Good morning! ?☕️
New week – new book ?And we’re still expanding the context of understanding Dante’s Divine Comedy more fully with another look at his younger works and life. And after Dante’s first youthful work of “Vita Nuova” around 30 years old, about his Love Poems for Beatrice in his early and mid-20s, he then wrote a book about Philosophy when he was around 40 years old – heavily drawing upon the way of thinking and substance of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Dante planned for 14 books/chapters, but finished after only four. And this book is called the “Convivio” – a “Banquet” of Knowledge and Philosophy!
In the opening Dante quotes Aristotle’s Book of Metaphysics directly with the words: “All men by nature desire to know”. The outline is the following:
– Knowledge is the ultimate perfection of the soul, which leads to ultimate happiness.
– People could be restrained from this pursuit by factors inside, or outside of themselves
Of the inside factors there are two main groups – relating to the soul or to the body. For the body there could be various dispositions, for the soul the problem is the victory of malice and damaging pleasures, which lessens the worth of all things. Of the outside factors there could be responsibilities with family and civic duties – which Dante suggests is the vast majority of people. Or there could be the lack of available resources for study in one’s environment (learned people or facilities).
The opening then concludes that there are very few that have the opportunity (and blessing) to pursue this quest for knowledge! “Oh beati quelli pochi che seggiono a quella mensa dove lo pane de li angeli si manuca!” – meaning “Oh blessed are the few who can sit at the table where one eats of the bread of the Angels”.