It's often remarked that the late canti of Paradiso are redolent with Virgilian echoes, prompting commentators to ponder why, since Vi...

(An interpolation - I do intend to get back to the question of parabasis in Paradiso 30 ) As noted previously , the final cantos of the ...

Forse semilia miglia di lontano ci ferve l'ora sesta, e questo mondo china già l'ombra quasi al letto piano, Paradiso 30 does...

Mankind is engaged in a continual conversation with tradition - Hans-Georg Gadamer. Part of the work of the Commedia lies in its inte...

To perceive means to immobilize... we seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself. - H. Bergson Paradis...

The last canto before the Empyrian presents artistic as well as interpretive challenges. Paradiso 29 opens in a heightened moment, right b...

What madnesse is it (quoth she) to prefer the heavenly rout   Of whome ye doe but heare, to such as daily are in sight?   Or why should...

(One paragraph was revised on 10.1.17, as noted) Paradiso 29:1-12 Quando ambedue li figli di Latona, coperti del Montone e de la Libr...

Excerpt from Delancey Place Today's encore selection -- from  The Pursuit of Italy  by David Gilmour.  In 1861, when the Italian...

In 1929, one of the great readers of the 20th century offered this astonishing claim: . . . although Dante did not know Greek, though he ...

From BBC : The Athenian experiment is notable not merely for the talents it produced: three of the greatest tragedians – Aeschylus, Sopho...

While we are on break for the summer, I've enjoyed a couple of Dante-related resources which might be of interest. While Dante had no...