Boccaccio “dantista” e il suo pubblico: l’Esposizione a Inferno 8 tra scorci biografici e digressioni mitologiche.

In this paper I analyze Boccaccio’s commentary to Inferno 8 in his Esposizioni, focusing on two main points where Boccaccio’s distinctive approach to the lectura Dantis is particularly evident. First, I discuss the opening of Boccaccio’s reading, where he gives his infamous account of the early composition of the first seven cantos of the Inferno in Florence, before Dante was sent to exile. I review and comment on the arguments in favor and against Boccaccio's timeline as well as address the crucial question of the account's truthfulness. In particular, I focus on the differences between the seven cantos story as reported in the Esposizioni and the previous version of the same tale Boccaccio included in the so-called Trattatello in laude di Dante, his biography of Dante. I speculate that those changes may have been necessitated by the performative and public character of Boccaccio’s readings, and by the diverse audience who attended them. Then, I move on to discuss Boccaccio’s classicism, comparing his approach to the same classical source material in the Esposizioni and in his mythological encyclopedia, the Genealogiae deorum gentilium. In the Esposizione to Inferno 8, Boccaccio tells the myth of Flegias, which he had already included in the Genealogiae. While being generally very close to the previous account, the new version features a few crucial changes, which I argue were probably prompted, once again, by the public nature of the readings. In fact, other than adjusting the myth to better adhere to Dante’s poem, Boccaccio's main aim may have been to avoid discussing in public the points where the original myth deviated too far from Christian orthodoxy.