Matelda

[1] While Dante makes Matelda's function as a baptizer in the Earthly Paradise clear, commentators have disagreed about what historical figure she is intended to represent, if any.

As Dante begins to explore the Earthly Paradise (also known as the Garden of Eden), his movement is stopped by a stream, and he notices a woman collecting flowers and singing on its opposite bank.

Taking her to be a woman in love, he asks her to come closer so that he can better hear her song, which reminds him of Proserpina before she was abducted by Hades and "lost springtime" (Purgatorio XXVIII, 48–51).

Matelda approaches the water and Dante, who is stricken by her beauty and eager to get closer to her, grows angry at the river that separates them.

After the bank curves, the two head east, and Matelda, who refers to Dante as "brother," instructs him to look and listen to what lies ahead: the Church Triumphant.

[1] In Canto XXXIII, Matelda is part of the order arranged by Beatrice, along with Dante, Statius, and the seven virtues of the Church Triumphant.

[4] Commentators have also argued that Matelda, whose sole function is to serve as the purifier of souls in the Earthly Paradise, is a representation of the innocence that can only be regained through a belief in Jesus Christ.

Dante's erotic feelings for Matelda and her presence in Canto XXVIII as a beautiful, solitary maiden in the woods have drawn comparison to Guido Cavalcanti's take on the pastorella, "In un boschetto trova' una pasturella.

[8] The earliest commentators believed that Matelda is Countess Matilda, who supported Pope Gregory VII against Emperor Henry IV and donated numerous territories to the papacy before her death.

Dante scholar Robert Hollander has identified three issues with the idea that Matelda is Countess Matilda: she supported the papacy instead of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV; she is typically depicted as a soldier rather than as an attractive young woman in historical accounts; and she was a human woman, which would suggest that there was no one to baptize souls before her death in 1115, which is unlikely.

Italian literature scholar Mark Musa has suggested that she is exclusively meant to represent the concept of the "active life" described by Dante in Canto XXVII.