Dante's Divine Comedy describes his journey through the spheres of heaven. In Paradiso, Dante ascends through nine celestial spheres with Beatrice, representing increasing perfection. Each sphere corresponds to a virtue and contains souls exemplifying that virtue. The spheres are nested within each other according to medieval cosmology, with the earth at the center and God in the Empyrean, the highest heaven beyond the moving spheres. In the Empyrean, Dante experiences a vision of God as a blinding light.

1. Paradiso

2. Dante’s model of the
universe was geocentric. In
this model, the earth, at the
center, does not move,
while the planets and the
stars, each in their own
sphere, revolve around the
earth.

3. God resides in the
Empyrean, beyond the
spheres. The movement
of the outer sphere, the
Primum Mobile, provides
motion to all of the other
spheres.

4. Order of the spheres:
1. Moon
2. Mercury
3. Venus
4. Sun
5. Mars
6. Jupiter
7. Saturn
8. Fixed stars (the zodiac)
9. Primum mobile
Empyrian

5. Dante imagines that
each sphere is a level of
heaven. In Paradiso, he
flies with Beatrice from
heaven to heaven,
ascending to higher
levels of perfection.

6. The Spheres of Heaven (Cantos 1-9)
1. Moon: the inconstant
(those who made unstable
vows)
2. Mercury: the ambitious
(those who did right chiefly
for glory)
3. Venus: the lovers (those
deficient in temperance)

7. The Spheres of Heaven (Cantos 10-29)
4. Sun: the wise (wisdom)
5. Mars: the warriors (fortitude)
6. Jupiter: the just (justice)
7. Saturn: the contemplatives (temperance)
8. The Fixed Stars (faith, hope, and love)
9. Primum Mobile: the angels

8. Paradise, Canto 10
Dante and
Beatrice meet
twelve wise men
in the Sphere of
the Sun
(miniature by
Giovanni di Paolo)
c. 1450

9. The Empyrean (Cantos 30-33)
The abode of God

10. Paradise, Canto 30
Artist unknown (mid-fourteenth century)
Dante and Beatrice by the River of Light
The British Library, London, UK
The pilgrim, guided by Beatrice, is now
entering the Empyrean, which is the realm
of pure mind, and leaves the world of
matter behind. So powerful is the light as he
travels from the primum mobile to the
Empyrean that he temporarily loses his
sight. When sight is restored, he is
overwhelmed by the vision of a huge river of
light. Next, he sees souls like beautiful
flowers along the banks of the stream which
flit like sparks. All of a sudden, a
transformation occurs: the river gathers into
a sea of light and the flowers are arranged
into a many-tiered theatre which, cup-
shaped, appears in the form of a giant rose.

11. Canto 30
The River of Light
William Blake
(1824-27)

12. Paradise, Canto 32
The White Rose
Gustave Dore
1867
Dante and St. Bernard
contemplate the image
of the white rose, a symbol
of divine love in which the
faithful are enthroned.

13. The White Rose
Illustrated manuscript
14th c.
Canto 32

14. Canto 33
Trinitarian Circles
John Flaxman
Late 18th c.