Virgil in Rhyme

Abstract

The article, originally intended as a contribution to a miscellany in memory of Giuliano Tanturli, focuses on a fact well known to Dante’s readers: the name of Virgilio (Virgil) appears three times in rhyme in the Divine Comedy, once per cantica, and always accompanied by concilio (council) and essilio (exile). The contribution wonders about the reasons for this striking phenomenon and proposes to find the origin in the allusion, by Dante, to a text of the widespread and influential De sermone Domini in monte by Saint Augustine. Framed in this way, the system of rhyming words is an element of the severe condemnation of Virgil by the Christian poet, despite all the testimonies of affection, gratitude and devotion.