Leonardo and Dante

• In Event: Reading Dante in Early Modern Italy II: Rewriting, Preaching, Seeing Dante

Abstract

Despite a growing interest among the general public for the figures of both Dante Alighieri and Leonardo da Vinci, few serious attempts have been made to study to what extent and how Leonardo — who used to call himself "omo sanza lettere" — could have read the works of his illustrious Florentine predecessor, and how they could have influenced him. The aim of this paper is to assess the plausibility of such a relationship investigating Leonardo's own writings (the 'Libro di pittura' above all), some scattered transcriptions of Dante and Petrach's verses, and the famous alleged representation of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Moreover, a new tentative interpretation of a still puzzling drawing from the Royal Collection at Windsor will be offered.

Author

• Anna Pegoretti, University of Warwick