Dante and the Making of a Modern AuthorCambridge University Press, 2008 M03 13 Leading scholar Albert Russell Ascoli traces the metamorphosis of Dante Alighieri – minor Florentine aristocrat, political activist and exile, amateur philosopher and theologian, and daring experimental poet – into Dante, author of the Divine Comedy and perhaps the most self-consciously 'authoritative' cultural figure in the Western canon. The text offers a comprehensive introduction to Dante's evolving, transformative relationship to medieval ideas of authorship and authority from the early Vita Nuova through the unfinished treatises, The Banquet and On Vernacular Eloquence, to the works of his maturity, Monarchy and the Divine Comedy. Ascoli reveals how Dante anticipates modern notions of personalized, creative authorship and the phenomenon of 'Renaissance self-fashioning'. Unusually, the book examines Dante's career as a whole offering an important point of access not only to the Dantean oeuvre, but also to the history and theory of authorship in the larger Italian and European tradition. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 12 | |
shape of cultural history in the West In the cases | 30 |
vi organization | 54 |
later career Monarchia and the Commedia The study is thus | 55 |
what is an other? | 61 |
The vowels of authority | 67 |
Both in form and in content Convivio presents itself as | 72 |
To judge by the quoted passage from 1109 the return | 211 |
eaten together with the following canzoni is satisfactorily purged of | 215 |
I intend as well to show the true meaning of | 216 |
Dividing authority | 229 |
is little remaining doubt that it assumed final form well | 230 |
Eloquentia In particular Monarchia takes to one logical extreme the | 235 |
God | 247 |
conflict and judgment | 248 |
The second macula at first seems to be very different | 90 |
Tanto e la cosa piu prossima quanto di tutte le | 94 |
This personalization of the vernacular is given a much more | 95 |
iv autore from autentin | 97 |
must prove andor construct his authority from the ground up61 | 108 |
meaning of the word that they form81 That is the | 118 |
creators is present by implication inConviviosee also Chapter 4 n | 121 |
vi la sua prima voce | 122 |
another example of Dantean autoexegesis in the mode ofselfcommentary | 123 |
Neminem ante nos | 130 |
ii vernacular and grammar | 136 |
gramatice que communis est30 and certam formam locutionem31 are | 147 |
56 The pertinence of Babel to | 151 |
At this juncture Dante makes his claim that the regulated | 154 |
The key to understanding why these remarkable shifts take place | 162 |
situation where Dante and his language no longer hold out | 169 |
Dividing Dante | 175 |
ii vita nova | 178 |
Immediately after this vision a gentile donna appears to Dante | 191 |
need for allegorical prose commentary on the canzoni in Convivio | 198 |
his own indivisible human soul in chapter 2 This is | 201 |
model for writing a series of commentaries on his own | 204 |
In regard to the first stain he goes on to | 206 |
To highlight both the innovation and the need to justify | 209 |
But where there is nothing to be coveted it is | 251 |
forsitan alicuius indignationis in me causa erit | 259 |
sphere that of the spirit Moreover while this argument temporarily | 261 |
embody the figure dear to Milton as well of the | 272 |
Palinode and history | 274 |
The structure ofthe palinode was congenial to Freccero since in | 277 |
ii palinode manque in monarchia | 282 |
The author of the Commedia | 301 |
ii when dante met virgil | 307 |
nel tempo de li dei falsi e bugiardi | 311 |
Already he was bending to embrace my teachers feet but | 319 |
who showed Langia there is the daughter of Tiresias and | 327 |
personalized is sealed from the outset in large measure by | 330 |
Marco then amplifies this point by giving an account of | 335 |
per viva forza mal convien che vada | 336 |
conformity between personal desires and institutional position pace Scott | 347 |
e quale il mandrian che fori alberga | 351 |
Whatever one decides the exact referent of the two dreamwomen | 354 |
iv a perfect poet | 357 |
v di se parlando | 369 |
introduction to the first and one of only two denizens | 373 |
The next passage then completes the stagesetting process for canto | 381 |
the destructive effects of desire on the lover who writes | 386 |
Now however it is necessary to consider one more previously | 392 |
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Common terms and phrases
accessus allegory appears argues argument Aristotle Ascoli auctor auctoritas autentin authorship Averroes avieo Babel Bara´nski Barolini Beatrice Biblical Boethius canto canzoni Chapter Cino da Pistoia claim classical Commedia commentary concept contingent Convivio Corti criticism culture d’amore Dante Dante’s Dantean defined definition discourse discussion divine Durling and Martinez earlier Emperor Empire especially etpassim exile explicitly figure Freccero Frederick God’s gramatica Guido Cavalcanti historical historicizing Imbach impersonal individual Italian language Latin Mazzotta medieval Mengaldo Minnis modern Moevs Monarchia namely Nardi nobility Occitan oeuvre ofthe Ovid palinode passage Passerin per`o person perspective philosophical pi`u Picone poem poet poeta poetic poetry political prose prosimetrum Purg Purgatorio question quod rational reader reading reference relation relationship rhetorical role sense Shapiro Singleton specifically Stazio Stillinger 1992 temporal textual theological traditional transcendent treatise vernacular Virgil Virgilio Vita Nova vulgare illustre Vulgari Eloquentia words writing
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Page 12 - 1 mio autore; tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore.