It is widely known that none of Dante’s autograph originals exist and that few details are known about his life and personality since all the biographical notes have not been documented. Nonetheless, the specialists in Dante''s works often seem to be even more tempted by the unknown mysteries of Dante’s life, and they thus try to reconstruct various features and details of Dante''s life based on the interpretation of his creative autobiography that appears, to some extent, in all his works. In the present article we offer a closer look at Dante''s quest for knowledge in his connection with other subjects of his works, such as sight, love and aspiration. The purpose of this work is to move towards an answer as to what is Dante''s spirit through the study of his texts. The subject of our research is 2 treatises - ‘Vita Nuova’ and ‘Convivio’ - and also the ‘Divine Comedy’. While in ‘Vita Nuova’ the subject of knowledge is only alluded to and the main theme is love, already in ‘Convivio’ knowledge becomes the central motive. Yet both treatises are united by the theme of aspiration. In ‘Vita Nuova’ there is an aspiration to contemplate the beloved one and by means of it to join the divine grace whereas in ‘Convivio’ there is an aspiration to philosophy with the attempt to join oneself and others to the mysteries available to human beings on earth. However, if in ‘Vita Nuova’ Dante does not apply any limits to the aspirations of humanity, in ‘Convivio’ he affirms that the happiness of a person on earth is possible due to the modesty of his/her desires in this world. Such an affirmation is in conflict with the official theological doctrine of that time. ‘Convivio’ stays unfinished and the problem of the correlation between aspiration and knowledge - in close connection with the theme of contemplation is solved already in the ‘Divine Comedy’. The interpretation of this problem based on the lexical and semantic analysis of the text is the subject of this present article.
Dialektika poznanija v traktatah Novaja Žizn’, Pir i v Božestvennoj Komedii Dante [La dialettica della conoscenza nelle opere di Dante (Vita Nova, Convivio, Commedia)]
Kristina Landa
2015
Abstract
It is widely known that none of Dante’s autograph originals exist and that few details are known about his life and personality since all the biographical notes have not been documented. Nonetheless, the specialists in Dante''s works often seem to be even more tempted by the unknown mysteries of Dante’s life, and they thus try to reconstruct various features and details of Dante''s life based on the interpretation of his creative autobiography that appears, to some extent, in all his works. In the present article we offer a closer look at Dante''s quest for knowledge in his connection with other subjects of his works, such as sight, love and aspiration. The purpose of this work is to move towards an answer as to what is Dante''s spirit through the study of his texts. The subject of our research is 2 treatises - ‘Vita Nuova’ and ‘Convivio’ - and also the ‘Divine Comedy’. While in ‘Vita Nuova’ the subject of knowledge is only alluded to and the main theme is love, already in ‘Convivio’ knowledge becomes the central motive. Yet both treatises are united by the theme of aspiration. In ‘Vita Nuova’ there is an aspiration to contemplate the beloved one and by means of it to join the divine grace whereas in ‘Convivio’ there is an aspiration to philosophy with the attempt to join oneself and others to the mysteries available to human beings on earth. However, if in ‘Vita Nuova’ Dante does not apply any limits to the aspirations of humanity, in ‘Convivio’ he affirms that the happiness of a person on earth is possible due to the modesty of his/her desires in this world. Such an affirmation is in conflict with the official theological doctrine of that time. ‘Convivio’ stays unfinished and the problem of the correlation between aspiration and knowledge - in close connection with the theme of contemplation is solved already in the ‘Divine Comedy’. The interpretation of this problem based on the lexical and semantic analysis of the text is the subject of this present article.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
