The Dante Encyclopedia

The Dante Encyclopedia "a text that speaks to our culture and responds to our concerns" - Simone Marchesi, Princeton University "Comprehensive and authoritative, offering the reader access to both Dante's personal genius, as well as the time in which he lived....the Dante Encyclopedia returns real value for the investment. Both serious Dante scholars and undergraduates studying him for the first time will benefit from this reference. It is an encyclopedia that does justice to its subject, and that is saying a lot." - Against the Grain "a splendid work, highly recommended." - Choice "almost unprecedented in our language... An indispensable reference work... Highly recommended." - Library Journal "The premier English-language reference source on Dante.... Comp lit will never be the same." - College and Research Libraries News The Dante Encyclopedia is a comprehensive resource that presents a systematic introduction to Dante's life and works and the cultural context in which his moral and intellectual imagination took shape. The only such work currently available in the English language, this encyclopedia: • brings together contemporary theories on Dante and his work, summarizing them in clear and vivid prose • provides in-depth discussions of the Divine Comedy, looking at title and form, moral structure, allegory and realism, and manuscript tradition, also taking account of the various editions of the work over the centuries, and of early and Renaissance commentaries • contains numerous entries on Dante's other important writings and on the major subjects covered within them • addresses connections between Dante and philosophy, theology, poetics, art, psychology, science, and music as well as critical perspective across the ages, from Dante's first critics to the present. Abundantly illustrated with more than 200 images of historic renderings of Dante's otherworld moral structure, the medieval world view of the globe, along with contemporary photographs of specific locations significant in Dante's history, this volume is the premier English language resource on Dante, his work, and his world. Richard Lansing is chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. His many publications include From Image to Idea: A Study of the Simile in Dante's Commedia (1977) and a translation of Dante's "Il Convivio" (Garland, 1990). He has served on the board of the Dante Society of America and has been the recipient of numerous academic awards and grants. Advisory Board Steven Botterill University of California, Berkeley Robert M. Durling University of California, Santa Cruz Alison Cornish University of Michigan, Ann Arbor John A. Scott University of Western Australia The Dante Encyclopedia Edited by Richard Lansing Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2000 by Garland Publishing First published in paperback 2010 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK and ROW by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2000, 2010 Richard Lansing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrie