The Language(s) of Civic Invective in Dante: Rhetoric, Satire, and Politics

This article examines Dante's use of political invective - and, in particular, of invective against Florence - in both his vernacular and his Latin works. It explores the terminology used by the poet to describe his corrupt city, and suggests connections between the metaphors used in Dantean invective and the poetic genre of satire. The direct and uncompromising language of invective is shown to have much in common with satire, which was defined as attributing blame with corrective intent. In Dante's Monarchia and political letters, the 'correction' which is intended can only happen politically through the advent of a universal monarch and linguistically through the medium of Latin. In contrast, in the Comedy, the corrective aim takes on a universal (ethical and salvific) aspect, which depends not only on the Empire, but also on a fundamental change in human behaviour which can only be adequately conveyed in the poem's plurilingual vernacular style.