Commentary Inf I 63
For lengthy reviews of the problems raised by centuries of exegesis of this difficult verse see Brugnoli (Brug.1981.1) and Hollander (Holl.1983.1), pp. 23-79. Both of these writers independently agree on most of the key elements in the puzzle: fioco is to be taken as visual rather than aural; silenzio is understood as deriving from the Virgilian sense of the silence of the dead shades (e.g., Aen. VI.264: umbrae silentes). It is fair also to say that neither deals convincingly with the adjective lungo. How can one see that a 'silence' is of long duration? A recent intervention by Casagrande (Casa.1997.1), pp. 246-248, makes a strong case for interpreting the adjective lungo as here meaning 'vast, extensive,' having a spatial reference. In his reading he verse would mean 'who appeared indistinct in the vast silence'; our translation reflects his view. Casagrande's second point, that the 'silence' refers to the wood is well argued and seems attractive. He believes (pp. 251-254) that Uguccione da Pisa, one of Dante's main encyclopedic sources, in the MS Can Misc. 305 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dating from 1262, offers the Greek word xylon as equivalent to the Latin lignum for 'forest.' The Latin silva may thus derive from a word that means, according to Uguccione, 'vastitas vel silentium. Inde silva ubi sunt loca vasta et deserta et silentio plena' (vastness or silence; and thus a silva is a place marked by a space that is extensive, deserted, and full of silence). There is perhaps no other brief passage ever adduced that is as close to Dante's line. Casagrande's paraphrase of the verse is thus 'uno che nella grande selva appariva indistinto' (one who in the vast forest was hard to make out). This would be convincing except for a single detail: Virgil does not appear to Dante in the selva but on the plain between forest and mountain, as the protagonist runs back down toward the forest (but not into it). And thus one may be disposed to accept Casagrande's reading of lungo while adjusting his sense of silenzio to make it refer to the 'silent' space between the mountain and the wood. See C.Inf.I.64.

Padoan makes the point (DDP Padoan.Inf.I.63) that it is Aristotle, and not Virgil, who is 'maestro e duca de la ragione umana' (Conv.IV.iv.8), not to mention 'maestro di color che sanno' ([Inf IV 131]). Virgil is more significant a figure for being a poet, and is also seen as having come closer, in some mysterious way, to the truths of Christianity. On this subject see Courcelle (Cour.1955.1).

For a more recent discussion of this tormented verse see Cass.1989.1 and Cass.1989.2, pp. 84-93. And for a previous review of the dispute over the verse's meaning, arguing for the resonance in Dante's verse of the death of Misenus ({Virg.Aen.VI.149}), see Sang.1985.1. Most recently see Heil.1995.1.