Dante and the early astronomers . uctory to the wholeCoTnmedia, he mentions the time at which he assumesthat his vision began. It was nel mezzo del cammindi nostra vita,* which may mean simply that he wasmiddle-aged, or comparing it with the passage in theConvivio quoted earlier (see p. 347), we may suppose itto mean that he was exactly in his 35th year. Theseason was spring—la dolce stagione,^ and whennight was over the sun rose among those stars whichwere with him at the Creation, which was believed tohave taken place at the vernal equinox some sixty-fivecenturies before. 11 Sol montava su c
Dante and the early astronomers . uctory to the wholeCoTnmedia, he mentions the time at which he assumesthat his vision began. It was nel mezzo del cammindi nostra vita,* which may mean simply that he wasmiddle-aged, or comparing it with the passage in theConvivio quoted earlier (see p. 347), we may suppose itto mean that he was exactly in his 35th year. Theseason was spring—la dolce stagione,^ and whennight was over the sun rose among those stars whichwere with him at the Creation, which was believed tohave taken place at the vernal equinox some sixty-fivecenturies before. 11 Sol montava su con quelle stelle Ch eran con lui quando TAmor DivineMosse da prima quelle cose belle. ^ The expression quelle stelle,^ however, shows us 1 Inf. xxix. 11. ^ Purg. xxiii, 5, 6. ^ Par. xxxii. 139. ^ Midway in the journey of our life. Inf. i. 1. ^ The sweet season. Inf. i. 43. ** Aloft the sun ascended with those stars That with him rose when Love Divine first moved Those its fair works. Inf. i. 38-40. {Carey). Those stars. m M ?. Fig. 45. The Universe of Dante. 356 TIME -REFERENCED that Dante does not intend to be pedanticallyaccurate, which would indeed be inartistic in a speaks several times of the supposed slow motionof the star sphere,^ and although he never mentionsits effect in shifting the place of the equinox con-tinually among the stars, we can hardly imagine thathe failed to understand this. He knew quite well,therefore, that the stars which accompanied the sun inthat first springtime of the world could not be thesame stars which rose with him now. But astronomershad agreed to call the part of the sky which containsthe vernal equinox by its old name, and it would beexceedingly tiresome if he were to distinguish, everytime he mentioned them, between the zodiacal con-stellations and the zodiacal signs; there shall be nooccasion, therefore, to stop and consider which hemeans, and no ambiguity: he assumes once for all thatthey always have been and always are identi
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