Divine Company

Dante’s Divine Comedy may be one of the great works of Western literature, but at 14,233 lines written across a combined 100 cantos, a complete reading is something of a literary ultra-marathon.  It’s a race former Bryn Mawr President Nancy Vickers has run upward of 25 times over the years and with a group of Bryn Mawr alumnae and another group at her retirement community, she says she’ll soon be crossing the finish line for the last time. 

“My first Dante course changed my life,” says Vickers, who served as president of The Dante Society of America from 2009-14. “It was so powerful and extraordinary. Suddenly literature was more vibrant and interesting than I’d ever imagined.” 

Vickers taught courses on Dante throughout her academic career, starting at Dartmouth in 1973 and continuing through her Bryn Mawr presidency, when she taught a Divine Comedy course every other year, and she and the students would race through the work in a semester’s time. 

“It’s not easy, but it can be done,” says Vickers.

Today she takes it a bit more slowly. Every other week since November, Vickers and a group of alumnae from the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City have met on Zoom to discuss three or four cantos and enjoy each other’s company. 

“When I became president of the Bryn Mawr Club of NYC, a vision of mine was to invite some great historic leaders of Bryn Mawr, former presidents to address our alums,” says Helen Thurston ’74, who is now president emerita of the club.  “President Emerita Nancy Vickers came in 2016 and spoke about her passion for Dante. At once I became hungry to hear more from this gifted teacher – and she agreed!  With a few zigs and zags, the Bryn Mawr Club of NYC’s Dante Small Study group began its year-long journey through the Commedia in November of 2023 with Nancy as our Virgil.  The joy of studying great works with great teachers is immeasurable.”

They recently held their “Inferno Wrap Up and Purgatorio Peek” party at the home of former trustee Liz Warren ’72, where they also met when they started their literary journey.  Warren and Thurston, who met in Rockefeller in 1970, have worked together on this project from the beginning.

“Bryn Mawr is the gift that keeps on giving, and this class is another example of that,” says Warren. “It’s an honor to be part of this class. Nancy is such a great teacher and it’s delightful to be able to  spend time with her with my fellow alums.”

This is the second time Vickers has engaged with a group of alumnae around The Divine Comedy. From 2015-18 she led a reading group with a group of alums from the Boston Club. 

“It took us a little longer because we took summers off,” says Vickers. “Both groups were very lively, and obviously very smart. I loved my time teaching but it’s a lot of fun to do this with people who are just doing it for the love of learning and engaging with the material and each other.” 

By the time Vickers finishes with her current group, she’ll have celebrated her 80th birthday, and she says her love for the Commedia––with its three cantiche Inferno, Pugatorio, and Paradiso––remains as strong as ever.  

“It is so brilliant. I find new things every time I teach it. It seems impossible to believe that a single human being could have written it.”