1905). “che non si ode, si vede.”
  8. Carlo Steiner (1921). “[…] figure cui si possono leggere le parole nell’atteggiamento, sulle labra, cosa che è invece nuova per gli uomini la cui arte non può giungere a tanto, né possono trovarne modello nella natura che non produce creature di tanta espressività. Ecco perché ha detto prima che la natura lì avrebbe scorno.”
  9. Natalino Sapegno (1955). “Non si deve intendere, come pur fa taluno, che la scultura parli materialmente. Il miracolo di quest’arte divina, che non si trova sulla terra, consiste nel fatto di ritrarre, non più una situazione immobile, ma una serie temporale di situazioni affettive, rendendole simultanee e suggerendo nel contempo le parole che corrispondo ai singoli moment di quel processo.”
  10. Daniele Mattalia (1960). “visivo, percepibile con l’occhio, in quanto realizzato con la materia artisticamente lavorata […] Dante, infatti, ricostruisce e segue il dialogo, ‘dialogo continuato’ guardano il bassorilievo; quanto dire che in esso è realizzata un’altra dimensione del reale, il ‘tempo,’ e che nell’unità della rappresentazione artistica hai tutto il dialogo, scandito nella sequenza temporale delle sue battute e perfettamente riscortuibile dall’osservatore.”
  11. Charles Singleton (1970-75). “Thus, the conceit of this miraculous art continues: Dante while gazing at the reliefs has mysteriously heard all the words spoken in the scenes.”
  12. William Franke (1996). “We must understand this phrase to mean not only that dialogue is rendered in visible form, which would be just another affirmation of their perfection as imitative art. More importantly, “visibile parlare” indicates that the image is used as a kind of speech, that it exists not just in reified form as an object, but as language. Not what it is in it is visible appearance, but what it signifies within the relations established by history and interpretation constitutes the vital reality of these visual images, what they really say, and to this extent they are language.”
  13. Marco Leone (2012): “il poeta concentra nella formula del visibile parlare un insieme di significati plurimi: il primate della parola sugli altri codici espressivi (quelli delle arti), perché la parola è in grado di approssimarsi con maggiore efficacia alla verace descrizione di un manufatto divino, quale è la serie degli altorilievi; e il consapevole incrocio fra le due principali teorie relative alla creazione artistica, che dalla cultura classica arrivano a quella medievale, la teoria aristotelica, secondo cui l’arte è perfetta quanto più riesce a imitare la natura, e quella platonica, che punta non a imitare la natura (a sua volta creata da Dio), ma a riprodurre il mondo delle idee trascendenti.”
  14. Gerhard Wolf (2015). “a complex poetic fiction describing the evocation of speech by means of a visual work of art […], but this in turn is done through words, in an artistic act of “painting with words” (creating stone reliefs, in this case).” 

Annotated Bibliography

1920s

Parodi, Ernesto Giacomo. “Gli esempi di superbia punita e il ‘bello stile’ di Dante” (1915). In Poesia e storia nella ‘Divina Commedia.’ Studi critici, idem. Naples: Perrella, 1920. 231-52.

Parodi’s essay is at the beginning of a long tradition which considers the artifice of Purgatorio 10. He examines the marble reliefs as reflections of Purgatory’s physiognomy, which is different from that of Hell. The author refers to the ‘artificio’ that informs Purgatory’s depicted examples of pride, defending the artifice of Purgatorio 10 and 12 as exemplary of a medieval delight in rhetorical ornamentation. Also, Parodi likens the dynamic representation of the marble scenes of Purgatorio 10 as a kind of “effetto cinematografico.”

1930s

Austin, H. D. “The Arrangement of Dante’s Purgatorial Reliefs (Purg. X, 34-93) in PMLA 47 (1932): 1-9.

Austin considers the order in which the details of the marble reliefs are presented, pointing out that in Dante’s models (for example, that of Virgil) the arrangement of images is chronological while Dante presents his scenes in a more abstract, formal way. Dante’s presentation of the scenes is so life-like, Austin writes, that they appeal to all the senses, arousing a strong sense of reality and aesthetic appreciation. The author also discusses some of the reasons why Dante may have chosen to represent the Annunciation as the first of the scenes and discusses some of contemporary sculpture programs that may have inspired Dante.

Schlosser, Julius v.. “Dichtung und Bildkunst im Trecento.” Corona 8 (1938) [Italian trans.: “Poesia e arte figurativa nel Trecento,” trans. R. Bianchi Bandinelli, in La Critica d’Arte 3 (1938): 81-90.]

With this article, Schlosser initiated a long and persisting scholarly discussion on the relationship between poetry and the visual arts in the fourteenth century, linking this relationship in particular to the Tuscan tradition of the dolce stil nuovo and Dante. Schlosser points to moments throughout the Commedia where Dante demonstrates his interest in the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, including the poet’s description of himself drawing angels on the day of Beatrice’s death. The Commedia, Schlosser argues, is in fact the origin of modern history of art in that it contains Dante’s reflection on the work of Cimabue and Giotto, which in turn up a tradition of the “artist.” There is also a brief reflection on Trecento frescoes where poetry plays an important role in visual representation (as, for example, Buffalmacco’s Trionfo della Morte in the Camposanto in Pisa).

1950s

Simonelli, Maria. “Il canto X del Purgatorio.” Studi danteschi 33 (1955-56): 121-45.

In this essay, Simonelli reads Purgatorio 10 incorporates an important theological approach into the scholarly discourse regarding the canto, arguing that the canto is not merely a commentary on the figurative arts. Where prior to her essay the canto was looked over as one merely of ‘transizione’ or a ‘canto strutturale’, the canto inspired the interests of art historians alone. Simonelli argues however that it is important to remember the theological implications of this canto. Situated as it is at the beginning of Purgatory proper, the canto signals the beginning of Dante’s journey toward divine knowledge, a first step in which Dante comes to know humility, the foundational virtue needed to acquire the other virtues.

1960s

Gmelin, Hermann. “Canto X: The Art of God.” (original edition: 1964). In Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio, edited by Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, and Charles Ross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. 95-102.

This close reading of Canto X focusses on the fact that the poet invents examples of his being educated by Pride, employing the figurative arts in order to produce an objective representation of his thoughts on penitence. Reading in context with St. Bonaventure, Gmelin also focusses on the central significance of Mary, whose virtues are antitheses of the seven sins. 

Roedel, Reto. “Il canto X.” In Letture del Purgatorio, edited by Vittorio Vettori. Milan: Marzorati, 1965. 111-129.

In his reading of Purgatorio 10, Roedel argues that the description of the marble reliefs is not simply a rhetorical device intended as ornamentation. Rather, in their resemblance to the Romanesque art of Nicola Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, and Giovanni Pisano, Dante’s description of the reliefs is an aesthetic reflection. The author provides thorough discussions of each of the three marble reliefs of Purgatorio 10. This article constitutes the beginning of and contributes to a long scholarly tendency, still alive now, to treat Purgatorio 10 and 12 in terms of Dante’s stance on poetry and aesthetics, which is to say, in terms of metapoetry.

Ulivi, Ferruccio. “Dante e l’interpretazione figurativa.” Convivium 34 (1966): 269-92.

Ulivi considers Dante’s relationship to the visual arts in light of the poet’s inherently figurative approach to poetry, reflecting on four particular areas in which scholarly consideration of Dante and the visual arts has fallen: 1) Dante’s relationship with the arts in his own lifetime; 2) the aesthetic ideology of Dante as a poet; 3) the possible influences that may have influenced Dante’s visual formulations; and 4) the Commedia’s influence on the figurative arts. Ulivi considers the visual experience of the Commedia in terms of Auerbach’s “figuralism” which, in the widest sense of the term, implies an entire mode of interpretation different from allegorical or symbolic interpretation. Figural representation allows that reality cannot be rendered verisimilarly, and in this way, Ulivi argues, it is much in line with the representative mode of the visual arts.

Hollander, Robert. “God’s Visible Speech.” In Allegory in Dante’s Commedia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. 297-300.

Hollander reads the marble reliefs of Purgatorio 10 in conjunction with the writing of the Gate of Hell (Inferno 8) and in the sky of the heaven of Jupiter (Paradiso 18), arguing all are instances of speech made visible. That is, he interprets “visibile parlare” as reified objects, as opposed to linguistic phenomena.

1970s

Tateo, Francesco. “Teologia e ‘arte’ nel canto X del Purgatorio.” In Idem., Questioni di poetica dantesca. Bari: Adriatica, 1972. 139-171.

In a close-reading of Purgatorio 10, Tateo explains the connection between Dante’s theology of humility and his attention to the artistic. Tateo emphasizes the significance of considering or meditating on art, as evinced in Purgatorio 10. Especially in Dante’s world, the spiritual meanings of external signs were considered the soul’s guide toward morality. Above and beyond mere ekphrasis, Dante represents himself in this canto, standing before the miracle of a divine art which has no equal in nature. Ultimately, as Tateo argues, Dante considers poetry itself as able to summarize the skills and effects of the other arts and therefore as the greatest aid in his moral education.

Fiero, Gloria K. “Dante’s Ledge of Pride: Literary Pictorialism and the Visual Arts.” Journal of European Studies 5 (1975): 1-17.  Web: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/004724417500500101

Fiero uses the term ‘pictorialism’ to describe Dante’s recollection or recreation of a representational work of art, real or imaginary. This article first discusses the three marble reliefs and their meaning in Purgatorio 10 in order to understand how they are reflective of Dante’s attitude toward the visual arts. Fiero also examines the scholastic association of art with order to explain Dante’s use of the plastic arts in Purgatory. Finally, the article also suggests specific ancient or medieval visual sources that may have inspired Dante’s reliefs.

1980s

Delcorno, Carlo. “Dante e l’exemplum medievale’ in Lettere Italiane 35, 1 (1983): 3-28, esp. 15-24.

Delcorno treats, in particular, the “artificio” of Dante in Purgatorio 12, arguing that there is an analogy between the distribution of the examples of pride and approaches to preaching as evidenced in the medieval artes praedicandi. Specifically, Delcorno suggests a passage from the Summa vitiorum of the Dominican Guglielmo Peraldo as a possible source for Dante in his structure of exempla of the prideful. Delcorno was among the first to draw attention to similarities between the distribution of these exempla and the devices employed by medieval preachers in composing homilies.

Vickers, Nancy J. “Seeing is Believing: Gregory, Trajan, and Dante’s Art.” Dante Studies 101 (1983), 67-85.

Vickers offers a meta-poetical reflection on Purgatorio 10, and with particular attention to the figure of Trajan who appears twice in the Commedia (Purgatorio 10 and Paradiso 22). Vickers points to a number of textual inspirations for the image of Trajan and the widow in Purgatorio 10, in particular, hagiographic and scriptural (the Vita of Trajan attributed to Gregory the Great and Luke 18). In the former, the deeds of the pagan Trajan are recognized by Gregory the Great as a scriptural model, as is noted in the Whitby Life. In the latter, Vickers recognizes a scriptural sub-text in Luke 18, which also addresses the question of prayer and humility. Further, Vickers points out parallel iconographic models in manuscript illuminations of Purgatorio X and Luke 18.

Migiel, Marilyn. “Between Art and Theology: Dante’s Representation of Humility.” Stanford Italian Review 5 (1985): 141-159.

In Migiel’s reading of Purgatorio 10, she considers Dante’s poetry of descriptive realism and artistic ornamentation in light of other possible discourses, in particular theological ones. Migiel responds to the readings of Simonelli and Tateo, asking questions regarding the specific mode of representation (marble relief) chosen by Dante in order to represent the virtue of humility. In particular, Migiel raises the important theological question regarding the relationship between human bodily features and movements (as inscribed in God’s marble art), and the visible signs of humility with which Dante is so concerned in these canti of Purgatory.

Adams, Shirley. “Ut picture poesis: The Aesthetics of Motion in Pictorial Narrative and the Divine Comedy.” Stanford Italian Review 7 (1987): 77-94.

Adams considers Dante’s commentary on Italian painting in Purgatorio 10 in light of Purgatorio 32 (where Dante refers to himself as a painter) as speaking for the underlying poetics of the Commedia. Together, the relevant passages on painting Purg. 10, 34-93 and Purg. 32, 64-70) represent the verbal representation of “monumental pictorial narrative” (p. 81), that is, they are visual renderings of texts. Adams argues that in verbally rendering these images, Dante is interested not in verisimilitude but rather in convincingly rendering motion and attitude. Ecphrastic elaboration is usually written for the purposes of portraying motion (flight of Geryon, the revealing of the Eagle of Justice, etc.). Citing Otto Pächt’s “The Rise of Pictorial Narrative,” Vickers discusses medieval modes of representing movement in a static medium and the ways in which Dante dealt with this problem.

Casagrande, Gino. “Esto Visibile Parlare: A Synaesthetic Approach to Purgatorio 10.55-63.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana, edited by Paolo Cherchi and Antonio C. Mastrobuono. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1988. 21-57.

This essay considers kinesics – the study of nonlinguistic, nonvocal forms of human behaviour which are intended to designate semantic units – in reference to the marble reliefs of Purgatorio 10, considering, in particular, the intersensorial perception, or synaesthesia, which Dante the Pilgrim experiences while viewing the images, hearing the lauds, and smelling the incense. The nonverbal elements of the reliefs convey their message through a silent communication with the Pilgrim’s senses. While it is true, Casagrande argues, that Dante insists on the discordance of his senses here, the same verses also reveal the pilgrim’s synaesthetic experience, that is, the pilgrim’s eyes see the reliefs even as they perceive the lauds and the fragrance of the incense. This amounts to the synaesthetic working of the pilgrim’s intellect whereby sight, hearing, and smell are blended together to form the poetic expression.

1990s

Barolini, Teodolinda. “Re-Presenting what God Presented: The Arachnean Art of the Terrace of Pride.” In The Undivine Comedy: Detheologizing Dante. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. 122-142.

Often cited, this essay considers the Pilgrim’s encounter with the marble engravings of Pugatorio 10 and 12 as the poet’s consideration of the principles of mimesis and representation. Dante presents an art that surpasses nature and that is capable of going beyond representation. For Barolini, Dante’s “visibile parlare” is the miracle of a visual medium created by God and endowed with the verbal medium of speech. The visual sculptures themselves somehow speak and the artist responsible for them, God, produced a real, living art, unlike any other visible art. In reproducing God’s art, Dante the poet, however, must resort to dialogue. Barolini also reflects on the eagle of Justice in Paradiso 19. According to the author, Ovid’s account of Arachne in Metamorphoses shares with Dante’s Purgatory an authorial self-consciousness underscored by the common use of ekphrasis and the link with the vice of pride. Ovid’s story in fact provides a framework within which to read Purgatorio 10-12, not only suggesting the enforced humility of the human artist but also establishing, e converso, Dante’s poetic importance as an aemulus of God’s art.

Vescovo, Piermario. “Ecfrasi con spettatore (Dante, Purgatorio, X-XVII)” in Lettere italiane 45, 3 (1993): 335-60. Web: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26265363?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Vescovo treats ekphrasis and the affective results of vision which speak to the spectator’s intellect through the senses, in terms of the medieval tradition of the ars memoriae. The essays rigorously interprets ‘visibile parlare’ in terms of mnemonic traditions described by Francis Yates and Lina Bolzoni (see esp., pp. 344-355). Vescovo recognizes a mnemonically progressive movement through bipartite exempla in Purgatorio: 1) representational images – humility in canto 10 and pride punished in canto 12, 2) inspirational voices – charity in canto 13 and envy punished in canto 14, 3) visions – the meek in canto 15 and ire punished in canto 17. Vescovo calls this a mnemonic journey (“un itinerario di rammemorazione”) and comments as well on the material mediums through which the exempla are sensorially transmitted.

Franke, William. “Reality and Realism in Purgatorio X.” In Dante’s Interpretative Journey, idem. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 171-177.

Franke discusses the thematic focus of Purgatorio 10 as didactic, mimetic realism as seen in the marble reliefs, God’s art. Franke argues that Dante’s “visibile parlare” does not intend reified form, or objects, but rather language. The marble images do not convey meaning through visible appearance. Produced by God, such images are indicative of the Commedia’s theme of the metaphysical dimension of language. This reading contrasts, for example, with R. Hollander’s, who reads the marble reliefs in conjunction with the writing of the Gate of Hell and in the sky of the heaven of Jupiter as instances of speech made visible. Franke instead considers these images not as icons, but rather as embodying a practical application in the life of individuals capable of achieving humility. The mimeticism of the images, the author argues do not so much coincide with what is ‘real’ as they instigate a process of interpretation and the edification of whosoever interprets.

Chiampi, James T. “Visible Speech, Living Stone, and the Names of the Word” in Rivista di studi italiani 14, 1 (1996): 1-12.

Chiampi here considers marble reliefs of Purgatorio 10 in conjunction with 2 Peter 2-8, where Peter names Christ the “living stone.” In the canto in question, Dante describes a mountain that seems to move and marble reliefs that seem to speak, “living stones.” By contrast, the reliefs representing examples of pride punished are set in the floor of the terrace in canto 12 are like funerary reliefs, “dead stones.” Similarly, the writing above the gates of Hell are described in Inferno 8 as “la scrittura morta” (v. 127). The “dead stones” of Inferno then are undone, argues Chiampi, by the living stones of Purgatorio 10 which promise future grace.

Herzman, Ronald B. “‘Visibile Parlare’: Dante’s Purgatorio 10 and Luca Signorelli’s San Brizio Frescoes” in Studies in Iconography 20 (1999): 155-183.

Herzman’s offers an art historical approach to canto 10, considering Dante’s alleged influence on Luca Signorelli’s theological and political vision in the Capella di San Brizio in Orvietto. He focusses in particular on three frescoes that appear on the covers of Mark Musa’s translation of the Commedia: The Damned in Hell (Inferno), The Calling of the Elect into Heaven (Paradiso), and a small roundel from the lower part of the chapel that depicts a purgatorial scene (Purgatorio).

2000s

Battaglia Ricci, Lucia. “Viaggio e visione tra immaginario visivo e invenzione letteraria.” In Dante da Firenze all’aldilà, edited by Michelangelo Picone. Florence: Cesati, 2001. 15-73.

In this contribution, Battaglia Ricci reflects on visual points of reference to which Dante turned to plan his vision of Hell, Pugatory, and Paradise, arguing for the interdependent relationship between image and text in medieval culture. She considers, for example, the image of Dante’s Lucifer in light of Giudizi Universali in Florence and Padua (the baptistry mosaic attributed to Coppo di Marcovaldo and the fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto). While it is true, Battaglia Ricci argues, that homiletic traditions demonstrate the importance of the image, the Commedia/image relationship is particularly reflective of the profound role of the image in medieval culture. The image enabled viewers to mentally internalize the image and its teachings in order to facilitate the viewers’ visionary, or mystic experiences. For example, Battaglia Ricci’s work on the Vitae Patrum as a textual guide through the frescoes in the Camposanto Vecchio in Pisa is indicative of the role of images in the internalization of divine scenes, and she briefly recalls some of her arguments from her relevant work here.

McGregor, James H.. “Reappraising ekphrasis in Purgatorio 10” in Dante Studies with the Annual Report of the Dante Society 121 (2003). 25-41. Web: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40166626?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

McGregor treats Purgatorio X as ekphrasis, arguing that Dante’s marble reliefs engage primarily with a tradition of visual iconography. While the presentation of the scenes does not necessarily reflect knowledge of works by Giotto or Cimabue, the ekphrasis of Purgatorio 10 does reflect normal visual iconography Dante would have witnessed.

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “The Theology of History and the Perspective of Art (Purgatorio X-XII).” In Image Makers and Image Breakers: Proceedings of a St. Michael’s College Symposium (Toronto 1-2 March 2002), edited by Jennifer A. Garris. Ottawa: Legas, 2003. 71-82.

Mazzotta focusses on the Pilgrim’s physical and moral failure to be able to identify the figures in the marble reliefs of Purgatorio 10, suggesting that art itself is inherently connected to pride as it pertains to the immoderate desire of self-excellence. In this canto, Mazzotta argues, images do not merely convey a moral or exemplary meaning. Rather, they serve to allow man to take measure of himself within the divine order. The ambiguity of images clouds man’s ability to view both his inner self and God’s work, even as they serve man as windows on how to better understand ethics, history, and theology.

Venturi, Gianni. “Una ‘Lectura Dantis’ e l’uso dell’ecfrasi: Purgatorio X.” In Ecfrasi: Modelli ed esempi fra Medioevo e Rinascimento I, edited by Gianni Venturi and Monica Farnetti. Rome: Bulzoni, 2004. 15-31.

Venturi’s reads of Purgatorio X as Dante’s consideration of the relationship between visual art and poetry. The contribution offers a comprehensive review of the contemporaneous scholarship on “visibile parlare” as ekphrasis. Also see Lucia Battaglia Ricci’s contribution in the same volume.

Picone, Michelangelo. “Dante nel girone dei superbi (Purg. X-XII).” L’Alighieri. Rassegna dantesca 46, n. s. 26 (2005): 97-110.  Web: https://www.torrossa.com/resources/an/2214381

In his reading of the three canti of Purgatorio that treat pride/humility, he reflects on two interconnected problems that Dante addresses: firstly, the categorization imperative that of allows the poet to claim his art as a “poema sacro” and secondly, the relationship between the arts (text and image – poetry and painting/sculpture). Picone argues that Dante (but also Petrarch and Boccaccio) took up the subject of the visual arts in order to develop a broader metatextual reflection on his own art as representation of the divine. For example, in Purg. 11, vv. 94-99, where artists are described as being surpassed by their masters (Cimabue by Giotto, and “Guido” by another “Guido”), Picone recognizes a clear gesture on Dante’s part to set up his own art as superseding all these. Dante’s description of the marble reliefs imitates God’s art, and in its representation of the divine, it becomes the “poema sacro.”

Ciccuto, Marcello. “All’ombra della Garisenda. Preistoria del visibile nella cultura poetica di Dante.” In Idem, Figure d’artista. La nascita delle immagini alle origini della letteratura. Fiesole: Cadmo, 2006. 13-53.

In this essay, Ciccuto examines a little-known series of vernacular texts that established a relationship between poetry and the visual arts well before Dante volunteered the phrase ‘visibile parlare.’ Ciccuto points to a number of sonnets of the stilnovistic tradition preceding the Commedia that, rejecting the earlier Guittonian tradition with its overzealous abstractions, focussed instead on the coherence between order and nature. In this essay, Ciccuto also considers Dante’s youthful involvement in an intense exchange of opinions regarding the question of figure, as evidenced in Vita Nuova 34 where the poet denounces the empirical visibilia of Guittonian tradition in favour of contemplative mnemonic imagines that allow for the intellectual union with his beloved (see esp. pp. 32-41).

Treherne, Matthew. “Ekphrasis and Eucharist: The Poetics of Seeing God’s Art in Purgatorio X” in The Italianist 26 (2006). 177-196. Web: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/026143406X151773

This article discusses the ‘ekphrasis’ of Purgatorio X as Dante’s reflection on discussions regarding the Eucharist within medieval Christian doctrine and practice. Treherne reads against a common scholarly assumption that poetic language triumphs over visual art in this canto. According to Treherne, this canto describes the limits of sensory experience and perception of the divine, the relationship between which was much debated in discussions of the Eucharist. Traherne finds similarities to the worshipper’s experience of the Eucharist as evidenced (in theological texts) in particular in Dante’s representation of the senses in this canto. Thus, Purgatorio 10 is one of a series of instances during the Pilgrim’s progress toward God which allude to the difficulty in interpreting signs.

2010s

Camilletti, Fabio. “Dante Painting an Angel: Image-making, Double-oriented Sonnets, and Dissemblance in Vita Nuova 34.” In Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages, edited by Manuele Gragnolati, Tristan Kay, Elena Lombardi, and Francesco Southerden. London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2012. 71-84.

In this book contribution, Camilletti questions the degree to which post-Enlightenment categories of subjectivity (e.g. death, loss, desire, sublimation) may be useful in considerations of Dante’s Vita Nuova. Considering the role of ‘imago’ in Dante’s process of poetic composition in VN XXXIV, Camilletti argues that Dante’s concretization of the ‘imago’ (in particular, the angel depicted in VN XXXIV) ought to be reconsidered in relation to nineteenth-century constructions of courtly love – in particular, the tendency to retrospectively project post-enlightenment categories onto Dante’s text. Camilletti argues that the angel is not necessarily a simulacrum in which the deceased lady is sublimated. Instead Dante’s ‘donna angelicata’ sets up an explicit tension between the material externalization of the angel that Dante is in the act of drawing and the internal consideration of his melancholy. Dante’s self-representation in the act of painting is not merely an allusion to the internal conceptualization of loss (or in psychoanalytical terms, “repression”), but rather an allusion to the indeterminacy of visuality, thus, allowing Dante the means to explore the nature of figurality and representation.

Leone, Marco. “Il canto X del Purgatorio, fra poesia e arte.” In Lectura Dantis Lupiensis I, edited by Valerio Marucci and Valter Leonardo Puccetti. Ravenna: Longo, 2013. 9-21.

Leone offers a comprehensive review of the many various avenues of scholarly interpretation which Dante’s ‘visibile parlare’ has inspired. The author argues that Dante’s employment of the term revives the ancient topos regarding the relationship between art, nature, and mimesis, combining it with another ancient topos concerning the complex relationship between the visual arts and poetry. Taking many preceding scholarly readings into consideration, Leone provides a thorough commentary on the category of ‘visibile parlare’ as a dynamic of a larger, over-riding aspect of the Commedia – the fusion of theology and poetry.

Fajen, Robert. “Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio X” in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch 87-88 (2012-2013): 98-117.

In his reading of Purgatorio X, Fajen argues that the formula ‘visible parlare’ demonstrates how, for Dante, art is only legitimate if it establishes spiritual and intellectual meaning with the word. The appearance of art, therefore, does not delude or serve as a poor representation of truth, but rather guides human knowledge toward that truth. Verse 133, “la qual fa del non ver vera rancura,” Fajen argues gives shape to the basic form of Dante’s poetics: “non-truth creates truth, fiction creates reality, false appearances trigger true feelings.” At the same time, however, the representation of divine art announces the limits of human art, and in this canto, Dante humbly presents the limits of his own poetry.

Malavasi, Massimiliano. “Del buon uso della superbia: una nota sui rilievi di Purgatorio X.” In Per beneficio e concordia di studio: Studi danteschi offerti a Enrico Malato per i suoi ottant’anni, edited by Andrea Mazzucchi. Cittadella: Bertoncello Artigrafiche, 2015. 493-505.

This book contribution discusses the psychological and ethical progression of the three scenes described in the marble reliefs of Purgatorio X. These scenes represent their respective figures at the centre of a moral demonstration whereby the protagonists, portrayed as members of increasingly more socially complex circumstances (the adolescent Mary, King David, Emperor Trajan), are shown making decisions that are difficult but right. The author also briefly discusses the technical device of the verbal description of art, noting that the concept of “ekphrasis,” imposed by nineteenth and twentieth century criticism on the canto, was not advanced with any specific theory in classical or medieval rhetoric.

Wolf, Gerhard. “Dante’s Eyes and the Abysses of Seeing: Poetical Optics and Concepts of images in the Divine Comedy.” In Vision and Its Instruments: Art, Science, and Technology in Early Modern Europe, edited by Alina Payne. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University. 2015. 122-137.

Wolf considers the Commedia in light of fourteenth-century optics and notions of seeing, examining in particular the relationship between what in the fourteenth century was thought to be visible and what could be represented visually. There are analogies, Wolf argues, between the concepts of artistic mimesis and the psychology of perception. Throughout the Commedia, the Poet formulates problems regarding the Pilgrim’s ability to see in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Often, however, as Wolf points out, the Poet describes the optical effect, or vision of God’s art in explicitly “pictorial” terms (Purg. 10, Purg. 12, Purg. 32, Purg. 33, Par. 33, etc.).

Terzoli, Maria Antonietta. “Visibile parlare: ecfrasi e scrittura nella Commedia.” In Dante und die Bildenden Künste, edited by Maria Antonietta Terzoli and Sebastian Schütye. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. 23-48.

Terzoli prioritizes the marble reliefs given their location in the poem, as the first visions that the Pilgrim sees upon entering Purgatory proper. The author examines ekphrasis in Purgatorio X and XII, arguing that Dante implicitly preserves the medieval conception of the superiority of the word over the image. The author also considers Dante’s ekphrasis and its relationship to virgilian ekphrasis.

Keleman, János. “Ekphrasis, non-existing images, impossible figures: Purgatorio 10-12, Paradiso 33.” In Boccaccio, Dante e Verdone, edited by Antonio Sorella. Florence: Cesati, 2016. 137-148.

Keleman considers the differences between the visual and the verbal arts with reference to Purgatorio X and XII and argues in favour of the “linguistic primacy hypothesis” – that is, that the primary semiotic system is natural language, or verbal communication takes precedence over other forms of communication. The author establishes that there are theoretical differences between the verbal description of existing works of art and the creation of non-existing works of art by verbal means. In Purgatorio, Dante practices the latter, which represents a different degree of evocative strength than the former. Dante’s choice of a narrative language for the visual representation of the Purgatorial examples of humility, argues Keleman, reflects his conception of visual art as narrative art. Further, Dante’s use of the words ‘visibile parlare’ may suggest that Dante recognized an intrinsic linguistic nature of images. In the final vision of the Commedia (Paradiso XXX, 114-117), Keleman argues that Dante describes a figure which is impossible to represent, as is shown by the many different attempts by artists to render this vision. Dante’s impossible picture is a representation of divine reality which is ultimately unrepresentable.

Further Readings:  

References to “Visibile parlare” are also to be found in other Lecturae Dantis on Purgatorio 10 and 12. Among these, see:

  • Aleardo Sacchetto. “Pietà e giustizia nel canto di Traiano (X del Purgatorio).” In Dieci letture dantesche. Florence: Le Monnier, 1960. 111-129.
  • Andreas Kablitz, “Jenseitige Kunst oder Gott als Bildhauer. Die Reliefs in Dantes Purgatorio (Purg. X-XII).” In Mimesis und Simulation, edited by Andreas Kablitz and Gerhard Neumann. Freiburg: Rombach, 1988. 309-358.
  • Lucia Battaglia Ricci. “‘Come […] le tombe terragne portan segnato’:” lettura del dodicesimo canto del Purgatorio.” In Ecfrasi: Modelli ed esempi fra Medioevo e Rinascimento I, edited by Gianni Venturi and Monica Farnetti. Rome: Bulzoni, 2004. 33-63.
  • Giuseppe A. Camerino. “I limiti di arte e natura: di Purg. X e di alcuni altri luoghi danteschi.” In Letteratura, verità, e vita: Studi in ricordo di Gorizio Viti, edited by Paolo Viti. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2005. 17-28.
  • Emerico Giachery. Il canto X del Purgatorio. Rome: Graphisoft, 2006.
  • Eugenio Ragni. “Canto X: Umiltà, superbia e ‘visibile parlare’.” In Lectura Dantis Romana. Cento Canti per cento anni, edited by Enrico Malato and Andrea Mazzucchi. Rome: Salerno, 2014. 266-297.
  • Patricia Oster. “‘Dove si puote ciò che si vuole:’ Gottes Bildkunst im X Canto des Purgatorio” in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch 91 (2016): 79-94.
  • Paola Vecchi. “Purgatorio X: In cammino verso la pazienza.” In Lectura Dantis Bononiensis VI, edited by Emilio Pasquini and Carlo Galli. Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2017. 149-164.
  • Beatrice Stasi. “‘Perché si teme officio non commesso:’ I canti della superbia nel Purgatorio.” In Lectura Dantis Lupiensis 5, edited by Valerio Marrucci and Valter Leonardo Puccetti. Ravenna: Longo: 2018. 95-131.

For Dante’s ‘Visibile parlare’ and Visual Culture and Visual Arts, see:

  • Marcello Ciccuto. L’immagine del testo: episodi di cultura figurativa nella letteratura italiana. Roma: Bonacci, 1990.
  • Marcello Ciccuto. Icone della parola. Immagine e scrittura nella letteratura delle Origini. Modena: Mucchi, 1995.
  • Marcello Ciccuto. Figure d’artista. La nascita delle immagini alle Origini della Letteratura. Fiesole: Cadmo, 2002. (see above)
  • Maria Monica Donato, Lucia Battaglia Ricci, Michelangelo Picone, Giuseppe Z. Zanichelli, eds. Dante e le arti visive. Milan: Unicopli, 2006.
  • Patricia Lee Rubin, “The Eye of the Beholder.” In Idem., Images and Identity in Fifteenth- Century Florence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 135-173.
  • Wolf-Dietrich Löhr, “Dantes Täfelchen, Cennini Zeichenkiste: ritratto, disegno und fantasia als Instrumente der Bilerzeugung im Trecento,” in Das Mittelalter: Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung 13 (2008): 148-179.
  • Gerhard Wolf. “Dante’s Eyes and the Abysses of Seeing: Poetical Optics and Concepts of images in the Divine Comedy.” In Vision and Its Instruments: Art, Science, and Technology in Early Modern Europe, edited by Alina Payne. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University. 2015. 122-137. (see above)

How to quote this paper:

L. Faibisoff. “ISCAD Annotated Bibliography: Visibile Parlare,” International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante. Website, May 2019. Online: https://dante.medieval.utoronto.ca/visibile-parlare/

 

 

ISCAD 4/ Dante Society of America, 2019 Annual Meeting and Symposium (Updated)

We are pleased to announce the details about the forthcoming ISCAD 4 and 137th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the Dante Society of America.

Download the poster

Download the program 

Program

Saturday, May 4

8:30am – 9:00am Continental breakfast

9:00am – 10:00am 137th Annual Meeting of the Dante Society of America (open to DSA members only)

  • Albert R. Ascoli (University of California, Berkeley), President, Dante Society of America

10:00am – 10:30am Greetings and Welcome

  • S. Bancheri (University of Toronto)
  • A. Ruggera (Istituto Italiano di Cultura)
  • E. Brilli (University of Toronto)

10:30am – 11:30am Keynote Lecture on Plurilingualism

  • Manuele Gragnolati (Paris IV – La Sorbonne), Dante’s Plurilngualism and the Complexity of Literature
  • Introduced by Suzanne Akbari (University of Toronto)

11:30am – 12:00am Coffee Break

12:00am – 1:30pm Roundtable on Plurilingualism

  • Chair: William Robins (University of Toronto)
  • Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja (Harvard University), Plurilingualism and Readership
  • Gary Cestaro (DePaul University), Plurilingualism and Gender, Body and lingua materna
  • Francesca Southerden (Oxford University), Plurilingualism and Particularity

1:30pm – 2:30pm Buffet Lunch

2:30pm – 3:30pm Keynote Lecture 

  • Marcello Ciccuto (Università di Pisa & Società Dantesca Italiana), Giotto, Dante, Francesco da Barberino: alle fonti del ‘visibile parlare’
  • Introduced by Albert R. Ascoli (University of California, Berkeley)

3:30pm – 4:00pm Coffee Break

4:00pm – 6:00pm Roundtable on Visibile Parlare

  • Chair: Elisa Brilli (University of Toronto)
  • Suzanne Akbari (University of Toronto), Visibile Parlare and Ekphrasis
  • Aida Audeh (Hamline University), Visibile Parlare and Visual Arts
  • Luca Fiorentini (Accademia dei Lincei), Visibile Parlare and the Secolare commento
  • Eloisa Morra (University of Toronto), Visibile Parlare and Twentieth Century Italian Visual Culture
  • Arielle Saiber (Bowdoin College), Visibile Parlare and the Invisible

6:00pm Conclusions

Practicalities

Please refer to the ISCAD website for information on travel, lodging, parking, and meeting venues.

Contacts and Credits

Symposium convener

ISCAD committee

  • Elisa Brilli, University of Toronto
  • William Robins, University of Toronto
  • Justin Steinberg, University of Chicago

ISCAD research assistants

  • Kelsey Cunningham, University of Toronto
  • Sara Galli, University of Toronto

Local arrangements

Credits

This is a joint event organized by the Dante Society of America and the International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante (ISCAD), which has been based at the University of Toronto since 2015 and supported by a wide network both within and outside this institution: