A Dante Note--Smeraldo

Abstract

THE smeraldi before which Dante is placed in the terrestrial paradise (Purg., xxxi.116) are the eyes of Beatrice, as most commentators agree.' But many modern commentators have taken smeraldi as synonymous with precious gems rather than the particular gem smaragdus or smeraldo, whose properties are described in the mediaeval lapidaries.2 Of the fourteenth-century commentators, only the Ottimo mentions the properties of the smeraldo, and even here the editor Alessandro Torri adds in a note: 'Questa chiosa pare giunta di men abile Comentatore.'3 Yet the properties of the emerald as described in the lapidaries have a direct bearing on the passage in question. Lombardi4 refers us to the treatment of the gem in Pliny's Natural History, where the passage reads as follows: 'nullius coloris aspectus incundior (read iucundior) est. nam herbas quoque silentes frondesque avide spectamus, smaragdos vero tanto libentius, quoniam nihil omnino viridius conparatum illis viret. praeterea soli gemmarum contuitu inplent oculos nec satiant. quin et ab intentione alia aspectu smaragdi recreatur acies, scalpentibusque gemmas non alia gratior oculorum refectio est: ita viridi lenitate lassitudinem mulcent.'5 The treatment is repeated more briefly in the epitome of Pliny written by Solinus,6 and even less completely for this purpose in the Origines of Isidor of Seville,7 the dictionary of Papias,8 the Magnae derivationes of Uguccione da Pisa,9 or the Catholicon of Giovanni da Genova.'0 The difficulty which arises in tracing the source to Pliny is that Dante nowhere betrays any direct knowledge of this author. Likewise, we cannot trace Dante's knowledge of precious stones to the dictionaries of Papias, Uguccione da Pisa, or Giovanni da Genova, as Paget Toynbee tends to indicate,'2 at least in so far as smaradgus is concerned.