page_title: Paradiso (Dante)
section_title: Fourth Sphere (The Sun: The Wise)
hierarchical_section_title: Paradiso (Dante) / The Spheres of Heaven / Fourth Sphere (The Sun: The Wise)
caption_attribution_description: Español: La obra representa a San Francisco de Asís, fundador de la Orden de los franciscanos.
context_page_description: Paradiso is the third and final part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio. It is an allegory telling of Dante's journey through Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolises theology. In the poem, Paradise is depicted as a series of concentric spheres surrounding the Earth, consisting of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile and finally, the Empyrean. It was written in the early 14th century. Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's ascent to God.
context_section_description: Beyond the shadow of the Earth, Dante deals with positive examples of Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. Within the Sun, which is the Earth's source of illumination, Dante meets the greatest examples of prudence: the souls of the wise, who help to illuminate the world intellectually (Canto X). Initially, a circle of twelve bright lights dance around Dante and Beatrice. These are the souls of:
  Thomas Aquinas
  Albertus Magnus
  Gratian
  Peter Lombard
  King Solomon
  Dionysius the Areopagite, confused here with Pseudo-Dionysius
  Orosius
  Boethius
  Isidore of Seville
  Bede
  Richard of Saint Victor
  Siger of Brabant
  This list includes philosophers, theologians and a king, and has representatives from across Europe. Thomas Aquinas recounts the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and his love for "Lady Poverty" (Canto XI):
  Between Topino's stream and that which flows
  
  down from the hill the blessed Ubaldo chose,
  
  from a high peak there hangs a fertile slope;
  
  from there Perugia feels both heat and cold
  
  at Porta Sole, while behind it sorrow
  
  Nocera and Gualdo under their hard yoke.
  
  From this hillside, where it abates its rise,
  
  a sun was born into the world, much like
  
  this sun when it is climbing from the Ganges.
  
  Therefore let him who names this site not say
  
  Ascesi, which would be to say too little,
  
  but Orient, if he would name it rightly.
  Twelve new bright lights appear, one of which is St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, who recounts the life of St. Dominic, founder of the order to which Aquinas belonged. The two orders were not always friendly on earth, and having members of one order praising the founder of the other shows the love present in Heaven (Canto XII). The twenty-four  bright lights revolve around Dante and Beatrice, singing of the Trinity, and Aquinas explains the surprising presence of King Solomon, who is placed here for kingly, rather than philosophical or mathematical wisdom (Cantos XIII and XIV):
  My words did not prevent your seeing clearly
  
  that it was as a king that he had asked
  
  for wisdom that would serve his royal task
  
  and not to know the number of the angels
  
  on high or, if combined with a contingent,
  necesse ever can produce necesse,
  
  or si est dare primum motum esse,
  
  or if, within a semicircle, one
  
  can draw a triangle with no right angle.
caption: St. Francis, whose life is recounted by Aquinas (painting by Jusepe de Ribera), Canto 11.
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