ABSTRACT
As Columbus struggled to define himself as a holy mariner on a mission from God, the Commedia not only provided the means of distinguishing himself from his faithless predecessors but also presented a typological continuum onto which Columbus could be grafted. For Columbus, as for Dante, effectively presenting himself as a type of Aeneas and / or Paul, required a delicate hermeneutic process that would reveal any doubts about their kinship as unfounded. Dante's own ability to exploit allegorical conventions in service of this end is hardly surprising given his education and experience as a poet. Dante's conjoining of the figures of Aeneas and Paul in the Inferno introduces several themes that will color the Commedia but it also makes an allegorical link between them. Columbus's discovery of what he believed to be Earthly Paradise confirmed the validity of this trajectory.
