The intersection of time and eternity is reached by Dante’s space-traveling protagonist in this canto. He is joined in the Starry Sphere by the army of the saved souls, all of whom descend from true paradise in one of the most challenging and perhaps disturbing scenes in the entire work, a scene found in no other Christian work of art, the descent of all the members of the Church Triumphant from their eternal abode with God back into the world of time and space, an excursion taken apparently for the sole purpose of welcoming this Florentine exile. In this drama of a first interaction between the protagonist and all the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, all of whom will again be available for the protagonist’s review in cantos XXX to XXXIII, who exactly are the main players?

The host that descends at the beginning of Canto XXIII (19-21: "Ecco le schiere / del triunfo di Cristo e tutto 'l frutto / raccolto del girar di queste spere!" [emphasis added]) clearly includes all the saved souls in the Empyrean. It is then referred to as containing thousands (XXIII.28: "migliaia di lucerne"). There is a final reference to these souls, whom we will shortly afterward look upon (in Canto XXX) as the inhabitants of the stadium-rose, but now described as the "bel giardino / che sotto i raggi di Cristo s'infiora" (XXIII.71-72). Once the inhabitants of the rose, descended in welcome for the attention of the protagonist, are identified, however, the poet’s references become selective: he can sense the presence of Mary (la rosa [v. 73]), then Jesus ('l verbo divino [v. 73, first blindingly present at vv. 28-39]), and then he makes out the gigli (v. 74). It may surprise some, but the vasy majority of glossators is absolutely certain that the reference of the word gigli is (and is only) to the apostles: Iacopo della Lana (whose comments, as are all the others, are found in the DDP when one searches on verse 74). These others include the Ottimo, that glossator found in the Codice Cassinese, the Anonimo Fiorentino, John of Serravalle, Daniello, Tasso, Venturi, Andreoli, Longfellow, Bianchi, Scartazzini, Poletto, Carroll, Torraca, Grandgent, Casini/Barbi, Steiner, Del Lungo, Scartazzini/Vandelli, Grabher, Trucchi, Provenzal, Pietrobono, Momigliano, Porena, Mattalia, Chimenz, Fallani, Giacalone, Singleton, Bosco/Reggio, Pasquini/Quaglio, Chiavacci Leonardi, and, most recently, Merlante/Prandi (La Divina Commedia [La Scuola, 2005], p. 495): “gli Apostoli” (comm. vv. 74-75). Other commentators who include the apostles as part of a wider range of potential reference include Pietro di Dante: “et Apostolos et alios sanctos ut lilia”; the author of the Chiose Ambrosiane: “confexores, apostoli et alii beati predicatores”; the author of the Chiose Vernon: “gli appostoli e i vangielisti e i dottori di santa chiesa e gli altri santi c'hanno seghuito Cristo crocifisso”; Benvenuto da Imola: “sancti apostoli, martyres et confessores”; Landino: “gl'appostoli doctori et martiri”; Vellutello: “gli apostoli co' santi martiri e dottori”; Costa: “e quivi sono i beati, dietro l'odore della cui santità molti s'incamminarono per lo dritto sentiero dell'eterna salute” (Costa then adds the information that “Per gigli il postillat. Caet. e l'anonimo intendono gli apostoli solamente”); Tommaseo: “Apostoli e altri Beati” (Bianchi attempts to refute this formulation in favor of a narrower one: “Piuttosto che tutti i beati in generale, che sono stati espressi sopra, nel bel giardino, intenderei coll'Anon. e il Postill. Caet. per questi gigli gli Apostoli”); Campi: “i santi apostoli, martiri e confessori”; Tozer: “Apostles and Martyrs”; Mestica: “gli Apostoli e gli altri Santi”; Sapegno: “Apostoli […] e, in genere, tutti i santi”; Hollander: “There is a compact majority supporting the oldest but not best hypothesis” [i.e., that the apostles are singled out]. This brief paper offers my contrition for having taken that view, which I no longer consider viable.

To continue with this survey of the commentaries: Few and far between are those who fail to mention the apostles here, but there are some: Gabriele: “gli altri santi”; Lombardi and Portirelli: “i santi”; Costa: “i beati, dietro l'odore della cui santità molti s'incamminarono per lo dritto sentiero dell'eterna salute.” It has thus been nearly two hundred years since a commentator has omitted the apostles from his or her gloss. This review is meant to demonstrate that almost all of Dante’s glossators think of the apostles as being possibly referred to in this verse, while a vast majority of these allows no other possible interpretation. However, once one moves further along in the canto, such near-unanimity yields to a nearly opposite phenomenon, as we shall see.

It might seem fair to object that, if the poet expected us to understand that il bel giardino of verse 71 and the gigli of verse 74 refer to different beings, he would be asking a lot of his reader. In fact, while their discussions are perhaps not as clear in observing the distinction between the inhabitants of this “garden” (all of whom have descended -- we are to understand that the protagonist gazes upon all the blessèd who are spending eternity in the Empyrean) and, three verses later, the lilies, there is not a single commentator who conflates these two entities. This exercise becomes more difficult once we proceed to the candori of verse 124, described as follows: “ciascun di quei candori in sù si stese / con la sua cima, sì che l’alto affetto / ch’elli avieno a Maria mi fu palese.” Nonetheless, even that passage is perhaps a little less difficult than it may seem. One of the earliest commentators, the author of the glosses found in the Codice Cassinese (comm. v. 124), says that these candori, the white-clad blessed, are the apostles. Benvenuto (comm. vv. 121-126) is less definitive, but also refers to these souls as being «apostoli et alii beatorum». Carroll (comm. vv. 109-129; and see also his gloss to vv. 130-139) is apparently the only other modern commentator who thinks of the apostles here: “Yearningly the white souls reach up after her with their flames, as in pictures of her Coronation we see Apostles and saints stretching up their hands.” Are these white-clad figures meant to be taken as the apostles? See the gloss of Tommaseo (comm. Purg. XXIX.64-66) to the similarly white-clad figures in the procession of New Testament authors in the earthly paradise: «Il vestire de' santi Apostoli era di colore candido, che metteva raggi d'oro». Moreover, if these white-clad figures are meant to be taken as apostolic, the whole passage becomes a bit easier to understand. The apostles, “good sowers” (buone bobolce – there is not space to defend this controversial if not unusual reading here; further, it is not material to the primary point) while they were on earth, now themselves have become “abundant granaries” (arche richissime) with the “harvests” of their own saintly and exalted lives. While they lived “in exile” (i.e., in this world), they spurned its attractions. Finally, as the canto concludes, our attention is fixed on the apostle who was indeed the first pope, Peter (vv. 136-139). The introductory verses to the descent of the Church Triumphant (XXIII.70-75) speak of Christ, Mary, and the apostles (the gigli of verse 74). The rest of the canto may be divided into three scenes: the protagonist cannot see Jesus for His brightness (vv. 76-87); then he is better able to make out Mary (vv. 88-90), who is accompanied by Gabriel (vv. 91-120); and finally his attention moves to the apostles (vv. 121-139).

When we turn to the first tercet of Paradiso XXIV, the apostolic nature of the gigli comes back into clear focus: The reference to "Il sodalizio eletto a la gran cena" is difficult to dissociate from the apostles. (Its history in the commentaries is amusing and instructive, needless to add, and not marked by unanimity). Charles Singleton (comm. vv. 1-3) associates his own with a long-standing but not overwhelmingly popular gloss: “Sodalizio: The word means ‘company,’ but Pietro di Dante and other early commentators sense that the term already tends to single out the apostles in particular [speaking of them] as those ‘qui fuerunt sodales, quasi simul sedentes ad mensam cum Christo’ [who were intimate companions, as those who sat together at table with Christ].” Beatrice appeals to the apostles, as a group, to enlighten Dante -- and three of them, in fact, Peter, James, and John, will be Dante's interlocutors for this and the following cantos, XXIV-XXVII. While there may remain some problems in this formulation of the poet’s management of the details regarding exactly who is present to the protagonist during his first direct experience of those who live in eternal beatitude, it has the potential merit of resolving much perplexity over these passages in Canto XXIII that has accrued over the centuries.