Commentary Par XIII 59

This is the first appearance (see [Par XXXIII 115]; and see [Par XXIX 15] for the shining angelic substance announcing itself in the Latin verb Subsistere [to exist]) of the Scholastic-flavored noun 'subsistence,' i.e., existence as purely related to God's nature as is possible, here, in the nine orders of angels.  Cf. [Par XIV 73] and C.Par.XIV.73.  And see Alfonso Maierù ('sussistenza,' ED.1976.5, pp. 493a-94b), who cites Boethius, in De duabus naturis, referring to 'a being, which, in order to be able itself to exist, has no need of any other being.'  See also Tozer (DDP Tozer.Par.XIII.58-59): 'These are called "subsistences," because this is the Scholastic term for that which exists by itself, and not in anything else; cp. Aquinas [ST I, q. 29, a. 2].'  Among the earliest commentators there is a certain hesitation in choosing between angels and heavens (e.g., Jacopo della Lana [DDP Lana.Par.XIII.55-60]).  Benvenuto (DDP Benvenuto.Par.XIII.55-60), however, is definitive in seeing the angels here ('idest in novem ordines angelorum').  The dispute meandered along until Scartazzini's magisterial review (DDP Scartazzini.Par.XIII.59) of that errancy and his interpretation fixed the identification (Benvenuto's) for nearly all later discussants: the nine orders of angels.  Scartazzini invokes passages in Dante's own texts: Epistle XIII, Convivio II.v and III.xiv, and most particularly [Par XXIX 142-145].  Today one cannot find a discussant who has not benefited from Scartazzini's gloss, whether directly or indirectly; at the same time one can find no commentator (at least not among those included in the DDP) who even mentions him, although Singleton (DDP Singleton.Par.XIII.59) does cite two of the Dantean passages that he cited.