Dante's relationship with his Church, as one of the faithful and as an artist, can most simply be described as complicated. He may have put a pope in the inferno, but his Monarchia is a part of
the approved reading list. In this collection of seven articles, taken largely from a 2001-2 series of lectures offered at University College, Dublin, contributors closely examine the contexts
of Dante's expressed belief, including the influence of Boniface VIII (including the pope's intentions for the 1300 AD Jubilee), the workings of Franciscans and their texts on Dante's poetry,
his use of spatial theories in his depiction of purgatory and of bridal imagery in his allusions to "the heaven of the sun", the political and ecclesiastical reasons for the acceptance of the
Monarchia and the peculiarities of interpretation of his references to clerical and civic duty in Inferno. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
(booknews.com)
