Free Will Turns Personal: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142

Beatrice has concluded her answers to questions about the souls’ place in the heavens and (more importantly) about free will. Her answers may satisfy the pilgrim Dante intellectually as his understanding continues to scale the peaks but her answers have also prompted a more personal response from him: What about my own unfulfilled vows?

Paradiso Cantos I - VIIMark ScarbroughOctober 22, 2026free will, Beatrice, the moon, PiccardaComment

The Violent yet Elliptical End to Piccarda Donati's Story: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108

Piccarda Donati finally comes around to answering the question of who she is. She tells her personal story in four stanzas, ending it with a violent and elliptical tercet that connects her to two other women in COMEDY: Francesca in INFERNO and Pia in PURGATORIO.

Paradiso Cantos I - VIIMark ScarbroughSeptember 20, 2026Piccarda, The moon, diversity, vowsComment

The First Soul in Paradise, Piccarda Donati: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 34 - 57

Dante meets his first soul in Paradise, the former nun Piccarda Donati. We’ve already encountered her in COMEDY through her brother, Forese, among the gluttons on Mount Purgatory. And she is also a refraction of an infamous figure, Francesca in INFERNO V. Piccarda’s speech is like the moon itself: mottled with dark and light.

Here are the episodes for the opening cantos of PARADISO. The podcast is currently into Canto III. Because of the way my website is coded, the episodes appear in reverse order. Sorry about that. Scroll through the list to find earlier (or the earliest) episode.