Commentary Par II 1-18

For the Ovidian resonances in this passage, so marked by classical motif (the poem as voyage across a sea, the poet as inspired by gods and/or muses) and allusion (Jason and the voyage of the Argonauts), see Picone (Pico.1994.1), pp. 191-200.

The baptismal and related gnoseological resonances of the network of images in the opening of this canto are closely studied by Giorgio Stabile (Stab.1989.1), pp. 35-42, 55-77.