Dante is one of the towering figures of European literature, yet there remain a surprising number of questions about his life and works. Who was Beatrice, really? Who was the leader that would bring peace to the world, as Virgil and Beatrice prophesied in the Commedia? Was De Vulgari Eloquentia truly a treatise on the art of writing? Did he need a medicinal muse? Dante scholar and translator Barbara Reynolds contends the master used cannabis to soar...

Deeply felt but intellectually disciplined, radiant but analytical, "La Vita Nuova" reveals Dante's vision in which human love touches that of God's. Intended as a treatise for fellow poets, it consists of a sequence of astonishing and tender love poems to Beatrice, interspersed with Dante's own commentary explaining the events that went into their making and giving a detailed structural analysis. Dante chose to speak directly to his audience and...

"These interpretive essays on Dante's thought and poetry open to the general reader the vistas explored in that superb work of human spirit, The Divine Comedy. Miss Sayers has alrady translated the cantos on "Hell" and "Purgatory." Intitmate living with a work while translating it has enabled Miss Sayers to write a down-to-eath guide through the intricacies of simile, mataphor and allegory....The author gives a clear-cut understanding, based on Dante's...