Arnaut Daniel, “D’autra guiza e d’autra razo” (BdT 29.7)

This paper will focus on some specific aspects of Arnaut Daniel’s “D’autra guiza e d’autra razo” which, despite its success in its day and age (some verses were reused by Petrarch in the opening sonnet of the “RVF”), has received little critical attention in modern times. In particular, I will examine the incipit (whose alterity with respect to the rest of the Occitan lyric tradition points to an explicit declaration of intent on the part of the author), the lack of a tornada and, finally, the possibility that Arnaut Daniel was influenced by the section in the “Rhetorica ad Herennium” devoted to mnemonic technique. Moreover, the hypothesis that material concerning the art of memory has been used here helps to explain some particularly problematic textual loci, such as ll. 5-7 and 34.