Mira

Description

In Canto V of Purgatorio, at verse 79, Bonagiunta mentions Mira as a geographical reference point to indicate the direction of a flight. The verse "Ma s'io fosse fuggito inver' la Mira" places this location as a terminus toward which one might distance oneself. According to the critical tradition, Bonagiunta da Lucca addresses the poet here, jestingly indicating that, if he had wished to avoid the encounter with him and secure the primacy in the nova stile of poetry, it would have sufficed to flee in the direction of Mira, a locality in the Veneto. The place thus serves as a simple topographical indication within the Italian territory, recalled in the Purgatorio in the key of a literary metaphor.