An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text
Dante Alighieri · en
Dante’s _Commedia_ preceded by a long series of Visions of the
Otherworld--The Vision a favourite subject with Irish writers of
the Middle Ages--Dante’s originality 1-4
2. THE SEER
The Irish Church at the close of the seventh century--Its
missionary activity--Irish scholars and clerics on the
Continent--The authorities for Adamnán’s life--His birth
and parentage--Meaning of his name--Enters the monastery of
Iona--Becomes abbot--Missions to Northumbria--Intercourse with
the Venerable Bede--The Paschal controversy--Adamnán adopts the
Roman usage--His labours in the cause--Wins over Ireland except
Iona--His death--His _Life of St. Colm Cille_--His treatise
_De Locis Satutis_--Miscellaneous and apocryphal writings--His
scholarship--Adamnán in the later annals--Anecdote of his
student days--The Boruma Tribute--Remitted by Árd Rí Finnachta
Fledach--Adamnán’s opposition thereto--Doubtful authenticity
of the record--Further dissensions with the Árd Rí--Death
of Finnachta--Adamnán’s legislation on behalf of the women
of Ireland--Their previous status and liability to military
service--The _Cáin Adamnáin_--Character of Adamnán--The _Fis
Adamnáin_, why associated with his name--MSS. and editions of the
_Fis Adamnáin_ 4-28
3. TRANSLATION OF THE FIS ADAMNÁIN
1. Exordium--2. Enumeration of previous revelations of the
Otherworld--3. Adamnán’s translation from the body--4-6. The Land
of Saints--7-8. The Throne of the Deity--9. The Divine Presence
enthroned, and 10. Pictured as a mystic omnipresent face--11. The
Celestial City, its seven walls and its floor; 12. Its inhabitants;
13. Its design, as of a Christian Church--14. Limbo of the
excluded--15-18. The Soul’s progress through the seven Heavens;
15. Their doors and porters; the first Heaven; 16. The second
Heaven, Purgatorial pains; 17. The third and fourth Heavens; 18.
The fifth and sixth Heavens--19. The Judgment of the Soul--20. The
fate of the damned--21. Hell, a fiery glen--22-23. The Bridge of
Doom--24. The half good, half wicked--25-29. Punishments of the
wicked described; classification of crimes and punishments--27.
The charitable but carnal--29. Fiery wall reserved until after the
Last Judgment--30. Description of Hell; impatience of the damned
for Judgment; respite on Sundays--31. Adamnán returns to Heaven;
is restored to the body, and bidden report what he has seen--32.
This the subject of his subsequent preaching; consonant with the
doctrine of the Apostles and Saints--33. Enoch, Elias, and the
Bird-flocks of Paradise--34. Peroration; L’Envoy--35. Rhapsodical
description of Heaven 28-47
PART II
1. THE CLASSICAL TRADITION