Commentary Par XXXIII 137-138

See Kay (Kay.2002.1), pp. 30-31, for the notion, advanced as a follow-up to his examination of the Vitruvian nature of Dante's calculations of the dimensions of both the giants (Inf. XXX) and of Satan (Inf. XXXIV), that what Dante sees is Vitruvius's image of man inscribed in a circle, his umbelicus at the center of the circle, his fingers and toes at the circumference, in what is the eventual model for Leonardo da Vinci's far more famous design.  As charming as this notion is, the word effige in Dante ([Par XXXI 77], [Par XXXIII 131]) seems rather to indicate, as is generally the case in Italian, the visage, not the whole human body.