Walking With Dante17 Mar 2024

A Bad Boy Makes Good On The Terrace Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 109 - 139

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We’ve come to the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XI . . . and the end of the artist Oderisi’s monologue. He finishes up, not with more about himself, but with the tale of the third penitent we see on the first terrace after the gate: Provenzan Salvani, a bad boy from Siena who plotted Florence's demise and who also perhaps foreshadows our poet's exile.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore some of the gorgeous poetry in this passage and try to come to terms with how Dante is constructing this very new bit of theology: Purgatory.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:30] Echoes in the opening lines of this passage: from the Bible, from INFERNO.

[08:59] Back to the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 CE.

[11:04] The kinds of pride on this first terrace of Purgatory.

[12:58] A gorgeous passage in the Florentine.

[15:36] Provenzan Salvani, a Ghibelline tyrant from Siena who plotted Florence's demise.

[18:09] "Contrapasso" or "debt"?

[20:24] The logistics of Dante's Purgatory.

[23:37] A murky repentance.

[26:52] Another prophecy of Dante's exile.

[28:50] The gloss life gives to art.

[31:09] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139.

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