SOLAL - Public Lecture Series - Sarah Melanie Rolfe on Dante's Homag e to Arnaut Daniel

Free lecture - All are welcome!

Arnaut Daniel’s inclusion inPurgatorio XXVI has been a source of vivid scholarly discussion. That Arnau
t is praised in the canto by Guido Guinizelli as “ miglior fabbro del parlarmaterno ” (v.118) and that he is granted speech in his native Provençal (vv
.140-147) are two points of interest that have generated the most copious sc
holarship on Arnaut Daniel of the Commedia . Of these two curiosities, Dant
e’s choice of Arnaut Daniel as the best craftsman of the mother tongue has b
een the most enigmatic to posterity. This lecture will centre upon the theme
s of intertextuality, imitation and the medieval phenomenon of auctoritas .The purpose of this presentation is to suggest that Dante paid Arnaut Danie
l the homage of emulation by means of an intensified frequency of literary a
llusions through double signification in the Commedia ’s Provençal passage.