Preface to First Edition
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
THIS little book lays no claim to originality, and makes no pretence to learning or research. It is addressed rather to the so-called general reader than to the serious Dante student. The narrative is taken largely from the pages of Villani, Boccaccio, and from other similar sources. The reader will find fiction (at any rate from the critic’s point of view) as well as fact in these pages, but he will, I hope, be at no loss to distinguish between the two. The legends and traditions which hang around the name of a great personality are a not unimportant element in his biography, and may sometimes serve to place him as well as, if not better than, the more sober estimates of the serious historian. I have not, therefore, thought it outside the scope of this sketch of Dante’s life to include some of the anecdotes which at an early date began to be associated with his name, though certain of them demonstrably belong to a far earlier period.
Again, when a thing has been well said by a previous writer, I have been content to let him speak, instead of saying the same thing less well in my own words.
The translations for the most part are my own. I have, however, been indebted for an occasional turn or phrase to Selfe and Wicksteed’s Selections from Villani, and to the latter’s versions of the Early Lives of Dante.
The illustrations are reproduced, by permission, from photographs by Messrs. Alinari and Messrs. Brogi of Florence.
May, 1900
PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION
A FOURTH edition of this book (the third edition of which has lately been translated into Italian by Professor Balsamo-Crivelli, of Turin) having been called for, I have, at the suggestion of the publishers, availed myself of the opportunity to make considerable additions to it (as well as to rectify sundry mistakes and omissions), which will, I trust, increase its value to students, without at the same time diminishing its interest for the general reader.
The present edition differs from its predecessors chiefly in respect of the much fuller treatment (in Part V) of Dante’s works, of which brief analyses have now been supplied, together with information as to MSS. and critical editions, and, in the case of the Divina Commedia commentaries, as well as data, of special interest to the English reader, as to the various editions and translations of each work published in this country. Many additional details will also be found in some of the other sections, especially in the more strictly biographical portions of the work.
Further, in the present edition I have made a point of supplying copious references to authorities (generally at the foot of the page), which will serve at once as an acknowledgment of my own obligations, and as a means whereby the reader may, if desired, check the information furnished in the text.
The bibliographical and biographical notes in the original Appendix have been considerably amplified, and four Appendices have been added. The first of these consists of a Genealogical Table of the family of Dante, with references to Dante’s own allusions to members of his family. The others contain respectively, a translation of the letter of Frate Ilario to Uguccione della Faggiuola, to which renewed attention has been directed of late; extracts from some interesting letters of Seymour Kirkup to Gabriele Rossetti concerning the discovery of the Giotto portrait of Dante in the Bargello, and Kirkup’s drawing from it (further information about which, supplied by Kirkup himself to the late owner of the original sketch, will be found in the body of the book); and, lastly, a Chronological List of early (cent. xiv-xvi) commentaries on the Divina Commedia.
The index, which of necessity has been entirely recast, has been made as full as possible in order to render the varied contents of the book easily accessible to the student for purposes of reference, and dates have been inserted as a convenient means of “orientation”.
Sundry illustrations have been added, among them one of a fine bronze bust of Dante (supposed to be the work of a French artist at the beginning of the seventeenth century) in the possession of Mr. Whitworth Wallis, Director of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, who kindly supplied a photograph (hitherto unpublished) for the purpose of reproduction in this book.
PAGET TOYNBEE
20 January, 1910
(the 590th anniversary of the disputation “De Aqua et Terra” at Verona)
In the numbering of the poems in the Canzoniere, and the line references in the prose works, the arrangement of the Oxford Dante has been followed.
“Se Dio ti lasci, Lettor, prender frutto Di tua lezion.”
Inf. xx. 19