INFERNO I. ACCESSUS ALLA COMMEDIA

The article endeavours to understand how the first readers of the Commedia, who interepreted works according to rigid generic criteria, might have understood the textual character of the poem. It also traces the different opinions of the early commentators on the form and the genre of the Commedia in light of the fact that, in the opening canto of the poem, Dante integrates different literary genres: for instance, epic vision, prophecy, and exegetical conventions such as those relating to the accessus and argumenta. Examining Inferno I’s connections to the accessus tradition, and thereby consideringing it from a rhetorical perspective, reveals the poet’s sophisticated knowledge of different genres and his ability to dismantle these in order to create a work of the remarkable novelty of the Commedia.