MANFRED’S REVISIONIST SMILE

This paper suggests that a careful reading of Manfred’s appearance in canto III of “Purgatory” allows a way into Dante’s complex aesthetic and political thought. The work advances the idea that Manfred’s presence in "Ante-purgatory" is key when trying to understand Dante’s position on issues as important for his time and his oeuvre as the relationship between the letter and the spirit and the rapport between these aspects and aesthetic representation. That is, the validity of artistic projects such as his in the context of an eschatological reading of history.