Dr. Junius Johnson

But one that you and I spoke about briefly beforehand that we wanted to take people into is Dante's encounter with Caccia Guida, his ancestor.

um and this is an encounter that obviously is going to be very significant for dante because he's meeting one of his blessed ancestors and that's a big deal both in the medieval florence that he comes from but also in the ancient rome that he is further connected back to but for those of us who are not related to catechum it's one of the least interesting passages often i know who bonaventure is and i

I've loved Bonaventure long before I came to Dante, and so it's exciting to me.

It's like this great cameo when Bonaventure shows up.

But all throughout the Chromadia, there have been all these contemporary political figures that Dante puts in there that I couldn't care less about.

And my eyes kind of glaze over sometimes when he talks about them.

And it's, I was especially unhappy to find one in Pardiso because here you've got the whole history of the faith and all these incredible saints, the whole golden chain to draw from.

And instead you're going to talk about your great granddad, you know, like seriously, what's going on, right?

But I think that a lot's going on.

I think it's very interesting.

So help us, take us into a category a bit and why this is a piece that not only we shouldn't rush past, but should actually slow down and spend time on.

Yeah, that's so good.

That's pretty rich.

That exile passage...

always strikes me so deeply.

And the painters, this is the first arrow coming off of the bow.

There's going to be more.

And the very next line, you're going to learn how salty tastes the bread of another, which is a very specific reference to Italian culture.

When they make their focaccia, different regions salt it different amounts.

And so where he's going to be in Ravenna, it's going to be a lot saltier than he's used to back in Florence.