SOURCE: Raby, F. J. E. “Some Notes on Dante and Macrobius.” Medium Aevum 35, no. 2 (1966): 117-21.

In the following essay, Raby examines Dante's use of Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio in his Purgatorio.

When Dante, with Virgil as his guide, came out from Hell ‘to return unto the bright world’ by a ‘hidden path’ leading to an opening through which they saw ‘the lovely things that the heaven brings forth’, they found themselves in that mysterious and beautiful part of the earth, the island in the encircling sea, from which Mount Purgatory rose to the heavens. There, in the sky, were the Four Stars, which were never seen save by our first parents. The heavens seemed to rejoice in their flames:

O settentrional vedovo sito, poichè privato sei di mirar quelle! 

These stars are none other than the Four Cardinal Virtues, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Dante...