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Visualizing Dante's World: Geography, History and Material Visualizing Dante’s World: Geography, History and Material Culture Allison DeWitt Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Allison DeWitt All rights reserved ABSTRACT Visualizing Dante’s World: Geography, History and Material Culture Allison DeWitt This study examines the importance of geographical ideas in Dante’s Commedia and develops a historically sensitive geocritical methodology to analyze the function of real world geography within Dante’s poem. I aim to expand our understanding of the importance of the poet’s use of geography beyond the consulation of geographical sources and consideration of place names. In the first chapter case studies of geographical references with connections to the Islamic world show how historicized approaches open up new possibilities of understanding the medieval significance of the poet’s references. Subsequent chapters explore the relationship of the Commedia’s geography to medieval mapping technologies; comparing the parameters and borders of Dante’s world to the genre of medieval mappaemundi as well as putting this worldview into conversation with the emerging field of portolan charts and the developing navigational technology of the thirteenth century. This project further expands our definition of the stakes of geographical knowledge and traces the the social, political and cultural implications of the various modes of representing the world and how these implications are evident in the scholarly responses to the worldview represented within the Commedia. Ultimately, this project shows how a geocritical historicized reading of the Commedia opens up new directions for Dante studies and puts the geographical material of Dante’s work into conversation with other disciplines. The conclusion ends with a proposal for future digital directions for this research. Table of Contents List of Figures ii Acknowledgments iii Dedication vi Chapter 1. Historicizing Dante’s Geography: How to Read the Commedia Geocritically 1 1.1 Readers of Dante’s Geography 5 1.2 Geocritical Approaches 14 1.3 Case Studies of the Islamic World 19 1.4 Looking Ahead 33 Chapter 2. Defining Dante’s World: The Margins and The Center 37 2.1 Mappaemundi 39 2.2 Boxing the Compass 47 2.3 The Center 51 2.4 The West 58 2.5 The East 69 Chapter 3. Charting Dante’s Mediterranean: Ulysses, Navigation, and Portolani 85 3.1 An Ancient Voyage Along the Trunk Routes of the Medieval Mediterranean 94 3.2 The Sociocultural Stakes of Geographical Knowledge 109 3.3 Trade, Crusade, and Material Culture 115 3.4 Trading the Commedia: Production and Circulation in the Mercantile Spheres 124 Chapter 4. Mapping Maometto: The Geographical Stakes of Inferno 28 129 4.1 Modern Approaches to Understanding Maometto 137 4.2 Historicizing Maometto 148 4.3 Earliest Commentaries 155 4.4 Purgatorio 32: Allegory of The Schism 164 Conclusion. (Re)reading Dante’s Geography and Digital Directions 175 5.1 Digitally Mapping Dante’s Geography 183 Appendix. “Or di’ a Fra Dolcin”: An Excursus on Dolcino di Novara 193 Bibliography 206 !i List of Figures 1. Close up of Arabia and the Red Sea 42 2. Zonal Map 43 3. Fra Mauro Mappamundi 45 4. Hereford World Map 48 4.1 detail of East 49 4.2 detail of West 49 4.3 detail of Jerusalem 49 5. Ebstorf Map 53 6. Pietro Vesconte Planisphere 64 6.1 Close up of line from Jerusalem to Sibilia in Planisphere 65 6.2 Close up of Sibilia in Planisphere 65 7. Map of Ulysses’ journey 99 8. Close up of Sibilia and Septa in Vesconte Portolan Chart 102 9. Close up of relationship between Marsiglia and Buggea in Dalorto Portolan 111 10. Image of line connecting Damietta to Rome in Dalorto 112 !ii Acknowledgments While reflecting on the path that has led to the completion of this project it occurs to me that I should start by thanking my seventh grade geography teacher, Mr. Robert Woolner, who decided to teach us a unit on Dante’s worldview and have us create a simple digital image of it. That day I went to the library to pick up a copy of the Inferno and have not put it down since. It seems especially fortuitous that the culmination of my research on Dante has led me back to a project which considers Dante’s view of the world and hopes to use digital means to achieve its full realization. For giving me the foundation necessary to undertake this project I must thank all of my Dante teachers including John Freccero and Maria Luisa Ardizzone during my undergraduate study at NYU. Most especially I am grateful to my advisor Teodolinda Barolini who taught me what it means to be a Dante scholar and who has given me unwavering support and indispensable advice these past seven years. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee members for the various ways in which they have contributed to my intellectual development and the realization of this project. Pier Mattia Tommasino has expanded my understanding of Mediterranean studies and introduced me to new ways of conceptualizing Muslim-Christian relations in Italian culture. Jo Ann Cavallo’s work on representations of the world beyond Europe in Italian literature has inspired many aspects of this project and she has particularly supported my interest in digital mapping projects. Christopher Baswell first introduced me to archival work and medieval manuscripts and gave me many valuable skills which assisted my research during my travel fellowship years. Julie Van Peteghem has served as a an excellent model of how one might turn a Dante !iii dissertation into an exciting Digital Humanities project and forge a successful career as a young Dante scholar. This research was made possible by research fellowships from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life as well as a travel grant from the Digital Humanities Autumn School at the Universität Trier. I would also like to thank the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for the numerous opportunities which have been afforded to me over the course of my time at Columbia. I am particularly grateful for the efforts and expertise of Lani Muller and Aurelia Rabot-Hernandez in the Italian Department office, whose assistance has been invaluable up until the very end. I am immensely grateful to my medievalist cohort Nassime, Matteo and Julianna for their solidarity and support from our first semester in the Dante seminar to our final semester teaching Literature Humanities together. I have learned so much from all of them over the years. Special thanks also to Alex Cuadrado and Andy Wyatt for reading through this dissertation in its final stages and offering very helpful feedback and suggestions for future directions. In addition I need to thank the numerous babysitters who made it possible for me to meet deadlines, grab books from the library and maintain my sanity. A special thanks to my friend Alex Brinkman-Young who served as aunt, editor and host during my research trip to Oxford as well as my Aunt Rose who provided me with writing space in the final stretch and hosted my children on many occasions. Many thanks to my partner Rhammi for appreciating the importance of this project and never letting me give up. Finally, I have to thank my two daughters, Safia and Sabrina, for sharing me with Dante these past seven years. None of it would have been half as fun without their love, cuddles and earnest questions of “but what do you really do all day?” !iv This dissertation is dedicated to my parents who told me from a young age that they expected great things of me, and supported my interests and efforts in every way. !v For my parents forse non pur per lor, ma per le mamme, per li padri e per li altri che fuor cari !vi Chapter 1. Historicizing Dante’s Geography: How to read the Commedia geocritically L’aiuola che ci fa tanto feroci Paradiso 22. 151 From the pits of Malebolge to the spheres of the Empyrean, Dante’s imagery of the afterlife has pervaded popular culture from the fourteenth century to the present. His Commedia both replicated and then fundamentally changed the way in which Western culture conceptualized, represented and engaged with ideas about divine justice and its physical and spiritual manifestations. This dissertation does not deny the significance of Dante’s metaphysical contributions, but rather turns our attention to another sphere of influence which might be considered more mundane, from the Latin root meaning “of or relating to the earth.” The Commedia contains over 900 geographical references to more than 450 distinct locations around the world. These range from long geographical periphrases to city names buried in verbose metaphors. But in order to truly understand the scope and importance of Dante’s geography, we cannot only pay attention to his explicit geographical references. My goal in this dissertation is to begin to consider the varied and important ways that Dante engages with ideas of space, place, borders and topography. Despite the plethora of real-world geographical information contained within the poem, a quick summary of the literature on Dante’s geography and cartography will uncover a !1 preoccupation with the terrain, details and configuration of the afterlife designed by the poet.1 Modern editions of the Commedia may include maps of Dante’s Italy to provide readers with some historical context but the majority of drawings and illustrations focus on the fictional realm of the poem rather than the real world to which the poet frequently refers.
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