Image 1 Caption: Dante (1265--1321) and Beatrice (1265--1290) see the highest Heaven (The Empyrean) in the Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto XXXI.

Features:

1. Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) gives the famous retelling of the concept that the observed Heavens were the theological Heaven in the Paradiso of his epic poem the Divine Comedy.

   But it must be emphasized that Dante was consciously writing an allegory and referred at least to aspects of his story as "the fable" (though yours truly CANNOT find the reference for this anymore).

2. So we CANNOT be certain how literally Dante took his description of the Heavens.

   To be specific, did Dante think of Aristotelian cosmology as absolutely real and did he think of it as part of or an aspect of the theological Heaven? Maybe. Or maybe he just accepted Aristotelian cosmology 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, and so was probably NOT interested in astronomy per se.

   

3. Image 2 Caption: Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) and the realms of Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, and Florence in a fresco from 1465 located in Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral).

4. Dante holds his Divine Comedy opened to the incipit "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("Midway in our life's journey"):
   O Tosco che per la citta del foco
   vivo ten vai cosi parlando onesto,
   piacciati di restare in questo loco.
   

   ---Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto X, Verse 8. See online Inferno, Canto X, Verse 8.

   Yours truly made it through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in the translation by Laurence Binyon (1869--1943) and several times through Hell in the translation by John Ciardi (1916--1986) (The Inferno (1954))---it cheers me up.

Images:

1. Credit/Permission: Gustave Dore (1832--1883) in The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, 1867 by Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) translanted by Henry Francis Cary (1772--1844) (uploaded to Wikimedia Commons Wikipedia by User:Wikibob~commonswiki, 2005) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Paradiso Canto 31.jpg.
   
2. Credit/Permission: Dominco di Michelino (1417--1491) (uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Marie-Lan Nguyen (AKA User:Jastrow), 2006) / Public domain.
   Image link: Wikipedia: File:Dante Domenico di Michelino Duomo Florence.jpg.
   

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