Commentary Purg XXIX 105

Dante's claim here mirrors the pretext of the entire poem; his experience of the otherworld is to be treated as actual and not as imagined.  As a result, his authority as teller of the tale is absolute, and even biblical testimony is secondary to his own. Battaglia Ricci, in her essay 'Polisemanticità e struttura della Commedia' (Batt.1983.1 [first published in 1975]), pp. 92-95, saw that this phrasing insisted on the historical footing of Dante's experience of the pageant.  In the same year, Hollander had made a more pointed observation (if mistakenly referring it to the griffin rather than to the four gospel beasts), which he repeated soon after (Holl.1975.2, p. 123; Holl.1976.1, p. 112; Holl.1977.1, pp. 406-7).  See the second of these passages: 'Where does authority lie here?  In the primacy of the author's vision.  A writer willing to accept a fictional pretext for his work would never have written so prideful a statement, would have been content with the more "honest" and humble "And here I follow John."'  Several other American Dantists now seem committed to this view (e.g., Hawkins, Barolini, Kleinhenz).  It is also true that at moments in the commentary tradition there has been an awareness of a certain self-consciousness in Dante's locution.  See Jacopo della Lana (DDP Lana.Purg.XXIX.103-105): 'the vision, similar to mine, of John the Evangelist.'  But the far more common response is fairly represented by the paraphrase found in the Anonimo Fiorentino (DDP Fiorentino.Purg.XXIX.100-105): 'I agree with John.'  Among more recent commentators perhaps only Poletto (DDP Poletto.Purg.XXIX.100-105) seems to be aware that Dante has seized more authority than he really should have.  Poletto is reminded of someone whom he knew who, involved in a discussion of Dante, announced to those assembled that 'even Vellutello agrees with my opinion.'