Online Course:
Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Tuesday Nights at 07:00 PM beginning July 26, 2022 – Pacific Time (US and Canada)
“Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy“
Join us for an exploration of literature’s greatest poem, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Initial lessons will introduce readers to the beauty of the epic poem, as well as to the fractious history of Dante’s Italy and his at-times contentious relationship with the institutional Church. Subsequent lessons will explore select canti from the three canticles (books) of the poem: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Students will consider the role of the saints in Dante’s epic – including, among others, St. Lucy, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic, St. Bernard, and St. Francis of Assisi – as well as their counterparts, the sinners residing in Hell, the obverse of all that is saintly.
Dr. Anthony Nussmeier
Associate Professor of Italian
Anthony Nussmeier is Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian at the University of Dallas, where he teaches courses ranging from beginning Italian language to senior seminars. His research centers on Dante, medieval Italian literature, manuscript studies, and Italian poetry.
Dr. Nussmeier is Contributing Editor (Dante Studies) for The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies and Co-Editor and Book-Review Editor (Medieval, English-Language) of Annali d’Italianistica. He is the author of some dozen essays on Dante, and has long sought to promote the study of Dante to the wider public. His promotion of Dante in the community has included events such as day-long, public marathon readings of the entire Commedia, as well as radio interviews, television appearances on EWTN, and video-episodes on Dante for initiatives such as the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture series. He is also an advisory board member and participant in the project 100 Days of Dante.
The 6-week Online Course will be Tuesday Nights at 07:00 PM beginning July 26 to August 30, 2022 – Pacific Time (US and Canada)
July 26, August 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30
Here are links to Dante’s Divine Comedy text available free online:
- https://dante.princeton.edu/pdp/ (Hollander translation, Petrocchi Italian)
- https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/ (Mandelbaum translation, Petrocchi Italian)
- http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader (Longfellow translation, Petrocchi Italian)
100 Days of Dante – the world’s largest Dante reading group. Videos of Dante aficionados reading cantos, created from September 8, 2021 through Easter 2022; three cantos a week were read by teachers who know and love Dante well.
July 26, 2022 – Class #1 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
By Dr Anthony Nussmeier
PowerPoint Slides Presentation as Adobe PDF: Sinners_n_Saints_Dantes_Comedy_Week-1_Slides
August 02, 2022 – Class #2 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
For this class it would be helpful to read:
- Inferno 1-3, 5, and 10
Here are some links to the text from the professor:
- https://dante.princeton.edu/pdp/ (Hollander translation, Petrocchi Italian)
- https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/ (Mandelbaum translation, Petrocchi Italian)
- http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader (Longfellow translation, Petrocchi Italian)
PowerPoint Slides Presentation from Week 2 as Adobe PDF:
August 09, 2022 – Class #3 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
By Dr Anthony Nussmeier
Recommended reading for Class #3:
- Inferno 26
- Inferno 32-34
PowerPoint Slides Presentation from Week 3 as Adobe PDF:
Sinners_n_Saints_Dantes_Comedy_Week-3_Slides
100 Days of Dante – the world’s largest Dante reading group. Videos of Dante aficionados reading cantos, created from September 8, 2021 through Easter 2022; three cantos a week were read by teachers who know and love Dante well.
August 16, 2022 – Class #4 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
By Dr Anthony Nussmeier
Suggested readings for Class #4 are:
- Jacques Le Goff, “The poetic triumph: the Divina Commedia,” in The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, University of Chicago Press, 1984, pp. 334-355. [PDF]
- Dante, Purgatory 1, 9, 30-33
PowerPoint Slides Presentation as Adobe PDF:
August 23, 2022 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
By Dr Anthony Nussmeier
Suggested readings for Class #5 are:
- Paradise 1, 6, 11-12
PowerPoint Slides Presentation as Adobe PDF:
August 30, 2022 – “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Divine Comedy”
By Dr Anthony Nussmeier, Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian at the University of Dallas
Suggested readings for Class #6 are:
- Paradise 15-17, 23, 30-33