The bumpy path of a Dantism: “bufera”

Abstract

The essay examines the history of the word “bufera” from its first occurrence, in the fifth canto of the Commedia, to the present day: first, it points out how its meaning was unknown to most medieval and Renaissance commentators, who glossed it on the basis of literary sources or even, sometimes, from fanciful assumptions; second, it traces the origin of the word, and the way in which Dante came to know it; third, it reconstructs the long process by which, towards the end of the eighteenth century, “bufera” finally entered the normal Italian lexicon, via the Comedy, but with a meaning partially different from the original one. In conclusion, a hypothesis is formulated as to the reasons why Dante used a term so obscure in his time.