The New Life

by Dante Alighieri

Overview

The New Life is an allegory of a soul's growth, and it introduced Dante's new poetic style likening love to a spiritual revelation. Combining prose and poetry, and fully realized by Rossetti's remarkable translation, this classic work of Dante's declaration of love for his muse Beatrice, is a masterpiece of spiritual literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781024865332
Publisher:	Hutson Street Press
Publication date:	05/22/2025
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet. Born in Florence, Dante was raised in a family loyal to the Guelphs, a political faction in support of the Pope and embroiled in violent conflict with the opposing Ghibellines, who supported the Holy Roman Emperor. Promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati at the age of 12, Dante had already fallen in love with Beatrice Portinari, whom he would represent as a divine figure and muse in much of his poetry. After fighting with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289, Dante returned to Florence to serve as a public figure while raising his four young children. By this time, Dante had met the poets Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and Brunetto Latini, all of whom contributed to the burgeoning aesthetic movement known as the dolce stil novo, or “sweet new style.” The New Life (1294) is a book composed of prose and verse in which Dante explores the relationship between romantic love and divine love through the lens of his own infatuation with Beatrice. Written in the Tuscan vernacular rather than Latin, The New Life was influential in establishing a standardized Italian language. In 1302, following the violent fragmentation of the Guelph faction into the White and Black Guelphs, Dante was permanently exiled from Florence. Over the next two decades, he composed The Divine Comedy (1320), a lengthy narrative poem that would bring him enduring fame as Italy’s most important literary figure.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Introduction	xix
	New Life	1
	Notes	74
Appendix	Sonnets by Guido Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia, Dante da Maiano and Dante Alighieri	75
	Biographical note	83

What People are Saying About This

John Wain

[Rossetti's translation is] the fruit of countless hours of brooding over Italian painting, Italian images, Italian sounds and thoughts.

Ezra Pound

I saw that Rossetti had made a remarkable translation of the Vita Nuova The New Life, in some places improving (or at least enriching) the original; that he was indubitably the man 'sent', or 'chosen' for that particular job... Rossetti made his own language.

Editorial Reviews

The New Life is the masterpiece of Dante's youth, an account of his love for Beatrice, the girl who was to become his lifelong muse, and of her tragic early death. An allegory of the soul's crisis and growth, combining prose and poetry, narrative and meditation, dreams and songs and prayers, this work of crystalline beauty and fascinating complexity has long taken its place as one of the supreme revelations in the literature of love.

New York Review of Books

Rossetti made a remarkable translation of the Vita Nuova, in some places improving (or at least enriching) the original. He was indubitably the man ‘sent,’ or ‘chosen,’ for that particular job.” —Ezra Pound
 
“[Rossetti’s translation is] the fruit of countless hours of brooding over Italian painting, Italian images, Italian sounds and thoughts.” —John Wain

From the Publisher