All the animals of the Comedy in one study
Professor Canova of the University of Pisa has collected the approximately 90 animal presences of Dante’s text in a real bestiary
PISA — A real one Dantesque zoowhat populates it Divine Comedy. From wolves to sheep, to lambs, bees, fireflies, snakes, eagles and mythological animals, such as the phoenix and the griffin. All collected within the volume of Professor Leonardo Canovaof the University of Pisa, who was the first to carry out a systematic study of Dante’s animal world.
It’s about the “Comedy onomasiological bestiary“, who analyzed the presence of animals in the absolute masterpiece of the poet, both linguistically and symbolically.
Canova, professor at the University of Pisa where he collaborates in the project Dante hypermedia network and research fellow at the Opera del Vocabolario italiano, he began his research on Dante’s zoo during his doctorate as a student of the prof Fabrizio Francesconi. His thesis, awarded among the 14 best of the University in 2021, has now become a book.
“Even before Dante, there had been many visions of the afterlife, but, if one can say so, those who had been to Hell before the poet had seen far fewer animals – said Canova – Sti mostly deal with real animalsi, even if it must be said that in the Middle Ages the distinction between real and fantastic animals was quite blurred and, for example, the phoenix was believed to existwhile fanciful news also circulated about widespread animals such as the goat or the beaver”.
Canova counted overall about 90 different animals who populate the Comedy and which recur in the text more than 200 times, 600 if the references to the various parts of the body are enlarged, such as the wings or the legs. “The attempt is to investigate Dante’s vast cultural background-she concluded-reconstructing the complex of meanings entrusted to individual beings in medieval culture”.
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