6. ECLIPSES.
We find solar eclipses mentioned six times in Dante’s works. As in all old records, there is no allusion to the features which chiefly strike modern astronomers—the pearly corona, and the blood-red prominences standing out like flames round the black disc. The terror of the sudden darkness, even when foreseen, seems to have absorbed all attention, and only the appearance of stars in the daytime and the frightened behaviour of animals was noted by Ristoro, and by others until quite modern times.
In his letter to the Cardinals of Italy, Dante speaks of the shameful and grievous removal of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon as an eclipse of the sun.[365] In his dream of the death of Beatrice, he sees the sun so darkened that the stars appear, to his great terror:—
He also refers to the disputed idea that the darkness at the time of the Crucifixion was caused by an eclipse of the sun,[367] and to the figurative eclipse which then took place in heaven.[368]
If he had ever seen one in reality, it would have made more impression upon him, and we should surely have found it referred to several times and vividly described. The only suggestion of a personal experience is where he temporarily loses the power of sight by gazing too fixedly upon the spirit of St. John; and he compares this to a man who looks so intently at the sun, just before an eclipse, that he becomes incapable of seeing it at the critical moment.[369] This incident may have been told him by an observer of the total eclipse of June 1239, which was visible in Italy, and seems to be the one described by Ristoro.
Lastly, he mentions the discovery that the moon comes between us and the sun, which we have learned from eclipses, as an example of the proper method of reasoning: for we must first ask whether a thing is, and afterwards why it is. Thus man’s wonder leads him to knowledge.[370]
The eclipsed moon is only once mentioned, viz. in De Mon. III. iv. 140-142, where she is described as not wholly dark. With his usual indifference to her Dante fails to note the often extraordinary beauty of her colouring when the eclipse is total.