Un problema aperto: «lo bello stilo» virgiliano di Dante

In Inf. 1, 79-80 Dante declares that Virgil is his sole source for poetry and presents himself as Virgil's follower. What does really Dante mean? There has been much discussion of exactly what the «bello stilo» is and where it is to be found in Dante's work, but it is not satisfactory. Perhaps Dante's formulation is only a surprising claim for a poetic identity, a strategy for showing himself as a new ‘classic’ poet.