Sull’umiltà nella Commedia

Abstract

Dante deals specifically with the theme of humility only in the canto of the superbs (Purgatory, X–XII). Still, the topic permeates the entire poem, from the moment Vergil invites Dante to follow him. Obedience is the predominant form that humility takes in Inferno. In Purgatory, it determines the choral forms of the language (prayer and singing), but it manifests itself most spectacularly in the Earthly Paradise procession, which takes the shape of a Cross, the highest symbol of humility in Christ and of Christianity. In Paradise, it is present in some key episodes (that of Cato, of St. Francis, and Dante’s theological exam). Yet, it is continuously signified in the language of image-symbols’ configuration that the blessed souls take in each heaven. Finally, it is humility that allows the Pilgrim to see God with his physical senses, which provide the lowest and most concrete form of knowledge, and yet the most sublime one.