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DANTE

BY
EDMUND G. GARDNER, M.A.

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue

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I would ask the reader to take the present volume,not as a new book on Dante, but merely as a revisionof the Primer which was first published in1900. It has been as far as possible brought up todate, the chief modifications being naturally inthe sections devoted to the poet’s life and Opereminori, and in the bibliographical appendix; butthe work remains substantially the same. WereI now to write a new Dante Primer, after the intervalof nearly a quarter of a century, I shouldbe disposed to attach considerably less importanceto the allegorical meaning of the Divina Commedia,and to emphasise, more than I have heredone, the aspect of Dante as the symbol and nationalhero of Italy.

E. G. G.

N.B.—The “Sexcentenary Dante” (the testo criticopublished under the auspices of the Società DantescaItaliana) adopts a slightly different numbering of thechapters, or paragraphs, of the Vita Nuova and the secondtreatise of the Convivio from that presented by the“Oxford Dante” and the “Temple Classics.” I havekept to the latter (which is indicated in brackets in thetesto critico). Similarly, I have followed the numberingof the Epistolae in Dr. Toynbee’s edition and the “OxfordDante” (also given in brackets in the testo critico).In the section on the lyrical poetry, Rime refers to thetesto critico as edited by Professor Barbi, O. to the newOxford edition revised by Dr. Toynbee. In the closingpassage of the Letter to a Florentine friend, I have followedthe reading retained by Dr. Toynbee. I have frequentlyavailed myself of Dr. Wicksteed’s translation ofthe Letters and Monarchia, of Mr. A. G. F. Howell’sversion of the De Vulgari Eloquentia, and occasionally ofCarlyle’s rendering of the Inferno. Every student ofDante must inevitably owe much to others; but, in thisnew edition of my Primer, I would express my indebtednessin particular to the writings of Dr. Paget Toynbee,Dr. Philip H. Wicksteed, the late Ernesto GiacomoParodi, and Prof. Michele Barbi.

⁂ To the Bibliographical Appendix should be added:A. Fiammazzo, Il commento dantesco di Graziolo de’Bambaglioli<