by Valerio Cappozzo
Dissertation Thesis, Indiana University 2012. Advisor: Prof. H. Wayne Storey
This study examines the ways in which the dream manual was materially bound together with collections of early Italian... more
This study examines the ways in which the dream manual was materially bound together with collections of early Italian visionary literature. The Somniale Danielis was a widely circulated dream manual in the late Middle Ages. It guided the interpretation of dreams and also served as an important tool in the understanding of medieval literary dreams. Thus it is an important aid in the identification and description of traditional dream topoi. The entries of the dream-book represent a framework within which medieval vision poetry develops its network of images and motifs. In a larger sense, the medieval miscellany often provides us insights into the “utility” of common texts at diverse levels of reception and use. These usually thematic collections made by copyists at the request of a reader or a user not only supply us with little-known texts excluded from codices arranged by author or genre, but also give us a view into how different cultures associated diverse texts.
Since different versions of the manual were produced often for “local purposes”, this study provides diplomatic-interpretative editions of five representative texts of the Somniale Danielis in Latin and Italian in the context of medieval and humanist literary miscellanies. In addition to a study of the cultural contexts in which we find these versions of the Somniale, this study also offers a synoptic edition of the five texts with a focus on the diverse terms that are used to convey key concepts of medieval dream manuals. From this same comparative apparatus, the final part of the dissertation includes an inventory of dream symbols.
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