Academic literature on the topic 'Luigi Valli'

This article has a historiographic and methodological nature and is devoted to the problematic interpretations of the esoteric content of Dante’s ideas and works by French and Italian scholars from the middle of the nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth century. Various definitions of Western esotericism are discussed in the light of contemporary approaches. The current interest in the study of Dante’s esotericism and the relevance of this topic are substantiated. The tradition in the interpretation of Dante's esotericism in Italy and France can be traced back to the occultists of the 19th century, who referred to each other's works: G. Rossetti, E. Arou, F. Boissard, J. Péladant, G. Pascoli and others. It has been demonstrated that the studies of Dante's esotericism during 1920s reached a new level of quality, which was adequate to the contemporary scientific requirements for Dante studies: in Italy, this happened in the person of Luigi Valli and his students, Arturo Reghini and then Julius Evola; and in France, at the same time, in the person of René Guénon. The criticism of Valli in the works by Guénon is analyzed in detail. The context of Dante's interpretation by Guénon is revealed in connection with the issue of Templar, Rosicrucian and Islamic influences (Sufism, Arab Neoplatonism). In this respect, a significant difference of tones was observed in the perception of Dante's esotericism within the general paradigm of integral traditionalism between Guénon and his Italian colleagues Julius Evola and especially Guido de Giorgio, whose fundamental work is still unknown to Russian scholars. An intense politicization of the perception of Dante's heritage by Evola and de Giorgio is also remarked in this article. Special attention is then paid to the study of Dante's esotericism by one of the leading Roman Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, Romano Guardini, who engaged a polemic correspondence with the integral traditionalists. Based on the results of our study, it was concluded that the research of Dante's esotericism by French and Italian authors for more than a hundred years can be characterized as a continuous chain of dialogue and polemics of various authors who knew about each other's works and used the appropriate links.

Personaggio di rilievo nel mondo culturale degli anni Venti, di fitte relazioni internazionali, Luigi Valli è oggi ricordato solo per i suoi studi danteschi fondati su una «scuola» ermeneutica allegorista che, a partire da Boccaccio, ha il suo culmine a metà Ottocento con Gabriele Rossetti, vero fondatore dell’interpretazione esoterica di Dante. Giovanni Pascoli, di cui Valli è discepolo, è l’anello che, a suo dire, lo collega a questa catena ermeneutica: sistematizzando la produzione dantesca pascoliana, ignorata dalla critica, egli scopre le simmetrie della Croce e dell’Aquila, una teologia politica occulta nella Commedia, scoperta che avrà risvolti concreti sull’immaginario politico dell’Italia fascista e nella Germania della «rivoluzione conservatrice». Quando nel 1928, Valli amplia questa sua ermeneutica con la pubblicazione del Linguaggio segreto di Dante e dei Fedeli d’Amore, da una teologia politica occulta si passerà a un vero e proprio esoterismo di Dante, nel senso che il termine esoterismo ha acquistato come disciplina accademica. Apprezzate dal giornalismo di terza pagina e combattute dal dantismo accademico, le tesi del Linguaggio segreto saranno riprese, dopo la prematura scomparsa del loro autore, dai nuovi esponenti della «scuola», principalmente Alfonso Ricolfi e Gaetano Scarlata. Ma, ancor più, l’interpretazione valliana è all’origine di uno fecondo spazio ermeneutico, aperto agli apporti di altre scuole di pensiero. Primi tra tutti, gli esponenti di quell’«ecumene esoterico» che si andava costituendo negli anni Venti per influenzare in senso neopagano il regime fascista (Arturo Reghini e Julius Evola su tutti); ma anche altri autori con diverso approccio, «tradizionalista» come René Guénon o «religionista» come Mircea Eliade o Henry Corbin. Quest’ultimo, evidenziando le intersezioni tra «Fedeli d’Amore» d’Oriente e d’Occidente fornirà a sua volta elementi a studiosi come Giorgio Agamben per individuare la vena esoterica interna al Dolce stil nuovo come punto d’accesso ormai ineludibile per gli studi sulla poesia italiana delle origini.
Once a well-known writer, a man of manifold cultural interests and international relations, today Luigi Valli is not mentioned among the Italian prominent figures of early twentieth-century if not for his Dante studies, based on an interpretation that he connected to a hermeneutic "school". A “school” whose allegorist approach culminated in the mid nineteenth century with Gabriele Rossetti, the real founder of the esoteric interpretation of Dante. Valli considered Giovanni Pascoli’s Dantescan work as his link to this hermeneutic chain, and systematizing this work – nearly ignored by critics –, he found the “symmetries of the Cross and the Eagle”, the structure of a secret imperialistic political theology in the Comedy. A discovery with practical implications on the political imaginary of Fascist Italy and German "conservative revolution". When in 1928, Valli extends his hermeneutics with the publication of Il linguaggio segreto di Dante e dei Fedeli d’Amore, the secret political theology changes into a real esotericism of Dante, in the sense that the term esotericism has acquired as an academic discipline. Appreciated in newspapers cultural section, and fought by academic Dantism, after the untimely death of their author, the theories of the Linguaggio segreto will be pursue by new followers of the "school", mainly Alfonso Ricolfi and Gaetano Scarlata, but also by external circles. In fact, Valli’s Dantescan work offered a fruitful hermeneutic space, opened to the contributions from other schools of thought. First of all, supporters of an "esoteric ecumenism", such as Julius Evola and Arturo Reghini, who, in the Twenties, tried to insert neo-pagan influences into Fascist regime, but also authors with a totally different approach, such as the perennialism of René Guénon or the "religionism" of Mircea Eliade and Henry Corbin. The latter, highlighting the intersections between Eastern and Western "Fedeli d’Amore", will provide scholars such as Giorgio Agamben to locate the esotericist vein inside Dolce stil nuovo as an access point now unavoidable to investigate the origins of Italian poetry.