This essay channeling Percy Bysshe Shelley in Milan is included in my book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book feature similar literary…
View More Percy Bysshe Shelley in MilanTag: Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri has served as an inspiration for so many writers and poets throughout history. He was an influence on everyone from Petrarch to Percy Bysshe Shelley, both of whom I feature on The Modern Salonière. Dante first visited the university of Bologna in 1305 to discuss his ideas with the leading professors there, for instance, a visit I highlight in a post featuring the medieval wall and its gates of the city because they would have been a work in progress at the time. It’s mind-blowing for me to think about the fact I was able to touch such an antiquity as cars and motor scooters wizzed by!
I write about a poetic pilgrimage I made to the cathedral in Milan in another. I lowered myself into a pew in the right Transept before pulling two books I had brought from home from my bag. The first was Lehmann’s anthology of Shelley in Italy and the second was Dante’s La Vita Nuova (The New Life)—the latter a choice because I wanted to feel the essence of how Shelley might have felt reading one of his literary heroes within that “storied” building.
Each of my posts mentioning Dante or his poetry will be filed under this tag.
Treasures According to Petrarch
This essay defining what Petrarch saw as treasures is included in my most recent book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book feature…
View More Treasures According to PetrarchFar from Oblivious in Bologna
If you find yourself strolling along the streets of Bologna near the city’s center, don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and come upon…
View More Far from Oblivious in BolognaMadame Récamier and the Art of Reclining
Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard, known after her marriage as Juliette Récamier, was born on December 4, 1777—240 years ago yesterday. Had she lived during modern…
View More Madame Récamier and the Art of RecliningA Backward Glance on rue de Varenne
The narrow sidewalks push their black iron batons up out of the ground to protect the buildings hemming them; the rain turns the cobblestones to…
View More A Backward Glance on rue de VarenneReading Dante in Milan
“I’d like that sunny table near the windows under the beautiful mirror,” he says to the hostess at Le Vrai, pointing to the niche set…
View More Reading Dante in Milan