10
E
UR
A
MERICA
authorship as theoretically only an independent author deserves
fame. In
Il Convivio
, Dante embarks on his discussion of “author”
from the etymological perspective. Dante reasons that
autor
might
be derived from two sources: the first is the disused Latin verb
auieo
, which roughly means “to tie words together” (1990: 162),
and this aspect of meaning applies only to “poets who have tied
their words with the art of poetry” (162). The other provenance is
the Greek word
autentin
, which, according to Dante, means
“worthy of faith and obedience” (162). In this sense, “author”
refers to a person who is trustworthy. Dante proceeds to explain
that the idea of “authority” is derived from
autenin
, and that only
when one, such as Aristotle, is worthy of trust can his words carry
weight (162). Thus, for Dante an author is more than a person
who merely knows how to combine words to perfection
—
a true
author must be trustworthy as well. A. J. Minnis therefore suggests
that for Dante great poets should be “men of authority in the
philosophical-moral sense” (Minnis, Scattergood, & Smith, 1995:
228). In this sense, Dante greatly augmented the status of “author.”
II. Petrarch
Petrarch’s conception of the nature of literary fame merits
special attention not simply because he played a major role in
promulgating the importance of literature, but also because he
exerted a palpable impact on Chaucer’s literary career.
9
Like
Dante, Petrarch essentially regards literary fame “as an absolute, a
way of immortalizing themselves [writers] against the passage of
9
According to William T. Rossiter, Chaucer translated at least two works of
Petrarch: the sonnet “S’amor non è” and the Latin tale of Griseida (2010: 1).
Besides, whether Chaucer had met Petrarch in Italy is still a moot point. Rossiter
maintains that there exists no conclusive evidence that the two had met in person
(2010: 38-40). Moreover, Howard suggests that textual perusal of the
House of
Fame
evidences Chaucer’s, if limited, awareness of Petrarch’s
Triumph of Fame
(1987: 237).
