Benedetto e la visio: contemplatio ed esperienza

In a canto mainly devoted to cultural transmission, such as the XXII of Paradise, the poetic depth is offered by the recurrence of the motifs and by the activation of a surprised response on the reader’s part. The topics dealt with chase each other throughout the entire episode and unite in a circularity that produces emphasis. The text doesn’t result predictable, because Dante distorts the reader’s expectations introducing an apparently contradictory logic. Examples of these two aspects also underline the inner coherence of the canto, in turn consistent with the macro-text, thanks to a discrete but evident intertwining that the study examines. In fact, not only the importance of the visio is reaffirmed in the canto by the contemplative spirits, but the mention of Apollo’s temple, “re-endowed with meaning” for Christian worship by St. Benedict, alludes to the same Apollo Dante invoked at the beginning of Paradise, whose worship is also re-endowed with meaning there, like all of classical poetry is, read and re-interpreted by the very conservative work of the Benedictines.