Il 'poeta' e il 'filosofo': fortuna e ricezione di Guido Cavalcanti tra Tre e Cinquecento

This work proposes an investigation into the various forms of presence and reception of Cavalcanti’s work and memory over the three centuries following his disappearance. The research is structured by identifying the most impactful manifestations of the authorial figure of Cavalcanti and the influence exerted by the corpus of his poems, including the distinctive contribution of the renowned doctrinal song "Donna me prega", within the literary tradition and material witnesses of the transmission of his work. The diachronic journey through the considered centuries allows for the assessment and interrelation of the different modalities defining the relationship maintained by emblematic cultural personalities with Cavalcanti’s erotic philosophy, along with the impact of his stylistic influence on the lyrical production of some exemplary authors. These two areas find expression in the plurality of attitudes towards the ‘authority’ of Cavalcanti, variously emphasized or rejected depending on the evaluative paradigm adopted towards the ‘ancient’ vernacular poets. The philological attention directed towards the most relevant testimonies of the transmission of his poems, engages with the hermeneutic part and often complements its examination, as the existence and nature of such representatives are shaped by causal relationships. Revisiting the diverse interpretations and semantic shifts surrounding "Donna me prega" and its philosophical assumptions also allows for tracing the developments of the reflection on 'eros' characterizing the literary reality under examination. This renewed interest involves Cavalcanti’s erotic doctrine, starting from Ficino’s exegesis, and reintegrates it into the realm of didactic texts, as evidenced by numerous sixteenth-century ‘expositions’ of his verses. The various Aristotelian or Neoplatonic readings, not devoid of syncretic inspirations, are related to the orientations and developments of the Academies that often define the cultural background of the expositor, as well as to the broadly considered political-cultural environment in which the exegesis originates. To facilitate the comparison of different expositions of the Cavalcantian text in the sixteenth century, a synoptic-interpretative table has been arranged for notable 'loci'. The analysis of formal and conceptual impact on the remaining production, investigated through exemplary authors, interacts with their relationship with Cavalcanti’s conception of love. It also reveals the influence exerted by some of his stylistic devices and images that persist in representatives of our literature. The result is a composite picture that attests to the initial consideration and fame enjoyed by the author, highlights the probable factors marking his fluctuating re-proposition as a model within the canon of vernacular poets, and explores the diverse positions assigned to him in discussions about the definition of the characteristics that Italian literature must embody.