Gaimari, Giulia; (2018) 'Tutto suo amor là giù pose a drittura'. The concept of justice in Dante's works. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Abstract

My thesis explores Dante’s conception of justice by focusing on the historical, intellectual and political contexts that Dante experienced first-hand, before and after his exile. It concentrates on the relation between Dante’s literary production (both poetic and theoretic) and Florence’s thirteenth-century milieu, dedicating close attention to the ‘civic pedagogy’ championed by Brunetto Latini and Remigio de’ Girolami. In my view, tracing the history of Dante’s idea of justice means assessing its relation to and detachment from Florence’s urban culture, in which ideals and rhetoric(s) of justice circulated incessantly, and evaluating to what extent the presence of this culture, in Dante’s texts, evolves when Dante’s imperial creed becomes explicit. Chapter I (Defining Justice) aims at exploring Florence’s context, and at examining the origin and development of Dante’s speculation on justice. Chapter II (Loving Justice) aims at discussing the constant relation between love and justice, friendship and governance, from the Convivio up to the last cantos of the Paradiso. In this Chapter, I investigate Dante’s promotion of kingship and imperial authority as guarantors for justice and assess to what extent this view depends on Dante’s Florentine formation. Chapter III (Dreaming Justice) explores Dante’s hopes for the restoration of earthly justice in relation to both his personal experience and the well-being of Italy. In this chapter, I discuss Dante’s maximum estrangement from Florence’s ‘municipal’ culture, stressing his awareness of the imperial propagandist and eulogistic traditions. While Chapter I investigates Florence’s thirteenth-century environment most explicitly, all three chapters underscore how this Florentine ideology informs all of Dante’s works. Overall, my thesis aims at bringing to light Dante’s syncretic idea of justice – informed by Aristotle’s ethical system, the Christian message and Cicero’s morality – and at discussing its debt to Brunetto’s and Remigio’s civic education, based precisely upon the employment and re-elaboration of these auctoritates.

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