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Overview
For all that has been written about the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) remains the best guide to his own life and work. Dante's writings are therefore never far away in this authoritative and comprehensive intellectual biography, which offers a fresh account of the medieval Florentine poet's life and thought before and after his exile in 1302.
Beginning with the often violent circumstances of Dante's life, the book examines his successive works as testimony to the course of his passionate humanity: his lyric poetry through to the Vita nova as the great work of his first period; the Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia and the poems of his early years in exile; and the Monarchia and the Commedia as the product of his maturity. Describing as it does a journey of the mind, the book confirms the nature of Dante's undertaking as an exploration of what he himself speaks of as "maturity in the flame of love."
The result is an original synthesis of Dante's life and work.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691208930 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 12/14/2021 |
| Pages: | 608 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Preface: In fondo, una serietà terribile xix
Part I Preliminary Considerations
Chapter 1 Historical Considerations 3
Florence between the Guelphs and Ghibellines (1215-79) 3
Florence between the Blacks and the Whites (1279-1302) 9
The Descent and Demise of Henry VII (1302-13) 21
Chapter 2 Biographical Considerations 27
Susceptibility and the Significant Encounter (1265-93) 27
Care, Conflict and Catastrophe (1293-1302) 46
Far-Wandering and the Agony of Exile (1302-21) 55
Part II The Early Years: From Dante da Maiano to the Vita nova
Chapter 1 Preliminary Remarks: Love and Love-Intelligence 75
Chapter 2 Literary Hinterland: From Provençal to the stilo de la loda 82
Chapter 3 Literary Apprenticeship and a Coming of Age 114
Dante guittoniano 114
Dante cavalcantiano 121
Dante and the Rose: The Fiore and the Detto d'amore 133
Dante guinizzelliano 159
Chapter 4 The Vita nova 173
Preliminary Remarks: Antecedent Utterance and an Essay in Authoring 173
Love Seeking and Seeking Not Its Own 184
Conclusion: New Life and a Commedia a minore 201
Part III The Middle Years: The Moral and Allegorical Rime, the Convivio, the De vulgari eloquentia and the Post-Exilic Rime
Chapter 1 Compassionate Lady of the Casement and a Woman of Stone: The Pre-Exilic Rime 209
Chapter 2 The Convivio 235
Preliminary Remarks: Magnanimity, Possibility and Impossibility 235
Course of the Argument 236
Axes of Concern in the Convivio 264
Language, Form and Function: An Essay in Beauty, Being and Becoming 277
Conclusion: Being and Becoming as Yet in Waiting 285
Chapter 3 The De vulgari eloquentia: Language, Literature and the Ontologization of Art 287
Chapter 4 The Post-Exilic Rime 313
Part IV The Final Years: The Commedia, the Political Letters and the Monarchia, the Questio, Cangrande and the Eclogues
Chapter 1 The Commedia 323
Standing Alone in Respect of That Which Matters Alone: Dante, Cino and the Solitary Way 323
The Commedia à la lettre 327
An Anthropology and Ethic: Love and Love-Harvesting 377
The Dialectics of Being: A Difficult Dimensionality 384
A Phenomenology of Existence: The Mood as Mediator 414
Dante and Significant Journeying 436
Immanent Eschatology and the Triumph of the Image 459
Chapter 2 The Monarchia and the Political Letters 479
Chapter 3 The Questio de situ aque et terre, the Letter to Cangrande della Scala and the Eclogues 523
Afterword: A Coruscation of Delight 542
Select Bibliography 547
Index of Names 569
What People are Saying About This
"John Took offers a splendidly comprehensive and well-informed account of Dante's work. Full weight is given to the ways in which the poet's writings reflect and respond to historical context. But above all the poetry itself is seen, rightly and enthusiastically, as a 'coruscation of delight.' "—Robin Kirkpatrick, University of Cambridge "A magisterial work, the result of a lifetime's devoted engagement with Dante's work and all that went into making the man and the poetry."—Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin"A beautiful book that reflects decades of thinking and teaching on Dante. Readers will not be disappointed by Took's incisive, comprehensive readings of the Divine Comedy and other works."—Piero Boitani, Sapienza University of Rome