Hey Moose, I just clicked on your amazon wish list. Dante's The Purgatorio and The Paradiso eh? I have read the entire Divine Comedy, and I doubt you will like it. Basicly, it's about Dante falling asleep and then going to purgatory, heaven, and hell. It is interesting in a historical and mythical sence, but for anything else, it's rather outdated. Like about how the planets and stars are places in heaven and or angels. It follows the 16th century belief that hell is literately in the center of the earth, and heaven and purgatory are in the sky above our heads. The greek philosophers explained the universe as consisting of 5 elements. Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and finally Ether. It was believed clear up until the time of enlightenment, that this was true. Naturally the elements were supposed to be right on top of each other in this order; earth, water, air, fire, ether, but the reason why a person might find fire on earth or air under the water, is because the cosmos was continually moving and mixing the elements together. So anyway, my point is that during Dante's time, this belief was still widely (and the offical doctrine of the catholic church to boot) (read about people like Galileo Galilei and Copernicus) spread and he reflects that in his poems.
But all in all, it's a good read for fiction and history, but you will not find any spiritual value out of this, if that's why you want to read it. Also, since the copyright on all those old books have long ran out or they never had one, look online for them. I have read tons of ancient literature, all for free, via ebooks. Try
for lots of old books formated for PPC.
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