Ok, I’m not finished with it – or nearly finished with it – but I absolutely think that I’m going to really love this book.

I’m reading “The Portable Dante” published by Penguim Classics and so far, I am enjoying it.  At the beginning of each Canto (chapter, for a modern word, I suppose), the translator, Mark Musa, has explained what exactly is going on within that chapter.  This, and the footnotes explaining who people are within the poem, most DEFINITELY makes it easier to read as it gives you some historical context for the poem.  Otherwise, you’ll probably get lost.

In the Introduction to Dante’s works, Musa talks about Dante as a person and how he did not want Florence and all of Tuscany under the control of the church and he actively fought against this.  He was exiled from “his beloved Florence” and refused to compromise his principles to return when the opportunity arose because it involved answering trumped up charges against him.  He detested the pope, Boniface, and believed that his difficulties had been brought on through trickery on the pontiff’s part and this simply aggravated the hatred for Boniface and his methods.

“Dante exalts learning and the use of reason to the highest for only through knowledge can man hope to attain virtue and God… In the Divine Comedy, reason in the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is man’s sole guide on earth, except for the intervention of divine grace. ” — From the Introduction

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