‘Et ista sunt scripta Dantis’: Predicare la Commedia in Quaresima

The Quadragesimale peregrini is a sermon collection written before 1420 by an anonymous preacher, who composed a Lenten cycle largely based on a rewriting of Dante’s Commedia. In this quite exceptional text, the preacher guided his listeners through a sort of virtual pilgrimage that explored the Dantesque afterlife. This was accomplished by means of an innovative semi-dramatic form, whereby the religious instruction was developed through a lively narrative. The present contribution analyses the ways in which the preacher appropriated and interpreted some of the passages of the Commedia, often in combination with biblical and classical sources. Moreover, the essay points out that the narrative framework adopted by this cycle served to mediate the relationship between the preacher and his audience through a story. The result was a sophisticated communicative strategy, which can be considered as a precocious example of the innovative forms of Lenten preaching that characterized the fifteenth century.