L’inchiesta miscellanea (frutto finale delle trentatré "public lectures” tenutesi tra il 2012 ed il 2016 all’università di Cambridge nel Regno Unito) chiude il cerchio iniziato con la pubblicazione dei precedenti due tomi, apparsi rispettivamente nel 2015 e nel 2016, e incentrati sulla lettura "verticale” della Commedia. […] Strumento imprescindibile e prezioso, Vertical Readings 3, assieme agli altri due volumi, si pone […] come tappa obbligata, proficua e stimolante per chi voglia addentrarsi, con efficaci supporti epistemologici, nel complesso e multiforme universo della poesia escatologica dantesca.
—Olimpia Pelosi, Annali d’Italianistica 38 (2020), 470-476).
Perhaps the example that best encapsulates this collaborative impulse, which both invites participation and innovates within the ‘literary’ field of Dante Studies, and speaks to the general themes adumbrated thus far, is the three-volume publication of the Cambridge Vertical Readings in Dante’s "Comedy”. The volumes had their origin in a series of thirty-three public lectures held at the University of Cambridge between 2012 and 2016. Each speaker was asked to shake off previously held critical positions and invited to read the Commedia vertically: that is, to consider the three parts of the poem in parallel with one another under the umbrella of ‘connumeration’. Many of the authors in the volumes, somewhat humorously, stated their disapproval with the method, and yet went on to offer original readings which enhance our understanding of Dante’s poem. Other pieces are decidedly enriched by the vertical constraints put upon them – see, for example, Kenneth Clarke’s reading of the 10s, in which he demonstrates the rich and allusive intratexuality of the rhyming of ‘arte’ and ‘parte’ across the three canticles. The result of the vertical readings is a surprising admixture of novelty, nuance, and critical acumen. Above all, it is the result of true collaboration.
—Daragh O’Connell and Beatrice Sica, Italian Studies, 75:2, 129
This project […] is ground-breaking in setting a new way of looking at the Comedy and in providing a fruitful model for new series of the same or a similar kind. [It] fosters original insights into single cantos and the poem as a whole. The variety of this third volume (which brings specific attention to the theological perspective), together with its internal interconnections, fully proves this potentiality.
—Serena Vandi, MLR, 115.1 (2020), pp. 188-190
This systematic approach to interpreting the poem provides a wholly new way not just to read the poem but to teach it across the three canticles. Teaching the Comedy vertically offers a way to address issues that cross the poem and to select cantos that deal with Dante's principal concerns.
—Brenda Deen Schildgen, 'Why Teach Dante Vertically', Pedagogy, 17.3 (2017), 449-56 (p. 452)
Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy is a reappraisal of the poem by an international team of thirty-four scholars. Each vertical reading analyses three same-numbered cantos from the three canticles: Inferno i, Purgatorio i and Paradiso i; Inferno ii, Purgatorio ii and Paradiso ii; etc. Although scholars have suggested before that there are correspondences between same-numbered cantos that beg to be explored, this is the first time that the approach has been pursued in a systematic fashion across the poem.
This collection in three volumes offers an unprecedented repertoire of vertical readings for the whole poem. As the first volume exemplifies, vertical reading not only articulates unexamined connections between the three canticles but also unlocks engaging new ways to enter into core concerns of the poem. The three volumes thereby provide an indispensable resource for scholars, students and enthusiasts of Dante. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are also available to read for free.
The volume has its origin in a series of thirty-three public lectures held in Trinity College, the University of Cambridge (2012-2016) which can be accessed at the Cambridge Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy website.
The series would not have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors: Trinity College; Selwyn College; the Italian Department, University of Cambridge; the Cambridge Italian Research Network (CIRN); and Keith Sykes.
The series would not have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors: Trinity College; Selwyn College; the Italian Department, University of Cambridge; the Cambridge Italian Research Network (CIRN); and Keith Sykes.
Click here to purchase all three volumes of Vertical Readings in Dante's Comedy at a discounted rate.
Vertical Readings in Dante's 'Comedy': Volume 3
George Corbett and Heather Webb (eds) | December 2017
264 | 10 colour illustrations | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783743582
ISBN Hardback: 9781783743599
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783743605
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783743612
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783743629
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783744534
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0119
Subject codes, BIC: DS (Literature: history and criticism), DSC (Literary studies: poetry and poets); BISAC: LIT004200 (Literary criticism: Italian), LIT011000 (Literary criticism: Medieval); OCLC Number: 1164168351.
ISBN Hardback: 9781783743599
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783743605
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783743612
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783743629
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783744534
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0119
Subject codes, BIC: DS (Literature: history and criticism), DSC (Literary studies: poetry and poets); BISAC: LIT004200 (Literary criticism: Italian), LIT011000 (Literary criticism: Medieval); OCLC Number: 1164168351.
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Acknowledgements
Editions Followed and Abbreviations
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction
George Corbett and Heather Webb
23. Our Bodies, Our Selves: Crucified, Famished, and Nourished
Peter S. Hawkins
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24. True Desire, True Being, and Truly Being a Poet
Janet Soskice
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25. Changes
George Ferzoco
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26. The Poetics of Trespassing
Elena Lombardi
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27. Containers and Things Contained
Ronald L. Martinez
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28. Cosmographic Cartography of the ‘Perfect’ Twenty-Eights
Theodore J. Cachey Jr.
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29. Truth, Untruth and the Moment of Indwelling
John Took
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30. Brooks, Melting Snow, River of Light
Piero Boitani
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31. Beauty and the Beast
Catherine Pickstock
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32. Particular Surprises: Faces, Cries and Transfiguration
David F. Ford
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33 and 34. Ice, Fire and Holy Water
Rowan Williams
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Bibliography
Index of Names
© 2017 George Corbett and Heather Webb. Copyright of each chapter is maintained by the author.

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George Corbett and Heather Webb (eds), Vertical Readings in Dante’s ‘Comedy’: Volume 3. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0119
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Cover image: Fra Angelico (circa 1395–1455), The Last Judgement circa 1450, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Photo by Anagoria https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1450_Fra_Angelico_Last_Judgement_anagoria.JPG, public domain.
This volume has its origin in a series of thirty-three public lectures held in Trinity College, the University of Cambridge (2012-2016) which can be accessed at the ‘Cambridge Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy’ website.