M Dante Dante Dante and the . . . Continued from front flap c and the Blessed Virgin In Blessed Virgin e “Keen as our aesthetic enjoyment of the Comme- r dia may be,” McInerny explains in the epilogue, Ralph McInerny n Ralph McInerny y “intriguing as are the intellectual elements of the narrative, we know that Dante was after a deeper “Dante was a literary genius with a profound understand- “The theme of this little book, Dante and the response than those. He wanted to move us from ing of St. Thomas Aquinas and the philosophia perennis that Blessed Virgin, provides a Catholic reader with a the misery of sin to eternal happiness. And he structured and permeated the Divina Commedia. Who better unique opportunity to respond to this central shows us the inescapable centrality of the Blessed to help us get beyond the (brilliant) surface to the depths of element of the great poet’s work in a way that Dante than the most literarily genial of Thomas’ twentieth- Virgin Mary in that conversion.” This engagingly D goes far beyond scholarly or aesthetic appreci- (and twenty-first-) century disciples, the indefatigable Ralph written book will serve as a welcome guide for ation. . . . The Catholic can see Dante’s devotion McInerny? Dante needed guides, from Vergil to Beatrice, to anyone approaching Dante’s work for the first a to the Blessed Virgin in warm continuity with his reach the summit of Paradiso. Fortunately, we have Ralph time, as well as all those who value the work of n own beliefs and practices. Central as Mary is to McInerny to accompany us on the same journey.” Ralph McInerny. t the Divine Comedy, she has become even more —Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press e central in Catholic belief in the centuries since it RALPH MCINERNY is professor of philosophy was written.” —from the Prologue a and the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval “Weaving together poetry, philosophy, and theology, Ralph n Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is McInerny shows that ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to d Dante and the Blessed Virgin is distinguished phi- author and editor of numerous books, including Dante.’ Starting with the Vita Nuova and the beginning of the th and the losopher Ralph McInerny’s eloquent reading of e his autobiography, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell Divine Comedy, this becomes ever more explicit throughout B one of Western literature’s most famous works You (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), and the great poem, till the magnificent closing cantos of the Par- l by a Christian writer. The book provides Catho- the first two volumes of The Writings of Charles adiso. The book is beautifully written, making sense of every e Blessed lic readers, especially those new to Dante’s Divine s step, however complex at times, of the great journey to the De Koninck (University of Notre Dame Press, s Comedy, with a concise companion volume. gate of heaven described by Dante in the Commedia, drawing e 2008, 2009). on Scripture, on Aquinas, on philosophers like Aristotle, on a d McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers medley of modern and contemporary writers, with immense V throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle, learning. Dominant themes that concern everyone, such as Virgin i St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, love or happiness, are treated with freshness and clarity so r the reader is made to feel that he or she is discovering them g and George Santayana. It is St. Thomas, however, anew. The total effect is joy induced by the incredible wealth i to whom McInerny most often turns, and this n of content of this little book and by the light it sheds on so book also provides an accessible introduction many vital issues.” to Thomistic moral philosophy, focusing on the —Thomas De Koninck, Laval University appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders, the classification of capital vices and virtues, and Jacket art: Dante Alighieri and a Statue of the Virgin the nature of the theological virtues. Mary. Images courtesy of clipart.com © [2009] Jupiter- University of Notre Dame Press images Corporation. Notre Dame, IN 46556 Jacket design: Margaret Gloster undpress.nd.edu Continued on back flap . . . Ralph McInerny McInerny.indd 1 11/17/09 1:51:51 PM Dante and the BlesseD Virgin Da n t e and the BlesseD Virgin r a l p h M c i n e r n y University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana Copyright © 2010 by University of notre Dame notre Dame, indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu all rights reserved Manufactured in the United states of america Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mcinerny, ralph M. Dante and the Blessed Virgin / ralph Mcinerny. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. isBn-13: 978-0-268-03517-4 (cloth : alk. paper) isBn-10: 0-268-03517-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Dante alighieri, 1265–1321—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Dante alighieri, 1265–1321—Characters—Mary, Blessed Virgin, saint. 3. Mary, Blessed Virgin, saint—in literature. i. title. pQ4419.M2M35 2010 851'.1—dc22 2009041749 This book is printed on recycled paper. For Cathy, Mary, Anne, Nancy, Beth, Amy, Terrill, Ellen, Clare, Lucy, Rita, and Vivian sed certe ad hoc opus nimiam omnino fateor esse meam insufficientiam, propter nimiam materiam incomprehensibilitatem, propter nimiam scientiae meae tenuitatem, propter nimiam linguae meae indignitatem, et propter nimiam personae laudandae laudem et laudabilitatem. Certainly i must confess my utter insufficiency to write this book—because of the matter, difficult of comprehension; because of the thinness of my knowledge; because of the unworthiness of my syle; and because of the profound praise due the person to be honored. —Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis, prologus C O n t e n t s prologue ix note on translations, editions, and abbreviations xv One a new life Begins 1 tWO in the Midst of My Days 13 three The seven storey Mountain 35 fOUr Queen of heaven 101 epilogue 143 notes 145 index 155 p r O l O g U e One of the marvels of art is that our appreciation of it does not re- quire that we share the outlook of the artist. There must, of course, be sympathy, and more than sympathy, with the protagonist and with his manner of viewing his plight. a reader in the third millennium can be drawn into a greek tragedy and experience the anguish of a character whose culture is utterly alien to his own. explanations of this have been advanced. it requires a willing suspension of disbelief, a dismissal of the differences, and then immersion in a plot involv- ing decisions almost wholly foreign in their weight and gravitas to those that engage the latter-day reader. Almost wholly foreign. What counterpart in our times could there be, pace freud, to the dilemma of Oedipus? nonetheless, it may well be said that beneath the unde- niable strangeness is the note of familiarity, a familiarity due to our common humanity. The great imaginative works bring about in us a sense of affinity with agents living in cultural circumstances long since gone. But we need not appeal only to the chronologically distant. When we read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the mesmerizing voice of the narrator establishes a rapport with such a one as Kurtz, a Kurtz who, alive or dead, we could never be. Moreover, we grasp the contrast be- tween a europe that no longer exists and a colonial africa that is no more. it seems not to matter at all that those referents no longer exist. ix