Quiz on Inferno 1-4

Name: _________________________

1. The Donation of _____________________ was a forged medieval document claiming to

be a decree by which the Roman emperor gave the Pope earthly power as thanks for
curing him of leprosy.
2. Both the Aeneid of Vergil and the Prose Edda of the Norsemen traced their mythological
heroes back to the city of __________________.
3. Dante was a citizen of the city of ___________________ in Italy.
4. The ______________________s were medieval minstrels who sang love songs in
vernacular languages, especially French. They are responsible for the concept of courtly
love.
5. List three characteristics of courtly love that distinguish it from normal romantic love.

6. The three parts of Dantes Divine Comedy are the Inferno, the ________________, and
the ___________________.
7. Dante fell in love with __________________ Portinari when she was ________ years old
and he was 9.
8. Dantes wife was named _________________________. She is never mentioned in his
poetry.
9. Dante says, I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul, referring to two characters who had
experienced a _____________________, the Greek word for descent into the
underworld.
10. Dante uses the words Master, and my lord and teacher to refer to _______________.
11. In the Aristotelian/medieval world picture, the four elements were __________,
________, ___________, and ___________.
12. The sphere of the __________________ divided temporal things from the eternal and
spiritual realm.
13. Dante was a poet in the dolce stil novo, which translates as ____________ _________
style.
14. In Canto 1, Dante wakes up to find himself in a dark ________________.
15. The __________________ represents fraud.
16. The __________________ represents violence.
17. The __________________ represents incontinence or concupiscence (inordinate desire of
good things).
18. Vergil claims to have been sent by Beatrice, who was notified by Saint _____________
that ___________________ wanted Dante to be rescued. There are thus three female
intermediaries concerned with Dantes soul.
19. The last line of the inscription along the ledge above the gate of hell reads,
___________________________________________________________________.

20. Woe to you, perverted souls! Give up all hope of ever seeing Heaven: I come to lead you
to the other shore, into eternal darkness, ice, and fire. These words are spoken by
___________________.
21. The leader of the poets in Hell is __________________.
22. Vergil tells Dante that
You do not ask
what sort of souls are these you see around you.
Now you should know before we go on farther,

they have not sinned. But their great worth alone

was not enough, for they did not know ________________,
which is the gateway to the faith you follow,

and if they came before the birth of Christ,

they did not worship God the way one should;
I myself am a member of this group.

23. How did the shades of Abel, Noah, Moses, Abram, David, Israel, Rachel, and many
more leave Hell?

24. Extra credit: Emperor ________________ knelt in the snow at Canossa to seek
forgiveness from Pope __________________ in 1077 AD. (Give names and numbers for
both.)