Plato's doctrine of three souls : the Vegetative in the liver ; the Sensative in the heart ; and the Intellectual in the brain. See Convito, IV. 7.
See Convito, II. 14, quoted Par.
XIV. Note 86.
Sanleo, a fortress on a mountain in the duchy of Urbino ; Noli, a town in the Genoese territory, by the sea-side ; Bismantova, a mountain in the duchy of Modena.
Like Christian going up the hill Difficulty in Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress: "I looked then after Christian to see him go up the hill, where I perceived he fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and knees, because of the steepness of the place."
More than forty-five degrees.
If the sun were in Gemini, or if we were in the month of May, you would see the sun still farther to the north.
Rubecchio is generally rendered red or ruddy. But Jacopo dalla Lana says : "Rubecchio in the Tuscan tongue signifies an indented mill-wheel." This interpretation certainly renders the image more distinct. The several signs of the Zodiac are so many cogs in the great wheel ; and the wheel is an image which Dante more than once applies to the celestial bodies.
The Ecliptic. See Inf . XVII., Note 107.
This, the Mountain of Purgatory ; and that, Mount Zion.
The Seven Stars of Ursa Major, the North Star.
Compare Thomson's description of the "pleasing land of drowsy-head," in the Castle of lndolence: --
And there a season atween June and May,
Half prankt with spring, with summer half imbrowned,
A listless climate made, where, sooth to say,
No living wight could work, ne cared even for play."
"He loved also in life," says Arrivabene, Commento Storico, 584, "a certain Belacqua, an excellent maker of musical instruments."
Benvenuto da Imola says of him : "He was a Florentine who made guitars and other musical instruments. He carved and ornamented the necks and heads of the guitars with great care, and sometimes also played. Hence Dante, who delighted in music, knew him intimately." This seems to be all that is known of Belacqua.
Measure for Measure, II. 2
"True prayers
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there
Ere sunrise ; prayers from preserved souls,
From fa.sting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal."