Dante

Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 CONTENTS 8 Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgements 14 Preface: In fondo, una serietà terribile 20 PART I Preliminary Considerations 28 Chapter 1 Historical Considerations 30 ◆ Florence between the Guelphs and Ghibellines (1215–79) 30 ◆ Florence between the Blacks and the Whites (1279–1302) 36 ◆ The Descent and Demise of Henry VII (1302–13) 48 Chapter 2 Biographical Considerations 54 ◆ Susceptibility and the Significant Encounter (1265–93) 54 ◆ Care, Conflict and Catastrophe (1293–1302) 73 ◆ Far-Wandering and the Agony of Exile (1302–21) 82 PART II The Early Years: From Dante da Maiano to the Vita nova 100 Chapter 1 Preliminary Remarks: Love and Love-Intelligence 102 Chapter 2 Literary Hinterland: From Provençal to the stilo de la loda 109 Chapter 3 Literary Apprenticeship and a Coming of Age 141 ◆ Dante guittoniano 141 ◆ Dante cavalcantiano 148 ◆ Dante and the Rose: The Fiore and the Detto d’amore 160 ◆ Dante guinizzelliano 186 Chapter 4 The Vita nova 200 ◆ Preliminary Remarks: Antecedent Utterance and an Essay in Authoring 200 ◆ Love Seeking and Seeking Not Its Own 211 ◆ Conclusion: New Life and a Commedia a minore 228 PART III The Middle Years: The Moral and Allegorical Rime, the Convivio, the De vulgari eloquentia and the Post-Exilic Rime 234 Chapter 1 Compassionate Lady of the Casement and a Woman of Stone: The Pre-Exilic Rime 236 Chapter 2 The Convivio 262 ◆ Preliminary Remarks: Magnanimity, Possibility and Impossibility 262 ◆ Course of the Argument 263 ◆ Axes of Concern in the Convivio 291 ◆ Language, Form and Function: An Essay in Beauty, Being and Becoming 304 ◆ Conclusion: Being and Becoming as Yet in Waiting 312 Chapter 3 The De vulgari eloquentia: Language, Literature and the Ontologization of Art 314 Chapter 4 The Post-Exilic Rime 340 PART IV The Final Years: The Commedia, the Political Letters and the Monarchia, the Questio, Cangrande and the Eclogues 348 Chapter 1 The Commedia 350 ◆ Standing Alone in Respect of That Which Matters Alone: Dante, Cino and the Solitary Way 350 ◆ The Commedia à la lettre 354 ◆ An Anthropology and Ethic: Love and Love-Harvesting 404 ◆ The Dialectics of Being: A Difficult Dimensionality 411 ◆ A Phenomenology of Existence: The Mood as Mediator 441 ◆ Dante and Significant Journeying 463 ◆ Immanent Eschatology and the Triumph of the Image 486 Chapter 2 The Monarchia and the Political Letters 506 Chapter 3 The Questio de situ aque et terre, the Letter to Cangrande della Scala and the Eclogues 550 Afterword: A Coruscation of Delight 569 Select Bibliography 574 Index of Names 596