The ‘bread of angels’ between liturgy and philosophy

Abstract

Dante opens his Convivio with the image of the “pan degli angeli” signifying the doctrinal content of wisdom with which the great philosophers banquet and whose remains the poet uses to organize another symposium mainly addressed to the nobles so that they can regain a clear consciousness of their own role. This panis angelicus links Dante’s metaphor of the banquet not just to the tradition of the philosophical symposium, which involves the savants in the common search for truth. It emerges also the image of the eucharist, in which people can eat the bread that after the consecration has become the body of Christ, that is of the Word and of the Wisdom. This contribution aims at reconsidering the way Dante argues on the notion of “pane degli angeli”, trying to discuss the liturgical, theological, philosophical, as well as literary, features which lay beneath the surface of the text of the Convivio. The contribution will show how Dante, using all these elements, achieves an original argument on the issue of wisdom and of knowledge as the proper food for thought.