Rivista Internazionale di ricerche dantesche

Dante, Ulysses and the “passage” among the Saracens of Francis’ helmsman-archimandrita, according to Enrico D’Avranches’s Vita sancti Francisci · The life of saint Francis is put in verses for the first time by Henri of Avranches, the first biographer of the saint of Assisi not belonging to the Franciscan Order, upon a request by the pope Gregory ix to whom the poem is dedicated with the title Legenda sancti Francisci versificata (1229-1234). This paper proposes an intertextual reading of Dante’s Par. xi and Inf. xxvii 85-93, and the verses in Henry’s poem concerning Francis’ s visit in 1219 to the Sultan of Egypt Malek-al-Kamil in Egypt to show how Dante conveys the same idea of Francis about the Orient. Also, the poetic biography that Dante offers of Francis presents several points in common with Henry’s Legenda sancti Francisci, although the only life of Francis circulating at Dante’s time was Benvenuto’s Legenda Major. The paper addresses questions related to the representation of the Orient and the role that the book plays in both Francis and Dante against any form of malice.