University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 The Root Of All Evil: Civic Genealogy From Brunetto To Dante Chelsea A. Pomponio University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Pomponio, Chelsea A., "The Root Of All Evil: Civic Genealogy From Brunetto To Dante" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2534. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2534 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2534 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Root Of All Evil: Civic Genealogy From Brunetto To Dante Abstract ABSTRACT THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: CIVIC GENEALOGY FROM BRUNETTO TO DANTE Chelsea A. Pomponio Kevin Brownlee From the thirteenth century well into the Renaissance, the legend of Florence’s origins, which cast Fiesole as the antithesis of Florentine values, was continuously rewritten to reflect the changing nature of Tuscan society. Modern criticism has tended to dismiss the legend of Florence as a purely literary conceit that bore little relation to contemporary issues. Tracing the origins of the legend in the chronicles of the Duecento to its variants in the works of Brunetto Latini and Dante Alighieri, I contend that the legend was instead a highly adaptive mode of legitimation that proved crucial in the negotiation of medieval Florentine identity. My research reveals that the legend could be continually rewritten to serve the interests of collective and individual authorities. Versions of the legend were crafted to support both republican Guelfs and imperial Ghibellines; to curry favor with the Angevin rulers of Florence and to advance an ethnocentric policy against immigrants; to support the feudal system of privilege and to condemn elite misrule; to denounce the mercantile value of profit and ot praise economic freedom.