The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 2: Purgatorio (Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri)

the Second Volume Of Oxford's New divine Comedy Presents The Italian Text Of The purgatorio And, On Facing Pages, A New Prose Translation. Continuing The Story Of The Poet's Journey Through The Medieval Other World Under The Guidance Of The Roman Poet Virgil, The purgatorio Culminates In The Regaining Of The Garden Of Eden And The Reunion There With The Poet's Long-lost Love Beatrice. This New Edition Of The Italian Text Takes Recent Critical Editions Into Account, And Durling's Prose Translation, Like That Of The inferno , Is Unprecedented In Its Accuracy, Eloquence, And Closeness To Dante's Syntax. Martinez' And Durling's Notes Are Designed For The First-time Reader Of The Poem But Include A Wealth Of New Material Unavailable Elsewhere. The Extensive Notes On Each Canto Include Innovative Sections Sketching The Close Relation To Passages—often Similarly Numbered Cantos—in The inferno . Fifteen Short Essays Explore Special Topics And Controversial Issues, Including Dante's Debts To Virgil And Ovid, His Radical Political Views, His Original Conceptions Of Homosexuality, Of Moral Growth, And Of Eschatology. As In The inferno , There Is An Extensive Bibliography And Four Useful Indexes. Robert Turner's Illustrations Include Maps, Diagrams Of Purgatory And The Cosmos, And Line Drawings Of Objects And Places Mentioned In The Poem. De goddelijke komedie is de beschrijving van een denkbeeldige tocht door het hiernamaals. Zij heeft drie delen: de hel, het vagevuur en het paradijs en ieder van deze delen heeft drieëndertig zangen van niet geheel gelijke lengte, terwijl aan het eerste deel nog een inleidende zang voorafgaat, waardoor het totale aantal van de zang honderd bedraagt. Dit aantal is geen toevalligheid. Het getal honderd gold in de middeleeuwse getallensymboliek, waarvan ook Dante een naarstig beoefenaar was, als het zinnebeeld van de volmaaktheid. Drie is het getal van de personen der heilige drie-eenheid, drieëndertig is het aantal jaren van Jezus' aardse leven. In de eerste zang van De goddelijke komedie is Dante verdwaald in een donker woud en terwijl hij wanhopig naar hulp uitziet ontmoet hij daar de Latijnse dichter Vergilius. Samen verlaten zij het aardoppervlak en dalen af naar de hel, die voorgesteld wordt als een systeem van concentrische, zich steeds verder vernauwende kringen, een soort geringde trechter, die tenslotte in het middelpunt van de aarde eindigt. Daar zit Lucifer in het ijs, met zijn hoofd naar ons halfrond toe en met zijn voeten naar het zuidelijk halfrond gekeerd. Tussen het ijs en Lucifer vinden Dante en Vergilius een weg langs het middelpunt van de aarde en stijgen dan weer op naar het zuidelijk halfrond. Zij bereiken een eiland, waar zich een hoge berg verheft, de louteringsberg van het vagevuur, waar de zielen die in staat van genade zijn gestorven, maar hun aardse schulden nog niet hebben uitgeboet, geleidelijk gelouterd worden en opstijgen naar de hemelse zaligheid. Deze berg, een soort tegenbeeld van de hel, heeft langs zijn flanken steeds nauwer wordende gaanderijen. Daarlangs stijgen Dante en Vergilius opwaarts naar de top, waar zich het aardse paradijs bevindt. Wanneer zij daar zijn aangekomen, wordt Vergilius als Dante's geleider afgelost door Beatrice. Samen met Beatrice stijgt Dante nu opwaarts naar het paradijs. De eeuwige woonplaats van de zaligen bestraald door het licht van God. 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. This first volume of this new Divine Comedy presents the Italian text of the Inferno and, on facing pages, a new prose translation (the first in twenty-five years). Robert Durling's translation brings a new power and accuracy to the rendering of Dante's extraordinary vision of Hell, with all its terror, pathos, and sardonic humor, and its penetrating analyses of the psychology of sin and the ills that plague society. Martinez and Durling's introduction and notes are designed with the first-time reader of the poem in mind but will be useful to others as well. The concise introduction presents essential biographical and historical background and a discussion of the form of the poem. The notes are more extensive than those in most translations currently available, and they contain much new material. In addition, sixteen short essays explore the autobiographical dimension of the poem, the problematic body analogy, the question of Christ's presence in Hell, and individual cantos that have been the subject of controversy, including those on homosexuality. There is an extensive bibliography, and the four indexes (to foreign words, passages cited, proper names in the notes, and to proper names in the text and translation) will make the volume particularly useful. Robert Turner's illustrations include detailed maps of Italy, clearly labeled diagrams of the cosmos and of the structure of Hell, and line drawings illustrating objects and places mentioned in the poem. This first volume of this new Divine Comedy presents the Italian text of the Inferno and, on facing pages, a new prose translation (the first in twenty-five years). The editor's translation brings a new power and accuracy to the rendering of Dante's extraordinary vision of Hell, with all its terror, pathos, and sardonic humor, and its penetrating analyses of the psychology of sin and the ills that plague society. The introduction and notes are designed with the first-time reader of the poem in mind but will be useful to others as well. The concise introduction presents essential biographical and historical background and a discussion of the form of the poem. The notes are more extensive than those in most translations currently available, and they contain much new material. In addition, sixteen short essays explore the autobiographical dimension of the poem, the problematic body analogy, the question of Christ's presence in Hell, and individual cantos that have been the subject of controversy, including those on homosexuality. There is an extensive bibliography, and the four indexes (to foreign words, passages cited, proper names in the notes, and to proper names in the text and translation). Illustrations include detailed maps of Italy, clearly labeled diagrams of the cosmos and of the structure of Hell, and line drawings illustrating objects and places mentioned in the poem To course on better waters the little boat of my wit, that leaves behind her so cruel a sea, now raises her sails, and I will sing of that second kingdom in which the human spirit is made clean and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven. To run through better waters the little ship of my wit now hoists its sails, leaving behind it a sea so cruel, and I will sing of that second realm where the human spirit purges itself and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven. Presented with both Italian and English text, this version of Dante's classic follows the poet's journey through Purgatory under the guidance of Virgil in search of Beatrice.