Paradiso

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1320

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Cantos 1-7

Cantos 8-9

Cantos 10-14

Cantos 15-20

Cantos 21-22

Cantos 23-27

Cantos 28-33

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Cantos 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Venus

Canto 8 Summary

When Dante notices Beatrice become even more beautiful, he is aware that they have ascended to the next level of Heaven, the planet Venus. He sees “heavenly lights” dancing toward them. One of them speaks to him, and it is Charles Martel of Anjou (1271-1295), the ruler of Hungary, whom Dante knew personally. Charles says that the world suffered from his early death (of the plague) in that many realms were deprived of his guidance. He laments the wrong done to his family and castigates the rule of his brother, Robert, who inherited his throne.

Dante wonders, on the basis of some of Charles’s comments, how a good father can have a bad son. Charles argues that different human beings have different natures, and the world should not try to make people take on roles for which they are unsuited.

Canto 9 Summary

In this canto, Dante meets three persons known to him in life. The first is Charles’s wife, Clemenza, whom Dante assures that the enemies of her husband shall be punished. The second is Cunizza da Romano, a northern Italian noblewoman, who gives three prophesies of political events in her region. Third is Folco of Marseilles, a Provencal poet and troubadour who later became a bishop. Folco explains that he had an amorous reputation in his early life; yet souls in Heaven do not regret their indiscretions on earth but instead marvel at God’s providential sublimation of earthly love.

Folco explains that the place next to him is occupied by the biblical figure Rahab, who assisted the Israelites in capturing the city of Jericho. Finally, Folco speaks of the corruption of Florence and the church in the present day, but predicts that this corruption will come to an end.

Cantos 8-9 Analysis

This section takes Dante to the third sphere of Heaven, the planet Venus. This planet was named after the Roman goddess of love, and Dante accordingly associates this heavenly sphere with romantic love and, hence, with souls who during their lives showed a lack of temperance. Dante begins Canto 8 with allusions to the goddess Venus (“the fair Cyprian”), Cupid, and other mythical characters, setting an ornate and classicizing tone.

In Canto 8, Charles Martel of Anjou speaks without ever identifying himself. This is often Dante’s method in the Paradiso, as it was assumed that contemporary readers could pick up on the character’s identity from the context and from clues in the text. Dante often identifies characters in a circumlocutory way, by indirect allusions or with details from their life. In addition, souls are often first identified as “lights” or “splendors” before they are identified as specific human beings in Heaven. Thus, the reader needs to be attentive to those points in the text in which Dante is actually introducing a new character.

Charles Martel of Anjou (not to be confused with Charles Martel, the father of Charlemagne) is an example—one among many in the Paradiso—of a minor historical character who appears in Dante’s poem on the basis of a personal relationship with the poet. Thus, in addition to aspiring for universality, the Paradiso is also filled with personal autobiographical meaning for Dante.

Canto 9 shows Dante’s tendency to mix allusions to figures from recent Italian and European history (Folco; Charles Martel) with ancient mythological characters (Dido) and figures from the Bible (Rahab; St. Peter). In this way, Dante implies that classical Greco-Roman culture, Judeo-Christian revelation, and contemporary European politics are in some way complementary. In particular, by combining Biblical and classical references, Dante implies that the sacred and secular realms are interrelated and that ancient history has an impact on the present day, as discussed in the theme The Connection Between the Earthly and the Eternal. Folco begins the trend of characters delivering prophesies about the future of Florence, Europe, the papacy, etc. In this way, Dante is able to comment on contemporary concerns through these historical characters.