This text traces the influence on Dante of Provencal poets, medieval theology, Dante's personal life and the sources of his classical education to propose a radical reading of Dante. It compounds the riddles of dream, poetry,philosophy and Dante's concealed autobiography in his work.

Traces the influence of Dante on Provenal poets, medieval theologians, Dante's personal life, and the sources of his classical education to propose a radical reading of Dante. The text compounds the riddles of dream, poetry, philosophy, and Dante's concealed autobiography in his work. It treats the Commedia in the spirit of its title, as a hopeful and comic vision of the other world.