Ethical Distance and Political Resonance in the Eclogues of Dante

When he received Giovanni del Virgilio’s epistolary poem – either during the second half of 1319, at the end of that year or else at the beginning of 1320¹ – Dante was already in Ravenna, writing the last part of the Paradiso.² Everything suggests he had finally discovered the locus amoenus which would allow him to work on his verses (Ecl., IV. 70–3), surrounded by a group of admirers with the same inclinations and tastes (Ecl., IV. 57–62) and honoured by the Lord of the city (Ecl., III. 80), himself a lover of poetry. The reception of Del