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Word and Image in Alfonso D'aragona's Manuscript Edition of the Divina Commedia

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Word and Image in Alfonso D'aragona's Manuscript Edition of the Divina Commedia Word and Image in Alfonso d’Aragona’s Manuscript Edition of the Divina Commedia by Marcogildo Lettieri A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Italian Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Marcogildo Lettieri 2019 Word and Image in Alfonso d’Aragona’s Manuscript Edition of the Divina Commedia Marco Lettieri Doctor of Philosophy Department of Italian Studies University of Toronto 2019 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to examine the manuscript edition of the Divine Comedy prepared for Alfonso D'Aragona, known as Yates Thompson MS 36 and preserved in the British Library. This is one of the most famous illuminated manuscript of the Divine Comedy, with over 100 miniature illustrations of great artistic merit. Most of the scholarship available on the manuscript is of a historical nature, concerning as it does the authorship of the illustrations and the historical background of the production of the manuscript itself. Valuable as this scholarship is, it does not explain how the images and verbal text interact in both the aesthetic experience of the reader and the interpretation of the poem to which they lead when they work in unison. My task will be to consider the manuscript from a hermeneutical perspective based on the idea of visibile parlare. My analysis of the manuscript will be simultaneously grounded in the dominant theories of manuscript illumination of the late Middle Ages and in the phenomenology of the reading process for texts consisting of script and images related by reciprocal conditioning. Building on the historical research done so far, my thesis will discuss the visibile parlare of the manuscript in the contexts of the paleographic legacy of the fourteenth and early-fifteenth century scribes and rubricators of each canticle of the Divine Comedy, considered in the light of Husserl's and Dufrenne's phenomenology of the aesthetic experience and in relation to Jacques ii Maritain's and Umberto Eco's theories of art and scholasticism. The aesthetic and philosophical interpretation of each canticle will then be evaluated against the background of the interpretive process and textual exegesis of the early commentators of the Divine Comedy. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my committee members because without them this thesis would not have been possible. In particular, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Domenico Pietropaolo, for having suggested this area of research and assisting with the methodological and critical basis of this study, and for having closely assisted with every step and procedure while providing constant and abundant comments and suggestions; Professor Salvatore Bancheri, Chair of the Department of Italian Studies, for his observations and recommendations at our biannual committee meetings and at many other times throughout the process; Professor Eloisa Morra for her insightful ideas and numerous contributions which have allowed this project to come to fruition. A sincere thank you also goes to the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, professors and administrative staff alike, for their continued support throughout the entire duration of the program. The images were taken from the British Library online MS viewer and are included by permission of the British Library. http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=yates_thompson_ms_36_fs001a iv Table of Contents Contents Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................v Preface..............................................................................................................................................1 Physical Description of Manuscript.................................................................................................5 Chapter 1..........................................................................................................................................9 1.1 Visibile Parlare..............................................................................................................9 1.2 Art and Scholasticism and Il Problema Estetico di San Tommaso d'Aquino..............21 Chapter 2: Inferno..........................................................................................................................42 2.1 Canto I: The Three Beasts............................................................................................44 2.2 Canto V: Minos and the Colour Red............................................................................50 2.3 Canto VIII: Dante and Virgil, Intimacy and Companionship......................................63 2.4 Canto XIII: Suicide and the Renaissance....................................................................69 2.5 Canto XXXII: Ugolino: The Voyeuristic Experience..................................................81 Chapter 3: Purgatorio ...................................................................................................................87 3.1 Canto II: The Letter 'P'................................................................................................89 3.2 Canto X: The Nonvisual of the Visibile Parlare..........................................................94 3.3 Canto XVIII: Acedia and the Renaissance................................................................102 3.4 Canto XXII: Dante Rises Above Virgil......................................................................111 Chapter 4: Paradiso.....................................................................................................................130 4.1 Canto VI: Politics and the Roman Exmpire...............................................................132 4.2 Canto X: The Gazes of Dante and Beatrice...............................................................138 v 4.3 Canto XVII: Dante's Exile and his Poetry.................................................................153 4.4 Canto XXVII: A Living Man Reaches New Heights..................................................163 4.5 Canto XXXIII: Where is Saint Bernard?...................................................................170 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................180 Bibliography................................................................................................................................190 vi 1 Preface The majority of studies undertaken on illuminated manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy have been of a historical nature, with emphasis on the authorship of the illustrations and the historical background of the creation of the manuscript. Although very relevant, these studies do not explain how the images and words interact in the aesthetic experience of the reader and in the analysis of the poem. This thesis will investigate whether the images and verbal text could provide a more rigorous and comprehensive evaluation of the Divine Comedy versus words alone, such as a critical edition with a commentary. This analysis will be grounded in the dominant theories of manuscript illumination of the late Middle Ages and in the phenomenology of the aesthetic experience considered in relation to Jacques Maritain’s and Umberto Eco’s theories of art and scholasticism. Before embarking on this exploration, it will be necessary to first provide a physical description of the manuscript analysed in this thesis, namely MS Yates Thompson 36. Information about its script and material will be provided to reveal its place in the manuscript tradition of the fifteenth century in Italy. The manuscript was illuminated by two artists: Priamo della Quercia and Giovanni di Paolo. Della Quercia was responsible for the miniatures in the Inferno and the Purgatorio, while di Paolo illuminated the Paradiso. Throughout this thesis, the styles and criticisms of both artists will be explored. This exploration will examine the choices of colours, shapes and scenes put forth by the artists. Furthermore, I will seek to answer whether an 2 illuminator can be as worthy a critic as literary commentators of the Divine Comedy. As Domenico Pietropaolo suggests, Dante's text was created with the intention to be illuminated: "The wayfarer, who had conceived the Vita Nuova on the structural image of the copyist, who was perhaps himself an amateur artist, and who so admired the skill of Oderisi da Gubbio as an illuminator of manuscripts, quite naturally reserved his first appreciation for the text as an observable phenomenon" (Pietropaolo, 203). Although many commentaries and critical editions of the Divine Comedy will be quoted throughout the thesis, Charles Singleton interpretation, particularly his development of Auerbach’s figural reading of the poem, will play a crucial role in my approach to Dante and his place in Western literature. That being said, all citations of the poem will be from Giorgio Petrocchi’s edition La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata. In the fourth section of the first chapter, after providing a physical description of the manuscript and outlining the historical principles regarding illuminated manuscripts, the hermeneutical premises of Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism and Eco’s Il Problema Estetico in San Tommaso d'Aquino will be presented and developed. Utilizing these premises, this thesis will explore the validity of the claim that simple manuscripts without illuminations only
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