Preface; Chronology; 1. Life of Dante Giuseppe Mazzotta; 2. Dante and the lyric past Teodolina Barolini; 3. Approaching the Vita nuova Robert Pogue Harrison; 4. From auctor to author: Dante before the Commedia Albert Russell Ascoli; 5. Introduction to Inferno Lino Pertile; 6. Introduction to Purgatorio Jeffrey T. Schnapp; 7. ‘Shadowy prefaces’: introduction to Paradiso Rachel Jacoff; 8. Dante and the Bible Peter S. Hawkins; 9. Dante and the classical poets Kevin Brownlee; 10. Allegory and autobiography John Freccero; 11. A poetics of chaos and harmony Joan Ferrante; 12. The theology of the Commedia A. N. Williams; 13. The poetry and poetics of the creation Piero Boitani; 14. Dante and Florence John M. Najemy; 15. Dante and the empire Charles Till Davis; 16. Dante and his commentators Robert Hollander; 17. Dante in English David Wallace; Further reading.
John Freccero, Allegory and autobiography in
The Cambridge Companion to Dante, ed. by Rachel Jacoff
La conversione dalla presunzione all'umiltà è anche il tema della discesa di Dante all'Inferno che allo stesso modo avviene a metà della vita: nel mezzo del cammino. Il paesaggio della scena del prologo della Commedia prende in prestito diversi dettagli dal libro 7 delle Confessioni di Agostino, dove la presunzione filosofica è distinta dalla confessione (confessio culpae): una cosa è guardare dall'alto di una montagna la terra di pace e quiete e un'altra è raggiungerla, quando la via è impedita dal leone e dal dragone.
Among the last words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John are those directed to Peter, predicting the disciple's martyrdom: “Verily, verily, I say unto you that when you were young you girt yourself and walked wherever you wished; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another shall gird you and lead you where you would not go.” (John 21:18) In his commentary, St. Augustine explains that these verses mark the passage in Peter's life from youthful self-reliance to humility, from the sin of presumption to confession and contrition. In middle age (for Peter is neither young nor old), he is called upon to demonstrate his love by caring for the Lord's sheep and by being willing to accept crucifixion. The conversion from presumption to humility is also the theme of Dante's descent into Hell, which likewise takes place in middle age: “nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita.” The landscape of the prologue scene borrows several details from book 7 of Augustine's Confessions, where philosophical presumption is distinguished from confession: “it is one thing, from a wooded mountain top, to see the land of peace and quite another to reach it, when one's way is beset by the lion and the dragon.” It is likely that casting off the rope girdle halfway through the Inferno signifies a surrender of self-reliance analogous to Peter's, while the rush with which the pilgrim is girt at the beginning of the Purgatorio is a traditional emblem of humility (“umile pianta”).