“Dantes Dicit.” Notes on Dante as Auctoritas in the Medieval Academic Community

Abstract

Dante’s articulate and sometimes critical attitude towards the academic community is evident in several of his works, specifically in Paradiso. To understand the actual extent of this ‘anti-academic’ attitude, this study considers the magistri of the higher schools and the holders of university chairs to observe their position regarding the Commedia. The study aims to ascertain whether the poem was regarded as a teaching text in the 14th and 15th centuries, and particularly whether it was referred to in the textual hermeneutics practiced in lectio. The analysis examined the utilization of the Commedia within schools and universities as an authoritative text in the commentary on the canon of the auctores maiores. The inclusion of Dante’s glosses in various manuscripts recalled to provide erudite data, lexical interpretations, exempla, and sententiae, reflects the progressive integration of the poem within the academic community. This integration signifies its acknowledgment among the auctores employed in exegetical practices, a phenomenon observed across various geographical regions as evidenced by the analyzed manuscripts.