18 - Paradise XI, XII
Professor Mazzotta continues his discussion of the Heaven of the Sun (Paradiso 10-14), where the earthly disputes between the Franciscan and Dominican orders give way to mutual praise. The tribute St. Thomas pays to the founder of the Franciscan order (Paradiso 11) is repaid by St. Bonaventure through his homage to St. Dominic (Paradiso 12). The chiasmic structure of these cantos is reinforced by the presence of Nathan and Joachim of Flora, the counterweights to Solomon and Sigier, among the second ring of sages. Special attention is then paid to the lives St. Francis and St. Dominic presented in Paradiso 11 and 12, where the former’s marriage to Lady Poverty finds its poetic counterpart in the latter’s marriage to theology. The critique of the world and its values shared by these religious founders is explored in light of the “ludic theology” that pervades these cantos.