LA VITA NUOVA, la vet; noo-Vvsi, New Life'). 'La Vita Nouva> is the proper introduction of the reading and under standing of Dante's 'Divine (q.v.). It is autobiographical, in that it purports to tell of his first meeting with Beatrice, when he was nine years of age, and how from that time "Love lorded it over his soul," how he saw her from time to time and with constantly in creasing devotion attempted to keep secret his passion for her. He predicts her early death, and when his prediction is verified he portrays his intense sufferings. Then in an interlude he tells of the change that has taken place in his life, and in the last part he enlarges on his renewed love for the glorified Beatrice and his resolve to study so as to compose a suitable memorial for her. The first 17 chapters em body nine sonnets and a ballade, describing his youthful love and the physical charms of his bellissima donna. Then follow 11 chapters which glorify her spiritual beauties, with seven sonnets and three canzoni, which he calls new rimes» wherein the tongue spoke of its own accord. Here he relates his deeds and thoughts. The poems in these chapters were composed between the age of 22 and 25. The next seven chapters tell of Beatrice's early death, and con tain two canzoni and two sonnets expressing his grief. The last makes a false start and begins anew. Four chapters treat of his love for another lady, who had shown him com passion. Each of them leads up to a sonnet. Then his love for Beatrice reawakens and in three chapters, each ending with a sonnet, he relates his acts and thoughts till he is 35, when, according to his chronology, he had the ex periences described in the comedy. In the last chapter he has a wonderful vision and prom ises to say of Beatrice "what was never said of any woman? It will be seen that the prose narration of 'La Vita Nuova> is a setting for Dante's love poems. It explains how each sonnet, ballade and canzone came to be written. Moreover, he appends to almost every one an elaborate and very artificial analysis of it. Dante when he was writing this work was studying the Com mentaries of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and as that learned man often treated Aristotle's statements with a formal analysis, the poet followed his example. Boccaccio tells us that the poet regarded these as a blemish and wished that he had omitted them. They have
annoyed mans students of the Vita Nuova. Dante Gabriel Rossetti left them out of his translation.
Students of Dante have differed widely in their interpretation of the meaning of the title of the work, as well of the work itself. Some have regarded it as wholly symbolical and have understood Beatrice to be not a woman of flesh and blood but a type of mystical love. The same differences are found in the various commentaries of the Comedy. The truth is that Dante incorporated in the 'Vita Nuova' and in the 'Convito' ((The Banquet or Love Feast') the minor poems which he wrote at various periods of his life. His earliest son net, written in 1283 when he was 18, is found in the third chapter, where he tells of having had a marvelous vision, and writes the sonnet, saluting all the "faithful of Love and request ing that they expound it for him; he adds that many made answer, in many diverse ways. The sonnets and other lyrics in the first part of the 'Vita Nuova> are imitations of the Provencal troubadours; in the latter part, where Dante is supposed to have freed himself from this in fluence, the poems show more maturity, as of course they were written later. Dante in this brief composition, especially in the prose frame work, betrays his recent study of Aristotle's 'Physics,' 'Metaphysics' and 'Ethacs.' This is particularly evident in the pedantry of the style, which is artificial; and yet it breathes of that gay and beautiful Florence which was then coming to be one of the most prosperous cities of Italy. Dante's delineation of Beatrice has been the admiration ofpoets and artists for cen turies. Charles Eliot Norton calls her "the most delightful personage in the daily picturesque life of Florence ... the loveliest and most womanly woman of the Middle Ages? 'La Vita Nuova' was first printed in Florence in 1576, with reprints in 1723, 1877, and was copied in Pesaro 1529, in Venice 1840 and in Livorno 1843. It was published with Eng lish and Italian text by Luigi Ricci (London 1903). It was translated into English by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1861); by Theodore Mertin (London 1862) ; by Charles Eliot Norton (Boston 1867; revised ed., 1892, with essays and notes); by Charles Stuart Boswell, with notes and introduction (London 1895). It was published with illustrations and with music by Alfred Mercer (New York 1914).