How Do Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Read?

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Author: Olga N. Turysheva
Information about the author:
DSc in Philology, Assistant Professor, B.N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Mira St., 19, 620002 Ekaterinburg, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3014-6153

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:
Turysheva, O.N. “How Do Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Read?” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 1 (33), 2026, pp. 105–134. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-1-105-134
Received: 11 Oct. 2025
Approved after reviewing: 13 Dec. 2025
Published: 25 March 2026
Issue: 2026 no. 1 (33)
Department: DOSTOEVSKY: HIS READINGS
Pages: 105–134
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/SGBHNF
UDK: 821.131.1.0
BBK: 83.3(4Ита)
Publication Type: Research Article
Keywords: Dante, Divine Comedy, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, literary characters’ reading, history of reading, Lozinsky’s translation of the Divine Comedy
Abstract: This article addresses the way the characters in the fifth canto of Dante’s Comedy, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, read. Specifically, it examines whether they read Chrétien de Troyes’ novel Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart aloud or in silence while leaning together over the pages of the book. Even though a significant portion of Italian scholarship is devoted to the study of Francesca’s image, this issue has not been specifically addressed. The challenge in resolving this question arises from the absence of clear markers in the text of the Comedy that distinctly indicate the nature of the characters’ reading. The study is based on an immanent analysis of the scene, an analysis of Mikhail Lozinsky’s translation as compared with Galina Muravyova’s interlinear translation, historical and reception studies of medieval reading culture, and an analysis of the pictorial tradition in the depictions of this episode. The author substantiates the possibility of two variants in the interpretation of the nature of Dante’s characters’ reading. According to the first version, Francesca and Paolo’s reading is a joint silent reading, interrupted by glances at moments when they experience fragments of the text simultaneously. This visual reading materializes what has been read. This version is based on materials on the history of reading and on the analysis of the interlinear translation and Lozinsky’s translation. According to the second version, the characters’ reading follows the “reader–listener” model, in which Francesca is responsible for reading the book aloud. This version is also based on an analysis of the interlinear translation and Lozinsky’s translation, as well as on the analysis of Francesca’s image in Italian scholarship. The author of the article concludes that in Lozinsky’s translation the two versions of Francesca and Paolo’s reading coexist on an equal footing: the version of simultaneous silent reading and the version of the oral performance of the text by one reader for the other. This semantic oscillation in the translation is associated with the vagueness that characterizes Dante’s reading scene.

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