Né dottrina di cose, né ornamento di parole : Tullia d’Aragona e il Dialogo della infinità di amore

In the Dialogo della infinità di amore two ways of investigation are compared: logical deduction on the one hand, and rhetorical argumentation on the other, represented by the Aristotelian Benedetto Varchi and the ‘honest cortesan’ Tullia d’Aragona respectively. The distance between the two positions will decrease in the course of the discussion, on the basis of a common trust in the vernacular as a language of knowledge and the condemnation of logic when reduced to sophistry. Combining both Platonic and Aristotelian teachings, the dialogue stages, to great effect through its female protagonist, the search for a new language of philosophy that is always aware of its practical application but does not renounce the rigour of the syllogism. The Dialogo thus supports a new form of philosophical communication, a new vernacular philosophy open to women-philosophers