Toynbee "Vita Nuova"

These poems are symmetrically arranged in groups around the three principal cansoni, the central poem of all being the canzone 'Donna pietosa e di novella etate' (V.N. xxiii. 17). [See C. Norton, The New Life of Dante (Cambridge, 1892), pp. 129-134; and C. S. Singleton, An Essay on the Vita Nuova (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), pp. 78 ff.]

In the Vita Nuova, which is addressed to his 'first friend', Guido Cavalcanti (V.N. xxx. 3), D. relates the story of his love for Beatrice, whom he first saw when he was nine years old (i.e. in 1274) (V.N. ii. 1); when he was 18 (i.e. in 1283) he received a greeting from her, after which he had a vision, whereon he composed the sonnet 'A ciascun' alma presa, e gentil core' (V.N. iii. 10), his earliest known poetical composition; later he records the death of Beatrice (V.N. xxviii. 1 V.N. xxix. 1), and his own grief there at, and how after a time he received consolation from a young and beautiful lady, 'una gentil donna giovane e bella molto' (V.N. xxxv. 2), whom in the ({Con. II. ii. 1}) he declares to be philosophy; he concludes with the resolve, should his life be spared, to say of Beatrice what was never said of any woman, a resolve which was carried into execution in the Divina Commedia:

. . . se piacere sarà di colui a cui tutte le cose vivono, che la mia vita duri per alquanti anni, io spero di dicer di lei quello che mai non fue detto d'alcuna. (V.N. xlii. 2)

It is not possible to fix precisely the date of the composition of the Vita Nuova. The poems were obviously written before the prose text, which was written after the death of Beatrice (1290), probably c. 1292-1293.

The title Vita Nuova was given to the work by D. himself, in the Convivio he several times refers to it by this name, Conv. I. i. 16; Conv. II. ii. 1, Conv. II. xii. 4, in the book itself he speaks of it by the Latin name vita nova, V.N. i. 1; there is perhaps an allusion to the title, [Purg. xxx. 115]; D. otherwise refers to it as libello, V.N. i. 1, V.N. xxv. 9, V.N. xxviii. 2, Conv. II. ii. 2. The division of the work into chapters or sections is not due to D., and dates only from the last century.

Both Villani and Boccaccio include the Vita Nuova in their lists of D.' writings; the former says merely:

Fece in sua giovanezza il libro della Vita nova d'amore. ({Villani. ix. 136}.)

Boccaccio concludes his account of the book with a statement to the effect that in his maturer years D. was ashamed of it; this was certainly not the case, as is apparent from what D. says of it in the Convivio:

. . . se ne la presente opera, la quale e Convivio nominata e vo' che sia, più virilmente si trattasse che ne la Vita Nuova, non intendo però a quella in parte alcuna derogare, ma maggiormente giovare per questa quella. (Conv. I. i. 16.)

Boccaccio says:

Questo glorioso poeta . . . primieramente, duranti ancora le lagrime della morte della sua Beatrice, quasi nel suo ventesimosesto anno compose in uno volumetto, il quale egli intitolò Vita nova, certe operette siccome sonetti e canzoni, in diversi tempi davanti in rima fatte da lui, maravigliosamente belle; di sopra da ciascuna partitamente e ordinatamente scrivendo le cagioni che a quelle fare l'avevano mosso, e di dietro ponendo le divisioni delle precedenti opere. E comechè egli di avere questo libretto fatto, negli anni piu maturi si vergognasse molto, nondimeno, considerata la sua eta, e egli assai bello e piacevole, e massimamente a' volgari.

The foundation for this statement of Boccaccio may perhaps have been what D. says in a later passage in the Convivio:

Temo la infamia di tanta passione avere seguita, quanta concepe chi legge le sopra nommate canzoni in me avere segnoreggiata. (Conv. I. ii. 16.)