The Divine Comedy (1308-21) is an iconic narrative poem widely studied in schools and universities all over the world. At a time obsessed with the ‘here and now’, one may wonder, as a student of mine did in their anonymous evaluation of one of my units, why ‘we should still study a poet who died one thousand years ago’. By taking on the job of mapping the reception of the Divine Comedy, Joseph Luzzi’s book powerfully answers my student’s perplexed query.
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