CHAPTER VII
The Symbolic Numbers
Before passing on to some considerations regarding the doctrine of cosmic cycles, we must first make a few remarks about the role that the symbolism of numbers plays in Dante's work. On this subject we have found some very interesting indications in a work by Prof. Rodolfo Benini[60], but he has not drawn all the conclusions these appear to imply. It is true that this work is a study of the original plan of the Inferno—and thus primarily a literary undertaking—but the findings to which it can in fact lead have a far greater import.
According to Mr. Benini, Dante saw symbolic significance par excellence in the following three pair of numbers: 3 and 9, 7 and 22, 515 and 666. With the first two numbers there is no difficulty: everyone knows that the general division of the poem is ternary, and we have just explained the profound reasons for this; on the other hand, we have already recalled that 9 is the number of Beatrice, as seen in the Vita Nuova. Moreover, this number 9 is directly linked
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to 3, whose square it is, and could be called a triple ternary. It is also the number of the angelic hierarchies, and therefore that of the heavens as well as of the infernal circles—for there is a certain ratio of inverse symmetry between the heavens and the underworld. As for the number 7, which we find especially in the divisions of Purgatory, all traditions are agreed in regarding it as a sacred number, and we do not believe it necessary to enumerate here all the applications to which it gives rise. We will recall only one of the principal ones: the configuration of the seven planets, which serves as the basis for a multitude of analogous correspondences (we have seen an example of this in reference to the seven liberal arts). The number 22 is linked to 7 through the ratio 22/7, which is the approximation of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, so that the combination of these two numbers stands for the circle, which Dante—no less than the Pythagoreans—considered the most perfect form (all the divisions of each of the three worlds have this circular form). Moreover, 22 combines the symbols of two of the ‘elementary movements’ of Aristotelian physics: locomotion, represented by two, and alteration, represented by 20, as Dante himself explains in the Convivio.[61] Such in any case are the interpretations given by Mr. Benini for this last number. For our part, though acknowledging them to be correct, we must say that this number does not seem to us so fundamental as he thinks, being derived in all likelihood from another number, which the same author regards as of only secondary importance, whereas in reality its sig-
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nificance is much greater: the number 11, of which 22 is only a multiple. We must in fact insist on this point, and say at the outset that this omission by Mr. Benini appears to us all the more astonishing as his entire work rests upon the fact that in the Inferno most of the complete scenes or episodes into which the various cantos are divided comprise exactly eleven, or twenty-two, stanzas (some have only ten). There are also a number of preludes and finales of seven stanzas; and if these proportions have not always been respected, it is because the original plan of the Inferno has been subsequently modified. Under these cicrumstances, why should 11 not be at least as important as 22? These two numbers can be found associated again in the dimensions assigned to the extremes of the ‘pit of hell’, the circumferences of which are 11 and 22 miles respectively. But 22 is not the only multiple of 11 that occurs in the poem: there is also 33, the number of cantos into which each of the three parts is divided. Only the Inferno has 34, but the first is more by way of a general introduction that completes the total number 100 for the work as a whole. On the other hand, when we know how important rhythm was for Dante, we can reflect that his choice of a line of eleven syllables was not an arbitrary one, any more than the stanza of three lines, reminiscent of the ternary: each stanza has 33 syllables, just as the sets of 11 and 22 stanzas we have just mentioned contain 33 and 66 lines respectively; and the various multiples of 11 that we find here all have a particular symbolic value. It is not satisfactory therefore to limit oneself, as does Mr. Benini, to introducing 10 and 11 between 7 and 22 in order to construct a “tetrachord that has a vague resemblance to the Greek tetrachord,” and whose explanation seems to us rather awkward.
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The truth is that the number 11 has played a considerable role in the symbolism of some initiatic organisations; and, as to its multiples, we will recall simply this: 22 is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and we know of their importance in the Kabbalah; 33 is the number of years of Christ’s terrestrial life, found again in the symbolic age of Rosicrucian Masonry and the number of degrees of Scottish Masonry; 66 is in Arabic the total numeric value of the name of Allah, while 99 is the number of the principal divine attributes according to the Islamic tradition; and many other parallels could no doubt be found. Apart from the diverse meanings that can be assigned to 11 and to its multiples, their use by Dante constitutes a true ‘sign of recognition’ in the strictest sense of this expression; and this is where we find the real reason for the modifications made to the Inferno after its first draft. Among the reasons for these modifications, Mr. Benini envisages some changes in the chronological and architectonic plan of the work that are doubtless possible, but for which there does not appear to be any clear proof; but he also mentions “the new facts that the poet wanted to take into account in the system of prophecies,” and it is here that he seems to come close to the truth, especially when he adds: “for example, the death of Pope Clement V, which occurred in 1314, just when the first draft of the Inferno must have been completed.” In fact the true reason, in our opinion, is the series of events from 1300 to 1314 that led to the destruction of the Order of the Temple (and its ramifications[62]). Dante, moreover, was unable to refrain from pointing to these events when, in making Hugh Capet foretell the crimes of Philip the Fair (after having spoken of the outrage that the latter inflicted “upon Christ through his Vicar”), he continues in these terms:
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Veggio il nuovo Pilato si crudele, Che ciò nol sazia, ma, senza decreto, Porta nel Tempio le cupide vele.[63]
What is more astonishing, the following stanza[64] contains, in specific terms, the Nekam Adonai[65] of the Kadosch Templars:
O Signor mio, quando sarò io lieto A veder la vendetta, che, nascosa, Fa dolce l’ira tua nel tuo segreto?
These are most surely the “new facts” that Dante had to take into account, and this for reasons quite other than those that could occur to one who ignores the nature of the organisations to which he belonged. These organisations, which
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proceeded from the Order of the Temple, and were to inherit a part of its legacy, had to conceal themselves with far greater care than hitherto, especially after the death of their outer leader, Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, whose seat in the highest of the Heavens[66] Beatrice had shown to Dante by way of anticipation. From then on it was befitting to conceal the ‘sign of recognition’ to which we have referred: the divisions of the poem, where the number 11 appeared most conspicuously, had to be, not suppressed, but rendered less visible, in such a way as to be rediscoverable only to those who could recognize their raison d’être and significance. And if we reflect that six centuries went by before their existence was revealed publicly, it must be admitted that the intended precautions were well devised, and not lacking in effectiveness.[67] On the other hand, at the same time that he was making these changes to the first part of his poem, Dante was taking the opportunity to insert into it some new references to other symbolic numbers; and here is what Mr. Benini says:
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“Dante contrived, then, to arrange the intervals between the prophecies and other salient features of the poem in such a way that they corresponded to one another according to some determined numbers of lines, chosen quite naturally from among the symbolic numbers. In short, Dante substituted for the earlier plan a system of consonances and rhythmic periods far more complicated and secret—as befits a revelatory language spoken by beings who see the future. Here the famous numbers 515 and 666 make their appearance, numbers that recur frequently in the trilogy: 666 lines separate Ciacco’s prophecy from that of Virgil, and 515 Farinata’s prophecy from that of Ciacco; 666 lines are interposed again between the prophecy of Brunetto Latini and that of Farinata, and again 515 between the prophecy of Nicolas III and that of Master Brunetto.” These numbers 515 and 666, which we see alternate so regularly, stand opposite each other in the symbolism adopted by Dante: we know in fact that 666 is the ‘number of the beast’ in the Apocalypse, and that innumerable, and often fanciful, calculations have been contrived to find therein the name of the Antichrist, of whom it must represent the numeric value, “for this number is a number of man.”[68] On the other hand, 515 is expressly invested with a meaning directly contrary to 666 in Beatrice’s prediction: “A cinquecento diece e cinque, messo di Dio...”[69] Some have thought this 515 equivalent to the mysterious Veltro, enemy of the she-wolf, which latter finds itself thus identified with the apocalyptic beast[70]; and
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it has even been suggested that both these symbols point to Henry of Luxembourg.[71] We do not intend to discuss the significance of the Veltro[72] here, but neither do we believe it necessary to see in it an allusion to a particular person; for us, it only concerns one of the aspects of the general conception that Dante forms of the Empire.[73] Mr. Benini, in remarking that the number 515 is transcribed in Latin letters by DXV, interprets these as initials designating Dante, Veltro di Cristo; but this interpretation is singularly far-fetched, and there is no reason to suppose that Dante wanted to identify himself with this ‘messenger of God’. In fact it suffices simply to change the order of the numeric letters to arrive at DVX—that is, the word Dux, which is comprehensible without further explanation[74]; and we will add that the sum of the figures of 515 again gives the number 11.[75] This Dux may very well be Henry of Luxembourg, if one wishes, but it is also, and by the same token, any
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other leader chosen by the same organisations to fulfil the objectives that they set themselves in the social order—which Scottish Masonry still calls ‘the reign of the Holy Empire’.[76]
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