El Precedente Constitucional en el Caso Huatuco

The cantos xiii make up an unlikely trio at least as far as critical interest goes. Inferno xiii is one of the best known, mainly through the prominence of the character Pier della Vigna; Francesco De Sanctis titled his 1869

lectura, sometimes regarded as the first modern lectura dantis of the canto, ‘Pier delle Vigne’.26 _{For this discussion I have consulted some of the more}

well-known lecturae of the cantos xiii, beginning with Inferno.27 _{The only}

actual occurrence of the name Pier in the cantos xiii comes not in Inferno

but in Purgatorio, where the saintly Pier Pettinaio is named by the Sienese noblewoman Sapia (Purg., xiii. 128), who had informed Dante that despite her name, she was not ‘savia’ [wise] (Purg., xiii. 109).28 _{For wisdom, we may}

26 Now in De Sanctis, Opere V. Lezioni e Saggi su Dante, ed. by Sergio Romagnoli, 2nd edn (Turin: Einaudi, 1967), pp. 353–68. It is first in the list of lecturae of Inferno xiii in

Censimento dei Commenti danteschi. 3. Le “lecturae Dantis” e le edizioni delle Opere di Dante dal 1472 al 2000, ed. by Ciro Perna and Teresa Nocita (Rome: Salerno, 2012), p. 115. 27 In alphabetical order of author for ease of reference: Cesare Angelini, ‘Canto XIII’ in

Lectura Dantis Scaligera. Inferno (Florence: Le Monnier, 1971), pp. 425–45; Ignazio Baldelli, ‘Il canto XIII dell’“Inferno”, in Nuove letture dantesche (Florence: Le Monnier, 1970), II, pp. 33–45; John C. Barnes, ‘Inferno XIII’, in Dante Soundings: Eight Literary and Historical Essays, ed. by David Nolan (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1981), pp. 28–58; Ettore Bonora, ‘Da De Sanctis a Spitzer. il canto XIII dell’Inferno’, in Interpretazioni Dantesche (Modena: Mucchi Editore, 1988), pp. 51–66; Patrick Boyde, ‘Inferno XIII’, in Cambridge Readings in Dante’s Comedy, ed. by Kenelm Foster and Patrick Boyde (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 1–22; Gabriele Muresu, ‘La selva dei disperati (“Inferno” XIII)’, in Il Richiamo dell’Antica Strega. Altri saggi di semantica dantesca (Rome: Bulzoni, 1997), pp. 11–71; Manlio Pastore Stocchi, ‘Canto XIII. “Io son colui che tenni ambo le chiavi / del cor di Federigo […]”’, in Lectura Dantis Romana. Cento Canti per Cento Anni. I. Inferno 1. Canti I–XVII, ed. by Enrico Malato and Andrea Mazzucchi (Rome: Salerno, 2013), pp. 410–23; Giorgio Petrocchi, ‘Canto XIII’ in Lectura Dantis Neapolitana. Inferno, ed. by Pompeo Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 1986), pp. 231–42; Giorgio Petrocchi, ‘Canto XIII: The Violent Against Themselves, in Lectura Dantis: Inferno, ed. by Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn and Charles Ross (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 178–84; Vincenzo Presta, ‘In margine al canto XIII dell’“Inferno”’, Dante Studies 90 (1972), 13–24; Gianvito Resta, ‘Il canto XIII dell’“Inferno”’ in Inferno. Letture degli anni 1973-’76 (Rome: Bonacci, 1977), pp. 319–60; Kurt Ringger, ‘Pier della Vigna o la poesia del segno. Per una rilettura del canto XIII dell’“Inferno”’, Medioevo Romanzo 5 (1978), 85–99; Olga Sedakova, ‘Canti XII–XIII–XIV. Sotto il cielo della violenza’, in Esperimenti danteschi. Inferno 2008, ed. by Simone Invernizzi (Genoa: Marietti, 2009), pp. 107–19; Leo Spitzer, ‘Il Canto XIII dell’Inferno’, in Letture dantesche. Inferno, ed. by Giovanni Getto (Florence: Sansoni, 1955), pp. 221–48; Claudia Villa, ‘Canto XIII’, in Lectura Dantis Turicensis. Inferno, ed. by Georges Güntert and Michelangelo Picone (Florence: Cesati, 2000), pp. 183–91. 28 The lecturae of Purgatorio xiii consulted, by author: Salvatore Accardo, ‘Il canto XIII del

“Purgatorio”’, in Purgatorio. Letture degli anni 1976-’79 (Rome: Bonacci, 1981), pp. 263– 81; Pietro Conte, ‘Il canto XIII del “Purgatorio”’, in Nuove letture dantesche (Florence: Le Monnier, 1970), IV pp. 129–48; Violetta De Angelis, ‘Canti XIII–XIV–XV. Gli invidiosi e l’ingresso nella cornice dell’ira’, in Esperimenti danteschi. Purgatorio 2009, ed. by Benedetta

turn instead to Paradiso xiii and the discussion of Solomon, famous as the proverbial wise king and author of the biblical Book of Wisdom.29 _Unlike

the other cantos xiii, however, Paradiso xiii has had a rather lukewarm critical fortune: ‘Nella maggior parte dei casi, tuttavia, i lettori moderni non hanno amato il nostro canto’ [In the majority of cases modern readers have not loved our canto].30 _{I have listed the main individual lecturae of the}

cantos xiii in the footnotes here mainly to provide a sort of corpus for the general observation that they tend not to cross-refer to the corresponding cantos xiii in the other two cantiche. It is certainly the case that the practice of the lectura Dantis, with its focus on individual cantos might actively discourage cross-referencing, but many of these lecturae do mention other cantos throughout the Commedia with which they make connections; yet

Quadrio (Genoa: Marietti, 2010), pp. 135–46; Andreas Kablitz, ‘Canto XIII’, in Lectura Dantis Turicensis. Purgatorio, ed. by Georges Güntert and Michelangelo Picone (Florence: Cesati, 2001), pp. 199–209; Carmelo Musumarra, ‘Canto XIII’ in Lectura Dantis Scaligera. Purgatorio (Florence: Le Monnier, 1971), pp. 439–71; Emilio Santini, ‘Il Canto XIII del

Purgatorio’, in Letture dantesche. Purgatorio, ed. by Giovanni Getto (Florence: Sansoni, 1964), pp. 921–40; Mirko Volpi, ‘Canto XIII. Dante tra Superbia e Invidia’ in Lectura Dantis Romana. Cento Canti per Cento Anni. II. Purgatorio 1. Canti I–XVII, ed. by Enrico Malato and Andrea Mazzucchi (Rome: Salerno, 2014), pp. 367–99; Albert Wingell, ‘Among the Envious: Seeing and Not Seeing’, in Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio, ed. by Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn and Charles Ross (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008), pp. 129–40; Albino Zenatti, Il canto XIII del Purgatorio (Florence: Sansoni, 1909).

29 The lecturae of Paradiso xiii consulted, by author: Marcello Aurigemma, ‘Il canto XIII del “Paradiso”’, in Nuove letture dantesche (Florence: Le Monnier, 1973), VI, pp. 129–46; Courtney Cahill, ‘The Limitations of Difference in Paradiso XIII’s Two Arts: Reason and Poetry’, Dante Studies 114 (1996), 245–69; Antonio Del Castello, ‘Canto XIII. Il “re sufficïente” e la divina sapienza del governo’ in Lectura Dantis Romana. Cento Canti per Cento Anni. III. Paradiso. 1. Canti I–XVII, ed. by Enrico Malato and Andrea Mazzucchi (Rome: Salerno, 2015), pp. 382–407; Remo Fasani, ‘Canto XIII’, in Lectura Dantis Turicensis. Paradiso, ed. by Georges Güntert and Michelangelo Picone (Florence: Cesati, 2001), pp. 193–202; Giancarlo Rati, ‘Il canto XIII del “Paradiso”’, in Paradiso. Letture degli anni 1979- ’81 (Rome: Bonacci, 1989), pp. 353–79; Carlo Sini, ‘Canti XIII–XIV. Salomone e il cielo della luce’, in Esperimenti danteschi. Paradiso 2010, ed. by Tommaso Montorfano (Genoa: Marietti, 2010), pp. 157–68; Ruggiero Stefanelli, ‘Canto XIII’, in Lectura Dantis Neapolitana. Paradiso, ed. by Pompeo Giannantonio (Naples: Loffredo, 2000), pp. 279–98; Giuseppe Toffanin, ‘Canto XIII’, in Lectura Dantis Scaligera. Paradiso (Florence: Le Monnier, 1968), pp. 447–74; Giuseppe Vandelli, ‘Il Canto XIII del Paradiso’, in Letture dantesche. Paradiso, ed. by Giovanni Getto (Florence: Sansoni, 1964), pp. 1601–24.

30 Del Castello, p. 382; Rati also notes the negative response to the didactic nature of the canto (Rati, p. 353). Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi in her ‘introduzione al canto xiii’ offers this judgement: ‘Se non ci fosse al suo interno la breve ma grande apertura teologica sul tema […] della creazione dell’universo, il canto resterebbe forse il più povero, come qualità inventiva e drammatica, di tutta la cantica’. See Dante Alighieri,

Commedia, ed. by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, 3 vols (Milan: Mondadori, 1991–1997), III, p. 357. Cahill is more positive, but does acknowledge the canto’s bad reputation in earlier lecturae (Cahill, pp. 245, 266).

there are almost no cross-references in the lecturae to the other cantos xiii.31

There are only three exceptions to this in my list of lecturae.

Albino Zenatti’s lectura of Purgatorio xiii mentions similarities with

Inferno xiii: the hearing of voices whose source is unseen, though he does also acknowledge that the examples are very different, in keeping with the general dissimilarity between the two locations;a Sienese connection, with the appearance of Lano del Topo in Inferno and Sapia in Purgatorio; the mention of envy, ‘the vice of courts’ in Inferno xiii, now touching republics too in Purgatorio; and, finally, the similar request to be remembered to the living made by both Sapia and Pier, ‘l’invidiosa e una vittima dell’invidia’ [the envious woman and a victim of envy].32 _{Francesco De Nicola’s lectura}

of Purgatorio xiii in the Lectura Dantis Neapolitana notes Zenatti’s mention of the unseen voices, concluding ‘ma la situazione pare assai diversa’ [but the situation seems rather different].33 _{De Nicola also quotes Inferno, xiii.}

64–66, but really as part of a list of references to invidia, which includes

Purgatorio xiv, xv, xvii and Inferno vi.34 _{He too later identifies in Sapia’s}

request to Dante to be remembered to the living an echo of the similar concern of Pier della Vigna in Inferno xiii.35 _{Although he does not make}

any reference to Paradiso xiii, De Nicola also mentions what may be the only previous study linking all three cantos xiii, which I will come to shortly.36 _{Gabriele Muresu’s is the third lectura to make a connection}

between separate cantos xiii, and mentions Paradiso xiii, 133–35 in the context of a wider discussion of the name of Pier della Vigna and the relative significance of different plants in the Bible and in Dante, in which the vine may be fruitful or sterile.37

Not part of any series, nor really a lectura as such, there is a 1969 study by Pietro M. Viola which sets out to read the three cantos xiii together.38

31 As a single example of cross-referencing, Musumarra, in discussing Purgatorio xiii makes reference to the following other cantos: Inferno iii, iv, v, vi, xv, xviii, xxix; Purgatorio xiv, xv, xx, xxxiii; Paradiso v, xiv, xxi, xxiii, xxiv, xxvii, xxxii. No connection is made to the other cantos xiii.

32 Zenatti, pp. 8–9, 19, 27. Zenatti acknowledges an earlier study as the source of his point on envy (p. 37). Not a lectura as such, the study is Giovanni Federzoni, Rispondenze fra il canto XIII. dell’Inferno e il XIII. del Purgatorio. Una noterella sulla espressione dantesca Savia non fui (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1904).

33 De Nicola, p. 273. 34 Ibid., p. 274. 35 Ibid., p. 284. 36 Ibid., p. 284, n. 52. 37 Muresu, p. 37.

Viola takes as his starting point for a political reading of the cantos what he describes as a symmetrical and unifying structure evident in the cantos vi, which progress through ‘il Comune, la Nazione, e l’Impero’ [the Municipality, the Nation, the Empire].39 _{For the vertical readings it is}

interesting to note that Viola describes the case of the cantos vi as ‘un unicum’ [unique] although his intention is to demonstrate that this is not the case, and the political reading he proposes is presented as a counterpart to them, in a schema in which Pier represents the man of the court, Sapia the ‘simple citizen’ and Solomon the king.40 _{He notes too other common features, such}

as the constant presence of references to seeing and sight in all three cantos, and the hearing of voices in Inferno and Purgatorio xiii.41 _{The main focus}

of the study is on the idea that these three characters offer a counterpart to the political presentation in the cantos vi; here we are presented with a ‘fenomenologia del comportamento politico’ [phenomenology of political behaviour] at the personal level.42 _{This is an interesting reading of the}

cantos, but it does appear at times to be looking for evidence to support its argument rather than being led by the text. We might note, for example, that the rather neat progression to ever larger political realities pointed out by Viola in the cantos vi, does not straightforwardly apply to the cantos xiii as we move from empire, to city-state and then to kingdom. Another approach Viola uses is to trace what he calls an ‘idea-parola’ [idea-word] through the cantos, fixing on ‘vedere’ [to see] as the most promising, but the idea is reached by finding examples of sight and its opposites in the cantos, and through a rather metaphorical interpretation of wisdom as a form of seeing which is very loosely linked to the text.43 _{Having said that,}

I am now very sympathetic to any reader faced with the difficulties of this endeavour.

Commedia’, Trimestre 4 (1970), 39–63. It also appears in the collection of articles by Viola,

Ricerche di metodo e di struttura su Dante e Manzoni (Cagliari: Fossataro, 1969), pp. 229–66. Viola explains that the article was awaiting publication in Trimestre when the book came out, hence the unusual sequence of dates (p. 380). The page references here are to the article. I would like to thank Giuseppe Ledda for alerting me to the appearance of the article in the book.

39 Ibid., p. 39. 40 Ibid., p. 40 41 Ibid., pp. 42–43. 42 Ibid., pp. 51–53. 43 Ibid., pp. 42–46.