ABSTRACT
Most writers accepted the idea that Dante’s Comedy was an epic poem, ranging it from a ‘normative’ epic to a much superior modification of this genre, as a philosophic and theological poem. It seems that it was the exalted position of Dante’s Comedy in the hierarchy of contemporary Italian literature that caused Cinquecento composers to keep their distance from it. Some of the theoreticians agreed that Dante was a philosopher, scientist and theologian rather than a poet. Many writers, however, viewed Dante’s work as the best example of an epic poem that imitates events which were possible according to the postulates of the Christian faith. Bearing in mind that monodic poetry was used by the ancient authors for lugubrious subjects, it might have seemed that Dante was wrong in choosing this genre for a story that ‘ends with true happiness’.
