biondo era e bello e di gentile aspetto ... Before we look at the role of Manfred in detail in  Purgatorio 3 , his entrance is worth n...

Corpo , the word for "body," appears four times in Purgatorio 3 -- more than in any other canto of the canticle, commentators no...

The beauty briefly experienced in Purgatorio 2 is intimately interwoven with this canticle's concern with the Aesthetic. We saw how th...

There is so much going on in each canto of the Commedia as to confound exposition. The Purgatorio can seem more straightforward. It's ...

When Dante and Virgil return to the " chiaro mondo " from hell, they are on the shore of Purgatorio where Dante looks out at the...

Given our recent preoccupation with Greek plays, and given the recent turns of fortune for Greece and those fleeing from even more dire con...

My friend Peter D'Epiro (whose translations we have often made use of here) has reminded me of an online source I'd forgotten about...

As we've noted , the invocations in Dante's Commedia progress. The invocation of  Purgatorio 1  goes into greater detail in address...

Virgil in Inferno 26 tells Dante not to speak to Ulysses - he'll speak for him, because, he says, "They were Greeks, perhaps they...

[Note: this post has undergone several revisions - I hope it's now "finished."] Our stimulating discussion of Inferno 26 ...

 By happenstance Jutta heard this piece on the radio while reading up on Inferno 26 , the canto of Ulysses. It's a piece for vi...

It's tempting to read the Inferno with a sort of "I told you so" persona. The structure lends itself, since the damned have ...