Toynbee "Beatrice_1"

The assumption that D.'s Beatrice was the daughter of Folco Portinari rests mainly on a statement of Boccaccio which he makes in his Vita di Dante, and more explicitly in his Comento. In commenting on [Inf. ii. 70], where the name of Beatrice occurs for the first time he says:

. . . perciochè questa é la primiera volta che di questa donna nel presente libro si fa menzione, non pare indegna cosa alquanto manifestare di cui l'autore, in alcune parti della presente opera, intenda, nominando lei.... Fu adunque questa donna (secondo la relazione di fededegna persona, la quale la conobbe, e fu per consanguinità strettissima a lei) figliuola d'un valente uomo chiamato Folco Portinari, antico cittadino di Firenze: e, come che l'autore sempre la nomini Beatrice dal suo primitivo, ella fu chiamata Bice; ed egli acconciamente il testimonia nel Paradiso, là dove dice: 'Ma quella reverenza, che s'indonna Di tutto me, pur per B e per ice.' E fu di costumi e d'onestà laudevole quanto donna esser debba e possa, e di bellezza e di leggiadria assai ornata; e fu moglie d'un cavaliere de' Bardi, chiamato messer Simone; nel ventiquattresimo anno delta sua età passò di questa vita, negli anni di Cristo MCCXC.

[See M. Barbi, SD, i (1920), 148-155; or PCD, ii, pp. 415�420.]

This very definite statement as to both the parentage and marriage of Beatrice was made by Boccaccio, within fifty years of D.'s death, in his public lectures before a Florentine audience, at a time when the Portinari and Bardi, both of them well-known families, were still residing in Florence. It is hardly credible that he should thus publicly commit himself, and run the risk of being publicly contradicted, unless his statement were in accordance with the actual facts.

In addition to this testimony of Boccaccio (whose father, it may be noted, was intimately connected with the Bardi, having acted as their agent in Paris), there is the evidence of the poet's own son, Pietro di Dante, in his comment on [Inf. ii. 70] [in a passage which occurs in the MS. Ashburnham (841) of the Comento, but is omitted from the version printed by Lord Vernon]:

Et quia modo hic primo de Beatrice fit mentio, de qua tantus est sermo maxime infra in tertio libro Paradisi, premictendum est quod revera quedam domina nomine Beatrix, insignis valde moribus et pulcritudine tempore auctoris viguit in civitate Florentie, nata de domo quorumdam civium florentinorum qui dicuntur Portinarii, de qua Dantes auctor procus fuit et amator in vita dicte domine, et in ejus laudem multas fecit cantilenas; qua mortua ut ejus nomen in famam levaret in hoc suo poemate sub allegoria et typo theologie eam ut plurimum accipere voluit. [See: P. Toynbee, Romania, xxiii (1894), 265.]

Benvenuto da Imola, who was a friend of Boccaccio and attended his lectures on Dante in Florence, is emphatic as to the reality of Beatrice, though he does not mention her family name:

Sed quae est ista Beatrix? Ad hoc sciendum est quod ista Beatrix realiter et vere fuit mulier florentina magnae pulcritudinis.

The function of Beatrice in the D.C. is to conduct D. from the Terrestrial to the Celestial Paradise. She appears to Virgil (having been moved by St. Lucy, at the bidding of the Virgin Mary) and sends him to the help of D. ([Inf. ii. 52-118]). Subsequently, when Virgil has left D., she appears to D. himself, standing on a mystic car, and clad in white, green, and red (the colours of the three theological virtues faith, hope, and charity) ([Purg. xxx. 31-33]), addressing him by name ([Purg. xxx. 55]), she calls him to account for the error of his ways ([Purg. xxx. 103] to [Purg. xxxi. 69]); then, after having revealed to him the destiny of the Church, she accompanies him on his pilgrimage through heaven as his guide and interpreter, and finally leaves him (after a solemn denunciation of Boniface VIII and Clement V) to resume her seat among the Elect, at the side of Rachel, in the Celestial Rose, sending St. Bernard to take her place with D. ([Par. xxxi. 59]). [Bernardo_2: Rosa: Virgilio.]

Allegorically, Beatrice represents the Light of Grace (lumen gratiae) in the allegory of the journey, following upon Virgil as the Natural Light (lumen naturale) and leading to the final experience of the Light of Glory (lumen gloriae). But no single name will do Beatrice full justice, and at times in the allegory of the journey she is best seen as Revelation, or Sapientia creata, or as a Love de sursum descendens, another name for which is caritas creata; and her role as an analogue to Christ (Sapientia increata) is at times most strikingly developed, e.g. in Purg. xxix-xxx.

Speaking to Virgil Beatrice refers to D. as l'amico mio, [Inf. ii. 61]; D. himself she addresses once only by name, Dante being her first word to him, [Purg. xxx. 55]; on other occasions she addresses him as frate, [Purg. xxxiii. 23]; [Par iii. 70], [Par. iv. 100], [Par. vii. 58], [Par. vii. 130]; she addresses him always in the second person singular, while D. uses the plural to her until his final address ([Par. xxxi. 79-90]).

Beatrice is mentioned by name sixty-three times in the D. C. but on no occasion does D. address her by name; the name occurs twice only in the Inferno, [Inf. ii. 70], [Inf. ii. 103], seventeen times in the Purgatorio, [Purg. vi. 46], [Purg. xv. 77], [Purg. xviii. 48], [Purg. xviii. 73], [Purg. xxiii. 128], [Purg. xxvii. 36], [Purg. xxvii. 53], [Purg. xxx. 73], [Purg. xxxi. 80], [Purg. xxxi. 107], [Purg. xxxi. 114], [Purg. xxxi. 133], [Purg. xxxii. 36], [Purg. xxxii. 85], [Purg. xxxii. 106], [Purg. xxxiii. 4], [Purg. xxxiii. 124]; forty-four times in the Paradiso, [Par. i. 46], [Par. i. 64], [Par. ii. 22], [Par. iii. 127], [Par. iv. 13], [Par. iv. 139], [Par. v. 16], [Par. v. 85], [Par. v. 122], [Par. vii. 16], [Par. ix. 16], [Par. x. 37], [Par. x. 52], [Par. x. 60], [Par. xi. 11], [Par. xiv. 8], [Par. xiv. 79], [Par. xv. 70], [Par. xvi. 13], [Par. xvii. 5], [Par. xvii. 30], [Par. xviii. 17], [Par. xviii. 53], [Par. xxi. 63], [Par. xxii. 125], [Par. xxiii. 19], [Par. xxiii. 34], [Par. xxiii 76], [Par. xxiv. 10], [Par. xxiv. 22], [Par. xxiv. 55], [Par. xxv. 28], [Par. xxv. 137], [Par. xxvi. 77], [Par. xxvii. 34], [Par. xxvii. 102], [Par. xxix. 8], [Par. xxx. 14], [Par. xxx. 128], [Par. xxxi. 59], [Par. xxxi. 66], [Par. xxxi. 76], [Par. xxxii. 9], [Par. xxxiii. 38].

D. speaks of B. as donna beata e bella, [Inf. ii. 53]; donna di virtù, [Inf. ii. 76]; loda di Dio vera [Inf. ii. 103], quella il cui bell'occhio tutto vede [Inf. x. 131]; donna che saprà , [Inf. xv. 90]; quella . . . che lume fia tra 'l vero e lo 'ntelletto, [Purg. vi. 44-45]; la donna, [Purg. xxx. 64]; la donna mia, [Purg. xxxii. 122]; [Par. v. 94], [Par vii. 11], [Par. viii. 15]; madonna, [Par. ii. 46]; Quel sol che pria d'amor mi scaldò 'l petto, [Par. iii. 1]; la dolce guida, [Par. iii. 23]; amanza del primo amante, [Par. iv. 118]; diva, [Par. iv. 118]; la bella donna, [Par. x. 93]; colei Ch'a l'alto volo ti vestì le piume, [Par. xv. 53-54]; quella donna ch'a Dio mi menava, [Par. xviii. 4]; il mio conforto, [Par. xviii. 8] quel miracol, [Par. xviii. 63]; la mia celeste scorta, [Par. xxi. 23]; quella ond'io aspetto il come e 'l quando / del dire e del tacer, [Par. xxi. 46-47]; la mia guida, [Par. xxii. 1]; dolce guida e cara, [Par. xxiii. 34]; la dolce donna, [Par. xxii. 100]; quella pia che guidò le penne / de le mie ali a così alto volo, [Par. xxv. 49-50]; quella che 'mparadisa la mia mente,' [Par. xxviii. 3]; quella che vedea i pensier dubi / ne la mia mente, [Par. xxviii. 97-98]; il sol de li occhi miei, [Par. xxx. 75]; he refers to her familiar name Bice, [Par. vii. 14]. [Bice.]

In the Vita Nuova Beatrice is mentioned by name twenty-three times: V.N. ii. 1, V.N. v. 2, V.N. v. 4, V.N. xii. 6, V.N. xiv. 4, V.N. xxii. 1, V.N. xxii. 3, V.N. xxiii. 3, V.N. xxiii. 13, V.N. xxiv. 3, V.N. xxiv. 4, V.N. xxiv. 5, V.N. xxviii. 1, V.N. xxxi. 3, V.N. xxxi. 5, V.N. xxxi. 10, V.N. xxxi. 14, V.N. xxxix. 1, V.N. xxxix. 2, V.N. xl. 10, V.N. xli. 13, V.N. xlii 3; D. refers to her as la gloriosa donna della mia mente, V.N. ii. 1; la gentilissima B., V.N. v. 2, V.N. v. 4, V.N. xiv. 4, V.N. xxiii. 3, V.N. xxxix. 2; la mia donna, V.N. vi. 2, V.N. xviii. 8, V.N. xxiv. 2, V.N. xl. 1, etc.; la gentilissima donna, V.N. ix. 3, V.N. xiv. 5, V.N. xxvi. 1, V.N. xl. 1; quella gentilissima, la quale fue distruggitrice di tutti li vizi e regina de le virtudi, V.N. x. 2; la donna de la cortesia, V.N. xii. 2; la mirabile donna, V.N. xiv. 5, V.N. xxiii. 6; questa gentilissima, V.N. xi. 3, V.N. xiv. 1, V.N. xviii. 9, V.N. xxi. 1, V.N. xxii. 3, V.N. xxiii. 15, V.N. xxviii. 1; questa donna, V.N. xiv. 6, V.N. xv. 8, V.N. xvi. 4, V.N. xvii. 2, V.N. xviii. 6, V.N. xix. 17, V.N. xxi. 5, V.N. xxii. 2, V.N. xxii. 5, V.N. xxxiv. 1; la mia gentilissima donna, V.N. viii. 2; madonna, V.N. xix. 9, V.N. xix. 17; tanta meraviglia, V.N. xxii. 1 questa nobilissima B., V.N. xxii. 1; donna gentile, V.N. xxii. 9; la mirabile B., V.N. xxiv. 3; Bice, V.N. xxiv. 8; questa B. beata, V.N. xxviii. 1, la mia nobilissima donna, V.N. xxxvi. 1; questa gloriosa B., V.N. xxxix. 1; questa benedetta, V.N. xlii. 1; quella benedetta B., V.N. xlii. 3.

In the Convivio she is mentioned by name four times: Conv. II. ii. 1, Conv. II. ii. 3, Conv. II. vi. 7, Conv. II. viii. 7; D. speaks of her as quella B. beata, Conv. II. ii. 1; quella gloriosa B., Conv. II. ii. 3, Conv. II. vi. 7; quella viva B. beata, Conv. II. viii. 7; quella gloriosa donna, Conv. II. viii. 16; lo primo diletto de la mia anima, Conv. II. xii. 1.