«M’insegnavate come l’uom s’etterna». Rhetoric, Conversation and Art of Government in the volgarizzamenti of Brunetto Latini

Abstract

The article aims at contributing to focus on the political anthropology of the Florentin proto-humanism, by choosing the work and figure of the rhetoric teacher of Dante, the notary Brunetto Latini. We tackle with the connection between the development of the communal government in the Italy of the Duecento and the spread of a pronounced pragmatic prose style, as it was carried out by judges and notaries of that time, which praises the priority of the practical philosophy against the theory and the theology. We take in consideration also the factors that display the split between the Convivio and the Commedia of Dante and the doctrinal tenets of Latini, underlining Alighieri’s stake in a poetic theology, which contrasts with the immanent life projected by the encyclopedic vision of the world shaped by the notary in his rhetorical and political works.