Dante's Paradiso - Primum Mobile

Primum Mobile: Angels

The Primum Mobile--"first moving" sphere--is the heaven that, moved by God's love, imparts motion on the other spheres and therefore serves as the origin of time. Beatrice denounces the ease with which humankind, straying from the noble aims of this well-ordered universe, succumbs to greed and cynicism; she blames this situation on the current absence of effective political and moral leadership. Perceiving an extraordinary image reflected in Beatrice's eyes, Dante turns to see a brilliant point of light, infinitely small, encircled by nine concentric, whirling rings of fire. These rings contain the nine orders of angels. The greater the distance of each successive ring from the central point, the less swiftly it revolves and the less brightly it burns. Dante is confused by the discrepancy between these fiery rings of angels and the celestial spheres, until Beatrice explains the inverse relationship between them: the inner (first), most powerful ring of angels (Seraphim) corresponds to the outer (ninth), most powerful sphere (Primum Mobile), the second angelic order (Cherubim) corresponds to the eighth sphere (Fixed Stars), and so on. After naming the nine angelic orders and telling Dante where and when and how the angels were created, Beatrice describes the rapidity with which a number of them rebelled on account of Lucifer's pride. She then refutes false teaching about the angels--such as the theory that they possess memory--and chastises preachers who, ignoring or perverting Scripture, make up stories to show off and get a laugh, or to fleece their gullible listeners. The number of angels, Beatrice adds, exceeds every human word or thought.

Back to top.

Angelic Orders. Cantos 28.16 to 29.145

In the Primum Mobile ("first mover")--the swiftest, outermost sphere that imparts motion to the other spheres--Dante sees nine fiery rings whirling about a central point of intense light. These, as Beatrice explains, are the nine orders of angels, hierarchically arranged according to their proximity to God. Following the order of The Celestial Hierarchy, an early medieval text attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, Dante perceives (from the innermost to the outermost ring): Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. This order differs from the order Dante used in a previous work (Convivio 2.5.6) that followed a version of Gregory the Great; Gregory, we are told, laughed at himself when he saw the correct order of angels in Paradise (28.130-5)!

Dante's angelology is unique for its identification of each order of angels with Aristotle's mover-intelligences of the celestial spheres. His emphasis on the intermediary role of angels in the generation of mortal things is also exemplary. Similar to mirrors, angels reflect the divine light, which remains "one in itself," down through the created universe (29.143-5). As the highest created beings, above humans on the ladder of being, angels are associated with pure reason and contemplation. Dante goes further than most in calling the angels "pure act" (29.33), beings free from both matter and potentiality; this idea contradicts other theological positions (e.g., Thomas Aquinas, for whom only God is "actus purus") and borders on heresy. Sempiternal creatures (eternal since their creation), angels enjoy uninterrupted vision of God (29.76-80). This implies for Dante, against accepted opinion of the time, that angels have no memory (29.80-1).

Back to top.

Primum Mobile. Canto 27.97-148

The Primum Mobile, the largest and swiftest sphere in Dante's cosmology, is the physical origin of life, motion, and time in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic universe. This heaven, the supreme physical heaven in the universe, is enclosed only by the Empyrean, the mind of God. Enkindled in the Empyrean are the love which turns the Primum Mobile and the virtue (or creative power) that the Primum Mobile pours down onto the lower spheres. Therefore the Primum Mobile--or "first moving" sphere--determines the natural operation of the universe, in which the earth is motionless at the center of the nine concentric, revolving heavens. As the physical source of motion, the Primum Mobile serves as the measure for the other spheres and is the basis for time (insofar as time is a function of motion) (Par. 27.106-20). In the Convivio Dante credits Ptolemy with positing the existence of this ninth sphere as a way to account for the slightly varying motion of the Fixed Stars (the eighth sphere) within the daily east to west revolution of the heavens around the earth (2.3.3-6). Identifiable only through its movement, the Primum Mobile is also called the Crystalline heaven because of its total transparency (Convivio 2.3.7).

Back to top.

Inversion. Canto 28.40-78

Dante is confused by an apparent contradiction: the fiery rings of angels are brighter and swifter the closer they are to the central point, whereas the celestial spheres are purer and faster as they increase in size outward from the earth (at the center of the universe). Beatrice must therefore explain this discrepancy between the spiritual realm (the angelic orders) and the physical universe (the spheres). The contradiction disappears if we consider the "power" of the circling rings of angels and not their size and location (28.73-8). From this perspective, the angels and spheres correspond to one another in an inverse relationship: the innermost ring of angels (Seraphim) and the outermost sphere (Primum Mobile) correspond because they are closest to God, from spiritual and physical viewpoints respectively; the Cherubim (second angelic ring from the center) are assigned to the sphere of the Fixed Stars (the next to outermost sphere); and so on, down to the pairing of the outermost angelic ring (simple angels) with the innermost sphere (Moon). This inverse correspondence is based on the theological idea that God "occupies" both the center (as an infinitesimally small point) and a dimension beyond space-time.

Back to top.

False Preaching. Canto 29.82-126.

Erroneous opinions about the nature of angels prompt Beatrice to denounce those teachers and preachers who so love to show off that they invent stories, ignoring or distorting Holy Scripture (Par. 29.82-96). She rejects one such "fable": the belief--authorized by prominent theologians as well as less educated individuals--that the darkness said to have covered the world at Christ's crucifixion (Matthew 27:45) occurred because the moon went off course and eclipsed the sun; this is patently wrong, she claims, because a lunar eclipse would have darkened only a portion of the globe (including Jerusalem), whereas "darkness over the whole earth" means the entire inhabited planet--from Spain to India--was bereft of light. According to Beatrice, the true reason for the universal darkness was, as Jerome proposed, that the sunlight hid itself (Par. 29.97-102).

Beatrice's harsh rebuke of entertaining but dishonest preachers hardly precludes the culpability of their listeners (Par. 29.103-8). On the contrary, people's eagerness to believe promises of pardon (absolution and indulgences), no matter how false, allows Saint Anthony to "fatten his pig" (Par. 29.124): just as the Antonine monks--followers of Saint Anthony the Great (ca. 250-355), a hermit from Egypt (not to be confused with Saint Anthony of Padua)--exploited the piety of the faithful by pasturing their hogs on public land and feeding them on proceeds from charity, so contemporary preachers profit from their parishioners' gullibility. Those who are even more swinish--the lovers and children of such preachers--also benefit from the illegitimate sale of indulgences (Par. 29.125-26). Images of Saint Anthony often include a pig at his feet, most likely to represent his victory over the temptations of Satan.

Back to top.

Audio

"come l'essemplo / e l'essemplare non vanno d'un modo" (28.55-6)
how the original / and copy don't follow the same pattern

Back to top.

Study Questions

1. How does the apparent contradiction--the inverse relationship--between the physical and spiritual universes (28.16-78) relate to other episodes and themes in the Paradiso? What is the significance of such inversions (differences in perspective) for Dante's overall conception of the celestial realm?

2. Less than twenty seconds after their creation, Beatrice explains, a portion of the angels rebelled and fell from grace (29.49-51): how does this rebellion compare with other transgressions described in the poem? What does it mean that Dante once again opts for a very brief period of harmony and innocence?

3. Angels are familiar figures in movies and television shows. What differences and / or similarities do you see between Dante's angels-- their function in the universe, their appearance, creation, and fall-- and modern, popular conceptions of angels?

Back to top.

Back to Paradiso main page