Commentary Par XXXII 140-141

Alessio (Ales.1989.1), p. 12, finds a source for Dante's much-admired image in the conclusion of a treatise on epistolary rhetoric, Palma, by Buoncampagno da Signa.  Advising his reader that he should measure out his epistolary space with care, so that his thoughts will all fit onto the amount of paper reserved for them, Buoncompagno continues his thought with a simile: 'sicut providus sartor pannum, de quo camisiam disposuit facere vel gunnellam' (just as a tailor, having thought ahead, has prepared the cloth from which to make a shirt or else a skirt).  In the words of the punch-line of a tailor-joke that dates at least to the middle of the last century, 'Fits in the front, fits in the back.'