Keen, C; (2019) «Parlando vommi / con ser Brunetto» (Inf. XV 100-101). Dante in dialogo con Brunetto Latini. Studi Danteschi , 83 (1) pp. 1-22.

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Abstract

This study examines the dialogues between the characters Dante and Brunetto (and Virgil) in Inferno XV, in the light of the canto’s literary dialogues with other works by the same authors. The first part of the essay reviews how the canto positions itself with regard to Brunetto Latini’s Rettorica, with its divulgation of a Ciceronian-inspired rhetorical and political culture to Duecento Florence, promoting adversarial forms of dialogue. It examines how, in this canto, details of stance and costume as well as linguistic choices mark Dante’s substitution of the Ciceronian model for political dialogue with one inspired by Virgilian poetic narration, more cohesive than adversarial, and posited as a better guarantee of integrity and lasting fame. The second part of the essay develops the theme of dialogue in poetry by turning to the lyric tradition. It explores how the canto’s imagery picks up key motifs from the ‘municipal’ lyrics of the previous generation, and from Dante’s reflections on poetic discourse in De vulgari, in ways that again re-write a prevalent Florentine model for political dialogue through patterns of interaction with Brunetto’s literary oeuvre (in this case, the lyric tenzone around S’eo sono distretto).

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