THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 724.~October, 1901. 



DANTE AS A NATURALIST. 



By J. L. Bevir, M.A. 



There is one peculiarity of Dante that has struck all readers 

 of the ' Divina Commedia,' and that is his desire throughout to be 

 exact in his descriptions. It may not be uninteresting, therefore, 

 to consider what he has to say on the subject of natural history. 

 He uses animals allegorically as part of the dramatis persoiue of 

 the * Commedia,' and he often refers to them in simile. In so doing, 

 we find that he may be merely taking some generally recognized 

 characteristic of a beast, or describing it accurately from per- 

 sonal knowledge, and the value of his remarks will vary according 

 as he is speaking from his own experience, or from what he has 

 accepted from others. 



The best division under which to consider them will be 

 foreign animals, and those which he has met with in Italy. Of 

 the first class — foreign animals, as one might expect — his descrip- 

 tions are for the most part general. For instance, in the first 

 canto of the " Inferno," the Lion — the emblem of pride — has 

 nothing very special about it as it advances *' with head uplifted, 

 and with ravenous hunger." He may have seen one in some 

 ducal Lion-pit, but the description of it might as well be a 

 reminiscence of some heraldic imaging of the beast, to which all 

 the other references are to be attributed, with the exception of 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol, F., October, 1901. 2 f 



