Book Section
The cantos devoted to the Terrestrial Paradise in Dante’s Comedy are crucial in the process of self-representation of the poet’s prophetic identity. To establish such a prophetic authority, he explicitly alludes to many scriptural prophets and visionaries. Starting from a reading of Chapter 7 of The Undivine ‘Comedy’, the article reflects on the ways in which such ‘theological’ claims and allusions could be interpreted in a ‘detheologized’ approach to Dante’s poem.
Keywords: David; St. Paul; the Bible; prophecy
Title
Prophetic Models and Structures in an Undivine Comedy
Author(s)
Giuseppe Ledda
Identifier
Description
The cantos devoted to the Terrestrial Paradise in Dante’s Comedy are crucial in the process of self-representation of the poet’s prophetic identity. To establish such a prophetic authority, he explicitly alludes to many scriptural prophets and visionaries. Starting from a reading of Chapter 7 of The Undivine ‘Comedy’, the article reflects on the ways in which such ‘theological’ claims and allusions could be interpreted in a ‘detheologized’ approach to Dante’s poem.
Is Part Of
Place
Berlin
Publisher
ICI Berlin Press
Date
November 4, 2025
Subject
David
St. Paul
the Bible
prophecy
Rights
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Language
en-GB
page start
209
page end
221
Source
A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of The Undivine Comedy, ed. by Kristina M. Olson, Cultural Inquiry, 37 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 209–21

References

  • Alighieri, Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. by Allen Mandelbaum, 3 vols (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980–82)
  • Alighieri, Dante, La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata, ed. by Giorgio Petrocchi, Società Dantesca Italiana, Edizione Nazionale, 2nd rev. edn, 4 vols (Florence: Le Lettere, 1994)
  • Barański, Zygmunt G., Dante e i segni (Naples: Liguori, 2000)
  • Barański, Zygmunt G., ‘Lettura e interpretazione del canto XXXIII’, in Voci sul ‘Purgatorio’ di Dante. Una nuova lettura della seconda cantica, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański and Maria Antonietta Terzoli (Rome: Carocci, 2024), pp. 885–924
  • Barolini, Teodolinda, Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the ‘Comedy’ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400853212>
  • Barolini, Teodolinda, The Undivine Comedy: Detheologizing Dante (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400820764>
  • Barolini, Teodolinda, ‘Why Did Dante Write the Commedia? Or, The Vision Thing’, Dante Studies, 111 (1993), pp. 1–8; repr. as ‘Why Did Dante Write the Commedia? Dante and the Visionary Tradition’, in Barolini, Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), pp. 125–31 <https://doi.org/10.5422/fordham/9780823227037.003.0006>
  • Barolini, Teodolinda, ‘Arachne, Argus, and St. John’, in Barolini, Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), pp. 158–71 and 406–11 <https://doi.org/10.5422/fordham/9780823227037.003.0009>
  • Battaglia Ricci, Lucia, ‘Scrittura sacra e “sacrato poema”’, in Dante e la Bibbia, ed. by Giovanni Barblan (Florence: Olschki, 1988), pp. 113–23
  • Contini, Gianfranco, ‘Dante come personaggio-poeta della Commedia’, in Contini, Un’idea di Dante (Turin: Einaudi, 1976), pp. 33–62
  • Cristaldi, Sergio, ‘Un ipotesto biblico: l’Apocalisse’, Letture Classensi, 37 (2008), pp. 83–117
  • Federici, Theresa, ‘Dante’s Davidic Journey. From Sinner to God’s Scribe’, in Dante’s ‘Commedia’: Theology as Poetry, ed. by Vittorio Montemaggi and Matthew Treherne (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2010), pp. 180–209 <https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpg862d.13>
  • Jacoff, Rachel, ‘Dante, Geremia e la problematica profetica’, in Dante e la Bibbia, ed. by Giovanni Barblan (Florence: Olschki, 1988), pp. 113–23
  • Le Goff, Jacques, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. by Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, La guerra della lingua. Ineffabilità, retorica e narrativa nella ‘Commedia’ di Dante (Ravenna: Longo, 2002)
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Dante e la tradizione delle visioni medievali’, Letture Classensi, 37 (2008), pp. 119–42
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Modelli biblici nella Commedia: Dante e san Paolo’, in La Bibbia di Dante. Esperienza mistica, profezia e teologia biblica in Dante, ed. by Giuseppe Ledda (Ravenna: Centro Dantesco dei Frati Minori Conventuali, 2011), pp. 179–216
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘La danza e il canto dell’“umile salmista”: David nella Commedia di Dante’, in Les Figures de David à la Renaissance, ed. by Elise Boillet, Sonia Cavicchioli, and Paul-Alexis Mellet (Geneva: Droz, 2015), pp. 225–46
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, La Bibbia di Dante (Turin: EMI, 2015)
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘L’esilio, la speranza, la poesia: modelli biblici e strutture autobiografiche nel canto 25 del Paradiso’, Studi e problemi di critica testuale, 90 (2015), pp. 257–77
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Osservazioni sul contributo di Ezio Raimondi agli studi danteschi: bilanci e prospettive’, in Ezio Raimondi lettore inquieto, ed. by Andrea Battistini (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2016), pp. 117–23
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Poesia e agiografia nella Commedia’, in Dante poeta cristiano e la cultura religiosa medievale. In ricordo di Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, ed. by Giuseppe Ledda (Ravenna: Centro Dantesco dei Frati Minori Conventuali, 2018), pp. 215–58
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Dante Alighieri, Dante-poet, Dante-character’, in The Cambridge Companion to Dante’s ‘Commedia’, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański and Simon Gilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 28–42 <https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108367769.005>
  • Ledda, Giuseppe, ‘Cultura religiosa: ricordi autobiografici di un lettore novecentesco di studi su Dante’, in Now Feed Yourself: Anglo-American and Italian Scholarship on Dante, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański, Theodore J. Cachey Jr., and Anna Pegoretti (Oxford: Legenda, 2024), pp. 201–27 <https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.22212195.12>
  • Maldina, Nicolò, ‘“ Per poenitentiam factum prophetam”. Filigrane davidiche nel prologo della Commedia’, in Poesia e profezia nell’opera di Dante, ed. by Giuseppe Ledda (Ravenna: Centro Dantesco dei Frati Minori Conventuali, 2019), pp. 163–78
  • Raimondi, Ezio, Intertestualità e storia letteraria. Da Dante a Montale (Bologna: CUSL, 1991)
  • Ruggeri, Pietro, ‘Poesia e profezia nei canti del Paradiso terrestre’, L’Alighieri, 65 (2025), pp. 53–75
  • Tavoni, Mirko, ‘Effrazione battesimale tra i simoniaci ( If XIX 13–21)’, Rivista di letteratura italiana, 10 (1992), pp. 457–523
  • Veglia, Marco, ‘Una controfigura biblica’, in Veglia, Dante leggero. Dal priorato alla ‘Commedia’ (Rome: Carocci, 2017), pp. 111–47

Cite as: Giuseppe Ledda, ‘Prophetic Models and Structures in an Undivine Comedy’, in A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of The Undivine Comedy, ed. by Kristina M. Olson, Cultural Inquiry, 37 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 209-21 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-37_10>