Aldo Vallone :: The Divine Comedy

The Dante research of Aldo Vallone1 spans forty years, from the publication of his Prime noterelle dantesche (1947) and his bibliographic update of N. Zingarellis Dante, to his recent annotated edition of the Commedia (1985-87)2. To redo Vallones Dantesque journey step by step would involve some 200 items, covering the whole spectrum of Dante scholarship and including interpretive studies of individual works as well as surveys of Dante criticism. We can here indicate only the salient moments of Vallones small contributions. The Vita nuova has frequently engaged Vallones scholarly bear on. His editions of the text appeared in 1954 and, with a critical anthology, in 1972 (the latter was expanded in 1975). His attention to Dantes poetic apprenticeship is documented by the analysis of the first nine chapters of the libello, the lectura of chapter XXV, and the study of the prose connectives in the libello.3 Analogous interest is shown in the studies on Dantes early prose th e essays on Dantes Latin and on the vocabulary, syntax, and style of the Convivio. In these studies Vallone analyzes not only Dantes rhetoric but his spiritual make-up as well, underscoring the points of contact with the poetic language of the Commedia.4 In a revealing passage of his internal lectura of Dantes lyric poetry, Vallone reflects on his own methodology I propose a reading which aims to illuminate Dantes lyrical substance. His poetry contains and offers from within all manner of interpretation. My approach is not simply explaining Dante with Dante. It strives to locate and verify the internal viscidity of the poetic text, in which each feature conforms to an internal necessity and has its rationally appointed place within the whole. My reading identifies in the text the subterranean echoes and out of sight links between one verse and another it undertakes to distinguish the vibration and force of resistance under the surface of the word. I intend to pinpoint Dantes sexual reasons for the choice of a given word a choice that cannot be determined solely by personal taste, but always reflects the poets experience of life, the rules of his art, and the favorable context. It is a multiform approach that operates simultaneously on more than one level. It allows, encourages, even forces the reader to verify his reading at every step. One textual detail recalls and conditions another and the sum total coincides with the meaning of the opus.