The dialogue between Dante and Cino da Pistoia: friendship, exile, love

In this thesis, I examine the dialogue between Dante and his friend, the poet and jurist
Cino da Pistoia. The relationship between them can be reassessed around the corpus
of texts they exchange with each other. I demonstrate that, although the exchange of
texts ends at a certain point in their relationship, the dialogue continues on an
intertextual level. The themes involved in the dialogue are multiple, but I identify
friendship, exile, and love as the most central. The aim of this thesis is to provide a
comprehensive and detailed discussion of the main phases the dialogue is composed
of, by focusing on the ways in which the relationship between Dante and Cino takes
shape over the years and in relation to their biographic and poetic development, and
how and to what extent there is a mutual influence in their relationship and an outcome
in their poetic evolution. This work not only sheds light on the relationship between
Dante and Cino, but it also offers a new perspective on the interpretation of the
'Commedia', read through the lens of the previous exchange between the poets. I argue
that some important ideas in the 'Commedia' have already been worked out in the
relationship, and thus this relationship is very important in helping Dante to reach some
of the positions claimed in the poem. In order to do this, I examine the main phases of
the dialogue, by combining close reading to the analysis of the historical, cultural, and
so the dialogue, which is still ongoing, has an important role in the understanding of
the entire relationship and, furthermore, of the 'Commedia'.