This study proposes a novel structural interpretation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy through the combined application of digital-root analysis, modular arithmetic, textual metrics, and topological modeling. Rather than examining numerical symbolism as an isolated phenomenon, the paper distinguishes between two autonomous yet interacting layers of the poem: a narrative layer represented by lexical distributions and a structural layer represented by the immutable architecture of verses and terza rima. The analysis identifies two distinct dynamical regimes. The first corresponds to the textual surface, where lexical distributions generate digital-root attractors associated with transformation and temporal progression. The second corresponds to the metrical skeleton, whose numerical invariants converge toward a restricted modular subsystem associated with structural stability. The interaction between these layers suggests a dual-cycle architecture characterized by narrative rotation and metrical oscillation. Building upon these results, the paper introduces a topological interpretation of the Comedy as a self-sustaining toroidal field. Within this framework, the traversal of Lucifer in Inferno XXXIV functions as a geometric transition through the central axis of the system, while the recurring terminal word stelle acts as a topological closure mechanism reconnecting the end of the poem to its beginning. The resulting model replaces the traditional linear sequence Inferno–Purgatorio–Paradiso with a continuous dynamical structure in which movement and permanence coexist. The study does not claim historical intentionality on Dante's part regarding modern mathematical concepts. Instead, it demonstrates that the numerical and metrical organization of the poem can be consistently represented through a unified topological framework capable of explaining the coexistence of narrative evolution and structural invariance.
Pietro Franesi (Mon,) studied this question.