This article accompanies the fable
Angel Incarnate



Aquinas and Dante: the Four Senses

In the medieval world, when it came to reading scripture, there was an initial literal or historical meaning and then three mystical levels built on top, like the layers of Mount Purgatory: the moral or psychological, the anagogical or spiritual and the allegorical. These are the Four Senses and this chapter is written in that sequence. Saint Thomas Aquinas formalized these distinctions in Summa Theologica (written 1265–1274) and Dante perhaps had them in mind when he wrote Divine Comedy.

For Aquinas there were occupational hazards in being famous. Below is The Temptation of Saint Thomas Aquinas, by Bolognese painter Giovan Francesco Gessi, from the 1630's. Saint Thomas is driving off his temptress with a burning ember - surely ambiguous symbolism.

Dante appears below in Domenico di Michelino's La Commedia Illumina Firenze, a 1465 fresco in the dome of Florence's cathedral. Dante is holding his poem, with Hell on the left, Purgatory in the center and Florence on the right. Virgil goes to Hell and while Dante may get to Heaven, Beatrice never loves him... and Jesus never shows up.