Dante resources

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Herodotean
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Dante resources

Postby Herodotean » Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:28 am

I can read modern Italian decently well (with more or less dictionary usage depending on the genre). I'd like to read Dante's Commedia, but I need help and would prefer not to use an English parallel text. Can anyone recommend an edition of Dante in Italian, English, French, or Spanish (or even Latin; I believe I've seen one somewhere) that has helpful notes that are accessible to a non-native speaker and perhaps an introduction to medieval Italian too? Thanks!
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Re: Dante resources

Postby guyome » Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:52 am

Seeing that nobody has answered yet, I'll jump in with some Latin-based resources.
Disclaimer: I haven't read more than a couple of pages in any of them and can't vouch for their usefulness.

Latin translations
- Dantis Alligherii Divina Comoedia (1848, tr. Abbot Vicentino Dalla Piazza, born in 1768)
- Dantis Aligherii Divina Comoedia (1874, tr. Giuseppe Pasquali-Marinelli)

Commentaries
These are from the 14th-15th c. I don't know how useful they would be to a 21st c. reader.

- Super Dantis comoediam commentarium, by Dante's own son, Petrus Alighieri (ca. 1295-1364)
- Comentum super Dantis Aldigherij Comoediam, a massive commentary by Benvenutus de Rambaldis (1330-1388). Volumes 2, 3, 4, and 5
- Translatio et comentum totius libri Dantis Aldigherii, by the Franciscan Giovanni da Serravalle (ca. 1350-1445). This may be the most useful to you since it contains the Italian original, a rather literal Latin translation and notes on the same page.
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Re: Dante resources

Postby Herodotean » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:57 pm

Many thanks, guyome! I look forward to digging into these.

Does anyone have a preferred monolingual Italian edition?
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Re: Dante resources

Postby urubu » Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:02 am

I got this edition sometime in the '80s; I'm so pleased with the copious notes that I never bothered to look any further:

Vandelli, G. (ed.), Divina commedia, Testo critico della Società Dantesca Italiana, Ulrico Hoepli editore

Preview here:
https://books.google.it/books?id=JCmyuY ... li&f=false
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Re: Dante resources

Postby Herodotean » Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:45 pm

urubu wrote:I got this edition sometime in the '80s; I'm so pleased with the copious notes that I never bothered to look any further:

Vandelli, G. (ed.), Divina commedia, Testo critico della Società Dantesca Italiana, Ulrico Hoepli editore


Many thanks!
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Re: Dante resources

Postby einzelne » Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:28 pm

Herodotean wrote:I'd like to read Dante's Commedia, but I need help and would prefer not to use an English parallel text.


I cannot answer to your question directly, although I can see quite a few Italian editions on the bookshelf in my library (and I know there are some philological debates and different translators use different Italian editions). But as someone who learns languages precisely to read authors like Dante in the original I can tell you one thing: don't neglect good bilingual editions. It took me a while to realize it.

By definition, a specialist in Dante has more expertise in his text and language, so the literal translation can be quite useful. Quite often it saves you a lot of time and trouble. In case of Dante, you have lots of options in English. Commedia is something to be read and reread. When I work with such texts I use the translation for the first time and then, I make marginal notes on the original page, so the next time I reread it, I no longer have to rely on the translation, just on my notes — it makes consequent readings as immersive as possible.

PS. Among the English editions I have, Charles S. Singleton glosses difficult Italian passages. Also, Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi edition (by Mondadori in a series which mimics French Pleiade edition but they also have a paperback edition) looks good but may be the critical apparatus would be too big and deep for you.
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Re: Dante resources

Postby Herodotean » Sun Oct 31, 2021 4:46 am

einzelne wrote:But as someone who learns languages precisely to read authors like Dante in the original I can tell you one thing: don't neglect good bilingual editions. It took me a while to realize it.

Literature has always been my primary focus as well, and I've used many bilingual editions over the years (sometimes Loeb and Budé editions are the only practical way to read certain Latin and Greek authors in hard copy). I even own quite a few of them. But I prefer not to. I'd rather puzzle through it myself without the option of glancing at someone else's translation.

einzelne wrote: PS. Among the English editions I have, Charles S. Singleton glosses difficult Italian passages. Also, Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi edition (by Mondadori in a series which mimics French Pleiade edition but they also have a paperback edition) looks good but may be the critical apparatus would be too big and deep for you.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm not sure what you mean by the last sentence. I assume it's not meant to be an insult, though it could be taken that way. Did you simply mean that the app crit in the Mondadori edition might be more than I require as someone reading Dante for pleasure rather than for scholarly purposes? Though as far as I can tell, that edition doesn't even have an app crit.
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Re: Dante resources

Postby einzelne » Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:55 pm

Herodotean wrote:I assume it's not meant to be an insult, though it could be taken that way. Did you simply mean that the app crit in the Mondadori edition might be more than I require as someone reading Dante for pleasure rather than for scholarly purposes? Though as far as I can tell, that edition doesn't even have an app crit.


Of course, it was an insult :twisted: for I'm so jealous that you can read Dante while my Italian is only enough to read the introduction to the Italian edition of Athenaze.

Jokes aside (and I apologize for my awkward English above), I think for the first reading the comments might be too detailed. This edition is akin to the Arden Shakespeare or Longman Annotated English Poets. I made a picture of a random book spread so you can get an idea.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Re: Dante resources

Postby Herodotean » Sun Oct 31, 2021 2:41 pm

Thanks for the picture! I might pick up a copy one day, but for now you're probably right that it's a bit more than I need on a first reading.
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