Dante's Gluttons: Food and Society from the Convivio to the Comedy

Dantes Gluttons explores how Dante Alighieri uses food to express and condition the social, political, and cultural values of his time, historicizing food and eating in Dante's works and establishing how he uses the intimacy and universality of food as a touchstone, forging a community bound by a gastronomic language rooted in the deeply human relationship with material sustenance.

Format: Hardback
Length: 194 pages
Publication date: 11 June 2022
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Dantes Gluttons: Food and Society from the Convivio to the Comedy is a comprehensive exploration of how the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) employs food to convey and shape the social, political, and cultural values of his era. By blending medieval history, food studies, and literary criticism, the book historicizes food and eating in Dante, tracing its development from his earliest collected poetry to the culmination of his major work. For Dante, the consumption of food is not a mere indulgence but a fundamental aspect of life, and gluttony represents a betrayal of civic and spiritual responsibility, posing a threat to both the individual body and soul and the broader collective. Through this book, the author establishes how one of the world's most renowned authors utilizes the intimacy and universality of food as a touchstone, creating a community united by a gastronomic language rooted in the deeply human connection with material sustenance.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789463720427