The Dante Canon in the Seventeenth Century : A Case Study

The essay focuses on Alfonso Gioia’s Spositione with the aim of reconstructing the peculiarities of the Dante canon in the seventeenth century, a phase traditionally regarded as hostile to the author. In Gioia’s unpublished commentary and further autographs, one can discern traces of an in-depth knowledge of the editions and studies of the Commedia from the previous two centuries, while Vita nuova, Convivio and Rime – all read through the 1527 Giuntina – are compared to the works of other ancient authors and used as a means of defending the poem against its opponents both old and new.