Abstract
This essay analyses the extent to which the Vita Nova, written by the Italian poet Dante
Alighieri, might be described as a conventional story of fino amore or courtly love. The Vita
Nova is a combination of poetry and prose – a prosimetrum – which describes Dante’s love
for Beatrice in a manner similar to how a medieval poet or troubadour, in a courtly setting,
might describe his love for his lady.
There is continued disagreement on the meaning of the term ‘fino amore’ or ‘courtly love’.
(It has become practice to use the term ‘courtly love’ where the term fin’amors was used in
medieval texts.) Consequently, there is also disagreement on its features. In fact, it is
arguable whether or not courtly love even existed as an established concept in the Middle
Ages since the phrase ‘amour courtois’ was coined by Gaston Paris only in 1883. Thus, it is
difficult to know the true conventions by which the medieval lover and poet behaved. In this
essay, however, all the characteristics which I have considered conventional of fino amore
are largely agreed upon and I have tried to avoid using any which might be subject to debate.
At the outset of this essay I state that the Vita Nova is not a conventional story of fino amore.
Rather, the love portrayed, discussed and exemplified in the Vita Nova is a love that exceeds
the realms of fino amore; it is a love which is heavenly, divine, sacramental and whose sole
function is to lead the lover to God. However, the fact that the Vita Nova’s alignment to
stories of fino amore is an issue still under discussion suggests that there are elements of the
work which find parallels in such stories. These elements are outlined and analysed in the
first half of the essay by looking at the characteristics of the beloved, of the lover and of love
itself. The second half of the essay seeks to show that despite Dante’s inclusion of these
conventional features, the Vita Nova remains outside the fino amore tradition. The reasons
for this are understood by looking predominantly at two unconventional features of the work:
the beloved and her characteristics on one hand and Dante’s technical discussion on the art of
poetry on the other. We understand at the end of the essay that the Vita Nova cannot be
considered a conventional story of fino amore both because of the central position of the
features in the text.
To what extent might the Vita Nova be described as a conventional story of fino amore?
Teodolinda Barolini describes the Beatrice of the Vita Nova as ‘a lady whose powers to bless
and links to the divine are beyond anything yet envisioned within the lyric tradition’.1 In this,
Barolini underpins the crux of this examination; while the Vita Nova might comply with
numerous conventions characteristic of stories of fino amore, in essence, it goes well
‘beyond’, it surpasses, the boundaries of the fino amore tradition.2 It is well noted that the
origins of Dante’s lyric poetry partly lie in that of the troubadours. Gangacharan Kar is not
mistaken when he describes the Vita Nova as a ‘supreme example of troubadour inspiration
working on Dante’.3 Therefore, it is unsurprising that Dante’s first work should follow the
conventions of fino amore, as a concept of great prevalence for the troubadours. Indeed,
Dante employs the tradition of fino amore as the foundation for the Vita Nova. He does this,
however, to certain ends. It is only by beginning within the confines of the cult of courtly
love that Dante is subsequently able to overstep them and do so in a perceivable way.4 The
Vita Nova presents various points of deviation from the fino amore convention, all of which
come about following a ‘transition’, both intellectual and poetic, and all of which serve to
place it within the realms of a superior, more theologised lyric tradition. Thus, the Vita Nova
cannot be described as a conventional story of fino amore. Its love is beyond ‘fino’; it is ‘an
entirely sublimated “heavenly” love’.5
Teodolinda Barolini, ‘Dante and the Lyric Past’, in The Cambridge companion to Dante, ed. by Rachel Jacoff,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 14-33 (p. 22).
2
Given that the phrase ‘amour courtois’ was coined by Gaston Paris as recently as 1883, there is endless
disagreement on the meaning and features of courtly love as a ‘code’ (or fin’amors, as was usually found in
medieval texts). However, in this essay, the characteristics I have considered conventional of fino amore are
standard and largely agreed upon.
3
Gangacharan Kar, Thoughts on the mediaeval lyric (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1933). p. 4
4
Already in the De Vulgari Eloquentia (II.2), in openly classifying himself in the lyric tradition of courtly love,
we can perceive Dante’s hints at overstepping others: ‘...Circa que sola, si bene recolimus, illustres viros
invenimus vulgariter poetasse, scilicet Bertramum de Bornio arma, Arnaldum Danielem amorem, Gerardum de
Bornello rectitudinem; Cynum Pisotriensem amorem, amicum eius rectitudinem’. Emphasis mine.
5
Dante the lyric and ethical poet = Dante lirico e etico, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański and Martin McLaughlin,
(London: Legenda, Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, 2010), p. 51.
1
There are various elements of the Vita Nova in full sync with conventional stories of fino
amore. In fact, from the opening until the first ‘pillar’ sonnet Donne ch’avete intelletto
d’amore, there is little, if anything, that differs from the tradition. This is primarily evident
through the character of the beloved. In the words of Charles Singleton, ‘Beatrice is a
creature of courtly love. She would never have existed [...] had there not been a tradition of
courtly love’.6 Indeed, like the beloved of fino amore, Beatrice is elevated, idealised and
placed on a pedestal. Not only is she described exclusively in superlative terms (‘questa
gentilissima’; ‘questa cortesissima’) but she seems the daughter of God, rather than of a
mortal man (‘...certo di lei si potea dire quella parola del poeta Homero: «Ella non parea
figliuola d’uomo mortale, ma di Dio»’ 12.9). 7 Where, in the fino amore tradition, there is
‘total submission amounting virtually to idolatry’ and ‘love provides the motivation for living
and the loved one is worshipped’, so it is in the Vita Nova. 8
Indeed, according to
Gangacharan Kar, Dante submits himself to Beatrice in the exact way a troubadour poet of
fino amore to his dompna.9 Despite Beatrice’s initial acknowledgement of Dante in Chapter
1.12 while walking ‘in mezzo di due gentili donne’, the bulk of the narrative is formed – as
conventional – around her denying the poet any response or, in this case, ‘dolcissimo
salutare’. Beatrice’s love – in sync with the fino amore tradition – is unrequited. Moreover,
insofar as the lady’s unrequited love is ‘an improving force’, it conventionally serves to
educate the lover, to improve his moral standing and make him worthy of her. 10 While this
sense of moral improvement, or ennobling, on the part of the poet is present in the Vita Nova,
we will shortly see that this represents the first point of deviation from the fino amore
6
The meaning of courtly love: papers of the first annual conference of the Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, ed. by F.X. Newman, (Albany: State
University of New York P., 1968), p. 52
7
All quotations are from the Gorni edition of the Vita Nova therefore the chapters follow Gorni’s division of the
work into 31 chapters.
8
Both of these quotations are from Peter Dronke, The medieval lyric (London: Hutchinson, 1978), p. 152.
9
A medieval lady. For a helpful introduction to medieval lyric poetry see Gangacharan Kar, Thoughts on the
mediaeval lyric (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1933).
10
Pamela Porter, Courtly love in medieval manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 25.
tradition insofar as the ‘improvement’ in the Vita Nova is not for the sake of the beloved, but
for the poet. This aside, to all intents and purposes, it is the beloved – ‘la donna fonte di
valore e di virtù’ – who, in the words of Andrea Pulega, ‘getta il ponte della fin’amor tra
Dante e i trovatori’.11
Equally, the poet of the Vita nova aligns to the lover of conventional stories of fino amore.
Having pledged his service to his lady almost as part of an ‘inchiesta’ or ‘quête’, he is
traditionally tormented by his passion. 12 His suffering is such that he conventionally falls ill
with love, trembles or faints in the presence of his lady and finds himself unable to speak –
much in the way of Dante (‘mi giunse uno sì forte smarrimento’, 14.4; ‘mi parve sentire uno
mirabile tremor incominciare nel mio pecto’, 7.4). The lover’s poems become desperate
pleas to the beloved in order that she might grant him some favour which could consist, as in
the Vita Nova, of a greeting. 13 While his love is represented as a despairing and tragic
emotion, nevertheless ‘he is saved from complete wanhope by his faith in the God of Love
who never betrays his faithful worshippers’.14 This exact troubadour figure of love as lord is
employed by Dante in Chapter 1. Furthermore, the lover in a story of fino amore is found to
be indifferent to other women and unfazed by anyone but the beloved. Likewise, Dante, even
in places where ‘tante donne mostravano le loro bellezze’ (7.1), remains attracted only to
Beatrice. Where the poet of fino amore conventionally employs prudence, discretion and
secrecy, Dante employs the ‘simulacra’ or fiction of the donne-schermo. Furthermore, Love
itself is often personified. Likewise, in the Vita Nova, love is personified as lord, as a
11
Andrea Pulega, Amore cortese e modelli teologici: Guglielmo IX, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante (Milano: Jaca
Book, 1995), p. 89.
12
While the suffering of the lover was commonplace in Scholastic Philosophy, it is fundamentally a classical
idea that can be traced back to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
13
Admittedly, a greeting would not always be the sought-after favour in courtly love stories, but in poems of
fino amore where there is a notion of love as a spiritual force and where the poet is bound by moral confines,
this is standard.
14
Clive S. Lewis, The allegory of love: a study in medieval tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1938),
p. 3.
pilgrim, giving advice to Dante on the conduct of love and as a young man dressed in white,
sitting beside the poet’s bed weeping. Conventionally, love behaves in a cruel way.15 When
love appears to Dante in a dream as lord, love’s traditional sentiment of malicious intent is
perceptible insofar as it rules over the lover (Dante and Beatrice appear as frightened
bystanders) and also feeds Dante’s heart to a reluctantly-accepting Beatrice. 16 Even the
structure of the Vita Nova in narrative prose sections, poems and divisione finds parallels in
troubadour collections of fino amore stories consisting of vidas (a biographical piece of prose
comparable to Dante’s narrative prose sections) and razos (the explanation of the poem
would be about comparable to Dante’s divisione).
Olivia Holmes’ remark that ‘we can hope to grasp the extent of Dante’s originality only if we
can understand the conventions that he accepted’ highlights the necessity of appreciating the
above conventions in order to appreciate in turn Dante’s distinction from the tradition of fino
amore.17 As rather minor distinctions, firstly, in contrast to the Vita Nova, fino amore is
normally an illicit, adulterous love since the poet is typically a vassal writing about the wife
of his feudal lord. Beatrice’s death also represents a step outside the boundaries of the fino
amore tradition since such an event would not normally be found in its stories. However,
while her death is a ‘fatto nuovo [...] nella storia della lirica amorosa’, the event had to be
included and Beatrice had to die in order for Dante’s story to make sense. 18 In fact, during
the dream in which Dante sees Beatrice dead, Donna pietosa e di novella etate, he is careful
to remain in sync with fino amore conventions and not reveal the beloved. Additionally, the
15
The idea of love as an avenging god can be traced back to classical literature, for example, in Ovid where
Love is portrayed as an adolescent boy with an arrow, in a hunter-like image.
16
The feeding of the heart: in addition to representing a popular motif in Dante’s time, it also appears in Day 4
of the Decameron which is thought to be set in Provence. This represents thus a further connection to the
troubadour poetry given that ‘Dante is heir to a complex and lively Italian lyric tradition that had its roots in the
Provençal poetry’ (Barolini, 1993. p. 14).
17
Olivia Holmes, Assembling the lyric self: authorship from troubadour song to Italian poetry book
(Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, c2000), p. 134.
18
Domenico De Robertis, Il libro della "Vita nuova" (Firenze: Sansoni, 1970), p.17.
title itself of the work constitutes a step away from anything conventional. In presenting
something ‘novo’, Dante is essentially presenting a ‘«vita rinnovata», rigenerata
dall’amore’.19
In chronological terms, the point in the story where we realise the distinction between the
Vita Nova and a conventional story of fino amore is on reading Donne ch’avete intelletto
d’amore. Thus far, we have been in the initial section of the work where the majority of
conventions of fino amore are found. Following the three sonnets addressed to Beatrice, we
perceive Dante’s transition as he begins the ‘nuove rime’, employing a materia that is ‘nuova
e più nobile che la passata’ (10.1) and based on the praise of Beatrice. Henceforth, the
sonnets express ‘una più matura concezione dell’amore come elevazione spirituale e della
poesia come lode, come preghiera’. 20 At this point, it becomes evident that the Vita Nova is
not simply the story of a lover left tormented by his unrequited love for his lady but rather the
story of a poet discovering the path to God.
An examination of the character of the beloved is perhaps the best way to understand this
transition. In contrast to the fino amore tradition, Beatrice is in gloria (‘la gloriosa donna
della mia mente’); ‘[she] came into Dante’s life as a miracle, as a love descending from
heaven to light an upward way to salvation’.21 Her name alone suggests that there is more to
her than a madonna of the fino amore tradition: ‘Beatrice is not the name of an ordinary
woman [...]. Her name refers to a unique historical experience that exceeds containment by
the Provençal and Italian lyric traditions.’ 22
19
The sacramental dimension of Beatrice
Stefano Carrai and Giorgio Inglese, La letteratura italiana del Medioevo (Roma: Carocci, 2003), p. 100.
Idem. p. 101.
21
Charles S. Singleton, Dante's ‘Commedia’: elements of structure (Baltimore, MD; London: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1977, c1954), p. 55.
22
La gloriosa donna de la mente: a commentary on the Vita Nuova ed. by Vincent Moleta, (Firenze: Olschki,
1994), p. 28. Emphasis mine.
20
illustrates that in respect to fino amore, Dante is operating on an entirely elevated level.
Moreover, the comparisons that can be made between Beatrice and Christ – for example in
the vision of Beatrice departing this life, uplifted accompanied by a host of angels and the cry
of ‘Hosanna’, or in the parallels between Giovanna and Primavera, John the Baptist and
Christ – both symbolise her glory and serve as a development from the conventional
comparison between the beloved and the Blessed Virgin, to full employment of a typus
Christi. Less significantly, while in a conventional story of fino amore, the beloved is
normally cold, distant, upset and demanding that the lover proves his worth for her, Beatrice,
in contrast, is full of humility. Admittedly, she does withdraw her greeting from the poet,
however, ultimately this serves as a fundamental step towards Dante’s realisation that her
greeting is merely a ‘contingente secondario’. 23 In fact, it serves as a deliberate method
towards Dante’s understanding that his happiness or blessedness does not lie within her, but
within God. The poet’s education, therefore, is of a different kind from that of a poet of fino
amore; it consists through the poet’s redefinition of blessedness. Through the beloved alone,
‘Dante’s poetry effectively dissolves the impasse that drove troubadour poetry and gives rise
to a theologised courtly love, epitomised by Beatrice, the lady who does not separate the
lover from God but leads him to God’.24
This sense of diversion, or elevation, from the level of fino amore is accentuated in Chapter
16 where Dante breaks off his narrative and speaks as author to state his attitude towards a
certain myth on the nature of love. Up to this point, love had been presented as the famous
troubadour God of Love – personified in three images described above. However, this
23
Domenico De Robertis, Il libro della "Vita nuova" (Firenze: Sansoni, 1970), p.47.
Olivia Holmes, Assembling the lyric self: authorship from troubadour song to Italian poetry book
(Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, c2000), p. 127.
24
chapter ‘abolishes the God of love of troubadour mythology’.25 Dante declares that Love is
not a person but rather a quantity occupying in persons: ‘[...] è uno accidente in sustantia’
(16.1).26 With this assertion, he seeks to link the matter of love to the truth. He moves away
from the vision of Cavalcanti that love is located in the senses and is a dead-end passion,
towards (in part) the literary model of Guinizzelli. Such a discussion on the nature of love
firstly shows that Dante is using his poetry to address philosophical questions and not simply
as an expression of his fino amore for Beatrice – a further example of Dante surpassing
stories of fino amore.
This discussion on the truth about love leads in turn to a discussion on the art of poetry,
representing an additional point of deviation from the traditional story of fino amore. With
the truth established, Dante’s prior deviation from it (though personification) can be justified;
personification was common among ancient poets, so it is right that modern poets can employ
this too, provided they too write with reason.27 They must, therefore, be able to explain what
they have said in their poem, for, ‘che grande vergogna sarebbe a colui che rimasse cose sotto
vesta di figura o di colore retorico’ (16.10). The fact that henceforth love does not appear
again as a person highlights Dante’s self-declaration of fulfilling his responsibility – given his
status as a poet – to revealing the ‘verace intendimento’. This declaration of poets’ obligation
to reason is none other than an artistic strategy on the part of Dante. He is talking directly to
poets, to the ‘famosi trovatori’ of his time, and hence the Vita Nova can be considered a
poetic handbook, ‘an object-lesson in the reading and writing of poetry’.28 Barbara Reynolds
Charles S. Singleton, Dante's ‘Commedia’: elements of structure (Baltimore, MD; London: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1977, c1954), p. 69.
26
Charles Singleton explains clearly what Dante means by this: ‘Being a gift from God, on earth, [love] is an
accident. There is no love that is not a gift from God, that is not a participation in the love of the Father for the
Son [...]. Substantial love is God. Deus caritas est.’ (p. 69).
27
Ragione. For Dante, love is always associated with the mind and the intellect and therefore connected to
reason. This is also evident, for example, in Inferno V.
28
La gloriosa donna de la mente: a commentary on the Vita Nuova ed. by Vincent Moleta, (Firenze: Olschki,
1994), p. 62.
25
also maintains that ‘The Vita Nuova is a treatise by a poet, written for poets, on the art of
poetry’.29 Normally, in contrast, a poem of fino amore would simply be the result of the
medieval lady having moved the poet to music. Such assessments can also be justified by
Dante’s poetic transition at the centre of the work. When Dante as lover experiences his
conversion, i.e. when the crisis that began with the denial of her greeting is transformed into a
desire to praise her and celebrate the miracle of her sacramental existence, Dante poet also
experiences a conversion: his desire for a transcendent Beatrice is formulated as a desire for
the words with which to laud her, a poetic manifesto for what Dante will call ‘lo stile de la
sua lode’. In this sense, Alan Gilbert is correct when he writes that ‘In the Vita Nova, Dante
writes not only about Beatrice but also about his own procedure as a poet. [...] When he
makes an excursus, it is on the artist’s language’.30
We cannot discount the presence of conventions of fino amore in the Vita Nova. In fact, it is
through this work that Dante illustrates ‘that courtly love can be perfected beyond itself –
without being abolished’.31 Indeed, the fino amore tradition is not abolished, but it is fully
radicalised. In addition to such radicalisation or progression, in a sense, the Vita Nova
simplifies fino amore. It cancels out that ‘doctrine of paradoxes’ which characterise its
hypocritical nature, its being ‘a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and
disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent’.32 The love of the Vita Nova
is ultimately detached from these contradictory earthly-dependent attributes; it is a selfsufficient love. In the word of Barolini, at the heart of a story of fino amore lies ‘an
unresolved tension between the poet-lover’s allegiance to the lady and his allegiance to
29
Barbara Reynolds, La Vita Nuova (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969).
This is what links the Vita Nova to the Comedy Allan H. Gilbert, Dante and his Comedy (London: Peter
Owen, 1964). p. 60.
31
The meaning of courtly love: papers of the first annual conference of the Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, ed. by F.X. Newman, (Albany: State
University of New York P., 1968), p. 54.
32
Idem. p. vii.
30
God’. 33 Again, the Vita Nova simplifies such tension and fully resolves it. The great
problem that the lady of fino amore might be worshipped more than God is absent; rather,
Beatrice leads the poet to God.
We should bear in mind, therefore, that given her
sacramental dimension, neither can she, nor her effect on the lover, possibly be compared to
the ladies of the troubadour stories. The last line of the Vita Nova, ‘[...] quella benedecta
Beatrice, la quale gloriosamente mira nella faccia di Colui «qui est per omnia secula
benedictus»’ (31.3), with its emphasis on Beatrice’s enjoyment of the beatific vision,
illustrates in itself that a full transition has taken place and that Dante has entirely excelled
the fino amore tradition. In this, a final remark by Pulega assumes all the more significance:
‘Quest’amore [della Vita Nova], che dà vita e virtù, letizia e sapienza a quanti lo seguono [...],
non può essere e non è altro che figura dell’amore divino, metafora di Cristo stesso’.34 The
same cannot be said of love in a conventional story of fino amore.
Final Word Count: 3423
Teodolinda Barolini, ‘Dante and the Lyric Past’ in The Cambridge companion to Dante, ed. Rachel Jacoff,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 14-33 (p. 14).
34
Andrea Pulega, Amore cortese e modelli teologici: Guglielmo IX, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante (Milano: Jaca
Book, 1995), p. 105.
33
Bibliography
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Dante the lyric and ethical poet = Dante lirico e etico, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański and
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Domenico De Robertis, Il libro della "Vita nuova" (Firenze: Sansoni, 1970)
Peter Dronke, The medieval lyric (London: Hutchinson, 1978)
Allan H. Gilbert, Dante and his Comedy (London: Peter Owen, 1964)
Olivia Holmes, Assembling the lyric self: authorship from troubadour song to Italian poetry
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Clive S. Lewis, The allegory of love: a study in medieval tradition (London: Oxford
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(Firenze: Olschki, 1994)
The meaning of courtly love: papers of the first annual conference of the Center for Medieval
and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, ed. by Francis
X. Newman, (Albany: State University of New York P., 1968)
Andrea Pulega, Amore cortese e modelli teologici: Guglielmo IX, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante
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