This bibliography is intended to include the Dante translations published in this country in 1978 and all Dante studies and reviews published in 1978 that are in any sense American. The latter criterion is construed to include foreign reviews of American publications pertaining to Dante. The listing of reviews in general is selective, particularly in the case of studies bearing only peripherally on Dante.
As a rule, items cited from Dissertation Abstracts International
are registered without further abstracting, since the titles tend
to be self-explanatory. Items not recorded in the bibliographies
for previous years are entered as addenda to the present list.
NOTE. Generally, the citation of an individual study from a collected
volume representing several authors is given in brief, while the
main entry of the volume is listed with full bibliographical data
in its alphabetical order. Issues of this journal under the former
title of Annual Report of the Dante Society continue to
be cited in the short form of Report, with volume number.
The Divine Comedy. Translated by Charles Eliot Norton; with the illustrations of William Blake. A limited edition. Franklin Center, Pennsylvania: Franklin Library. 409 p. illus. 25 cm. (The Great Books of the Western World.) [1978]
The well known Norton version in prose, which has gone through
many editions, is here reprinted from that copyrighted in 1952,
with an added insertion of "Notes from the editors"
(22 p.).
The Portable Dante. Edited, and with an introduction, by Paolo Milano Revised edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, xii, 662 p. (The Viking Library.) [1978]
British edition of the work, originally published in the revised
edition with updated "Bibliographical Note" by Sergio
Pacifici, of 1968 (Nev York: Viking Press). (See Dante Studies,
LXXXVII 153-154; see also below, under Addenda.)
Apfelbaum, Barbra. "Dante's Self Exegesis in Convivio II: The Poetics of the Ineffable." In Forum Italicum, XII, 11-25. [1978]
Offers a reading of Dante's prose explanation of the first canzone,
Voi che 'ntendendo il terzo ciel movete, in the Convivio,
which is seen to mark an important transformation of Dante's poetry
from the lyrical to the philosophical and therefore a step towards
the mode of the Commedia. "The canzone has a cerebral
quality which is unlike anything found in the preceding medieval
poetic tradition." It evokes a "mysterious" feeling
that transports us beyond the atmosphere of the Vita Nuova
to the ineffable. In conclusion, the author submits that Dante's
Donna Gentile should be identified not just as Philosophy, but
Poetry, his new poetry, which subsumes philosophy, as initiated
by this canzone.
Baldassaro, Lawrence. "Inferno XII: The Irony of Descent." in Romance Notes, XIX, 98-103. [1978]
Contends that irony is the dominant theme of the canto as evinced
by the several allusions--to the universe feeling amor,
with its indirect reference to Christ's descent and the landslide
(vv. 34-43), to Beatrice's descent to Limbo (vv. 85-89),
and to Dante's own descent into Hell--all contrasting with the
sinners' violence who descended to the beast and must remain eternally
condemned to this place of damnation, for in the cases of Christ
Beatrice, and Dante the act of descent is but prelude to ascent.
Boitani, Piero. "The Sibyl's Leaves: A Study of Paradiso XXXIII." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 83-126. [1978]
Presents a detailed lectura Dantis of the final canto of
the Commedia interpreting synthetically and in depth its
structural and rhetorical form, the essential images and analogies,
and the way the philosophico-theological bases and Scriptural
and exegetical allusions are here intensely concentrated and transformed
into poetry. In particular, the author shows how, in the struggle
to define his ultimate vision of God per intelligibiles processiones
and to describe Him per sensibiles similitudines, the poet
skillfully resorts to the language of metaphor, such that the
entire canto is seen as "an explosion of metaphors."
Bosco, Umberto. "Il canto VIII del Paradiso." In The Two Hesperias: Literary Studies in Honor of Joseph G. Fucilla on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, edited by Americo Bugliani (Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, S.A.), pp. 89-100. (Studia humanitatis, 8, The Catholic University of America.) [1978]
Presents a brief lectura Dantis focused on the Carlo Martello
episode in Paradiso VIII.
Bregy, Katherine. From Dante to Jeanne d'Arc: Adventures in Medieval Life and Letters. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. xiii, 138 p.23 cm. [1978]
Contains a general essay on Dante's life and work entitled "Dante's
Dream of Life" (pp. 1-17), which originally appeared
as "Dante and His Vision of Life" in Commonweal,
V (1927), 568-572. (It was awarded the 1927 Leahy Prize for
the best essay on Dante.) The volume is a reprint of the 1933
edition (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company); for another recent
reprint (1964), see 83rd Report, 51.
Brownlee, Kevin. "Dante and Narcissus (Purg. XXX, 76-99)." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 201-206. [1978]
Sees in Purgatorio XXX, 99, an implicit presentation of
Dante as a "corrected" Narcissus through the poet's
reworking of two passages in Ovid's Metamorphoses, III
(418-419 and 487-490). This, along with other Narcissan
allusions in the Comedy, evinces increased importance of
Ovid from this point in the poem as part of Dante's continuing
valorization of classical poetry within his Christian poem.
Cassell, Anthony K. "'Mostrando con le poppe il petto' (Purg. XXIII, 102)." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 75-81. [1978]
Finds a solution to the crux of the obscure interdict cited by
Dante in Purgatorio XXIII, 98-111, in a spiritual
commandment included in the ecclesiastical Constitutions of
Florence of 1310 drawn up by Bishop Antonio d'Orso Biliotti
and approved by the Synod. The pertinent text, reproduced here
from the provisions "De consuetudine," explicitly requires
that women's dress reveal nothing below the neck.
Cervigni, Dino S. "A Survey of American and Canadian Dissertations in Italian and Italian-Related Subjects (1971-1977)." In Italica, LV, 36-67. [1978]
Lists 44 items on Dante in this supplement to Remigio Pane's "Studi
danteschi: A Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations, 1896-1976,"
in La fusta, II (1977), 104-126. (See below, under
Addenda.)
Chiarenza, Marguerite Mills. "The Singleton Paradiso. In Dante Studies, XCVI, 207-212. [1978]
Review-article on The Divine Comedy, translated, with
a commentary, by Charles S. Singleton, [III.] Paradiso
. . . Bollingen Series, LXXX (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1975, 2 v.). (See Dante Studies, XCIV,
155-156.)
Di Scipio, Giuseppe Carlo. "The Symbolic Rose in Dante's Paradiso." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII, 4804A. [1978]
Doctoral dissertation, City University of New York, 1977. 207
p.
Fergusson, Francis. "Poetry and Drama." In Symbolism and Modern Literature: Studies in Honor of Wallace Fowlie, edited by Marcel Tetel (Durham North Carolina: Duke University Press), pp. 13-25. [1978]
Includes a discussion of Dante and specifically the example of
his ode, Amor, che nella mente mi ragiona,, as well as
a few passages in the Commedia, in this disquisition on
the mimetic nature of poetry, poetry as "imitation of a contemplative
action." (Other examples cited are a choral ode from Sophocles'
Antigone, a lyric passage from Shakespeare's Antony
and Cleopatra, and T. S. Eliot's "Gerontion.")
Heilbronn, Denise. "'Io pur sorrisi': Dante's Lesson on the Passions (Purg. XXI, 94-136)." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 67-14. [1978]
Comments on Dante's treatment of the passions in this episode,
reflecting the medieval understanding that in the soul-body
relation they reside in the involuntary sensitive appetite, independent
of the will which is subject to reason. When Statius attempts,
out of love, admiration, and deference, to embrace Virgil at the
feet, the latter can utter the moral precept reflecting the impossibility
of the act in light of their present disparity of spiritual condition,
now acting as individual to individual. The embrace at the beginning
of the canto was possible as an act expressing brotherhood, which
also serves as a tangible instance of the shade mythically made
to act as if bodily to anticipate the "scientific" explanation
found in Purgatorio XXV.
Herzman, Ronald B., and William A. Stephany. "'O miseri seguaci': Sacramental Inversion in Inferno XIX." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 39-65. [1978]
To this canto on which Dante so proudly lavished his poetic artistry,
the authors apply a close reading to reveal the manifold ways
that the poet "weaves details from canonical and apocryphal
scriptures, from iconography, and from sacramental theology and
ritual into an indictment of the contemporary Papacy . . . in
its failure to live up to the standards expected of the followers
of Peter." In every allusion and analogy utilized by the
poet the leitmotiv is, of course, that of inversion. The questions
of why Dante singled out this canto to exclaim so admiringly over
God's--Dante's--art and judgment (vv. 10-12) and how he can
claim the right to criticize the spiritual leaders of his time
are also answered: the poet will have Marco Lombardo (Purg. XVI,
97-129) single out the very spiritual leaders as most responsible
for the world's failure to reflect the divine harmony, and certainly
the situation is the worst under simoniac popes; and the poet's
authorization for assuming a priestly posture in the canto comes
from Scripture in I Peter 2:4-5, and from the Commedia
itself, in Peter's concluding speech in the Paradiso (XXVII,
64-66). As for the principal figure encountered in the canto,
a strong analogy is drawn between Nicholas III and the archetypal
simoniac, Judas Iscariot.
Hope, T. E. "Gallicisms in Dante's Divina Commedia: A Stylistic Problem?" In Studies in Medieval Literature and Languages in Memory of Frederick Whitehead, edited by W. Rothwell [et al.] (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press; New York: Barnes and Noble), pp. 153-172. [1978]
A new reprint of the volume, originally published in 1973 (see
Dante Studies, XCIII, 250-251).
Kay, Richard. "Dante's Double Damnation of Manto." In Res Publica Litterarum, I, 113-128. [1978]
Offers a solution to the apparent contradiction in Dante's locating
Manto of Thebes, daughter of Tiresias, in two different circles
of Hell, according to the references to her in Inferno
XX, 52-102, and Purgatorio XXII, 109-114. In the general
context of the Comedy Dante is seen to distinguish two
figures of Manto, the one historical according to Virgil's "true"
account of the founding of Mantua (Inf. XX), the other
poetical as presented by Statius in the Thebaid, where
she is a virtuous family-centered virgin only passively assisting
her father in his priestly office and never actively abusing her
prophetic powers. It follows that the careful craftsman Dante
was not guilty of an oversight by placing Manto both in the Noble
Castle of Limbo and among the fraudulent diviners. Professor Kay
concludes that the double mention of Manto was intentional for
leading the reader on to discovery. In Dante's poem, the "Manto
principle" accommodates real historical persons and literary
characters created by particular authors, all of them, however,
whether historical or fictional, subject to a common moral code.
Thus, Dante chose Manto to exemplify his view that the moral rules
govern literature as well as life.
Kay, Richard. Dante's Swift and Strong. Essays on Inferno XV. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas. xx, 446 p. 26 cm. [1978]
Challenges the traditional literal interpretation of the sinners
in Inferno XV with the question: "How can sodomy account
for the division of the sinners into two mutually exclusive bands?"
and, from a close reading of the text in the light of other of
Dante's writings, Scripture and its exegetes, and the histories
of the sinners identified in the canto, concludes that sacrilege
is the sin common to both the "swift," i.e., scholars
and clerics who pursued vain professional ends, and the "strong,"
i.e., politicians who vied for misguided power--all apparently
innocent of sexual perversion in life, but guilty in their caecitas
mentis of the violation, perversion, or rejection of divine
or natural law. Evidence is further adduced for construing Sodom
as a complex Biblical image of crimes against nature, of which
the sexual is merely one and specifically punished by Dante under
the general sin of lust. Contents: (1) The Sin of Brunetto
Latini; (2) Natural Grammar and Priscian's Perversity; (3) Francesco
d'Accorso, the Unnatural Lawyer; (4) The Pastoral Misrule of Bishop
Mozzi; (5) "Dal servo de servi fu transmutato"; (6)
The Swift and the Strong; (7) Nomina sunt consequentia rerum;
(8) The Image of Sodom: Old Testament; (9) The Image of Sodom:
New Testament; (10) The Sin of the Runners. The work comes with
a Preface, List of Abbreviations, Notes, List of Works Cited,
Indices of Citations, and General Index. Chapters 1, 2, and 3
are somewhat revised from their original versions published in
1969, 1974, and 1972, respectively (see Dante Studies,
LXXXVIII, 186, XCIV, 190--191, and XCI, 171--172). (For reviews,
see below, under Reviews.)
Kleinhenz, Christopher. "Giacomo da Lentini and Dante: The Early Italian Sonnet Tradition in Perspective." In Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, VIII, 217-234. [1978]
Re-examines the origins of the sonnet form, analyzes several
sonnets of Giacomo da Lentini, and suggests a re-evaluation
of this rich metric genre, particularly in the light of Dante's
adverse judgment of the form, as expressed in the De vulgari
eloquentia.
Mannocchi, Phyllis Frances. "Songs of Love for Midons and Madonna: The Role of the Beloved in the Lyrics of Four Early Troubadours, Dante, and Petrarca." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXIX, 2238A. [1978]
Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 1978. 307 p. (Includes
an analysis of Beatrice's role in the three movements of love
in the Vita Nuova.)
Martinez, Ronald Lorenson. "Dante, Statius, and the Earthly City.' In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII, 6707A-6708A. [1978]
Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1977.
410 p. (Examines Dante's concept of the earthly city as he applied
it to the Thebaid and the Inferno as the key to
his understanding of Statius' Christianity.)
Moleta, Vincent. "The Vita Nuova as a Lyric Narrative." In Forum Italicum, XII, 369-390. [1978]
Reads the first seventeen chapters of the Vita Nuova as
the establishment by Dante of what had not been successfully achieved
before: the linking of previously composed disparate lyrics into
an organic narrative line, establishing an identity of poet/author
and love persona. In so doing, Dante is seen to progress from
the Provençalizing style acquired through Guittone d'Arezzo
to the tragic style of Guido Cavalcanti to the "sweet new
style" that was his own. Also, a progression is seen from
the narrative line ordered upon the series of sonnets, rationalized
and maintained by the prose passages, to an increasingly nobler
lyric mode through the introduction of the ballata form and to
the first canzone. Finally, the author suggests that Dante's mastery
of biographical lyric narrative achieved in the Vita Nuova
may provide a better interpretation of the variously explained
crux of "I' mi son un..." in Purgatorio XXIV,
49-54.
Musa, Mark. "Virgil's Ulysses and Ulysses' Diomedes." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 187-194. [1978]
Rejecting the usual interpretation of Virgil's insistence on speaking
for Dante in Inferno XXVI, the author recalls the merely
pejorative treatment of Ulysses in the Aeneid (the Greek
hero is treated favorably in Statius' Achilleid and Ovid's
Metamorphoses, both known to Dante) and denies any mindreading
by Virgil concerning the Pilgrim's specific question for Ulysses
rather, he construes Virgil's action as an attempt to dictate
the theme of Ulysses' words. In addition, the canto's indirect
references to the unseen Diomedes indicate that he was present
on Ulysses' last voyage and is now listening to Ulysses' account
and remembering and re-living that fatal end, thus providing
further enrichment to the episode as presented by Dante here.
Nemerov, Howard. Figures of Thought: Speculations on the Meaning of Poetry and Other Essays. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher. 198 p. illus. 24 cm. [1978]
Contains an essay on "The Dream of Dante" (pp. 71-84),
reprinted from Prose, No. 9(1974), 113-133. (See Dante
Studies, XCV, 185.) For a review, see below, under Reviews.
Nevin, Thomas. "Ser Brunetto's Immortality: Inferno XV." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 21-37. [1978]
Examines the significance of the Brunetto episode, focusing on
the character of the bond between former master and student Dante
and the latter's debt to Brunetto in relation to Brunetto's damnation
to the seventh circle. Building upon André Pézard's
thesis that Brunetto's sin against nature is to be taken figuratively,
the author contends that in his works Dante's old teacher manifests
a vision limited to philosophical allegory and lacks the eschatalogical
imperative of his Christian faith. Lacking in Spiritual vision
and guilty of cupidity, his will could never be consonant with
the will of God. His condition is set in relief by Dante's own
confession of errancy in Purgatorio XXX-XXXI. In sum, Brunetto
manifestly was not intellectually a Christian poet, for all the
words of his prophecy to the Pilgrim and the poet's imagery in
the canto point to a man of circumscribed vision that conceived
of immortality in time- and earth-bound terms. A man
of intellect, his is the sterility of a mind misdirected away
from its only possible fruition in its natural home in God. Hence
his location among the blasphemers and usurers.
Pellegrini, Anthony L. "American Dante Bibliography for 1977." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 213-255. [1978]
With brief analyses.
Priest, Paul. "Allegory and Reality in the Commedia. In Dante Studies, XCVI, 127-144. [1978]
Contends that the Comedy is an allegory of poets, but that as a poetic fiction it also serves the purposes of the allegory of theologians, since by referring to a figuratively structured reality Dante's poetic fiction preserves the original relations of the four senses. With a further discussion of the devices of allegory in general, in which he contends that the value and pleasure of allegory inheres not in one of the sense levels, the literal or the allegorical, but in the conjunction and relation of the two; and since in this view it is immaterial whether the elements are fictional or historical, it follows that in that relation lies the unity between the two allegories of poets and of theologians. In fine, "If all allegory is one, poetic allegory can do what God's allegory does." Concluding, the author discusses the way Dante shadows forth "ultimate reality" through recurrent patterns of imagery, for example, of the Cross, throughout the poem, whose essential structure is seen to reflect the mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation.
Richards, Earl Jeffrey. "Dante's Commedia and Its Vernacular Narrative Context." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXIX, 2250A. [1978]
Doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1978. 242 p. (Focuses,
in the context of the early narrative tradition, primarily on
parallels between the Divina Commedia and the Roman
de la Rose within the theoretical framework of translatio.)
al-Sabah, Rasha Hammod. "The Figure of the Arab
in Medieval Italian Literature." In Dissertation Abstracts
International, XXXIX, 2244A. Doctoral dissertation, Yale University,
1977. 141 p. (Chapter 1 focuses on a brief passage in Inferno
XXVII which is seen to encapsulate "an entire polemical tradition
against Islam.") [1978]
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Whimsical Christian: 18 Essays. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. x, 275 p. 21 cm. [1978]
Contains an essay, "Dante and Charles Williams" (pp.
180-204), which previously appeared as "Charles Williams:
A Poet's Critic" in her The Poetry of Search and the Poetry
of Statement and Other Posthumous Essays on Literature, Religion,
and Language (London: Victor Gollancz, 1963), pp. 69-88,
and, with its present title, in an identical collection, Christian
Letters to a Post-Christian World: A Selection of Essays
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1969), pp. 159-177. (See Dante Studies, LXXXVIII,
192-193, for an analysis and the genesis of this essay.)
Sheldon, Walter L. The Divine Comedy of Dante: Four Lectures Intended Especially For Those Who Have Never Read the Poem but Would Like to Know Something about It. Norwood, Pennsylvania: Norwood Editions. 126 p. illus., diagrs. 23 cm. [1978]
Reprint of the 1905 edition (Philadelphia: S. B. Weston). For
another reprint, see below, under Addenda.
Shoaf, R A. "'Auri sacra fames' and the Age of Gold (Purg. XXII, 40-41 and 148-150. In Dante Studies, XCVI, 195-199. [1978]
Reads Purgatorio XXII, 40-41, in the light of verses
148-150, as "Why do you not govern, o sacred hunger
of gold (like the hunger appropriate to the Age of Gold) the appetites
of mortals?" This reading avoids the triple distortions of
Italian in the traditional interpretation and accords better with
the canto's context, even to enhancing the virtue of temperance
as a counter-example to prodigality and gluttony.
Singleton, Charles S. La Poesia della Divina Commedia. Bologna: Società Editrice Il Mulino, 572 p. 21.5 cm. (Collezione di testi e di studi: Linguistica e critica letteraria.) [1978]
Gathers together, in Italian translation by Gaetano Prampolini,
a number of previously published and closely related essays--his
two volumes of Dante Studies 1 and 2, respectively, Commedia:
Elements of Structure (1954) and Journey to Beatrice
(1958), which have already appeared in Italian in 1961 (in an
earlier version) and in 1968; and four further essays not yet
printed in Italian--"The Poet's Number at the Center"
(1965), "The Vistas in Retrospect" (1965), "In
Exitu Israel de Aegypto" (1960), and "The Irreducible
Vision" (1969). The original places of publication of these
works are duly indicated in an "Avvertenza." They have
also been registered in this bibliography as they have appeared
over the years (see, respectively, in the order they are listed
above, 73rd Report, 60-61, 77th Report, 52-53,
Dante Studies, LXXXIV, 100, Ibid., 101, 79th
Report, 48-49, and Dante Studies, LXXXIII, 178).
Contents: PARTE PRIMA: Elementi di struttura-- Introduzione
I. Allegoria, II. Simbolismo, III. Il disegno al centro, IV. La
Sostanza delle cose vedute, Appendice: Le due specie di allegoria;
PARTE SECONDA: Viaggio a Beatrice--Introduzione; Viaggio a
Beatrice: I. Il viaggio allegorico, II. Le tre luci, III.
Le tre conversioni, IV. La giustificazione V. L'avvento di Beatrice,
VI. La giustificazione nella storia, VII. La meta sulla vetta,
VIII. Madonna Filosofia ovvero la Sapienza; Il ritorno all'Eden:
IX. Rimpianto per l'Eden, X. Fiumi, ninfe e stelle, XI. Virgo
ovvero la giustizia, XII. Matelda, XIII. La giustizia naturale,
XLV. Entrando nell' Eden; PARTE TERZA: L'irriducibile visione--Il
numero del poeta al centro; Le visuali retrospettive; "In
exitu Israel de Aegypto"; L'irriducibile visione; Nota bibliografica
degli scritti teologici citati. There is also a "Presentazione"
(pp. 7-10) in which Professor Singleton reproduces the bulk of
his preface to his Saggio sulla "Vita Nuova"
[An Essay on the Vita Nuova] as an ideal introduction to
this volume, since those words established the critical approach
(of recupero) that has informed and guided the course of
his Dante studies.
Smith, Nathaniel B. "The Lark Image in Bondie Dietaiuti and Dante." In Forum Italicum, XII, 233-242. [1978]
Examines later echoes of Bernart de Ventadorn's suggestive lark
image in his Can vei la lauzeta mover, particularly in
a poem by the late thirteenth-century Florentine Bondie Dietaiuti,
who interprets the image more explicitly with less poetic effect,
and in Paradiso XX, 73-78, where Dante, hewing more closely
to Bernart, brings the image to its loftiest expression.
Spanos, Margaret. "The Sestina: An Exploration of the Dynamics of Poetic Structure." In Speculum, LIII, 545-557. [1978]
Examines the complex dynamics and symbolic function of the sestina
form as exemplified by Arnaut Daniel, Dante, and Petrarch, and
concludes that the genre has important implications for poetics,
thus justifying its former prestige among Renaissance poets.
Spraycar, Rudy S. "Dante's lago del cor." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 1-19. [1978]
Relates Dante's "lago del cor" in Inferno
I to Cocytus in the pit of Hell as a dramatic adumbration of the
heart frozen in sin and to the melting of the repentant Pilgrim's
heart in Purgatorio XXX before Beatrice, seen here as the
Holy Spirit. Other pertinent structural, thematic, and theological
elements are cited in the poem along the way, as well as several
exegetical texts from Gregory, Augustine, and pseudo-Bruno
the Carthusian which touch on the association of cold with sin
and its melting by the south wind (suggesting the direction of
Purgatory to Dante), which is associated with the Holy Spirit
and eventual conversion.
Stanton, Edward F. "Machado and Dante: 'Recuerdos de sueño, fiebre y duermivela.'" In MLN, XCIII, 328-334. [1978]
Remarks in Antonio Machado's most Dantesque poem, "Los Complementarios:
Recuerdos de sueño, fiebre y duermivela," many ironic
parallels of concept, structure, figurative language, and style
with the Inferno. However, the differences prevail over
the similarities because of the diverse modern vision vis-à-vis
the medieval.
Stephany, William A. (Joint author). "'O miseri seguaci':
Sacrament Inversion in Inferno XIX." See Herzman,
Ronald B....
Strauss Walter A. "Proust--Giotto--Dante." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 163-185. [1978]
Traces some essential analogies of structure and spirit with Dante's
Divine Comedy in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu,
relating both literary masterpieces to the architectonic and symbolic
symmetry of the Gothic cathedral or, more immediately, its parallel
in the Arena Chapel in Padua featuring Giotto's frescoes of redemptive
history, which was so well known to Proust. The latter himself
pointed out that his novel was constructed "comme une église,"
just as Dante's poem has been likened to a Gothic cathedral. Further,
just as Dante undergoes a profound change at the center of his
poetic journey, so does Proust at the center of his novel, that
is, the point he calls the "intermittences du coeur,"
involving the vital rediscovery of (mother) love, corresponding
to Dante's resumption of his love in the encounter with Beatrice
in the Purgatorio. Dream sequences also surround the central
point in each work, and memory plays an important role. And there
is an enhancing bifurcation of author and protagonist in each
case. However, where the medieval Dante eventually achieves redemption
in transcendence according to the Christian vision, the modern
Proust's questing journey resolves itself inwardly in a discovery
or creation of the self within the self. For the medieval poet
the way was established and given, a matter of faith, while for
the modern writer it was no longer there, he was on his own.
Sturm-Maddox, Sara. "The Pattern of Witness: Narrative Design in the Vita Nuova." In Forum Italicum, XIII, 216-232. [1978]
Contends the prose of Dante's Vita Nuova has been too often
subordinated to the poems as the substantive part of the work,
that the prose here differs significantly from the regularly cited
razos of troubadour collections that indeed Dante's prose
represents an innovation as an explicit dramatization of what
in the poet-narrator's life is only implicit in the latter's
poems. The resulting combination of (1) atemporal lyrics and (2)
linear prose emphasizing process, which produce a complementarity
and tension, together with the resulting relation between the
narrative and poetic patterns, is seen as making for the unique
dynamics of Dante's text. Analysis of the structural design of
the prose reveals, along the way of the narrated transformations
in the poet-audience relation, a binary structure of two
transgressions separated by the death of Beatrice, thus: isolation--limited
audience--witness/death of Beatrice/isolation--limited audience--witness.
Professor Sturm-Maddox points out the symmetry and correspondences
between the six chapter-groupings in this binary pattern
that is integrated with the tripartite pattern of the poems. The
story of the poet's love and his discovery of the meaning of Beatrice
is thus coordinated with the story of the lover's poetry and his
discovery of its potential new direction. Her analysis concludes:
"the prose offers circumstantial verification of the poems,
but reciprocally the poems stand as products and consequently
as validation of the process toward poetic witness represented
in the narrative. At the conclusion of the Vita Nuova the
convergence of narrative and poetic patterns is complete: the
narrative describes a movement or process toward witness whose
evidence is encapsulated in the text in the poems themselves."
Thompson, David. "Dante's Virtuous Romans." In Dante Studies, XCVI, 145-162. [1978]
Examines the early tradition of "rhetorical catalogues of
exemplary figures from an idealized Rome viewed as paragons of
virtue, patriotism, and frugality. This canon of secular saints
met an ambivalent, if not negative, attitude in Augustine, for
whom pagan virtue was false virtue. However, Dante's opinion,
though it varied among his works, was closer to Virgil's in favorably
considering Roman deeds and accomplishments as part of providential
history. The author closes with a note on Dante's Limbo and its
function, specifically suggesting a literal reading of the "e"
in Inferno IV, 34, as "and" (not the adversative
"but") to have the poet imply that the limited recompense
(mercedi) here is for a far wider variety of worthy pagans.
Vallone, Aldo. "I biografi di Dante da Giovanni a Filippo Villani." In The Two Hesperias: Literary Studies in Honor of Joseph G. Fucilla on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, edited by Americo Bugliani (Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas), pp. 359-369. [1978]
Briefly surveys fourteenth-century treatments of Dante, so
often indistinguishable from literary interpretations and reconstructions,
both favorable and unfavorable, including the important and much
imitated work by Boccaccio, up to the turn of the century when
the Humanistic biographies begin to appear.
Williams, Charles. Religion and Love in Dante: The Theology of Romantic Love. Norwood, Pennsylvania: Norwood Editions. 40 p. 26 cm. [1978]
Reprint of the 1941 edition, issued as "Dacre Paper No. 6
(Westminster, England: Dacre Press). There was another American
reprint of this work in 1974 (Folcroft, Pennsylvania: Folcroft
Library Editions; see below under Addenda). The essay is
a brief investigation of what was to become a larger treatment
in Williams' The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante (see
below, under Addenda).
La Divina Commedia. Edited and annotated by C. H. Grandgent; revised by Charles S. Singleton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972. (See Dante Studies, XCI, 163-164; extensively reviewed.) Reviewed by:
Christopher Kleinhenz, in Romance Philology, XXXII (August),
128-133.
Dante Commentaries: Eight Studies of the "Divine Comedy." Edited by David Nolan . . . Dublin: Irish Academic Press; Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977. (See Dante Studies, XCVI, 219.) Reviewed by
[Anon.], in Choice, XV, 880.
De Bonfils Templer, Margherita. Itinerario di amore: dialettica di amore e morte nella "Vita Nuova." Chapel Hill:. . . U.N.C. [University of North Carolina] Department of Romance Languages, 1973. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 187.) Reviewed by:
Rocco R. Vanasco, in Romanic Review, LXIX, 258-260.
Di Girolamo, Costanzo. Teoria e prassi della versificazione. Bologna. Il Mulino, 1976. (See below, Addenda, under Studies.) Reviewed by:
Franco Brioschi, in Belfagor, XXXIII, 239-244.
Fergusson, Francis. Trope and Allegory: Themes Common to Dante and Shakespeare. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1977. (See Dante Studies, XCVI, 221.) Reviewed by:
Harry Levin, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXI, 105-107.
Foster, Kenelm, O.P. The Two Dantes and Other Studies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977. (See Dante Studies, XCVI, 221-222; also, see the review-article by Ricardo J. Quinones in the present volume.) Reviewed by:
John Ahern, in Commonweal, CV (26 May), 344;
[Anon.], in Choice, XV, 1060;
Vittore Branca, in Times Literary Supplement, 28 July, p. 865;
Julia Bolton Holloway, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, XLVI, 612;
Marilyn Schneider, in Library Journal, CIII (15 May), 1062.
Guido da Pisa. Expositiones et Glose super Comediam Dantis, or Commentary on Dante's Inferno. Edited with notes and introduction by Vincenzo Cioffari. Albany State University of New York Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies; XC, 223-224, XCV, 178, and XCVI, 239 and 254.) Reviewed by:
Marianne Shapiro, in Romanic Review, LXIX, 257-258.
Herde, Peter. Dante als Florentiner Politiker. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner 976. iv, 53 p. (Frankfurter Historische Vorträge, 3.) Reviewed by:
Charles T. Davis, in Speculum, LIII, 583-585.
Italian Literature, Roots and Branches. Essays in Honor of Thomas G. Bergin. Edited by Giose Rimanelli and Kenneth John Atchity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976. Contains five (of sixteen) essays of Dantean interest. (See Dante Studies, XCV, 167.) Reviewed by:
Mark Davie, in Modern Language Review, LXXIII, 656-657;
Joan M. Ferrante, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXI, 209-211;
Julius A. Molinaro, in Forum Italicum, XII, 132-134.
Kay, Richard. Dante's Swift and Strong: Essays on Inferno XV. Lawrence Kansas: Regents Press of Kansas. (See above, under Studies.) Reviewed by:
[Anon.], in Choice, xv, XV, 1377;
Julia Bolton Holloway, in Journal of the American Academy of
Religion, XLVI, 611.
La Favia, Louis Marcello. Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola: Dantista. Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, S. A., 1977. (See Dante Studies, XCVI, 226-227.) Reviewed by:
Aino Paasonen, in Forum Italicum, XII, 443-445.
Montano, Rocco. Miti della critica postcrociana. Napoli: G. B. Vico Editrice, 1975. 232 p. (La nuova critica, No. 4.) Contains ample references to Dantean criticism. Reviewed by:
Ernesto G. Caserta, in Italica, LV, 82-85.
Musa, Mark. Advent at the Gates: Dante's Comedy. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies, XCIII, 236-237, XCIV, 184, and XCVI, 240.) Reviewed by:
James Thomas Chiampi, in Romance Philology, XXXII (Nov.),
230-233.
Nemerov, Howard. Figures of Thought: Speculations on the Meaning of Poetry and Other Essays. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 1978. Contains an essay on "The Dream of Dante" (see above, under Studies). Reviewed by:
Benjamin De Mott, in New York Times Book Review, 16 April,
p. 11.
Pépin, Jean. Dante et la tradition de l'allégorie. Montreal: Institut d'Etudes Médiévales, 1970. (See Dante Studies, LXXXIX, 118, XCI, 184, XCII, 2001201, and XCIII, 246.) Reviewed by:
E. C. Ronquist, in Philological Quarterly. LVII, 137-140.
Poggioli, Renato. The Oaten Flute: Essays on Pastoral Poetry and the Pastoral Ideal. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1975. Contains his "Dante 'poco tempo silvano': A Pastoral Oasis in the Commedia," pp. 135-152. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 175.) Reviewed by:
Judith A. Kates, in Comparative Literature, XXX, 84-86.
Sarolli, Gian Roberto. Prolegomena alla "Divina Commedia." Firenze: Olschki, 1971 (See Dante Studies, XCI, 191-192, XCIII, 247 and 259, and XCIV, 185 and 200.) Reviewed by:
Christopher Kleinhenz, in Romance Philology, XXXII (August),
128-133.
Seung, T. K. Cultural Thematics: The Formation of the Faustian Ethos New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976. (See Dante Studies, XCV, 173-174.) Reviewed by:
P. R. J. Hainsworth, in Modern Language Review, LXXIII, 926-927;
Paul Priest, in Medium Aevum, XLVII, 146-149.
Simonelli, Maria. Materiali per un'edizione critica del "Convivio" di Dante. Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1970. 445 p. (Officina romanica, Vol. XVI.) Reviewed by:
Christopher Kleinhenz, in Romance Philology, XXXII (August),
128-133.
Thompson, David. Dante's Epic Journeys. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies, XVIII, 215-221, 242-243, and 247, XCIV, 186, XCV, 179, and XCVI, 241.) Reviewed by:
E. C. Ronquist, in Philological Quarterly, LVII, 137-140.
Wilhelm, James J. Dante and Pound: The Epic of Judgement. Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies, XCIII, 243-244, XCV 179, and XCVI, 241.) Reviewed by:
Glauco Cambon, in Comparative Literature, XXX, 189-192.
The Portable Dante . . . Edited, and with an introduction, by Paolo Milano [Revised edition] [New York:] Penguin Books, [1977]. xlii, 662 p. 18.5 cm.
Reprint of the revised edition, with updated "Bibliographical
Note" by Sergio Pacifici, of 1968 (New York: Viking Press).
(See Dante Studies, LXXXVII, 153-154; see also above,
main section, for the British printing.)
Avery, William T. "Elementos dantescos del Quijote." [Primera parte] In Anales Cervantinos, IX (1961-62), 1-28.
Cites a number of Dantean echoes, parallels, and possible influences
in Cervantes' Don Quixote, which have hitherto gone unnoticed.
Avery, William T. "Elementos dantescos del Quijote (segunda parte)." In Anales Cervantinos XIII-XIV (1974-75) 3-36.
Continuation and conclusion of the preceding item.
Baumble, H. David, III. "Dante's Statius." In Cithara, XV, No. I (1975), 56-67.
Cites from Pietro Alighieri, Fulgentius, and Thomas Aquinas to
support the contention that the author of the Monarchia
and Commedia chose Statius, representing the union of Christian
race and Roman rule, as a perfect figure of moral philosophy to
guide the Wayfarer through Purgatory.
Bergin, Thomas G. Dante. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976.
Reprint of the 1965 edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin). (See Dante
Studies, LXXXIV, 76.)
Birss, Robert Craig. "'Imaginary Work': The Function of Ekphrasis in Narrative Poetry." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII(1977), 2101A.
Doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa, 1977. 208 p. (Chapter
3 examines two ekphrases in the Purgatorio--X, 28-99,
and XII, 25-63--as artistic models which are fulfilled by
the poem itself.)
Bloch, Ernst. "Odysseus Did Not Die in Ithaca." In Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by George Steiner and Robert Fagles (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1962), pp. 81-85.
Discusses the transformation, particularly by Dante, of the Homeric
Ulysses from a figure of the primarily homeward-journey theme
to a Gothic figure of overweening audacity in a search beyond
the known. The essay is from the original German of his Das
Prinzip Hoffnung, Band II (Frankfurt-am-Main: Suhrkamp
Verlag, 1959).
Bohart, Eugene. "An Exploration in Novel Form of the Literary Theme of Spiritual Rebirth." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII (1977), 770A.
Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1976. 432 p. (Examines
the theme of rebirth in such major works as Tolstoy's Resurrection,
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Dante's Divine
Comedy.)
Botticelli, Sandro. The Drawings by Sandro Botticelli for Dante's Divine Comedy. After the originals in the Berlin Museums and the Vatican. [Edited with an introduction by] Kenneth Clark. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. 218 p. illus. (some col.) 37 cm.
British edition identical to the American (New York . . . London:
Harper and Row, Publishers) also of 1976 (see Dante Studies,
XCV, 160-161).
Brown, Ashley. "A Note on Dante and Stevens." In The Wallace Stevens Journal I (1977), 66-68.
Makes a brief historical comment on Dante's presence in American
poetry and cites a recently published fragment, "for an Old
Woman in a Wig," as evidence of Wallace Stevens' interest
in Dante as early as 1916, and the poem, "Esthetique du Mal,"
written for the Kenyon Review (1944) with a similar Dantean
echo in the third section, as a possible rejoinder to Eliot and
Tate at that brilliant moment of American poetry.
Costa, Gustavo. La leggenda dei secoli d'oro nella letteratura italiana. Bari: Editori Laterza, 1972. xxv, 288 p. 21 cm. (Biblioteca di cultura moderna, 731.)
Chapter I, "Secol si rinova," contains a section--2.
"Dante e l'esegesi trecentesca della Commedia"
(pp. 4-15)--devoted to a discussion of the Golden Age myth
as treated by Dante and as envisioned by his early commentators.
There is further reference to Dante, passim, throughout
the book. Indexed. (For a review, see below, under Reviews.)
Curtius, Ernst Robert. Essays on European Literature.... Translated by Michael Kowal. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973. xxix, 508 p. 22 cm.
This anthology of twenty-four essays gathered by Curtius
himself from his writings of three decades, first published as
Kritische Essays zur europäischen Literatur in 1950
(2nd ed., enlarged, 1954), contains an essay on "The Ship
of the Argonauts" (1950), pp. 465-496, in which the
author presents a historical survey of the Argo-theme, pointing
out the insight it affords into the "economy of literary
tradition." The essay contains a section (pp. 485-492)
on Dante's creative power manifested in his innovation of Neptune
being wonder-struck by the Argo, as well as other navigational
motifs engendered by the example. Other brief Dantean references
occur in the volume, passim. Indexed.
Di Girolamo, Costanzo. Teoria e prassi della versificazione italiana. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1976. 230 p. 22 cm. (Serie di linguistica e di critica letteraria. La nuova scienza.)
The work is cast in two parts, one theoretical, based on examples
drawn from Dante's poetry, the other practical, devoted to readings
of specific selected texts. Contents: Parte I--I. Metrica
e ritmica (with basic notions of Italian versification); 2. Metro
e sintassi (especially on the location of the caesura); 3. Significante
e significato (on rhyme as a metrical sign of verse boundaries,
with an analysis of Rime CIII, Così nel mio parlar
voglio esser aspro); 4. Due forme di tensione (on the difference
between standard and poetic language in the light of Russian formalism
and Czech structuralism). Parte II--5. Regole dell'anisosillabismo
(on early Italian verse); 6. Microscopia di un sonetto di Dante
(on Rime LIV, Per quella via che la bellezza corre);
7. Forma e significato della parola-rima nella sestina (illustrating
in Arnaut Daniel, Dante, and Petrarch the differing semantic variations
of the rhyme-word); 8. Gli endecasillabi dell'Infinito
(on Leopardi's verse); and 9. Il verso di Paves (on the break
from the endecasillabo). Part or all of at least to chapters
were previously printed--No. 3 as "Figure, messaggi, e messaggi
delle figure (Dante, Rime CIII)," published in MLN,
XCI (1976), 12-29 (see Dante Studies, XCV, 162-163),
and No. 6 with the same title, Published in MLN, XC (1975),
22-37 (see Dante Studies, XCIV, 160). For a review,
see above, main section, under Reviews.
DiOrio, Dorothy M. "Dante's Greatness as Seen in the Four-fold Levels of Interpretation." In West Virginia University Bulletin: Philological Paper, XX (1973), 1-7.
Chooses Purgatorio XXX, 22-78, as a representative
passage in the Commedia for a general reading on the four
levels of interpretation, including the all too often neglected
moral and anagogical, as well as the literal and allegorical.
Relating this passage to the Vita Nuova, the author finds
that allegorically Beatrice represents the light of truth, that
morally Dante asserts here man's understanding of the nature of
good and evil, and that anagogically Beatrice represents revelation,
thus contributing to the ultimate spiritual sense of the whole
poem.
Dragonetti, Roger. "The Double Play of Arnaut Daniel's Sestina and Dante's Divina Commedia." In Yale French Studies, No. 55/56 ["Literature and Psychoanalysis: The Question of Reading: Otherwise"] (1977), 227-252.
Offers a complex analysis and interpretation of the sestina, Lo
ferm voler q'el cor m'intra, by the Provencal poet much admired
by Dante, Arnaut Daniel, who represents a particular dimension
of poetic language, and finds in this poem sources of numerological
analogies, ambiguous verbal parallels and antitheses, metaphorical
ambiguities, suggestive degrees of kinship and ambivalent amorous
relationships, and linguistic dissimulation that have served Dante
in the composition of the Commedia. The author adduces
"double plays" on auctor, image of God-artist
or he who holds power, and autor, image of artist-god
or the poet; the double meaning of sesto as homonym of
sixth (one of the perfect numbers according to medieval numerology)
and sextant (for drawing the circle and suggesting the metaphor
of creation); the double play of "desired" as object
and, narcissistically, as the poet's expression of his desiring;
and the word-play on the paradise in the poem, resulting
in the "parity of eloquence: para-dis."
From this analysis the author goes on to offer several reflections
relating to Dante's poem. In the Paradiso he sees the poet
as Dante-Orpheus projecting "not the paradise of Christian
theology, but that of courtly literature, for which Arnaut had
furnished the prestigious model in his Sestina." The
artistic perfection of Dante's poem so conceals its "fraud"
that it is extremely difficult to separate theological language
from its metaphorical substitutes. Statius is cited as the model
of the "secret Christian" and of the "hidden pagan"
and thus an example of the dissimulation implicit in the double
play of writing. Dante's admiration and imitation are imposed
upon him by Statius because of his art of dissimulation and by
Arnaut because of "that verbal dynamic which allows for the
'fraud' inherent in writing."
Flory, Claude R. "Rimini Revisited: The Francesca Theme in Drama." In Comparative Literature Studies, XIII (1976), 22-30.
Briefly reviews the dramatic treatment of the Francesca-Paolo-Giovanni
story in major Western languages during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries pointing out that there were 79 dramatic works since
1800, along with 95 musical works with libretti (including at
least 61 operas); cites some of the better known examples; corrects
the factual statements of some past critics and anthologists;
and discusses some of the variations in treatment from Dante's
version in Inferno V.
Foster, Kenelm, O.P. The Two Dantes and Other Studies. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1977. 260 p.
British edition identical with the American (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press) of the same year. (See
Dante Studies, XCVI, 221-222.)
Franco, Charles. "La figura di Beatrice: un'interpretazione archetipa." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII (1977), 778A.
Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, The State University
of New Jersey (New Brunswick, New Jersey), 1977.
Garbàty, Thomas J. "Troilus V, 1786-92 and V, 1807-27; An Example of Poetic Process." In Chaucer Review, XI (Spring 1977), 299-305.
Contends that the obscure lines of V, 1786-92 in Troilus
and Criseyde are clarified by Chaucer's addition of lines
1807-27, which were inspired directly by Dante (Par.
XXII, 100-154) rather than Boccaccio. According to the author,
the Troilus can be seen as both tragedy and comedy, and
from a larger perspective and in keeping with Dante's concept
of comedy, Chaucer finally placed a comic stamp on the work by
the added passage with Troilus' cosmic laugh from heaven. This
is consistent with Chaucer's constant search for a deeper meaning
and spiritual value.
Gordon, Caroline. "The Shape of the River." In Michigan Quarterly Review, XII (1973), 1-10.
Cites Dante as the first writer until his time to synthesize,
in the Divina Commedia, certain fictional techniques which
were in the air, and discusses Dante's specific use of the "cosmic
metaphor" of the uncharted river as a figure of life's journey,
employed by the poet in a twofold way as a literary or fictional
technique--as a figure of the human soul's progress and as a figure
for the creation of the poem itself. The author finds a parallel
in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, which is concerned
with the conduct of life, involving a river literally and metaphorically,
and a pilot. Twain and Dante are each both narrator and protagonist
in their respective works and both employ the same figure of a
book vision of perfection to communicate to others. (The
paper was delivered as the Hopwood Lecture at the University of
Michigan in 1972.)
Hardie, Colin. "Two Commentators on Dante, Old and New." In Medium Aevum, XLVI (1977), 263-268.
Review-article on Guido da Pisa's commentary to Dante's Inferno
edited by V. Cioffari, and Dante's Divine Comedy, translated,
with a commentary, by C. S. Singleton. (See Dante Studies,
XCIII, 223-224; and LXXXIX 107-108, XCII, 182, and XCIV,
155-156, respectively.)
Jacomuzzi, Angelo. Il palinsesto della retorica e altri saggi danteschi. Firenze Olschki, 1972. 181 p. 20.5 cm. (Saggi di Lettere italiane, XV.)
Of the four essays, the last, "La Divina Commedia:
figure, allegoria, visione" (reprinted from Rivista di
storia e letteratura religiosa, VI [1970], No. 1), contains
an analysis and appreciation of C. S. Singleton's studies on Dante
(pp. 122-149).
Leyerle, John. "The Rose-Wheel Design and Dante's Paradiso. In University of Toronto Quarterly, XLVI (1977), 280-308.
Examines the great round window of medieval cathedrals, particularly
as exemplified by Brioloto's fortune-wheel window in the
Church of San Zeno, Verona. While the original term was wheel,
or rota, for the design traced by the stone-work,
the term rose, or rosa, gradually came to be used because
of the floral pattern formed by the openings, especially when
light shone through. The "rose-wheel" window thus
symbolically expressed two important medieval ideas, (1) the fortune-dominated
world of change representing a fallen version of God's eternal
realm, and (2) the florally figured idea of earthly love as a
fallen copy of divine love, but at the same time as a possible
means for reascending to God. With the thirteenth-century
growth of scientific knowledge in light and optics, the windows
came to be associated with eyes or lenses (oculi) and mirrors
(specula), thus showing the metaphysical view of light
and optics rife with spiritual symbolism. Similar interest in
the rose-wheel design is reflected in the complex continuation
by Jean de Meun of the Roman de la Rose, in which he superimposed
a pattern of orbicular motion taken from fortune's wheel upon
the rose motif elaborated by Guillaume de Lorris in this poem
on love. Finally, Dante organically synthesized the rose-wheel
design in the Divine Comedy, as evidenced not only by his
figure of Fortuna in Inferno VII and especially the great
rose at the end of the Paradiso, but also by his mirror
and light imagery throughout the poem. The poetic authority lent
by Dante to the rose-wheel design stimulated its continuation
as an informing pattern in works of later poets from Chaucer to
T. S. Eliot. The article comes with six illustrations.
Marcarelli, Ralph Edmond. "In principio erat verbum: Dante's Language of Grace." In Dissertation Abstracts International, XXXVIII (1977), 3475A.
Doctoral dissertation, Yale University, 1977. 259 p. (On Dante's
use of language in the Commedia in its sacramental application.)
Mazzaro, Jerome. "Dante's The Vita Nuova and the 'New' Poet." In La Fusta, II, No. I (Spring 1977), 17--40.
Presents a schematic reading of the Vita Nuova, relating
Dante's use of such elements as the book metaphor, memory, dreams,
and concept of love to ideas in Scripture, Augustine, Aquinas,
and others. He elaborates the moral amorous, and artistic development
of the poet-lover recounted in the libello from the
sensitive to the intellectual/spiritual level of love with multiple
echoes of Christological patterns and musical analogues, and the
redemption process from youth and discord to maturity in harmony
with God's universe.
Mazzaro, Jerome. "A Theory of Language: George Steiner and the Figure of Dante." In Salmagundi, XXXVII (1977), 117-126.
A review-article on Steiner's After Babel (q.v.,
this section) pointing out that while Steiner lacks the theological
assumptions available to Dante, he nevertheless faces similar
problems in fathoming the mystery of human language and its origins.
McLaughlin, Bruce W. "Strange Interlude and the Divine Comedy." "In Theater Journal (Albany), XII (Fall 1973), 20-30.
Comparing these two works by Eugene O'Neill and Dante the author
finds that O'Neill rejects the Italian poet's edenic ideal as
a goal in our life, and instead favors active participation in
a fallen world, with all its problems and suffering, but at the
same time personal choice and therefore creativity.
Miller, James L. "Three Mirrors of Dante's Paradiso." In University of Toronto Quarterly, XLVI (1977), 263-279.
Demonstrates that the Paradiso is based on a hierarchy
of mirrors in the tradition of Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Alain
de Lille, tracing a three-stage specular development from
Beatrice's experiment in scientific hypothesis in Canto II to
the river of light in XXX, an insight of the imagination which
prefigures the third and final Trinitarian mirror in XXXIII. Along
the way of this progression from the speculum inferius,
or mirror of creation reflecting the divine light down through
the hierarchical scale of being in particulars, to the speculum
superius, or the mirror of God with the universal form of
the divine mind, the poet's optical imagery punctuates and reinforces
the spiritual implications so as to effect an aesthetic and theological
synthesis. Dante's endeavor to synthesize ancient learning and
Christian theology here reflects the thriving contemporary interest
and knowledge about light and optics (cf. Robert Grosseteste).
Milne, Fred L. "Shelley's The Cenci: The Ice Motif and the Ninth Circle of Dante's Hell." In Tennessee Studies in Literature, XXII (1977), 117-132.
Points out that Shelley was reading Dante's Comedy the
year before and during his composition of The Cenci. Evincing
a strong Dantean influence, the play establishes the motif of
coldness and hardness found in the Ninth Circle (Inf. XXXII-XXXIV)
with the character of Count Cenci in Act 1, and this creates the
love-destroying ambience which affects all other characters
throughout the play. A concomitant use of Dantean imagery re-inforces
the informing motif of coldness-hardness.
Montgomery, Marion. "Eliot's Hyacinth Girl and the Times Literary Supplement." In Renascence, XXV (1973), 67-73.
Contends that in the debate over the Hyacinth girl in The Burial
of the Dead too much is made of the presence of Baudelaire
in The Wasteland generally, whereas in fact there is the
presence of Dante too, behind, in, and around the complexities
of the work. If Baudelaire is accepted as the heart set on "discovering
Christianity" for itself, then Dante is the head, if we are
to understand Eliot's poetry in the completeness of its vision.
Morris, Harry. "Macbeth, Dante, and the Greatest Evil." In Tennessee Studies in Literature, XII (1967), 23-38.
Without claiming any direct influence or definite knowledge of
Dante on Shakespeare's part, the author points out many Dantean
parallels of concept, imagery, and symbolism in Macbeth.
Especially notable are (1) the fourfold crime, defined as "evil
absolute," of which Lady Macbeth and her husband are guilty,
reflecting the four divisions of the Ninth Circle in the pit of
Dante's Inferno, and (2) the possession of the murderers
by the devil after their crime, recalling the myth expressed in
Inferno XXXIII of the sinner still alive whose soul is
already in hell while his body is possessed of a demon. These
points are reinforced by the general development of the play,
with its similarities of detail, symbolism, and imagery with Dante."
Macbeth is a portrait of damnation, a study of evil, and a
landscape of Hell."
O'Malley, Glenn. "Dante, Shelley, and T. S. Eliot." In Romantic and Modern Revaluations of Literary Tradition, edited by George Bornstein (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), pp. 165-176.
Singles out T. S. Eliot and Shelley as "the two English poets
who have outstripped all others in enhancing Dante's esteem,"
and compares them as translators and adapters of the Italian poet.
Pane, Remigio. "Studi danteschi: A Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations, 1896-1976. In La Fusta, II, No. I (Spring 1977), 104-126.
Lists the 120 dissertations of Dantean interest presented in United
States and Canadian universities between 1896 and 1976, including
bibliographical information and statistical tabulations. (For
a supplementary list, see Cervigni above, main section, under
Studies.)
Reeves, Marjorie. Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future. New York [etc.]: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1977. [vii], 212 p. illus., pls. and diagrs. 20.5 cm. (Harper Torchbooks, TB1924.)
Contains a brief but pointed discussion of the possible influence
of Joachim on Dante, especially on pp. 64-66. The seven half-tone
plates of illustrations, reproduced primarily from Joachim's Liber
Figurarum, are of particular Dantean interest. Contents:
1. Joachim and the Meaning of History; 2. New Spiritual Men; 3.
Last World Emperor and Angelic Pope; 4. Joachimist Expectation
in the Renaissance Period; 5. Joachim and the Catholic Visionaries;
6. Joachim and Protestantism; Epilogue; Notes; Select Bibliography
on Joachim and His Works; Index. This paperback edition is reprinted
from the original British edition of 1976 (London: S.P.C.K. [Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge]).
Rigo, Paola. "Il Dante di Guido da Pisa." In Lettere italiane, XXIX (1977), 196-207.
Review-article on Guido da Pisa's Expositiones et Glose
super Comediam Dantis, or Commentary on Dante's Inferno, edited
with notes and introduction by Vincenzo Cioffari (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1974). (See Dante Studies,
XCIII, 223-224, XCV, 178, XCVI, 239 and 254, and see the
review sections of the present bibliography.)
Roe, Albert S. Blake's Illustrations to the Divine Comedy. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1977. xiii, 219 p.[103] leaves of plates. 27 cm.
Reprint of the 1953 edition (Princeton University Press). (See
68th to 72nd Annual Report, 47.)
Sarolli, Gian Roberto. Analitica della "Divina Commedia." 1. Struttura numerologica e poesia. Bari: Adriatica Editrice, 1974. 197 P. illus., tables, diagrs. 25 cm.
Presents this first volume of analysis in confirmation of two
"solutions" achieved in part in his earlier Prolegomena
alla "Divina Commedia" (1971; see Dante Studies,
XCI, 191-192), showing Dante's constant, innovative use of
traditional numerology and number symbolism throughout his poetic
composition. Here Professor Sarolli focuses in detail upon those
major aspects: 1) numbers and numerological symbols in the minor
works, and 2) symbols and numerological structure of the Commedia.
Contents: "Quaestio" introduttiva; "Solutio"
prima--Serie numerologica nelle Opere minori: I. "Excursus"
nella tradizione numerologica; II. Vita Nuova; III. Convivio;
IV. De Vulgari Eloquentia; "Solutio" seconda--Simbolica
architectoniche e numerologia nella Divina Commedia: I.
"Compositio" e struttura numerologica; II. Riferimenti
numerologici e altri simbolismi numerologici; Appendice: Isidorus
Hispalensis, Liber Numerorum qui in Sacris Scripturis Occurunt;
Rabaunus Maurus, De Numero da De Universo [Cap.
III]; Hugo de Sancto Victore, De Numeris Mysticis Sacrae Scripturae
da De Scripturis et Scriptoribus Sacris Praenotatiunculae
[Cap. XV]. The study comes with several tables and diagrams.
Sheldon, Walter L. The Divine Comedy of Dante: Four Lectures Intended Especially for Those Who Have Never Read the Poem but Would Like to Know Something about It. Folcroft, Pennsylvania: Folcroft Library Editions, 1977 126 o. illus., diagrs. 23 cm.
Reprint of the 1905 edition (Philadelphia: S. B. Weston). For
another reprint see above, main section, under Studies.
Shideler, Mary McDermott. The Theology of Romantic Love: A Study in the Writings of Charles Williams. New York: Harper, 1962. ix, 243 p. 22 cm.
Contains a chapter on "The Image of Beatrice (pp. 29-42)-Dante
and Beatrice, The Romantic Moment, The Image of Love, The Death
of the Image--on Williams' critical writings on "romantic
love" as they relate to Dante and the image of his lady;
also, Dantean references passim. Indexed. The work was
re-issued as a paperback in 1966 (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Eerdmans Publishing Company).
Steiner, George. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1975 [xi], 507 p. illus., front. 23.5 cm.
Chapter 5, "The Hermeneutic Motion," on translation
and its relation to hermeneutics, contains a discussion (pp. 335-342)
of the attempts at synchronicity by Emile Littré and Rudolf
Borchardt, that is, of rendering Dante's Commedia in an
archaic form of French and German, respectively. There is some
occasional further reference to Dante, passim. Indexed.
For a review-article of this work, see Mazzaro above.
Vance, Thomas H. "New Verse, Ancient Rhyme: T. S. Eliot and Dante." In Parnassus: Poetry in Review, V, No. 1 (Fall-Winter 1976, i.e., 1977), 127-146.
Examines Eliot's relation and debt to Dante from a wider perspective
than the usual, while also considering the equally intense response
to Dante of Shelley and Pound, whose intermediary influence on
Eliot is significant. The author stresses the culturally and historically
refracted nature of the Dantean reflections in Eliot's poetry
and illuminates with some comparisons the shifts in imagery from
the earlier to the modern poet, based on the change in language
and the different grounds of basic presuppositions about the world.
Werge, Thomas. "The Sin of Hypocrisy in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Inferno XXIII." In Mark Twain Journal, XVIII (Winter 1975-76), 17-18.
Notes that Twain's delineation of the nature of hypocrisy and
its effects in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, with
all its Dantean echoes, points to Inferno XXIII as one
of the most important sources and analogues for the American writer's
conception.
Williams, Charles. The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante. New York: Octagon Books, 1972. 236 p. 23 cm.
Reprint of the 1961 edition, issued in the "Noonday"
series, No. 208 (New York: Noonday Press). (See 80th Report,
33-34; for an earlier American edition [1957] and analysis,
see 76th Report, 55.)
Williams, Charles. Religion and Love in Dante: The Theology of Romantic Love. Folcroft Pennsylvania: Folcroft Library Editions, 1974.
Reprint of the 1941 edition, issued as "Dacre Paper No. 6"
(Westminster, England: Dacre Press). For a brief analysis, see
the later reprint above, main section, under Studies.
The Divine Comedy. Translated, with a commentary, by Charles S. Singleton. . . Bollingen Series, LXXX. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970-1975. 3 V. in 6. (See Dante Studies, LXXXIX, 107-108, XCII, 182, and XCIV, 155-156; extensively reviewed.) Reviewed by:
Colin Hardie, in Medium Aevum, XLVI (1977), 263-268.
Contini, Gianfranco. Un'idea di Dante: saggi danteschi. Torino: Einaudi,) 1970, 1976. 283 p. 18 cm. (Piccola biblioteca Einaudi--Filologia. Linguistica. Critica letteraria.--275.) Reviewed by:
Costanzo Di Girolamo, in Belfagor, XXXII (1977), 729-730.
Costa, Gustavo. La leggenda dei secoli d'oro nella letteratura italiana. Bari: Editori Laterza, 1972. Contains a discussion of the Golden Age myth in Dante. (See above, Addenda, under Studies.) Reviewed by:
Aldo Scaglione, in Romance Philology, XXVIII (May 1975),
692-696.
Fergusson, Francis. Trope and Allegory: Themes Common to Dante and Shakespeare. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1977. (See Dante Studies, XCVI, 221.) Reviewed by:
[Anon.], in Choice, XIV( 1977), 370;
Elizabeth H. Hageman, in Allegoria, II, No. 2 (Winter 1977), 117-119;
Marilyn Schneider, in Library Journal, CII (1977), 1381.
Ferrante, Joan M. Woman as Image in Medieval Literature, from the Twelfth Century to Dante. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1975. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 164, and XCVI, 239.) Reviewed by:
Michael H. Gertner, in Revue des langues romanes, LXXXII
(1977), 292-294.
Guido da Pisa. Expositiones et Glose super Comediam Dantis, or Commentary on Dante's Inferno. Edited with notes and introduction by Vincenzo Cioffari. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies. XCIII, 223-224, XCV, 178, and XCVI, 239 and 254.) Reviewed by:
Vittore Branca, in Corriere della sera, 14 settembre 1975, P. 16;
Colin Hardie, in Medium Aevum, XLVI (1977), 263-268;
LVR [Lawrence V. Ryan], in Neo-Latin News [published
jointly with Seventeenth-Century News (with higher
volume number by ten)], XXIII, No. 4 (Winter 1975), 114-115.
Kermode, Frank. The Classic: Literary Images of Permanence and Change. Ne York: Viking Press, 1975. The first essay includes ample reference to Dante. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 171 and 191-192, and XCV, 178.) Reviewed by:
Morse Peckham, in JEGP, LXXXI (1977), 117-121.
Shapiro, Marianne. Woman Earthly and Divine in the "Comedy" of Dante. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1975. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 177-178, and XCVI, 240-241.) Reviewed by:
J. A. Scott, in Modern Language Review, LXXII (1977), 967.
Thompson, David. Dante's Epic Journeys. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies, XCIII, 215-221, 242-243, and 247, XCIV, 186, XCV, 179, and XCVI, 241.) Reviewed by:
Eugene Webb, in West Coast Review, IX, No. 3 (Jan. 1975),
61-62.
The Three Crowns of Florence: Humanist Assessments of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Edited and translated by David Thompson and Alan F. Nagel. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. (See Dante Studies, XCI, 178, and XCIII, 247.) Reviewed by:
Aldo D. Scaglione, in Romance Philology, XXVIII (August
1974), 63-64.
Wilhelm, James J. Dante and Pound: The Epic of Judgement. Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 1974. (See Dante Studies, XCIII, 243-244, XCV, 179, and XCVI, 241.) Reviewed by:
[Anon.], in Choice, XII (1975), 674, 676;
Douglas R. Butturff, in Paideuma, IV (1975), 539-545.
Wlassics, Tibor. Dante narratore: saggi sullo stile della Commedia. Firenze: Olschki, 1975. (See Dante Studies, XCIV, 181 and 186, and XCVI, 254.) Reviewed by:
J. A. Scott, in Modern Language Review, LXXII (1977), 964-966.
State University of New York
Binghamton, New York