In the early 1300s, Dante Alighieri set out to write the three volumes which make the up The Divine Comedy. Purgatorio is the second volume in this set and opens with Dante the poet picturing Dante the pilgrim coming out of the pit of hell. Similar to the Inferno (34 cantos), this volume is divided into 33 cantos, written in tercets (groups of 3 lines). The English prose is arranged in tercets to facilitate easy correspondence to the verse form of the Italian on the facing page, enabling the reader to follow both languages line by line. In an effort to capture the peculiarities of Dante's original language, this translation strives toward the literal and sheds new light on the shape of the poem. Again the text of Purgatorio follows Petrocchi's La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata, but the editor has departed from Petrocchi's readings in a number of cases, somewhat larger than in the previous Inferno, not without consideration of recent critical readings of the Comedy by scholars such as Lanza (1995, 1997) and Sanguineti (2001). As before, Petrocchi's punctuation has been lightened and American norms have been followed. However, without any pretensions to being "critical", the text presented here is electic and being not persuaded of the exclusive authority of any manuscript, the editor has felt free to adopt readings from various branches of the stemma. One major addition to this second volume is in the notes, where is found the Intercantica - a section for each canto that discusses its relation to the Inferno and which will make it easier for the reader to relate the different parts of the Comedy as a whole.
Robert M. Durling is Professor Emeritus of English and Italian Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ronald L. Martinez is Professor of Italian at Brown University. Their works together include Dante's Inferno and Purgatorio and Time and the Crystal: Studies in Dante's "Rime petrose."Robert Turner has been a professional illustrator for thirty years.
CONTENTS Abbreviations, xv Introduction, 2 PARADISO CANTO 1 Notes to Canto 1 CANTO 2 Notes to Canto 2 CANTO 3Notes to Canto 3 CANTO 4Notes to Canto 4 CANTO 5Notes to Canto 5 CANTO 6Notes to Canto 6 CANTO 7Notes to Canto 7 CANTO 8Notes to Canto 8 CANTO 9Notes to Canto 9 CANTO 10Notes to Canto 10 CANTO 11Notes to Canto 11 CANTO 12Notes to Canto 12 CANTO 13Notes to Canto 13 CANTO 14Notes to Canto 14 CANTO 15Notes to Canto 15 CANTO 16Notes to Canto 16 CANTO 17Notes to Canto 17 CANTO 18Notes to Canto 18 CANTO 19Notes to Canto 19 CANTO 20Notes to Canto 20 CANTO 21Notes to Canto 21 CANTO 22Notes to Canto 22 CANTO 23Notes to Canto 23 CANTO 24Notes to Canto 24 CANTO 25Notes to Canto 25 CANTO 26Notes to Canto 26 CANTO 27Notes to Canto 27 CANTO 28Notes to Canto 28 CANTO 29Notes to Canto 29 CANTO 30Notes to Canto 30 CANTO 31Notes to Canto 31 CANTO 32Notes to Canto 32 CANTO 33Notes to Canto 33 THE NICENE CREED BOETHIUS' O QUI PERPETUA MUNDUM RATIONE GUBERNAS Notes to "O qui perpetua' ADDITIONAL NOTES 1. The Figure of Beatrice (After Canto 2)2. The Paradiso and the Monarchia3.The Primacy of the Intellect, the Sun, and the Circling Theologians (After Canto 14)4. Dante and the Liturgy (After Canto 15)5. The Religious Orders in the Paradiso 6. The Threshold Cantos in the Comedy 7. The Fate of Phaethon in the Comedy 8. Circle-Cross-Eagle-Scales: Images in the Paradiso9. The Final Image 10. The Neoplatonic Background11. Dante and Neoplatonism12. Dante's Astrology13. The Heavens and the Sciences: Convivio 214. The Paradiso as Alpha and Omega Textual VariantsBibliographyIndex of Italian, Latin, and Other Foreign Words Discussed in the NotesIndex of Passages Cited in the NotesIndex of Proper Names in the NotesIndex of Proper Names in the Text and Translation
This new edition provides a powerful example of how a sensitive handling of the material can enhance our reading of the poem, rather than entice us with the illusory prospect of fully grasping its meaning. The book's great virtue is that its focus is the poem itself, in the original.