Once Again on the Vita Nova as an Elegy: Some Reflections on the Influence of the Biblical-Boethian Elegiac Line
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Abstract
The Vita nova has been convincingly traced back to the elegiac sphere on the basis of the medieval definition of the genre as stilus miserorum, centred on content and tonal rather than stylistic characteristics. One of the most representative texts of the elegiac genre is undoubtedly Boethius’ Consolatio which, by virtue of its prosimetric form and the influence of Conv. II.XII.2, is pointed out as the main model of the Vita nova. In addition to this, the other archetype of the elegiac genre certainly known to Dante is the Bible: recent studies have also increasingly clarified the articulated role played by the Lamentations of Ps. Jeremiah, while variously esteemed is the contribution offered by the Book of Job. This essay aims at re-examining this latter aspect, illustrating how the late thirteenth-century literary predilection for the type of the “sorrowful Job” over that of the “patient Job” reflects the trend of the contemporary biblical exegesis. The contribution also intends to show, starting from the case of the library of Santa Croce, the actuality and diffusion of the elegiac interpretation of the Book of Job, studying its exegesis and the circulation in Dante’s Florence of some elegiac-consolatory texts strongly influenced by the examples of Job and Boethius.
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