“Bewitched by greed and blinded ‘neath its sway”
a lecture by Professor Corinna Salvadori Lonergan
From the opening of Dante’s Commedia, with the pilgrim’s ascent towards light blocked by a she-wolf, symbol of insatiable greed, the
entire work can be read as one great condemnation of this powerful
motivation of human action. In opposition to the predatory lupa, Dante
presents the patron saint of Florence, John the Baptist, as the
embodiment of ascetic spirituality, and it is the Baptistry, his ‘bel San Giovanni’,
that becomes the icon of the city that excluded him. Problematical is
the gold florin, symbol of the city’s international standing and wealth,
as it bears the effigy of the gran Giovanni.Professor Corinna Salvadori Lonergan
is Emeritus Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. She has published on
Dante (and Beckett), Lorenzo de’ Medici, Castiglione (and Yeats),
Michelangelo; she has translated works by Lorenzo de’ Medici and
Poliziano’s Orfeo into English verse.