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Paradise

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Dante the pilgrim Dante the pilgrim is the one who, on the summit of the Purgatory mountain, already washed and purified, climbs through the nine heavens guided by Beatrice and ends before the light that the poem cannot tell. In the third canticle the journey changes its... Beatrice Beatrice is, in Paradise, the guide who teaches and then steps away. From the first verses to canto XXXI she reads Dante's face, answers questions he has not yet asked, corrects what he imagines, and leads him from heaven to heaven through the simple gesture... Piccarda Donati Piccarda is the first soul Dante meets in Paradise, in the sphere of the Moon, the lowest and the slowest. She appears as a faint face, almost a reflection in clear glass, and it is because he takes her for a reflection that the pilgrim turns his eyes back,... Constance Constance is the light to the right of Piccarda Donati, kindled with all the brilliance of the sphere of the Moon, and she says of herself what Piccarda said of herself: she too was a sister, and the shade of the sacred veil was also taken from her head. She... Justinian Justinian is the soul hidden within its own ray in the sphere of Mercury, and he speaks the whole of canto VI without interruption from Dante, from Beatrice, or from any other soul. He introduces himself with two tenses of the verb: he was Caesar, he is... Charles Martel Charles Martel is the spirit who, in the sphere of Venus, comes alone toward Dante and introduces himself by citing him. The joy that radiates from him hides him, as silk hides the worm that spins it, and that is why the pilgrim does not recognize him. The... Cunizza da Romano Cunizza is the soul of Venus who introduces herself to Dante by describing the place before the name: in the corrupted part of Italy, between Rialto and the sources of the Brenta and the Piave, rises a low hill, from which a torch descended that assailed the... Folquet of Marseille Folquet is the soul of Venus to whom Cunizza da Romano points as the nearest jewel, whose fame will still be spoken of for five centuries, and whom Dante addresses with two verbs that he himself invents, intuarsi and inmiarsi, to enter into the other as the... Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas is, in the Sun, the voice that names and describes the twelve wise men of the first crown. He presents himself as a lamb of the flock that Dominic leads, and names or describes, in order, those who accompany him: Saint Albert the Great, his... Bonaventure Bonaventure is the voice that, in canto XII, answers the Dominican Thomas Aquinas, from the second circle of wise men of the Sun, and names himself only at the end of the canto. He speaks of one of the new lights, and the pilgrim turns toward it as the... Cacciaguida Cacciaguida is Dante's great-great-grandfather, who receives him on Mars, in the arm of the cross of lights, and occupies four cantos, from XV to XVIII, the longest individual encounter of the canticle. The poem gives the name only at the end of canto XV,... Saint Peter Peter is the apostle who examines Dante on faith among the fixed stars, and who, in the Primum Mobile, changes color to accuse whoever usurps his place in Rome. The poem calls him the first vicar of Christ, and he appears as the most precious fire among the... Adam Adam is the fourth light that appears among the three apostles in the fixed stars, when Beatrice says that within those rays the first soul, the one whom the first power created, contemplates its maker. The poem never gives him a name: Dante calls him the... The Virgin Mary Mary is, in Paradise, the queen of heaven whom the poem shows little and through effects. She speaks in no canto. She is named by others, described by what she causes, and invoked by those who pray, and her only answer is a gesture of the eyes. In canto II of... Saint Bernard Bernard is the old man dressed with the glorious assembly, with a benign air fitting a tender father, whom Dante meets in the Empyrean in place of Beatrice. He says his name only in canto XXXI, when he presents himself as the faithful one of Mary, for whom he...

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