Guido e la volpe: Inferno XXVII e la tradizione renardiana antico-francese

By examining the literary and iconographic history of the fox during the Middle Ages, this article seeks to demonstrate Dante’s reliance on Old French sources in canto XXVII of the Inferno. Guido da Montefeltro’s description of his behaviour as a fox is shown to refer back to the tradition of the Roman de Renart and its sequels, as well as later satirical texts in the vernacular, including the Roman de la Rose and the Fiore. By arguing for Dante’s familiarity with this material, the article suggests that the Comedy’s Old French sources range well beyond the ones identified in the De vulgari eloquentia and constitute an essential part of the poem’s “comedic” nature