xxvii. 102), and he tells us that Saturn was in Leo, Venus in Pisces,

and the sun in Aries.

A book which aims at explaining Dante’s _Paradiso_ to young people[509] suggests an original way of reconciling the two passages, for the author gravely asserts that the sun was at first below Dante’s feet in Gemini, but that by the time he looked down again it had moved a good distance onward, and was then in the sign of Taurus! According to this, a whole month must have elapsed, and time had gone backwards, from May to April!

[509] _Il Paradiso di Dante dichiarato ai giovani_, by Angelo de Gubernatis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

A suggestion much more worthy of attention is that of Professor Rizzacasa d’Orsogna, who thinks the key is to be found in the line, “Volgendom’ io con gli eterni Gemelli.” This, he suggests, is in anticipation of the second passage, for although Dante could not see the whole habitable earth at any one time, his change of position, as he revolved with the Twins, enabled him to do so in the course of time which elapsed between his two views. A comparison of figures 48 and 49 will make this clear.

One more suggestion may perhaps be made, though it is rather a hazardous one. “Dai colli alle foci”[510] may mean from the Apennine Hills to the mouths of Ganges. This would be decisive for the correctness of the explanation illustrated by our diagram. (See fig. 48).

[510] “From the hills to the river-mouths.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

In any case, the points which Dante specially wishes us to understand are clear and simple: at the first glance he was struck by the insignificance of the Earth; at the second, he became conscious that he was moving with the spheres, having passed over 90° of arc, or a quarter of the diurnal revolution, and he saw that it was now sunset at Jerusalem.

He next ascends to the Primum Mobile, though he cannot tell us to which part of it Beatrice chose to lead him, since it is perfectly uniform throughout. Beatrice explains that this most swift and living sphere, although it contains no star by which its motion is made visible, causes the (diurnal) motion of all the lower spheres; and thus it is like a flower-pot in which are hidden the roots of Time, while in the others we see the leaves. Here he sees the nine hierarchies of angels who direct the nine moving spheres; and finally he soars to the Empyrean, where Beatrice returns to her seat among the blessed spirits who form the Celestial Rose, and St. Bernard encourages him to lift his eyes to “L’Amor che move il sole e l’ altre stelle.”[511] This is the end and consummation of the Vision.

[511] “Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” _Par._ last line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The reader will have observed that although there are several indications of direction in Dante’s journey through Paradise, all referring to the heavenly bodies, there are no time references after he has left Earth and entered the regions of eternity, except the passage discussed above, which indicates a period of six hours spent in the eighth heaven, since 90° of the diurnal revolution correspond with six hours of time. But it tells us also that at the close of this period the sun was setting over Jerusalem: consequently another morning was dawning in Purgatory. Eighteen hours have passed, therefore, since Dante left the Earthly Paradise at noon; and he rises to the Primum Mobile and thence to the Empyrean on the eighth day of his Vision.

The whole Vision, therefore, occupied an octave, or eight days.

5. POSITIONS OF SUN, MOON, AND PLANETS AMONG THE STARS DURING DANTE’S VISION.

The allusions to sun, moon, and stars in the _Divine Comedy_, when thus brought together, are seen to follow one another according to a regular scheme, and they form a very good guide by which to time Dante on his journey. There is a little inaccuracy in one passage about the stars, and the moon is ambiguous once, but quite explicable. Taking the allusions in a simple popular sense, as he seems to intend us to do, assuming that the signs and the constellations of the zodiac are identical, and that the moon, which at first is opposite the sun, traverses about 13° in the zodiac daily, and loses about an hour of time more or less, there is very little difficulty in following him. It is quite enough to know that the sun is somewhere in Aries throughout, and that the moon is therefore in Libra at the beginning.

But if we wish to know a little more accurately the positions of sun and moon among the stars, we must carefully compare the passages bearing on this question. Commentators differ so much that while some think the sun’s annual motion is ignored, and it is assumed to be at the equinox all the time, others maintain that it was at the equinox on the first day and moved on through Aries at the rate of about one degree a day (as it should do, since there are 365 days in a year and 360° in the circumference of the sphere);[512] while others again say that it was merely somewhere in Aries from the beginning.

[512] Alfraganus, as we saw, gives the daily movement of the sun eastward in the zodiac as about 59 minutes of arc. (A degree contains 60 minutes). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

What are the actual indications of its position? No one questions that it was in Aries throughout the Vision, for this is often indicated, sometimes directly, as in _Inf._ i. 38-40, sometimes by mentioning Taurus as the sign following the sun,[513] or Pisces as the sign preceding.[514]

[513] _Purg._ xxv. 2, 3.

[514] _Inf._ xi. 113; _Purg._ i. 21, xix. 4-6. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are four detailed descriptions:—

(1) On the first morning, the sun rose among those stars which were with him at the Creation.[515] As we have seen, this may mean merely some point in Aries, or the first point of Aries, at which the sun was thought to have been placed when created.

[515] _Inf._ i. 38-40. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2) On the seventh day it rose near a point where three crosses are formed by the intersection of four circles.[516] One naturally thinks of the horizon as one of these circles; the equator and ecliptic, whose intersection define the equinox, suggest themselves as two more; the fourth is doubtless the colure which passes through the equinoctial points and the poles, although curiously enough this is not mentioned by Ptolemy or Alfraganus, who only speak of the solstitial colure. Fig. 51 shows how the horizon makes a cross with each of the other three when the equinox is upon it. The sun is at the point of intersection when rising with the equinox, and it was _near_ there when it rose this morning—“quasi.” It was therefore near, but not exactly at the equinox, and we know that it was the vernal, not the autumnal equinox, from the many allusions to Aries.

[516] _Par._ i. 38, 39. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3) When Dante rises to the sun (on the same day) he directs our attention once more to this point where “the one motion strikes the other,” that is, where the ecliptic—the oblique circle which bears the planets—branches off from the equator, and he reminds us of the supreme importance of this divergence. The sun, he says, was in this place. He does not mean at the exact point of intersection, or this passage would be in flat contradiction to the last: “quella parte”[517] is no more precise than “quelle stelle,”[518] and means only this part of the sky, or the constellation of Aries. The words which follow not only specify that it was the spring equinox, but suggest that the sun had already traversed several of those spirals which bring him to us earlier each morning, _i.e._ it was several days after the equinox.[519]

[517] “That part.”

[518] “Those stars.”

[519] _Par._ x. 7-33. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(4) On the same day the sun was “one sign and more” removed from some point in Gemini.[520] This is very vague, but at least the sun cannot now have been at the first point of Aries, or it would have been two whole signs from even the first degree of Gemini.

[520] _Par._ xxvii. 86, 87. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems, then, that we cannot possibly agree that the sun was at the equinox throughout the poem. It is clear that it was past the equinox towards the end; but from these four passages we cannot be sure whether it was there on the first morning, or whether it moved through some undefined part of Aries during the Vision.

One consideration gives us some help, however. We know from _Inf._