See Vita Nova, 25 (Frisardi, 36): “Love is not a substance in itself but is an accident in a substance” (“Amore non è per sé sì come sustanzia, me è uno accidente in sustancia.)” See also Dante’s undeclared debate with Cavalcanti, as it emerges in the form of an “ever-present absence” of the “first friend” in the Comedy. 62 Palumbes avis casta ex moribus appellatur, quod comes sit castitatis nam dicitur quod amisso corporali consortio solitaria incedat, nec carnalem copulam ultra requirat.” 61 Columbae dictae, quod earum colla ad singulas conversiones colores mutent aves mansuetae, et in hominum multitudine conversantes, ac sine felle quas antiqui Venerias nuncupabant, eo quod nidos frequentant, et osculo amorem concipiant. ![]() Cuius e contrario columba hospitia humana diligit domorum blanda semper habitatrix. Tecta enim hominum et conversationem fugit, et commoratur in silvis. “60 Turtur de voce vocatur avis pudica, et semper in montium iugis et in desertis solitudinibus commorans. This is found in the descriptions of some wood pigeons in the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville, Liber 12, 7 “De avibus.” Among the characteristics mentioned are modesty and meekness, but also, in the case of doves, proximity to humans. Yet this could precisely be a reason for testing the limits of that approach to literary comparatism and to historicize a century-long debate.Īccording to ancient and medieval ethology, the dove is an animal with a propensity for fidelity. Concepts like “source,” “origin,” “influence,” and “antecedent” have been dominant in this debate. As the Arabic treatise did not have documentable influence either on the Western Arabic world or on medieval Romance literature, the parallel has likely been regarded as less convincing. ![]() The limited circulation of Ṭawq al-Ḥamāma is likely the reason for the scantiness of comparative studies on this topic. Previous attempts to compare the two works have been somewhat fleeting. At the core of this chapter is a reflection on the methods and goals of comparative literature when engaging with “Mediterranean” as a concept. ![]() It contrasts this early work of Dante and an Arabic treatise “on love and lovers,” Ṭawq al-Ḥamāma ( The Dove’s Necklace), likely written two and a half centuries before by the Andalusian exile and theologian Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba. This chapter focuses on Dante’s Vita Nova ( The New Life), a work that precedes and finds retrospective completion in the Divine Comedy.
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