Dante disciple et juge du monde gréco-latin by Paul RenucciReview by: Colin HardieThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Oct., 1955), pp. 553-554Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3719322 .

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nol consente. But we shall not grudge her the liberty by which the scenes around us can assume alternately the colours either of Heaven or of Hell. As a book intro- ductory to Dante, this may seem a little scattered, sometimes repetitive, and to claim to speak with more authority than Dante, or the Dantists, will allow. But as an introduction to Miss Sayers in the role of Dante, and to Miss Sayers as an advo- cate of a religious attitude, it is, of course, the thing. J. . WHITFIELD BIRMINGHAM

Dante disciple et juge du monde greco-latin. By PAUL RENUCCI. Clermont-Ferrand: De Bussac; Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1954. 486 pp.

This is the most remarkable of the notable group of recent French works on Dante. In erudition and novelty it is at least the equal of Andre Pezard's Dante sous la pluie de feu (1950), and many of its theses will command much more assent than Pezard's. It has a much wider range, the whole of Dante's life, than Yvonne Batard's examination of Les Images de la divine Comedie. In discussing mythology and Dante's humanism generally, it covers much the same ground as Augustin Renaudet's Dante Humaniste (1952), but it is fresher and more original and has a sharper edge to its argument. Renucci is well equipped to see Dante's intellectual development and classical learning in historical perspective by his L'Aventure de l'humanisme europeen au Moyen-Age (IVe-XIVe siecle) (1953).

The first of the two parts of the book, pp. 21-128 (with 765 notes, pp. 129-92) boldly reconstructs the chronology of Dante's life and works, and traces in them the retarded, interrupted and restricted progress of his classical knowledge. Renucci is an astringent critic of the tendency to exaggerate Dante's learning. At eighteen, when he wrote the first sonnet of the Vita Nuova, he was well read in Italian, and perhaps Proven9al and French poetry, but 'l'arte di grammatica ch'io avea' (Conv. ii, xiii) was small and rusty, if at twenty-five, or even twenty-eight, he found the de Amicitia difficult. Florence was very backward in providing opportunities for higher education. Renucci emphasizes the influence of Guido Cavalcanti and of Brunetto Latini, their interest in politics and notably secular outlook. Virgil as poet of Rome or of the underworld meant little to them, and Renucci allows Dante no serious knowledge of Latin poetry until 1304, when, he argues convincingly, Dante was in Bologna for about two years. There he deepened his knowledge of Aristotle, and read, at the age of forty, the classics of the ordinary Bolognese curri- culum, Aeneid, Pharsalia, Metamorphoses, Thebaid, and little else, not, for instance, the prose authors mentioned in de Vulgari Eloquio, II, vi, 7. Dante's learning was remarkable for a layman in its combination of philosophy with a literary culture, deep if not unusually extensive.

There are difficulties about Renucci's chronology of the Vita Nuova and about the 'primo rifugio' at Verona (he has not considered the arguments of R. Benini, Dante fra gli spendori dei suoi enigmi risolti [sic], first printed in 1919, damned by Croce in a footnote and reprinted only in 1952), but it is startling to find the beginning of the Comedy put in 1304 and the new reading of the Bolognese stay gradually showing itself in the Inferno, and Purgatorio (the latter from 1307 or 1309) to spring 1313, delayed by the Monarchy). The Greyhound is Benedict XI and the 515 Henry VII. The prophecy of Clement V's death is ante eventum. The 'guelfismo' of Inferno ii is due to Dante's having not yet developed his views on the Empire.

Renaudet's distinction of Dante's first humanism in the Convivio from the second in the Comedy is thus abandoned. Renucci faces some of the difficulties, but ignores others. Twice he notes that in the Letter to Henry VII Dante used the very

nol consente. But we shall not grudge her the liberty by which the scenes around us can assume alternately the colours either of Heaven or of Hell. As a book intro- ductory to Dante, this may seem a little scattered, sometimes repetitive, and to claim to speak with more authority than Dante, or the Dantists, will allow. But as an introduction to Miss Sayers in the role of Dante, and to Miss Sayers as an advo- cate of a religious attitude, it is, of course, the thing. J. . WHITFIELD BIRMINGHAM

Dante disciple et juge du monde greco-latin. By PAUL RENUCCI. Clermont-Ferrand: De Bussac; Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1954. 486 pp.

This is the most remarkable of the notable group of recent French works on Dante. In erudition and novelty it is at least the equal of Andre Pezard's Dante sous la pluie de feu (1950), and many of its theses will command much more assent than Pezard's. It has a much wider range, the whole of Dante's life, than Yvonne Batard's examination of Les Images de la divine Comedie. In discussing mythology and Dante's humanism generally, it covers much the same ground as Augustin Renaudet's Dante Humaniste (1952), but it is fresher and more original and has a sharper edge to its argument. Renucci is well equipped to see Dante's intellectual development and classical learning in historical perspective by his L'Aventure de l'humanisme europeen au Moyen-Age (IVe-XIVe siecle) (1953).

The first of the two parts of the book, pp. 21-128 (with 765 notes, pp. 129-92) boldly reconstructs the chronology of Dante's life and works, and traces in them the retarded, interrupted and restricted progress of his classical knowledge. Renucci is an astringent critic of the tendency to exaggerate Dante's learning. At eighteen, when he wrote the first sonnet of the Vita Nuova, he was well read in Italian, and perhaps Proven9al and French poetry, but 'l'arte di grammatica ch'io avea' (Conv. ii, xiii) was small and rusty, if at twenty-five, or even twenty-eight, he found the de Amicitia difficult. Florence was very backward in providing opportunities for higher education. Renucci emphasizes the influence of Guido Cavalcanti and of Brunetto Latini, their interest in politics and notably secular outlook. Virgil as poet of Rome or of the underworld meant little to them, and Renucci allows Dante no serious knowledge of Latin poetry until 1304, when, he argues convincingly, Dante was in Bologna for about two years. There he deepened his knowledge of Aristotle, and read, at the age of forty, the classics of the ordinary Bolognese curri- culum, Aeneid, Pharsalia, Metamorphoses, Thebaid, and little else, not, for instance, the prose authors mentioned in de Vulgari Eloquio, II, vi, 7. Dante's learning was remarkable for a layman in its combination of philosophy with a literary culture, deep if not unusually extensive.

There are difficulties about Renucci's chronology of the Vita Nuova and about the 'primo rifugio' at Verona (he has not considered the arguments of R. Benini, Dante fra gli spendori dei suoi enigmi risolti [sic], first printed in 1919, damned by Croce in a footnote and reprinted only in 1952), but it is startling to find the beginning of the Comedy put in 1304 and the new reading of the Bolognese stay gradually showing itself in the Inferno, and Purgatorio (the latter from 1307 or 1309) to spring 1313, delayed by the Monarchy). The Greyhound is Benedict XI and the 515 Henry VII. The prophecy of Clement V's death is ante eventum. The 'guelfismo' of Inferno ii is due to Dante's having not yet developed his views on the Empire.

Renaudet's distinction of Dante's first humanism in the Convivio from the second in the Comedy is thus abandoned. Renucci faces some of the difficulties, but ignores others. Twice he notes that in the Letter to Henry VII Dante used the very

Reviews Reviews 553 553

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554 Reviews

words of Curio in the Pharsalia that he had damned in Inferno xxviii, and explains it by the ardour of Dante's partisanship. The difference between the Aristotle of Convivio and of Limbo and Purgatorio iii, 42-3, is explained by a difference of purpose in the two books. He does not mention the oddity that Dante should glorify the Canzone in de Vulgari Eloquio and speak of the charge of burying his talent (in Mon. I, i), while he was engaged on the Comedy. Nor does he appear to notice that Eclogue iv is given an imperial interpretation in Monarchia I, xi and Epistle vII, 1 and a Christian in Purgatorio xxii, and that the interpretation of Aeneid vi in Convivio iv, xxvi and de Vulgari Eloquio II, 6 is different from that implied by Inferno ii.

The second part, pp. 195-350 (982 notes, pp. 357-410), in three chapters, on the meaning of mythology of the Greek and of the Roman worlds, is the most compre- hensive and detailed treatment of the whole subject, on which so much has been written. Much detail is put in a new light by Renucci's bold and clear ideas. Dante's startling 'sommo Giove, che fosti in terra per noi crocifisso' (Purg. vI, 118-19) is put in its context of Dante's view of the pagan gods of heaven as neither demons nor diabolical fictions, but realities, the planetary intelligences misunderstood as gods and not creatures. From the revolt of the Titans (and Ulysses is a titanic figure) we pass to the corruption of Thebes and the expiatory destruction of 'proud Troy'. Dante is seen always schematizing periods of history into a system of relatively simple, poetically useful, symbols. In the Roman section the problems of Caesar, Cato, Trajan and Rhipeus are handled with judgement and penetration.

Renucci sums up in eleven pages (only 18 notes) emphasizing Dante's indepen- dent position as a 'franc-tireur de la Chretiente de l'occident', 'ni catholique a la fa9on commune, ni thomiste banal, ni gibelin ordinaire', and perhaps exaggerating his attachment to the temporal order in the Comedy. There is an ample bibliography and a good index. It is odd to find the Letter of Frate Ilario taken seriously after Bilanovich's demolition of it, in his Prime Ricerche Dantesche (1947).

A remarkable book, learned and lively, original and well-written. If it has not solved the problem of Dante's humanisms and still leaves room for an interpreta- tion which does not import the Convivio, Letters v-vII, and Monarchy into the Comedy but makes the Comedy reassess all their conclusions, it has contributed many new ideas. C COLIN HARDIE OXFORD

Dante Studies I. Commedia, Elements of Structure. By CHARLES S. SINGLETON. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Cumberlege. 1954. viii+98 pp. 24s.

Professor Singleton has here collected five articles on the Comedy, four of them previously published in American periodicals. He has modified them to 'become parts of an integral view of a poem's structure', and furnished them with notes. It is certainly helpful to have them assembled, since separately they were often tantalizing, especially the short article, now an Appendix, on 'the two kinds of Allegory'. He argues that to interpret the Comedy we must choose the 'allegory of the theologians' of the Letter to Can Grande in preference to the poets' allegory of the Convivio. But the essay on Allegory still does not explain how he would work this out in practice and interpret such passages as Inferno ix, 62 and Purgatorio viii, 19 or the Greyhound and the 515. He distinguishes three 'dimensions of meaning' in the Comedy, allegory, symbolism and analogy. The moral sense, to which Dante alludes in Purgatorio xxxiii, 72, seems to have got lost, though it must be important. Singleton is chiefly troubled by the literal sense of Dante's fictitious

554 Reviews

words of Curio in the Pharsalia that he had damned in Inferno xxviii, and explains it by the ardour of Dante's partisanship. The difference between the Aristotle of Convivio and of Limbo and Purgatorio iii, 42-3, is explained by a difference of purpose in the two books. He does not mention the oddity that Dante should glorify the Canzone in de Vulgari Eloquio and speak of the charge of burying his talent (in Mon. I, i), while he was engaged on the Comedy. Nor does he appear to notice that Eclogue iv is given an imperial interpretation in Monarchia I, xi and Epistle vII, 1 and a Christian in Purgatorio xxii, and that the interpretation of Aeneid vi in Convivio iv, xxvi and de Vulgari Eloquio II, 6 is different from that implied by Inferno ii.

The second part, pp. 195-350 (982 notes, pp. 357-410), in three chapters, on the meaning of mythology of the Greek and of the Roman worlds, is the most compre- hensive and detailed treatment of the whole subject, on which so much has been written. Much detail is put in a new light by Renucci's bold and clear ideas. Dante's startling 'sommo Giove, che fosti in terra per noi crocifisso' (Purg. vI, 118-19) is put in its context of Dante's view of the pagan gods of heaven as neither demons nor diabolical fictions, but realities, the planetary intelligences misunderstood as gods and not creatures. From the revolt of the Titans (and Ulysses is a titanic figure) we pass to the corruption of Thebes and the expiatory destruction of 'proud Troy'. Dante is seen always schematizing periods of history into a system of relatively simple, poetically useful, symbols. In the Roman section the problems of Caesar, Cato, Trajan and Rhipeus are handled with judgement and penetration.

Renucci sums up in eleven pages (only 18 notes) emphasizing Dante's indepen- dent position as a 'franc-tireur de la Chretiente de l'occident', 'ni catholique a la fa9on commune, ni thomiste banal, ni gibelin ordinaire', and perhaps exaggerating his attachment to the temporal order in the Comedy. There is an ample bibliography and a good index. It is odd to find the Letter of Frate Ilario taken seriously after Bilanovich's demolition of it, in his Prime Ricerche Dantesche (1947).

A remarkable book, learned and lively, original and well-written. If it has not solved the problem of Dante's humanisms and still leaves room for an interpreta- tion which does not import the Convivio, Letters v-vII, and Monarchy into the Comedy but makes the Comedy reassess all their conclusions, it has contributed many new ideas. C COLIN HARDIE OXFORD

Dante Studies I. Commedia, Elements of Structure. By CHARLES S. SINGLETON. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Cumberlege. 1954. viii+98 pp. 24s.

Professor Singleton has here collected five articles on the Comedy, four of them previously published in American periodicals. He has modified them to 'become parts of an integral view of a poem's structure', and furnished them with notes. It is certainly helpful to have them assembled, since separately they were often tantalizing, especially the short article, now an Appendix, on 'the two kinds of Allegory'. He argues that to interpret the Comedy we must choose the 'allegory of the theologians' of the Letter to Can Grande in preference to the poets' allegory of the Convivio. But the essay on Allegory still does not explain how he would work this out in practice and interpret such passages as Inferno ix, 62 and Purgatorio viii, 19 or the Greyhound and the 515. He distinguishes three 'dimensions of meaning' in the Comedy, allegory, symbolism and analogy. The moral sense, to which Dante alludes in Purgatorio xxxiii, 72, seems to have got lost, though it must be important. Singleton is chiefly troubled by the literal sense of Dante's fictitious

This content downloaded from 185.31.194.106 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 11:50:27 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions