La Vita Nuova
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La Vita Nuova or Vita Nova is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and verse.
Frontispiece of the English version (The New Life, D. G. Rossetti, 1899)
Henry Holiday's 1883 Dante and Beatrice is inspired by La Vita Nuova (Beatrice is in yellow)
Beatrice Portinari
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Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari was an Italian woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also identified with the Beatrice who act
La Vita Nuova
…according to Guglielmo Gorni) with commentaries on 25 sonnets, one ballata, and four canzoni; one canzone is left unfinished, interrupted by the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante's lifelong love. Dante's two-part commentaries explain each poem, placing them within the context of his life. The chapters containing poems…
Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (c. 1870)
Beatrice appears to Virgil at the start of Inferno, in an illustration by Gustave Doré.
Dante and Beatrice, by Henry Holiday (1883). Dante looks longingly at Beatrice (in center) passing by with friend Lady Vanna (red) along the Arno River