Dante's Moon

This paper examines Dante’s treatment of the Moon in the second canto of the Paradiso as an episode of medieval natural philosophy rather than a purely allegorical construction. Through a close reading of the dialogue between Dante and Beatrice on the lunar spots, the paper highlights the poet’s use of rational argumentation and thought experiments to address a contemporary astronomical problem. Rejecting explanations based on sensory evidence and material density, Dante proposes a cosmological model grounded in the differentiated transmission of celestial virtue. Drawing on insights by Carlo Rovelli and modern interpretations of the three-dimensional sphere, the article suggests that Dante’s cosmology can be reread in light of later geometrical concepts, without attributing scientific foresight to the poet. The dialogical form of the canto is finally situated within a broader intellectual tradition that anticipates Galileo’s scientific dialogues.