Rewriting Dante

351 Pages·2017·2.83 MB·English

by  Laura B

Rewriting Dante: The Creation of an Author from the Middle Ages to Modernity
by
Laura Banella
Department of Romance Studies
Duke University

Date: _______________
Approved:

___________________________
Martin G. Eisner, Supervisor

___________________________
David F. Bell, III

___________________________
Roberto Dainotto

___________________________
Valeria Finucci

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Department of
Romance Studies in the Graduate School
of Duke University

2018

ABSTRACT
Rewriting Dante: The Creation of an Author from the Middle Ages to Modernity
by
Laura Banella
Department of Romance Studies
Duke University

Date: _________________
Approved:

___________________________
Martin G. Eisner, Supervisor

___________________________
David F. Bell, III

___________________________
Roberto Dainotto

___________________________
Valeria Finucci

An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of
Romance Studies in the Graduate School of
Duke University

2018
Copyright by
Laura Banella
2018
Abstract
Rewriting Dante explores Dante’s reception and the construction of his figure as an author
in early lyric anthologies and modern editions. While Dante’s reception and his transformation into
a cultural authority have traditionally been investigated from the point of view of the Commedia, I
argue that these lyric anthologies provide a new perspective for understanding how the physical
act of rewriting Dante’s poems in various combinations and with other texts has shaped what I call
after Foucault the Dante function” and consecrated Dante as an author from the Middle Ages to
Modernity. The study of these lyric anthologies widens our understanding of the process of Dante’s
canonization as an author and, thus, as an authority (auctor & auctoritas), advancing our awareness
of authors both as entities that generate power and that are generated by power. By addressing the
creation of his authoritative figure from its inception, this study sheds light on cultural production,
both as a collective, almost anonymous, process and as a result of the intervention of prominent
(and less prominent) individuals. By concentrating on the part of Dante’s oeuvre that may be
considered less authoritative, that is, his lyric poetry, my study emphasizes aspects of the “Dante
function” that go unobserved when focusing exclusively on the Commedia. This research
interweaves the critical discourses related to the emergence of the author in the Late Middle Ages
(Minnis, Ascoli, Auctor et Auctoritas) and the birth of the songbook as a literary genre (Barolini,
Bertolucci Pizzorusso, Galvez, Holmes), also touching on the twentieth-century alleged ‘death of
the author’ (Barthes, Foucault, Benedetti). I concentrate on the crucial function of editors and
anthologists as mediators in the canonization of Dante through the material construction of
manuscripts and books. This question has led me to explore canon making as a structure of power
and the interplay of cultural hegemonies in its creation. I approach this problem through the lens
of material philology because it is a productive interdisciplinary methodology, as is seen in the work

of historians of the book McKenzie and Petrucci, and literary critics Eisner, Storey, and Nichols.
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Contents

List of Figures .................................................................................................................................... viii
Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... xi
0. Introduction. Materiality and Textuality: The Lyric Dante in History ..................................... 1
1. The Dante-function, Canon Making, and Modern Poetic Creations ..................................... 21
1.1 The Long Nineteenth Century and the Post-war Eras ................................................. 21
1.1.1. Questa stupida faccia... Contini-Brandeis-Montale ................................................. 21
1.1.2 1939: The Pivotal Year ................................................................................................. 24
1.1.3 Editorial Forms for Poetry ........................................................................................... 38
1.1.4 From Dante’s Canzoniere to Dante’s Rime .................................................................. 44
1.1.5 A Hermetic Dante ......................................................................................................... 51
1.2 ...Nel Mio Parlar Vogl’esser Aspro: Experimentation, Ordering, and Canon. ............ 57
1.2.1 2002. A New Lyric Dante? ........................................................................................... 64
1.2.2 1921/1939/2009-present. The Canon ....................................................................... 68
1.2.3 The Tenzone with Forese: Not Worthy of Dante! ..................................................... 71
1.2.3.1 Codex Chigi L VIII 305 .......................................................................................... 79
1.2.3.2 Sermo Humilis: the Tenzone, Inferno 30, and Purgatorio 23...............................85
1.2.4 The Rime Dubbie ............................................................................................................. 88
1.2.5 Experimentation ............................................................................................................ 99
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2. Aï faus ris: the Dante-Function between Experimentation and Canon ...............................104
2.1 ...pour quoi traï aves oculos meos? ............................................................................................104
2.1.1 Structure and Content................................................................................................. 105
2.1.2 The Attribution to Dante ........................................................................................... 110
2.1.2.1 External References .............................................................................................. 120
2.1.3 Multiple Languages: Tradition and Genre. .............................................................. 134
2.1.3.1 The Lingua Trina, or a Nonexistent Language....................................................136
2.1.3.2 A Multiple Nature...................................................................................................140
2.2 Dante, France and the French ............................................................................................ 141
2.2.1 The Worthy Thibaut ...................................................................................................152
2.2.2 Si saccia per lo mondo... ............................................................................................. 156
2.3 The Books ............................................................................................................................. 159
2.3.1 The Princeps and the Giuntina ...................................................................................... 161
2.3.2 Trecento Manuscripts ................................................................................................. 166
3. The Dante-Function from the Age of Humanism to the Renaissance................................182
3.1 Books of Poetry, Poets and Books...................................................................................182
3.1.1 Boccaccio’s Dantean Anthologies...........................................................................184
3.2 Antonio Pucci, Campanaio, Herald, and Poet...............................................................191
3.2.1 Pucci's Dantean Books..............................................................................................193
3.2.2 The Benci Brothers ...................................................................................................204
3.3 Andrea Stefani, Musician and Poet..................................................................................209
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3.3.1 The Marucelliano Codex ..........................................................................................211
3.3.2 Andrea Stefani’s poetry ............................................................................................232
3.4 Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the ‘Secolo Senza Poesia’ (1375-1475) ...................242
3.4.1 “Vulgaris Eloquentie Palmam:” Dante vs. Petrarch? ..........................................242
3.4.1.1 The Three Crowns: from Franco Sacchetti to Giannozzo Manetti ...........245
3.4.1.2 Collection Trends and Anthologies .................................................................256
3.5 Tuscan Quattrocento Anthologies....................................................................................259
3.5.1 Scattered Rhymes in Middle-Class Quattrocento Florence ................................259
3.5.2 The Same Canon, 50 Years Later ...........................................................................269
3.5.2.1 Reworking the Nine Worthies and Giotto .....................................................285
3.6 The Veneto from the Paduan Pre-Humanists to Giovanni Quirini and Giovanni
Dondi..........................................................................................................................................294

Conclusion: Dante, the Creator of Italian Literature ..................................................................308
Appendix............................................................................................................................................311
Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................317
Biography ..........................................................................................................................................342

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Eugenio Montale, La Primavera Hitleriana ......................................................................21
Figure 2: BAV, Chig. L VIII 305 ...................................................................................................178
Figure 3: BAV, Barb. Lat. 3953.......................................................................................................179
Figure 4: BML, 41.15 .......................................................................................................................180
Figure Dante's Divine Comedy with Landino's Commentary, ed. P. Piasi, Venice 1491 .............181
Figure 6: The Lucca Codex ............................................................................................................219

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Abbreviations
All quotations from Dante’s rime derive from Alighieri, Rime 2002. All translations of Dante’s
Commedia derive from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Edited and Translated by Robert
M. Durling, Introduction by Robert M. Durling, Notes by Ronald L. Martinez, and Robert
M. Durling, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998-2011, 3 vols.; of Dante’s rime from Dante’s Lyric Poetry;
of Montale’s poems from Montale, Collected Poems.
Unless otherwise stated, all the other translations are those of the author.

Dante
Inf. Inferno
Purg. Purgatorio
Par. Paradiso
Ep. Epistles
DVE De Vulgari Eloquentia

Petrarch
Fam. Familiares
RVF Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta

Libraries
BML Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
BNCF Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
BAV Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
BNM Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
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