1. Beatrice and Donna Gentile: two rival women? 2. Sacred love songs. 3. An intellectual miracle. 4. The “nove rime”. 5. Florence, 1287-1289. 6. Philosophy and Solomonic wisdom. 7. The exile of Job. 7.1. Tre donne. 7.2. Epistola IV. 7.3. The “rime petrose”. 7.4. Meditations on Hell. 7.5. The modern prophet.

This essay is an extended abstract of La parodia del sacro: alle origini delle “nove rime” di Dante (1 January 2025).

Parody was not unknown to Dante before he began writing the Commedia. The poet had already been on a path of “complete parodic appropriation of the sacred” for some time. Parody is not burlesque or caricatural, it is imitatio Scripturae: “In Dante, however, the operation is not ironic […] it aims at anything but an allusive artistic effect. The biblical colouring gives the text a mark of revealed truth […] Dante’s parody is never innocent: ultimately, the ‘cosa venuta / da cielo in terra a miracol mostrare’ deserves a polysemic exegetical space, the same as that of the sacred texts. From metaphor, we slide towards ontology” ^[1].
Where did Dante study the Bible? He was self-taught, self-sufficient, asserted a master of philology such as Michele Barbi against those who claimed external influences, in particular Olivi and the Franciscan Spirituals. The problem is that he not only pored over the Scriptures, he read and used exegesis extensively, in works that he could only find in libraries. Dante’s autobiography in the Convivio deals exclusively with his encounter with philosophy, initially learned by reading Boethius and Cicero, then deepened in the “scuole delli religiosi”. Dante also speaks of his training in the “arte di grammatica” (Cv II, xii, 4.7); but he is silent on his learning of theology, the divine science based on the exegesis of Scripture, a subject that would make him poeta theologus par excellence among his contemporaries. Once again, therefore, we must refer to the texts and compare them, turning first to the Vita Nova, the celebration of Beatrice, the prosimetrum containing Dante’s “nove rime”.

1. Beatrice and Donna Gentile: two rival women?

In the twelfth chapter of the second treatise of the Convivio (II, xii, 2-7) Dante writes that after Beatrice’s death (8 June 1290) – “come per me fu perduto lo primo diletto della mia anima” – overcome by despair – “io rimasi di tanta tristizia punto, che conforto non mi valea alcuno” – he consoled himself by reading, after some time, Boethius and Cicero’s Laelius de amicitia. Reading led him to consider that philosophy, which was the woman of these authors, of these sciences and of these books, was a supreme thing. And he imagined her as a gentle woman. Thus he began “ad andare là dov’ella si dimostrava veracemente, cioè nelle scuole delli religiosi e alle disputazioni delli filosofanti”. In the second chapter of the same treatise (II, ii, 1-2), Dante asserts that two revolutions of Venus had passed since Beatrice’s death, that is, 1168 days (3 years and 72 days), “quando quella gentile donna [di] cui feci menzione nella fine della Vita Nova, parve primamente, acompagnata d’Amore, alli occhi miei e prese luogo alcuno nella mia mente”. The encounter with Philosophy, the Donna Gentile (or Pietosa), would therefore have taken place in the summer of 1293 (calculations lead to 21 August of that year); this was followed by attendance at the “scuole delli religiosi”, which in Florence were the Dominican school at Santa Maria Novella and the Franciscan school at Santa Croce.
Dante continues (II, ii, 3-5) by stating that his love for Philosophy took time to mature: “Ma però che non subitamente nasce amore e fassi grande e viene perfetto, ma vuole tempo alcuno e nutrimento di pensieri, massimamente là dove sono pensieri contrari che lo ’mpediscano, convenne, prima che questo nuovo amore fosse perfetto, molta battaglia [essere] intra lo pensiero del suo nutrimento e quello che li era contrario, lo quale per quella gloriosa Beatrice tenea ancora la rocca della mia mente”. The poet refers to his “battaglia de’ pensieri”, for the Donna Gentile or for Beatrice, described in paragraphs 24 [xxxv] – 27 [xxxviii] of the Vita Nova, at the end of which the “Beatrice beata” prevails over the “desiderio malvagio e vana tentatione” that the Donna Gentile represents (paragraphs 28 [xxxix] – 31 [xlii]). In the Convivio, however, it is Philosophy that wins, the “nuovo pensiero, che era virtuosissimo sì come vertù celestiale”; and the fruit of victory is the canzone Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete, composed (II, xii, 7) about thirty months after he began attend in the schools of the religious, i.e. in the early months of 1296. In the period between his encounter with Philosophy (August 1293) and its victory (February? 1296; a possible earlier date of 1294 is suggested by his meeting in Florence with Carlo Martello in March of that year, recalled by the king himself, quoting the canzone, in Par. VIII, 37) the Vita Nova was written, or at least the parts concerning the Donna Gentile.

2. Sacred love songs

More than one scholar has emphasised the influence of the Song of Songs on the Vita Nova, for example Lino Pertile: “the tradition of the Song has a position of prime importance, which sheds new light on the paradoxical continuity of the poet’s thought from the sweetness of the stilnovo to the harshness of his political and religious commitment” ^[2]. But which interpretation of that tradition did Dante have in mind, among the many possible ones? The Sermones of St. Bernard, the Postille of Remigio de’ Girolami, the Dominican who taught at Santa Maria Novella, or the Expositio of Olivi? Let us compare the youthful “libello” with the latter commentary ^[3].
From the outset, the Vita Nova is replete with semantic elements that bring Solomonic themes to the “libello”. The love of the soul, bride of God, is transformed into the dominion of Love (Beatrice) over the soul of the poet married to her; the metamorphosis creeps into the new flowers that appear in the mind of the bride as well as in the Pauline quotations of the approaching day of salvation:

Si igitur quaeras libri huius materiam, ipsa est nuptialis amor Dei et animae seu universalis ecclesiae sibi desponsatae [Cn prologus] – Amore segnoreggiò la mia anima, la quale fu sì tosto a^.llui disponsata … [Vita Nova 1.8 (ii.7)].

apparent eius propagines crescere in gemmas ac deinde in flores [Cn prologus] … “Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra” [Cn 2:12] … in mente sponsae vel in ecclesia incipiunt apparere novi “flores” – apparve prima la gloriosa donna della mia mente … sì che quasi dal principio del suo anno nono apparve a me … Apparve vestita di nobilissimo colore … [Vita Nova 1.2-4 (ii.1-3)].

[Cn 2, 11] appropinquatio solis … divinae visitationis solaris adventus … sic pro tempore Christi Apostolus clamat: “Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit” (Rm 13, 12) et: “Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile, ecce nunc dies salutis” (2 Cor 6, 2) – nell’ultimo di questi dì avenne che questa mirabile donna apparve a me … mi salutòe virtuosamente tanto … E quando ella fosse alquanto propinqua al salutare … [Vita Nova 1.12 (iii.1), 5.5 (xi.2)].

These motifs, as is well known, are found in the Epistola V, addressed after 1 September 1310 to the “Signori d’Italia” so that the “incole Latiales” might rise up to meet their spouse Henry. The quotation from the second Letter to the Corinthians 6:2 is repeated: «“Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile” quo signa surgunt consolationis et pacis». These themes are not foreign to the first canto of the poem, in the ascent of the “dilettoso monte” full of springtime hopes before the loss of height due to the three beasts encountered (Inf. I, 37-45).
A number of semantic elements correspond, in Latin and in vernacular, in Olivian exegesis and in the youthful libello:

[Cn 1:1] “Quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino”, quasi dicat: praedictam tui unionem sic desidero, quia ineffabilis exuberantia suavitatum a te manat … [Cn 7:13] “Ibi dabo tibi ubera mea” id est: ibi in filiis tuis lac ipsorum in te et tui in ipsis nutritivum libere propinabo. Tunc enim animarum rectores libenter salutarem doctrinam eis infundunt, quando ipsos debite proficere et Dei gratiam et providentiam eis abunde cooperari et assistere vident. Vel: “Ibi dabo tibi ubera mea”, id est: tunc cum hoc videro totam dulcedinem cogitatuum et affectuum pectoris mei, in te prae gaudio et devotione cum gratiarum actione effundam … – e per la sua ineffabile cortesia, la quale è oggi meritata nel grande secolo, mi salutòe virtuosamente tanto, che mi parve allora vedere tutti li termini della beatitudine. L’ora che lo suo dolcissimo salutare mi giunse, era fermamente nona di quel giorno [Vita Nova 1.12-13 (iii.1-2)].

Why Olivi’s commentary in particular? The Franciscan stands out from the others by introducing an eschatological perspective, where the bride says to the groom: “I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and the juice of my pomegranate” (Song of Songs 8:2). Olivi, quoting a passage from Gregory the Great’s Moralia, refers to the tribulation of the time of the Antichrist, to the temptation that leads the elect astray, when the pious martyr is shaken to the depths of his mind by the wonderful but erroneous things he sees before his eyes. In those times, the bride will offer Christ not only the sweetness of contemplative thoughts, but also the unripe must of martyrdom. As Christ asserts in Matthew 24:21-24, there will be such tribulation that even the elect will be led astray.
The tribulation of the pious martyr of latest times, who has before him an admirable but false image of truth that shakes him, is parodied in the thoughtful and troubled poet in the “battaglia de’ pensieri”, when he has before his eyes and mind the face of a woman, the Gentile (the Philosophy), taken as never before “così mirabilmente” by “color d’amore e di pietà sembianti”, at the sight of which “era sommosso”. The woman, “quella pietosa / che si turbava de’ nostri martiri”, is in reality a subtle martyrdom, a passionate “adversario della Ragione … desiderio malvagio e vana tentatione” against which the image of Beatrice rises: “One might say”,writes Gorni, ‘that the Donna Pietosa [or Gentile], in her affable behaviour, which turns out to be a caricatured imitation of the ideal woman, is a true figure of the Antichrist, sinisterly perverse in her guilty indulgence” ^[4]. There is no copying or rewriting, but a metamorphosis of freely varied and differently appropriated semantic elements, i.e. parody. Being merciful, which in exegesis is characteristic of the martyr, is projected onto the woman-executioner. In the story of the Donna Gentile, the conflict between the two antagonists is only in Dante’s mind, as in the inner martyrdom described by Olivi, suffered by those who are shaken “ab ipso cogitationis fundo”.

martyria; tanta tribulatio; in errorem inducantur; stringit; patiuntur; mira; pensemus; mentis illa temptatio; pius martyr; ante eius oculos; miracula; ab ipso cogitationum fundo quatiatur; percussione tentationis.

molto stava pensoso; e con dolorosi pensamenti tanto; mi fa pensare; ne pensava; battaglia de’ pensieri; travagliare; tanta tribulatione; pietosamente; pietà; pietade; pietosa; d’inanzi dagli occhi; sommosso; mirabilmente; vi mira; mente; martiri; tentatione.

Nor are these semantic elements found only in the four paragraphs dedicated to the Donna Gentile and in the following paragraph with Beatrice’s return to chase her away, because they are also found, for example, in paragraph 6 [xiii]:

pensamenti; tentare; tanto … passare; ti stringe; Pietà.

Dante, who had access to Olivi’s Expositio in Canticum Canticorum in Florence between 1294 and 1296, would have found the quotation from Gregory the Great’s Moralia, with more extensive comments by the exegete, in the Lectura super Apocalispim (which arrived in Italy only in the early 14th century) when, in exile, he decided between 1307 and 1310 to make something new of it in the Commedia. In this case too, it was the martyrdom inflicted on spiritual men in modern times. It is not physical, as suffered by the ancient witnesses of the faith against the pagans, but psychological. The new martyrs suffer in doubt about the very truths of faith, faced with executioners who perform miracles and present themselves with a false image of authority and false Scriptures. It is a battle against doubt (“certamen dubitationis”) in which even the most experienced are defeated. The themes present in this passage, contained in the notabile X of the prologue to the Lectura, are varied several times, as usual in the poem, but the deceitful doubt particularly affects the encounter with Francesca and Paolo in the second circle of hell, where the lustful are punished. Francesca is singularly close to Donna Gentile. Part of her “skirt” is woven with threads from the same “cloth”, although the exegetical warp is different in the two cases, as it belongs to two different works by the same author. Two women who, in their battle against doubt, instil strong temptations of pity, which are overcome in both cases by Dante, in the first case through the intervention of Beatrice, in the second through his own mental strength. A battle against “dubbiosi disiri” lost for eternity by Francesca and Paolo.

martiria; certamen dubitationis; propulsabuntur, propulsabit; scripturarum; stringit; perversa; patiuntur; pensemus; mentis illa temptatio; pius martir; ante eius oculos.

pietà  (Inf. V, 93); perverso  (v. 93); che pense?  (v. 111); passo (v. 114); martìri (v. 116); pio (v. 117); dubbiosi (v. 120); strinse (v. 128); occhi; sospinse  (v. 130); scrisse  (v. 137); mente  (Inf. VI, 1); pietà  (v. 2).

Paragraphs 24-28 [xxxv-xxxix] of the Vita Nova, with the story of the Donna Gentile compared to the woman-Philosophy of the Convivio, are the crux of the “thorny issue” concerning the possible double drafting of the work, that is, whether, as Gorni writes, “the changes made to the libello are more extensive and radical than is thought, precisely in order to introduce, under various pretexts, the new woman into a book that celebrates another” ^[5]. Was there an “Ur-Vita Nova” entirely dedicated to Beatrice without the paragraphs relating to Donna Gentile, i.e. to Philosophy, for the time being banished from her first woman, the blessed Beatrice, but who would later triumph in the Convivio? Does the semantic and thematic intimacy recorded between Francesca in the Commedia and the Donna Gentile in the “libello” suggest that the final draft of the Vita Nova was written later? It would seem not, given that the correspondences with Olivian’s commentary on the Song of Songs concern the entire “libello” and not only the paragraphs dedicated to the Donna Gentile. This is not a case of generic amorous language from the mystical tradition, which could therefore be attributed to this or that author, but rather a systematic parodic transposition of semantic elements and syntactic constructions from a text, in accordance with the work of poets who “coll’arte musaica le loro parole hanno legate”, as stated in Convivio, IV, vi 4-5, a technique that also aims dig up the vernacular from Latin, as will be the case in the drafting of the Commedia.
The “compassiva memoria sanguinis Christi et electorum suorum” (Cn 7:5), the memory of the sacrifice of the Son of God, is a desire for martyrdom that brings a purple colour that adorns the royal throne or the bride’s hair (Cn 3:10; 7:5): corresponds to one of the colours of Beatrice, who, reappearing “con quelle vestimenta sanguigne colle quali apparve prima agli occhi miei”, makes one repent of the vile desire of the Donna Gentile and rekindles the sighs that make the eyes long to weep, so that “dintorno a.lloro si facea uno colore purpureo, lo quale suole apparire per alcuno martirio che altri riceva” (Vita Nova 28 [xxxix].1-4). The desire for martyrdom is first and foremost a desire for memory: “però che maggiore desiderio era lo mio ancora di ricordarmi della gentilissima donna mia, che di vedere costei” (27 [xxxviii].6).
It is not possible to dwell on the countless examples offered by the textual synopsis; reference should therefore be made to where they have been presented, analysed and commented on. However, we would like to emphasise, with a few examples, that the technique mentioned above does not only concern the prose of the Vita Nova, but also many of the rhymes included in it, some of which were composed before Beatrice’s death (1290).
In Olivi’s commentary on the Song of Songs, the path of contemplation is outlined. In Cn 5:6, as an example of the fact that in it, sometimes, God suddenly withdraws before his visit is complete, Olivi cites the encounter of Christ “in specie peregrini” with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). As soon as he is recognised, Christ “subito avolavit ab eis”. It is difficult not to see these motifs in Love found “in mezzo della via / in abito leggier di peregrino”, who then “disparve, e non m’accorsi come”, described in the sonnet Cavalcando l’altrier per un camino (Vita Nova 4 [ix]). In the related prose, it is said that Love “mi parea sbigottito e guardava la terra, salvo che talora li suoi occhi mi parea che si volgessero ad un fiume bello e corrente e chiarissimo, lo qual sen gia lungo questo camino là ov’io era” (4 [ix].4). The syntagm occhi / fiume is found in Cn 5:12, where the bride says in praise of her groom: “Oculi eius sicut columbae super rivos aquarum quae lacte sunt lotae et resident iuxta fluenta plenissima”: the river, abyssal and overflowing with water, is the immense divine wisdom; the doves, white and clear as milk, signify the sincerity and splendour of the divine eyes contemplating the streams, that is, the sapiential derivations in his creatures. It will be precisely a “rivo chiaro molto” (10.12 [xix 1]) near which the canzone Donne ch’avete intellecto d’amore will be conceived, the beginning of the “nove rime”, as recognised by Bonagiunta Orbicciani da Lucca in the sixth terrace of the mountain where the gluttonous are purged (Purg. XXIV, 49-51).
Enriching the spectrum of possible thematic variations is Olivian’s commentary on Luke 24:13-35, a passage referred to in the exegesis of Cantico 5:6; we thus discover that the material was not only “cloth” for the “skirt” of the sonnet Cavalcando with its accompanying prose, but also for the sonnet Deh, peregrini, che pensosi andate (Vita Nova 29 [xl].9-10), where the prerogatives of Love-Christ the pilgrim, present in the first case, are broken down and transferred to several subjects in the second, later composition ^[6].
Furthermore, the appearance of the angel to Zachariah, described in the Lectura super Lucam as a divine force whose virtue terrifies, makes one tremble and fall silent, is found in the appearance of the “angiola giovanissima” who, by virtue, makes Dante’s heart tremble almost at the end of his ninth year. A theme that is very common in the Stilnovisti is made sacred: the effect of the deadly and fierce or calm, gentle and sweet eyes of the woman of the health or the angelic figure, with the contrast between the fear that makes the spirit tremble and life fail and the subsequent comfort, between martyrdom and pity. Trembling and falling silent – “ch’ogne lingua deven tremando muta” – are effects of the appearance of Beatrice, the woman of the health, in Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare (Vita Nova 17 [xxvi].5).
The tree of contemplation, with its spreading branches, eventually bears fruit. In the wonderful vision – the “excessus mentis” – the bridegroom is seen in his full maturity. Of him it was said to his mother: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42):

Amor igitur igneus et superfervidus est radix et stipes solidus et procerus atque ramosus contemplativi ascensus. Admirabilium vero illuminationum et visionum suspensio est eius effloritio radiosa dans ramis expansis et toti arbori mirabile venustatem et quasi regalem gloriam et coronam. Eius vero gaudiosa et superdulcis iubilatio et inebriatio est eius saporissimus et suavissimus ac deliciosissimus fructus. Et hic est sponsus in sua expressa et plena forma et maturitate inventus. Hic est enim de quo matri dictum est: “Et benedictus fructus ventris tui” ^[7].

The juxtaposition of “benedictus” and “mirabilis visio”, as in Olivian exegesis of the Song of Songs, comes at the end of the Vita Nova, when Dante has “una mirabile visione, nella quale io vidi cose che mi fecero proporre di non dire più di questa benedecta infino a tanto che io potessi più degnamente tractare di lei”. The poet undertakes to make his words fully mature: “E di venire a.cciò io studio quanto posso, sì com’ella sae, veracemente”, through a more “temperata e virile” treatment, which does not depart from the “libello” but rather benefits that work “fervida e passionata … all’entrata de la mia gioventute …” (Convivio I, i, 16-17).

3. An intellectual miracle

In the Vita Nova, a personal and civic event is inserted into a universal story, that of Christ (the bridegroom) and his imitation by Beatrice and Dante, through his woman. Moving from the particular to the universal, and vice versa, is characteristic of the prophetic spirit, as will happen in the Commedia: the desolation of Florence at the death of Beatrice is worthy of being communicated to the princes of the earth (Vita Nova (19.8 [xxx 1]), just as one day the arrival of the “alto Arrigo” would be foretold to the lords of Italy. The result is neither a devotional book nor a treatise on contemplation – a new Benjamin emulating Richard of Saint Victor – but a real story that has become a sacred story of collective salvation. The law of Christ, of which Olivi speaks in explaining Matthew 11:4-6, is the law of Beatrice, not just any ‘saint’, but the true imitator of the Redeemer, who performs intellectual miracles, who has come into such favour with the people that she works wonders among them, who wounds the eyes of those who look at her, makes those who go with her gentle, is a mortal thing adorned and pure, freezes the hearts of the wicked, restores the heart of everyone, and gives rise in the heart of every humble thought to those who hear her speak.

In hac etiam responsione comprehenditur universalis seu ordinaria Christi doctrina, quia in ea ostenditur quod Christi persona seu Christi doctrina et lex est lex veritatis cecos illuminantis, et equitatis tortos gressus rectificantis, et puritatis carnis immunditias abstergentis, et imperiositatis facientis sibi obedire duros et surdos, et vite seu vivacitatis vivificantis mortuos, et summe paupertatis seu libertatis et humilitatis pauperes singulariter honorantis, est etiam lex summe felicitatis miseros beatificantis. Sicut autem opera miraculorum exteriora sensibus hominum clamant ipsum esse Christum redemptorem hominum, sic septem predicta opera intellectualiter clamant ipsum esse Deum salvatorem animarum ^[8].

The first verse of the canzone that marks the beginning of the “nove rime” – Donne ch’avete intellecto d’amore – is very close in spirit to Christ’s invitation to understand with the intelligence of the heart and to feel the sweetness of Love within: «“qui habet aures audiendi”, id est qui habet aures cordis ad intelligendum … “audiat” (Matthew, 11:15)».

4. The “nove rime”

The semantics and concepts of Olivian exegesis on the Solomon’s book, i.e. signs and meanings, run through Donne ch’avete intellecto d’amore, the canzone-manifesto of the “nove rime” and the related prose (Vita Nova 10 [xvii-xix]). In the Song of Songs, the bride praises her groom, and vice versa, as in a love song:

Hic describitur et laudatur sponsus a sponsa et sicut in amativis cantionibus fieri solet [Cn 5:10] … dum (sponsus) praedicta praeconia dicit vel finit [Cn 5:17] – E però propuosi di prendere per matera del mio parlare sempre mai quello che fosse loda di questa gentilissima … cominciai una canzone …│i’ vo’ con voi della mia donna dire, / non perch’io creda sua laude finire”.

The name of Christ the bridegroom is “desired” – “desideratus cunctis gentibus”, as the prophet Haggai writes (Hag 2:8, at Cn 5:16). “Madonna è disïata in sommo cielo” (a variant is “la rota che tu sempiterni / desiderato” in Par. I, 76-77); “Questa gentilissima donna, di cui ragionato è nelle precedenti parole, venne in tanta gratia delle genti”.

The bridegroom praises the bride because she is without mortal sin:

… eam commendat … quomodo dicit … loquitur de sola macula mortali (Cn 4:7) – «Dice di lei Amor: “Cosa mortale / come esser può …”.

The bride praises the groom’s body parts, starting with the colour, which is perfectly balanced between the purity of white and the vivid red flame of charity (white and red are Beatrice’s colours):

… ex colore … colorum proportionata permixtio seu connexio … plenus candore puritatis et sapientialis claritatis et flammeo rubore vividae caritatis” (Cn 5:10) – sì pura … Color di perle à quasi … non for misura … Degli occhi suoi … escono spirti d’amore inflammati.

The bride is an example for those who are inferior to her and see her holy life:

… utilitas exempli quam inferiores ex sola visione suae sanctitatis et vitae accipient” (Cn 6:12) – per exemplo di lei …

The groom calls the bride by various names, the first of which is taken from friendship or from love (Cn 2:10). The parody works in the “ymaginatione d’Amore”, when Dante sees Cavalcanti’s woman coming, followed by his own:

… sponsus multis nominibus amorosis vocat sponsam … Primum tamen nomen proprie sumitur ab amicitia vel amore –  … una gentil donna, la quale era di famosa bieltade e fue già molto donna di questo mio primo amico … Quella prima è nominata Primavera … quella Beatrice chiamerebbe Amore│Amor mi disse: “Quell’è Primavera, / e quell’à nome Amor, sì mi somiglia” (Vita Nova 15 [xxiv]).

The two sonnets Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare and Vede perfectamente ogne salute, like the prose exposition, vary the themes of the Song of Songs (Vita Nova 17 [xxvi]). The motifs belonging to the bride and groom are attributed differently and interchanged.
The nobility, that is, the gentleness, of the bride and groom, typical of an Eastern land and suited to procreating noble offspring (Cn 1:2a; 7:1b): in Beatrice’s death, the departure of “anima sua nobilissima” is calculated not only “secondo l’usanza nostra”, but also “secondo l’usanza d’Arabia … e secondo l’usanza di Siria” (19.4 [xxix 1]).
The redundancy, in the groom, of divine perfections and every virtue (Cn 1:2a): virtuosamente, virtute, perfectamente ogne.
The beautiful and dignified gait of the bride, in the admirable progress of her actions (Cn 7:1b): Ella si va, mirabili cose da.llei procedevano, sua beltate, ne procede, negli acti.
Not only is the bridegroom sweet, but also the memory of his name (Cn 1:2b): non fa sola sé … la si può recare a mente, ricordandosi di lei.
The sweetness of the bridegroom spreads chorally over the bride’s family (to the “sponsae” and the “adulescentulae”, that is, over those who are perfect and those who are beginning their contemplative journey; Cn 1:2c): quelle che vanno con lei.
The groom shows his pleasure in the eyes of the bride (Cn 6:4a): mostrasi sì piacente … che dà per gli occhi …; he invites her not to look at him beyond her strength: e gli occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare, because she would find it impossible to understand him: che ’ntender no.lla può chi no.lla prova.
From the lips of the bride, kind and almost ready to receive the sweet divine kisses, comes an eloquent expression of spiritual love (Cn 4:3.11):

Per “labia” vero instar ‘vittae coccinae’ rubentia significantur virtutes Deo et hominibus affabiles et benignae et quasi ad dulcia Dei et proximi oscula aptae. … ut scilicet totum quod loquuntur, sit spiritualis amor et ardor et dulcor, iuxta quod Christus Iohannis sexto dicit: “Verba quae loquor vobis, spiritus et vita sunt” (Io 6, 64). – benignamente d’umiltà vestuta … che dà per gli occhi una dolcezza al core … e par che della sua labbia si mova / un spirito soave pien d’amore, / che va dicendo all’anima: Sospira.

5. Florence, 1287-1289

The extensive use of Olivian biblical exegesis, which obviously does not exclude other readings and suggestions from different sources, suggests that the Vita Nova was begun before he started attending the “scuole delli religiosi” in August 1293, including some poetic compositions prior to Beatrice’s death (1290), those that gave rise to the “nove rime”. The growing fervour for philosophy, ignited by the teachings in the Florentine Studia, in its early, uncertain stages, would introduce another character, the Donna Gentile, in contrast to Beatrice. The latter came to dispel an overly passionate state, and the supreme contemplative act was realised in the sonnet Oltre la spera che più larga gira, followed by the “mirabile visione” that concludes the “libello” but opens up the future of Beatrice’s figure – “dire di lei quello che mai non fue detto d’alcuna” -, treating her “più degnamente”, with a more noble disposition of mind, language and literary genre. The promise would be kept, the occasional cause determined by the encounter with another vision, this time prophetic and not only mystical, revealed to John the Evangelist and commented on in an eschatological sense for the modern spiritual reader by Peter of John Olivi.
We must therefore go back to Florence in the years 1287-1289, before Beatrice’s death. In the “città partita”, by “tanta discordia assalita”, was constantly changing its constitution, tossing and turning in its sickbed like a woman in pain, the tension between the Magnati and the Popolani led to a democratic expansion of the municipal councils, which were also opened to representatives of the middle arts. Work had been going on for three years on the new circle of walls. Preparations were underway for the war against Arezzo, which would end two years later with the victory at Campaldino. The bishop was Andrea de’ Mozzi, the sodomite “tigna” mentioned by Brunetto Latini in Inferno. The city’s most authoritative philosopher, Remigio de’ Girolami, a disciple of Thomas Aquinas in Paris, has been teaching in the Dominican Studium of Santa Maria Novella for more than ten years. In Santa Croce, still a modest building before its reconstruction in 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio, the provençal friar Peter of John Olivi, a reference point for the Spirituals, arrived as a lecturer in theology at the Franciscan Studium. He remained there until 1289, when he was sent to the Studium in Montpellier.
Where was Dante during Olivi’s years of teaching at Santa Croce? By 1287, he was probably in Bologna: the oldest transcription of one of the poet’s texts, the sonnet of the Garisenda, recorded in a notarial Memoriale, dates back to that year. On 11 June 1289, he fought as feditore at Campaldino, in the battle that saw the Florentines victorious over Arezzo; the following month, he witnessed the surrender of the castle of Caprona. Those years saw the publication of the “nove rime”, some of which were included in the Vita Nova after Beatrice’s death on 8 June 1290.
We do not know whether Dante attended Olivi’s lectures at Santa Croce. However, it cannot be overlooked that Olivi’s theology relating to modern times, coinciding with the sixth status or period of the history of the Church, characterised by free speech dictated by the inner voice of the Spirit of Christ who opens hearts, is singularly consonant with the poetics of the contemporary Dante. He himself defines it as such in the sixth terrace of Purgatory in his encounter with Bonagiunta Orbicciani da Lucca: a poetics based on the breath of Love, an internal “dittator”, and on noting and strictly following its dictates, as if they were those of an imposed and accepted evangelical rule (Purg. XXIV, 49-63). The beginning of Dante’s “nove rime” came about by virtue of an internal “dittator”: “Allora dico che la mia lingua parlò quasi come per sé stessa mossa e disse: ‘Donne ch’avete intellecto d’amore’” (Vita Nova, 10.13 [xix 2]). When Bonagiunta acknowledges that he has fallen behind, together with Notaro and Guittone d’Arezzo, with regard to the dolce stil novo because of a knot that held him back, he does not mean “the hindrance or burden of the old manner, but the absence of inspiration of a supernatural order” ^[9]. The mute Zaccaria imposed the name Giovanni on his son by divine dictate; the holy doctors who seek to explain divine things to others and encourage them to ask questions are aided, says Olivi, by sudden concepts and answers dictated from within (“subito multa ab eis quaesita vel alios docenda doctori occurrunt quae ipsi numquam praecogitarunt nec aestimant quod eis alibi occurrisset” [Cn 5:17]).
Did Dante therefore listen to Olivi’s lectures between 1287 and 1289? Authoritative scholars of the last century were certain of this, or considered it reasonable: Alois Dempf (1929) ^[10], Herbert Grundmann (1932) ^[11], Ernst Benz (1934) ^[12], Charles Till Davis (1984) ^[13]. Raoul Manselli, since 1965, argued that Olivi was not a source for Dante, but a “voice” of the Ecclesia spiritualis ^[14]. These were seriously founded hypotheses, but on the content of the Commedia, in which the poet’s consonance with the Franciscan Spirituals is evident, not on the works written in Florence before his exile. The question needs to be rephrased: not whether Dante personally listened to Olivi, which cannot be proven, but whether, during the friar’s years of teaching at Santa Croce, he was familiar with his works and systematically parodied them, as he later did in the Commedia. Furthermore, why would Dante have dressed his woman in the poem in the garb of Olivi’s exegesis if it had not already been present at the beginning of the “nove rime”? Otherwise, one would have to deduce that Dante, in the Commedia, in his encounter with Bonagiunta, gives an intimate interpretation of his own beginnings as a poet that is different from reality, which would thus be shrouded in mystification. If anything, one would have to ask where he could have read and studied Olivi’s works if not in the library of the convent of Santa Croce. Again, where he could have acquired the knowledge of the Franciscan and spiritual world shown in the Commedia (Guido da Montefeltro, Pier Pettinaio of Siena, Piccarda poor clare at Monticelli, up to the sky of the Sun, where the eulogy of St. Francis woven by Thomas Aquinas is more heartfelt than that of St. Dominic pronounced by Bonaventure), if Buti was not right in ascribing Dante to the tertiaries of the Order? ^[15]

6. Philosophy and Solomonic wisdom

Exiled from Florence in 1302, Dante wrote the Convivio from the beginning of 1304, as Barbi intended, an encyclopaedic work in which Philosophy, the gentle woman sung in Amor che nella mente mi ragiona, took the place of Beatrice, the “miracle” of the Vita Nova. Eternally ordained by God, she in turn helps the foundations of faith: she is in fact “una cosa visibilemente miraculosa, della quale li occhi delli uomini cotidianamente possono esperienza avere, ed a noi faccia possibili li altri” performed by Christ and his followers (Cv III, vii, 16-17). Unlike the Vita Nova, the new work is not a systematic parody of biblical commentaries; when it quotes Scripture, it does so independently. In outlining his philosophy, Dante certainly had Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Albertus Magnus’ commentary in mind. But Aristotle’s θει̃α τω̃ν ε̉πιστημω̃ν, as Nardi observed, is confused with the Wisdom of the books of Solomon and with the Logos of the Gospel of John ^[16]. Take Olivi’s exegesis of Proverbs 8:31, where the Franciscan imagines wisdom, which “delights in the earth”, as a delightful and playful girl who jokes and plays the zither before her father:

“ludens in orbem terrarum” […]  id est: instar ludentis mira et iocunda spectacula in uniuerso orbe formans. Vel “ludens”, id est: continuis deliciis in meis operibus iubilans et psallens et ad psallendum prouocans. Loquitur enim de se acsi de puella deliciosissima coram Patre in aula sua ludente et psallente ^[17].

This is a chapter from the Proverbs that is quoted several times in the Convivio (III, xi, 12; xiv, 6; IV, v, 2). How can we forget “la bellissima e onestissima figlia dello Imperadore dell’universo, alla quale Pittagora puose nome Filosofia”, with whom the second treatise ends (II, xv, 12)? By figlia we mean begotten, in the sense of the eternal generation of the Word; thus Olivi, in Proverbs 8:22:

Septimo se esse eternam et eternaliter in Deo conceptam et stantem et omnium creatricem predicat et tamen ex tanta sui altitudine non hominum societatem dedignari, sed eam singulariter querere et amplecti ostendit, ibi: “Dominus possedit me” ^[18].

Nor is there any lack of reference to the noble bride of the Song of Songs, beautiful and generous in form and so adorned as to despise “insipientiam et vilem vitam bestialium plebium” (Cn 1:10). A bride fit to procreate and nurture spiritual children devoted to divine praise (Cn 6:2). The “monile ornamentum”, to which her neck is likened (Cn 1:9), has a “warning” value, because women’s necklaces “monent seu arcent viros, ne inserant manus suas infra sinum earum”. Thus, before Beatrice’s death, the poet had dismissed the song-manifesto of the “nove rime”, Donne ch’avete intellecto d’amore: “Or t’amonisco, poi ch’io t’ò allevata / per figliuola d’Amor giovane e piana … E se non vòli andar sì come vana, / non restare ove sia gente villana”. Even in the song Amor che nella mente mi ragiona, which celebrates Philosophy, the second main part ends “sotto colore d’ammonire altrui” (Convivio, III, viii, 21). As the bride says: “Indica mihi … ubi pascas … ne vagari incipiam” (Cn 1:6a), so the song must say in prayer: “Insegnatemi gir, ch’io son mandata / a quella di cui laude io so’ adornata”. And the congedo of Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete, written in 1296 after the encounter with the Donna Gentile, later commented on in the second treatise of the Convivio, recalls other words of the bride in Cn 1:7: “Si bene vis considerare tuae spiritualis pulchritudinis praeeminentiam … Ponete mente almen com’io son bella!”.

7. The exile of Job

7.1. Tre donne. Written before 1283, Olivi’s commentary on the Book of Job is among the most extensive and complex of those published by the friar of Sérignan. If Petrarca, who perhaps received Olivi’s Postilla from the bishop of Padua, Ildebrandino Conti, paraphrased it in his Latin transposition of Boccaccio’s Griselda, composed there in 1373 (Sen. XVII, 3) ^[19], it was also present to Dante. The quintessential song of exile, Tre donne intorno al cor mi son venute hints at a parody of Job’s condition. Three friends come to console him (Jb 2:11: “ei condoluerunt et signa doloris ostendunt … tot signa compassionis sibi ostendentibus … venerunt ad eum”); the three women who “venute son come a casa d’amico”, to the heart of the poet where “siede Amore”, seem to be Job’s counterparts: «Ciascuna par dolente e sbigottita / come persona discacciata e stanca … Queste così solette … Dolesi l’una … / discinta e scalza, e sol di sé par donna … e son Drittura; / povera, vedi, a panni ed a cintura … dicendo: “A te non duol de gli occhi miei?”». The three friends sit with Job (“sederunt cum eo in terra”); the three women who have come “seggonsi di fore” the poet’s heart. At first, Job, mentally absorbed in his pain, does not speak to his three friends (“non poterat bono modo loqui aut aliorum allocutiones multum bene percipere”); Love, at the arrival of the three women, “a pena del parlar di lor s’aita” because he is struck by their pain, which does not correspond to their beauty (“Tanto son belle e di tanta vertute”). Job’s pain is expressed with a flood of tears («“Et tamquam inundantes aque, sic rugitus meus” … ad designandum quod cum grandi irriguo lacrimarum gemebat et quod in ipso multiplicabantur et redundabant dolores et gemitus, sicut faciunt unde aquarum inundantium» (Jb 3:24). Such are the tears that flow from the eyes of Drittura: “Dolesi l’una con parole molto … il nudo braccio, di dolor colonna, / sente l’oraggio che cade dal volto; / l’altra man tiene ascosa / la faccia lagrimosa”. And we could go on.

7.2. Epistola IV. Dante’s Epistola IV, dated 1307-1308, addressed to a Malaspina (Moroello, Marquis of Villafranca or, more likely, Moroello di Manfredi, Marquis of Giovagallo and husband of Alagia Fieschi), accompanied the canzone Amor, da che convien pur ch’io mi doglia (the “montanina”). The poet recounts that, near the Arno river (in Casentino), a woman suddenly appeared like a bolt of lightning. Initial amazement gave way to terror caused by thunder: just as thunder follows flashes of lightning during the day, so, upon seeing the flame of that beauty, terrible and imperious Love took hold of the poet and reigned over him, governing him. The situation described in the letter is found, almost in the same words, in Olivi’s exegesis of Job 37:3-4, where the almighty divine wisdom is praised with awe: “Lightning flashes across the sky, and its brightness reaches the ends of the earth; behind it roars the thunder, it thunders with its mighty voice, and it is not found again after its voice is heard”. The reference, identical in the exegesis and in Dante’s letter, to the thunder that follows the lightning would certainly be considered commonplace if the expressions used to define the power of God/Love, which comes with dark splendour and arouses terror, were not also identical: «“voce” … iudicativa terribilis maiestatis sue et producta imperio potentie sue / Amor terribilis et imperiosus me tenuit».

7.3. The “rime petrose”. Yahweh’s first speech to Job, in which he manifests his omnipotence – «“Indica mihi, si nosti omnia” … id est scias ac doceas … “sciebas tunc”, scilicet quando ego creaui lucem et ordinaui uias et mansiones eius» (Job 38:19-21) – introduces the motif of frozen water, which hardens like stone in the cold (Job 38:29-30): a feminine quality, adds the exegete: «frigus uero quod est causa congelationis est qualitas feminina … “In similitudinem lapidis aque durantur”, scilicet propter uehementiam frigoris congelantis et condensantis eas». This theme is parodied in the “petrosa” Amor, tu vedi ben che questa donna, where the poet addresses Love: “Segnor, tu sai che per algente freddo / l’acqua diventa cristallina petra … sì che l’acqua è donna / in quella parte per cagion del freddo … Però, vertù che se’ prima che tempo, / prima che moto o che sensibil luce”.
Commenting on chapter 38, Olivi assimilates Job to the evangelical Order, that is, to the Friars Minors. The period of the Church – the sixth status – which began with the conversion of St. Francis (1206) and which will last until the destruction of Babylon, the carnal Church, and the defeat of the Antichrist (the time of Olivi and Dante) will bring about a novum saeculum, a palingenesis marked by universal conversion to Christ. At that time, graces will rain down, dew of spiritual sweetness will drip, the light of wisdom will spread, charity will burn, and the grass of virtues will be fertilised. New apostles will be sent, swift and agile as horses (cf. Job 39:19-25), lofty as eagles (39:27-30), despising earthly things and seeking spiritual ones. Elijah will return, the precursor of Christ in his first coming in the flesh and now in his second, through his spiritual disciples. The renewal predicted by Olivi seems to be parodied in the first of the “petrose” rhymes Io son venuto al punto de la rota (datable to 1296 if Saturn is identified as the “pianeta che conforta il gelo”, or to 1304, i.e. the time of exile, if that planet is the Moon, as Boccaccio believed), with the contrast between the hardness of the stone, cold and frozen, and the rain of love: “Canzone, or che sarà di me ne l’altro / dolce tempo novello, quando piove / amore in terra da tutti li cieli”. The speed of the horse and the spirituality of the eagle, in the time when wisdom, love and virtue will reign, cannot fail to recall the Greyhound (the “Veltro”; Inf. I, 100-105): the return of Elijah to restore all things (Matthew 17:11) and to reconcile fathers and sons (Malachi 4:5-6) is a central theme in Olivi’s Lectura super Apocalipsim, which Dante would elaborate in the Commedia.

7.4. Meditations on Hell. The glassy frost, the hardness of stone, and the tedious rain will one day soon be among the main themes of Inferno, bound and permeated by the spiritual meanings of the parodied Lectura super Apocalipsim. In Olivi’s commentary on Job, who felt his own situation was like being in hell and seeing its torments – “clamat sibi exilium carcerale et quasi supplicium gehennale” (Jb 3:4) -, the exiled Dante could find many points for reflection: from the exegesis of verses such as “Antequam vadam ad … terram miserie et tenebrarum” (Jb 10:21-22) or “In profundissimum infernum descendet omnia mea” (Jb 17:15) or “Nudus est infernus coram illo” (Jb 26:6) or “Numquid aperte tibi sunt porte mortis et hostia tenebrosa vidisti” (Jb 38:17) to the consideration of the quiet state in the Limbo of ancient souls (Jb 17:15); from the description of the lake of Cocytus (Jb 21:32-33) to the giants groaning in the water (Jb 26:5-7), to the correspondence between punishment and guilt (Jb 26:5-7; 27:19-22).

7.5. The modern prophet. Olivi’s commentary on Job not only provided a collection of passages referring to hell; it also explained what it meant to be a prophet, imbued with the spirit that blows where and how it wills, which cannot be resisted. But had prophecy not ceased in the time of Grace, with the end of the Old Testament and the coming of Christ? No, asserted the Franciscan, we are living a second advent of Christ in the Spirit, the inner dictator of his faithful, and the Spirit grows with time, so that it is still possible to prophesy, about present things even more than about future ones. On the way to exile, Dante had in his hands the Lectura super Apocalipsim, a narration of a prophecy of things that must happen soon and necessarily; he transformed it, parodying it, into the Commedia.

[1] G. GORNI, La parodia, in Letteratura italiana, V, Torino 1986, 476 (translation by the author of this essay).

[2] L. PERTILE, La puttana e il gigante. Dal “Cantico dei Cantici” al Paradiso Terrestre di Dante, Ravenna 1998, p. 9 (translation by the author of this essay). On Dante’s relationship with this tradition, see P. NASTI, Favole d’amore e “saver profondo”. La tradizione salomonica in Dante, Ravenna 2007; I morsi della carità. Dante e la Bibbia, Ravenna 2024.

[3] PETRI IOHANNIS OLIVI Expositio in Canticum Canticorum, curavit J. SCHLAGETER, Ad Claras Aquas Grottaferrata 1999 (Collectio Oliviana, II).

[4] DANTE ALIGHIERI, Vita Nova, ed. G. GORNI, Torino 1996, 273.

[5] G. GORNI, La Vita Nova dalla Donna Gentile a Beatrice, con un excursus sulla doppia redazione del libello, “Deutsches Dante-Jahrbuch”, 81 (2006), 7-26: 15 (translation by the author of this essay).

[6] PETRI IOHANNIS OLIVI Expositio in Canticum Canticorum, Cn 5:6, 228, 230; Lectura super Lucam, ed. F. IOZZELLI, Ad Claras Aquas, Grottaferrata 2010 (Collectio Oliviana, V), chapter 24.

[7] OLIVI Expositio in Canticum Canticorum, Cn 8:5, 331.

[8] PETRI IOHANNIS OLIVI Lectura super Matthaeum, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Vat. lat. 10900, f. 92^va.

[9] G. GORNI, Il nodo della lingua e il verbo d’amore. Studi su Dante e altri Duecentisti, Firenze, 40 (translation by the author of this essay).

[10] A. DEMPF, Sacrum Imperium. Geschichts- und Staatsphilosophie des Mittelalters und der politischen Renaissance, Darmstadt 1954 (München-Berlin 1929), 293.

[11] H. GRUNDMANN, Ausgewählte Aufsätze, 2,  pp. 166-210: 188 note 41.

[12] E. BENZ, Ecclesia Spiritualis. Kirchenidee und Geschichtstheologie der Franziskanischen Reformation, Stuttgart 1934, 201-205: 203.

[13] Ch. T. DAVIS, Dante’s Italy and Other Essays, Philadelphia 1984, it. transl., L’Italia di Dante, Bologna 1988, 151-153.

[14] R. MANSELLI, Dante e l’«Ecclesia Spiritualis», in Dante e Roma. Atti del Convegno di studio, Roma 8-10 aprile 1965, Firenze 1965, 115-135: 123, republished in IDEM, Da Gioacchino da Fiore a Cristoforo Colombo. Studi sul francescanesimo spirituale, sull’ecclesiologia e sull’escatologisno bassomedievali, ed. P. Vian, Roma 1997, 55-78: 69.

[15] Commento di Francesco da Buti sopra La Divina Commedia di Dante Allighieri, (Dartmouth Dante Project), Inf. XVI, 106: “In questi sei ternari l’autor nostro pone una notabile e bella fizione, dicendo così: Io; cioè Dante, avea una corda intorno cinta; questa corda ch’elli avea cinta significa ch’elli fu frate minore; ma non vi fece professione nel tempo della sua fanciullezza”.

[16] B. NARDI, Dante e la cultura medievale. Nuovi saggi di filosofia dantesca, Bari 1942, 135.

[17] PETRI IOHANNIS OLIVI Lectura super Proverbia et Lectura super Ecclesiasten, curavit J. SCHLAGETER, Ad Claras Aquas, Grottaferrata 2003 (Collectio Oliviana, VI), Lectura super Proverbia, chapter. 8, 271-272.

[18] Ibid., 271.

[19] V. ALBI, Il Libro di Giobbe nella novella di Griselda tra Boccaccio e Petrarca,  “Studi sul Boccaccio”, 50 (2022), 123-153: 142-145, 149-150.

Sources

DANTE

Vita Nova, ed. G. Gorni, Torino, 1996 (Barbi’s paragraphing is also indicated).

Rime, ed. G. Contini, Torino 1939 and 1995.

Convivio, ed. F. Brambilla Ageno, Firenze 1995 (Società Dantesca Italiana. Edizione Nazionale).

La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata, a cura di G. Petrocchi, Firenze 1994.

Epistole, ed. A. Frugoni-G. Brugnoli, in Dante Alighieri, Opere minori, II, Milano-Napoli 1979, pp. 505-643.

PETRUS IOHANNIS OLIVI

Expositio in Canticum Canticorum, curavit J. Schlageter, Ad Claras Aquas Grottaferrata 1999 (Collectio Oliviana, II). Referred to as Cn.

Postilla super Iob, ed. A. Boureau, Turnhout, Brepols, 2015. Referred to as Jb.

Lectura super Matthaeum, Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Vat. lat. 10900.

Lectura super Lucam et Lectura super Marcum, critice editae a F. Iozzelli OFM, Ad Claras Aquas, Grottaferrata 2010 (Collectio Oliviana, V).

Lectura super Apocalipsim.