WorkDante Alighieri

La Divina Commedia [The Divine Comedy]

La Divina Commedia [The Divine Comedy], full work: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, c. 1308-1320; first printed Venice, 1472)

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) · c. 1308–20

TranslatedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1837–1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Journals • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

AttestedConfirmed reading1836Evidence ↓

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1836Divina CommediaAttested
“the whole hundred cantos of the Divina Commedia, with the aid of the fine Athenaeum copy, Flaxman's designs, and all the best commentaries.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · [ca. Summer 1837]
Explicit statement of reading 'the whole hundred cantos of the Divina Commedia.'
1837Divina CommediaPossiblePosthumous testimony
“the whole hundred cantos of Dante's Divina Commedia”
Mem-4 Margaret Fuller by Julia Ward Howe · winter of teaching, 1836-37
Same dated (1836-37) passage: explicit claim she read 'the whole hundred cantos' of the Divina Commedia.
1837Divina CommediaPossiblePosthumous testimony
“reading with them parts of Tasso, Petrarch, Ariosto, Alfieri, and the whole of the Divina Com media”
Mem-3 Reminiscences of Edna Cheney · In 1837 she engaged to teach in the Green Street School in Providence
Cheney's memoir describes a specific, dated (1837-38 Green Street School) episode of Fuller reading Tasso, Petrarch, Ariosto, Alfieri and the whole Divina Commedia with her students.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist5records

V. New York3records

VI. Europe2records

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1837—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p269

read

“I spent the early part of the eveg in reading bits of Dante with him and talking about the material sublime till half past nine”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred William Ellery Channing, discussing the "material sublime," without specifying which work. The Divina Commedia is the most probable text given the context and the later evidence that she taught all 100 cantos to her Italian class, indicating it was her primary Dante text during this period.

1837—

Letter to Unknown

p278

analyzed · read

“the whole hundred cantos of the Divina Commedia, with the aid of the fine Athenaeum copy, Flaxman's designs, and all the best commentaries.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1839—

Journal Entry: Winter 1838–1839

p24

quoted · readManuscript page

“mi manca la speranza. / Quanti dolci pensier, quanto desio / Mi son venuti nel solitario cammino.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Entry: Winter 1838–1839." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.

Inferred The opening phrase is too close to Dante's to be coincidental; Fuller likely quotes from memory with variation. Dante's 'menò costoro al doloroso passo'): she appears to be paraphrasing from memory, conflating the Dante opening with her own Italian or with another text not identified.

Dante's 'menò costoro al doloroso passo'): she appears to be paraphrasing from memory, conflating the Dante opening with her own Italian or with another text not identified.

1841—

Letter to Caroline Sturgis

p199

analyzed · read

“I have read no Dante, nor thought about any lesson to you, but hope the inspiration will come with the hour— truly— I have had no appetite for his banquet. ...”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

1841—

The Dial

“Goethe” · Vol. 2, No. 1, July 1841

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“Faust, had it been completed in the spirit in which it was begun, would have been the Divina Commedia of its age.”

“Dante was a man, of vehement passions, many prejudices, bitter as much as sweet.”

This analytical moment, focusing on Dante's authorial persona rather than a structural comparison of Paradiso and Faust II, has been cataloged as a distinct entry.

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.

1843—

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

analyzed · read

“The glances at the spirit-world have none of that large or universal significance, none of that value from philosophical analogy, that is felt in any picture by Swedenborg, or Dante, of permanent relations.”

Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.

Inferred Fuller pairs Dante with Swedenborg as authors whose spirit-world 'pictures' have 'large or universal significance' and 'permanent relations.' This refers to Dante's Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), the preeminent literary depiction of the afterlife.

1844—

Letter to Caroline Sturgis

p193

read

“The Dantes in their thick forests need the diamond.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Inferred Fuller alludes to "The Dantes in their thick forests" in reference to the Dark Wood of Error at the opening of Dante's Commedia (Inferno, Canto I).

1845—

New-York Daily Tribune

“Italy. ? Cary's Dante” · July?August 1845

analyzed · quoted · read

“the Divina Commedia of Dante... go down into the hells, where each excess that mars the harmony of nature is punished... pass through the purgatories of speculation... Soar if thou canst...”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p102

1845—

Papers on Literature and Art

p24

analyzed · read

“like Dante, she hears the spheral concords and shares the planetary motions.”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Fuller names only Dante with references to 'spheral concords', 'planetary motions', and 'Dantesque grasp'; most directly applicable works are the Commedia and the Convivio. Dante is named three times in this essay.

1846—

Papers on Literature and Art

p118

analyzed · read

“This is spoken of as Dante's Beatrice, but I should think can scarcely have been suggested by the Divine Comedy.”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Journal Fragments

p. 86

readManuscript page

“But one evening, without / any outward change most / unexpectedly, my mind being / still fresh and undisturbed, / when I turned to my Dante / where I had lately been / reading with strong interest / I found my mind was no / longer there”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Fragments." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Fuller states explicitly that she ‘had lately been reading [Dante] with strong interest.’ The specific work is not named but ‘my Dante’ in context likely refers to the Commedia.

n.d.—

Mostly Extracts

analyzed · quoted · read3 selected passagesManuscript page

“Ciò ch'io vedeva mi sembrava un riso dell universo.”

Inferred Line 'Ciò ch'io vedeva mi sembrava un riso dell universo' identified as Paradiso Canto XXVII, lines 4–5 (opening of the canto).

“La lodoletta che in aere si spazia, / Prima cantando, e poi tace contenta / Dell' ultima dolcezza che la sazia.”

Inferred The Italian verse 'La lodoletta che in aere si spazia / Prima cantando, e poi tace contenta / Dell' ultima dolcezza che la sazia' is from Dante's Paradiso, Canto XX, lines 73–75, a simile comparing an eagle to a lark. Not explicitly attributed in the manuscript.

Not explicitly attributed in the manuscript.

“In Boccaccio, Dante with the faculty of divine spirits, leaves his own nature, and converts all his strength into tenderness.”

Inferred The Divina Commedia is the implied work; specific canticles are not named. The discussion refers to his greatness as a poet, his character ('By Dante'), the Beatrice narrative and love story (pp. 60–61), the reference to 'Galeotto is the name of the book' (from Inferno V, the Paolo and Francesca episode), and his 'horrid wastes and wearying minuteness' as aspects of the Commedia.

Fuller, Margaret. "Mostly Extracts." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (89); Box 5 (89).

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p18

analyzed · quoted · read4 selected passages

“Dante was far greater than any Roman, yet I feel he was right to take the Mantuan as his guide through hell, and to heaven.”

Inferred Margaret Fuller engages with Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia through a reflection on the poet's choice of Virgil as his guide.

“Dante, thou didst not describe, in all thy apartments of Inferno, this tremendous repression of an existence half unfolded; this swoon as the soul was ready to be born.”

Inferred Here, Margaret Fuller directly addresses Dante Alighieri, referencing his Inferno and its "apartments" to critique the poem's depiction of suffering.

“She admitted that Dante's Narrative was instinct with the poetry concentrated often in single words.”

Inferred Margaret Fuller engages with Dante Alighieri's La Divina Commedia, referred to here as 'Dante's Narrative,' noting that it "was instinct with the poetry concentrated often in single words." This observation, presented in the reporter's notes from her 1840-41 Fine Arts conversations, highlights Fuller's appreciation for the concentrated evocative power within Dante's epic narrative.

“Here,' said she, 'are Dante and Beatrice. "Approach, and know that I am Beatrice.”

Inferred Fuller, through the voice of Beatrice, quotes from the Purgatorio, specifically Beatrice’s declaration to Dante: "'Approach, and know that I am Beatrice. The power of ancient love was strong within me.'" This quotation, likely drawn from Beatrice’s appearance in Canto XXX, captures a poignant moment of recognition and powerful emotion within the epic poem.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.