1907.] on Dante in the Works of Garducci. 523 



for Dante is known to us through all his works, but what is less known 

 is that Boccaccio became as a sort of intennediary l)et\veen the two, 

 whom he considered so much greater than himself, but whom posterity 

 has declared to be his equal. Both Ugo Foscolo and Cesare Cantu 

 have contended that Petrarca was jealous of Dante. You will find 

 in the essay I am alluding to a luminous translation and a penetrating 

 criticism of the celebrated " Lettera Senile," where Petrarca explains 

 how absurd and inconsistent that rumour had been, and, besides, 

 you Avill be able, through many appropriate quotations, to persuade 

 yourself that the later poet paid to the earlier one of the greatest 

 possible compliments by imitating him. 



I would be tempted to give a fuller account of the celebrated 

 discourse, "L'Opera di Dante," which was the only one ever held 

 on the chair of which I have spoken before ; but who could ever sum 

 up a writing so bristling with thoughts without reading it from 

 beginning to end ? Let me just remind you of the preamble in 

 which he describes how the remembrances of the four greatest 

 poetical names of Italy surround the ruins of Canossa, where, he says, 

 the dissents between Church and Empire assumed the appearance of a 

 fatal drama, and of a passage where, though more moderately, are 

 repeated and confirmed the ideas contained in the letter to Adriano 

 Lemmi on the futility to try to constrain Dante into the mould of 

 modern thought : — 



" It is not the case to attempt to find in the Imperial principles of 

 the Alighieri the foundation of the unity of Italy, unless this is 

 included in the wider unity of Christianity. The love for the 

 national idea is shown in the deep feeling of the poet for the 

 glories and misfortunes of Italy, and in the fact that he considered 

 the empire as a Roman institution and as an Italian right. The 

 book of the ' Monarchia ' is the last expression of mediseval political 

 classicism, and it would be injurious to Dante, according to his ideas, to 

 try to discover therein what is called to-day the pagan State or the athe- 

 istic State. But we can derive enough praise by remembering that 

 Dante is our master and father in keeping the Roman tradition of Italy, 

 and that he was the purest and most severe judge of the misgovern- 

 ment of Church people and of the necessity of getting rid of it." 

 After perusing the special works which Carducci consecrated to the 

 study, del Vicin suo grande, as he calls him, it will be of very great 

 interest to you to follow his steps in studying the influence and the 

 efficiency of the poet through more than three centuries of the 

 history of Italian literature. I could not too warmly advise you to 

 very carefully read the four discourses, entitled " Dello svolgimento 

 della letteratura nazionale." Carducci was always averse, and taught 

 us to avoid in the study of literature the general ideas, and to 

 apply to the great masters of the poetical art the systems and the 

 proceedings so usefully employed in our days in natural history. But 

 he sometimes indulged himself in what he disapproved of in young 



