The papal encyclical In Praeclara Summorum (1921) celebrates Dante as the ‘disciple of Saint Thomas Aquinas’, and his Commedia as containing a ‘treasure of Catholic teaching.’ By contrast, the French Thomist Étienne Gilson, in 1934, accused Dante of two crimes against Aquinas, and of striking a mortal blow to Thomism. Defending Dante against Gilson’s accusations, (and accusing Gilson, instead, of crimes against Thomism), this talk argues for a new Leonine renaissance of both Thomistic and Dante Studies.

Professor George Corbett, University of St. Andrew’s