Many of the essays in this present volume were germinated at that conference. For its hundredth and final meeting, the group opened outward to include participants in the Dante & the Unorthodox conference held at Western in April 1997. The endeavour lasted seven years, and for most of this time, surprisingly, the circle was unbroken.
The group was united not by professional interest in Italian literature but by curiosity about, and love of, Dante’s great work. The members of this group, which came to be called the Circolo Dantesco di London, represented many disciplines in the University: English, German, philosophy, classics, music, chemistry, physiology. I n October 1990 a small group of colleagues from the University of Western Ontario set about reading the Commedia together, gathering once a fortnight during term at the house of professors John Thorp and Bonnie MacLachlan, and proceeding at the stately pace of one canto per meeting. In memoriam Franco Romano Calaresu 1931–1996
For an Access Copyright licence, visit or call toll free to 1-80. Printed in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright).
Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings. Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Interior design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor. By permission of the Direzione dei Musei, Stato della Città del Vaticano. © 2005 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5 Cover by P.J. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321-Criticism and interpretation. Includes bibliographical references and index. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Dante & the unorthodox : the aesthetics of transgression / edited by James Miller. We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. DANTE & THE UNORTHODOX The Aesthetics of Transgression