THE BIBLICAL DANTE This page intentionally left blank V. STANLEY BENFELL The Biblical Dante UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2011  Toronto Buff alo London  www.utppublishing.com ISBN 978-1-4426-4274-4 Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer paper with vegetable-based inks. Toronto Italian Studies ________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Benfell, V. Stanley, 1962– The biblical Dante / V. Stanley Benfell. (Toronto Italian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-4274-4 1. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321 – Religion. 2. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321 – Criticism and interpretation. 3. Bible in literature. I. Title. II. Series: Toronto Italian studies PQ4419.B5B45 2011  851'.1  C2011-902655-4 ________________________________________________________________ This book was published with the aid of a grant from the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). For Leslie This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix A Note on Texts xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction 3 1 Dante’s Idea of the Bible 19 2 Biblical Truth in the Paradiso 51 3  The Bible in the Inferno: Misprision and Prophetic Appropriation 79 4 Una nuova legge: The Beatitudes in the Purgatorio 107 5 Dante’s Apocalypse 143 Conclusion: Poet of the Biblical World 194 Notes 199 Works Cited 265 Citations of Dante’s Works 285 Biblical and Apocryphal Citations 289 Index 293 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book has taken far too long to write. As early as 1995, I published an article that formed the basis for chapter 3, but I soon le(cid:286) the topic of Dante’s biblicism to pursue other scholarly projects. But I returned to it, brought back by my interest in the literary qualities of biblical texts and in the ways in which the Bible has served as a central infl uence through- out Western literary history. Since that time, work has been slowed by administrative assignments, especially by a term as department chair and stints on three Study Abroad programs. In the long course of fi nishing this book, I have incurred numerous debts, both intellectual and personal. My greatest intellectual debt is to Teodolinda Barolini. The project ultimately had its origins in a year- long graduate course on Dante’s Commedia that I took from Professor Barolini at New York University. Part of my work from that course even- tually developed into a substantial portion of my dissertation, which she directed. Since that time, she has helped me on numerous occasions with advice and encouragement. Many other colleagues have read through parts of the book at various stages and have provided useful analysis and discussion. Particular thanks are due to Madison Sowell, Christopher Kleinhenz, Santa Casciani, Richard Newhauser, Joseph Parry, George Tate, Mark Wrathall, and Dallas Denery. When I fi rst con- sidered the project as a book, Peter Hawkins kindly off ered encourage- ment as well as a pre-publication look at his Dante’s Testaments. Jim Faulconer’s work on the meaning and function of scripture helped me to reconsider my conceptions of the pre-modern Bible. Kyle Anderson (now fi nishing his PhD in Comparative Literature at Penn State) very ably served as my research assistant at a crucial time, and his MA thesis on Dante’s Earthly Paradise helped me to see that part of the poem in a