It is at least forty-four years now that some of those who study endlessly the text of this endlessly surprising poem have known the eventually unsurprising fact that the word "Beatrice," when referring to the lady beloved of the poet, occurs sixty-three times in the Commedia. (There are in fact sixty-four occurrences of "Beatrice" in the text as a result of the reference to Beatrice of Provence in Purgatorio 7.128.)

Since I believe the first commentator (as distinct from a writer of articles or monographs) ever to broadcast this fact was in fact myself, I take the liberty of reproducing my gloss to Purgatorio 27.53 (DDP). As we will see, at least one other predecessor escaped my attention:

While one wants to be cautious about such things, Virgil's naming of Beatrice here represents the ninth time that her name has appeared in the poem and the last time before she names herself (Purg. 30.73). Since Dante likes to use the rhythm of 9 plus 1 to represent the movement from good to best (Vita nuova: nine appearances of Beatrice to Dante on earth, in one form or another, surmounted by a tenth and heavenly vision; Paradiso: nine heavenly spheres surmounted by the perfection of the Empyrean [see Hollander {"Vita Nuova: Dante's Perceptions of Beatrice," Dante Studies 92 [1974], pp. 1-18}]), it is at least conceivable that there is such a program at work for the appearances of the names of Beatrice in this part of the poem. As Frederick Locke ("Dante's Miraculous Enneads," Dante Studies 85 [1967], pp. 59-70) pointed out, Beatrice's name appears sixty-three times in the Comedy, and that number is a 'nine' (6 plus 3 = 9).

On 18 April Roberto Benigni called from Rome to share with me a discovery that he had made while preparing Purgatorio 6 for his recent presentation of that canto in Turin. The name of Beatrice appears nine times, beginning in Purgatorio 6, as a rhyme-word. (The list is as follows: Purg. 6.46, 23.128, 30.73, 32.85; Par. 7.16, 14.8, 24.22, 25.137, and 30.14.) I was delighted, if not totally surprised, and said I was not aware that any other scholar had noted that fact, and tried to convince Mr. Benigni to make public his discovery, hoping he would want to send it to EBDSA. He replied that writing about Dante was not his mestiere; I suggested that perhaps we might compose a brief note together. As I prepared the materials for my share of that offering, I had a rude awakening when I consulted the commentary of Nicola Fosca, which refers to an earlier discussant who not only repeated the still earlier observation (that of Locke), but the aperçu of Benigni as well (DDP, Purg. 17.136-139):

Come evidenziato da F. Locke ("Dante's Miraculous Enneads," Dante Studies, 1967, pp. 59-70), il nome di Beatrice compare nel poema per 63 volte. Ma si legga al riguardo W. Anderson: "Not only is she mentioned by name sixty-three times in the Commedia (6 + 3 = 9), but her name is used as a rhyme word on nine occasions" (Dante the Maker, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, p. 285).

Until someone discovers and reveals another aspirant to the title, William Anderson is the Dante scholar who first, some six hundred and sixty years after Dante finished leaving this trail for his most attentive readers, observed -- and did so in a single sentence -- both elements of this noteworthy numerical embellishment.