Plato in Paradise: Metaphors and Beauty from Plato to Dante and Beyond

More than two thousand years after it was written, Plato’s Timaeus continues to fascinate and intrigue its readers. Now in his recently published work Timaeus in Paradise, Piero Boitani traces the abiding legacy of the Timaeus, mapping an intellectual journey that begins with Plato and extends to Dante and beyond.

In a series of short, lyrical chapters, Dr 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 and the beauty of its images, Dr Boitani shows that these images penetrate deep into European culture. Bringing together philosophy, theology, mysticism, poetry, sculpture and painting, he traces Europe’s intellectual history – a history of ideas and images – by capturing the enduring reverberations of Plato’s summa.

This Zoom session offers a unique chance to meet Piero Boitani and to hear him speak about his recently published book.

Dr Boitani is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the Sapienza University of Rome and has taught at various European universities including at the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded his PhD.

He was the President of the European Society for English Studies, now Founding President, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, among very many other eminent academic institutions.

He has received numerous prestigious awards including the Feltrinelli Prize for literary criticism in 2002, and the Balzan Prize for Comparative Literature in 2016. He is the literary editor of the Greek and Latin classics series, Fondazione Valla.

This is a free session open to newsletter subscribers, with donations welcome, but to receive the Zoom link, please book below.