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Informationen zum Autor Anthony Esolen is a professor of English at Providence College. He is the author of Peppers, a book of poetry, and his translations include Lucretius’s De rerum natura and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, along with Dante’s Inferno and Purgatory, published by the Modern Library. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1256. He entered public life in 1295, later becoming one of the six governing magistrates of Florence. He repeatedly opposed the machinations of Pope Boniface VIII, who was attempting to place all of Tuscany under Papal rule, and in 1301 was banished from Florence. Dante would never again enter his native city, spending his remaining years with a series of patrons in various Italian courts. He completed The Divine Comedy shortly before his death in 1321. Gustave Doré (1832-83) was one of the most popular and prolific French illustrators of the mid 19th century. Klappentext "If there is any justice in the world of books, [Esolen's] will be the standard Dante . . . for some time to come.”-Robert Royal, Crisis In this, the concluding volume of The Divine Comedy, Dante ascends from the devastation of the Inferno and the trials of Purgatory. Led by his beloved Beatrice, he enters Paradise, to profess his faith, hope, and love before the Heavenly court. Completed shortly before his death, Paradise is the volume that perhaps best expresses Dante's spiritual philosophy about resurrection, redemption, and the nature of divinity. It also affords modern-day readers a clear window into late medieval perceptions about faith. A bilingual text, classic illustrations by Gustave Doré, an appendix that reproduces Dante's key sources, and other features make this the definitive edition of Dante's ultimate masterwork.Canto One Dante and Beatrice are at the threshold of Heaven. She explains to him that it is the nature of the human soul to rise. The glory of the One who moves all things penetrates the universe with light, more radiant in one part and elsewhere less: I have been in that heaven He makes most bright,4 and seen things neither mind can hold nor tongue utter, when one descends from such great height, For as we near the One for whom we long,7 our intellects so plunge into the deep, memory cannot follow where we go. Nevertheless what small part I can keep10 of that holy kingdom treasured in my heart will now become the matter of my song. O good Apollo, for this last work of art,13 make me as fit a vessel of your power as you demand when you bestow the crown Of the beloved laurel. Till this hour16 one peak of twin Parnassus has sufficed, but if I am to enter the lists now I shall need both. Then surge into my breast19 and breathe your song, as when you drew the vain Marsyas from the sheath of his own limbs. Father, virtue divine, should you but deign22 that I make manifest a shadow of the blessed kingdom sealed upon my brain, At the foot of that tree whose wood you love25 you’ll see me stand and crown my brows with green, made worthy by the subject, and by you. Poets and Caesars now so rarely glean28 those leaves to celebrate a victory (man’s fault and shame, for our desires are mean), the Peneian branches must give birth to joy31 when any man should thirst for their high fame, in the glad heart of the Delphic deity. A little spark gives birth to a great flame.34 Better voices perhaps will follow mine, praying to hear what Cyrrha shall proclaim! By various spills of light the sun will shine37 dawning upon the world of men that die, but at the three-cross intersection of Four rings it rises in the company40 of a more favorable time of year, happier stars, to stam...
