Book Description
The authors have added notes and critical texts and indexes to their study of the works of these two poets.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Catalogue of the Lamont Library, Harvard College. ... Read more

Book Description
Dante's World, Work, and Influence
The Dante Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work that presents a systematic introduction to Dante's life and works and the cultural context in which his moral and intellectual imagination took shape. It is the only such work currently available in the English language.

The first major source of its kind in the English language.
Until now, much Dante scholarship has been scattered in various sources and not available in English. This book brings together all the most recent theories about Dante and his works and summarizes them in clear and vivid prose for readers who seek basic but detailed information on all major aspects of Dante scholarship.

Includes entries on all the major characters in, and aspects of, the Divine Comedy.
The entry on the Divine Comedy covers far more than the surface details of this masterpiece. In-depth discussions treat its title and form, its moral structure, andits allegory and realism. Additional entries offer comprehensive discussions of the Divine Comedy manuscript tradition; of the various editions of the work over the centuries; and of the early and Renaissance commentaries on the work.

Includes numerous entries on Dante's other works.
The encyclopedia contains numerous entries on Dante's other important writings and on the major subjects covered within these works. Topical essays correlate the intellectual foundations of Dante's thought and works with the heritage of the Middle Ages and its various related disciplines.

Cross disciplinary in its approach.
The encyclopedia addresses connections between Dante and philosophy, theology, poetics, art, psychology, science, and music as well as critical perspective across the ages, from Dante's first critics (Boccaccio and Dante's son Pietro) to the present.

Reflects the present state of scholarship.
Where disagreement exists among scholars, the major points of contention are summarized and the underlying critical disagreements are presented in a clear style and neutral tone.

Abundantly illustrated.
More than 200 illustrations show the reader historic renderings of Dante's otherworld moral structure, the medieval world view of the globe, and representations of Dante's otherworld by various artists through the ages. The book also includes contemporary photographs of specific locations significant in Dante's history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The New Dante Reference of Choice
Prof. Richard Lansing's Dante Encyclopedia is a reference work of deep interest, wide scope, and unimpeachable authority.General readers, students, and scholars--especially those who are English-based--are boundto make this volume their Dante reference of choice.Hundreds of clear,intelligent, and up-to-date entries from today's best-respected Dantescholars discuss every person and place mentioned in Dante's works as wellas a vast number of biographical, historical, and cultural topics.Theencyclopedia will appeal to anyone who is looking for a better appreciationof the poet's background, achievement, and critical legacy.

The mapsand schematic drawings at the beginning of the encyclopedia are the best oftheir kind.The text is interspersed with an abundance of fine photographsand illustrations.Appended to the work are a detailed and reliablechronology of the poet's life, useful lists of the popes and emperors, achronology of musical settings of Dante's Comedy, a list of availablerecordings of these settings, a list of reference works (includingelectronic resources), a complete pronouncing index, with textualcitations, of the Italian and Latin proper names used by Dante, and anexhaustive index of subjects and illustrations.

So big, so accurateand comprehensive, the Dante Encyclopedia completely supersedes itspredecessors and promises to remain authoritative for many years.Nocollege or university, no lover of poetry and world literature will want tobe without it.

At last a reasonable encyclopedia in English!
A fantastic accomplishment!As a longtime Dante enthusiast, I have been waiting for something in English (my Italian not being up to snuff yet) that combines breadth with depth.

As my own metric, I like to pick atopic that is not altogether esoteric and that is the subject of at leastseveral competing theories.In studying Dante, that topic for me isnumerology.I was especially pleased to read the article on numerologybecause the Dante Encyclopedia fairly explained the competing theories onthe use of numerology by Dante.Never have I seen one source that providesthe in-depth overview that this book does.For the serious student of theclassics, this is a must-have!Gracie!And bravo! ... Read more

Book Description
Series Editors: Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas at Austin; Robert Lecker, McGill University; David O'Connell, Georgia State University; David William Foster, Arizona State University; Janet Pérez, Texas Tech University

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features:

• A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
• A brief biography of the author
• An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
• Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index
• A readable style presented in a manageable length

Book Description
Throughout his life, the famed 14th-century poet Dante was politically active, often choosing the wrong side in internecine battles of the ruling families, forcing him constantly to abandon his family and even his country while seeking refuge. Finally his poetry won him peace and patronage in Ravenna. His one daughter, Beatrice, attended him during the last few years of his life and eventually became a Dominican nun. Kimberley Heuston, a historian by training and winner of The Washington Post's 2002 Top 10 Kids Books Award, has meticulously researched Dante's life and times in order to create this fictional account of the great poet's daughter in the decades preceding the Italian Renaissance. In lush detail, she traces the life of an intelligent and talented young woman in a time when a woman's role required neither intelligence nor talent. In spite of that, Beatrice traveled extensively, learned an art, and devoted her full life to her work and her god. Dante's Daughter brings a human scale to famous figures of history, and breathes life into the events of those turbulent times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Remarkable window on dante's world
What a great novel for young adults and on up.Effortless writing of beautiful clarity.Richly evocative and historically accurate details of life in pre-renaissance Florence, Siena and Paris.Vivid characterizations of stubborn, likeable Antonia and her family, including her famous father Dante.All these combine to give us a great window on the milieu surrounding the writing of one of the world's great masterpeices (Dante's Divine Comedy).But it is the human interactions, especially between Antonia's parents, and Antonia's own timeless struggle to know herself and her place in the world (though it is at the same time a struggle beautifully representative of her time) that make this book glow with the pure color and clarity of a painting by Duccio or Giotto, artists Antonia lived among.I can't wait to pass this book around.If only I'd had it years ago to introduce middle school students to Dante's world--the depiction of the Guelphs' and Ghibellines' ferociously intertwined enmity would have been priceless in itself.

What a historical novel should be.
This is a beautiful book - a lot of fun and good food for thought.The prose is excellent. Since little is known about Dante's daughter Antonia, the author is free to tell her own story and she uses this freedom well.At the same time, she captures the flavor of a far-off time and place, where owning three dresses is amazing luxury for a small girl and it takes months to travel from Italy to Paris.We also get a feel for such places as war-torn Florence where houses are fortresses, a decadent Provencal court where lords play ball with oranges, and the peace and loveliness of a community of beguines outside Paris. I'm sure this is all meticulously researched, but it adds to the story rather than detracting from it.

Incidentally, you may not know what a beguine is - I didn't either before reading this book.It's just one of the many things I learned quite painlessly.They were women who took reversible vows of chastity but not poverty and lived in a walled village where they engaged in small businesses - a shocking idea in an age where choices for unmarried women were few and stark.

Women's lives are a major theme of this book, yet without any anachronistic imposition of modern feminism as so many historical novels have.What Antonia and her female relatives think is very probably what women of that age did think, but could not write about, since they were usually illiterate or too busy to write.

We also learn a great deal about Antonia's famous father Dante Alighieri, his writings and his political career.It makes me want to read his Divine Comedy.I also realized for the first time what a bold idea he had in that book, writing about a number of people he had known and who had died quite recently, and assigning them to Hell, Purgatory, or Paradise.Nowadays I suppose their families would sue him.It's amazing he didn't have any more enemies than he did.

Antonia is an artist, too, but with paint rather than words, and gives us a window on some of the great painters of the end of the Middle Ages in Italy, who would soon give birth to the Renaissance.

This book also has a lot to say about broken families, and relationships that break down because people of good will fail to understand each other.

All in all, I recommend this book highly both for teenagers and adults. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review by Shane
I fell in love with Dante's work many years ago.I recently read the guide to your school, and found it amazingly funny.The novelty in the paring of art and useful advise are great, and it can really wrack your brain as you try to figure out where the pictures belong in the books. ... Read more

Book Description
Patrick Boyde argues that the way in which Dante represents what he (or his fictional self) saw and felt was profoundly influenced by the thirteenth-century science of psychology. Professor Boyde offers an authoritative account of the way in which vision and the emotions were understood in Dante's lifetime.He rereads many of the most dramatic and moving episodes in the Comedy, and shows how knowledge of Dante's philosophical ideas can help us to understand the meaning of his journey toward the source of goodness and truth. ... Read more

Book Description
Patrick Boyde brings Dante's thought and poetry into focus for the modern reader by restoring the Comedy to its intellectual and literary context in 1300. He begins by describing the authorities that Dante acknowledged in the field of ethics and the modes of thought he shared with the great thinkers of his time. Boyde concentrates on the poetic representation of the most important vices and virtues in the Comedy. He stresses the heterogeneity and originality of Dante's treatment, and the challenges posed by his desire to harmonize these divergent value systems. ... Read more

Book Description
Dante Alighieri paved the way for modern literature, while creating verse and prose that remain unparalleled for formal elegance, intellectual depth, and emotional grandeur. The Portable Dante contains complete verse translations of Dante's two masterworks, The Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova, as well as a bibliography, notes, and an introduction by eminent scholar and translator Mark Musa.

Translated and edited by Mark Musa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Excellent translation, but some drawbacks to this edition
First, a word about Mark Musa's translation of Dante's works. His interpretations of the Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova are very beautiful, extremely readable, and as true to Dante as you can be in English. Musa's scholarship is excellent, and his introductory essays on Dante and his works are a pleasure to read, offering a broad understanding of what Dante is all about.

However, it is important that you keep in mind that a number of concessions had to be made for this book. Collecting the massive poems of the Divine Comedy, along with La Vita Nuova, is no mean task - I'm astounded Penguin Classics pulled it off in such a compact and readable volume. But this collection comes at the expense of some features that range from minor to outright baffling.

First, the minor stuff. This edition lacks the informative diagrams and illustrations of the standalone Divine Comedy volumes from Penguin Classics (Inferno, et al). Given the complexity of Dante's creation, it is very helpful to have maps to show you where the various parts of the afterlife are, and who inhabits them. Puzzlingly, /The Portable Dante/ includes a detailed map of Purgatory, but only a very vague and un-labeled map of Inferno, and NO map of Paradiso and the celestial spheres. Very strange and disappointing.

More unfortunate is the lack of a glossary. The Penguin Classics /Inferno/ has an excellent glossary of people and places that appear in the poem. This is a phenomenal resource for figuring out who is where in Hell, what they represent, and what Dante is doing with them.

However, the most (potentially) major issue with this volume is the sparse commentary. The individual books of The Divine Comedy have extensive endnotes, detailing broad sections and individual passages in great detail. The notes offer a better understanding of what Dante is doing, because virtually every line of poetry includes multi-faceted references to classical mythology, Christian scripture, and contemporary or historical Italian culture. For the majority of the Divine Comedy, well over 50% of the notes (as compared with the individual Penguin Classics books) have been removed.

The endnotes have been converted to non-intrusive footnotes, which is a welcome shift. But I can't help but feel that also including a detailed endnotes section would have added much, so that at the very least the reader could explore the more obscure references (passages from the Aeneid, the Bible, and so on) if they so desire. I also noticed some notes rather crucial to understanding have been removed completely, which is very unfortunate.

So how come, after all this whining and moaning, I still give /The Portable Dante/ a full five stars? Because Mark Musa's translation is so fluid and vital, and having such a beautiful collection in a compact volume is extremely valuable. There is enough supplementary material that casual readers can enjoy Dante's mastery and creativity, and they will perhaps be tantalized to explore the deeper meanings he plants throughout.

Here's the bottom line: /The Portable Dante/ is what I use when I wish to read Dante to others, or to simply read through for my own enjoyment. If you need extensive scholarly information, I recommend also buying the Penguin Classics editions of the individual parts of The Divine Comedy. But as a smooth and very readable base camp for your exploration of Dante, I can think of no better book than this.

Highly recommended, whatever your level of interest in this fascinating poet and his works.

Good basic text
good translation - not excellent, but good, and the footnotes are helpful. The translator also makes an attempt at explaining the contrapasso for each Canto of Inferno, which can be helpful to the independant reader.

The All-In-One Dante
"The Portable Dante" provides readers with the complete "Divine Comedy" (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), an excellent biography on the author, historical background, a great translation by one of the the best translators of the genre, and Dante's often forgotten work "La Vita Nuova". What more could you ask for? Essentially, this volume has it all. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to read the entire "Divine Comedy" from Hell to Heaven. It's better than having to buy each book separately. And nothing is lost from putting it all into one place. Each Canto is complete and excellently translated into verse form (as it should be). This edition makes the often difficult work easier to read by providing a summary at the beginning of each Canto (though I often skip over these because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but they're there if you need them) and notes at the bottom of each page (instead of in the back of the book like another edition I read), making them easy to refer to while reading.

There are a lot of editions of this timeless work out there, but this is the one to get. Great translation and excellent organization.

Dante - My admittedly poor review
Dante has always been a difficult writer for me. His long established greatness and unquestioned place in the pantheon of man's great literary creators is not something I question or doubt. I understand that he is the major writer of the Christian Middle Ages, and for many along with Shakespeare at the very pinnacle of the world's literary creators.My own difficulty with Dante may in part relate to the fact that he is presenting a Christian vision of life on earth, hell, purgatory and heaven. And that this vision is something I as a Jew have difficulty giving full emotional sympathy to. But there is another difficulty which I found in reading even the most colorful portrayals of those suffering in the Inferno. I found it all to be cruel. And I was repelled by the idea that God would so delight in the tremendous sufferings inflicted on sinners, who are after all too God's creatures. In other words the whole emotional landscape of Dante's lower world, and the great imaginative effort made to portray various strange and unusual sufferings repelled me. I found it in so many way petty and wrong and outside my sense of what God who made all creatures great and small , would condone. Could God who is Good really take delight in all these unending torments? I prefer to think of God as One who rather would seek a way to help save others even those who have sinned, rather than condemn them.
Thus the very premise of this great work seems to put it outside my own particular grasp or emotional comprehension.
Moreover as Dante moved to Purgatory and then later to Paradise I found myself somehow sleeping and not interested. These ' spiritual landscapes ' were too outside my own sense as a Jew of what the world is truly about . Of course God wants our penitence but there does not have to be some special realm in order for God to get it.We can repent and change everyday where we are in our own life.
I realize that what I am providing the review reader here is a very poor review indeed. It shows no knowledge or appreciation of the beauties of the language and other strengths of Dante's writing.
It is however one poor reader's honest impression however little it be worth.

A master's works
Okay, everyone has heard of the "Divine Comedy," the medieval masterwork of legendary poet Dante Alighieri. Heaven, hell, purgatory and so on. In "The Portable Dante," that sprawling supernatural epic is paired with his exquisite love ode, "La Vita Nuova."

"The Divine Comedy" is the story of Dante's guided tour through the three parts of the afterlife: Hell, where he is shown (by the poet Virgil) how the sinners are tormented in all sorts of inventive ways, depending on their sins. Purgatory, "the second kingdom," where Dante sees the suffering that people undergo to be purified of their wrongs. And finally paradise, where his beloved muse Beatrice shows him heaven, encountering his ancestors, angels, saints, and finally God himself.

"La Vita Nuova" (The New Life) is only loosely connected with the "Comedy." It tells of how Dante met Beatrice when they were both children, and he fell in love with her. Many years passed, and Dante's quiet adoration of Beatrice grew stronger, even though they married other people. The story follows his emotional ups and downs, and the writings that resulted... even when Beatrice died.

The main similarity between these two books is that they both feature (and adore) Beatrice. "La Vita Nuova" is an intimate little book, but the "Divine Comedy" sprawls all over Earth, the solar system (within the bounds of "paradiso"), and the three parts of the supernatural realm. You can't get much more epic than that.

Dante's writing remains rich and detailed, even translated into English. The descriptions of heaven and hell are mind-blowing, and sometimes the "Inferno" sections are even funny. Yes, hell is funny. But he also excels in describing his inner highs and lows in "La Vita Nuova," as he struggles with doubts, sorrow, anguish and joy.

But don't think that Dante's journeys are merely supernatural. While "La Vita Nuova" doesn't describe much beyond art and love, "Divine Comedy" also tackles religion and politics. It's a bit uncomfortable when Dante describes various people he disliked in hell. And he also takes the opportunity to criticize the Catholic chuch of his time, which had quite a few problems. However, his fervour for his religion, Beatrice and his art shine through.

"The Portable Dante" is an excellent way to check out Dante's most prominent works. Whether checking out an unrequited love, or journeying through the circles of hell, this is a spellbinding collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An illuminating guide!
A Modern Readers Guide changed my life!By far the best resource for understanding Dante. A must read!

The BESTguide to the Inferno around!
This book provides a fantastic guide to the Inferno.It made reading the Inferno 100% more meaningful and enjoyable for me.An absolute must for anyone reading the Inferno!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A View from Mount Parnassus
James Collins wrote this work in 1984 and has continued to add to the scholarship of the subject based on his years of study, instruction and travels throughout Italy and renders a very informative insight to Dante's Divine Comedy. His commentary on the Cantos are lucid and insightful and as one of his former students, I can attest that his work will leave you with a favorable impression and perhaps a desire to further scholarship. James Collins has also authored these other Dante works: "Dante: Layman, Prophet, Mystic", "Praying with Dante", and "Meditations with Dante Alighieri". ... Read more

Product Description
As one of the supreme Christian epic poems, Dante's Divine Comedy provides not only far more personality and emotional depth than the pagan epics, it also opens up all the issues on which Western history turns—truth, beauty, goodness, sin, sanctification, and triumph. For all that, C.S. Lewis loved the Comedy for its seemingly effortless poetry.

In this guide Peter Leithart uses a biblical angle to open up the Comedy for students, high school and up. He begins his discussion by examining the meaning and place of the courtly love tradition and then introduces us to the varied levels of meaning throughout the work. In the heart of the guide, Leithart walks us carefully through the craft and symbolism of each progressive stage—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each section contains helpful study questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ascent to Understanding Dante!
Unless you are a literature professor or certified theologian, do not attempt to read Dante's Divine Comedy without this book!(My understanding is that Leithart happens to be both!)My teenage daughter and I attempted to work our way through the trilogy without Leithart's excellent guide. Finally, I just set it aside until Leithart's book was published.What a difference some guidance makes.Many view the Divine Comedy as merely a theological examination of the "places" of hell, purgatory, and hell. Leithart successfully leads students through a more insightful examination of the concept of "courtly love" and follows through the progression towards true, selfless love. This is a critical understanding for young people to differentiate.It opened our eyes to truths in Dante's book which, formerly a drudgery, became a favorite in her high school, homeschool education of worldviews. ... Read more

Book Description
In the course of exploring the human pilgrimage on Earth,Dante charts a vivid path through the canticles of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in his legendary poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great introduction to Dante
Robert Royal has managed to write a book which makes Dante's Divine Comedy not only more understandable for the average reader, but which makes you want to actually read Dante's classic.One of the chief reasons why this is such a good book is that Royal takes Dante's spiritual leanings seriously, unlike some commentators who see Dante as doing mostly political commentary.I recently used Royal's book as I embarked on teaching The Inferno to a high school student I was tutoring.It was an invaluable resource and made things clearer than the notes found in either edition of The Inferno we were using.I am now looking forward to finishing The Divine Comedy myself for the first time, inspired by Robert Royal.Thank you to the author for making this classic accessible for someone who doesn't read Italian, but who does share Dante's Catholic faith. ... Read more

Book Description
Probing Dante's knowledge of empirical geography, use of crusade rhetoric, and fascination with the world beyond European borders, Brenda Deen Schildgen offers an alluring new perspective on Dante's utopian imagination, political motivations, and literary intentions in the Commedia and other works.

In the meticulously researched Dante and the Orient, Schildgen argues that Dante's treatment of the East enabled him to use the rhetoric employed in crusade narratives and other travel literature to oppose the military and polemic goals of the Crusades and to plead for the reformation of both church and state.

Schildgen asserts Dante's knowledge of the East by detailing his grasp of empirical geography and mapmaking, which were consistent with the current theories of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But Dante thwarts cartographical traditions and the conventions of the crusade narrative by substituting a metaphorical journey for a literal pilgrimage, thereby shifting the emphasis away from the material sight of scriptural places used in other crusade and pilgrimage narratives.

Blending sound historical research with innovative contemporary thought, Schildgen illustrates how Dante's unique adoption of crusade rhetoric grants him the role of prophet.Mindful of the lands beyond European bordersÐ-but without "orientalizing" or "exoticizing" themÐ-he questions the concept of salvation outside Christian lands and launches a fiery poetic missive at a crisis-ridden and decadent Latin world that does not live up to its proclaimed ideals. In Dante's keen regard for the East, its wonders become symbols for the grandeur of God and the beauty of the divine realm. ... Read more