Averroes

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In Canto IV of the Inferno Dante mentions Averroes as the author of the "gran comento" (great commentary) on Aristotle, placing him among the sages of Limbo. Critical notes identify him as one of the Arab philosophers representative of the world of the infidels of the Christian age, called to be part—together with Avicenna—of the group of scientists, physicians, and mathematicians gathered in that setting. The note to verse 131 also points out that Dante knew some commentaries by Averroes on Aristotle, read alongside those of Saint Thomas, and that he used them as a philosophical reference. The note to verse 130 further recalls that, in the second group of the catalogue, the contemplative life is judged by Dante to be superior to the active life, and that precisely for this reason the sages sit higher than the heroes.