At the eleventh hour I discovered a tome that is to be treasured – the DANTE ENCYCLOPEDIA. In spite of the occasional error (the Lucius Junius Brutus that killed the Tarquin was decidedly not the son of the Marcus Junius Brutus who murdered Caesar!), the vast effort of compiling so much knowledge regarding the Infernal Poet and his scribblings is to be commended and savored.
Harriet Rubin’s DANTE IN LOVE came in during the final edits to give me a little period flavor – which side of the hat Guelphs wore their feathers on, etc.
Lastly the Italian version of GLI SCALIGERI, 1277-1387, edited by Arnaldo Mondadori is chock full of facts and contains photos of just about every Scaligeri artifact a body could want.
Many of my other source texts were in Italian, German, or Latin. When this is the case, it behooves one to read these languages with something that resembles fluency. Though my Italian has improved greatly, I was still often forced to rely on translators. For their work in this capacity, I must thank Mrs. Sylvia Giorgini (Italian), U of M Professor Martin Walsh (German), and my old high school chum, professor John Lober, for his help with a bit of Latin.
This novel could not have been fully formed without the internet. Halfway through a paragraph I’d come up with a question that I’d go online to answer. What were the makes of saddles? Who was ruling Aragon, or Egypt? What was the date of Easter Sunday, 1315? Fully half of my research happened on the web, sifting through incomplete and conflicting data. I plan to provide the most important and reliable links at a later date, but let me just bless Wikipedia.
Still more sources to follow.
-DB
