Dante and Epicurus seem poles apart. Dante, a committed Christian, depicted in the Commedia a vision of the afterlife and God’s divine justice. Epicurus, a pagan philosopher, taught that the soul is mortal and that all religion is vain superstition. And yet Epicurus is, for Dante, not only the quintessential heretic but an ethical ally. The key to this apparent paradox lies in the heterodox dualism – between man’s two goals of secular felicity and spiritual beatitude – at the heart of Dante’s ethical, political and theological thought.
Corbett’s full-length treatment of Dante’s reception and polemical representation of Epicurus addresses a major gap in the scholarship. Furthermore the study’s focus on fault lines in Dante’s vision of the afterlife – where the theological tensions implicit in his dualism surface – opens a new way to read the Commedia as a whole in dualistic terms.
George Corbett is Junior Research Fellow of Trinity College, and Affiliated Lecturer of the Department of Italian, the University of Cambridge.
Reviews:
‘George Corbett's book elegantly and lucidly addresses the relationship of Epicurean philosophy upon Dante's own ethical reasoning. As such, this work fills a gap left open not only in Dante studies, but within wider medieval studies as well, from which, as Corbett reminds us, Epicureanism has long been ignored. [...] While the book tackles issues of a highly philosophical nature, it does so consistently in a clear and accessible style. [...] Corbett's work will appeal not only to Dantists, but to scholars of philosophy, literature, and the Middle Ages, as well. As such, it is an outstanding book that proposes and skilfully realizes a truly ambitious project.’ — Lorenzo Valterza, Medium Aevum LXXXIII.2, 2014, 349-50
‘George Corbett approfondisce il rapporto fra Dante e la filosofia epicurea alla luce di un approccio critico più ampio, volto a dimostrare la permanenza, nella Commedia, della visione dualistica dantesca.’ — Giulia Gaimari, L'Alighieri 43, 2014, 165-68
‘Considered from the point of view of what Corbett’s book has to say about Dante and one of the—theologically speaking—more problematic spirits on his horizon, it is to be welcomed, its sense of Dante’s appreciation of an Epicurus notable for something other than mere sensuality but wedded, even so, to a species of mortalism making inevitably for his reprobation within the Christian scheme of things emerging from it both clearly and convincingly.’ — John Took, Speculum 89.2, April 2014, 466-68
‘George Corbett writes with great clarity and logic, drawing on a wide range of resources from early commentators (among whom he moves with ease) and the whole of Dante’s œuvre to a host of modern Dante critics. Points of comparison and continuity rather than of palinodic rewriting are sought between the Commedia and the ‘minor works’, and the author is bold and confident in his challenges to various prevalent critical assumptions. The ambiguities surrounding Epicurus before and during Dante’s day are persuasively elucidated, with good, nuanced background on mediators such as Cicero, Augustine, and Albert the Great.’ — Jennifer Rushworth, Modern Language Review 109.3, July 2014, 821-22 (full text online)
‘L'importante lavoro di George Corbett si propone di indagare in maniera esaustiva l'influenza esercitata dal pensiero filosofico epicureo nell'opera dantesca [...] l'autore si interroga su due questioni fondamentali: quali sono i testi che possono aver influenzato la ricezione di Dante dell'Epicureismo e in che modo il poeta riesce a rappresentare Epicuro e gli epicurei nelle sue opere.’ — Claudia Tardelli Terry, Italian Studies 69.3, November 2014, 449-50
‘Corbett's book is well written, accurate, and rigorously argued. The thesis that Dante's Commedia presents a dualistic vision of the fulfilment of mankind is innovative and compelling for a new scholarly criticism of the Commedia. The first part on Dante's reception of Epicureanism is the most persuasive and ground-breaking; it shows how the reconstruction of Dante's sources is essential for understanding his reception of ancient literature and philosophy.’ — Filippo Gianferrari, Annali d'Italianistica 32, 2014, 593-95
‘Stunningly readable with potent, clear argumentation, Corbett’s nonetheless highly academic presentation of Dante’s dualism in the context of the poet’s literary integration of the figure and philosophy of Epicurus reads like a page-turner. Furthermore, Corbett’s innovative methodological approach is cradled by a no less than masterful organization throughout the book. [...] The topic and breadth of the book, perhaps, lend themselves better to students and scholars versed well enough with the traditions of the philosophers, biblical exegetes and scholarly commentators that orbit so closely Dante’s works. Readers with a grasp of Latin will take double pleasure in reading volumes of quotes from their original sources as well as in their English translations. Corbett’s book, overall, is a must-have for the bookshelves of the committed dantista.’ — Elsie Emslie Stevens, Italica 41.4, 2014, 833-35
‘George Corbett presenta un volume nel quale viene ripercorsa, con ampiezza e profondità di indagine, l’importante questione relativa ai rapporti fra Dante e l’epicureismo […] Il volume di Corbett si configura senza alcun dubbio, quindi, come un serio e notevole tentativo di far luce in modo esaustivo e corretto su un non irrilevante nodo problematico dell’universo filosofico e poetico dantesco, insieme punto d’arrivo di una lunga e ininterrotta tradizione esegetica e punto di partenza per nuovi, auspicabili interventi critici.’ — Armando Bisanti, Studi Medievali series 3 vol 56, 2015, 444-45
Contents:
i-xii, 1-189
Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment George Corbett Complete volume as single PDF
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers Dante Alighieri's reception of Epicureanism and the implications of Epicureanism for his dualistic theory in comparison and contrast to medieval intellectual and popular traditions. It focuses on the treatment of Epicureanism in the Commedia. The book presents a close study of the limbo of the virtuous pagans and Ante-Purgatory. It highlights the persistence of Dante's dualistic theory in the Commedia. The book argues that Epicureanism allowed Dante to delineate the central dualism in his thought between man's secular felicity and his spiritual beatitude. It addresses the theological dimension of the canto and shows that the dramatic encounter between Dante-character and Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti is its true thematic as well as its structural centre. The book proposes a possible critical solution to the Cavalcante episode, which Natalino Sapegno called one of 'the most difficult and discusses passages of the poem'.
This chapter considers four literary fields of influence which may have informed Dante Alighieri's understanding of Epicureanism during his lifetime: the Roman writers, the medieval encyclopaedias, the patristic and popular traditions of Epicurus, and the scholastic treatment. It addresses Dante's apparently conflicting representations of Epicureanism in the Convivio and in the Commedia. The chapter shows that Dante's approbation of Epicurean ethics (Convivio) and his censure of Epicurean mortalism (Commedia) are consistent with a sophisticated strand of the wider medieval reception. It argues that Dante's admiration for Epicurean ethics persists in the Commedia and that, against first appearances, his criticism of Epicurean mortalism is, in fact, foreshadowed in the Convivio. The chapter describes Dante's polemical correction of the popular caricature of Epicurus as a pig enslaved to the senses, the 'porcus de grege Epicuri'. The qualified praise of Seneca is indicative of the Roman reception of Epicureanism undistorted by Christian apologetics.
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42-64
Chapter 2: Dante's Epicureanism and the Emergence of Secular Man George Corbett doi:10.59860/ip.c162e7c
In line with Marcus Tullius Cicero's treatment in De finibus, Dante Alighieri elects the noble Roman Torquatus as the advocate for Epicureanism in his prose works, the Convivio and the Monarchia. Guido Cavalcanti, as Dante implies in Inferno X, was infected by his father's notorious Epicureanism. An Epicurean-inspired secularism implies a human-centred rather than a God-directed life. There are some men, negligent of their divine nature and explicitly denying faith in an eternal goal, which nonetheless pursue their ethical goal and secular happiness as homines naturales: it is these men for whom Dante reserves the Epicurean appellation. Dante's correct depiction of Epicureans — as noble but heretical — therefore endorses an autonomous and secular ethical standard, and testifies to the life of reason as the only kind of life worthy of being called human. Marco distinguishes the secular hemisphere of human affairs from the spiritual hemisphere: the 'two sun.
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65-88
Chapter 3: The Secular and Spiritual Hemispheres of Inferno X George Corbett doi:10.59860/ip.c27225f
This chapter considers Inferno X as the horizon between the temporal and the spiritual hemispheres of man's existence. It also considers the political dimension of the canto, and analyses Dante Alighieri's interpolation of some overarching structural and thematic devices into Inferno X. The chapter highlights the spiritual dimension of the canto. It explores Dante's emphasis on the Resurrection of the Body in response to the Epicurean heresy in Inferno X, and the Scriptural precedent in St Paul Nixona's dialogue with the Epicureans in Athens. The chapter examines the thematic connections between Inferno X, Purgatorio X, and Paradiso X and how this vertical axis of reference serves to underline the spiritual dimension of the Epicurean canto. The temporal hemisphere is the only hemisphere that exists for the Epicurean. The spiritual hemisphere is, for the Christian, the ultimate destination of each immortal soul.
This chapter shows how the disparity between literal and spiritual interpretations of the same object illustrates the incommensurable psychological states of Epicurean unbelief and Christian belief. It considers each stage of the Cavalcante dialogue according to the possible intention of the speaker and to the possible inference of the interlocutor. Dante Alighieri-character could reasonably infer that Cavalcante, eternally damned as an Epicurean disbeliever, is anxious about his son's notorious Epicureanism and eternal destiny. Following the theological precedent of St Paul's dialogue with the Epicureans in Athens, Dante foregrounds the theme of Jesus's bodily resurrection as the site of Christian faith in Inferno X. Inferno X is clearly concerned with the evil of civic divisiveness within the temporal hemisphere. Where the Christian philosophers, in the heaven of the sun, have illuminated the faith and combatted heresy with their doctrine and treatises, the crusaders have fought for the Christian faith with their own blood.
In the intellectual context of early-fourteenth-century Europe, Dante Alighieri's representation of the virtuous pagans, like his emphasis on the Epicureans, is surprising and peculiar. Dante's 'strange new fiction' of Cato in Ante-Purgatory similarly strikes another fourteenth-century reader with the disquieting taste of heresy. This chapter argues that these instances of theological unorthodoxy in the Commedia derive from Dante's controversial dualism. It considers the Limbus gentilium virtuosum and explores Cato's surprising presence as the gatekeeper of Ante-Purgatory. Alongside the pagan occupants of limbo, Cato embodies Dante's ethical and political ideal for the temporal sphere. The chapter examines how, through the liminal region of Ante-Purgatory, Dante dramatizes the dichotomy between the political imperative to maintain the imperial law against civic disorder, and the spiritual imperative of man's pilgrimage to his eternal goal. It deals with a comparison between the Limbus gentilium virtuosum and the Vallis Principium lacrimarumque.
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147-174
Chapter 6: The Horizon between Pagan Reason and Christian Faith George Corbett doi:10.59860/ip.c59fb4c
This chapter explores how the liminal condition of the Christian souls in Ante-Purgatory dramatizes the tension in Dante Alighieri's dualistic theory between reason and faith, nature and grace, man's temporal felicity and his eternal salvation. It addresses the intertextuality of Purgatorio II in which Dante, for the first time in the Commedia, juxtaposes a Scriptural psalm of spiritual redemption with his own philosophical canzone. The chapter describes the episode of Dante-character's solitary shadow within the context of Dante's discussions of the horizon between reason and faith in the prose works. It analyses Dante's incorporation of an astronomical lecture and ethical lesson from the Convivio into the narrative dialogue of Virgil and Dante-character in Purgatorio IV. The episode, which culminates in Dante-character's encounter with the Epicurean excommunicate Manfred, represents the epistemological transition from philosophical wonder to belief in miracle, as the foundation of Christian faith in the divine authority of Scripture.
Dante Alighieri's dualistic vision is radical and — as early reception of his works indicates — opens to charges of heresy. In part because of this, much of twentieth-century Dante scholarship has been concerned to distance the Commedia from the heterodox dualism foregrounded in the Convivio and the Monarchia. Dante's partial defence of Epicureanism is therefore also a defence of the noble secular unbeliever. The Epicurean doctrine of mortalism refutes the spiritual dimension of man's hybrid nature and thus the very foundation of Dante's dualistic theory. Moreover, mortalism explicitly undermines Dante's Christian belief and the very existence of Hell or an afterlife at all. In a further indication of the significance of Epicureanism, Dante marshals his highest poetical and theatrical craft in Inferno X. Through the depiction of the Roman heroes who populate the verdant lawns of Limbo and the 'filosofica famiglia' surrounding Aristotle, Dante presents an image of the secular felicity proper to man's earthly life.
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Bibliography entry:
Corbett, George, Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment, Italian Perspectives, 25 (Legenda, 2013)
First footnote reference:35 George Corbett, Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment, Italian Perspectives, 25 (Legenda, 2013), p. 21.
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