Understanding Dante (review)

This superb volume by Australia's most distinguished Dante scholar is a rare achievement. Emeritus Professor Scott's elegant and detailed analysis of Dante's works offers rich rewards for Dante researchers, while at the same time providing a valuable introduction for less experienced readers, even those who may be entering the field of Dante studies for the first time. Through the repetition of key concepts, the presentation of quotations in English (his own) from the Italian texts and the adoption of a structured approach to the discussion of thematic and linguistic developments in the poet's major and minor works, Scott's close reading affords a wealth of illuminating insights. In assured and accessible prose, the author conveys the uniqueness of Dante's worldview, his stylistic prowess and his 'genius for dramatization' (p. 16) that led eventually to 'the narrative supremacy of the Comedy and that poem's unique synthesis of personal experience and universal significance' (p. 3).

The book is divided into twelve chapters organized with a view to examining the poet's works roughly in accordance with the order in which they were composed. Chapter 1 discusses the Vita Nova. This is followed by an analysis of De vulgari eloquentia (Ch. 2), Dante's lyric poetry (Ch. 3); Convivio (Ch. 4) and Monarchia (Ch. 5). Dante's masterwork, the Commedia, is discussed in Chapters 6-10 (the prologue scene [ch. 6]; the moral order of the poem [ch. 7]; topography and demography [ch. 8]; Dante and classical antiquity [ch. 9] and the poet in the Comedy [ch. 10]). The Florentine poet's life and times are covered in Ch. 11, with Ch. 12 dedicated to a discussion of the Latin epistles, Questio de aqua et terra and Dante's eclogues.

A 'Chronology, 1215-1321' (pp. xxvii-xxix) offers an overview of Dante's literary and political activity, with cross-references to the Commedia and the epistles. In addition, there are many useful bibliographical listings, including a list of up-to-date electronic resources, all of which assist, in a very practical way, readers who wish to extend their knowledge of critical commentaries and glosses. The author's wide-ranging, multilingual expertise with secondary sources is clearly evident throughout the volume.

Commencing with the youthful vision of the Vita Nova, Scott elucidates Dante's innovation as a writer who continually analysed his own creative output and was able to relate his writing to 'an inner reality' (p. 3). The volume traces, among other things, Dante's creation of the figure of Beatrice from a speculumChristi to her dazzling metamorphosis in the Commedia as a speculum Dei, the poet's exploration of the theme of love as a central, unifying concern, his divergence from Cavalcantian concepts in love poetry, his search for 'a universal context for his poetry' (p. 24), his devotion to philosophy and his belief in ideals of justice and political integrity that promote humankind's destiny to live as 'members of a community' (p. 192). Other highlights in the volume include the exploration of Dante's stylistic 'revolution', as Scott terms it, in the petrose poems of 1296, and the discussion of Ulysses' transgression, with analogies drawn between the classical Greek hero and the Trojan Aeneas, Cato, Moses, Solomon and the personal drama of Dante himself (pp. 254-60).

In drawing together the many threads of Dante's literary concerns, the volume convincingly traces the poet's preoccupation with the merits of temporal versus spiritual authority, Dante's ability to syncretize 'pagan beliefs and Christian dogma' (p. 246) using exempla drawn from biblical and classical sources, his articulation of Virgil's providential mission, his intertextuality, his astonishing range and technical virtuosity and, most importantly, his capacity for self-renewal as a writer. Piece by piece, the author meticulously assembles the mosaic pattern that will eventually convey, for the reader, the synergy and excitement of the Commedia's creation...