Paris. 40 Rue Beaujon.

Deartir,

vet. 4/93

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INTRODUCTION.

F the Vita Nuova as of the other writings of
Dante, we have no MS. by his own hand, nor any

written during his lifetime, but there are several which date from the second half of the fourteenth century. The first edition was published at Florence in 1576 by Sermatelli, about a hundred years after the earliest edition of the Commedia. This was succeeded in 1723 by one also published in Florence, by Biscioni, on a comparison of six MSS., and this text was followed by most editors till our own day. Of modern editions the most useful are those by De Witte (Leipzig, 1876), who published the text with corrections and emendations, having consulted over twenty MSS., to which he added Italian notes, and by D'Ancona (Pisa, 1884). The Italian Dante Society are working at the text with a view to their new complete edition of Dante's writings. In preparing the present edition I have followed the text of De Witte, except in a few cases where I have given reasons for adopting a different reading. For convenience I have retained the division into chapters which was first used by Torri, and which is conformable to the usage of Dante in the Convivio.

The Vita Nuova is divided into poems preceded by a

B

narration of their occasion, and so called divisioni; these are explanations of the text, in the first part following, and towards the end preceding the poems. These divisioni are mentioned by Boccaccio; several modern editors print them in italics in order to distinguish them from the narration of events. I have numbered the lines of the text for convenience of reference. In quoting from the Canzoniere I have been obliged to name the sonnets by their first lines, as there is still no recognized order of their arrangement. All modern editions, however, give a list of first lines; that of Giuliani, printed along with the Vita Nuova (Florence, 1885), is as good as any other. A critical edition is still wanted.

Laying no claim to originality, I have made free use of the commentaries of former editors. This obligation I acknowledge here once for all, instead of repeating their names in every page. I am most indebted to De Witte and D'Ancona, and to the beautiful translation by Rossetti. Occasionally, when the idea I have adopted seemed to have been first suggested by a commentator, I have mentioned his name.

The Vita Nuova is dedicated' by the poet to Guido Cavalcanti, his chief friend, who died in the year 1300, having been banished during the priorship of Dante, which lasted from June 15th to August 15th of that year, as one of the chief partisans whose presence in Florence prevented any chance of the city having peace within.

Guido was a few years older than Dante, and is described as the very flower of the Florentine youth of the time. He was possessed of all the learning of the day, and was a poet

1 C. xxxi. 15.

too; he had, when still young, held office in the state, and was one of the chief enemies of Corso Donati and his black Guelfs. According to Boccaccio, in his Vita di Dante the poet put together (compose) the Vita Nuova when he was about twenty-six. This would place it about 1292.

Boccaccio's statements must not always be taken as purely historical, and his biography of Dante is often coloured by the romance of the picturesque and charming storyteller of the Decamerone; but in this particular case he is supported by the authority of Dante himself, who tells us in the Convivio that he wrote the Vita Nuova before he entered on his gioventù. Now gioventù3 lasts from the age of twenty-five to forty-five. Some critics, however, place the composition of the Vita Nuova in 1300, partly on evidence of style in the later sections, and partly from the statement made in C. xl. about the pilgrimage to Rome, which they identify with that of the year of Jubilee, 1300. This is by no means certain, and as some MSS. read va instead of andava, the words may refer merely to the season of the year; the suggestion, too, that the city was still dolorosa for the death of Beatrice would hardly be applicable to so late a date. On the other hand, Dante places the vision of the Divina Commedia in the year 1300, and it seems almost certain that it was this vision to which he refers in the last section of the Vita Nuova. In any case, there is no doubt that most of the poems were written on the occasions stated, beginning in 1283, though some of them may have been retouched when Dante put them

'See Dino Compagni, edited by Del Lungo, Florence, 1877, passim ; Villani, viii. 42; Boccaccio, Dec., vi. 9, and the meeting of Dante with Guido's father, Inf., x. 52.

2 Convivio, i. 1.

3 Ibid., iv. 24.