'Tra mille abissi e precipizi': The contribution of Algarotti, Bettinelli and Gozzi to Dante's critical fortune in the eighteenth century

Abstract

In his attempt to stamp out obsequious Dante imitators, Bettinelli openly derided the Florentine poet and so invoked the wrath of Dante supporters of the calibre of Gasparo Gozzi Giuseppe Baretti and, to a lesser extent, Francesco Algarotti. Gozzi's sensitive analysis provided a serious countermove to Bettinelli's attack. In their own way, both critics helped usher in the new critical attitudes of the nineteenth century; Bettinelli by drawing attention to the inadequacies of his contemporaries and Gozzi by stimulating interest in the philological study of Dante's major and minor works.