ABSTRACT
Dante's formulation of desire in the Comedy is the result of his long meditation on d'union between the self and God in his other works, as well as his reception of many other discourses of desire in the Western Middle Ages. Although rooted in the pilgrim's sensual (if not erotic) love for a woman, it also encompasses the theme of the rational desire for knowledge, and combines the two in the spiritual drive towards the divine and the transcendental. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book takes Dante's multifaceted discourse of desire as a platform in investigating medieval concepts of desire in all their multiplicity, fragmentation, and interrelation. For all their diversity in terms of context and methodology, the chapters bring to light patterns, interconnections, and paradigms that are grouped into three sections: 'Transformations', 'Senses and Intellect', and 'Textuality and Translatio'.
