The Vernacular Roots of Dante's Reading of Ovid in the Commedia

This essay re-examines the role of Ovid in Dante's Commedia, complementing the traditional comparisons between Dante's verses and Ovid's Latin texts with a different source of Ovidian influence: the references to the Latin poet in Italian vernacular lyric poetry. Finding several precedents for Dante's treatment of Ovidian material in the Commedia in the poetry of his predecessors and contemporaries, this essay argues that Dante's Ovidian sources consist of both Ovid's Latin texts and Ovidian readings in vernacular lyric poetry. Through the analysis of a main feature of such vernacular readings, the evaluation of Ovid's authority in matters of love in sonnet exchanges, I illustrate the vernacular roots of Dante's reading of Ovid in the Commedia, and show how Dante draws on the Latin and vernacular Ovidian traditions to define his writing in the Commedia.