Join us to read & discuss Dante!

We strongly recommend that you read the book with us--you will get the most value from these Meetups if you do so. But, you are welcome even if you have not read the book.

Format:
1) Introduction to the material by Phil & Doug
2) Those who are reading the book get to share their thoughts about the assigned reading for that Meetup (see schedule below)
3) Breakout rooms with 6-8 people each
4) Takeaways and go around: Everybody can comment
5) General discussion

In this session we will be discussing La Vita Nuova. We will briefly discuss its literary, cultural and historical context and then summarize the major themes of the work.

For additional context on the poetry of the period and contributing literary traditions that likely influenced young Dante while composing La Vita Nuova see this exellent Wikipedia page on the Troubadours - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubadour.

Like Dante after them, the troubadours composed their poetry in the vernacular. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine is the first such author whose poetry in the vernacular has survived. You can get a taste of his poetry and of the vernacular of the time here - http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/.

The idea of courtly love is well represented in Andreas Cappellanus work De Amore (available on Amazon under the title "The Art of Courtly Love").
You can see its preview here - https://www.amazon.com/Art-Courtly-Love-Andreas-Capellanus/dp/B006QBGSGW/

Another work that certainly influenced Dante was Ars Poetica by Horace. You can read it online here - https://archive.org/details/epistlesincludin00horauoft/page/48/mode/2up.

Here are some questions that you might want to think about as you read La Vita Nuova:

1) Great writers often reveal key themes of their work in the first verse/chapter. What key themes are revealed in the first two chapters of La vita nuova ? Are they traced and developed throughout the rest of the work? Are there important themes that are introduced in the latter part of the work that perhaps should have been mentioned in the introduction?

2) What is the significance of 9 (3x3) in La vita nuova? Why does Dante keep coming back to it?

3) What biblical and classical motifs can you trace in the title of the work? In the persona of Amor? In Beatrice?

4) In your opinion, which (if any) aspects of chivalry and courtly love are transcendent and which are local cultural phenomena? Which (if any) of its features would you like to see today in the area of love/relationships?

****
Schedule:
6 Jan: Celebrate 700 Years of Dante
7 Feb: the Vita Nuova
7 Mar: Inferno 1-12
4 Apr: Inferno 13-23
2 May: Inferno 24-34
6 Jun: Purgatorio 1-11
11 Jul: Purgatorio 12-22
8 Aug: Purgatorio 23-33
12 Sep: Paradiso 1-11
10 Oct: Paradiso 12-22
7 Nov: Paradiso 22-33
5 Dec: Grand Finale: Reflecting on Dante's 7th Centenial Memorial
Watch the above videos of Dante Meetups here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqpF1l8gdXlFtfXIcifetOBF2eof_-Qtb

Here are some resources on Dante:
This 19 minute introduction by Giuseppe Mazzotta is very good (he explains why the Vita Nuova is important and gives a broad introduction to the Commedia): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=679FGDpZBew

CJ's 2011 essay:
https://blog.cjfearnley.com/2012/04/29/dantes-great-commedia-or-poetry-as-a-way-of-knowing/

And CJ's "Reading Dante in 2021" page
https://www.cjfearnley.com/Dante2021.html

Welcome to the series "Comprehensivist Wednesdays". Transdisciplinarity, Renaissance humanism, homo universalis, and Polymathy are some of the ways of describing this approach which Buckminster Fuller called Comprehensivity and described as “macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive”.

See the calendar at https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/calendar/
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Dante’s La Vita Nuova (The New Life) @ Celebrate Dante at 700

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Dante’s La Vita Nuova (The New Life) @ Celebrate Dante at 700

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