Christian History Home > Issue 70 > The Rest of the Stories
The Rest of the Stories
Dante's other books further illuminate his medieval mindset and shed light on the Comedy.
Oscar Kuhns | posted 4/01/2001 12:00AM
The works of Dante are not many. They consist of prose and poetry, the former comprising the so-called "Banquet" (Convivio) and the essay on "Universal Monarchy" (De Monarchia). The "Banquet" was to have been finished in fifteen books or chapters, but is only a fragment of four. It is a sort of encyclopedia of knowledge, such as were so popular in the Middle Ages, but written in Italian, in order to bring it within the reach of the unlearned reader. It is full of the scholastic learning of the time, and while not attractive to the ordinary reader, is of great importance for a complete understanding of the Divine Comedy.
Likewise important in this respect is the political treatise on the "Monarchy," in which Dante sums up his theory of world politics. This book, written in Latin, is divided into three parts: in Book I, the author shows the necessity of a universal empire; in Book II, he shows the right of Rome to be the seat of this empire; in Book III, he shows the independence of the emperor ...
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