Dante and the Mystical Tradition: Bernard of Clairvaux in the 'Commedia.'

Medium Aevum, Spring, 1996 by L. Pertile

Steven Botterill, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 42 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). x 269 pp. ISBN 0-521-43454-8. 37.50[pounds].

`Our century knows too much about the Commedia for its own good: many of those who write about the poem in the 19905 begin with acts of "re-reading", taking mere "reading" for granted' (p. 7). Steven Botterill's aim in this engaging book is to approach the episode of St Bernard in the final cantos of the Paradiso with, as far as possible, the eyes of a first-time reader, and only later to relate his reading to the existing critical tradition. This involves him in the attempt `to re-create -- in full awareness of the theoretical limitations inherent in the exercise -- the reaction of a contemporary of Dante, encountering the poem and Bernard as a character in it for the first time' (p. 15). He thus examines the saint's early biographies and his presence in a number of key writers among the Dominicans (Albert the Great, Aquinas, John of Paris), the Franciscans (Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales, Matthew of Aquasparta, Conrad of Saxony), and the Spiritual Franciscans Joachim of Fiore, Pietro di Giovanni Olivi, Ubertino da Casale). He also studies the penetration of Bernard's works into vernacular milieux (volgarizzamenti and hymns), as well as the iconography of the saint, and the availability of his texts in Italy. The results of this investigation are unsurprising on the whole: perceptions of the saint differed widely, but all recognized his `uniquely efficacious use of language' (p. 41). This is also, together with his devotion to the Virgin Mary and his preference for contemplation, one of the saint's major qualities in Dante's presentation of him in the last three cantos of the Commedia. Botterill's reading of the episode is very sensitive to the complex nature of Dante's poetic operation. He does tend, however, to overstate the impact made by Bernard's arrival upon the scene. No doubt he comes as a surprise to the first-time reader, but not perhaps to the point of constituting `a devastating subversion, at the eleventh narrative hour, of a whole set of assumptions on which readers of the Commedia thus far may, quite legitimately, have come to rely' (p. 65). After all, as Botterill states later (p. 73), Bernard's appearance is essential for Dante-personaggio tO acquire his new and necessary understanding of Beatrice before he applies his sight to the supreme challenge of the vision of God.

In the second part of his book (the part assigned to `Re-reading'), Botterill explores the reactions of the Trecento commentators (from Jacopo della Lana to Giovanni da Serravalle) to the episode of St Bernard. Then, focusing first on Dante's cult of the Virgin, he shows how, although it can be linked with St Bernard's Mariology, the evidence for direct influence is extremely scant. The next chapter is a comparative study of Bernard's deificatio and Dante's trasumanar. After outlining the development of deification language and doctrine in the Greek and Latin traditions, and studying in much greater detail the works of late medieval writers and thinkers from the Victorines to Aquinas, Botterill concludes that Dante's trasumanar is an experience related to mystical excessus rather than to deificatio. The final chapter deals with Bernard's third quality: eloquence. It is only when, and because, Virgil's parola ornata becomes the parole sante of St Bernard that the pilgrim is granted the beatific vision. Against `the linguistic scepticism and distrust of intellectual authority characteristic of the modern (or rather post-modern) age' (p. 249), Botterill finds it more satisfactory `to interpret the very existence of Paradiso as an assertion, even a celebration, of the innate power of language, its potential to undertake an expressive enterprise as daring, but also as rewarding, as the representation to a human audience of an experience of the divine' (p. 251).