His betrayals become an ethical drama, as most lyrical poetry of the Middle Ages does, they’re always dealing with treacherous presences, with betrayals, with infidelity, etc., and then he ends up having a final vision. And he goes - he, the pilgrim, lover, poet, goes on recording the confusion, the sense of loss that ensues this event of the death of Beatrice. You may remember I called it the first decisive event happening in his early life immediately after his mother’s death and describes the story of this love for Beatrice who then in the narrative dies. The title means a “new life” though new or new life, so it means probably youth that describes the story, an autobiographical account, the lover, the poet who falls in love with Beatrice. This is - there is a kind of suspension about it, but this is the first work, let’s call it, full work, that Dante writes. But it’s also true, in a way, for the Vita nuova to know that ends with a vision, but we do not know what’s going to happen after that. It’s true for the text on language, the so-called De vulgari eloquentia, about the vulgar language, a second book he just won’t go on. This is the case with the philosophical Banquet, this text of ethics that he goes on writing once he’s in exile. He interrupts them he breaks off and decides to move on to do other things. Dante doesn’t really finish many of his works. I was going to say “first finished work,” but in a way, it’s not a finished work. Today we’ll be discussing, and a little bit in haste of course, because I haven’t got much time to do this, but we’ll devote the whole class to the Vita nova or nuova, as it is called which is Dante’s first work. Yale University An Introduction to Vita nuova and Its Autobiographical Structure Sterling Professor in the Humanities for Italian This relationship is then placed in its larger cultural context to highlight the Vita nuova‘s anticipation of the Divine Comedy. The novelty of the poet’s final resolution is tied to the relationship he discovers between love and knowledge. Medieval theories of love and the diverse poetics they inspired are discussed in contrast. The poet’s love for Beatrice is explored as the catalyst for his search for a new poetic voice.

This lecture is devoted to the Vita nuova, Dante’s autobiographical account of his “double apprenticeship” in poetry and love. By Henry Holiday, 1883 / Walker Art Gallery Dante meets Beatrice at Ponte Santa Trinità, inspired by La Vita Nuova (Beatrice is in white).

La vita nuova dante alighieri