Dante

Indicating the extent of Tasso’s knowledge of Dante’s poetry, studied in depth in his youth, are three different editions of the Commedia filled with Tasso’s annotations, and the large number of citations in his poems, dialogues and discourses on the epic. Tasso also had a thorough knowledge of the entire range of Dante’s works, for alongside the Commedia, read together with sixteenth century commentaries, he read the poems by Dante that were published in the Giuntina di rime antiche. He studied the views on metrical structure and style expounded in De vulgari eloquentia (discussing the work competently and showing a reverent difference of opinion in his dialogue on Tuscan poetry of 1585). He cited the Convivio several times and requested authorization to read the Monarchia, which had been on the Index for over two centuries. His recognition of Dante as founder of Italian literature did not prevent Tasso from expressing doubts concerning his role as a stylistic model. For example, he criticised some of Dante’s lyric poetry, as well as Cavalcanti’s, for an excessive obscurity of precepts brought about by the blending of philosophical doctrine into the poems themselves. He also criticised a lack of respect for decorum, especially in the more “comic” parts of Inferno. The Petrarchan model was more immediately relevant to Tasso’s literary landscape of lyric poetry and epic.