PURGATORIO, Episode 99. The Easy Climb Into Complex Meaning: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Lines 1 - 21

Dante and Virgil arrive at the second terrace of Purgatory proper in a passage that seems at first glance to be fairly straightforward, naturalistic detail . . . until we notice the neologism (new word) Dante has coined, until we notice the line that barely makes sense because it has so many possible meanings, and until we realize that Virgil is offering a pagan prayer in the land of the redeemed penitents.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 98. Dante, Aquinas, Aristotle, And The Fences Of Truth

In PURGATORIO, Dante begins to incorporate more and more experimental and experiential truth into his poem, taking his cues from Aquinas and Aristotle. But if God is the author of all truth, how does any truth come from experiential sources, much less a pagan philosopher, particularly one whose writings have been reinvigorated by both Islamic and Jewish scholars?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 97. The Second Terrace Of Purgatory: A Read-Through Of PURGATORIO, Cantos XIII, Line 1, though XV, Line 84

A read-through of the second terrace of Purgatory proper, the terrace of envy, in the second canticle of Dante’s masterwork COMEDY. We’ll cover the ground from PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Line 1, though Canto XV, Line 84, walking among the ranks of the envious and asking some initial questions before we dig into it passage by passage in our slow walk across Dante’s known universe.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 96. Erasing God's Writing And Virgil's Smile: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 118 - 139

Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, take on the last bit of the climb out of the first terrace of Purgatory proper, the terrace of pride. PURGATORIO continues to compellingly difficult and enjoyable because they exit the terrace with two interesting and unexpected moments: Virgil smiles and God’s writing is erased.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 95. Narrow Stairs, Contorted Similes, And The On-Going Poetry Of Hell: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 100 - 117

Dante and Virgil climb to the second terrace of Purgatory through one of the more difficult similes in all of COMEDY: a contorted and rage-filled bit of poetry about Florence and its corruption, all in the emotional landscape of redemption, which ends at one of Jesus’s beatitudes and also the screams of hell itself.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 94. The Climb Out Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 73 - 99

Dante and Virgil begin to leave the terrace of pride and all its art, but not before Virgil returns to form, becoming the guide to the afterlife with a penchant for quoting himself and not before an angel must guide them to the stairs, an angel who carries in his face an implicit reference to Lucifer (that is, Satan).

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PURGATORIO, Episode 93. Storytelling, Moral Allegory, And The Human Paradox: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 64 - 72

Dante the poet steps out from behind Dante the pilgrim to double down on his claims for art (that it’s realer than real), to push further his own (fake) ekphrastic poetry, and to remind us that the moral allegory that is COMEDY is at its heart a story, the only lie humans have to tell the moral truths of our existence.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 92. More Questions Than Answers For The Reliefs In The Road Bed Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 22 - 63

An overview of the reliefs carved into the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. They (and the poet Dante) leave us with more questions than answers . . . which is curious in a passage that is supposed to be a rather simple, monochromatic lesson about morality (or the dangers of pride).

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PURGATORIO, Episode 91. Walking On Pride, Part Three: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 49 - 60

Dante the pilgrim walks over the final figures carved into the paving stones of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory: Alcmeon (and his mother, Eriphyle), Sennacherib, Tomyris (and Cyrus), and Holofernes (and Judith). This passage is full of presented and occluded figures and ends with a very odd comment about Holofernes’ “relics from his martyrdom.”

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PURGATORIO, Episode 90. Walking On Pride, Part Two: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 37 - 48

Dante the pilgrim continues to look at the carved reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. He sees four more exemplars: Niobe, Saul, Arachne, and Reheboam. Two from the classical world and two from the Bible world. But one a statue and one an allegory of art. What is the relationship of pride and artistic creation?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 89. Walking On Pride, Part One: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 25 - 36

Virgil has directed Dante the pilgrim to look at the road bed of the terrace of pride. In it are carvings, much like tombs in the floor of a church. They’re reliefs of pride . . . or its exemplars. Or some of its exemplars. And then there’s Apollo, the pagan god of poetry and a bit of a muddle for Dante’s theology.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 88. Art, Realism, And Dante's Sheer Audacity: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24

Virgil directs Dante the pilgrim to look down at the art that will lie under his feet, carved into the first terrace of Mount Purgatory. But then the poet steps forward with an audacious claim: this art is “realer” than its historical basis, than its original moment, because it’s God’s art. But it’s not. It’s Dante’s.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 87. Dante's Pride Both Lanced And Swelling: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 1 - 12

Dante is hunched over with the prideful, going along as if he has a rock on his back. He certainly wants us to think the grand swelling of pride has been lanced on this terrace of Purgatory . . . until Virgil tells him to be more like the damned Ulysses, and our pilgrim straightens up, and sets off at a much quicker pace. A most curious passage about Dante’s relationship with pride.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 86. A Bad Boy Makes Good On The Terrace Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 109 - 139

The illuminator Oderisi continues his monologue on the first terrace of Purgatory proper. He points out a third penitent: the warlord and tyrant from Siena, Provenzan Salvani, who plotted Florence’s demise and perhaps foreshadows Dante’s exile. How are the pains of Purgatory not “contrapasso” as in INFERNO? What part does art play in history? And how does Dante imagine his own art changing its reader?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 85. Oderisi Redux: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 73 - 108

There are many unanswered questions in the first half of Oderisi’s speech. Why does Dante turn reticent about naming himself when he’s been so brash elsewhere (in the malebolge with the thieves)? How is the art of illumination, or miniaturization, connected to the new style of poetry Dante practices? And what’s the significance of Dante's meeting someone who spent his life working on manuscripts?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 84. Proud Oderisi Confronts The Vagaries Of Artistic Fame: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 73 - 108

On Purgatory’s terrace of pride, Dante encounters Oderisi, an artist, a manuscript illuminator, who utters some of the most famous lines in PURGATORIO. Oderisi discusses the vagaries of artistic fame and finds himself both forgotten and yet still prideful . . . about as Dante, our poet, who seems to vaunt his fame high in the passage but may actually be bringing himself pretty low.

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PURGATORIO, Episode 83. Proud Omberto, Humbled . . . Or Humbled Omberto, Still Proud: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 46 - 72

We hear from the first penitent beyond the gate of Purgatory proper: Omberto Aldobrandesco. He’s from a storied, titled family who switched sides, became Guelphs, and were brought low. Is Omberto humbled? Or is he still prideful? Or is he both? And why does Dante choose such a boring figure to begin our conversations on the terraces of Purgatory proper?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 82. Disorienting The Reader On The Terrace Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 25 - 45

Dante the pilgrim sees the prideful penitents under the boulders and likens their burdens to the weight of dreams (the key landscape of the imagination in medieval thinking). What? Then Dante the poet steps out to teach us the lesson from the passage, asking us to pray for the penitents he himself has imagined. Finally, Virgil speaks without ever being given a dialogue cue, so we’re not sure who’s speaking until the end of nine lines. What’s going on?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 81. Dante Rewrites The Foundational Prayer Of Christianity: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 1 - 24

Dante hears the first penitents of Purgatory proper. They’re the prideful, reciting the foundational prayer of Christian tradition. Except they’re not. Dante has rewritten this prayer, changing it from the liturgy and even from Jesus’s words as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. How and why does Dante feel he has the freedom to rewrite the very foundations of his faith?

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PURGATORIO, Episode 80. When Art Envisions What Is: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 112 - 139

Dante the pilgrim has been alerted to figures coming around the bend of the first terrace of Purgatory proper. But neither he nor Virgil, his guide, is able to discern what’s what until Dante the poet interrupts the story and then the pilgrim uses art to understand what didn’t resemble people at all.

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