The Dante and Llull symposium took place on February 21st and 22nd at the Universitat de Barcelona. It was divided into four sessions devoted to different aspects of Llull’s and Dante’s thought and work: grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and politics.
In the first panel, Raffaele Pinto stated how Thomas Aquinas’ conception of ‘writing’ as it appears in his Comment is applied to ‘grammar’ by Dante in Vita Nuova, Convivio and De Vulgari Eloquentia. He also dealt with the opposition between Latin (considered a common language, although an artificial one) and vernacular languages. Afterwards, Elena Pistolesi argued that Ramon Llull was not interested in grammar until 1304, once he had already treated the other arts of the Trivium in his works. In spite of this, she listed and explained all the references to grammar in Llull. A lively debate followed.
The next session was about rhetoric. Marcello Ciccuto outlined Dante’s use of poetry in order to talk about universal concepts through daily things and illustrated it with examples from Commedia. Moreover, he noticed the importance that the author gave to language, which should be able to express (if not guarantee) the truth, as it did in the Bible. Regarding Llull, Lola Badia showed how he rethinks and reformulates his conception of rhetoric repeatedly until the so-called retòrica nova (‘new rhetoric’), in which he deals with all kind of texts (sermons). Llull considers that the beauty of a word lies in its meaning, so Jesus Christ is the most beautiful one. In the discussion, Dante and Llull’s understanding of rhetoric were compared and contrasted.
The 22nd February morning session dealt with philosophy and comprised the panels of Juan Varela-Portas de Orduña on Dante, entitled ‘Between the sky and the earth: the tie and the abyss in Convivio’, and of Michela Pereira on Llull, entitled ‘New instruments to think. Ramon Llull and the philosophy’. Varela-Portas talked about the process of knowledge that Dante develops in his Convivio and conceptualized the tie between Human and God as the abyss. Pereira talked about the process of knowledge explained by Llull in his Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus, the main objective of which is the initiation into scholastic science and, at the same time, its overcoming.
The afternoon session was about politics. In his panel ‘Dante Ghibelline’ Enrico Fenzi presents the political ideology of Dante in close relationship with his own conception of the Italian language as the volgare illustre (‘illustrious vernacular’). Some political ‘virtues’, such as shrewdness or force, had been related by Josep Maria Ruiz Simon to the thought of Llull (Llibre de meravelles and Llibre de les bèsties) and Dante, and also to Machiavel’s and Hobbes’ works. In his panel entitled ‘On foxes, lions, wolves and shepherds: dominion and government in the political thought of Llull”, Ruiz presented those questions as an ‘animal fable’ of the ‘mirrors of princes’.
Those present took part in the interesting final discussion and Raffaele Pinto said a few closing words.
Gemma Pellissa Prades and Georgina Rabassó
In the first panel, Raffaele Pinto stated how Thomas Aquinas’ conception of ‘writing’ as it appears in his Comment is applied to ‘grammar’ by Dante in Vita Nuova, Convivio and De Vulgari Eloquentia. He also dealt with the opposition between Latin (considered a common language, although an artificial one) and vernacular languages. Afterwards, Elena Pistolesi argued that Ramon Llull was not interested in grammar until 1304, once he had already treated the other arts of the Trivium in his works. In spite of this, she listed and explained all the references to grammar in Llull. A lively debate followed.
The next session was about rhetoric. Marcello Ciccuto outlined Dante’s use of poetry in order to talk about universal concepts through daily things and illustrated it with examples from Commedia. Moreover, he noticed the importance that the author gave to language, which should be able to express (if not guarantee) the truth, as it did in the Bible. Regarding Llull, Lola Badia showed how he rethinks and reformulates his conception of rhetoric repeatedly until the so-called retòrica nova (‘new rhetoric’), in which he deals with all kind of texts (sermons). Llull considers that the beauty of a word lies in its meaning, so Jesus Christ is the most beautiful one. In the discussion, Dante and Llull’s understanding of rhetoric were compared and contrasted.
The 22nd February morning session dealt with philosophy and comprised the panels of Juan Varela-Portas de Orduña on Dante, entitled ‘Between the sky and the earth: the tie and the abyss in Convivio’, and of Michela Pereira on Llull, entitled ‘New instruments to think. Ramon Llull and the philosophy’. Varela-Portas talked about the process of knowledge that Dante develops in his Convivio and conceptualized the tie between Human and God as the abyss. Pereira talked about the process of knowledge explained by Llull in his Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus, the main objective of which is the initiation into scholastic science and, at the same time, its overcoming.
The afternoon session was about politics. In his panel ‘Dante Ghibelline’ Enrico Fenzi presents the political ideology of Dante in close relationship with his own conception of the Italian language as the volgare illustre (‘illustrious vernacular’). Some political ‘virtues’, such as shrewdness or force, had been related by Josep Maria Ruiz Simon to the thought of Llull (Llibre de meravelles and Llibre de les bèsties) and Dante, and also to Machiavel’s and Hobbes’ works. In his panel entitled ‘On foxes, lions, wolves and shepherds: dominion and government in the political thought of Llull”, Ruiz presented those questions as an ‘animal fable’ of the ‘mirrors of princes’.
Those present took part in the interesting final discussion and Raffaele Pinto said a few closing words.
Gemma Pellissa Prades and Georgina Rabassó
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