lptured
punishment of pride as committed by Satan, Briareus, the Giants, Nimrod,
Niobe, Saul and others. Meditating on the loveliness of humility and the
hatefulness of pride, as suggested by those examples and bearing with
prayer the heavy weights imposed upon them for their humiliation and
penance, the proud experience a transformation of disposition wholly
alien to them in the days of their mortality. Among the souls in this
first terrace is Oderisi, who attained such renown as an illuminator of
manuscripts and a painter of miniatures that he boasted that no one
could surpass him. Now he not only is conscious of his former blatant
pride, but in proof of his change of heart he gives full credit for
superiority to his former pupil and subsequent rival, Franco Bolognese;

"O," asked I him, "art thou not Oderisi,
Agobbio's honor and honor of that art
Which is in Paris called illuminating?
'Brother,' said he, 'more laughing are the leaves
Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese.
All his the honor now, and mine in part,
In sooth I had not been so courteous
While I was living, for the great desire
Of excellence on which my heart was bent.'"
(XI, 79.)

Dante sees here another spirit, Provenzano Salvani. His rapid advance
from Outer Purgatory to Purgatory was due to the merit of a
self-humiliating act performed in favor of a friend. This friend had
been taken prisoner by King Charles of Anjou and was held for ransom of
a thousand florins of gold, the threat being made that if the amount was
not raised within a month he would be put to death. It speaks well for
the tender friendship of Salvani that he put aside all his pride and
arrogance while he took his place in the market square to beg alms with
which to liberate his friend. Dante relates the incident in the
following words; "When he was living in highest glory, in the market
place of Sienna he stationed himself of his own free will and put away
all shame and there to deliver his friend from the pains he was
suffering in Charles' prison, he brought himself to tremble in every
vein" (XI, 133).

As the poets enter the terrace of Envy aerial voices proclaim examples
of Brotherly Love. First are heard the words of the Blessed
Virgin:--"They have no wine," words in favor of those who were in need
at the marriage feast, which led Christ to perform his first miracle.
Then as an example of exposing one's self to death for the sake of
another, th