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ITAL 310: Dante in Translation

Lecture 17 - Paradise IV, VI, X. This lecture deals with Paradise IV, VI and X. At the beginning of Paradise IV, the pilgrim raises two questions to which the remainder of the canto is devoted. The first concerns Piccarda (Paradise III) who was constrained to break her religious vows. The second concerns the arrangement of the souls within the stars. The common thread that emerges from Beatrice's reply is the relationship between intellect and will. Just as Piccarda's fate reveals the limitations of the will, the representation of the souls in Paradise, a condescension to the pilgrim's human faculty, as Beatrice explains, reveal the limitations of the intellect. By dramatizing the limitations of both faculties, Dante underscores their interdependence. In Paradise VI, Dante turns his attention to politics. Through the emperor Justinian's account of Roman history, Dante places the antithetical views of Virgil and Augustine in conversation. Key to understanding Dante's position between these two extremes is the vituperation of contemporary civil strife that follows Justinian's encomium of the Empire. In Paradise X, the pilgrim enters the Heaven of the Sun, where St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure introduce him to two rings of spirits celebrated for their wisdom. The unlikely presence of Solomon and Siger of Brabant among the first of these concentric rings is discussed as a poetic reflection on the boundaries between knowledge and revelation. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 17 - Paradise IV, VI, X

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Canto IV of "Paradise": The Nature of the Will and Representation of the Souls
[00:09:31] 2. The Need for Allegorical Representation
[00:19:01] 3. Canto VI: The Heaven of Dialectics; Emperor Justinian
[00:41:39] 4. Canto X: Solar Theology
[00:49:36] 5. St. Thomas and Others in Canto X
[00:56:02] 6. Metaphors in Canto X
[01:02:49] 7. Themes in Cantos IV, VI and X
[01:09:27] 8. Question and Answer

References
Lecture 17 - Paradise IV, VI, X
Instructor: Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta. Visual Resources - Lecture 17 [HTML]. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction
Lecture 02 - Vita Nuova
Lecture 03 - Inferno I, II, III, IV
Lecture 04 - Inferno V, VI, VII
Lecture 05 - Inferno IX, X, XI
Lecture 06 - Inferno XII, XIII, XV, XVI
Lecture 07 - Inferno XIX, XXI, XXV, XXVI
Lecture 08 - Inferno XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII
Lecture 09 - Inferno XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV
Lecture 10 - Purgatory I, II
Lecture 11 - Purgatory V, VI, IX, X
Lecture 12 - Purgatory X, XI, XII, XVI, XVII
Lecture 13 - Purgatory XIX, XXI, XXII
Lecture 14 - Purgatory XXIV, XXV, XXVI
Lecture 15 - Purgatory XXX, XXXI, XXXIII
Lecture 16 - Paradise I, II
Lecture 17 - Paradise IV, VI, X
Lecture 18 - Paradise XI, XII
Lecture 19 - Paradise XV, XVI, XVII
Lecture 20 - Paradise XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXII
Lecture 21 - Paradise XXIV, XXV, XXVI
Lecture 22 - Paradise XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX
Lecture 23 - Paradise XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII
Lecture 24 - General Review