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Posted by Virgil on May 28, 19100 at 10:02:19:
In Reply to: Re: Aristotle and Alchemy? posted by Jeremy Daniels on May 27, 19100 at 10:31:56:
Jeremy --
Glad to see you respond back.
One of my favorite books in recent years on this Dantean topic (and one which you may enjoy) is THE HISTORY OF HELL, by Alice K. Turner (Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, 1993), which has a concise and easy to read (and fun to read) chapter (17) on "Dante's INFERNO." It tells quite a bit about how Dante came up with ideas, but it never bogs down in scholarly dribble. A good starting place. And the other chapters are nifty, too ... and a log of pictures. If you can find this one at a library or from an inter-library loan, pick it up. You probably won't be disappointed.
If you want more scholarly readings, almost every edition of Dante's COMEDY contains articles and commentaries with such information in them, as well as the footnotes that accompany each chapter ... and another book which is good is Olof Lagercrantz's FROM HELL TO PARADISE. (I can't give you any more information on that one, but it was originally published in Swedish and is available in an English translation.)
I'd like to invite other readers to list some favorites for you ... and I may get back with a list of things to try ... soon as I can compile one.