«Intrecci di fiori e di allori» Dialoghi italo-tedeschi su letteratura e linguistica. Una nascita controversa

In 1983, Wilhelm Pötters introduced to the Italian attention a new theory on the genesis of the sonnet based on the relationship between mathematics and metrics, integrating the problem of ‘derivation’ with that of ‘invention’: it was the beginning of a heated debate, initiated by a single research project in Germany and welcomed in Italy by touchy refusals or enthusiastic acceptance, of which this contribution gives an overall interpretation.

«Intrecci di fiori e di allori» Dialoghi italo-tedeschi su letteratura e linguistica. Giuseppe Picci e l’auctoritas degli studi danteschi di Carlo Witte

In his book I luoghi più oscuri e controversi della Divina Commedia di Dante dichiarati da lui stesso (1843), the Brescian scholar Giuseppe Picci (1809–1888) repeatedly uses the studies of Karl Witte, because he obviously sees him as an authority in the field of Dante Studies. A similar attitude towards Witte is also evident in later works that Picci dedicated to the question of the authenticity of the Epistola a Cangrande, although in these he took a position contrary to Witte’s. In the various editions of his successful Guida allo studio delle belle arti e al comporre, however, Picci at no point refers to the German scholar’s edition of the Commedia.