Piccarda Donati doesn’t stop her monologue with the cryptic line about her life after the convent. She turns to another figure in the lunar landscape: Constance I of Sicily, the Holy Roman Empress and mother of Frederick II, the stupor mundi.

Piccarda offers Constance a parallel life to her own. The problem is, Piccarda’s account doesn’t match the historical record.

But maybe Dante has other fish to fry. Maybe he’s more interested in Constance’s son, the Holy Roman Emperor that many are insistent on calling “the anti-Christ.”

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the final lines of Canto III, the shortest canto of PARADISO.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:22] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 130. If you’d like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:02] Linguistic and poetic details at the end of Canto III: shades, dark spots in redemption, Narcissus, line rhythms, and a seal in the wax.

[10:24] Constance I of Sicily, the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the grandmother of Manfred (PURGATORIO, Canto III).

[14:17] Parallels with the Donati family in COMEDY and a possible rehabilitation for Frederick II.

[17:17] The sphere of the moon, a community of women (only women?)

[20:10] When they vanish, where do they go?

[21:36] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, lines 109 - 130.