Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie

Damit schließen wir für dies Mal unsere Untersuchung über figura. Ihre Absicht war zu zeigen, wie ein Wort aus seiner Bedeutungsentwicklung heraus in eine weltgeschichtliche Lage hineinwachsen kann und wie sich alsdann daraus Strukturen entwickeln, die für viele Jahrhunderte wirksam sind. Jene weltgeschichtliche Lage, die PaulusPaulus (Apostel) zur Heidenmission trieb, hat die FiguraldeutungFiguraldeutung ausgebildet und sie zu der Wirksamkeit vorbereitet, die sie in der Spätantike und im Mittelalter entfaltet.

Figurative texts illustrating certain passages of Dante’s Commedia (1946)

In an earlier article1 I tried to analyse the structure of the figurative or typological interpretationFiguraldeutung of the Holy Scriptures and to prove its influence during the first centuries of Christianity and the Middle Ages upon the conception of all earthly events; and especially I endeavoured to show by some examples important for the general composition of the Commedia (CatoCato v. Utica, VergilVergil, Beatrice) how deeply DanteDante was involved in typological ideas. Here I intend to discuss some more particular passages, the understanding of which maybe advanced in the light of figurative texts. The figurative interpretation of the Bible created a world of interrelations, a world in which mediaeval theologians moved quite naturally and which was familiar even to laymen through sermons, religious representations and art; from this material a poet like Bernard de ClairvauxBernhard v. Clairvaux produced his most beautiful creations. During the fourteenth century this world began to decay; the eighteenth century destroyed it almost completely, and for us it has vanished; even distinguished modern theologians are not always able to perceive and to understand figurative allusions.

Since I am writing in Istanbul (1945) where very few publications on DanteDante are available, I cannot always be sure whether some of my observations may not have been made by others.

I. Aquila volans ad escam

We begin with the prophetic dream Purg. 9, 13–33

Ne l’ora che comincia i tristi lai

la rondinella presso a la mattina,

forse a memoria de’ suoi primi guai,

e che la mente nostra, peregrina

più da la carne e men da’ pensier presa

a le sue vision quasi è divina,

in sogno mi parea veder sospesa

un’aguglia nel ciel con penne d’oro,

con l’ali aperte e a calar intesa;

ed esser mi parea là dove fuoro

abbandonati i suoi da Ganimede,

quando fu ratto al sommo consistoro.

Fra me pensava: ‘Forse questa fiede

pur qui per uso, e forse d’altro loco

disdegna di portarne suso in piede.’

Poi mi parea che, poi rotata un poco

terribil come folgor discendesse,

e mi rapisse suso infino al foco.

Ivi parea che ella e io ardesse …

The diving and the rising of the eagle recall not only Ganymede but also an old figurative tradition which occurs first, as far as I know, in Gregory the GreatGregor d. Große. It originates from the exposition, inspired by the PhysiologusPhysiologus, of the verse Job 9, 26 (sicut aquila volons ad escam) combined with other biblical passages (Job 29, 37; Is. 40, 31; Exod. 19, 4), and it is based upon the interpretationFiguraldeutung of the contrast between the soaring flight of the eagle towards the sun and his diving to earth. Moris quippe est aquilae, says Gregory in his commentary to Job,2 ut irreverberata acie radios solis aspiciat; sed cum refectionis indigentia urgetur, eandem oculorum aciem, quam radiis solis infixerat, ad respectum cadaveris inclinat; et quamvis ad alta evolet, pro sumendis carnibus terram petit. The most important and widespread interpretation of this contrast connects it with Christ’s divine nature, his incarnation and ascension: incarnatus dominus ima celeriter transvolans et mox summa repetens (Gregory on Job 39, 27; Patr. Lat., LXXVI, 625). There are variants: sometimes the eagle is conceived not as Christ, but as the faithful soul contemplating his incarnation and ascension. Anyway, the rerising is a separation from the flesh (peregrina più da la carne), and thus it is for the rapt soul the contemplative ecstasy which leads to the joining with Christ in the fervor of the unio mystica (ivi pareo che io e ella ardesse).3 That we have to deal with contemplative ecstasy could also have been proved by the figurative interpretationFiguraldeutung of the sleep,4 and the word ratto evokes for a typologically trained ear the rapture of St Paul, 2 Cor. 12, 4, which is one of the Leitmotifs of the Commedia.

In this way, DanteDante’s eagle would become here figurafigura Christi.5 This does not imply that other interpretations are necessarily false. The principle of ‘polysemy’, which DanteDante claims for his poem in the Letter of CangrandeCangrande della Scala,6 had already been established for the figurative exposition of the Bible by AugustineAugustinus, De Doctrina Christiana 3, 25 et seq., and the later commentators almost always give for difficult passages several typological interpretationsFiguraldeutung, sometimes alternative, more often cumulative,7 on condition that they do not contradict the faith (sententia …, quae fidei rectae non refragatur, Augustine, loc. cit., 3, 27). Nor is it altogether certain that everything which applies to the eagle applies also to Lucia; I am inclined to think that the prophetic dream has a wider implication than Lucia’s intervention. At any rate the imperial-political meaning which is certainly present at least in the dream,8 is not touched by our exposition; nor have we dealt with the problem why the eagle of Jove seizes its prey only from Mount Ida. But now we will add some hints on this subject. Mount Ida, where Ganymede was stolen, is the divine mountain of Troy, the origin dell’alma Roma e di suo impero (Inf. 2, 20); it stands here for the valley of the princes on the slopes of the mountain of the Purgatorio, a place of diletto and bel soggiorno (Purg. 7, 45; 48; 63; 73 et seq.), covered with flowers like the earthly Paradise or Elysium; but it is also vallis lacrimarum, still subject to timores nocturni,9 where among the princes dwells Rudolf von HabsburgRudolf v. Habsburg, che più siede alto e fa sembiante d’aver negletto ciò che far dovea (Purg. 7, 91–92); both Mount Ida and the valley of the princes10 obviously represent the Saturnian age, peaceful, imperial, golden, but lost. And only from that place does the eagle take his prey to carry it towards the unio mystica! Corresponding to this is DanteDante’s mystical sleep in the earthly Paradise which immediately precedes the vision of the nova Beatrice (Purg. 32, 64 et seq.) explicitly connected with the vision in LukeLukas (Evangelist) 9, 28–36;11 corresponding to this above all is Jacob’s ladder which also signifies contemplation leading to the highest vision,12 and which rises from the heaven of Saturn, immediately after the following description:

… cristallo che ’l vocabol porta,

cerchiando il mondo, del suo caro duce,

sotto cui giacque ogni malizia morta. (Par. 21, 25–27)

II. Humilis psalmista

The dance of David before the Ark of the Covenant and the following scene with Saul’s daughter Michal (II Sam. 6, 1–23 and I Parai. 13–16), which DanteDante uses as a second example of humility (Purg. 10, 55–69), had a considerable influence upon the mediaeval idea of David; the interpretationFiguraldeutung of this episode led, or at least greatly contributed, to the fact that David was principally praised for his humilitashumilitas. The self-humiliation of the great king and hero offered a welcome opportunity for developing the basic Christian antithesisAntithese humilitas – sublimitassublimitas, fundamental for the redemption through Christ’s incarnation; in this way David easily became figura Christi (just as the Ark was figura Ecclesiae). Gregory the GreatGregor d. Große (Moral., Patr. Lat., LXXV, 444) writes on this theme: Coram Deo egit vilia et extrema, ut illa ex humilitate solidaret quae coram hominibus gesserat fortia. Quid de eius factis ab aliis sentiatur ignoro; ego David plus saltantem stupeo quam pugnantem … He compares his dancing with that of a buffoon (scurra); and he explains the verse 11 Sam. 6, 22 (et vilior fiam plus quam factus sum, et humilis ero in oculis meis) with regard to the voluntary self-humiliation of Christ.13

The mention of David in the eye of the eagle (Par. 20, 37–41) also contains the theme of humilitashumilitas: because the migration of the Ark from place to place was considered as the humility of the Church during the epoch of persecution. I have found the motif di villa in villa in Honorius of AutunHonorius v. Autun (Patr. Lat., CLXXIII, 369): Ecclesia siquidem olim a contribulis suis tanto odio est habita, ut nullus ei locus manendi tutus esset, sed semper de civitate in civitatem fugiens migraret, unde multi scandalizati sunt, qui Christianos miserabiliores omnibus hominibus reputaverunt.

III. Veni sponsa de libano

Shortly before Beatrice’s appearance in the earthly Paradise (Purg. 30) the procession of the Church stops; the 24 seniori symbolizing the books of the Old TestamentAltes Testament turn towards the chariot ‘as to their peace’:14

e un di loro, quasi dal ciel messo

‘Veni sponsa de Libano’ cantando

gridò tre volte, e tutti li altri appresso.

Quali i beati al novissimo bando

surgeran presti ognun di sua caverna,

la revestita carne alleluiando,

cotali in su la divina basterna

si levar cento, ad vocem tanti senis,

ministri e messaggier di vita eterna.

Tutti dicean: ‘Benedictus qui venis!’,

e fior gittando di sopra e dintorno,

‘Manibus o date lilia plenis!’

Io vidi già nel cominciar del giorno

la parte oriental tutta rosata

e l’altro ciel di bel sereno adorno;

e la faccia del sol nascere ombrata,

si che per temperanza di vapori

l’occhio la sostenea lunga fiata:

così dentro una nuvola di fiori

che da le mani angeliche saliva

e ricadeva in giù dentro e di fòri

sovra candido vel cinta d’uliva

donna m’apparve. …

Almost without exception – and of course correctly – the commentators have recognized the ‘senior’ who shouts as Solomon, that is, as a symbol of the Canticles; he shouts three times, just as in the text (Cant. 4, 8) it is three times repeated: Veni de Libano sponsa mea, veni de Libano, veni, coronaberis … The shout itself has been understood, so far as I can see, by all modern interpreters as an invitation to Beatrice to appear; their argument is as follows: since DanteDante interprets the beloved of the Canticles in his Convivio II, 14, in the often quoted passage concerning the hierarchy of the sciences, as the scienza divinascienza divina15 and since Beatrice is, once for all, scienza divina – the invitation is addressed to her.

The ancient commentators were more cautious, Benvenuto da ImolaBenvenuto da Imola writes:16

… et primo quidem introducit unum senem cantantem laudes ipsius ecclesiae. Et ad intelligentiam litterae debes scire, quod hic erat Salomon qui inter alios fecit librum qui intitulatur Canticum Canticorum, in quo sub typo describit statura ecclesiae introducens sponsum et sponsam, id est Christum et ecclesiam, ad loquendum mutuo. … Ista verba scripta in praedicto libro Canticorum sunt verba sponsi, id est Christi, qui dicit ad sponsam idest ecclesiam: Veni sponsa mea odorifera. Libanum enim est mons Arabiae, ubi nascitur thus quod etiam dicitur olibanum, sicut patet per Bernardum, qui pulcre scripsit super istum librum …

This passage is a precious testimony for two reasons: Bernard of ClairvauxBernhard v. Clairvaux, whom it mentions, had a deep, lasting and widespread influence, particularly through his cycle of Sermons on the Canticles; above all, it shows the spontaneous reaction of every mediaeval Christian to the words sponsus and sponsa: they meant for him Christ and the Church; for the Church you may sometimes put Christianity or every faithful soul.17 These meanings had become current and familiar from thousands of sermons, from liturgical and ‘semiliturgical’ representations. In view of the great liberty of interpretation which I have already mentioned, it was certainly possible occasionally to use one of these words in another sense; but then it was indispensable to say so explicitly, as DanteDante did in the above quoted passage of the Convivio. Otherwise the words sponsus and sponsa were just as fixed as the words President and Congress are now in the United States. In the same way it would have seemed very strange and astonishing to the mediaeval reader to see the verses veni sponsa de Libano and benedictus qui venis applied to the same person. He knew, on the contrary, from many sermons and from the liturgy, that the first refers to the Church, or Christianity, or the faithful soul, the other to the Saviour. Therefore it is, if not impossible, at least very unlikely, that DanteDante intended the words veni sponsa de Libano as an invitation to Beatrice.

The whole scene is unmistakably composed as a figure of the appearance of Christ.18 First comes the magnificent comparison with the resurrection of the flesh in the last judgement where Christ is to appear as judge of the world; then the hundred19 sing ad vocem tanti senis (who has thus compelled them to arise) the words of the crowd at Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem (MatthMatthäus (Evangelist). 21, 9, etc.): benedictus qui venis in nomine domini; every mediaeval theologian and most of the laymen knew, and felt immediately, on hearing these words, that the Entrance into Jerusalem figures the appearance or the reappearance of the Saviour when the eternal day begins, and when the earthly Jerusalem becomes definitely the eternal and true one. Concerning the flowers, I begin by quoting some sentences from Bernard’s sermons on the Canticles: he says, explaining 2, 12 (flores apparuerunt in terra nostra, tempus putationis adventi):

Quaeris quando hoc fuit? quando putas, nisi cum refloruit caro Christi in resurrectione? Et hic primus et maximus flos qui apparuit in terra nostra. Nam primitiae dormientium Christus (1 Cor. 15, 20). Ipse, inquam, flos campi et lilium convallium Jesus (Cant. 2, 1), ut putabatur filius Joseph a Nazareth (Luc.Lukas (Evangelist) 3, 23), quod interpretatur flos. Is ergo flos apparuit primus, non solus. Nam et multa corpora sanctorum, qui dormierant, pariter surrexerunt, qui veluti quidam lucidissimi flores simul apparuerunt in terra nostra. … (Pate. Lat., CLXXXIII, 1059–60)

Therefore, flos is caro Christi, and flores,20 plural, are the arisen bodies of the Saints: the figure of reappearance and ressurection is thus continued by the scattering of flowers; and one may even imagine, if one reads Bernard’s quotation ego sum flos campi et lilium convallium, why DanteDante employed the beautiful verse from VergilVergil (Aen. VI, 882), so welcome for the rhyme. It has presumably not much to do, as DanteDante here uses it, with the death of MarcellusMarcellus;21 it is an allusion to the symbolical meaning of the lily, arising from certain passages of Scripture. The speculation about the lily is very rich and multifarious (spiritualis haec tam pulchra varietas, says Bernard on another occasion); I can give only a rough and inadequate indication by saying that it figures on the one hand Christ, on the other the souls of the righteous or their virtues; to Christ refers Cant. 2, 1, ego flos campi et lilium convallium, often combined with Gen. 27, 27, ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agri pleni cui benedixit dominus; to the righteous Cant. 2, 16–17, Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi, qui pascitur inter lilia, donec aspiret dies et inclinentur umbrae (these words refer to the Last Day), combined with other passages, especially with the liturgical paraphrase of Hosea, 14, 6, Iustus germinabit sicut lilium et florebit in aeternum ante Dominum.22 I give in the note23 some extracts from texts, where the figurative themes ‘arrival of Christ’, ‘resurrection’ and ‘Last Day’ are indicated – without however limiting myself strictly to these themes. For lilia as the souls of the Saints or the righteous one may also quote DanteDante himself, Par. 23, 74–75:

… quivi son li gigli

al cui odor si prese il buon cammino.

With the flower- or lily-figure DanteDante combined another, well known in the tradition: that of the cloud tempering the splendor of the appearing sun, so that a human eye may endure it.24 Bernard writes about this cloud in his first sermon De adventu Domini, § 8 (Patr. Lat., CLXXXIII 39):

Attamen velim nosse, quid sibi voluerit, quod ad nos venit ille, aut quare non magis ivimus nos ad illum. Nostra enim erat necessitas: sed nec est consuetudo divitum ut ad pauperes veniant, nec si praestare voluerint. Ita est, fratres, nos magis ad ilium venire dignum fuit; sed duplex erat impedimentum. Nam et caligabant oculi nostri: ille vero lucem habitat inaccessibilem (1 Tim. 6, 16); et jacentes paralytici in grabato divinam illam non poteramus attingere celsitudinem. Propterea benignissimus Salvator et medicus animarum descendit ab altitudine sua, et claritatem suam infirmis oculis temperavit. Induit se laterna quadam, illo utique glorioso et ab omni labe purissimo corpore quod suscepit. Haec est enim illa levissima plane et praefulgida nubes, supra quam ascensurum eum propheta praedixerat, ut descenderet in Aegyptum (Is. 19, 1).

This motif signifies here, that Christ-Beatrice does not yet appear in her true and unveiled form; this form develops, as one knows, gradually during the ascension to the highest heaven (Par. 30, 16–33).

Whatever, therefore, Beatrice’s general symbolical value may be, here her appearance is a figure of the appearance of Christ25 in the midst of the angels and the resurrected; and the cry veni sponsa is an appeal to arise (si levar; saliva), addressed to the angels and the souls of the righteous. It may be understood in an eschatological way, as the words of Christ (Solomon, quasi dal ciel messo, as a type of the Saviour) at the last judgment (novissimo bando), or in a more mystical sense, as an appeal to inner devotion and contemplation of Christ. In fact, the verse veni sponsa, with the following coronaberis, has always been interpreted as an appeal to the Church or Christianity. To prove this I shall quote some texts beginning again with Gregory (Super Cant. expos., Patr. Lat., LXXIX, 511):

… Potest … intelligi quod ter dicitur veni. Venit enim sponsa sancta ad Christum, dum in hoc mundo vivens, bona quae potest operatur. Venit quando in hora mortis anima, ipsa videlicet sponsa, a carne exuitur. Venit tertio, quando in die iudicii ultimi carnem resumit, et cum Christo thalamum coelestem ingreditur. Ibi quippe omnium laborum suorum praemia consequitur; ibi, iam omnino prostratis et exclusis hostibus, gloriose coronatur … (there follow speculations on the names Amana, Sanir, etc.)

Much more mystical is the conception of Richard of St VictorRichard v. St. Victor (Explic. in Cant. XXV, Patr. Lat., CXCVI, 478):

Libanus mons est, in quo crescunt myrrha et thus. Dicitur autem Libanus candidatio et dealbatio. Vocat ergo Christus sponsam de Libano, cum per mortificationem peccatorum et carnalitatis et devotionem orationis mundatam et candidatam invitat ad supernam remunerationem. Quod autem non solum duplicata voce, sed etiam triplicata hortatur ut veniat, immensitatem desiderii et amoris quem habet ad eam insinuat, et ut trina repetitio immensitatis et firmitatis sit attestatio; funiculus enim triplex difficile rumpitur. Item multiplicata repetitio vocationis et gratulationem indicat, qua liberationi eius de praesenti miseria congaudet. Innuit quoque quanto desiderio hanc celerius fieri optet. Iterum enim atque iterum repetita vocatio accelerantis pariter et gaudentis affectum exprimit. Ideo etiam eam toties vocat, ut iterata vocatione magnitudinem felicitatis ad quam vocatur insinuet; ut etiam trina vocatio Trinitatis indicat fruitionem, quam perceptura est post laborem, quae fruitio est aeterna beatitudo. Et cum eam vocat, etiam ei de quibus remuneranda sit praenuntiat: coronaberis. …

Very similar, sometimes using the same words (funiculus triplex), is the comment of Bernard’s disciple Gilbert of HoilandGilbert v. Hoyland, who continued the Sermons on the Canticles;26 he identifies those coming from Lebanon with those clothed in white robes of the Revelation (ibid., CLXXXIV, 149).

Perhaps our method of demonstration, with its great number and variety of figurative texts, may seem too laborious to the reader, and he may ask if DanteDante really remembered all these complicated interrelations. But it is only to us that the figurative system seems laborious, complicated and sometimes absurd; for the Christians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was daily bread, as every sermon of that period shows. However, already in DanteDante’s time, and even more shortly afterwards, there appear signs of decay, at least in Italy; HumanismHumanismus introduces heterogeneous elements, and the liberty and finesse of the figurative method lose their creative powers. The ancient commentators on the Comedy give many figurative explanations; but most of them are comparatively crude or pedantic, without the sense of nuances and without DanteDante’s large knowledge of the tradition. Again I must insist upon the fact that within the limits of the tradition, within the limits of certain established customs of combination, there was much liberty of interpretation. These limits, however, seem to me to be transgressed, if one understands the cry veni sponsa as an invitation to Beatrice.