Information
Specialist Notes
The philosophical and poetic treatise in the vernacular is placed at the crossroads between the youthful poetic experiences of Dante, which achieve results of notable formal refinement and content complexity, and the compositional phase characterized by reflection on human events, in their historical-political articulation and in their otherworldly meaning. In addition to the poetic apprenticeship of the Florentine years, a further premise for the conception of the Convivio is represented by the forced abandonment of civil commitment in favor of the city of Florence and the expulsion into exile which strengthens the poet's desire for intellectual affirmation. The editio princeps was instead published when interest in the work reached its highest moment in late fifteenth-century Florence. The treatise, although unfinished and abandoned by the author, is in fact part of the revival of the lyrical Dante presented as a poet-theologian, according to the interpretation of Marsilio Ficino, and the work also lends itself to the nationalistic instances of exaltation of the Medici lordship, evident also in the prologue of the Commentary on Landino's Comedy, also notable for its apologetic and propagandistic aspects. This revaluation of the Convivio took shape in September 1490 in the editio princeps of the treatise, printed in Florence by Francesco Bonaccorsi: it was a relatively early first edition if we consider that the princeps of Dante's Rime dates back to 1518 (Venice, Guglielmo Cerreto ), that of the Monarchy in 1559 (Basel, Giovanni Oporino), while we must wait until 1576 for the Vita Nova (Florence, Bartolomeo Sermatelli) and until 1577 for the De vulgari eloquentia (Paris, Jean Corbon), already published in Vicenza, in 1529, only in the translation of Trissino.
Goff D36; HC 5954; IGI 367; Pr 6309; BMC VI 673; BSB Ink D-12; GW 7973.