{"product_id":"timaeus-in-paradise-metaphors-and-beauty-from-plato-to-dante-and-beyond-9780691276144","title":"Timaeus in Paradise: Metaphors and Beauty from Plato to Dante and Beyond","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracing the influence and impact of Plato's \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e--and its major themes, creation and beauty--through the centuries\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMore than two thousand years after it was written, Plato's \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e continues to fascinate and intrigue its readers. In \u003ci\u003eTimaeus in Paradis\u003c\/i\u003ee, Piero Boitani traces the abiding legacy of the \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e, mapping an intellectual journey that begins with Plato and extends to Dante and beyond. In a series of short, lyrical chapters, Boitani sketches a lineage that includes Proclus, Boethius, the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, John Scotus Eriugena and Thomas Aquinas. Focusing on Plato's metaphorical language--which Dante considered comparable to that of the Bible--and the beauty of its images, Boitani shows that these images penetrate deep into European culture, inspiring the anonymous author of the treatise on the \u003ci\u003eSublime \u003c\/i\u003eas well as the mystical writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePlato's account of the creation of the cosmos in the \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e supplants Hesiod's myths and Parmenides's theories--and was described by Johannes Kepler as the best gloss ever on the first chapter of Genesis. Boitani finds its echoes everywhere, from the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral and the frescoes of the Anagni Crypt to the paintings of Raphael and Michelangelo. He connects the beauty defined in the \u003ci\u003eTimaeus\u003c\/i\u003e to the beauties of the Hebrew Bible and to the lilies of the field invoked by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Bringing together philosophy, theology, mysticism, poetry, sculpture and painting, Boitani charts Europe's intellectual history--a history of ideas and images--by capturing the enduring reverberations of Plato's summa. Illustrations accompanying the text cover more than two thousand years of iconography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePiero Boitani\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the Sapienza University of Rome. A Fellow of the British Academy, of the Accademia dei Lincei and of the Medieval Academy of America, he received the Balzan Prize for Comparative Literature in 2016. General Editor of the \u003ci\u003eGreek and Latin Writers \u003c\/i\u003eseries of the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, he is the author of \u003ci\u003eAnagnorisis: Scenes and Themes of Recognition and Revelation in Western Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIl grande racconto dei classici\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePlato's Poem\u003c\/i\u003e and other books of criticism and poetry.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51749292278034,"sku":"9780691276144","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f5a52500-208e-4232-a545-2c4b9ef1a723.jpg?v=1764075772","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/timaeus-in-paradise-metaphors-and-beauty-from-plato-to-dante-and-beyond-9780691276144","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}