SOURCE: Najemy, John M. “Brunetto Latini's ‘Politica.’” Dante Studies 112 (1994): 33-51.

In the following essay, Najemy explores Brunetto's treatment of political issues in The Book of the Treasure and The Little Treasure within the dual context of thirteenth-century Florentine civic responsibility and economic exchange.

A curious aspect of Brunetto Latini's fate is that, despite what Dante has him say (Inferno XV, 119-120) about living on in his writing (“… il mio Tesoro, / nel qual io vivo ancora”), Brunetto's general reputation has in fact been shaped more by what others wrote about him than by his own texts. The imaginary encounter in the Divine Comedy has practically dictated the terms and context in which Brunetto is remembered, and even studied. Another of Brunetto's younger contemporaries who did much to fashion his reputation was the chronicler Giovanni Villani. Among the notable events of the year 1294 (according to the Florentine style, and 1295 in...