Commentary Par III 29-30

Dante's misprision has set up Beatrice's explanation, central to our understanding of the epistemology of the heavenly spheres.  All whom we meet here are the living souls of real people with real histories (i.e., they are not part of some 'symbolic' or otherwise less 'real' manifestation) and a place in Heaven, i.e., the Empyrean, not one of the lower spheres, where they manifest themselves to Dante only on the occasion of his Pauline visit to the heavens.  It is this last detail to which particular attention must be paid, since later discussion in this canto might lead one to believe that the souls whom we meet in the Moon are indeed its permanent residents.  See [Par III 49-50], [Par III 55-57], [Par III 64-66], [Par III 73-75], [Par III 88-90], [Par III 97], and [Par III 121-123] (and discussion in the accompanying notes).  Virgil describes himself, in the only previous (and only other) use of the verb in the poem ([Purg XXI 18]), as situated in the Limbus, which 'mi rilega nell'etterno essilio' (confines me in eternal exile), hardly envisioned as a temporary state.  (The form 'rilegollo' has, by common consent, a different meaning; at [Inf XXV 7], his blasphemous act of freedom required that Vanni Fucci be bound again.)  But what exactly does rilegare (or relegare, a form that shows up in some manuscripts) mean?  Either 'relegate' or 'bind,' according to Andrea Mariani’s voce 'rilegare' (ED.1973.4, p. 929).  And, as Simone Marchesi has suggested in conversation, whether the form that Dante used was 'relegato' or 'rilegato,' the word may refer to the Roman punishment of 'relegation,' the lesser form of exile (because it was not necessarily permanent).  This description would surely fit the condition of Piccarda and Constance rather well.

Beatrice's words may easily be understood as verifying that the souls in the heaven of the Moon are indeed permanently here, as Francesco da Buti believed (DDP Buti.Par.III.19-33): 'sono nell'ultimo grado di sotto (di Dio) in vita eterna' (they are on the last level farthest from God in the life eternal).  As we move through the relevant passages, it will be clear that Dante is far from having shut the door on such an explanation -- but that is precisely what he will do in the next canto (in [Par IV 28-39]).  In consequence, one would be excused for believing that Beatrice means that Piccarda, Constance, and other Moon-dwellers are rilegate (bound, or, as in our translation, 'assigned') here on a permanent basis.  See also C.Par.IX.119-123.