Reading Dante with Images, a Visual Lectura Dantis, ed. Matthew Collins. London and Turnhout: Brepols Publisher, Harvey Miller Publishers, 2021, 416 p. Illustrations:8 b/w, 224 col.

Abstract

Abstract: This book is not about the longstanding illustration history of the Divina Commedia as it may seem from the title. The concept of the volume is a certain innovation that emerges by paring two traditions related to Dante and his work, the illustration of the poem as a form of commentary and the practice of the Lectura Dantis. The idea took shape during the conferences organized by the editor Matthew Collins in 2019–2020 at Harvard University. The contributors were invited to select an individual canto (more or less keeping with the now established Lectura format) and discuss it in a way that intersects with illustrations of that canto in any type of fine arts and from an early period to the most contemporary of renderings. Consequently, the volume shows the range of approaches that emerged within the framework of this project. Let us mention some of these perspectives.