Comento sopra la Comedia (review)

Few commentaries to the Commedia can boast the spectacular launch that accompanied the publication of Landino's Comento sopra la Comedia. Presented to the Florentine signoria on 30 August 1481, in a sumptuous edition with engravings based on drawings by Botticelli, and reprinted no fewer than fifteen times, this commentary quickly eclipsed all previous expositions of the poem. Notwithstanding its immense success, no Dante commentary of this magnitude has languished longer without a modern critical edition.

Paolo Procaccioli's handsome four-volume set brings an end to this lamentable situation. Among the tables, lists, and appendices scholars will find Landino's oration to the Florentine signoria from the presentation volume, notes onLandino's Italian, a description of the 157 most well-known copies of the 1481 edition, a list of thirty-four additional editions, beautiful reproductions of Baccio Baldini's twenty-one engravings, a glossary of words and literary terms defined by Landino, and an index of authors and places cited. The notes to each canto identify works and authors mentioned by Landino and record his adaptations of glosses from earlier commentators. While there are some omissions, notably of Landino's adaptations of sources taken from earlier commentaries, these materials will greatly enhance future assessments of Landino's contributions to the exegetical tradition on the Commedia in particular and Florentine civic culture in particular. These materials will greatly enhance future assessments of Landino's contribution to the exegetical tradition on the Commedia in particular and Florentine civic culture in general.

Procaccioli's introduction deserves special notice. Divided into four sections on Dante and Florence, Landino esegeta, the history and structure of the Comento, and moments in the fortuna of the Comento, it expands on Procaccioli's earlier study, Filologia ed esegesi dantesca nel Quattrocento: L'Inferno nel 'Comento sopra la Comedia' di Cristoforo Landino (1989), as well as incorporates recent work by other critics. The introduction will be of greatest interest to specialists already familiar with criticism on Landino and the commentary tradition to the Commedia. As Procaccioli makes clear, he has no interest in providing a general introduction to this commentary or in summarizing subjects that have already received ample attention. Those interested in Landino's biography, the extent of his dependence on earlier commentators, his merits as a Dantista, or the implications of the famously nationalistic proemio, should consult earlier studies by Roberto Cardini, Manfred Lentzen, Frank La Brasca, Emilio Bigi, and Aldo Vallone. While those unfamiliar with the critical tradition of Landino's Dante commentary may feel that they have been thrown into a thicket of complex critical issues, specialists will appreciate the way in which Procaccioli augments our understanding of the particular sociocultural world which gave rise to the Comento.

Procaccioli's observations in the introduction go far beyond his earlier book. While the concerns addressed in the earlier study were largely philological, those discussed in the introduction are decidedly political. Particularly insightful are Procaccioli's observations on the very different aims of the "private" Studio lectures and the "public" promotion of Dante, namely the fanfare surrounding the publication of the Comento. This elaborate production represents the culmination of a process, consolidated under Lorenzo's reign, whose ultimate aim was the affirmation of Florence's most illustrious vernacular authors. The crowning achievement of this tradition was the Commedia, deemed by Procaccioli, a "summa del sentire cittadino." Procaccioli is not the first critic to make this point. His contribution lies in detailing the activities within Florence that contributed to the elucidation of the poem between Boccaccio's 1374 public lectures and the 1481 publication of the Comento, a period of Dante's fortuna that has received little critical attention. Earlier scholars, notably Carlo Dionisotti and Roberto Cardini, focused largely on the impact of external forces leading to the 1481 publication, such as Martino Nidobeato's elevation of the Bolognese dialect in the preface to the 1478 edition of Jacopo della Lana's commentary...