«Iam garrulus factus sum». Il lessico della satira nelle Epistole di Dante.

The essay analyses the most famous invectives in Dante’s Epistles and relates the strongly realistic language employed to the medieval rhetorical reflection on the genre of satire, understood as public social and political denunciation. The use of an aggressive and cutting discursive style leads to an unexpected lowering of register in the letters, but it is aimed at the representation of an irreverent discursive mode, which is characteristic of the language of satire. In Dante’s letters, the classical concepts of vituperatio and indignatio find expression through sarcastic invectives crafted with a low, derisive lexicon. However, to the purely satirical aspect is also added biblical declamation and prophetic lamentatio. Through a historical-linguistic analysis of the lexicon, the essay shows how Dante’s satirical writing was shaped by the merging of rhetorical invective, classical satirical poetry, and biblical lamentatio.