The Divine Comedy and the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences: Acta of the International Dante Symposium, 13-16 Nov. 1983, Hunter College, New York

395 Pages·1988·38.67 MB·English

by  Giuseppe C. Di Scipio

THE DIVINE COMEDY AND THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

THE DIVINE COMEDY
AND THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
ARTS AND SCIENCES
Acta of the
International Dante Symposium,
13-16 November 1983, Hunter College, New York
edited by
GIUSEPPE DI SCIPIO & ALDO SCAGLIONE
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
1988
Cover illustration: part of a woodcut illustrating the first Canto of Paradiso
(Dante Alghieri: Divina Commedia. Venice: Bernardinus de Benaliis and
Matteo Capcasa, 1491), by courtesy of the New York Public Library
(Spencer Collection).
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
International Dante Symposium (1983: Hunter College, New York)
The Divine comedy and the encyclopedia of arts and sciences.
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. Divina commedia - Congresses. 2. Dante Alighieri, 1265-
1321 ~ Knowledge and learning — Congresses. I. Di Scipio, Giuseppe C, 1946- . II.
Scaglione, Aldo D. III. Title.
PQ4390.I58 1983 851M 88-14510
ISBN 90 272 2061 1 (Eur.) / ISBN 1-55619-062-X (US) (pb. ; alk. paper)
ISBN 90 272 2040 9 (Eur.) / ISBN 1-55619-031-X (US) (hb. ; alk. paper)
© Copyright 1988 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
A Half-Century of Dante Scholarship in America 1
Christopher Kleinhenz
Dante's Commedia and the Classical Tradition: The Case of Virgil 15
Robert Hollander
Dante and the Ars Grammatica 27
Aldo Scaglione
Dialectic and Mercury (Education, Magic and Religion in Dante) 43
Gustavo Costa
Dante's Early Readers: The Evidence of Illustrated Manuscripts 65
Dorothy Gillerman
Dante and Arithmetic 81
Manfred Hardt
Geometric Metaphor and Proportional Design in Dante's Commedia 95
Thomas E. Hart
Astrology and Astronomy 147
Richard Kay
Dante's Physics 163
Mark Peterson
The Metaphysics of the Commedia 181
Τ. Κ. Seung
Dante and the Art and Science of Medicine Reconsidered 223
Nancy Siraisi
Dante: A Man for All Hours 247
Harry Kaufman
Dante and Politics 267
Giuseppe Di Scipio
vi CONTENTS
The Frowning Pages: Scythians, Garamantes, Florentines, and the
Two Laws 285
Edward Peters
L'Orizzonte Economico Medievale nella Divina Commedia e nei
Principali Commenti del Trecento 315
Patrizia Mainoni
The Florentine Studia and Dante's "Library" 339
Charles Davis
Dante and the Universities of Paris and Oxford 367
Pearl Kibre
Translating Dante's Commedia: Terza Rima or Nothing 373
Angel Crespo
FOREWORD
The guiding principle of this volume is the concept of the artes
liberales, the trivium and quadrivium, as branches of learning that are
rooted in Dante Alighieri's mind. In this volume, the reader will find
illuminating essays dealing with disciplines that may reside outside of the
traditional scheme but are an intrinsic part of the artes and enrich
immensely the field of Dante studies by offering different dimensions and
extracting gold from the mine that is Dante's opus.
The Convivio for example, as Kleinhenz points out, is a work whose
resources need to be tapped, for it has not been fully explored. It provides
an encyclopedic knowledge and suggests sources pointing sharply to the
presence and value of the artes liberales in Dante's preparation for the writ­
ing of the Commedia, so that he can claim it "poema sacro/ al quale ha
posto mano e cielo e terra." The maturity, fruition and sublime style of the
Commedia stems from the mass of material pondered, studied and accumu­
lated in the Convivio and the De vulgari.
It is in the Convivio (II,xiii,8) that Dante establishes a correspondence
between the first seven heavens and the seven liberal arts: Moon-Grammar;
Mercury-Dialectic; Venus-Rhetoric; Sun-Arithmetic; Mars-Music; Jove-
Geometry; Saturn-Astrology (Astronomy). And to complete the scheme
Dante matches the heaven of the Fixed Stars with Physics and Metaphysics,
the Primum Mobile with Moral Philosophy, and the Empyrean, the tenth
heaven, with Theology. A mere list, however, is insufficient for Dante
Alighieri; he, therefore, establishes the correspondences by discussing
qualities or proprietadi of the groups. In so doing he speculates and offers
rich commentary such as attributing to Grammar the science of language or
words. Yet in the composition of the Commedia and in the Paradiso,
Dante's conception of the trivium is perforce expanded to fit the subject
matter (cfr. Scaglione's and Costa's essays). The same can be said of the
quadrivium and related disciplines, which are thoroughly treated in this vol­
ume beginning with the auctores (Hollander), the illustrated manuscripts,
viii FOREWORD
thus the arts (Gillerman), and on with Arithmetic and numerology (Hardt),
Geometry (Hart), Astrology and Astronomy (Kay), Physics (Peterson),
Metaphysics (Seung), Medicine (Siraisi), Psychology (Kaufman), Politics
(Di Scipio), Jurisprudence (Peters), Economics (Mainoni), the Studia
(Davis), the Universities (Kibre), and finally Translation (Crespo). All
these contributions aptly reflect Dante's conception of the artes as the basis
of learning, symbols of virtues and means to achieve humanity's highest
goal, which is the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom for in it lies our
ultimate felicity, as the author himself states in the Convivio: "actio che la
scienza è ultima perfezione de la nostra anima, ne la quale sta la nostra
ultima felicitade."
As E.R. Curtius states, the artes "are called liberal because they are
worthy of a free man." Freedom is Dante's most compelling desire, the ulti­
mate goal of his journey as expressed in the words of Virgil to Cato:
Or ti piaccia gradir la sua venuta
libertà va cercando, ch'è sì cara
come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta. (Purg.I, 70-72).
Freedom is what one learns from the cultivation of scientia, analogous to
the unfolding of a boundless universe and the constant stimulation for
ceaseless questions.
To this cause this volume wishes to make a modest but significant con­
tribution. In so doing we wish to thank all the contributors for their schol­
arly endeavor and the publishers for the high level of their professional per­
formance.
The publication of this volume, the official Acta of the International
Dante Symposium: "Dante's Divine Comedy and the Encyclopedia of Arts
and Sciences," held at Hunter College of the City University of New York
(November 13 to 16, 1983), was made possible by the generous support of
the Dean of Humanities, Professor Carlos Hortas and the Chairperson of
the Romance Languages Department, Professor Jeanine Plottel. Their con­
tinuous support and encouragement was a determining factor in the success
of this project. We warmly thank the President of Hunter College, Donna
Shalala, and Provost Tilden LeMelle for their invaluable support of the
Symposium.
We would like to express our gratitude to Professor G.R. Sarolli,
Director of the Symposium, to Prof. Giuseppina Welsh, Chair of the
organizing committee, to the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and all the spon­
sors.
FOREWORD ix
We wish to extent our gratitude to Adele Klingstein, Research Assis­
tant — Dean of Humanities Division, for her diligent performance in pre­
paring the manuscript for publication. Our thanks are also directed to Mrs.
Anne Lange, Administrative Associate — Romance Languages Depart­
ment, and to her assistants, Mrs. Tricia Greer, Ms. Marcia Gastaldo and
Mrs. Stella Greco. We would also like to thank Ms. Carmelina Cartei, Ms.
Eda Henao-Thorne, and Dr. Tonia Riviello. These individuals provided
invaluable assistance and cooperation.
The Editors
New York, 1987