Bonaventure, Dante and the Apocalyptic Woman Clothed with the Sun Author(s): Rebecca S.

Beal Reviewed work(s): Source: Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, No. 114 (1996), pp. 209228 Published by: Dante Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40166601 . Accessed: 23/02/2012 11:48
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Dante and the Apocalyptic Bonaventure, WomanClothedWith the Sun

REBECCA S. BEAL

Paradiso X,when Dante entersthe sphereof the sun, he and Beatrice of twelve soul-lights;this first circle is are surrounded by a "corona" and then a third,in CantoXIV, so encircledby a second, in CantoXII, that before he leaves the sun Dante perceivesthree concentriccircles. these threecirclesmost obviouslyinscribeinto the sun a Iconographically, - a conceptinvokedat the startof CantoX. symbolicimageof the Trinity But as I have shown elsewhere,the first circle of theologianscelebrating within this heavenhaveanotherfunction:they aredescribedas a "crown" and as such are integralto a spectaclepresentingBeatrice and a "garland," Thus as the Womanin the Sun from the twelfth chapterof Apocalypse.1 to the twelvestarsof the twelvecirclingsoul-lightsof CantoX correspond Apocalypse12:1,and Beatrice,as she standswithin the sphereof the sun to the Apocalyptic Womandescribedin and abovethe Moon, corresponds in caelo:mulieramictasole, the sameverse:"Etsignummagnumapparuit et luna sub pedibus eius, et in capite eius corona stellarumduodecim" in heaven:a woman clothedwith the sun, and a greatsign appeared ["And with the moon underher feet, and on her heada crownof twelvestars"].2 accordswith the presentaof Paradiso in CantosX-XI Beatrice's portrayal as tions of the Womanin the Sun in illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts, who readthe of Biblicalmedievalcommentators well as with the majority an of the Church.3 Woman as the of image Apocalyptic figure Dante altersthe Apocalypticiconographyof the Womanin the Sun, however,so that in CantoXIIBeatrice'sgarlandof twelve doctorsis surroundedby another, then, in Canto consistingof twelvemore luminaries; other two. While circle of surrounds the third a XIV, dimly-seen lights

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these second and third crowns are necessary to the trinitarian imagery of the cantos, their introduction should also lead us to ask how these changes in her crown affect the carefully established iconography of the Apocalyptic Woman. For if Dante's appropriation of the figure of the Woman in the Sun begins by establishing the figure of Beatrice as an ecclesial, Church-related, version of the Woman, when the poet doubles and trebles the crown so integral to her iconographical identity, he complicates the figure in other ways as well. Thus the cantos of the sun begin by identifying Beatrice as the Woman in the Sun; as Thomas indicates almost in an aside to Dante, she is the one who is crowned by the first circle of twelve soul lights: "Tu vuo' saper di quai piante s'infiora / questa
ghirlanda che 'ntorno vagheggia/ la bella donna ch'al ciel t'awalora" (x, 91-93,

emphasis mine).4 However, the iconograpy of the "Woman in the Sun" gradually shifts in focus from Beatrice to Dante. In Canto XII,Dante and Beatrice share the space at the center of the circling theologians: "cosi di quelle sempiterne rose / volgiensi circa noi le due ghirlande" (19-20, emphasis mine); here the "garlandsof roses" now crown both Dante and his lady, "noi." Later in the same canto, Dante seems to achieve more prominence than Beatrice at the center of the circles when Bonaventure recalls that Dominic asked leave to fight "per lo seme / del qual ti fascian ventiquattro piante" (95-96, emphasis mine), and the point is underscored in Canto XIII,when Dante describes the double circle of theologians in terms of Ariadne's crown, "che circulava il punto dov' to era" (21, emphasis mine). I am suggesting, then, that although Cantos x-xi establish Beatrice as the Woman in the Sun, Dante Pilgrim takes that role as well, at first metonymically by association with Beatrice. The figure of the Woman in the Sun changes at several levels; first, and most obviously, at the literal level, in the addition of crowns and the identification of the human figure who is the focus of those crowns. Further, the allegorical meaning of the image shifts as well from the Ecclesia-oriented allegory of Cantos X-xi. As I shall argue in this paper, in Canto XII, where the first circle of theologians and teachers is surrounded by a second, this second crowning suggests that Dante also wants to present an traApocalyptic Woman within the context of Marian and contemplative writand sermons the in ditions particularlyas the image is appropriated circle of ings of the figure Dante places as spokesman of the second minister general of the theologians in the fourth heaven, the seventh Franciscan order, St. Bonaventure.5

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Bonaventure mentions the Apocalyptic Woman in the Sun in ten of his sermons.6 In one of these, the Woman clearly refers to Ecclesia, and Bonaventure follows standard medieval exegetical treatments of her, so that one is struck by similarities between Bonaventure's depiction of the Apocalyptic Woman and Dante's first presentation of Beatrice in the sun, in Cantos X-XI.Thus, in a sermon, delivered on the Feast of St. Stephen (Dec. 26), Bonaventure mentions the Apocalyptic Woman, focuses on the Woman's crown, and explicates her twelve stars as a crown made up of "doctors" or teachers: "Haec est corona doctorum, quia qui ad iustitiam erudiunt multos quasi stellae in perpetuasaeternitates fulgebunt, ut dicitur Danielis duodecimo" ["This is a crown of teachers, because 'those who teachjustice to many will shine as eternal stars forever,' as is said in Daniel 12"]7aninterpretation not far removed from Dante's own presentation of Church doctors as the soul-lights making up Beatrice's first crown in the sun. Yet despite this and one other nod to the dominant exegetical reading of the Apocalyptic woman as Ecclesia, the majority of Bonaventure's allusions to Apocalypse 12:1 are made with reference to the Woman as the Virgin Mary.8The context is particularlyimportant, for the saint incorporates readings of the figure of the Woman in the Sun as Ecclesia only twice in non-Marian sermons- the two just noted- but uses the image in eight of the twenty-four sermons given on feasts devoted to Mary recorded in the Quaracchi edition: most notably in five of his six sermons on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, once in a sermon on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and twice in sermons on the Nativity of the Virgin. In all of these Marian sermons, the Woman in the Sun is interpreted as Mary. The number of uses he makes of the figure in Marian sermons point to Bonaventure's primary association of the figure of the Apocalyptic woman with Mary, but they do not indicate the way in which the saint appropriatesthe image and relies on it for emotional and rhetorical impact as well as for didactic content. Thus, for instance, he often uses Apocalypse 12:1 at rhetorically significant moments in his sermons: once as his text and the major image of the sermon (De Assumption B. Virginis Mariae,Sermo6); once as a major part of the introduction (De Assumptions B. VirginisMariae, Sermo 5); three times in his conclusion (De Sancte StephanoMartyre,Sermo 2; De SanctisAngelis, Sermo 5; De Nativitate B. Mariae, Sermo3); twice while concluding a major division of his Virginis B. Virginis sermon (Part II of De Assumptione Mariae,Sermo2, and Part I of

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B. VirginisMariae, Sermo 3.) In short, whether using the De Purificatione

image in Marianor ecclesialcontexts,Bonaventureoften finds it a vivid means for shapingall or part of his rhetoricalaim. For instance,in De Sancte Sermo 2, in the courseof summingup threemajor Stephano Martyre, uses the figureas an pointsmadein the body of the sermon,Bonaventure of image the rewardgiven to Church teacherswhose crown will be like - an audienceunlikelyto obtainthe crown thatof the Womanin the Sun9 of martyrdom, and still to be exhortedto attemptcrownsgiven for abjection and humility!In the conclusionof PartI of De Purificatione B. Virginis Sermo Mariae, 3, the figure becomes the transitionbetween a meditation on Mary'svirtuesandan exhortation firstcites to follow her;Bonaventure find a valiant Proverbs, quisinveniet?" ["Whoshall asking,"Mulieremfortem woman?"] and then responds with the image of the woman from Apocalypse12, who signifiesMary10 Bonaventure's of the woman as Maryand his use of the interpretation verse for sermonsmay derivefrom the liturgical uses of Apocalypse12:1. Although it was not until the twentieth centurythat the verse began to servea prominentrole in the Feastof the Assumptionas the introit and as part of the first readingof the Roman rite of the mass (Apoc. 11.19n 12.6), Bonaventure'sstrong associationof the verse with the feast of Mary'sAssumptionmaybe inferredfrom his use of this verse in the context of all but one of his six sermonson that occasion,where he usually For 12.1to an Old Testament textbeing explicated. assimilates Apocalypse from the the in his first sermon on passage Assumption, example, uses the and Bonaventure a verse from Isaiah, Apocalypsehelps explain of the excellence the to illustrate Virgin. surpassing Apocalypseimage Here, the Womanclothed with the Sun stands for the glorifiedVirgin, of wisdom;the moon underher feet signifiesthe dressedin the brightness abovewhich the Virginhas risen with all angelicand human hierarchies on the Assumption,the text of which In his second sermon knowledge.12 is Wisdom 7:29, Bonaventureagaindefines the Womanas Mary,Queen elementschanges.Now of Heaven,but the meaningof her iconographic she is clothed with "the sun of justice,"while the moon under her feet indicates"worldlyglory strenuouslytrodden underfoot,"and the stars indicate the honor, dignity,glory and lofty nobility yielded her by the In the fourth sermon on the Assumption, twelve orders of saints.13 stressesthe figure'sbeing clothedwith the sun, and analyzes Bonaventure - as ways of the effects the sun's light- its strength,brightness,and heat
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of explainingthe glorifiedVirgin'sperfectedgrace.14 Nevertheless,however these sermonschangethe meaningof her attributes, sun, moon and identifies the Woman of stars,Bonaventurerepeatedly Apocalypse12:1 with the glorifiedVirgin. Like other Marianwriters, Bonaventureassociatesthe Assumption with the Annunciation.15 Accordingto readingsof Canticles3:11, Mary Christ with a human body at the to have "crowned" was thought this interpretation Annunciation.Bonaventureaccordinglyappropriates describes a crown in a PalmSundaysermon,where he triple given Christ. of flesh:16 The firstof these, given him by his mother,was a "diadem"
Primo coronavit eum materVirgo Maria carneo diademate originalis innocentiae in secundum Jiliae Sion, et quod dicitur Canticorum 3,11: Egredimini, conceptione,

sua.. . . FiliaeSion,egredeummater in diademate, Salomonem videte quocoronavit regent

imini, a deformitate peccati; et videteregemregum, verum Salvatorem Christum eum matersua, Virgo incarnatum, in diademate, originalis innocentiae, quo coronavit humanae natMaria, virtute Spiritus sancti eum concipiendo, in die desponsationis urae, quae in imitate personae copulata est et coniuncta Dei Verbo, ut sponsa sponso vinculo indissolubili, in utero virginali et amore pudico et benevolo cum laetitia inenarrabili et gaudio magna. ["In the first place, 'his mother' the Virgin Mary 'crowned him' with the fleshly diadem of original innocence at his conception, following what is said in Canticles 3:11: 'Rise up, o daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him. . . . Daughters of Zion, rise up' from the deformity of sin; 'and see the king' of kings, the true Savior Christ incarnate, 'in the crown' of original innocence, 'with which his own mother' the Virgin Mary, 'crowned him' when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit, 'in the day of his betrothal' to human nature, which was united in the unity of person and joined to the Word of God, as a wife [is wedded] to her husband with an indissoluble chain, in the maidenly womb, and with chaste and willing love, with unspeakable gladness and greatjoy."]

As Bonaventure continues with this sermon, it becomes clear that areneverdissociatedfrom his body:the second crown, Christ's"crowns" Christ's crown of thorns, figures the humiliation and suffering of his indicateshis resto Bonaventure, passion,andhis thirdcrown,according of his body,ajust divine responseto his urrectionglory,the resurrection and passion.17 Incarnation of Canticles3.11, the verse In the traditionof Marianinterpretations a coronationof Mary:in the actby which he made cameto "comprehend her Motherof God, Christcrownedthe Virgin."18 Mary'sfirstcrown, in with the body.Andjust as Christ otherwords, is, like Christ's,associated
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takes his own body from her flesh at the Annunciation, even so at the Assumption, where Christ takes his mother bodily into Heaven, he "crowns"her again, this time with a resurrected body. Mary's coronations become, by extension, an emblem of the Christian hope of the resurrection both of soul and body, but most especially, of the body. When Dante incorporates the figure of the double-crowned Woman in the Sun, he does so precisely in the context of the Incarnation and Resurrection. Thus, Dante compares her crowns to two rainbows, "nascendo di quel d'entro quel di fori" (XII,13) and thus anticipates the poem's final vision when he sees three circles representing the Trinity and writes of two that "Fun da l'altro come iri da iri / parea reflesso" (XXXIII, 118-119). The second rainbow clearly follows from orthodox theology regarding the procession of the Son from the Father, but it also recalls Canto XII,where rainbow imagery is juxtaposed with an allusion to Noah: the rainbows "fanno qui la gente esser presaga,/ per lo patto che Dio con Noe puose, / del mondo che gia mai piii non s'allaga"(16-18). Such an allusion evokes a whole complex of traditional figuration associating Noah with Christ, the rainbow with God's mercy, and also the flood with divine retribution for post-lapsarian failings. But the dominant note struck here is mercy: the world will never be flooded again; these garlands of "sempiterne rose" (XII,19) crown the image of the one through whom Christ became incarnate. The Apocalyptic Woman's two crowns speak to her allegorical role as Mary at the Incarnation and Coronation, both identified with the revelation of divine mercy. Against this background, the Pilgrim hears discourse ranging from Bonaventure's symbolic address praising the founder of the Dominican order to Thomas's scholastic discourses on the creation and Solomon's on the resurrection. The first two of these speeches allude to the Fall and Incarnation; the last, Solomon's, to the resurrection. Such evocations are enriched by the figure of the Apocalyptic woman who functions as an image of Mary, the New Eve, crowned by the Deity, most especially her Son. In such a context, Dante and Beatrice's role as allegorically figuring the Apocalyptic Woman/Mary is both startling and appropriate. Startling, because neither Dante nor even Beatrice is marked by virginity, the trait which enabled Bonaventure's clerical audience, for example, to resemble most closely the Mother of Christ. As B. Capelle has remarked, the Gospel for the Feast of Mary's Assumption was a Gospel always used in masses celebrating virgins, and this use of the reading made it fitting for

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use on the Feast of the Assumption.19Certainly the monks and friarswho celebrated Mary focused, as did Bonaventure, on her bodily purity.20 By contrast, Dante and Beatrice's allegorical enactment of the Coronation is most appropriate because the iconography of the Apocalyptic woman reinforces the very aspects of the discourse of Cantos XII-XIV which are in the of from the Fall to Christocentrically grounded history redemption, the LastJudgment. The first speech, Bonaventure's praise of St. Dominic (XII,37-111), abounds with imagery identifying Dominic with Christ and recalling the Fall and its effects. The second speech, Thomas's explication of how Solomon's perfection differs from that of Adam and Christ, draws a reader to evaluate once more God's work in creating the main actors in the drama of the Fall and Redemption. Finally, in Solomon's speech in we are pointed to the end of Christ's restoration, the resurrecCanto XIV, tion of the body. In Bonaventure's praise of St. Dominic, the dominant martial imagery of XII,34-45 very quickly elides into pastoral imagery with the description of the region of Dominic's origins, "ove surge ad aprire / Zefiro dolce le novelle fronde / di che si vede Europa rivestire" (46-48). Zephyr's "greening" of the land is described as an opening of "new" leaves and a reclothing. Both "novelle fronde" and "rivestire"suggest the restorative effects of spring after winter's ravages in imagery Dante has already exploited thorXXDC to XXXIII. There Beatrice's oughly in the Earthly Paradiseof Purgatorio appearance is particularly associated with her "new" clothing: before Dante even sees her eyes, he sees her white, olive-crowned veil, her green mantle, her flame-colored robe- all symbolic of her wearing the theological virtues and her association with the Trinity itself. Even the announcement of her coming associates her with the "reclothing" of the soul after the Resurrection of the Dead, a circumstance of which Mary at her Assumption and Coronation becomes the exemplar. For, before Beatrice descends from the chariot, a voice announces her coming with a verse cantando / grido tre volte" (Purg. from Canticles: "'Veni, sponsa,de Libano9 To the voice XXX,11-12). respond Angelic ministers whose rising and singing Dante describes in terms of the final resurrection of the dead: "Quali i beati al novissimo bando / surgeran presti ognun di sua caverna, / la revestita voce alleluiando" (13-15). This coupling of the verse from Canticles, "Veni, sponsa, de Libano," to hallelujahs evoking the Resurrection of the dead, links Beatrice with

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the Assumed Mary in a way which Bonaventure would have approved- and which he even anticipates. For Bonaventure, Mary's double coronation was linked to a strongly Trinitarian theology. And he expands the traditional number of crowns associated with Mary's coronation in his fifth sermon on the Assumption, an explication of - precisely the Canticles 4:8: "Venide Libano, sponsamea, veni de Libano" verse that Dante alludes to here, and which ends, coronaberis.Like Dante's anonymous voice, who cries the verse three times, and even more like Dante-poet who crowns Beatrice three times in the heaven which celebrates the Trinity, Bonaventure believes that the phrase "you shall be crowned" involves three coronations of Mary, each of which is related to the work of the Trinity. Her first crown, a "corona gloriosa" ["glorious crown"], derives from her conformity to the eternal majesty of the Father; her second, a "corona luminosa"["brilliant crown"], from her conforming to the brightness of the Only Begotten; her third, a "corona pretiosa"["priceless crown"], from her conforming perfectly to the love of the Holy Spirit.21These crowns may seem entirely spiritual, but just as in his sermon on Christ's three crowns cited above, Bonaventure makes their relevance to the flesh quite clear: Mary deserves her first crown because of her continence ("candor continentiae")\ further, she deserves her second crown because she taught the Apostles themselves the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh in her body - and it is in the context of his discussion of the Incarnation that Bonaventure explicitly images her as the Woman of Apocalypse.22 Finally, with respect to her third "precious" crown, given because of her conformity to the love of the Holy Spirit, Bonaventure writes: "Unde colligi potest, quod earn debuerit coronare non tantum spiritu, sed etiam stola corporis" ["Whence it can be gathered that he (God) ought to crown her not merely with a spiritual crown, but even with a robe of flesh"].23 She is thus to be given a crown associated with the glorification of the body in the resurrection, but unlike the rest of the Church, she will not wait until the Last Judgment, but receives her "crown," her resurrected body, at her Assumption and Coronation. She is, in effect, the Church's token of its own coming resurrection, that event signalled in PurgatorioXXX by angels compared to resurrected souls with "revestita voce" (15) and in ParadisoXIVby Solomon who explains to Dante how the souls of the elect will be doubly clothed, by love, "cotal vesta" (39) and with their bodies, "rivestita" (44).

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Beatrice's status as Mary and thus the "new Eve" in the allegory of the Earthly Paradisehas been examined elsewhere.241would point out further that her redemptive work is operative not only at the historical, but at the and XXXIII. personal level of Dante's own "history" in Cantos XXX,XXXI work thus that of the Griffin/Christ to Beatrice/Mary's complements overcome the Fall. Whereas his labor is active in pulling the chariot, hers, no less serviceable, is contemplative and most often involves her eyes. Thus, Beatrice describes her labor in tending the fallen garden which was Dante: Ma tantopiu malignoe piu silvestro si fa '1terrencol mal seme e non colto, quant'elli ha piu di buon vigor terrestro. Alcun tempo il sostennicol mio volto: mostrandoli occhi giovanettia lui, meco il menavain drittapartevolto. XXX,118-123) (Purg. Thus during her first life she sustained Dante by showing him her eyes, that is, by her gaze. In her interaction with the Griffin, Beatrice acts as Mary in a more cosmic role as well. Thus she descends from the Griffin's chariot beside a despoiled tree clearly identified as the tree of the fall from which Adam and Eve ate and thus lost their innocence, a tree which was robbed of its greenery: "poi cerchiaro una pianta dispogliata / di foglie e d'altra fronda in ciascun ramo" (Purg. XXXII, 38-39). When the Griffin draws his pole to the base of the tree, "s'innovo la pianta, / che prima avea le ramora si sole" (xxxil, 59-60). The image of the tree's renewed foliage seems clear: the fall has been overcome, and Beatrice, in whose eyes the Griffin takes form, plays Mary's role in an allegory of the Incarnation. Even the view of Beatrice beneath the tree after the Griffin's ascent recalls Mary, for it anticipates Dante's description of Mary left "below" in Paradiso after the brighter sun which is Christ has ascended. XXIII, From the vantage of Paradiso XII,the description of Dominic's place of from as the which origin place Zephyr rises to open "le novelle fronde" (47) and reclothe Europe echoes the language of cosmic and personal When Dante describes himself after Beatrice redemption in Purgatorio. sends him to his baptism in Eunoe, he resembles the tree restored by the Griffin and anticipates Europa "reclothed," for he is "rifatto si come piante novelle / rinovellate di novellafronda" (Purg. XXXIII.143-144,

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emphasis mine). The linkage between new growth and clothing as a redemptive response to the Fall, concepts associated in Bonaventure's introduction to Dominic's life, also suggest traditional differences between Eve and Mary: the former learns her own nakedness at the moment of her Fall from grace. The latter, "full of grace" at the Incarnation, is, at her Coronation, "reclothed" in a fleshly glorified body and crowned, as Dante shows us in the Heaven of the Wise Teachers, with the wisdom Eve sought so desperately. XIIthus begins by evoking the Fall and Bonaventure's speech in Paradiso and it continues as it Redemption, began, its nature imagery recalling last cantos as well as identifying Dominic with Christ as the Purgatorio's New Adam. An "agricola"(XII,71) called to help tend the garden of the Lord, Dominic circled the vineyard (XII,86) and, transformed into a rushing river, struck with most force "li sterpi eretici" (XII,100)- the barren growth that needed to be eradicated so that the remaining vines might be even more fruitful. In a description of Dominic's desire to obtain a warrant for his activities, Dante combines the image of the saint as warrior and as gardener: "addimandd . . . contro al mondo errante / licenza di combatter per lo seme / del qual ti fascian ventiquattro piante" (xil, 9496). The "battle"is waged on behalf of the seeds of which the offspring now enfold Dante-pilgrim: Dominic, in other words, is a gardener working fiercely to overcome the effects of the Fall on the garden planted by Christ in the world after the loss of Eden.25As such Dominic resembles Christ, the "New Adam," for whom he was named (xil, 70-72). Even when Dante shifts Dominic's defining imagery from caretakerof the garden to a rushing river, "quasi torrente" (xil, 99), Dominic's description imitates Christ, the living water, for through Dominic as through Christ, come streams which water "Porto catolico" (xil, 104). Following Bonaventure comes Thomas, whose speech, primarily focused on answering Dante's unvoiced question concerning Thomas's assertion that after Solomon "non surse il secondo" (x, 114), invokes Christ and Adam directly only to distinguish between them. Symbolically, this speech is linked to Bonaventure's, for Thomas, in fact, begins by connecting himself to Bonaventure's image of Dominic as "agricola."But whereas Dominic is associated with planting and tilling - he defended the seed and uprooted sterile growth- Thomas is concerned with threshing the harvested grain: he says, "Quando l'una paglia e trita, / quando la sua semenza e gia riposta, / a batter Paltradolce amor m'invita" (xill, 34-36).

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Thomas next restates Dante's own beliefs and, in the process, invites him to look at the two events already alluded to in Bonaventure's praise of Dominic - humankind's Fall and Redemption:
Tu credi che nel petto onde la costa si trasse per formar la bella guancia il cui palato a tutto '1mondo costa, e in quel che, forato da la lancia, e prima e poscia tanto sodisfece, che d'ogne colpa vince la bilancia, quantunque a la natura umana lece aver di lume, tutto fosse infuso da quel valor che Puno e Paltro fece. (XIII,37-45)

The account accurately reflects the Pilgrim's belief that at their creation, God gifted only the unfallen Adam and Christ with all the "light"or wisdom allowed by nature. But Thomas phrases Dante's belief so as to enclose in it the story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib and so balance her creation and fall against Christ's passion and satisfaction for human sin. Since Eve is referred to as "la bella guancia / il cui palato a tutto '1mondo costa" (XIII, 38-39), this statement reflecting the Pilgrim's belief encomof the Fall set out in terms of Eve's sin. an account passes Thomas, however, subtly redirects the emphasis of the Pilgrim's ideas and therefore invites us to "fulfill"Eve with Mary, as Adam is fulfilled by Christ. Accordingly, after describing creation as a self-revelation of the Trinity through various levels of being, Thomas reiterates and approves Dante's opinion "che l'umana natura mai non fue / ne fia qual fu in quelle due persone" (xill, 86-87), but whereas the Pilgrim had emphasized Eve's role in the Fall, Thomas's restatement underlines Mary's in human Redemption: "Cosl fu fatta gia la terra degna/ di tutta l'animal perfezione; / cosi fu fatta la Vergine pregna" (xill, 82-84). By naming only Mary, and by alluding to Adam (and through him, to Eve) only as "la terra"requiring the creative intervention of the Triune God in order to be made "degna / di tutta l'animal perfezione," Thomas's discourse suggests not simply a parallel between Adam and Christ, but a progression. In Adam's case, the dust was made worthy; in Christ's, the Virgin. Thomas's version, with its reference to Mary's reception of Christ should be read against the spectacle of the Woman in the Sun as the glorified Mary, for such a vision provides a rich commentary on the difference between Old Eve, who
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provedso costly to the world, and the New, whose child redeemedit. If Eve, drawnfrom the side of a man createdfrom dust and who returned to dust, exemplifiesdeath,Maryservesas an exemplumof the resurrecin her Assumption.26 tion and the overcomingof mortality, particularly Dante'svision of the Apocalyptic Woman/ Mary/ New Eve in Paradiso identificaXII-XIV reachesa climaxat the moment when Dante-pilgrim's 'Womanin the Sun"becomesmost tion with Maryas a doubly-crowned and Beatricehas askedthatDante explicit.Thomashas finishedspeaking, of the body, with the resurrection be informedabouta matterassociated
Diteli se la luce onde s'infiora vostra sustanza, rimarracon voi etternalmente si com' ell' e ora; e se rimane, dite come, poi che sarete visibili rifatti, esser pora ch'al veder non vi noi. (XIV,13-18)

The double garlandof theologiansrespondsfirst by praisingthe Trinity, then Dante hearsthe voice of Solomon,who will answerBeatrice's question: "Eio udi' ne la luce piu dia/ del minor cerchiouna voce modesta,/ forse qual fu da Pangeloa Maria"(XIV, 34-36). Solomon here responds to and when Dante hearshim, he registers Beatrice's directly prompting, Solomon's as the voice of the Angel Gabrielappearingto Mary at the Annunciation,an event upon which her glorification, symbolizedby her second crowning, depends. The process which Solomon proceeds to in the of the body,is already presentallegorically explain,the resurrection spectacleof the Womanin the Sun symbolizingthe glorifiedVirginwho but at this point, servesas exemplar of the Church'scoming resurrection, Dante,who hearsSolomon'svoicejust as he had portrayed Maryhearing and with is with the Woman identified Gabriel's, Mary. Apocalyptic As in the caseof Bonaventure's earlierspeech,we readthe scene retroon the firstterof the Annunciation the portrayal spectively, remembering race of Purgatory, where Gabrielis imaged "in un atto soave"as saying word: si sariach'el dicesse, 'Aw!'"(Purg.X, 38, 40). one "Giurato only salutation explain,of course,thatGabriel's Manymedievalcommentators indicatesthat Mary,through her humility, reversesthe effect of Eve's reversesEve's name.27 CertainlyDante's pride-causedfall,just as "Ave" as an at the Annunciation of exemplumon the terrace presentation Mary

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of Pride indicates his accord with this interpretation, but medieval writers did not think of the Annunciation solely in terms of humility. Bonaventure thought that Eve's sin consisted in her wishing to be equal to God in wisdom: "radixet origo mortis est elatio mentis mulieris, cum voluit aequipari Deo in sapientia" ["The root and source of death is the woman's lifting her mind, when she wished to equal God in wisdom"].28 By contrast, Bonaventure uses the Apocalyptic image of the Woman clothed with the Sun to explain that the Virgin received in heaven is clothed with the brightness of wisdom; the moon under her feet signifies the angelic and human hierarchies above which the Virgin has risen illuDante seems to follow a similar course, first minated with all knowledge.29 X, and then, in ParadisoXII-XIV, praising Mary's humility in Purgatorio where he figures her as doubly crowned by wise teachers of the Church, suggesting that this New Eve in fact obtained through humility what Eve sought at such cost to herself and her descendents - wisdom. Dante's identification with Mary in his portrayalof himself as Woman in the Sun suggests, too, that he himself has arrived at a point in his journey where he can display humility - a marked contrast to the Pilgrim's earlier fear when he considers how pride will be punished in Purgatory and indicts himself of that sin. Dante's auditory identification of Solomon with Gabriel not only recalls the image engraved on the first terrace of Mount Purgatory,but it of anticipates another allegorical presentation of that scene in Canto XXIII where Mary herself, "la rosa in che '1verbo divino / carne si fece" Paradiso, (73-74), appears as a "viva Stella"(92), and Gabriel descends, forms a circle "a guisa di corona" (95), then circles around her and escorts her upward to her already ascended Son. Here, the poem represents the first half of the drama of Mary's glorification already figured in the cantos of the Sun. Gabriel, descending as he did at the Annunciation, is literally "crowning" Mary, thus making explicit the traditional meaning of that event for her which Dante figured when he heard Solomon's voice in Canto XIV.The drama will finish when Mary goes to her Son and is "crowned" a second time with her resurrected body. We do not see that event, but the Pilgrim alludes to it when he tries to see if St. John has a body, and learns that St. John, like the rest of the Church, will have to wait until the Last Judgment. Mary and Christ alone in Heaven wear "two robes" ("le due stole," xxv, 127) of resurrected bodies.

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I began this discussionwith Bonaventure,and it is germaneto a discussion of the figureof the Apocalyptic Womanto note thatthe seraphic doctor's interpretationof the Woman in the Sun is not exhaustedby ecclesialor Marianuses. A third,though related,interpretation of the figure emergesin an unfinishedseries of talks,the Hexaemeron, interrupted elevationto the cardinalate. In these lectures,translated by Bonaventure's as the Collations on theSix Days,Bonaventure the Womanin the interprets Sun as an image of the contemplativesoul. Thus, Bonaventureopens "CollationTwenty-two" by citingApocalypse12:1,then summarizesthe previous collation by explainingthe sun in the verse as the "heavenly or Trinity, studiedin the previouscollation.The Monarchy," exhaustively moon below is the Church Militant,and between these standsthe soul: "Foras the contemplativesoul is a good woman, clothed withthesun, so also the moonis underherfeet."30 The twelve stars are "mysteriesto be are also "considerations of bodily natures,spiritualsubunlocked"; they stances, intellectual notions, affective virtues, divinely instituted laws, divinely infused graces,irrevocable judgments, incomprehensiblemermerits cies, worthy of reward,rewardinggifts, periods of time, eternal - Bonaventure summarizes these as "considerations" reasons" which "adornthe soul."31 He might as well define them as wisdom, precisely the kind of wisdom thatthe pilgrimseeksduringhis itinerarium for mentis, it seems to me quite possible that Dante transformshis Apocalyptic Womanin the Sun a thirdtime in orderto applyjust this kind of reading of the figureto his personaas pilgrim.32 In Dante, as in Bonaventure, the context of the image is a consideration of the creativework of the Trinity. And whereashis singly crowned Womanaccords with interpretations of the figureas Church,and his doucrowned Woman with the bly figure as Mary,Dante's final vision in the Sun completeshis Trinitarian allegoryandseems to focus on the Pilgrim's role as the soul ascending,quite literallytaken up or assumed, to his Maker. / . . . fareun giro/ di fuor Just so, afterhe sees "novellesussistenze da l'altredue circunferenze" he exclaims at this "verosfavil(XIV, 73-75), lar del Santo Spiro!"(76), is unable to sustain that sight, but regards andfinds himself "translato/ . . . in piu altasalute"(83-84) to the Beatrice, Heavenof Mars.In otherwords,the vision of his completedtriplecrown as Womanin the Sun leadsto his raptus to the Heaven of Marsas a contemplativesoul moving incrementallytoward a union with God; the

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vision anticipates, as well, his final ecstatic union with the Triune God in Canto xxxiii. In Cantos X-XIV,then, Bonaventure's and Dante's treatments of the Woman in the Sun as the Church, Mary or as the contemplative soul are not contradictory,but recapitulate and explore the same kind of analogies seen by interpreters of the Canticles, that writing thought to be an epithalamion, a celebration of a mystical marriage between God and his bride, variously interpreted. Thus, while medieval Christian exegetes interpreted the groom of Canticles as Christ or God, they read the bride as the Church, as Mary, or as the soul - the very interpretations Bonaventure reads into the Woman of the Apocalypse and Dante-poet draws upon. An overlap betweeen readings of the Sponsa in Canticles and the Apocalyptic Woman of Apocalypse 12:1 was perhaps inevitable, especially since, as Ronald Herzman notes, the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages was thought to summarize all of Sacred Scripture,33and also because, as E. Ann Matter points out, many of the same exegetes who treated the Apocalypse also interpreted the Song of Songs.34Certainly Dante's own imagery in the cantos of the sun recalls both the Apocalyptic imagery and the spousal imagery of Canticles. Canto X begins the process of merging the iconography of the Woman in the Sun with allusions to the Canticles' sponsus.Here, after carefully including the proper visual signs identifying Beatrice with the Woman in the Sun, the poem makes an elaborate analogy between her crown, a "gloriosa rota" (x, 145) and a clock that calls to us in the hour that the Spouse of God rises to say morning devotions to her husband, that he may love her (x, 139-141). The vehicle of this simile, which explains the crown of theologians as a clock calling us at the time the Church says morning prayers, is carefully designed to include exactly those terms from Canticles which explain the union between the Church and God as that of bride and groom, and it reinforces a reading of Beatrice in the Sun as the Church.35 The following speech in praise of Francis also calls to mind the interpretation of Canticles as an epithalamion celebrating the union of Christ and the Church. According to interpreters of Canticles, the major characters of the epithalamion are the sponsusand sponsa;the minor characters, X"choruses,"are the friends of the bride and the bridegroom. In Paradiso XI,the bride and groom are clearly present in symbol: Christ is alluded to as the "Sol de li angeli" (x, 53) and Beatrice as the Woman clothed with

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the Sun represents his bride, the Church. The friends of the bride and groom are also represented symbolically by the star-like doctors surrounding Beatrice as these call to Dante's mind in Canto X the clock waking the bride to her obligation to love her husband. In the following canto, when Thomas praises Francis, the identification of the sponsusand sponsa of Canticles is more explicit. Aquinas's description of the crucifixion invokes spousal terminology identifying Christ as husband and his Church as bride. Friends of the bridal pair are also mentioned. As Aquinas tells Dante: Laprovedenza, che governail mondo ver' lo suo diletto pero che andasse la sposadi colui ch'adalte grida disposo lei col sanguebenedetto, in se sicurae anchea lui piu fida, due principiordino in suo favore, che quinci e quindi le fosserper guida. (XI,28, 31-36) Thomas's statement indicates that these two saints and the circles praising them serve as friends of the bride and groom. Bonaventure's depiction of St. Dominic identifies that saint even more particularlyas a friend of the groom. Dominic is not only celestially sealed with Christ's name, but, says Bonaventure, "Ben parve messo e famigliar di Cristo" (XII,73). An even more obvious friend of the bride and groom is later perceived in Solomon as Gabriel, for the latter appears in Canto XXIII, reenacting the Annunciation and escorting Mary to her Son for her second coronation. Now the allegory moves toward an identification of the sponsawith Mary, whose Coronation is the culmination of her earlier union with Christ. Nevertheless, as the allegory proceeds from ecclesiological to mariological levels, each successive stage incorporates the meanings of that which preceded it. The narrative does not abandon its earlier meanings- Dante does not displace Beatrice; rather, there is a continuity between levels of allegorical meaning. We do well to remember, as Jaroslav Pelikan has noted, that "for Dante and for Bernard of Clairvaux, as for the entire medieval tradition, Mary stands in continuity with the human race, the same human race to which the poet and his readers

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belong, and therefore that the glory with which she is crowned is a special form- different in degree, of course, but finally not different in In Paradiso kind- of the glory in which all the saved participate."36 X-XIV, the allegorical emphasis moves from the general to the particular, from Ecclesia to Mary, representative of Ecclesia, and finally to the individual soul who is to imitate her. Thus, at the end of these cantos, Dante is the soul moving toward ever greater knowledge. While Dante does not fill, as Beatrice does, the role of the "woman" in the sun, his role is certainly sponsa of Canticles, engaged in a journey analogous to that of the soxxV the iconogratoward his God and his beloved. Indeed, in Cantos X-XIV Dante to Woman allows of the manipulate the tradiApocalyptic phy tional presentation of her crowns in order to elide the allegorical reading of Beatrice as Church with one of Beatrice as Mary and thence to a reading of Dante-poet as soul. For as Dante regards Beatrice in the final vision of the cantos of the sun, he is enabled to rise to the next sphere. And the lessons learned concerning joy in the fourth heaven prepare the pilgrim to endure the prophecies of his own suffering and exile in the next heaven, where the dominant iconography takes Dante to Christ's passion and his own.37
University ofScranton Scranton, Pennsylvania

NOTES
1. Rebecca S. Beal, "Beatricein the Sun," Dante Studies,cm (1985), 57-78. John Freccero's x: the Dance of the Stars"(DanteStudies,lxxxvi [1968], 85-111) remains the starting "Paradiso for iconographicalreadingsof these cantos. More recently,Ronald B. Herzman has focused point XIin light of Dante-pilgrim'sconversion, with particular on the Apocalypticimageryof Paradiso in the reference to the treatment of St. Francis ("Dante and the Apocalypse,"in TheApocalypse MiddleAges, ed. Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn [Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1992], 404-407). See also Ronald L. Martinez,"Ovid'sCrown of Stars(Paradiso ed. Madison U. Sowell (Binghamton, New 13.1-27)," in Danteand Ovid:Essaysin Intertextuality, York:Medieval & RenaissanceTexts & Studies, 1991), 123-138. 2. Biblical references in Latin are to the Vulgate edition. Translations are taken from the Douay-Rheims edition. 12: Histoirede I'exegese, 3. Pierre Prigent, Apocalypse Beitrage zur Geschichte der biblischen Exegese (Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1959). For the exegetical tradition of the Woman as Ecclesia, see Beal, "Beatrice in the Sun," p. 69 and nn. 20-21. More recently, Richard K. Emmerson and Ronald B. Herzman have pointed out that the twelfth-century Joachim of Fiore identifies her as "mother church who labored in proclaiming and delivering the word of preaching" ["Mulier ista generaliter matrem designat ecclesiam que in verbo fol. 154r,cited and predicationis clamando et parturiendo laborabat"],Expositioin Apocalypsim,

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DanteStudies,CXIV,1996 translated in Emmerson and Herzman, The Apocalyptic Imaginationin Medieval Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), p. 188, n. 21. a cura di Vantica secondo 4. All quotationsare taken from Dante Alighieri,La Commedia vulgata, Le Firenze: Casa Editrice 4 vols. Lettere, Petrocchi, 1994). (1966-67; rpt., Giorgio 5. For early patristicMarianreadingsof the Woman in the Sun as Mary, see E. Ann Matter, in theMiddle "The Apocalypsein EarlyMedieval Exegesis,"in TheApocalypse Ages,op. cit., esp. p. 44; Matter demonstrates, however, that these readings were assimilated to an ecclesiological interpretationof the book as a whole: "All the Apocalypse commentaries from the Carolingian world thus show the continuing assumption of the text as an allegoryof the Church, and a continuing process of filtering specific interpretationsfrom earlier commentaries to support that arguingfor more prevalentMarianreadingsamong the assumption"(p. 49). For an interpretation de la Sainte Vierge(Citta del Vaticano: see Martin La Mort et VAssomption Fathers, Jugie, early BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana,1944), p. 40. B. Virginis Sermo 6 is indeed Bonaventure'sis open to ques6. WhetherDe Assumptione Mariae, tion. Hilda Graef has sharplyquestioned the ascriptionof that text to Bonaventureon doctrinal A History andDevotion,Part I; 1963 [London: Sheed and Ward, 1985], grounds (Mary: of Doctrine pp. 288-290). In the following analysis I shall assume that the sermon is indeed the saint's, but my argument,as will be seen, in no way depends on that assumption. Bonaventurae 7. De Sancto Sermo omnia,Vol. K, (Quaracchi, 2, in Sanctae Martyre, opera Stephano 1901), p. 488. Unless otherwise noted, all referencesto Bonaventure'ssermons are from this volume of the Quaracchiedition of his works. 8. The other example of Bonaventure'suse of the figure in an Ecclesial sense is less apposite to Dante. A sermon takingas its text Psalm 90:11- "Angelissuis mandavitde te, ut custodiantte in omnibus viis tuis" ["He has given his angels charge over thee, that they may keep thee in all - mentions the ApocalypticWoman as the Church. The starson her head refer to the thy ways"] Angelis,Sermo5, p. 631). accomplishmentsof the church's angelic ministers (De Sanctis 9. Op. cit.,p. 488. 10. De Purificatione B. Virginis Mariae,Sermo 3, p. 649. 11. Adolf Adam writes: "The formularyfor the festal mass is still, for the most part,the 1950 Its Year: formulary.The two nongospel readingsand the special preface are new" (TheLiturgical of the Liturgy,trans. Matthew J. O'Connell [New York: Historyand Its Meaning Afterthe Reform Pueblo, 1981], p. 216). For the modern use of Apoc. 12:1 as the first introit to the mass celeet de sanctis,1938 Romanae ecclesiae de tempore sacrosanctae brating the Assumption, see Graduate (Paris:Desclee, 1957), pp. 582-588; for the use of the verse as the first reading see the Missale vi-xxi (Citta del Vaticano:Libreria annum: hebdomadal Romanum cumlectionibus, Vol. 3, Tempusper Editrice Vaticana, 1977), pp. 949-951. B. Capelle points out that the early Roman Introit was "Vultum tuum," the epistle, "In omnibus requiem quaesivi" ("La Fete de l'Assomption dans 3 [1926], p. 40). Thirteenth-century l'histoire liturgique," Ephemerides Lovanienses theologicae Franciscansseem to have used another introit but the same opening lecture; thus, the Ordo Missalisof Haymo of Faversham,fourth general minister of the Franciscanorder, presents the following summaryfor the first partof the August 15 mass: "IN ASSUMPTIONE BEATEVIRtuorum. Per eunv GloriaoratorioFamulorum omnesin domino GINIS intr. Gaudeamus ps. Eructavit odoris"(Sources demepistola lectio libri Sapientie In omnibus of the requiem quesivifinis suavitatem andRelated Documents ModemRoman TheOrdinals [1243- 1307], Vol. byHaymoofFaversham Liturgy: II:Texts,ed. StephenJ. P. Van Dijk [Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1963], p. 294). In this book and elsewhere Van Dijk andJoan Hazelden Walkerhave shown the importanceof Haymo and the Franciscans in establishingliturgicalpracticewhich became embedded in the Roman breviaryand missal, and which later developed into the version adopted at Trent. For the Tridentine form of the mass, restitutum sacrosancti see MissaleRomanum, ex decreto (Venice: Iuntus, 1575). See ConsiljTridentini rev. and trans.William G. Storey An Introduction to theSources, also Cyrille Vogel, Medieval Liturgy: and Niels Krogh Rasmussen, O.P., with John K. Brooks-Leonard; 1981 (Washington, D.C.: PastoralPress, 1986). 12. De Assumptione B. Virginis Mariae,Sermo1, pp. 689-690.

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Woman Clothed With theSun,REBECCA s. BEAL andthe Dante Bonaventure, Apocalyptic ista est Virgo regia, quae dicitur amicta 13. "Mulier sole,id est decore Solis iustitiae;et lunasub eius, id est mundana gloria strenuissime conculcata, quae ad modum lunae modo est in pedibus id est omnis honor et digeiuscorona stellarum duodecim, defectu, modo est in augmento;et in capite nitas, gloria et sublimitas generisque nobilitas duodecim Sanctorum ordinibus per duodecim Stellasfulgidasdesgnatisconcessa, quarum novem sunt spirituum supernorum,tres vero triplicis B. Virginis statushomnum, scilicet activorum,contemplativorumet praelatorum" (De assumptione Mariae,Sermo 2, p. 692). B. Virginis 14. De Assumptione Mariae,Sermo4, p. 698. 15. For an extensive treatmentof the traditionsassociatingthe Annunciation and Assumption both doctrinallyand within the context of a literarywork, see James I. Wimsatt, "The Blessed VI(1980), esp. pp. 194-195. Mediaevalia, Virgin and the Two Coronations of Griselda," 16. "Sermo20 [Dominica in Palmis],"Sect. 11, 11.190-201, in Sancti Bonaventurae,Sermones ed. Iacobi Guidi Bougerol, Bibliotheca FranciscanaScholasticaMedii Aevi cura PP. Dominicales, PadriEditori di Quaracchi, 1977). Collegii S. Bonaventurae(Grottaferrata: divina iustitia splendido diadematehonoris et gloriae in resureummater 17. Tertio coronavit rection"("Sermo20," Sect.13, 11. 225-26). 18. Wimsatt,op. cit.,p. 193. 19. Capelle, op. cit., pp. 39-40. B. Virginis Sermo 20. For Bonaventure,see, for instanceDe Assumptione Mariae, 5, pp. 699-700. 21. Ibid.,pp. 699-700. 22. Ibid.,p. 699. 23. Ibid.,p. 700. xxxin (1977), 402-414. 24. James I. Wimsatt, "Beatriceas a Figure for Mary,"Traditio, of 25. Mary Magdalene,of course, takesthe resurrectedChrist for a gardenerin the narrative Luke.Artistssuch as Durer continue a traditionassociatingChrist as a gardenerprecisely as he is the New Adam. 26. Compare the Pilgrim's earlierdescription of his belief about Eve's role in the Fall in the Earthly Paradise.There, the Pilgrim reproved Eve's sin, for had she remained faithful, "avrei quelle ineffabili delizie / sentite prima e piu lunga fiata"(Purg.xxrx, 29-30). Dante-poet undercuts the pilgrim's emphasis on female hubris by juxtaposing these opinions to a narrativepraising women: Matelda who guides Dante through the Garden, the female figures of the virtues, but most especiallyBeatrice.By contrast,it is the men who are primarilyassociatedwith the Fall. Thus, those with him condemn Adam as the source of original sin: Dante hears "mormorarea tutti 'Adamo'"(xxxji, 37) when the Griffin arrivesat the tree of the Fall. Increasinglythe spotlight falls on Eve's partner,and Beatrice'smagisterialdescription of the Fall is itself Adam-centered: in Canto xxxm's explication of the Pageantof the Church, she comments, "Per morder quella, in pena e in disio / cinquemilia anni e piu l'anima prima/ bramo colui che '1morso in se punio" (61-63). Beatrice'sjudgment of Dante shows him as guilty as his forebear;like Adam, "questifu tal ne la sua vita nova/ virtiialmente,ch'ogne abito destro/ fatto averebbein lui mirabil prova"(Purg.xxx, 115-117). Her description of Dante's sin in terms of a garden gone wild, and her statement that "Tantogiu cadde"is franklylapsarian. see 27. For the typologicalrelationshipbetween Mary and Eve in later cantos of the Paradiso, (New Allegoriesin Dante's "Paradiso" Jaroslav Pelikan, Eternal Feminines:Three Theological Brunswick, New Jersey:Rutgers University Press, 1990), esp. 104-105. 28. "Sermo42" Sect. 4, 11.58-59, Sermones Dominicales, op. cit. in caelo: Mulieramicta 29. uSignum sole,id est sapientiaeclaritate. . . et in capite magnum apparuit B. Virginis id est illuminatio omnium cognitionum" (De Assumptione stellarum eiuscorona duodecim, Sermo1, pp. 689-690. The Virgin'swisdom and knowledge are stressedelsewhere as well: Mariae, Sermo B. Virginis 5, p. 700, where Mary is praisedfor havMariae, see, for instance,De Assumptione and "illuminatedthem." the incarnation of the the mysteries Apostles taught ing on the Six Days, Vol. 5 of The Worksof Bonaventure: 30. Bonaventure, Collations Cardinal, and Saint, trans.Jose de Vinck (Paterson, New Jersey: St. Anthony Guild Press, Doctor Seraphic with thesun, and the moon. . . 1970), p. 341. See also p. 361: "And so the soul is a womanclothed

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DanteStudies,CXIV,1996 Underher stars,for it is full of lights and never turns its eyes of twelve feet, anduponherheada crown away from light." in Hexaemeron, also known as Illuminationes survives in two ratherdifferent Collationes Ecclesia, in Hexaemeron et one edited by FerdinandM. Delorme (S. Bonaventurae,Collationes reportationes, Bonaventuriana Selecta[Florentiae:Ad ClarasAquas, 1934]), the other translatedby de Quaedam Vinck whom I cite in this essay. For a description of the Collationes , see IgnatiusBrady,O.F.M., "St. Bonaventure'sDoctrine of Illumination: Reactions Medieval and Modern," in Bonaventure and Aquinas:EnduringPhilosophers, ed. Robert W. Shahan and Francis J. Kovach (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), pp. 60-61. Brady points out that the "work was well the known" (n. 14), being published four times between 1495 and 1588. Indeed, the Collationes, Itinerarium the Commentary on Peter Lombard'sSentences, and some spuriousworks were mentis, "allthat survived the Renaissance" before the Quaracchieditions of 1882-1902 (p. 57). 31. Out., p. 361. 32. For a very different reading of the iconographyof the third circle in terms of Joachim's thought, see Peter Dronke, "'Orizzonte che rischiari': Notes towards the Interpretationof Paradiso xiv," Romance xxrx, No. 1 (1975), 1-19. Philology, 33. Herzman, "Danteand the Apocalypse,"p. 413. For a differentversion of recapitulationin Apocalypseinterpretation,see Matter, "The Apocalypsein EarlyMedieval Exegesis,"pp. 39-40. 34. "The Apocalypsein EarlyMedieval Exegesis,"p. 46. See also E. Ann Matter, The Voice of MedievalChristianity My Beloved:The Song of Songs in Western (Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress, 1990), pp. 14, 106-111. 35. For a careful reading of the clock simile and its transformationof the alba, see Patricia A Note on Paradiso x, 139-48,"Lectura Dantis,VI(1990), 92-99. Zupan, "The New Dantean;42foi: 36. Op dr., p. 103. 37. Researchfor this essaywas begun under the auspicesof a 1990 Summer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A version of the essaywas presented in a panel on "MedievalConcepts of the BiblicalApocalypsein Literature" at the Twenty-eighth International Congress on Medieval Studies, The Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University, May 1993. I am particularlygrateful to Ronald Herzman and to Guy Raffa for their helpful and encouragingreadings.

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