Different "Dantes" for the 20th Century

Dante Alighieri, Rime, ed. Gianfranco Contini (Turin: Einaudi, 1939).
Taylor Institution Library, PQ4213.A3 DAN 1939 and REP.I.8950

In 1939 Gianfranco Contini published for Einaudi the first modern, commented, scholarly edition of Dante’s lyric poetry, entitled Rime (Poems). Contini excluded the poems from the Vita Nuova and the Convivio. Furthermore, as he began his introduction by distancing himself from Lyell’s title of Canzoniere and the perspective it embodied, Contini showed himself eager to emphasise that Dante’s lyric poems were “the most magnificent collection of scattered poems.” By freeing the corpus from unnecessary biographical over-interpretations, both Contini brought Dante’s lyric poetry into modernity. Nevertheless, editions of Dante’s lyric poems continued to be printed that were based on an often too simplistic biographical interpretation of his lyric poetry. As an example of this kind of interpretation, the exhibition displays a copy of Giuseppe Zonta’s 1925 edition of Dante’s lyric poetry. Here, each poem is placed into an overly coherent narrative arc, strengthened by the editor’s introductions, while illustrations give the impression of a tormented romance.