Nella "piaggia diserta": qualche osservazione sulle tre fiere dantesche

The article examines the controversial topic of the possible meanings of the three beasts that Dante the pilgrim encounters at the beginning of his otherwordly journey. Particular attention is paid to the identification of the « lonza » from an historical-linguistic perspective. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, this zoonym identified the female of two animals whose conceptual and ontological difference ceased to exist in the passage from Latin to the Italian vernaculars : the leopard and the so-called pardus. Through an analysis of Scriptural, exegetical, and scientific sources, it is proposed that Dante’s « lonza » inherited the symbolic values of both animals, the former being mostly connected to lust, while the latter to fraud. The article further considers the exegetical tradition that has developed around the three beasts from the time of the poet’s death up to the present day and attempts to validate both the interpretation connecting them to lust, pride, and avarice and the one that links them to the three Aristotelian categories of sin : fraud, violence, and incontinence. The article concludes by considering the space of the encounter with the three beasts – the « piaggia diserta » – as a first possible declaration of Dante’s prophetic mission.