Commentary Par XII 46-57

Dominic was 'born 1170, in the village of Calaroga, in Old Castile; he is supposed to have belonged to the noble family of Guzmàn, his father's name being Felix, his mother's Joanna.  The latter is said to have dreamed before he was born that she gave birth to a dog with a torch in its mouth, which set the world on fire.  At the age of fourteen he went to the university of Palencia, where he studied theology for ten or twelve years.  He was early noted for his self-denial and charity.  In 1195 he became canon of the cathedral of Osma.  In 1215 he accompanied Folquet, bishop of Toulouse, to the Lateran Council; and in the same year, on his return to Toulouse, he founded his order of Preaching Friars, which was formally recognized by Honorius III in 121[7].  He died in Aug. 1221 at Bologna, where he was buried.  He was canonized soon after his death (in 1234) by Gregory IX' (Domenico).  And see G.R. Sarolli, 'Domenico, santo' (ED.1970.2, pp. 546-51).  Sarolli points out that, when Dominic, with six companions, arrived in Toulouse in 1215, on the verge of forming a more structured group, he associated with Folco di Marsiglia (whom we encountered in [Par IX 88-102]), the newly appointed bishop of that city.

For a global consideration of Bonaventure's praise of Dominic, see Ledda (Ledd.2006.1).

For Gorni (Gorn.2004.1), pp. 51-56, the description of Dominic's birthplace does not work in tandem with the description of Francis's (see C.Par.XI.43-51), a function the text itself ([Par XI 37-42]) claims -- as Gorni admits -- but in an opposite way, that is, to support the position of the Spiritual Franciscans (see C.Par.XI.58-60) and to undermine that of the Dominicans.  A key component of Gorni's reading is the pun found in the name Calaroga, the town in Spain where Dominic was born, which not only has the resonance of the setting sun (by common consent) but an innate negative sense, opposing the optimistic oriens of Assisi/Ascesi, in its first two syllables, cala, which reflects a sense of the verb calare, to sink or fall.  It is difficult to accept this assessment, which would undo all that Dante has crafted to make Dominic and Francis equal –- even if Dominic is not seen by Dante in the Rose of the saved souls in the Empyrean, a point insisted on by Gorni, in whose view the third cantica is (p. 54) no less, in its essence, than 'a manifesto of Spiritual Franciscanism.'  Among the commentators, few would support Gorni's hypothesis, but, for one who might, see Mestica (DDP Mestica.Par.XII.37-39), making two fairly obvious points: The Seraphim are closer to God than are the Cherubim; Dominic is never mentioned again in the oem, while Francis is.  Nonetheless, Dante, here and for the rest of the Paradiso, makes the core 'Dominican' value (knowledge) and the 'Franciscan' one (love) so conjoined that a reader naturally resists (and should) any attempt to make Dante more a praiser of Dominic (a view sponsored by Busnelli's Thomistic view of Dante's theology) than of Francis (or vice versa), either of which understandings the text rather clearly and insistently strives to make all but impossible.