Page 19 - GALIET DOOMSDAY AND DANTE´S PROPHECY 515: Dante IV

Coelum Trinitatis35 as the heaven found between the Empyrean’s dwelling of the blessed36 and the 11th heaven of God.37
‘Tra feltro e feltro,’ lofty interpretation most certainly derived from reading ‘feltro’ as ‘filtro,’38 favored by Iacopo, Imola, l’Anonimo and Lana:
“Questo si puo intendere in due modiÑ tra feltro e feltro, cioe tra cielo e cielo, cio vuild dire per constellazione. L’altro modo tra feltro e feltro, cioe che nascera di assai vile nazione, che feltro e vile panno.”39
And also justified by Buti:
“feltro e panno di lana compressa insieme, e non tessuto con fila; e per questo intende lo cielo che e di material solida et intera, sic he significa che questo veltro nascera tra cielo e cielo; cioe per virtu di corpi celesti.”40
And understood by Pietro as “inter feltrum et feltrum, idest inter coelum, talis temporalis virtuosus infundetur.”41 Benvenuto thinks of Christ’s coming guiudice e spiega “inter coelum et terram.” Ne e da men oil Boccacccio, il quale, pur ammettendo la suca incertezza, afferma: “l’autore intende qui dover essere alcuna costellazione celeste, la quale dee generalmente negli uomini imprimere la virtu della liberalita.”42 Identical thesis of Landino, most prominent Dante Renaissance critic: “lo credo che il Poeta, come ottimo matematico, avesse veduto per astrologia.”43 Getto understands ‘feltro’ as Dioscuri felt caps, symbol of
35 A heaven occasionally added to the seventh sphere of the pre-Scholastic cosmos. Moev. The Metaphysics of Dante. 27
36 Purg., II, 1-2; Purg., XV, 67-68; Par., 14, 28-30. In the Commedia, God ‘that infinite and ineffable Good that is ‘there above’ dwells in the heavens but not circumscribed.
37Mellone, followed by others, argues that Dante places a heaven beyond the Empyrean identified with God. This additional heaven might be the Coelum Trinitatis. Scholastics believed the Empyrean was conceived as created and material, and hence among the created things, it contained within the all-containing deity.
38 Cassell’s examination concludes “the logic of the leap from ‘feltro’ to ‘cielo’ is otherwise by no means immediately apparent to the modern reader.” CASSELL, p. 95. This is suggested by Wilson. Prophecies and Prophecy in Dante’s Commedia. Note 28. 23
39 Wilson. Prophecies and Prophecy in Dante’s Commedia. 23 40 Enciclopedia Dantesca. 835
41 Enciclopedia Dantesca. 835
42 Enciclopedia Dantesca. 835
43 Enciclopedia Dantesca. 834. “I believe that the poet, as an excellent mathematician, has understood by means of astrology how in the future there will be some revolutions in the Heavens, through the clemency of which greed might end forever.” Therefore, the ‘Veltro’ will be either that very influence, which will originate between Heaven and Heaven [i.e., tra feltro e feltro], or else a sovereign who will be produced by that influence.
•19•
Galiet & Galiet