from week two to week three

As I begin my journey from week 2 to week 3, I carry with me a backsack of ideas and unanswered questions. 

What prompted Dante to compose La Divina Comedia?

Was he writing for an intended readership? If so, who were they? And how would they get hold of copies of his manuscript?

I’ve approached Dante’s composition in the way I inherited from the teachers of musical history in my school and student days. For most of the time each composition was examined and dissected as an isolated artefact with scarce reference to context or comparison with other works. 

This is really not good enough. I must approach the Canterbury Tales in their place on the tapestry of their surroundings. In fact it would be a good idea to show the panorama of the whole of the 1300s from a London, English point of view.

I’m going to try to do this as though presenting headline news in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. I’ll do this a bit at a time and post each segment when it is ready.

francis cameron

oxford, 31 august 2014