Thomas G. Bergin

Thomas Goddard Bergin (November 17, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American scholar of Italian literature, who was "noted particularly for his research on Dante's Divine Comedy and for its translation". He was the Sterling Professor of Romance Languages at Yale University, and Master of Timothy Dwight College. He is the first poet to have his words launched into outer space to orbit the Earth.

Author, translator, editor

He is recognized as an authority on Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and the Provençal troubadours, as well as modern Italian writers, including Alberto Moravia, Salvatore Quasimodo, Giovanni Verga, and Giambattista Vico. Bartlett Giamatti referred to him as the “grand statesman of Italian scholarship in America.”

Among his translations are Dante's Divine Comedy (1948),

He published scholarly texts and monographs on authors and the literature of renaissance Italy, France, Spain and Provençal. His biography of the Italian author Boccaccio (1981) was considered a “notable book” of the year by the New York Times, and was a finalist in 1981 for the National Book Critics Circle Award. thumb

He edited The Taming of the Shrew for The Yale Shakespeare, and states in the introduction that his “basic principle was fidelity to the text” of the First Folio of 1623. This in part involved restoring many original wordings and punctuation that long editorial tradition had permitted to be altered.

He was prolific; the bibliography of his works in Italian Literature: Roots and Branches (1976), lists thirty-seven books, fifteen contributions to books, fifty articles in periodicals, and almost 500 book reviews.

His book Dante (1965) was published during the 700th anniversary year of the birth of the Italian poet,

The Divine Comedy

Thomas G. Bergin writes that The Divine Comedy "is everything: a personal confession, a vast love lyric, an encyclopedia of the knowledge of the Middle Ages ... and of course quite simply an absorbing narrative." The Divine Comedy is made up of 14,233 lines, divided into three parts; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Thomas G. Bergin's English translation casts Dante's poem into blank verse. It begins with these lines:

Yale The chapter written by Bergin in the book, My Harvard, My Yale, recounts how from an early age, he had a deep and abiding appreciation for Yale University. He was born in New Haven, not far from the university, he attended public high school, and was awarded the only scholarship that was given each year by the town to a local boy to attend Yale. He entered Yale as an undergraduate in 1921, just as the twenties were beginning to roar. He found there an invigorating academic environment, but also a social stratification that kept the students from more privileged backgrounds apart from the others.

Thomas G. Bergin wanted to make his mark at Yale, and recognized that academic achievement was a way open to him. He describes how he "came to enjoy learning" and by his senior year, he says, "it became for me an unadulterated rapture".

He earned his B.A. from Yale in 1925, traveled to Italy to study and live, and then returned to Yale to earn a Ph.D. in romance languages in 1929.

When the visit by the conservative Californian candidate, Ronald Reagan, was announced, it stirred up controversy in the political atmosphere of 1967

William F. Buckley, Jr., who is described as a "life long friend" of Bergin, in spite of each man being on opposite ends of the political spectrum, weighed in on the controversy in his syndicated newspaper column. Buckley, writing with what the Yale Daily News described as "tongue-in-cheek" referred to Bergin as "a scholar aesthete of obstinate liberalism." Bergin responded by saying “I always enjoy Buckley’s prose. For once I find it difficult to quarrel with him.”

Bergin had a reputation as an impressive speaker with a striking wit.

Poet

The New York Times referred to him as “a renowned Dante scholar and a wry poet in his own right”. where it continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 600 miles, and is expected to continue orbiting for the next 800 years. Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and the Bronze Star and the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1984.

The Thomas G. Bergin Cup is given "in appreciation of Thomas G. Bergin, by the Class of 1968. It is awarded each year to a member of the senior class for outstanding character, wit and scholarship in the humanities".

He was a member of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (president in 1947), the Medieval Academy of America, the Dante Society of America, the American Association of University Professors (president of the Yale chapter from 1951 to 1952), and PEN International.

Books

Giovanni Verga (1931) Modern Italian Short Stories (1938), editor Luciano Zuccoli: ritratto umbertino (1940) Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours (1973), editor, with Raymond Thompson Hill Three French Plays (1941), editor with R.T. Hill Spanish Grammar (1943) textbook with G. Dale The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico, by Vico (1944), translator with Max Fisch Parco Grifeo (1946), verse wartime writings The Prince, Machiavelli (1947), translator and editor Dante's "Inferno" (1948) translator Dante's "Purgatorio" (1953) translator Dante's "Paradiso" (1954) translator Divine Comedy (1955) translator The Poems of William of Poitou (1955), translator Yale Shakespeare The Complete Works, The Taming of the Shrew (1954) editor The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (1955), translator and editor Translations from Petrarch (1955), editor, and translator with others Procul Este a Gramine (1960) Almanac for Academics (1960) The New Science of Giambattista Vico, by Vico (1961), translator with Max Fisch Bertran de Born (1964) translator, editor Master Pieces (1964) edited by T. K. Seung and A. Bartlett Giamatti Italian Sampler (1964) translator, editor Dante (1965) Approach to Dante (1965) The Sonnets of Petrarch (1965) translator, editor Concordance to the Divine Comedy (1965) editor with E. H. Wilkins, et al Sonnets and Odes of Petrarch (1966) translator, editor Perspective on the Divine Comedy (1967) From Time to Eternity (1967) editor A Diversity of Dante (1969) The Divine Comedy (1969) translator, rev. trans. Dante: His Life, His Times, His Works (1970) translator, editor Cervantes: His Life, His Times, His Works (1970) translator, editor Petrarch (1970) Dante's Divine Comedy (1971) On Sepulchres (1971), translator and editor Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours (1973), editor, along with Raymond Thompson Hill Bucolicum Carmen, by Petrarch (1974), translator and editor Italian Literature, Roots and Branches (1976) ed. Kenneth Atchity Giose Rimanelli Africa (1977) translator with Alice S. Wilson Gridiron Glory (1978) Boccaccio (1981) My Harvard My Yale (1982) ed. Diana Dubois, TGB contributing author Under Scorpio (1982) Yale's Residential Colleges; the First Fifty Years (1982) The Game: The Harvard-Yale Football Rivalry, 1875-1983 (1984) Old Provençal Primer (1984) co-author with Nathaniel B. Smith Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (1987) co-author with Jennifer Speake