hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM A Look Back Over The Entire Conversation With Forese Donati In PURGATORIO Canto XXIII, Line 40, to Canto XXIV, Line 99 - Walking With Dante

Episode 191

A Look Back Over The Entire Conversation With Forese Donati: PURGATORIO Canto XXIII, Line 40, to Canto XXIV, Line 99

Published on: 16th July, 2025

We've finished the giant conversation between the pilgrim Dante and Forese Donati, complete with its interruption by the shade of the poet Bonagiunta of Lucca.

Let's look back over the entire scope of the conversation to discover its construction, its architecture, and the way meaning is made and moves through the words.

We'll start by reading the entire thing in my English language translation. Then we'll move on to a couple of small points, followed by some much larger implications of the construction and imaginative landscape of this interchange.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:06] Reading the entire conversation between Forese Donati and the pilgrim Dante in PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, line 40, to Canto XXIV, line 99.

[13:27] The conversation starts and ends with references to shores.

[14:51] The pilgrim Dante is not cleansing his sins in this walk up Mount Purgatory.

[17:08] There are three balanced prophecies in this conversation.

[20:54] The conversation is constructed from friendship to poetic craft to chivalric exaltation.

[24:55] This conversation may represent Dante's attempt at political and personal reconciliation.

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About the Podcast

Walking With Dante
A passage-by-passage stroll through Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY with Mark Scarbrough
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
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About your host

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Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!