1. Divine Comedy
La Divina Comedia
Prepared by:
Perolina, Sharri
Loraine Q.
Paradis
Anne

2. Parad
Dante, under the guidance of
Beatrice, completes his journey to the afterlife by
leaving the earth and rising through the ten celestial
heavens of the ancient cosmos. Paradiso narrates
how Dante and Beatrice encounter blessed spirits in
the seven planetary spheres.

4. Bridge
Inferno
Purgatorio
Paradiso
--invokes pity on Dante -- brings both hope
and reality
-- explores and
demands on Dante’s
faith
--the emphasis is on
-- purgation and the
the damnation of man
cleansing process of
brought by cardinal sin the soul
-- victory of faith and
reward of eternal life
witnessing the glory of
God
leaves the illustration
-- process towards
of suffering, pain,
cleansing and
destruction and eternal purification
condemnation
-- brings sweetness
and the glory of
intellectual light of
faith and love of the
divine majesty
-- spirits are fixed in
their location and they
move with restrictions
-- they are free and
timeless but manifest
in their appropriate
sphere
-- they progress
through time until the
will is free

5. Summary
Following the Ptolemaic astronomy of his
time Dante conceived of the earth as stationary and
central in the universe, with the sun and moon and
the five visible planets revolving about it at various
speeds. Each of these seven heavenly bodies has
its own sphere, or "heaven"; beyond them is the
sphere of the fixed stars, and beyond that the ninth
and last of the material heavens, called the
Crystalline because it is transparent and
invisible, or the Primum Mobile because from it in
infinite speed the other lower heavens take their
slower motions.

6. Summary
These nine spheres are severally moved and
controlled by the nine orders of the angels, and all
the spheres and the heavenly bodies in them have
certain spiritual significances and certain influences
on human life and character. As Dante passes
upward with Beatrice the souls of the blessed
appear to them in the successive heavens according
to their corresponding predominant character in their
earthly lives. Beyond the nine material spheres is the
Empyrean, outside of time and space, the heaven of
God's immediate presence and the only real home
of the angels and the redeemed, whose blessedness
consists in their eternal vision of Him.

8. Cardinal Virtues
Temperance
Fortitude
Justice
Prudence
]
When these virtues formed
together, they formulate these
three
Theological Virtues
Faith
Hope
Love

11. The System of Dante's Paradise
The Ten Heavens
1.The Moon: Faithfulness marred by inconstancy
2. Mercury: Service marred by ambition
3. Venus: Love marred by impurity
4. The Sun: Wisdom; Theologians
5. Mars: Courage; Warriors

12. The System of Dante's Paradise
The Ten Heavens
6. Jupiter: Justice; Rulers
7. Saturn: Temperance; Contemplatives
8. The Fixed Stars: the Church Triumphant
9. The Crystalline, or Primum Mobile: the
Angelic Orders
10. The Empyrean: the Holy Trinity, the
Virgin, the Angels and the Saints

13. The Moon

14. --The sphere is that of faith, the content of
faith,
taken
on
trust
that
will
be
revealed, realised, self-evidently as “truth.”
--The spirits in the moon is also associated in our
culture with woman, with the virginity and chastity
of Diana.
--Spirits are those who failed in the aspect of faith
by breaking their vows.
--Though they are forced to leave the religious
life, they had remained true to their heart‟s belief
and commitment.

20. Mercury

21. Justinian and the hope of the Roman Empire
--refers to the justice of the sin of the Fall of Man.
Mercury is filled with spirits who hoped for earthly fame and
honor, so they impaired the force of their spiritual hope.
The spirits are satisfied because reward is matched with
merit and they are free of envy.

24. Venus

26. Dealing with Love
and its imperfection
Charity, Compassion
and Love

28. Cunizza da Romano
--Famous for her love affairs, she had four husbands
and many paramours.
-- She admitted her excessive love but she was
contented with her state.
--She also prophesied related to the downfall of Can
Grande‟s territory around Verona.

29. Folquet de Marseilles
--The Lover of Cunizza until he
chose to become a Cistercian
monk. He was made Bishop of
Toulouse in 1205.
-- He persecuted the Albigensian
heretics, who actually revolted
against
the
doctrines
and
philosophy of ecclesiasticism and
the Catholic church, till his death in
1231.

30. Folquet asserts that the spirits are beyond
the state of repentance, and thoughts of their
sin, and they dwell on the power that made
the order of the universe.
Their faith asserts redeemed their past lives
of excessive dependence on earthly love and
sexuality.

31. Sun

32. The spirits are manifested who
reconciled spiritual and earthly
wisdom; pagan and Christian learning
and history, and directed the virtuous
Christian life on Earth.

34. 1.Thomas Aquinas (c1225 – 1274)
He sought to achieve a synthesis between Aristotelian philosophy
and Christian thought .
He wrote the Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles.
2. Albertus of Cologne (1193 – 1280)
They (with Aquinas) „Christianized‟ Aristotle in adapting his
philosophy .
3. Gratian
Italian Benedictine monk who brought ecclesiastical and civil law
in harmony with each other.
His Decretum was the first systematic treatise on Canon Law.
4. Peter Lombard (c1100 – 1160)
He wrote his four books on God, The Creation, Redemption and
the Sacraments and Last Things, as the chief summary of
medieval theology before Aquinas.

35. 5. Solomon (The King of Israel)
1 Kings 3:5-15
He chose practical wisdom, as his gift from God to rule over the
chosen nation and people of God.
6. Dionysius the Areopagite
He was supposed to have learned the hierarchies and
teachings of St. Paul, who had seen them when rapt up into the
third heaven.
7. Paulus Orosius
An early fifth century writer, whose Historia adversus Paganos
was an apologetic treatise written to show that Christianity had
not ruined the Empire, as Pagans contended.

36. 8. Anicius Manlius Torquatos Severinos Boethius (c475 –
525)
He wrote the Consolation of Philosophy while in
prison, defending the virtuous life and justifying the ways of
God.
9. Isidore of Seville (c560 – 636)
10. Bede (c673 – 735)
English Ecclesiastical historian
11. Richard of Saint Victor
The Augustinian mystic who wrote a treatise called De
Contemplatione.
12. Sigier of Brabant (d. c. 1283)
He suggested the inferiority of philosophical argument to
faith, where they were irreconcilable.

37. Mars

38. -- Signifies the virtue of
The red planet carries traditional associations
of blood and war in myth and astrology; but in here, it
represents the associations of the
and of
The Spirits are those of the warriors of God;
those who fought for the Chosen People of the old
law (Old Testament), and of Christ‟s Church in the
new (New Testament).

39. -- Dante himself becomes heir to Aeneas and
Paul, the gate of heaven to be twice opened to
him, now in life and afterwards in death, which is
Cacciaguida‟s subtle prophecy.
-- He has the power of future vision, but denies predestination; God and Paradise being extra
temporal, outside the flow of events, in the same
way as the eye does not affect the course of the
river it sees.

40. Jupiter

41. It is associated with
, with
Jupiter the Roman God, and therefore with the
Roman Emperors, and with the Christian God.
The head and neck of an Eagle
1. The emblem of Rome
2. The divine sign of Empire and justice

42. -- Human vision is
inadequate to
understand all God‟s
provision and cannot
judge who will
ultimately be
redeemed, and so we
require faith to bridge
the gap.

43. Saturn

44. The contemplative spiritual life of an
individual and the fourth cardinal virtue
of
Is also a reminder of the
Golden Age when in myth, Saturn ruled
the Earth; a time of
simplicity, moderation and primal
innocence.

45. Saint Peter Damian of Ravenna
• An ardent reformer of church discipline and one of the
chief ecclesiastical writers of the eleventh century
Saint Benedict (c480 – 543)
• He signifies the self-control and discipline and
obedience and simplicity of the virtue of temperance.

46. Fixed Stars

48. Dante will be examined by the Apostles who stand
at the threshold to the Primum Mobile, concerning
his understanding of the theological virtues:

49. Christ entrusted
the keys of the
Church, the faith
to Peter, „The
Rock‟ on which
the Church would
be built.
What is faith?
What does it
look for?
Hebrews 11:1
On Earth, faith is the substance of, and
the evidence for, what will be seen as
substance in heaven, and there
require no visible proofs.

50. “Hope is the certain expectation of
future bliss, coming from the grace of
God and preceding merit.”
What is Hope
and its source?

51. Dante is temporarily blinded by the
dazzle light of Saint John‟s
splendor, like a man gazes at the sun‟s
eclipse.
Goodness is the object of love, and
since God is the „supreme good,‟ He is
the supreme object of love. The more
a mind sees the good, the more it
must focus on that „supreme‟ object,
with love.
What surpasses
the boundary of
love and being
loved in return?
Dante confessed that all things which
share in the Divine Good inspire love
in him; including the world‟s
creation, his own being, the
redemption and man‟s hope of
Paradise.

52. Primum Mobile/ The
Crystalline

53. • There is a
spiritual rather
than a spatial
correspondence
between the two
arrangements.
The Angelic
Circles
Concentric
Sphere
• Centered on God
• Centered on Earth
Concentric
Angelic Orders
God is both the center and
the circumference.

55. • Beatrice explained that unlike Satan who fell through
pride, the angels opened themselves to God and
understood their place humbly, and that is a virtue to open
oneself to grace, likewise.
• The Angels has free will and understanding, but do not
require memory since they see past, present and the future.
• The “Angels” is a term applied collectively to signify
„messengers‟ and the higher Angels can execute the
functions of the lower angels, while having their special
additional qualities.

56. The Empyrean

59. The Virgin Mary
These are those who came
with or after Christ:
Eve
Rachel (Jacob‟s wife)
With Beatrice
Sarah (Abraham‟s wife)
Rebecca (Isaac‟s wife)
Judith (Jewish patriotic
heroine)
Ruth (Boaz‟ wife, great
grandmother of David)
John the Baptist
Francis (who carried the stigmata)
Benedict (opposite that other
contemplative Rachel)
Augustine
The Ranks are separated on either side of the Virgin
into those before Christ‟s coming (on the left), and
those after (on the right).

60. Peter
Adam
St. Anne (Mary‟s
Mother
St. Lucy (Dante‟s
patron saint)
Moses
John
The souls on the right and left of Mary in the First
rank

61. Dante looked into the Divine Light.
His power of Vision and of memory is beyond
speech, and like a dreamer, he retains only the
impression and the glorious light.
His Vision, in the moment of
Supreme stillness, beyond time, is of universal
unity, bounded together by love in a simplicity
of light.
--End

62. Divine Comedy
La Divina Comedia
Prepared by:
Perolina, Sharri
Loraine Q.
Paradis
Anne