Introduction: Violence in the Commedia

1. Freedom, Natural Law, and Love

2. Violence in the Domestic Sphere in the Commedia

3. Killing Fields and the Cross in the Heavens

4. Redemptive Violence: The Cross, Sacrifice, and the "Giusta Vendetta"

Conclusion: Violence, Poetry, and History

Brenda Deen Schildgen is distinguished professor emerita of comparative literature at the University of California, Davis. Her previous books include Divine Providence: A History; The Bible, Virgil, Orosius, Augustine, and Dante and Dante and the Orient.