Dante's Lyric Poetry: Poems of Youth and of the 'Vita Nuova'
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Negli occhi porta and, 191, 192
No me poriano and, 101, 102
O voi che per la via and, 158
Per una ghirlandetta and, 128–9
in Purgatorio, 177
and singularity of madonna, 247
in Sonar bracchetti, 105
in Tanto gentile, 4, 226, 227–8
and unsublimated sexuality, 38
Vede perfettamente and, 233
in Vita Nuova, 4, 58
Volgete gli occhi and, 111
Storey, H. Wayne, 100
stringere, 56
Strocchia, Sharon, Death and Ritual in Renaissance Florence, 200n94
Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare, 226–31
Contini on, 229
dating of, 232
De Robertis and, 25, 226, 229
Di donne io vidi compared to, 237
gentile in, 227
lady in, 129, 183, 227–9, 233, 297
madonna in, 237
manifestation in, 227, 228
miracolo in, 191
mirare in, 227–8
mostrare in, 228, 229
Negli occhi porta compared to, 191, 192, 193, 227–8
Oltra la spera compared to, 297–8
parere in, 193, 226, 229
placement of, 232
praise in, 226, 232
sacramental art in, 227
sigh as final imperative in, 230–1
sospirare in, 229, 288
stil novo and, 4, 226, 227–8
sweetness in the heart in, 298
theatricality of, 226–7, 230
Vede perfettamente compared to, 232, 233
versions of, 226
in Vita Nuova, 25, 226, 232
Tanturli, Giuliano, 11n16, 161n81
Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, 181
“Tenzone con Forese Donati” (Barbi), 13
“tenzone del duol d’amore,” 43–54, 60
amico in, 48–51
attribution and, 43–4
Guittonian form of, 49–50
order of, 43–4
tenzoni: with Dante da Maiano, 4, 5, 7, 14, 43–54, 60, 64
with Forese Donati, 4, 5
Terino da Castelfiorentino, 37n2, 59–60
Thebaid (Statius), 92
theology / theologization: of courtly tradition, 206; in Donna pietosa, 206
in Donne ch’avete, 178, 181, 215
in Era venuta, 262–3
in Guinizzelli’s Al cor gentil rimpaira sempre amore, 166
in Lo doloroso amor vs. Donne ch’avete, 164
visionary and, 206.
See also biblical elements
Thomas Aquinas, 115–16n52, 157
time: in Commedia, 84
and desire, 41
as terza rima in La dispietata mente, 83
Tolomei, Meuccio, of Siena, 94
Tre donne intorno al cor mi son venute: amico in, 50, 114n48
in canzoni distese, 12
consolare in, 249n117
exile in, 4, 65
leggiadria in, 4
self-consolation in, 252
shame in, 287
trembling: Cavalcantianism and, 135, 145
in Ciò che m’incontra, 151–2
in E’ m’incresce di me, 173–4
madonna and, 153–4
mystical / visionary material / experience and, 152
in Spesse fiate, 153–4
in Tutti li miei penser, 143, 145
Tuiz mei cossir son d’amor et de chan (Vidal), 143
Tutti li miei penser parlan d’Amore, 143–5
Cavalcantianism of, 144–5
conflicting thoughts in, 143, 145
madonna and pity in, 146
in Vita Nuova, 144
umile, 128–9
Un dì si venne a me Malinconia, 219–21
Cavalcando l’altr’ier compared to, 220–1
Contini on, 219
Donna pietosa compared to, 219
exclusion from Vita Nuova, 219
lady not identified in, 219
love in, 220, 222
melancholy in, 219–21
mourning in, 220; “nostra donna” in, 220
personification of emotions in, 219
Una giovane donna di Tolosa (Cavalcanti), 136
Undivine Comedy, The (Barolini), 65n22, 115n52, 150n75, 209n96, 228n104, 292n143, 294n145
valore, 45, 111, 140, 214n99
vanità, 278–9, 286
Vanna. See Giovanna / Vanna vano, 286
Vede perfettamente ogne salute, 232–5
Barbi-Maggini on, 233–4
companion ladies to madonna in, 232–4
Contini on, 232, 233
dating of, 232
De Robertis and, 25, 232
female brigata in, 7, 234
Foster-Boyde on, 233; “perfettamente” in, 232–3
placement of, 232
as praise sonnet, 232
social interactions among women in, 233–4; “sospira” in, 233
sospirare in, 229
Tanto gentile compared to, 232, 233
in Vita Nuova, 25, 232
vedere: in Di donne io vidi, 237
and vision literature, 209
Vedeste, al mio parere, onne valore (Cavalcanti), 46, 59, 214n99
Vedete, donne, bella creatura (Cino da Pistoia), 75
Veggio negli occhi de la donna mia (Cavalcanti), 139, 241
Venite a ’ntender li sospiri miei, 254–5
dating of, 254
De Robertis and, 25
Li occhi dolenti compared to, 254, 255
mourning in, 254; “nostra donna” in, 254
piangere in, 254
Quantunque volte compared to, 257
in Vita Nuova, 25, 254
“verga,” 307
Vergil: Beatrice as sending to Dante, 269
in Purgatorio, 91–2, 115, 292
and Statius, 91, 118
vergognare/vergogna, 286–7.
See also shame Vidal, Peire, Tuiz mei cossir son d’amor et de chan, 143
Videro gli occhi miei quanta pietate, 265–70
Barbi-Maggini on, 266n127; Color d’amore compared to, 271
comfort / consolation in, 268–9
dating of, 266n127
De Robertis and, 25
donna gentile in, 265–9
fidelity to dead beloved and, 275
grief of lover vs. pity of others in, 278
mourning leading to resignation / acceptance in, 269
new love in, 288, 304
oscura in, 269
in Vita Nuova, 25, 265
“vidi,” 237
vincastri, 97
Violetta, 163
Barbi on, 87
in Deh, Vïoletta, 131
Fioretta and, 128
Madonna, quel signor and, 87
visionary material / experience.
See mystical / visionary material / experience
Vita Nuova: amico in, 114n48
Aristotle in, 296–7
Augustine regarding death in, 219–20
autobiographical manipulation in, 60
ballate in, 138
Barbi and, 13, 16, 22, 23
Barolini on, 22–6
Beatrice in, 59, 66, 163, 174, 182n90, 191, 207
biblical elements in, 72–3, 147, 158–9
Cavalcantianism in, 134–5, 138, 144–5, 147, 162
“colori rettorici” in, 65
contemporaneity of inspiration of poem / prose, 206–7
Contini and poems in, 14, 23
control of interpretation in, 261, 262
in Convivio, 61, 281–2
courtly values / love in, 136, 154
Dante’s choice of canzoni in, 10, 177–8
Dante’s poetic journey in, 188
De Robertis and, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24–5, 61n17
death in, 243
divergence between poem and prose in, 58, 61, 145, 147, 178, 223
excl
usions/estravaganti omitted from, 22–3, 158, 168n84, 202, 219
farnetico / farneticare in, 208
Foster-Boyde and, 14, 22, 23
Giovanna / Vanna in, 127, 223–4
Giuntina and, 17, 22, 23
Guido in, 224
Guittonianism in, 58, 63– 4
inanimate in, 75–6
lyrics in, 12–13
manifestation in, 227
miracolo / mirabile in, 191
mystical / visionary material / experience in, 48, 58, 150, 208–9, 211
name of Beatrice in, 207, 210
Occitan genres in, 138
ordering of canzoni in, 18, 21, 22, 161
and poems written for occasions described in prose, 24, 61, 210–11
poetic journey and, 144
poetry set within prose in, 18, 24
praise in, 129
praise vs. lamentation in, 75
prose as illuminating aspects of poetry, 144
prose vs. lyrics in, 18
as prosimetrum, 206
reclassification by Dante of stages of earlier poetic life in, 64
reflexiveness in, 58–9, 265
shame in, 286–7
social / quotidian life in, 195, 209
sonetti rinterzati in, 63, 64
stil novo in, 4, 58
temporality of poem vs. prose composition, 24–5, 61, 224
variant redactions of lyrics in, 24–5.
See also related subheadings under individual incipits
Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete, 251n119
in canzoni distese, 11, 21
conflict in, 307
in Convivio, 19, 20, 21, 26, 178
and Gentil pensero, 26, 280
other-world journey in, 295n147
in Paradiso, 20, 21
pensero in, 295n147
in Purgatorio, 178
Voi che per li occhi (Cavalcanti), 139
Voi che portate la sembianza umile, 194–7
anthropology and, 7n5
Beatrice’s father’s death in, 194–5
botta e risposta structure with Se’ tu colui, 198, 203
boundary crossing in, 208; “colore” in, 185
Deh pellegrini compared to, 290–1
funeral rites / social activities in, 220
gender behaviour differences in, 109
gender separation in, 204
mourning in, 7, 194–7, 201, 209–10, 234, 243
“nostra donna” in, 220
Onde venite compared to, 201–2
quotidian life in, 195
social norms in, 119, 196, 204
in Vita Nuova, 194, 195, 197
Voi donne compared to, 204
women and community suffering in, 195–6, 201, 234
Voi che savete ragionar d’amore, 251n119
Voi donne, che pietoso atto mostrate, 203–5
chronology of, 203–4
funeral rites / social activities associated with death in, 220
lover in space of grieving beloved in, 203
madonna in, 204–5
as mourning sonnet, 201, 243; “nostra donna” in, 220
Onde venite compared to, 203
question / response sequence in, 203
representation in, 204–5
Se’ tu colui compared to, 204
Voi che portate compared to, 204
volge, 68
Volgete gli occhi a veder chi mi tira, 110–12
brigata in, 7, 110, 124, 234, 256
Cavalcantianism of, 110, 111, 127
friendship in, 6, 108, 113
friendship vs. love in, 108, 110–11
lady painted in lover’s heart in, 111
madonna in, 108, 111
Sicilian conventions and, 110, 111
Sonar bracchetti compared to, 110
weeping: and gender boundary crossing, 199
in Li occhi dolenti, 254
and moral danger of forgetfulness, 278
pilgrims and, 290, 292
in Venite a ’ntender, 254.
See also mourning
will: Aristotle and, 55
intellect and, 8–9, 185; love vs., 55
reason and, 303
volatility of, 134, 138, 271, 275, 284
1 See Teodolinda Barolini, “Aristotle’s Mezzo, Courtly Misura, and Dante’s Canzone Le dolci rime: Humanism, Ethics, and Social Anxiety,” in Dante and the Greeks, ed. Jan M. Ziolkowski (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2014), pp. 163–79.
2 Dante’s Lyric Poetry, ed. Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967), 2:323 (hereafter cited as Foster-Boyde).
3 On Doglia mi reca, see Barolini, “Guittone’s Ora parrà, Dante’s Doglia mi reca, and the Commedia’s Anatomy of Desire,” 1997, now in Barolini, Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), pp. 47–69; and Barolini, “Sotto benda: Gender in the Lyrics of Dante and Guittone d’Arezzo,” in Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture, pp. 333–59.
4 See Barolini, “Sociology of the Brigata: Gendered Groups in Dante, Forese, Folgore, Boccaccio – From Guido, i’ vorrei to Griselda,” Italian Studies 67, no. 1 (2012): 4–22.
5 As I noted in Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture, p. 17, the anthropological material that can be extrapolated even from two unheralded sonnets like Voi che portrate and Se’ tu colui suggests the massive work of historical contextualization that awaits us. See too my “‘Only Historicize’: History, Material Culture (Food, Clothes, Books), and the Future of Dante Studies,” Dante Studies 127 (2009): 37–54.
6 For the tower in No me poriano see H. Wayne Storey, Transcription and Visual Poetics in the Early Italian Lyric (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 143–55; and for the towers as signs of internal factions see Edward Coleman, “Cities and Communes,” in Italy in the Central Middle Ages, ed. David Abulafia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 48.
7 On the co-penetration of codes – the theologizing of courtoisie and “courtoisification” of theology – see Teodolinda Barolini, “Toward a Dantean Theology of Eros: From Dante’s Lyrics to the Paradiso,” in Discourse Boundary Creation, ed. Peter Carravetta (New York: Bordighera, 2013), pp. 1–18.
8 Rime, ed. Michele Barbi, in Le opere di Dante, critical text by Società Dantesca Italiana (Florence: Bemporad, 1921).
9 Rime della “Vita Nuova” e della giovinezza, ed. Michele Barbi and Francesco Maggini (Florence: Le Monnier, 1956) (hereafter cited as Barbi-Maggini); Rime della maturità e dell’esilio, ed. Michele Barbi and Vincenzo Pernicone (Florence: Le Monnier, 1969) (hereafter cited as Barbi-Pernicone).
10 Rime, ed. Gianfranco Contini (Turin: Einaudi, 1946 [rpt. 1965]) (hereafter cited as Contini). For the history of the edition, see “Postilla del curatore,” p. xxv.
11 Dante’s Lyric Poetry; see note 2.
12 Dante Alighieri: Rime, in Le Opere di Dante Alighieri, Edizione Nazionale of the Società Dantesca Italiana, ed. Domenico De Robertis (Florence: Le Lettere, 2002), 5 vols. (hereafter cited as DR, critical ed.). The numbering of the pages of the five volumes (more precisely, five tomi constituting three volumi) is not consecutive from one to the other. A first unit is composed by the two tomes that comprise volume 1, I documenti; a second unit is composed by the two tomes that comprise volume 2, Introduzione; the third and final unit is composed of a single tome that corresponds to volume 3, Testi. Three years later, Rime was issued, De Robertis’ edition with commentary (Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2005) (hereafter cited as DR, comm. ed.).
13 “The tradition is represented by over five hundred manuscripts” (De Robertis, I documenti, tome 1, xviii).
14 For an analysis of these mechanisms of compensation, see Barolini, “Editing Dante’s Rime and Italian Cultural History,” Lettere Italiane 56 (2004): 509–42; rpt. in Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture, pp. 245–78.
15 In my “Editing Dante’s Rime” I show how critics implicitly fault Dante’s unc
ollected lyrics for being “dispersed,” considering them in some way deficient because of exclusion from an “organic” and “unified” macrotext: the very label devised for these poems by philologists – “estravaganti,” which literally means “wandering outside ones” – declares their insufficiency. At the same time De Robertis also exaggerates their dispersedness, refusing to implement a chronological order because he wanted to protect them from any contamination with the Petrarchan model of unified canzoniere.
16 Giuliano Tanturli proposes that the anthology of fifteen canzoni existed before Boccaccio in “L’edizione critica delle Rime e il libro delle canzoni di Dante,” Studi Danteschi 68 (2003): 250–66. Tanturli recognizes, however, that his hypothesis is based exclusively on philological reconstruction and not on material evidence – that is, we do not actually possess a codex earlier than Boccaccio that contains the sequence of canzoni distese. It is dismaying, given the lack of material evidence, that in following Tanturli others have gone so far as to claim that the author of the canzoni distese is Dante himself. On the logical fallacies of this line of argument, see my “From Boccaccio’s canzoni distese to Dante’s libro delle canzoni: Convivio, Rime, and the Practice of Critical Philology,” forthcoming.
17 See Sonetti e canzoni di diversi antichi autori toscani, introduced and edited by Domenico De Robertis (Florence: Le Lettere, 1977), 2 vols. (hereafter cited as Giuntina). The first printed edition of any of Dante’s lyrics is the first edition of the Convivio: Convivio di Dante Alighieri fiorentino (Florence: Bonaccorsi, 1490).
18 De Robertis, Rime, Introduzione, 2:1141.
19 Book 2 is less cohesive: its thirty compositions mainly consist of sonnets and ballate no longer attributed to Dante (for example, Fresca rosa novella), with only two canzoni, one of which has been removed from Dante’s oeuvre, while the other is the trilingual descort that De Robertis has recently restored to Dante’s canon. In book 11 of the Giuntina the poetic exchange between Dante Alighieri and Dante da Maiano makes its first appearance in history, under the heading “Sonetti dei sopradetti autori mandati l’uno a l’altro [Sonnets by the above-mentioned authors sent to each other].”
20 For the question of attribution, see the introductory essay to the “tenzone del duol d’amore” (which includes, by Dante Alighieri, the sonnets Qual che voi siate, amico, vostro manto and Non canoscendo, amico, vostro nomo).
21 It seems possible that the “secret hope” expressed by the master has nourished the impetuosity with which his disciples have turned the abstract hypothesis, without material evidence, that the canzoni distese existed before Boccaccio into the claim that the author of the canzoni distese is Dante himself. See note 16 above.