Dante’s Visions: Crossing Sights on Natural Philosophy, Theory of Vision, and Medicine in the Divine Comedy and Beyond

Dante’s Visions: Crossing Sights on Natural Philosophy, Theory of Vision, and Medicine in the Divine Comedy and Beyond offers a fascinating insight into Dante’s engagement with the science of his time, particularly with visual perception and neurological disorders. The relationship between the soul and the body and the bond between human beings and their natural environment were significant areas of interest in the medieval world. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, as well as in his Vita Nuova and Convivio, these connections are enhanced to the fullest, expressing feelings and sensations, pain and ecstasy, and physical and spiritual passions under exceptional psychological and environmental stimuli.

Based on the research of a multidisciplinary group of scholars - including experts in Dante, the culture and history of medieval literature and philosophy, historians of science, neuroscientists, and specialists in vision and visual illusions - this book explores the poet’s psychophysical descriptions of sense perception, the theory of vision, optical illusions and deceptions of sight, neurological phenomena, and the anatomy and physiology of the human nervous system. It highlights the Aristotelian sources of his scientific culture and the influence of the Arabic sciences on their dissemination in the Western world.

In addition to illustrating the cultural background of a poetic genius, with specific reference to the rich scientific reflections in Italy at Dante’s time, this book brings out the many opportunities for future research at the intersection of science and literature in the past.

Cecilia Panti is professor of the history of medieval philosophy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy). Her research interests in the fields of philosophy, optics, theory of music, and the quadrivium are featured in numerous academic journals and collective volumes. Her publications include editions of Grosseteste’s cosmological treatises (2001) and his De luce (2011); Johannes Tinctoris’ Dictionary of Music (2004); a volume on acoustics in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (2008); and the special issues of the journals Micrologus: Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies (’Latin and Arabic Theory of Perspective’, Volume XXIX, 2021) and Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval (’Robert Grosseteste and Aristotelianism’, Volume 30/1, 2023).

Marco Piccolino has taught general physiology and the history of science at the University of Ferrara (Italy), where he is currently a member of the Centre of Neuroscience. He is a neurophysiologist who has conducted significant research in the physiology of the retina, publishing his results in prestigious international journals including Nature and Science. He has written several volumes on the history of electrophysiology and sensory physiology, notably The Shocking History of Electric Fishes: From Ancient Epochs to the Birth of Modern Neurophysiology (2011) with Stanley Finger; Shocking Frogs: Galvani, Volta, and the Electric Origins of Neuroscience (2013) with Marco Bresadola; and Galileo’s Visions: Piercing the spheres of the heavens by eye and mind (2013), with Nicholas J. Wade.