Dante’s “ultimo lavoro”: History, Self, and the Rebirth of the Pastoral in Italy

Abstract

In the second half of 1319, the Bolognese scholar and poet Giovanni del Virgilio composes and sends to Dante, who at the time is residing in Ravenna at the court of Guido Novello da Polenta, a metrical epistle inviting him to compose an epic in Latin on a contemporary topic of historical importance. His letter gives rise to what will become, over the course of the following two years, a poetic Correspondence consisting of that metrical epistle and three eclogues. While recent years have seen progress in the commentary to the Correspondence (with editions by Marco Petoletti and Gabriella Albanese), this dissertation sets out to construct and defend an interpretative claim specifically around the momentous rebirth of the classical genre, building a deeper appreciation not only of Dante’s thought in his final years, but also of his dialectic with the cultural and literary milieu of pre-humanism. Through re-uses of Virgil’s Eclogues, each writer shapes and conveys his own sense of contemporaneity, encased especially in the theme of poetic laureation. While del Virgilio is preoccupated with themes of succession – both temporally and in the arrangement of the text – Dante, poet of the Commedia, condenses his present moment within his trajectory toward the visio Dei.