Vita Nuova (The New Life): 1292-94
Convivio (The Banquet): 1304-07
De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular): 1304-07
Monarchia (On World Government). Date of composition?: 1302/04, 1312-14, 1316, 1317, 1317+
Epistles; Letter to Cangrande della Scala
 

Precursors (formal):

prosimetrum, Menippean satire

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy

Martianus Capella, The Marriage of Philology and Mercury

Aucassin and Nicolette ("chantefable")
 

Precursors (thematic): "autobiography"

Augustine, Confessions

vidas and razos (Provençal)
 

Beatrice Portinari (1265-1290)

"Nomina sunt consequentia rerum" ("Names are the consequences of things.")

Numerology: Beatrice = 9

9 = 3 x 3 [i.e., 3 = 3 x 1]

10 = 3 x 3 + 1

7 = 3 + 4

8 = 7 + 1
 

Structure of the work: 31 poems within a prose narrative:

10    I    4    II    4    III    10

1 - 9    I    1-3    II    3-1    III    9-1
 

The three major divisions and the three "movements" in love

"saluto" -- "salute" ("greeting" "salvation")

Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God (Itinerarium mentis in Deum)

"extra nos" ---> "intra nos" ---> "supra nos"
 

First poem in the Vita Nuova:

A ciascun'alma presa e gentil core" ("To every loving heart and captive soul")

A “tenzone” with responses by Dante da Maiano, Cino da Pistoia, and Guido Cavalcanti (Dante’s “first friend”
 

The New Direction in Poetry

The Poetry of Praise:

Guido Guinizzelli: the "saggio" ("wise man"): "Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore" ("Love makes its home in the noble heart")

"Donne ch'avete intelletto d'amore" ("Ladies who have intelligence of love")

"Amor e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa" ("Love and the gracious heart are but one thing")

"Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare" ("Such sweet decorum and such gentle graces")

Analogy

Beatrice and Giovanna

Giovanna precedes, as John the Baptist (Giovanna à Giovanni)

Beatrice come after, as Jesus Christ and resembles Love (Beatrice à Christ)

The movement from Eros (carnal passion) to Caritas (divine love)
 

The "Donna Gentile" ("Noble Lady")

Poems for the "Donna Gentile" ("Noble Lady") à the basis of the Convivio
 

Dante's Poets in the Vita Nuova:

Guido Cavalcanti: Dante's "first friend"

Guido Guinizzelli: Dante's mentor and "father" figure

Guittone d'Arezzo: Dante's nemesis and arch-rival, disparaged in chapter 25
 

The importance of chapter 25 for poetry in the vernacular: Latin poets = Italian poets

Date of composition: 1304-1307

a treatise in 15 books (incomplete: 4 books completed), intended to initiate people to the study of Philosophy

allegorical interpretation of canzoni ("odes") written for the "Donna Gentile" of the Vita Nuova ("Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona" ["Love that discourses to me in my mind"]

Allegory of Poets: literal level (a "beautiful fiction/lie" ["bella menzogna"]) and allegorical level (the hidden truth ["veritade ascosa"]): involucrum, integumentum

Prudentius, Psychomachia ("The War of the Human Soul"): personification of virtues and vices

Allegory of Theologians: fourfold method of interpretation: literal, allegorical, moral, anagogical --> the Bible

"Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, / Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia" (attr. Nicholas of Lyra, 1330) ("The letter teaches the deeds/actions, the allegory [teaches] what you believe, the moral how you act, the anagogical where you are going")

typology (types), figuralism (figura): Old Testament fulfilled, justified by the New Testament

Orpheus --> Christ the Good Shepherd

Elijah and the Ascension of Christ

The Biblia pauperum ("Bible of the Poor"):

Samson unhinges the gates of Gaza -- Resurrection of Christ -- Jonah saved from the big fish

Joseph put in the well -- Entombment of Christ -- Jonah swallowed by the big fish

§ 7. [T]he meaning of this work is not of one kind only; rather the work may be described as 'polysemous', that is, having several meanings; for the first meaning is that which is conveyed by the letter, and the next is that which is conveyed by what the letter signifies; the former of which is called literal, while the latter is called allegorical, or mystical. And for the better illustration of this method of exposition we may apply it to the following verses: 'When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion'. For if we consider the letter alone, the thing signified to us is the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt in the time of Moses; if the allegory, our redemption through Christ is signified; if the moral sense, the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to a state of grace is signified; if the anagogical, the passing of the sanctified soul from the bondage of the corruption of this world to the liberty of everlasting glory is signified. And although these mystical meanings are called by various names, they may one and all in a general sense be termed allegorical, inasmuch as they are different (diversi) from the literal or historical; for the word 'allegory' is so called from the Greek alleon, which in Latin is alienum (strange) or diversum (different).

§ 8. This being understood, it is clear that the subject, with regard to which the alternative meanings are brought into play, must be twofold. And therefore the subject of this work must be considered in the first place from the point of view of the literal meaning, and next from that of the allegorical interpretation. The subject, then, of the whole work, taken in the literal sense only, is the state of souls after death, pure and simple. For on and about that the argument of the whole work turns. If, however, the work be regarded from the allegorical point of view, the subject is man according as by his merits or demerits in the exercise of his free will he is deserving of reward or punishment by justice.

Composed: 1304-1307 (projected four books, incomplete)

Book I: theoretical discussion of language and how language changes and evolves; the examination of 14 dialects to determine the characteristics of a standard, "national" literary language for Italy

Book II: practical discussion of how to use this illustrious vernacular in poetry.

Styles: tragic, comic

The canzone (“ode”) is the most illustrious poetic form and the one most suited for the tragic style

The three most suitable subjects for tragic poetry and their relationship to the tripartite human soul:

arms (salus): Bertran de Born, ______ [Guittone d’Arezzo] — vegetative
love (venus): Arnaut Daniel, Cino da Pistoia  — sensitive, animal
moral rectitude (virtus): Giraut de Borneilh, “Cino’s friend” — rational

The three questions posed and answered in each of the three books:

1. Is a temporal monarch necessary for the well-being of the human race?

2. Was it just that the Romans assumed this role?

3. Does the authority of the Roman Emperor derive directly from God or from an official representative of God (i.e., the Pope)?

Date of composition:

1302/04: written as a response to Boniface VIII's bull, Unam sanctam

1310-13: written in support of the descent of Henry VII of Luxemburg into Italy

1314-16: after the death of Pope Clement V

1317: written as a response to the papal bull of John XXII, Si fratrum

1317+: internal evidence ("as I said in the Paradiso")
 

Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (November, 1302):

"We are taught by the words of the Gospel that in this church and in her power there are two swords, a spiritual one and a temporal one. For when the apostles said "Here are two swords" (Luke 22:38), meaning in the church since it was the apostles who spoke, the Lord did not reply that it was too many but enough. ... Both then are in the power of the church, the material sword and the spiritual. But the one is exercised for the church, the other by the church, the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and soldiers, though at the will and suffrance of the priest. One sword ought to be under the other and the temporal authority subject to the spiritual power. ... In the order of the universe all things are not kept in order in the same fashion and immediately but the lowest are ordered by the intermediate and inferiors by superiors. But that the spiritual power excels any earthly one in dignity and nobility we ought the more openly to confess in proportion as spiritual things excel temporal ones. .... Therefore, if the earthly power errs, it shall be judged by the spiritual power, if a lesser spiritual power errs it shall be judged by its superior, but if the supreme spiritual power errs it can be judged only by God not by man.... Therefore we declare, state, define and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

The two beatitudes:

beatitudo huius vitae ("happiness in this life") --> Emperor

beatitudo vitae aeternae ("happiness in the eternal life") --> Pope