Commentary Par XXVI 115-117

Adam answers first the third question that Dante has put to him, a question which, as many commentators point out, reflects the gravest issue that Adam knows: his own disobedience that cost him and all our race Eden. This is 'paradisal' behavior that we witness here; what sinner in Inferno would voluntarily recite his worst sin first (or at all)?  There are a few exceptions, beginning with Ciacco (see [Inf VI 53]), but most, as we saw, try to avoid this subject.

Hardly anyone dealing with this tercet recently (and this is particularly true with respect to American Dantists, who are perhaps more drawn to Ulysses than may seem reasonable) fails to discuss the obvious 'quotation' in the phrase 'il trapassar del segno' (the trespass of the boundary line) of [Inf XXVI 107-109]: '... we reached the narrow strait / where Hercules marked off [segnò] the limits, / warning all men to go no farther.' Surprisingly, the only apparent mention in the commentaries collected in the DDP (but see, e.g., Chiavacci Leonardi [Chia.1997.1], p. 728) is in Bosco/Reggio (DDP Bosco.Par.XXVI.109-117), referring to this passage's relationship with the theme of transgression, as embodied in the canto of Ulysses.  However, cf. (among others) Iannucci (Iann.1976.1), p. 426; Hawkins (Hawk.1979.1); Brownlee (Brow.1990.1), p. 394; and Barolini (Baro.1992.1), pp. 49, 52, 58, 106, 108, 112, and 238, whose treatment begins with reference to Nardi's consideration (Nard.1942.1) of both Ulysses and Adam as having trespassed boundaries.  See also Rati (Rati.1988.1), pp. 513-14.

For a less than convincing emendation of Inferno XXVI.100, substituting arto (narrow) for alto (deep), see Gorni (Gorn.2000.1).