Pedagogy Jan 2013

Virtual Cities

Louis I. Hamilton

Abstract

This project employs a student-generated geographic database that links the Commedia to relevant passages from Dino Compagni’s Cronica and visual records at appropriate locations in Florence. The database records evidence for social structure, physical infrastructure, and historic events, as well as the civic/religious ritual of the city, in order to consider the broader meanings of the built environment. This database is displayed on satellite images of the city using the open-source SIMILE widget Exhibit. The student can then analyze this evidence and consider how Dante constructed his allegorical societies, infernal, purgative, and paradisiacal, from the life of his contemporary Florence. It is suggested that this permits more rapid immersion into the dynamic of the poem and enables more effectively focused student research.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2013-01-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-1814233
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (22)

  1. Alighieri (2007)
    Paradiso
  2. Braudel (1966)
    The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II
  3. Brucker (1998)
    Florence, the Golden Age, 1138–1737
  4. Carmody (1944)
    Florence: Project for a Map, 1250–1296
    Speculum  ↗
  5. Compagni (1986)
    Chronicle of Florence
Show all 22 →
  1. Dante Online, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, www.danteonline.it/italiano/home_ita.asp (accessed 10 Augus…
  2. Exhibit, SIMILE Widgets, www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit (accessed 10 August 2012).
  3. Hamilton (2003)
    Desecration and Consecration in Norman Capua, 1062 — 1122: Contesting Sacred Space during…
    Haskins Society Journal
  4. (2003)
    Memory, Symbol and Arson: Was Rome ‘Sacked’ in 1084?
    Speculum  ↗
  5. Itouchmap.com, Latitude and Longitude of a Point, itouchmap.com/latlong.html (accessed 10 August 2012).
  6. Jacoff (2007)
    The Cambridge Companion to Dante
     ↗
  7. Mapping the Medieval, What’s in a Map, users.drew.edu/lhamilto/cincproject/opening_page.html (accessed 10 Aug…
  8. McCormick Michael Huang Guoping …
  9. Princeton Dante Project, Princeton University, etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/index.html (accessed 10 August 2012).
  10. World of Dante, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia, www.worldofdante…
  11. Arounder, Florence. Baptistry, florence.arounder.com/en/churches/florences-baptistry/baptistry-interior.html.…
  12. Dameron (2004)
    Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante
     ↗
  13. Najemy (2007)
    Dante and Florence
     ↗
  14. Smail (1999)
    Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille
     ↗
  15. Thompson (2005)
    Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125–1325
  16. Toker (2009)
    On Holy Ground: Liturgy, Architecture, and Urbanism in the Cathedral and the Streets of M…
  17. Trexler (1993)
    The Workers of Renaissance Florence
CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network → Build reading path →