Recovering Dante

Recovering Dante offers a radically new interpretation of the political outlook and philosophical commitments of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, arguing that his Divine Comedy is far from the epic celebration of Christianity it has generally been taken to be. Grounded in a fresh understanding of Dante's relationship to Brunetto Latini, a Florentine statesman of the era who was the poet's intellectual mentor, Lord's contention is that the influence on Dante's thought of Roman republicanism as well as the philosophical tradition of classical Greece has been inadequately appreciated in the long tradition of Dante commentary and by scholars today.