The Lyrical Poems of Dante Alighieri: Including the Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito

Below are the only English translations of Dante's lyric poems that have appeared. Most of them were published in 1835 under the title "The Canzoniere of Dante, Italian and English", and incorporated all those given by Professor Arrivabene in Amori e Rime di Dante (Mantua, 1823); this collection now includes some of the works of Professor Karl Witte's "Dante Alighieri’s Lyrische Gedichte" (Leipzig, 1842); and others from "Opere Minori di Dante" (Firenze, 1834) by P. J. Fraticelli. The poems Vita Nuova and Convito have been meticulously revised and the Canzoniere is split into two parts. Part 1 - containing the original poems of Dante. Part 2 - dubious. Choosing the former, Charles Lyell followed Fraticelli. The latter include not only those that he considers dubious, but others that he declares to be false and believes that he has traced their true authors. All of them were printed on behalf of Dante at different times from well-known ancient manuscripts, which give his name to them; and the question of the authenticity of some of Part 2 is far from resolved. In this edition (out of respect for the publisher) the Italian text has been omitted. The translator has reason to regret this, since he is ready to apologize for many strange or incomprehensible things. However, it can be assumed that the reader, determined to compare the translation with the original, will not be left without Dante's works. The two publications mentioned, by Fraticelli and Professor Witte, are especially desirable for this purpose and very valuable as they contain various readings and are abundantly enriched with original notes and interesting critical and controversial dissertations.