Caption: Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) and Beatrice (1266--1300) in an illustration of the Paradiso (Canto 31) of the Divine Comedy.

One CANNOT be certain how literally Dante took his description of the Heavens. He did refer at least to some aspects of the Divine Comedy as "the fable".

To be specific, did Dante think of Aristotelian cosmology as absolutely real? Maybe. Or maybe he just accepted it as what educated people of his time and place considered the best that could be done by human reason and as what was theologically acceptable to society and himself. It's relevant to say that Dante exhibits NO interest in mathematical astronomy.

Credit/Permission: Gustave Dore (1832-1883), 1867 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Sailko, 2007) / Public domain.
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