hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM Mark Scarbrough's WALKING WITH DANTE: Love Is The Seed In PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 91 - 105 - Walking With Dante

Episode 136

Love Is The Seed: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 91 - 105

Published on: 10th November, 2024

Love is the seed … of all you do. It's news to me, given the state of the world. But not to Virgil. And certainly not to Dante's COMEDY.

Virgil's explosive claim about love lies at the center of the poem: We do right and we go wrong because of the seed of love.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the beginning of Virgil's central discourse in COMEDY, an overwhelming statement about human motivation and the nature of God.

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

[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 91 - 105. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:57] Virgil's explosive claim: love is the seed of all human action.

[05:27] Virgil's scholastic divisions of love.

[08:38] A translation problem: "o naturale o d'anima."

[12:40] Virgil's understand of the two types of love.

[14:59] Virgil's odd repetition of his own argument.

[18:27] The basis of Dante's thought: the Bible, Aristotle, and Aquinas.

[27:27] Dante's source: William Perault's SUMMA DE VITIIS ET VIRTURTIBUS. (Ugh, my Latin pronunciation!)

[29:16] But what then of the fall in the Garden of Eden?

[30:59] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 91 - 105.

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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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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!