Iannucci, Amilcare A. “Dante’s Philosophical Canon (Inferno 4.130-144).” QUADERNI D ITALIANISTICA 18, no. 2 (1997): 251–60.

Excerpt:

Philosophically, Dante was influenced by Aristotle more than by any other philosopher. On the one hand, this is hardly surprising given that Dante’s life occurred immediately after and during the j)eriod in which much of the wisdom of ancient Greece, especially that of Aristotle, reappeared anew through the intermediary influence of Arabic translations and confronted western Latin philosophy (cf. Nardi 166 ff.). On the other hand, what is surprising is both the depth and breadth of Dante’s famiUarity with Aristotle, an intellectual achieve- ment described by Moore (94) as “astonishing.” There seems to be few Aristo- telian works with which Dante was unfamiliar (the Poetics, as Moore, 93, notes, seems to be an important exception) and Aristotle is quoted repeatedly throughout Dante’s works as a philosophical authority who ranks supreme (cf. Placella and Simonelli). He is, as Dante says prosaically, “il maestro de li filo- sofi” {Conv. 4.8.15) or, according to the poetic depiction oi Inferno 4.131, “il maestro di color che sanno” and his philosophical influence on Dante and his literary output reigns supreme. In fact, taking all of his writings together, Dante quotes or refers to Aristotle’s works more than any other authoritative text save the Bible, and in the Commedia Aristotle is only surpassed by the Bible, Virgil and Ovid (cf. Moore’s tables, 321 ff.).

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