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This chapter analyses why the Roman empire — from the 3rd century onwards, decayed and contracted — as well as why the east Roman empire of Constantinople survived until the 15th century. It discusses the foundations of the ideology of the Roman empire, valid until the end of the pre-Reformation period (as reflected in authors like Eusébios (Eusebius) of Kaisáreia, Augustine, or Paulus Orosius), and examines the circumstances and meaning of the repeated revival of a western Roman empire (800, 962, 1312). The final section is dedicated to the theory of empire of three important political thinkers of the ‘age of the scholastics’: Engelbert of Admont, Dante Alighieri, and Pierre Dubois. The chapter emphasizes that supralocal political structures in pre-Reformation Latin always remained weak and were based on voluntary adhesion, the perception of a common identity, rather than on forcible submission.

This chapter considers the highly paradoxical position occupied by ancient pagans, who are considered genuinely and outstandingly virtuous and yet at the same are condemned to Hell. This paradox is discussed in detail before the chapter goes on to explain Dante's position in this paradox, by looking at Dante's attitude to pagan wisdom and its relation to Christianity, especially his adoption, but transformation, of the position of limited relativism which strictly separates the spheres of philosophical enquiry and Christian doctrine. The damnation of virtuous pagans turns out to be the price required by this approach, which remains deliberately paradoxical, despite Dante's innovation of placing them in a special part of Hell, where there are no physical torments. Furthermore, the chapter looks at another aspect of Dante's discussion of paganism — his treatment of Epicurus and his followers — and links it to a comparison with his great admirer and commentator, Boccaccio.

This chapter examines British studies and research with regard to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It explains that Dante and his Divina commedia have been a central preoccupation of British Italianists throughout the twentieth century and that it was the focus of the first two volumes of the influential Cambridge Studies on Medieval Literature series. Notable general studies of the Commedia include Sir Cyril Hinshelwood's article on its imagery, Sheila Ralphs' short book on allegorical patterns, and two longer books by Jeremy Tambling and Patrick Boyde.

This chapter describes the decline of Christendom, which involved the weakening of two competing forms of medieval universal power: the Papal monarchy and the empire. It also discusses the work of three late medieval writers who defended the empire as the legitimate world monarchy, necessary for the establishment and maintenance of universal peace and the spread of Christianity. The chapter furthermore presents the idea of three of the contemporary writers who advocated territorial powers. The crusade idea survived the decline of Christendom, which the crusade had helped to create. The works of two authors presented in the concluding section say that the idea of crusade was rejuvenated in the second half of the fourteenth century. Dante Alighieri penned the most famous argument for universal rule. He developed his conceptions of secular government, and especially of the empire, independently of the church–state pamphlet war of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

Offers a twenty-first century perspective on the history of studies on Dante and Islam, how the topic resonates today, and how the volume takes an innovative approach to a long-standing field of study. Examines difficulties that such a consideration entails, with the Commedia taken as a summa of medieval Christian culture and therefore still subject to sometimes violent rejection for its apparent condemnation of Muhammad in Inferno. Lays out the history of the scholarly controversy, from the heated reaction to the first publication of Miguel Asín Palacios on the topic. Shows how the essays in this volume offer alternative readings that balance historical context with analysis of possible points of contact, ranging from linguistic ties to Islamic visionary and philosophical traditions. Conscious that religious and cultural differences are presently at the forefront of public consciousness, it emphasizes measured scholarship that embraces multiple perspectives and grounds itself in history.

This paper argues the hypothesis that the condition of the souls in Dante’s Purgatorio and Dante’s own journey of ascent of that transformative mountain lend themselves to be understood in terms of falconry — the art of training a wild raptor to relate to the presence of the falconer and respond to his call. By analyzing the falconry techniques Dante mentions in the Commedia and tracing their origin in the practices that Emperor Frederick II had imported from the Islamic world, we can also better gauge the symbolic value Dante attributes to falconry as an initiatory art of inner transmutation. Seen in the larger perspective of a Mediterranean shared culture, Dante’s understanding of falconry clearly mirrors, on European grounds, the views of some of the towering figures of Islamic medieval poetry and speculative thinking, such as Attar, Ibn Arabi and Rumi. The article finally explores the way in which the concept of inner transmutation, foundational to the art of falconry, contributes to a renewed understanding of Dante’s Purgatory as the locus where Law transmutes into Love — where “amor d’animo” paradoxically learns to respond to the call of “amor naturale”.

This essay examines questions of Dante and Islam, as well as Judaism and Christianity, through the historically specific lens of Verona and the court of Cangrande della Scala as well as a personal scholarly journey. By drawing attention to the transmission of the Liber scale machometi that is attested to not in Tuscany but in Verona and Lombardy in the later part of the 14^th century, it shows how the northern Italian setting is particularly relevant in tracing the possible influence of non-Christian sources on Dante during his time at the court of Cangrande. The figures of Hillel of Verona and Manoello giudeo, mentioned but briefly by Asín Palacios, are further examined as they attest to a vibrant intercultural exchange from the early 13^th century to Dante’s time in Verona and to the particular Jewish role in bringing the three monotheistic traditions into literary contact with one another. In finding links between the work of Dante and Manoello in particular, we might see a culture of tolerance as well as a shared risk that leads both to be lambasted and damned in a later sonnet by Cino da Pistoia.

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is invoked several times in the work of Giorgio Agamben, often in passing to stress a point, as when discussing the political relevance of désoeuvrement (KG 246); to develop a thought, as in the articulation of the medieval idea of imagination as the medium between body and soul (S, especially 127–9); or to explain an idea, as in the case of the artistic process understood as the meeting of contradictory forces such as inspiration and critical control (FR, especially 48–50). So while Agamben does not engage with Dante systematically, he refers to him constantly, treating the Florentine poet as an auctoritas whose presence adds critical rigour and credibility. Identifying and relating the instances of these encounters is useful since they highlight central aspects of Agamben’s thought and its development over the years, from the first writings, such as Stanzas, to more recent texts, such as Il fuoco e il racconto and The Use of Bodies. The significance of Agamben’s reliance on Dante can be divided into two categories: the aesthetic and the political. The following discussion will address each of these categories separately, but will also emphasise the philosophical continuity that links the discussion of the aesthetic with that of the political. While in the first instance Dante is offered as an example of poetic innovation, especially in relation to the use of language and imagination, in the second he is invoked as a forerunner of new forms of life. Mediality and potentiality are the two pivots connecting the aesthetic and the political.

Sets forth methodological principles for continued work on the relationship between Dante and Islam; namely, interdiscursivity, intertextuality, and the claim of direct source material. Examples of each possibility are provided by examining first a generally understood Muhammadan prohibition to go beyond the Straits of Gibraltar as cultural context for Dante’s Ulysses, then the particular use of the Summa alexandrinorum (based on Arabic translations of Aristotle) as a source for Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and finally correlations between the Comedy and the Liber scale machometi that suggest a direct line of transmission. In each case, attention is given to the material transmission of ideas and texts. This effort reaffirms (and reinterprets) the belief of Ernst Robert Curtius that the paramount task remaining for Dante scholars is to study methodically his relationship to the Latin Middle Ages.

In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, Francesca explains that she and her lover Paolo first became aware of their passion when they read of the famous first kiss between Lancelot and Guinevere and were inspired to imitate these characters. In attributing Francesca’s sin to her reading of the Book of Galehaut (or the Prose Lancelot), Dante is said to criticize her for confusing literature and life and, by extension, the ideal and the real. In the Prose Lancelot, some knights and ladies, like “realist” critics of romance, doubt that Lancelot is as great a knight and lover as he is alleged to be, but their skepticism is shown to be grounded in their own resentment. As intolerable as it may be for Lancelot’s opponents to acknowledge his superiority to themselves or their lovers, it is no less difficult for his supporters to acknowledge that excellence, as they can neither be nor possess the man who stands above all others. In the end, the only way to approach Lancelot is with the aim not of surpassing him, as his rivals do, nor of possessing him, as his admirers do, but of contemplating his excellence, as the audience does in reading this work.

This chapter presents a brief plot summary for the periphery of hell, followed by explanations of “encounters” and “allusions”, significant verses (in Italian and English), and study questions to aid in comprehension and facilitate discussion of the poem. After passing through the gate of Hell, marked with the ominous words “Leave behind all hope, you who enter,” Dante and Virgil observe the many shades of those who lived such undistinguished lives they are refused entry to either Heaven or Hell. Racing after a banner that never comes to a stop, these cowardly souls are repeatedly stung by flies and wasps, their blood and tears becoming food for the worms at their feet. The travelers approach the shores of Acheron, where wretched souls of the damned gather to cross the river aboard a boat piloted by Charon. The quick-tempered ferryman denies passage to Dante, who, shaken by an earthquake, loses consciousness and collapses.

In the eleventh canto of the Paradiso, Dante paints a vivid portrait of Francis of Assisi, a new rising sun in the Orient. A key episode in the spiritual itinerary of the saint, for Dante as for many other authors and artists, is his preaching Christ in the “proud presence” of the sultan, into whose presence he was driven by his “thirst for martyrdom”. To what extent is Dante’s vision of this central event in Francis’ life shaped by what he read, heard and saw in Florence, particularly in the Franciscan Convent of Santa Croce? How did this shape both his understanding of Francis and of Francis’ mission to the Egyptian sultan? In this as is many things, Dante borrows extensively from earlier models but shows considerable originality and innovation. In order to comprehend the key place given by Dante to Francis’ preaching to the sultan, I first briefly study the presence of the two mendicant orders in thirteenth-century Florence and of representations of Francis—and particularly of his encounter with the sultan—in the texts and pictorial representations with which Dante was familiar. Finally, I take a close look at Dante’s portrayal of Francis to see what he does with these sources.

This chapter presents a brief plot summary for the third circle of Hell, followed by explanations of “encounters” and “allusions”, significant verses (in Italian and English), and study questions to aid in comprehension and facilitate discussion of the poem. Cerberus, a doglike beast with three heads, guards the third circle of Hell and mauls the spirits punished here for their gluttony. The shades, writhing in muck, are unrelentingly pounded by a cold and filthy mixture of rain, sleet, and snow that makes the earth stink. One glutton, nicknamed Ciacco, rises up and recognizes Dante as a fellow Florentine. Ciacco prophesies bloody fighting between Florence's two political factions that will result first in the supremacy of one party (white Guelphs) and then, less than three years later, the victory and harsh retribution of the other party (black Guelphs). After informing Dante that several leading Florentines are punished below in other circles of Hell, Ciacco falls back to the ground, not to rise again until the Last Judgment at the end of time.

This chapter presents a brief plot summary for the fourth circle of Hell, followed by explanations of “encounters” and “allusions”, significant verses (in Italian and English), and study questions to aid in comprehension and facilitate discussion of the poem. Plutus, a wolflike beast, shouts a warning to Satan as Dante and Virgil enter the fourth circle of Hell, but Virgil's harsh rebuke silences him and allows the travelers to pass unscathed. Dante now sees a multitude of shades damned for the sin of avarice or its opposite, prodigality. The two groups push heavy boulders with their chests around a circle in opposite directions: when the avaricious and the prodigal collide, they turn and, after casting insults at one another, repeat the journey in the other direction. So filthy have the souls become as a result of their sordid lives that Dante cannot recognize them individually, though Virgil reports the presence of many clerics, including cardinals and popes, among the avaricious. He also explains to Dante the divine role of Fortuna in human affairs.

This chapter focuses on Petrarch's (1304–1374) own poetry in order to articulate what he achieved and how he used his sources. In returning to the source, the chapter reveals how good Petrarch's poems are and how much their excellence owes to his subtle and restrained exploitation of the tradition of his poetic predecessors. It begins by considering the advice which Petrarch gives scholars and writers about imitation and the ways of using one's reading in order to write. He was aware of the role which his own work might play as a model for other writers, and he advised them on how to use their reading. Drawing on previous scholarship, the chapter makes some connections between his Italian poems and what he says about his life in the collections of letters which he constructed and in his Secretum. Then it looks at some examples of Petrarch's poems, both to substantiate a claim about their excellence and to show how that excellence derives from his creative use of his reading. Finally, the chapter considers his attitude to Dante, his immediate and overwhelming forerunner, and discusses the ways in which later writers used Petrarch's work.

This chapter introduces the concept of Hell and the ‘katabatic imagination’, which is a worldview that conceives of selfhood as the narrative construct of an infernal journey and return. It identifies Dante Alighieri as the most influential katabatic writer on contemporary Western literature, and looks at the development of the katabatic narrative from the classical period to modern times. Several descent narratives are presented in the final section of the chapter.

This chapter presents a brief plot summary for pouches seven to ten of the eighth circle of Hell, followed by explanations of “encounters” and “allusions”, significant verses (in Italian and English), and study questions to aid in comprehension and facilitate discussion of the poem. After climbing out of the pit of the hypocrites, Dante and Virgil observe the punishment of fraudulent souls in the remaining four ditches of circle eight. In the seventh ditch Dante sees Vanni Fucci, who is reduced to ashes by a snakebite and then just as quickly regains his human appearance, and other thieves, who undergo transformations between human and reptilian forms. In the next ditch, enveloped in tonguelike flames, are authors of devious stratagems, particularly those involving persuasive speech. Here the Greek hero Ulysses, paired with his sidekick Diomedes, recounts his fatal final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, an Italian warlord, tells how he was damned for providing Pope Boniface VIII with fraudulent counsel. In the ninth ditch Dante encounters sowers of discord whose shade-bodies are divided by a sword-wielding devil. The arresting figure of Betran de Born, a poet whose severed head continues to speak, exemplifies the law of contrapasso, the correspondence between sin and punishment. Falsifiers—alchemists, counterfeiters, impersonators, and liars—are afflicted with various diseases in the tenth and final ditch of circle eight. Virgil scolds Dante for observing a quarrel between Master Adam (a counterfeiter) and Sinon, the Greek whose lie led to the destruction of Troy.

This chapter presents a brief plot summary for the ninth circle of Hell, followed by explanations of “encounters” and “allusions”, significant verses (in Italian and English), and study questions to aid in comprehension and facilitate discussion of the poem. Towering over the inner edge of circle eight are Giants, one of whom (Antaeus) lowers Dante and Virgil onto the frozen surface of Cocytus, the ninth circle of Hell. Embedded in separate regions of the ice are those who betrayed kin (Caina), homeland or political party (Antenora), guests (Ptolomea), and benefactors (Judecca). After kicking one of the political traitors hard in the face, Dante learns that this man (Bocca) betrayed the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti. In the same region Dante finds Count Ugolino gnawing on the skull of Archbishop Ruggieri, whose cruelty caused Ugolino (with his sons and grandsons) to die of hunger. Fra Alberigo informs Dante that souls of those who betray their guests arrive in Hell even while their bodies continue to live on earth. In Judecca, at the very center of Hell, Dante sees Lucifer. Much larger than the Giants, he has three hideous faces and six huge, batlike wings that generate the winds needed to keep the lake frozen. Two mouths, one on each side, chew on Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, while the middle mouth engulfs Judas, the betrayer of Jesus. Virgil carries Dante down the shaggy body of Lucifer, making sure to flip over and climb once they have passed through the center of the earth. Dante then follows Virgil along a trail through the other half of the globe until he is able to see the stars again.