American Dante Bibliography for 1962
Anthony Pellegrini
This bibliography is intended to include the Dante translations published in this country in 1962, and all Dante studies and reviews published in 1962 that are in any sense American. The latter criterion is construed to include foreign reviews of Dante publications by Americans.
Translations
Dante Alighieri. Dante’s Divine Poem. Written down Freely into English by Clara Stillman Reed. Wilbraham, Mass.: Privately Printed, 1962.
A handsome limited edition of 300 copies, printed at the Stinehour Press. The translation is in a readable prose, designed to make Dante’s universal message accessible to the general reader. There are three diagrams, one for each cantica, and brief notes (pp. 308-312) of orientation to each cantica, along with a preface “To My Readers,” and “Acknowledgments.”
Dante Alighieri. Inferno. Canticle I of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Revised, edited, with a new introduction by Bernard Stambler. New York: Collier Books, 1962. “Collier Books,” AS 378.
This is another paperback edition of Longfellow’s translation and notes, in this instance “retouched, corrected, or amplified, wherever such changes seemed called for.” Professor Stambler’s general introduction and canto synopses are designed to facilitate the reading of Dante’s poem. Included also are Longfellow’s sonnets on the Inferno, ”A Note on this Edition,” and a useful selected bibliography.
Dante Alighieri. The Comedy of Dante Alighieri the Florentine. Cantica III: Paradise (Il Paradiso). Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1962. Also, London: Penguin Books, 1962.
Of the Paradise, Miss Sayers completed the first twenty cantos before her death, while the remainder was done by Miss Reynolds. Also by Miss Reynolds, are the present foreword, introduction, commentaries, notes, and appendix. Included are a “Glossary of Proper Names,” a selected bibliography of “Books to Read,” four genealogical tables (Descent of Dante from Cacciaguida; Kings of France, 1223-1350; Kings of Aragon and Sicily, 1196-1337; and the Della Scala Family), a diagram and chart of the organization of Dante’s Paradise, and eleven diagrams of detail. The format generally follows that of Miss Sayers’ Hell and Purgatory, which appeared in 1949 and 1955, respectively. (For the Purgatory, see 74th Report, 45-46 and 57, 75th Report, 30 and 38, 76th Report, 56 and 61, and 77th Report, 56. For reviews of the Paradise,see below.)
Dante Alighieri. La Vita Nuova of Dante Alighieri. Translated by Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962. “Midland Books,” MB 38.
For this new, paperback edition, slightly revised, of his translation Professor Musa has written an introductory essay on “Dante’s Three Movements in Love” (pp. vii-xxii). The translation first appeared in 1957. (See 76th Report, 40 and 56, and 77th Report, 56 and 62.)
Studies
Erich Auerbach. “Lo stile di Dante.” In Vittorio Vettori, ed., Maestro Dante (Milano: Marzorati, 1962), 140-151. (Lectura Dantis Internazionale.)
This study has previously appeared under the title, “Sacrae Scripturae sermo humilis,” in German, in English, and more recently in Italian (in his Studi su Dante--see 82nd Report, 48).
H. P. Avegno. “Notes on Great Books.” Xavier University Studies, I (1962): 215-220.
Includes a brief critical appreciation of Dante’s Comedy.
D. C. Baker. “Chaucer’s Clerk and the Wife of Bath on the Subject of Gentilesse.” Studies in Philology, LIX (1962): 631-640.
Includes discussion of Chaucer’s debt to Dante’s Convivio, IV, for his concept of gentilesse and his description of Griselda.
Michele Barbi. Life of Dante. Translated and edited by Paul Ruggiers. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962.
Another edition of this translation, originally published in 1954. (See 73rd Report, 55, 74th Report, 58 and 62, and 79th Report, 40-41.)
Ernst Bloch. “Odysseus Did Not Die in Ithaca.” In Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by George Steiner and Robert Fagles (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962), 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).
Irma Brandeis. The Ladder of Vision. A Study of Dante’s Comedy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1962. “Anchor Books,” A 320.
Paperback edition of the work, originally published in 1960. (See 79th Report, 41 and 52, 80th Report, 24 and 34-35, and see below, under Reviews.)
J. J. Bullaro. “The Dantean Image of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Hart Crane.” Dissertation Abstracts, XXII, (1962): 4012. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1962.
Studies the interest of these poets in Dante and their experimentation with Dantean techniques and themes, particularly in The Cantos, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets, and The Bridge. All three often reinterpreted Dante’s poetry in their own manner, seeking a workable form for their symbolist art.
George Cattaui. “Le rayonnement de Dante dans les pays anglo-saxons.” Annales du Centre Universitaire Méditerranée, XV (1961-1962): 265-278.
Includes a discussion of Dante in America (pp. 274-278).
Joseph Chierici. L’aquila d’oro nel cielo di Giove (Canti XVIII-XX del Paradiso). Rome: Istituto Grafico Tiberino di Stefano De Luca, 1962.
Published form of a dissertation originally entitled, “I a M e l’Aquila: Due simboli cristiani nel Paradiso di Dante.” (See 79th Report, 41-42.)
John Ciardi. “How to Read Dante.” Varieties of Literary Experience: Eighteen Essays in World Literature. Edited by Stanley Burnshaw. New York: New York University Press, 1962; 171-182.
Reprinted from Saturday Review, June 3, 1961, pp. 12-14 and 53-54. (See 80th Report, 24.)
D. M. Foerster. The Fortune of Epic Poetry: A Study in English and American Criticism, 1750-1950. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1962.
Includes a representative survey of critical estimates of Dante, along with Homer, Virgil, and Milton, through seven periods: Neo-classicism, Romanticism, Age of Wordsworth, American theory, 1812-1860, Victorian Era, turn of the century, and our own times. Opinion cited is concerned more with content than with form. Indexed.
John Freccero. “Dante’s per se Angel: The Middle Ground in Nature and in Grace.” Studi Danteschi, XXXIX (1962): 5-38.
Examines the legend of the “neutral” angels and the larger historical context of philosophical and theological thinking, from Plato to Dante’s time, on the problem of defining good and evil and their gradations, and stresses again (see 79th Report, 43-44: Freccero, “Dante and the Neutral Angels”) the Scholastic distinction between the two ontological moments of sin—aversion, or refusal to convert to God, and an act of rebellion, which together constitute sin. The angels who did not confirm their aversion by rebellious action are devoid of moral existence and are therefore presented isolated, by themselves ( per se), in Dante’s symbolic cosmos.
John Freccero. “Dante e la tradizione del ‘Timeo.’” Atti e memorie dell’Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti ds Modena, VI (1962) IV: 107-123. Also, as a separate offprint: Società Tipografica Modenese (1962).
Considers Dante in a tradition traceable to the divine anabasis of Gregory of Nyssa and ultimately to the Timaeus of Plato, who established the metaphorical language analogically relating spiritual to corporeal movement and microcosm to macrocosm in a symbolical cosmology. In the light of this tradition, transmitter of the very notion of a “journey of our life,” can be seen what distinguishes Dante’s from other medieval journeys into the After Life: it is not a prophet’s dream, but the allegorical representation of a spiritual development, in which many details that appear merely to figure the physical world in a realistic way are in fact determined by the poet’s moral intent. For example, certain instances of mass, velocity, and motion in the world of the Commedia are determined not by gravity, but by Grace. Elaborating on his findings in a previous study, “Pilgrim in a Gyre” (PMLA, LXXVI [1961], 168-181; see 80th Report, 27-28), Professor Freccero re-examines specifically the matter of right and left movement according to the tradition, the notion of absolute “up” in the cosmos, and the relation of these macrocosmic considerations to the microcosm, man as a moral being, on the conventional analogy between the anima mundi and the human soul. He demonstrates, further, how these elements from the Platonic-Augustinian tradition determine, consciously or unconsciously, the pattern of Dante’s itinerarium mentis ad Deum from linear and spiral motion to the perfection of circular motion. (For reviews, see above.)
J. G. Fucilla and R. U. Pane. “Annual Bibliography for 1961. Italian Language and Literature.” PMLA, LXXVII (May 1962): 2.
Contains a section on Dante, entries 8028-8157, listing significant studies that appeared both here and abroad.
Allan Gilbert. “The Interpretation of Dante’s New Life.” Renaissance Papers 1961. (Durham, N.C.: The Southeastern Renaissance Conference, 1962), 11-18.
Contends that in recognition of the importance of storytelling Dante has artistically mixed three kinds of matter in the Vita Nuova—lyric verse, prose narrative, and exposition, to make the poetry of emotion more accessible to his reader. The resultant work is to be regarded as an integer, not as it has often been treated, a “bizarre assemblage.”
J. E. Grant. “Dante’s Mirrors and Apocalypse.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, IV (1962): 289-313.
Analyzes three less obvious yet major instances of mirror imagery in the Comedy, particularly in its effects of qualifying and complicating the doctrinal assertions: (1) in the infernal pit itself, where the King of Hell is fixed in a distorted image of the trinal King of the Universe; (2) in the sphere of the temporal Sun (Par. X-XIV), interpreted as a mesothesis between the antithesis of the dark pit and the thesis of the Empyrean, or source of everlasting light, and in the sphere of Jupiter (Par. XVIII-XX), where the Eagle’s exposition of justice is considered “a mesothesis between hate and love, between Satan and God”; and (3) in the ninth and tenth spheres, where the two ways of approach, love and vision, are harmonized and fulfilled. The study includes interpretations of related matters, such as the rings of light, the number and form of the blessed, a possible heretical notion in the poem, and a critical appraisal of Allen Tate’s well-known study of Dante’s mirrors (see 74th Report, 55-56).
Baxter Hathaway. The Age of Criticism: The Late Renaissance in Italy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962.
Two chapters on “Mazzoni and Bulgarini” (pp. 355-374) and “Mazzoni on Dreams” (pp. 375-389) are especially concerned with the interpretation of Dante’s fantasia and the nature of the Divine Comedy in general in the context of the sixteenth-century literary controversy. The ideas of two major critical opponents, Giacopo Mazzoni and Bellisario Bulgarini, are examined in detail by the author, who considers Mazzoni’s Della difesa della Comedia di Dante (1587) a monument to the importance of the poetic imagination in human history. There is further reference to Dante passim. Indexed. (For reviews, see below.)
Donald Heiney. “Intelletto and the Theory of Love in the Dolce Stil Nuovo.” Italica, XXXIX (1962): 173-181.
Examines the different shades of meaning of intelletto as used in early Italian and concludes that the sense of the tenn in the first canzone of the Vita Nuova, Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore, is not the commonly accepted meaning of “understanding,” but quite specifically a non-rational, superior sensibility of love, which can be grasped only intuitively. The philosophical sophistication of this stilnovistic concept suggests a connection with philosophical sources, e.g., the Scholastic distinction between intellectus possibilis and intellectus agens, along with the process of dijudicatio. According to the author, the possible Averroist influence on the concept merits further investigation.
Winifred Hunt. “On Even Ground: A Note on the Extra-mundane Location of Hell in Paradise Lost.” Modern Language Quarterly, XXIII (1962): 17-19.
Compares the conception of Hell in Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost and notes especially the rejection of Dante’s cosmology in Milton’s locating Hell as well as Heaven extra-mundanely, thus harmonizing the accessibility/remoteness of both realms, in further support of his theme of the original and recoverable freedom of man.
Maurice Kelley. “Milton’s Dante-Della Casa-Varchi Volume.” Bulletin of the New York Public Library, LXVI (1962): 499-504.
Gives a better description than hitherto available of Milton’s annotations in this volume, marked *KB 1529 in the NYPL, for those interested in the Italian influence on Milton’s verse. The annotations appear to be of 1637-51/52. L’amoroso Convivio di Dante (Venice 1529) is one of the three works contained in the volume.
Adele King. “Structure and Meaning in La Chute.” PMLA, LXXVII (December 1962): 660-667.
Examines Camus’s La Chute and finds that its formal structure closely follows that of Dante’s Inferno. The protagonist Clamence is a modern Satan, and even the tonal pattern of the novel is related to the descent into hell.
G. W. Knight. The Christian Renaissance, with Interpretations of Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe, and New Discussions of Oscar Wilde and the Gospel of Thomas. Revised Edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1962. Also, London: Methuen, 1962.
The author is committed to a method of “poetic interpretation” based on a theory of imagination as creative and prophetic; his subject is concerned with the great visionary literature of the West; his theme of the Christian Renaissance heralds the New Incarnation, which is suggested to replace the notion of the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the Trinity; his purpose seems to be to gain recognition of “the Sacred Life alike in poetry, and Christianity, and human love.” Within this general context, there are three substantial references to Dante: in a chapter on “Creative Newness,” Dante’s frequent discussions of creation are invoked (pp. 60-65); in a chapter on “Renaissance Prophets: Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare,” Dante’s Comedy is discussed in terms of its meaning-laden, symbolical images, of which fire is found to predominate (pp. 95-105); and in a chapter on “The Eternal Triangle,” Dante’s poem is viewed as a supreme statement of (circular) harmony, in contrast to Goethe’s “chaotic poem” (pp. 229-235). Further references to Dante occur passim. Indexed. The original edition appeared as The Christian Renaissance, with Interpretations of Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe, and a Note on T. S. Eliot in 1933 (Macmillan Company).
N. M. Larkin. “Another Look at Dante’s Frog and Mouse [Inf. XXIII, 4-9].” Modern Language Notes, LXXVII (1962): 94-99.
Contends that the opening of Inferno XXIII with the reference to the frog and mouse fable, as it pertains to the preceding episode of Ciampolo and the demons, must be interpreted in terms of all stages of the fable in order to be seen perfectly consistent with the episode, as Dante claims. Satisfying all requirements, both on the literal level and in the moral significance, is the interpretation submitted—Dante and Virgil: mouse:: Demons: frog. Like the mouse in the fable, Dante and Virgil carne to a barrier that must be crossed; they sought help of the Demons who, like the frog, plotted treachery against the former, but became embroiled in their own evil because of them.
Ulrich Leo. “Zum ‘Rifacimento’ der Vita Nuova.” Romanische Forschungen, LXXIV (1962): 281-317.
Takes issue both with Barbi, who denies the possibility of later changes or revisions by Dante in the Vita Nuova, and with Pietrobono and Nardi, who consider the last four chapters additions to serve as transition to the Convivio. Ignoring the frequently held assumption of an intention by Dante from the beginning to write a trilogy, Professor Leo limits his analysis to the textual evidence alone and finds, on the basis of style and structure, that Chapter XXV, Section 17 of XII, Chapter XL, and portions of XLI may be considered probable later additions. From these findings, the Beatrice of the Divine Comedy appears more consistent with Dante’s original image of her as his donna angelicata in the earlier work.
Rocco Montano. Storia della poesia di Dante. Napoli: Quaderni di Delta, 1962-1963. 2 vols. (558, 670 p.) Quaderni di critica e testi, 2-3.
Professor Montano’s express purpose is to re-interpret the whole of Dante in the light of our latest knowledge of the medieval world; to trace the history of Dante’s poetry, avoiding the extremes of both historical and Crocean criticism; to present organically an anthology of all necessary texts for understanding Dante’s poetry; to offer a critical commentary for guiding the reader to a unified, comprehensive view of theComedy, based on rigorous historical awareness and quite opposed to the De Sanctis-Croce critical position; to resolve various essential problems pertaining to Dante’s poetry; and to offer a fresh reading of single major episodes in the Comedy. The work is arranged in four parts: (Vol. I:) I. Il cammino verso la verità; II. Inferno; (Vol. II:) III. Purgatorio; and IV. Paradiso; these are in turn subdivided into chapters under various topical headings. In a prefatory note, Professor Montano cites his many Dante studies previously published (especially in Delta, between 1952 and 1959), of which the present work represents a synthesis and tentative conclusion. (See, for example, 77th Report, 50, 78th Report, 33 and 43, and 79th Report, 58, and see main section above, under Reviews.)
P. R. Olson. “Theme and Structure in the Exordium of the Paradiso.” Italica, XXXIX (1962): 89-104.
In this close analysis of Paradiso I, 1-12, the author finds that there is perfect parallelism among the conceptual and formal details and that, far from being merely discursive in quality, the passage is in fact highly successful poetically, thanks both to the aesthetic values intrinsic to the hierarchical conception of the Great Chain of Being here invoked and to the formal details that artistically reflect in syntax and sound this structural concept of the universe. The motif of the pilgrim’s heavenward journey is significantly enhanced, moreover, while at the same time provision already is subtly being made by the poet for his return.
L. Palanca. “Similes in Dante.” Proceedings of the Linguistic Circle of Manitoba and North Dakota, III (1962): 10-11.
Brief remarks on animal similes combined with onomatopoeia in the Divine Comedy, reflecting Dante’s keen observation and love of nature.
A. L. Pellegrini. “American Dante Bibliography for 1961.” 80th Annual Report of the Dante Society (1962): 21-38.
With brief analyses.
Joseph Pequigney and Hubert Dreyfus. “Landscape and Guide: Dante’s Modifying of Meaning in the Inferno.” Italian Quarterly, V, No. 20 (Winter 1961)–VI, No. 21 (Spring 1962): 51-83.
Attempt to determine the full significance of the wall separating the City of Dis from the rest of Inferno, by bringing to bear fuller Christian correctives to Virgil’s own limited ken. Dante’s scheme of Hell is Christian, based on religious categories, which exceed the strictly moral terms of Virgil’s guidance that can distinguish between the two large classes of sin only ethically and in degree. The authors’ analysis takes them over the whole infernal topography and penal system, in light of which the wall is seen to divide the natural landscape of the Incontinent without, where the punishments are but a continuation or extension of the respective sins themselves, from the unnatural, distorted landscape of the Fraudulent within, where the principle of retribution or contrapasso actually obtains. In contrast to the Incontinent, who in their sinfulness loved the finite things of God’s creation naturally, but too well, i.e., idolatrously, the denizens of Dis sinned in a manner rejecting God and His creation, thus closing themselves off in unresponsive autonomy (in Dante’s language, pride) within the isolating bastion of their own will. The isolating walls of Malebolge, shutting the sinners up into groups, repeat and re-emphasize the meaning of the outer wall of Dis, while the inner citadel demarcated by the giants serves to emphasize even further the idea of rejection and isolation. The interpretation clarifies the orderly transformations in the infernal landscape and the parallelism with the increasing gravity of the sinfulness, in terms of the definition of sin, unarticulated yet implicit in Dante’s Comedy as a whole: self-exclusion from total fulfillment, possible only in God.
Tommaso Pisanti. “Dante negli Stati Uniti d’America (1750-1870).” In Ausonia (Siena), XVII, No. 1 (1962), 13-23.
Traces the American interest in Dante from the moralistic in the 18th century to the more objective and literary in the l9th, with particular mention of the first university course on Dante given in 1831 by George Ticknor, Longfellow’s translation of the Commedia (1865-1867), Norton’s version of the Vita Nuova ( 1867), and Lowell’s studies on Dante’s allegory and symbolism.
Renato Poggioli. “Dante Poco Tempo Silvano: Or a ’Pastoral Oasis’ in the Commedia.” 80th Annual Report of the Dante Society (1962), 1-20.
Interprets the pilgrim’s brief stay in the Earthly Paradise (Purg. XXIII-XXXIII) as a “pastoral oasis” conceived in terms of the pastoral of happiness. Merging pagan and Christian elements, it is related within the poem both to the “nobile castello” of Limbo (Inf. IV, 106) and to the Eternal Paradise. Consistent with Dante’s view of the dual blessedness expressed in the De Monarchia, III, 16, the Earthly Paradise is a place of temporary bliss, figuring a perfectly happy worldly life, while prefiguring at the same time the blissful immortality of a soul restored to justice and innocence. Eden, as defined by Matelda, who represents Leah in the fulfillment of the prophetic dream (Purg. XXVII, 100-108), is a garden of delights where the pilgrim, or Man, is but “a little while a forester” on the way to the Heavenly City or celestial Rome, for which it is a preparation.
Mario Praz. “Dante in Inghilterra (e in America).” In Maestro Dante (Milano: Marzorati, 1962), 63-94.
Reviews the influence of Dante on the English-speaking world, including America, from Chaucer to the present.
Gino Rizzo. “The Composite Picture of Sicily in Dante and Gongora: Secularization of a Literary Theme.” Symposium, XVI (1962): 193-205.
Dante uses mythic references drawn from Ovid and Virgil to create a composite picture of Sicily (Par. VII, 67-70) in which he establishes a structural analogy between the realm of Nature and that of Man’s moral conduct. In this depiction of the island are contained two structurally articulated contrasts: the beauty of the island vs. impending volcanic disaster; and a replacing of the myth (Typhoeus) with a naturalistic explanation of physical phenomenon (volcanic action of Etna). In the Renaissance, for example, in the poetic references to Sicily by Ariosto and Juan de Mena, the literary conventions are found much secularized and elaborated merely for their decorative value. An exception in this later development is Gongora’s picture of Sicily in his Polifemo, IV, where the three myths of Typhoeus, Vulcan, and Polyphemus are again combined in a structural analogy integrating the myths with the stream of narrative, although without the moral connotations that Dante conveys analogically through references to natural phenomenon.
George Santayana. “Dante.” In The Proper Study: Essays on Western Classics, edited by Quentin Anderson and Joseph A. Mazzeo (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1962), 255-284.
From Santayana’s Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, Goethe, originally published in 1910 (Harvard University Press). (See also 74th Report, 61, 75th Report, 27-28, and 77th Report, 52.)
J. A. Scott. “Inferno, X: Farinata as Magnanimo.” Romance Philology, XV (1962): 395-411.
Examines the history of the term, magnanimo, in its varying favorable and unfavorable meanings and, against the over-simplified traditional view of Farinata, brings to bear these findings upon Dante’s presentation of the character in the light, furthermore, of the contextual preparation for the episode (Inf. VI and IX), linking pride and heresy. The word magnanimo, as used by the poet in Inf. X, 73, is seen as a microcosm reflecting Dante’s complex attitude towards Farinata: admiration for the savior of Florence and condemnation of Farinata’s ambition and pride, his clannish and partisan spirit. The episode underscores the vanity of Epicurean concepts evinced in both Farinata’s and Cavalcante’s obsession with the clan or material actions, the only means of immortality conceivable to these Epicurean heretics.
K. L. Selig. “Una nota su Dante nella Spagna del secolo diciassettesimo.” Convivium, N.S., XXX (1962): 478-479.
Cites Dantean allusions in Baltasar de Vitoria’s Theatro de los dioses de la gentilidad in further evidence of the poet’s renown in seventeenth-century Spain.
Mary McDermott Shideler. The Theology of Romantic Love: A Study in the Writings of Charles Williams. New York: Harper, 1962. ix, 243 p.
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).
C. S. Singleton. “Inferno X: Guido’s Disdain.” Modern Language Notes, LXXVII (1962): 49-65.
After some general remarks on the allegorical dimension of the Comedy, stressing “revelation” and “retrospective illumination” as the pattern of Dante’s special way of writing, Professor Singleton focuses on the episode in question as an example of how the poem opens up to allegory, without excluding the first, or literal, sense. In the verse, forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno (Inf. X, 63), specifically, he contends that the verb has the value here of a passato prossimo (cf. also dicesti, in line 68 of the immediate context) and suggests that ebbe is the equivalent of non volle venire—i.e., just now, but nine hours ago, at the beginning of the journey. In this way, the poem suggests, allegorically, the same choice is open to us, the reader, here and now of taking such a spiritual journey with Virgil as guide. The study closes with a bibliography of studies devoted to the much disputed passage.
Irene Samuel. “Satan and the ‘Diminisht’ Stars.” In Modern Philology, LIX (1962), 239-247.
Compares the use of light and dark by Dante and Milton, noting striking parallels between the blessed spirits of Paradiso and the angels of Paradise Lost; discusses Milton’s implicit acceptance of Dante’s equation: God:Heavenly Beings :: Sun:Stars, although contrary to 16th-century astronomy; stresses the special interest of Par. XVIII-XX for Milton; and suggests Daniello as the probable medium for Milton’s particular adaptation of Dante’s sun-stars symbolism.
T. K. Swing. The Fragile Leaves of the Sybil: Dante’s Master Plan. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1962.
Treating Dante as a “poetical philosopher,” the author analyzes the Divine Comedy as a structural and philosophical whole combining the two principles of (1) uniformity of the three realms and (2) diversity of material. As keys to the poem’s unity, he finds that “the Saint’s [Bernard’s] three works, De Gradibus humilitatis, De diligendo Deo, and Sermones in Cantica Canticorum, jointly constitute the chief model for the architectonic construction of Dante’s Cantica of divine love,” and that “Dante’s notion of the soul is one of the most consistent resolutions of a long struggle to articulate the nature of man as conceived in the Judeo-Christian tradition through the conceptual framework developed in the Greco-Roman tradition.” Focusing on the last cantica, while contrasting it simultaneously with the other two, the interpretation is executed in terms of the ladder (cf. Jacob’s Ladder and St. Benedict’s Rule of the ladder) as the informing image in each case: in the Inferno, the ladder of pride; in the Purgatorio, of humility; in the Paradiso, of joy. The fourteen chapters are arranged in three parts: I. The Presentation of the Problem, with a chapter (1) on The Quest for the Unity of the Divina Commedia; II. The Formulation of a Solution, with chapters on (2) The Principle of Uniformity and (3) . . . of Diversity; and III. The Elucidation of a Solution, with chapters on (4) Lesson on the Rung of Humility and Pride, (5) . . . Mercy and Envy, (6) . . . Meekness and Wrath, (7) . . . Fortitude and Sloth, (8) . . . Liberality and Avarice, (9) . . . Temperance and Gluttony, (10) . . . Spiritual and Carnal Love, (11) Retrospect and Prospect on Jacob’s Ladder, (12) Vision on the Rung of Faith and Revelation, (13) . . . Hope and Sanctification, (14) . . . Charity and Beatification. The volume comes with a preface by Professor T. G. Bergin, a section of “Acknowledgments,” “Notes,” “Bibliography,” and index.
John Van Erde. “The Imagery in Gautier’s Dantesque Nightmare.” Studies in Romanticism, I (1962): 230-240.
Without claiming the Inferno as a direct source of inspiration for Gautier’s Cauchemar, the author cites suggestive instances of Dantesque imagery in the poem, which reflects the concern with the grotesque and the horrible typical of the French Romantic period when interest in Dante’s Inferno especially was great.
Reviews
Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Trans. J. D. Sinclair. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. Reviewed by:
Vernon Hall Jr., Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, XI (1962): 43-44.
Dante Alighieri. The Inferno. Trans. Warwick Chipman. New York & London: Oxford University Press, 1961. Reviewed by:
[Anon.], Times Literary Supplement, (8 January 1962): 1;
R. J. Clements, Saturday Review, (10 February 1962): 26-27;
N. J. Perella, in Romance Philology, XVI (1962): 259-260.
Dante Alighieri. The Purgatorio. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: The New American Library, 1961. Reviewed by:
Hayden Carruth, Poetry, C (1962): 198-200;
R. J. Clements, Saturday Review, (10 February 1962): 26-27;
Vernon Hall Jr., Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature (1962): 43-44.
Dante Alighieri. Paradise. Trans. Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1962. Reviewed by:
[Anon.], Times Literary Supplement, (27 July 1962): 544.
Dante Alighieri. Dante’s “Vita Nuova.” Trans. R. W. Emerson. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960. Reviewed by:
C L. Johnson, Comparative Literature, XIV (1962): 314-315.
Erich Auerbach. Dante, Poet of the Secular World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Reviewed by:
T. G. Bergin, Yale Review, LI (1962): 459-463;
R. J. Clements, Saturday Review, (10 February 1962): 26-27.
Irma Brandeis, ed. Discussions of the Divine Comedy. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1961. Reviewed by:
T. G. Bergin, Italian Quarterly, VI, No. 22 (Summer 1962): 94-101.
Irma Brandeis. The Ladder of Vision: A Study of Dante’s Comedy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1961. Reviewed by:
T. G. Bergin, Italian Quarterly, VI, No. 22 (Summer 1962): 94-101;
Colin Hardie, Modern Language Review, LVII (1962): 113-114.
John Freccero. “Dante’s Firm Foot and the Journey without a Guide.” Harvard Theological Review, LII (1959): 245-281. Reviewed by:
F[rancesco] M[azzoni], Studi Danteschi, XXXIX (1962): 233-235.
Baxter Hathaway. The Age of Criticism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962. Reviewed by:
Andrew Bongiorno, Renaissance News, XV (1962): 217-219.
J. A. Mazzeo. Medieval Cultural Tradition in Dante’s Comedy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1960. Reviewed by:
T. G. Bergin, Italian Quarterly, VI, No. 22 (Summer 1962): 94-101;
Vincenzo Cioffari, Italica, XXXIX (1962): 299-301;
C. T. Davis, Comparative Literature, XIV (1962): 388-391;
John Freccero, Symposium, XVI (1962): 63-67;
Edward Williamson, Romanic Review, LIII (1962): 285-286.
J. A. Mazzeo. Structure and Thought in the “Paradiso.” Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1958. Reviewed by:
Rocco Montano, Comparative Literature, XIV (1962): 294-298.
Bruno Migliorini. Storia della lingua italiana. Florence: Sansoni, 1960. Reviewed by:
Carlo Dionisotti, Romance Philology, XVI (1962): 41-58.
Rocco Montano. “La Poesia di Dante: II. Il Purgatorio.” Delta (1959) 18-19: 1-85. Reviewed by:
T. G. Bergin, Italian Quarterly, VI, No. 22 (Summer 1962): 94-101,
Andrea Ciotti, Convivium, N. S., XXX (1962): 264-292, 399-415;
Donato Gagliardi, Italica, XXXIX (1962): 63-65.
Friedrich Schneider. Dante, Leben und Werk. 5. Neubearbeitete Auflage. Weimar: Boehlau, 1960. Reviewed by:
Ulrich Leo, Romanische Forschungen, LXXIV (1962): 216-223.
C. S. Singleton. Dante Studies 2: Journey to Beatrice. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. Reviewed by:
Andrea Ciotti, Convivium, N. S., XXX (1962): 233-238.
T.K. Swing. The Fragile Leaves of the Sybil: Dante’s Master Plan. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1962. Reviewed by:
Kenelm Foster, Blackfriars, XLIII (1962): 477-483.
Giulio Vallese. Da Dante ad Erasmo. Studi di letteratura umanistica. Naples: G. Scalabrini, 1962. (The first three chapters are concerned in part with Dante.) Reviewed by:
Danilo Aguzzi-Barbagli, Renaissance News, XV (1962): 306-308.
Bernard Weinberg. A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Reviewed by:
Carmelo Gariano, Modern Language Journal, XL (1962) VI: 93-194;
J. H. Hagstrum, Italica, XXXIX (1962): 140-142;
M. T. Herrick, Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, XI (1962): 59-62;
D. M. White, Renaissance News, XV (1962): 215-217.
E. H. Wilkins. The Invention of the Sonnet and Other Studies in Italian Literature. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1959. Reviewed by:
D[omenico] D[e] R[obertis], Studi Danteschi, XXXIX (1962): 223-225.
