«Parcere subiectis». Opposizioni e dissonanze nelle implorazioni amorose fra Dante e Cino da Pistoia

Praying madonna for mercy is one of the earliest and standard behaviours of the poet-lover in romance lyric tradition. This essential commonplace is no doubt diminished in Dante’s Vita nova, since the love for the divine Beatrice cannot be supported by such a paltry and earthly expedient. Nevertheless many other Dante contemporary poets kept using these rhetorical pleas in their poems. Cino da Pistoia in particular made his frequent cries for mercy a sort of distinguishing feature of his own poetry, and Francesco Petrarca himself did not refuse to address Laura that very way. No actual o significant link can be detected however between Cino’s and Petrarca’s similar aptitude in crying for mercy: the words directed to Laura always reveal a hidden and intense dialogue with the Vita nova even when they look traditional and conventional at first sight.