Note 467 — Chapter IV · THE SOURCES FOR THE PERIOD 1100–1250 A. D.

Dante treats incidentally of the traditional geography and astronomy of his period in the Convito and in numerous references in the Divine Comedy. His sources were mainly Orosius, Isidore, Albertus Magnus, and Brunetto Latino (see Moore, Studies in Dante: Third Series, 1903, pp. 110–111). A most interesting and original discussion of linguistic geography will be found in the De vulgari eloquentia (see Mori, La geogr., 1922, pp. 289–292; Andriani, La carta dialettologica, 1923, pp. 255–263). The Quaestio de aqua et terra, frequently ascribed to Dante, is of doubtful authenticity. Moore, Studies in Dante: Second Series, 1899, pp. 303–374, Shadwell in his edition of the Quaestio de aqua et terra, 1909, and Mori, op. cit., p. 285, hold it to be a genuine work of the poet; Boffito, Intorno alla “Quaestio de aqua et terra,” Memoria I, 1902, believed it to be spurious; serious objections to Boffito’s arguments, however, were raised by V. Biagi in a review of the former’s work (Bollettino della Società Dantesca, vol. x, Florence, 1903) with the “result that Boffito himself appears to be less resolved to maintain his thesis in his latest publication, La “Quaestio de aqua et terra” di D. A., ed. principe del 1508 riprod. in facsimile, etc., Florence, 1905” (Marinelli, Scritti minori, vol. i, [1908?], p. 196, note 3, p. 219, note 1). See also Arnold Norlind: Dante som geograf och medeltidens behandling av frågan on vatten och land, in: Ymer: Tidskrift utgiven av Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi, vol. xliv, Stockholm, 1924, pp. 260–278.

For references to an edition of the text of Dante and to English translations of his various works see the Bibliography under Dante.