| Popis: |
This chapter examines the lessons and life of Brunetto Latini, philosopher, rhetorician, teacher, and statesman, a leading figure in Florentine social life for almost forty years. Brunetto meets the pilgrim in canto fifteen of Inferno. Residing among sodomites in the third ring of the seventh circle of Dante’s hell, the pilgrim recognizes that Latini taught him to make himself eternal. This chapter explains what that suggests in the context of Latini’s exile from and return to Florence, as well as his encyclopedic and philosophical writings. An ongoing, irresolvable scholarly dispute centers on why Dante places Brunetto in the third ring of the seventh circle given we lack any historical evidence that Latini was a sexual sodomite. After sketching divergent interpretations of the narrative in canto fifteen, this chapter evaluates the historical and textual evidence in search of Brunetto’s sin. Finally, I take seriously the possibility that Dante unfairly assesses Brunetto Latini. |
