Noli

Description

In Canto IV of Purgatorio, Dante places Noli in a simile that compares the steep slope of the mountain of Purgatory to other rugged passes on the peninsula. The verse «Vassi in Sanleo e discendesi in Noli» places Noli among Italian places of difficult ascent or descent, alongside San Leo, cited as the opposite example of a summit that can be reached on foot, albeit with great effort. The note to the verse recalls that San Leo stood on a very steep hill in the duchy of Urbino, dominated by an ancient castle, and that in Dante's time it was accessed by a narrow path. In this context Noli is recalled within the series of frontier places between cultivated land and rock, evoked shortly before (vv. 19-22) with the image of the farmer who closes a small opening in the hedge, of the «callo» as a narrow pass, and of the «solitudine» that envelops the two pilgrims.