American Dante Bibliography for 1988

Christopher Kleinhenz

This bibliography is intended to include all the Dante translations published in North America in 1988 and all Dante studies and reviews published in 1988 that are in any sense American. For their invaluable assistance in the preparation of this bibliography and its annotations my special thanks go to the following graduate students, past and present, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Gloria Allaire, Scott Eagleburger, Edward Hagman, Pauline Scott, Elizabeth Serrin, Tonia Bernardi Triggiano, and Scott Troyan. 

 

Translations

Dante’s First Eclogue to Giovanni Del Virgilio. Translated by Joseph Tusiani. In Italian Quarterly, XXIX, No. 111 (Winter 1988), 77-79.

Dante’s Second Eclogue to Giovanni Del Virgilio. Translated by Joseph Tusiani. In Italian Quarterly, XXIX, No. 111 (Winter 1988), 80-83. 

 

Studies

Aeschliman, Michael D. “The Heirs of Canto III of Dante’s Inferno.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 5-14.

Like T. S. Eliot, the author emphasizes the real relationship between the medieval inferno and modern life. The neutrals of Inferno III, with their purposeless but fanatical restlessness—anomie and ennui—are a perfect image of our own age with its nihilism and “futilitarianism.” Dante, who understands the plight of those who have lost the “ben dell’intelletto” points the way from this state of misery to a state of happiness.

Allegoresis: The Craft of Allegory in Medieval Literature. Edited by J. Stephen Russell. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988. xv, 230 p.

Contains three essays on Dante by Julia Bolton Holloway, Barbara Nolan, and R. A. Shoaf. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Anderson, William. “The Central Man of All the World.” In Parabola, XIII, No. 1 (February, 1988), 8-17.

General appreciation of Dante’s artistic achievement, adapted from the author’s Dante the Maker (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980).

Baranski, Zygmunt G. “Re-viewing Dante.” In Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

An omnibus review article on the following studies: Maria Corti, La felicità mentale. Nuove prospettive per Cavalcanti e Dante; Robert Hollander, Il Virgilio dantesco. Tragedia nella “Commedia”; Lucia Battaglia Ricci, Dante e la tradizione letteraria medievale. Una proposta per la “Commedia”; Walter Binni, Incontri con Dante; Guido Di Pino, Pause e intercanti nella “Divina Commedia” e altri studi; Peter Armour, The Door of Purgatory. A Study of Multiple Symbolism in Dante’s “Purgatorio”; Luigi Peirone, Tra Dante e “Il Fiore”. Lingua e parola and Il “Detto d’Amore” tra “Il Fiore” e Dante; Ileana Pagani, La teoria linguistica di Dante. “De vulgari eloquentia”: discussioni, scelte, proposte; Giorgio Petrocchi, Vita di Dante; Cesare Marchi, Dante; Jacopo Mazzoni, Introduzione alla Difesa della “Commedia” di Dante; Olof Lagercrantz, Scrivere come Dio. Dall’inferno al paradiso. All are separately listed in full below, under Reviews.

Barblan, Giovanni, editor, Dante e la bibbia (q. v.) [1988]

Barolini, Teodolinda. “Dante’s Heaven of the Sun as a Meditation on Narrative.” In Lettere italiane, XL, No. 1 (gennaio-marzo, 1988), 3-36.

A close examination of Dante’s presentation of the vitae of Saints Francis and Dominic in Paradiso XI-XII. Barolini discusses the delicate balance of Dante’s narration of Heaven as simultaneously unified and hierarchical, as it may be found in microcosm in these two cantos. She also argues for reading the presentations of Francis and Dominic as examples of Dante’s narrative and “anti-narrative.”

Beal, Rebecca Sue. “The Medieval Tradition of the libri Salomonis in Dante’s Commedia and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 10 (April, 1988), 2621A.  

Doctoral Dissertation, University of Texas, 1982. 308 p. (Studies the referential context of the Divine Comedy and Troilus and Criseyde provided by Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.)

Bermann, Sandra L. The Sonnet Over Time: A Study in the Sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. ix, 174 p. (University of North Carolina Studies in Comparative Literature, 63.)

Contains some brief references to Dante.

Boli, Todd. “Boccaccio’s Trattatello in laude di Dante, Or Dante Resartus.” In Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 3 (Autumn 1988), 389-412.

Argues that Boccaccio’s Trattatello is not meant to be an historical biography of the poet, as is sometimes believed, but a defense and apologia couched in Petrarchan terminology to appeal to the Trecento critics of Dante’s linguistic style and poetic conception. Elements especially of the Vita nuova are re-worked by Boccaccio to conform to the concepts of love and glory as espoused by Petrarch in his Secretum. Thus, the love of Beatrice becomes a Petrarchan golden chain “which the poet both jealously covets and contritely renounces, a tether that fastens his heaven-seeking soul to the corruption and instability of the world.” Further evidence of the theoretical orientation of Boccaccio’s Trattatello may be found in its long digression on the nature of poetry, which paraphrases and even quotes material from Petrarch’s Fam. X, 4 and its defense of poetry.

Botterill, Steven. “Duecento and Trecento I: Dante.” In The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, XLIX (1988), 460-470.  

Contains notice with brief commentary of numerous articles and books of Dante criticism, many of them by American scholars.

Botterill, Steven. “The Form of Dante’s Minotaur.” In Forum Italicum, XXII, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 60-76.

The “problem” of the Minotaur (Inf. XII, 11-27) has been regarded as twofold; first, what are the characteristics of its appearance as it exists in Dante’s mind, and second, how is its presence significant in the context of the whole poem. The article focuses on the first aspect of the problem, tracing the image (actually, the lack of a clear descriptive image) in Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ars amatoria and especially Heroides X, and Statius’ Thebaid; in the latter two works a clearly “horned” figure is described. By the fifth century, doubt has reared its nebulous head, and mythographers are uncertain as to which half is human and which bovine. The French Ovide moralisé, however, definitely supports the classical notion of a creature with a bull’s head. The second part of the article explains, and then refutes the details and evidence (including fourteenth-century illustrations of the Comedy) in support of the argument posited by Guido Mazzoni in 1906 that gives the Minotaur a human head.

Botterill, Steven. “‘Quae Non Licet Homini Loqui’: The Ineffability of Mystical Experience in Paradiso I and the Epistle to Can Grande.” In Modern Language Review, LXXXIII, No. 2 (April, 1988), 332-341.

Much scholarship has focused on the problem of authorship raised by the Epistle de Can Grande. While this vexing problem is not insignificant in and of itself, in the past it has overpowered the importance of the Epistle as a comment on the Comedy in general and Paradiso in particular. This article is not intended to deny the importance of the authorship debate; rather, it is an attempt to elucidate some aspects of its importance by studying the Epistle against the broader cultural background which conditions Dante’s work and the Epistle itself.

Botterill, Steven. “Re-reading Lancelot: Dante, Chaucer, and Le Chevalier de la Charrette.” In Philological Quarterly, LXVII, No. 3 (Summer 1988), 279-289.

The story of Hugelyn (the “Monk’s Tale”) in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is narrated by the Monk in such a way as to accentuate the pathos of the episode, thus giving an apparently personal embellishment of the Dantean rendering of Ugolino (Inf. XXXIII). The story is openly intended as an exemplum of a man brought low by Fortune, thus legitimizing the changed emphasis. However, as a result of this “re-reading,” Hugelyn comes more sharply into focus and resembles Lancelot of Le Chevalier de la charrette, who is imprisoned in Meleagant’s tower. Hugelyn and Lancelot are both quite loquacious in their suffering, while Ugolino is not. The latter’s silent stifling of his pain as his children die before his eyes is seen as an integral part of his failure, given the importance of speech in the Comedy. The apparent contrast between Hugelyn and Ugolino dissolves as they are both considered “colleagues in defeat”—the former a victim of Fortune, the latter of himself.

Branca, Vittore. “Poetics of Renewal and Hagiographic Tradition in the Vita nuova.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 123-152. [1988]

Branca reads the Vita nuova in the light of thirteenth-century hagiography. The Franciscan tradition is particularly important because of its humanness which offered suggestive models to a Dante who was attempting to show how a human being such as Beatrice could be the leader along the way to perfection. Beatrice is a reflection of Christ, in the pattern of other Franciscan specula Christi who have come to earth to walk in the new life.

Breen, Carolyn Clark. “Proust, Dante, and Vergil: An Incident of Intertextuality along the Vivonne.” In Classical and Modern Literature, IX, No. 1 (Fall 1988), 73-78.

A close reading of the extended meditation on a water lily in Swann’s Way “attests to Proust’s debt to classical tradition.” While the hero-”pilgrims” of all three authors reveal a strong emotional response as they linger near riverbanks, Proust draws more heavily on Cantos XXVIII-XXIX in Dante’s Inferno than on Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid: “...[I]n Proust the neurasthenics are collectively compared to the tortured Schismatics. ... Marcel is compared to Dante and Marcel’s parents are equated with Vergil.”

Bromberg, Pamela S. “Visions of Ulro: Landscape and Architecture in Blake’s Illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy.” In Spectrum of the Fantastic, edited by Donald Palumbo (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood), pp. 41-51. [1988]

Blake’s illustrations not only accompany Dante’s text but offer a continuing and often critical commentary on it. His watercolors of the Inferno and the Purgatorio are visual images of the state he called Ulro in his own poetry, a nightmare world of solipsistic alienation. From Blake’s point of view the Inferno is a book of Satan, and the Comedy as a whole preaches divine punishment rather than forgiveness of sins. Dante’s God is not the forgiving Christ; rather, he is Blake’s Urizen, the stern patriarch of prohibition, judgment, and punishment, whom failing man creates out of his consciousness of self, fear of futurity, and division from others. However, Dante’s narrative of sin, suffering and redemption shares Blake’s central concerns about life, death, man and God, if not Blake’s theology and politics.

Bruns, Gerald L. “The Hermeneutics of Allegory and the History of Interpretation.” In Comparative Literature, XL, No. 4 (Fall 1988), 384-395. [1988]

Review article of Robert Lamberton, Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Readings and the Growth of the Epic Tradition, and Jon Whitman, Allegory: The Dynamics of an Ancient and Medieval Technique.

Cachey, Theodore J., Jr. “Dante’s Verbal Figuralism and English Translations of the Divina Commedia.” In Translation Review, XXVIII (1988), 15-21.

Considers Dante’s “verbal figuralism” in his particular use of selva and foresta in complementary opposition and examines how, through introduction of variatio, ten English translations (from Cary to Mandelbaum) fail in their renderings to respect the important distinctions Dante makes in his lexical choices.

Calvino, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Translated by Patrick Creagh. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988. 124 p.

An English translation of five of the six Charles Eliot Norton Lectures that Calvino was to have given at Harvard University in 1985-86. The first essay, “Lightness,” contains some references to Dante (Inf. XIV, 30, and Par. III, 123), as does the fourth essay, “Visibility” (Purg. XVII).

Cambon, Glauco. “Lectura Dantis: Inferno X.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 15-30.

After a brief survey of earlier criticism, the author cautions against the alternate dangers of over-reading and under-reading. His own reading of the canto is balanced, insightful and attentive to details. Focussing particularly on the first part of the canto, he emphasizes Dante’s skillful use of poetic techniques to highlight the dramatic interaction among the characters.

Carozza, Davy A. “The Motif of Maturation in the Commedia.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 57-70. [1988]

In the Comedy Dante continually urges his readers to make progress along the way which leads from misery to happiness. The theme of maturation is central to Dante’s purpose inasmuch as it shows salvation as a process of growth, one which will produce in due course its proper fruit, the reacquisition of original justice.

Caserta, Ernesto G. “Croce critico di Dante.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 61-79.

While Croce’s interpretation of the Comedy remains a valuable source even for the modern reader, La poesia di Dante has experienced varied popularity since its publication in 1921. In an effort to extract from the essay “that which is alive and that which is dead” Caserta examines the views of other critics from De Sanctis to Singleton. Among the principal points are Croce’s discussion of poetry as art and the function of allegory.

Cervigni, Dino S. “Dante’s Lucifer: The Denial of the Word.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 51-62.

While Virgil speaks the first four words of Inferno XXXIV (“Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni”), the first three are taken directly from the hymn of Venantius Fortunatus and the fourth (inferni) is added by Virgil. Through Virgil, then, Dante the auctor rewrites and parodies the sacred hymn at the conclusion of the first canticle exactly at the moment when they approach Lucifer. Inferno XXXIV thus begins by invoking a contrastive binomial, Christ and Lucifer.

Cervigni, Dino S.Purgatorio VIII: tempo e spazio come Redenzione.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 237-244. [1988]

The drama of the two angels and the serpent which Dante the Pilgrim witnesses in the Antepurgatory should be seen as the antithesis of the biblical Fall of Man, an interpretation indicated by Purgatorio VIII, 9. Here, instead of condemnation and punishment, the presence of angels and serpent represents salvation. Dante’s inclusion of amore divino in his antithetical version is epitomized in the phrase “il grembo di Maria.” This phrase, in turn, not only represents salvation by inference to Mary the mother of Christ, but signifies “una categoria spaziale,” a location from which the angels, like Christ, descend and to which they return. This movement is repeated elsewhere in the same canto: in the motion of the three stars and in the eagle’s flight.

Cheney, Liana De Girolami. “I disegni di Botticelli per la Divina Commedia di Dante.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 261-268. [1988]

Between 1481-1496, Botticelli executed designs to illustrate two editions of Landino’s Commentario sulla Divina Commedia, nineteen for the first and perhaps one hundred for the second, neither complete. Today, we know of ninety-two for the second edition. In the Inferno portion, “Botticelli non permette al lettore il riposo mentale e visuale; l’artista trascina il lettore nella tortura e nel dolore espresso da Dante nel suo poema.” Concludes with thirteen (verbal) descriptions of important scenes, which focus on the literary action, rather than on Botticelli’s composition or handling.

Cherchi, Paolo. “Geryon’s Canto.” Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 31-44. [1988]

Inferno XVII joins together many themes and motives and gives rise to new ones. Rather than being a transitional moment in Dante’s journey, the canto, through its use of numerous and varied rhetorical figures, actually possesses strong poetic unity. Nor is the organization of its materials haphazard. Rather, it is constructed using a mortise technique, by which its parts balance each other in length so as to create suspenseful increments of fear, repulsion, and horror.

Cherchi, Paolo, co-editor, Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti... (q. v.) [1988]

Cherniss, Michael D. “Two New Approaches to (Some) Medieval Vision Poems.” In Modern Language Quarterly, XLIX, No. 3 (September, 1988), 285-291.

A review-article of Kathryn L. Lynch, The High Medieval Dream Vision: Poetry, Philosophy, and Literary Form (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988). (See Dante Studies, CVII, 148.)

Chiarenza, Marguerite Mills. “Legato con amore in un volume.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 227-234. [1988]

When entering the Primum Mobile in Paradiso XXVIII, Dante the Pilgrim reaches the limits of space. The author shows how Dante represents this experience not as a mere description but as an interpretation or lettura. In fact, in the very moment when he sees the universe as a theophany and understands the wonderful relationship between “essemplo” and “essemplare,” then he is able to read what has already been written from the beginning in the book of Creation. In the Primum Mobile the pilgrim is at last able to read the theocentric allegory in the geocentric letter of the spheres.

Cioffari, Vincenzo. “Errata Corrige for Guido da Pisa’s Expositiones et Glose.” In Forum Italicum, XXII, No. 2 (Fall 1988), 223-236.

Cioffari presents here a list of corrections of various sorts for his edition of Guido da Pisa, Expositiones et Glose super Comediam Dantis, or Commentary on Dante’s Inferno (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974) (See Dante Studies, XCIII, 223-224).

Cioffi, Caron Ann. “‘Il cantor de’ bucolici carmi’: The Influence of Virgilian Pastoral on Dante’s Depiction of the Earthly Paradise.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 93-122. [1988]

Because the Earthly Paradise symbolizes among other things the human race’s past, Dante draws heavily upon Virgil’s pastoral poetry in fashioning his vision of Eden. Themes examined here include the poet’s unrequited desire for Matelda, ecclesiastical politics which invade the landscape, and the myth of the Golden Age. Dante, however, transforms Virgilian pastoral in several ways, especially by his dominant note of optimism.

Cioffi, Caron Ann. “Criseyde’s Oaths of Love: Do They Really Belong to the Tradition of Lying-Songs?” In Journal of English and Germanic Philology, LXXXVII, No. 4 (October 1988), 522-534.

In this essay intended to clarify Chaucer’s use of impossibilia (adynata) in Criseyde’s oath of fidelity (Book III of Troilus and Criseyde), Cioffi reviews the various uses of this figure from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and refers to Dante’s use of it in his sestina, “Al poco giorno e al gran cerchio d’ombra.”

Colilli, Paul. “The Voice of Beatrice in the Divine Comedy.” In Esperienze letterarie, XIII, No. 3 (luglio-settembre, 1988), 3-14.

While Beatrice has long been understood as a figura Christi, the dynamic element active in the process of Dante’s salvation, it has been suggested that in this way her role infracts upon the limits of Christian orthodoxy. The voice of Beatrice, truly a reflection of Dante’s own aesthetic self, aids in the demythification of those poets who, like Virgil, were without the whole truth, therefore establishing Dante’s own role as prophet.

Corsi, Sergio. “Per uno studio del ‘modus digressivus’.” In Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti... (q. v.), pp. 75-89. [1988]

“Digression,” as a formal modus, exists in the Comedy more amply than is readily apparent to the modern reader. A brief survey including Cicero and Geoffrey of Vinsauf explores this rhetorical device in relation to others that similarly cause interruption in the fabula, such as amplificatio, descriptio temporis and descriptio loci. While the most easily identifiable examples of digression in the Comedy are few (e.g., the poet’s apostrophe to Italy in Purg. VI), descriptions of time or place set formally in the text abound, and, while seeming less distinct, these should still be classified as true forms of the modus digressivus.

Costa, Gustavo. “Dialectic and Mercury (Education, Magic and Religion in Dante).” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 43­64. [1988]

With the advent of the primacy of dialectic over the other liberal arts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the stage was set for the elaboration of a system of complex interrelationships so dear to the medieval theorists, which served as grist for Dante’s mill. As the author states, “Dialectic was a discipline as ambiguous as Mercury (the hermaphroditic planet), as versatile as quicksilver, as noble as the Order of the Archangels, who knew and announced the sublime mystery of Incarnation, as dramatic as the history of Salvation, both individual and universal.” This statement encapsulates the major themes of the article; the intellectual connections are explained in detail in a rich discussion incorporating elements of alchemy, history, astrology (Mercury is linked to both Gemini­Moon­feminine principle­Dante and Virgo­Sun­masculine principle­the Virgin Mary, illustrating its ambiguous, hermaphroditic nature), religion and medieval scholarship. Dialectic is seen as symbolizing an equilibrium of opposites, and thus, a divine synthesis in which the individual parts retain their essential characteristics, yet form a coherent whole. On the negative, or demonic side, dialectic tension yields the crushing defeat of one component with respect to the other. The element that leads to salvation in the first case is Prudence, the lack of which yields the second scenario. Thus, Justinian is compared to “a good dialectician guided by Prudence,” in opposition to Ulysses and Guido da Montefeltro, while Thomas Aquinas and Siger of Brabant—“the incongruous pair of the fourth heaven”—are seen as the expression of earthly opposition rendered in its true relation of divine equilibrium.

Costa-Lima, Luiz. “Erich Auerbach: History and Metahistory.” In New Literary History, XIX, No. 3 (Spring 1988), 467-499.

Provides an overview of the writings of Erich Auerbach, including his early work on Dante. In effect, “historicizing” Auerbach becomes no less an exercise in interpretation than Auerbach’s own historicization of Dante.

Covi, Silvio. “La Sixtine di Remy de Gourmont: Stilnovismo e Simbolismo.” In Italiana... (q. v.), pp. 229-241. [1988]

Remy de Gourmont’s Sixtine, a modern adaptation of the Vita Nuova, permits the Trecento critic Gourmont to revive the doctrines of the Dolce Stil Nuovo. It is an example of the metamorphosis that the stilnovistic conceit of the idealized woman undergoes while adapting itself to the philosophical and literary parameters of nineteenth-century symbolism and idealism.

Crespo, Angel. “Translating Dante’s Commedia: Terza Rima or Nothing.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 373-385. [1988]

The author explains the reasons for his choice of terza rima for his Spanish translation of the Divine Comedy. Indeed, he claims that the had no real choice in the matter because of the complexity of Dante’s poetic concerns (which blend structural symmetry, rhythm, “musica,” and rhyme) and many other poetic and extra-poetic dimensions (especially numerological symbolism) which combine to form a matrix of interlocking meaning that far outstrips the capacity of any mere poetic “image” to produce.

Dante e la bibbia. Atti del Convegno Internazionale promosso da “Biblia.” Firenze, 26-27-28 settembre 1986. Edited by Giovanni Barblan. Firenze, Leo S. Olschki., 1988. 370 p.  

Contains several essays on Dante by the following American scholars: Marguerite Mills Chiarenza, Joan Ferrante, John Freccero, Peter S. Hawkins, Rachel Jacoff, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and Jeffrey T. Schnapp. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Davis, Charles T. “Dante, Machiavelli, and Rome.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 43-60.

Dante and Machiavelli both seem obsessed with ancient Rome and the noble past. More accurately, however, they are obsessed with modern Florence and Italy and with finding remedies for the problems of a tormented past. The remedies they propose are not the same, but they recognize the significance of force in politics. Machiavelli’s advice parallels Dante’s, although the target of their respective advice is different: Machiavelli directs his toward the Florentines, and Dante his toward the emperor.

Davis, Charles T. “The Florentine Studia and Dante’s ‘Library’.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 339-366. [1988]

In the period after Beatrice’s death, Dante turned his attention to the study of Philosophy. The three most important schools at that time in or near Florence were S. Spirito, S. Croce and S. Maria Novella, under the direction, respectively, of the Augustinians, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans. While very little is known about the first, substantial documentation exists pertaining to the remaining two schools. Through this documentation, Davis strives to re-create the intellectual ambience of these schools as it might have been at the end of the thirteenth century. He discusses the nature and content of their libraries and provides an overview of their curricula, as well as those prominent lectors (Petrus Olivi and Ubertino da Casale at S. Croce, Remigio dei Girolami at S. Maria Novella) who might have influenced Dante, either directly or indirectly.

Davis, Charles T. L’Italia di Dante. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1988. 298 p.

Italian translation of the author’s Dante’s Italy, and Other Essays (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984) (see Dante Studies, CIII, 146-147).

Davis, Charles T. “Topographical and Historical Propaganda in Early Florentine Chronicles and in Villani.” In Medioevo e Rinascimento: Annuario del Dipartimento di Studi sul Medioevo e il Rinascimento dell’Università di Firenze, Vol. II (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1988), pp. 33-51.

Several references to Dante appear in this investigation of the political use which some chroniclers of early Florentine history (the Chronica de origine civitatis, Villani) made of the parallels between the monuments and churches of Rome and Florence.

Day, Robert Adams. “Dante, Ibsen, Joyce, and Epiphanies, and the Art of Memory.” In James Joyce Quarterly, XXV, No. 3 (Spring 1988), 357-362.

Suggests that Joyce’s reading of Dante influenced his own method of writing. Like that of Dante, Day asserts, Joyce’s writing is peopled with figures and places that are specific and yet come together in a kind of transcendent world.

De Bonfils Templer, Margherita. “Ragione e intelletto nel Convivio.” In Italiana... (q. v.), pp. 77-86. [1988]

While Dante’s exploration of “i limiti delle possibilità conoscitive (o intellettuali) umane” found in the Convivio recalls the Metaphysics, “il suo discorso non è aristotelico.” Dante penetrates celestial levels of existence, drawing heavily on boethian-platonic concepts found in the commentary of William of Conches. “La genesi del discorso dantesco sull’intelletto e sulle capacità espressive dell’uomo è nel testo delle Glosae” (super Platonem), a debt confirmed by the opening lines of the Paradiso. Dante clearly distinguishes Reason and Intellect, with the latter being privileged both conceptually and lexically: “Quando Dante parla della più alta forma di conoscenza filosofica, il termine adoperato non è la ragione, ma l’intelletto.” The perfection of reason occurs naturally in man while “la perfezione dell’intelletto, e cioè la perfezione sovrannaturale, eccede la finalità naturale.” Intellectual blindness occurs when human mental activity is not moved by Love. Only Grace may intervene as “sutura tra il divino e l’umano.”

Di Scipio, Giuseppe. “La ‘Candida Rosa’ di Dante e la cattedrale gotica.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 253-259. [1988]

Proposes that Dante, in his Commedia, “ha eretto una struttura architettonica seguendo gli stessi principi dell’architetto gotico...”—principles which culminate in the candida rosa of Paradiso XXXI. Examines in nuce the history of the rose window, an important Gothic architectural element: its metaphysical significance, Romanesque origins, incorporation into the great thirteenth-century French cathedrals, its appearance throughout Europe, and its migration to Italy via monastic orders. Provides Italian models contemporary with Dante and concludes, “Si può affermare...che Dante fosse al corrente dell’uso diffusissimo del rosone, della sua struttura e del suo significato.” Also discusses the related use of eight-sided baptisteries and baptismal fonts (Par. XXXII, 83).

Di Scipio, Giuseppe. “Dante and Politics.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 267-284. [1988]

The political discourse on the Emperor and the Empire which begins in chapter 3 of Book IV of the Convivio and continues through chapter 9 is considered in light of its relationship with the later Monarchia, much of which is a restatement of the earlier tract. Di Scipio takes issue with Passerin D’Entrèves’ statement that the mention of the Empire in the Convivio is a “casual digression,” and also with the implication that Dante regrets, in the Comedy, his “error” of confusing “the mission of a man with that of the Divine Savior.” Indeed, Dante’s position is shown to be quite consistent throughout these works, in his insistence on a distinct separation of Church and State.

Di Scipio, Giuseppe, co-editor, The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia... (q. v.) [1988]

The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences. Acta of the International Dante Symposium, 13-16 November 1983, Hunter College, New York. Edited by Giuseppe Di Scipio and Aldo Scaglione. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1988. ix, 385 p. [1988]

Containing the proceedings of a symposium held at Hunter College (November, 1983), this volume explores various relationships between Dante’s conception of the artes liberales (i. e., the trivium and quadrivium) and of their manifestations in his works. The contributions include topics from each of the seven liberal arts as well as related material. Contains essays by Christopher Kleinhenz, Robert Hollander, Aldo Scaglione, Gustavo Costa, Dorothy Gillerman, Manfred Hardt, Thomas Elwood Hart, Richard Kay, Mark Peterson, T. K. Seung, Nancy G. Siraisi, Harry Kaufman, Giuseppe Di Scipio, Edward Peters, Patrizia Mainoni, Charles Davis, Pearl Kibre, and Angel Crespo. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Doreski, William. “Dante and the Roman Poets in Robert Lowell’s History.” In Modern Language Studies, XVIII, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 47-59.  

Robert Lowell’s imitation of the Roman poets and Dante reveals his own sensibilities toward the subject matter of the original. Lowell’s translations instill each text with his own alien sensibilities, contributing to his obliquely autobiographical compendium of Western culture.

Ellis, Steve. “Chaucer, Dante, and Damnation.” In Chaucer Review, XXII (1988), No. 4, 282-294.

Argues against the view that Chaucer’s House of Fame is an act of homage to Dante and proposes that the work is rather “a satire on what one might call Dante’s procedures of damnation and on his Virgilianism” but not one that interprets “Chaucer’s attitude to Dante’s metaphysics as consistently sceptical.”

Emmerson, Richard Kenneth, and Ronald B. Herzman. “The Canterbury Tales in Eschatological Perspective.” In The Use and Abuse of Eschatology in the Middle Ages, ed. Werner Verbeke, Daniel Verhelst, and Andries Welkenhuysen. Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, Series I, Studia XV. (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1988), pp. 404-424.  

The conjunction of the universal and the individual, of the apocalyptic and the contemporary, informs the conclusion of The Canterbury Tales. More subtle than Piers Plowman, Chaucer’s craft is still less subtle than Dante’s.

Falvo, Joseph D. “The Irony of Deception in Malebolge: Inferno XXI-XXIII.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 55-72. [1988]

Having established the centrality of the theme of deception in Malebolge, the author proceeds to discuss the artistic devices used by Dante in presenting this theme, especially the farce. Finally, he relates these devices to the specific nature of comedy as expressed in the structural development of these three cantos.

Ferrante, Joan. “Usi e abusi della Bibbia nella lettura medievale.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 213-225. [1988]

Medieval poets, both clerical and lay, often used the Bible in a free and casual manner without much regard for context. They did not hesitate to adapt it and give it their own meaning, whether they were preaching morality, denouncing corruption, or seeking love. Dante, who is particularly bold in this type of free use, is by no means exceptional. Using a host of examples taken from various medieval writers, Ferrante illustrates a variety of uses of Scripture, which she characterizes as irreligious, a-religious, or anti-religious.

Fleming, Ray. “Francesca’s Sweet New Subversive Style.” In Lectura Dantis”, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 11-22. [1988]

Inferno V begins and ends with confessions that are in some way defective: the form is correct, but the content corrupt. Modern interpretations of Francesca’s speech have tended to focus upon the eloquence of the speech, overlooking the importance of the content. Francesca is silent about adultery, but she adopts the new poetic style. As a result, her comments on adultery emerge from the tension between style and content.

Freccero, John. “Ironia e mimesi: il disdegno di Guido.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 41-54. [1988]

The author shows how the disdain of Guido in Inferno X, 63, represents the perennial refusal on the part of philosophers to learn humility from the Gospel. The key text for this interpretation is found in Book 7 of the Confessions, in which Augustine emphasizes the necessity for contrition and confession in order to undertake successfully the moral journey, something the ancient philosophers failed to understand: “Dedignantur ab eo discere, quoniam mitis est et humilis corde.”

Friedman, Joan Isobel. “Il Paradiso terrestre di Dante: simbolo e visione nella miniatura napoletana del Trecento.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 245-252. [1988]

Following recent critical trends, the author views fourteenth-century illuminations of the Comedy more positively than in the past. Despite technical limitations, these illustrations participate in Dante’s mysticism and spiritualism to a higher degree than fifteenth-century illustrations which have a rational, classical bias. The miniatures of MS 676 in the Pierpont Morgan Library capture exactly the literal and allegorical significance of Purgatorio XXVIII-XXXIII, cantos which offer abundant material to the visual artist. Despite the technical deficiencies, the artist’s expressivity, originality of invention, close adherence to the text, and use of space to emphasize literary sense do great service to Dante’s poem.

Gillerman, Dorothy. “Dante’s Early Readers: The Evidence of Illustrated Manuscripts.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 65-­80. [1988]

An analysis of illustrations of early manuscripts of the Comedy with a view towards determining the changing nature of the readership of these texts. In the initial phase of manuscript production, the glaring lack of an iconographic model upon which to base depictions of events in the Comedy (and thus an observable uncertainty in artistic rendering), the modest quality of the artistic style itself, and the simultaneous appearance in several Italian regions point to an Italian audience that demanded a less-than-rigorous graphic representation. Around the mid­fourteenth century, a style reflecting a combination of Tuscan and Gothic pictorial elements, and the presence of courtly imagery in the illustrations point to a more aristocratic readership. Finally, in light of the preceding discussion, roughly the second half of the article is devoted to a more detailed analysis of a specific (and puzzling) illustrated manuscript found in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Through a comparison with the Castillian Cantigas, this particular manuscript may be attributed to the post­Alfonsine court of the mid­fourteenth century.

Ginsberg, Warren. “Place and Dialectic in Pearl and Dante’s Paradiso.” In ELH, LV, No. 4 (Winter 1988), 731-753. [1988]

Boethius’ translation of topos as logos in De topicis differentiis defines place as both the the site of physical and argumentative settings. Thus conceived, setting becomes a way for poets to talk about poetry itself and the truth it conveys. This is clearly evident in Pearl and Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Gorlier, Claudio. “‘See What I Am’: The Figure of Beatrice in The Serpent and the Rope.” In World Literature Today, LXII, No. 4 (Autumn 1988), 606-609.

Treatment of Madeleine as the female principle in Raja Rao’s novel The Serpent and the Rope. Contains references to Beatrice and her role in the Comedy.

Gravelle, Sarah Stever. “The Latin-Vernacular Question and Humanist Theory of Language and Culture.” In Journal of the History of Ideas, XLIX, No. 3 (July-September, 1988), 367-386. [1988]

Humanist reflection on the question of language sought to understand the dynamics between thought and language and culture and language. Debate centered upon the inferiorities of the volgare to Latin (namely, vocabulary [copia] and grammar) and the concept of rhetoric. Contributions primarily by Lorenzo Valla but also by other influential contemporaries and by Dante established the foundations of comparative philology and theory of culture.

Haddad, Miranda S. Johnson. “The Writer as Reader: A Study of Intertextual Influence in the Works of Dante, Ariosto and Spenser.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 10 (April, 1988), 2622A.

Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University, 1987. 217 p.

Hagman, Edward. “Dante’s Vision of God: The End of the Itinerarium Mentis.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 1-20. [1988]

Viewed as a record of one man’s spiritual journey, and itinerarium mentis, the description of the Divine Comedy recalls one of the great pieces of medieval literature, St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum. By examining this work in relation to Dante, we may recognize the influence of mysticism on theology.

Hardin, Richard F. “Milton’s Nimrod.” In Milton Quarterly, XXII, No. 2 (May, 1988), 38-44.

Includes brief mention of Dante’s use of Nimrod as a figure of “political pride.”

Hardt, Manfred. “Dante and Arithmetic.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 81­94. [1988]

Judging by the difference in Dante’s treatment of arithmetic between the composition of his rather traditional philosophical compendium (Convivio) and the Comedy, in which science and philosophy are subsumed under the rubric of poetry, we may understand that Dante probably undertook a rigorous process of application of arithmetic concepts that transformed his understanding of them, thus providing a practical as opposed to a theoretical basis for his later work. To illustrate his thesis, the author discusses various hidden numerical correspondences present in the cantos of the Heaven of the Sun (Par. X­XIV) and the numerical treatment of the word “amore” in the Inferno and its relevance to Dante’s relationship with Beatrice.

Harris, John. “Three Dante Notes (I: Brunetto the Sodomite; II: Guido’s Portrait; III: La gloriosa rota).” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 73-92.

In the first note, the author argues that not only is Brunetto Latini a homosexual, but also that Dante has portrayed him as such “with characteristically, even stereotypically, gay attributes and mannerisms.” Among these would be the references to eye imagery and the manner of gazing, clothing imagery, and the use of language that exhibits elements of flattery, familiarity, and flirtatiousness. In the second note, Harris examines Dante’s skillful portrayal of Guido by contrast with the figure of Ulysses who precedes him. Whereas Ulysses is a majestic character, frank and direct in his speech, Guido expresses himself with difficulty. Through use of indefinite speech forms, including the subjunctive and expressions such as “if only” and “perhaps,” he discloses his crafty and cunning nature even as he indulges in a mixture of self-pity and self-assurance. In the third note, the author examines Dante’s creation and fusion of circle images, especially in vv. 139-148 of Paradiso X, where he evokes the Boethian image of God who is at the center of the circle of time. At the same time he alludes to chapter XII of his own Vita Nuova and the God of Love. Here in the Paradiso Dante and Beatrice are for the moment the center of the cosmic circle, the circle of time and love.

Harrison, Robert Pogue. The Body of Beatrice. Baltimore, Maryland, and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. xiii, 207 p.

Harrison traces Dante’s poetic development from stilnovist to “epic” poet focusing on representations of the “figure” of Beatrice. The Vita Nuova is examined as a crucial point in that development and, through comparisons with the poetry of Cavalcanti and Petrarch, in relation to the Italian poetic tradition. Contents: Preface; Acknowledgements; Editions and Translations; Introduction: Critical Differences; Part One. Beatrice Alive: 1. Dante’s Dream, 2. The Ideal Lyric, 3. Figures of Love, 4. The Ghost of Guido Cavalcanti; Part Two. Beatrice Dead: 5. The Death of Beatrice and the Petrarchan Alternative, 6. Beyond the Lyric, 7. The Narrative Breakthrough, 8. Vision and Revision: The Provisional Essence of the Vita Nuova; Epilogue; Notes; Index of Passages Cited; General Index.

Hart, Thomas Elwood. “Geometric Metaphor and Proportional Design in Dante’s Commedia.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 95-­146. [1988]

Considers the Comedy as a poetic “space,” which implies the potential application of fundamental Euclidian geometric axioms in the construction of the work. In fact, a poetic correspondence is revealed between Dante the poet and Dante the “geometer” by the structural and thematic similarity found in the 1572nd tercets of Purgatorio (XXXIII, 136-138) and Paradiso (XXXIII, 133-135). The author then analyzes the underlying structural geometry regarding the placement of the word “triangol” in the Paradiso as an obvious reference to Euclid’s Elements (3.31 and 1.32, discussed in tandem by Aristotle in his Metaphysics), and determines that a “geometric space” illustrative of these two axiomatic principles is created, which seems to be a part of the organizational foundation of the poem. Other passages examined in this light: Paradiso XVII, 22-24 and Inferno XXIX, 10-12; Paradiso XIV, 28-30 and XIII, 25-28; these passages are discussed in relation to each other and to the larger work taken as a whole.

Hawkins, Peter S. “Scripts for the Pageant: Dante and the Bible.” In Stanford Literature Review, V, Nos. 1-2 (1988), 75-92.

Using the pageant of the Bible in Purgatorio XXIX as a point of departure, the author re-examines the dichotomy of Dante “Theologus-Poeta.” He emphasizes that even while Dante sets himself up as another writer of Sacred Scripture or another St. Paul, he repeatedly draws the attention of his readers from the vision he is portraying to the voice of the poet who is bringing it to us. A good example of this technique may be found in Purgatorio XXIX, 97-105. The author concludes that Dante must be understood as both apostle and poet, a genius who deliberately and continually negotiates the air between these two poles of opposition.

Hawkins, Peter S. “Virgilio cita le Scritture.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 351-359. [1988]

The author notes echoes of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Inferno VIII, 43-45, where Virgil kisses Dante and praises his impassioned rejection of sin. However, at the same time, he points out how Virgil’s use of Luke 11:27 to praise Dante is really inappropriate, for the very text offered by Virgil in homage is turned against him as a reproof. This would not only demonstrate Virgil’s own need for correction but also his basic inadequacy in the presence of evil.

Hays, Peter L. “Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Dante’s Vita Nuova.” In The Explicator, XLVI, No. 4 (Summer 1988), 49-50. [1988]

Suggests that in the novel Mack’s account of his first sexual conquest has its source in Dante’s first meeting with Beatrice in the Vita Nuova. The “incident should be interpreted as Kesey’s underscoring of Mack’s humanitarianism and altruism, his caritas masquerading as eros, his dedication to ‘a new life’ ruled by love and giving of himself.”

Herzman, Ronald B. (Joint author). “The Canterbury Tales in Eschatological Perspective.” See Emmerson, Richard Kenneth....

Hollander, Robert. Boccaccio’s Last Fiction: “Il Corbaccio”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988. 86 p. (Middle Ages Series.)

Argues for a revised reading of the Corbaccio as a “literary joke,” contending that it “is not a ‘serious’ satire, but one which turns back on itself, revealing its misogynous major characters to be male hysterics, latter-day haters of womankind because of their own weaknesses and failings.” To demonstrate the extent of Dantean presences in Boccaccio’s works and to suggest their potential value as a major shaping influence thereon, Hollander presents a host of parallel passages (in Appendix 1: “Texts in the Corbaccio Reflecting Passages in Dante”).

Hollander, Robert. “Dante’s Commedia and the Classical Tradition: The Case of Virgil.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 15­-26. [1988]

Following an introduction that provides a general understanding of the role that the “auctores” play in the development of Dante’s poetic, Hollander proceeds with an analysis of the complex nature of Virgil’s presence in the Comedy. He succinctly refutes the “tenuous” position of those who hold the view of an allegorical Virgil, supporting the “overwhelmingly sensible” consideration of Virgil as a historical figure. The manner in which Dante (as poet) subtly undermines the pilgrim’s apparently unequivocal praise of Virgil’s wisdom and authority is brought to light by a discussion of several verses in Inferno II and by an analysis of Virgil’s failure before the gates of Dis and his subsequent anger at Capaneus (Cantos IX and XIV). Finally, much space is given to Virgil’s explicit “mistake in judgment” in the Malebranche episode (Cantos XXI­XXIII). In this last part, the significance of the demons’ malevolent behavior (including their gnashing of teeth), and Dante’s use of the fable of the mouse and the frog serve to underscore the essential lack of understanding on Virgil’s part.

Hollander, Robert. “Il ‘Dartmouth Dante Project’.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 277-285. [1988]

An update on the first three years of work by the coordinator of the project. Includes information on the project’s conception, content, funding, staff, and technical equipment, and suggests various ways in which data may be utilized by scholars upon completion.

Hollander, Robert. “An Index of Hapax Legomena in Dante’s Commedia.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 81-110. [1988]

A list of some 2,200 words which occur only once in the poem. Excluded are proper nouns (person and place) and their related adjectives, words denoting number, and foreign words (such as Latinisms and Hebraisms). This listing of occurrence of hapax follows the order of the text, from Inferno I to Paradiso XXXIII, and includes an appendix of those words (78 in all) which occur only once in each canticle.

Holloway, Julia Bolton. “Chancery and Comedy: Brunetto Latini and Dante Alighieri.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 73-94.

Inferno XIII introduces Pier delle Vigne, a major counter-figure to Brunetto Latini. The examination of archival Latin documents suggests that Dante’s construction of the Comedy may depend, in part, on the intertextual formulae of Latini’s Chancery, which Latini in turn learned from the chancery styles of Frederick II, Alfonso el Sabio, and Charles of Anjou. Dante would have used the memory of these thirteenth-century chancery archives in the composition of his fourteenth-century poem.

Holloway, Julia Bolton. “The Pilgrim in the Poem: Dante, Langland, and Chaucer.” In Allegoresis... (q.v.), pp. 109-132. [1988]

Holloway examines the figure of the pilgrim in medieval literature using Luke’s account of the pilgrims at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32) as paradigm. According to the author, the encounter with Statius in Purgatorio XXI would be a re-working of the biblical passage with Virgil as the older pilgrim Cleophas, the younger Dante as Luke, and Statius as the Christ figure.

Howard, Lloyd H. “Linguistic Configuration as a Clue to the Impossible Made Possible: Inferno I, Purgatory XI, and Purgatory XII.” In Italian Quarterly, XXIX, No. 114 (Fall, 1988), 5-9.

Examines the configuration “passo,” “persona viva” and “basso” which occurs in Inferno I and again in Purgatorio XI, arguing that in the second, retrospective instance the syntactical unit “persona viva” undergoes a modification of meaning with respect to the first occurrence, which serves to contrast Dante’s easy progress up the terraces of Purgatory with his initial failure to scale the “dilettoso monte.”

Iliescu, Nicolae. “The Roman Emperors in The Divine Comedy.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 3-18. [1988]

Dante exalts the figures of Julius Caesar, Octavian Augustus, Titus, Justinian, and Charlemagne because for him they represent points at which the eternal intersects with time and history. At such moments of intersection these particular emperors were instruments of providence, shapers of human history, who led it along the path that leads to the divine. Thus, they brought about results which would have been otherwise unattainable.

Illiano, Antonio. “Per un’introduzione al Corbaccio.” In Italianistica, XVII, No. 3 (settembre-dicembre, 1988), 393-416.

Examines Boccaccio’s Corbaccio with reference to its dependence on the tradition of the Divine Comedy and other of Dante’s works.

Italiana: Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, December 27-28, 1986, New York, NY. Edited by Albert N. Mancini, Paolo Giordano, and Pier Raimondo Baldini. River Forest, Illinois: Rosary College, 1988. vii, 375 p.

Contains essays on Dante by Silvio Covi, Margherita De Bonfils Templer, Franco Masciandaro, and Joy Hambuechen Potter. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Jacoff, Rachel. “Dante, Geremia e la problematica profetica.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 113-123. [1988]

Emphasizing the importance of prophecy as a constitutive element of the Comedy, Jacoff analyzes the condemnation of Boniface VIII in Paradiso XXVII in light of chapter 7 of the book of Jeremiah, where the prophet denounces the desecration of the temple in Jerusalem. The correspondence between the two passages is not merely one of verbal similarities but also one of structure and theme.

Jacoff, Rachel. “Transgression and Transcendence: Figures of Female Desire in Dante’s Commedia.” In Romanic Review, LXXIX, No. 1 (January, 1988), 129-142.

Investigates the relationship between legitimacy and desire (i.e., female desire) in the Comedy. Concentrates on Inferno V and XXX, and particularly on the figures of Semiramis and Myrrha—who come to serve as examples of a “nexus of incest and alliteration.” Noting that the predominately male penitents of the Purgatorio “figure their transgressive desire in a female emblem” (e.g., Pasiphae in Purg. XXVI), Jacoff concludes that this “suggests that the female is the very figura of such desire.” She also examines the suggestive link between these examples of “transgressive desire” and figures of transcendence, such as the Virgin Mary.

Kallendorf, Craig. “Virgil, Dante, and Empire in Italian Thought, 1300-1500.” In Vergilius, XXXIV (1988), 44-69.

In addressing the problem of defining Virgil’s relationship to Augustus and the newly founded Roman Empire, three different and valid approaches result from three different eras of Western thought. As exemplified in De monarchia and the Comedy, Dante’s method involves the rational use of scholastic philosophy, by which Virgil becomes, for him, the poet of Empire. In the Africa Petrarch epitomizes the Renaissance humanist for his interest in arguing the question rhetorically, by which Virgil becomes the poet of both the Empire and Republic. And Cristoforo Landino, by way of a Platonic reading, provides yet another conclusion.

Kaufman, Harry. “Dante: A Man for All Hours.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 247­-266. [1988]

Analyzes Dante’s psychological acumen as a poet who brings to life the complex psychology of many characters, including himself as Pilgrim. Provides a panoramic sweep of Inferno and Purgatorio, with several brief stops to illustrate the nature of various interactions between the Pilgrim and other characters. Some discussion is devoted to Dante’s relationship with Virgil and with Francesca da Rimini, and to his interaction with Belacqua and Oderisi.

Kay, Richard. “Astrology and Astronomy.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 147­-162. [1988]

The article surveys the role of astrology in Dante’s thought and poetics. Attention is given to the textual examples in Dante’s works (especially the Comedy) in which the stars are seen to have influence over an individual’s life, though the determining factor of human character remains free will. In addition to the obvious references to astrology in the poem, the author, armed with the texts of Ptolemy, Michael Scot, Guido Bonatti, Albumasar, Alcabitius, and others, discovers myriad “veiled allusions” to astrology in the Paradiso, and suggests that deeper study in a similar vein throughout the body of the poem might yield interesting results.

Kelly, Henry Ansgar. “Dating the Accessus Section of the Pseudo-Dantean Epistle to Cangrande.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 93-102.

The article is a “pre-print” of a chapter in his Tragedy and Comedy from Dante to Pseudo-Dante (1989). Because he views the Epistle as spurious, Kelly treats it as one of the commentaries and attempts to locate the Accessus portion, which deals with tragedy and comedy, in terms of indebtedness and influence.

Kibre, Pearl. “Dante and the Universities of Paris and Oxford.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 367-371. [1988]

Briefly treats the reorganization of the Faculty of Arts curriculum at the University of Paris, occasioned by “the incorporation of the entire corpus of Aristotelian writings in Latin translation” about the year 1255. The traditional division into “trivium” and “quadrivium” was expanded into the tripartite division of the three philosophies—i.e., rational, natural, and moral—in order to encompass the new material.

Kirkham, Victoria. “I quindici gradi del regno di Catone.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 229-236. [1988]

While the number seven is dominant on the mountain of Purgatory, fifteen is never explicitly named. Yet, according to a rich canonical tradition dating back to the Bible, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome, “nel 15 si riconosce il significato di ascesa spirituale a Dio.” Modelled on the 7 + 8 arrangement of steps in the Temple of Jerusalem, the motif is repeated in Italian architecture and art from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. Of equal importance is the parallel image of a ladder (the scala paradisi or scala coeli) with fifteen rungs (cf. the “scaleo” in Par. XXI). Kirkham concludes by mentioning some illustrators of the Comedy who faithfully follow these ascetic norms and ramifications of the “scala” in Dante’s work.

Kiser, Lisa. “Eschatological Poetics in Chaucer’s House of Fame.” In Modern Language Quarterly, XLIX, No. 2 (June, 1988), 99-119.

No one would seriously challenge the view that Chaucer’s House of Fame offers ample evidence suggesting his debt to previous visionary/apocalyptic works in general and Dante in particular. Appropriation of the device of the golden eagle and interest in reconciling secular love poetry with religious vision, for example, attest Dante’s influence on Chaucer. Many critics have additionally noted Chaucer ironic tone. Ultimately, however, his irony prevents us from reading the House of Fame as other than antivision.

Kleinhenz, Christopher. “American Dante Bibliography for 1987.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 123-158.

With brief analyses.

Kleinhenz, Christopher. “The Celebration of Poetry: A Reading of Purgatory XXII.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 21-41.

The constituent threads of Purgatory XXI come together in Purgatory XXII in an extended meditation on and celebration of poetry. Moreover, Purgatory XXII comments upon the interpretation of poetry and on the power of poetry, as manifested in its transformative effect on individuals and on society as a whole.

Kleinhenz, Christopher. “A Half-Century of Dante Scholarship in America.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 1-13. [1988]

The unenviable task of the author is to synthesize fifty years of Dante scholarship in America, spanning the period from 1933, the year in which Grandgent’s second edition of the Divine Comedy was published, to 1983, the year of the International Dante Symposium held at Hunter College. Attention is focused on three areas: Dante studies prior to 1933, including the founding of the Dante Society of America; Dante studies in the aforementioned fifty-year period, including the teaching of Dante in the universities of America; and the possibilities for the future, with mention of some major projects underway, and additional areas of potentially fruitful scholarship.

Kleinhenz, Christopher.Inferno 8: The Passage across the Styx.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 23-40.

Inferno VIII is suspended between Cantos VII and IX, characterized by the double halt in the action. The number eight signifies baptism, regeneration and renewal. Canto VIII causes the reader to experience and respond to the terrifying, awe-inspiring aspects of the narrative just as Dante the Pilgrim does. Repeated readings reveal hidden meanings within the canto, so that we gradually begin to understand its significance.

Kleinhenz, Christopher. “Virgil, Statius, and Dante: An Unusual Trinity.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 37-55. [1988]

A preliminary investigation of Purgatory XXI and XXII, the cantos of Statius, and a consideration of his special place in the poem. One of his functions here is that of vital link in the poetic “chain of grace” which joins ancient and modern poetry as exemplified by Virgil and Dante. Furthermore, all three poets are somehow political in their concern with the ordering of the temporal sphere and their reformation of human society. Closely tied to the political structure of the poem and Statius’s place therein are two important words—girare and sanare—whose meaning and function in the Comedy are explored.

Lang, Bernhard (Joint author). Heaven: A History. See McDannell, Colleen....

Lectura Dantis Newberryana, Volume I. Lectures presented at the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, 1983-1985. Edited by Paolo Cherchi and Antonio C. Mastrobuono. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1988. viii, 198 p.

Contains essays by Nicolae Iliescu, Mario Trovato, Christopher Kleinhenz, Davy A. Carozza, Winthrop Wetherbee, Caron Ann Cioffi, Vittore Branca, and Antonio C. Mastrobuono. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Letteratura italiana e arti figurative. Atti del XII Convegno dell’Associazione Internazionale per gli Studi di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana (Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal, 6-10 maggio 1985). 3 vols. Edited by Antonio Franceschetti. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1988. viii, 1437 p. (Biblioteca dell’”Archivum Romanicum,” serie I, 208.)

Contains several essays on Dante by the following American scholars: Dino S. Cervigni, Liana DeGirolami Cheney, Giuseppe Di Scipio, Joan Isobel Friedman, Robert Hollander, Victoria Kirkham, Allen Mandelbaum, Clara Regnoni-Macera Pinsky, and Esther Wertheimer. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Luke, Helen. “The Threshold of the Mountain in Dante’s Divine Comedy.” In Parabola, XIII, No. 4 (November, 1988), 52-59.

Discusses from a psychoanalytical perspective the nature of the mountain in the Comedy and of the prologue scenes in Inferno I and Purgatorio I, and the contrast between infernal torments and the purgation process (for lust and anger). Adapted from the author’s study, Dark Wood to White Rose (Pecos, New Mexico: Dove Publications, 1975).

Lutton, Jeannette Hume. “‘Inviolable Voice’: Philomela and Procne in Dante’s Purgatorio and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.” In Spectrum of the Fantastic, edited by Donald Palumbo (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1988), pp. 3-19. 1988

In both works the passages relating to the myth of Philomela and Procne are associated with special psychological states—with dream, with vision and with semiconsciousness—which suggests that this myth embodies knowledge available to the characters only when their waking defenses are down. Furthermore, they are both associated with the first phase of an important undertaking, a metamorphosis. Indeed, metamorphosis characterizes both Dante the Pilgrim’s purgatorial process and Criseyde’s falling in love; both characters are in the early stages of a transformation.

Lynch, Kathryn L. “The Purgatorio: Dante’s Book of Dreams.” In The High Medieval Dream Vision: Poetry, Philosophy, and Literary Form (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 146-162.  

Examines the structural and thematic relationship of the Purgatorio to the medieval dream vision narratives. The analyses focus particularly on the pilgrim’s dreams and the discourse on love in Canto XVIII.

Mainoni, Patrizia. “L’Orizzonte Economico Medievale nella Divina Commedia e nei Principali Commenti del Trecento.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 315-338. [1988]

Relates various passages in the Comedy that treat economic matters to their practical context and to the glosses of later Trecento commentators. In the section “Navi, rotte e porti” she discusses the nautical terminology in the poem, defines the types of ships in existence at the time, the principal trade routes and the important ports. Under the heading “I mercanti” she briefly treats the expansion of Florentine trade and some of its consequences, as well as the rivalry between Venice and Genoa which ultimately results in the fall of S. Giovanni d’Acri, and its reversion to Saracen control. In the last section, “La moneta,” attention is given to the coining of money, and to the practices of devaluating the currency by the addition of other metals, and counterfeiting.

Mandelbaum, Allen. “Visione e Visibilia,” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 29-40. [1988]

In relation to the influence of vision in the Divine Comedy, there exists a dimension of vision, the phenomenon of “visibilia,” present especially in the Paradiso. A pictorial convention, some manifestations of “visibilia” involve isomorphisms which relate Dante’s “terza rima” to Italian’s natural phonemes. Examination of the image of the “rota” interprets movement between the poet’s intellect and the superficial aspect of his words.

Masciandaro, Franco. “The Good in Dantes’s Selva Oscura: A Dramatistic Reading.” In Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti... (q. v.), pp. 67-73. [1988]

The “selva oscura” of Inferno I, or the first “scene” of Dante’s journey, provides the necessary force for his transformation and a place in which a goal is created. There is a change in perspective on the dark wood as the poet attempts to describe the “good” (v. 8) he found there. The moment in which the wayfarer awakens embodies the “other things” (v. 9) that constitute this good, giving the “selva oscura” and the first part of the journey a positive value.

Masciandaro, Franco. “The Paradise of Paolo and Francesca and the Negation of the Tragic: A Dramatistic Reading of Inferno V (97-138).” In Italiana... (q. v.), pp. 87-96. [1988]

Proposes to demonstrate that “...the ‘first root’ of Paolo and Francesca’s sin...is essentially the desire to create their own paradise, their own myth of a ‘second innocence,’ which proves to be a false reenactment of the original myth of the earthly paradise.” The polysemous landscape of the river Po is an image of paradise lost: it emphasizes natural forces, speaks of a journey and “implicitly, of struggle, conflict, drama” and calls to mind the Augustinian notion of natural notion toward ultimate rest in God. Yet, despite elements of the myth of “second innocence” (cf. Roger Dragonetti) and Augustinian echoes of eternal harmony, Paolo and Francesca do not experience true innocence nor do they attain happiness since they have appropriated a “fictional, illusory world...from a literary text.” “In [Kenneth] Burke’s dramatistic terms, Paolo and Francesca have ignored the ‘motivational force of the scene’...by substituting it for a scene of their own making.... Paolo and Francesca identify the fictional with the actual....” A tragic rhythm results when the protective distance normally offered by the mimetic process is destroyed by this overly-close identification with the fictional lovers, and the fiction is itself ruptured by a violation of the text.

Mastrobuono, Antonio C. “The Powerful Enigma.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 153-198. [1988]

Instead of transposing the prophecy of the “cinquecento diece e cinque” (Purg. XXXIII, 43) into the more usual DXV, the author presents arguments for arranging the letters of the words into the figure of a cross. From this he suggests that the prophecy is a foretelling of the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time.

Mazzocco, Angelo. “Classicism and Christianity in Salutati: Considerations in Light of Ronald G. Witt’s Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works, and Thought of Coluccio Salutati.” In Italica, LXV, No. 3 (Autumn 1988), 251-263.

Review-article of Witt’s book (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1983), emphasizing, with numerous references, the importance of Dante’s influence on Salutati’s thought and works.

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “Order and Transgression in the Divine Comedy.” In Acta: Ideas of Order in the Middle Ages, XV (1988), 1-21.

Discusses the complementary nature of order and transgression as they are presented and figured in the Comedy, especially in Paradiso, and considers with numerous insights the rich tradition from which these ideas spring (especially the Neo-Platonic Augustinian tradition). Investigates in particular Dante’s conceptual representation of order in the Heaven of the Sun (Par. X-XII).

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “Teologia ed esegesi biblica (Par. III-V).” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 95-112. [1988]

The medieval conflicts between exegetes and theologians are one of the elements which shape the initial cantos of the Paradiso. Dante uses them as a means for vindicating the supreme value of poetry, which, through its encounters with philosophy and theology, incarnates a kind of wisdom. The author stresses the importance of the Bible as the story of exile, sacrificial symbolism, and how the speculation of theologians coincides with the type of metaphorical knowledge presented in poetry.

McDannell, Colleen, and Bernhard Lang. Heaven: A History. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1988. xiv, 410 p.

Contains brief references to Dante’s conception of Paradise.

Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c. 1100-c. 1375. Edited by A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott, with the assistance of David Wallace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. 538 p.

The introduction to Chapter IX, “The Transformation of Critical Tradition: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio,” discusses Dante’s developing sense of allegory. Reviews Dante’s self-commentary in Vita Nuova and the Convivio, which contains “a far more thorough appropriation of the principles and terminology of academic literary criticism than did the former.” Explores Dante’s reversal of the hierarchy of languages in De vulgari eloquentia. The author takes issue with Singleton’s insistence on the Comedy’s being an allegory of theologians and concludes, “[i]f theological allegory did sporadically influence Dante’s modus componendi in the Divine Comedy...this was the exception rather than the rule in late medieval literature.” The Introduction to Chapter X, “Assessing the New Author: Commentary on Dante,” discusses the wide fourteenth-century reception of the Comedy and begins with the Epistle to Can Grande. Having explained and set aside the question of authorship, the author claims the choice of the Comedy as an object of analysis “is momentous...: the analytic procedures generated over centuries of expounding scripture and allegorizing ancient pagan poems are now to be applied to the work of a living, Christian poet writing in a living language, his own vernacular.” Reviews the contribution of Guido da Pisa, Iacopo and Pietro Alighieri, and Giovanni Boccaccio. The latter’s interest in Dante, especially in the Trattatello in laude de Dante, involved a number of humanist concerns, the most pressing of which is the relationship of poetry to theology. The chapter contains extracts from Dante’s Epistle, Guido’s Prologue, Pietro’s Prologue and Exposition of the Inferno from his Commentarium, and Boccaccio’s Trattatello.

Montano, Rocco. Dante’s Thought and Poetry. Chicago, Ill.: Gateway, 1988. xi, 518 p.

A translation, revision, and recasting of the two volumes of Storia della poesia di Dante (1959, 1962) into one volume with four parts and multiple subsections: Contents: Preface; Part One: The Path toward the Truth; Part Two: The Divine Comedy: The Inferno; Part Three: The Purgatorio; Part Four: The Paradiso; Conclusion; Bibliographical Notes.

Noakes, Susan. “Dante’s Stories of Reading.” In Timely Reading: Between Exegesis and Interpretation (Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1988), pp. 38-67.

Dante’s stories of reading, especially the episode of Paolo and Francesca, indicate a complex relationship between book, author, and reader. Francesca’s erroneous interpretation of the prose Lancelot demonstrates the notion of the temporality of reading in which all interpretation is subject to change. The Paradiso looks back to this episode in reinterpreting the problem of reading and time and explaining the temporal difference between human and divine love.

Noakes, Susan. “From Dante to Boccaccio: Blurring the Margin.” In Timely Reading: Between Exegesis and Interpretation (Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1988), pp. 68-97.

Changes in attitude towards poetic commentary are determined by the author’s perception of the reader. This may be demonstrated by Boccaccio’s early work in reshaping the glosses on Dante’s Vita nuova and later by the glosses he wrote for his Teseida. The role of the commentator and the relation of text and gloss, as further evidenced in Dante’s Convivio and Boccaccio’s Genealogie deorum, involve the complex notion of the temporality of reading where the author, at the time of writing, envisions the relation that will be established between his words and the reader.

Nolan, Barbara. “Dante’s Vergil, the Liberal Arts, and the Ascent to God.” In Allegoresis... (q.v.), pp. 27-47. [1988]

Takes a new approach to the traditional view of Virgil as “ratio humana” and “philosophia rationalis”. As a type of liberal arts curriculum “instructor,” Virgil offers the “student” what Dante considered to be the necessary intellectual foundations for everyman’s ascent to God. “The structures of thought through which Dante proceeds from Hell to Paradise belong centrally to the liberal arts curriculum. The arts serve him as the optima instrumenta and rudimenta for his journey to the experience of his own wisdom, and finally to that of divine wisdom.”

Parker, Deborah. “Bernardino Daniello and the Commentary Tradition.” In Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 111-121.

Examines the recent edition of Bernardino Daniello’s 1568 commentary on the Comedy (L’espositione di Bernardino Daniello da Lucca sopra la Comedia di Dante, edited by Robert Hollander and Jeffrey Schnapp, with Kevin Brownlee and Nancy Vickers. Hanover, New Hampshire, and London, University Press of New England, 1989). Maintains that Daniello’s intrepretative legacy lies in his clarification of Dante’s lexicon, in his analysis of the poet’s use of stylistic devices, and in his illustration of how Dante’s verse formally and thematically recalls the classics or finds echoes in the work of later poets, such as Petrarch.

Parker, Mark. “Lectura Dantis: Inferno XXVIII.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 41-50.

Inferno XXVIII is constructed around a rapid succession of scenes with the cuts between them as savage and inexorable as those delivered by the devil to the damned. Nonetheless, the schematic nature of the canto allows us to divide it into six episodes.

Patti, Samuel. “Lectura Dantis: Inferno XXXI.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 45-54.

This canto emphasizes the need for clear perception on the part of Dante the Pilgrim. Much of his anxiety throughout the journey may be attributed to the unclear nature of the phenomena encountered and to his difficulty in recognizing them. Here, he is concerned with measurement and accuracy to help him judge what he is seeing. By the time he meets the last giant Antaeus, his fear increases as his perception of reality becomes clearer.

Peters, Edward. “The Frowning Pages: Scythians, Garamantes, Florentines, and the Two Laws.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 285-314. [1988]

Dante’s conception of Justice as the highest of political virtues derives from an ethical viewpoint in which law is directly linked to the harmonious organization of society, in order to permit the individual to concentrate his efforts on achieving spiritual harmony. The “two laws” of the title refer to canon and civil (Roman) law; their legitimacy is judged according to their concordance with the will of God. The example of Justinian and Pope Agapetus (Par. VI) is a unique instance of the proper relationship between Emperor and Pope, a perfect accord that permitted the former to formulate a perfect body of human laws. Peters considers Dante’s concept of justice in this light, then passes to an elaboration of the general ideas about jurisprudence in the great flowering of the study of law in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and Dante’s subsequent experiences and study of legal affairs, especially as they pertained to Florentine ordinances. In a final section on canon law, Dante’s stance on the subject of papal decretals (“and I venerate them myself,” Monarchia III, 3) is mediated by their relatively low position in a hierarchy of authorities of Christian doctrine, and by the intentions of the popes and “decretalisti” who formulate them.

Peterson, Mark. “Dante’s Physics.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 163-­180. [1988]

Emphasizes Dante’s poetic capacity for practical, acute observation of natural phenomena as opposed to a merely sterile application of theoretical physical principles. Some of the material discussed in terms of “his innovations in physical theory and observation”: the “problem” of Purgatorio XVIII, 79-81, in which the standard interpretation concludes that Dante has made a mistake in calculation; the image of the double rainbow (Par. XII); the spots on the moon and the experiment with the three mirrors (Par. II); and the topology of the universe (Par. XXVII).

Picone, Michelangelo, co-editor, Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti... (q. v.) [1988]

Pinsky, Clara Regnoni-Macera. “L’illustrazione della Divina Commedia di Gustave Doré e la sua relazione con quella di Sandro Botticelli e William Blake.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 269-276. [1988]

The rich allegory of Dante’s poem has inspired these three artists in diverse ways. While Doré is most faithful to the text, Botticelli and Blake include some innovations of their own. In addition to the comparison of their varying styles and techniques, the article includes some biographical information pertinent to these artists’ projects to illustrate the Comedy.

Potter, Joy Hambuechen.Beatrice Ammiraglio: Purgatorio XXX, 58-66.” In Italiana... (q. v.), pp. 97-108. [1988]

Potter argues that Beatrice’s gender change from “tenderly concerned figure” to stern fleet commander so troublesome for modern readers “has been carefully prepared by a series of signals that would have been clear to the educated medieval audience for which Dante was writing,” and that they would serve as reminders that “Beatrice was to be perceived in an allegorical way.” In a comprehensive survey of interpretations, Potter suggests that Dante’s simile is in keeping with “the contemporary tradition of Marian imagery couched in marine terms.” In light of Dante’s previous relationship to her, Beatrice’s harshness is appropriate “to purify his future relationship with his lady of any possible sensual overtones,” while the “incongruity” of her sudden masculinity may be explained by differences in readership: notions of sexual dynamics vary across centuries and cultures, and modern critics are still unduly influenced by a Romantic and post-Romantic “sweetly feminine” Beatrice.

Rebhorn, Wayne A. “Redefining the Beffa: Boccaccio’s Challenge to the Reader in Decameron VIII, 7.” In Forum Italicum, XXII, No. 2 (Fall 1988), 204-222.

In his discussion of the “double beffa” in the tale (Dec. VIII, 7) of the scholar (Rinieri) and the widow (Elena), Rebhorn suggests that “Boccaccio influences the reader to condemn Rinieri’s behavior by subtly conjuring up the memory of Dante’s Inferno in the second part of this story.” In addition to allusions to Inferno III, V and VI, the author refers in particular to the influence of the events in the bolgia of the barattieri (XXI-XXIII) on this tale in the Decameron.

Rowe, Donald W. Through Nature to Eternity: Chaucer’s “Legend of Good Women”. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. x, 218 p.

In this study of the Legend of Good Women Rowe refers numerous times to Dante’s shaping influence on Chaucer’s representation of his heroines and their fate.

Scaglione, Aldo. “Dante and the Ars Grammatica.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 27­-41. [1988]

Concentrating on the Convivio and De vulgari eloquentia, Scaglione delineates the essential parameters that constitute Dante’s intellectual progression towards an idea of “gramatica” applicable to, and finding an ideal artistic expression in, the vernacular (which will result in the Comedy as the poetic realization that ultimately dwarfs Dante’s “theories”). Unlike Boethius whose interest in the treatise Modi significandi is primarily in the notion of an abstract universal grammar, Dante’s conception is rooted in an ideal of practical structure that serves to render a language “illustre,” and thus stable enough to endure in time. As Dante passes through various intellectual stages, his evolved style will fuse technical, objective eloquence with deeply personal, subjective experience, leading to “the legitimization of the vernacular for purposes of the highest cultural and literary use.”

Scaglione, Aldo. “Dante’s Poetic Orthodoxy: The Case of Pier della Vigna.” In Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti... (q. v.), pp. 56-66. [1988]

Episodes of the Inferno in which the Wayfarer demonstrates feelings of admiration or sympathy have recently lent themselves to revisionistic readings. This spirit of reinterpretation is most notable in the canto of Pier della Vigna where the Poet’s orthodoxy may be seen to be inconsistent with the will of God. Revisionist readings contend that Dante ultimately condemns this figure as he does Brunetto Latini, Ulysses and Francesca da Rimini as he gradually matures in the course of his journey and his understanding of God. By essentially subverting the letter of the text, such an approach has resulted in readings that are more confusing than convincing.

Scaglione, Aldo. “Dialectic Composition in Purgatorio V.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 63-72.

The structure of Paradiso V extends both backward and forward, forging links witht he previous and subsequent cantos. This general reading of Canto V emphasizes Dante’s “effective method of arranging the parts of his poem by frequent variations in mood in the form of dialectically contrasting episodes....”

Scaglione, Aldo, co-editor, The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia... (q. v.) [1988]

Schnapp, Jeffrey T. “Dante’s Sexual Solecisms: Gender and Genre in the Commedia.” In Romanic Review, LXXIX, No. 1 (January, 1988), 143-163.

Proposes that “Dante’s extensive play with sexual substitutions constitutes a strategy to articulate the intersection between the ‘feminine’ world of vernacular lyric and the ‘masculine’ world of Latin epic.” He points to a number of gender reversals, both overt and implied, and examines more closely the presentation of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise. Central to his argument is an understanding of the solecistic nature of the incarnation itself and its subsequent impact on both grammar and theology.

Schnapp, Jeffrey T. “Trasfigurazione e metamorfosi nel Paradiso dantesco.” In Dante e la bibbia... (q. v.), pp. 273-292. [1988]

The arrival of the procession in Purgatorio XXIX signals a change from the “horizontal” Exodus model of the Old Testament to the “vertical” model of the New Testament, represented by the Transfiguration of Christ. The author examines the relationship of the Transfiguration (metamorphosis) to the typology of the Pauline raptus and its function in the poetics and theology of the Paradiso. He sees in the disappearance of Virgil a passage from the typology of exodus to that of transfiguration, signalling in turn a parallel transition from the text of Virgil to that of Ovid.

Schulze, Earl. “Allegory against Allegory: The Triumph of Life.” In Studies in Romanticism, XXVII, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 31-62.

Treatment of Shelley’s Triumph of Life in relation to Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Sebastio, Leonardo, and Ruggiero Stefanelli. “Aldo Vallone Dantista.” In Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 3-10. [1988]

An appreciation of Aldo Vallone’s Dante criticism, which spans forty years.

Semark, Douglas Lee. “The Visionary Tradition: The Ancients, Dante, and Poe.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 7 (January, 1988), 1764A.

Doctoral Dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1987. 142 p. (Studies the Comedy and Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket as examples of the secular visionary tradition, for they are “works whose authors demonstrate the visionary personae, whose narrative ‘I’ and authorial ‘I’ do not form a perfect identity, whose subject matter revolves around a special order of both space and time, whose immediate message is the perfection of will and desire over the dictates of reason, whose ultimate message is a personal statement about the arrival/return of the individual and the world to mythic perfection, and whose authority borrows from the ancient tradition but is clearly not sanctioned by the keepers of that tradition, the Christian Church.”)

Seung, T. K. “The Metaphysics of the Commedia.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 181-­222. [1988]

In this elaborately argued piece Seung seeks to establish a parallel unity of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise essentially based on a God-based ontological principle and a soul-based epistemological principle. “The unity of God is the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. ... The unity of the soul is the unity of its three parts.” Since God is not directly knowable, the soul, in its tripartite relation to the virtues and vices, becomes the indirect medium of contact. Thus, much argumentative space is devoted to establishing a unified conception of the virtues and vices, addressing the textual problem of Virgil’s triadic classification of all sins in contrast to the Aristotelian ordering of the same categories. Also discussed at length are St. Thomas’ conception of the seven deadly sins and his difficulty in ordering them and establishing a relationship with the virtues. “Dante shows none of these confusions and indecisions. ... [H]e designates the seven virtues contrary to the seven deadly sins by giving the examples of those virtues in conjunction with the examples of the sins contrary to them on the seven terraces of Purgatory.” The basis of this categorization, Dante’s unique contribution to Christian thought (and to his poem), is the tripartite division of the soul. The same correlation is then extended to the seven planets of Paradise, and finally, to the Holy Trinity itself. Thus, a correspondence between the three parts of the soul, the three regions of Dante’s universe, and the Three Persons of the Trinity is established, which illustrates the existence of a parallel unity in addition to the serial unity of the poet’s journey.

Siraisi, Nancy G. “Dante and the Art and Science of Medicine Reconsidered.” In The “Divine Comedy” and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences... (q.v.), pp. 223-­245. [1988]

The author seeks to establish a cultural context regarding prevailing attitudes towards medicine and its practice in northern Italy, to understand better the thrust of Dante’s references, in both the Convivio and the Comedy, to physicians and their discipline. In a survey of the period from approximately 1260 to 1320, she discusses aspects of theory, practice and organization of physicians (as well as the persistence of an older, less “educated” tradition), and the parameters of the renewed intellectual debate on the societal role and function of the medical practitioner. The question had religious as well as civic implications, the former being of more interest to the poet­philosopher. In fact, Dante does not regard level of education as necessarily significant, but, as in so many matters, it is the moral attitude of the practitioner that takes primacy. He can thus place Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides and Avicenna in Limbo, and speak positively of medical healing, while condemning those ambitious and avaricious practitioners who abuse their talents.

Shoaf, R. A. “The Crisis of Convention in Cocytus: Allegory and History.” In Allegoresis...(q.v.), pp. 157-169. [1988]

Discusses the conventions which enabled Dante to write the last four cantos of the Inferno. In order to describe Hell, Dante had to describe the structure of sin, which, being schematic and abstract, could only be presented through the allegory of individual biographical history. However, as conventions were needed for allegory to bind history to its fiction, there arose the question of what language and conventions would be convenient to the description. The lie of allegory must ultimately lead to the truth; it must unite history with the structure of sin and thus disclose a true description of Hell.

Shoaf, R. A. “The ‘Threshing Floor’ of Recent Dante Studies.” In Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 58-68.  

Review-article on the following studies: Peter Dronke, Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions; John Freccero, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion; Jeffrey T. Schnapp, The Transfiguration of History at the Center of Dante’s “Paradise”. Each is separately listed in full below, under Reviews.

Sicari, Stephen. “Reading Pound’s Politics”: Ulysses as Fascist Hero.” In Paideuma, XVII, Nos. 2-3 (Fall-Winter, 1988), 145-168.

Pound’s early work on The Cantos prepares him for embracing a “fascist” conception of hero, evident in his figure of Ulysses. Unlike Homer’s wandering hero desiring safe return home, or Dante’s reckless seducer leading his men on a path of destruction, Pound’s Ulysses is like Dante the pilgrim and Dante himself, a man caught by his wanting to leave the present state of civilization in order that he might find a new one, a man willing to leave one home so that he might find one true, satisfying home.

Spitzer, Leo. Representative Essays. Edited by Alban K. Forcione, Herbert Lindenberger, and Madeline Sutherland. With a Foreword by John Freccero. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988. xx, 484 p.

Contains three classic essays on Dante: “Speech and Language in Inferno XIII” (1942); “The Farcical Elements in Inferno XXI-XXIII” (1944); and “The Addresses to the Reader in the Commedia” (1955).

Stefanelli, Ruggiero (Joint author). “Aldo Vallone Dantista.” See Sebastio, Leonardo....

Stillinger, Thomas Clifford. “Authorized Song: Lyric Poetry and the Medieval Book.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 12 (June, 1988), 3108A.

Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University, 1988. 302 p. (Contains one chapter on “Dante’s Divisioni: Structures of Authority in the Vita Nuova” and another on “‘Cantando Narrare’: The Form of the Filostrato,” in which Boccaccio’s Filostrato is viewed as “a formal revision of the Vita Nuova.”)

Studi di italianistica: In onore di Giovanni Cecchetti. Edited by Paolo Cherchi and Michelangelo Picone. Ravenna, Longo, 1988. 318 p. (Il Portico. Biblioteca di Lettere e Arti, 86.)

Contains several essays on Dante by the following American scholars: Sergio Corsi, Franco Masciandaro, and Aldo Scaglione. Each essay is listed separately in this bibliography under the individual author’s name.

Thiem, Jon. “Borges, Dante, and the Poetics of Total Vision.” In Comparative Literature, XL, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 97-121.

Readers and critics have long recognized the Dante allusions present in Borges’ tale “El Aleph” (1945), but the author’s 1970 commentary to the work virtually denies these allusions as intentional. It is precisely Borges’ not naming of Dante in the enumeration of his precursors that signifies his “sin of omission.” In the re-presentation of total vision “El Aleph” (as likened to Dante’s Paradiso) is limited by language and human cognition making significant omission a powerful tool in the poetics of total vision.

Travis, Peter W. “Chaucer’s Trivial Fox Chase and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381.” In Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, XVIII, No. 2 (Fall 1988), 195-220.

In an article primarily devoted to Chaucer’s metalinguistic parody of the trivium, Dante is included along with Chaucer and modern novellist Toni Morrison as examples of authors who foreground the basics of their own and their readers’ literary-linguistic education. The transformation M-lily-eagle of Paradiso XVIII “...perhaps the most spectacular display of letters in all literature...is a study of several things: the semiotics of writing, the psychology of reading comprehension, and the nature of divine justice as it is administered on earth.” Citing Priscian’s four classes of vox, Travis notes that “Dante’s analogies to the hollow pipe and to a musical wind instrument in his description of the formation of sound in the eagle’s throat [Par. XX] are straightforward recitations of his early grammar-school glosses.”

Trinkaus, Charles. “Renaissance Semantics and Metamorphoses.” In Medievalia et Humanistica, XVI (1988), 177-187.

Review article of Leonard Barkan, The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism and Richard Waswo, Language and Meaning in the Renaissance. Each is separately listed in full below, under Reviews.

Trovato, Mario. “Dante and the Tradition of the ‘Two Beatitudes’.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 19-36. [1988]

The theory of the duo ultima as expounded by Albertus Magnus is an attempt to unite reason and faith while preserving their individuality. Double beatitude does not imply dualism, but rather points to the existence in man of a double order integrated in one operation. Dante, with his interest in man as a political, intellectual, and spiritual being, describes the relationship between his two goals—mortal and immortal—as that of the “via” and its “end”.

Vance, Thomas Hume. “Dante and Shelley.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 9 (March, 1988), 2332A.

Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University, 1935. 135 p. (Discusses Shelley’s borrowings from the Comedy for Adonais and Epipsychidion.)

VanderMey, Randall John. “Desire and Restraint in the Visionary Long Poem: Studies in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Wordsworth’s The Prelude, and Eliot’s Four Quartets.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 7 (January, 1988), 1781A.

Doctoral Dissertation, University of Iowa, 1987. 210 p.

Weinberg, Alan. “Shelley’s Adonais and Its Links with Dante.” In Paradise of Exiles: Shelley and Byron in Pisa, Papers from the International Conference Held in Pisa, 24-26 May 1985, edited by Mario Curreli and Anthony L. Johnson (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik; Pisa: ETS Editrice, 1988), pp. 53-67.

The prominence of Dante and the Paradiso in Shelly’s mind meant that, when it came to depicting transcendence, the overcoming of death, it was very natural for him to draw on Dante’s own achievement in the Comedy. However, it would be foolish to overlook the importance of the other two cnaticles as well. Transcendence in Adonais emerges from the Comedy in general, and from the Paradiso in particular.

Wertheimer, Esther. “La Francesca di Dante.” In Letteratura italiana e arti figurative... Vol. I (q. v.), pp. 287-289. [1988]

Discussing Dante as her “fonte d’ispirazione intellettuale e spirituale,” the author—an artist—offers a personal interpretation of Inferno V. She sees Francesca as a fragile and tender woman still in possession of “amore,” the central motive of the Divine Comedy. Denying that passion is being punished here, she states, “Il fatto che poesia, musica e arti plastiche siano state da sempre associate all’amore, sembra provare che la sensualità nella natura umana non è da fuggirsi come se fosse un impulso peccaminoso ma, al contrario, da ricercarsi come una delle cose buone che ci consente la vita.” The author believes that Paolo and Francesca are not punished for concupiscent behavior, but for having renounced the faculty of reason. The essay is illustrated with photos of the author’s own sculptures.

West-Settle, Cecile.Purgatory and ‘Primavera’: Interpretants for El Sueño de Sarajevo.” In Anales de la literatura española contemporanea, XIII, No. 3 (1988), 283-291.

In El Sueño de Sarajevo, the third novel of the Sandro Vasari trilogy, Carlos Rojas makes repeated references to Dante’s Purgatorio, thus suggesting “a correlation between characters and events in the two texts.” Both works “share a common story—that of perdition and redemption—and a common origin in the thesis that reason is inadequate to fulfill man’s spiritual quest.” West-Settle analyzes in particular the final episode in the novel which combines references to the Purgatorio and Botticelli’s “Primavera.” Through the character of monsieur de Descartes, Rojas draws attention to the relationship between the physical space described by Dante and El Sueño de la Razón, clarifying the significance of this sanatorium in the Pyrenees. “While for Dante, the measure of man’s fall is the discrepancy between the divine and the human, for Rojas, it is represented by the distance between the ‘locus amoenus’ of art and the depravity of History.”

Wetherbee, Winthrop. “Dante and the Thebaid of Statius.” In Lectura Dantis Newberryana... (q. v.), pp. 71-92. [1988]

Assuming that Dante took the poetry of Statius seriously and viewed him as a major poet in the tradition of Virgil and Ovid, the author attempts to clarify the meaning of Statius in the Comedy, including his discourse on the creation of the soul in Purgatorio XXV. In the Thebaid Dante found exemplified many qualities which he himself valued.

Williams, C. K. “The Poet and History.” In Tri Quarterly, No. 72 (Spring-Summer 1988), 193-207.

Poetry is grounded in its time, whether it articulates its consciousness of this or not, and does not have to manifest a direct awareness of its historical situation in order to be significant and to fulfill a rich definition of poetry. Yet, in order to understand a poem fully, one must understand the influence of the historical events upon the poem. Poets often assume the role of heroes, confronting their own time periods either directly or indirectly in their works. The most extreme and heroic example of this is Dante’s Comedy, where Dante confronts history directly, setting himself up as humanity’s visionary.

Wlassics, Tibor. “Quadrifogli: Appunti e spunti (Virginia, primavera 1988).” In Il lettore di provincia, XX, fasc. 73 (dicembre, 1988), 66-71.

Contains a brief discussion of the debated meaning of cui (Inf. X, 63).

Yowell, Donna Lynne. “Human Speech and Bestial Silence: De Vulgari Eloquentia in Inferno XXXI-XXXIV.” In Dissertation Abstracts International, XLVIII, No. 9 (March, 1988), 2334A.

Doctoral Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1987. 296 p.

 

Reviews

Dante’s Paradise. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 140.) Reviewed by:

            Sara L. Brann, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 102-103.

Armour, Peter. The Door of Purgatory. A Study of Multiple Symbolism in Dante’s “Purgatorio”. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Barkan, Leonard. The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 139.) Reviewed by:

            William C. Carroll, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 155-158;

            Steven Max Miller, in Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, IX (1988), 157-158;

            James V. Mirollo, in Comparative Literature Studies, XXV (1988), No. 4, 367-370;

            Janet L. Smarr, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, LXXXVII, No. 2 (April, 1988), 252-254;

            Charles Tomlinson, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 2 (1988), 292-293;

            Charles Trinkaus, in Medievalia et Humanistica, XVI (1988), 177-187.

Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the “Comedy”. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 141-142.) Reviewed by:

            Deborah Parker, in Italica, LXV, No. 2 (Summer 1988), 156-157;

            H. Wayne Storey, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 106-110.

Battaglia Ricci, Lucia. Dante e la tradizione letteraria medievale. Una proposta per la “Commedia”. Pisa: Giardini Editori e Stampatori, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

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. (See Dante Studies, CV, 140.) Reviewed by:

            Linda M. Paterson, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 1 (1988), 138-140.

Binni, Walter. Incontri con Dante. Ravenna: Longo, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Boccaccio, Giovanni. Amorosa visione. Bilingual edition, translated by Robert Hollander, Timothy Hampton, and Margherita Frankel, with an introduction by Vittore Branca. Hanover, New Hampshire, and London: University Press of New England, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 140-141.) Reviewed by:

            Todd Boli, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 3 (July, 1988), 625-627;

            Dino S. Cervigni, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI (1988), 301-304.

Boyde, Patrick. Dante Philomythes and Philosopher: Man in the Cosmos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Reviewed by:

            Teodolinda Barolini, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 2 (November, 1988), 234-236.

Cassell, Anthony K. Dante’s Fearful Art of Justice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 144.) Reviewed by:

            Tibor Wlassics, in Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 104-106.

Cavalcanti, Guido. The Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. Edited and translated by Lowry Nelson Jr. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1986. (The Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 18.) (See Dante Studies, CV, 142) Reviewed by:

            Giuseppe Maschio, in Filologia e critica, XIII, Fasc. 1 (gennaio-aprile, 1988), 138-139;

            Spencer Pearce, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 1 (1988), 141-142;

            Joseph Tusiani, in Italian Quarterly, XXIX, No. 111 (Winter, 1988), 91-97.

Cervigni, Dino S. Dante’s Poetry of Dreams. Firenze: Olschki, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 142.) Reviewed by:

            Armando Bisanti, in Schede medievali, XIV-XV (gennaio-dicembre, 1988), 135-136;

            Federica Preziosi, in Lectura Dantis, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 103-104;

            Rinaldina Russell, in Forum Italicum, XXII, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 143-145;

            Giuseppe Tardiola, in La Rassegna della letteratura italiana, XCII, nos. 2-3 (maggio-dicembre, 1988), 417-418.

Cipolla, Gaetano. Labyrinth. Studies on an Archetype. New York: LEGAS, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 128.) Reviewed by:

            Bettina L. Knapp, in Italian Quarterly, XXIX, No. 114 (Fall, 1988), 102-103;

            Justin Vitiello, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI (1988), 291-293.

Colish, Marcia L. The Mirror of Language: A Study in the Medieval Theory of Knowledge, rev. ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. (See Dante Studies, LXXXVII, 156.) Reviewed by:

            Ralph Hexter, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer, 1988), 215-217.

Compagni, Dino. Chronicle of Florence. Translated with an introduction and notes by Daniel Bornstein. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. Reviewed by:

            Carol Bresnahan Menning, in Sixteenth Century Journal, XIX, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 476.

Corti, Maria. La felicità mentale. Nuove prospettive per Cavalcanti e Dante. Torino: Einaudi, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Dante Alighieri, 1985: In memoriam Hermann Gmelin. Edited by Richard Baum and Willi Hirdt. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 1985. (Romanica et Comparatistica, 4.) Reviewed by:

            Robert M. Durling, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 3 (July, 1988), 623-624.

Dante among the Moderns. Edited by Stuart Y. McDougal. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 168.) Reviewed by:

            Gerard Gillespie, in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, XV, No. 1 (March, 1988), 161-166.

Dante e le forme dell’allegoresi. Edited by Michelangelo Picone. Ravenna: Longo, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 130.) Reviewed by:

            Floriano Romboli, in Italianistica, XVII, No. 3 (settembre-dicembre, 1988), 565-567.

Dante in America: The First Two Centuries. Edited by A. Bartlett Giamatti. Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York, 1983. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 23.) (See Dante Studies, CII, 150-151.) Reviewed by:

            Sara Sturm-Maddox, in Le Moyen Age, XCIV, No. 1(1988), 137-138.

De Gennaro, Angelo A. The Reader’s Companion to Dante’s Divine Comedy. New York: Philosophical Library, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 145-146.) Reviewed by:

            David L. Smith, in SMART: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, XV, No. 2 (Fall 1988), 5-6.

De Rachewiltz, Siegfried. De Sirenibus: An Inquiry into Sirens from Homer to Shakespeare. New York: Garland, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 132.) Reviewed by:

            Calvin S. Brown, in Sewanee Review, XCVI, No. 4 (Fall 1988), lxxx-lxxxi.

Di Pino, Guido. Pause e intercanti nella “Divina Commedia” e altri studi. Bari: Adriatica Editrice, 1982. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Dronke, Peter. Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Reviewed by:

            Teodolinda Barolini, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 2 (Summer 1988), 293-294;

            Deborah Parker, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 104-105;

            R. A. Shoaf, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 58-68.

Freccero, John. Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. Edited with an Introduction by Rachel Jacoff. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 148.) Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Italian Studies, XLIII(1988), 134-136;

            Steven Botterill, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 95-98;

            Millicent Marcus, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 1 (January, 1988), 152-155;

            Lino Pertile, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 1 (1988), 143-144;

            Ricardo J. Quinones, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI (1988), 273-281;

            R. A. Shoaf, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer), 58-68;

            Tibor Wlassics, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 4 (Winter 1988), 707-708.

Gellrich, Jesse M. The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages: Language Theory, Mythology, and Fiction. Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 170.) Reviewed by:

            Mary J. Carruthers, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 120-126;

            Stephan Kohl, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, X (1988), 147-150.

Guinizelli, Guido. The Poetry of Guido Guinizelli. Edited and translated by Robert Edwards. New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. (The Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 27.) (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 135.) Reviewed by:

            Michael Sherberg, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI(1988), 295-296.

Hollander, Robert. Il Virgilio dantesco. Tragedia nella “Commedia”. Firenze: Olschki, 1983. (See Dante Studies, CII, 156.) Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Holloway, Julia Bolton. The Pilgrim and the Book: A Study of Dante, Langland and Chaucer. New York: Peter Lang, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 137.) Reviewed by:

            Edward Vasta, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI, (1988) 300-301.

Holmes, George. Florence, Rome and the Origin of the Renaissance. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1986. Reviewed by:

            Francesco C. Cesareo, in Sixteenth Century Journal, XIX, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 497;

            Giuseppe Mazzotta, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 112-114.

Hyde, Thomas. The Poetic Theology of Love. Cupid in Renaissance Literature. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 151.) Reviewed by:

            Leonard Barkan, in Modern Philology, LXXXV, No. 3 (February), 318-321;

            James V. Mirollo, in Italica, LXV, No. 3 (Autumn), 277-279.

Iannucci, Amilcare. Forma ed evento nella Divina Commedia. Roma: Bulzoni, 1984. (See Dante Studies, CIII, 153.) Reviewed by:

            Carla De Bellis, in Critica letteraria, XVI, fasc. 1, No. 58 (1988), 189-192;

            Cristina Della Coletta, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 99-100;

            Charles Franco, in Forum Italicum, XXII, No. 1 (Spring 1988), 145-147.

Kirkpatrick, Robin. Dante: The Divine Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Reviewed by:

            Paul Spillenger, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 223-224.

Kleinhenz, Christopher. The Early Italian Sonnet: The First Century (1220-1321). Lecce: Milella, 1986. (Collezione di studi e testi, 2.) (See Dante Studies, CV, 152.) Reviewed by:

            B[runo] Basile, in Studi e problemi di critica testuale, XXXIV (aprile, 1987), 243-244;

            Joan H. Levin, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI (1988), 298-300;

            Spencer Pearce, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 1 (1988), 140-141.

Lagercrantz, Olof. Scrivere come Dio. Dall’inferno al paradiso. Translated by Carmen Giorgetti Cima. Casale Monferrato: Marietti, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Lectura Dantis. A Forum for Dante Research and Interpretation. No. 1. Edited by Tibor Wlassics. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1987. Reviewed by:

            Louis Chalon, in Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, LXVI (1988), 688-689.

Lectura Dantis Virginianae, I, No. 1 (Fall, 1987). Reviewed by:

            A. Cottignoli, in Studi e problemi di critica testuale, XXXVII (ottobre, 1988), 239-240.

Limentani, Uberto. Dante’s “Comedy”: Introductory Readings of Selected Cantos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Reviewed by:

            Teodolinda Barolini, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 1 (January, 1988), 191-192.

MacDonald, Ronald R. The Burial-Places of Memory: Epic Underworlds in Vergil, Dante, and Milton. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 139.) Reviewed by:

            Ralph Waterbury Condee, in Comparative Literature Studies, XXV, No. 3 (1988), 263-268;

            James V. Mirollo, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 3 (Autumn 1988), 512-514;

            D. M. Rosenberg, in Centennial Review, XXXII, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 217-218;

            R. A. Shoaf, in Annali d’Italianistica, VI (1988), 289-291.

Mancusi-Ungaro, Donna. Dante and the Empire. New York: Peter Lang, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 140.) Reviewed by:

            Carlo Celli, in Carte Italiane, IX (1987-88), 60-61.

Marchi, Cesare. Dante. Milano: Rizzoli, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Mazzoni, Jacopo. Introduzione alla Difesa della “Commedia” di Dante. Edited by Enrico Musacchio and Gigino Pellegrini. Bologna: Cappelli, 1982. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. The World at Play in Boccaccio’s “Decameron”. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 154-155.) Reviewed by:

            Renzo Bragantini, in Lettere italiane, XL, No. 2 (aprile-giugno, 1988), 297-303;

            Wayne A. Rebhorn, in Modern Philology, LXXXVI, No. 2 (November, 1988), 202-205;

            J. H. Whitfield, in Medium Aevum, LVII, No. 1 (1988), 147.

Menocal, María Rosa. The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987. (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 141.) Reviewed by:

            Dorothee Metlitzki, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 4 (October, 1988), 957-959;

            Jan M. Ziolkowski, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer, 1988), 149-155.

Pagani, Ileana. La teoria linguistica di Dante. “De vulgari eloquentia”: discussioni, scelte, proposte. Napoli: Liguori, 1982. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Peirone, Luigi. Il “Detto d’Amore” tra “Il Fiore” e Dante. Genova: Tilgher, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Peirone, Luigi. Tra Dante e “Il Fiore”. Lingua e parola. Genova: Tilgher, 1982. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Petrocchi, Giorgio. Vita di Dante. Bari: Laterza, 1983. Reviewed by:

            Zygmunt G. Baranski, in Romance Philology, XLII, No. 1 (August, 1988), 51-76.

Pitwood, Michael. Dante and the French Romantics. Geneva: Droz, 1985. Reviewed by:

            C. P. Brand, in Comparative Literature, XL, No. 3 (Summer 1988), 296-297;

            James S. Patty, in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, XV, No. 2 (June, 1988), 295-298.

Prickett, Stephen. Words and “The Word”: Language, Poetics and Biblical Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Reviewed by:

            Owen Barfield, in Nineteenth-Century Literature, XLII, No. 4 (March, 1988), 490-493.

Roddewig, Marcella. Dante Alighieri, Die göttliche Komödie: vergleichende Bestandsaufnahme der Commedia-Handschriften. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1984. Reviewed by:

            Sesto Prete, in Res Publica Litterarum, XI (1988), 332-333.

Roston, Jacqueline Gabrielle. Camus’s Récit “La Chute:” A Rewriting through Dante’s “Commedia”. New York-Berne-Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1985. (Studies in Humanities 5.) (See Dante Studies, CIV, 180.) Reviewed by:

            Ulrich Prill, in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch, LXIII (1988), 171-173.

Rowe, Donald W. Through Nature to Eternity: Chaucer’s “Legend of Good Women”. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. (See above, under Studies.) Reviewed by:

            Sheila Delany, in Modern Language Quarterly, XLIX, No. 1 (March, 1988), 73-76.

Schnapp, Jeffrey T. The Transfiguration of History at the Center of Dante’s “Paradise”. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 158.) Reviewed by:

            Saverio Bellomo, in Aevum, LXII, No. 2 (maggio-agosto, 1988), 396-399;

            Magdalena Gilewicz, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 101-102;

            Georges Güntert, in Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch, LXIII (1988), 180-185;

            Peter Hawkins, in Philosophy and Literature, XII, No. 1 (April, 1988), 132-133;

            Howard H. Schless, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, X (1988), 194-195;

            R. A. Shoaf, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 58-68;

            John Took, in Italian Studies, XLIII (1988), 138-139.

Smarr, Janet Levarie. Boccaccio and Fiammetta: The Narrator as Lover. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 159.) Reviewed by:

            Renzo Bragantini, in Lettere italiane, XL, No. 2 (aprile-giugno, 1988), 297-303;

            Bruno Ferraro, in Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, L (1988), 778-782;

            Giuseppe Mazzotta, in Renaissance Quarterly, XLI, No. 2 (Summer 1988), 295-297;

            James H. McGregor, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 3 (July, 1988), 721-722.

Sturm-Maddox, Sara. Petrarch’s Metamorphoses: Text and Subtext in the “Rime sparse”. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 182-183.) Reviewed by:

            Dennis Dutschke, in Italica, LXV, No. 2 (Summer 1988), 168-171;

            Ronald L. Martinez, in Romance Quarterly, XXXV, No. 2 (May, 1988), 254-255.

Terpening, Ronnie H. Charon and the Crossing: Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Transformations of a Myth. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press; London-Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1985. (See Dante Studies, CIV, 183.) Reviewed by:

            Elizabeth Bartolo, in Lectura Dantis, No. 3 (Fall 1988), 105-106;

            Gustavo Costa, in Comparative Literature, XL, No. 2 (Spring 1988), 174-176.

Vance, Eugene. Mervelous Signals: Poetics and Sign Theory in the Middle Ages. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 161.) Reviewed by:

            J. Stephen Russell, in Spenser Newsletter, XIX, No. 1 (Winter 1988), 6-9;

            R. A. Shoaf, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 2 (April, 1988), 480-483;

            Sarah Spence, in Envoi, I, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1988), 181-185.

Vergil at 2000: Comparative Essays on the Poet and His Influence. New York: AMS Press, 1986. (See Dante Studies, CV, 153.) Reviewed by:

            Ralph Waterbury Condee, in Comparative Literature Studies, XXV, No. 3, 263-268.

Waswo, Richard. Language and Meaning in the Renaissance. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987). (See Dante Studies, CVI (1988), 146.) Reviewed by:

            Marcia L. Colish, in Speculum, LXIII, No. 4 (October, 1988), 1008-1011;

            Charles Trinkaus, in Medievalia et Humanistica, XVI (1988), 177-187.

Whitman, Jon. Allegory: The Dynamics of an Ancient and Medieval Technique. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. Reviewed by:

            J. Reilly, in Christianity and Literature, XXXVIII, No. 1 (Fall 1988), 79-81.