User:Deliz21/Nella Donati

= Nella Donati = Nella Donati, possibly also known as Giovanna or Giovannella, was a medieval Italian noblewoman (treccani).

She is associated with the Frescobaldi name (dantesca treccani). She had one daughter named Ghita and she was married to Forese Donati (dantesca treccani). Forese died while she was still young, making her a widow. She is not known to have ever remarried (Diaz dissertation).

She has also been associated with the Ghibellines according to Dante Alighieri's writings (readings of the sonnets).

Nella in Dante's Tenzone with Forese
An important key to understanding Nella in Dante's Divine Comedy, is by looking at Dante's tenzone with Forese. This tenzone was made up of sonnets in which Dante and Forese conversed. In this tenzone, Dante uses a more negative tone than in the Divine Comedy to address Forese and Nella (cite tenzone). Interpretations focus on the importance of the fact that most of his tenzone were written in Florence, as a method to show how much he connects Nella and her husband to the city (Citations).

Here, Dante describes Nella by her unattractive and loud cough (cite tenzone). He represents her as a cold and harsh woman, no matter the weather (dantesca). He is violent and sarcastic towards Nella but also attributes these poor behaviors of hers to Forese's affects on her (dantesca).

The underlying message in his tenzone is that Forese's sexual inadequacies have left Nella lonely and frigid (Diaz dissertation). Not only does Forese have trouble properly satisfying his wife, but Dante also critiques him for his self-serving economic motives (Diaz dissertation). His gluttony furthers Nella's critical appearance here as she cannot afford proper care for herself, therefore she is prone to sickness (terrace). Dante hints at this by mentioning her insufficient bed sheets, "copertoio" in Italian (Citations citing). The hacking cough that ails her is seen as a product of their lacking sex life as well as a product of the money that Forese has wasted (Diaz).

Dante also uses Nella to emphasize Forese's tainted bloodline (Hellish echoes). One line includes an exclamation from Nella's mother in which she laments on the disgust she has for Forese (cite actual tenzone). Here we find that Forese is not only a big spender of his own money, but he has also wasted Nella's dowry (ad personam). Nella's mother also mentions that she could have married someone else of the rivaling political faction (Citations). According to her mother, Nella had the option to be married off to the Counts Guidi as well, which they turned down for Forese (Citations). This heavy emphasis on Nella's unfulfilling marriage highlights that Forese's noble title is also falling from his hands (Hellish echoes).

The tenzone is acknowledged to paint a picture of an ever-cold wife who is both luckless and possibly unfaithful (ad personam). Some interpret the description of bed sheets as being a hint that Nella may have been accused of being an adulteress (ad personam). Dante also points out to her Ghibelline ties and makes this yet another point for Forese to distrust her (terrace). However, interpretations do not contribute these comments to be attacks on Nella, but instead they are seen as indirect critiques on Forese (Contested Virilities).

Some interpretations draw from the similarities of Dante's view here of Nella and his overarching view of Florence (Uncovering). To Dante, both are neglected female entities who fall to the greed of others (Uncovering). In this evaluation, Dante uses Nella to expand his commentary on Florence at the time of upheaval (Uncovering).

Nella in the Divine Comedy
Nella appears in a conversation between Dante and Forese Donati in Canto 23 of Purgatorio in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (cite poem). She is mentioned after Dante learns that his gluttonous friend Forese has somehow advanced very far in Purgatory (cite book). Dante is surprised at this and asks how he could possibly be so high up in Purgatory, as he has only recently died (cite poem). Forese explains to him that he was only able to get so far because of his righteous wife, Nella (cite book). Here we learn that she has been weeping and praying for Forese, and that these good works helped him move through Purgatory much more quickly than he could have alone (cite poem). Since she has kept his name alive on earth, and prayed to God for him so often, he has spent less time in the lower levels of Purgatory (cite poem). Now he is at the Terrace of Gluttony (cite poem).

In contrast to her depiction in tenzone, Dante portrays Nella in a much different manner in Purgatorio. Here, she is someone that Forese misses and loves deeply (dantesca). Forese spends much of the canto praising Nella for her goodness and underscoring his love for her (cite poem). Her prayers accentuate her extreme level of devotion to God (Diaz dissertation). She is the perfect representation of the widow that Dante imagines God desires, in her pure devotion to Him (Diaz dissertation). Dante also underlines the importance of her not remarrying after becoming a widow (Diaz dissertation). In this way, she is not the defiant woman seen in tenzone, but instead a righteous woman of God, helping her husband reach salvation (Diaz dissertation). Nella becomes a go-between with God through her prayers (Terrace of tenzone). She is no longer the distrustful wife (as seen in the tenzone) that Forese should be suspicious of (Terrace). She is often compared to Forese's sister, Piccarda Donati because Dante represents them both as good and virtuous women (Terrace). She is greatly complimented throughout Dante and Forese's conversation (contested).

In their relationship to each other here, Forese and Nella symbolize a couple with true love for each other (diaz dissertation). Forese speaks sweetly of her and exclaims that he has always loved her (diaz dissertation). Their reciprocity as a couple is furthered in how she gives back to Forese's love by making sure he is never forgotten on earth, through her prayers (diaz dissert). He is interpreted as using Nella and Forese to show the example of what marriages under God should be (Contested virilities). She is a perfect widow to Forese: she cries for him and prays (Contested). Also, unlike the standards of the time, Nella does not follow the path of widows in her culture, she doesn't remarry and become unfaithful as Dante defines it (Diaz dissert).

A number of interpreters see Dante's evolving opinion on Nella as an apology of sorts (dantesca). They see his kindness toward Nella in Purgatorio as a way for him to make up for his negative view of her in his tenzone. They also explain that it is not likely that Forese himself had such a change in heart, but rather Dante's perspective that changed (dantesca). This depiction of her is often understood as Dante being forgiving, not Forese being overly affectionate to Nella (Dantesca).

Nella is also used as a mode for Dante to critique the morality of Florentine women (Diaz dissertation). In Purgatorio Dante and Forese reference the women they know in Florence in negative terms (diaz dissert). They are shunned for showing their bodies off with little care for social standards (diaz dissert). Forese also shares a prophecy in which he tells Dante that these women will face punishment for their promiscuity (Purg). This is seen as a glimpse into the medieval values of the time: particularly that of open feminine sexuality (diaz dissert). In this manner, the women around Nella have heightened immorality in comparison to her perfected behavior (diaz dissert). While Dante and Forese discuss that both the humans on earth and the higher power above disapprove of the "more sexual" women in Florence, Nella is treated with admiration (Diaz dissert). In her dissertation, assistant professor of Italian, Sara Diaz writes that when Dante contrasts her to the women in Florence, the lack of appreciation these women show to God is evident (Diaz dissert). Diaz also sees the way Dante speaks of these women as being misogyny toward both these women and Nella (diaz dissert).

Nella's Influence in Other Works
Some commentaries find that Dante's focus on Nella in Purgatorio and the tenzone with Forese has been incorporated into later works by influential poets and authors (Citations).

A connection is often made is to the 4th century Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio in his famous work,The Decameron (britannica). A key character in his poetry is Mazzeo (citations). Similar to Dante's writings explaining Forese and Nella's relationship, Mazzeo's wife is also sexually unhappy (citations). She is also described as being "cold" and empty due to her husband's incompetence (citations). Dante scholar Fabian Alfie focuses on the similarities between Dante's depiction of Nella in his tenzone, and the adulterous woman in The Decameron (citations). He believes that Boccaccio drew from the description of Forese and Nella in Dante's tenzone to blame the Mazzeo for his inabilities as a husband (Citations). Rather than leave the "coldness" up to interpretation though, Boccaccio explicitly attributes it to Mazzeo's inadequacies, and doesn't punish Mazzeo's wife for their marriage's suffering (citations).

Boccaccio also borrows from Dante's tenzone through the description of Nella's mother's complaints about Forese (Citations). In the Seventh Day of story eight, the lady Sismonda cheats on her merchant husband (citations). After successfully falsely covering up her infidelity her mother attacks Sismonda's husband for his class status (Citations). Alfie finds this as being a close copy to Dante's words in his tenzone (citations).

This same Dante expert compares Nella to the works of Machiavelli (citations). He sees Machiavelli as rooting his play Mandragola on the commentary Boccacio makes in The Decameron (citations). Machiavelli's character Callimaco makes similar descriptions of a woman's coldness that both Boccaccio and Dante utilize (citations). Although Alfie believes that Machiavelli was more directly influenced by Boccacio, he still draws the conclusion that this style of description originated in Dante's tenzone (citations).