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Dr Diana Modesto

BA, MLitt NE MA PhD
Honorary Associate

A18 - Brennan MacCallum Building
The University of Sydney

Biographical details

Diana Modesto is a specialist in Dante Studies, with long experience also as a language teacher (beginners and advanced) and teacher of translation. She worked as a translator and court interpreter until 1975. As the recipient of a small ARC grant in 1998, she and Dr Dugald McLellan, produced a new edition of Landino's commentary on Dante's Inferno which was published by Robert Hollander on his Princeton Dante Database. She is also working on a book, Moving forwards, looking back: Virgil's role in the Divine Comedy.

She received an ARC Large Grant (2000-2002) to work with an Australian team on the development of an electronic transcription and collation of the earliest manuscript tradition of the Commedia as identified by Federico Sanguineti in his new edition of the Commedia, Dantis Alagherii Comedia (Edizione Galluzzo: SISMEL, 2001). The project is to be published in conjunction with the prestigious Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

From 1984 to 1999, together with Mary Dwyer of the University of New England, she was the organiser of the Dante Colloquia which provides a regular forum for papers on Dante by students and staff from all the major Australian universities. The papers of the final nine Colloquia were published as Dante Colloquia in Australia (1982-1999), ed. Margaret Baker and Diana Glenn (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 2000).

She regularly presents papers on Dante at conferences.
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Research interests

  • Dante's Divine Comedy
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Selected grants

2000

  • The electronic commedia project: the first electronic transcription, collation and analysis of key early divine comedy manuscripts; Modesto D, Dwyer M, Scott J; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Earlier schemes: Large Grants.
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Selected publications

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Book Chapters

  • Modesto, D. (2005). [S]ì che la classe correrà diretta; / e vero frutto verrà dopo 'l fiore' (Par. XXVII, 147-148). In Margarte Baker, Flavia Coassin & Diana Glenn (Eds.), Flinders Dante Conferences 2002 & 2004, (pp. 1-9). Adelaide: Lythrum Press.

Journals

  • Modesto, D. (2001). Dante all'altro polo: Dante Studies in Australasia. Dante Studies: with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 119, 203-212.

Conferences

  • Modesto, D. (2006). Brunetto Latini's Translation of Cicero's De inventione and Rhetoric in Inferno XV. Third Dante Conference, Not published.: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2006). Brunetto Latini's Translation of Cicero's De inventione in Dante's Inferno. The Classics in the Classroom: Manuscript, Incunable, Cinquecentine Relicts and Pedagogical Prectice in the European Classroom (1000-1600) Conference, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). "'Taccia Lucano .. taccia .. Ovidio" : the challenge to the Latin poets in Inferno Cantos XXIV and XXV. Second Dante Conference, Adelaide: Lythrum Press.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). Brunetto Latini and the enigmatic Inscription on the Bargello (Palazzo del Podestà). Dante and the Middle Ages II, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D., Dwyer, M. (2005). Layer upon Layer: The Luarenziana Manuscript Plutei 26 sin 1 26, also known as the Laurenziana Santa Croce. Dante and the Middle Ages II, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). Reflection, Refraction and Patterns on Paper: Purgatorio XV, 1-81. Second Dante Conference, Adelaide: Lythrum Press.
  • Modesto, D. (2002). L'albero che vive dalla cima: A proposed Jewish Source for Dante's Up-side-down trees. Arabic and Judaic Influences in and around Dante Alighieri, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2002). The Man (Brunetto Latini), the City (the Palazzo delPodestà), the Book (the Divine Comedy). The City and the Book.
  • Modesto, D. (2001). The Poetic messo of Inferno VIII. The Importance of Italy: An International Conference of Italian Studies, Not published: Not Published.

2006

  • Modesto, D. (2006). Brunetto Latini's Translation of Cicero's De inventione and Rhetoric in Inferno XV. Third Dante Conference, Not published.: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2006). Brunetto Latini's Translation of Cicero's De inventione in Dante's Inferno. The Classics in the Classroom: Manuscript, Incunable, Cinquecentine Relicts and Pedagogical Prectice in the European Classroom (1000-1600) Conference, Not published: Not Published.

2005

  • Modesto, D. (2005). "'Taccia Lucano .. taccia .. Ovidio" : the challenge to the Latin poets in Inferno Cantos XXIV and XXV. Second Dante Conference, Adelaide: Lythrum Press.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). [S]ì che la classe correrà diretta; / e vero frutto verrà dopo 'l fiore' (Par. XXVII, 147-148). In Margarte Baker, Flavia Coassin & Diana Glenn (Eds.), Flinders Dante Conferences 2002 & 2004, (pp. 1-9). Adelaide: Lythrum Press.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). Brunetto Latini and the enigmatic Inscription on the Bargello (Palazzo del Podestà). Dante and the Middle Ages II, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D., Dwyer, M. (2005). Layer upon Layer: The Luarenziana Manuscript Plutei 26 sin 1 26, also known as the Laurenziana Santa Croce. Dante and the Middle Ages II, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2005). Reflection, Refraction and Patterns on Paper: Purgatorio XV, 1-81. Second Dante Conference, Adelaide: Lythrum Press.

2002

  • Modesto, D. (2002). L'albero che vive dalla cima: A proposed Jewish Source for Dante's Up-side-down trees. Arabic and Judaic Influences in and around Dante Alighieri, Not published: Not Published.
  • Modesto, D. (2002). The Man (Brunetto Latini), the City (the Palazzo delPodestà), the Book (the Divine Comedy). The City and the Book.

2001

  • Modesto, D. (2001). Dante all'altro polo: Dante Studies in Australasia. Dante Studies: with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 119, 203-212.
  • Modesto, D. (2001). The Poetic messo of Inferno VIII. The Importance of Italy: An International Conference of Italian Studies, Not published: Not Published.
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