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Vita Nova (Northwestern World Classics)
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About Vita Nova
Product Description Dante's Vita nova (ca. 1292-95) is one of themost famous love stories in literature. Many know the story of Dante's love for Beatrice,starting in childhood, her death at a young age, and his devotion to her indeath eventually leading to her reappearance as Dante's guide to paradise inthe Divine Comedy. Less knownis the fact that many of the poems in the Vitanova that Dante claims or implies he wrote for Beatriceprobably were not written for her, and that the poems alone (there are thirty-oneof them total in the libello,or "little book," as Dante calls it) don't tell this story at all:the prose, written years after many of the poems, has this function. The prose creates the illusion of narrative continuity between the poems; it is Dante's way of reconstructing himself and his art in terms of his evolving sense of the limitations of courtly love (the system of ritualized love and art that Danteand his poet-friends inherited from the Provençal poets, the Sicilian poets ofthe court of Frederick II, and the Tuscan poets before them). Sometime in his twenties, Dante decided to try to write love poetry that was less centered onthe self and more aimed at love as such: he intended to elevate courtly love poetry, many of its tropes and its language, into sacred love poetry. Beatrice for Dante was the embodiment of this kind of love--transparent to the Absolute,inspiring the integration of desire aroused by beauty with the longing of the soul for divine splendor. Andrew Frisardi's translation captures both the tone and the meaning of Dante's language, creating poems and prose in contemporary English that convey much of theaesthetic experience of the originals. The book includes extensive explanatory notes and a long introduction that provide background and context for better understanding Dante's references and use of symbols that were well known in his time but not as well known in ours. Christian Moevs, Associate Professor of Italian, Notre Dame University and author of The Metaphysics of Dante's "Comedy" has written that "[Andrew Frisardi's edition of the Vitanova is] a real monument, a real achievement, stunning actually. I never thought there would appear in English an edition so rich, so sound, so nuanced,so masterful in its introduction and commentary and notes. . . . To be able to lead anyone into this text, and show what is really happening, and the extraordinary depth and complexity and originality of it in terms that are still comprehensible to a non-Dantist, I don't think has happened in any edition before, in Italian or English." Review "Frisardi's superb translation of the Vita nova succeeds wonderfully in arraying a renowned medieval love story in modern attire. . . . A splendid achievement." --Richard H. Lansing, Brandeis University, editor of Dante Studies and The Dante Encyclopedia " Andrew Frisardi's splendid new edition of Vita nova combines his compelling translation of Dante's original work with a rich and fascinating scholarly commentary, . . . a contemporary version that captures both its beauty and complexity. --Dana Gioia, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts and author of Can Poetry Matter? "I recommend . . . this elegant new verse translation of Dante's Vita nova from Andrew Frisardi . . . not only for the verve and accuracy of the translation but also for the excellent and thorough introduction and notes." --Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University, author of Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture "If you who love poetry are looking for a guide into how the greatest of our poets began, this book is for you." --Paul Mariani, Boston College, author of Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life and Deaths and Transfigurations: Poems " Andrew Frisardi's Vita nova is a monument of gracious, respectful translation and loving scholarship. . . . The richly informative introduction and notes grant entry to this rarefied world of metaph
