I'm willing to bet he was misremembering the
oft-quoted Brunetto Latini claim, in Li Livres dou Tresor,
that French was the "parleure" "plus delitable et plus commune
a tous langages," to explain why he was writing in it. Nothing
would surprise me more than to find that Dante ever for a
micromillisecond considered writing the Comedy in it.
And yes, the Greenaway TV Dante is in English.
Finally, a couple of months ago I bought the entire Comedy
read aloud in Italian, in the series Antologia Sonora. It was
hideously expensive and the summaries at the beginning of
each canto are irritatingly simplistic, but the readings themselves
are good. Stately.
G. Psaki
>Which brings to mind something that has weighed on my mind for many
>years... About 15 years ago I had the displeasure of meeting a Professor
>of French Literature (an american) with whom I was discussing Dante. He
>told me that it is documented--and for the life of me I have no idea
>where, and neglected to ask him where, it was "documented" because at
>the mention of it caused my thoat to tightened and my blood pressure to
>rise--that it was documented in one of Dante's writings that Dante
>actually intended to write the Commedia in French because he felt he
>would have a broader readership and because Dante himself felt that
>French was a more respectable and more beautiful language.
>I have never had the occasion to run across this "writing" of Dante that
>claims any such thing even remotely. (I have not read all of Dante's
>works.) Can any of the Dante scholars on the list tell me if there is
>any truth in what this French professor claims? Could he have
>misinterpreted something he read in De Vulgari Eloquentia, or something
>one of the personages in the Commedia says? Or is the misinterpretation
>mine?
>If not list worthy would you please respond to me.
>Thank you,
>Robert Colasacco
>
>
>
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