Commentary Purg VI 76-77

This passage begins what Benvenuto considers the third part of this canto, 'a digression against Italy and the principal authors of her desolation.'  Dante himself, at [Purg VI 128], refers to his 'digressing' here; but no one can possibly imagine that this 'digression' is not central to his purpose.  (On the subject of Dante's propensity to digression see Corsi [Cors.1987.1].)  The poet will directly address Italy herself, the Church, the uncrowned Habsburg emperor Albert, God, and, finally, Florence.

      As has long been noted, the sixth canto of each cantica is devoted to the treatment of political issues, those of Florence (Inf.), of Italy (Purg.), of the empire (Par.) -- though these subjects are intertwined.  The precise nature of the 'parallelism' among the canti of the three cantiche is debated.  An assertion of an 'orthodox' relationship (i.e., 1:1:1) is offered by Shaw (Shaw.1987.1); far different is that put forward by Kay (Kay.1992.1 and Kay.1994.1), who argues that the most distinct parallels occur among the final 33 cantos of Inferno and the 33 in the other canticles (i.e., 2:1:1 to 34:33:33).  For a different approach, one privileging parallel episodes, not necessarily reflecting numerical patterns, see Iannucci (Iann.1981.1) and Howard (Howa.2001.1).  It seems clear that, while there are any number of 'parallels' in the poem, Dante avoided any rigorous organization of these.  Those who have attempted to find the signs of a more regulated system have not done so convincingly.