Dante and the Orient

"Probing Dante's knowledge of empirical geography, use of crusade rhetoric, and fascination with the world beyond European borders, Brenda Deen Schildgen offers a new perspective on Dante's utopian imagination, poltical motivations, and literary intentions in the Commedia and other works.". "In Dante and the Orient, Schildgen argues that Dante's treatment of the East enabled him to use the rhetoric employed in crusade narratives and other travel literature to oppose the military and polemic goals of the Crusades and to plead for the reformation of both church and state."--BOOK JACKET.