Elena Lombardi

University of Oxford, Medieval and Modern Languages, Faculty Member

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Address: Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

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Monographs by Elena Lombardi

The Syntax of Desire. Language and Love in Augustine, the Modistae, Dante. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.

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The Wings of the Doves. Love and Desire in Dante and Medieval Culture. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 2012

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Edited Books by Elena Lombardi

Articles by Elena Lombardi

‘Lettori e lettura in Dante’, in C’è un lettore in questo testo? Rappresentazioni letterarie della lettura in Italia, G. Rizzarelli and C. Savettieri eds. (Bologna: il Mulino, 2016), 23-41.

‘ “Per aver pace coi seguaci sui” civil, religious and erotic peace in Inferno 5’, in War and Peace in Dante, J. Barnes and D. O’Connel eds. (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015), 173-193.

‘ “A Gallehault Was the Book”: Francesca da Rimini and the Manesse Minnesanger Manuscript’, Mediaevalia 35 (2015): 151-76.

‘Francesca lettrice di romanzi e il “punto” di Inferno V’, L’Alighieri 43 (June 2014): 19-39.

‘ “Che libido fe’ licito in sua legge”. Lust and Law, Reason and Passion in Dante’, in Dantean Dialogues. Engaging with the Legacy of Amilcare Iannucci, M. Kilgour and E. Lombardi eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), 125-54.

Amilcare Iannucci's essay "Forbidden Love: Metaphor and History" is one of the most significant c... more Amilcare Iannucci's essay "Forbidden Love: Metaphor and History" is one of the most significant contributions to the endless and tormented exegesis of Inferno 5 because it helps to historicise the canto in a very original way, identifying within the episode of Francesca a marked historical metaphor. 1 Iannucci locates Dante's episode within a literary trend that records the "joining of two irrational and destructive forces, love and war" (94). This model originates in the myth of Ares and Aphrodite as recounted in the eighth book of the Odyssey (8.266-369). The beautiful deities of love and war carry on an illicit affair at the expense of the deformed Hephaestus, who captures the lovers in a fine net, inviting the other gods to deride them, until Poseidon appeals to set them free. Iannucci points out that the Ares and Aphrodite structure is most directly embedded in the story of Troy, where the Olympian laughter is turned into destruction and madness. Both the Olympian and the earthly story are articulated in three phases: they both begin with marriage, representing balance and harmony, which is then troubled by the adulterous affair: "Passion overwhelms reason, and the law is broken" (95). The wronged husband and his allies then re-establish peace and the law through violence. Thus, adultery deranges the course of history and exposes its mad and violent side.

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‘Dante and Augustine’, in Reviewing Dante’s Theology, C. Honess and M. Treherne eds. (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013), vol. 1, 175-208.

‘Transforming Desire’, in Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages, ed. by M. Gragnolati, T. Kay, E. Lombardi, and F. Southerden (Oxford: Legenda, 2012), pp. 1-11 (editors’ introduction, written with Gragnolati, Kay and Southerden).

‘Plurilingualism sub specie aeternitatis. Language/s in Dante’s Commedia’, in Dante’s Plurilingualism. Authority, Vulgarization, Subjectivity, S. Fortuna, M. Gragnolati, and J. Trabant eds. (Oxford: Legenda, 2010), 133-147.

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‘I desire therefore I am. Petrarch’s Canzoniere between the medieval and modern notion of desire’, in Early Modern Medievalism. The Interplay between Scholarly Reflection and Artistic Production, A. Montoya, S. van Romburgh, W. van Anrooij eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 19-43.

‘Of Bikes and Men. The Crossing of three Narratives in Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves’, Studies in European Cinema 6 (2009): 113-26.

‘Scar narrative – sore narrative. The liquidation of realism in D’Annunzio’s Giovanni Episcopo and l’Innocente’, Quaderni di Italianistica 27 (2006): 107-38.

‘Traduzione e riscrittura: da Folchetto al Notaio’, The Italianist 24 (2004): 5-19.

‘The Grammar of Vision in Guido Cavalcanti’, in Guido Cavalcanti tra i suoi lettori, M.L. Ardizzone ed. (Florence: Cadmo, 2003), 83-92.

‘Per l’edizione critica delle Lettere scritte dall'Inghilterra’, Studi di Filologia Italiana, 53 (1995), 249-344.

Papers by Elena Lombardi

'Lust and the Law: Reading and Witnessing in Inferno V'

by Nicolò Crisafi and Elena Lombardi

Gaimari, G. and Keen, C. (eds). 2019. Ethics, Politics and Justice in Dante. London: UCL Press, 2019

Any third-party material in this book is published under the book's Creative Commons license unle... more Any third-party material in this book is published under the book's Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to re-use any third-party material not covered by the book's Creative Commons license, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. ISBN: 978-1-78735-229-2 (Hbk.) ISBN: 978-1-78735-228-5 (Pbk.) ISBN: 978-1-78735-227-8 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-78735-230-8 (epub) ISBN: 978-1-78735-231-5 (mobi) ISBN: 978-1-78735-232-2 (html)

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