Dante's Paradiso

Part of a series on
Christian mysticism

The Paradiso begins at the top of Mount Purgatory, called the Earthly Paradise(i.e. the Garden of Eden), at noon on Wednesday, March 30 (or April 13), 1300, following Easter Sunday. Dante's journey through Paradise takes approximately twenty-four hours, which indicates that the entire journey of the Divine Comedyhas taken one week, Thursday evening (Inferno I and II) to Thursday evening.

After ascending through the sphere of fire believed to exist in the earth's upper atmosphere (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven, to the Empyrean, which is the abode of God. The nine spheres are concentric, as in the standard medieval geocentric model of cosmology,^[1] which was derived from Ptolemy. The Empyrean is non-material. As with his Purgatory, the structure of Dante's Heaven is therefore of the form 9+1=10, with one of the ten regions different in nature from the other nine.

During the course of his journey, Dante meets and converses with several blessed souls

The Paradiso assumes the medieval view of the Universe, with the Earth surrounded by concentric spheres containing planets and stars.

The Paradiso begins at the top of Mount Purgatory, called the Earthly Paradise(i.e. the Garden of Eden), at noon on Wednesday, March 30 (or April 13), 1300, following Easter Sunday. Dante's journey through Paradise takes approximately twenty-four hours, which indicates that the entire journey of the Divine Comedyhas taken one week, Thursday evening (Inferno I and II) to Thursday evening.