Collected for the first time in English, the complete prose works of Dante Alighieri.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is known the world over for the
Divine Comedy
, arguably the greatest poem ever written. But that was not all he wrote. Several other prose texts round out the great poet's ouevre. In these two volumes we have the rest of what Dante wrote.
Volume I: The Italian Works (this book):
The Vita nuova
and
The Convivio
Volume II: The Latin Works (sold separately):
De vulgari eloquentia, De monarchia, Epistolae,
Questio de aqua et terra.
About this Collection
These two volumes bring together for the first time in English the "other" works of Dante. Most readers of Dante are only acquainted with the
, and understandably so. Whereas
Vita nuova
combines poetry and prose to praise the loveliness of Beatrice, the
Convivio
does the same in praise of Philosophy. Had it been completed (it was abandoned just before Dante began the
Comedy
), the
would have been a major achievement. The first philosophical treatise in the Italian language (and almost in any vernacular outside of Latin!), the
brings together Dante's intense love of reason and theology, poetry and philosophy, cosmology and ethics. Even in its unfinished state, it remains a fascinating testimony to the mind behind the
. These two works, both originally written in Italian, comprise
Volume I
.
Volume II: The Latin Works
include
De vulgari eloquentia
(On the Eloquence of the Vernacular),
De monarchia
(On the Monarchy), Dante's thirteen surviving epistles, and the manuscript of a scientific lecture on Aristotelean geography, titled
Questio de aqua et terra
. Book 1 of the
defends the use of the vernacular languages (mainly French, Spanish, and Italian) to discuss the noble themes of love and war, while Book 2 leaves us with an unfinished lecture on poetry, its forms, styles, and its unique power to communicate.
De monarcha
is a political treatise in which he argues for world empire as the best (and most Christian!) form of government. Arguing indirectly against the papal bull
Unam Sanctam
, Dante clearly articulates and distinguishes the twin authorities of the emperor and the pope. Contrary to prevailing Catholic thought at the time, he argued that the political leader received his authority directly from Christ, not mediated through the pope. Finally, as noted above, the
dives into medieval cosmological issues. Though his natural science is obsolete, his tight reasoning presents a sharp mind, attuned to the nuances of scientific and philosophical arguments.
Compiled here together for the first time are the excellent translations of Charles Eliot Norton (
), Philip H. Wicksteed (
,
, and
Questio
), Aurelia Henry Reinhardt (
), and Paget Toynbee (
Epistolae
), lightly edited for a modern audience, and organized to conform to modern reference systems. In addition to original introductions to each of the works, these volumes include a bevy of new notes and explanations from Dante scholar and translator, Joe Carlson, in which he identifies the numerous intertextual allusions to the
contained within these works.