Commentary Purg XXIX 55-57

For a useful discussion of the meaning of stupore (amazement) see De Fazio (Defa.1993.1), pp. 436-45.  She considers this passage alongside its precursor, with which it has evident similarities ([Purg XXVIII 139-148]), in which Statius and Virgil smile at the revelation that this place, the earthly paradise, was what they understood as Parnassus.  Now Dante seeks only to see the reaction of Virgil to the pageant of Revelation and finds that his guide is amazed as are those who cannot understand, for all their wonder and reverence, what they are gazing at.  Thus, for her, Dante's ammirazione and Virgil's stupore have different valences.  For this to be Virgil's final observed behavior in the poem shows Dante's desire to control his admiration for his auctor.  Botterill (Bott.1993.1), p. 405, on the other hand, argues that in these verses, for the first and only time in the poem, Dante and Virgil are 'on a footing of absolute equality.'  On stupore as the sign of Virgil's incomprehension see Hollander (Holl.1983.1), p. 133n.  See Dante's own gloss on stupore in Conv.IV.xxv.5, where it is read as stordimento (stupefaction, bewilderment).