The sources of Il Tesoretto

Abstract

Brunetto Latini, the old Florentine intellectual is the author and at the same time the narrator-protagonist of his opera: Il Tesoretto is a didactic-allegorical poem written in vernacular. In my study, I focus on the main sources of Brunetto Latini. The poem echoes Alain de Lille’s De planctu naturae, Boethius’ Consolatione philosophiae, and Guillaume de Lorris’ Roman de la Rose. At first, I examine these authors and their texts: how do they appear in the allegorical vision? Then, I concentrate on the arrangement of this material in Il Tesoretto, which is carefully selected and well-planned by Latini, trying to identify these analogies and transmutations in the text and to describe them according to the author’s intention and context.