«Nova quaedam insita mirifice transsumptio»: il linguaggio figurato tra le artes poetriae e Dante

This paper aims to study figurative language in the artes poetriae and its probable influence on Dante’s poetic theory and practice. First of all, I raise the issue of Dante’s education and its possible intersection with the manuscript tradition of artes poetriae; I then proceed to comment evidence of Dante’s acquaintance with these treatises. I especially focus on their development of a theory of transumptio and on their prescriptions concerning metaphors, similes and allegory. Finally, I briefly sketch the evolution of Dante’s theory of figurative language and show how it parallels his expanding metaphoric practice.