I have only just begun to read Lino Pertile and Zygmunt Barański’s book on Dante in context and yet, having only read the introduction, I already anticipate it will be an extraordinary journey into Dante’s time.
How can I tell this so early on? Because the organization of the volume itself is marvelous. In the introduction, the co-editors explain the particular criterion with which they organized their book: the essays collected here were written by specialists in their respective fields, but none are Dantists by profession. (Barański and Pertile 3) This book, illustrating the context in which Dante was born and in which his genius arose, was entrusted to scholars who were asked to write about politics, justice, and literature in Dante‘s time, but largely independently of him. (Barański and Pertile 3) This was a deliberate choice for a brilliant reason.
Pertile and Barański explain why they didn’t want to portray late mediaeval Italy sub specie Dantis (Barański and Pertile 3):
“By coming to Dante from the context, rather than the other way around, we hope to refine, nuance and challenge a number of assumptions that are often made and accepted in Dante studies regarding the poet’s historical, economic, and cultural background. This is not meant to be another collection of essays on Dante, but a book that we are confident will indirectly cast new light on Dante and his works. ‘Indirectly’ is the crucial word here.” (Barański and Pertile 4)
They also note that:
“Dante is one of those rare writers whose genius cannot easily be explained as a straightforward product of social, intellectual, or even literary forces and traditions. However, the Commedia is, perhaps more than any other poem produced in the West, deeply rooted in its place and time, and one can understand it more clearly and effectively by looking at the picture of the world from which it comes.” (Barański and Pertile 4)
Vatican II
This indirect approach to contextual studies could be well applied to other subjects that are likewise deeply rooted in their place and time, including the Second Vatican Council. Earlier I wondered how Italian culture may have influenced Vatican II. Since the Council took place in Italy during a time of profound social and economic transformation in the mid-twentieth century, what was the cultural context in which it occurred? What was that Italy like in which Pope John XXIII called for an “aggiornamento” of the church?
It would be fascinating to read a book that approached the contextualization of Vatican II as Pertile and Barański contextualized Dante: a volume in which the chapters are not written by Vatican II experts, but by specialists in their individual fields – Italian cinema, media, literature, politics, and economics – capable of independently describing the first half of the twentieth century in Italy and ultimately painting a picture of the Italian culture in which the council arose.
At the end of Dante in Context, the co-editors, Pertile and Barański – both Dante experts – offer their own final reflections, bringing Dante himself into focus, but only once the broader context has been independently well established.
The same type of conclusion, of course, could be included in an edited volume dedicated to Vatican II in its context: closing the book with reflections of experts who situate the Council within its context, after this context has been portrayed in earlier chapters. Such a book might also help to realize what Gaudium et Spes says is one of the duties of the Church: to scrutinize the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel. (4)
Works cited
Barański, Zygmunt G., and Lino Pertile, editors. Dante in Context. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Gaudium et Spes. Vatican Council II, Holy See,
www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
Accessed 2 Jan. 2026.
Comment (1)
La tua riflessione è ricchissima, e merita un commento altrettanto articolato.
Sì, credo sia non solo possibile, ma fondamentale comprendere il Concilio Vaticano II anche, e non solo, attraverso la cultura italiana del tempo.
Il Concilio è avvenuto in un momento storico preciso, in un luogo preciso, sotto la guida di un pontefice, Giovanni XXIII, profondamente italiano: per mentalità, formazione, stile e linguaggio.
Non è stato un evento “fuori dal tempo”, sospeso nel puro spazio dello Spirito. Al contrario, come ogni evento storico-ecclesiale, è stato incarnato in un contesto culturale, politico e antropologico specifico. Ignorarlo significherebbe ridurlo a una realtà “astratta”, e quindi non “cattolica” nel senso più profondo: ovvero, non universale in quanto incarnata.
Un esempio illuminante è il termine “aggiornamento”, così caro a Papa Giovanni. È un italianismo culturale che contiene un’idea di apertura al presente tipicamente post-bellica: legata alla ricostruzione, al desiderio di lasciarsi alle spalle un tempo oscuro. È, a ben vedere, un termine più culturale e politico che teologico. E questo già da solo ci dice molto.