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October 21, 2004 • Volume 13 Number 4

Dante Readings Continue

Call it a lecture series that takes a life-time commitment. The Lectura Dantis, a public reading of Dante's Divine Comedy, resumes at Boston College with readings of "Inferno 34" by Assoc. Prof. Franco Mormando (Romance Languages) on Oct. 25 and "Purgatory 1" by Wellesley College Professor of Italian Rachel Jacoff on Nov. 22.

Scholars of Italian at Boston College are now five years into the canto-by-canto presentation of The Divine Comedy that is expected to take 20 years to complete.

Readings are given in Devlin 101 at 7:30 p.m. Cantos are discussed in English and read in Italian.

"It's a way to measure our lives," said Assoc. Prof. Laurie Shepard (Romance Languages), a scholar of medieval Italian literature. "The Divine Comedy has an eternal dimension."

A 14th-century narrative poem considered one of the world's great works of literature, The Divine Comedy is composed of 101 cantos in three sections, "Inferno," "Purgatory" and "Paradise," tracing the journey of Dante from the dark circles of hell to the divine light of heaven.

Two cantos of the poem are to be read each fall and three each spring in the series spanning two decades. -Mark Sullivan •