Lyric Subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti's Rime

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Lyric Subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti's Rime ‘A me stesso di me pietate vène’ Lyric Subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti’s Rime Valentina Mele Selwyn College December 2019 Corrected version submitted 7 July 2020 This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my thesis has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. PhD Candidate: Valentina Mele Title: 'A me stesso di me pietate vène'. Lyric subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti's Rime. Abstract: This thesis examines articulations of subjectivity in the love-lyric corpus of Guido Cavalcanti (c.1258-1300). That Cavalcanti has a central role in the development of the modern lyric subjectivity is widely accepted in scholarship. The present study aims to deepen current understanding of Cavalcanti’s poetry by analysing ways in which the subject of the enunciation is articulated in the Rime. This research adopts a traditional critical approach (i.e. philological, lexicographic, and semasiological) in conversation with linguistics, narratology, and literary theory. The main textual strategies which contribute to the expression of subjectivity in the cavalcantian corpus are analysed in the context of the Duecento Italian love-lyric tradition. Chapter 1 historicises and maps the main debates concerning the issue of subjectivity in medieval texts which prove significant for reflecting upon the cavalcantian subject and defines the thesis’ methodological framework. Chapter 2 and 3 discuss the most significant results of a comprehensive indexing and analysis of deictics. It provides an examination of the ways in which subjectivity is encoded in the Rime, as related to the main coordinates of the discourse (person, time, space). Chapter 4 examines Cavalcanti’s use of apostrophe and the direction of the poetic message as strategies to redefine the lover-beloved polarity of the lyric tradition. Chapter 5 analyses voices that are “other” to the traditional one of the poet-lover in the Rime and their contribution to the articulation of a specific subjectivity in the lyric discourse. Keywords: Guido Cavalcanti, Italian poetry, lyric subjectivity, deixis, medieval literature, Dante, Guido Guinizzelli CONTENTS Acknowledgements VII Introduction IX Chapter I: Mapping Theories of Subjectivity 1 I.1 Paul Zumthor and the Demystification of Subjectivity 3 I.2 New Approaches to Intertextuality and Subjectivity 6 I.3 Language, Desire, and Subjectivity 9 I.4 Cavalcanti Scholarship 12 I.5 A.C. Spearing’s ‘Subjectless Subjectivity’ 18 I.6 My Methodological Approach 21 Chapter II: Deixis: Person 23 II.1 Deixis: An Overview 27 II.2 Deixis and the Lyric 30 II.3 Deixis: Person 33 II.4 Person Deixis: A Semantic Evaluation of the Rime 43 Conclusion 48 Chapter III: Deixis: Space and Time 51 III.1 Subjectivity and the Demonstrative questa 51 III.2 Other Space and Time References in the Rime 63 Conclusion 82 Appendix 86 Chapter IV: Apostrophe 91 IV.1 Origins and Ritualistic Aspects of Apostrophe 92 IV.2 Apostrophe, the Guizerdon, and Lyric Subjectivity 94 IV.3 Claudio Giunta and the so-called “funzione destinatario” 96 IV.4 Cavalcanti and the Collapsing of the Love Discourse 98 IV.5 Dante, the Vita Nuova, and the Definition of an Audience 106 IV.6 Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta 111 VI.7 Cavalcanti’s Circular Apostrophes 115 Conclusion 117 Chapter V: Voices of the Io 119 V.1 Amore 124 V.2 The Bystanders 132 V.3 The Tools of Writing 136 Conclusion 141 Conclusion 143 Bibliography 149 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful to the Keith Sykes Fund for the generous funding of this research, and to Selwyn college for hosting my studentship and for being such a welcoming intellectual home ever since I first arrived in Cambridge. I would like to thank the Italian Department at the University of Cambridge for providing such a vibrant, enriching, and supportive community in which to work. I also thank the Department of Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Notre Dame, where I spent three months of intense and joyful writing as a visiting student. For illuminating and inspiring discussions about Guido, I offer my deepest thanks to Zyg Barański, Marco Berisso, Paolo Borsa, Theodore J. Cachey, Robin Kirkpatrick, Giuseppe Ledda, Ryan Pepin, Helena Phillips-Robins, and Kath Powlesland. I wish to thank my supervisor, Heather Webb, who has provided constant encouragement, enthusiasm, and intellectual generosity. I dedicate this thesis to my mother and my father. VII INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION This thesis describes how lyric subjectivity is articulated in Guido Cavalcanti’s Rime,1 exploring, in the first instance, how the first-person position is staged in the love lyrics of the Cavalcantian corpus. In introducing Alle origini dell’io lirico, a collection of essays published to celebrate Cavalcanti on the seventh centenary of his death, Roberto Antonelli emphasises that Cavalcanti ‘va [..] ricordato, poiché è con lui che inizia la lirica moderna in senso stretto, in quanto indagine poetica, autocosciente, dell’homo interior’.2 The collection, inaugurating a series of volumes linked by the common theme of the lyric ‘I’, aims to investigate and discuss the origins of modern lyric subjectivity by focussing on Cavalcanti’s poetry.3 This short quotation, by bringing into focus Cavalcanti’s importance for the lyric canon, urges us to further reflect upon the Rime, and to explore the reasons behind their enduring legacy.4 My investigation stems from the intention to contribute to this ongoing research. While there is an established narrative concerning Cavalcanti’s importance to the canon, which anoints the Rime as ‘uno snodo essenziale della tradizione lirica fino e oltre Petrarca’,5 Cavalcanti scholarship still lacks a comprehensive enquiry into Cavalcantian subjectivity which could contribute to our current understanding of the poet’s significance. As I will discuss, important studies have been produced on Cavalcanti’s sources, on intertextual relationships between Cavalcanti and the lyric tradition, and on issues of style and language, but very few contributions have directly addressed the issue of subjectivity in the Rime.6 These more recent studies have generally discussed subjectivity as related to some thematic choices characterising Cavalcanti’s fictionalisation of the traditional love dynamics 1 All quotations from and references to Cavalcanti’s corpus are taken from Guido Cavalcanti, Rime, ed. by Roberto Rea and Giorgio Inglese (Rome: Carocci, 2011). 2 Roberto Antonelli, ‘Cavalcanti o dell’interiorità’, in Alle origini dell’Io lirico. Cavalcanti o dell’interiorità, ed. by Roberto Antonelli (Rome: Viella, 2001), pp. 1-22 (p. 3). This critical interpretation of Guido’s poetry is accepted in Cavalcanti scholarship, as Roberto Rea’s ‘Introduction’ to the latest edition of the Rime testifies. Rea follows on from Antonelli’s pivotal observations when holding that ‘pochi poeti hanno rivoluzionato la storia della nostra tradizione come Guido Cavalcanti’ (Rea, ‘Introduzione’, in Cavalcanti, Rime, 2011, pp. 13-32 (p. 13)). The scholar talks about Cavalcanti’s poetry in terms of an outright breach with the Courtly tradition pursued by means of an internalisation of the lyric discourse. 3 Antonelli, ‘Premessa’, in Alle origini dell’io lirico, ed. by Antonelli, pp. V-VI (p. VI). 4 Ivi. 5 Antonelli, ‘Premessa’, in Roberto Rea, Cavalcanti poeta. Uno studio sul lessico lirico (Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2008), pp. 11-12 (p. 11). 6 These sources will be presented and examined in the thesis. As I will also discuss it is Antonelli who first addresses directly the issue of subjectivity in Cavalcanti’s poetry – even if important remarks on this issue had already been made in previous works by other scholars. IX INTRODUCTION and to the poet’s consequent use of an innovative vocabulary to represent the Io and his7 condition.8 These fundamental studies do not entirely answer a central question I aim to address: how is subjectivity encoded and verbalised in the Rime? My object in this thesis is to tackle this critical vacuum by identifying and examining the main linguistic and rhetorical strategies that contribute to characterising the Cavalcantian model(s) of subjectivity. My methodology combines a more traditional approach with categories borrowed from Narratology and Linguistics, which I propose offer us new tools to consider the issue of subjectivity in the Rime, inviting fresh perspectives on the centrally important question I seek to engage with. To discuss subjectivity in the Rime first implies acknowledging central elements related to the poetry of Cavalcanti, such as its material transmission, reception, and characterising features. For this reason, in this Introduction I will expound some fundamental, interconnected aspects contributing to the canonisation of Cavalcanti’s poetry whose discussion constitutes an essential premise to the analyses of the following Chapters. I will retrace some of the essential episodes of Cavalcanti’s reception. As directly related to this aspect, I will touch upon issues of material culture and the Rime’s manuscript tradition. Before providing a summary of each Chapter’s content, I will discuss Cavalcanti’s representation of the phenomenology of love as expressed in his Rime. This exposition will be contextualised within the spread of medical and scientific treatises in the Western world and their internalisation in the production of love lyric, with specific attention to the reuse of these sources in the Italian love lyric.
Recommended publications
  • A Hell of a City: Dante's Inferno on the Road to Rome ([email protected]) DANTE's WORKS Rime (Rhymes): D.'S Lyrical Poems, Cons
    A Hell of a City: Dante’s Inferno on the Road to Rome ([email protected]) DANTE’S WORKS Rime (Rhymes): D.'s lyrical poems, consisting of sonnets, canzoni, ballate, and sestine, written between 1283 [?] and 1308 [?]. A large proportion of these belong to the Vita Nuova, and a few to the Convivio; the rest appear to be independent pieces, though the rime petrose (or “stony poems,” Rime c-ciii), so called from the frequent recurrence in them of the word pietra, form a special group, as does the six sonnet tenzone with Forese Donati: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/rime.html (Testo critico della Societa' Dantesca Italiana; Florence: Societa' Dantesca Italiana, 1960. Edited by Michele Barbi. Translated by K. Foster and P. Boyde.) Vita nova (The New Life): Thirty-one of Dante's lyrics surrounded by an unprecedented self-commentary forming a narrative of his love for Beatrice (1293?). D.'s New Life, i.e. according to some his 'young life', but more probably his 'life made new' by his love for Beatrice. The work is written in Italian, partly in prose partly in verse (prosimetron), the prose text being a vehicle for the introduction, the narrative of his love story, and the interpretation of the poems. The work features 25 sonnets (of which 2 are irregular), 5 canzoni (2 of which are imperfect), and 1 ballata: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/vnuova.html (Testo critico della Società Dantesca Italiana; Florence: Società Dantesca Italiana, 1960. Edited by Michele Barbi. Translated by Mark Musa.) In the Vita Nuova, which is addressed to his 'first friend', Guido Cavalcanti, D.
    [Show full text]
  • Lyrical Quest Father and Sons
    Lyric Quests Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti we do not find is a concerted attempt to direct people in the the verse of a lesser forebear, as he effects his own lesser tran- living of their everyday lives, or to provide an anatomy of sition. 45 The passage from love poetry to moral poetry is a morals as Giraut does within the limits of the chivalric code crucial one, with a direct bearing on the Comedy; as the initiator and does within a much larger Christian and civic of that passage, the launcher of that transition, Guittone is here scheme.- The category of poet of rectitude is in fact not available implicitly recognized-as the only one of Dante's lyric precur- to the lyric poets of the Comedy; rather, they may aspire to a sors who could actively imagine, if not the Comedy itself, at poetics of erotic conversion, like Folquet. The two lyric poets least the space that the Comedy would later fill. in Dante's lexicon who require such a category, Giraut and Guittone, are rejected out of hand, their authority as precursors denied, their presence in the Comedy entirely negative. Within Fathers and Sons: Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti this general picture, however, we find one possible textual echo with some suggestive implications. The Comedy's first invo- If, in the Comedy, Guittone is a presence, repeatedly vilified, cation to the Muse, a alto ingegno, or m'aiutate; / Cavalcanti is an absence, just as systematically denied his due. a mente che scrivesti cia ch'io vidi, I qui si parra la tua nobi- We have already touched on Cavalcanti's pivotal role as Dante's litate" ("0 Muses, 0 high genius, help me now; 0 memory that early mentor, his first freely chosen vernacular poetic aucta- wrote down what 1 saw, here will your nobility appear" [Inf, ritas.
    [Show full text]
  • Donna Me Prega” and Dino’S Glosses
    Heliotropia 2.1 (2004) http://www.heliotropia.org Boccaccio, Cavalcanti’s Canzone “Donna me prega” and Dino’s Glosses he enigmatic, indeed disturbing figure of Guido Cavalcanti (1259– 1300) exercised the imagination of his contemporaries, especially of T his fellow poets. Without naming him once, Dante talks about Guido in his youthful work, the Vita nuova, telling us that Cavalcanti was the “primo de li miei amici” (VN III), and that he was one of those who replied poetically to Dante’s first sonnet. Dante also refers to Guido’s senhal, Gio- vanna/Primavera (VN XXIV). The whole of Dante’s treatise, as a specifi- cally vernacular composition, is dedicated to this first friend (VN XXX). Amongst Dante’s Rime, also, there is a companionship sonnet addressed to Cavalcanti, “Guido, i’ vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io,” to which the older poet responded in verse. The most memorable mention by Dante occurs in canto X of Inferno, where Guido is the “grand absent,” asked after by his damned father, Ca- valcante de’ Cavalcanti. The accent in the exchange is on Guido’s implied “altezza d’ingegno,” shared with Dante (X.59), and his disdain for some- thing — unspecified — which Dante by now was pursuing (poetry? theol- ogy?). The poet later resurfaces as an allusion in Purgatorio XI.97–99, where, in an object lesson in humility, literary primacy is passed through the Guidos, presumably from Guinizelli through Cavalcanti, and on to (perhaps) Dante himself. Guido Orlandi, who wrote the enquiry sonnet, “Onde si move e donde nasce Amore?” which occasioned Cavalcanti’s famous reply, the doctrinal canzone “Donna me prega,” paints a picture of the poet in “Amico, i’ saccio ben che sa’ limare,” stressing Guido’s verbal prowess, but also his consid- erable intellectual ambition, verging on vanity.
    [Show full text]
  • Biscioni's Dante
    Biscioni’s Dante Beatrice Arduini and Jelena Todorovi´c Abstract This essay focuses on the 1723 edition of two of Dante Alighieri’s “minor texts”, the Vita Nova and the Convivio, both of which had troubled editorial histories, within the volume Prose di Dante Alighieri e di Messer Gio. Boccacci prepared for the Tartini press in Flor- ence by Anton Maria Biscioni. In intervening in the texts of both works in unique ways, this edition sought to return to Dante’s original intentions when writing them. This essay argues that Anton Maria Biscioni’s work offers modern readers a unique glimpse into the work- shop of an editor of this eighteenth-century edition of Dante’s texts, an editor who details all the facets of the editorial process, from the collation of manuscripts to the hard choices determined by that collation and by the current practices of the editorial trade. The authors argue that main achievements of this 1723 edition can be seen in its editor’s promotion of bibliographical studies. This paper offers a glimpse into the history of printed edi- tions of Dante Alighieri’s works, a history that has yet to be fully written. The following pages will focus on two of Dante’s “minor works”, namely the Vita Nova and the Convivio, as these were included in a 1723 volume entitled Prose di Dante Alighieri e di Messer Gio. Boccacci prepared for the Tartini press in Florence by Anton Maria Biscioni.1 Of Dante’s texts, the 1. This essay emerges from two separate larger studies by Arduini and Todorovic´ on the reception of Dante’s Vita Nova and the Convivio, united here by an inter- est in the sole eighteenth-century edition to include the two works.
    [Show full text]
  • Guido Cavalcanti (1255-1300) Donna Me Prega Cavalcanti Was An
    Rime Guido Cavalcanti (1255-1300) Donna me prega Cavalcanti was an important member of the famous poetic movement known as Dolce Stil Novo. Inspired by the medieval troubadour tradition, his canzone anatomizes love using a metaphysical vocabulary of grief and transfiguration. Cavalcanti believed that the individual soul is mortal and that poetry can resurrect our deadened sensorium. Sight is an important poetic faculty, which fuels the passion and takes possession of the two lovers. XXVII - Donna me prega, - per ch'eo voglio dire Donna me prega, - per ch'eo voglio dire d'un accidente - che sovente - è fero ed è si altero - ch'è chiamato amore: sì chi lo nega - possa 'l ver sentire! Ed a presente - conoscente - chero, 05 perch'io no sper - ch'om di basso core a tal ragione porti canoscenza: ché senza - natural dimostramemto non ho talento - di voler provare là dove posa, e chi lo fa creare, 10 e qual sia sua vertute e sua potenza, l'essenza - poi e ciascun suo movimento, e 'l piacimento - che 'l fa dire amare, e s'omo per veder lo pò mostrare. In quella parte - dove sta memora 15 prende suo stato, - sì formato, - come diaffan da lume, - d'una scuritate la qual da Marte - vène, e fa demora; elli è creato - ed ha sensato - nome, d'alma costume - e di cor volontate. 20 Vèn da veduta forma che s'intende, che prende - nel possibile intelletto, come in subietto, - loco e dimoranza. In quella parte mai non ha pesanza perché da qualitate non descende: 25 resplende - in sé perpetual effetto; non ha diletto - ma consideranza; sì che non pote largir simiglianza.
    [Show full text]
  • Uva-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The Compunctuous Poet, Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain [Review of: R. Brann (1995) -] Schippers, A. Publication date 1995 Document Version Final published version Published in Unknown Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Schippers, A. (1995). The Compunctuous Poet, Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain [Review of: R. Brann (1995) -]. In R. Brann (Ed.), Unknown The John Hopkins University Press. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:07 Oct 2021 201 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ARABICA-ISLAM 202 muwassah as an universal artistic phenoumenon, comparing a means of correspondence in courtly circles and among it with related phenoumena in other literatures and daily life. friends. One of the first poets, who made a living out of Jacque"Hoe Bismuth investigates the influence of the Italian poetry, by travelling around and singing the praise of Jewish dolce stil novo poets, such as Dante Alighieri, in contrast viziers and Maecenates, was the poet Ibn Khalfun (ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    Part I Infl uences COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL 1 The Poet and the Pressure Chamber: Eliot ’ s Life Anthony Cuda Over the course of his long career, T. S. Eliot preferred to think about poetry not as the communication of ideas but as a means of emotional relief for the artist, a momen- tary release of psychological pressure, a balm for the agitated imagination. In 1919, he called poetic composition an “ escape from emotion ” ; in 1953, a “ relief from acute discomfort ” ( SE 10; OPP 98). At fi rst, poetry alleviated for him the mundane pressures of a bank clerk who lived hand - to - mouth, caring for his sick wife during the day and writing for the Times Literary Supplement at night; later, it lightened the spiritual pres- sures of a holy man in a desert of solitude with the devils conniving at his back. Most frequently, though, it eased the pressure of an artist doubting his talent, an acclaimed poet who wrote more criticism than poetry, ever fearful that the fi ckle Muse had permanently left him. The most intensely creative stages of Eliot’ s life often coincided with the periods in which he faced the most intense personal disturbances and upheavals. But where do we, as students of Eliot, begin to account for that pressure? “ The pressure, ” as he himself called it, “ under which the fusion takes place ” and from which the work of art emerges ( SE 8)? We could begin with the bare facts. Eliot was the youngest of seven children, born on September 26, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri.
    [Show full text]
  • Guido Guinizzelli
    Guido Guinizzelli: Pivotal Poet of Medieval Italian Literature By Peter Lucia, B.A., M.A. As ever, dedicated to Angela De Vito-Lucia Copyright © 2020, Peter Lucia All rights reserved ISBN: 0-9741139-4-8 ISBN 13: 978-0-9741139-4-4 Peter Lucia Projects, Tinton Falls, NJ This work originated in an honors essay by Peter Lucia, Italian Department, Columbia University, 1984 Cover illustration adapted from La Dame de Coeur, Bibliothèque de France, Christine de Pizan. Épître d’Othéa. Paris, vers 1406. !2 Sections Index Introduction 3 Note on the Translations 5 The Poems, Translations and Commentary 7 Two Fine Translations of Guinizzelli’s Poems 85 Bibliography 89 !3 Introduction Guido Guinizzelli di Magnano was born about 1230 in Bologna and died in Monselice in 1276. His importance in Italian literature is that his small body of poems (only about twenty) represents the link between two styles: that of the so-called “Sicilian School,” which represents the official origin of Italian literature (to which one adds a nod to the various poets of central Italy and the still older French troubadours), and that of the Dolce Stil Nuovo (the “Sweet New Style”), which gave Italy its first truly elevated poetry. Actually, among his twenty poems only a few award him his singular position: they caught the eye of Dante, the movement’s most distinguished representative, who was inspired by Guinizzelli’s exulted use of the common tongue (the vernacular or Il volgare) in service of an advanced spiritualization of Love— and his application a kind of scientific rationale to the workings of it all.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Without End: Reiterating Desire in Petrarch's Rvf 70 and 23
    Poetry Without End: Reiterating Desire in Petrarch’s Rvf 70 and 23 Manuele Gragnolati and Francesca Southerden Our article focuses on two canzoni from Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta or Canzoniere, Rvf 23, “Nel dolce tempo de la prima etade,” and Rvf 70, “Lasso me, ch’io non so in qual parte pieghi.”1 By reading them comparatively, we aim to set up a dialogue between the concepts of return and conversion and to explore the relationship between the form of the texts and the subjectivity it shapes. In particular, we are interested in investigating how Petrarch blurs the distinction between beginnings and ends and how, defying conclusion, his lyric poetry gives form to a sort of masochistic pleasure. Rvf 70 is an intertextual canzone (and part-cento) that culminates in an explicit textual return of the poet’s own poem 23, the so-called canzone delle metamorfosi, in which the poetic subject undergoes a series of transformations explicitly modelled on Ovid. The incipit of canzone 23, “Nel dolce tempo de la prima etade,” forms the final line of canzone 70 and is the last in a series of quotations of the incipits of earlier poems, each of which closes one of the stanzas of Petrarch’s poem and reconstructs what Franco Suitner has termed “il retroterra della lirica romanza” [“the hinterland of romance lyric”].2 All the incipits closing the five stanzas relate to a concept of love as essentially tyrannical, obsessive, and compulsive. The first stanza ends with the incipit of the Occitan poem now thought to be by Guillem de Saint Gregori, “Drez et rayson es qu’ieu ciant e· m demori,” which Petrarch attributed to Arnaut Daniel and which embodies a paradoxical form of desire that involves subjecting oneself to love even to the point of death, and finding pleasure in it.3 The other incipits belong to the Italian lyric tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis
    Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis Romanische Literaturen der Welt Herausgegeben von Ottmar Ette Band 61 Petrarch and Boccaccio The Unity of Knowledge in the Pre-modern World Edited by Igor Candido An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. The Open Access book is available at www.degruyter.com. ISBN 978-3-11-042514-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-041930-6 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-041958-0 ISSN 0178-7489 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Igor Candido, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Konvertus, Haarlem Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Dedicated to Ronald Witt (1932–2017) Contents Acknowledgments IX Igor Candido Introduction 1 H. Wayne Storey The
    [Show full text]
  • Polemiche Letterarie Nella Lirica Italiana Del Duecento*
    Polemiche letterarie nella lirica italiana del Duecento* Simone MARCENARO Departamento de Filoloxía Galega Área de Filoloxía Románica Universidade de Santiago de Compostela [email protected] RESUMEN El articulo pretende delinear el tema de la “polémica literaria” en la lírica italiana del XIII siglo, conside- rando los núcleos más representativos que marcan los debates de argumento literario, desde los poetas sicilianos hasta las experiencias de los “Stilnovisti” e de Dante. La actitud contrastiva en el ámbito meta- poético se atesta casi exclusivamente en los sonetos dialógicos (“tenzoni”), a partir de los que es posible esbozar el canon literario contemporáneo, evidenciando la influencia de modelos poéticos de grande importancia, como Guittone d’Arezzo o Guido Guinizzelli. La polémica, además, se realiza en la inmensa mayoría de los casos según una actitud “seria”, que excluye el vituperium o los núcleos burlescos de los poetas “comico-realistici”, cuya ausencia resalta en un panorama, el de la lírica románica medieval, en que este tipo de debates entran en cambio con frecuencia en los géneros propiamente satíricos. Palabras clave: lírica italiana del XIII siglo; tenzones; sonetos; polémica literaria; Poetas sicilianos; Guittone d’Arezzo; Guido Guinizzelli; Bonagiunta da Lucca; Cino da Pistoia; Guido Cavalcanti; Dante. Literary polemics in the XIIIth century’s Italian lyric poetry ABSTRACT The article deals with the theme of literary polemics in the Italian lyric poetry of the XIIIth century, focusing on the most representative and the most relevant aspects of the literary debate: from Sicilian lyric poetry to Dolce stil novo and Dante. The contrastive attitude in the metaliterary sphere is to be found almost exclusively in dialogical sonetti (“tenzoni”): analyzing their texts proves helpful in describing the contemporary literary canon and allows to point out the influence of major poetic models such as Guit- tone d’Arezzo or Guido Guinizzelli.
    [Show full text]
  • Page 1 of 4 “Circle 6, Canto 10” Guy P. Raffa Heresy Dante Opts for the Most Generic Conception of Heresy--The Denial Of
    “Circle 6, Canto 10” Guy P. Raffa Heresy Dante opts for the most generic conception of heresy--the denial of the soul's immortality (Inf. 10.15)--perhaps in deference to spiritual and philosophical positions of specific characters he wishes to feature here, or perhaps for the opportunity to present an especially effective form of contrapasso: heretical souls eternally tormented in fiery tombs. More commonly, heresy in the Middle Ages was a product of acrimonious disputes over Christian doctrine, in particular the theologically correct ways of understanding the Trinity and Christ. Crusades were waged against "heretical sects," and individuals accused of other crimes or sins--e.g., witchcraft, usury, sodomy--were frequently labeled heretics as well. Heresy, according to a theological argument based on the dividing of Jesus' tunic by Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:35), was traditionally viewed as an act of division, a symbolic laceration in the community of "true" believers. This may help explain why divisive, partisan politics is such a prominent theme in Dante's encounter with Farinata. Set in a northern Italian monastery, Umberto Eco's best-selling novel The Name of the Rose (1980)--made into a film (1986) starring Sean Connery, Christian Slater, and F. Murray Abraham--provides a learned and entertaining portrayal of heretics and their persecutors only a few decades after the time of Dante's poem. Farinata Farinata cuts an imposing figure--rising out of his burning tomb "from the waist up" and seeming to "have great contempt for hell"--when Dante turns to address him in the circle of the heretics (Inf.
    [Show full text]