Nihil Sine Nefas

Nothing Without Sin

1. Francesco 5.21.09 / 7am

   I don’t have a copy of the Divine Comedy at hand, but as far as I can remember Dante says nothing about the “southern lands”. By definition, a heretic is a person who strays from the true faith *after* having been baptized. (Thus, for instance, the Spanish Inquisition had authority only over baptized Christians, such as those suspected of being closet Muslims or Jews). Dante explicitly says that Averroes and Saladin (both Muslims) are in the Limbo, so it’s clear that this circle doesn’t refer to them.

   I think Go didn’t understand this part of the Poem.

   What do you think about this? My opinion is that you could talk about this in the notes.

   Reply
   1. dantejulius 5.21.09 / 12pm

      I am not sure exactly what “Southern Country” refers to. There isn’t really much context to discern how south and relative to where exactly. He could be talking more locally about Firenze, more widely about Italy, or maybe about Europe. I’m not exactly sure where the heretical practices described in circle 6 are based (it’s not made clear in the Divine Comedy itself), but it’s possible they could have been south of something [Firenze, Italy, etc.]. I suppose south has a slightly negative connotation, so he might be talking about the land of wrongdoing. At any rate, rather than guess at a meaning so that we could be specific, we just left it literal.

      Reply
2. Francesco 5.21.09 / 3pm

   I just checked the Canto 10 of Inferno and iI didn’t see anything about any Southern Country. Are you sure the Southern Country reference is from Dante himself? Didn’t Go Nagai invent that sentence?

   It seems to me that “Southern Country” means the Muslim lands of North Africa. What else could it be? There wasn’t any major heresy in the South of Italy at the time. Besides, Go’s Dante says that the people in those lands have no access to “our teachings”, which seems to imply that they live outside Christianity. So it can only mean the Muslim lands.

   Maybe Go didn’t realize, that Dante makes it very clear that Muslims (other than those guilty of greater crimes) are among the unbaptized in Limbo, not among the heretics. So maybe he made a mistake.

   In any case the very idea that someone who doesn’t have access to the teachings of the Church is guilty of “heresy”, does it make any sense? To be a heretic, I thought you must have been a Christian first. Isn’t this the reason Virgil himself and other unbaptized people are in Limbo rather than here?

   However I may be wrong, and I may have missed the Southern Country reference in the original poem. If you know where in the canto is the reference, can you please tell me?

   Reply
   1. nilsinenefas 5.21.09 / 3pm

      Dantejulius (normally I just say Dante but in this case that would be confusing XD) was talking about Go’s writing, not Dante’s. Dante never mentions any southern country, that’s correct.

      Now, I’m with you on the definition of heresy — those unbaptized but otherwise pure would go to Limbo, not the 6th circle. Now, Go might have been referring to a heretical sect, isolated from the Church, but it’s more likely he just interpreted the poem wrong. When we do a volume release, I’ll update the notes. Generally when I write the notes page, I just finished typesetting the whole chapter and I’m not in a mood to do much thinking =P

      Now, as to where Go got the “southern country” reference from, I think he might have read the footnote for Arles (mentioned in Canto 9, but in a context not related to the sinners’ crimes). Arles is a town in southern France, which had some connection to heresy — from Wikipedia:

      The friction between the Arian Christianity of the Visigoths and the Catholicism of the bishops sent out from Rome established deep roots for religious heterodoxy, even heresy, in Occitan culture. At Treves in 385, Priscillian achieved the distinction of becoming the first Christian burned alive for heresy (Manichaean in his case, see also Cathars, Camisards).

      In any case, we do agree that the reference is entirely Go’s invention and is a bit odd. When we make a volume release (in a few chapters), we’ll update the notes to account for it.

      Thanks very much for pointing it out, we’re very appreciative of your input ^^

      Reply
3. jfgslo 5.22.09 / 10am

   Thanks for the new chapter. It’s good to see that you do pay attention to all details. I’m truly glad that you are doing this manga with all the notes about Dante’s original work.

   Reply
4. Getter Mario 5.23.09 / 9am

   Merci beaucoup!!!!

   Reply

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