New Releases by Dante Alighieri

This translation of Dante''s lyrics follows the Barbi format and contains 118 poems. It seeks to follow the central issue of Dante''s aesthetic: championing vernacular poetry. Dante relied on his vernacular and so these translations rely on the common language of today''s speech, free verse, and open form, so as to give English readers an experience of Dante that is as contemporary to us as his poetic moment was to him. The original Italian appears on the facing pages of the text.

The Paradise, which Dante called the sublime canticle, is perhaps the most ambitious book of The Divine Comedy. In this climactic segment, Dante''s pilgrim reaches Paradise and encounters the Divine Will. The poet''s mystical interpretation of the religious life is a complex and exquisite conclusion to his magnificent trilogy. Mark Musa''s powerful and sensitive translation preserves the intricacy of the work while rendering it in clear, rhythmic English. His extensive notes and introductions to each canto make accessible to all readers the diverse and often abstruse ingredients of Dante''s unparalleled vision of the Absolute: elements of Ptolemaic astronomy, medieval astrology and science, theological dogma, and the poet''s own personal experiences.

A Latin treatise on secular and religious power by Dante Alighieri, who wrote it between 1312 and 1313. The great Italian poet turns his hand to political thought and defends the reign of a single monarch ruling over a universal empire. He believed that peace was only achievable when a single monarch replaced divisive and squabbling princes and kings.

The second part of Dante''s Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, except for the last four cantos at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante''s guide. Purgatory in the poem is depicted as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, consisting of a bottom section (Ante-Purgatory), seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth (associated with the seven deadly sins), and finally the Earthly Paradise at the top. Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem outlines a theory that all sins arise from love - either perverted love directed towards others'' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.

The poem discusses "the state of the soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward",[4] and describes Dante''s travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.