Maria Gabriella Riccobono, Il veggente di Patmos, Dante, Manzoni, Thomas Mann. Studi di letterature comparate e sguardi sulla memoria poetica, Milano, Ledizioni, 2018, pp. 199

The review focuses on the three sections devoted to Dante. The first explores the narrative processes of the Apocalypse of St. John and the problem of the narrative voice, distinguishing between John the seer, the prophet-scribe, and the guardian of revelation. This highlights the "two-part" structure of the sacred book, which would influence the Divine Comedy. The second part studies the political metaphors in Dante's works, particularly the invective in Purgatory VI (Italy as a ship without a pilot and a runaway horse), tracing them back to biblical and patristic roots. It interprets Marco Lombardo in Purgatory XVI as an alter ego of Dante, an exemplary figure for the virtue of justice. The third part explores Dante's poetic memory in Manzoni, tracing echoes of five cantos of the Divine Comedy in The Betrothed (Inferno V, XII, XXVII; Purgatory VI and XXVI), especially in the themes of lust, violence, and the figure of the mountaineer. Riccobono's research, enriched by the author's previous studies, highlights the intertwining of biblical tradition, Dante's thought and Manzoni's reception.