Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare. Di un sonetto dantesco e del piano diacronico di una lingua pianificata

Within the process of esperantization of Dante’s work, in particular of his Comedy, the rendering in ‘lingvo internacia’ (international language) of “tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare”, sonnet contained in chapter XXVI of Vita Nova, can be chosen as an eloquent example. Five different versions of it are analyzed here – respectively by Antoni Grabowski (1913), Pier Carlo Monti (1914), Enrico Dondi (1956, 2003) and Kálmán Kalocsay (1987) – presenting them briefly together with their respective authors, and framing them in their period and in the editorial location, aiming to a more general conclusion about the diachronic aspects of Esperanto.