Dante's insertion of Cato the Younger into the textual fabric of his poem in the fourteenth canto of Inferno seems plausibly to be "innocent" enough: Cato is there referred to as apparently no more than merely an ancillary precision to help describe the nature of the sand first mentioned in the preceding canto (XIII.19).[1] It is not possible to be certain that the poet was at that point in the composition of his epic planning to make Cato the guardian of Purgatory. On the other hand, no one can deny that the next presence of this pagan hero is clamorous: in the opening canto of Purgatorio we learn that Cato will be, at the Day of Judgment, among the saved. Did Dante know, as he composed Inferno XIV, that he would have Cato re-appear as the custodian of Purgatory in the first canto of that cantica? We cannot rule out this possibility – nor the possibility that less than half-way through the composition of Inferno he had already decided that Cato was eventually to be revealed as saved. One might argue that this at least potentially unrelated first mention bears no necessary relation to the later and far more significant appearance; one might likewise argue that this first reference owes its presence to the poet’s ultimate plan to heroicize the warder of Purgatory as the saved soul that Dante makes of the Lucanian hero, building upon the oft-noted zealous approval of Cato in such passages – among some dozen or so featuring this heroic figure found in Convivio and in Monarchia – e.g., Convivio IV.v.16 ("O sacratissimo petto di Catone, chi presummerà di te parlare?"); IV.xxvii.3 ("Onde si legge di Catone che non a sé, ma alla patria e a tutto 'l mondo nato essere credea"); IV.xxviii.15 ("E quale uomo terreno più degno fu di significare Dio che Catone? Certo nullo"); and Monarchia II.v.15 ("illud inenarrabile sacrifitium severissimi vere libertatis tutoris Marci Catonis").

The Ottimo, in the third redaction of his commentary, mentions Cato, noting that he appears in Inferno IV as well as here and in the first canto of Purgatorio. (He does so in his commentary to Inf. IV.128; however, Dante’s text there indeed refers to Marcia, identified as Cato's wife – if that has not the same resonance as would have had a mention of Cato proper.)  Boccaccio (comm. [1375], Inf. XIV.14-15) enjoys the honor of having been the first to speak – if not specifically – of Dante's salvation of Cato in this context: "Potrebbonsi in laude di questo Catone dir molte cose sante e buone e vere; ma, per ciò che di lui pienamente si scriverrà nel primo canto del Purgatoro, qui a più dirne non mi distendo." The silence of death keeps us from knowing the precise nature of Boccaccio's eventual response to Dante's presentation of Cato as saved. Centuries slid by before the next commentator even to mention the passage in Purgatorio I that "saves" Cato weighed in on the subject: Giacomo Poletto (1894, comm. Inf. XIV.13-15). He does so without further comment, but at least feels the need to bring that scandalous moment to mind. Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi (1991, comm. Inf. XIV.103) also looks ahead to Cato's presence in Ante-Purgatory. Thus, of the six dozen and more commentators on this passage gathered in the DDP, few have even bothered to note, much less discuss, the incredible notice awaiting Dante's readers: Cato is saved. Not to do so at the moment of his first appearance is to rob that moment of some of its disturbing richness, whatever the poet’s intentions when he was composing it.

Where is the gloss that simply notes that Dante will eventually decide that Cato is portrayed as saved in Purgatorio? Torraca (1905, ad loc.) will also refer to the later passage, but not to the shocking "fact" of Cato's salvation. Indeed, and I blush to report the finding, the first commentator after Boccaccio in the DDP to bring up the disquieting reference to Cato's eventual salvation is Hollander (2000, ad loc.):

"That Dante should refer here to Cato the Younger, who committed suicide at Utica (when further opposition by the republican forces led by him against Julius Caesar's army seemed futile), seems to invite a negative judgment on him. Cato, however, will be presented in Purgatorio I and II, in an authorial decision that still baffles commentators, as one of the saved. To refer to him here, a few verses from the wood of the suicides – where Christian readers might normally assume that Cato should be punished – given Dante's plan eventually to reveal his salvation, was a chancy choice for him to have made" (2003, comm. XIV.14-15).[2]

Indeed, the history of its neglect among commentators is telling. That the "innocent" reading of this passage has had so long a run is indicative of the unsatisfying nature of much Dante criticism: significant problems evade solutions in abundance – even notice of being problematic in the first place. It is unfortunate that Boccaccio did not finish his glosses to Dante on many grounds, and surely on this one. The first commentator among those gathered in the Dartmouth Dante Project even to mention, in glosses to Inferno XIV, Cato's shocking next appearance, in Purgatorio I, was the first Ottimo (1333, comm., Inf. XIV.4-15), though he does not discuss the fact that Cato is there portrayed as on the way to his salvation, merely noting that the poet "writes of this Cato in the first canto of Purgatorio." While some respondents doubt Dante's intention here, his phrasing at one point leaves little – indeed no – room for misunderstanding (Purg. I.73-75):

Tu 'l sai, ché non ti fu per lei amara
in Utica la morte, ove lasciasti
la vesta ch'al gran dì sarà sì chiara.

At the General Resurrection Cato of Utica will take his place among the Just, reclad in his living flesh. As opposed to their hesitant response to the question of Cato's ultimate destination in Inferno XIII, respondents to Purgatorio I.75 allow themselves to accept the poet's extraordinary claim, if several are obviously uncomfortable with it. Indeed, if Pietro di Dante rejects his father's formulation and follows Augustine's condemnation of Cato's suicide (De civ. Dei I.xxiii), as seems only reasonable to  an uninvolved bystander, almost all others follow the poet's staggering proposal: Cato's destination is to live among the blessed. Typical is Francesco da Buti (1385, comm. Purg. I.70-84): "E per questo l'autore dimostra che Catone debbia essere salvo: pietosamente si può credere che omo di tanta virtù fusse al fine suo illuminato de la fede, e che si pentisse de la morte indutta da sè medesimo e de' peccati ch'avea commesso." Unlike some others (e.g., Benvenuto [1375, comm. Purg. I.73-75]), he accepts the poet's implausible claim. What is most impressive about this near-unanimous acceptance of the poet's salvation of Cato here is that it is in polar relation to the near-unanimous neglect of Dante's view in response to the presentation of Cato in Inferno XIV, where nearly all the commentators avoid the looming fact of Cato’s eventual salvation. It thus comes as something of a relief to come upon Pompeo Venturi's brusque renunciation (1732, comm. Purg. I.75): "Il corpo: Seminatur in ignobilitate, surget in gloria Cor. 15; ma non quello di Catone morto da Idolatra disperato." Gabriele Rossetti (1825, comm. Purg. I.75) shows how unhelpful allegorizing the Commedia may be: "Non giustifichiamo il poeta per aver fatto Catone salvo, perché Catone qui non è altro che semplice figura."  Perhaps none has ever been more positive in presenting the reasons that lie behind Dante's reckoning that Cato was worthy of salvation than Giacomo Poletto (1894, comm. Purg. I.133-135 – appearing as an endnote in the original publication): "E se il Poeta, amando meglio in certi momenti di far trionfare l'infinita carità di Dio anzichè la sua rigida giustizia, fece salvi in tal modo Rifeo Troiano (Par. XX, 68), e l'imperator Traiano (ivi, 43-45; cf. Purg. X, 73-93), senza che per questo a nessuno saltasse in mente di gridare all'irriverenza e alla violazione dei dogmi, posta la cosa secondo la vera mente di Dante che motivo c'è che alcuni faccian qui tanto strepito, accozzando mal pensate difese o pensatissime offese?"

In sum, it seems about as likely that Dante was thinking about his plan of glorifying Cato only at some later point in his text as that he was not. We shall probably never know. On the other hand, the lack of attention paid the later presence, at the opening of the next cantica, of a definitively glorified Cato on the part of commentators to Inferno XIV should probably be considered surprising.

[2] As the reader will have noted, I am no longer sure that it is safe to assume that the poet planned to save Cato in the opening canto of Purgatorio when he was composing Inferno XIV, although, if I had to bet, I would wager that he did.