Urania

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Urania is recalled by Dante in Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio, in a passage in which the poet addresses the Muses so that they may assist him in describing the luminous and sonorous spectacle that manifests itself after the vision of the mystical procession. The note to verse 37 explains that the invocation O sacrosante marks the beginning of an important and in certain ways self-contained sequence, analogous in function to the opening of the cantos of the last circle of the Inferno. The note to verses 32-36 further clarifies that the flashing and the indistinct sound progressively take on the form of a kindled flame and a chorus of human voices, following a figurative technique of gradual approach. The commentary on verse 36 recalls that Dante uses the adjective dolce joined with suon or armonia as almost a technical term for polyphonic choral singing. The commentary on verse 41 mentions Urania together with her choir, invoked to come to the poet's aid as he begins to taste the etterno piacer.