"Seeing Rome and her vast works...": Dante's Guide to Medieval Rome

This talk will explore how Dante Alighieri used the Divine Comedy to create a new guidebook for pilgrims to the Eternal City, constructing an itinerary that would take his readers beyond the ruins of antiquity to what he called “that Rome where Christ is a Roman.” 

Mary Watt is a Professor of Italian Studies, and Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Florida. Mary holds a Ph.D. in Italian Studies and a J.D., both from the University of Toronto, Canada.  Her work has been supported by the Rothman Endowment for the Humanities, the Municipality of Ravenna, and the Norwegian Institute in Rome. She is the author of over fifty journal articles, book chapters, reviews and translations and currently serves as a review editor for Speculum.  She is the author of The Cross that Dante Bears: Pilgrimage, Crusade, and the Cruciform Church in the Divine Comedy, Dante; Columbus and the Prophetic Tradition: Spiritual Imperialism in the Italian Imagination and Dante’s Golden Legend – Auto-Hagiography in the Divine Comedy.

To attend this lecture, please register at this link.  You will receive a confirmation email one day before the event containing information about joining the lecture.

All times stated in Eastern time.