Memory

This chapter begins from the image of the book of memory with which the Vita Nova opens in order to demonstrate both the role that it plays in the structure of the libello and its links with the tradition of the art of memory. In the Convivio, memory takes on an ethical dimension, meaning that the writer feels the need to give knowledge to humankind. In the Commedia, memory continues to be essential in the writing of the work, however, it is memory of the other world, which endows it with a new value. The ordered structure of the three realms of the other world is animated by Dante’s encounters with diverse characters, who become in their turn imagines agentes of the sin committed or of the virtue that defined them. Thus, the pilgrim’s journey imprints on his body and mind the memory of divine order and generates an internal transformation.