In Conv., II 12 7, when Dante turns to philosophy after the death of Beatrice, from 1291 to 1294-1295, he states that he went là dov’ella si dimostrava veracemente, cioè ne le scuole de li religiosi e a le disputazioni de li filosofanti (“where she showed herself truly, namely in the schools of the religious and the disputations of the philosophers”). These schools have traditionally been identified as certain important studia linked to religious orders active in Florence in the last decades of the thirteenth century: the Dominican school at the convent of Santa Maria Novella, the Franciscan school at Santa Croce and the Augustinian school at Santo Spirito. Very little data is available for this last compared with the other two, whose courses were also open to secular students. It seems likely that Dante’s attendance, although perhaps not constant, took place during the years of his doctrinal apprenticeship. The convent of Santa Maria Novella was in fact a studium in theologia, dominated by the rational-philosophical tradition based on Aristotelian-Thomistic doctrines, and highly influenced by the teachings of the authoritative Remigio de’ Girolami, whose writings present undisputed thematic similarities to Dante’s later writings, above all the Monarchia, although on the basis of current knowledge it is impossible to establish direct links. The teaching at Santa Croce was strongly influenced by symbolic-exegetic epistemologies (the authority of the Bible) prevailing over Aristotelian logic) and by a rigorous form of Franciscan thought whose most prestigious exponent was Pietro di Giovanni Olivi, the author of a famous Lectura super Apocalypsim. While it is clear that the young Dante could not have attended Olivi’s lessons, as has been suggested, he may nonetheless have been familiar with the Franciscan’s writings.
The Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella and the Franciscans of Santa Croce
