Consolarsi in volgare. Rifacimenti boeziani nella Firenze di Dante

The present article examines the Tuscan-Florentine vernacular tradition of the Consolatio philosophiae outlining the historical context of the reception of the Latin prosimetrum in thirteenth-century Florence. We focus on the legal-notarial intellectual milieu in which – following the teachings by Brunetto Latini – Dante’s encounter with the original Latin source and the medieval French tradition of Boethius probably took place. Emphasis is placed on the echoes of the Consolatio, which can be traced in the work by the judge Bono Giamboni (a near contemporary of Dante), as well as on an unprecedented Florentine version of Boethius’ prosimetrum, containing evident resemblances with the structure of Dante’s Vita Nova.