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The second half of Canto XXVIII in the Paradiso relates by way of Beatrice's explanation the heavenly hierarchy of angels, which Dante, availing himself of the geocentric cosmic ordering Ptolemy propagated in the second century of the Common Era, relates to the planets themselves. Paradise appears as a vault of concentric shells through which Dante is assumed: his visit to each of the nine spheres of heaven (which are also the planetary spheres) is watched over by one of nine angelic orders. In ascending rank, they are: angels (Moon), archangels (Mercury), principalities (Venus), powers (Sun), virtues (Mars), dominions (Jupiter), thrones (Saturn), cherubim (Fixed Stars) and seraphim (Primum Mobile). Canto XXVIII contains in its opening tercet a verb Dante coined, one whose inventiveness engulfs the entirety of the vision of these grand rotating celestial orbs:
Poscia che 'ncontro a la vita presente
d'i miseri mortali aperse 'l vero
quell ache 'mparadisa la mia mente (Dante, 1975, Lines 1-3)
'mparadisa ; 'imparadises.' Longfellow translates these lines to read:
After the truth against the present life
Of miserable mortals was unfolded
By her who doth imparadise my mind (Dante, [1864] 2006, Lines 1-3)
It's Beatrice, Dante's guide, who engluts his mind in heaven. She enables a transition from vision enabled by natural light to one projected from supernatural illumination, allowing Dante to see the bright machinery of heaven. The Paradiso involves Dante's process of going beyond himself, which is to say, beyond the ken of human experience. In Canto I, he makes use of a novel word to signify this change, declaring,
Trasumanar significar per verba
non si poria; però l'essemplo basti
a cui esperïenza grazia serba. (Dante, 1975, Lines 70-72)
In Longfellow's version, this reads,
To represent transhumanize in words
Impossible were; the example, then, suffice
Him from whom Grace the experience reserves. (Dante, [1864] 2006, Lines 70-72)
In other words, trasumanar , the passing beyond humanity, is impossible to convey in words. Charles Singleton glosses these lines, saying, 'Dante will now literally rise with Beatrice through the spheres and high above the mortal condition. But in terms of the kind of vision he will have while Beatrice guides him, he now passes into that mode of vision which is possible through the special grace which...