Lectura Dantis: Inferno: A Canto-by-Canto Commentary

by Allen Mandelbaum (Editor), Anthony Oldcorn (Editor), Charles Stanley Ross (Editor)

The California Lectura Dantis is the long-awaited companion to the three-volume verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum of Dante's Divine Comedy . Mandelbaum's translation, with facing original text and with illustrations by Barry Moser, has been praised by Robert Fagles as "exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths," and by the late James Merrill as "lucid and strong . . . with rich orchestration . . . overall sweep and felicity . . . and countless free, brilliant, utterly Dantesque strokes." Charles Simic called the work "a miracle. A lesson in the art of translation and a model (an encyclopedia) for poets. The full range and richness of American English is displayed as perhaps never before."

This collection of commentaries on the first part of the Comedy consists of commissioned essays, one for each canto, by a distinguished group of international scholar-critics. Readers of Dante will find this Inferno volume an enlightening and indispensable guide, the kind of lucid commentary that is truly adapted to the general reader as well as the student and scholar.

Genres: Literary Criticism

476 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Allen Mandelbaum was an American professor of Italian literature, poet, and translator. A devout Jew, Mandelbaum is highly knowledgeable of Christianity.

His translation of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri appeared between 1980 and 1984 — published by The University of California Press and supported by the notable Dante scholar Irma Brandeis. He subsequently acted as general editor of the California Lectura Dantis, a collection of essays on the Comedy; two volumes, on the Inferno and Purgatoria, have been published.

Mandelbaum received the National Book Award for his translation of Virgil's Aeneid, and is also the recipient of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy, the Premio Mondello, the Premio Leonardo, the Premio Biella, the Premio Lerici-Pea, the Premio Montale at the Montale Centenary in Rome, and the Circe-Sabaudia Award.

In 2000, Mandelbaum traveled to Florence, Italy, for the 735th anniversary of Dante's birth, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Florence, in honor of his translation of the Divine Comedy. In 2003, he was awarded The Presidential Prize for Translation from the President of Italy, and received Italy's highest award, the Presidential Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.

Allen Mandelbaum died on Oct. 27 in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was 85. His son, Jonathan, said he died after a long illness.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This proved to be a very helpful supplement to plumbing the depths of Dante's Inferno. It is a collection of 34 essays, one for each canto, supplied by an expert in Dante studies. Most are excellent; a few are weaker but still helpful.

I intend to work through Purgatorio and Paradiso in the coming months. I've already obtained the second volume of Lectura Dantis. Sadly, Mr. Mandelbaum passed several years ago and I've received confirmation from the University of California that they have not plans to publish the final volume of essays--a real shame.