Abstract
The aim of the article is – in its first part – to show how Dante changed the perception of love and women in relation to the established literary tradition, starting from the evolution that these concepts underwent in his own poetry. The second part is dedicated to an analysis, on the example of two heroines of the Divine Comedy, Francesca da Rimini and Cunizza da Romano, of how this unorthodox viewpoint translates into a deeper understanding of women, who are not reduced, as previously, merely to objects of erotic love, but possess a distinct personality that allows them to express their own views and defend their arguments based on the education they received, independently of their objective moral value (Francesca), and sometimes against popular opinions (Cunizza). It should be emphasized that this article represents only a small sample of the study of the theme of love and woman in Dante from a new, so far rarely adopted perspective.