The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Divine Comedy

392 Pages·2009·2.84 MB·English

by  Guy P. Raffa

the complete danteworlds

the complete
Danteworlds
a reader’s guide to the
divine comedy
Guy P. Raffa
The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago & London
guy p. raffa is associate professor of Italian at the University of Texas at
Austin. He is the author of Divine Dialectic: Dante’s Incarnational Poetry (2000).
His guide to the Inferno (2007) is published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2009 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2009
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-70269-8 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-70270-4 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-70269-3 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-70270-7 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Raffa, Guy P.
The complete Danteworlds : a reader’s guide to the Divine Comedy / Guy P.
Raffa.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn -13: 978-0-226-70269-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn -13: 978-0-226-70270-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn -10: 0-226-70269-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn -10: 0-226-70270-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321. Divina commedia. I. Title.
pq4390.r258 2009
851´.1—dc22
2008045826
Illustrations by Suloni Robertson.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992.
To Helene

contents
Welcome to Danteworlds :: ix
Major Events in Dante’s Life :: xvii
Map of Italy in the Thirteenth Century :: xix
hell :: 1
Illustration of Dante’s Hell 6
Dark Wood ( inferno 1–2 ) 7
Periphery of Hell: Cowardice ( inferno 3 ) 14
Circle 1: Limbo ( inferno 4 ) 18
Circle 2: Lust ( inferno 5 ) 26
Circle 3: Gluttony ( inferno 6 ) 32
Circle 4: Avarice & Prodigality ( inferno 7 ) 36
Circle 5: Wrath & Sullenness ( inferno 7–9 ) 39
Circle 6: Heresy ( inferno 9–11 ) 46
Circle 7: Violence ( inferno 12–17 ) 54
Circle 8, pouches 1–6: Fraud ( inferno 18–23 ) 72
Circle 8, pouches 7–10: Fraud ( inferno 24–30 ) 87
Circle 9: Treachery ( inferno 31–34 ) 107
Changing Values? 120
purgatory :: 121
Illustration of Dante’s Purgatory 124
Ante-Purgatory: Late Repentant ( purgatorio 1–6 ) 125
Valley of Rulers ( purgatorio 6–9 ) 140
Terrace 1: Pride ( purgatorio 10–12 ) 152
Terrace 2: Envy ( purgatorio 13–15 ) 160
Terrace 3: Wrath ( purgatorio 15–17 ) 168
Terrace 4: Sloth ( purgatorio 17–19 ) 176
Terrace 5: Avarice & Prodigality ( purgatorio 19–22 ) 181
Terrace 6: Gluttony ( purgatorio 22–24 ) 194
Terrace 7: Lust ( purgatorio 25–27 ) 203
Terrestrial Paradise ( purgatorio 28–33 ) 210
Dante Today 221
paradise :: 223
Illustration of Dante’s Paradise 228
Moon: Vow Breakers ( paradiso 1–5 ) 229
Mercury: Fame Seekers ( paradiso 5–7 ) 240
Venus: Ardent Lovers ( paradiso 8–9 ) 249
Sun: Wise Spirits ( paradiso 10–14 ) 259
Mars: Holy Warriors ( paradiso 14–18 ) 272
Jupiter: Just Rulers ( paradiso 18–20 ) 284
Saturn: Contemplatives ( paradiso 21–22 ) 293
Fixed Stars: Church Triumphant ( paradiso 22–27 ) 299
Primum Mobile: Angelic Orders ( paradiso 27–30 ) 310
Empyrean: Blessed, Angels, Holy Trinity ( paradiso 30–33 ) 317
Dante and Interdisciplinarity 327
Acknowledgments :: 329
Note on Texts and Translations :: 331
Bibliography :: 333
Index :: 349
welcome to danteworlds
we are in the midst of a mini renaissance in the cultural ap-
preciation of Dante’s poetic masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. Hardly
restricted to the rarefi ed air of higher education, this extraordinary
interest in Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet from the late Middle Ages
(1265–1321), is easily seen in the proliferation of new and recent
works—translations, biographies, even popular novels featuring Dante
or his poem—displayed on the shelves and Web sites of booksellers.
Naturally, this growing fascination with the man and his poem
inspires many readers to learn more about Dante’s world and the infl u-
ences, events, and experiences out of which his vision of the afterlife
was born. To gain a better understanding of the Divine Comedy, inquisi-
tive readers (students and literature enthusiasts alike) most often rely
on explanatory notes accompanying the poem or on the occasional
book or essay written with a general audience in mind. The valuable
notes provided with translations are generally limited (due to lack of
space) to brief presentations of background information and concise
explanations of diffi cult passages. Translations are sometimes accom-
panied by a separate volume of commentary, usually aimed at a schol-
arly audience, but these notes, like those placed after each canto of the
poem or gathered at the back of the book, still follow a strictly textual
order, commenting on the poem canto by canto, line by line. Essays
and book-length studies, while broader in scope and freer from a rigid
textual chronology, are perhaps most useful to Dante’s readers after
they have already worked through the Divine Comedy at least once, on
their own or with a teacher and classmates.
Danteworlds takes a different approach. The project grew out of a
desire to meet two basic challenges facing college students who read
and discuss the Divine Comedy, in most cases for the fi rst time, in the
Dante course I teach one or more times each year: fi rst, to become ad-
equately familiar with the multitude of characters, creatures, events,
and ideas—drawn from ancient to medieval sources—that fi gure
prominently in the poem; second, to become adept at recalling who and
what appear where by creating and retaining a mental map of Dante’s
postmortem worlds. My own experience, and that of my students, sug-