Dante Alighieri and the Epistle to Cangrande - a two-century debate

From Scolari to artificial intelligence

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34024/prometeica.2025.32.20158

Keywords:

latin works of Dante Alighieri, computational authorship verification, cursus, medieval Latin prose

Abstract

The article titled "Dante Alighieri and the Epistle to Cangrande: A Two-Century Debate" aims to outline the complex history of an issue that, from the philologist Scolari to the latest contributions of artificial intelligence, marked important milestones in the valuation given to Dante's work from countless exegetical approaches. It could even be asserted that this epistolary reference encompasses most of the interpretive lines arising from Dante's complex body of work, including the Divine Comedy, and is offered as a touchstone to verify intuitions, achievements, and openings that have yet to be resolved in the vast landscape currently available.

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Author Biographies

  • Patrizia Di Patre, Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador

    Philologist and literary critic, Doctor of Letters from the University of Florence and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the Pontificia Università Urbaniana. She is a highly productive lecturer and researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. She has published in a conspicuous number of leading international journals both in the field of Italian philology and Hispanic literature. His production currently totals around a hundred works, including articles, books and book chapters. He has given seminars on invitation (mostly for teachers and doctoral students) at the following Italian universities: Catholic University of Milan, State University of Milan, Scuola Normale Superiore - Pisa, University of Macerata, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Pontifical Theological Faculty ‘Teresianum’, Pontifical University ‘Antonianum’, Pontifical Lateran University. Through the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, he has directed three congresses on Dante Alighieri of great international scope. He is a member of the Ibero-American Network of Humanism, Renaissance and Baroque, and of several scientific committees in international academic journals. His interests include epistemology and philosophy of science, disciplines which he has taught in several postgraduate courses and which are currently the subject of many scientific papers.

  • Juan Anzieta-Reyes, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and Simon Fraser University

    Juan Anzieta holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and his research focuses on the monitoring of seismo-acoustic processes associated with natural hazards such as volcanic eruptions and landslides. He has worked as a researcher at the Geophysical Institute - IGEPN of Ecuador and currently holds a teaching position at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador - Quito. In addition to his work focused on the development and research of data analysis and artificial intelligence applications for problem solving in geophysics, he has used his knowledge in these areas to contribute to research in diverse fields such as biology, economics and literature, among others.

References

Alighieri, D. (2021). Epistole. En M. Baglio, L. Azzetta, M. Petoletti, & M. Rinaldi (Eds.), Nuova edizione commentata delle opere di Dante: Epistole, Egloge, Questio. (vol. 5, pp. 273-418). Roma, IT: Salerno.

Alighieri, D. (2024). L’Epistola a Cangrande. L. Azzetta(ed.). Roma, IT: Salerno.

Azzetta, L. (2003). Le chiose alla Commedia di Andrea Lancia, l’Epistola a Cangrande e altre questioni dantesche. L'Alighieri, 21, 5-76.

Barenstein, J. (2018). Carta XIII de Dante Alighieri a Cangrande della Scala. Mutatis Mutandis: Revista Internacional de Filosofía, 10, 143-176. DOI:10.69967/07194773.v1i10.30

Casadei, A. Sull'autenticità dell'Epistola a Cangrande (2014). En C. Cattermole Ordóñez, C. de Aldama Ordóñez (eds.), Ortodossia ed eterodossia in Dante Alighieri: atti del convegno di Madrid (pp. 803-830). Alpedrete, ES: Ediciones de la Discreta. ISBN 978-84-96322-66-0

Corbara, S., Moreo, A., Sebastiani, F., Tavoni, M. (2019). L’Epistola a Cangrande al vaglio della computational authorship verification: Risultati preliminari (con una postilla sulla cosiddetta XIV Epistola di Dante Alighieri). En A. Casadei (Org.), Atti del Seminario “Nuove Inchieste sull’Epistola a Cangrande” (pp. 153-192). Pisa, IT: Pisa University Press.

Corbara, S., Moreo, A., Sebastiani, F., Tavoni, M. (2019). Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Pattern Recognition for Cultural Heritage (PatReCH). 148-158. https://doi.org/10.1145/3485822

Corbara, S. (2020). The Epistle to Cangrande through the Lens of Computational Authorship Verification. En: Frohmmolz, I., Liu, H y Moshfeghi, Y (eds.). Proceedings of the 9th PhD Symposium on Future Directions in Information Access co-located with 12th European Summer School in Information Retrieval. Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2537. 10.1007/978-3-030-30754-7_15

Di Patre, P. (1989). I modi dell’intertestualità dantesca: tradizione classica e biblica in un frammento di prosa (Ep. VI, 12-24). Studi Danteschi, 61, 289-306.

Di Patre, P. (1990). L’arte della emulazione nelle Epistole dantesche. Tre reperti classico-biblici. Studi Danteschi, 62, 323-334.

Di Patre, P. (2010-2011). Un cursus geometrico? L'impalcatura nascosta della prosa ritmica dantesca nelle Epistole. Deutsches Dante –Jahrbuch. 85, 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1515/dante-2013-0016

Di Patre, P. (2013). Le ragioni pitagoriche del cursus dantesco. Linguistica e letteratura. XXXVIII (1/2), 39-51. DOI: 10.1400/213180.

Di Patre, P. (2017). Un ordine irrefutabile: Dante e il cursus. Dante: rivista internazionale di studi su Dante Alighieri. XIV.21-30. DOI: 10.19272/201705401002.

Di Patre, P. (2020). Il cursus nell’Epistola XIII. En: Di Patre, P. (Ed), Entre epígonos y autoinspección. Actas del II Congreso Andino de Estudios sobre Dante Alighieri (pp. 157-168). Quito: EDIPUCE. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=859670

Di Patre, P. (2020). El problema del cursus dantesco (y la necesidad de un análisis funcional). En: Di Patre, P. (ed), Entre epígonos y autoinspección. Actas del II Congreso Andino de Estudios sobre Dante Alighieri (pp. 257-268). Quito, EC: EDIPUCE.

Di Patre, P. (2022). L’esame del cursus dantesco in una nuova applicazione. Sinestesie online. XI (34), 1-10. https://sinestesieonline.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/gennaio2022-02.pdf

Di Patre, P., Anzieta-Reyes, J. and Calahorrano-Di Patre, A. (2022). “Intorno a L’Epistola a Cangrande al vaglio della Computational Authorship Verification: impostazioni e problematiche”. Rivista di studi danteschi, XXI (2), 405-420. DOI: 10.60999/108445

Di Patre, P. (2023). Un'epistola attribuita a Cangrande della Scala: andamento ritmico e paternità dantesca. La parola del testo, XXVII (1-2), 35-44. DOI: 10.19272/202311802002.

D’Ovidio, F. (1901). L’Epistola a Cangrande. En Studi sulla Divina Commedia (pp. 452-485). Milano, IT: Remo Sandrón.

Inglese, G. (1999). Epistola a Cangrande: questione aperta. Critica del testo, II (3), 951-974.

Lancia, A. (2012). Chiose alla ‘Commedia’. Azzetta, L. (ed.). Roma, IT: Salerno.

Schneider, F. (1960). Ter Brief an Can Grande. Deutsches Dante Jahrbuch, XXXVIII, 51-74.

Prometeica v.32

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Published

2025-06-09

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Vol. 32 (2025): Prometeica - v 32 (03/2025 - 12/2025)

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How to Cite

Di Patre, P., & Anzieta-Reyes, J. (2025). Dante Alighieri and the Epistle to Cangrande - a two-century debate: From Scolari to artificial intelligence. Prometeica - Journal of Philosophy and Science, 32, e20158 (1-15). https://doi.org/10.34024/prometeica.2025.32.20158
Received 2025-02-23
Accepted 2025-04-27
Published 2025-06-09