American Dante Bibliography for 1986
Christopher Kleinhenz
This bibliography is intended to include all the Dante translations published in this country in 1986 and all Dante studies and reviews published in 1986 that are in any sense American. The latter criterion is construed to include foreign reviews of American publications pertaining to Dante. For their invaluable assistance in the preparation of this bibliography and its annotations my special thanks go to the following graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Tonia Bernardi, Adriano Comollo, Tim Droster, Scott Eagleburger, Edward Hagman, Pauline Scott, Antonio Scuderi, Elizabeth Serrin, Robert Sullivan, and Scott Troyan.
Translations
The Divine Comedy. Vol. III: Paradise. Translated with an introduction, notes, and commentary by Mark Musa. Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin Books, 1986. xxx, 433 p. (Penguin Classics.)
This translation, originally published as Dante’s Paradise in 1984 by the Indiana University Press (see Dante Studies, CIII, 140), is here reprinted with the addition of an “Introduction to the Paradise” and a “Glossary and Index of Persons and Places.”
Studies
Abrams, Richard. “Against the Contrapasso: Dante’s Heretics, Schismatics and Others.” In Italian Quarterly, XXVII, No. 105 (Summer), 5-19. [1986]
Proposes a reading of the “contrapasso” which looks beyond the sense of the Aristotelian-Thomistic principle of divine retribution, and finds a rationale for suffering in the pathology of sin. Focusing primarily on the heretics and the schismatics (while touching upon other groups, including some in Purgatorio), Abrams argues that Dante offers clues which suggest that the “contrapasso” ultimately derives from the innermost yearning of the sinner. Thus, the “divina vendetta” remains a fiction in the minds of the damned.
Alexander, David. “Dante and the Form of the Land.” In Annals of the Association of American Geographers, LXXVI, No. 1 (March), 38-49. [1986]
Approaches Dante’s De situ et figura ... aque videlicet et terre in terms of its position in the history of physical geography, and considers the historical period of its composition as a link between the natural philosophy of the classical period and the beginnings of empirical methodology. Considers Dante’s sources and his synthesis and argumentation in light of the works of other natural philosophers, notably Avicenna, Jean Buridan and Ristoro d’Arezzo.
Arbery, Glenn C. “Antica Lupa: Dante, Virgil, and the Discontinuity of Allegory.” In American Benedictine Review, XXXVII, No. 2 (June), 173-196. [1986]
One of the most significant and fearful images confronting Dante the Pilgrim is that of the lupa, who appears at three major moments of discontinuity in the Commedia: Virgil’s appearance in Inferno I, the release of Statius in Purgatorio XX, and Virgil’s departure in Purgatorio XXX. Because of the complex mixture of Biblical and classical associations, the lupa is an ambiguous sign, yet one that must be interpreted. Hence, the pilgrim must use allegory as he passes through these regions of discontinuity, while at the same time he moves toward a recognition of Virgil’s importance.
Auerbach, Erich. “Figural Art in the Middle Ages” (1959). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 21-31. [1986]
Auerbach, Erich. “St. Francis of Assisi in Dante’s Commedia” (1959). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 33-45. [1986]
Barkan, Leonard. The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. xvi, 398 p. [1986]
One chapter (the fourth, pp. 137-170) focuses on the many uses and variations of metamorphosis by Dante, the Christian, as compared to classical and pagan representations of the same theme. Discusses the contagious nature of metamorphosis (as well as the contagious nature of sin itself) and how the metamorphosis of human into beast ultimately degrades God through degradation of the imago dei. “Only a great Christian poet could use the doctrine of man conceived in the image of God to join the lore of metamorphoses with the whole analogical world view. Because the Commedia is at once a Christian vision and a revision of pagan antiquity, it can bring about a new syncretic vision of metamorphosis.” Contents: 1. Tapestry Figures; 2. Ovid and Metamorphosis; 3. Metamorphosis in the Middle Ages; 4. Taccia Ovidio: Metamorphosis, Poetics, and Meaning in Dante’s Inferno; 5. Metamorphosis, Paganism, and the Renaissance Imagination; 6. Shakespeare and the Metamorphosis of Art and Life; Notes; Illustrations; Index.
Barolini, Teodolinda. “Autocitation and Autobiography” (1984). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 167-177. [1986]
Battenhouse, Roy. “Augustinian Roots in Shakespeare’s Sense of Tragedy.” In The Upstart Crow, VI, 1-7. [1986]
Treats the combined influence of St. Augustine and Dante on Shakespeare.
Beal, Rebecca. “Dante among Thieves: Allegorical Soteriology in the Seventh Bolgia (Inferno XXIV and XXV).” In Medievalia, IX (1986 for 1983), 101-123. [1986]
Examines the episode of the thieves as an infernal “parody of orthodox doctrine concerning man’s redemption,” by which the eternal damnation of these sinners is constantly reinforced. The rich analysis includes consideration of the many biblical and Christological elements present in the text which, when seen within the context of patristic exegesis, help to focus attention on the soteriological parody.
Bertran de Born. The Poetry of the Troubadour Bertran de Born. Edited by William D. Paden Jr., Tilde Sankovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: The University of California Press, 1986. xxi, 573 p.
This critical edition and English translation of the poetry of Bertran de Born contains a short section on Dante’s references to him in De vulgari eloquentia and Convivio and on his presence as a character in the Inferno.
Blomme, Raoul. “Les Troubadours dans la Divine Comédie: Un problème d’onomastique poétique.” In Studia Occitanica in Memoriam Paul Remy. Vol. I: The Troubadours, edited by Hans-Erich Keller with the collaboration of Jean-Marie D’Heur, Guy R. Mermier, and Marc Vuijlsteke (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University), 21-30 [1986]
Examines the notion of medieval onomastics with regard to the names of the troubadours in the Comedy and discusses how the significance of their names is integrated in the fabric of the poem as a whole. Dante refers to a total of ten different troubadours in his corpus of works, six in the Divine Comedy alone, three of whom represent different genres of troubadour poetry. Since these troubadours present themselves to Dante the pilgrim in the way they name themselves, he fails to grasp the importance of the statement which Dante the author attributes to the giving or pronouncing of a proper name and its relationship to the poetry itself.
Bloom, Harold, editor, Dante (q.v.).
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Amorosa Visione. Bilingual edition, translated by Robert Hollander, Timothy Hampton, Margherita Frankel, with an introduction by Vittore Branca. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1986. xxix, 255 p. Contains many references to Dante.
Boyle, Robert, S.J. “Hopkins, Brutus, and Dante.” In Victorian Poetry, XXIV, No. 1 (Spring), 1-12. [1986]
Treatment of religious imagery in Dante and in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover.”
De Bonfils Templer, Margherita. “‘La prima materia de li elementi’.” In Studi Danteschi, LVIII (1986), 275-291.
Through several textual comparisons it is established a close relation between William of Conches’ Glosae and the examined passage from the Convivio. It is therefore very probable that Dante follows William’s exegesis even though he doesn’t mention the monk’s name.
Brown, Emerson, Jr. “Epicurean Secularism in Dante and Boccaccio: Athenian Roots and Florentine Revival.” In Magister Regis...(q.v.), 179-193. [1986]
After an introduction on the general tenets of Epicurism the author traces the tradition of Epicurism up to the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, Dante considers Epicurism as a symbol of heresy even though its materialism is rejected by all the heretical movements of his time. Frederick II fits in well there because he was commonly considered an Epicurean. The case of Guido Cavalcanti is more problematic, but two considerations support this: his canzone “Donna me prega” is certainly Averroistic, and Boccaccio depicts him as an unbeliever in his tale of Betto Brunelleschi (Dec. VI, 9).
Brownlee, Kevin. “Ovid’s Semele and Dante’s Metamorphosis: Paradiso XXI-XXIII.” In Modern Language Notes, CI, No. 1 (January), 147-156. [1986]
Contrasts the disastrous Ovidian “metamorphosis” of Semele with the tempered Christian transfiguration of Dante. The Pilgrim’s gradual adjustment to the intensity of the divine presences suggests an ultimate, successful union of human and divine, the intervention of Christ being the determining (and tempering) factor. Hence, in a series of six references in these three cantos, Dante rewrites the Semele myth in a Christian key, in which the divine presence serves to strengthen the faithful pilgrim; in the Ovidian counterpart, the mortal is destroyed by the presence of the divine.
Bufano, Luca. “Nota sulla posizione e il significato di San Francesco nel Paradiso.” In Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 265-277. [1986]
The meeting between the pilgrim and San Francesco in the heaven of the Sun breaks with the usual technique of the Comedy by introducing the Saint indirectly, through the eulogy of Saint Thomas. Bufano attributes the indirectness of this encounter to the exceptionally high beatitude of the Saint and to the gradual loss of individuality of the characters of the Comedy. In the Empyrean, the pilgrim sees Francesco once again, in a privileged position in the Rose. Bufano concludes that Francesco is so highly regarded in the Comedy because his greatest virtue—Poverty—most closely associates him, above all other saints, with Christ.
Caldiero, Frank. “The Trial of the Bow.” In Tamarack: Journal of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, III, No. 1 (Fall-Winter, 1985-1986), 2-7.
A comparison of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Conversation at Midnight and Dante’s Vita Nuova, with particular attention to the nature and importance of their poetic experimentation (forms, meters, techniques), to English and Italian prosody respectively, and to the brilliance demonstrated by both poets in “bending the bow of poetry...to see which arrow could be shot the farthest.”
Carruthers, Mary J. “Italy, Ars Memorativa, and Fame’s House.” In Studies in the Age of Chaucer: Proceedings, II, 179-188. [1986]
A brief summary of a revival of interest in mnemonics in the Middle Ages is followed by a more detailed examination of the “architectural mnemonic” as it might apply to the sculptured wall of marble that illustrates humility in Purgatory X. Chaucer’s palace of Fame is then considered in light of this mnemonic strategy.
Cavalcanti, Guido. The Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. Edited and translated by Lowry Nelson Jr. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1986. lxiii, 128 p. illus. (The Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 18.)
Contents: Introduction (Life of the Author, Influence and Reputation, Literary Achievement, Prefatory Note to “Donna me prega”, Editorial Policy for This Text and Translation); Select Bibliography; The Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti; Textual and Explanatory Notes; Index of First Lines. Many references to Dante.
Cervigni, Dino S. Dante’s Poetry of Dreams. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1986. 228 p. (Biblioteca dell’”Archivum Romanicum,” ser. I, vol. 198.)
A systematic and thorough account of ancient and medieval views of oneiric experience and a balanced, synthetic presentation of Dante’s incorporation of that tradition in the composition of the Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy (especially the Purgatory). Contents: Introduction; 1. Tradition and Innovation; 2. Visionary Structure and Significance in the Vita Nuova; 3. The Dream of the Eagle; 4. “Nel mezzo del cammin”: Demonic Interference and Divine Intervention in the Second Dream; 5. The Dream of Leah and the Pilgrim’s Sleep in the Earthly Paradise; 6. Dante’s Poetry of Dreams; Selected Bibliography; Index. Previously published essays are duly indicated as being incorporated in part, variously revised, in chapters 2-4 and 6 (for the latter, see Dante Studies, CII, 171).
“Charles Southward Singleton.” In Speculum, LXI, No. 3 (July), 765-767. [1986]
A memoir of the distinguished American Dantista, who died on October 11, 1985, recorded by Donald R. Howard, Robert E. Kaske, and Joan M. Ferrante for the Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America.
Chiarenza, Marguerite Mills. “The Imageless Vision and Dante’s Paradiso” (1972). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 83-95. [1986]
Chmaitelli, Nancy Adelyne. “The Theme of Synagogue, Eccelsia, and the Whore of Babylon in the Visual Arts and in the Poetry of Dante and Chaucer: A Background Study for Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVII, No. 5 (November), 1722A-1723A. Doctoral Dissertation, Rice University, 1986. 390 p.
Clark, Peter Y. “Bells Chiming the Eleventh Hour: Dante Alighieri’s Inferno and Three Processes of Civilization.” In Christianity & Literature, XXXV, No. 2 (Winter), 5-15. [1986]
Discusses Dante’s relationship to Florentine politics, classical antiquity, and the Christian faith. These three “influences on Dante’s life led directly...to three vital processes of civilization: his acquaintance with and involvement in Florentine politics provided historical analysis; his proficiency in things classical later allowed him to challenge their merit in dynamic human effort; and his dependence on Christianity lent him a sense of permanence.”
Comens, Bruce. “Stages of Love, Steps to Hell: Dante’s Rime Petrose.” In Modern Language Notes, CI, No. 1 (January), 157-188. [1986]
The importance of Dante’s rime petrose lies in the interrelation of their form and content. A study of the poems considering the details of their interpretation, the structure of each poem and the general structure of the poems together demonstrates an adherence to the four stages of the development of sensual love established by Richard of Saint Victor in his De quatuor gradibus violentae caritatis. The rime petrose should be considered Dante’s first attempt at formulating a sustained critique of a specific aspect of love.
Corman, Catherine Talmage. “‘Whereas a Man May Have Noon Audience, Noght Helpeth It to Tellen His Sentence’: Rhetorical Process in Chaucer’s Poetry.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVII, No. 1 (July), 173A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, University of California-Los Angeles, 1985, 137 p.
Considers rhetoric as “a process defined by the interaction between a speaker, his words..., and the audience.” Examines similarities between “Chaucer’s manipulation of response in three of his dream poems (The Book of the Duchess, House of Fame, Parliament of Fowls) and that of Dante in the Commedia.”
Costa, Gustavo. “Spigolature dantesche.” In Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226. [1986]
An omnibus review essay on the following volumes: Dante Studies, Volume I: Dante in the Twentieth Century, ed. Adolph Caso; James Thomas Chiampi, Shadowy Prefaces: Conversion and Writing in the “Divine Comedy”; Dennis Costa, Irenic Apocalypse: Some Uses of Apocalyptic in Dante, Petrarch and Rabelais; Cambridge Readings in Dante’s “Comedy”, ed. Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde; Jerome Mazzaro, The Figure of Dante: An Essay on the “Vita Nuova”; Dante’s “Purgatory”, tr. Mark Musa; Shirley J. Paolini, Confessions of Sin and Love in the Middle Ages: Dante’s “Commedia” and St. Augustine’s “Confessions”; Ugo Foscolo, Studi su Dante, Parte II: Commedia di Dante Alighieri, ed. Giorgio Petrocchi; Earl Jeffrey Richards, Dante and the “Roman de la Rose:” An Investigation into the Vernacular Narrative Context of the “Commedia”; Approaches to Teaching Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, ed. Carole Slade; and Dante in Hell: The “De Vulgari Eloquentia,” Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary by Warman Welliver, all separately listed in full below, under Reviews.
Cowles, David L. “A Profane Tragedy: Dante in Hawthorne’s ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’.” In American Transcendental Quarterly, LX (June), 5-24. [1986]
Hawthorne appropriates Dante’s cosmological design in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and adapts it to his story by conflating the three tiers of Dante’s universe into Rappaccini’s garden. Hawthorne exploits Dante’s ready-made set of symbols that detail the range of human potential, while adding support to the story’s classical themes.
Crone, Anna Lisa. “Woods and Trees: Mandel’shtam’s Use of Dante’s Inferno in ‘Preserve My Speech’.” In Studies in Russian Literature in Honor of Vsevolod Setchkarev, edited by Julian W. Connolly and Sonia I. Ketchian (Columbus: Slavica, 1986), 87-101.
Briefly sketches the affinity between Mandel’shtam and Dante and discusses the shaping influence of two episodes—the wood of the suicides and Brunetto Latini—on Mandel’shtam’s poetry.
Dante. Edited with an introduction by Harold Bloom. New York-New Haven-Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. x, 216 p. (Modern Critical Views.)
Contains, with one exception, previously published essays on Dante by Charles S. Singleton, Erich Auerbach, R. E. Kaske, Francis X. Newman, Marguerite Mills Chiarenza, John Freccero, Robert M. Durling, David Quint, Susan Noakes, Teodolinda Barolini, Kenneth Gross, and Giuseppe Mazzotta. The essays are listed individually by author. Introduction; Chronology; Contributors; Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index.
Davidson, Pamela. “Vyacheslav Ivanov and Dante.” In Vyacheslav Ivanov: Poet, Critic and Philosopher, edited by Robert Louis Jackson and Lowry Nelson Jr. (New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1986), 147-161. (Yale Russian and East European Pubs., 8.)
Treats Dante’s influence on the Russian Symbolist writer Vyacheslav Ivanov in his creative works, in his critical studies, in his college teaching, and in his translation of the Comedy.
Davidson, Sylvie. “Borges and Italian Literature.” In Italian Quarterly, XXVII, No. 105 (Summer), 43-49. [1986]
Treats Borges’ discovery and appreciation of Dante’s Divine Comedy with specific concentration on the influenced exerted on his own works by the episodes of Francesca and Ulysses.
Davis, Charles T. “Dante, the Judge of the Secular World.” In Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, XIV, 207-219. [1986]
A review essay on the following volumes: Anthony K. Cassell, Dante’s Fearful Art of Justice; Joan M. Ferrante, The Political Vision of the “Divine Comedy”; and Teodolinda Barolini, Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the “Comedy”, all separately listed in full below, under Reviews.
De Gennaro, Angelo A. The Reader’s Companion to Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. Foreword by Giovanni Gullace. New York: Philosophical Library, 1986. 128 p.
A brief overview in 22 chapters of the Divine Comedy. Contents: Foreword; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Beatrice. The Vestibule of Hell. Limbo; 3. Hell. Francesca and Paolo. Ciacco; 4. The Hoarders. Filippo Argenti. Farinata; 5. The Division of Hell. Pier della Vigna; 6. Brunetto Latini. Geryon. Seducers; 7. Simoniacs. Fortune Tellers. Hypocrites; 8. Thieves. Ulysses. Falsifiers; 9. Ugolino. Satan; 10. Cato. Manfred; 11. Belacqua. Buonconte. Sordello; 12. The Angel Guardian. The Envious; 13. Visions. Marco Lombardo. The Siren; 14. Hoarders and Wasters. Statius. The Gluttons; 15. Bonagiunta. Guinizelli. Leah and Rachel; 16. Virgil. Matilda. Beatrice; 17. Introduction to Paradiso; 18. Piccarda. Justinian; 19. St. Francis. St. Dominic. Cacciaguida; 20. The Eagle. The Virgin Mary; 21. The Apostles. Beatrice; 22. The Mystic Rose. St. Bernard; Notes.
Della Terza, Dante. “Charles S. Singleton: An Appraisal.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 9-25. [1986]
An account of the scholarly accomplishments of Charles S. Singleton and his impact on American Dante criticism.
Di Cesare, Mario A. “Cristoforo Landino on the Name and Nature of Poetry.” In Chaucer Review, XXI, No. 2, 155-181. [1986]
Contains brief references to Dante in the general discussion of the nature of poetry as found in the Disputationes Camaldulenses.
Durling, Robert M. “Seneca, Plato, and the Microcosm” (1975). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 113-131. [1986]
Ferrante, Joan M. “Good Thieves and Bad Thieves: A Reading of Inferno XXIV.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 83-98. [1986]
A thorough and engaging lectura of Inferno XXIV with particular attention given to Dante’s borrowings—his “thefts”—from Classical poets, which, unlike the fraudulent practices of the thieves, “far from impoverishing or threatening the stability of his society, increase its cultural wealth and contribute towards its greater stability.”
Fido, Franco. “Writing Like God—or Better? Symmetries in Dante’s 26th and 27th Cantos.” In Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 250-264. [1986]
Intertextual analysis of Cantos XXVI and XXVII with regard to three main themes: the significance of the series of words fuoco—ardere—mordere, the transgression of limits, and the intertwining of flight and folly throughout the Divine Comedy. With this in mind, Fido relates Inferno XXVI to the Convivio for its concern with individual nobility, Purgatory XXVI to De vulgari eloquentia underscoring their theme of poetic excellence, and Paradiso XXVII to De monarchia inasmuch as both highlight the Poet’s longing for a reformation of humankind. Concludes that the web of thematic, structural, and verbal symmetries in the three canticles of the Divine Comedy is just beginning to be understood by critics, and that it serves to deepen our knowledge of Dante’s concepts and can be a delight for “those who believe in the problematic, referential, historical nature of literature.”
Field, Arthur. “Cristoforo Landino’s First Lectures on Dante.” In Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 1 (Spring), 16-48. [1986]
Examines the problem of Landino’s early approach to Dante and uses this as a means of determining the probable dates of his first lectures. Field admits that, barring new documentary evidence, no absolute conclusion can be drawn; however, given current evidence, the early 1460s appear to the most likely date.
Fleming, John V. “Deiphoebus Betrayed: Virgilian Decorum, Chaucerian Feminism.” In Chaucer Review, XXI, No. 2, 182-199. [1986]
Considers Chaucer’s view of women in Troilus and Criseyde with a passing reference to Dante (Inf. XVIII, 66): “This last line—’We usen here no wommen for to selle’—remade from a devastating context in Dante’s Inferno, must have for readers, and especially for women readers, a chilling irony.”
Fleming, Ray. “‘Sublime and Pure Thoughts, Without Transgression’: The Dantean Influence in Milton’s ‘Donna leggiadra’.” In Milton Quarterly, XX, No. 2 (May), 38-44. [1986]
Argues that Milton’s sonnet of praise, “Donna leggiadra,” was modelled more on Dante and the Dolce Stil Nuovo than on Petrarch and the petrarchisti, and this would explain its difference in tone and content from his other Italian poems. Discusses the general influence on Milton exerted by Dante and the Italian literary tradition through the Renaissance.
Franceschetti, Antonio. “La Difesa della Comedia di Dante di Iacopo Mazzoni.” In Quaderni d’Italianistica, VII, No. 1 (Primavera), 76-81. [1986]
The author expresses his appreciation for this new edition of a valuable but largely unknown book. On the other hand, he complains that in their preface the editors (Enrico Musacchio and Gigino Pellegrino) consider Mazzoni’s position not so much in its contemporary context (Renaissance and Baroque) but in relation to Crocean aesthetics. Although important, this new edition is incomplete, lacking the second part of the Difesa, which was published in 1688, about a century after Mazzoni’s death.
Frankel, Margherita. “The Context of Dante’s Ulysses: The Similes in Inferno XXVI, 25-42.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 99-119. [1986]
Integrates the similes of the villano and Elijah in Inferno XXVI with the episode of Ulysses and, lexically, with other key episodes in the poem. Examines, in particular, the meaning and connotative value of words such as valle and poggio. The villano in the first simile is “the figure of a saved man,” thus contrasting with Ulysses. On the other hand, Elisha (“colui che si vengiò con li orsi,” Inf. XXVI, 34) in the second simile appears in a very negative light, for, although he was a prophet, his lack of self-control, arrogance, and immoderate nature liken him to the figure of Ulysses.
Freccero, John. Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. Edited with an introduction by Rachel Jacoff. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1986. xvi, 328 p.
Conveniently gathers together the following essays, reprinted from various sources. Contents: 1. The Prologue Scene; 2. The Firm Foot on a Journey Without a Guide; 3. The River of Death: Inferno II, 108; 4. Pilgrim in a Gyre; 5. Infernal Irony: The Gates of Hell; 6. The Neutral Angels; 7. Medusa: The Letter and the Spirit; 8. Dante’s Ulysses: From Epic to Novel; 9. Bestial Sign and Bread of Angels: Inferno XXXII and XXXIII; 10. The Sign of Satan; 11. Infernal Inversion and Christian Conversion: Inferno XXXIV; 12. Casella’s Song: Purgatorio II, 112; 13. Manfred’s Wounds and the Poetics of the Purgatorio; 14. An Introduction to the Paradiso; 15. The Dance of the Stars: Paradiso X; 16. The Final Image: Paradiso XXXIII, 144; 17. The Significance of Terza Rima; Notes; Sources; Indexes. There is a general introduction by Rachel Jacoff. The facts of original publication of the essays are duly indicated in a list of Sources.
Freccero, John. “Manfred’s Wounds and the Poetics of the Purgatorio” (1983). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 139-150. [1986]
Freccero, John. “Medusa: The Letter and the Spirit” (1972). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 97-111. [1986]
Garber, Klaus. “Die Friedens-Utopie im europäischen Humanismus: Versuch einer geschichtlichen Rekonstruktion.” In Modern Language Notes, CI, No. 3 (April), 516-552. [1986]
Sketches the historical development of the idea of universal humanity, upon which both the peace movement and the strategy of deterrence have based their arguments. In the period of early humanism the idea of a peaceful utopia was first set forth by Dante in De Monarchia. This ideal is theoretical, however, and not concerned with the establishment of institutions. The final section of this treatise should be seen simply as a conventional ‘address of homage’ to the spiritual power, for Dante “knew that he had to hide a revolutionary thought in a protective covering (which was supplied by allegory in the Commedia)....” Just as he begins in De vulgari eloquentia with the universal (i.e., Latin) and ends with the particular (i.e., the vulgar tongues), so in De monarchia, Dante begins with the universal emperor and ends with the imperium romanum. Through the use of historical arguments, especially from Virgil, he proves that ancient Rome and its future “repristination” represent the purest incarnation of the rule of peace. He assumed a priori that the spiritual and temporal realms are separate yet equal. But his thesis is open to empirical— i.e., historical—influences, and by rejecting the claims to power of the Germans and the popes, he allowed “a new national mythology” to develop “centering on the ancient Roman ideal of virtus.” Dante’s support of Augustan classicism led to his acceptance of the Virgilian ideal of the close relationship between emperor and poet. It also led to a reevaluation of poetic genres by its recognition of the pastoral and the bucolic alongside of the epic. Indeed, the former two, and especially the pastoral, soon came to be seen as the poetic vehicles par excellence for the expression a political ideal in their portrayal of peaceful coexistence between man and man and man and nature and in their invocation of an aetas aurea. Thus, a line may be drawn from Dante to Petrarch’s espousal of Rienzo in his pastoral poems. The ideals of the early humanists found an echo in the universalism of Erasmus and his followers who sought peace through the unification of warring parties. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, European humanists further emphasized the division of the spiritual and earthly realms which Dante had advocated. In the face of the confessional strife, however, they replaced the idea of a universal monarch with that of a neutral and benign nation-state. As the national monarchies developed this originally progressive idea was distorted by the absolutistic states. The idea of universal peace, however, was handed down to the Enlightenment as can be seen in such authors as Kant and Herder.
Groos, Arthur, editor, Magister Regis...(q. v.). [1986]
Gross, Kenneth. “Infernal Metamorphoses: An Interpretation of Dante’s ‘Counterpass’” (1985). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 179-188. [1986]
Gunzberg, Lynn M. “Down Among the Dead Men: Levi and Dante in Hell.” In Modern Language Studies, XVI, No. 1 (Winter, 1986), 10-28.
Explores the parallels between Primo Levi's memoir on Auschwitz, Se questo è un uomo, and Dante's Inferno. Levi clung to the Italian masterpiece as a cultural model, a symbol of what could not be taken from him by the Nazis, and which helped him make sense of his horrific experience and maintain his humanity.
Hart, Thomas Elwood. “Architecture and Text: The Florentine Baptistery in Dante’s Commedia.” In Res Publica Litterarum, IX, 155-174. [1986]
Dante appears to have incorporated the mathematical proportions of architecture into the dimensions of his poem. In his praise of the Florentine Baptistery (Inf. XIX, 10-17), a mathematical principle seems to be at work, for it can be shown that the numerical coordinates of this passage (relative to the beginning and end of the poem’s 14233 lines) reflects quite precisely a notable feature of the Baptistery’s symbolic geometry, namely the ratio apothem/side as found in a regular octagon. The placement of the allusions to the same Baptistery in Paradiso XV, 134-135 and Paradiso XVI, 46-48 also seems to reflect the same octagonal proportionality.
Heninger, S. K., Jr. “Sequences, Systems, Models: Sidney and the Secularization of Sonnets.” In Poems in Their Place: The Intertextuality and Order of Poetic Collections, edited by Neil Fraistat (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 66-94.
Treats Dante’s Vita Nuova as the first in the long line of ordered collections of poetry and sonnet sequences, which extends through the Renaissance. Just as “Dante and Beatrice...became the prototypes of the poet/lover and his lady,” so the “Vita Nuova was seen as the fons et origo of the genre.” Compares the Vita Nuova with Petrarch’s Canzoniere.
Heyneman, Martha. “Dante’s Magical Memory Cathedral.” In Parabola, XI, No. 4 (November, 1986), 36-45.
Dante did not intend that his poem should become an adornment for the vanities of an elite. Rather, he intended it to be a practical handbook for the conduct of everyday life, speaking very strongly to the body. Dante as pilgrim traversed the whole of the cosmos in the kinesthetic imagination of his body and, as poet, he became the whole in its architectural imagination.
Hollander, Robert. “Boccaccio’s Dante.” In Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 278-289. [1986]
No one would ever seriously challenge the notion that the “older” Boccaccio owes a great debt to Dante. What is overlooked, however, is the degree to which Dante influenced the development of the “younger” Boccaccio, which a review of Boccaccio’s corpus of works helps to make clear.
Hollander, Robert and Albert L. Rossi. “Dante’s Republican Treasury.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 59-82. [1986]
Attempts to correct the view of a rigid opposition between Republican Rome and Imperial Rome in Dante’s thought. Indeed, “Dante considers himself a continuer of the republican tradition even in his imperial aspirations.” Discusses Paradiso VI and the reasons (“their importance to sacred history”) for the prominence given these six emperors—Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Titus, Justinian, and Charlemagne. Surveys the republican presence in the Comedy with particular attention to Scipio Africanus Major, and contends that Cacciaguida’s depiction of twelfth-century Florence is “a communal reincarnation of the republican civic virtues of ancient Rome.”
Horia, Vintila. “L’Empereur Trajan personnage de la Divine Comédie.” In Journal of American Romanian Academy of Arts & Science, VIII-IX (1986), 94-97.
This short note interprets Dante’s adoption of the legend of the miraculous salvation of Trajan (Par. XX, 43-48, 100-117; cf. Purg. X, 73-93) as guided by Dante’s political engagement as a “Ghibelline” partisan of the Empire, which led him to present Trajan as “as one of the most efficacious representatives of what the Italians called ‘il buon governo’.” Dante’s likely source for the legend is presumed to be the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas (cf. S. th. III, suppl., q. 71, a. 5), and Trajan’s special historical merit is seen in his role of having extended the geographic boundaries of the Roman Empire by conquering Dacia and thus creating the origin of the Romanian people. [OL]
Hyde, Thomas. The Poetic Theology of Love: Cupid in Renaissance Literature. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1986. 212 p.
General treatment of Cupid as god of love in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Contains a chapter on “The Vita Nuova and the Trionfi” (45-71), which gives a detailed analysis of the figure of Amore in Dante’s libello.
Jacoff, Rachel, editor, John Freccero, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion (q.v.). [1986]
Kaske, R. E. “Dante’s ‘DXV’” (1961). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 47-63. [1986]
Kay, Richard. “The Mentalité of Dante’s Monarchia.” In Res Publica Litterarum, IX, 183-191. [1986]
While in the first and the third book of the Monarchia Dante has recourse to the usual scholastic method of demonstration through logic and quotations of recognized authors, in the second book he builds his demonstration on the authority of Roman historians and poets, revealing in this way a very peculiar mentalité. This new attitude toward classical authors can be rightly labeled “pre-humanistic.” The second book is also characterized by its style which combines logic and rhetoric, even though the Monarchia is composed as a tractatus. Dante himself was aware of the singularity of his position stating that only one out of a thousand litterati would read it “rationally,” i.e., with true understanding. An appendix gives the figures and averages of the quotations from the various authors which occur in the Monarchia, underscoring the difference in the sources among the three books.
Kleinhenz, Christopher. “American Dante Bibliography for 1985.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 163-192. [1986]
With brief analyses.
Kleinhenz, Christopher. “Dante and the Bible: Intertexual Approaches to the Divine Comedy.” In Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 225-236. [1986]
The intellectual, literary, and theological bases of the Divine Comedy find their origins in the typology, allegory, and Providential history of traditional biblical hermeneutics. Meaning in the Comedy is generated or enhanced when seen against the larger referential context of the Bible. Specific treatment of the Filippo Argenti episode in Inferno VIII.
Kleinhenz, Christopher. The Early Italian Sonnet: The First Century (1220-1321). Lecce: Milella, 1986. 250 p. (“Collezione di Studi e Testi,” 2.)
Discusses the origin and development of the sonnet in the Duecento and early Trecento. One chapter (the seventh, pp. 201-220) examines Dante’s views on this metrical form as expressed in De vulgari eloquentia and analyzes a number of his sonnets within the more general context of the history of this poetic form. Contents: Introduction; 1. Theories of Origin; 2. The Sonnets of the Scuola Siciliana; 3. The Later “Sicilians” and Guittone d’Arezzo: Imitation and Experimentation; 4. Guittonianism and the Poetry of Transition; 5. The Poets of the Dolce Stil Nuovo; 6. The Other Face of the Late Thirteenth-Century Lyric: Realism, Comedy, and the Bourgeoisie; 7. Dante and the Art of the Sonnet; Epilogue: The Sonnet in Retrospect; Bibliography; Index.
Kleinhenz, Christopher. “Notes on Dante’s Use of Classical Myths and the Mythological Tradition.” In Kentucky Romance Quarterly, XXXIII, No. 4 (November), 477-484. [1986]
The methods by which Dante perceives, presents, and reinterprets classical myths and mythological figures are crucial to understanding how he gives them new life and meaning in the Divine Comedy. Two specific and interrelated points are examined here: the paths by which myths and figures reach Dante and enter the fabric of the poem, and the manner in which his presentation reflects the intermediary mythological tradition (Fulgentius, et al.). Specific treatment of the episode of the thieves in Inferno XXIV and XXV.
La Favia, Louis M. “‘... chè quivi per canti ...’ (Purg., XII, 113), Dante’s Programmatic Use of Psalms and Hymns in the Purgatorio.” In Studies in Iconography, X (1984-1986), 53-65.
Examines how Dante appropriately and intentionally uses psalms and hymns from the liturgy and canonical hours in the Purgatory to establish 1) a chronological context corresponding to the earthly day (Ante-Purgatory) and 2) a penitential and ritualistic context relating to the general purgation process and to the progress of Dante the Pilgrim up the mountain toward salvation.
Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986. xvi, 363 p.
In the final section (“The Late Middle Ages and Dante”) of the final chapter (“The Transmission of the Neoplatonists’ Homer to the Latin Middle Ages”) Lamberton examines Dante’s conception and practice of allegory, his knowledge of Homer and his works, and his place in the epic tradition. According to the author, the image of Homer as “articulated by dogmatic Platonists and Neopythagoreans...finds its strongest medieval expression in Dante’s portrait of Homer as the prince of poets, and the probability seems very great that the Neoplatonic exegesis of Homer and the model of the levels of meaning in literature for which Proclus is our primary source in antiquity may have had a profound, if indirect, influence on Dante’s conception of his own work and his role in the development of the epic tradition.”
Levin, Joan H. Rustico di Filippo and the Florentine Lyric Tradition. New York-Berne-Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986. xii, 193 p. (American University Studies, Series II, Romance Languages and Literature, 16.)
Contains numerous references to Dante and his relationship to and views on the earlier lyric tradition, particularly the “Siculo-Tuscan” and “Jocose” traditions. Contents: Preface; 1. Rustico di Filippo and the Critics; 2. Siculo-Tuscan Love Poetry and Rustico di Filippo; 3. Rustico di Filippo’s Style; 4. The Jocose Sonnets of Rustico di Filippo; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.
Macksey, Richard. “‘In altri cerchi ancora’: Charles Singleton and the Hopkins Years.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 45-57. [1986]
An affectionate memoir of Charles Singleton.
Magister Regis: Studies in Honor of Robert Earl Kaske. Edited by Arthur Groos, with Emerson Brown Jr., Giuseppe Mazzotta, Thomas D. Hill, and Joseph S. Wittig. New York: Fordham University Press, 1986. vii, 292 p.
Contains three essays on Dante by Emerson Brown, Jr., Giuseppe Mazzotta, and R. A. Shoaf. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.
Mandelbaum, Allen. “‘Taken from Brindisi’: Vergil in an Other’s Otherworld.” In Vergil at 2000: Commemorative Essays on the Poet and His Influence, edited by John D. Bernard (New York: AMS, 1986), pp. 225-239.
Discusses with insight the many and diverse links between Dante and Virgil.
Marks, Herbert Joseph. “The Language of Adam: Biblical Naming and Poetic Etymology.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVII, No. 4 (October), 1311A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University, 1985. 194 p.
Discusses “Dante’s ideal of an ‘illustrious vernacular’ in the context of his views on adamic language.”
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “The American Criticism of Charles Singleton.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 27-44. [1986]
Searching analysis of Charles S. Singleton’s place in contemporary criticism and within the tradition of American Dante scholarship with particular reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Contains an excursus on Dante as a visionary poet with special reference to Peter Damian and Paradise XXI.
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “The Light of Venus and the Poetry of Dante.” In Magister Regis... (q.v.), 147-169. [1986]
Traces some of the complex implications of rhetoric in Dante’s thought as developed in the Convivio, the Vita nuova, and especially in Inferno XXVII. In the first example, the relationship of rhetoric to ethics is examined. The second discussion revolves around metaphysical concerns, and hence the link between rhetoric and the soul. The treatment of Inferno XXVII is framed within the context of the debate on the liberal arts in the thirteenth century between the Franciscans and the secular masters of theology of the University of Paris. Dante presents the interplay of sophism between Boniface and Guido da Montefeltro as emblematic of the confusion of boundaries between politics and theology, indeed, between the various divisions of knowledge itself.
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “The Light of Venus and the Poetry of Dante: Vita Nuova and Inferno XXVII.” In Dante (q.v.), 189-204. [1986]
A slightly abbreviated version of the item above.
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. The World at Play in Boccaccio’s “Decameron”. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. xvi, 280 p.
An examination of the dynamics of the Decameron with regard to the central notion of “play” and to how this element is linked to other important facets of medieval culture: commercialism, love, law, politics, ethical behavior, medical practice, etc. Contains many references to Dante. Contents: Introduction; 1. Plague and Play; 2. The Marginality of Literature; 3. The Riddle of Values; 4. Allegory and the Pornographic Imagination; 5. The Heart of Love; 6. The Comedy of Love; 7. Games of Laughter; 8. The Law and Its Transgressions; 9. The Virtues: Ethics and Rhetoric; Index.
McKee, Francis. “Commentary on Drafts and Fragments.” In Paideuma, XV, Nos. 2-3 (Fall-Winter), 265-277. [1986]
Contains brief references to Pound’s use of certain passages from the Divine Comedy (Geryon, Paolo and Francesca, Paradiso II) in Drafts and Fragments.
McMahon, Robert. “Narcissus and the Problem of Interpretation: Dante’s Theory of Reading in the Commedia.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVII, No. 6 (December), 2153A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, University of California-Santa Cruz 1986. 265 p.
Moliterno, Gino. “Mouth to Mandible: Man to Lupa: The Moral and Political Lesson of Cocytus.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 145-161. [1986]
Discusses, with concentration on the Ugolino episode, the political dimensions of Cocytus with its moral and religious degradation. Analyzes with pertinent references to Lucifer the debasement in the Ugolino episode of the human mouth through impious speech and cannibalistic use. In his words and actions Ugolino parodies the Pater Noster, the saying of which accompanies the eating of the consecrated bread in the Eucharistic feast, and becomes in the process the moral equivalent of the lupa and emblematic of partisan strife that afflicts the Italian cities in this historical period.
Murphy, John J. “The Dantean Journey in Cather’s My Mortal Enemy.” In Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Newsletter, XXX, No. 3 (Summer), 11-14. [1986]
Examines Willa Cather’s novel “as an allegory of the apostasy of the soul—its days of sin, its punishment, its journey back to God—as viewed by a young woman only partially understanding it. The novel depicts a journey like the journey in Dante’s Divine Comedy, and like Dante’s poem includes the confessional ritual, the crucifixion image, the ascent to the mountain top, and the vision of dawn.”
Newman, Francis X. “St. Augustine’s Three Visions and the Structure of the Commedia” (1967). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 65-81. [1986]
Newman, John Kevin. The Classical Epic Tradition. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. x + 566 p.
Contains a chapter on “The Critical Failure: Dante and Petrarch” (244-292), in which the author examines Dante’s literary activity within the classical epic tradition and with constant reference to classical authors.
Noakes, Susan. “The Double Misreading of Paolo and Francesca” (1983). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 151-166. [1986]
O’Neill, Kevin Charles. “The Voyage from Dante to Beckett.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVI, No. 9 (March), 2709A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1985. 188 p.
Treats themes of the fall and consequent loss of the word, exile, and the voyage as quest for the original word in Dante.
Parker, Deborah Wynne. “Cantos of Exile: Tradition and Exegesis.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVI, No. 7 (January), 1963A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University, 1985. 151 p.
Discusses the commentary tradition from the beginning through the 19th century of Inferno VI, X, XV, and Paradiso XVII.
Payne, Roberta Louise. “The Influence of Dante on Medieval English Dream Visions.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVI, No. 9 (March), 2688A. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Denver, 1985. 200 p.
Discusses influence of Dante on Pearl, Chaucer’s The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and Criseyde, Lydgate’s Temple of Glass, and James I’s Kingis Quair. [1986]
Peck, Russell. “Chaucer and the Imagination.” In Studies in the Age of Chaucer: Proceedings, II, 33-48. [1986]
Compares the poetic process of imagining in Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess and Dante’s Vita Nuova. The first two meetings with Beatrice would illustrate the mind’s journey from the perception of phenomena to the contemplation of underlying relationships within the phenomena, a process aided by memory and imagination. The dependence of the poetic experience on images is illustrated in chapter 34 of the Vita Nuova, where Dante shifts from painting an angel on a wooden panel to the composition of a sonnet. From this episode several propositions on the nature of poetry and imagination are deduced and compared with instances in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess.
P[ellegrini], A[nthony] L. “The Publications of Charles S. Singleton.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 3-8. [1986]
Pietropaolo, Domenico. “Dante’s Concept of Nobility and the Eighteenth-Century Tuscan Aristocracy: An Unknown Study of the Convivio.” In Man and Nature / L’Homme et la Nature, V (1986), 141-152.
Poggesi considers Dante’s definition of nobility much more “modern” than Aristotle’s (contrary to most noblemen of his time) because it does not take into account wealth and genealogy but focuses on individual merit. Poggesi stresses that Dante is not only a subject for academic discussions, but especially an authoritative magister vitae, in perfect agreement with those Enlightenment ideas that Poggesi was trying to spread in Tuscany.
Pietropaolo, Domenico. “The Editio Princeps of Boccaccio’s Commentary on the Divine Comedy.” In Quaderni d’italianistica, VII, No. 2 (Autunno), 153-163. [1986]
Treats the first edition of Boccaccio’s commentary on the Divine Comedy (1724) focusing on the evidence which points to the key role played by Anton Maria Bisconi, and why Bisconi’s name was omitted by the publisher. The work had been published in Naples by Lorenzo Ciccarelli (under the pseudonym of Cellenio Zacclori) but was issued with a false imprint of Florence. The actual date of publication is also uncertain.
Pugh, David. “The Motif of Dazzling in Faust II and the Divine Comedy.” In Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, XIII, No. 1 (March), 29-34. [1986]
Briefly discusses allusions to the Divine Comedy in Goethe’s Faust II, with emphasis on the differences and their significance for an interpretation of the latter work. Dante’s Earthly Paradise and his glance heavenward (Par. I) are the intertextual references involved.
Quint, David. “Epic Tradition and Inferno IX” (1975). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 133-137. [1986]
Richards, Mary Margaret. “The Idea of Rome in the Work of T. S. Eliot.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVII, No. 5 (November), 1736A. [1986] Doctoral Dissertation, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1986. 158 p.
Refers to Dante’s conception of Rome and the influence on Eliot.
Ross, Charles S. “Mandelbaum’s Dante: Contemporary Prosody.” In Italian Quarterly, XXVII, No. 103 (Winter), 59-69. [1986]
Considers the merits of Mandelbaum’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (see Dante Studies, XCIX, 173-174; CI, 194; CIII, 140) in comparison with other translations and within a more general discussion of the art of poetic translation.
Rossi, Albert L. (Joint author). “Dante’s Republican Treasury.” See Hollander, Robert....
Salm, Peter. Pinpoint of Eternity: European Literature in Search of the All-Encompassing Moment. Lanham, Maryland-New York-London: University Press of America, 1986. 148 p.
Treats Dante’s visionary journey to the eternal moment. An investigation of the topos of the “all encompassing moment.” “The goal of the pilgrim’s ascent through the planetary spheres is the non-dimensional point of pure spirituality, the ‘center’ which was ‘figured’ in Beatrice’s eyes.” Focus is limited to the “substance and form of the Augenblick and limitless, for the Augenblick is that ineffable point of eternity.”
Schnapp, Jeffrey T. The Transfiguration of History at the Center of Dante’s Paradise. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. [xiii], 268 pp.
Erudite, far reaching study of the central cantos of Paradiso (XIV-XVIII), in which the classical epic tradition has become thoroughly Christianized and secular history is viewed within the Christian context of sacrifice and redemption. Special attention is given to the correspondences between the iconography of Christ’s Transfiguration and the Cross in the Heaven of Mars and between the mosaic decoration in the churches in Ravenna (esp. Sant’Apollinare in Classe) and what the author terms Dante’s “poetics of martyrdom.” Contents: 1. Introduction: History and Eternity at the Center of Dante’s Paradise; 2. Bella, Horrida Bella: History in the Grip of Mars; 3. Marte/Morte/Martirio: The Dilemma of Florentine History; 4. Unica Spes Hominum, Crux, O Venerabile Signum; 5. Sant’Apollinare in Classe and Dante’s Poetics of Martyrdom; Bibliography; Index to Passages Cited from Dante’s Works; Subject Index.
Shapiro, Marianne. “On the Role of Rhetoric in the Convivio.” In Romance Philology, XL, No. 1 (August), 38-64. [1986]
Drawing on material from Hugh of St. Victor, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Brunetto Latini, and Augustine, among others, the first part of the article is dedicated to an elucidation of Dante’s evaluation of Rhetoric in his cultural context. Historically, one can trace an increasingly tolerant attitude towards poetry and rhetoric as they begin to integrate into the sphere of philosophy. The second section concentrates on a discussion of the second tractate of the Convivio and Dante’s hierarchy of science and its related angelic correspondences, especially that of the “terzo cielo” which corresponds to Rhetoric. A link is thus established between love of knowledge in general, rhetoric and Moral Philosophy; “Bounded on the south by Rhetoric and on the north by Moral Philosophy, the Convivio exists most clearly as an alliance of the two sciences,”
Shoaf, R. A. “Dante’s Beard: Sic et non (Purgatorio 31.68).” In Magister Regis...(q.v.), 171-177. [1986]
Discusses the problems involved in establishing the existence or non-existence of the pilgrim’s beard in Purgatory XXXI as it relates to the larger issue of truth in fiction. Argues that the reference to the beard, whether it existed or not, can be traced to a number of sources in Christian, pagan and critical texts, and creates a sub-text which is itself the essential truth of the fiction.
Shoaf, R. A. “The Franklin’s Tale: Chaucer and Medusa.” In Chaucer Review, XXI, No. 2, 274-290. [1986]
Taking as his point of departure the episode in Inferno IX and X (concerning the Medusa, petrification, Epicureanism, and the contrast between the letter and the spirit as represented in the address to the reader), the author discusses the “Franklin’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as a “palimpsest” of Dante’s text.
Singleton, Charles S. “Two Kinds of Allegory” (1954). Reprinted in Dante (q.v.), 11-19. [1986]
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Boccaccio and Fiammetta: The Narrator As Lover. Urbana and Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 1986. [x], 284 p.
An indepth study of Boccaccio’s works with particular attention to the changing roles of the figure of Fiammetta, to the presentation of the narrator as a lover, to the function of readers and narrators in the text, and to the development of Boccaccio’s methods as a writer. Investigates the interrelationships of Boccaccio’s works and the nature of his borrowings from Dante with numerous references to the latter’s works (especially the Divine Comedy and the Vita Nuova) throughout. Contents: Introduction; 1. Before Fiammetta; 2. Filocolo; 3. Teseida; 4. Comedia delle Ninfe Fiorentine; 5. Amorosa Visione; 6. Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta; 7. Corbaccio; 8. Decameron; 9. The Rime and Late Writings; Conclusion; Notes; Index.
Smith, Forrest S. Secular and Sacred Visionaries in the Late Middle Ages. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1986. xi, 334 p. (Garland Publications in Comparative Literature.)
A general study of medieval visionary literature with concentration on the imaginative journey to heaven and hell. In addition to many references to Dante throughout the work, the book contains two chapters on the Divine Comedy: “The Historic Problematic of Otherworld Visions: The Sources of the Divina Commedia” (175-204) and “Medieval Apocalypticism and the Itinerary of Dante” (205-249).
Sokolowski, Linda C. “A Pilgrim and His Journey: Illuminating Interpretations of Dante’s Commedia.” In Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association, III, 219-233. [1986]
Fourteenth-century manuscript illuminations of the Commedia, because of their relative uniformity of scenes and subjects depicted, provide insight into a relatively uniform interpretation of the poem. Their emphasis upon the pilgrim and his guide, rather than upon the souls encountered along the way, suggests that the work be interpreted more as a record of the pilgrim’s journey and education. In choosing scenes and settings from the literal level, the illuminators identify the pilgrim as Dante, but in portraying him and his guides with generic features, they allow the readers to discover analogies between their own experience and that of Dante.
Storey, Harry Wayne. “Lo ‘stoscio’ montiano-dantesco (Inf. XVII, 118-123).” In Studi Danteschi, LVIII (1986), 385-389.
With reference to the examples provided in Monte Andrea’s poetry, Storey discusses Dante’s use of stoscio/scroscio (Inf. XVII, 118-123) to describe the descent on Geryon’s back to the eighth circle and to provide a sort of acoustical preparation for the Malebolge.
Stump, Eleonore. “Dante’s Hell, Aquinas’ Moral Theory, and the Love of God.” In Canadian Journal of Philosophy, XVI, No. 2 (June), 181-198. [1986]
Addresses the concept of God’s love with regard to the punishment of the damned, which initially seems to be a non sequitur. After a summary discussion of Aquinas’ doctrine of divine simplicity and his definition of “goodness” and “being,” an analysis follows of Aquinas’ notion of God’s love in relation to human affairs. Humans are free to use their God-given reason to pursue infinite good or finite pleasure or power: a love of the good develops in the first case; a disposition to “irrational” acts is the consequence of the second. Hence, God provides a place for the sinner to act according to his chosen, “willed” nature; a place where he can actualize his being to the maximum extent possible, and come as close as possible to union with God.
Sturm-Maddox, Sara. “Petrarch’s Siren: ‘Dolce Parlar’ and ‘Dolce Canto’ in the Rime Sparse.” In Italian Quarterly, XXVII, No. 103 (Winter), 5-19 [1986]
Among the passages of the Comedy whose traces are prominent in the Rime sparse is Purgatorio XIX, 19-24, describing the seductive siren figure of the femmina balba, whose sweet song both attracts and threatens with destruction. Vulnerability to the siren’s song as well as its impact on moral choice is a major point of intersection between the experiences of Dante and Petrarch. But whereas Beatrice, the beatific guide, is the opposite of the siren, the Laura of the Rime combines the roles of Beatrice and the siren, the desired and feared aspects of female attraction.
Ulmer, William A. “The Dantean Politics of The Prisoner of Chillon.” In Keats-Shelley Journal, XXXV, 23-29. [1986]
Discusses the possible influence of the Ugolino episode (Inf. XXXIII) on Byron’s Prisoner of Chillon.
Vance, Eugene. Mervelous Signals: Poetics and Sign Theory in the Middle Ages. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. xvii, 365 p. (Regents Studies in Medieval Culture.)
Contains a previously published chapter (see Dante Studies CIII, 161) on “The Differing Seed: Dante’s Brunetto Latini” (230-255), in which the parallel between rhetorical and sexual perversion is investigated.
Viglionese, Paschal C. “Internal Allusion and Symmetry at the Mid-Point of Dante’s Commedia.” In Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 237-249. [1986]
Internal allusion, a form of intertextuality, involves the study of “citation-like phenomena” as it creates a communication between individuals, philosophies and ideologies. Dante overlays a pattern upon the Commedia which reflects the progression of history and events as they occur outside of his text. Through a carefully arranged structure of allusive recall, Dante demonstrates his awareness of an even greater historical sequence: man’s fall from grace and his redemption by his return to grace through love.
Viscusi, Robert. Max Beerbohm, or The Dandy Dante: Rereading with Mirrors. Baltimore, Maryland, and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. xvi, 267 p.
The study is based on the premise “that the Dante has become, in the past two centuries, a recognizable type among English-writing persons. ... A Dante in this sense is a writer who adapts some aspect of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia in order to offer a similarly totalizing scheme of the human world as the writer knows it. Dante’s scheme...functions for these writers as an earnest of high seriousness and as a sign, sometimes wistful and other times hopeful, of a completeness that once was possible.” The volume examines Beerbohm’s use of Dante and his works.
Wallace, David. “Chaucer’s Continental Inheritance: The Early Poems and Troilus and Criseyde.” In The Cambridge Chaucer Companion, edited by Piero Boitani and Jill Mann (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 19-37.
Treats the profound effect that Dante’s works had on Chaucer and his exploration of the “complex interrelations of love, fame and poetry.” “Chaucer is Dante’s truest fourteenth-century continuator because it is in Chaucer’s hands that Dante’s text rediscovers its revolutionary potential. Chaucer came across the Commedia at precisely the right moment: that moment near the beginnings of a vernacular tradition when a language, although inchoate and unstable, seems (in the hands of a genius) to be marvelously malleable, infinitely adaptive, capable of almost anything. Chaucer learned many things from Dante, but the most important was, quite simply, to keep faith with his own language: a vernacular must be revolutionized from within, not patched and amended from without.”
Watson, George. “The First English Vita nuova.” In The Huntington Library Quarterly, XLIX, No. 4 (Autumn), 401-407. [1986]
Treats the history and the critical reception of the first English translation of the Vita nuova by Joseph Garrow (1789-1857). This virtually forgotten bilingual edition was published by Le Monnier in 1846.
Yowell, Donna L. “Ugolino’s ‘bestial segno’: The De vulgari eloquentia in Inferno XXXII-XXXIII.” In Dante Studies, CIV, 121-143. [1986]
Discusses in great detail the related topics of speech and silence, humanity and inhumanity, as distinguished in the De Vulgari Eloquentia and as presented in the Ugolino episode (Inf. XXXII-XXXIII). Yowell’s meticulous analysis of the episode centers on the importance of communication and on Ugolino’s unrepentant bestiality which manifests itself both through his silence in the tower and through his deceitful use of speech for treacherous ends.
Zago, Ester. “Magia come allucinazione: La foresta incantata nel XIII canto della Gerusalemme Liberata.” In Selecta, VII, 117-122. [1986]
Refers briefly to Inferno XIII as one of the possible sources for the enchanted forest in the thirteenth canto of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.
Reviews
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. [III] Paradiso. A verse translation with introductions and commentary by Allen Mandelbaum. Drawings by Barry Moser. Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: The University of California Press, @1982, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 140.) Reviewed by:
Marguerite Chiarenza, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 300-303;
Richard H. Lansing, in Speculum, LXI, No. 2 (April), 495-496.
Dante in Hell: The “De Vulgari Eloquentia.” Introduction, text, translation, and commentary by Warman Welliver. Ravenna: Longo, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 134.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Dante’s “Purgatory.” Translated by Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 134.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Armour, Peter. The Door of Purgatory: A Study of Multiple Symbolism in Dante’s “Purgatorio.” Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. Reviewed by:
Teodolinda Barolini, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 290-291;
John J. Guzzardo, in Speculum, LXI, No. 1 (January), 120-122.
Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the “Comedy.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 141-142.) Reviewed by:
Philip R. Berk, in Poetics Today, VII, No. 2, 382-383;
Charles T. Davis, in Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, XIV, 207-219;
R. A. Shoaf, in Speculum, LXI, No. 4 (October), 1016;
Prudence Shaw, in Times Literary Supplement (31 January), p. 122;
Karla Taylor, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 2 (Summer), 282-284.
Bemrose, Stephen. Dante’s Angelic Intelligences: Their Importance in the Cosmos and in Pre-Christian Religion. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1983. Reviewed by:
Richard Kay, in Speculum, LXI, No. 2 (April), 384-386.
Cambridge Readings in Dante’s “Comedy.” Edited by Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde. Cambridge, Eng. Cambridge University Press, 1981. (See Dante Studies, CII, 167-168.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Cassell, Anthony K. Dante’s Fearful Art of Justice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 144.) Reviewed by:
Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Italian Studies, XLI, 127-128;
Charles T. Davis, in Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, XIV, 207-219;
Raymond-Jean Frontain, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, VIII, 173-175;
Prudence Shaw, in Times Literary Supplement (31 January), p. 122.
Cavalcanti, Guido. The Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. Edited and translated by Lowry Nelson Jr. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1986. (The Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 18.) (See above, under Studies.) Reviewed by:
Mario Marti, in Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, CLXIII, Fasc. 524, 604-606.
Cervigni, Dino S. Dante’s Poetry of Dreams. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1986. (See above, under Studies.) Reviewed by:
Corrado Calenda, in Esperienze letterarie, XI, Nos. 2-3 (aprile-settembre, 1986), 178-179;
Mario Marti, in Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, CLXIII, Fasc. 522, 266-285;
A[ldo] V[allone], in L’Alighieri, XXVII, No. 1 (gennaio-giugno), 71-72.
Chiampi, James Thomas. Shadowy Prefaces: Conversion and Writing in the “Divine Comedy.” Ravenna: Longo, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 138.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Costa, Dennis. Irenic Apocalypse: Some Uses of Apocalyptic in Dante, Petrarch and Rabelais. Saratoga, California: Anma Libri, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 139.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Dante among the Moderns. Edited by Stuart Y. McDougal. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 168.) Reviewed by:
Thomas Werge, in Annali d’Italianistica, IV, 291-292.
Dante Comparisons: Comparative Studies of Dante and Montale, Foscolo, Tasso, Chaucer, Petrarch, Propertius and Catullus. Edited by Eric Haywood and Barry Jones. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1985. Reviewed by:
Glauco Cambon, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 311-312.
Dante in America: The First Two Centuries. Edited by A. Bartlett Giamatti. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1983. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 23.) (See Dante Studies, CII, 150-151.) Reviewed by:
August Buck, in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch, LXI, 165-168.
Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio: Studies in the Italian Trecento in Honor of Charles S. Singleton. Edited by Aldo S. Bernardo and Anthony L. Pellegrini. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1983. (See Dante Studies, CII, 151) Reviewed by:
August Buck, in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch, LXI, 169-172;
Fredi Chiappelli, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 291-296;
Susan Noakes, in Speculum, LXI, No. 2 (April), 492.
Dante Studies, Volume I: Dante in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Adolph Caso. Boston: Dante University of America Press, 1982. (See Dante Studies, CI, 197-198.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Dello Vicario, Annagiulia Angelone. Il richiamo di Virgilio nella poesia italiana (momenti significativi). Presentazione di Francesco Sbordone. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1981. Reviewed by:
Carmine Di Biase, in Italian Quarterly, XXVII, No. 103 (Winter), 117-120.
Davis, Charles T. Dante’s Italy, and Other Essays. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 146-147.) Reviewed by:
John C. Barnes, in Italian Studies, XLI, 129-130.
Di Scipio, Giuseppe C. The Symbolic Rose in Dante’s “Paradiso.” Ravenna: Longo, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 147-148.) Reviewed by:
Rachel Jacoff, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 303-306.
Du Bois, Page. History, Rhetorical Description and the Epic from Homer to Spenser. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1982. Reviewed by:
Marilynn Desmond, in Comparative Literature, XXXVIII, No. 1 (Winter, 1986), 96-98.
Ezra Pound among the Poets. Edited by George Bornstein. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 177.) Reviewed by:
Michael North, in Southern Humanities Review, XX, No. 3 (Summer), 267-268.
Farnell, Stewart. The Political Ideas of “The Divine Comedy”: An Introduction. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 168.) Reviewed by:
Ronald B. Herzman, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 306-310;
Albert Wingell, in University of Toronto Quarterly, LVI, No. 1 (Fall), 142-143.
Ferrante, Joan M. The Political Vision of the “Divine Comedy”. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 149-150.) Reviewed by:
Charles T. Davis, in Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, XIV, 207-219;
Ronald B. Herzman, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 306-310;
Richard Kay, in Speculum, LXI, No. 4 (October), 925-927;
Richard H. Lansing, in Criticism, XXVIII, No. 1 (Winter), 105-107;
Prudence Shaw, in Times Literary Supplement (31 January), p. 122;
Franco Suitner, in Lettere Italiane, XXXVIII, No. 3 (luglio-settembre), 442-444.
Foscolo, Ugo. Studi su Dante, Parte II: Commedia di Dante Alighieri. Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo, Vol. IX, Parte II. Edited by Giorgio Petrocchi. Firenze: Le Monnier, 1981. l, 401 p. Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Greene, Thomas M. The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982. (See Dante Studies, CI, 202.) Reviewed by:
Martin Mueller, in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, XIII, No. 3 (September), 484-487.
Iannucci, Amilcare A. Forma ed evento nella “Divina Commedia”. Roma: Bulzoni, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 153.) Reviewed by:
Lawrence Baldassaro, in The Canadian Modern Language Review, XLIII, No. 1 (October), 164.
MacQueen, John. Numerology: Theory and Outline History of a Literary Mode. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985. Reviewed by:
Alexander Dunlop, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 2 (Summer), 329-330.
Marti, Mario. Studi su Dante. Galatina: Congedo, 1984. Reviewed by:
Christopher Kleinhenz, in Annali d’Italianistica, IV, 290-291.
Mazzaro, Jerome. The Figure of Dante: An Essay on the “Vita Nuova.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 148.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226;
Vincenzo Tripodi, in Romance Quarterly, XXXIII, No. 1 (February), 119.
Moleta, Vincent. Guinizelli in Dante. Roma: Storia e Letteratura, 1980. Reviewed by:
Rachel Jacoff, in Speculum, LXI, No. 1 (January), 182-184.
Paolini, Shirley J. Confessions of Sin and Love in the Middle Ages: Dante’s “Commedia” and St. Augustine’s “Confessions.” Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982. (See Dante Studies, CI, 208.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Richards, Earl Jeffrey. Dante and the “Roman de la Rose:” An Investigation into the Vernacular Narrative Context of the “Commedia.” Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 151.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Roddewig, Marcella. Dante Alighieri. Die göttliche Komödie: Vergleichende Bestandsaufnahme der Commedia-Handschriften. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann Verlag, 1984. Reviewed by:
Ilona Klein and Christopher Kleinhenz, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 314-315.
Rolfs, Daniel. The Last Cross: A History of the Suicide Theme in Italian Literature. Ravenna: Longo, 1981. (See Dante Studies, C, 152.) Reviewed by:
Frederick Bottley, in Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, IX, No. 33, 195- 198.
Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984. Reviewed by:
Alan E. Bernstein, in Speculum, LXI, No. 4 (October), 994-997.
Schless, Howard H. Chaucer and Dante: A Revaluation. Norman, Oklahoma: Pilgrim Books, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 159-160.) Reviewed by:
N. R. Havely, in Speculum, LXI, No. 4 (October), 997-999;
Werner von Koppenfels, in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch, LXI, 185-190;
David Wallace, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, VIII, 245-249;
Winthrop Wetherbee, in Modern Philology, LXXXIII, No. 4 (May), 419-420.
Shoaf, R. A. Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the Word. Money, Images, and Reference in Late Medieval Poetry. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1983. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 170-171.) Reviewed by:
Alfred David, in Speculum, LXI, No. 2 (April), 468-470;
Joan M. Ferrante, in Romance Philology, XXXIX, No. 3 (February), 393-396.
Slade, Carole, editor. Approaches to Teaching Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1982. (See Dante Studies, CI, 211.) Reviewed by:
Gustavo Costa, in Romance Philology, XL, No. 2 (November), 215-226.
Smith, A. J. The Metaphysics of Love: Studies in Renaissance Poetry from Dante to Milton. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Reviewed by:
Jonathan F. S. Post, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No.3 (Autumn), 539-541.
Studies in the Italian Renaissance: Essays in Memory of Arnolfo B. Ferruolo. Edited by Gian Paolo Biasin, Albert N. Mancini, and Nicolas J. Perella. Napoli: Società Editrice Napoletana, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 180-182.) Reviewed by:
Paola Zito, in Esperienze letterarie, XI, No. 1 (gennaio-marzo, 1986), 131-134.
Terpening, Ronnie H. Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press; London-Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 183.). Reviewed by:
John M. Steadman, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXXIX, No. 3 (Autumn), 533-535.
Van Dyke, Carolynn. The Fiction of Truth: Structures of Meaning in Narrative and Dramatic Allegory. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 183-184.) Reviewed by:
Annabel Patterson, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 3 (Autumn), 541-544;
Philip Rollinson, in Spenser Newsletter, XVII, No. 1 (Winter), 9-10.
Vestigia: Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich. Edited by Rino Avesani, Mirella Ferrari, Tino Foffano, Giuseppe Frasso, and Agostino Sottili. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1984. Reviewed by:
Sesto Prete, in Renaissance Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 1 (Spring), 71-73.
Wallace, David. Chaucer and the Early Writings of Boccaccio. Woodbridge, Suffolk and Dover, N.H.: Boydell and Brewer, 1985. (See Addenda below) (Chaucer Studies, 12.) Reviewed by:
James Dean, in Philological Quarterly, LXV, No. 3 (Summer), 407-410;
Millicent Marcus, in Italica, LXIII, No. 3 (Autumn), 315-318;
B. A. Windeatt, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, VIII, 254-257.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Chaucer and the Poets: An Essay on “Troilus and Criseyde.” Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 191.) Reviewed by:
Piero Boitani, in Speculum, LXI, No. 3 (July), 716-718.
