Dante in dialogue

Chapter 4 concentrates on Dante’s dialogues with and treatment of Guittone, Guinizzelli, and Cavalcanti through the Commedia as well as the Vita nova and Convivio. The chapter highlights the undercutting of Guinizzelli even as he is named as ‘padre’ in Purgatorio. It also makes a case for the proscription of Cavalcanti from the same realm with reference to the early tenzone beginning ‘Guido, i’ vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io’. The chapter sheds new light on the motives for and means of the effacement of Guittone in Dante’s works. These three case studies all support a discussion of the dialogic tensions inherent in these intertextual moments.