Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay

I. Patterns

I Patterns ,..,...,..,...,..,...,..,...,..,... By THE end of Chapter II of the Vita nuova, that is, by the end of the first chapter of the narrative proper (for the brief Chapter I is only a preface), all of the motifs significant for the story that is about to unfold step by step, have been introduced. The first word of the opening sentence is "Nine": "Nove fiate gia appresso 10 mio nascimento era tomato 10 cielo de la luce quasi a uno medesimo punto, quanta a fa sua propia girazione, quando a fi miei occhi apparve prima la gforiosa donna de fa mia mente, fa quafe fU chiamata da molti Beatrice fi quafe non sapeano che si chiamare." (Nine times already since my birth the heaven of light had circled back to almost the same point, when there appeared before my eyes the now glorious lady of my mind, who was called Beatrice even by those who did not know what her name was.) The number 9 will be repeated twice more in the next sentence and appears twenty-two times in all within the Vita nuova. And not only does the reader find in the first sentence a reference to the number 9 of symbolical significance: he also finds an emphasis on mathematical precision that shows up very frequently throughout Dante's New Life. In this same opening sentence the child Beatrice is presented as already enjoying the veneration of the citizens of Florence, including strangers who did not know her name (but who, nevertheless, were inspired to call her Beatrice: "... la quale fu chiamata da molti Beatrice Ii quali non sapeano che si chiamare"). And with the words "la gloriosa donna de la mia mente"-the first of two time-shifts in which the figure of the living Beatrice, at a given moment, is described in such a way as to remind us of Beatrice dead-the theme of death is delicately foreshadowed at the beginning of the story. As for the figure of Beatrice, when she is allowed to be seen for the first time, she is dressed in a garment of blood-red color-the same color as her "shroud" will be in the following chapter. In the next three sentences the three main spiriti are introduced: the "vital" (in the heart), the "natural" (in the liver) and the "animal" (in the brain). They rule the body of the nine-year-old protagonist, and they speak in Latin, as will the god of Love in the chapter that follows (and once again later on). The words of the first spirit describing Beatrice, "Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi" (note the masculine form deus), anticipate the first coming of Love, that takes place in the next chapter ("Ego dominus tuus"), and suggest something of the same mood of terror. (In this relationship there is contained an implicit suggestion of the parallel between Beatrice and Love which is made explicit in Chapter XXIV.) The words of the second spirit, "Apparuit iam beatitudo vestra," suggest rapturous bliss to come (that bliss rhapsodically described in Chapter XI) while, in the words of the third spirit, there is the first of the many references to tears to be found in the Vita nuova. Here it is the spirit of the liver that weeps: "Heu miser, quia frequenter impeditus ero deinceps!" Though this spirit will be mentioned only once again (IV), the reader may gradually come to wonder if the lover's tears, so frequently recorded in the narrative, are not often strongly influenced physiologically. Dante's Vita Nuova It is only after this reference to the organ of digestion that Love is mentioned ("D'allora dico che Amore segnoreggio la mia anima..."). He is mentioned first of all as a ruler, but we learn immediately that much of his power is derived from the protagonist's imagination-this faculty of which there will be so many reminders in the form of visions throughout the book. We are also told that Love's power was restricted by reason; later in the book the relation between Love and reason will become a problem. After this summary of the nine years spent by the lover in the service of Beatrice, before she grants him her first greeting (and in this summary is contained the first suggestion of the godlike in Beatrice: "Ella non parea figliuola d'uomo mortale, rna di deo"), the chapter...