And see Virgil's own later 'gloss' to Limbo (in Purg. 29-35 Padoan (“Dante di fronte all'umanesimo letterario,” Lettere Italiane 17, pp. For important discussions along these lines see Mazzoni (“Saggio di un nuovo commento alla Divina Commedia: il Canto IV dell' Inferno,” Studi Danteschi 42 ), pp. That, even according to Virgil, who dwells in it, the world of Limbo is 'blind' might have helped hold in check some of the more enthusiastic readings of this canto as exemplary of Dante's 'humanistic' inclinations. The word introno, as Petrocchi points out, appears twice again in this cantica ( Inf. IV.9) translates the word as 'clamore assordante' (deafening clamor) and argues for this resolution of the problem, defending Petrocchi's reading, which was published two years after Mazzoni's commentary. 57-58), on the ground that Dante would not have used the same words so near to one another to indicate different things. Mazzoni's position is strengthened by Petrocchi's choice of a reading found in only three MSS: introno ( La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata, Inferno, pp. It seems best to understand that this noise is not the one that awakens Dante, but the one that he first hears from the inhabitants of Limbo, i.e., that the two identical words indicate diverse phenomena. Mazzoni (“Saggio di un nuovo commento alla Divina Commedia: il Canto IV dell' Inferno,” Studi Danteschi 42 ), pp. There has been a centuries-long debate over the question of whether this 'thunder' ( truono), the noise made by the sorrowing damned, is the same as the thunderclap of verse 2 ( truono ). III (136) has him overcome by sleep ('sonno') so in the first line of this following canto that sleep is broken, thus overriding the sharp line of demarcation that a canto ending or beginning seems to imply, as at the boundary between Inferno II and Inferno III. While it may be positive that he has 'died' to the world of the senses (the view of Pascoli, Valli, and Pietrobono ), it is negative that he has done so out of fear.Īs the last verse of Inf.

It is important to remember that this is supernatural 'weather,' and serves to mirror Dante's internal condition. III.130-34.) Now he is awakened by the following thunder. Chimenz, indicating the medieval belief that earthquakes were caused by winds imprisoned in the earth. The last canto had come to its dramatic conclusion with a shaking of the earth accompanied – indeed perhaps caused by – a supernatural lightning bolt that made Dante fall into a fainting 'sleep.' (See, for example, Siro A.

Shades of elysium riddles