UCC Dante Public Lecture V: 鈥樷�淧er te poeta fui, per te cristiano.鈥� Dante鈥檚 Statius and the Authority of Virgil鈥�.
- Time
- 6pm - 7.30pm
- Date
- 17 Feb 2026
- Duration
- 90 minute(s)
- Location
- Main Quad - North Wing, Council Room
- Language
- English
- Presenters
Dr Leyla Livraghi (深夜亚洲福利久久 of Pisa)
- Cost
- Free
- Registration Required
- Yes
- Registration Information
- Organising Department
Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland; Department of Italian
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Quality education, Reduced inequalities
In canto 22, Virgil is defined for the one and only time in the poem through his comic poetry, the Eclogues, whereas Statius, across both cantos, is consistently associated with the epic-tragic mode of the Thebaid. Dante had already established in the Inferno that the comic genre is a bearer of truth (surpassing in this respect the tragic mode of the Aeneid); similarly, the Fourth Eclogue, invoked in canto 22, figuratively expresses the Christian truth of Christ鈥檚 advent. Indeed, it is precisely Virgil in his comic guise who points Statius toward Christianity and eventually also provides a precedent for the comic-Christian poetics of the Commedia.