Abstract: While Virgil speaks the first four words of Inferno XXXIV ("Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni"), the first three are taken directly from the hymn of Venantius Fortunatus and the fourth (inferni) is added by Virgil. Through Virgil, then, Dante the auctor rewrites and parodies the sacred hymn at the conclusion of the first canticle exactly at the moment when they approach Lucifer. Inferno XXXIV thus begins by invoking a contrastive binomial, Christ and Lucifer.
Abstract from the American Dante Bibliography 1988
Reproduced by courtesy of the Dante Society of America