Dante nel regno della Sibilla: punizioni ofidiche e contrappasso (Andrea da Barberino "Guerrin Meschino")

At the court of the Sibyl of Norcia every Saturday there is an ophidic metamorphosis lasting three days. Amazed Guerrin witnesses the transformation of courtiers and courtesans into different species of reptiles. Unlike the other attestations of ophidic metamorphosis, Andrea da Barberino constructs a hierarchical universe within which the various ophidic typology alludes to the system of sins capital. At the basis of equivalence or dissimilarity, Andrea da Barberino places the principle of Dante’s «contrappasso». The objective of this contribution is therefore the reconstruction of the reception of Dante’s «contrappasso» law in a text destined for widespread circulation and diffusion. Entrusted to a work intended for public reading and, over the centuries, for recitation in the squares, the mechanism of Dante’s «contrappasso» is simplified and increasingly emptied of allegorical depth.