Dante and His Circle, with Dante's Vita Nuova

by Sasha Newborn (Editor), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Translator), Dante Alighieri

This abridged edition of Dante and His Circle (originally published by the translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti) is primarily limited to the poetry of love, omitting the political and military poetry. With the other poets, most of whom he knew, Dante Alighieri was creating the first national modern Romance language. He and his friends abandoned the meter of Latin for the rhyme of Italian, the street language that people of Tuscany actually spoke. Here are the poets in the book:
Giani Alfani, Dante Alighieri, Cecco Angiolieri, Simone dell’ Antelle, Giovanni Boccaccio, Bernardo da Bologna, Onesto di Boncima, Giotto di Bondone, Terino da Castel Fiorentino, Guido Cavalcanti, Dino Compagni, Forese Donati
Dino Frescobaldi, Lapo Gianni, Guido Guinicelli, Dante da Maiano
Guido Orlandi, Cino da Pistoia.
Notable are the inclusion of Giotto, Boccaccio, Cavalcanti, and Cino da Pistoia.
In the editing, some Victorianisms were modernized, unless required for rhyme.

180 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

About the author

Editor-publisher Bandanna Books 1981-present
Partner in Mudborn Press 1975-1981
Designer/typesetter Black Sparrow 1975-2003
Radio producer 1977-1983
Freelance writer New York City 1968-1973
Editor Middle Earth newspaper 1966-1967
Peace Corps teacher Tanzania 1963-1965

Currently semi-retired in Santa Barbara. Hiker, biker, snorkeler, "book doc," publisher

Reviews

[AphroPhantasmal · Rating 5 out of 5]

My current obsession with Dante's Divine Comedy led me straight to reading as many of his writings I could get my hands on. The first point that drew me to this book was not only it's format (a series of poems used as "letters" between Dante and a circle of his friends but the inclusion of the Vita Nuova, which more fully explains his Beatrice (and what she represents) than The Divine Comedy.

There are plenty of other places to find the analysis of these texts and Dante himself as a writer so I will not do that here. I will say, however that the poetry has an almost classical focus on love, character, and circumstance. The outlay of the text moves in a linear framework such that at the beginning the words are of sweetness and rendezvous before collapsing into the bitter realities of political machinations, intrigue, and exile.

A span of men's lives captured in verse and immortalized, Dante and His Circle is a definite must-read.