Ottimo Commento alla “Commedia.”
Giovanni Battista Boccardo, Massimiliano Corrado, and Vittorio Celotto, eds.

Chiose sopra la “Comedia.”
Ciro Perna, ed.
Edizione Nazionale dei Commenti Danteschi, 16. Rome: Salerno, 2018. 3+1 vols. 2800 pp. €290. 

Twenty years ago, a group of Italian philologists led by Enrico Malato and Andrea Mazzucchi began a project of crucial importance for modern Dante studies: the complete edition of the ancient commentaries of the Commedia (‘Edizione Nazionale dei Commenti Danteschi’). Since 2001, philological editions of many texts devoted to explaining Dante’s poem have been published, such as the ‘Commenti’ by Cristoforo Landino, Alessandro Vellutello, Iacomo della Lana and Andrea Lancia. The Salerno publishing house has now published in three volumes, the work that is traditionally known as the Ottimo Commento [the ‘Excellent Commentary’], a name assigned by the Accademia della Crusca in 1612 to highlight the enormous prestige of this ancient text (1334ca.).

The first (and so far, only) printed edition of the Ottimo was published in Pisa between 1827-29 by Niccolò Capurro and edited by the Veronese scholar Alessandro Torri. Unfortunately, the text edited by Torri was based only on a single witness, a copy of a manuscript housed at the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence compiled in 1816 by the priest Bartolomeo Follini. Consequently, Torri’s edition was full of transcription errors and interpretive oversights.

This new version of the Ottimo, edited by three young Italian philologists—Giovanni Battista Boccardo, Massimiliano Corrado, and Vittorio Celotto, represents the first critical edition of the most important fourteenth-century Florentine commentary of the Commedia, based on the analysis of 49 manuscripts. As pointed out by the curators in the Introduction, the Ottimo is a work that is characterized by constant comparison with all the previous exegetic traditions relating to Dante’s poem. In many parts of the text, the anonymous author explicitly compares the interpretations of several previous commentaries: the notes to the Inferno by Jacopo Alighieri (1322ca.), the vernacular commentary by Iacomo della Lana, the Latin expositio of the Inferno by Graziolo Bambaglioli (1324), the Chiose Palatine (before 1333), etc. This characteristic makes the Ottimo a global work, which seeks to take stock of the situation over a young but already established literary genre such as the commentaries on the Commedia.

Despite this clear compilatory tendency, the Ottimo Comento remains an original work, and its author frequently states his opinion on specific interpretations and disagrees with other commentators. In this regard, it may be useful to look at the example of the commentary of Inf. 13.91-108 (p. 218), in which the anonymous commentator denigrates Graziolo Bambaglioli’s interpretation of the punishment of suicides after the universal judgment, which he defines as useless. However, the Ottimo does not comment on the verses of the Commedia only with regard to the exegetical tradition. In many cases, In many cases, the author displays great familiarity with Dante’s works. He is familiar both with a not easily accessible treatise such as the Convivio and with the text of the Vita nuova. For example, in the comments of Inf. 7.73-80 and 9.91-93, the author quotes the canzone ‘Voi che ’ntendendo il terzo ciel movete’ (pp. 174, 217), while in the glossa on Inf. 1.91-105 he transcribes the verses 70-72 of Tre donne intorno al cor mi venute (p. 32).

In addition to the genuinely extraordinary knowledge about Dante’s writings and his commentators, the author of the Ottimo indicates that he also enjoyed a privileged relationship with the exul immeritus. Indeed, in two passages of the commentary, he claims to have spoken directly with the poet. Specifically, in the glossa of Inf. 10.85-87 he states that he heard Dante affirm that the use of the word in rhyme tempio in place of chiesa was not a choice dictated by reasons of a metrical order but a selection involving a precise metaphorical intent. Similarly, the author claims to have learned from Dante’s voice the legend that circulated in Florence about the statue of Mars, the ancient protector of the city, mentioned in Inf. 13.146-47 (p. 322).

Precisely where and when the author of the Ottimo met Dante is difficult to establish, since every reference in the commentary refers to Dante speaking about the Commedia. Since the poet never returned to Florence after his conviction, in 1302, the two likely met in Northern Italy during Dante’s exile. What is certain is that the author of the Ottimo belonged to that group of Florentine devotees of Dante who, in the first half of the fourteenth century, gave rise to an exegetical movement aimed at spreading and promoting the work of their illustrious fellow citizen. Thanks to the work of these researchers, today we can read in a genuinely ottima and philologically impeccable version one of the most exceptional texts of the Dantean exegetical tradition. This monumental work is also accompanied by the edition of a supplemental commentary, the so-called Amico dell’Ottimo [‘The Friend of the Ottimo’], beautifully edited by Ciro Perna, who based his edition on the analysis of four manuscripts.

The publication of these two works is an event to be welcomed with great enthusiasm. Both the critical editions not only contribute to the reconstruction of the extraordinary exegetical tradition of the Commedia in the years following Dante’s death, but also remind us of the need to have philologically accurate editions of the texts linked to this tradition, especially in an age like ours, rich in new ideas on the interpretation of Dante’s work.

Natale Vacalebre, University of Pennsylvania