Virgil

Pietro Santi Bartoli, frontispiece, P. Virgilii Maronis Opera, 1724. Rome: Melchior Magius. Gift of Dr J. Orde Poynton. Rare Books, Archives and Special Collections

Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) was born near Mantua in 70 BCE. He wrote the Eclogues c. 37 BCE, the Georgics c. 30 BCE and the Aeneid was begun perhaps in 30 BCE and worked on until his death in 19 BCE. The Aeneid is an epic poem that borrows from Homer’s earlier Odyssey and Illiad, and chronicles the story of Aeneas, who fled the Trojan War to journey toward his destiny, in which his descendants Romulus and Remus found the city of Rome. As part of this voyage he visits the underworld, where the spirit of his father imparts this prophecy to him.

Dante’s inclusion of Virgil in the Divine Comedy as a guide through Hell and Purgatory is significant. Theories abound as to what Virgil represents in the work and to Dante himself, but there are two overriding hypotheses. The first seems to stem from Dante’s respect for Virgil as a poet, and his desire to match the greatness of Virgil’s Aeneid in his own work. The conceit that both Dante and Virgil are prophet-poets is integral: the Aeneid is full of prophecies about the future of Rome and Dante’s Comedy makes pointed, satirical predictions about his own exile and the political forces at work in Florence, among others.

Skelton, frontispiece, after a drawing by Burney from a bust in the Capitoline Gallery, 1795 [inclusion in] The works of Virgil, Englished, by Robert Andrews, 1766. Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for the author. Gift of Dr J. Orde Poynton. Rare Books, Archives and Special Collections

The other important theory is that allegorically, Virgil is the voice of humanity's reason and wisdom. He has wide-ranging knowledge, explains the structure of Hell and Purgatory to the reader, and guides Dante through dangers and distractions with stern if fatherly instruction. However, one one level, Virgil represents earthly knowledge that cannot comprehend the sublime realms of Heaven; on another, he represents an authorial influence that Dante must shrug off when he enters Paradise to become a new and more extraordinary poet.

Virgil starts as merely a guide, but slowly develops into a friend, mentor and father-figure who Dante comes to love. Despite this, Virgil must leave Dante once his charge summits Mount Purgatory. Born a pagan, Virgil never knew Christ's teachings, and though dismissal on these grounds seems unfair, it is appropriate to the Christian beliefs of Dante's era (though recognising the outward injustice of this, Dante explicitly questions it in Canto XX of the Paradiso). Wisdom without grace cannot guide a soul to salvation, and therefore Virgil must be replaced by Beatrice.

Despite this, even as Virgil leaves, Dante acknowledges his debt to his mentor within the structure of the text, giving a farewell: "But Virgil - O he had left us, and we stood/ Orphaned of him; Virgil, dear father, most/ Kind Virgil I gave me to for my soul's good." (Purgatorio: XXX, 49-51). The triple repetition of the poet's name recalls the farewell of Orpheus to the lost Eurydice as he departs the underworld without her in Virgil's Georgics.

Unknown copier after engraving by Lucas van Leyden (Dutch, 1494-1538), The poet Virgil suspended in a basket, c.1525, engraving. Transferred from the Rowden White Library, 1982. Print Collection, Archives and Special Collections the University of Melbourne. 1982.2033

Lucas van Leyden depicts a further legend of ‘Virgil in his basket’,  telling how the historical Virgil, enamoured of a beautiful woman, who was perhaps the emperor’s daughter, was enticed into a basket to be hoisted through her window. Virgil is seen in the background of the engraving foolishly left hanging by his sweetheart, and is the subject of ridicule by curious onlookers.