Dante's Divine Comedy - Daily Purgatory

Welcome back - we have some exciting news! For just $5/month you can now receive 132 morning reflections on the opening part of Dante's Purgatory — delivered straight to your inbox! Each email is a carefully crafted meditation designed to reconnect you with the timeless wisdom Dante embedded in his masterpiece, and to gradually build the new insights and capacities to understand and experience...

Join us for an enlightening conversation with translator and Dante scholar Joe Carlson as we explore the deeper meanings of Dante's Purgatorio. We'll dive into how Pride distorts our perception of reality, examining medieval wisdom through Carlson's fresh translations and insights. From the lush poetry of the Garden of Eden to the transformative journey up Mount Purgatory, discover how...

A Conversation about the main topics and purpose of the Third Sphere in Dante's Paradiso - the Sphere of Venus. We'll meet the souls of Carlo Martello, Cunizza, and Bishop Folchetto, and explore the themes of mercy, forgiveness, love, spiritual growth, and the transition out of the earthly shadow into the higher Divine realms from the Sun and beyond. We'll also discuss different forms...

A Conversation about the Sphere of Mercury in Paradiso, and how the Transcendent and Divine Truth is shining through the bigger scales of Empires, Civilizations and Humanity itself. One of the main arguments in the Second Sphere is that on a cosmic scale, Humanity is a young species with a very recently emerged self-awareness, moral capacity, and Free Will. And over the longer time spans, we need...

A Conversation about the Sphere of the Moon in Paradiso, with some of the main themes and the idea of transformation of perspective and experience of Being. With English Professor and Podcaster about Dante, Robert-Louis Abrahamson. Robert-Louis Abrahamson is Emeritus Professor in English for the European Division of the University of Maryland, and he studied at Amherst College, University of Edinb...

In this episode we're having independent Dante Researcher Tom LA Books back for a conversation about the Big Picture of the Divine Comedy.  We'll talk about how we can see some of the major themes of this overall picture in the contrast between Ulysses' "Mad Flight" in Inferno, and the beginning of the Journey in Paradiso. We'll also touch on philosophy, theology, psycholog...

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Ivy League Professor Dr. Phil Cary, about the structure of Dante's Cosmology and the 24 wise people in the sphere of the Sun. We'll also talk about the movement of the souls, and his favorite moments of wisdom and beauty from the Divine Comedy. Thanks for listening! .. Dr. Phillip Cary is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davi...

In the episode we'll look at the arts and architecture of the 13 hundreds, and the events with the Rise of Banking Families, an economic crash, the Black Death, and the temporary move backwards with the Oligarchy of the Albizzi Family. Overall movements are still the Rise of the Merchant Classes and Growth of Cities, and we'll see how the Albizzi Oligarchy creates the conditions for the ne...

In this episode we'll look at the deeper theological themes in the Lord of the Rings, and see how they are expressed by J.R.R. Tolkien, and in Dante's Divine Comedy. We'll also see how the beauty and wisdom of deep theology can greatly enrich and embed great epic stories and poetry. Timestamps: 00:00 - The Tavern 00:10 - Intro 01:28 - Lord of the Rings 13:20 - Divine Comedy 28:40 - Sum...

In this episode we're having our first guest here on the podcast! We're very happy to present to you Tommaso in LA, who's currently making an excellent 100 video series on the Divine Comedy on his youtube channel, and we'll discuss the role that Dante is playing in his life, and his favorite scenes and discoveries from each of the three books. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 00:53...

In this episode we'll look at the historical events of the 12 hundreds in Florence, with the rise of the Merhcant class, the rivalries between dynasties, and the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. This is a very helpful background to understand more of how Dante's outlook on the World was shaped in the first 35 years of his life, and the conditions and tensions he was caught up in w...

In this episode we'll look at Epistle VII that Dante wrote to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, after Henry's descent into Italy in 1310.  We'll go through the historical context of the letter, as well as Dante's life in exile after 1304, and the immediate aftermath of Henry's conquest. We'll also look at some passages in "The Paradiso" with Dante'...

In this fourth and final episode about the First Letter by Dante to Cardinal Niccolò da Prato, we'll look very briefly at the events between 1302-1304 with the new Pope Benedict XI, and the Letter or Epistle I in its fullness.  We'll also see how Dante himself describes the events of the last four episodes, in Canto 6 of the Inferno. Thanks for listening!

In this third episode on the background for Dante's Epistle I to Cardinal Niccolò da Prato in 1304, we'll look at the events and chaos that comes when the French Prince Charles of Valois enters Florence, and until the final banishment of the Bianchi in April 1302.  In a little over two years, the Black Guelphs and Corso Donati have then taken full control of the city, but at a very high pr...

In this second episode on the historical background for Dante's Epistle I to Cardinal Niccolò da Prato in 1304, we'll look at the events from Dante's summer as a Prior in June 1300, until the entering of the French Prince Charles of Valois into Florence in November, 1301. We'll also look at the politics and strategies from Corso Donati, the head of the Neri, by going to Rome during...

In this episode we'll look at the historical background of Dante's First Epistle to Cardinal Niccolò in 1304, by outlining the events in Florence from January to June of the year 1300. After a brief peace in the city, the two rivaling families of the Donati and the Cerchi import another family feud from Pistoia, thus becoming the Bianchi and Neri factions. Violence breaks out on May 1st 13...

In this episode we'll look at the main highlights from Dante's Epistle XIII to Lord Can Grande della Scala, his Patron in Verona, to whom Dante dedicates the Third Canticle of the Divine Comedy, the Paradiso. We'll also look at Dante's expressed practial purpose and overall meaning of the Divine Comedy, and the four established levels of interpretation in the Medieval and Ancient T...

In the Epistle XI to the Italian Cardinals in 1314, Dante both makes a plea to elect an Italian Pope and return the Papacy to Rome, and also compares the Church to the Greek Myth of Phaethon, who loses control over Apollo's Sun Chariot - and burns down the world. We'll also discuss the contexts provided by Italian scholars Claudio Rendino and Gian Luca Potestà. https://dantescomedy.com/dan...

In 1314 Dante wrote an Epistle to the Italian Cardinals defending himself from the charge that he was behaving like Uzzah in the old Biblical Stories, who was struck dead as he touched the Holy Ark. Dante then separates the Church, from the Scripture. https://dantescomedy.com/dantes-relationship-to-scripture-and-to-the-church Thanks for listening!

After ascending up the mountain we’re entering into the Garden of Eden, where the Pilgrim meets Beatrice and drinks from the two rivers of Lethe and Eunoë. The first river is to remove the memories of sins, and the second is to restore the memories of all the Good in the world and in Life. There are also two big allegorical scenes with the symbolic entering of Scripture, and the History of the Chu...

On the Seventh and last Terrace we’ll meet the souls of the Lustful, and the Pilgrim is talking with the poets Guido Guinizelli and Arnault Daniel. And then they meet the Angel of Joy, and go through the wall of Fire – the spiritual purification. The final Terrace ends with a beautiful dream of flowers and the Active and Contemplative Life, and in the very last verses Virgil has a final and Crowni...

As the Pilgrim, Virgil and Statius enter the Sixth Terrace they come to a strange tree and hear a voice within – symbolic of the “theophany” where the Divine shows itself to the three Poets. This is in some ways the result from the “spiritual release” in the previous Terrace, as the soul is now having an increased capacity to perceive the Divine. We also meet the Gluttons, who are very thin souls...

In the Fifth Terrace we’ll meet the penitents for the Vice of Avarice or Greed, as well as the moment of the whole Mountain trembling and the meeting of the transitional figure of the Roman Poet Statius, who was a secret Christian. This symbolizes an important expansion of the figure of Virgil as a guide, and a gradual change towards Beatrice and the nature of the Earthly Paradise and Paradiso its...

When we reach the Fourth Terrace the night is coming closer, and Virgil is giving an explanation to the Pilgrim about Love as the motive force for also the Vices, in the three versions of misdirected Love, too little Love, and excessive Love. This three-fold explanation also gives the structure of the Seven Levels of the Mountain, and the theme of Love (with the Natural and Rational Love) then bec...

The Terrace of Wrath is clouded in thick, black smoke, symbolic of the blinding nature of the emotion of Wrath and Anger. This level opens with examples of Meekness and Gentleness, before we get some thoughts on Reason as important to mitigate and manage the emotion of Wrath, and the role of Free Will in creating the evil in the world, as explained by the soul Marco Lombardo. The attack on the Chu...