Dante, Culture and the People
The Paget Toynbee Lecture
This event is brought to you by Oxford Dante Society.
The Paget Toynbee Lecture with Professor Lino Pertile.
Lino Pertile was formerly Professor of Italian at Harvard University.
Professor Lino Pertile has recorded the lecture in advance. His lecture will be screened in the Weston Library Lecture Theatre. The Oxford Dante Society hope that Professor Pertile will join the event via Zoom to answer questions.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0nePrgfRoLc
Abstract:
What did Dante’s culture really consist of? In addition to the written sources which have been investigated for centuries in the attempt to draw an intellectual portrait of the great poet, it must also have included a vast quantity of mostly unwritten notions that he, like everyone else, absorbed by osmosis from the environment in which he grew up and lived his everyday life. It is probably because of the presence of this culture in the Divine Comedy that the poem has been, and still is, so popular with ordinary people through the centuries. As a premise to my recent book Dante popolare, this paper considers some of the questions concerning Dante’s attitude towards the ordinary people of his time and the culture that he shared with them.
Further note:
The lecture will be followed by the book launch of the new collective volume, Dante Beyond Borders, Legenda 2021, edited by Jonathan Katz, Nick Havely with Richard Cooper. This includes essays from members of the three historic (i.e. 19C) Dante Societies, Germany, Oxford and USA, dealing with Dante outside the normal discipline of poetry or outside the borders of Italy. We will also be celebrating The Oxford Dante Handbook, OUP 2021, also edited by three members of the Oxford Dante Society.
The lecture and launch will be followed by a reception in the Blackwell Hall.
Tickets are available on the door.
• Guests are encouraged to wear a face coverings to this event.
• Social distancing – please ensure to follow the venue guidelines on arrival.
• We encourage all audience members to take a lateral flow test before attending this event
• Please do not attend this event if you are experience a fever or any flu like symptoms or have tested positive for COVID19.
• Please be aware that there is no ventilation in the room where the talk is held.
Image credit: Dante Beyond Borders book cover and event image, courtesy of Geoff McEwan.
Image credit: The Oxford Handbook of Dante, courtesy of Bodleian Library.
