ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the canzone, ‘Tre donne intorno al cor mi son venute’, written after Dante Alighieri went into exile. Dante abolishes the boundaries between theology and poetry and carves a metaphoric space of dispersion where exiles seek and work. Dante the language of exile is the language of poetry, which, almost to prove his point, philosophers and theologians who preceded him had banished from the region of rational discourse to the unreliable shadows of simulation or mere delightful ornamentation. Critics who have discussed the cantos conventionally have stressed the extent to which Dante’s treatment of the different virtues moves within the canonical theological tradition. In effect, the domain of theological discourse is made vaster by Dante’s decision to push back the limits of Pauline silence. Brunetto goes on uttering the prophecy of Dante’s exile from Florence in terms that echo the pronouncements made earlier in the poem by Ciacco and Farinata.