Lectura Dantis: Inferno: A Canto-by-Canto Commentary

490 Pages·1999·3.81 MB·English

by  Oldcorn

Lectura Dantis
INFERNO
Edited by
ALLEN MANDELBAUM
ANTHONY OLDCORN
CHARLES ROSS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
The University of California Press
gratefully welcomes the contribution
provided by
ENTE CASSA DIRISPARMIO DIFIRENZE
toward the publication of this book.
The first volume of the California Lectura Dantis
draws on a wide range of international scholar-critics.
Each contributor presents his or her reading, in essay form,
of a canto of the Inferno. The Purgatorio and Paradiso volumes
will follow the same format, providing the long-awaited companion
to the three volumes of Allen Mandelbaum's verse tranlsations,
with facing Italian text, of The Divine Comedy.
ADVISORY BOARD
Ignazio Baldelli
University of Rome
Teodolinda Barolini
Columbia University
Charles T. Davisf
Tulane University
Giuseppe Di Scipio
Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Cecil Grayson
Oxford University
Emilio Pasquini
University of Bologna
Lea Ritter Santini
University of Miinster
John A. Scott
University of Western Australia
Lectura Dantis
INFERNO
Edited by
ALLEN MANDELBAUM
ANTHONY OLDCORN
CHARLES ROSS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
The editors have benefited much from the help of
the Wait Tower staff of Wake Forest University,
especially the unstinting care of Lily Saade,
as well as from the editorial collaboration of
Martha Craig at Purdue University.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
©i 998 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lectura Dantis : Inferno / edited by Allen Mandelbaum,
Anthony Oldcorn, Charles Ross.
p. cm.—(California lectura Dantis ; i)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-21270-1 (alk. paper)
i. Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. Inferno. I. Mandelbaum,
Allen, 1926- . II. Oldcorn, Anthony. III. Ross, Charles,
1949- . IV. Series.
PQ4443-L38 1998
851'.!—dc2i 98-342^3
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
08
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-I992 (R 1997)
(Permanence of Paper). @
Lectura Dantis
The moral topology of Inferno,
by Barry Moser
This volume of the
California Lectura Dantis
is dedicated to our indispensable
colleague and peerless editor of the text
of Dante's
Divine Comedy,
the late
GIORGIO PETROCCHI
It is unthinkable
to read the cantos of Dante
without aiming them
in the direction of the present day.
They were made for that...
They demand the commentary
of the futurum.
OSIP MANDELSTAM
CONTENTS
Introduction
Dante in His Age
ALLEN MANDELBAUM
I
Canto i
The Hard Begin
LETTERIO CASSATA
9
Canto H
Dante's Authority
ROBERT HOLLANDER
25
Canto in
The Gate of Hell
EUGENIC N.FRONGIA
36
Canto iv
A Melancholy Elysium
MANLIO PASTORE STOCCHI
50
Canto v
The Fierce Dove
PAOLO VALESIO
63