Vita Nuova

This enchanting translation from the original Tuscan dialect captures the music of Dante’s youthful love for the beautiful Beatrice, a noblewoman he was destined to worship from afar … To read Vita Nuova with Luzzi as a guide is a deeply pleasurable experience, a literary escape to a glorified world of idealized love in medieval Florence.–Shahina Piyarali “Shelf Awareness”
Joseph Luzzi has given Dante’s book a new life indeed: his is a Vita Nuova for the XXI century.–Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading
Luzzi’s translation of the Vita Nuova is a marvel. In addition to its semantic accuracy, it conveys the unique tone and lyricism of Dante’s testament to Beatrice. She comes alive on the page here more vividly than any other English version since Dante Gabriele Rossetti.–Robert Harrison, Professor of Italian, Stanford University and author of The Body of Beatrice

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence to a family of minor nobility. He entered into Florentine politics in 1295, but he and his party were forced into exile in a hostile political climate in 1301. Taking asylum in Ravenna late in life, Dante completed his Divine Commedia, considered one of the most important works of Western literature, before his death in 1321.

Joseph Luzzi is the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard College and an award-winning scholar of Italian culture. His book Botticelli’s Secret was named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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