YOLKING THE END TO ITS SOURCE: CIRCULAR GEOMETRY AND MOTION AS AN IMAGE OF DIVINE ASCENT IN DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA

Dante's Divina Commedia is one of the most renowned works extant from the medieval era. His poetry is imbued with striking images which characterize the relationship between God, man, and His entire created order. Central to these images is la via (the way) which, for Dante, marks the path of man's return to his creator. This return is typified by a geometric image of perfection, i.e., a circle, since God is perfect unity and the rejoining of man with his source consequently follows a circular path. Dante suggests that the circle, being an image of perfection, is concomitant to the image of God Himself, and further that He imprinted this image upon man and the cosmos. Such a suggestion warrants further investigation into the circular mode of man's return to the divine in the Commedia, to examine the imprint of the divine image upon man through the creative act of God. This examination of Dante's Commedia seeks to outline the structure of Dante's cosmos as principally circular, focusing not only on the overt presence of circular structures but also on the motion of Dante the pilgrim in and through those structures. Further, it endeavors to establish this circular organization, which is formed by Wisdom, Love, and the Good, as a theological image of man's return to 'the way' and his motion toward God.