Sandro Sticca, professor of French and comparative literature, has authored a new book: Lorenzo Filomusi-Guelfi interprete di Dante, published by the Centro Internazionale di Studi e Ricerche “Il Melograno”, Rome, 2012. The volume examines the critical production on Dante of Filomusi-Guelfi (1856-1923), in particular his exegetical work on the Divine Comedy represented by four volumes: Studii su Dante (1908), Nuovi studii su Dante (1911), Nuovissimi studii su Dante (1912) and Paralipomeni danteschi (1914). After framing in the first chapter the importance of Filomusi-Guelfi’s Dante studies, Sticca dedicates the second chapter to a critical-historical analysis of “Dante in English Literature and Art (1380-1882); subsequent chapters deal with Filomusi’s unpublished essay “The Moral Structure of the Paradiso”, celebrations in honor of Dante in the years 1865, 1965, 1983, 1987 and 2011, and a concluding essay on the traditional argument concerning the rivalry between Dante and Petrarch in terms of whether the pre-eminence ought to be assigned to Dante’s vulgari eloquio or to Petrarch’s latinitas. The volume is provided with a rich iconographical repertoire of miniatures and paintings on Dante and the Divine Comedy.
