Nathan the prophet

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Nathan is mentioned by Cacciaguida in the twelfth canto of the Paradiso, within the survey of Old Testament figures who lived before Christ and are now part of the celestial court. The name appears, paired with that of the metropolitan (Peter the Mangier according to the critical tradition), in a list of blessed spirits whose mention serves to illustrate the flowering of the white rose. The critical note to verse 133 of canto XII provides a specific commentary on Hugh of Saint-Victor and on Peter the Mangier, figures with whom Nathan is associated in the Dantean passage, but adds no further elements regarding the identity of the prophet. No data are available in the sources provided that clarify the specific historical or biblical account of the prophet Nathan nor any doctrinal details attributed to him by Dante; any information of this kind is therefore excluded from the present entry, which limits itself to recording the presence of the name in the indicated verse and its placement in the paradisiacal survey.