The Harmony of the Spheres and Dante’s Paradiso

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Published: Jan 13, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14434/tc.v15i2.35544
Keywords:
Dante, Paradiso, Music, Harmony of the Spheres
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Section
For Dante Alighieri (1265–1321): Dante and Music
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Francesco Ciabattoni
Georgetown University

Abstract

This article proposes a reading of Dante’s treatment of the harmony of the spheres in the Paradiso, against the backdrop of classical and Christian views of the earlier Pythagorean notion. Rooted in textual evidence, the study highlights Dante’s subtlety in dealing with an extraordinarily evocative subject that had nevertheless been refuted by Aristotelian theologians and thus constituted a contentious issue in the acoustic physics and metaphysics of the late Middle Ages.

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Author Biography

Francesco Ciabattoni, Georgetown University

Francesco Ciabattoni is Full Professor and the Term Professor of Italian Literature at Georgetown University. After his Laurea in lettere at Università degli Studi di Torino, he received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Ciabattoni has published in international journals on Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Berto, Pasolini, Primo Levi and the history of Italian folk, rock and pop. Prof. Ciabattoni’s monograph Dante’s Journey to Polyphony (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2010) is a comprehensive study of the role of music in Dante’s Commedia. With Pier Massimo Forni he has edited The Decameron Third Day in Perspective: Volume Three of Lectura Boccaccii (University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2014). Professor Ciabattoni’s main research focus is the interplay of music and literature. His book La citazione è sintomo d’amore (Carocci, 2016) is a study of the intertextual practice of literary writing in Italian songwriters. He also publishes poems (on Gradiva, Breviario poetico, Poesia, Mensile internazionale di cultura poetica, In forma di parole) and is currently working on a book-length project about the representation of music, dance and drama in Dante’s works. He is the director of http://theitaliansong.com/, a website with translations of and critical commentaries on Italian songs.

 

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