Today we kick off “Jack’s Bookshelf”, a series of episodes where we consider the authors and works which shaped the life of C.S. Lewis. Today we speak to returning guest, Dr. Jason Baxter, and begin with Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy.
S6E32: “Jack’s Bookshelf – Dante Alighieri” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
And I who was approaching now the end of all man’s yearning, strained with all the force in me to raise my burning longing high.
Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso (XXXIII)
Biographical Information
Dr. Jason Baxter has taught at Wyoming Catholic College for twelve years and has recently moved to Notre Dame where he is teaching great books. His primary research interests include medieval and Renaissance ideas of beauty, the long-lived legacy of Platonic thought, and the poetry of Dante.
He has written five books, including a book which we discuss in S5E55: The Medieval mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind, and Dr. Baxter also wrote a book which we’ll discuss today, A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Guest Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
- The Literary Life Podcast
- New Job
Toast
- David was drinking a Heferweissen
- Marie was drinking a white Sicilian wine blend the previous night
Discussion
01. “Encountering Dante”
Q. How did you first encounter Dante?
- David explained that he first encountered Dante while at university, watching the movie Hannibal, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins! In the film, there’s a scene at an opera with a quite beautiful piece of music called Vide Cor Meum, and afterwards I discovered that this was an adaptation of La Vita Nuova by Dante.
02. “Who is he?”
Q. Who is Dante and what sort of world did he live in?
- Dante Alighieri Wikipedia article
- The Banquet by Dante Alighieri
- On Vernacular Eloquence by Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
03. “Crazy for Beatrice”
Q. What was Dante’s love life like?
–
04. “Dante’s Corpus”
Q. Would you mind just giving us a sketch of Dante’s major works?
- Il Fiore and Detto d’Amore (“The Flower” and “Tale of Love”, 1283–87)
- La Vita Nuova (“The New Life”, 1294)
- De vulgari eloquentia (“On the Eloquence in the Vernacular”, 1302–05)
- Convivio (“The Banquet”, 1307)
- Monarchia (“Monarchy”, 1313)
- Divina Commedia (“Divine Comedy”, 1320)
- Eclogues (1320)
- Quaestio de aqua et terra (“A Question of the Water and of the Land”, 1320)
- Le Rime (“The Rhymes”)
05. “Knock, knock…”
Q. What actually is the Comedy, how is it structured, and why is it called The Comedy?
–
06. “Comedic Goals”
Q. What is Dante trying to achieve in The Comedy? Is it a morality tale, or something else?
–
07. “Dante’s Influences”
Q. We’ll talk about how Dante influenced Lewis in a little bit, but what were Dante’s influences?
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- Aristotle
- St. Bonaventure
- Virgil
- Boethius
- Dionysius the Areopagite
- Hugh of Saint Victor
- St. Augustine
- …
08. “Significance”
Q. What makes The Comedy such an important and influential work?
–
09. “Beginner’s Guide”
Q. What help will readers find in your book, A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy?
10. “Translation”
Q. Do you have a preferred translation of Dante’s text?
11. “Open with a joke?”
Q. Is the Divine Comedy the best place to begin Dante?
- La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
11. “Influencing Lewis”
Q. This podcast series isn’t just about learning about older authors, but specifically about how they influenced C.S. Lewis… So how did Dante and the Comedy influence Jack, both as a person and as an author?
- Sheldon Vanauken
- Dante’s Similes essay by C.S. Lewis
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