Brief Description
A reading of the Comedy in the context of thirteenth-century psychology and philosophy.
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Patrick Boyde argues that the way in which Dante represents what he (or his fictional self) saw and felt was profoundly influenced by the thirteenth-century science of psychology. Professor Boyde offers an authoritative account of the way in which vision and the emotions were understood in Dante's lifetime. He rereads many of the most dramatic and moving episodes in the Comedy, and shows how knowledge of Dante's philosophical ideas can help us to understand the meaning of his journey toward the source of goodness and truth.
Review Quotes
1. ."..in it we are allowed to watch an elegant and graceful explicator at work, a truly learned and inventive reader who manages--mirabile dictu!--to make Aristotle jump right off the page at you. As a review of basic Scholastic terminology and theory, as a 'handbook' of philosophical backgrounds to the Commedia, and as an example of source scholarship at its very best, this is a book that every Dantist should read." Paul Spillenger, Speculum
2. .,."in it we are allowed to watch an elegant and graceful explicator at work, a truly learned and inventive reader who manages--mirabile dictu!--to make Aristotle jump right off the page at you. As a review of basic Scholastic terminology and theory, as a 'handbook' of philosophical backgrounds to the Commedia, and as an example of source scholarship at its very best, this is a book that every Dantist should read." Paul Spillenger, Speculum
3. ..".in it we are allowed to watch an elegant and graceful explicator at work, a truly learned and inventive reader who manages--mirabile dictu!--to make Aristotle jump right off the page at you. As a review of basic Scholastic terminology and theory, as a 'handbook' of philosophical backgrounds to the Commedia, and as an example of source scholarship at its very best, this is a book that every Dantist should read." Paul Spillenger, Speculum
