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Das Schreiben an Cangrande della Scala (Philosophische Bibliothek)
German
- GenresNonfiction
253 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1316
About the author
Dante Alighieri
4,601 books6,385 followersDante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the story-teller, Boccaccio, and the poet, Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.
Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.
Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.
Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.
Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 23, 2020
"Letter to Can Grande della Scala" is a letter containing critical subjects written by Dante Alighieri on his "Divine Comedy," particularly the Paradise part, to Can Grande.
The most important thing with Dante's debate in this letter is that he attempts to introduce the allegorical interpretation alongside the literal one.
The literal sense in every literary work deals with the content of the text, while the allegorical (symbolic I say) sense deals with what is signified by the text.
In this regard, Dante can be assumed to be the first person who compiled, not invented, the symbolic interpretation of literary works theoretically.
This notion leads to the fact that literary works have ambiguous natures and there are no single interpretations for literary works and multiple interpretations can be received from them. However, this notion didn't last so long after Dante, and with the coming of Renaissance, it faded away. But its potential power of interpreting literary works did find its position in the world of literary criticism far long after Dante in the debates of Northrop Frye, William Empson, etc., in the middle of 20th century.
Highlights:
As the Philosopher says in the second book of the Metaphysics, "As a thing is with respect to being, so it is with respect to truth", and the reason for this is that the truth concerning a thing, which consists in the truth as its subject, is the perfect image of the thing as it is.
... Because such things depend for their being upon another thing, it follows that their truth would depend upon the truth of the other.
Therefore, if one should wish to present an introduction to a part of work, it is necessary to present some conception of the whole work of which it is a part.
There are six questions, then which should be asked at the beginning about any doctrinal work: what is its subject, its form, its agent, its end, the title of the book, and its branch of philosophy. In three cases the answers to these questions will be different for the part of the work I propose to give you than for the whole, that is, in the cases of its subject, form, and title, while in the other three, as will be clear upon inspection, they will be the same.
For the clarification of what I am going to say, then, it should be understood that there is not just a single sense in this work: it might rather be called polysemous, that is having several senses. For the first sense is that which is contained in the letter, while there is another which is contained in what is signified by the letter. The first is called literal, while the second is called allegorical, or moral, or anagogical.
[An Example:] "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, Jueda was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion." Now if we look at the letter alone, what is signified to us is the departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt during the time of Moses; if at the allegory, what is signified to us is our redemption through Christ; if at the moral sense, what is signified to us is the convention of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace; if at the anagogical, what is signified to us is the departure of the sanctified soul from bondage to the corruption of this world into the freedom of eternal glory... they may all be called allegorical.
This being established, it is clear that the subject about which these two senses play must also be twofold. And thus it should first be noted what the subject of the work is when taken according to the letter, and then what its subject is when understood allegorically.
And the form is twofold: the form of the treatise and the form of the treatment.
The title of the work is, "Here begins the Comedy of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth but not in character." To understand the title, it must be known that comedy is derived from comos, "a village," and from oda, "a song," so that a comedy is, so to speak, "a rustic song." Comedy, then, is a certain genre of poetic narrative differing from all others. For it differs from tragedy in its matter, in that tragedy is tranquil and conductive to wonder at the beginning, but foul and conductive to horror at the end, or catastrophe, for which reason it is derived from tragos, meaning "goat," and oda, making it, as it were, a "goat song," that is, foul as a goat is foul.
Comedy, on the other hand, introduces a situation of adversity, but ends its matter in prosperity, as is evident in Trence's comedies.
Tragedy uses an elevated and sublime style, while comedy uses an unstudied and low style.
So from this it should be clear why the present work is called the Comedy. For, if we consider the matter, it is, at the beginning, that is, in Hell, foul and conductive to horror, but at the end, in Paradise, prosperous, conductive to pleasure, and welcome. And if we consider the manner of speaking, it is unstudied and low, since its speech is the vernacular, in which even women communicate.
If the subject of the work, in literal level, is the state of souls after death, in an absolute, not in a restricted sense, then the subject of this part is the same state, but restricted to the state of blessed souls after death. And if the subject of the whole work, considered allegorically, is man, through exercise of free will, earning or becoming liable to the rewards or punishments of justice, then it is evident that the subject in this part is restricted to man's becoming eligible, to the extent he has earned them, for the rewards of justice.
If the form of the whole treatise is threefold, then the form in this part is twofold, that is, the division into cantos and into rhymed units.
The title of the book also follows; for while the title of the whole book is, as was said earlier, "Here begins the third canticle of Dante's Comedy, etc., which is called Paradise."
The agent, then, in the whole and in the part, is he who has been mentioned above; and he is clearly so throughout.
The end of the whole and of the part could be multiple, that is, both immediate and ultimate. But, without going into details, it can be briefly stated that the end of the whole as of the part is to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and to lead them to the state of happiness.
The branch of philosophy which determines the procedure of the work as a whole and in this part is moral philosophy, or ethics, inasmuch as the whole and this part have been conceived for the sake of practical results, not for the sake of speculation.
The most important thing with Dante's debate in this letter is that he attempts to introduce the allegorical interpretation alongside the literal one.
The literal sense in every literary work deals with the content of the text, while the allegorical (symbolic I say) sense deals with what is signified by the text.
In this regard, Dante can be assumed to be the first person who compiled, not invented, the symbolic interpretation of literary works theoretically.
This notion leads to the fact that literary works have ambiguous natures and there are no single interpretations for literary works and multiple interpretations can be received from them. However, this notion didn't last so long after Dante, and with the coming of Renaissance, it faded away. But its potential power of interpreting literary works did find its position in the world of literary criticism far long after Dante in the debates of Northrop Frye, William Empson, etc., in the middle of 20th century.
Highlights:
As the Philosopher says in the second book of the Metaphysics, "As a thing is with respect to being, so it is with respect to truth", and the reason for this is that the truth concerning a thing, which consists in the truth as its subject, is the perfect image of the thing as it is.
... Because such things depend for their being upon another thing, it follows that their truth would depend upon the truth of the other.
Therefore, if one should wish to present an introduction to a part of work, it is necessary to present some conception of the whole work of which it is a part.
There are six questions, then which should be asked at the beginning about any doctrinal work: what is its subject, its form, its agent, its end, the title of the book, and its branch of philosophy. In three cases the answers to these questions will be different for the part of the work I propose to give you than for the whole, that is, in the cases of its subject, form, and title, while in the other three, as will be clear upon inspection, they will be the same.
For the clarification of what I am going to say, then, it should be understood that there is not just a single sense in this work: it might rather be called polysemous, that is having several senses. For the first sense is that which is contained in the letter, while there is another which is contained in what is signified by the letter. The first is called literal, while the second is called allegorical, or moral, or anagogical.
[An Example:] "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, Jueda was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion." Now if we look at the letter alone, what is signified to us is the departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt during the time of Moses; if at the allegory, what is signified to us is our redemption through Christ; if at the moral sense, what is signified to us is the convention of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace; if at the anagogical, what is signified to us is the departure of the sanctified soul from bondage to the corruption of this world into the freedom of eternal glory... they may all be called allegorical.
This being established, it is clear that the subject about which these two senses play must also be twofold. And thus it should first be noted what the subject of the work is when taken according to the letter, and then what its subject is when understood allegorically.
And the form is twofold: the form of the treatise and the form of the treatment.
The title of the work is, "Here begins the Comedy of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth but not in character." To understand the title, it must be known that comedy is derived from comos, "a village," and from oda, "a song," so that a comedy is, so to speak, "a rustic song." Comedy, then, is a certain genre of poetic narrative differing from all others. For it differs from tragedy in its matter, in that tragedy is tranquil and conductive to wonder at the beginning, but foul and conductive to horror at the end, or catastrophe, for which reason it is derived from tragos, meaning "goat," and oda, making it, as it were, a "goat song," that is, foul as a goat is foul.
Comedy, on the other hand, introduces a situation of adversity, but ends its matter in prosperity, as is evident in Trence's comedies.
Tragedy uses an elevated and sublime style, while comedy uses an unstudied and low style.
So from this it should be clear why the present work is called the Comedy. For, if we consider the matter, it is, at the beginning, that is, in Hell, foul and conductive to horror, but at the end, in Paradise, prosperous, conductive to pleasure, and welcome. And if we consider the manner of speaking, it is unstudied and low, since its speech is the vernacular, in which even women communicate.
If the subject of the work, in literal level, is the state of souls after death, in an absolute, not in a restricted sense, then the subject of this part is the same state, but restricted to the state of blessed souls after death. And if the subject of the whole work, considered allegorically, is man, through exercise of free will, earning or becoming liable to the rewards or punishments of justice, then it is evident that the subject in this part is restricted to man's becoming eligible, to the extent he has earned them, for the rewards of justice.
If the form of the whole treatise is threefold, then the form in this part is twofold, that is, the division into cantos and into rhymed units.
The title of the book also follows; for while the title of the whole book is, as was said earlier, "Here begins the third canticle of Dante's Comedy, etc., which is called Paradise."
The agent, then, in the whole and in the part, is he who has been mentioned above; and he is clearly so throughout.
The end of the whole and of the part could be multiple, that is, both immediate and ultimate. But, without going into details, it can be briefly stated that the end of the whole as of the part is to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and to lead them to the state of happiness.
The branch of philosophy which determines the procedure of the work as a whole and in this part is moral philosophy, or ethics, inasmuch as the whole and this part have been conceived for the sake of practical results, not for the sake of speculation.
September 30, 2021
Even though it can be a bit dense this is a good introduction to Dante's theories behind Paradiso.
January 5, 2026
L'he llegit perquè la meva professora de grans obres la va mencionar a classe. Estupendu Dante. Costa d'entendre algunes parts pero olé.
February 22, 2016
Read James Marchand's translation on Georgetown U's website. Think I'll get to teach Dante in Asia next fall!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews