This bibliography is intended to cover Dante translations published in this country in 1953, and all Dante studies published in 1953 that are in any sense American. The bibliography is in the main the work of Dr. A. L. Pellegrini; but the analyses signed V.L. were prepared by Professor Vincent Luciani for the periodic "Bibliography of Italian Studies in America" which he publishes in Italica, and are here reprinted with his kind permission and with that of the Editor of ltalica, Professor J. G. Fucilla. E.H.W.

La Divina Commedia. With an English translation by H. M. Ayres. Vol. II, Purgatorio, and Vol. III, Paradiso. New York, Vanni. [1953]

Reproduces the Società Dantesca text as revised by Vandelli, and has, on opposite pages, a prose translation, without notes, which strives to be true in spirit to the original. Vol. I, Inferno, appeared in 1949.

Purgatory. Translated and edited by Thomas G. Bergin, New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts. [1953]

Done in English blank verse, except for occasional passages merely summarized in prose. Edited with explicatory footnotes and provided with a brief general introduction, a list of significant dates of Dante's life, and a diagram of Purgatory. References to Inferno are to Bergin's translation, published in 1948, in the same series ("Crofts Classics").

Canzone ("Io son venuto al punto de la rota"). Translated by Harry Duncan. In Hudson Review, VI, 540-543. [1953]

The verse translation, facing the Italian text on opposite pages, follows approximately the same rhyme­scheme as the original.

Erich Auerbach. Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Translated from the German by W. R. Trask. Princeton, Princeton University Press. [1953]

Contains a chapter on "Farinata and Cavalcante," pre-printed in Trask's translation in Kenyon Review, XIV (1952), 207-242, illustrating these points: (1) Dante employed stylistic devices not achieved by any previous vernacular writers; (2) despite inclusion of low elements, the style of the Comedy is an elevated one based on sustained gravitas and integration of individual cases, however mean, with lofty divine judgment; (3) through Dante's wonderful realism, the earthly instances in the Comedy often surpass in effect their intended figural significance. The original German edition of Mimesis, published in 1946, has been extensively reviewed.

Blake's Illustrations for Dante: Selections from the Originals in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia and the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Fogg Picture Book No. 2). Harvard University Printing Office.

A pamphlet containing plates of twenty of Blake's drawings for the Divine Comedy, with an Introduction by Helen M. Willard, a short list of reference books for further study of Blake, and translations by C. S. Singleton facing the plates. E.H.W.

C. M. Bowra. "Dante and Sordello." In Comparative Literature, V, 1-15. [1953]

Contends that Dante so admired Sordello's political convictions that for his famous outburst on Italy (Purgatory, VI) he followed, with variations, the principles of government expressed in L'Ensegnamen d'Onor and that in his denunciation of negligent rulers (Purgatory, VII), he expanded upon the ideas contained in Sordello's planh on the death of Blacatz. V.L.

Irma Brandeis. "On Reading Dante Whole." In Hudson Review, VI, 404-412. [1953]

Contends, in opposition to Croce's thesis, that the lyrical episodes of the Divine Comedy, far from being pauses in the great themes of the poem, contain an essential revelation in dramatic form of the nature of some particular moral condition and carry forward the work of the whole poem as cogently as do the revelations by argument, by dream or by sacramental vision. The author analyzes as an example the canto of Farinata, who maintains in the other world the spirit of faction and thus fails to see humanity whole. V.L.

Amerindo Camilli. "L'anno della visione dantesca." In Italica, XXX, 44. [1953]

In answer to his critics, who refer to 1301 as the year of the Vision, Camilli discusses the method of counting and insists that Dante, starting with the year 1 for the birth of Christ, must have accepted A. D. 1300 as His 1300th year and A. D. 34 as His 34th year.

Ernst R. Curtius. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Translated from the German by Willard R. Trask. New York, Pantheon Books (Bollingen Series, 36). [1953]

Contains one long chapter and sections of three others on Dante, as well as references to him passim throughout. Within the book's larger thesis, Dante is related to the vast body of European culture consisting of the works of the Latin Middle Ages and of the works of Antiquity as then seen. Discussing numerous Dante topics and problems, e.g., Dante's attitude toward poetry, his use of exemplary persons, his book metaphor, number symbolism, Beatrice, etc., Curtius indicates that the roots of the Divine Comedy lie in that cultural complex, and he therefore urges more concentrated and methodical investigation in this direction. The original German edition of Curtius' book, published in 1948, has been extensively reviewed.

Francis Fergusson. Dante's Drama of the Mind: a Modern Reading of the Purgatorio. Princeton, Princeton University Press. [1953]

Considers the Purgatorio a self-subsistent unit, the Comedy's center and transitional canticle, where Dante's own spirit is observable at work, along a line of emerging spiritual movements dramatically conceived and presented. Dante-Pilgrim and Dante-Author are differentiated and a gradually diminishing distance between them is traced, until they finally merge where Dante is named by Beatrice. The highly interpretive study primarily examines the Pilgrim's spiritual growth in its four-fold pattern of increasing awareness, corresponding to the four days of the purgatorial journey: (1) the first moto spiritale is lyrical, in the earth-like setting of the Antepurgatorio; (2) the second involves the soul's awakening to self-knowledge through moral, then intellectual, effort, according to Virgil's lumen naturale; (3) the third exhibits the soul's continuing urge to transcend mortality; (4) the fourth constitutes direct obedience to what is perceived in the Earthly Paradise, where innocence is regained. The line of development is related, furthermore, to the gradually changing aspect of Virgil's role till his ultimate inadequacy yields to Statius' assistance; to corresponding stages of development in Dante's own life; to the itinerarium mentis in Deum; to the four-fold system of theological allegory. Contains a separate section of notes, designed to suggest key reading on special matters mentioned. Reviewed by T. G. Bergin in Yale Review, XLIII, 150-151; by Northrop Frye in Hudson Review, VI, 442-449; by W. F. Lynch in Thought, XXVIII, 459-462; by W. M. Miller in Modern Language Journal, XXXVII, 318-319; and by Howard Nemerov in Sewanee Review, LXI, 500-506.

J. G. Fucilla. Studies and Notes (Literary and Historical). Naples and Rome, Istituto Editoriale del Mezzogiorno. [1953]

Contains four Dante studies. (1) "Dante Lands in America," originally published in Italica, XXVII (1950), 208-210, notes the first recorded mention of Dante by a colonial American, in a work by John Cotton published in 1642. (2) "The First American Fragment of a Translation of the Divine Comedy Printed in America," originally published in ltalica, XXV (l948), 9-11, nullifies the author's previous claim in Italica, VIII (1931), 40-41, and cites Paradiso, XXIV, 101-102, as quoted and translated in a 1679 almanac by John Clapp: this is also perhaps the first American appearance of Italian in print. (3) "An Early American Translation of the Count Ugolino Episode," originally published in Modern Language Quarterly, XI (1950), 480-485, gives the unpublished text of Richard Alsop's prose translation (before 1797?) and reviews early instances of Dante in English generally. (4) "Another Early Fragment of a Translation from the Divine Comedy," adapted from its original form in Italica, VIII (1931), 40-41, quotes from the 1791 volume of New York Magazine William Dunlap's English version in heroic verse of 34 lines from Ugolino's story.

Sister Maura. "Dante." In Dalhousie Review, XXXIII, 201-206. [1953]

A sympathetic profilo of Dante, remarks about his life and works, with comments upon similarities between the Commedia and the Gaelic visions and voyages. V.L.

Leonardo Olschki. Dante, "poeta veltro." Florence, Olschki. [1953]

Elaborates his earlier The Myth of Felt (University of California Press, 1949), interpreting the veltro's birth (nazion) as occurring under Gemini, the felt-capped Dioscuri (tra feltro e feltro), but now revises his reading of veltro from "a wise, human and powerful leader" to a moral guide, one divinely endowed with grace, wisdom and virtue, a poeta--actually Dante himself. His Comedy would fulfill the mission of driving away vice and restoring justice to the world, as preparation for the proper re-establishment of imperial and papal authority. An appendix, reproducing a lecture by Olschki published in Nuova Antologia, CDLV (1952), 386-398, condenses material and conclusions of the above works. Also included are five iconographical plates.

A. L. Pellegrini. "The Commiato of Dante's Sestina." In Modern Language Notes, LXVIII, 29-30. [1953]

Reinterprets un bel verde as "lovely foliage" and uom petra as a "stone-man"--an explanation believed to be more in keeping with the rest of Dante's sestina and to satisfy the larger context of the rime petrose in general. V.L.

A. S. Roe. Blake's Illustrations to the Divine Comedy. Princeton, Princeton University Press. [1953]

A thorough and penetrating study of Blake's magnificent drawings for the Divine Comedy, which were made in the years 1824-1827. Five introductory chapters consider (1) the history of the drawings, and of the engravings that Blake made from a few of them; (2) Blake's symbolism; (3) Blake and Dante; (4) unity of theme in the drawings; and (5) stylistic matters. The main part of the text is a detailed commentary on the 102 drawings, which are examined one by one with reference not only to their illustrative qualities but also with reference to their expression of Blake's ever-dominant symbolic philosophy of life. All the 102 drawings (and three others) are reproduced in the final series of plates. E.H.W.

M. M. Rossi. "Dante's Conception of Ulysses." In Italica, XXX, 193-202. [1953]

Offers internal evidence against construing Ulysses' harangue as part of the fraud for which he is punished. Rather, Ulysses' tragic voyage was not a moral, but a Natural transgression of exceeding the limits of knowledge set for the pre-Christian world: he could not reach Mount Purgatory before Redemption. Anent sources, Rossi argues that Dante, not knowing Homer, may have been inspired by some medieval version of Ulysses' end and very probably followed Cicero's favorable opinion (De officiis, III, 26). Also interpreted are the circumstance that Virgil, not Dante, speaks to Ulysses; the meaning of latino and perduto; the abruptness of Ulysses' narration; and the implied chronology of Ulysses' end.

C. S. Singleton. "End of a Poem." In Hudson Review, VI, 529-539. [1953]

Insists that there are two Dantes in the Commedia: (1) the figure of the wayfarer in the realms beyond, a bearer of past time, and (2) the figure of the poet returned from the journey, a bearer of present time. The two figures merge in the last canto of the Paradiso in a continuous shifting movement from present back to past, in a strategy resolving the whole structure of the poem. V.L.

Charles Speroni. Review of Aldo Vallone, La "cortesia" dai provenzali a Dante. In Italica, XXX, 175-176. [1953]

In Vallone's book, originally published in 1950, Dante's conception of cortesia as moral goodness is distinguished from the Provençal sense as personal charm and gallantry.

Domenico Vittorini. "Luci ed ombre nella 'Vita nuova.'" In Letterature moderne, IV, 518-523. [1953]

Considers the Vita nuova's three planes of reality: (1) Dante's actual emotional experiences; (2) the poems reflecting them; (3) Dante's later prose reflections upon them. Vittorini urges reading the poems independently, for the prose is mere "shadow" contrived to force the poems into an entirely Beatrice-oriented scheme. Traces of other loves remain and many poems still flash with the sincere lyricism of their original inspiration.

Edward Williamson. "Dante's Divine Comedy." In Literary Masterpieces of the Western World, edited by F. H. Horn, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 89-106. [1953]

Gives a succinct general outline of the Comedy, noting in particular, with occasional key citations from De Sanctis: Virgil's influence, the distinction between the protagonists Dante and Virgil and their historical counterparts, the importance and role in the poem of allegory, reason, justice, poetry and symbolism. The chapter closes with a brief note on Dante's life.