This bibliography is intended to include the Dante translations published in this country in 1954, and all Dante studies and reviews published in 1954 that are in any sense American. A few elusive items not recorded in the bibliography for 1953 will be found at the end of the present list as addenda for that year. It may be gratifying to note that the volume of Dante material for 1954 represents a considerable increase over that for 1953.

The Divine Comedy. A New Prose Translation, with an Introduction and Notes, by H. R. Huse. New York and Toronto, Rinehart. AISO in a college edition, identically the same except for a paper cover and smaller page size. [1954]

Done in prose, but conveniently retaining the original tercet division. Essential notes, much abbreviated, are subtly incorporated, in brackets, in the text; and explanatory summaries are interpolated immediately before passages forming natural units within cantos. The translation comes further equipped with a short introduction on Dante's life and works, a bibliographical note listing selected works in English on Dante, a general diagram and an outline chart of each canticle, and a glossary of proper names.

The Inferno. Translated in verse by John Ciardi. Historical Introduction by A. T. MacAllister. New Brunswick (New Jersey), Rutgers University Press. Also in a paper-back edition, by The New American Library ("Mentor Books," Ms 113). [1954]

Translated in English iambic pentameter divided into tercets with rhyme, or approximate rhyme, between the first and third lines. Supplementary features include a translator's preface, an historical introduction by A. T. MacAllister, summaries before, and explicatory notes after, each canto, and five diagrams. Reviewed by Richmond Lattimore in The Nation, CLXXIX, 175, and by A. T. MacAllister in Yale Review, XLIV, 155-159.

"Five Poems from Dante Alighieri." Translated by Harry Duncan. In Poets of Today: Harry Duncan, Poems and Translations; Murray Noss, Samurai and Serpent Poems; May Swenson, Another Animal, Poems, With a Critical Introduction by John Hall Wheelock, New York, Scribner's Sons. Pp. 47-56. [1954]

Very faithful translations of (1) lo son venuto, following approximately the original rhyme-scheme; (2) Al poco giorno, preserving the sestina form and the original rhyme-words (translated); (3) Amor, tu vedi ben, with the original rhyme-scheme and rhyme-words (translated); (4) Così nel mio parlar, with some rhyme and retaining the pattern of long and short lines; and (5) Amor, da che convien, with approximately the original rhyme-scheme.

Fourteen Poems. Translated by several hands. In Lyric Poetry of the Italian Renaissance: an Anthology with Verse Translations. Collected by L. R. Lind. With an Introduction by Thomas G. Bergin. New Haven, Yale University Press, and London, Oxford University Press. Pp. 116-153. [1954]

Reproduces, with the Italian text on opposite pages, the following translations of Dante's poems, numbered according to E. Moore (Tutte le opere di Dante Alighieri, Oxford, 1897): Sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti, translated by Shelley; from the Vita Nuova, Sonnets 1, 11, 15, 24, and 25, and Canzoni 1 and 3, by D. G. Rossetti, and Canzone 2, w. 156-183, in Scottish, by Douglas Young; Ballata 9, Canzone 17, and Sestina 1, also by Rossetti; from the Convivio, Canzone 1, by Howard Nemerov; and Sestina 2, by John Heath-Stubbs. Reviewed by A. T. MacAllister in Yale Review, XLIV, 155-159.

Monarchy, and Three Political Letters. With an Introduction by Donald Nicholl, and a Note on the Chronology of Dante's Political Works by Colin Hardie. New York, Noonday Press. Also a British edition: London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson. [1954]

The De Monarchia is translated by Nicholl; the three Epistolae (V-VII, according to the Moore-Toynbee numbering) are translated by Hardie. There are footnotes to the texts, a chronological table of relevant historical events, and a short bibliography.

J. C. Alciatore. "Stendhal and the Ugolino Episode." In Italica, XXXI, 199-206. [1954]

Culls from Stendhal's writings evidence of his developing enthusiasm for Dante's Commedia, particularly the Ugolino episode. This enthusiasm went hand in hand with his maturing views on artistic genius and the achievement of the sublime.

Erich Auerbach. "Dante's Addresses to the Reader." In Romance Philology, VII, 268-278. [1954]

Stressing their dramatic and pedagogical character, the author shows that Dante's addresses to the reader, differing from ancient and medieval examples, constitute an original development of the classical apostrophe and indicate a new relationship of the poet to his reader, that of a prophet reporting the truth to a disciple.

Michele Barbi. Life of Dante. Translated and edited by Paul G. Ruggiers. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. [1954]

Barbi's classic covers the life, the minor works, the Divine Comedy, and the reputation and study of Dante. A preface and notes accompany the translation, and an up-to-date comprehensive selection of works in English has been substituted for Barbi's bibliography. The Italian original appeared first in the Enciclopedia italiana (Rome, 1929), then in book form, as Dante: vita, opere e fortuna (Florence, 1933). Reviewed by A. L. Pellegrini in Modern Language Notes, LXX, 307-308, and by I. J. Semper in Books on Trial, XII, 293-294.

Giuliano Bonfante. "Ideas on the Kinship of the European Languages from 1200 to 1800." In Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, I, 679-699. [1954]

Contains very favorable mention of Dante's linguistic ideas.

W. P. Friedrich. Outline of Comparative Literature: from Dante Alighieri to Eugene O'Neill. With the collaboration of D. H. Malone. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press (University of North Carolina Studies in Comparative Literature, 11). [1954]

Contains a short section on Dante and frequent mention passim indicating, from a comparatist viewpoint, Dante's importance and influence in the subsequent course of Western literature.

Francesco Gabrieli. "New Light on Dante and Islam." In Diogenes (New York, Intercultural Publications), No. 6 (Spring), 61-73. [1954]

Considers that Asin Palacios' theory of Arabic influence on Dante's Comedy now has documentary support in the thirteenth-century Latin and French translations of the Islamic eschatological work, al-Miraq: the Liber Scalae Machometi and Livre de Eschewal Mahomet, which two scholars, working independently, have recently discovered and published simultaneously. However, the author continues, Dante evinces no special familiarity with the Arabo-Islamic world and the questions still remain as to whether Dante knew the al-Miraq in one of these translations directly and to what degree he actually used the Arab element in his poem.

The editions, reproducing the Latin and French texts in parallel fashion, are: (1) La Escala de Mahoma. Traducción del arabe al castellano, latín y francés, ordenada por Alfonso X el Sabio. Edición, introducción y notas por José Muñoz Sendino. Madrid, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1949; and (2) Il "Libro della scala" e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia. A cura di Enrico Cerulli. Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949.

Gilbert Highet. An Introduction to Dante. (A transcript of one of a series of radio talks printed and distributed by the Book-of-the-Month Club.) Copyright by Oxford University Press. [1954]

A short presentation of basic facts and critical observations useful to one approaching Dante for the first time.

Ulrich Leo. "Das Purgatorio und der New Criticism (Bemerkungen zu Francis Fergusson: Dante's Drama of the Mind. A Modern Reading of the Purgatorio)." In Romanische Forschungen, LXVI, 152-166. [1954]

A penetrating and severe criticism of Fergusson's book. A shorter version in English appeared as "Dante: a Pilgrim in Hell" in Renascence, VII, 85-90.

Ulrich Leo. "Das Sonett mit zwei Anfangen (Vita Nuova c. XXXIV)." In Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, LXX, 376-388. [1954]

Proposes an aesthetic revaluation of the sonnet in Chapter XXXIV of the Vita Nuova, studies the sense of the poem in its prose context, and poses and resolves several questions of probable chronology, contextual suitability, and comparative merits of the two cominciamenti. Appended is a brief excursus on the "angel"-motif used by dolce stil novo and later poets.

Ewart Lewis. Medieval Political Ideas. 2 vols. New York, Knopf. [1954]

Most of Book I and Chapters 4 and 16 of Book III of the De Monarchia, translated by the author, are included among the selected source materials topically arranged. In the introductory essays to the texts, ample space is given to Dante's political ideas on authority, natural beatitude, universal empire, church and state, etc. There is also a brief note on Dante's life.

Angeline H. Lograsso. "Dante and Our Lady." In Thought, XXIX, 487-506. [1954]

Reviews the references to the Virgin Mary in Dante's poetry and claims the major role for her, rather than Beatrice, as the poet's guide to God in the Commedia.

Kenneth Oliver. "Dante in a World Literature Course." In Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, III, 46-51. (The University of North Carolina Studies in Comparative Literature, 9.) [1954]

Emphasizes the importance of Dante's Comedy in a World Literature course, because of its transitional place in Western cultural history, and offers many suggestive questions on the poem methodologically designed to lead the reader into its cultural matrix.

Leonardo Olschki. The Genius of Italy. Ithaca (N. Y.), Cornell University Press. [1954]

Contains an essay on "Dante and His Circle," relating the poet and his works to the Italy of his time, and considerable further reference to Dante throughout the book in various connections, e.g., Dante's influence on art and Italian culture generally, Dante and Italian political thought, Petrarch and Dante. This is a reissue of Olschki's book, originally published in 1949 (New York, Oxford University Press).

A. L. Pellegrini and collaborators. "American Dante Bibliography for 1953." In 68th to 72nd Annual Reports of the Dante Society (Cambridge, Mass.), 43-49. [1954]

With brief analyses.

Ezra Pound. Literary Essays of Ezra Pound. Edited with an Introduction by T. S. Eliot. Norfolk (Conn.), New Directions. [1954]

"Hell" (pp. 201-213), originally published in The Criterion (April, 1934), is a discursive review of Dante's Inferno Translated into English Triple Rhyme, by Laurence Binyon (London, 1933). There is also considerable reference to Dante in other chapters, particularly those on "Arnaut Daniel" and "Cavalcanti."

P. G. Ruggiers. "Words into Images in Chaucer's Hous of Fame: A Third Suggestion." In Modern Language Notes, LXIX, 34-37. [1954]

Points out parallels in Dante's Paradiso, particularly Canto IV, 37-48, as a probable source of Chaucer's accommodation of words into images in the Hous of Fame, vv. 1068-1081.

I. J. Semper. "Was Dante a Sensualist?" In Catholic World, CLXXIX, 96-100. [1954]

Refutes the charge of homosexuality laid on Dante by Gilson and also the imputation of licentiousness originating with Boccaccio, for no real evidence in support of such claims can be found in the poetic sources usually cited--Cantos XXIII, XXX, XXXI of the Purgatorio, the sonnets exchanged by Dante and Forese, the rime petrose; indeed, a more favorable opinion is indicated by the whole pattern of Dante's literary activity.

I. J. Semper. "What, then, does Beatrice Mean?" In The Month (London), CXCVII (New Series XI), 273-283. [1954]

Refuting the interpretations of Beatrice favored by Williams, Gilson, Sinclair, Singleton, and Fergusson, the author cites new evidence from Dante's Epistola VIII (to the Italian cardinals) in support of the interpretation originally set forth by Scartazzini, viz., that Beatrice represents the Roman Pontiff in the pageant at the top of Purgatory.

Barbara Seward. "The Symbolic Rose." In Dissertation Abstracts, XIV, 132-133. (Abstract of a Columbia University dissertation.) [1954]

Studies the background of the rose symbol in contemporary English poetry, dwelling on its use by Dante in the Middle Ages and Yeats, Joyce, and Eliot in the twentieth century.

Isidore Silver. "Ronsard Comparatist Studies: Achievements and Perspectives." In Comparative Literature, VI, 148-173. [1954]

Discusses, in a short section on "Dante and Ronsard" (pp. 162-165), the possibility of Dante's influence on Ronsard and the present state of scholarship on the subject.

C. S. Singleton. Dante Studies 1. Commedia: Elements of Structure. Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press. [1954]

Contains four closely interrelated studies and an appendix focussing on various dimensions of the Commedia. The items previously published have been somewhat modified and all are now provided with notes. (1) "Allegory" (originally published in Kenyon Review, XIV) considers this dimension in Dante's poem as an imitation of God's allegory in His book of Scripture, where the first, or literal, meaning is given as true even as it may point to a second, or other, meaning. (2) "Symbolism" (a new study) differentiates this dimension of the poem, residing in what is objectively seen there, from the allegory, which is contained in the subjective process of seeing on the journey. The symbolism is conceived in imitation of the reality of God's Book of the Universe, where things are signs as well as things. (3) "The Pattern at the Center" (originally published in Romanic Review, XLII) demonstrates the analogy of the poem's structure to Christian history: at the top of Purgatory, the conceptual center of the Commedia, a Beatrice-Christ analogy is established with reference to her coming in triumph to judge Dante, and His future coming to judge all men at the Resurrection; and with further reference to Beatrice's earlier role in the Vita Nuova as an analogy of the first Advent of Christ. (4) "The Substance of Things Seen" (originally published in Journal of the History of Ideas, X) re-emphasizes the literal reality of Dante's fictive journey, supported by the Incarnation and modeled on Scriptural writing, and suggests a formula to describe the quality of such writing: fides quaerens visionem; praecedit fides, sequitur visio. An appendix, "Two Kinds of Allegory" (originally published in Speculum, XXV) examines more fully the distinction made by Dante between the allegory of poets and the allegory of theologians and insists that Dante's is the latter and therefore, for the sake of the poem, the first sense must be accepted as literally true. In the course of the studies, notable exegetical interpretations are given, viz., of the Prologue, with special reference to Inferno, I, 19-29, in (1); of the Casella episode (Purgatorio, II) and the figure of Satan (Inferno, XXXIV) in (2); and the coming of Beatrice (Purgatorio, XXX) in (3). Reviewed by Francis Fergusson in Comparative Literature, VII, 79-80, and by Edward Williamson in Romanic Review, XLV, 280-284.

C. S. Singleton. "Justice in Eden." In 68th to 72nd Annual Reports of the Dante Society (Cambridge, Mass.), 3-33. [1954]

Original justice was given to, then lost forever by, mankind in Adam; but the individual may still attain justice in the soul, which is perfectible by Sanctifying Grace and the infused virtues through the process called justification. On this pattern of thought, attested especially in Bernard and Thomas Aquinas, the author has based his interpretation of the figure of Matelda and the coming of Beatrice at the top of Purgatory. There, Beatrice's coming is seen to reflect the second advent of Christ: when Dante has, under Virgil's guidance, attained justice in the soul (even as conceived by, and possible to, the Ancients), Beatrice comes to him bearing the Perfection of that justice in analogically the same way that Christ comes, in mentem, to the just man as Sanctifying Grace. Furthermore, at this same point the living Beatrice first known to Dante on earth is recalled in memory; while she has come, plainly, to sit in judgment of the poet-lover. Thus, the Beatrice-Christ analogy is seen to obtain with respect to all three advents of Christ, in the three dimensions of time past, present, and future. It is further maintained that Matelda has no historical identity but must, in her first appearance where she is unnamed and comes just as Beatrice is expected (Purgatorio, XXVIII), be taken purely allegorically, as a fleeting vision of original justice that once was.

Leo Spitzer. "Parole di Dante: Caribo." In Lingua Nostra, XV, 65-66. [1954]

Glosses the etymology of caribo (Purgatorio, XXXI, 132) -- "ballo o canzone a ballo" in the original Arabic (garib), and in Catalan, Provencal and Italian.

Giuseppe Toffanin. History of Humanism. English translation, foreword, and augmented bibliography by Elio Gianturco. New York, Las Americas Publishing Company. [1954]

Shows, in a short chapter on Dante (pp. 54-61), that the poet recognized the pre-Christian wisdom of ancient Rome as a Providential preparation for the Truth of Revelation, necessary not only in the history of mankind but also in that of the individual. Further references to Dante occur passim. The original Italian work first appeared in 1933, was reprinted in 1940 and 1943, and was last republished in 1950 as the second volume, L'umanesimo italiano (dal XIV al XVI secolo), of the trilogy, Storia dell'umanesimo (Bologna, Zanichelli).

E. H. Wilkins. "Blake's Drawing of Dante's Celestial Scaleo." In 68th to 72nd Annual Reports of the Dante Society (Cambridge, Mass.), 3542. [1954]

Reproduces two drawings by William Blake, a watercolor of "Jacob's Ladder" and, from among his illustrations of the Commedia, a pencil sketch inscribed "Par Canto 19," and concludes that the latter is an adaptation of the former and is therefore actually a representation of Dante's scaleo in Paradiso, XXI-XXII, Blake's inscription being erroneous.

E. H. Wilkins. A History of Italian Literature. Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press. [1954]

Contains three substantial chapters relating to Dante: "Dante in Florence," "Dante in Exile," and "The Divine Comedy." The poet's considerable influence is indicated. Selected works in English on Dante appear in the relevant bibliographical sections. Reviewed by Giovanni Gullace in Symposium, VIII, 340-347; by A. T. MacAllister in Yale Review, XLIV, 155-159 and Romanic Review, XLVI, 44-48; by K. C. M. Sills in Speculum, XXX, 131-132; by John Van Horne in Renaissance News, VII, 131-133.

Archer Woodford. "Edición crítica del Dezir a las syete virtudes de Francisco Imperial." In Nueva revista de filología hispánica, VIII, 268-294. [1954]

Woodford's introduction and many notes reveal Imperial's close imitation and adaptation of Dante's Commedia. Purgatorio, XXXIII, 40-45 provided the leitmotiv; Dante himself is cast as the poet's guide from the Earthly Paradise to the Empyrean.

Floyd Zulli, Jr. "Anatole France and Dante." In Modern Language Notes, LXIX, 420. [1954]

Points out that in Le Lys Rouge France translated a famous verse from the Vita Nuova, XX: "Amour et gentil coeur sont une même chose."

Erich Auerbach. Review of J. P. Bowden, An Analysis of Pietro Alighieri's Commentary on the "Divine Comedy," New York, 1951. In Romance Philology, VIII, 167-168.

C. B. Beall. Review of R. A. Hall, Jr., A Short History of Italian Literature, Ithaca (N. Y.), 1951. In Romance Philology, VIII, 56-58.

(Hall's History contains a chapter on Dante, as well as frequent mention of Dante passim in various connections.)

Fredi Chiappelli. Review of Johannes Haller, Dante Dichter und Mensch, Basel, 1954. In Italica, XXXI, 187-188.

Mana R. Lida de Malkiel. Review of H. R. Patch, The Other World according to Descriptions in Medieval Literature, Cambridge, 1950. In Romance Philology, VIII, 52-54.

Angeline H. Lograsso. Review of Luigi Sturzo, La Poesia nella Divina Commedia, Rome, 1953. In Italica, XXXI, 251-252.

P. H. Michel. Review of Augustin Renaudet, Dante Humaniste, Paris, 1952. In Diogenes (New York, Intercultural Publications), No. 8 (Autumn), 120-123.

Aldo Scaglione. Review of J. E. Shaw, Guido Cavalcanti's Theory of Love: the "Canzone d'Amore" and Other Related Problems, Toronto, 1949. In Romance Philology, VII, 389-393.

(Shaw's book contains a chapter on the concept of love in Guinizelli, Cavalcanti, and Dante.)

C. S. Singleton. Review of Nancy Lenkeith, Dante and the Legend of Rome (Supplement II of Medieval and Renaissance Studies), London, 1952. In Speculum, XXIX, 127-131.

Domenico Vittorini. Review of Aldo Vallone, La "cortesia" dai provenzali a Dante, Palermo, 1950. In Comparative Literature, VI, 370-372.

Edward Williamson. Review of Francis Fergusson, Dante's Drama of the Mind: a Modern Reading of the Purgatorio, Princeton, 1953. In Romanic Review, XLV, 278-280.

Erich Auerbach. "Epilegomena zu 'Mimesis.'" In Romanische Forschungen, LXV, 1-18. [1953]

Contains a discussion (pp. 7-8) of Dante's concept of "comedy," its close kinship to Uguccione's, and its ultimate source in Theophrastus.

Erich Auerbach. Typologische Motive in der mittelalterlichen Literatur (Schriften und Vorträge des Petrarca-Instituts Köln, 2). Krefeld, Scherpe Verlag. [1953]

Discusses the exegetical method of figurism and typology--as distinct from ordinary symbolism and allegory--of biblical tradition and shows its possibilities of application, among other things, to many otherwise difficult points in Dante's Commedia, e.g., Rahab (Paradiso, IX, 109-126), Cato (Purgatorio, I-II), letargo (Paradiso, XXXIII, 94-96). Reviewed by Erich Loos in Romanische Forschungen, LXVI, 201-202. A shorter English version of Auerbach's study has appeared as "Typological Symbolism in Medieval Literature in Yale French Studies, No. 9 (Spring, 1952), 3-10.

G. A. Borgese. "Dante and his Time." In Diogenes (New York, Intercultural Publications), No. 4 (Autumn), 1-16. [1953]

A general but substantial discussion of the major aspects of Dante's life, thought, and masterpiece in relation to his time. The author notes that this is an excerpt of a longer essay to be published in 1954 as an introduction to an edition of the Divine Comedy (Henry Regnery Company) and in Italian translation in a volume of essays by Borgese (Mondadori). (There seems to be no record of its appearance in 1954 in either version. Borgese died in 1952.)

G. B. Ladner. "The History of Ideas in the Christian Middle Ages from the Fathers to Dante m American and Canadian Publications of the Years 1940-1952." In Traditio, IX, 439-514. [1953]

A highly classified bibliographical survey with brief analyses and general comments, containing many items on or related to Dante.

Ulrich Leo. "Luzifer und Christus." In Benedetto Croce, a cura di Francesco Flora (Milan, Malfasi), 419-434. (This is a special number of Letterature moderne dedicated to Croce.) [1953]

Considers Dante's creation of a weeping Satan less a monument of evil than an object of compassion, since his tears identify him as a fellow-sufferer with the other denizens of Hell. Also, arguing from--among other things--the suggestive parallelism between "ecco Dite" (Inferno, XXXIV, 20) and Pilate's "ecce homo," the author submits that Satan is conceived as a parody of Christ, as well as of the Trinity. He closes with a comparison between Dante's Satan and Tasso's Plutone.

Jacques Maritain. Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry (The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington). New York, Pantheon Books (Bollingen Series, XXXV-l ). [1953]

In the final chapter the author claims for the Commedia the superiority of what he conceived to be the three epiphanies of creative intuition, viz., poetic essence or inner melody, action and theme, and number or harmonic structure, which are correlated with the three components of beauty: clarity or radiance, integrity, and consonance, respectively. He stresses especially Dante's creative innocence, in the sense of naivete and integrity, as the major aspect of his genius, and Dante's luck--a product of the coincidence of God's grace, the poet's virtues as a man, his cultural heritage, the uniqueness of the historical moment, and the fact that, since medieval poetry, while fully developed, was not yet differentiated into separate forms, the Commedia, uniquely, succeeded in being Song, Drama, and Novel with the same intense reality and in a substantial unity. The section on "Dante's Innocence and Luck" was preprinted in Kenyon Review, XIV (1952), 301-323. Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry has appeared, minus the pictorial illustrations, most of the quoted texts, and many footnotes found in the original, in a paper-back edition (New York, Noonday Press, 1955: "Meridian Books," M 8).

The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. ltalian Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Memorial Library. Descriptive Survey of the Principal Illuminated Manuscripts of the Sixth to Sixteenth Centuries, with a Selection of Important Letters and Documents. Catalogue compiled by Meta Harrsen and George K. Boyce. With an introduction by Bernard Berenson. New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library.

Lists three manuscripts of the Divina Commedia from the first half and the end of the fourteenth and the early fifteenth centuries. Three black-and-white plates reproduce three illuminated pages from the first two manuscripts.

Allen Tate. "The Self-Made Angel." In New Republic, CXXIX, No. 5 (Aug. 31), 17 and 21. [1953]

Discusses the relation of art to human conduct through a comparison of a terzina from Dante's Commedia (Paradiso, III, 85-87) with a stanza from Hart Crane's "The Wine Menagerie."