• Either the diaphanous parts must run through the body of the Moon, or the rarity and density must be in layers one above the other. ↩
• As in a mirror, which Dante elsewhere, Inferno XXIII 25, calls impiombato vetro , leaded glass. ↩
• The subject of the snow is what lies under it; “the mountain that remains naked,” says Buti. Others give a scholastic interpretation to the word, defining it “the cause of accident,” the cause of color and cold. ↩
• Shall tremble like a star. “When a man looks at the stars,” says Buti, “he sees their effulgence tremble, and this is because their splendor scintillates as fire does, and moves to and fro like the flame of the fire.” The brighter they burn, the more they tremble. ↩
• The Primum Mobile, revolving in the Empyrean, and giving motion to all the heavens beneath it. ↩
• The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. “Greek Epigrams,” III 62:⁠— “If I were heaven, With all the eyes of heaven would I look down on thee.” Also Catullus, “ Carm. ,” V :⁠— “How many stars, when night is silent, Look on the furtive loves of men.” And Milton, Paradise Lost , V 44:⁠— “Heaven wakes with all his eyes Whom to behold but thee, nature’s desire?” ↩