Dante and His Circle

“An extraordinary journey in Dante’s Florence: the city, the arts, the music all come to life in Julia Bolton Holloway's elegant account of her research. But there is more: Dante and His Circle has much to offer the philologist and historian alike, bringing together the finest tradition of Dante scholarship and a fresh reader’s approach to Italy’s most famous poet.”

—Francesco Ciabattoni, Professor in Italian Literature in Georgetown College, Director of Global Medieval Studies, Italian Department, Georgetown University, USA 

“This fascinating and innovative work offers a fresh look inside Dante's masterpiece, his native city, and medieval life, culture and society. It is not only solidly based on new archival findings, but also highly innovative and a true pleasure to read.” 

--Nicolino Applauso, Director of the Foreign Language Laboratory, Morgan State University, USA 

In this book, Julia Bolton Holloway makes use of primary materials in documents, manuscripts and stone monuments in Florence, to place Dante's literary career in its rich context. Dante and His Circle discusses the encyclopaedic multicultural education in classical literature, law, ethics, rhetoric, diplomacy, poetry, music and cosmology Brunetto Latino gave to Guido Cavalcante, Dante Alighieri and Francesco da Barberino. Bolton Holloway traces Latino’s use of Arabic methods he had learned at the Court of Alfonso X el Sabio in Spain in 1260. Next Latino dictates his 'Rettorica', 'Tesoretto' and 'Tesoro' in Italian to his students, following the Sicilian Vespers, the manuscripts of their circle later coming to be re-edited, illustrated and published by Dante's fellow student, Francesco da Barberino, who survived them all and who likewise copied Alfonsine methods for producing the 'Danti del Cento' manuscripts of the 'Commedia'. The book ends by discussing Dante's Decolonialism. Each chapter provides Study Questions for further research. 

Julia Bolton Holloway is Professor Emerita, Medieval Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder.