Dante?s Volume from Alpha to Omega

Dante's Volume from Alpha to Omegabrings together essays written by internationally recognized scholars to explore the poet's encyclopedic impulse in light of our own frenzied information age.This comprehensive collection of essays, coedited by Carol Chiodo and Christiana Purdy Moudarres,examineshow Dante's spiritual quest is powered by an encyclopedic one,which hasformore thanseven centuriesdrawna readership as diverse as the knowledgehis workcontains.The essays investigate both the intellectual and spiritual pleasures thatDante'sCommediaaffords, underscoring how, through the sheer breadth of its knowledge, the poem demands collective and collaborative inquiry. Rather than isolating the poetic or theological strands of theCommedia, the book acts as a bridge across disciplines, braiding together the well-worn strands of poetry and theology with those of philosophy, the sciences, and the arts. The wide range of entries within Dante's poeticsummayield multiple opportunities to reflect on their points of intersection, and the urgency of the convergence of the poem's aesthetic, intellectual,and affective aims.