Monthly Archives: February 2013

In canto XVIII of Paradise Dante and Beatrice ascend to the sixth heaven, that of Jupiter, where they see a large number of radiant souls – the souls of the Just – which move around forming letters of the alphabet so as to write in the sky a sentence which is a direct admonition to earth-bound governments: “Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram”[1].  Other shining spirits then descend in order to arrange themselves into the last M of the writing, gradually changing it into the figure [...]

  Paradiso, Canto XIX, verses 115-148[1] Translation by John Ciardi  There shall be seen among the works of Albert, that deed the moving pen will soon record by which Bohemia shall become a desert.[2] There shall be seen the Seine’s grief for the sin of that debaser of the currency whose death is waiting for him in a pig’s skin.[3] There shall be seen the pride whose greed confounds the mad Scot and the foolish Englishman who cannot stay within their proper bounds.[4] There, the [...]