Dante’s Inferno Moral Lessons from Hell

This book provides a recipe for healthy moral and personal transformation. Belliotti takes seriously Dante’s deepest yearnings: to guide human well-being; to elevate social and political communities; to remedy the poisons spewed by the seven capital vices; and to celebrate the connections between human self-interest, virtuous living, and spiritual salvation. By closely examining and analyzing five of Dante’s more vivid characters in hell—Piero della Vigna, Brunetto Latini, Farinata degli Uberti, Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti, and Guido da Montefeltro—and extracting the moral lessons Dante intends them to convey, and by conceptually analyzing envy, arrogance, pride, and human flourishing, the author challenges readers to interrogate and refine their modes of living.

1          Introduction

2          How Honor Degenerates into Infamy: Piero della Vigna (1190-1249)

2.1 The Ecstasy of Glory and the Horror of Improbity

2.2 The Narrative in Inferno

2.3 Sidebar on Posthumous Benefit

2.4 Divergent Interpretations of the Narrative

2.5 The Evidence

2.6 A Second Version of Esoteric Interpretation

2.7 An Outlier Version of Esoteric Interpretation

3          The Malevolent Residue of Excessive Loyalty: Piero, Esoterica, and Suicide

3.1 A Closer Examination of the Second Version of Esoteric Interpretation

3.2 Why Compose Esoterically?

4          How to Earn Immortality: Brunetto Latini (1220-1294)

4.1 The Pain of Exile and Making Oneself Eternal

4.2 The Narrative in Inferno

4.3 Divergent Interpretations of the Narrative

4.4 The Evidence

4.5 Was Brunetto Latini a Sexual Sodomist?

4.6 Brunetto Latini and BL

4.7 The Roman Roots and the Quest for Posthumous Glory

4.8 Has Dante Bum-Rapped Brunetto Latini?

5          The Glories and Iniquities of Heroism, Patriotism, and Paternal Love: Farinata degli Uberti (1212-1264) and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti (c. 1220-c.1280)

5.1 Partisan Patriotism Leavened by Hedonism

5.2 The Narrative in Inferno

5.3 Interpreting the Narrative: The Propinquity of Good and Evil

6          How Prodigious Talent Can be Squandered: Guido da Montefeltro (1223-1298)

6.1 Pugnacious Imperial Tactician and Franciscan Mountebank

6.2 The Narrative in Inferno

6.3 Interpreting the Narrative: Guido’s Final Scam?

7          Envy, Arrogance, Pride, and Human Flourishing

7.1 Envy: An Analysis

7.2 The Ubiquity of Envy

7.3 Corollary on Well-Being

7.4 Envy in the Commedia

7.5 Pride: An Analysis

7.6Arrogance in the Commedia