I regni danteschi come allegorie della vita civile e dei suoi limiti. Su alcune implicazioni “politiche” della prima ricezione della Commedia

Abstract

According to an ancient interpretive key, the

representations of life after death elaborated by poets are

always allegories of earthly life. The first commentators

of Dante’s Comedy used this key to interpret the three

reigns represented in the poem as allegories of the three

different conditions of living people: the condition of

living people ‘imprisoned’ by sins (Hell), the conditions

of living people that are following a path of conversion

and penitence (Purgatory), the condition of living people

that achieved the perfection in virtues (Paradise). But

concretely, who are the latter? In other words, what does

it mean, according to the first commentators of Dante’s

Comedy, to achieve perfection in this life? The essay

examines the paths through which, in the course of the

Fourteenth Century, Dante’s Paradise is interpreted –

against Dante’s thought – as an allegory of the solitary

life, intended as the place of actualization of a

contemplative perfection which would not be achievable

within civil society.