ABSTRACT
In Novella 114 of his Trecentonovelle, Franco Sacchetti recounts how one day in Florence Dante passed through the gate of San Pietro and heard a blacksmith singing the verses of the Divine Comedy, in the same manner as one sings a cantare ("come si canta uno cantare").1 The blacksmith "was making a muddle of the verses, cutting some short and adding to others," so much so that Dante was greatly offended ("tramestava i versi suoi, smozzicando e appiccando, che parea a Dante ricever di quello grandissima ingiuria").
