Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso
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Fidel Fajardo-Acosta
Abstract
The words miracol (miracle) and miracoli (miracles) occur only once in Dante’s Divine Comedy, in Paradiso 18.63 and 24.107, respectively. Also in Canto 18, the letter M is given special significance (18.94, 98, 113), along with the image of an eagle (“un’aguglia,” 18.107), representing John the Evangelist. This study claims that the letter M: 1) alludes to the wings of the eagle and the nest from which the eagle is born; 2) suggests the eagle is the Holy Spirit; 3) stands not just for the spirit of John’s but of all four of the Gospels, the figurative “nidi” (18.111; nests) of letters and words from which the eagle rises; and, 4) is the initial of the words miracol/miracoli, pointing to the Gospels as accounts of miracles, such as the birth of a human being begotten by a divinity (the Holy Spirit), his death and resurrection, and his subsequent ascent to heaven and partaking of eternal life. Such miracles, Dante suggests, are not unique but can be repeated by readers who understand the spirit of the Gospels and freely choose the imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi). Dante’s own mimetic pilgrimage – descending into hell on Good Friday, reaching the bottom on the evening of Holy Saturday, emerging alive on Holy Sunday, and then ascending to heaven and coming face to face with God – constitutes his imitatio Christi and experience, during his own earthly life, of the miracles of resurrection and salvation. Miracles in the Divine Comedy are therefore not supernatural occurrences but instead events resulting from choices made by individuals following the example of Jesus, who freely chose to sacrifice himself (“ch’el si chiavasse al legno,” Paradiso 19.105, when he nailed himself to the wood). Miracles are thus presented as functions of free will (“de la volontà la libertate,” 5.22), potentials of reality activated by the choice to follow the Gospels. The possibility that a human can perform miracles and choose to be god-like depends, however, not just on the guidance of the Gospels but also that of Virgil and Beatrice, representing earthly Reason and Love. As such, Dante’s ideas are early manifestations of the Renaissance Humanism later represented by figures like Pico della Mirandola. Also claimed in this study, Dante’s observations regarding the miraculous as a potential of reality, i.e., suggesting anything is possible, anticipated the findings of modern theoretical physics and cosmology.
Abstract
The words miracol (miracle) and miracoli (miracles) occur only once in Dante’s Divine Comedy, in Paradiso 18.63 and 24.107, respectively. Also in Canto 18, the letter M is given special significance (18.94, 98, 113), along with the image of an eagle (“un’aguglia,” 18.107), representing John the Evangelist. This study claims that the letter M: 1) alludes to the wings of the eagle and the nest from which the eagle is born; 2) suggests the eagle is the Holy Spirit; 3) stands not just for the spirit of John’s but of all four of the Gospels, the figurative “nidi” (18.111; nests) of letters and words from which the eagle rises; and, 4) is the initial of the words miracol/miracoli, pointing to the Gospels as accounts of miracles, such as the birth of a human being begotten by a divinity (the Holy Spirit), his death and resurrection, and his subsequent ascent to heaven and partaking of eternal life. Such miracles, Dante suggests, are not unique but can be repeated by readers who understand the spirit of the Gospels and freely choose the imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi). Dante’s own mimetic pilgrimage – descending into hell on Good Friday, reaching the bottom on the evening of Holy Saturday, emerging alive on Holy Sunday, and then ascending to heaven and coming face to face with God – constitutes his imitatio Christi and experience, during his own earthly life, of the miracles of resurrection and salvation. Miracles in the Divine Comedy are therefore not supernatural occurrences but instead events resulting from choices made by individuals following the example of Jesus, who freely chose to sacrifice himself (“ch’el si chiavasse al legno,” Paradiso 19.105, when he nailed himself to the wood). Miracles are thus presented as functions of free will (“de la volontà la libertate,” 5.22), potentials of reality activated by the choice to follow the Gospels. The possibility that a human can perform miracles and choose to be god-like depends, however, not just on the guidance of the Gospels but also that of Virgil and Beatrice, representing earthly Reason and Love. As such, Dante’s ideas are early manifestations of the Renaissance Humanism later represented by figures like Pico della Mirandola. Also claimed in this study, Dante’s observations regarding the miraculous as a potential of reality, i.e., suggesting anything is possible, anticipated the findings of modern theoretical physics and cosmology.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
