Design in the Wax, The

“[T]ightly argued and deeply learned book.... [I]t is one of the many strengths of Cogan’s work that questions of mere intellectual or critical fashion soon come to seem utterly trivial when set beside the importance of the inquiry he undertakes and the value of the results to which that inquiry so compellingly leads. [T]he volume...deserves to be read with careful attention by anyone seriously interested in Dante....” —Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

“Cogent, learned, and in some ways almost defiantly old-fashioned (as the author, in his introduction, is the first to recognize), this is an unusual and substantial contribution to Dante studies. Cogan returns to what most recent scholars have considered a long-settled, if not actually abandoned, critical issue—the ways in which the structure of the Divine Comedy helps to organize meaning—and triumphantly shows that, when one undertakes to beat a dead horse, the fruitfulness of the outcome can owe much to a careful choice of implement. Through painstakingly accurate exploration of Dante’s Aristotelian sources and detailed analysis of the poem itself, Cogan re-creates a plausible, authentically medieval understanding of Aristotle; shows how deeply this differs from the modern understanding that many readers of Dante have tried in vain to superimpose on the Comedy; and identifies the underlying moral and theological principle that links the poem’s three sections into a coherent whole. At once dense and sinuous, Cogan’s argument certainly requires careful attention from its readers—but it repays that attention in full measure.” —Choice

“These are subtle and often compelling readings. Cogan’s scholarship is impressive. “—International Journal of the Classical Tradition