“Per Un Dante Latino” the Latin Translations of the Divine
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“PER UN DANTE LATINO” THE LATIN TRANSLATIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALY by Michele Zanobini A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies. Baltimore, Maryland October, 2016 i Abstract The history of the Latin translations of Dante's Divine Comedy represents a relatively unexplored branch within the field of Dante studies. Between 1416 and 1876, Latin translations of the Commedia were written and edited by seven men of differing backgrounds and professions: Churchmen, humanistic scholars and academics. The early comprehensive attempts in both prose and verse were published between 1416 and 1431, and have recently received some scholarly attention. In contrast, four out of the seven Latin editions of Dante's Commedia stem from the eras that preceded and immediately followed Italian unification and have yet to be studied. This doctoral dissertation addresses this lacuna and examines the history of the Latin translations of the Divina Commedia within nineteenth-century Italy. ii Table of Contents PREFACE 5 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION 7 INTRODUCTION. “Per un Dante latino”: A Different Perspective on the Reception of Dante's Commedia in the Nineteenth-Century Italy 9 1- The Divine Comedy in the Nineteenth Century: a Manifesto of Poetry, Patriotism and Uprising Against the Roman Church's Alleged Right to Exert Political Power 10 CHAPTER ONE. Early Humanist Latin Translations of Dante's Commedia 1- From Learned Divertissement to Commissioned Translation: The Cases of Coluccio Salutati and Fra' Giovanni Bertoldi da Serravalle 21 2- Matteo Ronto and the First Comprehensive Translation into Latin Hexameters 29 CHAPTER TWO. Carlo d'Aquino and Francesco Testa 1- The Latin Translation of Dante's Commedia in the Eighteenth Century: The Life and Works of Padre Carlo D'Aquino 35 2- D'Aquino's First Encounter With the Divina Commedia: the 1707 LatinTranslation of Dante's Similitudini 38 3- Carlo d'Aquino's 1728 Comprehensive Translation of Dante's Divina Commedia into Latin Hexameters 43 4- Linguistic remarks on D'Aquino's Comprehensive Translation 4.1- Towards an Autonomous Work: Rhetorical Embellishment and Trivialization 48 4.2- Passages Excluded From D'Aquino's Translation 55 5- The 1835 Revision of D'Aquino's Poetical Work and the Complementary Translations by Francesco Testa 60 5.1- Linguistic Remarks on Testa's Supplemental Translation 64 5.1.1- A Faithful And Rhetorically Refined Translation of Dante's Commedia iii 65 CHAPTER THREE. Antonio Catellacci Section One: Life and Works 1- From the Professorship of Medicine to the Latin Translation of Dante's Inferno. Biographical sketch of Antonio Catellacci 71 2- Translating Dante's Inferno: Birth and Development of Poetic Passion 77 Section Two: Linguistic Analysis of the Inferno di Dante 1- Faithfulness to the Original Text 81 2- Difficulties in Translation 85 3- Misinterpretations of the Text 90 4- Linguistic Refinement: Dante's Inferno as a Work-in-Progress 93 CHAPTER FOUR. Gaetano Dalla Piazza Section One: Life and Work 1- From Schio to Leipzig: the Tormented Birth of a Translation 97 2- Reception of the Divina Comoedia and Critical Reactions to Dalla Piazza's Translation 105 3- Italian Prefazione Written by Gaetano Dalla Piazza and Aimed at Introducing his Latin Translation of the Comedy 109 Section Two: Linguistic Analysis of the Divina Comoedia 1- Categories of Fillers and Figures of Speech 1.1- Linguistic Fillers Employed by Dalla Piazza 114 1.2- Translation of Figures of Speech as Used by Dante 119 1.3- Figures of Speech Created by Dalla Piazza 122 2- Linguistic Accuracy and Faithfulness to the Original Text 127 3- The “Divine” in Dalla Piazza 131 4- Dalla Piazza's Mastery of Latin Language at the Service of the Textual iv Explanation 133 5- Philological Problems 138 6- Difficulties in Translation 141 7- A Case of Apparent Divergence 144 CHAPTER FIVE. Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli Section One: Life and Work 1- From Camerano to Rome and From Rome to Camerano: Biographical Sketches of a Modern Latinist 146 2- Pasquali Marinelli's poetic manifesto as contained in Pietro Gianuizzi's Elogio funebre (1878) 160 Section Two: Linguistic Analysis of the Divina Comoedia 1- Pasquli's Translation and its Faithfulness to Dante's Text 1.1- Linguistic Faithfulness 164 1.2- Syntactical Faithfulness 167 1.3- Figures of Speech 170 2- Modifications Due to the Adaptation of the Hendecasyllable to Latin Hexameter 2.1- Examples of Condensation 173 2.2- Examples of Expansion 179 2.3- Misunderstandings and Philological Problems 185 3- Explanation Beyond Translation. Exegesis of Dante's Commedia 187 4- Pasquali's Exegetical Notes on the Text 194 CONCLUSION 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY 200 v Preface The history of the Latin translations of Dante's Divine Comedy represents a relatively unexplored branch within the field of Dante studies. Between 1416 and 1876, Latin translations of the Commedia were written and edited by seven men of differing backgrounds and professions: Churchmen, humanistic scholars and academics. The early comprehensive attempts in both prose and verse were published between 1416 and 1431, and have recently received some scholarly attention. In contrast, four out of the seven Latin editions of Dante's Commedia stem from the eras that preceded and immediately followed Italian unification and have yet to be studied. This doctoral dissertation addresses this lacuna and examines the history of the Latin translations of the Divina Commedia within the nineteenth-century Italy. The four editions that this dissertation examines are as follows: the 1819 Inferno di Dante, ossia la Prima Cantica della Divina Commedia, translated in Latin hexameters by Antonio Catellacci; the 1835 Per le cospicue nozze del nobile uomo Domenico Melilupi Marchese di Soragna colla nobile donzella Giustina Piovene containing a fragmentary translation of Dante by Francesco Testa, and the two comprehensive translations of the Commedia by Gaetano Dalla Piazza (1848) and Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli (1874). While the last two translations encompass the entire text (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), Catellacci's edition presents a Latin translation of the first cantica only. The case of Francesco Testa is more peculiar: his translation covers the three cantiche, but is fragmentary and offered as a completion of the 1728 translation of Dante's Commedia left unfinished by Carlo d'Aquino. vi Although markedly divergent in their Latin versification, these four translations share a common goal of making Dante's masterpiece accessible to non-Italian readers. The audience these editions were meant to reach was extremely limited: a high level of erudition was indeed required to read any of these works. They represent, however, the first literary attempt to export the cultural patrimony of the Commedia abroad. It is not a coincidence that such a great cultural undertaking took place during a crucial period in the development of the Italian national identity. The edition by Antonio Catellacci was published only four years after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), while Pasquali Marinelli’s text, the last chronologically, was printed in 1874, four years after the conquest of Rome (1870). The patriotic movement triggered by the Napoleonic wars and culminating in the Unification played a central role in the birth and spread of these Latin translations. By the time that Italian political and cultural identity was imposing itself among the rising nations of central Europe, the figure of Dante Alighieri was one of the most well-known and admired cultural ensigns. The spread of the paragone Italian poet and his most notable work among circles of foreign intellectuals was hoped to affirm Italian national culture within a period of nationalistic fervor. vii Structure of the Dissertation This doctoral thesis is divided into seven parts: an introduction, five chapters and a conclusion. The introduction offers a brief overview of the field of Dante studies in the nineteenth-century, from Vincenzo Monti's rediscovery of Dante's works at the beginning of the century to the foundation of the Società Dantesca. The first chapter examines the history of the Latin translations of the Comedy from the end of the fourteenth to the early fifteenth-century. These works include the fragmentary attempts by Coluccio Salutati and the comprehensive translations by Giovanni Bertoldi da Serravalle and Matteo Ronto. Neither the introduction nor the first chapter offer original contributions to existing scholarship. Instead, by summarizing the achievements of nineteenth-century Dante studies in Italy as well as the first humanist translations of the Comedy, they provide a solid background against which our investigation can be conducted. The second chapter is devoted to the works of Carlo d'Aquino and Francesco Testa, published in 1728 and 1836 respectively. D'Aquino's edition represents one of the most influential translations of Dante. His work enjoyed a vast success and was employed as as literary source for subsequent translations. This edition, however, is not complete for many passages were deliberately left untranslated. Testa's Latin version of Dante's masterpiece is fragmentary and sets out to complete D’Aquino’s work. Chapter three discusses the figure of Antonio Catellacci and his translation of Dante's Inferno. Chapters four and five are devoted to the two comprehensive translations of the Commedia into Latin hexameters published by Gaetano Dalla Piazza and Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli. Chapters two through five share a similar internal structure. They open with a viii introduction to the author that covers both his biography and literary as well as scientific production and are followed by an in-depth stylistic and linguistic analysis of the texts. The investigation will focus on the translation’s faithfulness to the vernacular original, the poetical sensibility in the reinterpretation of the text and the overall mastery of Latin language and hexameter.