The Italian Research Seminar
Simon Gilson (University of Warwick) - "Reading and Defending Dante in the Florentine Academy: Giovan Battista Gelli's Lectures on Dante (1541-63)"
Thursday March 20, 2014 at 4:30pm in Special Collections, Hesburgh Library
This paper looks at the public readings (1541-63) delivered to the Florentine Academy by the self-taught shoemaker, Giovan Battista Gelli, one of the richest and most complex figures of the period. The papers takes account of the entire corpus of Gelli's lectures in order to explore questions of context, critical methodology, response to Bembo's views on Dante, and dialogue with contemporary academicians. The paper discusses the main styles of reading Dante found in Gelli, as well as exploring the ways in which he enters into dialogue both with the earlier tradition of Dante commentary and a range of contemporary or newly available souces.
Sponsored by the Office of Research and Italian Studies at Notre Dame.