Aristotle

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In Purgatorio, while speaking with Dante, Virgil indicates who those great men are whose unsatisfied longing he has just mentioned, citing explicitly Aristotle and Plato. The note to verse 43 clarifies that Aristotile and Plato «have no need of commentary: their two names already say the highest to which the human mind ever attained». The recollection is part of the broader theme, developed in the canto, of the «disïar» (longing) of the excellent spirits of Limbo, where they live «sanza speme» (without hope) in eternal desire. The only verse-anchor in which Aristotle is named is Purgatorio III 43, and no further biographical information is provided in the passage, neither works, nor school, nor dating.