A Florentine researcher turned nun discovers manuscritos of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri dating back 700 years and featuring the design of a square imposed on a circle, a concept the writer later used to describe his vision of God.
This finding was made by Julia Bolton Holloway, former professor of medieval studies at Princeton University in New Jersey (USA), who after becoming a nun and spending time isolated in Tuscany, claims to have stumbled upon the work hidden in two libraries, according to a report de The Times.
The nun mentioned that the writing was “like that of a schoolboy” but with a excellent Tuscan dialect what “gives an insight into your genius” covering the ideas that appear in your masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.
Nun discovers handwritten manuscripts by Italy’s national poet Dante https://t.co/23eIp1FpAn
-.. (@RedbrickedSlums) July 9, 2021
Dante Alighieri, considered the father of modern italian, He was born in 1265 in Florence and was instrumental in establishing the literature of the European country, yet no one has seen his writing in centuries.
The poet’s masterpiece was completed in 1320, a year before his death, and is an imaginary vision of the afterlife that was representative of the Western Church. Furthermore, the text explores the state of the soul after death, presenting an image of divine justice, while Dante travels through hell, purgatory and paradise.
The writings that were found both in Florence and in the Vatican, date from the end of the 13th century, the time when the poet was a student in Florence and alumno de Brunetto Latino, an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, politician and statesman.
Holloway has been studying Latino for five decades, and claims that he appears in the poet’s work in a section of hell reserved for sodomites. “Dante reports that Latino was his former teacher, but it really got him drunk and feathered him in his work and as a result, he’s been overlooked. Maybe it took a woman to pay attention to him,” he said.
