Dante

I would ask the reader to take the present volume, not as a new book on Dante, but merely as a revision of the Primer which was first published in 1900. It has been as far as possible brought up to date, the chief modifications being naturally in the sections devoted to the poet’s life and Opere minori, and in the bibliographical appendix; but the work remains substantially the same. Were I now to write a new Dante Primer, after the interval of nearly a quarter of a century, I should be disposed to attach considerably less importance to the allegorical meaning of the Divina Commedia, and to emphasise, more than I have here done, the aspect of Dante as the symbol and national hero of Italy.

E. G. G.

LONDON, July, 1923.

N.B.--The “Sexcentenary Dante” (the testo critico published under the auspices of the Società Dantesca Italiana) adopts a slightly different numbering of the chapters, or paragraphs, of the Vita Nuova and the second treatise of the Convivio from that presented by the “Oxford Dante” and the “Temple Classics.” I have kept to the latter (which is indicated in brackets in the testo critico). Similarly, I have followed the numbering of the Epistolae in Dr. Toynbee’s edition and the “Oxford Dante” (also given in brackets in the testo critico). In the section on the lyrical poetry, Rime refers to the testo critico as edited by Professor Barbi, O. to the new Oxford edition revised by Dr. Toynbee. In the closing passage of the Letter to a Florentine friend, I have followed the reading retained by Dr. Toynbee. I have frequently availed myself of Dr. Wicksteed’s translation of the Letters and Monarchia, of Mr. A. G. F. Howell’s version of the De Vulgari Eloquentia, and occasionally of Carlyle’s rendering of the Inferno. Every student of Dante must inevitably owe much to others; but, in this new edition of my Primer, I would express my indebtedness in particular to the writings of Dr. Paget Toynbee, Dr. Philip H. Wicksteed, the late Ernesto Giacomo Parodi, and Prof. Michele Barbi.

⁂ To the Bibliographical Appendix should be added: A. Fiammazzo, Il commento dantesco di Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli (Savona, 1915), and P. Revelli, L’Italia nella Divina Commedia (Milan, 1923).