Dante and his literary precursors

This volume explores the connections between Dante and literary contexts of periods earlier than his own, from the pre-Christian era to the thirteenth century.

The essays include Pamela Williams (U. Hull), Cato of Utica in Cicero's "De Finibus" and Dante's "Commedia"; Teresa Hankey (U.

Kent), Dante and Statius; Jean-Michel Picard (UCD), Dante and Irish vision literature; Drina Oldroyd (Griffith U.), Dante and the medieval prophets; John C.

Barnes (UCD), Dante's knowledge of Florentine history; Claire Honess (U.

Reading), Dante and political poetry in the vernacular; Stephen Bemrose (U.

Exeter), Dante's "'Neutral' Angels"; Lynne Press (QUB), Modes of metamorphosis in the Commedia: Inferno XIII; June Salmons (U.

Wales, Swansea), Tradition and innovation in Purgatori; Prue Shaw (University College, London), A reading of Purgatorio XXVI; and, Joanna Sciortino Nowlan (King's College, London), Dante and the mystical tradition.