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This essay will examine the intertextual connections between Dante's works (Rime, Vita Nova, and Commedia) and the Romance and Italian vernacular tradition, in order to investigate how later lyric material relates to Eden. In particular, moving from an analysis of courtly love in the Troubadours and the Roman of the Rose through medieval Italian literature (above all, Guido Cavalcanti), the authors propose a new interpretation of the enigmatic figure of Matelda, guardian of the Earthly Paradise in Purgatorio. Much has been written about the firstly nameless 'bella donna', the vast majority of which concentrates upon her identity as a historical figure or as a symbolic construct. Focusing on her narrative function, instead of trying to connect Matelda with extra-textual factors, this analysis will recognize in the 'donna soletta' a literary stratagem used to construct the author's lyric Self. Matelda's appearance in the poem is modelled on similar 'other' ladies from vernacular love poetry, but she overtakes them, with the obvious exception of Beatrice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]