Dante the pilgrim has asked the pressing question of how immaterial souls can take on material attributes like leanness.

To answer that, Virgil has offered a couple of unsatisfying answers, then turned the lecture over to the redeemed Statius . . . who begins by discussing human digestion. As understood via Aristotle, Aquinas, and more, food is purified into blood which then coagulates into a fetus.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the opening stanzas of Statius's remarkable and poetic description of human embryology. Dante is nothing if not surprising at every turn.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:04] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 34 - 51. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:13] Statius begins with two important words that signal the poetics of his lecture: "lume" ("light") at line 36 and "bello" ("beautiful") at line 43.

[07:48] Dante the poet cribs his understanding of digestion from several sources and sees digestion itself as the foundation of human reproduction.

[16:51] Reproduction begins as the mingling of female blood with purified, male blood.

[19:26] It then continues through coagulation and vivification.

[22:43] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 34 - 51.