"The work is part of the literary debate alive in those years, especially in the Tuscan environment (and C. in fact made a trip to Florence and Siena around 1580), for or against the Divine Comedy. The first accusation that C. . moves against Dante is that he did not respect any of the Aristotelian dictates. In particular, imitation and unity of action are lacking. These are the fundamental theses of the first part of the "libell", where C. lingers on an examination of the " literary genres". Among the many minute notations that would classify this work among the products of a "pedantic" Aristotelianism, two very current reasons emerge. In the nascent Italian and then French querelle des anciens et des modernis, C. takes sides, like Speroni, in favor of the former. Of the fables, "those that most delight" are "in our opinion still the ancient ones" (p. 34). Just as in the use of the vernacular, "new voices and new words" must be condemned in Dante (p. 91) Another interesting point is his position in the debate, lively at that time within the borders of the Republic, on the value of history. In the story of the undertakings the historian "must innovate nothing", while in his orations he can well make use of "the probable and the plausible" (p. 14). The main object of the "historie" must however be (and C. insists a lot on this concept) the truth. In defining the purposes of history he seems to hark back to the discussion sparked by Francesco Patrizi's famous dialogues, Della historia, published for the first time in Venice in 1560. He would, in fact, seem to attack Patrizi's skeptical conception with his accusations against "those, who have rejected the history of having utility and playfulness as its purpose and goal" (p. 19). Another order of considerations appears in the second part of the Breve et ingenioso discourse..., the one more specifically dedicated to Dante's work. Here C. expands on morality which is "the main part of poetry" (p. 84). Morality is the first aim of that poetry which "must be the document of good manners and kind customs, which if he implants... in the souls either with true or imagined narratives, in any case his intent obtains" (pp. 51 f.). This "moral" mission of the poet takes on characteristic formulas of baroque ethics. The poet must be "judicious"; among his main qualities "prudence" and "measure" must emerge (p. 87). " Treccani On Line, sub vocis.