Commentary Purg XVIII 17-18

Virgil's words reflect Matthew 15:14, where Jesus says that the Pharisees are blind guides of the blind who follow them, adding that guide and flock shall all end up falling into a ditch.

In Convivio (Conv.I.xi.4) Dante cites this passage, directing its barb against 'those wicked Italians who praise the vernacular of others while disparaging their own' (Conv.I.xi.1) and who are therefore likewise headed toward disaster. As Francesco Mazzoni argues ('Latini, Brunetto,' ED.1971.3, p. 580b), in this connection it is difficult not to think of Dante's fellow Florentine Brunetto Latini, who wrote his encyclopedic Tresor in French rather than in his native vernacular (see Pézard [Peza.1950.1] for extensive development of this idea). Also to be considered are the words, written shortly before or shortly after this passage (on the problems of dating Dve and Conv. see Hollander [Holl.2001.1], pp. 54-55), in De vulgari eloquentia (V.E.I.xiii.1, when Dante 'exiles' Brunetto from the illustrious and courtly vernacular that he is championing, relegating him to the ash heap of the municipal vernacular, the 'street talk' that is to be avoided by serious poets. In what seems to have been a change of heart, Brunetto, in the fifteenth canto of Inferno, will be treated generously as Dante's vernacular 'teacher' ([Inf XV 85]), just as Virgil was his first Latin guide. It seems clear that these two are joined only by Guido Guinizzelli as explicitly paternal figures of writerly authority for the Tuscan poet.

Dante refers to, whether as protagonist or as poet, various 'fathers' in the course of the poem (this is to exclude 'fathers' addressed by other characters). Of those listed below, those numbered 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 are only addressed or referred to once; all the others have at least two other paternal moments for Dante, except for St. Bernard, who has only one other; Virgil leads all 'fathers' with a dozen other occurrences. Of these twelve 'fathers,' seven are addressed, those numbered 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12. The parenthetic reference is to the first appearance of each 'father.'

(1) Virgil ([Inf VIII 110])

(2) Brunetto Latini ([Inf XV 83])

(3) Cato of Utica ([Purg I 33])

(4) Guido Guinizzelli ([Purg XXVI 97])

(5) God (addressed as 'good Apollo,' [Par I 28])

(6) St. Francis ([Par XI 85])

(7) Cacciaguida ([Par XVI 16])

(8) St. Benedict ([Par XXII 58])

(9) the sun ([Par XXII 116])

(10) St. Peter ([Par XXIV 62])

(11) Adam ([Par XXVI 92])

(12) St. Bernard ([Par XXXI 63])

Frank Ordiway's lengthy article, 'Brunetto and Dante,' completed in draft ca. 1992 but still under revision, offers detailed analysis of the program of Dante's 'fathers' in the poem. See, for his first treatment of this material, his doctoral dissertation (Ordi.1990.1).