Dante and the lyric past

Dante's love and the creation of a new poetry.

“…Then the knight would offer to do whatever the lady might wish, however difficult or trifling, and he would honor her. In return there was expectation of a reward (Provençal guerdon , Italian guiderdone , see, e.g., Barolini, 1993) that might be sexual, that might be conversation in which the lover came to know his lady, or that might be a little as a glance of approval. These practices gave rise to some of Europe's finest poetry of the time, such as the story of Lancelot and his love for Guinevere, wife and queen of King Arthur, told by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes, (1180/1990), in “The Knight of the Cart.” It is thought that among the effects of these practices were beginnings of a civilizing process, and the words “courtship” and “courtesy” derive from this process.…”

“…Teodolinda Barolini (1993) cites, for instance, a sonnet by da Lentini that begins as follows: Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire , Com'io potesse gire in paradiso ,(I have proposed in my heart to serve God that I might go to paradise, p. 15.…”

“…Guinizzelli's canzone Al Cor Gentil Rempaira Sempre Amore [In the Noble Heart Love Always Finds a Place]…argues that the noble lover should obey his lady in the same way that the angelic intelligence obeys God, thus implicitly setting up analogies between the lover and heavenly intelligence on one hand, and the lady and God on the other. (Barolini, 1993, p. 20)…”

“…No one was going to object to comparing love of a lady with love of philosophy, but comparing carnal love with the love of God was more dangerous. Conscious of the potentially blasphemous nature of this idea, in the final stanza of “ Al Cor Gentil ” (“In the Noble Heart”) Guinizzelli imagines the time when he will come before God in Judgment, when God will accuse him: “How did you presume?” says God, to render “me through the likenesses of vain love?” The poet replies that since his lady had the semblance of an angel, a member of God's kingdom, “it was no fault of mine if I placed love in her” (Barolini, 1993, p. 20).…”

Popularizing Paradiso: On the Difficulties of Podcasting Dante’s Most Academic Canticle

“…The images, sounds, and community of thinkers accessible in a resource like Digital Dante are so vivid that they can even create a sort of "virtual reality" that can really bring Dante to life for a contemporary reader (Kumar 2021, p. 107). In particular, though, the Commento Baroliniano, and its adjoining classroom lectures by Teodolinda Barolini are of the utmost interest to this study (Barolini 2014). Just like Barolini, I, too, have constructed a "Dante Course", though hers is 54 lectures long, and my own is only 42, and though her lectures were given at Columbia University, mine were given in a non-university setting and for the general audience.…”