![]() ![]() Ovid appears older and more commanding than Brunetto, and his place at the desk further emphasizes his position of power. This relationship is illustrated in Strozziano 146, which shows Ovid at an imposing writing desk and Brunetto standing before him as his student. Brunetto asks Ovid to instruct him in matters of love, personified by Cupid: “And asked the man himself/ that he should openly /tell me the workings/ both the good and the evil, /of this child with wings” (2364-2369). In the Tesoretto, Brunetto’s teacher is the poet Ovid. Some even argue that he could have been the scribe of a suriving manuscript of the Tesoretto, Strozziano 146. ![]() Dante certainly would have known this work and his self-presentation in the Comedy clearly draws inspiration from Latini’s. Latini carefully inserts himself into a poetic tradition within the course of his poem, just as Dante does in Inferno 4. Latini’s poem, like Dante’s, even begins with the author/protagonist lost in dark wood: “And I, in such anguish, /thinking with head downcast, /lost the great highway, /and took the crossroad /through a strange wood” (184-189). The poem follows in the medieval tradition of philosophical poetry in which a narrator recounts a dream-like vision. The Tesoretto is often recognized as a precursor to Dante’s Divine Comedy. Fresco of San Bargello, attributed to Giotto. This could be a reference to Latini’s encyclopedic work in French, Li Livres dou Trésor, but could also refer to his poem, the Tesoretto. At the end of the canto Brunetto pleads, “Let my Tesoro, in which I still live, /be precious to you and I ask no more” ( Inf 15.118-120). While Dante uses the formal second person pronoun, voi, to address Brunetto, he speaks to Dante using the informal tu, signifying Dante’s deference to his mentor. Brunetto uses “son” as a term of endearment during their encounter ( Inf 15.31, 37), and Dante describes walking beside Brunetto “with head bent low /as does a man who goes in reverence” ( Inf 15.44-45). Readers often notice the tenderness Dante exhibits toward his mentor and the affection Brunetto expresses for Dante. Brunetto Latini appears in Inferno 15 among the sodomites in the seventh circle of Hell. ![]()
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