Matelda una e ‘trina’. Sull’ideologia edenica di Dante

Abstract: Towards the top of the mountain (Pg. XXVIII, 40) the "donna soletta che si già" is Matelda, a woman of sublime natural pleasure, between aesthetic enjoyment, delicacy of soul and depth of feeling. A sign of regeneration, Matelda announces the personal salvation of Dante, interpret- er of humanity. The desire to get close to her is an aspiration towards height, for her beauty full of grace. And the literary tradition is leavened by strong spiritual values; as on Parnassus, for Dante on the Sacro Monte the meeting with the 'new Muses' is decisive: the three theological Virtues and the four cardinals, with Beatrice and Matelda, are able to distill the Truth of nature and entrust it to the Poet, sacred interpreter and successor of Aeneas and Paul. Loving and happy, Matelda is full of hope realized in charity: she is the new Eve without sin, full of trust in God and full of God's profuse trust in her. In the feminine narrative-poetological pleasure, Matelda's scene is sacral, a prophetic idyll as the “arra” of true bliss.