The "Dante Canon": Collecting Dante's Lyric Poetry in the Fourteenth Century
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The “Dante Canon”: Collecting Dante’s Lyric Poetry in
the Fourteenth Century
Laura Banella
Dante Studies, Volume 134, 2016, pp. 169-194 (Article)
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/das.2016.0005
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/643776
[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ]The “Dante Canon”: Collecting
Dante’s Lyric Poetry in the
Fourteenth Century
Laura Banella
I n the introduction to his founding edition, Gianfranco Contini
claims that the corpus of Dante’s lyric poetry is “la più superba
collezione di ‘estravaganti’ ” (“the most magnificent collection of
scattered poems”).1 Among the many points raised by Contini that have
opened significant ways of understanding Dante’s oeuvre, the freeing of
Dante’s rime from the idea of an authorial canzoniere has led to a funda-
mental awareness of the poems and their history.2 After Domenico De
Robertis’s critical edition, the debate around the possibility of a prim-
itive order hidden behind Boccaccio’s series has engaged many critics,
as have questions concerning the new order chosen by De Robertis for
the rime.3 Even if we are unsure whether Dante ever organized his lyrics
in series outside the Vita nuova and the Convivio, the manuscripts do not
arrange the poems completely haphazardly, but, as De Robertis shows,
in consistent groups of lyrics, among which Boccaccio’s selection stands
out.4 Indeed, the manuscripts collecting the rime are the place to look
for understanding Dante’s reception, especially apart from the notion
of Dante as the auctor of the Commedia.5 Keeping these issues in mind, I
argue that investigating the rime accompanying the Vita nuova, which is
the most important authorial series by Dante, will not only shed light
on the interpretation of the prosimetrum by its earliest readers, but also
help to understand the “idea of Dante” as a lyric writer between the
trecento and the quattrocento, and beyond.6
Vol. 134:169–194 © 2016 Dante Society of AmericaDante Studies 134, 2016
A canon—authorial or not—has the power to attract other series
that are also considered “original.” The Vita nuova preserves in itself
the only complete and indisputably authorial series by Dante, and so it
follows that it attracts other groups of lyrics, the canzoni distese foremost
among them.7 The material relationship between the Vita nuova and the
other lyrics by Dante (and other authors) provides the space to explore
some of the hermeneutical questions animating the debate around the
Italian author par excellence. These questions include the constitution of
authorial books and anthologies, and the significance of lyric series and
sequences. In particular, the order and selection of poems anthologized
along with the Vita nuova reveal the tension between the authorial
strategies that, as Albert Ascoli has pointed out, Dante keenly adopted
in order to deliberately embrace the role of auctor and auctoritas, and the
perception of lyric poetry and of Dante’s poems held by the early scribes
of his lyric corpus. The emergence of the author figure, especially in
Italy, was admittedly fully in process in the Late Middle Ages, and can
be traced back at least to the Renaissance of the twelfth century. Yet is
also true that, as Ascoli writes, Dante “anticipates such a transformation
[i.e., the birth of the author in the full modern sense] by at least two
centuries.”8
This essay examines the codices containing the Vita nuova dating
back to the fourteenth century, which can be divided into two main
groups: 1. the two copies of the prosimetrum by Boccaccio (along with
significant examples of codices deriving from them), and 2. the other
books constituting the early tradition of the text.9 Although, as we will
see with Boccaccio, tradition might be strongly influential for a long
time, the actual making of an anthology depends on the availability of
the texts. Selections also respond to the fashion and taste of the people
involved in the process, whose decisions in turn partly depend on the
place and time the act of anthologizing takes place. The creation of an
anthology is, by definition, a process bound to history.10
Because the order of the texts accompanying the Vita nuova, along
with their selection, will be a crucial element of our analysis, it is
important to stipulate that the sequence in which various works appear
in a book suggests a value judgement by the compiler, especially in
medieval books containing lyric poetry. In a famous passage of the De
Vulgari Eloquentia (DVE 2.3.7), Dante himself points out the evaluation
170The “Dante Canon” Banella
of the texts that is implied in the position in an anthology: “que nobilis-
sima sunt carissime conservantur; se inter ea que cantata sunt, cantiones
carissime conservantur, ut constat visitantibus libros: ergo cantiones
nobilissime sunt, et per consequens modus earum nobilissimus est”
(“the noblest things are preserved with the greatest care; but, among
the things that are sung, canzoni are preserved the most carefully, as is
clear to anyone who looks at books; therefore, canzoni are most noble,
and theirs is the noblest of forms”).11 Dante here refers to the first place
that is usually reserved for the canzoni in canzonieri, a sign of their inner
nobility. In Italian manuscripts especially, meter is the preferred classi-
fication criterion: canzoni come first, followed by ballads, sonnets, and
tenzoni.12 Both the selection and the position of texts is thus significant
in this genre of books.
*
Some of the early manuscripts containing the Vita nuova have been
studied extensively, both generally as medieval anthologies and in detail
focusing on Dante. Codex Martelli 12 (M), from the Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana in Florence, is the most ancient complete copy of the pro-
simetrum: it dates back to the first quarter of the fourteenth century, so
it might have been compiled while Dante was still alive.13 In any case,
it was copied at least two decades after Dante wrote the Vita nuova, and
it probably comes from Gubbio,14 which is not particularly close to the
Florentine environment where the young Dante lived and wrote. With
this in mind, it is an extremely valuable witness of the Dantean canon
when the Commedia was probably not even completed. The manuscript
contains the Vita nuova, and a selection of other Dantean and contem-
porary poems (see below), along with works of different genres, also in
Latin and in prose, such as Conti di antichi cavalieri, Proverbia Salamonis,
Liber Filosoforum (Fiori di Filosofi), Nomina lapidum et virtutum and the
Esposizione dei sogni.15 Since it is difficult to determine a basic unifying
idea, as a whole the codex can be considered a miscellany.16
The association of the Vita nuova, with additional lyrics by Dante,
constituting a core group that is completed by poems by other stilnovisti
poets (especially Guido Cavalcanti and Cino da Pistoia) is a recurring
171Dante Studies 134, 2016
feature of fourteenth-century anthologies.17 Investigating the details of
this canon–which so far has been interpreted as following a “natural”
order in Dante’s literary career, progressing from the Vita nuova to the
canzoni (and other rime)18 –along with the taxonomy seen in early books,
can give us significant insights on the reception of the prosimetrum. It
can also yield insight more generally into the reception of Dante and of
his literary circle’s poetry.
Manuscript M is an early example of this recurring form, which can
also be identified in codices S (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Cen-
trale, Magliabechiano VI 143) and V (Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,
CCCCXLV [288]).19 These two manuscripts are both lyric anthologies.
S is a coherent canzoniere20 which contains the Vita nuova and a group of
canzoni by Dante and other stilnovisti; what is interesting, especially in
light of what Boccaccio is supposed to have done in his Chigiano codex,
is that Cavalcanti’s Donna me prega, with Poi che di doglia and Io non pen-
sava, followed by Cino’s L’uom che conosce, are placed in between Dante’s
texts.21 Manuscript V, along with the same nucleus of lyrics by Dante
and those by his fellow poets, also contains a series of non-aulic poems
including Cavalcanti’s sonnet Guata Manetto, quella scrignutuzza. Roberta
Capelli shows that in codex V the lyrics are organized according to an
historiographic paradigm based on a Tuscan canon, and in particular
on the canon expressed by Dante in his DVE.22 The order of the poems
in V centers on Dante, to whom the whole first part of the book with
Vita nuova, canzoni distese, and sonnets is dedicated; this is followed by
a series of poets “approved by Dante,” such as Cino, Cavalcanti, and
Guinizzelli. Eventually, there appear some minor poets who wrote in
the footsteps of Dante and the stilnovisti. Capelli, therefore, concludes
that Dante governs this anthology at all levels: he is the cornerstone of
the canon, and the imitative model for other texts.23
The fourth manuscript containing the Vita nuova dating back to
the fourteenth century is the canzoniere Chigiano L VIII 305 from the
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (K).24 Preserving an important and vast
collection of early Italian lyric poetry, this is one of the fundamental
early canzonieri. It is bipartite by genre, and it is divided into sections
containing canzoni and ballads, sonnets and tenzoni.25 As several studies
have shown, manuscript K organizes the poems according to the poetic
canon established by Dante mainly in the DVE through his judgments
172The “Dante Canon” Banella
on coeval poets and on his predecessors.26 In this codex the Vita nuova
precedes the canzoni, thus apparently conforming to the chronological
progression of Dante’s literary career;27 this is the same order these
texts follow in Boccaccio’s manuscripts, and also in S and V. In M the
order is inverted.28 In its designated section, manuscript K also contains
a vast corpus of Dante’s sonnets, among them the tenzone with Forese
Donati, which are definitely the least aulic poems among Dante’s rime.29
In codices M, S, V, and K the Vita nuova is thus associated with other
lyrics by Dante, and also by other stilnovisti: the nucleus to which other
various poets and poems are associated, among which Petrarch’s texts
will progressively emerge.30 But Boccaccio’s Dantean anthologies differ
significantly from this canon.
Scholars widely recognize the importance of Boccaccio’s efforts as an
intellectual, and more concretely the effects of his books, on the process
through which Dante Alighieri becomes Dante; the careful editorial
solutions Boccaccio adopts have also been the subject of many scholarly
interventions.31 Here I will just recall the main features of his codices that
concern us: the Vita nuova is contained in only two of three anthologies
of Dante’s works by Boccaccio (Toledo, Archivo y Biblioteca Capitulares,
MS Zelada 104.6; and Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS
Chigiano L V 176); in both, the works by Dante are the Vita nuova, the
Commedia and fifteen canzoni; the whole is introduced by the Vita di Dante
by Boccaccio.32 The material and graphic guise in which Dante’s works
are presented by Boccaccio is not neutral at all.33 As for the placement of
the prosimetrum and the other lyrics by Dante, even if in these codices
(like in the others we have previously analyzed) the canzoni distese follow
the Vita nuova, it is significant that the Commedia is (or has been) placed
between the two by Boccaccio. In this arrangement, Dante’s specifical-
ly lyric corpus is not isolated from his other works (i.e., the Commedia),
which points toward a comprehensive—if still selective—understanding
of his literary persona. Further, it is only in Boccaccio’s copies that the
prosimetrum is accompanied by Dante’s masterpiece, a strong sign of the
different genre of book to which Boccaccio’s anthologies must be ascribed.
As De Robertis has observed, Boccaccio exerts a strong selective prefer-
ence among Dante’s works: the canon he creates can be called the “tragic
Dante.” Indeed, he chooses for his edition only the completed literary
works that are stylistically elevated.34 Boccaccio excludes other pieces
173Dante Studies 134, 2016
of Dante’s production, for instance the treatise DVE and the sonnets
and ballads that were not included in the Vita nuova.35 This latter form
is what we find for example in V and K, which contain a vaster canon
(see above).36 Furthermore, the mise en page and all the material features
of Boccaccio’s anthologies indicate his understanding of Dante’s works
as “vernacular classics” and reveal his determination to insert Dante in a
canon, or rather the canon of Italian literature.37
But what precisely are the other lyrics by Dante accompanying the
Vita nuova in the books we have been discussing so far?38
As explained above, Boccaccio proposes a concise lyric canon: in
addition to the Vita nuova, he copies in his Dantean anthologies fifteen
canzoni distese.39 For our purposes the question of whether their order has
been edited by Boccaccio or if it preexisted him, and might have even
been ideated by their author, is not essential per se.40 But it is interesting
to recall that since the quattrocento, this selection has been interpreted
as the embodiment of the fourteen canzoni Dante meant to comment on
in his unfinished Convivio, with the addition of Così nel mio parlar as a
prologue.41 As is well known, Antonio Manetti writes in his own copy,
in the middle of the series of Dante’s canzoni, after Così nel mio parlar:
“Queste xiiij canzone che seguono alla fila sono quelle che Dante com-
inciò a commentare per fare el suo Convivio. Esposene queste 3 prime”
(“These fourteen canzoni following the series are the ones Dante began
commenting on for his Convivio. He explained these first three”).42 We
do not know whether Boccaccio read the Convivio, or whether he was
simply aware of its existence.43 In either case, when he writes about it
in his Vita di Dante he does not seem to imply that his selection reflects
the order the canzoni should have had in the unfinished prosimetrum.44
That said, even Boccaccio’s knowledge of the existence of the Convivio
sheds a particular light on his understanding of the selection of canzoni.
As is shown by the system of construction of his Dantean anthologies,
Boccaccio is actively involved in the creation of a canon for newborn
Italian literature. In particular, precisely for his mention of the Convivio,
we can assume that for Boccaccio the series of the canzoni might have
had a prime moral value.45
In the other manuscripts from the trecento the situation seems differ-
ent. Codex M has two separated Dantean sections: the first is a collec-
tion of lyrics (25r–32r), some of which appear anonymous; the second
174The “Dante Canon” Banella
contains the complete Vita nuova (35r–51r).46 The first section comprises
sixteen lyrics by Dante: the first six poems are from the Vita nuova and
are anonymous, while the others are canzoni, all of which are correctly
attributed to Dante, and which will also appear in Boccaccio’s series.
Among these canzoni there are canzoni and ballads by Cavalcanti, and a
ballad by Caccia da Castello. The poems from the prosimetrum are a
coherent series, which extends from the second sonnet (O voi che per la
via d’Amor passate) to the seventh poem (Tutti li miei penser parlan d’Amore);
it encompasses the sonnets and the ballad from Vita nuova §3.14 [2] to
§13 [6]. The coexistence of other poems from the Vita nuova with the
prosimetrum itself is not an isolated case.47 Yet it suggests some hesita-
tion by the compiler. But a codex like M, a miscellany written by six
different hands collecting a wide array of texts, is prone to a certain
degree of imprecision.
Being particularly old, it witnesses an early stage of the formation of
the Dantean canon, and it is interesting that it proposes a simpler can-
on, comprehending in addition to the prosimetrum only a repetition of
some of its poems, plus some other canzoni. The canzoni contained in M
can be connected to a unifying principle: besides belonging to the same
genre, they seem to be grouped according to thematic units. Così nel mio
parlar opens the series and is followed by two other so-called rime petrose,
Io son venuto and Al poco giorno, while the fourth of this series, Amor, tu
vedi ben, is preceded by the first canzone from the Convivio, Voi che ’nten-
dendo. This first group is closed by Le dolci rime, which is the third poem
from the Convivio. After the poems by Cavalcanti and Caccia, we find
the two moral poems Tre donne and Doglia mi reca. Critics suggest that
these two canzoni would have been inserted and thus commented on,
in the Convivio, specifically in the never-written last two chapters, on
justice and liberality, respectively.48 Then, the series of Dante’s canzoni
in M is closed by Io sento sì d’Amor and La dispietata mente: two poems
sharing the same static and meditative reflection on the condition of
the poet as a lover.49 What makes the selection of Dante’s texts in M so
interesting is that it contains the Vita nuova, along with a core group
of lyrics by Dante that, at a later stage—as we will see—will have a
multifaceted diffusion. The canzoni, even if they are interspersed with
lyrics by others, are clearly separated from the other genres contained
in the codex (i.e., they begin in a new quire and are introduced by a
175Dante Studies 134, 2016
rubric attributing them to Dante), and they are grouped coherently
according to shared characteristics. Furthermore, M does not contain
texts by Dante that have ever been considered apocryphal. At the same
time, although they are copied without any apparent break at the end
of the group of quires containing the first group of prose works, it still
seems peculiar that a group of lyrics from the Vita nuova, five sonnets
and a ballad, precede the poems in a higher style.50
As noted above, S is a lyric anthology based on Dante; however, its
Dantean canon is more various, and in a certain sense more problematic,
than that of codex M. The Vita nuova opens this codex, and is followed
by a series of lyrics whose attribution by the compiler is quite difficult
to understand. Except the exchange in sonnets between Dante and Cino
da Pistoia and a sonnet by Bindo Bonichi (a moral poet from Siena and
contemporary of Dante), all the other lyrics are anonymous. This lyric
series is opened by Cavalcanti’s canzoni Donna me prega, Poi che di doglia
(a stanza di canzone), and Io non pensava; Cino’s canzone L’uom che conosce
follows. Dante’s sixteen canzoni, which follow without any apparent
break, are introduced by Così nel mio parlar and closed by Era ’n quel
giorno che l’alta reina, a canzone which has not been attributed.51 Then, Voi
che ’ntendendo follows for a second time in a new quire,52 with a group
of lyrics by Bindo Bonichi (among which only one responsive sonnet
has a rubric), and the exchange in sonnets between Dante and Cino. In
codex S we find all the lyrics constituting the group of fifteen canzoni
distese by Dante in a different order, with an apocryphal lyric, preceded
by Cavalcanti’s and Cino’s poems, which are anonymous. According
to Michele Barbi, the last series of lyrics is a later addition by the same
hand.53 In S again we find the Vita nuova followed by a consistent series
of canzoni, while a few sonnets follow in a secondary section that is
contiguous to the previous ones.
Codices K and V are more complex anthologies that, as we have
already mentioned, have received due attention. K especially is a funda-
mental witness to the Italian early lyric tradition. In our survey of the
placement of the Vita nuova and other texts by Dante accompanying it, it
is important to recall that K is a traditional canzoniere divided according
to the criteria of meters and authors, and that the Vita nuova is located in
the first section, among canzoni and ballads. Dante is not the first poet of
this section, but—as he systematizes the incipient Italian literary canon
in his DVE—Guinizzelli opens the book, followed by Cavalcanti; Dante
176The “Dante Canon” Banella
is the third poet and is followed by Cino, and then by the minor poets.
In effect, as Giovanni Borriero has pointed out, he occupies the center of
the anthology.54 K contains seventeen of Dante’s canzoni and ballads in a
consistent series without breaks (see below). Dante’s sonnets and tenzoni
are placed in a different section of the codex, which follows the first one
containing canzoni and ballads. Manuscript K contains a rich corpus of
canzoni, all of which will come together approximately twenty years later
in the series copied by Boccaccio. It is not surprising that the ballads are
merged with the canzoni, but it is interesting because it is an unicum in the
group of manuscripts we are considering (see table 1 below).
While V is a much more recent anthology, it seems to reproduce a
canon that at first sight looks older, as Capelli observes. It is opened by
the Vita nuova, and—like the other manuscripts we have analyzed—a
corpus of canzoni by Dante follows. It contains fourteen canzoni and a
ballad, and then some of Dante’s tenzoni and other sonnets (see below,
table 1). As we have seen in the other manuscripts, the series of canzoni
reproduces some micro-sequences that we have already encountered,
such as the rime petrose interlaced with Io sento sì, and the pair Tre don-
ne—Doglia mi reca. Giuliano Tanturli notices that in this codex Amor, da
che convien, which usually closes the series of canzoni, is missing, while
Così nel mio parlar appears in the middle of the series. Nonetheless, the
book witnesses recurring sub-series of canzoni.55 Amor, da che convien
and Così nel mio parlar are frequently at the margins of the series, even
outside the tradition of the fifteen canzoni found in Boccaccio’s codices,
as it happens in S and M (see table 1 below).56 Furthermore, unlike in
MS K, in V Dante’s sonnets follow directly after the Vita nuova and the
canzoni, demonstrating, as Capelli shows, that in this codex the hierarchy
by author is clear, and it is stronger than that by meter.57
The codices we have analyzed can be sorted into two groups: M
and S contain the Vita nuova along with canzoni and just a few sonnets,
making them more similar to Boccaccio’s books; K and V, even though
each uses a different ordering criterion, contain a substantial corpus of
sonnets including poems in a lower style. The permanent feature of
these anthologies is that the Vita nuova is followed by Dante’s canzoni
and/or ballads, and then in some cases by his sonnets. This apparently
simple piece of information is in fact extremely significant. Before we
unpack that significance, though, it is useful to summarize the situation
(the table reports only lyrics by or attributed to Dante):
177Dante Studies 134, 2016
Table 1
Boccaccio
M (cc. 12–32r) S (cc. 19–28) K (cc. 29–39r) V (cc. 16–24)
(Toledo and Chigi)
1. Così nel mio parlar O voi che per la [. . .]2 11 10
2. Voi che ’ntendendo via (Vn) [hand 1] 1 3 3
3. A mor che nella Piangete, amanti 8 Voi che savete 4
mente (Vn) 6 (b) 11
4. Le dolci rime Morte villana 9 10 2 [only vv. 1–3]
5. Amor che movi (Vn) 10 7 5
6. Io sento sì Cavalcando 11 9 1
7. Al poco giorno l’altr’ier (Vn) 12 8 6
8. Amor, tu vedi ben Ballata, i’ vo’ 13 5 7
9. Io son venuto (Vn) 14 I’ mi son pargo- 9
10. E’ m’incresce di me Tutti li miei 2 [fused with letta (b) 8
11. Poscia ch’Amor penser (Vn) the previous 1 12
12. La dispietata mente Con l’altre donne one] 12 13
13. Tre donne (Vn) 4 Per una ghirlan- 14
14. Doglia mi reca 1 [hand 2, new 3 detta (b) Voi che savete
15. A mor, da che quire] 7 13 (b)
convien 9 5 4 [A series of
7 15 6 tenzoni and
2 Era ’n quel 2 sonnets by
8 giorno 15 Dante follows
4 2 Guido. A Dante without any
[. . .]1 [. . .]3 Alleghieri. Fresca interruption]6
13 Messer Cino. rosa novella (b)
14 Dante, quando [In a second
6 [hand 3] per caso section of the
12 [hand 4] s’abandona codex tenzoni
Dante. Io and sonnets by
sono stato con Dante]5
Amore insieme
Dante. Perch’io
non truovo chi
meco ragioni
Messer Cino.
Dante, i’ non
odo in quale
albergo soni
[. . .]4
1. Canzoni and ballads by Guido Cavalcanti (Donna me prega, Io non pensava, Perch’i’ no spero di tornar
giammai, Era in penser d’amor, La forte e nova mia disaventura, Vedete ch’i’ son un che vo piangendo);
ballad Poi a natura humana by Messer Caccia da Castello.
2. c. 19r [16r]: (Guido Cavalcanti) Donna me prega; Poi che di doglia; c. 19r–19v [16r–16v] Io non pensava;
c. 19v [16v]: (Cino da Pistoia) L’uom che conosce.
3. c. 27r [24r]: (Bindo Bonichi) Magnificando Amore; (Benuccio Salimbeni to Bindo Bonichi) A fine di
riposo; c. 27v [24v]: Bindo Bonichi. Mostraci il cielo [Mostraci el mondo] (answer); E mostra cenni che
follia tadestri.
4. c. 28r [25r]: Cenni chi a uoler poder non aue.
5. For the complete list, see Alighieri, Rime, ed. De Robertis, vol. 1.2, 757–58.
6. For the complete list, see Alighieri, Rime, ed. De Robertis, vol. 1.2, 821–22; Capelli, “Dante,
dantismi,” 816–19.
178The “Dante Canon” Banella
It seems clear that the Vita nuova attracts other lyrics by Dante, and
especially those featuring an elevated style, the canzoni.58 And the first
place the prosimetrum has, furthermore, does not seem fortuitous. In all
of these manuscripts the Vita nuova, mainly composed of sonnets (26 of
31 poems), is the first text by Dante we find, while the canzoni, the bal-
lads and the sonnets follow it. In the copies by Boccaccio the Vita nuova
is the first among Dante’s works, possibly for its elegiac qualities.59 But
the prosimetrum is also tightly connected to the Vita di Dante, becoming
almost an appendix to the biography, especially in the Chigi codex.60
Thus, in these books the order cannot be judged as only chronological
(or natural), but as one of the features stressing some of the non-lyrical
qualities of the text. This is another feature making Boccaccio’s books
different, with a clear intellectual and cultural framework that can be
perceived in each and every part.
In canzoniere S and in V the Vita nuova is the first anthologized text,
and in K it opens Dante’s section, preceding his canzoni and ballads. In
M, on the other hand, the Vita nuova is placed at the end of the codex,
although some of the sonnets and the ballad extracted from it open the
series of Dante’s lyrics. I argue that the prime placement taken in this
series by the sonnets and the ballad (meters usually considered as infe-
rior, and thus usually put later) can be justified only because they come
from the prosimetrum, with an order that has the approval of the author,
Dante. Indeed, the prosimetrum conveys a strong feeling of its author’s
authority, which can be referred to as authoriality. The Vita nuova has
been called the “first book” of Italian literature, a definition reinforcing
its status as a consistent and cohesive text.61 From a structural point of
view, the insertion of the prose segments between the lyrics creates a
continuum that preserves the single lyrics from changes in their order:
telling a story into which the lyrics are set makes it more difficult to dis-
order the sequence. Although this prose structure has not prevented the
lyrics from circulating without the parts in prose, their order remains
largely the same as that which they have in the prosimetrum.62 As for the
content, Dante in the Vita nuova does not just tell a love story, but—as
many critics have pointed out—uses the space opened by the prose to
inscribe his own literary and cultural agenda. The early manuscripts let
us know that the voice of the author has been heard, and thus the Vita
nuova, when included in lyric anthologies, takes first place. This is not a
chronological logic, I argue, but a privilege based on authoriality.
179Dante Studies 134, 2016
A confirmation of the exemplarity and uniqueness of Dante’s lyric
poetry’s anthologization in the Italian tradition is the ancient canzoniere
L (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Redi 9). Manuscript
L is divided by genre into two sections, dedicated to canzoni and sonnets,
respectively. Guittone’s poems introduce both sections, so that the codex
seems to be an authorial book. However, after both Guittone’s canzoni
and sonnets, L contains an anthology of lyric poetry spanning from the
Sicilian School to right before Dante, so that Guittone’s corpus is strictly
divided by meter, and its cohesion is not preserved.63 Yet, if this is what
happens in the ancient Italian canzonieri, in the Occitan tradition the
order by author prevails over the order by meter. Meneghetti points out
that this way of anthologizing troubadour lyric was used also when there
was no authorial intervention and, furthermore, that it is precisely this
type of canzonieri which originated the canzoniere as a literary genre.64
This same principle seems to have inspired the early scribes of Dante’s
lyric poetry.
*
Boccaccio is no ordinary copyist, and his choices are as strong as those
made by authors copying their own texts.65 His Dantean anthologies,
moreover, include (or included) the Commedia along with the Vita nuova
and the canzoni, a configuration which is unique in the tradition of these
works. The manuscripts textually deriving from Boccaccio’s copies of
Dante’s works are recognizable also for some of their external characteris-
tics, which are influenced by his choices. Boccaccio’s editions are a crucial
moment in the history of Dante’s works: the selections he made, the order
he chose, and even some of the material features Dante’s texts take in his
anthologies became models to which many other scribes conformed.66
But what are the other texts by Dante accompanying the Vita nuova in
the codices deriving from Boccaccio’s two copies? Although Boccaccio
inserted the prosimetrum in anthologies focused only on Dante (Toledo
codex), or on a founding Italian canon (Chigi codex), the scribes follow-
ing him, even when paying tribute to his editorial choices, tend to be
more traditional, so that we find the Vita nuova inserted in anthologies
that at first glance recall not Boccaccio’s codices but the other books
we have analyzed.
180The “Dante Canon” Banella
First of all, none of the manuscripts of the Vita nuova deriving from
Boccaccio’s copies entirely reproduces the original anthology. Some of
them include all the Dantean texts except the Commedia (i.e., the Vita
nuova and the canzoni). Other texts by Dante, and by other authors, are
often added to this canon, which—as we have seen—existed to some
extent before Boccaccio. There are some recurring patterns regarding
the other texts by Dante pointing toward the same direction. Generally,
the majority of manuscripts have the fifteen canzoni in Boccaccio’s order,
while some of them add other pieces to this “Boccaccian canon.”67
It is important to point out that in the manuscripts of the Vita nuova
deriving from Boccaccio’s copies, the core group of canzoni also derives
from them (for the exceptions, see below), and it remains the same. In
particular, even if there are some additions, the series of fifteen is rarely
changed.68 I want to analyze two significant examples in more detail:
the “Mezzabarba codex” (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS
IX 191); and Pucci’s anthology, codex 1050 from the Biblioteca Ric-
cardiana in Florence. For our purposes, these codices are interesting not
so much because they derive from Boccaccio’s copies, but because they
have inner peculiarities that make them stand out in the great family
of manuscripts containing Dante’s canzoni. They also serve as a coun-
terbalance to our theory that the precedence of the Vita nuova over the
canzoni in the earlier copies is due to a value judgment, and not just a
chronological or progressive order.
The “Mezzabarba codex” was copied by Antonio Isidoro Mezzabar-
ba (1485/1490–post 1564), a Venetian jurist and poet, in 1509. The
manuscript contains a large collection of early Italian lyrics, regularly
organized by author, which Mezzabarba created by compiling groups of
lyrics he found in his sources.69 It is considered one of the most import-
ant witnesses to the early Italian lyric tradition, along with the original
duecento canzonieri. Signing his volume, Mezzabarba states that he has
copied with high fidelity what he found in “antiquissimi libri” (very old
books).70 As Barbi has observed, Mezzabarba’s sources might not have
been extremely old, as he could have just used a book from the previous
century, which in his eyes would have looked to be very old. His claims
of fidelity are, however, true; Barbi has demonstrated that, concerning
both the texts and the paratexts, he really copied what he found in his
sources.71 As for Dante, the Mezzabarba codex contains a large number
of lyrics constituting the first section of the anthology: twenty-two
181Dante Studies 134, 2016
canzoni and ballads (among which we find the three canzoni distese of the
Vita nuova, and also the ballad from the prosimetrum), the Vita nuova,
and then sonnets and tenzoni.72 The Vita nuova textually derives from
Boccaccio’s copies, while the canzoni do not share this tradition (this is
true also for the rime of the Vita nuova included in the series); here the
prosimetrum is materially close to the textually independent tradition
of its lyrics.73
The series of canzoni and ballads merges the poems from the Vita nuo-
va in the series without any distinction between them. Furthermore, the
ballads—as we have already seen in K—are included in this first series.
In the context of what we have seen so far, what is peculiar, however,
is that the Vita nuova in this manuscript follows rather than precedes
the series of canzoni and ballads.74 Thus, I argue that the position of the
prosimetrum in this manuscript is not neutral, but again indicates a
value judgment: the Vita nuova does not seem to be considered at the
same level as the canzoni and ballads, and thus it follows them in second
position. Indeed, in this codex the authorial series enshrined in the Vita
nuova does not seem to have any priority for Mezzabarba, who places the
prosimetrum—which, since the lyrics of the first part are not copied a
second time, here contains only sonnets—just before the series of son-
nets. In this way, Mezzabarba at the beginning of the sixteenth century
creates a canzoniere that shares the characteristics of the original Italian
canzonieri. It is even more interesting because, at this point, the sonnet
reached a more elevated status, and, as for instance in the 1527 Giuntina,
the poems in various meters are given precedence.
With the exception of the Mezzabarba codex, all the manuscripts we
have analyzed give the Vita nuova a special position: it opens the series
of Dante’s lyrics, in a way that is not possible to consider simple chrono-
logical order, but which suggests a value judgment. In the Mezzabarba
codex, the opening of the sequence of lyrics by Dante might shed new
light on the question. The first two canzoni, Le dolci rime and Così nel
mio parlar, from their incipit are poetic declarations of distance from the
sweet new style of the earlier poems. We then find the usual pair of
moral canzoni Tre donne and Doglia mi reca, followed by Poscia ch’Amor
and Io son venuto. After these first six poems, there seems to be a more
serene sequence focused on love: Voi che ’ntendendo, Amor che movi, Donne
ch’avete, Amor che nella mente, Io sento sì d’Amor. The tone then becomes
more bitter with E’ m’incresce, which is followed by La dispietata mente,
182The “Dante Canon” Banella
Amor, tu vedi ben, Al poco giorno, Donna pietosa, Gli occhi dolenti, Amor da
che convien, Ballata, i’ vo’, Poscia ch’i’ ho perduta (apocryphal), Vertù che ‘l
ciel (apocryphal), and the ballad Voi che savete. Thus, Dante’s canzoni and
ballads seem to be ordered in a sequence according to an approximately
tripartite scheme.75 This is just a general outline of the content of the
series, yet it is enough to suggest Mezzabarba’s intention of collecting
Dante’s poems in a determined sequence. This codex is, therefore, a
very good example not only of the possibilities of meaning that each
scribe could find and improve in lyric sequences, but also of the long-
term failure of Dante’s (and Boccaccio’s) efforts to give an order to this
lyric corpus: in this book the Vita nuova does not have all the lyrics, its
canzoni and ballad are independent from it, and they are interspersed
among the other Dantean lyrics.
Codex Riccardiano 1050, compiled by Antonio Pucci in the
mid-fourteenth century,76 might be interpreted as the opposite of the
Mezzabarba codex. Indeed, in this manuscript the influence of Boccac-
cio’s choices is preponderant.77 This manuscript has been at the center of
the debate concerning whether the order of the fifteen canzoni distese was
created by Boccaccio, or if it reflects an earlier order, perhaps that of the
author. The textual facts suggest that part of the corpus of fifteen canzoni
does not belong to the family of Boccaccio’s manuscripts, implying that
Pucci had found another source with that same order, which would
not be ascribable to Boccaccio. Yet, considering his general behavior, it
seems anything but impossible that Pucci purposely recreated Boccac-
cio’s series of canzoni by Dante using material deriving from different
and various sources.78 Since it has to date been fully explored multiple
times, I will not discuss this issue in depth here. As I have written else-
where, Pucci’s book should be interpreted as one of the major products
of Boccaccio’s intervention in the reception of Dante’s works.79 It is a
compelling example of the tension between the authorial influence of
the editor and the will of Antonio Pucci, a minor intellectual, to fol-
low the instructions of looming intellectuals, such as Boccaccio and of
course Dante himself.
Pucci in his manuscript inserts the Vita nuova between Boccaccio’s
Vita di Dante and Boccaccio’s order of Dante’s fifteen canzoni. The result
is that Dante’s lyric corpus is constituted by the authorial prosimetrum
and the “book of canzoni” with the same order of Boccaccio’s antholo-
gies. Furthermore, although there are notable mistakes, the Vita nuova
183Dante Studies 134, 2016
appears in the same scholastic guise that can be found in Boccaccio’s
copies.80 Pucci adds other texts to the Dantean section, among which
can be found Cavalcanti’s Donna me prega and a group of canzoni by
Petrarch: this selection, even if not completely original, resembles Boc-
caccio’s Chigiano.81 Moreover, Dante’s lyric corpus is not as carefully
selected as Petrarch’s rhymes are in this book. The Vita nuova is the first
among Dante’s texts and it is followed by the canzoni; after that other
texts by Dante appear in a different folio, so that across the Dantean
section there seems to be a progressive disorder. Pucci begins each quire
with one work, and then (as it often happens), he completes the pages
that are left blank with other texts, giving the book the appearance of a
zibaldone. In reality, though, as the beginning of a quire is the strongest
position, the organization of the codex is still recognizably based on
Boccaccio’s canon.82 Much more could be said about this codex, but
what is pertinent here is how Riccardiano 1050 demonstrates both the
significance of the order as a way of classifying and interpreting the
manuscripts and the importance of other factors—such as the prestige
of a selection and/or of a previous editor or scribe—in the creation of a
series, or more generally of an anthology. Indeed, given the ambiguous
textual and contextual data, it is difficult to determine without any rea-
sonable doubt which sources Pucci used. Yet it is certain he was eager
to reproduce an authorized lyric corpus, whether authorized directly by
Dante or mediated by Boccaccio.
*
Leaving aside the dialectics among the authority of the author, the
authoriality of an editor, and the will of the scribes, it is now time to
reflect on the meaning of the Dantean canon in the books analyzed so
far. The Vita nuova offers us a path for understanding the perception of
Dante as a lyric writer in the fourteenth century. At this point, though,
having acknowledged the influence Dante’s choices had on the orga-
nization of the fourteenth-century books witnessing his prosimetrum,
we should recall that the form “Vita nuova + other lyrics by Dante” is
not uncommon—but neither is it prevalent.
Dante’s canzoni, along with his “scattered poems,” are more widely
diffused than the canzoniere linked by prose created by its author, the
184The “Dante Canon” Banella
Vita nuova; so the great majority of extant books contain lyrics by Dante,
among which some can be from the prosimetrum. Numbers show this
difference very clearly: the Vita nuova’s tradition amounts to approxi-
mately fifty codices, a proportion of 1/10 compared to that of the rime,
and 1/3 compared to that of the canzoni.83 The majority of the books
containing the Vita nuova also contain other lyrics by Dante,84 while
there are more than fifty manuscripts containing canzoni by Dante with
lyrics of the Vita nuova.85 This is also true in the case of the Giuntina, the
1527 milestone edition of Italian lyrics: in this edition, Dante’s poems
constitute the first four books out of the eleven composing it; the third
and fourth books of Dante’s lyrics are dedicated to the canzoni, while
the previous two are dedicated respectively to the poems of the Vita
nuova and to the lyrics in other meters.86 In sum, although the authorial
influence by Dante through the organization of his own lyric poetry in
the Vita nuova is evident in fourteenth-century manuscripts, it is far from
being dominant. Instead, the division between the lyrics by Dante and
his other works persists, a division that extends even between the “scat-
tered poems” and the Vita nuova. The “book of canzoni” is, however,
successful. This should lead to some reflection. The Vita nuova itself was
mainly perceived as a canzoniere,87 so that it was anthologized mainly in
canzonieri. But, far more important, its prose sections (both the narrazioni
and the divisioni) were frequently understood as unimportant, and thus
expendable.88 Indeed, there are many codices where we can find just its
lyrics, often included in wider series of other lyrics by Dante and other
authors.89 On the other hand, creating a “book of canzoni” met the
expectations of the public. As is demonstrated by its very late printed
edition in 1576, while some of the canzoni had their princeps in 1491,90
the Vita nuova was not particularly popular, and the codices containing
the prosimetrum are not a substantial number. Dante and Boccaccio’s
experimental ideas in the end were not successful, and readers seem to
have been far more traditional and to have wanted a lyric book, which
could be either strictly divided by meter or not, as in the earlier—and
older—canzonieri. Indeed, Petrarch’s poetry undergoes the same process:
as we have seen, Riccardiano 1050 features just a selection of Petrarch’s
canzoni, while it is not uncommon to find the Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta
completely reorganized, especially later on.91 Thus, in conclusion, we
can say that, globally considered, the history of the tradition shows a
resistance from scribes and readers toward ways of collecting lyric poetry
185Dante Studies 134, 2016
that overstep the idea of the traditional canzoniere, which can be either
arranged by meter or author; also, it seems that, in Italian canzonieri,
any other material that is not lyric tends to vanish.92 This is extremely
interesting not only for understanding the reception of Dante, but also
for interpreting the whole history of the Italian lyric tradition, which
would flourish in Renaissance Petrarchism.
NOTES
1. Dante Alighieri, Rime, ed. Gianfranco Contini (Turin: Einaudi, 1946 [1939]), 9. Unless
otherwise indicated, translations are those of the author.
2. For the importance of Contini’s introduction and its influence on twentieth-century
Dante studies, see Zygmunt G. Barań ski, “Dante poeta e lector: ‘poesia’ e ‘riflessione tecnica’ (con
divagazioni sulla Vita nova),” Critica del Testo 15, no. 1 (2011): 81–110.
3. Dante Alighieri, Rime, ed. Domenico De Robertis (Florence: Le Lettere, 2002), 3 vols.
De Robertis never writes that Boccaccio’s order reflects an authorial series. His demonstration
through textual evidence that the series would have preexisted Boccaccio led other scholars to
hypothesize that Dante could be behind it. Reading between the lines, it seems, however, clear
that De Robertis himself believed that Boccaccio used high quality sources for the compilation
of his Dantean anthologies. Cf. the introduction by Enrico Malato to Dante Alighieri, Vita nuo-
va—Rime, eds. Donato Pirovano and Marco Grimaldi, intr. by Enrico Malato (Rome: Salerno,
2015), XIX–XXXI; and Martin Eisner, Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature: Dante,
Petrarch, Cavalcanti, and the Authority of the Vernacular (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), 68–74. See also Marco Santagata and Domenico De Robertis (interview), “Sul nuovo testo
delle Rime di Dante,” Per leggere 3 (2003): 121–40; Giuliano Tanturli, “Come si forma il libro
delle canzoni?” in Le rime di Dante, Gargnano del Garda (25–27 settembre 2008), eds. C. Berra,
P. Borsa, Quaderni di Acme, 117 (Milan: Cisalpino Istituto Editoriale Universitario-Monduzzi
Editoriale, 2010), 117–34, and Giuliano Tanturli, “L’edizione critica delle rime e il libro delle
canzoni di Dante,” Studi Danteschi 68 (2003): 251–66; Natascia Tonelli, “Rileggendo le rime di
Dante secondo l’edizione e il commento di Domenico De Robertis: il libro delle canzoni,” Studi
e problemi di critica testuale 73 (2006): 9–60; Marco Grimaldi, “Boccaccio editore delle canzoni di
Dante,” in Boccaccio editore e interprete di Dante, Atti del convegno internazionale di Roma, 28–30
ottobre 2013, eds. L. Azzetta, A. Mazzucchi, (Rome: Salerno, 2014), 137–57; Carla Molinari,
“L’edizione nazionale delle Rime di Dante a cura di Domenico De Robertis,” Studi Danteschi, 68
(2003): 235–50; Boccaccio autore e copista. Catalogo della mostra: Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
11 ottobre 2013–11 gennaio 2014, eds. T. De Robertis, C. M. Monti, M. Petoletti, G. Tanturli,
S. Zamponi (Florence: Mandragora, 2013), 255–60. For further discussion, see below.
4. De Robertis dedicates a whole chapter to explain his choices regarding the order he gives
to Dante’s lyrics (Alighieri, Rime, ed. De Robertis, vol. 2.2, 1141–95). There, he also discusses the
different series in which Dante’s rime can be found in the manuscripts. While further exploration
on this topic is desirable, De Robertis created the basis for any other analysis. As for the coexis-
tence of different canons, which combine with each other and are progressively integrated, see
Domenico De Robertis, “Dati sull’attribuzione a Dante del discordo trilingue Aï faus ris,” in Studi
di filologia medievale offerti a D’Arco Silvio Avalle (Milan-Naples: Ricciardi, 1996), 125–45: 125–32.
5. Dante’s reception and the construction of his figure as an author (auctor and auctoritas) have
been traditionally explored from the point of view of the Commedia and of its commentaries.
See at least Carlo Dionisotti, “Dante nel Quattrocento,” in Scritti di storia della letteratura italiana
1963–1971, eds. T. Basile, V. Fera, S. Villari (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2008):
173–212; Simon Gilson, Dante and Renaissance Florence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
186The “Dante Canon” Banella
2005); Cecile Grayson, “Dante and the Renaissance,” in Italian Studies Presented to E. R. Vincent,
eds. C. P. Brand, K. Foster, U. Limentani, (Cambridge: Heffer, 1962), 57–75.
6. The relationship between the Vita nuova as a lyric collection and the other lyric pieces
constituting Dante’s “scattered canzoniere” is not a closed question. In fact, the debate around it
is still very alive today, as is demonstrated by the different solutions adopted by the editors (and
the following discussions) when deciding whether the lyrics comprised in the Vita nuova should
be inserted in a volume called Rime di Dante, and if so in what form. Barolini offers interesting
insights about the anxieties of the editors in Teodolinda Barolini, “Editing Dante’s Rime and
Italian Cultural History: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca . . . Barbi, Contini, Foster-Boyde, De
Robertis,” in Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (New York: Fordham University
Press, 2006), 245–79. To summarize the question in its essential features, so far three main
solutions have been adopted: 1. the elimination of the rime of the Vita nuova (see Contini, and
Giunta, whose commented edition is, however, close to the Vita nuova itself ); 2. the inclusion of
only the texts of the Vita nuova that can be found in an earlier version, prior to the inclusion in
the booklet (see De Robertis); 3. the inclusion of all the lyrics of the Vita nuova (Barbi-Maggini,
Foster-Boyde, Barolini and Pirovano-Grimaldi; Barolini, though, when possible includes only
the earlier version of the lyrics).
7. De Robertis, “Dati sull’attribuzione,” 125–32.
8. Albert Russell Ascoli, Dante and the Making of a Modern Author (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008), 25. Jelena Todorović, Dante and the Dynamics of Textual Exchange (New
York: Fordham University Press, 2016); Wayne Storey, “Di libello in libro: problemi materiali
nella poetica di Monte Andrea e Dante,” in Da Guido Guinizzelli a Dante. Nuove prospettive sulla
lirica del Duecento, eds. F. Brugnolo, G. Peron (Padua: Il Poligrafo, 2004), 284–90; Wayne Storey,
“Following Instructions: Remaking Dante’s Vita Nova in the Fourteenth Century,” in Medieval
Constructions in Gender and Identity: Essays in Honor of Joan M. Ferrante, ed. T. Barolini (Tempe:
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005), 117–32. Cf. Alastair J. Minnis,
Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages. (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988, 2nd ed.).
9. From the textual point of view, the fourteenth-century codices I will consider represent
the main families composing the branches of the Vita nuova’s stemma codicum: Dante Alighieri, La
Vita Nuova, ed. Michele Barbi (Florence: Sansoni, 1932), CXLII–CCLXXII; cf. Dante Alighieri,
Vita nova, ed. G. Gorni (Turin: Einaudi, 1996), 297. As the golden rule recentiores non deteriores
is not entirely valid for the compilation of an anthology, I will not examine the independent
manuscripts of the Vita nuova dating back to the fifteenth and to the sixteenth century; I will
also not consider fragments. A complete and easily accessible list of the manuscripts containing
the Vita nuova, with recent bibliography and a discussion of their textual relationships, can be
found in Donato Pirovano, “Per una nuova edizione della Vita nuova,” Rivista di Studi Danteschi
12 (2012): 248–325; and in Alighieri, Vita nuova-Rime, eds. Pirovano and Grimaldi, 37–43.
10. On the composition and formation of lyric anthologies in the Italian trecento, see Furio
Brugnolo, “Il libro di poesia nel Trecento,” in Il libro di poesia dal copista al tipografo, eds. M. San-
tagata, A. Quondam (Modena: Panini, 1989), 9–23; Giovanni Borriero, “Quantum illos proximius
imitemur, tantum rectius poetemur. Note sul Chigiano L. VIII. 305 e sulle antologie d’autore,”
Anticomoderno 3 (1997): 259–86; Giovanni Borriero, “Sull’antologia lirica del Due e Trecento in
volgare italiano. Appunti (minimi) di metodo,” Critica del testo 2 (1999): 195–219.
11. Dante Alighieri, De Vulgari Eloquentia, ed. Enrico Fenzi, with L. Formisano and F. Mon-
tuori, (Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2012), 160–61. English translation by Steven Botterill (Dan-
te Alighieri, De Vulgari Eloquentia, ed. and trans. Steven Botterill [Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996], 54–55).
12. This is witnessed by the three Italian canzonieri delle origini—L, P, and V. See I canzonieri
della lirica italiana delle origini. IV. Studi critici (Florence: SISMEL—Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2007).
13. MS M was written by six different hands; Bertelli shows that three of them worked
together also in the troubadour chansonnier P (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS
41.42); in particular, the hand which dates P March 28, 1310 wrote the first section of M,
187Dante Studies 134, 2016
containing the Conti di antichi cavalieri (cc. 1–9). As for the second section (cc. 12–51), which
contains the other works (Proverbia Salomonis; Fiori e vita di filosofi e d’altri savi ed imperatori; Espo-
sizione dei sogni, in Latin; Dante, rime; G. Cavalcanti, rime; Caccia da Castello, ballad; Dante, rime;
Esposizione dei sogni, in vernacular; Dante, Vita nuova), two out of the five hands also worked in
P; Bertelli concludes that this section, which contains Dante’s texts, can be surely dated to the
first quarter of the trecento, while the first one to the thirteenth c. ex. or fourteenth c. in. Sandro
Bertelli, “Nota sul canzoniere provenzale P e sul codice Martelli 12,” Medioevo e Rinascimento 18
(2004): 369–75; Sandro Bertelli, I manoscritti della letteratura italiana delle origini. Firenze, Biblioteca
Medicea Laurenziana (Florence: SISMEL—Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2011), 120–22.
14. Arrigo Castellani, “Sul codice Laurenziano Martelliano 12,” in Sotto il segno di Dante.
Scritti in onore di Francesco Mazzoni, eds. L. Coglievina, D. De Robertis (Florence: Le Lettere,
1998), 85–94.
15. See Alighieri, La Vita Nuova, ed. Barbi, XXVII–XXVIII; Alighieri, Rime, ed. De Rober-
tis, 167–69; Pirovano, “Per una nuova edizione,” 297–301. In addition to the given references,
MSS M, S, V, and K are also described on vitanova.unipv.it.
16. Usually the difference between “miscellany” and “anthology” is identified in the inten-
tion of the compiler: if the book contains a corpus selected according to some recognizable
principle, then it is an anthology; on the contrary, a miscellany is a book whose selection of
texts depends only on the will of the compiler or the owner. This common definition, however,
is insufficient in order to comprehend the various array of situations witnessed by manuscripts.
Indeed, if there are some cases that can be confidently identified in one or the other category,
most of them fall between the two; or a book might even comprehend both categories in different
quires, so that the exploration of this type of book is dependent on empirical methodologies. On
the topic see Stephen G. Nichols and Siegfried Wenzel, The Whole Book: Cultural Perspectives on
the Medieval Miscellany (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996); Theo Stemmler, “Mis-
cellany or Anthology? The Structure of Medieval Manuscripts: Ms Harley 2253, for Example,”
in Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, and Social Contexts of British Library MS
Harley 2253, ed. S. Greer Fein (Kalamazoo, MI: Published for TEAMS [The Consortium for
the Teaching of the Middle Ages] in association with the University of Rochester by Medieval
Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000): 111–21; Armando Petrucci, “Intro-
duzione,” in Il codice miscellaneo. Tipologie e funzioni, Atti del convegno internazionale di Cassino
14–17 maggio 2003, eds. E. Crisci, O. Pecere, Segno e testo 2 (2004): 3–16.
17. Earlier canzonieri, such as the three canzonieri delle origini, do not have in their original
structure any text by Dante, except for Cavalcanti’s ballad Fresca rosa novella in P (where it is
attributed to Dante) and Donne ch’avete, which has been added anonymously in V (and attributed
to Dante by a later hand). Roberto Antonelli, “Struttura materiale e disegno storiografico del
canzoniere Vaticano,” in I canzonieri della lirica, 3–24; Giancarlo Savino, “Il canzoniere palatino:
una raccolta ‘disordinata’?,” in I canzonieri della lirica, 301–16; D’Arco Silvio Avalle, “I canzonieri:
definizione di genere e problemi di edizione,” in La critica del testo. Problemi di metodo e esperienze
di lavoro. Atti del convegno di Lecce, 22–26 ottobre 1984 (Rome: Salerno Editrice, 1985), 363–82;
Lino Leonardi, “Creazione e fortuna di un genere: la filologia dei canzonieri dopo Avalle” in
‘Liber,’ ‘fragmenta,’ ‘libellus’ prima e dopo Petrarca. In ricordo di D’Arco Silvio Avalle. Seminario internazi-
onale di studi, Bergamo, 23–25 ottobre 2003, eds. F. Lo Monaco, L.C. Rossi, N. Scaffai (Florence:
SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2006), 3–22; Alighieri, Vita nuova—Rime, eds. Pirovano and
Grimaldi, 406; Justin Steinberg, Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and Writers in Late Medieval
Italy (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2007), 61–94.
18. Borriero, “Quantum illos,” 274–78; Borriero, “Sull’antologia lirica,” 206. Cf. Brugnolo,
“Il libro di poesia”.
19. Brugnolo, “Il libro di poesia,” 20.
20. A canzoniere is usually intended as a collection of lyrics forming a sequence whose meaning
is greater than the meaning of the single pieces; a canzoniere can be put together by an author
with her/his own pieces (Petrarch is certainly the best example), or by someone else; in this
second case, it can contain pieces from one or more authors. The word has, however, a strong
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