Dante. An Essay. To Which Is Added a Translation of De Monarchia.

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
518K words
Chapters
52

Tags

English Originals Literary AppreciationWestern Philosophy Historical ReappraisalHistory of PhilosophyPolitical PhilosophyHumanistic CareWestern ThoughtDante StudiesAcademic MonographIntellectual CommentaryTraditional AestheticsCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia. by R. W. Church et al.Author: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 30, 2010

Editor's review

This volume combines R. W. Church's long critical essay on Dante with an English translation of De Monarchia, offering Chinese readers a side entrance into Dante's world through intellectual history. Church's essay surveys Dante's life and fortunes and the spiritual structure of the Divine Comedy from the perspective of a Victorian critic, restrained in style and marked by moral concern; the appended translation of De Monarchia presents Dante's systematic political philosophy, discussing the boundaries of authority between empire and church, and is direct material for understanding medieval political theology. Together the two parts let readers see Dante both as poet and as political thinker, each illuminating the other. As a public-domain ebook, the text can be freely searched and quoted, making it suitable as a course companion or a desk reference for researchers. Readers should note that the English dates from an earlier era, some expressions differ from contemporary academic convention, and the essay's views bear the imprint of its time; it is best read alongside later scholarship.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read Church's critical essay first to grasp Dante's life and historical context, then move on to the translation of De Monarchia.
  2. While reading De Monarchia, note the lines of argument on imperial and ecclesiastical authority and compare them with the judgments in the essay.
  3. When encountering early English expressions or Latin terms, infer from context first, then consult reference works, to avoid frequent interruptions.
  4. Read alongside a biography of Dante or a general history of the Middle Ages to fill in background the text does not expand on.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  30. 30
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  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52

FAQ

Does this book include a translation of the Divine Comedy? No. The Divine Comedy is not included. The book consists of two parts: a critical essay on Dante by R. W. Church, and an English translation of Dante's political treatise De Monarchia. To read the Divine Comedy, you will need a separate translation.
Is De Monarchia the same book as Machiavelli's The Prince? No. The Chinese titles are similar, but Dante's De Monarchia discusses the relationship of authority between empire and church and argues for the necessity of a world monarchy; Machiavelli's Il Principe is a sixteenth-century treatise on political statecraft. The work appended here is Dante's.
Can readers with only basic English read this book? You can try, but it is difficult. Church's essay was written in the nineteenth century, with long sentences and formal vocabulary; the translation of De Monarchia involves medieval political and theological concepts. A good command of English is recommended, or read a relevant Chinese introduction before tackling the original.
Is this book suitable as a citable source for Dante studies? It can serve as a reference, but with caution. It is a public-domain electronic text, easy to search and quote; however, Church's criticism reflects a Victorian perspective, and his views are not equivalent to contemporary scholarly consensus. Treat it as historical critical material and read it alongside modern research.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 Author

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is one of the most important poets in the history of Italian literature, renowned for the Divine Comedy. The library holds 61 of his works, including multiple editions and translations of the Divine Comedy, such as Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Publicly available information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here. His writing is distinguished by a grand narrative structure and a profound symbolic system, often presenting a first-person journey through the three realms and weaving medieval theology, philosophy, and political thought into verse. His language is concise and rich in imagery, and his works have had a far-reaching influence on later European literature, widely regarded as foundational to Italian literary language.