Lectura Dantis Andreapolitana 27th meeting

Jupiter and Saturn; wayward kings; pagans in Paradise; the eye of the eagle; Jacob's ladder; corpulent clerics; Dante's star sign; a farewell to Earth: Paradiso cantos 19-22.

The 27th meeting of the Lectura Dantis Andreapolitana (LCA) continues the series with a day of lectures on the next four cantos of Dante's Paradiso, again bringing leading Dante scholars to St Andrews.

Dante's journey continues through the heavens of Jupiter and Saturn, where the souls of just rulers and spiritual contemplatives of the past condemn the failings of the rulers and religious orders of Dante's time. The overwhelming power of the sights and sounds of heaven and thorny question of the salvation of virtuous pagans are among the issues discussed. As Dante and Beatrice leave the last of the planetary spheres he takes a last look at the distant 'fierce threshing floor' that is Earth, before passing through the constellation of his own sign of the zodiac as they ascend to the heaven of the fixed stars.

Professor Bernard O'Donoghue (University of Oxford), Professor Simone Marchesi (Princeton University), Dr Helena Phillips-Robins (University of Cambridge) and Dr Robert Wilson (University of St Andrews) will read and comment on Cantos 19 to 22 of Paradiso.

As always, the Lectura Dantis Andreapolitana is open to all and entry is free.

Those unable to attend for the full day are very welcome to attend whichever lectures they can, and the programme is organised to accommodate that.

The full programme and times are on the LCA website.