Dante ''Romance Philosopher''

This note intends to present methodological elements for describing a new field of research that is called ''Romance Philosophy''. That Dante knew the Romance tradition first hand is an established fact. The thesis advanced here is that this familiarity and knowledge should qualify the interpretation of his thought. Dante reveals a peculiar disposition in the search for truth; his intellectual drive seems from the evidence gathered to have been first absorbed through the courtly literatures and only indirectly from other traditions and 'cultures' (e.g., scholastic philosophy, vernacular religious culture, monastic tradition, and civic thought). Read in this way, Dante directs us to unearth with systematic precision a genuinely philosophical, multilingual, thematically sectorial medieval tradition, focused on dominant problems (e.g. love, honor, play, election) and transmitted through specific literary genres and templates.