2 - Convivial Gluttony

Summary

Abstract

This chapter examines representations of gluttony in Dante's early lyric poetry and in his philosophical treatise Convivio. While the early poetry begins to play with the value systems food can express and reinforce, the treatise-as-banquet is where food's many layers of significance become apparent. By taking up food and the human relationship with eating, Dante is able to express his values through each item or practice; more than this, he performs how the act of expression itself can be used to develop communal bonds. Though the treatise would ultimately be abandoned, the scaffolding of the Convivio becomes the through line of the Comedy, enabling Dante to use the everyday realities of food consumption to comment on the means of forming human community and the supernatural mystery of union with God.

Keywords: civic duty, community, hierarchy, identity, power, social values

If Dante's engagement with food has been explored relatively infrequently, his preoccupation with power and station has instead garnered extensive critical attention. There is, however, a popular posthumous anecdote that brings these two themes together, and it suggests that Dante's sensitivity to the way food could be used to wield power and express status was recognized by his contemporary audience. In his late fourteenth-century Novelliere, Giovanni Sercambi recounts an apocryphal tale of a dinner hosted by King Roberto of Naples to which Dante was invited at the king's behest. The poet, arriving in a state of dress unbecoming of the royal court, is seated last and at the least important table, thoroughly ignored by the king. When King Roberto finally bothers to inquire where the great poet might be, Dante has already departed, and a messenger must be sent after him to request his audience once again. This time, Dante returns dressed richly, and he is promptly seated next to the king at the head of the first table. Yet upon being served, the poet splashes his food and wine into his lap, soiling his beautiful clothes while the court looks on in confusion and distaste.