The Math Behind Dante’s Divine Comedy
“As God’s Creation, we experience a physical realm of differentiated entities and perceive multiplicity in our material reality. The character of Beatrice utilizes this fact in Paradiso 2 when she proposes the mirror experiment. The experiment combines mathematical, geometrical, and optical/physical principles to demonstrate spiritual truths. This experiment, especially its utilization of reflection, plants a seed in Dante, prodding him on his journey to the Divine: ‘Nature offers to the symbolic poet clearly denotable objects in-depth and in the round, which yield the analogies to the higher senses.’ [19] In the Primo Mobile, Dante the poet utilizes these same principles as he approaches the dimensionless punto of the Divine, the source and ground of all being.” [. . .] –Matthew Canonico, University of Notre Dame: Church Life Journal, April 28, 2021
Read the full analysis here.
Sighting Citation:
“The Math Behind Dante’s Divine ComedyDante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Elizabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber, eds. November 19, 2021. https://www.dantetoday.org/sightings/the-math-behind-dantes-divine-comedy/.
Posted November 19, 2021
Sighting Citation:
“The Math Behind Dante’s Divine ComedyDante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Elizabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber, eds. November 19, 2021. https://www.dantetoday.org/sightings/the-math-behind-dantes-divine-comedy/.