Sazietà, fame e sete di conoscenza tra Convivio e Commedia: appunti per una sintesi critica

Abstract

In Convivio, Dante states that «knowledge», conceived as wisdom attainable through reason, is the «highest perfection of our soul, in which our supreme happiness is found» and that all human beings are therefore driven by a desire for it. To be satisfied in earthly life, however, this desire must necessarily exclude from its field of inquiry all the elements that transcend rational understanding – namely the separated substances, including God. This theory is overturned in Commedia where the pilgrim Dante repeatedly expresses a desire to understand the realities of the afterlife and God himself. This shift in perspective is particularly evident in the use of metaphors related to thirst, hunger, and conviviality – images that had been developed in Convivio as expressions of the human desire for knowledge. This paper offers a brief analysis aimed at reconstructing and exploring this metaphorical system in the two works, comparing the most significant passages and seeking to identify the meaning and purpose of the different ways the metaphors are used.