The Banquet of Dante

Extract

There may be some readers of the Commedia who are not familiar with the Convivio, or ‘Banquet’ ; the unfinished philosophical commentary on certain of his odes, which Villani called ‘a beautiful, subtle and very great work.’ And yet its medieval lore, its depth of feeling and (for those who read Italian) its wonderful word-music render it as fascinating as the love-story of the Vita Nuova which Rossetti popularised. One may therefore perhaps venture to introduce such readers to its Fourth Book, in which Dante discourses of ‘true nobility.’

Its title is Contra gli erranti, ‘Against the erring ones,’ which he takes, he says, ‘from the example of the good brother Thomas of Aquino, who gave to a book which he wrote for the confusion of all who depart from our faith the title Contra Gentili.’ He undertakes a mighty work, grande e alta opera, and one that has rarely been handled by others, viz. to examine what constitutes natural nobility. To understand this potenza di natura is all-important, because our mistakes about it lead to the confusion of moral values in our social estimates.

‘There was a certain emperor ‘—he is referring to that brilliant ‘stupor mundi,’ Frederick the Second, Barbarossa’s grandson, whose authority as arbiter of Sicilian taste was as great as his cunning in deceiving the Holy See—’ who was once asked : What is gen-tilezza?’ We English have no word for gentilezza, because we have not enough regard for the quality it

signifies, the quality which is connoted in ‘gentlefolk/ Elsewhere Dante uses the word nobilta, nobleness, as its synonym.