This is the first edition of the third and final version of Pietro Alighieri's commentary on his father's Divine Comedy. It is precisely the third version that contains a wealth of material not present in the earlier two versions and demonstrates the evolution of Pietro's thought and interpretative skills over a period of some twenty-five years. The reader is able to see how Dante's great poem was interpreted by a learned audience in the first generations of its circulation, and this allows for a greater insight into the meaning of the poem both then and now.

 

The edited text, complete and transcribed directly from the extant manuscripts, is accompanied by a critical apparatus and by an introduction that gives full account of the manuscript transmission, the language and genre of the text and its dating, the relationships among the three different drafts, and the cultural background of Pietro Alighieri, who was active in Verona as a judge, poet, and scholar around 1335-1365.

 

The work as a whole makes a contribution to a number of fields: Dante studies, medieval Latin/Italian literature, commentary tradition, the reception of classical texts in the Middle Ages, as well as medieval studies in general. Although the book is suited for a specialized audience of medievalists, the introduction can be read by any student of the humanities as its scope is not limited to Dante but rather aims at defining the status and character of the "commentary," be it biblical, juridical, or other.