Voices on Dante’s Paradiso
A New Critical Reading of the Second Canticle (May 2025 – May 2026))
organized by: Prof. Dr. Zygmunt G. Barański (University of Notre Dame) and Prof. Dr. Maria Antonietta Terzoli (Universität Basel)
Following on from the complete critical reading of the Inferno and the Purgatorio that took place between March 2019 and September 2023 under the auspices of the Istituto di Italianistica dell’Università di Basilea and The William & Katherine Devers Program in Dante Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the aim now is to organize a critical reading of the Paradiso along the same lines. This will be divided into five meetings, each of two and a half days, that will take place remotely in line with three of the five meetings dedicated to the Inferno and the Purgatorio.
As occurred with the Inferno, the aim of the meetings is to assess and discuss the individual cantos. The discussions will bring together the speakers, as well as colleagues and undergraduate and postgraduate students. On the first evening of each meeting, there will be a public lecture dedicated to the following topics connected to the Paradiso.
The lecturae and an edited version of the discussions will be published by Carocci of Rome.
- The Structure and Rhetoric of ‘Paradiso’
Cantos I-VI
Università di Basilea-University of Notre Dame, 14-16 May 2025
- Languge and Style of ‘Paradiso’
Cantos VII-XII
Università di Basilea-University of Notre Dame, 10-12 September 2025
- Dante’s Biography and the Textual Transmission of ‘Paradiso’
Cantos XIII-XIX
Università di Basilea-University of Notre Dame, 19-21 November 2025
- ‘Paradiso’ and Medieval Religious Culture
Cantos XX-XXVI
Università di Basilea-University of Notre Dame, 22-24 April 2026
- The Medieval Cosmos and Dante’s Paradise
Cantos XXVII-XXXIII
Università di Basilea-University of Notre Dame, 27-29 May2026