Paris

According to Boccaccio, Dante made a journey to Paris with the intention of hearing about natural philosophy and theology[1]. This information, whose date is difficult to pinpoint exactly, is confirmed by the chronicler Giovanni Villani and other early commentators, although it is not mentioned by Dante’s son Pietro, nor by Leonardo Bruni. Critics have long wondered about the authenticity of the information and, in search of further confirmation have investigated Dante’s entire corpus, without reaching any conclusion: new evidence has always been met with alternative interpretations that argue its limited proof value.

If one excludes the fleeting reference to an uprising of the French against Philip the Fair in Par., XIX 118-20, Dante never mentions Paris in connection with politics or in terms of its influence on Florentine history, but considers it always and exclusively as a cultural and university centre. Thus, when recalling Siger of Brabant, who leggendo nel Vico de li Strami / silogizò invidiosi ver (Par., X 136-38: “lecturing in the Street of Straw, demonstrated invidious truths”), he indicates the exact place in the city where the philosophy schools of the time were located. In Paradiso (XXIV, 46-51), he also shows a certain familiarity with the practice at the Parisian schools: while waiting to be examined by Saint Peter, he compares his own state of mind to that of the bachelor candidate about to be examined by his master; both the image and the terms used to identify the two figures stem from the French university domain. However, there have also been those who claim that the poet could have obtained this information at the Santa Maria Novella from Remigio de’ Girolami, who had spent some time teaching at Paris. Similarly, the reference to the story of Hugh Capet in Purgatorio XX 52 is held by some to point to Dante’s familiarity with the Chanson de Huon Capet or other histories of the French Kingdom, rather than an actual visit to Paris.

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[1] G. Boccaccio, Esposizioni sopra la Comedia, a cura di G. Padoan, Milano, Mondadori, 1965, p. 8.