Editing Divine Comedy (section)

== Influences ==
{{clear}}
{{Italian language}}
[[File:Andrea Pierini - Dante alla corte di Guido Novello.jpg|thumb|right|Dante reading the ''Divine Comedy'' at the court of [[Guido Novello]]; painting by Andrea Pierini, 1850 ([[Palazzo Pitti]], Florence)]]

=== Classical ===
Without access to the works of [[Homer]], Dante used Virgil, [[Lucan]], [[Ovid]], and [[Statius]] as the models for the style, history, and mythology of the ''Comedy''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Edward |url=http://archive.org/details/studiesindante0000unse |title=Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante |date=1968 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=New York |page=4 |orig-date=1896}}</ref> This is most obvious in the case of Virgil, who appears as a mentor character throughout the first two canticles and who has his epic, the ''[[Aeneid]]'', praised with language Dante reserves elsewhere for Scripture.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jacoff |first1=Rachel |last2=Schnapp |first2=Jeffrey T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4SLBkMR2-sMC |title=The Poetry of Allusion: Virgil and Ovid in Dante's 'Commedia' |date=1991 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-1860-8 |pages=1–3 |language=en |access-date=15 March 2023 |archive-date=29 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129165445/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Poetry_of_Allusion/4SLBkMR2-sMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live}}</ref> Ovid is given less explicit praise in the poem, but besides Virgil, Dante uses Ovid as a source more than any other poet, mostly through metaphors and fantastical episodes based on those in the ''[[Metamorphoses]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Peteghem |first=Julie |date=19 August 2015 |title=Digital Readers of Allusive Texts: Ovidian Intertextuality in the 'Commedia' and the Digital Concordance on 'Intertextual Dante' |url=https://journals.oregondigital.org/hsda/article/view/5732 |journal=Humanist Studies & the Digital Age |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=39–59 |doi=10.5399/uo/hsda.4.1.3584 |issn=2158-3846 |access-date=21 March 2024 |archive-date=21 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321185243/https://journals.oregondigital.org/hsda/article/view/5732 |url-status=live}}</ref> Less influential than either of the two are Statius and Lucan, the latter of whom has only been given proper recognition as a source in the ''Divine Comedy'' in the twentieth century.<ref>Commentary to Paradiso, IV.90 by Robert and Jean Hollander, ''The Inferno: A Verse Translation'' (New York: Anchor Books, 2002), as found on Dante Lab, http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614052100/http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/ |date=14 June 2021 }}</ref>

Besides Dante's fellow poets, the classical figure that most influenced the ''Comedy'' is [[Aristotle]]. Dante built up the philosophy of the ''Comedy'' with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly from quotations in the works of [[Albertus Magnus]].<ref>Lafferty, Roger. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40165857.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A55f6bfc22f02768d5dcdc92005228933 The Philosophy of Dante] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129165439/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40165857.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A55f6bfc22f02768d5dcdc92005228933 |date=29 November 2022 }}", pg. 4</ref> Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the ''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]''.<ref>''Inferno'', Canto&nbsp;XI, lines 70–115, Mandelbaum translation.</ref> In the same canto, Virgil draws on [[Cicero]]'s ''[[De Officiis]]'' to explain why sins of the intellect are worse than sins of violence, a key point that would be explored from canto XVIII to the end of the ''Inferno''.<ref>Cornell University, [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/visionsofdante/glossary.php Visions of Dante: Glossary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129165441/https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/visionsofdante/glossary.php|date=29 November 2022}}.</ref>

=== Christian ===
The ''Divine Comedy''{{'}}s language is often derived from the phraseology of the [[Vulgate]]. This was the only translation of the Bible Dante had access to, as it was one the vast majority of [[scribe]]s were willing to copy during the Middle Ages. This includes five hundred or so direct quotes and references Dante derives from the Bible (or his memory of it). Dante also treats the Bible as a final authority on any matter, including on subjects scripture only approaches allegorically.<ref>Moore, Edward. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wKzwr0pRzVkC ''Studies in Dante, First Series: Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129165445/https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/wKzwr0pRzVkC?hl=en&gbpv=1|date=29 November 2022}}, Oxford: Clarendon, 1969 [1896], pp. 4, 8, 47–48.</ref>

The ''Divine Comedy'' is also a product of [[Scholasticism]], especially as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas.<ref>Toynbee, Paget. ''[https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/enh149b2446413.pdf Dictionary of Dante A Dictionary of the works of Dante] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525004059/https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/enh149b2446413.pdf|date=25 May 2021}}'', p. 532.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Paradiso of Dante Alighieri |url=https://archive.org/details/paradisoofdantea00dantrich |first=Dante |last=Alighieri |editor=Philip Henry Wicksteed, Herman Oelsner |edition=fifth |publisher=J.M. Dent and Company |year=1904 |page=[https://archive.org/details/paradisoofdantea00dantrich/page/126 126]}}</ref> This influence is most pronounced in the ''Paradiso'', where the text's portrayals of God, the beatific vision, and [[substantial form]]s all align with scholastic doctrine.<ref>Commentary to Paradiso, I.1–12 and I.96–112 by John S. Carroll, ''Paradiso: A Verse Translation'' (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), as found on Dante Lab, http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614052100/http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/ |date=14 June 2021 }}.</ref> It is also in the ''Paradiso'' that Aquinas and fellow scholastic St. Bonaventure appear as characters, introducing Dante to all of Heaven's wisest souls. Consequently, the ''Divine Comedy'' has been called "the ''Summa'' in verse".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-AQTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22the+Summa+in+verse%22 |title=Fordham College Monthly |date=December 1921 |publisher=Fordham University |volume=XL |page=76 |language=en-us |access-date=12 December 2015 |archive-date=4 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230804131041/https://books.google.com/books?id=-AQTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22the+Summa+in+verse%22 |url-status=live}}</ref> Despite all this, there are issues on which Dante diverges from the scholastic doctrine, such as in his unbridled praise for poetry.<ref>Commentary to Paradiso, XXXII.31–32 by Robert and Jean Hollander, ''Paradiso: A Verse Translation'' (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), as found on Dante Lab, http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614052100/http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/ |date=14 June 2021 }}.</ref> 

The [[Apocalypse of Peter]] is one of the earliest examples of a Christian-Jewish [[katabasis]], a genre of explicit depictions of heaven and hell. Later works inspired by it include the [[Apocalypse of Thomas]] in the 2nd–4th century, and more importantly, the [[Apocalypse of Paul]] in the 4th century. Despite a lack of "official" approval, the Apocalypse of Paul would go on to be popular for centuries, possibly due to its popularity among the medieval monks that copied and preserved manuscripts in the turbulent centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The ''Divine Comedy'' belongs to the same genre<ref name="nta2">{{cite book |last=Maurer |first=Christian |editor-last=Schneemelcher |editor-first=Wilhelm |editor-link=Wilhelm Schneemelcher |translator-last1=Wilson |translator-first1=Robert McLachlan |translator-link1=R. McL. Wilson |date=1965 |orig-date=1964 |title=New Testament Apocrypha, Volume Two: Writings Relating to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Westminster Press |pages=663–668}}</ref> and was influenced by the Apocalypse of Paul.<ref name="silverstein">{{cite book |last=Silverstein |first=Theodore |author-link=Theodore Silverstein |url= |title=Visio Sancti Pauli: The History of the Apocalypse in Latin, Together with Nine Texts |date=1935 |publisher=Christophers |isbn= |location=London |pages=3–5; 91 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Maier2007">{{cite journal |last1=Maier |first1=Harry O. |date=2007 |title=Review of Die Visio Pauli: Wege und Wandlungen einer orientalischen Apokryphe im lateinischen Mittelalter, unter Einschluß der alttschechischen und deutschsprachigen Textzeugen |journal=Speculum |language=de |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=1000–1002 |doi=10.1017/S0038713400011647 |jstor=20466112}}</ref>

=== Islamic ===
Dante lived in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as [[Averroism]] ("Averrois, che'l gran comento feo" Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144, meaning "Averrois, who wrote the great comment") and the patronage of [[Alfonso&nbsp;X of Castile]]. Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto&nbsp;X of the ''Paradiso'', [[Thomas Aquinas]] and, even more so, [[Siger of Brabant]] were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators on [[Aristotle]].<ref name="copleston">{{Cite book |last=Copleston |first=Frederick |title=A History of Philosophy |volume=2 |publisher=Continuum |year=1950 |location=London |page=200}}</ref> Medieval [[Christian mysticism]] also shared the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] influence of [[Sufi cosmology|Sufis]] such as [[Ibn Arabi]]. Philosopher [[Frederick Copleston]] argued in 1950 that Dante's respectful treatment of [[Averroes]], [[Avicenna]], and Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a "considerable debt" to Islamic philosophy.<ref name="copleston" />

In 1919, [[Miguel Asín Palacios]], a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published ''La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia'' (''Islamic [[Eschatology]] in the Divine Comedy''), an account of parallels between [[early Islamic philosophy]] and the ''Divine Comedy''. Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter from the spiritual writings of [[Ibn Arabi]] and from the [[Isra and Mi'raj]], or night journey of [[Muhammad]] to heaven. The latter is described in the ''[[ahadith]]'' and the ''[[Kitab al Miraj]]'' (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before<ref name="Heullant">I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," in ''Le Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet'', Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection ''Lettres Gothiques'', Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p.&nbsp;22 with note 37.</ref> as ''[[Liber scalae Machometi]]'', "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has significant similarities to the ''Paradiso'', such as a [[Seven Heavens|sevenfold division of Paradise]], although this is not unique to the ''Kitab al Miraj'' or Islamic cosmology.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ascent to Heaven in Islamic and Jewish Mysticism |last1=Uždavinys |first1=Algis |pages=23, 92–93, 117 |isbn=978-1-908092-02-1 |publisher=Matheson Trust |year=2011}}</ref>

Many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by the ''Kitab al Miraj''. The 20th-century Orientalist [[Francesco Gabrieli]] expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Francesco |last=Gabrieli |title=New Light on Dante and Islam |journal=Diogenes |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=61–73 |date=1954 |doi=10.1177/039219215400200604 |s2cid=143999655}}</ref> The Italian philologist [[Maria Corti]] pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso&nbsp;X, Dante's mentor [[Brunetto Latini]] met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the ''Kitab al Miraj'' from Arabic into Latin. Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emsf.rai.it/interviste/interviste.asp?d=490#3 |title=Errore|access-date=7 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714061911/http://www.emsf.rai.it/interviste/interviste.asp?d=490#3|archive-date=14 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[René Guénon]], a Sufi convert and scholar of Ibn Arabi, confirms in ''The Esoterism of Dante'' the theory of the Islamic influence (direct or indirect) on Dante.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guenon |first=René| author-link=René Guenon |title=The Esoterism of Dante |year=1925}}</ref> Palacios' theory that Dante was influenced by Ibn Arabi was satirised by the Turkish academic [[Orhan Pamuk]] in his novel [[The Black Book (Pamuk novel)|''The Black Book'']].<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=515–537 |year=2002 |last1=Almond |first1=Ian |title=The Honesty of the Perplexed: Derrida and Ibn 'Arabi on "Bewilderment" |doi=10.1093/jaar/70.3.515 |jstor=1466522}}</ref>

In addition to that, it has been claimed that ''[[Risalat al-Ghufran|Risālat al-Ghufrān]]'' ("The Epistle of Forgiveness"), a [[satirical]] work mixing [[Arabic poetry]] and [[prose]] written by [[Al-Maʿarri|Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri]] around 1033 CE, had an influence on, or even inspired, Dante's ''Divine Comedy''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glassé |first=Cyril |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopediao0003glas/mode/2up?q=risalat |title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam, 3rd Volume |publisher=Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7425-6296-7 |edition=3rd |pages=278 |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Watt |first1=Montgomery W. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315083490/history-islamic-spain-montgomery-watt-pierre-cachia |title=A History of Islamic Spain |last2=Cachia |first2=Pierre |year=2017 |pages=125–126 |doi=10.4324/9781315083490 |isbn=978-1-315-08349-0 |access-date=7 August 2022 |archive-date=7 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807182938/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315083490/history-islamic-spain-montgomery-watt-pierre-cachia |url-status=live}}</ref>
{{clear}}