THE 'SWEET NEW STYLE':

ESSAYS ON BRUNETTO LATINO, DANTE ALIGHIERI

AND GEOFFREY CHAUCER

JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY

Table of Contents

Prologue: The 'Sweet New Style'

Brunetto Latino and Dante Alighieri
I Bankers and Their Books: Italian Manuscripts in French Exile
II Brown Ink, Red Blood: Brunetto Latino and the Sicilian Vespers
III The Vita Nuova's Pilgrimage Paradigms
IV Stealing Hercules' Club: Inferno XXV's Metamorphoses  

Geoffrey Chaucer
V Black and Red Letter Chaucer
VI Fact and Fiction: Women in Love
VII Convents, Courts and Colleges
VIII The Tomb of the Duchess Alice

Terence, Dante, Boccaccio and Chaucer
IX God's Plenty: Terence in Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare Newest

Epilogue: Attica State Prison, Boethius the Exile, Dante the Pilgrim 

Prologue: The 'Sweet New Style'

{The "Sweet New Style" propounded in Florence by Brunetto Latino's students, Guido Cavalcanti and Dante Alighieri, was essentially the Gothic style, a style that revolted against their teacher's beloved Romanizing and Romanesque manner. It was a style that had its origins in the French Crusaders' co-option of the delicacy of the Saracen world they encountered and momentarily conquered. It was associated as well with the importation of forbidden learning from the Arab world, of Aristotle and of his Muslim commentators, Avicenna and Averroes, likewise co-opted by Thomas Aquinas, an Italian teaching theology in Paris. Sugar in both the Muslim world and the Christian was an economy built on slave labour, inviting one's own 'instant gratification' out of the misery of the 'Other'.

Dante, when he wrote the Commedia fashioned his Virgilian Inferno appropriately in his Master's Romanesque manner, though tempering it with Gothicizing Aquinas's Aristotle, while his Paradiso is most Gothic, like a great Rose Window. But Dante makes sure there is equality between men and women within that Rose, rejecting Brunetto's Aristotelian disparagment of women. Similarly Chaucer played games with the two styles and with Aristotelian learning, but at Oxford, rather than at Paris. The "Sweet New Style" partly flowers in Italy from French seeds, sown by the ploughing barons of the Roman de la Rose. Those seeds next germinate in England from Chaucer's contamination with first France, then Italy, with the Roman de la Rose and with Boccaccio.

Much of the Gothic style, in particular with the 'Sweet New Style' in Italian poetry, as in the Vita Nuova, is its game and play of love. There also had been a radical shift in style. The 'courting' game enslaves, not liberates. We had noted in an earlier book, Equally in God's Image: Women in the Middle Ages, that women in the Romanesque period had been learned, forthright and powerful, while in the Gothic they had become coy, simpering and uneducated. We traced that shift to the introduction to Christian Europe of the Greco-Arabic university which excluded women from its lecture halls. Therefore some of these essays will discuss the "Sweet New Style" of the Gothic and its implications concerning the new illiteracy of women.

Some of the material concerning Brunetto Latino has been published in Twice-Told Tales: Brunetto Latino and Dante Alighieri (New York: Peter Lang, 1993). "Convents, Courts and Colleges" was originally published in Equally in God's Image: Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Julia Bolton Holloway, Joan Bechtold and Constance S. Wright. My knowledge concerning Ewelme I owe to my friend Diana Leap, the photographer of the Plates of the Tomb of the Duchess. The Attica State Prison lecture on Dante was given on the tenth anniversary of the Attica Uprising. As a whole this collection of essays becomes, as it were, an e-book. Each of its chapters will have as its colophon, the following icon, taken from the fresco in the Cardinal Bessarione's house in Rome, that I saw and copied many years ago:

Index

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A
Abati, Buoso degli/ Abelard and Heloise: Astralabe, History of my Calamity/ Adamnam/ Aeschylus: Oresteia/ Africa/ Agamemnon/ d'Agostino, Alfonso/ Alanus ab Insulis/ Albertano da Brescia/ Albigensian Crusade/ Aldighieris, Rolandus/ Alexander/ Alfonso el Sabio, King: Las Cantigas de Santa Maria; Las Siete Partidas/ Alfraganus: Almagest/ Alfred, King/ Alighieri, Dante: Commedia; Inferno; Paolo and Francesca; Pier delle Vigne; Ugolino da Pisa; Judas, Cassius, Brutus; Letter to Can Grande; Paradiso; Purgatorio; Vita Nuova; De vulgari eloquentia; Beatrice Portinari/ Amaducci, Paolo/ Ambrosian chant/
Amiens/ Andrea da Grosseto/ St Anne/ Apelles/ Apuleius: Metamorphoses/ Apulia/ Aquinas, Thomas/ Aragon/ Arculf/ Arezzo/ Argenteuil/ Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics/ Arras: Abbaye de St. Vaast/ Arthur, King/ Artois & Picardy/ Asia/ Astrik, Gabriel/ Athens/ Attica/ Attica Correctional Facility/ Auerbach, Erich/ St Augustine: Confessions/ Augustus Caesar/ Averrois/ Avignon/

B
Bach, Johann Sebastian/ Bakhtin, Mikhail/ Baldwin, Emperor/ Baltic/ Barberino, Francesco da: Documenti d'amore/ Barrett, Edward Moulton/ Bar-sur-Aube/ Bavaria/ Beckett, Thomas/ Bella, Giano della/ Bellindoti/ Palamidesso di Bellindoti/ Benevento, Battle of/ Benincasa, Lotterio/ Benincasa, Piero/ Benson, Larry/ Bergamo/ St. Bernard: Epistle to Abbot William/ Beroardi, Guiglielmo/ Bertoni, Giulio/ Bethlehem/ Bible: Subjects: Aaron, Annunciation, Areopagus, Ark & Tabernacle, Burning Bush, Cain & Abel, Christ, Jesus, Cleophas, Dinah, Dismas, Dives, Egyptian gold, Emmaus, Exodus, Exodus Stations,  Eve, Golden Calf, Herod & Innocents, James, Jephtha's daughter, John the Baptist, Jonah, Luke, Mary Magdalen, Martha, Miriam, Moses, Paul, Rachel & Leah, Red Sea, Samson & Dalilah, Solomon, Thomas, Doubting, Virgin Mary & Child; Scriptural Books: Acts Apocalypse Corinthians Gospels Jeremiah Luke Numbers Peter Prophets Psalms Romans Song of Solomon Wisdom/ St. Birgitta of Sweden: Revelationes/ Bischopsheim/ Black Death/ Blanche, Duchess/ Boccaccio, Giovanni / Boethius: Consolation Philosophia/ Bologna/ Bonaccursi/ St. Boniface/ Book of Kells/ Borges, Gorge Luis/ Brandt, William J./ Brescia/ Brittany, St. Gildas/ Browning, Elizabeth Barrett/ Browning, Robert: Bells and Pomegranates "My Last Duchess"/ Brunelleschi, Agnello/ Brussels/ Bugga/ Bulwer, Sir E. L./ Bunyan, John: Pilgrim's Progress/ Burne-Jones, Sir Edward/ Bury St. Edmunds/ Byzantium, see Constantinople/

C
Calais/ Cambio, Arnolfo di/ Cambio, Rucco di/ Cambrai/ Cambridge/ Capellanus, Andreas/ Cardenal, Peire/ Carmody, Francis J./ St. Catherine of Siena/ Casella/ Catilina/ Cavalcanti, Cavalcante/ Cavalcanti, Francesco Guerci/ Cavalcanti, Guido, Giovanna/ Caxton/ St. Cecilia/ Cervantes, Miguel de: Don Quixote/ Chabaille, P./ Champagne/ Chanson de Roland/ Chaucer, Alice/ Chaucer, Geoffrey: Book of the Duchess,Book of the Leoun, Canterbury Tales: Canon Canon's Yeoman Clerk Friar Host Jankyn Knight Miller Monk Merchant Nuns' Priest Pardoner Parson Prioress Reeve Second Nun Squire Summoner Wife of Bath Cook's Prologue, Tale Miller's Tale Alisoun  Nicholas Nuns' Priest's Tale Parson's Tale Second Nun's Tale Almachius Cecilia Maximus Tiburce Valerian Shipman's Tale Tale of Sir Thopas; Consolation of Philosophy,Legend of Good Women, Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer, Philippa/ Chaucer, Thomas & Matilda/ Charles of Anjou/ Beatrice of Provence/ Chrétien de Troyes/ Christendom/ Christine de Pizan: Treasure of the City of Ladies/ Christina of Markyate/ Cicero, Tullius/ Rhetoric Somnium, Scipionis/ Cleaver, Eldridge: Soul on Ice; Clement, Pope/ Coleridge, Samuel/ Cologne/ Columbia/ Compagni, Dino/ Compostela/ Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness/ Conradin of Sicily/ Constantinople/ Contessa de Dia/ Cook, William/ Corbiac, Peire de/ Corti, Maria/ Cortona/ Cornell/ Cose, Aymeri/ Cotswalds/ Coucy, Enguerrand de/ Croxton Play of Sacrament/  Curtius, Ernst/

D
Damian, Peter/ Daniel, Arnaut/ Darius/ David, King/ Debenedetti/ decima, tithe/ Defoe, Daniel: Moll Flanders/ Deguileville, Guillaume de: Pélèrinages/ Demaray, John/ Desert Fathers/ Detto d'amore/ Dickinson, Emily/ Diogenes Laertes/ Donati, Cianfa/ Donati, Corso/ Donne, John: "Riding Westward"/ Dosteivsky, Fyodor: Brothers Karamazov, Grand Inquisitor/ Dugento/ Dunkirk/

E
Eadburga/  Easter Sunday/ Easter Monday/ Eco, Umberto: Name of the Rose/ Edward III, King & Philippa, Queen/ Edward IV, King/ Egburga/ Egeria/ Egypt/ Egyptian Thebaid/ St. Eligius/ Eliot, T. S./ Elizabeth I, Queen/ Ellis, F. S./ England/ Erasmus: Praise of Folly/ Escorial/ Euripides: Iphigenia, Agamemnon, Iphigenia/ Eusebius/ Ewelme

F
Fahrenheit 451/ Faits des Romains/ Fanon, Franz/ Fauvel, Roman de/ Ferrara/ Fetellus/ Fiesole/ Filippo, Rustico/ Fiore/ Fiori dei filosafi/ Flaubert, Gustave: Emma Bovary/ Fleming, John V./ Florence: Baptistry, Consulte, Palazzo Vecchio, Primo Popolo, Priorate, Santa Maria Novella, Via Veritatis, Torre della Castagna/ Folquet de Marseilha/ Foucault, Michel/ Four Daughters of God/ France/ St. Francis/ Franciscans/ Frederick, Emperor/ Freud, Sigmund/ Froissart, Jean/ Fucci, Vanni/ Furnivall, Frederick: Ballad Society, Browning Society, Chaucer Society, Early English Text Society, New Shakespeare Society, Philological Society, Wyclif Society/

G
/Galicia/ Galigai, Puccio Sciancato de'/ Galilei, Galileo/ Gandhi, Mahatma/ Gandhi, Indira/ Gascoigne, Thomas/ gematria/ Genesee, Abbey of, Geneseo/ Geneva/ Ghibellines/ Glossa Ordinaria/ Gloucester, Duke of, Thomas Woodstock/ Gombrich, E. H./ Gohlman, William E./ Good Friday/ Gower, John/ Greeks/ Gregorian chant/ Gregory, Pope/ Guelfs/

H
/Hainault/ Hainault, Elizabeth of/ Halle, Adam de la/ Hawthorne, Nathaniel: Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne/ Helena, Empress/ Helena, Queen/ Henry of Spain/ Henry II, King/ Henry IV, King/ Henry IV, King, Margaret of Anjou/ Henry VIII, King/ Hercules/ Hereford, Bishop of/ Herzman, Ronald/ Hildegard of Bingen/ Homer: Odyssey/ Honoré, Maitre Horace/ Horne, Hengist/ Hrotswitha/ Hunt, Leigh

I
/Iona/ Ireland/ Isidore of Seville: Etymologiarum/ Islam/ Israel/ Italy

J
/Jacoff, Rachel/ James, King of Scotland: Kings Quair/ Jameson, Fredric/ Jefferson, Thomas/ Jericho/ Jerome: Adversus Jovinianum/ Jerusalem: Temple/ St Joan of Arc/ John XXIII, Pope/ John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Duchess Blanche, Duchess Constance of Castile, Duchess Catherine Swynford/ Jordan/ Jordan, Count/ Josephus/ Joyce, James: Portrait of Artist, Ulysses, Molly Bloom/ Joyce, Stephen/ Judaism/ Julian of Norwich: Showing of Love/ Julius Caesar/ Jung, Carl/ Juvenal/

K
/Karlsruhe/ Keats, John: "La Belle Dame", "Ode to Nightingale"/ Krakòv/ Krieger, Murray

L
/Landor, Walter Savage/ Langland, William: Piers Plowman, Holichirche, Lady Mede/ Latino, Accardo/ Latino, Bonaccursi/ Latino, Brunetto: Favolello, Li livres dou tresor, Rettorica, Sommetta, Tesoretto, Tesoro/ Latino, Cardinal/ Lawrence, D. H./ Le Grand d'Aussy, Charles/ Lent/Carnival/ libraria script/ Lindisfarne Gospels/ Lilybaeum/ Lincoln/ Lioba/ Livy/ London: Bell Inn, Globe Theatre, Tabard Inn/ de Lorris, Guillaume: Roman de la Rose/ Louis, King, Saint/ Margaret, Queen/ Lucan: Pharsalia, Cornelia, Aulus, Medusa, Nasidius, Perseus, Pompey, Sabellus/ Lucca: San Frediano/ St. Lucy/ Lyon/

M
/MacPherson, James Rose/ Madrid/ Makowski, Elizabeth/ Malory, Sir Thomas/ Manfred, King of Sicily/ Marcella/ Maremma/ Marie de France: Lais/ Margery Kempe/ Marseilles/ Martin, Pope/ Marx, Karl/ Matthieu le Juif/ Mazzei, Lapo/ Mena, Juan de: Laberinto/ Messina/ Meun, Jean de: Roman de la Rose, Constreyned Abstinence, Idleness, La Vielle/ Meyer, Paul/ Milan/ Milnes, Monckton/ Milret, Bishop/ Milton, John: Areopagitica, Paradise Lost/ Modena/ Moniez d'Arras/ Montaigne, Michel de/ Montaperti, Battle of: Libro di Montaperti/ Montfort, Guy de/ Montfort, Simon de/ Montpellier/ More, Thomas: Dialogue of Comfort, Utopia/ Morris, William: "Chaucer Asleep", Kelmscott Chaucer/ Munich/ Murray, Elizabeth/ Murray, James A. H.: Oxford English Dictionary/

N
/Naples/ Narcissus & Echo/ Navaho/ Nehru, Jawarlal/ Nero/ Newman, John Henry: Apologia/ St. Nicholas/ Nicholas, Pope/ Normans/

O
/Octavian, Emperor/ Officium Peregrinorum/ Opilio & Gaudentius/ Orvieto/ Oshere/ Ovid: Fasti, Heroides, Metamorphoses, Andromeda, Arethusa, Cadmus/

P
/Perseus/ Proserpine/ Tisiphone/ Owain/ Oxford: Ashmolean, Oseney Abbey/ Padua/ Paleogus, Michael, Emperor/ Palermo/ Palladium of Virgin Athena/ Panofsky, Erwin/ Paraclete Abbey/ Paris: St. Denis, Lendit/ Parks, Rosa/ St. Patrick's Purgatory/ Paula and Eustochium/ Pavia/ Pearl/ Perusgio, Filippo, Bishop/ Peter, King of Aragon/ Peter, King of Spain/ Peter the Venerable/ Petrarch/ Laura de Sade/ Pharoah/ Philo Judaeus/ Pierpont Morgan/ Piranesi, Gian Battista/ Pisa/ Pistoia/ Plantagenet, Elizabeth/ Plato: Dialogues/ Pleshey/ Pliny/ podestà/ Poppi Castle 28 Power, Eileen/ Prato/ Procida, Andrea da/ Procida, Giovanni da/ Prospero's Books/ Pseudo-Beda/ Ptolemy: Almagest/ Pushkin, Alexander: Mozart and Salieri, Tales of Belkin/

Q
de Quincey, Thomas

R
/Ralegh, Sir Walter/ Ravenna/ Raymond Berangar, Count/ Reconquista/ Rennes/ Reynolds, Barbara/ Richard II, King/ Anne, Queen/ Richard III, King/ Richard of Cornwall/ Ripa, Cesare/ Rouen/ Robertson, D. W./ Robinson, F. N./ Rome: Appian Way, Ara Coeli, Lateran, Regina Coeli Prison, Vatican/ Romeo /Roncesvalles /Rossetti, Dante Gabriel/ Rousseau, Jean Jacques/ Russian Formalists/ Rudulf, Emperor/  /Rufinus 97 Ruggieri, Archbishop of Pisa/

S
/Saladin /Salisbury, Earl and Countess /Sallust /Santillana, Marques de /Scala, Cavalcante della /Senator of Rome /Seneca, Lucilius /Seville /Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, Lear, Cordelia, Merchant of Venice Portia, Shylock, Othello, Richard II, Tempest, Prospero and Miranda, Winter's Tale, Perdita /Shaw, Bernard: St Joan /Sheen /Sicily /Sicilian Vespers /Siena /Sinai /St. Catherine's Monastery /Singleton, Charles /Skeat, W. W. /Smalley, Beryl /Socrates, Xanthippe, Diotima /Sophocles: Theban Trilogy Antigone Creon /Sordels, Sordello /Southern, Sir Richard /Spain /Speght, Thomas /Spenser, Sir Edmund: Faerie Queene /Spigliati, Thomas /Spigliati-Mozzi /Spine, Manecto /Spinelli /Statius: Thebaid Caphaneus /Stephany, William /Stock, Brian /Strasbourg /Stratford atte Bowe /Suetonius /Suffolk, Duke of, William de la Pole/ Duke of Suffolk, John /Sweden /

T
/Tagliacozzo, Battle of /Talfourd, Charles /Tavant /Tennyson, Lord Alfred /Terence: Comedies /Tesauro di Vallombrosa /Thais /Thebes /Theodoric, Emperor /Thoreau, Henry David: Civil Disobedience /Thynne, William /Titus and Vespasian /Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina, Kingdom of God is Within You /Torthat /Trajan /Tres Riches Heures /Treviso /Tristan /Troy /Tuchman, Barbara: Distant Mirror /Tunisian Crusade /Turin /Turner, Victor /Tuscany

U
/Udine /St. Urban/ Usk, Thomas: Testament of Love Margaret /

V
/Vadstena /Valenciennes /Vallombrosa /Vatican II /Vatican Archives /Vatican Library /Venice /Ventadorn, Bernart de /Verdi, Giuseppe /Verona /Veronica /Vidal, Peire /Vigne, Pier delle: Epistolaria /Villani, Giovanni: History of Florence/ Virgil: Aeneid, Aeneas Cacus Dido Geryon Hercules Laocoon Sinon Tenedos Ulysses & Diomed Eclogues, Georgics /Viterbo /Volterra /Voragine, Jacobus de: Golden Legend /

W
Walsingham /Weil, Simone /Westminster Abbey /Whitby, Council of /Wireker, Nigel: Speculum Stultorum/ Woolf, Virginia/ Wordsworth, William/ Wyclif, John/ Wynfrith, see Boniface/ Wynken de Worde: Orcherd of Syon
 

Go to:

Brunetto Latino and Dante Alighieri
I Bankers and Their Books: Italian Manuscripts in French Exile
II Brown Ink, Red Blood: Brunetto Latino and the Sicilian Vespers
III The Vita Nuova's Pilgrimage Paradigms
IV Stealing Hercules' Club: Inferno XXV's Metamorphoses  

Geoffrey Chaucer
V Black and Red Letter Chaucer
VI Fact and Fiction: Women in Love
VII Convents, Courts and Colleges
VIII The Tomb of the Duchess Alice

Terence, Dante, Boccaccio and Chaucer
IX God's Plenty: Terence in Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare Newest

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