Dante's Italy and Other Essays.

Schutzumschlag mit Randl�ren und kleineren Einrissen, Kopfschnitt leicht angegraut, Bleistiftanmerkung auf Schmutztitel, einige Seiten weisen auch sehr leichte Randl�ren auf, sonst gut und sauber / dust jacket with edgewear and minor tears, top edge slightly grayed, pencil annotation on half title, some pages also have very light edgewear, otherwise good and clean. - In this collection of diverse but closely linked essays, Charles Davis examines with penetrating insight one of the richest periods of civilization the world has known: the Italy of Dante Alighieri. Focusing on Tuscany and Florence, where Dante grew up and spent his most impressionable years, the author explores crucial formative influences upon the great poet's education, as well as his historical, political, and religious views. Davis provides us with glimpses of the bustling urban landscape Dante knew and places the poet within his society as one of a fascinating cluster of political theorists. These other Tuscans and Dante shared a passion for ancient Rome and its heroes that deeply affected their attitudes toward Italy and toward their own city-states. Davis begins with a new essay summarizing Dante's idea of his own nation as a geographic, linguistic, and historic unit. He goes on to survey Dante's grandiose theology of history, in which a reborn empire must rise to discipline a corrupt church. After dealing generally with Dante's historical thought, Davis moves on to essays exploring the religious and the secular background of Dante's remarkably inclusive but at the same time highly original views. The relationship between the Florentine chroniclers Villani and Malispini, and between them and Dante, is discussed. Davis addresses the "Malispini question" suggesting a different source for the expression of Dante's nostalgia for an imagined age of Florentine communal harmony. Later essays deal with learning and fame, and with the republican ethos that permeated thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Tuscan political thought. Davis gives a detailed picture of Florentine higher education around 1300, centering on the studia of the great Dominican and Franciscan convents. The political ideas of the layman Brunetto Latini (hailed by Dante in the Divine Comedy as the "maestro" who taught him how man makes himself eternal through fame) and the Dominicans Remigio de' Girolami and Ptolemy of Lucca are extensively analyzed. Davis shows that Dante shared their admiration for the Roman republic, but, unlike them, believed that only an all-powerful Roman Empire could restore Rome to her rightful position as the capital of both Italy and the world. / Contents Abbreviations Preface Introduction 1 Dante's Italy 2. Dante's Vision of History 3. Poverty and Eschatology in the Commedia 4. Il buon tempo antico (The Good Old Time) 5. The Malispini Question 6. Education in Dante's Florence 7. Brunetto Latini and Dante 8. An Early Florentine Political Theorist: Fra Remigio de' Girolami 9. Roman Patriotism and Republican Propaganda: Ptolemy of Lucca and Pope Nicholas III 10. Ptolemy of Lucca and the Roman Republic Appendix: Recent Work on the Malispini Question Bibliography Index. ISBN 9780812278835