The New Life (La Vita Nuova)

Project Description
Dante’s The New Life is a hybrid work of prose and poetry in the tradition of the medieval prosimetrum. It chronicles the poet’s lived experience of love and sorrow, which he interprets as part of an initiation rite, grounding his appreciation of beauty and the creative process. It is often treated as a footnote, referenced in undergraduate lectures as an important precursor to The Divine Comedy  but sidelined as trivial in comparison to the epic. This new edition seeks a popular audience for the text by recasting the work within the context of its modernist reception, making evident its outsized influence on 20th century writers like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Melvin Tolson, Langston Hughes, and H.D.

What might it have looked like if the Italian Futurists, who defined themselves in opposition to Dante and the canon in general, had reclaimed the poet—not as the authoritative source of Italian literary tradition but as a fount of radical experimentation.  

Original Publication Date
1899

Intended Audience
readers of avant garde and experimental literature, historians of modernism, design enthusiasts, errant culture workers, wayward poets

Trim Size
6.5 × 6.5 inches

Type
Primary Running Text: Filosofia 11 on 14.182 (M: 4.4318 in)
Poems: Filosofia 10.5 on 14.182
Technical Commentary Captions: Semplicita 6 on 7.5  (M: 1.5 in)
Display: Modesto (various styles and weights) and Rama Slab

Manufacturing Specifications
jacketed hardcover with embossed case