Commentary Par XXX 34

Rossi (Ross.1981.1 and Ross.1985.1), p. 65 and p. 89, respectively, points out that the word bando here looks back at [Purg XXX 13] in such a way as to make its meaning clear.  All the early commentators who make an effort to identify the source of that trumpeting say that it will be a later poet (Benvenuto [DDP Benvenuto.Par.XXX.34-39] specifies 'a poet-theologian,' in which judgment he is followed by John of Serravalle [DDP Serravalle.Par.XXX.34-42]); some, their discomfort more or less apparent, go along, perhaps because they do not understand to what else the sonorous reference might refer.  That was the muddled condition of appreciation of this passage until Scartazzini (DDP Scartazzini.Par.XXX.34) cut through centuries of weak responses and magisterially solved (or should have been understood as having done so) the riddle once and for all (the text refers to the trump of Judgment Day), even if his reward for doing so was to be ridiculed by Poletto (DDP Poletto.Par.XXX.34-37) and to be ignored even by those relative few who agree with him.  Mestica (DDP Mestica.Par.XXX.34-38), without reference to Scartazzini (do we hear the strains of a familiar tune? [see C.Purg.XXX.115-117]), also settles on this daring but sensible explanation, as does Del Lungo (DDP Lungo.Par.XXX.34-38).  Varese (Vare.1953.1) follows this path but cites no predecessor on it.  Salsano (Sals.1974.1), p. 226n., credits Del Lungo alone for this better understanding.  Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1997.1), p. 830, omits mention of any precursor in presenting this interpretation.  Still more blameworthy than Poletto, Vandelli, revising his master's work, simply substitutes his own version of the ancient view for Scartazzini's radical new interpretation (DDP Vandelli.Par.I.34-36), attributing the trumpet blast to a 'voce poetica più possente della mia' (poetic voice more powerful than mine).  In more recent times, Scartazzini's position has found support in Rossi (Ross.1981.1), pp. 65, 72; Hollander (Holl.1993.5), pp. 10-13 [with a review of the status of the debate]; Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1997.1), p. 830; and Ledda (Ledd.2002.1), p. 301.  However, see Shaw (Shaw.1981.1), p. 197, for a return to the old solution, the bando will issue from 'a greater poetic talent than his own.'

For a similar problem, what Dante refers to by the phrase 'con miglior voci' (with better words) at [Par I 35], and the utter unlikelihood that he might be thinking of future poets better than he, see C.Par.I.35-36.  Interestingly enough, Aversano (Aver.2000.2), p. 151, sees the failure of this traditional interpretation, but goes on to offer an unlikely solution here, roughly the same as was presented by Giuseppe Toffanin (Toff.1947.1, pp. 80-82) in his attempt to solve that crux in the first canto in 1947: Dante is not thinking of other poets but of the saints in Heaven; it is they who will celebrate Beatrice.