Love’s Scribe: Reading Dante in the Book of Creation

In a few passages of his writings, Dante identifies himself as “Love’s scribe”—the scribe, that is, of all love, from natural and human love to the “Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” Another fundamental notion in Dante, and in medieval thought in general, is that the manifold things of the creation are like pages bound together by divine love into a unified book, a series of successive analogies of God—a book written by God, in which can be discerned images and resemblances of divinity. As the current volume shows, this way of reading the creation also opens a vista into Dante’s or any traditional metaphysical-symbolist author’s works as an analogia entis —as a series of signs corresponding to multiple levels of reality, each resonating with others in the hierarchical chain of being. Intended for general readers, admirers, and students of Dante, Love’s Scribe: Reading Dante in the Book of Creation is lucid and accessible to anyone with an interest in Dante. Tarry a while with an eminent translator-scholar of Dante’s work as he gently guides you to a depth of understanding of aspects of the Sommo Poeta ’s (Supreme Poet’s) symbolic language and poetic expression usually accessible only to specialists. “Andrew Frisardi is a sensitive and accomplished poet, and a widely-read and insightful Dante scholar. More than this, he is a lover of wisdom, in the same sense that Dante was. It is this love which gives to his exposition of Dante’s art and thought its clarity of understanding, and its depth of authenticity; and it is this which speaks, in the light that links the intellect to the empyrean, directly to our own condition.”— JOHN CAREY , Professor of Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork; General Editor, Temenos Academy Review “At its core, Love’s Scribe: Reading Dante in the Book of Creation is about the alchemical integration of Knowledge and Love within Being, detailing how, through a process of spiritual refinement and sublimation, the poet ascends to a primordial nobility befitted to Love, which makes him worthy of the Beloved. In this work, Andrew Frisardi, a leading authority on Dante, offers a work, yes, of excellent scholarship and metaphysical nuance, but congenially accessible also to those new to Dante.”— M. ALI LAKHANI , author of The Timeless Relevance of Traditional Wisdom ; Founder-Editor of Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity Praise for Andrew Frisardi’s edition of Dante’s Vita nova (Northwestern University Press, 2012): “Andrew Frisardi’s edition of the Vita nova is a real monument, a real achievement, stunning actually. I never thought there would appear in English an edition so rich, so sound, so nuanced, so masterful in its introduction and commentary and notes. . . . To be able to lead anyone into this text, and show what is really happening, and the extraordinary depth and complexity and originality of it in terms that are still comprehensible to a non-Dantist, I don’t think has happened in any edition before, in Italian or English.”— CHRISTIAN MOEVS , Associate Professor of Italian, Notre Dame University; author of The Metaphysics of Dante’s “Comedy” “Andrew Frisardi’s splendid new edition of Vita nova combines his compelling translation of Dante’s original work with a rich and fascinating scholarly commentary. At last Dante’s innovative and influential masterpiece is available in a contemporary version that captures both its beauty and complexity.”— DANA GIOIA , former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts; author of 99 Poems: New and Selected and The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays —- ISBN: 9781621385615