American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The relationship with the learned institutions of his age was complex, combining admiration for intellectual traditions with moments of criticism toward academic culture. This tension is particularly visible in Paradiso and raises important questions about how the Commedia itself was subsequently received by teachers and scholars. This study investigates the role of magistri, university lecturers, and other members of the higher educational world in shaping the poem’s academic reception during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It explores whether Dante’s work moved beyond literary circulation to acquire a place within teaching and interpretative practices, especially those connected with lectio. Particular attention is given to manuscript evidence in which passages from the Commedia appear in glosses and commentaries on established auctores maiores. These references served diverse scholarly purposes, including the explanation of difficult vocabulary, the support of interpretative arguments, the provision of illustrative examples, and the transmission of moral or intellectual sententiae. The evidence suggests that Dante’s poem gradually entered the repertoire of texts recognized as useful and authoritative within learned circles. Its presence in manuscripts produced across different regions further demonstrates the widening acceptance of Dante as an auctor whose work could participate in established medieval practices of reading, commentary, and textual interpretation.