Ritornerò profeta: The Epistle of St James and the Crowning of Dante’s Patience

Paradiso XXV opens with some of the boldest claims of the whole Commedia. Not only does Dante present his poem as a ‘sacred work’ – in the making of which God too has a role – but he also grants himself the title of poeta – a title, it should be noted, that up to this point in the poem had been reserved for the great poets of antiquity. In these lines, moreover, the author expresses the apparent hope of a possible return to Florence. There, by his own authority and with an unspecified cappello, he will crown himself in