The Vita Nuova: structure and content
Written between 1293 and 1294, the Vita Nuova is dedicated to Dante’s “first friend”, his primo amico, Guido Cavalcanti. The author presents it as an anthology of his early poems, framed within a prose commentary which not only guarantees narrative structure and progression, explaining and revealing the circumstances which inspired the poems, but also functions as a detailed commentary on the 31 poems selected. Structurally, the work is arranged as a diachronic prosimetron, an alternation of prose and poetry (although it seems highly likely that some of the poems were written at the time of the commentary itself), the first of its kind in Italian literature, modelled on Boethius' De consolatione Philosophiae, ascribed in Medieval times to the elegiac genre, to which, as has recently been suggested, Vita Nuova could also belong[1].
In highly idealized and almost hagiographic terms, the narrative traces the story of Dante’s love for Beatrice, whose portrayal is highly bound up with the imagery of Christ. The story, however, is based not so much on external events but relates the protagonist’s spiritual renewal. His feeling of love is at first a self-centred need, as in the courtly tradition, for his devotion to be rewarded, but then evolves into detached praise for his beloved as the only kind of reward needed to satisfy his desire. The turning point, marked by Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore, the canzone-manifesto of Dante’s stilnovo, is reinforced by Beatrice’s death, an almost required condition of genuine, selfless love. The book ends with the promise that he will not speak of Beatrice again, until he is able to “write about her what has never been written of any woman”.
The Vita nuova is not only a story of love and spiritual renewal, but also a (highly subjective) means by which Dante takes stock of his own literary career: in other words, the outline of a dual, parallel evolution, in poetry as well as in sentiment.
[1] S. Carrai, Dante elegiaco. Una chiave di lettura per la "Vita Nova", Firenze, Olschki, 2006.
