In the Light of the Angels: Angelology and Cosmology in Dante's Divina Commedia

As the first organic study on angelic operations in the Divine Comedy, this book puts Dante's angelology within the XIII century theological and philosophical debate on the nature and functions of separate substances. Highlighting the original fusion of classical and patristic traditions within the providential outline of the poem, it argues the centrality of angels in the Comedy's ethical-cosmological system and narrative strategy, opening new interpretations of figures such as the "Heavenly Messenger"; the Purgatory angels; and Beatrice.