Dear Tor,
I found your more detailed explanations truely enlightening, yet I am still
unconvinced. The reasons why I am unconvinced are the following:
a) You infer too much from your understanding of the context, urging this
context in certain points (especially when you interpret Iacopo's reference
to Fano in the sense that "people in Fano are doing something for him, but
they may not be doing it well enough": as far as Dante's text goes, the
necessity of providing for intercessional prayers is a fact, whereas your
assumption that such prayers are already beeing done for Iacopo is only a
possibility which can be inferred by comparison with the more explicit case
of Buonconte) and using too much psychology in others (esp. in your
interpretation how much the three persons are still concerned or not
anymore concerned with their former lives).
b) You base too much on your assumptions on what Dante would have done or
would not have done. Pia's reference to her husband is placed in the
closing lines of the canto, in the textual position of greatest possible
effect, and we simply cannot expect that Dante never leaves anything to be
figured out by his readers.
c) You still seem to have difficulties to understand the traditional
understanding of the phrasing "salsi colui": these words do **not** express
that Pia's husband knows "who she _is_", but they refer to the preceding
verse which describes who she **was** and how she **died**, and the
traditional reading relates "salsi" especially to this latter point, to her
violent death. It is true that the way how Pia refers to her husband does
not necessarily imply that he was responsible for this violent death, but
in my opinion it would be far more speculative to understand her as
referring to a loving widower who is praying for the salvation of his
somehow violently deceased wife.
d) Lana's words "e seppelo fare si segretamente, che non si sa come
morisse" do not imply that there were no rumours about Pia's death. While
it is possible that Lana and his followers (I have not checked Cioffari's
Anonymus Latinus, who might have a gloss on Pia predating Lana's) inferred
their understanding of Nello's guilt only from Dante's verses, this
possibility nevertheless is only a possibility, and nothing more. As long
as we don't have better, independent sources, these early glosses are the
best we have, not good enough for us to reach a safe understanding of the
'intentio auctoris', but certainly good enough to document how Dante's
contemporaries understood the implications of his verse. And this should
have at least a certain weight, although it cannot be conclusive.
In my opinion, it is obvious from the context that Nello is presented as
one of those who don't care or don't care enough for the salvation of their
former relatives, and there is a good possibility that he is also implied
as being responsible for Pia's death, but I see no way to interpret him as
a caring widower who would not even need Dante-pilgrim's testimony as a
reminder to make him pray for the salvation of his murdered wife.
If you regard our discussion as a quarrel which already exceeds the amount
of time you can to devote to the problem in question, I will of course not
urge you to go on with it. We both have probably said what we have to say.
Notwithstanding our disagreement, you have certainly enriched my
understanding of the episode. I am looking forward to reading your diss (in
the hope that it will be written in a language which I can read...)
Yours,
Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
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