Dante and his literary precursors

John C. Barnes & Jennifer Petrie, editors

This volume explores connections between Dante and literary contexts of periods earlier than his own, from the pre-Christian era to the thirteenth century.

Essays include Pamela Williams (U. Hull), Cato of Utica in Cicero’s De Finibus and Dante’s Commedia; Teresa Hankey (U. Kent), Dante and Statius; Jean-Michel Picard (UCD), Dante and Irish vision literature; Drina Oldroyd (Griffith U.), Dante and the medieval prophets; John C. Barnes (UCD), Dante’s knowledge of Florentine history; Claire Honess (U. Reading), Dante and political poetry in the vernacular; Stephen Bemrose (U. Exeter), Dante’s ‘Neutral’ Angels; Lynne Press (QUB), Modes of metamorphosis in the Commedia: Inferno XIII; June Salmons (U. Wales, Swansea), Tradition and innovation in Purgatori; Prue Shaw (University College, London), A reading of Purgatorio XXVI; Joanna Sciortino Nowlan (King’s College, London), Dante and the mystical tradition.

The main area of John C. Barnes’ research includes both Dante and other aspects of medieval Florentine culture. Jennifer Petrie has devoted her scholarly endeavour to Dante, Petrarch, St Caterina de’ Ricci and 16th-century women Petrarchist poets.