PURGATORIO, Episode 189. The Daunting Problem Of This Sweet New Style: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, Lines 55 - 75

Dante the pilgrim has claimed that indeed he is the one who is inspired by love, who writes what love breathes into him and then makes meaning from that.

Bongiunta is not finished with that discussion. Instead, he goes on to name this inspiration the "sweet new style" (or the "dolce stil novo"), thereby igniting over seven hundred years of commentary and controversy.

And Bonagiunta himself seems to throw some fuel on that fire, given his apparent satisfaction with himself. And Dante the poet may add some fuel, too, given his citation of classical sources, hardly breathed-in inspiration.

Join me for this most daunting passage in all of PURGATORIO, striking near the heart of what Dante the poet believes he's doing . . . and what generations of critics and thinkers believe he's doing.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:48] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 55 - 75. If you'd like to read along or to continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:02] Bonagiunta's imaginative landscape: brothers and knots.

[07:17] Bonagiunta's peers (or perhaps his school?): Giacomo da Lentini and Giuttone d'Arezzo.

[11:41] The "sweet new style" and the taproot of Italian literature.

[16:27] Problems with the "sweet new style": its membership, its final relationship to Bonagiunta, and its meaning sewn into the text over generations.

[24:55] Two similes that comment on or even challenge this "sweet new style."

[30:00] Forese's poignant question and its link to INFERNO X.

[31:56] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 55 - 75.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, Lines 55 – 75

“O brother,” he said, “I now see the knot

That held back the Notary, Guittone, and me

On this side of the sweet new style that I hear.

“I completely see how your pens

Go along closely behind the one who gives dictation.

The same certainly can’t be said of ours.

“And whoever sets himself to look more closely

Won’t see any other difference between the one style and the other.”

He then fell silent as if he were content.

As the birds sometimes flock in winter

Along the Nile far up in the air,

Then go in a line to fly off with greater haste,

So [did] all the people who were there,

Turning their faces, picking up their pace,

All because of their leanness and their wish to be lighter.

And as a guy who’s tired from jogging

Lets his friends go ahead while he strolls along

Until the heaving in his chest burns down its fire,

So Forese let the holy flock move on.

He came along with me behind them,

Saying, “When will I see you again?”