DANTE DECRYPTED: MUSICA UNIVERSALIS IN THE TEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE ‘COMMEDIA’

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Bibliotheca Dantesca: Journal of Dante Studies
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Trinity
Scutum fidei
Terza rima
Architecture
Boethius
Pythagoras
Ptolemy
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture
Italian Language and Literature
Medieval History
Music
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Adoyo, C.S.
Contributor
Abstract

For seven centuries scholars have speculated about the structural design of Dante’s Commedia but remain perplexed by the poem’s comprehensive ar-chitecture. This study undertakes a strictly empirical quantitative analysis of Dante’s magnum opus to address this lacuna. The outcome of this analysis enumerates the correspondence between the foundational rationale of the Commedia’s textual architecture and both physical and metaphysical concepts of Ptolemaic cosmology and Pythagorean principles of harmony and propor-tion as described by Boethius. The poem manifests a musically and mathemat-ically meticulous design conceptualized as musica universalis and expressed as musica instrumentalis that echoes Paschal and Marian plainchant. With an an-alytical synthesis of three components—Beatrice’s mathematical identity, the Trinitary ontology of the terza rima, and the quantitative properties of the Commedia’s canto lengths and their frequency of occurrence—this study de-crypts Dante’s comprehensive architectural design of a poem whose structural harmony continues to be felt by readers today.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2018-12-10
Journal title
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection