The Metaphysics of Dante's Comedy

321 Pages·2005·2.01 MB·English

by  Christian Moevs

The Metaphysics of Dante’s
Comedy
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TheMetaphysicsofDante’sComedy
ChristianMoevs
The Metaphysics of
Dante’s Comedy
christian moevs
1
2005
1
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Moevs,Christian.
ThemetaphysicsofDante’sComedy/ChristianMoevs
p. cm.—(Reflectionandtheoryinthestudyofreligion)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13978-0-19-517461-8
ISBN0-19-517461-5
1. DanteAlighieri,1265–1321.Divinacommedia. 2. Metaphysicsinliterature.
I. Title. II. Series.
PQ4432.M56M642005
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O ben creato spirito, che a’ rai
di vita etterna la dolcezza senti
che, non gustata, non s’intende mai . . .
(Pd 3.37–39)
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
Longjourneysincurdebtspaidwithloveandgratitude.Iofferboth
tomyteachers,especiallytoWarrenGoldfarbandTomRickettsfor
theirunfailingmentoringandfriendship;toStanleyCavellforfirst
showingmethateverygreatliterarytextisaphilosophicaltext,and
everygreatphilosophicaltextaliterarytext;toMarthaNussbaum,
withwhomIfirstreadtheComedyinthecontextofancientandme-
dievalphilosophy;andtothelateBurtonDreben,whoseundergrad-
uatetutorialonJ.L.Austinwasoneofthegreatintellectualexperi-
encesofmylife.AtColumbiaIshallneverforgetthegenerousand
extraordinarilyperceptiveguidanceofTeodolindaBarolini,who
mademeaDantist;LucianoRebay’slucidmeditationonthenature
ofpoetry,whichtriggeredmyfirstreflectionsonDante’spoetics;
OlgaRagusa’shighseriousnessinthestudyofliterature;andMaris-
tellaLorch,whoplantedthefirstseedsofthisproject,asshehasso
manyothers.
Fordetailedcriticismsandsuggestionsontheentiremanuscript
atvariousstages,IamgratefultoTeodolindaBarolini,Zygmunt
Baran´ski,GiuseppeMazzotta,RobertHollander,JohnScott,Simone
Marchesi,StevenBotterill,WilliamFranke,LinoPertile,RachelJa-
coff,SandraStow,andmysister,MarinaMoevs,whoprovedtobe
anexceptionaleditor.ChristopherKleinhenz,AmilcareIannucci,
FrancoFerrucci,FrederickCrosson,TomFlint,MarkJordan,Henry
Weinfield,KevinHart,AllenMandelbaum,JohnFreccero,Francesco
Sberlati,ManueleGragnolati,OtfriedLieberknecht,AndreasSpeer,
TamaraPollack,TomWerge,andJanEmersonallreadandcom-
mentedonallorpartsofthemanuscript.Foropportunitiestopres-
entpartsofthisworkpublicly,IamespeciallygratefultotheDante
SocietyofAmerica,LinoPertile,MartyCohen,MatthewTreherne
viii acknowledgments
and Vittorio Montemaggi, Alison Cornish, Michael Sherberg, ManueleGrag-
nolati, Andreas Speer, and Gloria Allaire. To David Burrell, C.S.C., I owe an
incalculabledebt,fortheopportunitytoteachadoctoralseminarwithhimon
the metaphysics of creation, for guiding my thinking at every stage as this
project developed, for reading several versions of the entire manuscript, and
forhisunshakableconfidenceintheoutcome.MycolleaguesinItalianatNotre
Dame—Theodore Cachey, Jr., John Welle, and Colleen Ryan-Scheutz—have
fostered my work at every stage, both directly and by developing the place of
Dante and Italian literature in the university’s intellectual life. Jim Wetzel,
Cynthia Read, Christine Dahlin, and Oxford University Press have made the
processofpublishingthisbookapleasure.
IamgratefultotheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanitiesforayear’s
support, and indebted to the extraordinary resources and generosity of the
University of Notre Dame, especially the William and Katherine Devers Pro-
graminDanteStudies,theZahmDanteCollection,theMedievalInstitute,the
CenterforPhilosophyofReligion,theDepartmentofSpecialCollections,and
the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts: they havemadeNotreDame
formeanunparalleledstudiuminwhichtoreadDante.
Thesection“Time”ofchapter4appearedinRomanceNotesas“ThePrimo
MobileasaPotofTime:Paradiso27.115–120”;versionsofbriefpassagesofthe
conclusionappearedinMLN(“God’sFeetandHands[Paradiso4.40–48]:Non-
Duality and Non-False Errors”) and Lectura Dantis (“Is Dante Telling the
Truth?”); a slightlyshorterversionofthelastsectionofchapter3appearedas
“Pyramus at the Mulberry Tree: De-PetrifyingDante’sTintedMind”in Imag-
iningHeavenintheMiddleAges,editedbyJanEmersonandHughFeiss,O.S.B.
I dedicate this book to my parents, to my sister, andto mybeloved Luke,
whotogetherhaveshownmethehorizonoftheworld.
Contents
Abbreviations,Editions,Translations,xi
Introduction:Non-DualityandSelf-Knowledge,3
1. TheEmpyrean,15
2. Matter,37
3. Form,49
4. Creation,107
5. SunrisesandSunsets,147
Conclusion:IsDanteTellingtheTruth?,169
Epilogue:NoMind,NoMatter,187
Notes,193
WorksCited,241
Index,293