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What can we say about the sounds of Dante's Divine Comedy on the basis of an entirely, or almost entirely, automatic translation of the electronic text into a phonological representation: that is, with the maximum of technology and the minimum of manual intervention? This entails one major limitation in the resultant analysis, that it cannot take accentual rhythm into account. We also need to recognize a number of other, less important limitations, resulting from other elements of the phonological system that are not reflected in Italian spelling. In part, these limitations depend on whether the phonological system is that of Tuscan or of other forms of the standard language. This chapter examines the distribution of vocalic and consonantal phonemes in the text of the Divine Comedy, and the distribution of vocalic and consonantal repetitions — assonances and alliterations. In all cases comparisons are made with a large range of related, and some unrelated, texts. Such repetitions have figured largely in modern Dante criticism and modern criticism in general.

In what way is it possible to represent the accentual rhythm of Dante's Divine Comedy, or any other Italian poem, systematically? Traditionally, the Italian hendecasyllable has been said to fall into three types, according to the location of accents in the line: on syllables 6 and 10; or 4, 8, and 10; or 4, 7, and 10. The first type is termed a maiore, the second and the third a minore. To say that syllable and phrase accentuation are a matter of stress means that they can be identified internally by the speaker, in terms of the energy with which he or she pronounces the syllables in question; and outwardly in terms of volume and length. In addressing the question of scansion, this chapter retains with very few exceptions the word accents of all polysyllables, whatever their position in the phrase, and assigns their accent to large classes of monosyllables on which an accent is possible in normal parlance.

The near-phonological nature of Italian spelling, together with the relative simplicity of the rules for rhyme in traditional Italian metrics, mean that rhyme in Italian is susceptible of almost the same degree of electronic processing as the phonemes and alliterations in Dante's Divine Comedy. The ratio of types to tokens provides an index of the variety or range of rhymes in the poem: the more different rhymes there are in relation to the total number, clearly, the higher the ratio. The number of rhyme-types that occur only once within each cantica declines slightly from one to the next. The distribution of rhyme-words, as opposed to rhymes, does not strictly fall under our general heading of sounds, but it is a relevant consideration in this context, since the effect of a rhyme is inseparable from that of the word in which it is contained. This chapter also examines the distribution of accented vowels in rhyme in the Divine Comedy, the ten most common rhymes in the poem, and all phonemes in rhyme.

The principles of syllable scansion in Dante's Divine Comedy have been most authoritatively treated in the Enciclopedia dantesca entries by Gian Luigi Beccaria on dialefe and dieresi. More recently, they have been treated in Pietro Beltrami's and Aldo Menichetti's substantial manuals of Italian metrics. Using a number of computer-based routines, this chapter examines the nature of Dante's practice, and particularly the degree of regularity that it displays. It also describes the accentual rhythm of the Divine Comedy and considers the basis on which syllable divisions are made. Defining Dante's practice in this respect means defining that practice as represented in Giorgio Petrocchi's edition of the Divine Comedy. This chapter also analyses exceptional sinalefe after polysyllables in the poem, along with vowels following dialefe and exceptional sinalefe.

This chapter considers the ways in which sounds in Dante's Divine Comedy work. The purpose is to put into their theoretical and literary-critical context the key contributions to the debate of Gian Luigi Beccaria and others, by asking how a new view of the Divine Comedy emerged as a result of the impact of formalism, structuralism, and semiotics on the practice of literary criticism in Italy from the 1900s onwards. As theories concerned with the nature of literature and the literary, formalism, structuralism, and semiotics challenged the traditional treatment of Dante's poem, this held out the possibility of remedying its deficiencies through a more extensive consideration of its specifically literary properties. This chapter first considers the critical tradition dominant in Dante studies in Italy before the advent of these theories, then examines the distinctively Italian form of the theories.

The project that has led to this book uses computer analysis to construct a description of the sounds of Dante's Divine Comedy. While the importance of sound in poetry is indisputable, it is not at all an easy subject to discuss. Theoretical proposals have been made at a high level of generality, and they are often very suggestive: for instance, Julia Kristeva's association of rhythm with what she terms the ‘semiotic’ rather than the ‘symbolic’ element in language. This book examines the sound features of the Divine Comedy in the sense of their overall distribution within the text. Computer analysis is carried out based on Italian orthography. To translate the written text of the Divine Comedyinto a representation of its sounds is to translate it into its constituent phonemes. This project involves using the regularity of Italian spelling to produce a phonological transcription of the poem without distinguishing between accented and unaccented syllables.

Theology is an exact science. Its methods and aims may differ from those of the empirical sciences. But it remains exact in the sense of calling for painstaking accuracy in the formation of its main propositions. In defining ‘occasional’ theology, the answer lies in the nature of the present enterprise, which is not theological but historical, and history must take occasional liberties with terms. This chapter considers Dante's Inferno, particularly Canto 13, and examines the poet's thought about suicide and his moral system.

This chapter takes a look at Dante and the Divine Comedy, a work that is regarded as one of the greatest poems of all time—right next to the works of Homer and Shakespeare. Looking at Dante's epic in its larger context, however, it is seen that his intellectual project was to bring together three powerful traditions. First, he renewed the synthesis of the Athens–Jerusalem tension on a vast scale—bringing together the likes of Virgil and Augustine, Cicero and Aquinas. At the same time he also added a third element: the so-called religion of Love, the religion of Amor which had become popular and widespread throughout eleventh-century Europe. The chapter thus examines and analyzes Dante's epic, his interiorizing of the heroic and his making it the ideal of inner perfection.

Narrative embodiments are required by a Catholic imagination rooted in the Incarnation, the story of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, who redeemed us within the contours of a particular time and place, and who remains in relationship with us. For those hoping to hand down the Catholic intellectual tradition in narrative two great works are indispensable: Dante's Divine Comedy (1321) and Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov (1881). They have an encompassing vision embraced by Catholics, and they stand with an abundance of Catholic fiction, including works by Greene, Bernanos, Undset, Waugh, Flannery O’Connor, and Endo, all revealing and shaping a Catholic vision of abiding grace. In classic Catholic fiction the emphasis is on the portrayal of characters oriented toward sanctity. These characters reflect the variety of possible forms that “the good life” of holiness can take. Characters in Catholic fiction glimpse the promise of eternity within the contours of their limited lives. Persistently the Catholic narrative imagination suggests the presence of grace in the passage through limitation, including the limits of our human sinfulness. Also Catholic fiction frequently represents the power of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

This chapter attempts to reconstruct, as far as possible, the dantate performed in London and in Italy by the celebrated actor and patriot, Gustavo Modena. These were a distinctive form of declamation of passages from the Divine Comedy which met with considerable acclaim between the 1830s and the 1850s, and enjoyed a long afterlife in the memory of witnesses and fellow professionals for at least half a century after Modena's death in 1861. The chapter contributes to the study of Dante in the nineteenth century by exploring the possibilities and limitations of oral performance of the text at a time when Dante was rapidly filling the role of national poet amidst the heightened political tensions of the Risorgimento. The concluding sections place Modena's further reflections on and performance of Dante in the context of his growing disillusionment with the likely and actual outcomes of the struggle for nationhood.

Symptoms of exhaustion theorized in the context of acedia and sloth, ranging from late antiquity to the Middle Ages. Theologians of that period, such as Thomas Aquinas, believed that the symptoms of exhaustion were caused by moral and spiritual failings. Exhaustion was represented as a disease of the will and the spirit, not of the body. Literary example includes Dante's 'The Divine Comedy'.

Chapter 13 presents Dante and his Divine Comedy by giving the historical background for his life. Dante is understood as following in the epic tradition of Homer and Virgil, from whom he draws extensively. Most importantly he uses Virgil as a kind of guide and mentor. A comparison is made between Dante’s account of hell and the different accounts of the Underworld in the pagan authors Homer and Dante. It is argued that Dante’s picture presents a more developed sense of subjectivity and individuality, which can be seen most readily in his elaborate system of punishments in the Inferno. This raises anew the question of divine justice which has been discussed in different contexts in the previous chapters. For Dante, the basic principle of divine punishment is referred to as “contrapasso,” which means something like “to suffer the opposite.” The idea implies that the punishment is conceived as the opposite or mirror image of the crime itself. It is thus intended as a natural inversion of the sin. Finally, an account is also given of the changed role of the hero Odysseus, who was hailed as great hero in the Homeric poems, but who here is reviled as a hardened sinner.

This section examines how a local spoken language that was derided for writing—the “vulgar” vernacular employed by Dante in The Divine Comedy—could be used for writing of the highest seriousness and quality. It also considers how such a language could eventually become accceptable for writing. It includes two chapters that explore some of the problems with the existing culture of proper literacy and its hostility to speech, as well as the expected emergence of a new culture of vernacular literacy that will welcome speech—and multiple spoken languages—for writing.

Chapter 1 discusses labyrinths and mazes as motifs symbolizing the solar cycle from mythology to the Christian era. The labyrinth is engraved on neolithic monuments such as Newgrange in Ireland’s Boyne Valley. The tale is told of Daedalus and the Cretan labyrinth and how Theseus overcame the Minotaur and escaped with the help of Ariadne’s thread. The meaning of the labyrinth in classical mythology is considered. The labyrinth remained an important symbol in the Middle Ages. It is found on the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral and in other medieval cathedrals such as Chartres. The chapter also discusses the relationship between the labyrinth and the cosmography of Dante’s Divine Comedy.