Figure 1
Update: I wrote this piece five years ago never dreaming I would have the opportunity to visit the Piazza Dante in Verona, Italy. But, this past summer of 2021, I did. It was amazing to see the city in all its beauty and the Piazza and where Dante spent seven years in the place that was his inspiration for The Divine Comedy.
“Midway upon the journey of our life I found that I was in a dusky wood; For the right path, whence I had strayed, was lost.”
This is a poignant line in which many who have reached the mid-point of life can identify. This is the opening line from Dante’s Inferno. He, Dante, comes to mind today for two reasons. First, because this past week marked the 750th anniversary of his birth. And why is this significant? For those who don’t know, Dante is considered a major philosopher, scholar, and poet of the late middle ages. His most famous work, The Divine Comedy, of which the Inferno is the opening book, is an epic poem about a middle-aged man’s journey through hell up to heaven. And this leads to the second reason. Dante’s work – the Divine Comedy – became entwined this past week with a major happening in the Roman Catholic Church, The Year of Mercy.
This coming year, Dec 8, 2015 – Nov 20, 2016, has been marked as the Year of Mercy for Catholics. As such, this past week while commemorating Dante’s birth, Pope Francis sent a message saying:
“that while the centuries have passed Dante still has much to say and to offer through his immortal works to those who wish to follow the route of true knowledge and authentic discovery of the self, the world and the profound and transcendent meaning of existence (Catholic News Service, 2015).”
He went on to say that:
“He hoped that as Catholics prepare to celebrate the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy they would pick up Dante’s work and allow it to be a spiritual guide. (Catholic News Service, 2015)”
So, attempting to fulfill this request of Pope Francis, I went to my bookcase and pulled out two copies of Dante. One is the Inferno only, a modern-day paperback that I purchased in the late ’90s for my classics book group. However, it is the other book, Dante’s Divine Comedy, that I found about the same time in a used bookstore close to the Vermont-New York border that I wish to opine about in this post. It was, and still is, a true ‘dog-eared find.’
This book was translated by Lawrence Grant White and published by Pantheon in 1948. It was, at that time, a new translation that got good reviews. What makes this book so special, however, are the visual aspects:
- The size allows for an easy-to-read layout – the book is 8” by 11” with a two-column format on each page. In other words, plenty of white space for easy reading.
- It has distinctive visual breaks for each Canto.
- And most importantly, it is filled with Gustave Dore woodcut illustrations.
These are beautiful illustrations that visually depict scenes and add a real depth to the book. In fact, it is getting two books in one since Gustave Dore originally self-published his Dante illustrations as a folio edition in 1861. It, the folio edition, was a resounding success and these pieces of art have been used to illustrate more than 200 editions of Dante’s work since (Popova).
So now the next step? Very simply re-visit, read, and reflect on Dante through the pages of text and images as I ready myself for the Year of Mercy. This was indeed an excellent dog-eared find over a decade ago that is still giving today.
Works Cited
Catholic News Service. (2015, May 5). Pope Francis suggests Divine Comedy as vital reading for Year of Mercy. Retrieved from Catholic Herald: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/05/05/pope-francis-suggests-divine-comedy-as-vital-reading-for-year-of-mercy/
Popova, M. (n.d.). Gustave Doré’s Hauntingly Beautiful Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno. Retrieved from BrainPickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/02/gustave-dore-dante-inferno/
Image: Fidel Amos, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons