Arnaut Daniel: one of the most renowned troubadour poets of the Middle Ages, a lusty writer of extreme difficulty, an erotic master, and the final penitent we meet on Mount Purgatory. He’s in the flames that refine the lustful. And he speaks in his own Provençal, using a triplicate rhyme that sums up the work of penance on Mount Purgatory.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim gets Virgil’s okay to address one of the penitents on the fifth circle of Mount Purgatory. The pilgrim then finds himself standing over Pope Adrian V, the first pope we meet in PURGATORIO. Or at least it’s Adrian V as far as the Dante the poet is concerned . . . but maybe not as far as history is concerned.
Read MoreThe angry penitent Marco of Lombardy continues his diagnosis of the world's ills. It should have two suns. It's got only one. And a sun that's not kosher. Or that perhaps cannot be kosher. So is the fault in us, as he claimed? Or is the corruption of the world a systemic problem?
Read MoreOn the third terrace of anger on Mount Purgatory and in a dark, dense smoke that permits no light, Marco of Lombardy continues his great discourse on free will with a surprising turn: a developmental hypothesis of the soul as a little girl.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim has asked the angry Marco of Lombardy the central question: why have things become so bad on earth? Marco's begins his answer with both exasperation and affection, then he launches into the heart of the matter: free will. The cause is in all of you.
Read MoreDante finds himself about to explode with doubt, thanks to Marco of Lombardy’s snark about the loss of valor in the bows of this world. Dante’s question is really about the nature and cause of evil. How did things get so bad? Let’s pick apart the pilgrim’s question before we get to Marco’s answer.
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